2041/Elimination: Pond Scum

Elimination: Pond Scum
Date of Scene:	17 April 2015
Location:	The Marshlands
Synopsis:	A Syndicate mission to hunt monsters is arranged - a lake in the woods is infested with them! But who is the contractor for the mission, and what is its true purpose?
Cast of Characters:	571, 619, 626, 642, 666, 726, 742

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Walter Bernhard (726) has posed:
    Hissing, bubbling, swishing, steaming.

    Green woods, dark water, foul presence creeping.

    Green boughs turned dripping and dank.

    Web-toed foot prints deep in muddy bank.

    -------------------

    A pristine lake and verdant forest have been twisted and turned into a swamp somehow. The humidity has become very elevated, sticky mud sucks at feet almost like a living thing, and sunlight is sparse where it can be found - filtered green by the treetops and coming down in thin shafts that dapple upon rotting foliage and lengths of long green vines twisting among scraggly-looking weeds. It never quite gets dark enough that one can't see - at least during the day - but the low light level does no favors for sight-dependent organisms. Noxious clouds hover over the green, algae-covered pools and waterways that have resulted from the lake at the center of the forest flooding and creating a sort of marshland. The sound of toads and insects and birds and strange animal cries is a constant chorus in the background.

    Sometimes this dark swamp is so hot and humid that one can barely breathe, only to suddenly enter shocking 'cold spots' that almost seem to roam about on their own as the air circulates in bizarre ways. There are signs of the area being inhabited by certain beings - likely non-human. And that is why Elites have been tasked with coming her to begin with. The creatures need to be eliminated or at least have their numbers sharply reduced. How do those taking the job know these thins need to be killed? That they can't just be reasoned with? That they're even a threat? Well, technically they don't. It being morally right wasn't part of the job description.

    But the bloodied spears and stakes planted in the ground every once in awhile, along soggy paths (which are paths in name only), each with mostly-skinned human skulls impaled upon them, festering with flies, are probably not an indicator of friendliness, if that lends any confidence in the righteousness of this mission for those concerned about their alignment.

Sanae Kochiya (619) has posed:
    Being a priestess, and often mistaken for a shrine maiden, this was never going to be a situation where moral objections were tantamount to most's. It was their job to go on 'monster hunts' like this every so often, to keep the countryside safe, and to make certain the beasts that lurk in the dark remember their place. Of course, where she's from, the monsters also don't often leave evidence of their habitation in the form of pikes festooned with bloody skulls. Aside from that and the oppressive humidity, however, the marshy glade is actually a bit scenic to Sanae Kochiya. Cheating a bit by hovering just over the murk, but still wearing waders over her normal footwear as a safety net, her passage occassionally rustles a vine or a swamp plant owing to the bluster of wind wrapped around her, as she makes her way deeper in to the rendezvous point and the mission marker.

    It's easy to get lost in a place like this. Every so often, she pauses in her flight to pull out a smart phone and look at it, before frequently re-pocketing it in sighing resignation. "The GPS is useless here, too. I guess I should have known better." But from how ubiquitous the macabre decorations are, she and any fellow respondents should have to do is keep looking, and whatever's here is certain to show itself eventually.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Word of this particular request had come through the Syndicate board. Of note to Kyra, not only did it pay well, but it involved an area of expertise that she knew she and her friends would excell at: killing monsters. At least that's what Kyra assumes, based on the description of the job, is going to happen on this particular mission.

    Certain social pressures have also been mounting on her end in the wake of Monday's disaster with Lute. Her followers were hungry for additional extraversal shenanigans and in a classic case of 'letting the internets fame go to your head', Kyra seemed all too eager to supply this once she had finished recovering. Fortunately, the spectacular care of the Union's medical facilities had come through, enabling her to be here today.

    Once again, she has her special camera on her, which manifests as a tightly-fitting headband across her forehead. The aparature is situated in the dead center and possesses a faintly glowing red ring around the edge to indicate that it is currently on. As is the case with all Galiandan tech, it feeds off a slow trickle of magic particles.

    Kyra arrives with the rest of her classmates, unwilling to come alone or arrive ahead of any of them. Always move with a group now, safety in numbers, position for support and so on. Knowing she will be supporting many today, she's certainly brought the CURE-ALL, which looks like a grenade launcher but is actually an alchemized healing gun. The rest of her remains weighed down with additional potions and pre-made mixtures, ready to be thrown in self defense. Rather than the skirted uniform of Alexander Academy, she's gone with the set of black jeans that Tomoyo had made for her outfit months ago.

    "So basically..." Kyra says to her colleagues, eyeing one of those staked skulls out of the corner of her eye, "If it's a monster, it's gotta go."

