Investigating the Highlands [Closed 3/3]

[Scoria]

Oh goddammit.

Scoria dove out of the way of a particularly large fist that had swung straight for him, rolling across the ground and pulling himself up to start running again. He hadn't asked for this. He had just shown up to go scouting and had foolishly trusted some nooblets to not turn tail and flee the moment the going got rough. Where were his new shiny levels already, he wanted to smack this Magicked Ruin Golem right in its ugly face. For now though, Scoria continued to avoid getting hit as best as he glared at Stonehenge in the distance. He had been minding his own business when some Sorc buttface had decided the appropriate thing to do was randomly assault the nearest golem. Why. Why did he think that was a good idea? Scoria would never understand the inner workings of that idiot's mind, but the end result was pretty straight forward. He had gotten his ass handed to him and Scoria, in his infinite wisdom, had cast Glacial Freeze in an attempt to buy some time for everyone to back up and regroup.

The other three members of the scouting party backed up all the way back to Londinium, using their Call of Home skill to hop out. Nice. Real nice. And since this golem seemed to be resistant to physical attacks, Scoria had been forced to cast Glacial Freeze to unbalance the golem, then spend about a minute wailing on the golem before hopping off and waiting for another good opportunity to cast the skill. He didn't really want to be beating up anything at all, and if he thought about it, the number of things he had actually killed in his entire time in the world numbered in the single digits, maybe into the double digits. At any rate, the continuous damage from the ice rink and Scoria's familiarity with the modified terrain gave him the advantage to the point that he did finally defeat the golem. Glaring at Stonehenge a second time, as if that would solve all his problems, the druid turned to his true target. The highlands. Apparently a new cavernous region had been discovered, and that one time that @0x1dea and he had become Caesar and Cicero respectively, Scoria had wanted to investigate the old world of Sarum and Londinium. Well, he wasn't exactly going to go into those caverns empty-handed, but he did want to scout out the general area. At least he was moving away from Stonehenge so another dumb golem wasn't going to aggro him. Letting out a huff, the druid considered warping back to London, but did he really want to be making the trip to Sarum afterwards? Sitting down on a nearby rock, the druid let himself catch a breath as he glared at the land between him and the mountains. Whatever was here, he'd be investigating it. Investigating it strongly.

But also Elkeid go away. And Hanelli too he guessed. There was this whole list of people that he didn't want to maaaaaaagically show up and that list basically just consisted of the two people he listed. And Nari too he guessed. And Kumori. And Ragnarok. Especially Ragnarok. And... actually every Adventurer except maybe Caerbannog and Oxford and Elkeid. Wait, now he was starting to go in circles. Whatever, plot hax, gooooo awaaaaaaay.

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested
Mood: Damn these newbies

~

Icyferno had heard that the area surrounding Sarum mostly consisted of fields as he passed through the camps, but he didn't really believe what he was told until he actually got there. The fields stretched for miles and miles, with barely a tree in sight and several golems moving about the area slowly, almost as if they were on patrol duty. A couple of stones jutted from the ground, one of them looking suspiciously like the Stonehenge. Well, so much for stealth, he thought glumly as he began to walk into the field.

As he neared a crest of a hill, he heard the sounds of combat. Crouching so as to avoid giving away his position, he weaved his way through patches of tall grass and scanned the horizon when he reached the top. A little way off, he spotted the frozen remains of a battle and a lone figure sitting on a rock. A solo spellcaster? He thought. That was rare. The guy had to be either really good or just pure stupid. Other battles raged on nearby as low levelled players ganged up on the weakest golems in an attempt to level quickly.

Should he go up to the guy? There was always the chance that the guy was a PKer though, and he had no wish to face a skilled mage yet, not until he mastered his skills first. Then again, if the guy was friendly, meeting a skilled mage would be the best thing that happened to him. But what would he do if the mage suggested taking on some golems? He hadn't the chance to purchase new swords, as most of the blacksmiths he'd met so far were either total ripoffs or scammers trying to sell him some rusty sword which they claimed was a rare drop from the Chaos Emperor Dragon himself.

Fortunately, he'd managed to purchase new armor at a reasonable price from a Tailor named Kumori, so at least his defensive stats shouldn't be too bad. He hoped. The highest leveled gear in the market was twice as strong as the armor he'd ordered. He only hoped that blacksmiths would lower their prices in view of strong competition from each other, maybe he'll be able to get cheap swords.

Wait, he was going offtrack. He was deciding whether or not he should pop in and say hi to the other guy. There were so many things that could go wrong if he went in. In fact, it would be easier for him to scout alone. With his Pathfinder skills, avoiding golems and mapping out the area by himself shouldn't be too hard, right?

