2509/Leve: Skeletons in my Deepcroft

Leve: Skeletons in my Deepcroft
Date of Scene:	22 June 2015
Location:	Hydaelyn Reborn <ARR>
Synopsis:	In light of undead concerns, the Tam-Tara Deepcroft is resealed... for now.
Cast of Characters:	385, 626, 633, 642, 666, Lyria Mason, 747, 789, 815, N'raha Tia

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Notice from the Adventurers' Guild of Eorzea (posted on numerous bounty and adventurer boards, including the Syndicate Network)!

Leve: Skeletons In My Deepcroft
Location: Near the Tam-Tara Deepcroft, Central Shroud
Type: Monsters
Urgency: Low
Difficulty: Low

Lothaire at Galvanth's Spire requests that a few able-bodied adventurers help eradicate those undead who have wandered out of the Tam-Tara Deepcroft and grown so bold as to attack wagons and travellers on the main roads. Though he assures in the meantime he's been handling it himself, their numbers have grown more recently and he can't spare as much attention as before.

Alwyn Highwind (815) has posed:
    Welcome back to the Black Shroud!

    For new arrivals, the Black Shroud is a great, vast forest on the continent of Eorzea. There are Warp Gates, but the location you're meant to gather at also has an Aetheryte Crystal! That means you can teleport to it from any other of those crystals on Eorzea, if you happened to be elsewhere or couldn't find the specific Warp Gate you needed.

    The Central Shroud's trees a bit less dense, but the wildlife is a bit greener and purer, probably due to the proximity to Gridania. A river runs through this section of the forest, bisecting it in two, and this place feels incredibly magical to those with such senses. A great force seems asleep, far to the south.

    Bentbranch Meadows is a nice little hub village, with a 'Chocobo ranch' of a sorts to the side. The plaza around the Aetheryte Crystal is alive with the back and forth of travellers and adventurers on the road that goes through the forest, and it's in places like this where you can forget the Calamity ever happened.

    Near the Aetheryte Crystal, ALWYN HIGHWIND, generic everyman, is chatting up Lothaire, an Elezen (basically an elf). Something about skeletons and the Deepcroft, and waiting to see if adventurers take the bite.

    The notice in the scene's scheduling post is the aforementioned adventurer bait, with promise of payment for every skeleton destroyed.

N'raha Tia has posed:
    And next to Alwyn is N'RAHA TIA, looking generally less overly agitated from the other night, clad is some heavy looking cloth armor and carrying a sword and shield. The other night he was awash in Over-Powered Heroes and Echo Madness. This... This is a much less aggravating Leve.
    Th Deepcroft gets this wa from time to time. It's not anyone's fault really, but there's just a lot of darker energy that builds up in the old burial grounds. Sometimes that problem just spills over. No one's fault, really.

    That said, the promise of Gil and maybe a little recognition with the locals has lead the young Miqo'te to come hang out with the head of his new Linkshell and bum around a bit.

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Happy, pleasant, vibrant forest. You can practically see the sunlight shining through the boughs and the murderous face-chewing squirrels frolicking over the grassy hills.

This isn't Sarah's style, which is kind of why she's standing near the giant crystal surrounded by an almost palpable aura of depression. She also doesn't look like the adventuring type since she's not wearing 'armor' or 'has a weapon' yet here she is.

Regardless, she's not going to join the choo choo train to skeleton murder town (population: these guys), if she doesn't get her butt in gear and indicate that yes, she's here to adventure and not to hang out with the chocobos or elves. "Sup." She says, shuffling over towards Alwyn, Lothaire, and Catman McCatterson. "Is this the train to skeleton murder station?" She asks.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna is already in her Light Suit as she arrives at the gathering point in the shadow of the Black Shroud. And if the somewhat revealing, high-tech-ish armor doesn't mark her as an outsider, the fact that she's accompanied by a little robotic faerie most likely will. Yuna isn't walking like she's in any particular hurry; she may even be enjoying the scenery to some extent ...

Apart from a faintly uneasy look on her face, that is.

Still, Sarah's question about 'skeleton murder station' prompts a slight giggle from the blonde girl, and Yuna walks over to join the others who are gathering. "Hey Sarah, hello everyone," she greets the slowly(?) gathering crowd. "I'm Yuna, and this is Elner," she introduces herself and her robo-faerie companion. "I hear we'll be hunting undead today?"

Mirielle Edelweiss (666) has posed:
    There is a rustle in the shrubbery and bushes near the aetheryte plaza, and a soft 'kweh'-twitter of a Chocobo, that is probably just one of the chocobo at the stable.

    And then a black-feathered chocobo head (and attached neck) slips out from the hedges, pecking at some discarded feed on the ground. A slim hand reaches out to pull the black chocobo back by the feathery frill, before Mirielle coughs from in the shrub and wipes her nose.

    "Yes, we are very interested in the removal of your undead problem." Comes Mirielle's meek voice.

    Yep, she's hiding in the bush.

Landon al Cid (642) has posed:
     The purpose of the Light Warriors Exploration Club is not to fight wars. The purpose of the Light Warriors Exploration Club is to explore the vast new Extraverse spreading out before Galianda, to see the sights and appreciate the cultures that are foreign to their humble world, and (if necessary) to defend it against threats from the Outside.

     Landon is torn. On the one hand, he cannot live his life on the battlefield. There are other commanders, other, more experienced generals. What had been a fight he was certain they would win had turned into a loss, necessitating the action of more experienced commanders to deal with new and unorthodox tactics. He could afford not to be there. He could afford to go out and see the wonders that were ordinarily denied him.

     But he didn't feel very good about it.

     Still, Landon is very, very skilled at hiding his feelings. He arrives at the vast forest with a broad smile, taking in a sight truly unlike any on Galianda. In the old days there may have been trees all across Ramuh, but now...

     Well. Some things are lost with industrialization, after all. The price of convenience may very well be beauty.

     Landon stops to marvel at the sheer number of chocobos when he teleports into the village (not to mention the ease of teleportation! What a fabulous magic! Something to try and learn one day, for certain). Landon hurries up to the group in his full armor, though he is apparently unarmed (as he was when Alwyn last encountered him).

     Landon lowers his head to N'raha and Alwyn in greeting, kisses Sarah's and Yuna's hand (since he hasn't met them yet) (unless they stops him for some reason), and favors the bush Mirielle is hiding in with a gentle and knowing smile.

     "It is my pleasure to meet you, Lady Sarah, Lady Kagurazaka. I am Prince Landon al Cid of Galianda. I look forward to working with you."

     He clasps his hands together, the image of cheer. The gauntlets ring out with a clang, though not an unpleasantly loud or heavy one - his armor is probably not steel. "So then! Undead to dispatch for the good of the people, and that sort of thing. Onwards and inwards, as it were. The longer we wait, the more in danger."

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria Mason has returned here to the Black Shroud she's head some things about this region? Or was it another with Wood Sin? She recalls something in the reports about it. Either way she'd come to help where she could right? She'll notice Alwyn is there and gives him a wave as she arrives. Remora her magitech creation is slinking along after her as are four strange spider like drones. She's also very much dressed by a Levitani today, she looks like she might be wearing something made. She's a bit behind Landon as he arrives she gives wave.

"Prince Landon, Alwyn, Sarah, Yuna and hey Mirielle!"

She does greet N'rasha but she didn't get quite so much of chance to meet the last time she was here.

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     It's easy to forget the reason why the Light Warrior Club exists before all the things that happens before them in the Multiverse, not to mention inside of their own worlds. However, it's at times like this that's it's probably more striking that they find the beauty that lies before, beyond what they know. This huge Forest is one of theses. Soan arrived a few moments before, taking the time to soak in the sights, looking around, peering at things, shops, gigantic crystals and the lovely locals.

     And the bugs. Oh gods, the bugs. Why do they like his skin so godamn much? They didn't have bugs in Chocobo, not like /this/ and even less in Bahamut!

     So, it's by crunching on an apple that the young Thief comes at the rendez-vous point, hoisting a small basket of apples under his other arm, waving at thoses already assembled. "Hey! Hey!" He lets out, handing out green apples as he approaches. "So this is the place for the undead extermination party?"

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Kyra's arrival is a little bit more quieter than usual. Since she has paid this place a visit already, she doesn't go through the usual 'take pictures of everything with her mPhone'. Well, except for the real, live chocobos, she'll definitely take a picture of that.

    She seems slightly more sullen than usual, even a little avoidant of the Prince of Ramuh. Her hoodie is drawn down low over her face, barely allowing the casual viewer a glimpse of her eyes. Doubly strange since she's usually pretty excited about undead extermination since it's one of the few times she can use her white magic offensively.

Scarlet Everille (747) has posed:
    Clearing out skeletons honestly seems even further down the "bottom rung adventurer" totem pole of activities. Were she strictly interested in making some kind of fame and fortune in Eorzea, Scarlet would have turned her nose up at this, partly for being beneath her in terms of ability, and partly for being a protracted fighting mission in some burial ground which is probably really old and dirty. The trip out to the Central Shroud makes up for it a little, representing by far the most naturally beautiful place she's ever been to, having spent a lifetime around urban overdevelopment. There's a little unguarded appreciation for fresh air, clear skies and wild trees on display, though she'll probably be sick of it by the end of the day.