Dorotea Grahn (742) has posed:
This is not a good place.

Dorotea volunteered to go monster hunting because she takes those jobs sometimes (for practice, for spending money, as extra credit when she figures out some other aspect of monster life and/or magic - whatever). She heard that she was going to a lake, which was fine.

She didn't expect it to be so /hot/. And humid. And ugh. Swamps are /not/ for her.

Dorotea is already wearing her armoured boots and gauntlets because you can never be too careful. She has been picking her way along what are hopefully stable paths toward the rendezvous point. She doesn't seem to much care if she gets a little muddy but she doesn't want to fall in, and so she moves with a fairly careful tread. She is already sweating. Though technically not Kyra's classmate, she's at least a student of about the same age and she's sticking with her; maybe she wants a healer around.

"Huh," she says, pausing to look at skulls on a stick. The kind of warning-post /she/ knows how to make uses animal skulls, not human, but she's familiar with the concept at least. "Don't worry! We can beat it down." Dorotea grins, punching her gauntleted fists together (lightly).

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Lousy places are something Alexis aren't at all unaccustomed to. She's used to fighting in some shitty places, swampy, humid, and hot places that are a hellhole to anybody but a trained soldier (of fortune). Really, she's in this for the pay, and it might end up being something interesting given what the client said about this world.

    Her EM-GASH coilgun is at the ready, the rifle braced against her shoulder as she trudges through the swamp. Her STALKER suit is thankfully filtering the stench here, not to mention keeping her body temperature regulated as she practically ignores the mosquitoes that otherwise would be sucking out blood and precious mechfluid.

    "Keep to a three-meter spread, folks. We don't know what's gonna jump out at us." She says through a filtered vocoder.

    She's banking on either monsters, or guerrilas. Or monsterous guerrillas.

Landon al Cid (642) has posed:
     Sanae isn't the only martially-inclined royal along in the middle of a god-awful swamp.

     The Prince of Ramuh moves carefully through the awful ooze. He's clad in his full Judge Armor, including the horned helmet, and it's not doing him many favors under the heat. The metal isn't particularly conducive to anything (any alloy that conducted lightning and heat on Ramuh would be tantamount to a death sentence), but it's still not super-pleasant to be inside plate mail in a swamp.

     Landon brushes aside a tree as he walks a bit ahead of Kyra and Dorotea. Landon's role in party dynamics is always tanking, after all - his Job, his heavy armor, and his general durability made him the natural choice to be out front in any such situation. The glowing, crystalline-looking Judge Blade is already manifest, shining its light a bit ahead of them to make it easier to see during pockets of shadow, where the trees criss-cross just a touch too much.

     "Mmm." Landon isn't a Syndicate operative. He's only here because Kyra told him about it, and he thought he needed more experience out in the field. Several Law Cards are tight between his fingers, ready to be charged with Magic Particles in the event of an emergency.

Mirielle Edelweiss (666) has posed:
    Independent Study Physical Education through Adventuring and Monster Study is something that Mirielle Edelweiss has been...

    Neglecting.

    Incapable of flight, frail of form, and generally determined to get through this and damn the consequences - because she needs to not fail out of PE to graduate - she finds herself red-faced and panting, drawing up the rear of the party, with a light backpack and a pair of galoshes rounding out her outfit. Squelching through the joke of a path and reshouldering her pack, she forces a smile as she glances between the spikes darkly.

    "Hmm. Septic skulls. How welcoming." She grumbles, before taking another few steps in the muck, peeling a water bottle out of her pack and taking a swig. "I should have taken the Shiva mountain climbing expedition. At last you can bundle up to deal with cold. There's not much you can do about /heat/, especially when it can't decide how miserable it wants to be." She sighs, before looking around once more and swatting at an insect near her face slowly.

    She is perhaps uncharacteristically grump and talkative. This is a survival instinct. If she was all quiet and not-present, socially, people may forget about her. In a swamp. That would be bad.

Walter Bernhard (726) has posed:
    It really doesn't take long. There is a bizarre cry from somewhere within audible range but that may be difficult to identify the exact origin of. Somewhere in the area. Over 'there' somewhere. For those familiar with animal behavior, it may seem like the kind of 'alarm cry' that communal creatures give to notify others in the area. It kind of sounds like, 'KUH-REEEEEE! ...KUH-REEEEEE!' It's pretty piercing, honestly. Something else that's piercing? A spear with a skull on it as it thrusts out of the foliage at the well-armored Landon without warning. Whereas those cries may have been in the general area around the party, this attack comes from RIGHT THERE.

