Scene #5871: Welcome to Hell Temple

Owner	Pose
Lemeza Kosugi	The entrance to the ruins of La-Mulana is disheveled as ever, showing extremely obvious signs of hasty refurbishment out of safety concerns rather than aesthetics. Brand-new wooden beams brace against the well-worn stone carvings, and the makeshift elevator is just as modern, contrasting with the weathered wooden ladders that had originally been put in place. Despite all this, the entrance has all the trappings of a tourist destination: helpful information signs, a tour kiosk, and in/out gates right before the Gate of Guidance, the first main chamber of La-Mulana. But Lemeza Kosugi wasn't here for one of Mulbruk's tours today. The wind is howling rather fiercely today, as if even the weather knows what the plucky archaeologist has planned. Lemeza has called a few of his Elite friends to tackle the worst that La-Mulana has in store for would-be explorers, the misery that is Hell Temple. He made sure to do a bit of scouting prior to arranging this exploration, mainly to make sure the place was still standing, and to confirm that the previously-collapsed Gate of Guidance remained accessible after the recent renovations. Still, he has reservations about the plan, and it shows. He's busy pacing back and forth, argue-debating with himself about whether to actually go through with this. Should he consult with Dracuet? Would he get any answers about creation goddess Mother's intentions? Is it worth the bullshit kaizo traps to rescue Mulbruk's father? Probably not. In fact, DEFINITELY not. He concludes that this was a stupid idea and he should never have said anything about it. But, now that he'd called the others here, it was too late to back out. Gotta just bite the bullet rather than be the professor who called wolf.
Hemlock	Hemlock is here for a few reasons. There's adventure, there's supporting some pretty nice people he's talked to, and there's learning as much as he can about this mysterious 'Hell Temple'. The bard is dressed in a jacket and a newsies cap, appearing as a pretty generic human male with dark hair, his prized fiddle on his back. Once he reaches up with Lemeza, Hemlock's voice is pretty calm, as he holds a pen and a piece of paper and seems to be taking notes on the environment. "Hello, Mr. Kosugi. I'll be supplying support magic for the group today, and otherwise taking notes. If any of you need a boost, please allow me to know as fast as possiblee. If there's any sorts of monsters or such to be expected, I'd like to know about those as well, and what to expect. Or is it just horrible traps?" Hemlock seems pretty ready for this, even if he's going to be staying in the back of the group as a squishy caster.
Razel	Hell Temple, huh? Sounded pleasant enough. He remembers the humans' definitions of 'Hell' from his world -- ironically his realm much resembled it, and he found it pleasant enough. So, why not see if there's anything of value to be found there. If nothing else, getting out and about seems like a good idea. Unfortunately he's also been apart from human culture enough that he probably doesn't see a problem with how he arrives. Which would be in a human-sized, twisting flash of crimson flames. He's also not hiding his demonic features -- the shiny black horns that poke up out of his long , pulled-back crimson hair, or the leathery tail poking out of his robes in the proper place. He's also not alone. There's two more people that appear when the flames disappear. One is clearly a cat-person, the other has horns and a tail like Razel does. Both had glowing crimson eyes. These two stand behind him. Razel bows politely to Lemeza. "Greetings," he offers, in his low-pitched, calm voice. "This is where the expedition into this 'Hell Temple' begins, yes? My name is Razel, and I am here to assist."
Note	Note is a newcomer to this outing! A child - if one considers a young woman of around fourteen and quite a shorty to be a child. Well, let's face it, she is. This child, however, stands with a confidence, eagerness, and hints of discipline few would show in the face of WILD ADVENTURE! Mostly notable in the fact that she hasn't just DIVED IN already ahead of everyone, and instead lands near Lemeza after SWOOPING DOWN OUT OF THE SKIES. Upon landing, she's quick to dash right over to the archaeologist! "Alright. Adventure! Glad I volunteered to help!" She's chipper as can be right now, but also clearly RARING TO GO. Even if the place is named 'Hell Temple'! "What kind of place IS this anyway? 'Hell temple...'" She's just mulling over the name, not really educated enough to think that one through too well. Given that, the young woman turns, tail - yes, she has a tail?! - twitching loosely here and there. She glances over Hemlock and Razel each in turn, blinking in curious wonder. "Huuuuuuuh... who are you guys?"
Staren	The chance to see some of the temple Lemeza famously explored and defeated god in is certainly interesting! But the chance to meet someone from one of the previous civilizations will be more interesting! Although Staren's not exactly sure what to ask -- hopefully Lemeza's coming too. The chance to see some new artifact is kind of a wildcard -- Some of the other artifacts from the temple weren't that great, but at least one actually countered an elite's power, so who knows? Staren arrives in his armor, as pretty much always. Not only are its strength, armaments, and protection required for dangerous adventure, but you never know when your own air supply will suddenly become important while exploring enclosed underground! (The Concord safety poster for that particular rule might actually have him on it instead of chibi Priscilla) Staren nods to those he knows in recognition, then his head suddenly turns at Note's voice, finally putting a face to it. "Huh. So you're the girl from the radio. ...It's a temple. Full of dangerous traps. What do you mean?"
Asterios	You can take the minotaur out of the labyrinth, but you can never take the labyrinth out of the minotaur. Asterios stares with obvious concern at the entrance to the half-collapsed corpse of La Mulana. The minotaur's brow is furrowed furiously, as if deep in thought on matters of particularly intense import. He has come here... Mostly because Lemeza is ostensibly a friend via the Concord connection, and wherever a friend is in need of something to soak up the consequences of their bad decisions, Asterios will be there! But... Why does he look so concerned...? Asterios walks up to the entrance to the forgotten temple and... Sort of measures the upper lip of the cave against himself. It only comes up to his chest. "...Aa," Asterios mutters. "...Problem." "I am... Too big. Hmm."
