Scene #6880: Delta: Choosing Superior Offerings

Owner	Pose
Haseo	There's a rumor going around The World lately. A rumor that there's a weird set of keywords that lead to a single floor dungeon with no encounters and an unopenable chest. Most people would choose to ignore these sort of silly stories. But not Haseo. He wants whatever's in that chest, so much so that he tracked down the keywords to have a shot at it. There's a 'distress' call for help. It's extremely vague, but the required Keywords along with the directions to The World R:2 are given, along with the promise of potential loot. Atoli gets a party invite and even less information than the distress call. It's okay, she'd join no matter what he asked. The dungeon is dimly lit, though it's oddly serene what with all the greenery. It's a straight line, and much like a rumor, there's not a single monster to be found... Unless you count Haseo as a monster , who's currently sitting on top of the treasure chest, flip phone in hand as he waits patiently.
Atoli	Maybe he wants to apologize for last time! No, no, maybe they're going to get food again? Oh, that'd be nice! It'll be fun, and festive! FESTIVE! Right, it's almost that time! Let's see, where's that skin, she's sure it's around here somewhere... Atoli arrives, not late at all. Her big white hat? It has a texture skin applied to it! Her dress? It's black and orange! She has a spoopy ghost staff instead of the usual flowery one. "Haseo look! We could do a costume party!" That's certainly a thing you could do.
Staren	A distress call. Staren arrives, armored and loaded for bear... but there are no bears. There isn't even a mouse. A small swarm of drones maps the tunnels. Finally, one of them finds Haseo, and Staren starts heading in his direction while his voice transmits over it: "Haseo? What the heck is this about?"
Tomoe	Tomoe kept an eye on The World, it was much like home and it had caught her attention. This distress call got her attention, so she's soon on the scene and looking down the layout of the dungeon. "A costume party? Ha, I might just come as myself and you'd never know." Tomoe Jokes to Atoli referring to how few have ever seen her outside of Avatar state. "Yo Haseo." She looks over to Staren for a moment. "Atoli, Staren..." She peers at Staren. "We're not about to fight Heathcliff you know."
Rean Schwarzer	Rean wallks down the suspiciously empty hallway, sword drawn. He can't even sense anything around if he tries. Once he gets to the end, he finds...Haseo, playing with his phone. Rean sighs. "Did you send the distress call?" Rean says, thouroghly unamused.
Haseo	After he's positive that's everyone he's getting, Haseo closes his flip phone and pockets it as he stands up. "Who the heck does a party in the middle of a dungeon? Well, whatever, we can do that later I /guess/. Anyway, I called you over to deal with this chest." As if to emphasize his point, Haseo kicks the treasure chest to prove that it doesn't budge. "The thing won't open, so I was hoping someone here cou-" The Adept Rogue is interrupted mid sentence as the chest decides to do exactly what he said he wasn't doing, releasing a cloud of purple smoke as a mysterious voice calls out from seemingly the entire room. "Haha, finally, ones worthy to bear the Mark." The smoke subsides, and a short, robed figure is now standing in front of the group. They're clearly some sort of evil wizard archetype. "Your life force will make a great offering to The God of the Dead."
Atoli	"There's no monsters, Haseo! This is perfect for a party!" Atoli replies, somewhat argumentatively in tone. She does beam a big great smile to everyone though. Then Haseo kicks the chest. "Haseo! Don't be rude, that chest probably belongs to someone!" Oh hey it opens. It did! "See!" Oh, it's... ominous, huh. "W-Wait, hang on, what's that about our life force? Haseo what IS this Area?" Maybe it's a spoopy Halloween event?
Staren	It's... a boss hidden in the chest? Staren sighs, and takes aim with his beam cannon. "I don't suppose dungeon creatures are developing on their own outside their coding? Or are you just gonna fight us to the death just because?"
Rean Schwarzer	Oh, he just wanted help opening a treasure chest. Totally ok. And then Haseo accidentally kicks it open. A metal dwarf looking wizard pops out in a puff of smoke, claiming that their lives would make a god offering. "Iiiiiiii'd like to keep my soul, thanks." Rean says, swinging his sword at the evil wizard.
