Oh, all those Investigation Mode add ons seemed really useful to have. "Got it!" Ashiore said, confirming that she had heard @Gwyn ap Herne's information about the different slimes. At least part of that information was immediately negated, though, when Gwyn's first arrow splattered the Magma Jelly into oblivion near-instantly. @Harveste had a good suggestion, and it would be great to know in the future whether they could get into the heads of monsters or not. "Maybe, you could try it out? I kind of want to, you know, hit these slimes with something. I can handle the Tar one, maybe you could try the Acid one?" She wouldn't really be hitting them herself, though. Still, it would make her feel a lot better to actively do something. The slimes weren't fast-moving by any metric so Ash had plenty of time to scroll through her spell list and select the one she was looking for. She also registered the warning about what the Livestone could do, but it didn't look like it was trying anything for the moment. Who knew when that would change, though. But for now, Ash focused on casting Dionaea, trying to remember the way the incantation sounded so she wouldn't have to go hunting for it next time. The spell took hold--consumed a bit more energy than she expected, must have been because it was harder to grow a plant out of the rocky ground--and a large, venus flytrap-like plant emerged, gnashing its teeth and lashing out at the Tar Jelly. The jelly didn't have a chance to react before getting eaten, though- huh. Looks like the jelly was definitely too sticky to just tear through. The end effect made it seem like the plant was chewing on some very thick gum, the slime's HP bar depleting with every chew. But, well, that took the Tar Jelly out of the equation. Confident that Harveste could handle the last slime, Ashiore turned her attention back to the Livestone. The boulder-like slime still remained in place, the shattered remains of Gwyn's arrow on the ground before it. Hmm. "Naixi, go around the back," she said to her lion. "Maybe if we catch it by surprise from different-" Oh, whoa! No time to finish that sentence, as part of the slime suddenly extended out and rocketed towards them, like a horizontal pillar aimed right at the middle of their group. Ash dove to the ground just in time to avoid getting her head knocked off her shoulders. She groaned as she rolled over to stand up again. There was that pseudopod thing that Gwyn was talking about.
While it was a bright side to her that @Gwyn ap Herne immediately took on the jelly with the skills that would likely send her into a frenze, watching it melt into nothing was almost sad. What bothered her more, however, was that the last of the easier blobs was one she'd always seen in games as both her favorite and least favorite. And now, she had to find a way to take it down...Or use it. Slimes weren't exactly beasts. Though she tried with all her might, she found it impossible to connect to their lack of a real 'brain' circuit. Frowning, she apologized to it for even trying and what she was about to do. Along with her apology came a song-like spell. To walk in your shoes~ I must become one with you~ Mind Buddies Leaning herself on a wall, she collapsed to the ground, throwing her consciousness into a bat not far down a cavern near where they'd entered from. Now possessing it's skills, she flew the body into the room and put up a minor fight with the Acid Slime. Because the acid could corrode her plants, she'd figured the wind that the bat often fought with would be quite helpful. And it was. The slime died with a thunder of gurgling and bubbles, becoming a small puddle of green goop upon the floor. There was only the Livestone left, and it was three against one. With her teammates already well on the way to defeating it, she lightened her focus on the bat, keeping just enough of a bond to make it help her attack the enemy from the side not yet covered by one of the party. Her attacks involved little more than seed bullets and her bat friend's wind due to her fatigue, but it seemed to have at least some effect, even if not much. Glancing to @Ashiore Evretto and Gwyn, she smiled. "This is kind of fun, this quest. I mean, it's kind of scary, but...It's also fun! And...The best part is...I think we might beat this in record time working together like this, don't you? We make a great team, it seems! I'm really, really glad you invited me to join you!"
