There was dissent in the group. Sure, Beatle knew that not every party would get along, but it was suddenly very clear that there was a power struggle forming. Or, at the very least, a lack of resonance between his comrades. It was as if they were playing the same song in slightly different keys, causing dissonance. Beatle’s attention, already pulled in two directions, became even more divided as two groups asked for different things.

The Admiral had been the first to issue orders. Reaction time in a situation of high stress or tension was a good quality for a leader to have, though it was hard to lead without knowing the capabilities of your team. In that regard, Beatle was already relatively aware of Noah’s skills from a previous encounter. Perhaps the rouge had overestimated Beatle's ability, as in their last encounter he'd started with the snare, then followed with his music. However, as Noah requested assistance, the Roach he was attacking died practically the instant Noah landed his attack. This gave Beatle confidence that Noah and Catharina could handle the remaining Roach. The Admiral seemed to be faring well against the slime... or about as well as one could against a gelatinous mass using a physical weapon.

Beatle was very aware of his casting limits. While maintaining a bardic song had become easy after practice, he still struggled to control his nature magic. Not only that, but his guitar kept both hands occupied, so dual-casting would be nearly impossible. However, there was something Beatle COULD do that may help the group in the future.

“Who knows how many of these things are down here...” Beatle thought to himself as he continued his healing song. “Maybe I should identify them more thoroughly so we’re prepared for the next encounter...”

Beatle had already been training himself in not using the MuseAssist program that the game offered, so today he would take said training a step further, inspecting the Ooze as thoroughly as possible.

((@Pandora Using 1 search point to identify the ooze(assuming muse is a sub-action, though if it's not then he'd maintain the music). Also, @The Admiral @Noah Krane i believe you need to roll to dodge the attacks?))

 

Thrown die:

99

 

Well, the amount to which they were screwed seemed to diminish as Noah and Cat worked off the last of the roach infestation on their end, leaving the Slime and the Admiral as the remaining contenders. Beatle was, according to Noah, able to toy with two spells at once which was a skill he'd thought reserved for much higher players. No offense to the little drummer boy, parrum-pa pum pum. It just didn't seem to be something in his wheelhouse yet. But Noah and the chocolate hat kid appeared to have a history so he’d take it on faith that this was something they could make use of in the future.

As the slime moved to attack he deftly hopped backwards and avoided its caustic blow, while remaining in front of it so that it couldn’t move to hurt anybody else in the party. With Honest Persuasion and Sound Reasoning in hand, he began to strike out at the monster once again, hoping that these attacks actually proved useful in some fashion. At least if one had to fight a being made of goo they ought to have something to splatter it with; and for that he had come amply prepared. There really was no end to the usefulness of apply brute force to a situation by clubbing things with a table leg and an old war hammer, and if there was, then he just did not want to know!

“Right, well, that’s good to know!” he called backwards towards Noah while he delivered two more swings into the monster.

“Probably should’ve mentioned before coming down then? Short sightedness on all our parts, no worries. So: Hi, I’m called The Admiral and I like to sing, tank, and clobber things with blunt objects. I’m also not the worst at coming up with a plan, but feel free to debate that amongst yourselves and decide if I’m worth listening to in the future. In the meantime, Noah, looks like you’re both done over there. Care to hop-skeedoodle across to the other side, run a ways on its opposite path, and then leap back across to flank the slime? You’ve made the jump before and I’m fairly certain I could use a little help. Cat, keep watch in the rear for more enemies and guard the bard, please and thanks.”

 

Once the excitement had died down, Beatle had time to collect his thoughts. He played a cleansing song to remove the POISON debuff from The Admiral, then eyed the ceiling, trying to figure out a way to cross the sludge without receiving the same debuff. “I wonder if Cockroaches float...”

Beatle waved at Noah, trying to grab his attention. Once he had it, he would mime picking up the giant roach, and then flailed his arms in the direction of the ‘water’. Feeling ridiculous, Beatle sent a message to the group.

Beatle the Bard

Yo, someone throw me that roach corpse, I’m gonna try and make a platform to cross the water. I’m not confident that It’ll work, but it’s better than using up more of my limited energy.

As he sent the message, Beatle worried for his group’s dynamic. There were already some clashing opinions forming, and they had just barely entered. Hopefully it would get sorted out by them soon, but Beatle feared the worst. He cursed his own inability to contribute, deciding then and there to go purchase a new headset as soon as possible.

“This mute thing is getting to be a bit too much.” he muttered. “Now that I’ve played a while, it’s becoming more of a hinderance than I can really afford to deal with. The flavor is kinda neat, but man I feel sorry for people who live like this on a daily basis. Life must feel so.... Frustrating to them. It’s like dealing with a one way mirror; where you can hear them and understand, but cannot reciprocate the gift of communication. It just sounds so... painful.”