Tomoe	Tomoe looks to Haseo for a moment "Unless you have it cleared or some way to prevent spawns depending on the world." She mutters about Holiday events, something about Christmas? It's hard to make out as she looks at the chest. "Mark?" She looks at the wizard for she gets this look on her face. She sees Atoli's starting to panic. By The World's normal standards? Tomoe takes things lethally seriously. She's chanting, in Norse. Very badly accented Norse and launches a firebolt from her right hand at the wizard. "I had greater things try and fail to eat my soul." She sounds /serious/ too. It's like something drained a lot of the fun out of season events for her.
Haseo	Tomoe throws a fire ball at the mechanical wizard. It doesn't connect, instead harmlessly phasing through it. As if they aren't really there. It continues its dialogue, ignoring the slight performed against it. "Your soul is no longer your own, foolish mortal. Those who bear the Mark of Offering shall find their way to Lord Cernnunnos. Now, please do die nicely." The Vital Vista disappears as a a strange wall wraps around the party. It's clearly some sort of way to keep them in, though it doesn't do a really good job given that running into it for long enough seems to make it give way. Atoli is probably familiar with this fact. She'd also be aware that if the ring is there, there's also monsters. Small, rotting hands shoot up from under the earth as the corpse of what are clearly some sort of goblin pull themselves up. They're equipped with sword and shield, and they waste no time throwing themselves at the party, blades swinging wildly and with no real discipline.
Staren	Staren SIGHS when the cinematic proves uninterruptable and unskippable. He turns on his forcefield, which begins to crack and break apart as the goblins wail on it, grabbing a tiny cylinder that hangs at his hip, then dropping the shield just as he swings, beam sword sweeping across goblin zombies. "Have you been stuck dealing with suff like this this WHOLE TIME, Haseo? Geeze. THAT explains a lot..."
Atoli	Oh no, they're separated! "Haseo!" Look at how helpful she is, flailing about. Then there's GOBLINS! What did Haseo say to do... R-right, fight! She'll just... guard. That'll do it, right? Atoli's spoopy staff provides ample enough protection to avert injury via undead goblin sword. She seems surprised it worked. "Oh, these are... low level monsters?" Wow, look at her! She just said called something low level! She's slightly gleeful for a second. And then kind of feels bad for the goblins. "H-Hold on, if they're undead, they might be weak to light-elemental damage! Maybe I can... do that thing I did with Haseo again, like..." Shuffle shuffle. She seems uncomfortable. She still raises her staff and bathes the area in bolts of holy lightning, though! They don't quite have the kick she wanted them to have, but they're still pretty nasty. "L-Like this! Haseo look, look! I-I'm learning!"
Tomoe	Tomoe seems somewhat annoyed not that she missed but that the wizard was able to phase out of her attack. That was going to be a very big pain in the butt here. She sees it's gone and now she's got to deal with more enemies comes. "Goblins..." She soon comes under attack and she will find she's got support from Atoli and with the light magic going flying it gives her a moment to get ready and charge into the enemy ranks. Sword and shield are put to use as she hacks, slashes and slams her way into the enemy, all the while dropping taunts as she goes. "On me gobbos!" Staren she knows well, Haseo can handle himself and Rean has done some crazy stuff already in his short time in the Multiverse she seems a bit concerned about Atoli still, yet? She does seem to be learning.
Rean Schwarzer	A ring surrounds the group, trapping (?) them with a bunch of monsters. One of the zombies jumps at his face and he side steps it pretty well. Atoli is flailing, and could probably use some encouragement Haseo's not gonna give her, knowing him. "Good job, Atoli!" Rean says. He then ignites his sword, cutting a slash through a bunch of the zombies.
Haseo	The goblins might have swords, but they fail in comparison to people like Staren, Tomoe, and Rean. They're easily sliced in half, causing them to dissipate into a foul black smoke before they even hit the ground. Atoli's holy magic also makes quick work of the undead menace, causing them to evaporate into a fine mist as the love of God smites them. Rather predictably, more zombie goblins crawl out from underneath the dirt to replace their fallen comrades, throwing themselves against the adventurers with the same reckless determination to see their HP bar reach 0.