    The reason for why the attacker may not have stood out much is made clear when a hard-scaled form that loosely resembles a man but is far too reptillian - especially in the bestial head, and inhuman legs, though the skin texture and the blue eyeball in its chest - follows after the gruesome weapon. The wielder is mottled in a color that blends well with the plants and environment. And from the sound of two-toed feet slapping on mud growing louder, it seems as though more of these... Lizard Men are incoming.

    At least they won't have to hunt through this unpleasant swamp for very long to find one of the threats they need to deal with.

    It seems Alexis's warning to the group was pretty accurate. 'Jumping out at them' is exactly what these monsters did. Fortunately, they're going after the big shiny man in the front with all that armor, but a spear can still get into some awfully inconvenient places in a suit of armor in the right hands. Those bringing up the rear or in the middle of the group are free to support or retaliate as they see fit, as they don't seem to be under attack themselves quite yet. But if Sanae lets them, the Lizard Men will probably gladly knock her out of the air. Ranged fire from Alexis, or similar aid from Kyra to keep the tank able to tank would be ideal. Maybe Dorotea could even clobber the enemies if they try to get past Landon! Team work is great after all.

    Off to the side of Mirielle, some of the scummy-looking water begins to froth and bubble energetically for a period of several seconds while all this is going on, only to then calm to a stream of smaller bubbles. In the chaos of an ambush, it might or might not be noticed.

Sanae Kochiya (619) has posed:
    "Three meter spread," Sanae echoes? Now that she's wandered close enough that she's able to join the main group, that is. Thank goodness the shapes moving through the shade are apparently others coming to work the job, or whatever is living in the swamp can make really convincing illusions. "Hmm--that's a good idea, though. Close enough to respond to if somebody gets grabbed, but not close enough to offer a lot of targets. Okay, got it!" While others might appear to be on guard, with her floating around, she almost looks guardedly..excited?

    She particularly has her eyes fixed on Landon for a few moments, since it's not every day that an ex(*)-RPG junkie gets to see someone marching around in full plate regalia, even in the multiverse. She drifts a little bit closer, and holds up her weapon, that looks like a trapezoidal piece of card stock on the end of a stick, to just under her nose, like one might a fan when feigning demureness. Then she wonders, in a good-natured way, "So, what's your class, sir? Knight? Paladin?" Despite having met Kyra and Artyom before, she's actually still not aware, in some ways, that this is a 'real' question to some folk.

    While she is distracted, the breeze that keeps her aloft, her temperature somewhat regulated, and also keeps her priestess robes billowing also sets one of the skulls rattling and shifting. It's not quite enough to startle her out of her wits, but she does jump lightly, snapping back to focusing on the presumed monsters they're pursuing. Taking a breath, she smiles, hopefully visible through the few dapples of subdued light that filter through the canopy, "I'm Sanae Kochiya, by the way. Good to have some other people around on one of these jobs, for once." She might be relatively new to the Syndicate, but she's..well-versed on sealing and purifying monster lairs.

    Suddenly, there are..alarm calls? She's no expert in animal psychology, but there's a certain universal intent to it. She suddenly wheels around in the air, trying to pin point it, when there's a rustling from nearby their armored champion. "..look out!" Whether her shouted warning comes quickly enough to make a difference, she has her weapon at the ready, eyes darting around for any other previously undetected bubblings or disturbances. The wind around her also noticably picks up as she begins to ready what might be a spell of some kind, but it doesn't seem she has it readied yet.

    Real life lizard men! Wow! She'll keep her gawking for when they aren't possibly surrounded by unfriendly reptile people, though.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    "Contact."

    That shriek is all the warning the cyborg needs as she gets ready to rock. Alexis' response is as calm as it would be if she'd found gunk on her shoe. She's quick to take aim at the monsters, the lizardmen finding themselves sighted down by the coilgun. "Landon, I got your back!" She tells the Judge-Prince, before she fires in single-shots to accurately blast away at the lizardmen. Their thick hides can't last under a few high-velocity slugs, aiming to drop them with shots to the chest.

Dorotea Grahn (742) has posed:
"Eh, you'd never finish the climb," Dorotea says, after looking at Mirielle thoughtfully for a moment or two.

"I'm Dorotea," Dorotea says, jabbing a thumb at herself when Sanae introduces herself. "Of course! You don't go monster-hunting by yourself, that's a good way to get in trouble. At least, not something like this." Dorotea has hunted individual monsters down before. That's not the same thing as going into their... nest, or whatever, and dealing with them.

Dorotea doesn't recognize the sound. She doesn't need to recognize it to know that it is a bad thing, and she whirls, trying to locate it. She does when they shamble out of the bushes, but she still doesn't know what they are. Who has an eyeball in their chest? That seems like a really useless place for one. She'd never be able to use it for anything if she had one; her shirt would be in the way.

She supposes they can get along without one. Stupid lizards.