Septette Arcubielle	Septette is alarmingly familiar with hellishly unfair subterranean dungeons and their characteristically meatgrinder-like deathrates. In truth, this expedition walks a fine line in her eyes: she's got just enough faith in the squishier Elites present to not write it off from the start, but not enough faith to let them go it without her help. She materializes just a moment after Razel does. In sharp contrast to his dramatic arrival, the only fanfare to herald her is a quiet pop as the atmosphere adjusts to a five-foot-tall lady abruptly existing in a spot where there used to be air. The little killbot is attired in her customary purple shawl and fully equipped with everything she'll need to take on a dungeon of despair, which is to say 'completely lacking gear of any sort'. She side-eyes Razel and company for a moment, but speaks to Lemeza first: "Whose soul did you sell to get this sort of help, Mr. Kosugi? Not mine, I hope. It's already overleveraged." When the group's ready to head in, she'll be quite insistent on being at the fore despite an evident lack of armor. It wouldn't do for the others to endanger themselves.
Lemeza Kosugi	Good. The gang's all here. Lemeza lets out a measured breath, clearly bracing himself for the task at hand. Then he begins addressing the party. "Well met, Hemlock. I could use an extra pair of eyes for this. And you said you're an investigator, yes? I'm glad to have you." Addressing both Hemlock and Note, he continues. "There's hordes of monsters in there, to be sure, at least there were last time I checked. Easy to put down, at least, even if they keep coming back. The monsters aren't what concern me." He flinches quite a bit at Razel's entrance, but manages to regain his composure for a proper greeting. "Glad to have you as well, Razel. This is indeed where the Hell Temple expedition begi--" And then Septette has to pop in as well, coupled with her little snark at Razel's expense. "I didn't sell anyone's soul! Look, I'm not turning down anyone willing to help. You've heard my rants on this place." Sheeeeesh. Bot's got snark. With that, it's time to commence the exploration. Lemeza insistently takes point, leading the party through the Gate of Guidance. Stone Olmec-looking faces line the walls, looking upon a bizarre arrangement of broken platforms and a very new corridor on the ground. More support beams hold back collapsed rubble to great effect, echoing the renovations outside, with ancient tablets written in La-Mulanese lining the path. The terrain is easy: Lemeza climbs up atop a couple of the platforms to reach a ladder on the far side of the room, starts climbing down the ladder, and motions for the others to follow. Halfway down the ladder, he hops off, passing through what looked like a solid wall, and walks to the end of the corridor behind it, waiting for the others to see him before walking into yet /another/ wall. On the other side of that wall is the entrance to Hell Temple. Angry skulls with red glowing eyes line these walls, the support columns remaining intact but revealing BURNING PILLARS OF FLAME on their inside. A giant ominous tablet above the entrance welcomes those who enter, warning the faint of heart against entering. Fortunately, there doesn't seem to be anything treacherous going on -- and Lemeza certainly acts like it, climbing up a nearby ladder, then running back and forth to a series of more ladders, making his way up into the temple, slowing down only to make sure he hasn't lost anyone. Then, just as he's about to get to Room Number Two, he abruptly stops. "That's not right. I knew it got bad here, but there's far more monsters than I remember..." Once the others catch up, they're going to see a veritable mosh pit of enemies in a multi-level arena of mayhem: witches, lizardmen, a couple ice mages, and a few spiky floating balls. For the moment, they seem happy to mill about, but Lemeza's reaction suggests they won't just let the party cross.
Hemlock	"Yes, I am. My abilities may be able to come in handy on that front. If there's monsters, my enchantment magic may also be able to assist if necessary." Hemlock stays in the back, climbing carefully down the ladder once he reaches it, and then taking a few seconds before he makes the leap through the illusory wall. From there, the bard continues to follow ladders, keeping his eyes out for traps and monsters... And the group reaches the pit of monsters. Hemlock draws his fiddle at this point, and begins to play it with the bow. "I'll boost all of you. They may be alerted by the music, so be careful." And then, in a heavy pace, Hemlock plays a hectic melody...which has the benefit of increasing everyone's combat ability, making their attacks stronger and hit harder. If the monsters suddenly come at them, he's going to stay behind Asterios, because Asterios is the biggest one and probably the closest they have to a fighter. Hemlock will also keep the melody up to keep their powerful boosts running during any fighting. "Go! I'll support you from here."
Staren	Staren follows! "Someone sure liked their illusory walls..." he comments after the second one. Tired of ladders, he starts using flight instead. And then they're confronted with the 'monster' mosh pit. Although most of those monsters are human or close to it. He asks if they can be talked to. And then if they're resistant to fire. At the second negative response, he reaches into his bag and pulls out something shaped kind of like an assault rifle but with far too large of a bore for most slugs. He ejects the magazine and loads a different one in, pausing partway through the process to ask if they really seem mindless... before Septette points out that in addition to kamikaze tendencies, they've survived indefinately down here without food, and are clearly not actually humans. He wonders what kind of process might have generated such 'monsters'. He levels the weapon at the center of the mob... or aimed upward slightly, if they're level with the party.. He fires. FOOMP Compressed air launches a small missile, which then ignites and flies in an arc towards the center of the 'mosh pit' before detonating in a wide fireball. It's most intense at the center, slowly falling off towards the edges -- the party might get a little singed if the pit wasn't big or far away enough. As long as the monsters remain in burst formation and aren't dead, and he's not out of ammo, he keeps firing. When any of those conditions is broken, he shouts "Go go go!" and waves the others in.