Unfortunately, his decision was made for him when one of the mages in one of the newbie groups made a mistake and thought he was a golem or something. She pointed her staff at him and shouted a spell. A white beam streaked across the distance between them and hit his face just as he was turning his back on the solo mage.

Unprepared, he toppled down the hill, the light from the arrow temporarily blinding him as he rolled to a stop near the solo mage. "Damn these newbies, can't even tell the difference between an Adventurer and a golem," he muttered as his vision returned to him. Looking up, he noticed the mage looking at him. Crap. What happens now?

~

Tags: Scoria
Notes: It said open...
Word count: 563
Total word count (Pathfinder): 563

[Scoria]

Ah, people fighting. Great. Nice. Very good. Reaaaaaal good. Scoria scowled as his eyes drifted from one place to the next before finally settling on one sight in particular. A particularly rambunctious group of Adventurers decided that another clearly human player was a mob. Really? The only monster mobs that spawned here that could even remotely be considered to be anything close to human were those golems and the player that was now being smacked in the face with... was that a Martyr Spear? Really now. Cleric, please go away and stop your foolish shenanigans. Scoria had no time for silly games and, by the looks of the tumbling adventurer, it seemed that Icyferno had no time for such shenanigans either.

Or perhaps he did, based on him rolling down the hill. Woops. He was either caught off guard or really clumsy, but Scoria wasn't about to heal him. He just took one glance at the party of adventurers who were now moving to get closer and glared at them with the full might of a Scoria glare. Patent pending. Realizing not to get quite involved in that, the offenders scurried away, leaving him to look back down at the downed Swashbuckler. The weapon specialist was looking right back at him now, leaving the druid no choice but to raise an eyebrow. His glare persisted and some might even go as far to say it was timeless, but the sharp expression on his face did not mean that Scoria did not know how to take advantage of an opportunity when he saw one.

"...This far out, you intend to scout the area?" That was enough for the swashbuckler. Scoria wasn't the type to give out extra information anyway, he just let that one sentence out and then gazed up at the mountains, deciding whether or not he really wanted to investigate those highlands. Of course he really wanted to, that was the whole point of this thread. And Icyferno could be tsundere about it, or actually go ahead and go with him. Speaking of moving on, Scoria had decided he didn't really feel like going back to Sarum after all. And now that he had caught his breath, he was going up the highlands. Standing up to his full height, he glanced down at the swashbuckler, then turned to face the highlands and began walking. It was a rather slow walk and his eyes were doing as good a job as they could, but he didn't really want to be summoning Alraune of his wolf here. If there were going to be any last minute dropins, now was the time.

[zantetsuken]

ITTOU SENSO

Scanning the Horizon

Zantetsuken

Race/ Human

Samurai, Lv. 1

100%

HP |||▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇|

100%

MP |||▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇|

Status/ Healthy

Crouching as low as he could, the Samurai slowly crept towards the source of the commotion over the gentle slope in front of him. Carefully, he peered his head over it to see what was happening. Once again, Ittou have decided to take up on the challenge and provide what help his pathetically low-leveled skills could offer. This time round, it was a scouting mission, something which he knew one with a subclass of Scribe would come in handy. It's also an opportunity to level it up. Aware of the dangers he might face, Ittou planned on being as stealthy as he could. That's the only way he thought he could survive the dangerous and hostile environment here.

I should probably get myself up a few levels before doing this...

Spotting the two Adventurers nearby, he observed them for a bit before looking at the distance and around them, studying the terrain and landscape somewhat subconsciously. He could already tell that his avatar was at work. That it was memorizing the surrounding area so he could later fill in the details on paper or map. When his attention returned to the Druid and Swashbuckler, Ittou thought one of them looked familiar.

Isn't that Icyferno?

Seeing a familiar face, Ittou felt he should let his presence be known and hopefully join the pair with their quest, assuming they too were here to scout the area. So the Samurai stood up, revealing himself from cover and began walking towards them.

"Hey there.." he called out. "Are you guys here to battle those Golem thingy or to scout the area?" asked the Samurai. "If it's the latter, I hope you two don't mind me joining.."

It was hard to sound useful especially when there was that interface displaying how inexperience he was as an Adventurer. If only he could add in a phrase stating that he's a fast learner or a Krav Maga practitioner if not a real life bodyguard. Something that might give off the impression that he's somewhat a capable fellow.

"Good to see you again, Icyferno.." said the Samurai to the Swashbuckler. "The name's Zantetsuken.. Zante or Zan for short.." Ittou introduced himself to the Druid next to him, slightly nodding. "I'll appreciate it if you could give me this chance to level my Scribe skill up by coming along.. I sure could use all the help I can get in understanding the subclass.." he went on.