Either way, Dorotea takes a step forward, then another. She adopts an open stance, rather than trying to punch one - she goes for a grab, literally trying to pick up a Lizardman when it tries to get past her, heft it up with a grunt and pitch it back the way it came. She aims at a tree. Dorotea clearly did not see the bubbling - she's facing entirely the wrong way. "Got you!"

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Kyra at least seems to know enough about Dorotea that she can recognize her. Not only that, a quick look at her quickly tells Kyra: Shivan, probably beserker. She'll gladly direct her up to the front with Landon because 'DPS'.

    Seeing Mirelle here is actually a bit of a shock to Kyra. "Oh hey." she says, genuinely surprised, "Glad you could join us, Mirelle. Is this your first time outside of Galianda?" Outside of Galianda was debatable, though.

    Kyra can just hear the comments now. 'That's not an extraversal world that looks like some Leviathan swamp. FAAAAAAAAAAKE' Bah. Whatever.

    "Heya Sanae! I didn't know you were on the questing circuit-" Kyra starts to make small talk only for it to be rudely interrupted by the (accurately Alexis-predicted) incoming monsters. They sure look like incoming monsters to her and that's all she needs to see to spring into support mode.

    Step one is make the tanks even more tanky. Landon immediately gets a Protect spell cast upon him, a blue crystaline shield appearing around him for a few seconds before flickering away. He can 'feel' that the spell is still there, though. Dorotea receives one next, being obviously a melee fighter that could benefit from the extra protection.

    Kyra keeps herself at the back of the group, wary of her flanks and rear.

Mirielle Edelweiss (666) has posed:
    Dorotea gets an inclination of the head, at her doubt in Mirielle's physical ability. And a thin smile. "Probably. But at least I could dress appropriately." She admits, adjusting the straps on her backpack and replacing her water bottle. She settles in for a stressful-if-boring rest of the trip.

    Kyra's query gets a tired sigh. "Yes. This is my first time. I was informed, in no uncertain terms, that I was to actually go out and 'experience the world', by the PE director." She explains, before looking around.

    "Though, I'm really not sure this is that much different than Gal-"

    The 'contacts' begin springing forth, and the Calculator starts fumbling for her staff, squelching around in the back line as she brings her own magic to bear. Tactically, they wanted to accellerate their amount of outgoing supporting magic. And, since Kyra was the supporting mage...

    Mirielle would support the support-er.

    "Kyra!" She calls, a swell of red-tinted magic-partcles burning a light aura around her, before they swell around Kyra, forming little clocks that spin, ticking softly faster and faster, before dissipating.

    Mirielle does not notice the bubbling muck near her over her tactical concern. She's not THAT situationally aware.

Landon al Cid (642) has posed:
     "I am Landon al Cid, Prince of Ramuh," Landon introduces himself graciously to Sanae, "My Job is Judge. Forgive me for not introducing myself prop-"

     Landon is cut off by the sound of a loud CLANG.

     The spear very nearly catches Landon in the chest. It's only thanks to the flexibility and durability of the Judge Armor that he manages to avoid being skewered. The armor is, after all, made to take hits from very heavy and very dangerous things. And it's plate mail, so, you know. Naturally resistant.

     Landon does not waste time. He regains his footing with expert speed, moving as though the armor was a second skin. The Law Cards in his hand blaze with brilliant blue light, sigils traced in Magic Particles as he empowers them.

     In front of Landon, three massive blue crystalline barriers unfold. They're massive and rectangular, and they move into the path of attacks targetting Kyra, Mirielle, Sanae, or Dorotea according to the motion of Landon's hands.

     Meanwhile, the Judge Blade frees itself from his grasp and flies into the air, hovering in front of him like a shield to soak damage. Then it goes spinning outwards, smacking the enemy with its heavy side.

     Kyra's Protect spell gets a nod from Landon. Then, because Landon is that kind of person, he calls out:

     "Stand down!" at the monsters, "Surrender, if you are able to speak, and you will be judged fairly and leniently!"

Walter Bernhard (726) has posed:
    Landon's attacker is smacked aside with the Judge Blade, and into the incredibly murky water that lies off to the group's right. The declaration of surrender is either ignored or not understood. They don't seem to be waiting for him to finish, eevn.
    The Lizardman who tries to get past Landon initially is taken down with a shot through the eye in his chest from Alexis, hurling him back. He practically explodes into a veritable cyclone of blood that splatters everwhere before the body even hits the ground. Another two who try the same tactic manage to lose one of their number, while the other uses the death of his comrade to lunge towards those hanging back. Thankfully, Dorotea seizes him and hurls him at a tree, not only practically snapping the tree in half, but also snapping the body - which in turn becomes yet another spray of bright-red blood upon the ground.

