[Mega-Dungeon] Stokbon Sewers

The sewers were as dark and dismal as one might think, which made sense when you accounted for all the shit people put out on the internet. The brackish waters looked silent and somber, ready to coil like inked tendrils upon whomever found themselves touching it. God only knew what sorts of filth were inside it. Possibly it was littered with “gold for sale” ads and dank memes, or requests for “a/s/l” and pics. But nobody in the group struck him as someone skilled in avoiding the muck and mire, and they would all have to dirty themselves if they wished to cross. At least, he hoped that was the case, because his next act was stupidly selfless and would leave him royally pissed if everyone else had a way across.

Stepping down into the dark waters, he suppressed a shudder at how simultaneously cold and warm it was to the touch in different places, feeling around with his legs for solid ground, testing his footing. It seemed relatively secure; at least it wasn’t too slick from what he had tested.

“We don’t all have to get dirty… Here, if you get carefully into my arms and wrap a head around my neck I can carry you across one at a time and set you over there. I’m sure it goes without saying that this is not a pleasant experience so feel free to tip if you want. God knows I’ll need new clothes and a week of bathing after this.”

Holding his arms out, he patiently waited to see if anybody cared to take him up on the offer, prepared to ferry them one at a time and then climb out of the putrid filth when finished, weapons drawn and ready to smack some… What would even be down here to fight? Slimes? Skeletons? Homeless people? Whatever it was, he was ready to hit it so hard. Especially with the disgusting smell in his nostrils and seeping feeling into his boots, making him want to scream and kill something.

OOC: spending my turn using both actions to move anybody who desires it to the other side, safely and cleanly.

 

Noah brought his shirt slightly over his nose in an attempt to keep the smell of the sewers at bay. The stale air was ripe with the smell of the citizens above excrements and whatever else may be floating down here. He had joined a small party that was sent to explore these filth covered catacombs, he just prayed that this adventure was well worth the smell. There were rumors floating around in the inns and other areas of Stokbon that the sewers belonged to some sort of civilization before Stokbon was founded, it seemed that Stokbon was not the first major city to call this region of Terrasphere its home. Whatever happened to this lost city was unknown to Noah, perhaps though they would find some treasures or information down here.


The group had found themselves standing on a narrow ledge of stone near the banks of the sludge that filled these sewers. While the lighting was dim Noah was able to get a general idea of what the area looked like, his rogue skill was meant for low lighting terrain like this, though having a hunter mastery might be more well suited due to their enhanced skills of tracking and what not. If they were lucky one of the members in this group would have some sort of fire magic that could illuminate their path.


It seemed that one of the members was feeling like being the Prince Charming fellow, he hopped right into the sludge and offered to carry people across to the other side. While Noah was keen to take him up on this offer, he was probably too big to do this and should leave this service for Beatle, whom he had worked with before, or the young woman that was also in their party. Judging that the gap between the two sides was not terrible in distance Noah was either going to impress the group or make a fool out of himself and try to jump. “Thanks for the offer buttttt I’m gonna see if I can get across without crushing you with my fat belly.” He took a few steps back before a full blown sprint and an attempted jump to the other side, hopefully safely and without falling fully into the whatever liquid was below.


((OCC Spending my two actions as a run and jump to get to the other side safely))

 

Beatle would never have considered the possibility of sifting through the sewers in search of treasure. The thought seemed preposterous at best, yet there it was. A dungeon posting for a sewer adventure. Not only that, but mentions of treasures lost to the ages, secrets in the lore, and even possible foes. As much as Beatle detested the idea of moving through someone else’s muck, the pull to adventure was too great, and he found himself in a group with three other players. The entrance to the sewers lay before them, and they had but a brief moment for introductions.

Beatle was thankful to see a familiar face in the Dungeon. It would mean less effort in explaining his predicament. Nevertheless, he shot a message to the group as The Admiral descended first.

Beatle the Bard

Just a fair warning everyone, my Console is a bit wonky and doesnt transmit voice. Im basically a mute, but it shouldn’t hinder us too much. Im a bard.

Beatle hoped this brief explanation would be enough, because as he finished writing it, one of his party members became afflicted with a debuff. Unsure of the severity, Beatle sent the message and looked down below. It became obvious that his comrade was afflicted due to his contact with the murky “water” of the sewer, and it would therefore be a bad idea to cure him until after he was out of the sewage.