    No, she's here to establish a working investment into the first of likely many new worlds, especially apt to follow up on the task after being given some form of semi-exclusive contact last time. It had gone so well before, after all, with a certain bandit king and his bodyguard starting to circulate through the justice system with hidden trackers on them secretly accumulating information. She immediately makes sure to personally greet Alwyn, being her primary contact here, followed by properly introducing herself to Lothaire, also seeming like they could be important, or at least useful, in the future in the same way the Twin Adder representative had been. She knows everyone here except Yuna by now, so only polite acknowledgements are necessary, unworthy of going into detail. "I certainly hope it is." she says to Sarah "Or a lot of people appear to be in the wrong place." She looks to the Elezen. "If you have the time, I'd like to hear anything that might be relevant to what you're asking of us. The details were a little... sparse."

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
It's almost too bad that Yuna can't take her gloves off without de-transforming, but she bows her head politely to Landon - she would actually curtsey if she had a skirt, but the closest her Light Suit offers is armor panels on either hip. Not really feasible.

The *clang* of gauntleted hands being clapped together makes her jump a bit, but she musters a grin anyway. "Seems like a good idea to get started, then ..." She trails off, spotting the late arrivals, and raises an arm to wave to them. "Hey, you here to go skeleton-bashing too?" she calls out. she *does* recognize Soan and Kyra, and the presence of a couple more familiar faces serves to lift her spirits a bit more.

Alwyn Highwind (815) has posed:
    Adventurers' Guild protip number whatever, strength in numbers. N'raha's presence, if anything, reassures Alwyn. He's been wandering alone since his, for a lack of better term, rearrival in Eorzean, thanks again Louisoix for the free warningless time travel, or at least as alone as one can consider a lancer with a small animal companion half the time. Family's dead, most of his friends got incinerated by Bahamut. He kind of just took off alone, it seemed better.

    Re-establishing friends and connections will do him some good.

    Sarah arrives, and causes Lothaire to laugh. "Is that what people speak like, outside Eorzea? I think I like it," he admits. "Why, yes, this is the skeleton murder station. Bring me back their magicked bones and I'll be giving you money, plus the satisfaction to know you made our road safer for however long. To be honest, we'll probably have to send adventurers into the Deepcroft to cut the problem at the source eventually, but we'll start with this."

    "Just Lothaire," the questgiver answers Yuna. "I guard the road and escort merchants, but it's gotten pretty bad. I need to be up in Gridania today, so you'll be doing my job. Don't worry, it's easy."

    The speaking bush earns a chuckle, and the man answers: "Good, good. Seems I've acquired a quirky group. Odd day when the time-traveling dragon-lover is the most normal of you all," she jokes. Alwyn frowns, replying: "H-Hey, that only happened once. I thought we were friends, don't make fun of that." Lothaire grins. "There there, kiddo."

    Landon earns himself a half-bow. "A prince, too! Alwyn, N'raha, just how large is this Syndicate again? You know I can't pay royalty extra, right?" Said with a joking tone.

    Lyria just showing up with magitech drone will put the guards on-edge, but they were warned. Not ALL technology is Garlean, and there are many wonders out there even the nature-lovers of Gridania might find interest in. Also, her magitech doesn't feel like it's an insult against the Aether, so that's a huge plus.

    Since Soan and Kyra are quieter, they don't get addressed beyond a salutation, though Alwyn will not fail to question Kyra's silence compared to before later.

    Scarlet gets a nod, as the man elaborates. "Someone or something must have cursed the Deepcroft sometime recently, because undead have been pouring out like nobody's business. We haven't sent anyone in there yet, rather we just keep the door shut and sealed, but they break through every once in a while. Believe me, we're going to take a better approach soon. You'll be fighting magicked skeletons, mostly. Most warriors, a couple mages. Intelligent, but it's less people-intelligence and more... repeating what they must have been doing in life. Warrior skills, magical knowledge. That's about it. Just bring as many of the bones as you can back, I'll pay per-skull."

Alwyn Highwind (815) has posed:
    To everyone gathered who don't already have one, Alwyn proceeds to hand a Linkpearl. The glowing blue gemstone simply needs to be kept in a pocket or something to provide telepathic access to the Linkshell frequency.

    Having done that, the Lancer places two fingers in his mouth and whistles loudly. There's a small, adorable roar, as a blue and white baby wyvern swoops down from the sky and lands on one of the man's shoulders.

    "Hey everyone. This is Kain. He keeps me company, when he's not off doing... whatever it is baby dragons do." He shrugs. Kain mimics the motion, though it's kind of awkward.

    "So, the Deepcroft is down south. We have about five minutes of walking to do, so... might as well get to it. Anyone know a good walking song or have something interesting to talk about?"

N'raha Tia has posed:
    N'raha's face lifts up a bit as more outworlders show up again, and he smiles, waving. "Hallo! Welcome to Gridania! And the Syndicate is really big, Father. Like really big.' Oh good we're walking now.
    The Miqo'te peers at the others, and gets sight of a few people he saw the other night only without the screaming and magical pressure and Inconvienent Visions. His sword hangs loosly on its scabbard as he turns in place and looks at the people following along. "So, what sorta questions have you guys got? I mean, I know that I'd have a crapton of questions about the rest of the places I went, so I'm sure.. ah... I could help you guys out."
    A hopeful look on the adventurer's face, his tail swishing a bit excitedly.

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Sarah gives Yuna a wave. "Hi there." She says with something actually pleasant. She remembers Yuna from before. With the dungeon. And the horrorterrors. Yeah. That was a thing.

Landon approaches and kisses Sarah's hand, which actually causes her enough surprise to not snark immediately. "... Huh. Uh, hi there, Prince." She says, blinking at him for a moment, before Lyria shows up and gets a wave.

Scarlet gets a shrug. "Wouldn't be the first time, I bet. Still, we're all here. I'm sure we could have figured something out if that was the case. Maybe mow the lawn." She might be joking. Might be.

Lothaire seems to like Sarah's sense of humor, which is inherently funny because Sarah was just being laconic. Ah, culture shock, the possibilities are endless. "Beat up skeletons, bring you the magic bones, where they'll get de-eviled and then buried again until some jerkface evils them back up again. Got it. This is what I call a sustainable adventurer economy."

The baby dragon's appearance causes Sarah to shrug with them, almost like she's trying to synchronize, and gets moving with the others. "This place is pretty much a super magical forest. I expect princesses to start singing any time here." She comments. "Though I've never seen ladybugs that big before. Is this place full of carnivorous murder-fauna?" She asks. "And what's with the big crystal?"

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria Mason was also a Geomancer and used her own powers through her creatious to act as amplfiers it seems to be perhaps what has not set them off. For with her Magitech it's simply powering it by the very thing that powers /everything/ on her world Mana particles. She seems to be now falling back a little bit falling in with her friends and those from her school.

Lyria seems polite enough right now and she listens to what they have to say to them.

"Ah so nothing wrong with a hike right? If you want music? I'm pretty sure Kyra can provide."

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     Soan is, indeed, mostly quiet as he arrived, giving a worried look toward Landon and Kyra, more particularly the Prince. This must have been hard to come here, both literally and figuratively. His country is at war, yet, here he is. He feels that he's made the right decision. If it's gonna be the best, they'll have to see.

     The Thief subtly hands Kyra an apple, as well gauging one for Landon as he rejoins the other Light Warriors, listening to the briefing from the long-eared person. That's another thing. This world has quite a large variety of people in it and different people that aren't Humes. They LOOK like humes, sure, for the most part. Yet...

     "Yeah, actually," Soan says, swallowing after crunching the last remains of his apple, keeping the core for a trash bin. He's going to search for that trash bin for a long ass time and will be evantually discared when they reach the forest. "Know any other paths to that Deepcroft you're talking about? I can go scout it out around to make sure there's no undeads that escapes it."

Scarlet Everille (747) has posed:
    Well that tells Scarlet two things. One: the whole undead thing isn't an ordinary occurrence here, and is in fact, the work of significant, deliberate magic. Two: it's at least fairly powerful magic if they haven't had ample opportunity to deal with it yet. That's about all she needs to know to get her priorities settled for this mission. She turns around politely to engage her smartcollar, navigating the projected AR interface to page through her digital grimoire and reorganize her favourites. She follows up by shuffling a few things in her back and compiling a small selection of cards of similar shape to a tarot deck.

    "Good to know, and thank you for the information~" She mentally files away that mention of time travel and dragons for later. She's not going to forget a hook that juicy any time soon. "I take it that there's nothing else you're particularly looking for? Just so long as the hazards are gone for the time being." The expertly crafted context cues imply that she's checking to see if there's something she can get paid extra for. The reality is that she's double checking to make sure that anything she finds is nothing anyone will miss.

    The mention of walking almost forces her to hide an unfavourable reaction, but it doesn't sound like the distance will be all that bad. Instead, she fixates on the creature perched atop Alwyn's shoulder in plain sight, being something of a novel occurence for her. She checks it over with the full extent of her magical senses, vaguely hoping to get some general idea of what it is and what it does. "I have one." she says to N'raha, pointing loosely over the south horizon. "What's in that direction?" The call for old-fashioned adventurer singing goes way over her head. She's already paging through her music folder.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "If I play any music, it'll be coming out of my phone and it'll sound slightly tinny." Kyra finally speaks up as they set out for the undead horde. "Sure, I'll still do it though." Finally she manages a smile, reaching over to accept the apple from Soan.

    She straightens just a little bit. "So about this bag that kind of can hold everything. What is the weight limit on these things...?" Pausing, Kyra edges over to Alwyn, scooting very slowly. Very slowly. A hand reaches out....