Razel	Razel dips his head in greeting to Note. "I am Razel." He doesn't bother introducing his 'honor guard', notably, and they don't seem to be all that eager to correct this. The side-eyeing from Septette gets a pleasant smile... one of those 'horrible' ones! And he makes no move to explain why he's there, leaving Septette to believe what she will... or for Lemeza to explain that he just APPEARED. Yeah, he's... just being a little bit of a troll at the moment, ignore him. He seems quite content to let someone else take point as the group enters. Even his 'honor guard' appear to be heading into the temple in front of him. He's perfectly fine using them as meatshields, apparently. With all the running about, it's fortunate that Razel and the clearly demonic one of his minions can fly. The cat is fast enough to keep up with them without too much trouble. Entering the temple itself, with all the fire, gets a smile from Razel. "It's quite lovely," he observes. And he doesn't sound like he's kidding. Then again, being a Devil of Fire probably helps with that. But yes. There are monsters. Or to put it another way, obstacles that need to be smashed through. Being that he's fire-elemental, that's going to be the first target of his -- those blasted ice-wielders. He's a long-ranged fighter, so he flies up to get some height and a better angle. First though, Staren's firing of... well, FIRE has to be dealt with. Razel's cat minion hisses and leaps out of the way of any splashback, but it's unlikely to bother Razel and his demon minion. Since they're kind of like... fire elemental? Razel will back Staren up, firing 'bullets' of fire from the air into any monsters that the initial burst didn't get. Though he's still going to be making his way across the area; he's not going to sit there and be selfless, no.
Note	"Monsters? They keep coming back...?" Note's a bit flustered by this idea. How do monsters 'come back' after you've beaten them? She starts getting left behind as she looks off into space, thinking about it... but then... "A-ah, hey!" DASH! to catch back up with the group and beyond the gate! Once Lemeza shows the way, Note follows along... but instead of taking the slow ladders she decides to just take flight, and hovers at roughly head-level with Asterios! Who Note stares at for a few seconds, recognition in her eyes! "Ah! You were at the factory the other day!" Well, despite the macabre locale, Note appears to be pretty cheery to see the Minotaur, not intimidated by him or worried about him in the least. As she floats along, she answers Razel with her own introductions. "Note! From Kokkara Village. You look pretty tough, Razel!" A fact that stokes her! All until she finishes her floating to end up at head-level with Lemeza, and peers into the next room! "EAT FEET, LIZARDS!" Is her response to being goaded into the battle. Note erupts with swirling Ki and sails out into the chamber, utterly ignoring all complications of terrain to instead come swooping down on some of the Lizard Men with an aim to send them crashing into walls with some lazy kicking, half-aiming to just get the measure of her foes!
Septette Arcubielle	Through the first room, Septette sticks uncomfortably close to Lemeza at the fore. Within grabbing-and-throwing-out-of-danger range, in fact. She doesn't trust these ladders with her weight: the first one she simply leaps down. At the second, ascending ladder, she conjures up a pillar of ice below her that lifts her up like an elevator! Anyone sticking close enough to her to catch a ride might find it's less tiring than climbing anyway. Though her day-to-day habits and chatter might give the impression of habitual bloodlust, Septette has more than enough restraint to wait to enter the monster-mash room until Hemlock's fully enchanted her and Staren's finished firing. She smiles and nods her head along to the music for a moment, shutting her eyes... and then as the last explosive round detonates, she leaps into the fray, heading for other levels that haven't been so thoroughly bombarded. The killbot's approach is understated; her actions easily missed in the dramatic pyrotechnics. She moves towards the nearest tight grouping of enemies, finds a plane that intersects as many of their vital organs as possible, then swings one of her limb-mounted blades along that plane at barely-subsonic speeds. Each blow aims to cleave through skulls and bisect hearts in a single sweep, though they might yet confound her if their agility or durability exceeds her expectations.
Asterios	Ladders and tunnels and tiny doorways do not make for a happy Minotaur. Or at least, they do not make for particularly easy navigation through the ruins. Asterios' horns scrape straight through the ancient stonework several times, and the minotaur leaves a number of massive bullman-shaped holes in his wake as he struggles through doorways and passages. He has a few frustrations to work out, needless to say. And so, he does not even bother waiting when they find a room full of monsters. Asterios roars and unlimbers his twin axes, leaping like a muscular pinball of pure ultraviolence into the swarm of monsters, witches and horrors.
Lemeza Kosugi	As numerous as these foes are, they are not particularly squishy. They take notice of the party as Hemlock begins to play his fiddle, but don't exactly have time to react to Staren's effective firebombing of the place. A good chunk of the ice mages melt and then burn up as they weakly fire half-assed pillars of ice at the source of the fire, and the spiky balls all explode rather harmlessly from the intense heat. Razel's own fire barrage cleans up the remainder of the mages, and catches a couple of the witches in the attack as well... and in the middle of all this, the distinct sound of crumbling architecture can be heard somewhere else in the ruins. Note's foot finds a new home in the face of the lizardmen, who don't even have time to raise thier shields before getting sent flying into the nearest wall and failing to survive the impact. Septette and Asterios get to tag-team a few more of the remaining enemies, cleaving a few covens' worth of witches and wasting any lizardmen Note may have missed. Once all that clears away, Lemeza finally hops in and cleaves the couple stragglers with his whip. "Well.... that was easy enough. Something's up, though. There shouldn't be this many enemies." He hops across the room, careful to avoid the mass corpses, to continue on. The next room looks just like the previous, but with far fewer enemies. None, in fact. Strangely, Lemeza hesitates, as if this isn't normal. "Okay, what the hell. DRACUET!" He calls out the name to the room at large, somehow expecting a response. "I KNOW YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH THIS. EXPLAIN YOURSELF!" No response. Maybe the stress of this place has gotten to him even more than he's let on. It's definitely distracted him, though, as he steps forward blindly, walks off a platform, and falls straight down through the lack of a floor into where the enemies apparently have gone. Because he lands smack in the middle of them: this time, it's flying condors, flying demon-birds, another lizardman wielding sword and shield, and a witch zipping around on her broom. And, should any of the others jump down to join him, or even look down into the pit, they'd see a bright billboard-sized "Land of Hell" emblazoned on the wall, in the same fiery red theme as the rest of this damned place. Also, there is a distinct lack of a ladder leading back out of the pit... Those choosing to continue on past Lemeza instead of going to help him will find a dicey path upwards, with the world's worst platforms to traverse. In the room above the pit Lemeza fell into, the platforms have a tendency to open trapdoors periodically, while the room above /that/ has barely any platforms at all! Just open space that explorers are apparently expected to traverse. And above that mess can be heard a distant sound of what seems like flamethrowers.