Once Beatle had caught on to the situation fully, he motioned for
@Catharina
to accept Admiral’s offer, then pulled out his guitar and began playing a simple healing song in an attempt to keep The Admiral’s health from dropping during his walk. The group would feel a sensation of relief as the music enveloped the group, providing a slight healing effect. Beatle could only hope that it would be enough to keep up with the affliction.

Mostly as an afterthought, Beatle removed his chocolate hat and placed it in his inventory, not wanting to soil the chocolate with the stench of waste.

 

Oh god, the horrible stench of this place. Catharina wanted to put her hand against the wall to keep herself from vomiting and add her personal two cents to the sewer. In the end, she kept her hands to herself, there was no way her hands would be touching anything in this sewer that wasn’t a monster to kill or a treasure to open.

The little group they had, everyone foolish enough to wander down, needed some estrogen. Catharina followed behind Beatle into the sewers. Noah seemed to perfectly cross to the other side. ‘’Uhm- I will take you up on that offer. I will even scrub the gunk from behind your ears.’’ She carefully wound her arms around his neck so he could bring her princess style to the other side. In this case, the other side did not seem any cleaner than the side they were on.

She made the mistake to look down, seeing the particles of gunk driving past the boots of @The Admiral. Her grip tightened a little. ‘’Please, don’t drop me? I swear I’m a very likable person.’’ She vowed to herself to find the first best bath tub once she saw the day of light again.

Catharina carefully stepped onto the next side when The Admiral would put her down. She smiled gratefully and look into the tunnel. The light was dim, the smell was enough to make her skin crawl. Whatever lived in the deeper parts of this filthy place couldn’t be any better than the gunk The Admiral was wading through. ‘’What do you think guys? Wanna try our luck turning left?’’

 

As it so happened, this water was just as (if not more) vile as he suspected. It came as little surprise when a POISONED status began to appear beside his health and condition icons. For one terrible moment he worried it might have been pointless as Noah sailed overhead and landed across, but then Beatle and Catharina stepped forwards to make use of his ferrying offer. It turned out their bard didn’t have a voice for whatever reason, which minor nuisance. The idea of developing communication shorthand popped into his head, but later.

He collected Cat and began to bring her over, an eyebrow raising as she offered to scrub behind his ears. So she planned to join him in the bath, did she? Well that was certainly a bold yet pleasant offer. He suppressed a chuckle as she worried over being dropped and her grip tightened around his neck, promising she was likable.


“Of that, I have no doubts fair Cat,” he said whilst depositing her on the other side. Wading over to the left, he climbed up out of the sewage and onto the path, trying not to dwell on the mess he had been in. Cat seemed to think it a good idea to go to the left, and he had no reasons to argue. It was probably for the best as well considering that would place him in the front, and he appeared to be the most tanky character in the group. Which was about to be tested, as a slime began to approach from in front of him, and a glance over his shoulder showed two massive roaches heading towards the rear of the group. Right… time to think, time to act. Hopefully nobody had a problem with him giving orders.

“I’ll tank point and get the slime. Beatle, try to keep that song going so you offset any damage we take. Noah, Cat, you two form up on the right. Noah take point to block them from getting past; Cat, use your rapier to thrust past him and DPS while he tanks.” It sounded like a good enough plan in theory. Now it was time to test if they could work as a group, or everyone would simply do their own thing. Drawing hammer and club, he held his ground and prepared to smash into the slime once it got in melee range.

 

Beatle watched his party become surrounded out of nowhere. There was a good chance that they could take on these creatures with little difficulty, but what if more came as they fought? This was just the very beginning of the dungeon, they couldn't afford to be stuck here fighting all the creatures in a 100 yard radius... although, perhaps it was Beatle's music that was drawing them? If that were the case, he could either stop playing and essentially become dead weight to the party, or he could continue and they could overcome any creatures they encountered. But what then? What happens once they defeat these creatures and have to make the left-or-right choice? Would they stay together, covering less ground but in a safer way? Did anyone in the group have enough confidence/arrogance that they would refuse to follow the party at all? And even if they all decided to head down one path together, what would happen once they came across loot? Beatle


Sure, Beatle could think about all this, but there was nothing he could say. All he could manage in his current location was to continue healing The Admiral for as long as he was in the toxic waters and await another party member's decision.

“God, this freaking busted VR machine is really starting to get on my nerves.” Beatle muttered. “I wonder how much a new one would cost... Probably an arm and a leg or something. Maybe i should start saving for one... Oh shit, things are happening.”