But of course he would understand if he would be slowing them down instead or the final quality of their findings might not be as satisfying as one who're a little more experienced in the field. And frankly, Ittou was prepared to get turned down and he honestly wouldn't hold any grudges against either of them for doing so. For one, they might not be able to protect him during an encounter and they wouldn't want to feel responsible for his "death". So that much, Ittou could relate. But on the other hand, having him on the team may grant them some gaps through the dangers as the monsters would likely ignore the least threatening ones in the group. That's one of the reasons why he dared taking up this task.

[Word Count: 540]

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

~

"...This far out, you intend to scout the area?" That was all the druid said before simply walking away. On the bright side, at least he hadn't deemed it necessary to blast him in the face with a spell, like a certain newbie mage earlier. At the very least, the attack hadn't shaved off much, considering the level difference between him and the Cleric.

Thinking on his feet, he decided that being near a Druid who probably won't shoot him would probably be better than being on his own. After all, there was only so much he could do against a golem by himself without getting smacked in the face by a rock fist or painfully crushed, or as some people may see it, hugged, by chunks of rocks.

Noticing Zante was nearby, he waved to him as he moved towards Scoria.

As he was about to jog up to the Druid, a pile of rocks nearby began to quiver. With a loud crack, some of the rocks broke off and swirled around an invisible core before forming a humanoid shape which towered over them. The golem sentinel roared despite the lack of a mouth, the sound reverberating from deep within itself.

He almost found the sight comical, as the golem had somehow found itself with a plant on its head. A small daisy was wedged between two rocks at the top of its head. Really, Elder Tales, really? Of all things, a flower? He wondered if the golem though it would scare opponents away. Well, it would certainly help Adventurers laugh right up to the moment the golem kills them.

Unfortunately, the situation didn't call for laughs. The golem sentinel had spawned smack right in the Druid's path. Well, that couldn't be too good. The golem raised its rocky fist, Scoria easily within range. He may not need help, but getting crushed by a golem wouldn't have been a nice experience.

He sprinted towards them and leaped onto the golem with Fold Step, using the extra momentum to thrust his swords into the golem's chest. The golem, knocked off-balance, groaned as it toppled backwards. Phew. At least that would give Scoria some time to-

Another status pinged in his vision. A golem sentry was coming to the rescue of its brethren, grinding sounds spewing from... wherever those noises came from. "Zante!" He yelled, "get the other one!"

~

Tags: Scoria zantetsuken
Notes: Golems to convince Scoria that life is easier if he gets others to tank.
Word count: 398
Total word count (Swashbuckler): 398

[Scoria]

It was probably worth noting what everyone's respective levels had been at the start of this thread, so there wasn't any confusion. Scoria was level 21, the swashbuckler was level 19, and the so-called tank of the party was level 1. Just a good thing to note as they went scouting up the highlands. Anyway, it seemed like the samurai had opted to show his face, leaving Scoria to nod ungratefully at the addition to the party. "Aa. Into the mountains. I'm not a Scribe though so I wouldn't know." Scoria's glare was as unfriendly as it could get at the samurai's appearance, although he did take a brief moment to invite the duo into a party. If they were all going to actually travel together, there wasn't any major reason not to. "I'm not responsible if you die though." Scoria continued to walk forward when a rather unusual event occurred.

A single Golem Sentinel had appeared and, to his peripheral, a Golem Sentry had shown its face. That was strange. That was seriously strange. Scoria glanced over his shoulder, crimson eyes glaring at the uncaptured city of Sarum in the distance. The city was so far away, so what were its guardians doing spawning here. Scoria would have understood if perhaps there had been a Ruin Golem or one of the Lesser Soil Golems, but for a sentinel and sentry to appear here... That was bad. That was seriously bad. Those things weren't supposed to spawn all the way out here, so if they had, something was going wrong. Either the world was glitching or there was some serious paradigm shift, but Scoria wasn't sticking around to find out. Sentinels were guaranteed to be underneath Scoria's level unless they were the strongest of the strong and sentries were a joke, but the tank of the party was level one. He shouldn't have had to tank at all and Scoria shot the swashbuckler an incredibly dirty look before hopping over to Zantetsuken. "Ignore it. Run towards the highlands. You too, you overconfident swashbuckling asshole."