Note	That was TOO EASY! This fact is written all over Note's face as she falls back in with the group! Of course, she proceeds to stare in disbelief as Lemeza starts screaming at the walls. Is... is that normal...? What happens next though takes her QUITe by surprise. "--Aa-aaah!" Seeing the archaeologist take a DIVE like that gets Note reacting INSTANTLY. She just LEAPS DOWN AFTER HIm as if this isn't really a big deal. After all, as is demonstrated as she nears Lemeza... Note can fly! So she takes up a guardian stance near the archaeologist! "You have GOT to learn how to fly!" The Saiyan-blooded girl exclaims in a mix of concerned and 'told ya so' tones, raising a hand for the nearest monsters! Seems she's taking a page out of Staren's callbook this time. Instead of going all IN YOUR FACE, she sends small Ki blasts at the nearest monsters, no longer seeing them as worth her time! ZAP ZAP ZAP!
Septette Arcubielle	Before leaving the first room, Septette traces a magic circle on the floor and presses her palm into the middle of it. Yellow and red flames trickle outwards from its edges. Within a few moments, the entire room is engulfed in hazardous but not structurally-damaging flames that may well smolder until Septette dies or the entire temple ages into dust- respawn in that, you awful beasts. With that done, she heads into the next room following the rest of the party, and... Figures. The one time she's not right there, the dumb squishy walks off a goddamn cliff. Septette lunges and tries to grab at Lemeza's jacket as he begins to fall, but to no avail- it slips through her fingers. Thinking quickly, she leaps off the edge towards one of the monstrous birds below, trying to land on it and surf it down to the bottom! Unfortunately, however much lift those things generate, it isn't enough to support an ultradense robot. Her impassioned battlecry near-immediately morphs to a scream of "OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE" as its spine shatters under her feet, leaving them both plummeting to the ground below. There's an awful-sounding CRUNCH from the bottom of the pit as the bird splatters and her metal feet send spiderwebbing cracks through the floor on impact, followed by an exasperated groan as she picks herself back up and extends another of her arm-mounted blades. "Come on, Lemeza. Is anything broken?" She interposes herself between the archaeologist and the thick of the monstrous horde, throwing herself back into the rhythm of her ruthless mathematically-optimized butchery. "We've gotta keep moving."
Asterios	Lemeza falls down a pit! Asterios looks like he's about to jump in after him, and then... There's a lot of yelling! Asterios pauses. More yelling! Asterios is pretty sure that guy is okay. The minotaur chuffs softly and drops into a low squat. There's a brief puff of air and dust as Asterios launches himself boldly toward the other end of the room and immediately begins clawing his way up the distant wall to whatever might look like it could be an exit. Platforming puzzles don't really work too well when you can just JUMP STRAIGHT THROUGH THEM.
Hemlock	As the monsters are slain, Hemlock watches Lemeza hesitate and start to shout...and then walk straight off a platform into a pit before. Jeez. He moves carefully over to the ledge, and notes that Lemeza is alive, and also that the others are moving to assist him. He considers whether he's going to go down or forward... And the rest of the group has Lemeza covered. Hemlock progresses forward, and there's horrible trapdoors and a lack of platforms. The trapdoors are watched to try and get a rhythm of them, carefully navigated over or leapt over, though there's a near-stumble at one point. The wide-open area...has the bard moving to find somewhere to climb alongside, in the end making a running leap if necessary, or hopefully getting Asterios' help forward if he can't. Finally, flamethrowers. Hemlock's just...going to wait for someone else to deal with that one and then follow behind them.
Razel	Razel's fiery sigil disappears from in front of his hand as he ceases shooting fire at things. He'll get across easily enough, though his minions will bicker a bit, until the demonic one carries the cat across -- a princess carry, for maximum embarrassment! Though it's with some concern that Razel notices Lemeza falling through the floor. He's their contact, if he gets hurt they may not get any reward or pay. Though when he hears Lemeza shouting over the radio that worry's put to rest. Someone doesn't shout if they're seriously injured. So he and his minions -- with the demon still princess carrying a growling cat-person, head towards the actual exit of the room, further in.
Staren	Lemeza walks into a pit. "Lemeza!" Staren shouts. Could it have been some form of illusory floor that doesn't work on his cameras? Staren toggles view back to his eyes looking through the visor. Nope. Well, he can't AoE missile the pit with Lemeza in it. They'll just have to kill them all the slow way... Staren's a couple of beam shots into this plan when he thinks of a better one, and leaps down after Lemeza, trying to grab him and fly him back up to safety!
Lemeza Kosugi	Continuing upwards, Asterios and Razel find it easy to discover the source of the flamethrower sounds: an assortment of snake heads, each periodically spewing flame toward large parts of the room. Several of the heads are shaken out of position, pointing their fire breath in odd directions, making it just a bit harder to time a path through the hazards. Hemlock finds it easy to tuck himself away just out of danger. It's a bit hard to see through the fire and flames, but careful sight can just make out another of those bullshit dodgy platform rooms with no visible solid floor, and beyond that a large stone arm with an open claw for a hand, firing the occasional volley of energy blasts that curve toward the ceiling before exploding against it. A few beam shots from Staren, ki blasts from Note, and gunshots from Lemeza keep those fiends of the Land of Hell at bay. Septette's antics in turn crush not only the bird, but the ground as well -- which starts opening up beneath their feet and revealing yet another room below them. This one has rather more pillars than the other rooms that have thus far been seen, and quite a number of spikes. Some of those spikes come crashing down from the recently-broken ceiling, while others extend and retract from the ground in a staggered, and theoretically manageable, pattern. Anyone without a means of staying airborne without a ground to stand on is going to end up in there -- and Septette certainly does, thanks to her momentum carrying her through. There's a couple paths from this room: one oriented horizontally, toward a many-pillared room with minimal floor, and one downward, with what looks like still solid ground. Sounds of intermittent danmaku fire come from both rooms. Staren successfully grabs Lemeza and flies the two of them up out of the pit, safely emerging at the entrance of Hell Temple. A grand ancient tablet warns them of--wait, this /definitely/ wasn't the room that led into the Land of Hell. And it sure wasn't visible from the Land of Hell. What the hell just happened? And why is there suddenly a column of rubble in the corner? In the midst of all this, a cheerful voice resounds throughout what feels like the entire ruins, declaring himself to be the Dracuet that Lemeza has been ostensibly talking about. "Hi! I am Dracuet! Has the strong one brought company? How interesting!" Dracuet for the time being is engaging in rather polite conversation with the explorers, showing no outward signs of being this diabolical trapmaker. And, strangely, aside from the architecture itself spewing hazards randomly in the place, no more monsters seem to be showing up yet.