    ...to brazenly try to pet Kain. "Hey again...N'raha, right?" Kyra speaks up after her attempt.

Landon al Cid (642) has posed:
     Landon also recalls Scarlet from the adventure with Misha. The lady was more than effective at keeping her own, so /she/ gets a smile from the young Prince as well. Soan...well, Soan gets his own response elsewhere.

     "That's quite alright," the Prince assures Lothaire with a gentle smile and a dismissive wave of his gauntlet-clad hand, "I don't require any additional payment. The contract is the contract, after all. Only a very greedy man would try to haggle with the lives of others as collateral."

     That says more about Landon than his armor or his title put together. After all, either he really believes that...or he's got a terribly cynical viewpoint. He has no particular reaction to walking, or the mission in general. Landon is pretty good at rolling with the punches if he doesn't feel he has any critical questions. He glances at Kain for a moment, stares, and then snaps a picture on his phone. That was important.

     Because who would ever imagine getting to see such a thing up close, unrestrained? It's magnificent. The miracle of life.

     "Well, then, if we're going to walk, we may as well start, hm?"

Alwyn Highwind (815) has posed:
    "That crystal's an Aetheryte Crystal. It connects to the flow of the Aether around Eorzea, and can teleport people from one crystal to another in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, only people can teleport through them, so cargo that can't be carried in a bag still has to be shipped the good old way. It's kept roads a very important thing, and some people prefer to walk or ride to places anyway," Alwyn answers Sarah, before producing his map.

    "Erm... there's a..." That's... that's not a map of the Central Shroud at all. That's STILL his map of Ul'dah. It takes the Lancer a few moments to shuffle through his bag and find the right map, to show it to Soan. "If you cut through the trees and hills in a straight line you can get there faster. We'll be taking the road to make sure the undead aren't on it."

    Before they go, Lothaire will nod to Scarlet. "For now, yeah. I won't be here when you get back but my assistant will be waiting for you guys with the gil. I'll get back to you all when we decide to send a team in the ruins directly."

    Kain allows himself to be pettered by Kyra.
    It makes an appreciative, barely draconic noise.
    It's more like a cat purring.

    Alwyn, glancing at his bag, uuuuhs for five seconds straight and then answers: "A couple pounds? I mean, per item. I could stuff a dozen swords in there, but probably not something that weights a ton. Or something the size of a person. Has to fit in the bag!"

    Alwyn addresses Landon next. "A-Ah, when I said... you said you were Prince of Ramuh, right? We're in Ramuh's domain, right now. Kind of. The Sylphs are friendly for the most part, so they don't summon him. Primals are usually bad news, and the Sylphs don't want to strain their alliance with Gridania."

    You can't tell because it's: 1. not raining, 2. not storming, but this place screams Ramuh normally.

Mirielle Edelweiss (666) has posed:
    The bush manages to blush and rustle embarrasedly, before a chocobo head pops out the top and lets out a loud 'wark!', triumphant and defiant in the face of SKELETONS.

    Mirielle's embarassment only grows, before she helpfully elucidates on the finer aspects of skeletons. Creepily. However, with Landon here, Mirielle is released from Operation Keep Kyra Safe, as Landon will be Landon and cover that nicely.

    So instead she climbs out of her bush and onto her belligerently black chocobo-summon, and scowls. "I do not think there is equivalancy between the Primal Ramuh, and the Plate Ramuh. One is a place."

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna takes a moment to 'equip' her new linkpearl, eventually managing to hitch it into one of her earpieces. "Elner, do you think you can teleport to the Guild and grab one of those backpacks?" she inquires of her robo-faerie companion.

"How would I carry it?"

Yuna winces a bit, looking at the armless shape of the robo-faerie. "Same way you carry my stuff when I transform, I figured ..." She sighs, shrugs, and looks at Alwyn. "Guess we'll have to trust you to keep count, huh?" she asks good-naturedly. Then she looks around, taking a fresh headcount. "Hmm ... well, I don't know how many skeletons there'll be, but I figure we ought to be in good shape." She starts walking with the others ... she *would* take point, but the fact is, she doesn't know her way around these parts. Alwyn, being a local, presumably does.

What she *does* do is materialize the Matrix Divider, the hybrid sword/rifle which serves as her primary weapon most of the time. Ranged attacks could be handy for thinning out the skeletons before they get close - and given that the chance of skeletal *mages* was mentioned, Yuna doesn't want to depend strictly on melee ...

N'raha Tia has posed:
    The miqo'te nods at Kyra. "That's right, you remembered! Hello, Miss Kyra." Let it not be said the catman can't remember things either.

He looks at Scarlette though and then at her vague gesturing to the south. "Well, that was is the Deepcroft and past that is the South Shroud. Ah, you've got Quarrymill and a bunch of older ruins out that way, thicker trees, older forest. That place wasn't hit as hard during the Cataclysm. Otherwise, just a lot of nasty stuff in the old forest. Place got all sittered up when Dalamud fell. Lots of stuff got stirred up."

Landon al Cid (642) has posed:
     "Well, once upon a time, our Ramuh was a god, after all. Before it became a continent, in any case." Landon reminds Mirielle as they walk. So this is Ramuh's domain. No, that was the wrong thing to say - so there *was* another Ramuh. Just like Odin, who seemed to have innumerable versions of itself across the Extraverse, so too did Ramuh. Landon takes this in, thoughtfully, as he walks, his metal boots surprisingly quiet despite the fact that plate mail should be much louder. The Prince, in fact, seems completely used to wearing what should be catastrophically heavy armor at almost all times, moving with a surprising degree of grace and comfort.

     "The Ramuh I am from," Landon tells Alwyn, "Is a vast city, the size of a continent. Once, it was plains and fields and forests, like this one; now, we have tamed the storm itself and made it the lifeblood of our towers and our conveniences. The city is alive at all hours, under a cloud of rain that never stops. The lights race through the city like a billion lives."

     Landon pauses.

     "Although I suppose the weather is, itself, proof that your Ramuh is not related to our Ramuh. Our Ramuh was the god of storms. Never does it stop raining. This is...well, it's actually rather clear, isn't it?" The Prince laughs.

     Yuna manifests her weapon. Landon observes it, thoughtfully. It's interesting. A lot of things interest him, after all. He turns around, walking backwards for a moment (how does he not trip on that cape? He must be used to it.) and hunching over to peer at it. Then, with a smile, he turns back around and moves into point. Better that someone in heavy armor, with a Job meant to tank, tank.

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     Soan got his answer from Landon. Landon got his answer from Soan. This does not change the fact he's worried about the guy's current mental state. He can smell it. No matter, for the moment.

     The thief watches Kyra pet the dragon, eyeballing the tiny little wyvern with a mixture of respect and confusion. They are not the dragons he knows, far from it, and it is a troubling thought to be thinking of the being that you follow and share a bond with their philosophy so deeply to be so adorably cute AND make such pleasing sounds when petted. Soan don't say anything on this, instead nodding at Alwyn. "Alright then," The thief says, shouldering the empty basket as he takes a few jogging steps on the spot. "I'll go up ahead and scout out the environs, watching out for others that may stray away. I've got a few traps I'm itching to use."

     He eyes the Miqo'te after he explain the forest, giving him also a nod in thanks, giving him a salute with his index. "Thanks for the history lesson, that's important. Bye!"

     Then, he goes, jogging up ahead.

N'raha Tia has posed:
    "You're welcome, buddy!" And then the guy is off into the woods and N'raha just sighs. He is also wearing Heavy-ish armor, though of course no where near as fancy as Landon, so he sorta falls into step besides the pince, hand resting on the pommel of his sword.
    Those ears are still swivelling a bit backwards to catch conversations.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "...awwww." Kyra giggles as her pettings elicit what sounds like purrs from the small dragon. She moves her hand around to scritch it under the chin for a few more seconds before letting it be. "Huh, anything that'd fit in the bag, then? I need one of those, like, now." Kyra takes a moment to unzip the front of her hoodie. Underneath, and on top of the sleeveless white shirt she wears, is a staggering amount of gear. She has three different guns. She has two bandoliers filled with darts and bullets. She has two belts around her waist lined with flasks. Altogether, it looks pretty heavy. This isn't even including the CURE-ALL, which looks like a gold and platinum-plated grenade launcher, which she keeps on her back.

    "I can only carry so much." she sighs. "Anyway, I'll have to look into that after this mission."

    She grins back at N'raha. "Of course I did. You're the only Miqo'te I know right now, after all." she replies, if a touch thoughtlessly.

    When Soan darts ahead, she calls after him, "Good luck with your new traps!"

Scarlet Everille (747) has posed:
    The bag sounds pretty convenient. Enough that Scarlet might look into acquiring one, if only to take apart at the very least. It's not a hugely pressing concern since she has her own means of negating storage issues, but they're likely less efficient. She waves cheerfully to Landon, flipping her hair over her shoulder before settling on some neo-classical reinnaissance stuff from the 2060s. "If you don't mind me asking, what is Ramuh, and what kind of shared relevance would it have between your world and here?" It's a legitimate question spoken with genuine (if slightly exaggerated) interest, but mostly only to pass the time, judging by the way she devotes maybe two thirds of her attention to the explanation he gives

    She "Hmmm"s at N'raha's somewhat inconclusive response. "Lots of things, huh? Are you abbreviating, or does nobody really know?" From what she can sense, it should be one really big thing worthy of mention first.