    With the protective spells in place thanks to Kyra, Mirielle enhancing the enhancer, and Landon's own protective powers, even if the Lizardmen had managed to attack, it is quite possible they wouldn't have accomplished much - just as they failed to against Landon.

    The one thrown into the water is righting himself and making his way back to shore in a half-run/half-wade that his reptilian legs seem perfectly suited to, but he passes through an area of bubbling water like the one that had previously shown such activity near Mirielle. The water begins to froth just as he almost makes it out of the mysterious pool, and suddenly a number of pale, thin, grey-fleshed hands, with sharp, spindly fingers coming surging up out of the water and seize the creature. He cries out in a manner very like the sound of alarm heard earlier, but as hands find their way to sharp-toothed jaw, and pull the Lizard Man's head below the water with fearsome strength despite the burly monster's struggles, the cry is silenced.

    The Lizard Man does not surface again, and after several seconds, the frothing bubbles subside to a steady trickle once more.

    As soon as the attack came, it's over.

    Sanae's attempts to identify how many attackers there are, however, lend her insight into the fact that there are more creatures - likely Lizard Men - creeping around the area. Possibly watching them even now, though perhaps from concealment. The sound of their feet as they move through the brush, the fetid smell of a predator's breath on the mostly-stagnant air - stirred up by Sanae's winds - indicate their numbers are greater than the four who attacked just now.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    FATALITY, MAAKA WINS.

    Satisfied as the lizard warriors have fallen in battle, Maaka glances among the group. "I'm taking point, hopefully next time my sensor tech will pick up any surprises up ahead." She says, before she begins to trudge and wade through the water. She's not as suited for navigating the swamp as these reptillian warriors were, but she manages to go onwards with a decent pace.

    She won't turn away anybody if they want to tag along, but she will insist on being tip of the spear, for the moment anyways. She is the one with the big gun, after all, and she trains her weapon alertly as she paces further down the marsh.

Sanae Kochiya (619) has posed:
    After a few more moments of charging up, while she's being reminded of the RPGs she used to play, she finally remembers something vague from those long ago days. These are lizards, right? And lizards were usually weak to lightning, for some reason. She gestures purposefully with her wand-like object, creating a glowing magic circle in the air immediately in front of her, runes and everything. Something serpentine in form, itself, begins to appear behind her as the air around her sizzles with ozone, a scent that does the swamp no further favors. However, the down side to preparing and using this kind of flashy magic, what she calls 'miracles'..is that it leaves you a little bit vulnerable, something the spell card rules usually handle.

    Strange lizard men are beholden to no such rules, and she soon finds herself being buffetted by a few errant swipes as they go by to 'easier' and more obvious targets. They must think she's some kind of fancy pinata. "Ah..! You're supposed to give me time to finish!" The form of the coiled serpent - was that a summon? - flickers out of existence from behind her, ruining her concentration. This prompts prompts her to roll up a detached sleeve, before it just slips right back down again, "Well, if you're going to be *that* way about it." Still in the air, she slips backwards to try and get some separation, before brandishing her wand again. This time it doesn't trace an enchanted shape in the air, instead forming 'blades' of powerful air, to try and knock the one still standing back off its feet.

    ..that is, it turns out, mostly ineffectual, as it is - devoured, by SOMETHING, that is frankly even scarier than the lizard men. She catches her breath, while sweeping back a lock of hair and finding a way to smile in the tense situation, "Good to see you again, Miss Kyra! And to make your acquaintance, Sir Landon. You'll excuse me if I defer more until later." She'd not let Dorotea's observations go unnoticed either, giving her an affirmative 'mm!', though again it's probably left until later to discuss things like civilized people. Being with other hunters..it's true that there's strength and relative safety in numbers, but it definitely presents a different dynamic. She'll just have to adapt to this new era of teamwork.

    While it seems the others have the tactical side of things handled, she still has something to offer, it turns out. Her connection with the winds does grant her a little bit of an extra-sensory notion beyond the restricted sight lines of this place. The immediate threat ended, she extends her arms to 'feel out' the area, "..there's more of them gathering, it seems like. Or, *something* is." After that thing came out of the swamp, she won't make that assumption.

Dorotea Grahn (742) has posed:
Dorotea Grahn throws pretty hard, as it turns out.

She dusts her gauntlets off on her shorts afterwards, though they don't really need it. "Ha! If it's just things like that I don't think we'll have a problem," she says, though she is eyeing the water where the hands came out of a little suspiciously. Part of her wants to see what that is. Another, wiser part tells her it would be a bad plan, even with everyone dumping defensive spells in her general direction (which she isn't objecting to, certainly...)