Spear Break flowed forward a moment later, Scoria's double palm thrust slamming straight into the sentry and toppling it backwards. Not a lot of damage, sure, but the knockback and level difference meant that poor sentry-senpai was in for a world of hurt. Scoria wasn't waiting for either of his party members to follow him at this point. They could come if they wanted to, or they could stick around while the world had itself a paradigm shift. Moving forward through the woods and straight towards the highlands, Scoria spared only a singular glance to make sure Zantetsuken was keeping up. Icyferno could rot for all the druid cared. The golems had an AI that would not harass you if you left Sarum alone, and since they were heading away from Sarum, there was no reason those golems should follow. They were scouting, not on a combat quest. Scoria snarled quietly under his breath and huffed once a fair enough distance had been reached. A singular glance towards zantetsuken followed by a harsh look at Icyferno. For a swashbuckler dps, this guy was a complete buttmunch. What was that saying again? He had heard it from someone... If the healer dies, it's the tank's fault. If the tank dies, it's the healer's fault. If the dps dies, it's their own fault. Something like that.

[zantetsuken]

ITTOU SENSO

Zantetsuken

Race/ Human

Samurai, Lv. 1

100%

HP |||▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇|

100%

MP |||▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇|

Status/ Healthy

Ittou gave the Druid a nod when he said he's going into the mountain as well as to not being responsible should the Samurai die. He also understood that the Druid may not be of much help with regards to his subclass. For Ittou however, the man was already a help the moment he was accepted into the group. At least he could study the terrain without worrying about his rear. Still, Ittou could read the expression on the man's face and it showed that he was somewhat unhappy with the Samurai joining. There was nothing he could say at that moment for this man to see that he wouldn't be causing any problems for the team. His actions should do the talking for him from that point forth.

But not in a way to prove that he was strong.. for obviously, he's not!

So when the Golems appeared, Ittou's first instinct was to flee the scene instead of engaging them, regardless of whatever sorts of stone or rock type they were. No matter if they're called Sentinels, Sentry, Ruin or Lesser something; he's still going. He'd made his intentions for joining the group clear since the start. That he was there to scout and wasn't actually looking for any sorts of fight. But he did took note of their descriptions and behavior in that brief moment. Might help if he could mark where they'd spawned on the maps so that the others could either avoid or do some grinding.

"I can't survive a single hit from these guys, Icyferno!" he exclaimed, already turning himself around towards the highland. "Best disengage and get to higher ground!" said the Samurai.

It wasn't in the man's nature to run from a fight in real life. But he was no fool to dive headfirst into a losing battle. Best to live and fight another day. Come back either when better equipped and prepared or in Unfounded Kingdom's case, at a higher level. A much higher level.

Making his way through the woods, Ittou's head was on the swivel, mainly focused on the terrain itself. His eyes scanned his surroundings, quietly taking notes mentally on every details and key features of the grounds so he could portray them onto the maps later. He hadn't notice the Druid's look on both Icyferno and himself. To be honest, he thought they knew one another and was just calling each other names like they always had. The sorts where close friends usually do despite of the harsh tone they used. Ittou was too immersed with the view that before he knew it, they were already traversing high ground. The Samurai then crouched low and approached a slight slope. He peered over it before slowly going down on his belly into a prone position.

Ittou then pulled up his minimap interface, watching as it updated itself with what he was seeing. He swiped the interface away when he thought he'd spotted something. At first glance, he thought he saw a couple of fallen pillars and some of its bases which were covered in moss nearby a ruined structure where there seemed to be an entrance into a cave or the sorts. Then again, they could simply be fallen trees and stumps beside a huge rock with one part of it painted black.

"What is that?" Ittou spoke his thoughts aloud, asking to nobody in particular.

[Word Count: 567]

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

~

Well, that turned out well. After probably saving the Scoria from the very painful experience of getting squished like an insect by the golem's fist, he'd been rewarded with both the Druid and Zante quickly retreating towards the highlands. For one brief moment, he was confused. Why? The golem sentry headed their way was only level three; Zante and Scoria combined should've been able to overcome it without a problem.

As much as he'd like to stick around and finish his fight, he didn't like his chances of fighting two golems at once, so he jerked his swords free of Flower Head and leaped off its body to avoid a clumsy blow as it tried to get up. He sprinted away from the golems as fast as he could, checking back occasionally to make sure they weren't being chased. Thankfully, they simply turned their attention to one of the newbie groups, which was quickly obliterated as the tanks immediately used Call of Home and left the mages to fend for themselves. It wasn't that he wasn't feeling sorry for them, but the mage that had smacked him in the face with a spell was conveniently killed by the golem sentinel, so he had no complaints there.

The trees grew thicker around him as he caught up to Zante and Scoria. To be honest, he hadn't even realized that there was a forest here until he stepped into it. Wasn't most of Sarum just grass and stones? He'd probably missed this part on the map he was given.