Right then, The Admiral came out with a suggestion of tactics. A simple matching strategy, dividing the battle into a 1v1 and 2v2 situation. This would make things... interesting. For now, He would maintain his healing song, but Beatle kept his attention focused on both groups, ready to support whichever party had more issues.

 

Focusing on the slime before him the Admiral tightened his grip upon hammer and club, wondering how best to tackle this beast. There wasn't much room on the footpath and he couldn't risk falling into the sludge again. Likewise, he couldn't risk the slime falling into it and splashing poison on everyone in the party, which meant he needed to handle this carefully... he needed to harness the powers of the heroes of old. Silently, he began to pray to the gods of the Gamer’s Pantheon.

Mario, Sonic, Samus, grant me thine jumps. Link and Doom Guy and Fallout Characters, bless me with sick fucking weapons and tools to smite my enemies. And may the demon lords of Lag and Clipping and Game Crash be blind to my movements.

Stepping forward, he pulled both weapons out to the side and held them over the sewage, waiting for the slime to draw nearer, he began to unleash a flurry of attacks into its gelatinous form, decidedly happy that he had taken this over the roaches. Though The Admiral was a persona of heroic bravado and the more-than-occasional vulgar tomfoolery, the player behind the persona was in reality quite the tomboy. Despite that, roaches freaked her the fuck out and she wanted nothing to do with them or the giant NOPE of their skittering biting just UUUUUGH. Drawing herself from such thoughts, she focused on the personality and demeanor of her character and began to laugh heartily, pretending everything were just as expected.


“No monsters this weak are going to stop US from finding the treasures down here! Stay strong my comrades, and soon we’ll have our wealth at hand.” Feeling the muse of his spirit overtake him, the man began singing a jolly tune while flailing wildly at the slime with both weapons.


“I find me fortune in the gold,
Among those flaxen strands.
And the world’s wealth is mine to hold,
When she is in my hands.


The jewels I need her sapphire eyes,
And ruby of her lips.
Oh if I lost my one true treasure
My heart would be eclipsed!”

• OOC: Going to hit the slime a lot - two 1H bludgeon weapons and duel world + berserk

 

Noah watched as Beatle and the woman were shuttled across by the man in the poop. While poo man was able to get the others across it seemed that he was afflicted with some poison because of this… Lucky for him, he had just done Beatle a solid. The boy started playing his magical tunes and the man’s affliction was, for the time being, slowed down. Little did the group realize though that these sewers would echo the tune alerting any nearby creatures that there was visitors amongst them.


It started with the water, bubbles and unusual sounds led to a gelatinous green blob appearing from the depths and perching itself on the right path. To the left path another sound could be heard, though it was faint, Noah was able to pick up on the sound of what appeared to be multiple objects quickly approaching the four. He went ahead and pulled out his wooden sword and readied himself for whatever was to come their way.


It was then that he saw two giant cockroach like beings quickly gaining ground on the group. This was a dangerous place to be, they were getting flanked on both sides. The man that was shuttling the others across the sewage seemed to have a plan, he was going to take on the slime while Noah and the girl would handle the roaches. Beatle was instructed that he was to continue to play his healing tune...Noah bite his lip. He was a bit annoyed to take orders, especially when this man knew nothing of their skill set but Noah also was unaware what they were capable of as well. His speed was probably the fastest among the group thanks to his masteries, so taking on the roaches made sense, plus slimes were notorious in other games to be somewhat impervious to physical attacks so Noah’s would be useless.


The part of the plain he did not care too much for was the fact that Noah was to tank...This was against his character build. He was not meant to sustain damage but was a quick assaulting style character, a DPS one as well. He was reluctant to take on both roaches while the chick would strike from behind but what other choice did he have? That was when he saw the moss growing on the walls, perhaps Beatle’s plant magic would be able to manipulate that? He gripped his sword tightly and started to run towards the roaches, at the same time he would holler at Beatle and the girl. “Beatle, can you grip that one on the wall using the moss with your plant magic and still keep your song up? Cat get ready to stab the shit out of these things. ”


If he was able to even slightly grip the roach and delay it or stop it all together, it could really change the tide of this battle. Noah would still try his best to act as a half assed tank though, at least for the moment until he knew Beatle was able to either pull off this idea or not. His speed allowed him to break from the group at a much quicker rate than the others. With his built up momentum, he swung his sword at the roach on the path, putting all his energy in a motion that would, if it struck correctly smash the bug against the wall and hopefully stun it for a moment and possibly right into its ally, that was if Beatle was unable to trap it with his magic. He had to hope that Cat was able to deliver a secondary blow quickly and efficiently so that they would not get a chance to counter.



