World Tree MUSH

    Something has been stirring in the mountains northeast of Kaipo. The simple folk of the desert have begun to live in fear of a strange and malicious dark presence in those mountains by the sea, and Rydia of Mist will not let it stand.
    The people of Kaipo had been kind to her in her time of need, and on hearing word that the desert town was beset by some twisted force, she tugged on the ear of the closest Dark Knight available, and spread word through the various contacts and job networks she had used previously to organize an expiditionary crew to investigate.
    The small, green-haired girl hops off her trusty chocobo at the foot of a path leading up the mountain; the designated meeting place.

    Another chocobo is behind the first. The darkly-clad knight atop it brings the bird to a halt, patting its side before sliding off with a loud thump on the ground. Adjusting his sword and shield, he calls after Rydia, "Don't rush ahead, that's what we're here for." The girl can be overeager and mouthy sometimes, but it's his duty to protect her. The knight is more careful of walking forward, cautious to see what the footpath is looking like.

    "We have to wait for the others," he reminds. Cecil knows that help was called for. Let's see who shows up. Though he doesn't exactly look friendly with that spiky black armor, does he?

    Arriving on foot, seemingly unfazed by the desert environs, a black-haired girl in a simple black dress approaches Rydia, lifting a hand and hailing with the traditional greeting between travelers. "Oooooooooi!" Red eyes sparkle a little as she moves to within normal conversation distance. "Heard you needed some firepower. I'm Uni, CPU Candidate of Lastation." by extension she gives this greeting to Cecil too, offering a polite nod and a little smile as she settles in. "I think we're still missing one, though."

Almost always on the move. Hiding in in remote regions, keeping up on his survival skills. Even just enjoying being alone. David is out in the desert, area. He's heard of the troubles in the area. knows the general direction. Why should he involve himself?

It's not his place to be a hero. He also remembers what it was like for people to live under the fear of the Zoanoids.

He still does not even know Why in the hell he is heading in this direction flying perhaps a hundred feet above the ground. Fast enough to make good time. Slow enough to avoid causing a sonic boom to form around him. The Green insectoid form angles when he notices the bio-signs of the Chocobos and the others. He takes a gamble and starts to decend, not fast and hostile but when he is noticed he is slowly floating onto a touch down. Rydia has seen his armor before as steam jets from the holes in the side of his face plates.

Though his voice is modulated he says, "Rydia, good to see you again."

    Finally, the world of giant bird mounts. ...right, not here for that. Sighing at his Ghost's internal reminder, the Hunter Vanguard makes his way towards the small group that's gathered, slowing his Sparrow as he nears. Glowing gaze looks appraisingly past them towards the path into the mountains as he pulls the speeder bike to a halt and hops off, the thing vanishing in fine sparkles as though it hadn't existed at all.

    A quick glance is all he needs to figure that there's only one familiar face amongst them, but even though he's not really spoken to the girl, he couldn't very well turn down a potential job. 

    "Hey all," he says, lifting a hand in two-fingered salute as he strolls on towards them.

    The sun is setting and the desert temperature is beginning to rapidly drop. It's going to be a cold and unforgiving night, and Rydia is already wrapping herself up tighter in the warmth of her white wolfos cloak as she shoots a little raspberry Cecil's way, when he tells her to hold up. But the Dark Knight is right, the others have yet to arrive.
    So when Uni, David and Cayde DO show up the sun is just about fading off on the horizon and a thin mist is beginning to descend from the mountains, the temperature lowering dramatically.
    "CPU... Of... Lastation?" The green-haired girl mutters to herself before giving a more proper greeting, David she only recognizes in armor after the incident with the Chocobo Eater. "David, Cayde... Hi."
    She pauses, glancing over her shoulder toward the mountain path, nose scrunching at the sight of the tombstones lining the way up the road. "This is where the people of Kaipo bury there dead. Something here's been disturbing them and the people." She explains. "You're all here to find out. I know it's a lot to ask to do this without me, but I think you can all probably manage. So try to not get killed in there, alright?"
    Well, while Rydia gears up to hop back on her chocobo and head into down, there's only one real path up the mountain. A dark and lonely path, winding partway up the cliff face with scraggly dying trees swaying and creaking in the wind, up towards the burial caves of the town.
    "Cecil... Before you go." The girl murmurs, pulling the trusted dagger that she keeps hanging at her belt and offering it to the Dark Knight. "Just in case."

>> SUMMARY[Rydia] >> Greetings. Giving Cecil a dagger. One path up the mountain leads to the burial caves.

Protected from the cold thanks to his armor. He turns his sensors to the mountains as he uses the to get a sense on the bioreadings in the area, thermal, bio electrical, ultraviolet. Even sound can be percieved. David nods to Rydia. Then turning to the guy on the Motorcycle, or rather came from it he offers a bit of a nod. 

"How are you all on night vision, I can see the area even in pitch black as clear as it was daylight. If you want I can take the lead." His senses are omni direction as the silver Orbs on his head swival occationally tracking movement from various sources.

    "So, undead, right?" asks Uni, after listening to the situation. "That's fine, I have incendiary rounds that should work well enough, just wish I'd perfected the Light shot before I got here." she muses more to herself than the others. "My speciality is ranged combat, so don't worry. I'll snipe 'em." she assures, summoning a long-barrel rifle from a pixelated surge of silvery light. Her hands were empty, and then they're not. Cayde might even be forgiven for thinking she's using something similar to his trick.

    "A CPU can see pretty well in the dark, but I'll have to use my lowlight scope if we get into trouble." she replies to David, completely missing who he is, as she's never seen him in his armour.