Note	Note, of course, went down there to guard Lemeza! But with Staren grabbing him before she had a chance to take stock of the situation, Lemeza screaming ridiculous profanities, and the walls now talking as well... Well, she's a little bit weirded out, and decides to fold both hands behind her back and smile like an embarassed kid trying to hide something! After all, the monsters aren't really threatening to her. Nor are the pitfalls and spikes. SHE'S FLYING! And so, without saying a word, she flies off along with Staren and-- ... And tumbles through the air as her orientation and sense of balance says SOMETHING is off. So Note flips around and skids to a halt clumsily along the ground, glancing this way and that... "W-wait, this room is...?!" ONe can almost just SEE the question marks popping up over her head as she taps her chin. "How did... what?!" Once again, the hot-blooded youth's quieter than normal. Probably because she's putting a lot of effort into thinking, something she doesn't normally have to do very much. "Oooooookay... this place is WEIRD! Guess we shouldn't fall down into any pits..."
Staren	Staren, Lemeza, and Note end up a few rooms back. Staren's not even sure it really is the same room -- what if it's a fakeout? But Lemeza's done this before. While Staren's thinking of how to safely get through the maze, Septette has an idea. So he gets out four tiny quadrotors, each small enough to balance on one hand, and waits for Septette to stick her teleporter waypoints on them.
Septette Arcubielle	As the floor crumbles, Septette scrabbles at the stone fragments with her claws frantically in an ineffectual attempt to slow her fall! She lands on her back with a heavy crunch, followed by a rock landing on top of her and shattering. A moment later a spike comes up from the floor and tries to gouge her through the chest, only to glance off of her spine and break. She just lies there for a moment, a look of utter exasperation on her features. Then she gets back up and casually wades through the lethal spikes and danmaku to the other side of the Land of Hell, not really seeming to mind the hazards plinking off of her frame. A hellish mini-adventure later, she arrives back with Staren, Lemeza, and Note, and opens up her leather satchel to spill out a couple dozen small amethyst-like crystals onto the table. Three trios of small hovering spherical drones- nine in all, in red, blue, and yellow colors- warp in around her, each one a delicate work of magitech. "Alright. If Dracuet's gonna fuck with us, we're gonna fuck him right back. Help me glue these on, Staren?" After a minute's work, her Pole Stone-equipped drones (and perhaps Staren's, if he lets her boss them around) disperse, mapping out rooms and retreating where they encounter enemies or immediate hazards. They station themselves at select 'checkpoints' in cleared rooms throughout the ruins, floating in place. Any members of the party who touch one drone can warp to any of the others!
Asterios	Asterios has a conversation with Dracuet. It's great! They get along like water and fish. Except it turns out that Dracuet isn't actually responsible for this so-called Hell Temple. Rather, he's a tailor, not a maze-designer! What a relief! That means there is no more guilt associated with what Asterios is about to do. The minotaur chuffs softly as the others gradually make it back towards the room with the way-too-many flamethrower snakefaces. He tilts his head this way, then he tilts his head the next. Asterios shifts his feet across the stone, searching out... Something. Something only the legendary maze-dwelling minotaur knows to find. After a moment, it seems he has located a suitable position. And then, his eyes flash. The minotaur draws upon the singular sorcery it knows how to cast. A ripple of raw mana pulses through the surrounding ruin. A wave of violet light pulses outward from Asterios' feet, surging across the floor and walls in a strange, circuitboard-like pattern. He is feeling out the world around him, taking hold of the fabric of its construction-- he is asserting his dominance over it. It is his place to remake this ruin. The Minotaur possesses primacy over beast and labyrinth alike, and he acts upon it now. Asterios focuses, twisting at the fabric of the ruin, forming walls which swallow up impassable obstacles only to forge new traps in unusual and exotic locations. Platforms are erected, erupting from floors and chamber walls, allowing the elites a path forward where one did not used to exist. New corridors and doorways are forged, leading deeper into the maze-- This is the minotaur's sole sorcery. The Noble Phantasm of Asterios, Child of the Minoan Bull. THE ETERNALLY UNCHANGING LABYRINTH CHAOS - LABYRINTHOS
Hemlock	That's a lot of fire. With his fiddle not in hand, Hemlock considers his possibilities...and Asterios changes the situation. The danger isn't gone, but there's new platforms to climb over, and ways past the fire. Hemlock dives forward past the flames remaining, burning his clothes and singing his skin pretty badly, but avoiding the worse of it due to the change in traps. But there's still problems. The energy blasts coming forward keep Hemlock on his toes, and so he decides to deal with that hand... By going over it. Asterios' platforms and the remaining platforms inside the temple are used to navigate forward, though part of the volley impacts Hemlock at the leg, bruising it and causing him to grunt in pain, resting briefly before continuing forward, if now with a bit of a limp. For any who still need to continue, Hemlock boosts their mobility with a high-pitched melodic whistle, to help them get through the platforms.