(OCC: Noah runs at full speed as well as using his other action to deliver a powerful blow to the roach on the path, attempting to squish it into the wall and possibly his other multi legged friend.)

 

The slime quivered under his initial blows and sent a spattering of ooze-matter across the river of sewage and the refuse-stained walls. He pulled his weapons from its sludge and prepared himself for another attack, letting out a cough as it suddenly punched him in the chest with an extended blob of its mass and a portion of his health dropped. That was when he heard Noah in the back, calling for Beatle to change his tactics around and naturamancy the roaches. So… What? He was supposed to 1v1 the slime while the THREE of them took on those roaches? Never mind that he was poisoned, of course, and had developed a pretty interesting plan to limit how many people had to be taking damage.

“Beatle if you stop playing you stop healing! Noah, if Beatle stops playing then he stops healing! The formation is meant to let you attack and block them from getting to Beatle who can keep all of us in the green while Cat slips her longer, precision-based blade past you and also attacks the roaches, making use of both your DPS while only you, the guy with the shorter weapon who cannot attack from behind like Cat can, tanks! If you stop Beatle from healing us to pin one of those you don’t really benefit, because the path should be narrow enough that they can’t over-run you anyway. Not unless you’re doing your job wrong!”

Grunting, he moved in on the slime again and began another series of swings, feeling two of them connect with the beast. Frankly it didn’t matter what the party thought of him; whether or not they felt he was an overbearing ass. Diplomacy only worked in situations where you could sit and discuss things. In combat, in times of strife where a decision had to be made and implemented immediately, somebody had to have the will and voice to stand up and make decisions. With a childhood filled with football games on the couch beside the old man, and strategy games and RTS’s, Henry knew she had the brains and intuition to make those calls. These others? Not so much. And so through her avatar she gave her orders, bold and clear.

 

“Aye, aye Cap!” She unsheathed her rapier with a melodious sing of metal. The thin sword ready to be used. She looked at Noah, her temporary partner. Whether Admirals tactics were going to work or not, she figured it was worth a try and a decent plan to begin with.

Noah ran off with the speed of light, his quick steps echoing in the tunnel. “Shite, he's fast.” She cursed and ran after him to do her personal part in making cockroach kebab.

Catharina could hear Admiral shouting in some frustration. The whole plan was already falling apart in the very beginning. She grimaced, focusing on running head on after Noah to close the gap between them. She was already on the move to the cockroach, too late to help with the slime.

She saw him defeating one of the roaches while the other dropped itself from the ceiling. The path was small and not much use for maneuvering. But her sword was thin, long, perfect for a place like this. “On your right!” She gave Noah a forewarning shout as her rapier pierced through the air at the cockroach target. She was right-handed so she turned her hip and full length in. Hopefully piercing it before it could set it's teeth into Noah to get a good munch.

(OOC: Dashing forward and piercing at the attacking cockroach)

 

As the blade smashed into the bug before him, the other attempted to attack him with its mandible things Thankfully Noah’s blade was in a position that he was able to shift his stance and use his sword to block the beast and hopefully keep it subdued for Cat to come in and attack from the side. While he was blocking the bug though a spray of gas was released by the other bug right into his face. While it was annoying and gross it was not totally life threatening, though he felt his health take a bit of a hit. From behind he not only heard the girl making her attack, he also heard the man who was taking on the slime start to scold him...this guy whom Noah had no knowledge on nor he had knowledge on Noah started to scold him?!


In a clear but low tone Noah would retort. “I don’t think I ever told him to stop, unlike you, I know a bit more of Beatle’s skills. I’ve seen him play a song and bind before. It was merely a suggestion, hence the question aspect of my statement earlier…” This was going to be a long trip if this guy was going to act all high and mighty. Noah might have had the shorter sword but he was not cut out to handle multiple enemies at once, nor keep them at bay. His skill set was more about fact maneuvers and quick powerful blows. Not to mention the guy was clearly missing the point that these creatures were walking on the walls, the narrow path meant nothing to them, they could easily climb onto the ceiling and attacked him from above or the near, it would make sense to handle a creature that could do these sort of feats by binding them and taking them on one by one or at least get them both on the path and off the walls. After this little encounter, this group was going to have to discuss their skill set and figure out who was going to do what, because having somebody unaware of their individual skill sets making the plans was going to get them killed.