Gwyn whistled at @Ashiore Evretto's quick work with the Venus Flytrap. The voracious not-so-little plant made quick work of its target and would get a healthy meal out of it in time. The Tar Jelly's name was marked off their list with a quiet ping. She wondered off-handedly if Ashiore's plants persisted after she was gone and if the carnivorous magical creation would thrive here. It wasn't like she knew much about plants beyond those that help or hurt in North America from her years hiking and teaching people not to get killed by stupidity or circumstance while hiking themselves. The toothy growths weren't exactly native. The huntress watched @Harveste with scant attention as her attack and Ashiore's turned on the Livestone. She took her time attempting something of her own. She collapsed in a heap suddenly and it almost jerked Gwyn out of her focus before the Livestone demanded her attention with a pseudopod lashing out her way. Regardless of the time it took to see a bat come winging out from the depths of the cave, the slime simply moved too slow. The ping from the game's UI denoted yet another marked enemy had been taken down. The Acid Slime was checked off the list and only the Livestone and reaching the back of the cave remained. With the adds slain, only the liquid rock barred them from their quest's completion. The lioness took off around to the far side of the slime and Gwyn whistled her twin hounds to do similar. Harrying and herding it closer to death. With the lion behind, the two hounds flanking, the bat above, and the three players facing it head-on, there was only so much left the rather dull creature could do. "If this thing is anything like the Ooze I've fought before, it'll try something sweeping. Get ready to duck, then atta-" And there it went. Two pseudopods extending suddenly to try and strike the dogs to either side. Skoll took a glancing blow to the shoulder but shook it off. The canine had a sturdy built after all. Hati crouched with a snarl in an instinctive threat display that saved her from getting clocked in the head. Gwyn would have to run them through some obstacle courses or the like to work on their reflexes in combat perhaps. It would take a lot of treats to convince them though. Then the two "limbs" moved. The body of the slime creature warped and twisted as it spun in a sudden motion. The two arms whipped around it in a three hundred and sixty degree attack, each arm on one side hardened to hit with the full force of a rock wall. Gwyn was quick to drop into a roll and rose into a crouched position with one knee steadying her to strike. The body of the slime couldn't be hardened while it turned or else it wouldn't be able to move. She managed to get off two shots before she had to duck under the second arm. The two arrows shot through and destabilized the body of it some. Hati still seemed spooked by the spinning arms and didn't move forward while her brother opposite her did. The huntress wasn't concerned and didn't bother giving the order to attack beyond what they were already willing to offer. With scattered attacks from the others, this wouldn't last long. It was a little bit annoying getting so much dust and dirt all over her from rolling across the cavern floor or having to drop as an arm swung by, whipping up winds as it passed her.
Ducking the first assault, Ashiore peeked up just in time to see the slime wobble and harden again, absorbing that pseudopod back into its body. Little bits of its HP bar plinked off, possibly from Naixi and @Gwyn ap Herne’s hounds attacking it from the other sides while it was distracted by trying to kill the three people up right in front of it. As she stood back up, the slime’s body appeared to be coated in a layer of shiny glaze as it hardened once more. Hmm. So their attacks wouldn’t have any effect while it was in this state, as evidenced by Gwyn’s arrows. But while it was still trying to attack them by extending, it was vulnerable. No problem then. It was televising pretty hard whenever it was about to make an attack, with its entire body wobbling slightly. And just the exact same thing happened before two more appendages shot out to the side, making a beeline for Hati and Skoll. That wasn’t the end of it, though. Suddenly the slime started swinging its arms around in a full circle, trying to spin around and catch all of them at once. Ashiore had to duck again when the two arms came whipping overhead, fast enough to knock a head off a person’s shoulders if they were unlucky enough to get caught in the arc. Luckily, she and Gwyn dodged, and it was just barely high enough to miss @Harveste entirely so nobody got hurt from this attack. At least, she hoped not. With the lion hidden behind the giant slime’s body, she couldn’t see what Naixi was up to. But at least she didn’t hear any hurt roars. Well, no time to dwell on that for the moment! They had to take this thing down while it was still spinning and able to be injured! Staying close to the ground, Ashiore put her hands on the ground and chanted, visualizing a tide of green thorns rising from the rocky floor under the Livingstone. Again, the energy drain felt more severe than normal, but that wouldn’t be an issue once this slime was down. Path of Thorns With a bit more energy, the thorns extended up further than normal, piercing deeper into the slime’s soft body. She frowned as she felt the wind from the slime’s two arms swinging above her head. Looks like it was still going, but it had to be near death at this point! Just a little bit more and then they were done with this quest!