Lemeza Kosugi	After a pleasant and encouraging chat with Dracuet, Asterios summons quite a bit of magic and starts /tilting everything on its side/. The floor layout remains the same, but Noble Phantasm effectively rotates the entire maze so that pits become doors, walls become floors, platforms become partitions. Quite a few walls open up as well -- in fact, everything that used to be a floor has vanished or otherwise become trivial to pass through, leaving a ridiculous number of paths open to wherever the hell the party feels like going. In compensation, there are significantly more spikes around, as well as highly suspicious pressure plates that look like the trap-springing kind. Ultimately, nobody's location has changed, and the spatial relation to their goal is the same, but the direction and path has become incredibly simplified. Septette reaches the temple entrance, joining Staren, Lemeza, and Note, just before the Chaos Labyrinthos takes over maze duty. Septette and Staren send out their drones, Staren's mapping out the nearby rooms before encountering more crazy attacks from stone reliefs. Septette's faster drones bypass the intermittent nature of these attacks entirely and end up mapping a rather large chunk of the new layout before running into a threat several rooms away from their location, in what was formerly the 'floor' direction. There's plenty of information to go on, and a rather solid map of where the new spikes and pressure plates are. Navigation just got a Hell of a lot easier. Hemlock still finds himself, along with Asterios and Razel, back in the 'ceiling' direction from the start point of this madcap adventure. The room right after the serpentine fire and flames suddenly has a wall where the floor would have been, and the one after that clearly had a spike floor -- it's now a spike wall, toward the south (and the entrance). Another stone claw comes visible as he enters, but their shots are now going wild, not adapted to the new maze layout at /all/. It's a straight shot back to start, if a bit dicey with the traps. In response to the maze shift, Dracuet congratulates Asterios. "Oh, bravo! That is--most impressive! Now come, come! See that which must not be seen, now that the path is opened!" His voice continues to echo through the ruins, but now it's abundantly clear that the source is southwards. Floorwards.
Septette Arcubielle	Once the drones have adequately dispersed and their positions are mapped out, Septette designates the southernmost (downmost?) drone as a destination node and lays her hand on one that's stayed behind. "Everyone, get to the nearest drone and warp to the point I've designated. That ought to leapfrog us considerably closer to our destination." Her outline shimmers and wavers as she glows with a white light, building up with a gentle electric whine over the course of five or six seconds. Then she's gone with a soft whoosh as air flows in to fill the void she left behind, and reappears with an audible pop at the new room, her guard already raised against potential hazards!
Staren	And then everything changes! It seems like it should be easy now, but drones soon see otherwise. Some of it he thinks he can dodge through, but what about others? Septette's teleporter plan gets them past some hazards, but beyond... Well. Staren works on gumming up the works! With his wonderful matter manipulator, he starts disassembling unimportant-looking walls and using the material to cover pressure plates and raise new walls to block danmaku!
Hemlock	As everything has shifted, Hemlock continues to try and find a way forward to the juicy secrets that Dracuet says this temple has. As the drones are placed and ushered to navigate towards, Hemlock makes his way (possibly needing to platform and jump around) towards the nearest one, and then teleport towards the southernmost one where Septette's pointed them out. Once there, Hemlock's knife is drawn and in a defensive, and he's ready to whistle a quick tune if necessary. He's sticking behind Septette right now, as she's also big and strong and dangerous, much moreso than he is. With a whistle, people's combat abilities are also buffed up again, just to be on the safe side in case they spontaneously get attacked. Defense focus, this time!
Asterios	Sometimes all you need to do to improve a situation is to take the lemons life hands you and MAGICALLY TRANSMUTE THEM INTO DELICIOUS CANDY. Or, perhaps more accurately, you take your maze and turn it into a somewhat more manageable maze. Sure, it's still horribly lethal and quite possibly imbued with an element of pure and unadulterated madness, but that's still a notable improvement over what it used to be. Asterios takes a moment to survey what he has done. He chuffs softly upon seeing that it is good. It's only then that he turns and faces the direction of Dracuet's distant, far-too-cheery voice. ...And goes to leap after it. If anything tries to kill him on the way, he'll probably be able to deal with it. After all, he is MADE OF MEAT. Notably, he no longer seems to have any trouble getting through doors. Asterios has fixed that particular problem. Hooray, maze magic
Staren	When Lemeza breaks down, Staren looks concerned. Eventually, he walks over to Lemeza, and pulls a small object from his bag, pressing it into his hand. It's a little grey cylinder about the size of a shotgun shell. "There, there. Destroy all you want." He pats Lemeza's hand, then his shoulder, then remembers to also hand him a tablet, then goes back to work. It's one of the most advanced pieces of nanotechnology Staren knows how to make. It makes nanomachines that make things. Used to make a producer for OTHER types of nanomachines, they could in turn begin producing nanomachines that would deface or disassemble the dungeon, bit by tiny bit. It would take a ridiculously long time, but maybe just knowing it could be done, or planning out the action, will give Lemeza some comfort.
Note	The whole world shifts around and everyone starts yammering big, complicated plans! Note, being a very inexperienced kid who mostly came here to run down tunnels and protect a guy from monsters, has NOOOOO idea what's going on! Her assertiveness has gone up in smoke in favor of pure confusion and uncertainty. She glances every which way, utterly overwhelmed, trying to find SOME sense of familiarity in what's happening that she can hold onto! Nope. NOTHING. Except for Lemeza chowing down on food. But he's CRYING while he's doing it, and that has her mildly creeped out! Slowly, her confusion's turning to anger though! So she raises her hands and just screams to the heavens, "WILL SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON NOW?!"
Staren	Staren sighs. He or the nearest drone tells Note, "Asterios warped our surroundings to give us a more direct path through the maze. That's a thing he can do. Now we're skipping ahead as far as Septette could get, and methodically disabling all the traps between there and this 'Dracura' fellow we came here to see. Okay?" There's a tinge of exasperation in his voice.