Alwyn Highwind (815) has posed:
    N'raha gets a nod to approval from Alwyn. "Yeah, what he said. We're still not sure if all of this is someone's doing or if it's just the fact the Calamity really shook Eorzea and may have woken sleeping powers up.

    He listens as Landon explains where he's from, trying to parse the idea of a continental city. It's kind of difficult. "So you destroyed your nature to build atop it? Wouldn't that upset the balance of your world, or does yours work differently?" Though about the weather, "Oh... when it rains here, it gets pretty bad. You won't hear anyone complaining about a sunny day though!"

    Off Soan goes! "Be careful!"

    Kyra gets a nod from the Lancer. "I can ask the Adventurers' Guild to set up a meeting. I'm sure they'd love to meet the off-world adventurers they're paying. It's pretty easy to sign up and get starter gear."

    Ahead, one can see the road split into two; one cuts abruptly to the right, and another continues south to a set of gates and a checkpoint. Alwyn TRIES not to fail his direction check.

    "We want to turn right, and we'll reach a clearing. I haven't been to the Deepcroft since before the Calamity, I just hope it's not too bad."

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Sarah is quiet right now, shuffling along the road with a searching look in her face. Every so often she pops a little off the road and rummages in some bushes, before she comes back. MYSTERIOUS.

She does, however, immediately get back to the road, and passes on anything that's too close to the wandering wildlife. She has no idea which ones like 'young kid' for dinner, after all.

N'raha Tia has posed:
    N'raha points Scarlett over at Alwyn. "That's it. I mean, the Garleans dropped the moon on us which also turned out to be an Elder Primal which was uh... bad." He blinks a bit and grumbles. "Hells, we only got much of the place up and running again. Those Aetheryte crystals are still newish."

    The group is coming up on the mounds of the Deepcroft up ahead, and the scuting of vilekin increases, with mites the size of small cars scuttling about on top of taller hills along the road. Other more benign wildlife is here as well though.
    The clattering of bones can be heard quietly from among the stone mounds.

Landon al Cid (642) has posed:
     "I can theorize," Landon tells Scarlet, "But beyond that, I have no idea. I imagine there are perhaps concepts powerful enough to radiate through the Extraverse and express themselves in a variety of ways. Ramuh may be one of them. I'm uncertain. I would loathe to put such importance upon a single idea. It's merely a theory of mine, primarily based upon the appearance and variety of the concept of 'Odin'." The prince shrugs, rolling his armored shoulders and sending ripples down the cape. The Mi'qote falls in step with him and gets the same gentle smile that appears to be his usual response.

     "No," Landon replies distantly, "The idea that you could destroy nature that way is a silly thing. Even in a place full of steel towers and lightning pathways, where electricity dances like lifeblood through neon veins, there is life. There is life on every corner. New kinds of plants crop up from the sewers, or between the cracks of pavement, or around the shadows of the glass-and-iron towers. New monsters regularly spawn within the sewer, evolving and changing to build their own ecosystem. No, we merely transformed Ramuh into a new kind of ecosystem. It transformed, and life changed with it."

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria Mason makes notes about the Aertheryte Crystals as she moves with the party. She lets out a low histle she's clearly impressed with this and she keeps with the party. She doesn't have much to say as she's thinking the best way to take down the undead they will be dealing with. She's armed ready and he shifts the elements on her pistols now to fire which hopefully will not be a bad idea. With that settled after a bit she does have something to say to Highwind.

"I heard me bits about Primals, nothing of it ever good."

She looks to Landon and nods as he tells his tale about it.

"The ones here are perversions and mockeries of our own Landon."

Scarlet Everille (747) has posed:
    "I'd be careful what you call a perversion in someone else's world. As far as I'm aware, there's currently no way to establish any kind of true ancestor or line of origin." Scarlet is quick to admonish Lyria. "Of course it goes without saying that it's just impolite to begin with." Further down the list she goes.

    The oversized pseudo-arachnids remind her just a little of a Nobody, or rather they would if they didn't have eyes. If they worry her at all, she's doing a very good job of deliberately not showing it, focusing instead on the rattling sounds further down the road, switching off her music to better listen. "Turned out to be? So you don't know where these Primals are?" That ticks a pretty suspicious spot on the list of possibilities. She glosses over the fact that he'd just mentioned someone dropping the moon on the earth. Both the magic and the physics involved would have to be so radically different that asking further would be both pointless and just make her look like an uneducated rube.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna nods to Alwyn as he mentions the Adventurer's Guild to Kyra, and their probable interest in meeting adventurers pitching in from other worlds. Yuna doesn't really need new gear, but the backpack would be handy for quests such as this one.

Meanwhile, Elner is scanning the area with its sensors, filling in an internal map along the way. If Yuna ever has to come this way again, it certainly won't hurt to know how to get from the Crystal to the Deepcroft, for instance. The flora and fauna are also noted, scanned, and catalogued, just in case that data might come in handy someday.

If Yuna notices any of the Diremites, she looks away hurriedly - and may be edging closer to her partymates, while definitely gripping the Matrix Divider more tightly. She hates bugs, but freaking out is probably a bad idea ... plus, she wants to try and hold her nerves together until we get to the skeletons.

Alwyn Highwind (815) has posed:
    Sarah acquires USEFUL HERBS. She could sell them or keep them. Unfortunately the player can't recall off the top of their head what starter zone herbs are called. Rest assured they're useful for stuff!

    Landon and Alwyn have already been chatting over the Linkshell, so there's only the one topic to reply to still. "Aaaah... so you guys built on nature, and it changed to account. Here... here, I wouldn't try that. The Shroud is protected. The Calamity woke the elementals up, and they've been very unhappy at everyone in general. If something threatened all of the forest..." Well, he doesn't really know what the elemetals are capable of. Would rather not know, too.

    Between Scarlet and Lyria, Alwyn shakes his head. "I don't know for sure if she's right or wrong about that. Our Primals are... some people use the word evil. They do stuff to your head, turn them to their cause. No cure for that, as far as I know. The worst kind of magic."

    As for where... "The Primals supposedly live inside the Aether of the world itself until summoned. The beastmen just... chant their name a lot and they pop up, do some bad stuff, a hero puts them down, and it stays like that until they get summoned again. I wouldn't know for sure. No personal experience besides... well, Bahamut."

    As the group turns left, the Deepcroft becomes visible.

    

    A large clearing, a mound of vegetation and stone over the entrance of some ruins. The area is crawling with skeletons and diremites. Flames lit up the inside of the ruins, which seems to be only one large round room from the outside. Alwyn produces his spear, the Gae Bolg-- well, its extremely rusty and timeworn counterpart, which barely feels magical or incredible at all. "Here we are. Lothaire mentioned there's a bunch of altars with torches on them inside. If we lit the torches and close the main gate, it should keep the place sealed for a while longer."

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
FRESH HERBS will be useful to Sarah in her eternal quest to sass her friends and associates with food.

As they get near the Deepcroft, Sarah stays away from the sides of the road. Those Diremites are nothing she wants any part of. In face, she seems to be hanging out behind N'raha. He seems reasonably dependable. And catlike. But she doesn't say the latter out loud. Yet.

the arrival at the Deepcroft is a welcome distraction. "Okay people, I think I hear dead things. Let's get the people who can take a hit up front and get to work." Sarah says, clearly putting herself towards the rear and propering a JENGA STACK from her PUZZLEKIND STRIFE SPECIBUS. Compared to most of the other people here, her apparent weapon is... pretty crappy. and silly. "If you guys keep them distracted some of us can work on getting these torches handled."

GET TANKING, TANKS.

N'raha Tia has posed:
    TANKING! That's N'raha! The Miqo'te salutes at the crowd, and then ambles over towards a listless pack of skellingtons that have wandered up towards the road. At the miqo'te's presence, they become much less listless and start to charge towards the Adventurer.

    He cries defiantely. "Come and get it, grandpas! Grandmas! I can't tell!" He slams his sword agaisnt his shield and then spins in place, slashing his sword into mid air. There's... a sudden blinding flash of light and all of the undead's attention is focused on him for now. He hunkers down behind his shield, and starts hacking at the voidkin where he can.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Sign up, huh. For an Extraversal adventuring guild..." Kyra looks thoughtful, clearly considering the prospect. It's no doubt going to make Mirielle clench in fear at the thought of having to follow the wayward Hyral around /this/ world too. But if it is any consolation, being a white mage did mean she wouldn't go charging into mobs of monsters, right?

    Seeing the split ahead, Kyra doesn't give it much thought because she assumes either Alwyn or N'raha knows the correct direction to go. They're natives, right? It's not like they're completely new adventurers that don't know how to find their way around their own world...right?

    Seeing Sarah disappear and reappear from the bushes along the road gets Kyra curious. The teenager falls back a little, waiting for Sarah to pop out of the next set of bushes. "So watcha doing?" She asks, also giving the Diremites some just avoidance.

    Deepcroft itself looks rather fascinating-given the surrounding vegetation it had to be really, really old. Which might explain the rampant undead. "Hmm. We could do this the super easy way or the easy way." she says, eyeing up the undead which she can tell aren't exactly very strong. In that moment, she decides on the non-showoff route, abstaining from simply healbombing the undead into oblivion. Rather, she starts to lay down the Protect on those who will be wading into melee: N'raha, Alwyn, and Landon.