She looks at Sanae. "Of course there's more. They stink," Dorotea says, though how she smells it over the swamp is a good question. Probably has to do with her breeze. She picks her way forward, stepping on a particularly stable rock before hopping further ahead, taking a position ahead of the mages and closer to Alexis. Even if she's not armoured like Landon (or in fact at all), Dorotea is tough; she can take it. She's used to working in a group, apparently, and hunting in natural environments by the way she moves - though swamps are an unpleasant change.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    A supporter being...supported? Usually Kyra has to apply her own buffs so to get one from Mirielle, especially one she can't even cast herself, is pretty noteworthy to Kyra. "Whoah-thanks!" Kyra replies, her voice a shade faster and squeakier. Though her heightened senses in turn allow her to notice the frothing water, which she yelps at to Mirielle. She is completely sure that a monster will spring out of there-

    Though perhaps more surprising is when a lizardman is flung into the water and whatever is in there is dragged down into the depths quite forcefully. Kyra watches this with some alarm, the sight being caught by the camera she wears. "Whoah. Anybody get the feeling we might have walked into a turf war? Hold up you guys. Why don't we deal with these lake things before we get any farther, I think they could be a problem."

    How does Kyra plan to do that? Well, she reaches into one of her pouches around her waist and pulls out red block of slightly chalky material. "Get ready, guys, this'll probably draw some aggro."

    Kyra casually chucks the block into the nearby water. A few seconds pass and Kyra activates the magically-sensitive block of C4, initiating an explosion beneath the water.

Landon al Cid (642) has posed:
     Landon has nothing to say at this point. The Prince falls back a bit as Alexis takes the lead - his armor is not conducive to *stealth* in a *swamp* by any means, and spotting is better done by others who aren't wearing heavy, horned helmets. Instead, he busies himself checking his armor and preparing to establish a perimeter in what little clear, safe land he can find for the rest of the team to fall back on.

     That is, until Kyra blows the water out of the swamp.

Walter Bernhard (726) has posed:
    The explosion makes a lot of noise and sends a lot of scummy water splashing everywhere and on everyone. If the Lizard Men didn't know where the group was before, they do now. Given how disrupted and churned up the smelly, gross swamp water is now, it's pretty much impossible to tell whether the whatever-those-were are still there or not. But there at least don't appear to be any remains floating to the surface or anything. Not even the Lizard Man from earlier.

    There are many more Lizard Men coming now, the sound of them rushing through the trees and brush loud in every direction (except the direction of the water, because anyone in their right mind would say, 'to hell with going through that'). When the Lizard Men attack again, it's in far greater numbers. At least a dozen come charging out of the woods, some coming straight at the group, others circling around and looking for an opening to attack from behind. There's even a Lizard Man with an unusual, bright-patterned coloration. He is carrying some sort of crystal that is radiating strong magic, and seems to be hanging back slightly, even though he is moving amongst the others.

    If he finds a moment when the heroes are dealing with the Lizard Man onslaught, with even more on the way, he attempts to breathe out a cloud of poisonous mist at the party - with his compatriots seemingly immune to its effects and thus not minding if they get caught in it.

    Good thing all those protective magics are in place! ...If they work against poison too. If not, maybe those capable of curing toxins can deal with it. The fact that there's just this one unusual Lizard Man among all the others, however, indicates he is special in some way. A leader perhaps? Either way, the crystal he carries is probably significant, even if the Poison Lizard isn't.

Sanae Kochiya (619) has posed:
    With her winds bringing a literal breath of fresh air to the swamp, even as it helps waft even worse up, Sanae continues drifting along behind. No way is she willingly getting pulled down into that gunk when she could be flying, especially with grasping claws coming out. After a few more moments, she allows the winds to die down somewhat, since they've done their job and maintaining that level of concentration isn't easy for a newbie goddess. "Oh, what's that," she wonders, as Kyra produces something she promises will attract a lot of attention, even if she gets the general idea. Suspicions confirmed, some kind of explosive! "Ah," she yelps, holding her hands up to her ears and getting her nice robes splashed by some of the murk, after all. Even prepared, it was still a bit surprising how powerful it was. "The swamp is beautiful in its own way, Miss Kyra. Let's leave some of it for others to discover!"

    It seems to have done the job of attracting and stirring the remaining hordes, though. She can't deny the effectiveness, and she'll have to remember that little trick. "Hmm, here they come!" No time to sulk over getting mud on her, her expression once again seems to grow serious. Wand at the ready, she deftly traces a five-pointed star in the air in front of her, which soon solidifies into glowing energy, before splitting into five smaller ones at the corners. "This is for wasting my precious call to Miss Kanako!" She'll return their emerging numbers with numbers of her own, each of the smaller stars firing a beam of piercing, holy light at the approaching lizardman army. Their 'leader', she will presume, does not escape her notice, either. Nor does his mist. Her winds keep the air around herself mostly clear, a protection she tries to extend to Kyra whom is closeby, but she can only multitask miracles so much!