Beatle became lost in his own thoughts, muttering incessantly. If, by now, nobody had thrown the roach his way, He’dd just brave the waters and cure the affliction after. No harm in a little virtual feces, right?.... Right?

 

Just as Noah was about to jump over the sewage again, the duel wielding man smashed the slime into oblivion, a good thing for Noah because he really was not feeling like making the risk of jumping twice in a row and falling face first into the dirty water. If only they had a water or earth using mage, they could freeze it or just make a stone path. That was when he noticed Beatle waving at him. He walked over to the little bard and tried to figure out what he was wanting. It seemed that he was trying to pick up the bug? That was when the boy opted for the message route. Noah was still rather close to the bug, so with some effort, he was able to pick it up and semi-drag it over to Beatle. As he dropped the bug near Beatle he would wipe off whatever filth it would have on him.


“Now that the immediate threat is over, I say we should probably head the opposite direction that the second roach took. If they’re anything like roaches in the real world, it’s probably retreating to its colony and I’d rather not deal with a whole sewer full of those things without some raid.” As much as he was annoyed about being told orders, now was not the time for the group to fight they needed to figure out what their plan was going to be and what each of their masteries and skill sets were. “Well let’s try to make a plan so the rest of this trip doesn’t go up in flames… I’m Noah I’m proficient in the rogue mastery, trained in the one handed, and novice at leatherworking. Unless one of you is also a rogue, I’m probably the best bet for acting as a scout or lookout, seeing how I can move quicker and more silently than the average player.” He already knew Beatle’s skills, and had a good idea on the other man’s seeing how he was dual wielding bludgeon style weapons, and his increased strength probably meant that he had the berserker mastery. The girl though, he really could only guess on her weapon’s mastery. The other two were a toss up. They needed to wrap this up quick and make a plan, just incase that roach ended up coming back.

 

Her sword pierced the ugly creature straight through its head. It tore open and the body fell unmoving to the ground. The neck, however, closed quicker than she thought and the headless body ran into the dark unknown. Catharina shivered, ‘’disgusting creatures. No wonder they survive nukes.’’ Her nose wrinkled in disdain, well at least that was another creature done and over with. She turned around, smiling unsure at Noah and walked back to the group.

She wasn’t exactly sure what to think of the power struggle, if it was up to her she would just follow the one that shouted the fasted with the best plan of survival. She was more of a follower anyway. ‘’Sure, I’ll keep an eye out.’’ She nodded in acknowledgement and stood next to Beatle, keeping her rapier out to shine in the slimy tunnel for good measure. So far, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. ‘’Everything still slimy, disgusting and empty.’’ She announced to the rest.

Their group was a bit of a mix. Maybe not the best mix but Cath thought they could make it work. If everyone played nice together, of course. One tanking singer, one mute bard –kind of ironic- and a rogue that reminded her of The Flash. She turned her body half so she could keep an eye out on the back. ‘’Catharina, but Cat is just fine, less of a mouthful. I’m trained in One Handed Pierce weapons, meet la rapier.’’ She showed it off with a smile. ‘’Aside from that, I’m a novice in Music but I doubt these creatures will appreciate non-magical music. And a beginner in Phantasmia. Although, I could give it a try, little brain to these slime balls.’’ Shrugging she sheathed her sword back. ‘’What is the plan? I don’t mind staying in the back, keeping an eye out as we move and I can take a few hits.’’

 

Listening to each of them more or less introduce themselves, the Admiral nodded and took in all the information, formulating a plan of sorts to try and assist them through the dungeon. First and foremost, he needed to tackle Beatle’s suicidal plan to row down a river of sluice on the corpse of a beatle.

“Probably not the best idea, DJ,” the man said as he scratched at his head and looked at the rather disgusting and probably-not-buoyant-enough carcass of the bug. There was just too much risk the sewage would lap up over the sides and touch the bard who they needed to keep close to hand anyway.

“There’s these walking paths we’re on that lead left and right. The roach ran to the right, which means if we want to follow Noah’s plan we go to the left. Which… I believe is what Cat here suggested at the start, anyway. So Noah why don’t you scout ahead, and if you encounter trouble just start running back this way. I’ll tank whatever’s coming, and you and Cat can support as best able. Beatle, go ahead and lay off the magic for now so that you don’t waste it all this early. Thanks for the assists so far. So, sound like a solid plan?”

He waited to hear their comments and see which way everybody decided to start going. There was almost no doubt in his mind that Noah wouldn’t just find and hoard any chests he came across while scouting; but he also couldn’t not use the rogue’s abilities just because he suspected the guy would keep loot to himself and not alert the party. There wasn’t any particular reason he felt that way. Mostly, it was just that he was a rogue, and such players tended to favor the me-before-them mindset of things. But he owed it to Noah’s player to at least see how the man responded to things and prove his character rather than judge him instantly and inappropriately without cause. Particularly after their rocky start which, if situations hadn’t been sudden and dire, probably would have been approached with more calm and humor. But mistakes were made for learning. Cat he had faith in, and Beatle seemed like good people this far in. He also looked vaguely familiar… Perhaps they’d crossed paths in town at some point?