Atoli	More of them? Now hang on, that's not supposed to happen! Monsters can't just... SPAWN in a fight, can they? Atoli deflates despite Rein's compliments, falling behind Tomoe, Staren and the bean like the fragile healer she is, the moment a goblin so much as looks slightly too sternly at her and manages to push her back. "This isn't normal! I've never seen an event like this before!" Goblins aren't spooky, let's be real, but it's Atoli. She hates fighting to begin with! "I'll support you guys!" Staff goes up, buffs go out. Lots of delicious buffs, and a little bit of healing on Tomoe too, because she's clearly THE TANK.
Tomoe	Tomoe keeps track of her allies as they just rip into the undead goblin horde. She's taken a few hits, but she's not been hit too badly so far. "Atoli keep behind me and keep casting." Tomoe will attempt to interpose with Atoli as she keeps fighting the undead goblins and she chants again causing a wave of fire to launch out around her hopefully culling more of the rotting gobbos which are trying to drag her down. With Atoli behind her. "Not normal some kind of glitch?" She doesn't want to think about another VR MMORPG type world breaking that's just something she doesn't want to think about too hard. Given what has happened in the past on her own world. Or heck why she's even here and able to fight.
Rean Schwarzer	Ok, why are there more zombies?! One of the zombies smacks him with a shield but there's like nothing behind it, so he just puts a sword through it. He then eyes the barrier and tries to smack it with his sword. If it was going to be endless zombies there should at least be an attempt to get out?
Staren	Staren gets a moment to look around and try to understand the situation, but only a moment. There are adds but no boss? What if it's bugged, and the waves of zombies are going to be endless...? His next swing is a little off-timed, dropping the field long enough for goblin swords cutting into his armor plating despite being no doubt rusty sticks of metal, because video game logic. "Are there usually events like this with some number of monster waves? Or is it glitched?"
Haseo	Rean swings into the weird barrier, and it gives a bit. Partially because he's trying to break it, and partially because it's suppose to allow escape if you run into it enough. Atoli proceeds to buff the rest of the party, and it makes them much more efficient at killing things, undead goblins falling left and right from sword swings and FIRE. There are still some undead goblins remaining, but no more goblins rise to take the place of their fallen comrades. Perhaps it's for that reason, that they seem a bit more eager, flinging themselves full force in hopes of dragging at least one person down with them.
Staren	"Alright, enough o' this." Staren can fly. Energy wings appear on his back and he hovers out of the goblins' reach as they swing, then dives back down with his sword while cutting them down, then he lands, deactivates it, blasts a couple more with the particle beams, and reaches into his bag, pulling out... a pair of caseless assault rifles with which he just sweeps the room, smart bullets automatically hardening if they impact armor or softening and spreading if they hit undead flesh.
Atoli	"Ah, no! Back off!" Atoli's staff lets off a barrage of green-blue light, forming barriers around the party! It seems to do a good enough job shielding Atoli from the goblins' wrath, but doesn't stand up to the rest of the assault for very long. Still, it buys her time to actually cast a spell or something. Or something being imperative here, because she swings her staff in a panicked fit at one of the goblins. Like, really hard, but it's still just a staff bop.
Tomoe	Th horde is being thinned out pretty nicely but there are still some leftovers Atoli's buffs help her quite a bit in enduring this attack. She's also very fast on her feet which also keeps her from the worst of it. Yet they are still coming down on them. "Get off me you mindless mobs!" She cries out and will engage in several sword arts ripping into the legions of undead greenskins! Even as she fights her way to Atoli!
Rean Schwarzer	So the barrier isn't as impenetrable as it might look...but as he's fooling around with it, one of the goblins gets a clean shot on his arm knocking his sword out of his hand. Whoops. Rean dives after it, and then smacks the offending goblin eith the hilt. He then rushes over to Atoli's aid since she's clealry freaking out again.