As her control of the bats dissipated, the animals she'd borrowed aid from began to scatter from fear of the Livestone. Her body becoming less limp, the girl glanced as its surreal appendages came out and slashed at the group, only barely missing the hair on her head. Ducking down and rolling against the cavern floor, she tried to get closer to her allies. @Ashiore Evretto's vines had done great damage, but that damage came with a cost. She could tell Ash's energy was draining a bit, and more importantly, the beast of a slime was getting more irritated with them by the minute as its HP began to drop further into the red. Worried, the girl managed to conjure up a plan. Looking at @Gwyn ap Herne, she spoke her plan carefully. "I'll create a shield to deflect it's attacks from here. If I do that, do you think you can give it a final blow, Gwyn? I doubt the shield will work for long, but I'm worried about those arms getting more violent. It'll take all our teamwork together to keep everyone safe and standing when it's over. After it's next attack, it should leave an opening. Take it and finish it off!" Seeing it preparing another sweeping attack, she sang a rather unusual song- one that one wouldn't expect was for a shield. The song of rain rang against the still air, creating a large clover akin to an umbrella, which she used to stop the arm that came at them from hitting. "Okay, it should need time to recharge itself! We should have our shot now!"
With tames and magic, thorns and arrows, determination and a good bit of acrobatics, they were winning. Gwyn didn't doubt that much. It was the way of things and for all the solid hits of the Livestone, it was no World Boss. Its health was a puddle compared. The damage it wrought was mitigated by even the basest armor, and all in all? It was woefully outclassed. Beginner's Cave, indeed. She watched with sharp eyes as the health of the monster continued to drop. Ashiore's cruel vines, set with thorns like gemstones, tore into the soft body of the slime below before it ever knew to harden itself and prepare. Their trio of tames savaged what they could of the softer spots when an opening revealed itself. Luckily no one had managed to break a tooth on the rock hard pseudopods. The attacks continued, the slime even jerking to twist the opposing direction after a few attacks to the exposed core of its body. Finally, @Harveste's bats were forced to give, the hold of naturamancy's possession releasing them from their guided pact. Instead, the small woman offered them a new spell, soft and kind. It wasn't to heal nor to hurt. Only to protect. The growth of the clover was akin to the venus flytrap and the all too familiar vines she had watched them raise up many a time. It was new, but Harveste had talked through her plan and Gwyn didn't care to waste time on enjoying the sight of something as soft as a clover hold back a granite solid slap. The arm slammed into the clover, forcing the Livestone to a sudden halt. It shook as if still registering what had happened, but it was far too late. The timer had clicked down. The clock of its life finally met midnight and it was time for it to be felled as surely as all her prey before it. The archer was quick to leap up onto the arm of the Livestone, the tread of her boots finding enough grip for her to work with as she quickly ran along it. The stun of being stopped had hardened the weaker spots behind the arms, but its body was entirely unprotected. A few swift steps had her at its side and looking down from her now enhanced height at the soft top of it. The fletching of her arrow was pulled past her cheek as she drew the longbow. Power Shot The sheer force of the shot slammed through the top of the Livestone, violent ripples covering the faux stone surface. She leapt off to roll and join Naixi on the other side of the mini boss. Behind her, it warped, twisted, undulated, and finally... melted. The thing collapsed weakly upon itself and pooled out to cover nearly the whole of the floor. She lifted a boot to watch it dry quickly and immediately lifted the other in a hop to free it of the cement-like "corpse" of the Livestone. The dogs on either side of the cavern picked up their paws with annoyed growls, pulling away from the far more brittle rock the slime remains were solidifying to. Not enough to actually get anyone stuck, but she had a feeling it'd be a pain to clean the flakes out of dog fur. "Well, that went well. Glad one of the new kids didn't wander into this thing, they'd be getting a free tour of a temple sooner rather than later." Gwyn slung the midnight black bow over her shoulder as she spoke. "All that's left is that down there." She motioned toward the tunnel mouth at the back of the room they had been fighting her, the archer and the lioness standing stalwart before it. Faintly she could see holographic text like the UI and headed that way. It was a short walk to see the notification before them and the ping of the quest list informed her of a quest completed. Good Job, Trainee! Behind it was the wall of names. Hundreds of initials packed the walls, though Gwyn was more than tall enough to spot a few places higher up that hadn't seen much action. It certainly wouldn't hurt to add her own, even if she was neither a beginner nor a trainee anymore. The blonde turned to look at Harveste and Ashiore with a grin. "If either of you want to leave your initials then let's do this! Also, if you can't find a good spot I'll help lift you up to the top. That's where mine is going after all."