He heard Zante's question as he neared them, but hadn't spotted what he was referring to. As he moved, he glanced about until he settled his eyes on what Zante had pointed out, but couldn't make anything of it. Funny thing was, he wasn't even sure it was mentioned in the map? Were these forests unexplored territory? That explains why he didn't remember any large forested areas on the map. Unless he had an outdated copy, of course.

He cast a dark look at Scoria as he reached the duo. "What was that all about? You just left the newbies to be wiped out." He said to Scoria. As mentioned earlier, he wasn't too fond of the newbies who had just died, but then again, they were still people and didn't deserve to die. Probably. Then again, they were stupid enough to take on a golem sentinel at their level, so he guessed Flower Head deserved the kills.

~

Tags: Scoria zantetsuken
Notes: If the ruins are really dark, it'll be too bad I don't have the level 11 Pathfinder skill Good thing I have nighteye potion
Word count: 415
Total word count (Swashbuckler): 398 + 415 = 813

[Scoria]

Oh, good, Sir Tank was at least moderately intelligent, as far as not getting himself wrecked went. Scoria was somewhat grateful, since he didn't want to exactly double back for him. Scoria hopped along the path and did take a moment to glance backwards, only to see that the sentinel had targeted another set of players. What...? There weren't any players around last he had checked, except perhaps that one small group that had thrown a light spear at the swashbuckler. Was it those same guys? He had thought they knew better than to aggro something like that... He winced slightly as the mages were shredded, but it was even more problematic. Well, at the very least, with the removal of all Adventurers from the area, the Sentinel and Sentry both desummoned. But that was even weirder. Scoria's eyes trailed over to what zantetsuken was looking at, his eyes glaring as they searched the darkness. Huh. So there really was a cave system here, huh? Scoria wasn't about to go in there, he didn't care if there was something unexplored. Rather than that, it'd be a better idea to go investigate the rest of the highlands and probably mark down things on the map system.

After all, who'd want to go right into a cave system without any light source? Not to mention that they had a level 1 player with them and Scoria could not guarantee a OHKO would not occur. Scoria wasn't about to stand for that, but there were other problems as well. He would have gotten to thinking about that had Icyferno not decided that the appropriate thing to do was take the moral high ground with Scoria. What. Really? The druid turned to slowly look at the swashbuckler, eyes burning crimson. Was he for serious right now? There was one rather important thing to note about trying to intimidate Scoria and that was simply that it wouldn't work. The number of people who could successfully intimidate Scoria without simultaneously freaking him out because they were psychopaths numbered in the double digits and Icyferno was not in that handful. Instead, the druid leveled all 31 of his courtesan levels against Icyferno, drawing himself up to his full height and glaring right back. There was no denying that, as a courtesan of such a level, he at the very least had a bit of a presence and oomph. "So did you." The tone of his voice was nothing short of hostile and the look in his eyes was hateful.

"Let me tell you something good, hero. Those were Golem Sentries and Golem Sentinels. You know where those spawn? Sarum. Sa. Rum. And I don't mean the entire frontier, I mean the city. Sentries, Sentinels, and the Phalanx exist to prevent Adventurers from advancing into the city. If you back off, they stop chasing you. That's how their AI has worked thus far. So I'll ask you this. What are those two creatures doing all the way out here, as far as STONEHENGE, spawning suddenly? A SENTINEL of all things, huh? That's not just strange, it's unnatural. It violates everything we've known about the world thus far, so I hope you'll excuse me if I was just a little cautious about staying in place with that kind of anomaly, especially since we have a level one samurai in our party that I apparently need to keep an eye on, since you seem to insist on ordering him into fighting stupid creatures like that. Let's say we successfully stomped that sentry. What's to say that the anomaly doesn't persist and we don't spawn another sentinel or a stronger sentry? Do you want him to die? You're a piece of work, you know that." Despite the vicious and unforgiving tone in his voice, Scoria's voice did not raise into the threshold of yelling. It just shifted tone and got a lot more emphasis in certain places as he solidly told Icyferno off. A scoff here. "And before you get self-righteous with me, I'll tell you this too. Whatever assumptions you might have been making about me needing help are wrong. Don't make the mistake of being in a group with me as me requesting help. Just because I don't fight against other Adventurers and Landers doesn't mean I don't know how to fight at all." Honestly speaking, Scoria was almost certain he could take 80% of all non-ranged combatants in a fight. Sorcerers, Summoners, and ranged Assassins were most likely where he fell short. Another scoff before he turned around to the cave system and huffed.

"I'm not going into the caves. My preference is to continue scouting out the area rather than entering some new zone unprepared."