Haseo	Between the brutal staff smacking, expert sword play, and assault rifle-ing, the zombie horde never stood a chance. The last of undead menace fall to the ground defeated, and Atoli is greeted with a victory screen. Drops: None EXP: 50 The voice from before booms from the room, their tone a mixture of amusement and annoyance "So you refused to die. No matter, if you refuse to return to the Earth, than those you vanquish can take their place. Either way, my Lord will return." Then there's nothing but silence and an empty chest, even as the arena containing Haseo fades away to reveal them. They don't seem any worse for wear, though there's a good possibility he might have cheated, given that fighting small fries like this is nothing more than a waste of time for someone his level. "Pft, you guys alright?" There's only the slightest hint of concern in the boy's voice as he goes over to inspect the chest, his face becoming even more unamused as he spits into the empty container. "Just my luck."
Staren	Staren sighs at the voiceover. "We're fine. So what's in the chest? ...Nothing? Really? That seems... suspiciously pointless."
Atoli	Rean and Tomoe close in again, and the last of the goblins die. Atoli calms down, bowing in profound apology to the both of them. "I'm sorry! But... we won in the end, so that's what's important, right?" Is that a Haseo life lesson? As he shows right back up and opens the chest, Atoli walks over towards the empty container, and the smiles widely. And maliciously? Maybe to Haseo. Only to Haseo. It's not actually maliciously. Except for him. "Oh, I know! I bet I know! Haseo, look! This is one of those quests!" She twirls on her feet, to face the rest of the party. "The real treasure was the fun we just had together! Isn't that the best kind of treasure?" Her =D is too genuine to be sarcastic.
Rean Schwarzer	"...Well, that happened." Rean says as the barrier drops. He then looks around at the more Video Game savvy people in the room. "Should we be concerned about his 'Lord' returning?" Rean stares at Atoli for a second, and then chuckles a little at her comment. "Maybe." She's being too sincere for him to be mean to her about it.
Tomoe	Tomoe is panting and looks about for the moment making there are no more undead to jump them. Only then does she put her sword. She looks to Atoli is being sarcastic? No, she's not, shes' being genuine. She relaxes a bit "I thought Cardinal did some strange seasonal events but this one is a new one. I'm thinking we're going to have to fight this lord and maybe deal with some sort of debuff from it till we deal with it. We should not hang out here much longer, I say we get back to town for now?"
Haseo	"Ha. If CC Corp made an event with a reward like that, they'd never hear the end of it from most of the players." Haseo straightens himself up after he's finished with the chest, running a hand through his hair in minor annoyance. "Anyway no I wouldn't be worried about a video game boss, it's probably like that girl said. A quest chain. So if any of you guys still want the real prize, you're gonna have to stick around..." He stops talking for a moment as he places a hand on his chin, thinking for a bit before coming to a realization. "Although, I don't think that Vital Vista gave us any Keywords... Huh, well then..I'll, uh..." Oh no, he can't just say he'll keep his ears low to the ground and see if anyone talks about any other weird Keywords. Well, he /IS/ going to do that, but that'd make him look like he doesn't know what he's doing. Luckily he has an out. "So Atoli... You wanted to go to a Halloween party, yeah?"
Atoli	"I think you just don't want to admit that you enjoyed this," Atoli huffs, doing a full 180 and giving Haseo a stern glare. Which would seem a lot sterner if she wasn't wearing a giant pumpkin on her head and holding a spoopy ghost staff. 7/10 for effort though. But then Haseo also 180s, and she smiles. "That's right! We should celebrate! With music, and dancing, and costumes! You could be a vampire, Haseo! Or a kitty! I bet we can get you cute ears and paws, you'd be adorable!"
Rean Schwarzer	There's a stifled laugh from Rean as the mental image of Haseo in a cat outfit with his usual surly face on crosses his mind.
Haseo	"I'm not dressing up as a cat! Vampires are alright though... I'll see what quick costumes I can pick up, but don't expect anything fancy today.Anyway, let's get out of here, that chest is pissing me off." HASEO WANTS TO LEAVE BECAUSE THE FACT HE GOT NO LOOT MAKES HIM MAAAAD!