Oh, wow. They were actually done. They had finished with their quest after that hectic adventure all across Brisshal. With @Harveste’s shield protecting them and @Gwyn ap Herne’s final arrow, the giant slime was finally felled. The tide of goop was slightly unpleasant, especially as it began to harden. Ashiore quickly tried to shake the white-gray goo off her slippers before they got fully cemented over. She saw the others doing the same, including the three animals. Naixi especially looked like she was displeased about that sniffing at the semi-liquid rock and trying to scrape it off on a wall. “Great job everyone! Nobody got really hurt, right?” she said. Didn’t look like it, from a cursory glance around. So that meant all was well! Looks like the exit near Gwyn was the one they had to take. It wasn’t a long walk, but the crusted remnants of the slime over her cloth shoes made it just a bit uncomfortable. But they reached the end of the short passageway, the quest marker faded in the corner of her vision, and giant words overlaid on top of her UI, as she assumed they did for the others too. “Wow,” she said, looking at the wall engraved with what looked like hundreds of initials. So this was what the end looked like. Gwyn mentioned that she wanted to carve her own initials there as well. If this was the tradition upon completing the Beginner’s Cave, then far be it from Ash to buck it. “I’ll find somewhere to squeeze in, don’t worry.” Looked like there were a few pointy rocks lying on the ground, tougher than the softer stone in the wall. So if someone didn’t have something of their own to carve it with, they could just grab one of these instead. They would probably serve as decent-ish improvised weapons for the newbie who was missing good gear of their own, too. Heh, looked like this cave really was a newbie's paradise.
The signal that they'd completed the quest and had to go to whoever gave it to them (which, of course, the faerin managed to forget during all that action) lead Harveste to stand staring into space while trying to figure out what came next. While she seemed in a daze, she could still hear her partners in crime- or rather, in completion- and smiled towards them when she heard @Gwyn ap Herne and @Ashiore Evretto talking about some sort of custom or tradition. Traditions from other cultures were such fun! Though, did she count as a separate culture from other adventurers? Was this even an adventurer thing? Walking closer to the slab and running a hand against it, she felt her purple hear tickling the skin and trying to cling to the stone. She couldn't even begin to count the number of adventurers that must've been through the same ordeal, based on the many inscriptions. "It's amazing how many people are listed here...Where do you think this custom began? It almost seems like too many to be just us adventurers..." With a soft giggle and a small shake of her head, she lifted one of the carving stones and dug it into a spot near the bottom of the wall, drawing some sort of plant with an 'H' in it's center. She didn't have initials, since her name was one word. Instead, she used her motif to show she'd come here, to show she'd had worth, even a bit. It had been an arduous task, but they were finished it. Now, this wall would be their proof.