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     This is unfamiliar territory for Soan. Large trees, bugs, living walking mushrooms, gigantic ladybugs are just among the few creatures that the thief meets on his reconaissance expedition. The true reason for his solitude is to get a good feel of the place. More specifically, a good /smell/. As the main group reaches the Deepcroft, Soan do take the time to dot the environ with a few traps he's deviced: anti-undead Dia traps. The charge wont last all that long, as it is the fate for all magic-based traps, but it should last long enough to ensare a few straying undeads, should the matter be, without harming non-undeads should they contact with it.

     Soan feel that he could've been more subtle about this, leaving to be able to transform, come in, gank the skeletons with the group, then leave again. Then again, this will be fine. He IS doing the traps,a fter all.

     Thus, it is mere moments later that the crowd engages the skeletons, that a stream from the skies of metallic reflection comes barreling down on a further pack ahead of the group. The armoured form utterly demolishing one of the undead beneath his spectral steel boots, another with his spear from above, THEN impacting the ground with some fierce strength.

     The inhuman dragon-like mask of Dragoon Man faces the group. "Well!" He intones, his voice disorted by both the 'metal' and other supernatural disortions, giving him a sort of echoying quality. "It seems that I've dropped in at the right time!"

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna has seen Sarah's Jenga-fu at work before, and she's not going to discount it. More importantly, she can't keep pretending she doesn't see the Diremites - but she CAN make good use of her desire to freak out. Not by freaking out, mind you, but by levelling the Matrix Divider and starting to blow away overgrown bugs and moving skeletons. She isn't lapsing into panic fire like she did against the Tonberries, but she's staying focused enough (with an ongoing effort of will) to fire off single potent blasts, laced with as much Holy/Light energy as she can gather into each shot.

She's really just as happy to focus on ranged, too - let the tanks deal with melee. If she draws too much attention from the monsters, she CAN fall back on 'tank' mode as well - but the party seems pretty well-supplied with melee specialists, so she'l; stay in ranged combat mode as long as able and/or necessary.

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria Mason with holds futher comment after all the Primals she's knew were from another world but given how things seemed to be? She was very much now on her guard about things. She'll be on her guard dealing with the things regardless howver as she now sees the clearing ahead.

"That's a lot of undead."

She looks at th eterrain hummm mostly earth and Air from the looks of things, she might get some fire from the uins if it came down to it. However it was time to deal with things she orders drones to act the spiders hang back about people like Mirielle. Remora move in ahead attempting to move in ahead of the party, while Lyria herself has a pistol in one hand and her cutlass in the other.

N'raha Tia has posed:
    And it very much takes most of N'raha's willpower not to flinch away from the sudden impact of DRAGOON MAN, quickly swatting out another wave of light before dropping a flashy looking combo on one of the skeletons to try and keep the attention of the group. "OVER HERE! COME ON! Ah, thanks buddy, whoever you are! Any Ishgardian out here is okay in my book!"

Scarlet Everille (747) has posed:
    Scarlet paraphrases Alwyn's words with sudden, intense disapproval. "Mind altering magic with no countermeasure. And they use it to gain support." The look on her face indicates that this has crossed some sort of deep, personal boundary for her. Like the very idea was so perverse as to be completely inexcusable by any set of standards. Her posture is tense, her gait sped up, her gaze fixed ahead, and her expression dark and pensive. After all, what kind of sicko uses magic to gain influence and followers from innocent, unsuspecting people?

    Right?

    Hah.

    "Is that really a question~?" she suddenly asks Kyra in a much less serious tone. "For a job like this, the way that saves everyone the most time is usually the best. Time being money and all that." Scarlet isn't someone who particularly believes in any strict correlation between how easy something is and how much it's worth doing. If she can accomplish the same task with less effort, all the better for her. This is evidenced by the fact that she seems to be done walking for now, casually waving over her shoulder in the general direction of the skeletons as she finds somewhere to sit down and start recording. A minimalist holographic viewfinder indicates where she's pointing the camera in her collar, moving it from N'raha to Soan, being the two she's least familiar with here, as her eyes focus more on the skeletons themselves.

    A few seconds after she had made the little "shoo"ing gesture, something bubbles in the shadows cast by the ruins, seething like a shot of black ink into an agitated stream. The telltale pulse of an implacably unsettling aura briefly washes over the clearing, and a large, dark shape flits away, "swimming" silently through the air with strange, sinuous undulations. It seems to fade in and out of sight, as if descending in and out of the waters of visible reality, the allusion aided by the distinctly alien feeling of predatory hostility it gives off, like the sense evoked by sufficiently realistic depictions of cambrian ocean hunters. It stays well away from the rest of the group, moving only in the peripheral of their vision, abruptly savaging skeletons from behind with whatever kind of undefined appendages it may have and consuming them into the blackness. After a few takedowns, flickers of shadow begin dropping seemingly random bones in a pile next to Scarlet, which she pulls into her lap and begins carving into with a knife.

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
"Collecting herbs." Sarah replies to Kyra, matter-of-factly. "Fresh herbs are great in cooking things, and I grow some of my own so I know what to look for. Saw some things I recognized. Not so sure about some of the other stuff I saw, but I'm sure someone will eat it. Or die. I bet there's a lot of poisonous plant life out here."

The arrival of Dragoon Man causes Sarah to look over at the guy with a squint. "Wow, that guy just showed up out of nowhere. Is he the awesome guy that goes and finishes the quest right before you get there so he gets the credit?" This is a thing, clearly. Either way, Sarah sort of floats in the middle of the group, smoothly removing a Jenga Block from the STACK and flinging it at a skeleton.

pok

Weak, but then, these skeletons are weaksauce too as far as horrible monsters go. She actually doesn't feel grossly overmatched for once.

"This is weird. I'm actually hurting these things." Sarah says. "I'm waiting for the catch." Oh, Gloom-chan.

Mirielle Edelweiss (666) has posed:
    Mirielle, even astride her black mount... Has split off from the group. Perhaps she wished to not handle the Diremites, which are horrifying, or perhaps she just got lost.

    She appears, well in hand and without a chocobo, when Kyra mentions that she was dreaming of signing up for an Extraversal adventuring guild. There is a suffering sigh, as the Calculator looks at the group as the battle is joined. A Dragoon Man, to join the dragoon man, and other such forces ARRAYED AGAINST THE...

    Skeletons.

    Mirielle looks to these things, and as N'raha engages in TENK FLASH'ing the skellybros, Mirielle takes her chance to... Try to walk past the skeletons and into the deepcroft. "I shall see if there is some foul force at work." She mutters, before slipping away under cover of creepy girl striding-skulking into the graveyard pit dome area thing.

    She returns at a sprint not moments later, followed by the extra glowy skeletons and will-o-wisps behind her. "Not a necromancer! I was wrong! Simply more skeletons!"

    She's not built for running.

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Sarah looks up as Mirielle aggros all the things. All of them. "Yep. There's the catch."

Alwyn Highwind (815) has posed:
    N'raha attracts the attention of the first wave of skeletons; they wield knives, swords, scythes, spears, axes, a whole slew of melee weaponry. None of them seem to be spellcasters, though that doesn't mean they don't feel magical like everything else in this world. As he hacks away, N'raha fells two of them, but in making so much noise, has attracted two Diremites! The arachnoscorpions claw their ways to the Miqo'te, their tail stingers crashing down!

    Dragoon Man cuts in, engaging the second wave of skeletons atop the Deepcroft itself, on the grassy hill. He has the attention of seven of them, minus the one he immediatly crushed by landing on it.

    Alwyn seems impressived and motivated by the appearance of a REAL Dragoon, and as Kyra's Protect spell wraps around him, he makes a smaller leap, maybe only a few meters up, and crashes down spear first on one of the Diremites trying to sting N'raha, wounding it enough it aborts the attack. Kain has taken off his shoulder and is breathing a small cone of lightning on the now injured Diremite to finish the job.

    Yuna's careful shots pluck two of the skeletons off N'raha, dropping them immediatly. Holy magic works, but it doesn't seem to be especially end-all, so much as somewhat more useful.

    Lyria positions herself and her drone to cover any stray skeletons going for healers, and it pays off, because three of them jump in from the side, all trying to swing swords at her. They would have gone for Kyra and Mirielle if not for Lyria.

    Scarlet gets an answer from Alwyn as he tries to get his spear out of the Diremite. "Tempering! It's called Tempering. It turns you into one of their Servants, or somethign like that. It's pretty awful stuff!" Not to Elites, but that's besides the point. All the while that hidden beast of hers mauls skeletons like some sort of landshark, taking out three still waiting on the sidelines.

    Sarah knocks a skeleton's head off with her clearly overpowered Jenga block. The catch must be REAL and insanely dangerous, if there is one.

    Mirielle enters the tomb and comes back out having aggro'd the entirity of it. Glowing skeletons hurl small fireballs and frostbolts her way, while will-o-wispy balls of light chase her, sparking occasionally.

    Current overview:

4x skeleton 1x diremite @ N'raha.
3x skeleton @ Lyria.
7x skeleton @ Dragoon Man.
8x skeletons aggro'd on Mirielle. Those ones glow a bit.
4x glowing magical balls aggro'd on Mirielle.

    If someone enters the tomb-like set of ruins, they find one very large round-ish room. Straight ahead is a large gate leading deeper within, stairs disappearing in the darkness. There is an unlit brazier in each corner of the room. By the entrance is a lit brazier, a purple flame flickering weakly. PUZZLE TIME? At least the room is clear thanks to Mirielle.