Lemeza Kosugi	Once the drones spread out, Pole Stones in tow, they make navigating and warping around this maze almost unfairly easy. Almost. As it stands, it is a just retribution for the unfair and unintuitive traps that have so far sprung themselves on the party. Septette and Hemlock warp themselves one room away from a HUGE blue slime-blob with a stupid happy face plastered on it, bouncing around and chucking minibombs around that it pulls out of nowhere. Occasionally the big blob will send out a mini-blob doing the exact same thing the big blob is doing. While the mini-blobs look disposable, the big boss clearly is not. And yet, it is the only thing standing between the two and the presumable source of Dracuet's encouragement and heckling. Staren's matter manipulation ends up making this whole "maze" thing rather trivial. Where once were twisty passages and tricky steps, a literal simple hallway remains. From the entrance, it is now possible to just walk straight south-down all the way to the end, without worrying about any of those pesky pressure plates. There's still a sparse forest of spikes to worry about, but it's not exactly a threat - the only thing left is to head toward the sound of Dracuet's voice. Asterios takes full advantage of this brand new hallway, shrugging off the pinprick spikes until he catches up to Bomby Blobby. Back at the entrance, Lemeza has broken completely and is now crying into a bowl of curry, taking Staren's offer of grey cylinder in his hand but doing nothing with it. Note is there too, and entering the "anger" phase of Hell Temple's maddening effects. (Though at this point, it's really just Temple.)
Hemlock	Once they teleport in...there's slimes. Hemlock immediately scrunches up his face, and moves to dive out of the way of the minibombs, which manage to affect him anyways, marring his body with blasts and knocking his hat off as he goes flying backwards. He luckily manages to not land on his fiddle...which he moves to draw. The big one's not something he thinks he can handle. The little ones, though... The song played on the fiddle is soothing, sort of calming. It sends a mental suggestion to the small slimes that the party are allies, and the massive slime-blob is THE ENEMY. The mind-manipulating magic furthermore instructs them to try and destroy the slime. The music at this point becomes much harder, seguing out of the calmness to a frantic pace, as Hemlock tries to weave in and out of the blasts of the bombs. If they can get through the giant ooze, they can continue to Dracuet, and with the mini-blobs hopefully assisting the party in the fight, they might be able to get past it. "If this works, the small ones will fight for us!" Hemlock shouts out to the others. He's not sure it'll affect all of them, but atleast a couple should hopefully be good.
Septette Arcubielle	Septette steps into the 'boss arena' without hesitation, her shoulders squared and expression even. What she finds inside... it tests even her resolve. (It has a tongue. Oh, god, it has a tongue. Why this?) She grimaces, but her eyes glow a brighter shade of purple as her gaze bores into it. Every monster has a weakness; every giant can be felled. Ooze. Killspot assessment: no visible organs, likely decentralized or unicellular anatomy. Gelatinous body likely to grant resistance to localized kinetic trauma. Preliminary solution: crash temperature, force solid phase, then shatter. She raises her hand above her head and a twisted, barbed spear of ice condenses in her grasp. It blossoms outwards with crystalline fractal protrusions and thrums from within with a seething arcane light, as if straining impatiently to rupture. She draws her arm back with a clacking ratcheting noise, then heaves with her whole body to chuck it into the ooze's heart with a noise like a gunshot! If it penetrates the giant creature's "skin", the cryogenic magic within will detonate inside, hopefully freezing and embrittling it for the others' attacks. "Now! Everyone fall in against it!"
Asterios	You know what's worse than a slime? A slime with an inexplicable tongue just kind of lolling out of its mouth. Taunting you. Disturbing you. Wiggling at you. What kind of unkindly deity decided that this creature would be a meaningful addition to the universe? Probably the same kind of asshole who decided that 'Hell Temple' was a good idea. Asterios wastes little time as he races into the chamber. He grunts as he leaps in, massive hands snapping a platform off from its stone mooring. The minotaur hops, skips, jumps and comes down like the fist of a wrathful god, swinging his great big platform down like the world's biggest flyswatter. Slimeswatter. Same thing, ultimately. Their functions are identical!
Staren	They clear the way to... an ooze! Staren is so distracted trying to figure out how to exploit its biology that he doesn't even wonder about how it having a mouth works. Septette beats him to the punch though: Freezing! Now they need kinetic force, but he doesn't want to use explosives in an enclosed area. He turns to Note. "Can't you just punch it really hard?" As for himself, he pulls out the RAISER rifle, tweaks the settings, and fires a few bullets of molecularized light into the thing to try and explode it from the inside with ridiculous physics!
Note	Getting an explanation does help! Though Note glares sourly at Staren (or the drone), as if he has no right to be so exasperated. JERK! Taking a deep breath, the girl steadies herself and regains her composure. Putting both hands on her hips, she sizes up Lemeza, walks up to him on his left, frowns... And in a sudden show of DISAPPROVAL, her tail lashes out to the right and SPANKS him across the buttocks! Just enough to send a shock through him though. Not knock him over! "What are you doing?!" Note swerves around, hovering in front of Lemeza now, hands balled into fists and raised up desperately in front of him! "COME ON! Everyone's getting ahead of you. Aren't /you/ the explorer?! The one this guy's calling 'strong one'? Where's that courage you had in the factory?!"