Gwyn watched for a moment with a small smile as the two set about marking their initials in and the dogs crowded at her legs looking at them with a few worried whines. "Calm down, the wall's not a Livestone." They didn't look like they understood a lick of what she'd said, but even animal empathy could do only so much for canines. They weren't the brightest of animals. Especially not massive livestock guardians by nature and warhounds by nurture or a lack thereof. Instead, Hati and Skoll crowded around Harveste as she scrawled something almost on the floor, watching to see if her stabbing would wake whatever monster they were sure awaited. The huntress reached up and forced herself to the tips of her toes. The boots offered some extra height from the thicker sole and so she was easily able to find a relatively unmarked section towards the top of the wall of names, initials, and what looked to be a few male genitals here and there. And a fake phone number. Ugh, if it wasn't obvious enough that the servers were hosted in America. It reminded her of more than enough school bathrooms... unless kids were like that other places too? Probably. Kids were awful. She pulled an arrow from her back and set about chiseling a ≫GapH> into the high swathe of stone. The arrow skewering her name might have been a little bit unnecessary, but it made her grin dumbly up at it in pride and what wasn't worth the little thrill of pride. It was so human to want to leave a piece of oneself behind. To claim having existed so no one could deny it even long after one was gone. Statues and portraits and photos and signatures and symphonies littered human culture with the hunger to be known. To refuse to be forgotten. She wasn't the type to be so grandiose, but this was a quiet little thing to keep snug in her mind and a happiness to tuck away in the spaces between her ribs. It was childishly pleasing. She adored it. The dogs snuffled at the odd rock curiously, no longer concerned and she beamed down at them too, caught up in the little thrill. "You two want up here too?" She didn't wait for a response that wouldn't come and immediately crouched to lift one of Hati's paws, pulling out some of the dark brown polish she used on her armor to keep it from getting brittle and to repair the color as it faded or was damaged. A quick rub to the paw and press to the back of the cave was all it took for a perfect pawprint to find a home. Gwyn shoved the curious nose away from it and moved on to Skoll while the Kangal female lapped at her paw until she realized it tasted awful. Skoll didn't even blink at the motion and paid little mind to the leather polish he was going to be tracking through the cave on the way back out. The sight of the lioness nearby got another little laugh. "How about you ma'am?" No tamer went running around touching another ones tames, but the glance at Ashiore made it clear it was no trouble. The feline looked woefully unimpressed as she reached down to stain her paw pads and lift the massive limb to press delicately to the wall. She rolled it a bit make sure it was fully on there before releasing the other woman's tame. Naixi's whiskers brushed her face this close, but beyond the slight twitch of them at the smell? No reaction. "Party pooper." She cooed, not the least bit offended. "You are Nathair would get along swimmingly. Don't ever go swimming with him though. He'd try to eat you." She nodded slow and meaningful to the big cat, well aware the Common Tongue in the game was a bit beyond her. It was the thought that counted after all. With that complete, she straightened up to brush off her hands and tuck away the item. The other two were done and they chatted lightly on their way back out of the Beginner's Cave, newer characters running by to attack the bats and slimes with gleeful abandon or delicate caution. All in all, she'd more than enjoyed herself. She still had a bounty pending on some god awful critter hunting livestock in Norfova, blood-cursed hell pit that it was, but there was time. Eventually, they split ways and headed off to other ventures, all on a good note. Behind them, they left their marks in their wake. Three personalized initials and names, proof of the people they were and the people they'd one day be. And pawprints. Two on a wall featuring the blunt dots of thick claws that marked a canine's passage and the trail of pawprints that matched on the floor leaving the cave... and one feline. Just the one feline. Naixi was a cat and cats were clean. Plus, what self-respecting huntress such as a lioness would ever dare leave a trail? I didn't forget about this thread again, you forgot about this thread again.
@Trinity I also didn't forget to tag Trinity like the quest thread says to, you forgot to tag Trinity like the quest thread says to.
@Gwyn ap Herne @Ashiore Evretto @Harveste Have all gained rep with Trinity! Points added to favorite players list in Trinity Center! Thread may be closed COMPLETE