N'raha Tia has posed:
    N'raha's life gets more interesting with the entry of that Diremite, but there's at least spellcasters backing him up. He spots Miri's flight from the Deepcroft itself and shifts a bit, Tanking a swat of the diremites stinger on his shield. No need for poison, no thanks. That leave him open for several cuts from the Skeletons though.
    He grunts and snarls, a sudden rush of red energy boiling over him as he lashes out several times in a longer combo, his wounds seeming to seal themselves a bit as he rages through the pain. More sparkly attention grabbing light, though that effort seems to be draining the young miq.

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
The catch is SUPER REAL but it's not from the direction Sarah was expecting. No one expects the Mirielle Facepull. The aggro is fantastic, and the Ecto-youth shuffles to one side and scoops up those bones that she dropped from the skeleton into her SYLLADEX as she watches Mirielle run for her life.

"Hey, those are glowing. That probably means they're tougher. Or explosive. One of the two." Sarah pulls another block off of the JENGA STACK, and hurls it at one of the glowing skeletons.

pok

Maybe she'll actually get to build up her JENGA COMBO tonight.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Look, up in the sky! "It's DRAGOON MAN!" Kyra exclaims in such a way that it's pretty obvious that she's quite a fan. He has, after all, come to her aid before! She sounds so excited to see him here.

    "Well, if I did it the /really/ easy way..." Kyra says to Scarlet, "People here might get kind of mad about the killstealing. Besides if these things are as low as you sa, then..." she frowns as Scarlet walks off to sit down and fuss with her collar computer device. For those few moments it almost looks like the magi is doing nothing-though Kyra does know better, having been around Scarlet enough. It's no surprise to see a Nobody arrive to do Scarlet's bidding though every time she does summon one of those, Kyra swears they look different.

    Everything seems to be going well until Mirielle rushes ahead into the tomb, then comes flying back out with ALL THE UNDEAD on her heels. "Oh damnit. Super easy it is..." Kyra strides forward, spreading her hands, murmuring melodically. White light builds up on her hands and the magic field her body naturally produces grows even more oppressive for a few seconds. With fingers splayed, she directs the magic at the skeletons and will-o-wisps following Mirielle.

    "/Curaga/!" she calls out, dropping the healing nuke on the undead, operating under the assumption that their worlds seem to have similar roots and that white magic will also be 'deadly' to undead here.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
As long as her weaponry IS effective, Yuna's not too worried about whether it's the MOST effective - she's not aiming to be the most valuable member of the party, just to be helpful. On the other hand, she seems to be focusing more on the skeletons ...

At least, as long as none of the Diremites get close enough to be worth panicking over.

Given the number of monsters which appear to be focusing on Mirielle, Yuna shifts her focus - particularly given that a bunch of the skeletons are actually tossing spells at the girl. Yuna takes a couple of steps to one side for a better shot - and a series of focused, concussive energy bolts fly at the skele-mages. Yuna is tempted to go for headshots, but we want the skulls as 'documentation' for the quest being properly completed ... so she's aiming for the sternum as much as possible, the 'anchor' at the front of the upper ribcage. A good solid hit to that should convery enough energy to shatter the rest of the skeleton, right?

... but if it takes more than one shot, Yuna gives it more than one shot. She's not sure what her firepower will do to the flying balls of light, though; somebody else might want to focus on those?

And while Yuna's doing THAT, Elner's watching out for additional monster encroachments. Wouldn't want anyone to get mandible'd by a Diremite while they're saving Mirielle from skeletal magi, right?

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria Mason has been paying attention in class it seems and now has three Skeletons after her rather than them afte rthe healers. SO as they come in she's now moving to go after them with her blade she knows shots won't work too well. Something like one of the heavy support machineguns Souji sells? That would work but her pistol isn't the right sort of weapont do this. So it's time for some Pirate's fury here as she put the cutlass to work as she starts to engage the skeletons with the weapon trying to keep them all on here.

"Back to Davy Jones' locker with you three!"

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     DRAGOON MAN turns to face the other skeletons on the top of the mound, hearing the people exclaiming after his arrival. He smiles beneath his helmet. He expected a surprised and pleased reaction from the Galiandians, sure. But that guy with the Dragon... Ah. Yes, that's right, he did mentioned he was a Dragoon on the radio a few days back, didn't he? Well, after this cleansing, they'll have to chat for a while, clearly.

     For now, everyone's enthusiasm on helping out the poor Mirielle allows him to focus on the skeletons around him. The jabs at him, some attacks parried, a few biting at his armor. They cause some damage, nothing too serious.

     The Dragoon leaps upward, straight up. A skeleton grabs upon him and is bought along for the ride, barely slowing him down. He don't go all the way for the skies, just high enough to be removed from the attacking crowding mob, landing on the other side. On his path down, he takes in a deep, long breath, air sucking through the dragon-like maw of his mask, making the air whistles against the sharp edges of his face.

     Wordlessly, he breaths out a large cone of flames upon the skeletons, all while the one still clinging to him smacks at him upside the head.

Mirielle Edelweiss (666) has posed:
    Mirielle is running, tripping, and stumbling her way back to the group at top speed, followed by the Tier 2 Undead, which are potentially of Higher Level and glowing dangerously. Also, beyond the Undead are spirits - will-o-wisps, which are not theoretically 'undead' but spirits, or ghosts, and thus potentially not subject to healbombarino's. "Kyra!" She calls, tossing a Faith quickly at the caster, and a Bravery on N'raha and DRAGOON MAN-man-man.

    "I shall lead them into a kill-zone! Allaccordingtoplan!" She squeaks, trying to play off her 'please don't murder me' sprint of wussy mage into a TOTALLY TACTICOOL PLANARINO.

Scarlet Everille (747) has posed:
    Well Scarlet certainly looks like she's having fun. She's gotten some good snapshots of Soan jumping around like a lunatic (and breathing fire), Kyra's actual magic being used (even though she has to shield her eyes at that one), the magically enhanced martial abilities of the locals on display, a little bit of data on Yuna's matrix setup, and... whatever Sarah's doing. She looks up intermittently between working on the bones, clearly feeling no guilt about not diving into the melee. After all, she'd shed the blood and sweat to summon and bind the familiar long beforehand while these people were relaxing and doing nothing. Now it's her turn to take it easy and pursue a personal project.

    She is however, keeping a good handle on the situation, and intermittently gives the creature new, silent directions, waving it over to where people seem to be overwhelmed. Though she's doing her best to make it look like she isn't trying at all, nobody can accuse her of actual negligence.

    As the bones pile up, she takes her time with each one, lightly etching a similar circle into the smoothest places she can find with the honed edge of an athame, touching each one with a fingertip as it is complete, dispersing it into a frothing stream of flickering, violet-black distortions, like the bubbles that engulf something being shot at high speed underwater. Translocating objects through Nowhere is more time consuming than throwing them into a bag, but at least she doesn't have to carry anything. She specifically only does that to one skull however, leaving the rest to stack up so that other people can get paid. It'd just be rude to do otherwise.

Alwyn Highwind (815) has posed:
    N'raha continues tanking, managing to feel some of what's chasing Mirielle off her! He also hacks another skeleton apart, RIP the pile of bones.

    Sarah builds her combo meter up by blasting one of the skeleton-magi off N'raha, buying the Miqo'te some breathing room.

    Kyra healbombs the skeletons chasing Mirielle! This insta-gibs two of them, but the other two, a bit tougher, manage to resist just enough of the healing that they're still standing. The wisps, being not-undead, are fine.

    Yuna will have to pelt those two last skeleton-magi with more than one shot, but they do go down after the damage Kyra did to them.

    Lyria swordfights herself some skeletons; they're not TOO skilled, really. They could land a lucky cut, but beyond that, are unlikely to be able to cripple her in any way. Two go down from the swordplay, but the last tries for a dangerous lunge.

    DRAGOON MAN, who is absolutely not Soan, BREATHES FIRE at the skeletons. This surprises the hell out of Alwyn, and evidently the skeletons as four of them just get burnt to a crisp and fall to the ground. Alwyn himself makes a jab for one of the skeleton-magi harassing Lyria, a blast of wing shooting out of his spear once he gets it through the skeleton's ribs, thus blasting it apart.

    Mirielle's plan did work overall considering how much of them have died! So she does get to say ALL ACCORDING TO KEIKAKU, at this rate.

    All the while Scarlet's horrible shadow land reality shark THING just mauls two more skeletons out of existence. If they could feel fear they'd be terrified right now.

1x skeleton 2x skeleton-magi 1x diremite 2x wisps @ N'raha.
1x skeleton @ Lyria.
2x skeleton @ Dragoon Man.
2x wisps @ Mirielle.
1x purple brazier, 4x unlit braziers @ tomb interior.

    Naturally, everything still alives continues attacking. The skeleton-magi hurl frostbolts, while the wisps shoot lightning. The skeletons swing melee weapons of various kinds around, and the diremite attempts to sting N'raha again!

    That easy mode puzzle just sits there, lonely.

N'raha Tia has posed:
    "Damn damn damn damn damn." N'raha's troubles are mountain as more of the stuff crashes in on him. He growls and lashes out a few more time, not flashing anymore but now there's frosty ice bolts swatting into him. They punch right through that Protect and start tearing at his armor, slowing his attacks and generally making it easier for everything to hit him.

    But still he focuses right in on the enemies in front of him, tunnel-visioned into keeping them all off the group. He can see a few of the culprits fallng to attacks and smiles, despite the pain he's in. Alright, we're doing good, we're doing good, why is it hard to move, we're doing good?