    "That one seems to be ordering them," comes her obvious observation! "Maybe if somebody takes him out, the rest of them will leave!" That's how it always worked in games, isn't it?

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Good thing Alexis's suit is sealed, otherwise she'd be in trouble with the poison guy. She raises her rifle, the weapon kicking against her stock firmly as she begins to drop lizard after lizard while she can. The lizardman with the magic crystal gets Alexis' attention as she whirls to face it, her rifle foucsed as she takes a deep breath.

    All she can focus on right now is that crystal, and her weapons and neural implants go to work calculating the specifics before she finally lets off a single shot, the rifle letting off a muted crack of ozone.

Mirielle Edelweiss (666) has posed:
    Mirielle seems to nominally help out with Kyra's haste, smiling despite herself at the energeticness and enhanced 'speed' of Kyra as she helps dispatch any threat to the group. It is potentially a 'new' feeling for her, but Mirielle understands the tactics of the situation.

    Even if she isn't aware of the lurking, bubbling death in the muck. Which drags a lizardman down, much to her horror, and then...

    Then Kyra uses some strange 'alchemical' mixture to blow half the swamp into a crater, showering fetid water all over the party, which Mirielle brings up her staff for, a dark half-crescent barrier burning to life over and before her and shielding her from the worse of the swamp muck rain.

    It dissipates quickly, as it burns away or simply deflects most of the goo, only a little sullying her clothes.

    The lizardman problem only grows exponentially. There is an easy solution for that. "The next step in absolute victory... After shoring up your weaknesses, expand upon your strengths." She intones, beginning to gather up another wave of magic. Certainly different than the first, the burning aura from this lingers about her, swirling around her staff once like a serpent of fire, before she casts it off towards Dorotea.

    The energetic arc of particles falls upon the Shivan, and this one is no simple haste. An upswell of magic that focuses in the arms and legs, that burns along the weapon. This one is quite an esoteric effect!

    "Lay waste to all before you!" She calls, though she cannot really place the name of this other girl.

    Her garb and armaments made her a prime choice for this effect, anyway.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    In retrospect, maybe exploding the water wasn't the best of ideas, Kyra thinks, as she stands there dripping with nasty, disgusting swamp water. Fortunately for her, the particular outfit she's wearing, designed by Tomoyo, was made /specifically/ to be liquid and stain-resistant. The water rolls off of her clothing as if she was wearing a raincoat. Everyone else, however, is on their own!

    "Eh, the water will drain back in here eventually! It wouldn't be a swamp if it' didn't." Kyra says in response to Sanae, grinning, "I think it took care of our water creatures problem, though!"

    ...at the cost of attracting all of the Lizardmen, though.

    "Keep up the DPS! I'll keep everyone topped off!" Kyra calls out as the Lizardmen mass on their location. She reaches over her shoulder and pulls out the GLEAMING GRENADIER'S CURE-ALL, the alchemized weapon functioning as both an area of effect heal dispenser AND an area remedy. Alerted to the presence of poisonous fumes by Alexis, Kyra is completely ready to dispell the sickness as it starts to take effect on the various fighters.

Dorotea Grahn (742) has posed:
"Eh," Dorotea says to Kyra's suggestion that they might have walked into a trap.

Then again, Dorotea once completed a dungeon run by literally running through several mechanical trap zones without stopping, so she probably has a little less worry on the matter than some people. The straightforward, incredibly direct approach isn't /always/ the best tactic, but it does work sometimes.

Of course, then Kyra drops a bomb in. That's /one/ way to get attention, she supposes. But it splatters muddy water everywhere, including on her. "Agh!" she yelps, not because she's hurt (she's not) but because she has just been splattered. There is a gob of mud hanging off one of the tails of her hair, and several more spattering her front. It is not a good look.

"Tell me to duck next time!" she informs Kyra, head tilting at the sudden change in tenor. There's a whole lot of them coming out of nowhere, and it's breathing poison. Protect doesn't really help against that, but Dorotea hunkers down, as if trying to remain unpoisoned by sheer endurance. She still looks a little green around the edges.

That might be the glow, though. Dorotea doesn't have any weapons beyond her armoured gauntlets and boots, but they shimmer and glow, leaving trails when she moves. "Thanks!" she yells, before drawing a fist back and, oddly, holding it. It's like she's waiting for something... or charging something, as the aura shimmers along her gauntlet's plates.