 

Beatle thanked his lucky stars that someone had intervened before he risked riding a boat of death. As it happened, there was an easy and convenient way for him to join the group without getting himself poisoned. Unfortunately, his energy was already at 60%, so he'd need to be more reserved with how he used his magic.


"Maybe I should invest in something to keep my energy up..." He muttered, looking down at his guitar. While useful and practical, his energy consumption kept him from truly excelling. But that was a worry for a later date. For now, they had to figure out which way they were going, and what they were looking for. The Dungeon posting had kept it vague, seemingly intent on allowing players to explore it at their leisure. This wasn’t a bad thing, but the lack of a common goal may prove to hinder them. For now, it looked as if everyone was in agreement that they should keep moving.

The sewers were just as dark and damp as they would be in real life, and Beatle was pretty sure that he would’ve been fine if the game was a little less realistic in that regard. The walls were corroded in several locations and had various forms of moss and fungi growing on them, due to years of usage without proper maintenance. He wondered briefly if the sewers in the royal castle ever got backed up?

Beatle didn’t feel like typing out any more messages than he had to. The process was a slow and inefficient means of communication, and he was better off just relying on his team and his instincts. Be that as it may, there was little else for him to do as they discussed which path to follow from here, so Beatle examined their immediate surroundings, unsure of what he was looking for.

( @Pandora using a search point)

 

It was like the god damned city of Vivec all over again, and with a sigh the Admiral looked over the dimly lit options before him. It didn’t appear as though there was any real “best” choice, and so far everything had been easily defeated aside from that slime. They could split up into pairs and hope they didn’t encounter something again, or perhaps send Beatle and Cat together as a strong pairing while Noah scouted the far side alone and the rest of them took separate paths. Of course everybody seemed to be dragging their heels to make progress and a balance had to be found between progress and safety. All in all, the illusion of a plan seemed like the best choice at this course, while keeping things flexible and allowing everyone to more or less do what they wanted to.

“We’ve got a lot of sewer here to explore,” he began, glancing down the path to the left and squinting for any slimy shapes that might be hidden on its brick ceiling.

“I suggest Noah scout the far side alone, since he’s the only one that seems able to make those jumps. Meanwhile Cat, you take Beatle and keep him safe and go down the right path across that bridge. I’ll take the left and see what’s down this way. We should all meet up here again shortly and describe what we came across; then we can vote on an option. It’s also likely that some of these just circle back into one another… Not only is it a dungeon map where that sort of thing is common, but it’s possible based off the old sewers of our world, and would have been built to follow a certain pattern based on the distribution of buildings. In fact… if anyone has a map of Stokbon, we can probably use that to guess where-abouts we might be heading or where the better treasure lies. I don’t have one, but maybe in the future we can try this again with the proper tools. I’m going to head this way; feel free to choose what you want to do.” Shrugging, he turned his back on his allies and began to move down the path to the left, searching it for hidden alcoves or shiny rewards lost beneath the trash here and there.

• OOC: using a search point while taking the path that goes left.

 

The group was splitting up? This seemed too much like an episode of Scooby-Doo. While Noah would rather not them all go their own ways, it would mean that they could learn more quickly, how long should they each take their route before coming back though? Noah shrugged his shoulders in compliance. “Works for me I guess...though might I add that we try not to shout or anything if you find anything? Don’t want to alert any more of those cockroaches, especially if we are gonna be all by ourselves. We should just use the chat messenger, similar to have Beatle communicates with us.”


At that note Noah took a few steps back from the edge of the water before sprinting with a leap to the other side leaving him now alone. He kept his blade drawn but slowly and quietly crept deeper into the sewer, leaving the others behind. While his right hand held his sword, he would raise his left and place it on his temples. He would try to scan the area, searching for anything that might be of some use or interest. The question was, if he came across something should he keep it for himself or let the others know? He really did not know how they would get to this side without getting themselves poisoned again, but that was not his problem now was it?

Noah was itching to get this dungeon over with. The smell alone was causing him to miss the fresh air of the markets above, filled with all sorts of food and goodies being cooked. He suspected that they were still awhile away from finding the end to this place, they were taking their time to get through this area. By splitting up though, they potentially would speed up the time it took to look around the place exponentially. It just would need to be extra stealthy and alert for any sort of enemy.

(OOC: Sorry its taken awhile, been busy being intoxicated x.x)

(OCC 2.0: Noah is heading on the path straight ahead and searching if that is allowed due to my jumping action)