    He's taking hits and not even realizing it now.

Scarlet Everille (747) has posed:
    Having reached a satisfactory quota for the day, Scarlet dismisses the last piece of necromantically enchanted bone with a little puff of satisfaction, getting up, dusting off her skirt and stretching her arms out over her head, popping her interlaced fingers. Altogether she's fairly impressed by how efficiently everyone has cleaned this up. She hadn't gotten the impression that it was an incredibly difficult mission, but it's nice to work with people who knows what they're doing. For a certain definition of "working with" anyways.

    Trusting that the fighters and other mages have everthing in order, she starts down into the clearing, holding her hand up as if to signal a tactical squad behind her to follow, which is responded to by the dark, roiling shape suddenly swirling out of nowhere at her side, completing a swift orbit of her person where vague impressions of trailing limbs brush across her shoulder. It stays relatively still as it closely follows her, which is all that's needed to imply faint, disturbing glimpses of its form to the observer. Despite this, even where it briefly touches her, Scarlet fails to react. It's the kind of response that can come from nothing else but being desensitized at a very young age.

    The Nobody will viciously defend her should anything come within a certain distance of her, and proactively intercept ranged attacks and target their caster to that effect, which is why she feels secure enough to walk through past the last few enemies on the field and into the opening hall of the ruins, where Mirielle has already drawn all resistance from. Presuming nothing interrupts her, she targets each brazier with the tip of her index finger and fires off a spark of intense flame into each one in sequence via basic evocation magic. No circle required.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna shifts her attention from 'killing Mirielle's pursuers' to 'killing N'raha's pursuers' - and in spite of the skeletons being fairly easy pickings with her skill, she switches the Matrix Divider to melee mode, gritting her teeth just slightly -

And with a loud kiai and a near-blinding flare of light, she channels her aversion to bugs into as powerful a strike at the Diremite as she can deliver, followed by a swift, sharp kick to try and punt it away from N'raha.

Then her attention turns to the skeletons, because while this is the first time she's ever met the Mi'qote, she's not about to let one of her allies get picked apart. Since she's still wielding her weapon in its 'sword' mode, she gravitates towards the skeleton which is going after N'raha with a sword of its own, the Matrix Divider flaring brightly once again as she 'slashes' at it. It's less of a proper cut than a solid smack, but the holy/light energy flaring around the Divider's physically-blunt 'blade' doesn't care much whether it cuts or clobbers.

If the skele-magi are still an issue by the time Yuna's free again, she'll at LEAST try and use herself as a shield to stop spells from hitting N'raha.

Mirielle Edelweiss (666) has posed:
    Mirielle stands there, panting, as aggro is peeled off of her. And as GREAT HERO DRAGOON MAN breaths fire and death upon skeletons, Mirielle engages in some rapid mental calculations. Her healing ability wasn't the best - that was Kyra's specialty, among other things - and with the Catte Tenk reuqiring heals, she decides to engage in the School of Fantasies Which Are Final.

    "Now, with attention drawn, go for a flank attack! All according... to plan!"

    She announces, with her meek voice, as she gathers a myriad of powers and colors into her hands.

    The power of many spells - four, in fact. Haste. Aura. Bravery. Divided by Mini, which multiplies by bigness.

    It becomes a terrible crimson orb of power, that Mirielle lobs towards Dragoon Man.

    It is the GIGASWOLE, a terrible buff-cooldown if facepunching. It is also hellish to cast and drops mirielle on both knees, now both out of breath and temporarily low on usable MP. With that, though, things should be Cleaned Up, now that the Puzzling and Tanking have been handled!

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria Mason has been doing all right against the undead she's getting a bit more confident in her close combat as she presses on against the skeleton intent to finish thing.s With Dragoon Man being here that's a heck of moral boost for the Levitani girl. Seriously she does see him as quite the hero. he keeps tabs on the res tof the party and is thankful for the help from Alywn as well. The group seems to ber working pretty well here all things considered!

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Sarah lucks out again and manages to DPS that second skeleton magi down. She has no aggro at the moment, again, and decides to make use of the fact that she's going generally unnoticed by the skeletal evil dudes.

Suddenly she starts as she realizes: Not even the /undead/ want to hang around her. "Ugh. What a downer." She mutters.

She scurries off to the tomb proper and looks around to give Scarlet some backup with lighting those braziers if she needs it. "Sup." She says to the magus. "Everything good over here?" She asks.

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     For Dragoon Man, breathing flames is completely normal. That's a corner stone of what a Dragoon learns to do in his apprenticeship. Not skipping a beat, he spins his great spear around to smash at the head of one of the skeletons directly on him, then vaulting back to land down, not before getting a bit of his armor lobbed off by the remaining skeleton.

     "I smell a small amount of Chaos inside theses ruins!" Dragoon Man intones out loud as he lands in the path, dashing inside--

     Only to notice that the flames are already being taken care off. The armoured young man stops dead in his track, his glowing eyes visibly widened as he looks at Scarlet. He straightens, gives her a thumbs up before turning his attention back at the skeleton--

     Then everything is smaller, slower... and weaker. Soan feels the surge of buffs slam into him like a truck as he grows, staring down at the battlefields from his ten feets, blinking behind his mask. Mirielle did this last time, didn't she? Well! He knows how to use it!

     Leaping from his position (and shaking the ground in the process), the Dragoon proceeds to charge straight for several of the skeletons swarming N'raha, with the clear intention of both jumping down on them with his two feets, to crush them and /then/ use their crumbling corpses to vault himself to other, uncrushed pastures. All the way, the Dragoon lets out a loud, pleased battle cry in a language that... well, let's be frank here, nobody probably understands here. It's pretty dry, snappy. Then again, that may be just the screaming battlecry.

N'raha Tia has posed:
    And then for once people are peeling aggro for the tank, and Gladiator N'raha staggers a bit as the ice and the stabbings and most of that stop. He smiles slightly sleepily, before he blinks and realizes just what was going on here.

    Despite the lack of body heat, he somehow goes red in the face, and sucks in a breath, steadying himself. A little grump of recovery, and the armored miqo'te falls back on his butt, leaning on his shield.

    "H-hi guys, I uh, I... huh."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    To Kyra, it's a little surprising and perhaps a little humbling for her to see any of the skeletons still standing after a good, serious healbombing. But enough are destroyed and enough people can mop up the remains that Mirielle is no longer in the threat of being swept under by a tide of undead.

    The wisps in particular, she realizes, are not really effected by the healbomb method, even a Faith-empowered one. Her attention shifts to Dragoon Man, who holds his own as well as Kyra was expecting. She cheers him on, "Get the unlit fires! It should stop the undead from coming!" she calls after him, changing track with her magic just a little. She doesn't go for healing nor does she go for buffs.

    It's probably ridiculous overkill to use a Holy on a single wisp. But overkill is the best kind of kill, right?

Alwyn Highwind (815) has posed:
    N'raha continues tanking, doing his job spectacularily so far. Another skeleton falls to his sword, lightening the load.

    As Scarlet and Sarah light the braziers, the massive gate leading deeper into the catacombs creeks loudly, and then slams shut. A magical circle appears on it, sealing it closed for the time being. Presumably whoever keeps undoing the seal will be back, but Lothaire did say he had plans to deal with this more permanently in the future. For now, take what you can get.

    As this happens, whatever feeling of there being dark or evil magic in the area becomes harder to trace. Rather than having 'vanished', it would be more accurate to say whatever is causing the undead to gush out of there has been 'contained' for now.

    Yuna's blade manage to finish off the second Diremite and one of the skeleton-magi! This haul is starting to look pretty good so far.

    Dragoon Man receives the GIGASWOLE. It's a massacre, as he clears the two wisps and skeleton still on N'raha, while handling the two skeletons still heckling him too.

    And Lyria, of course, finishes her work too, downing the final of the three skeletons that had been heckling her violently.

    Only two wisps remain, currently still on Mirielle. Alwyn twirls his spear, causing it to disappear and be replaced by a simple metallic bow of little note. Plucking one arrow from his quiver, he lets it loose towards one of the two wisps, shouting: "Kain!", causing the whelp to breathe lightning on the flying arrow. BECAUSE MAGIC, the arrow is now a lightning arrow, and rips one of the wisps out of existence.

    The other is completely shredded by the Holy spell.
    That WAS kind of overkill, but results, right?

    With everything down, it looks like the adventurers get a breather. Alwyn does not choose to use his breather, and instead rushes to DRAGOON MAN, practically stumbling all over himself.

    "That was awesome! So you're a real Dragoon? I've only read about you guys, and I guess some of my family's training was based on stuff you can do, but it doesn't even compare!"

N'raha Tia has posed:
    The miqo'te is just gonna lean up against one of the mossy walls of the Deepcroft barrows for now, watchign the group gather up the Magicked Bones of the dead people they just re-deaded. That's cash money. Gil in his pockets. Their pockets.

    N'raha's trying to find a nice bit of sunshine while it lasts to warm up.

Scarlet Everille (747) has posed:
    A sealing spell of that magnitude being slaved to a quartet of braziers is a new one to Scarlet. It still continues to surprise her just how jam packed full of magic this world is, even in places where she could logically expect it. She stops to take a few good pictures of the circle that apparates over the gate, filing it away for reference later when she has a few more to try and deconstruct for patterns. She finishes just in time to catch "Dragoon Man" thundering into the building, looking over her shoulder as he comes to a halt. Exchanging stares with him for a moment, she smiles and wiggles her fingers in a facetious little wave just before he leaves again, looking back out the entrance as the sound of crunching and stomping renews itself.