Dorotea suddenly emits blue light, several globes of energy that drift away from her before fading. She charges toward the closest Lizardman, fist trailing more light as she drives it forward, yelling out, "GOBLIN PUUUUUNCH!" as she goes. She doesn't stop there, continuing to run under the influence of Aura, slamming her fist into several others as she uses her momentum as an additional weapon.

Well at least everyone is clear on what Blue Magic that was.

Walter Bernhard (726) has posed:
    Sanae's lasers destroy several Lizard Men, causing them to turn into those odd whirlpools of blood that splatter everywhere before seeping into the ground and vanishing. Her wind powers do a good job of keeping herself and Kyra free of poisons, and her warning cry probably helps those who, unlike Alexis, may not have protection against such. Speaking of Alexis, when she destroys that magic crystal, it releases all its power in a blinding flash.

    The ground seems to burn away from the Poison Lizard, and continue expanding outwards in a crematory wave that is surely going to engulf the good guys as well! Oh, no! Was this the wrong move!? But nothing is really burning, and though the terrain is changing... It is changing from swamp to forest. Even that swamp water seems to be evaporating and turning into jets of steam that fly away back to the lake they originated from.

    Whatever magic that crystal wielded, it seems that this entire swamp was supernaturally maintained by altering the ecosystem and terrain, and that's not its natural state. With the Lizard Men lasered by Sanae, the ones shot into bloody sprays by Alexis, the Poison Lizard caught in the explosion of his own artifact, the poison mist being nullified by Kyra's cure grenade, and Mirielle enhancing everyone to make their respective abilities even more awesome, it's only a matter of time before the current attacks cease. It seems like there's plenty more Lizard Men where they came from, but with Dorotea plowing through the reptillian humanoids and leaving a wave of blood sprays in her wake, the survivors seem to decide now is not the time to try to rush and overpower these intruders.

    The eyes on their chests seem to be glowing as they retreat into the darkness of the now very not-swamp-like surroundings. Lizard Men no longer have the environmental advantage, their enemies are too numerous, AND too powerful. But though it seems that part of the threat has been dealt with, there will be plenty more monsters to be dealt with in the future. This was still a good first step in ridding the area of them.

    Because now this place is back to how it should be.

    The sounds of swamp creatures vanished to be replaced with the sounds of other forest creatures when the crystal was shattered. In the aftermath of battle, natural noises are returning. Until something happens that didn't even in the middle of combat or with Kyra's magical C-4 going off.

    The entire area goes completely dead-silent except for any noise this group of heroes might make. That isn't something that normally happens. Not unless there's a very large predator around, or some other reason for all the animals in the area to be afraid.

    For a moment, a glimpse of a cloaked figure might be seen between the trees by the observant. But it's gone almost as soon as it's spotted. And the ground nearby the group becomes displaced, almost as though something were digging its way out of the ground. Soil and grass fall away from a large, ornate, wooden chest.

    Once the noises of the forest return, someone might choose to investigate. And if they do, they'll find payment for each person who came on this job, in the form of pure gold coins.

    The job offer DID say payment would be provided on-site, upon completion...

    ...Though it didn't mention something creeply would be making the payment.

Sanae Kochiya (619) has posed:
    With the lizard men in retreat, Sanae finally takes a moment to catch her breath. And with the swamp somehow being burned away as a result of the crystal's shattering, it leaves solid ground for her to finally set her feet upon, even if it turns out it didn't help keep her clean, after all. The breeze also dies out around her, as she busies herself fussing with her robes, tsking at her own carelessness rather than blaming Kyra for her situation. "The robes that were blessed by Miss Kanako and Miss Suwako, what a mess!" After a few moments she consciously glances around as she becomes more distinctly aware of the terrain's changes. She looks somehow..disappointed? "..aww, the swamp was kind of exciting. Now it's just a forest. I guess that's kind of pretty, too, though."

    If she were about to think the forest was boring, the sudden deathly still soon washes away any thoughts of that. All of her miko senses begin to blare the klaxons at this, though whatever passing wickedness doesn't really give much time to contemplate its nature. She holds a hand to her forehead, "..mm..something weird just happened. Oh!" She's soon distracted from it, though, as an honest-to-goodness *treasure chest* has appeared. She clasps her hands, "The multiverse really is where dreams become reality. Let's see what's inside, everybody!" MONEY.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "...whoah!" Kyra exclaims at the very dramatic effect that Alexis's crystal shattering seems to have had on the very environment around them. She doesn't spend much time gawking, though, alternating between firing a poison-clearing remedy and a damage-clearing cure grenade spell.

    The sudden silence is just as striking.

    Now she was definitely expecting payment, this being a Syndicate job, but so...immediate? "Um...okay, that was suspicious but I can't say I'm complaining. Nice job everyone!"