Lemeza Kosugi	The party are allies. Yeah, that seems reasonable to the small slimes. After haphazardly flinging a few of those minibombs toward Hemlock, they realize 'wait, this is a bad idea now' and stop attacking entirely. But, the big blob an enemy? HELL no. That's good ol' Pops, lookin' out for them. No, the babies are content to just hop around, schplorting around like nothing's going on. Big blob knows better. That haphazard flinging? It's now aimed shots, with the minibomb explosions timed specifically to detonate in the faces of anyone attacking -- though there's still a couple seconds of reaction time. In response to Septette's ice spear, the big boss follows up its bomb attack with a super-high bounce, landing right on top of the spear from above before it can leave Septette's hand, and very much threatening to crush her with its impressive weight and amorphous, frozen ooze. Oh yeah, the spear broke through and froze the blob. Between the mad bull's makeshift slimeswatter and Staren's light bullets, the big blob bursts into a large amount of pointy ice shards, shooting every which way. Back at the entrance, Lemeza's still busy nursing his curry and mystery grey canister when Note starts berating him. Note. A kid. YELLING at him, and... as if this hadn't been a disaster enough, the brat's playing slap-ass with her tail. Yeah, this needs addressing. He gets up and throws a HARD left hook right at her face, not actually caring if it connects or how much damage it might do, and starts going off on the kid. "Okay, you wanna know what I'm doing!? YOU REALLY WANNA KNOW?! Well, I just brought a bunch of friends to deal with an insane dungeon populated with traps DESIGNED TO PISS PEOPLE OFF, with rooms that LOOP AROUND, and... and... FUCK this." He storms off, heading down Staren's hallway of convenience, past the small oozes that are just beginning to reform after seeing good ol' Pops get splatted, and into the final room. After a lot, a LOT, of loud cursing and berating -- some of it is actually Dracuet yelling obscenities, by now -- Lemeza emerges, dragging a very human-looking man dressed in ancient ceremonial attire behind him. "I got who I came for. Let's get the fuck out of here." Just as Lemeza passes the blobs on the way out, they finish reforming into another Big Bad Ooze complete with stupid lolling tongue. He does not stop to pay any heed to the Big Bad Ooze. He does not give a shit about the Big Bad Ooze. He just wants to be done with this nightmare once and for all. And at this point, Dracuet just shrugs quietly, a look of resignation on his face.
Hemlock	Well, that partially worked, and removed the threat of the small slimes. For that, Hemlock approves. Or atleast, he approves until a bomb almost comes flying at him, and he has to rol again and get splash damaged once more, one actually blasting him in the side and making his hobbling a little worse, especially with the chain of explosives. Coughing up a storm, and very thankful he's not getting hit head on by most of these due to not being a primary combatant, Hemlock watches as Lemeza grabs Dracuet and moves to drag him out. Mental notes are taken - human-looking, some sort of priest? Though, the oozes are forming up again. Hemlock moves to get to Lemeza and follow behind him, shouting to the others. "Everyone, retreat. If necessary, I'll bolster our escape!" And in doing so, he'll boost their evasion with a last strum of the fiddle before putting it away, to assist in the escape process. And then, he'll scramble to get away himself.
Note	Note picks up on the change in Lemeza's body language immediately, but what she WASN'T expecting was for him to get VIOLENT on her! That takes her SO by surprise that-- THWUNK!!! The floating girl's knocked back a few feet, whole body spinning around a few times before she reorients, rubbing her cheek. That one blow doesn't seem to have bothered her much, though it has resulted in her expression turning a bit warmer and softer than before. Yeah. She can RESPECT someone who'll punch her in the face like that, it seems! So she goes right back to smiling. His rant didn't make a lot of sense to her near the end, but she grins nonetheless, and just flies off after him! She waits for him to grab their quarry, but then... THEN the big oozy thing forms, and she just JAWDROPS at it. "Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww." Nope. NOT going near that thing. So, still floating, she faces it and sends a one-handed thick BEAM of searing Ki at it, to see if that'll do it in!
Septette Arcubielle	When the slime pounces on her just before exploding, Septette responds in a quite unusual manner: rather than attempting to struggle free or brace herself for the detonation, she casts a wordless enchantment and begins to glow a searing red-hot! The shards of ice created when it bursts flash-boil as they get near her, diffusing into boiled slime instants before impact. That doesn't seem to stop it from piecing itself back together, unfortunately. "Running's not our best option! Hemlock, if it splits up again, mind-control the pieces into not reuniting!" With that, and the knowledge that even a liquid-y monster can apparently be immolated, she extends one of her armblades and heats it to a radiant orange. She draws her arm back as if in preparation for a strike despite not being anywhere near melee range. An instant later, it becomes clear why: she leaps forward and microthrusters on her back and legs erupt in jets of flame, propelling her at blinding speeds towards the ooze! She swings the searing blade as if to cut it in half, but if she fails, her own body will act as a second impact carrying the force of a high-speed car crash.
Staren	A big ol' piece of ice slams into Staren, knocking him off his feet and slamming him to the ground before the blob melts and reconstitutes with alarming speed! "Ung..." Staren groans as he stands up. He continues using RAISER bullets to try and explode the blob to pieces, then swaps out that gun for more hellball missiles like earlier and just starts trying to burn away all of the slime!
Asterios	People have decided to punch the crap out of an amorphous, tongue-lolling boss blob! But not Asterios. Asterios has other things to do. The minotaur vanishes behind the commotion for about a minute or so. When he comes back, he's... Carrying a room on his shoulders. Sure. He could have grabbed the chest, but there's a problem with that. Two in fact. 1) Asterios is too big for the door. 2) Dracuet might have other important stuff in there! And so Asterios has just decided to take the sage's entire room with him instead. Problem solving! Hooray!
Lemeza Kosugi	Even though Lemeza's got what he came for, the others still insist on collecting Dracuet's "forbidden treasure" and incinerating that blue ball of grossness. Hemlock, for his part, plays the smart move and retreats toward the entrance without incident. Staren and Septette combine incineration techniques to roast the second Boss Blob, killing it for good exactly as soon as it forms up. And for good measure, Note's Ki blast ensures the remnants won't remain to reconstitute anything again. Asterios takes advantage of the distraction to retrieve Dracuet's treasure. Or rather.... the entire room it's in. There's not /that/ much to it, but there's enough that finding a place for it back at the Village of Departure is going to be a bit difficult. Oh well, at least he's got whatever cool artifact is in there. It's got to be something amazing and cursed, right? And with everything dealt with, it's a simple matter to carry everything out the way they came back to the surface. Except for the room. That might take a bit of work.