    "Looks like it." she says to Sarah, gesturing for her to go ahead. The undulating shadow follows at spitting distance behind her until the girl steps into direct sunlight, at which it abruptly stops. Scarlet comes back out a minute later, entourage seemingly gone, and walks back over to the neat pile of skulls she'd left on the grass. "A dragoon, huh?" She turns to Kyra. "I heard Landon say something about it, but what kind of connotation does that have in your world?"

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     It's an important fact that DRAGOON MAN is not bothering to pick up any bones from the slain skeletons. He has better things to do, anyway, not to mention not caring all that much about money. As the last skeletons are crushed, the GIGASWOLED Dragon Knight stops, taking in a deep breath, then looking around the battlefield. Good. No more undeads. No more balls of light.

     Dragoon Man relaxes, lowering his spear to stare down at the smaller forms below him. He'll have to congratulate Mirielle someday about this combination of spells. This is very effective.

     "INDEED," He booms, surprising himself, then deliberatedly lowering his volume. GIGASWOLE do not only increases one's general size, it seems. "Indeed! I am a Dragoon, and I could witness that you've also have some training in the matter." He says, crouching down to be more level with everyone else. "Your family's training, you say? That's curious... Hm. It warms my heart to hear that the Art of the Dragoon lives in this world, as well."

     His stare turn around at Scarlet, theses glowing eyes flaring for a moment. He can still smell Chaos, or Darkness beneath all of theses ruins. Or a residue, and all that remains are small bits? Hard to tell. "I go where I Smell Chaos, evil and trouble, m'lady, to eradicate it from the face of the world. Take this as you will."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Just what IS the significance of a Dragoon, Scarlet asked. Were Kyra a bit more vocally inclined, this partuclar moment would be fantastic to start an explanatory lecture. "They're holy warriors in service to the Dragoons on my world. They jump and breath their element, mimicing their actions against their method's patron."

    She sucks in a breath and smiliies. "We're fortunate enough to have Dragoon Man's attention, especially in a world outside of Galianda."

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna keeps her guard up and her weapon ready for a bit longer, making sure no more monsters are crawling out of the architecture ... and moves to help collect some of the skulls, or whatever parts need to be gathered up.

Now that she's not worried about her skin, or anyone else's, it becomes clear that handling recently-animate bones creeps her out pretty badly too. But she does her best ...

Alwyn Highwind (815) has posed:
    If Alwyn minds the fact the GIGASWOLE makes Dragoon Man speak all loud, he doesn't show it. That's just how buffs work, it's alright. Even if that IS a lot of buffs. "Yeah, training. One of my grand grand grand something fathers helped found the Lancers' Guild when he had disagreements with how the Dragoons of Ishgard function. He couldn't train his son or grandson to be Dragoons like him, but he snuck some teachings and lore in that stuck with the family, I guess."

    To Scarlet, adding to what Kyra explains: "The Dragoons of Ishgard are warriors trained to kill dragons using spears. They can jump incredible heights so that even flying opponents aren't a concern. Maybe there's more to the story, but if there is I don't know it."

    It's a sharp contrast from Galianda, where Dragoons work WITH dragons, not against them-- but the dragons of Eorzea are more hostile and less reasonable, or so history records.

    "A-Anyway... thanks, all. This should make this section of the Shroud safer for a while! And Dragoon Man... do you really do this just to be a hero? It's rare to find people who don't care for money or rewards and just seek out evil because it's their calling."

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria Mason seaths her blade once the last skeleton is down and she moves to holster her pistol, the droens stnad down and she seems to be relaxing as she now moves over to Dragoon Man, she's not got a chance to thank him before.

"Thank you Dragoon Man, your help at lest from me is pretty welcome."

She notices Scarlet talking about Dragoons.

"They are the hands of the Dragons more of less, they seek to combat Chaos as it rears it's head."

She now turns to getting a look at Alwyn and raises an eyebrow it seems given how the local Dragoons are Dragon hunters.

N'raha Tia has posed:
    The slightly lazy voice of N'raha lifts up from his warm spot in the sun... which is quickly fading as clouds roll into the Shroud. Well, it was nice while it lasted. "Chaos isn't the issue here, I don't think. Garleans and Primals and stuff. Elemental energies out of whack. Aether currents all fouled up dragging energy from where it shouldn't be. That sort of thing."

    That tail flicks a bit as he fishes around in his own Magic Bag of stuff for a cooked piece of fish. "That's what we're helping with, putting it all back, right Alwyn?"

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     "I see, I see," Dragoon Man replies, rubbing his armoured chin with one gauntleted hand as listen to Alwyn's story. A family of lancers... Hm, not unheard of. There is traditions in Galianda that derived from Dragoons, altoughtly never equalling them in sheer power of jumps. "Then be proud of your Grandfather. You carry a noble tradition with yourself, even if yours is quite different than mine."

     Hence proven by the statement Alwyn gives about how Dragoons are here. Killing Dragons... this is a shocking concept for him. Yet, he's seen how dragons are outside of his home. "There is similarities, it seems. As the lady says," He adds, waving at Kyra, "The Order of the Dragoons serves the First Borns of Bahamut, the Sky-Given-Form and are sworn enemies of Chaos, chasing it's vile forms wherever it may lurks."

     He nods at N'raha, firmly, drumming his fingers on his Greatspar, loudly. "So I've noticed. I could only Smell small parts of it here, no large concentrations as of yet. You are fortunate, but I suppose no world is without it's troubles."

     He return that attention at Alwyn. If he could show his smile, it'd be pretty wide. Somehow, the mask seems to react to it, streching out to an almost draconic-grin. May be the energies doing it. "I do not do it to be a Hero, Highwind, I do it because it is my sworn mission. But, you are welcome."

Alwyn Highwind (815) has posed:
    "You should... you should probably avoid ever saying you're a servant of Bahamut here. Our Bahamut is the reason the world's in recovery from the Calamity. You might get mistaken for someone who's been Tempered by him, like that... Garlean guy. The one with the spear, who made everything worse. I don't remember his name, I just know on the eve of the Calamity a group of heroes had to dispatch him, and he was powered by Bahamut."

    What he'd have given to be part of that team.
    HE'D HAVE COOL LEGACY UNOBTAINABLE EARRINGS NOW, IF HE HAD BEEN!

    "But anyway, that's... that's kind of cool. I have to seek money from my jobs because otherwise I'd starve to death, but if I didn't have to worry about that you're the sort of person I want to be when I'm stronger."

N'raha Tia has posed:
    There's a little shiver of breath fron N'raha as he gets up to his feet, bracing himself on his shield. A glance over to Dragoon Man, and he pulls the fish from his mouth so he can talk again. "He's right. Bahamut... was a bad deal. Just, really bad. Careful with... yeah."
    He sighs and shuffles over to hold out his hand to the dragoon. "N'raha. Nice to meet you, Mr. Jumpyhyur." He smiles as best he can and then pulls another piece of fish jerky out of his bag. "Hungry?"

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     "As I have been aware, yes. I have heard of your Calamity, it pains me to hear that Bahamut has been the cause of it." Dragoon Man says, remaining seated, giant thanks to all that stack of buffs. "I do thanks you for your warnings, however, but do not belittle yourself. Working for your livelyhood is honorable by itself. Besides... I, too, sometimes return with trophies. If you wish to learn more of my Order, some day, we may be able to talk further."

     You don't get to be a servant of dragons and /not/ have a small taste for shiny things, sometimes.

     His big head turn to face down the Miqo'te, staring at the piece of fish jerky. "Dragoon Man will do. I'm afraid the name given by my patron requires... training to speak properlly." He says, taking the jerky, bowing his head. "Certainly. Here in return." He adds, giving a few gils. "Thanks you."

Alwyn Highwind (815) has posed:
    "Hah... well, thanks, Dragoon Man. I intend to hone my skill, after surviving the Calamity. It might sound stupid, but I don't believe that old man would have saved me if he didn't think I could help. He obviously didn't have the power to save dozens of us, so..." Well, it's kind of selfish too. 'I fluke-survived a major cataclysm, therefore I must be a hero!'

    The Echo's a good argument for it, admittedly.

    Alwyn gives a thankful bow, before glancing around. He'd better help pick up all those skulls and get them back to town. Lothaire won't be there anymore, but his assistant will be, true to his word. Everyone'll get paid a decent sum of gil for their troubles, enough to live well for about a week. That's the adventurer's life, always looking for the next job to build a better and bigger cushion of money to sleep on.

N'raha Tia has posed:
    Yay money. N'raha looks over at Alwyn collecting their bounties though, and pockets the cash. "Thanks! Come around again some time and maybe. Mr Highwind can make lovey eyes at you some more." A little snicker of breath, and the Miqo'te bows.

    A more grateful look as he stands up. "Thanks for... uh, saving my butt too."

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     Dragoon Man stands up, holding the jerky in his hand, giving the Miqo'te a nod. He laughs. "You are welcome. Remember, you need to live if you wish to defend others! Now, I must go. BY THE SKIES ABOVE THE SKY!"

     Dragoon Man unceremoniously leaps off from his part, shaking the earth in his wake and vanishing in the horizon.

     A few dozen minutes later, Soan Sagittarius, haggard, with some clothes, remains of mushrooms and spiders sticking out of his frazzled clothes, will come to cash in several skeleton parts, with a grim, satisfied look on his face.