    The dagger is accepted. Probably for the best, since his black sword may not be good against any zombies. "Perhaps undead," he says to Uni. "I am Cecil Harvey, a Dark Knight. If it IS undead, I will have to just shield you as much as possible. My power is... not as effective against such things."

    He kneels down and puts a hand on Rydia's shoulder. "Stay safe, Rydia. We will be back shortly."

    Cayde nods at Rydia after she's given as much of an explanation as she can of the situation. Not terribly informative, but he's run off to check out things on less. "Don't worry, takes a lot to keep me down." 

    He's somewhat surprised that the girl doesn't seem to be intending to accompany them, but he won't complain. Capable kids they may be, but you still had to look out for them, and if they were heading out into the unknown, he'd feel better knowing she was somewhere relatively safe.

    Gloved hands set at his hips, the Exo looks around at the others he'll apparently be tagging along with. "I can deal," he says in response to David's inquiry. No Guardian's complained about being unable to function in darkness. That's kind of their job, after all.

    "...CPU?" he repeats, squinting over at Uni. He can just sense Sundance shrugging. Her ability to muster up a rifle out of nothing hasn't gone unnoticed, but it's not something he's going to flip out over. You get all sorts out here.

    "Well, if it's undead or something of the like, least it won't be the first time I've run into that kinda thing. I can do some scouting as we go. But I guess the rest is just playin' by ear, eh?" 

    Turning, he looks back up the path before them. If there's no further things to be said, they may as well start on up.

    "Don't die in there." Rydia says as the group begins heading off, climbing into the saddle of her chocobo. "It'll be hell to explain to the others, if you did." Muttered as she tugs on the reins and speeds the bird back towards Kaipo.
    That leaves the four to begin heading up the path, rife with old gravestones, chipped and worn by time and weather, up towards the cave...
    The cave itself is dank, the smell of mildew and rot wafting up from deeper within.
    And the soft, wet, sound of something slurping in the darkness.
    Whatever it is, sticks to darkest recesses of the entry chamber, sliding smoothly along walls and stalagmites in such a slippery way it may as well be a shadow...
    From the entry to the cave there are two paths in the darkness, up higher into the mountains, or down deeper into the earth, a yawning mist rising from the lower path, while the scent of old corpses floats down from higher up.

When Cecil admits to being a Dark Knight The Guyver turns his head and looks to him, for a moment. His face is expressionless. "Looks like I am the party tank. If I yell get out of the way, I mean it as I will be unleashing my most powerful attack. Do everything you can to get as far as possible to my left or right. Also if my eyes go red do not approach me for any reason I can't tell friend from foe in that state." Yes he's played table tops before. David will close his hands and the blades over his wrists extend and then retract. Turning he will start to walk up the path as well. He wants to make sure that they are at least warned of the red eyes. It's hard to explain what Hyper protection mode is without an indepth explination of what his armor is. "I am Guyver." He introduces himself. David's started to keep who he is and what he is secret, or at least be low key about it.

looking around he notices the Gravestones. And the sounds and looks into the darkness. flexing his hands and as he walks his footfalls stop he tries to home in on the sounds he is hearing as his blades once more extend before he goes on. "Undead... like Zombies? Vampires?"

    If the gaze he's given by David bothers him, Cecil doesn't show it. He readies his shield and keeps his sword sheathed for now. "A berserker of some kind. All right. We'll be careful." He sighs, "What kind of trouble has she found this time?"

    It's not very fair, because this is a problem he'd heard a little about himself. He moves forward, staying behind David, but pointing out to the others, "You're ranged fighters, I can tell. I've seen guns before out on the Tree. I suppose I'll go second."

    To David, "Hopefully not a vampire, that would be a tougher fight. More likely something lower than that. As long as we don't get sloppy, we should be fine." He gestures. "I vote we go downward."

    "Funny, you don't look like a Titan," Cayde smirks, stroking his chin as he sizes up David. Guyver? Okay then. "Well Guyver, thanks for the head's up." Because being in the company of a potential berserker is just great!

    Heading along, he has to chuckle at Cecil's comment. "This ain't anything new, then?" he asks, finding himself wondering what other problems Rydia's gotten her Dark Knight friend caught up in. He's also not keeping any particular order even as they head up the winding path, because he's got to poke around at least a little beyond the treeline. So far things look terribly clear, but he tries not to look disappointed.

    Once they've reached the cave, the Hunter peers into the darkness, brow plates lowering. "...there's a lovely sound," he mutters, straightening as he then glances to the others in the party. "Hmmm." Downward? He falls silent in consideration, even as he listens to Sundance to see if she's picking up anything interesting on her scans.

    Uni takes the trail position, walking backwards to check against anything rising from the grave to pincer them into the cave. "Wherever we go, I'll back you up, don't worry about that." she says. Seems she's got a 'thing' about reassuring others about her reliability. "Though I really don't like the sound of whatever that is." She adds. "If necessary I can use my HDD form, but that takes a lot of Share Energy and I'm running a bit low on that right now."

    Whatever that slurping was eventually recedes, but it seems to head... Down.
    So the party chooses their formation and begins exploration into the tenebrous places beneath Blue Earth, with David and Cecil in the lead, Uni taking up the rear and Cayde wherever he feels like it because he's a Hunter and Hunters do as they please...
    Cayde's Ghost can pick up faint signs of life, but most scans are attenuated by rock and earth, the very mountain itself a bastion against investigation.
    The cavern halls are cramped, dug roughly by time and the flow of dripping water. Water which can be heard below, dripping. Dripping... Dripping in the darkness.
    An underground lake waits the adventurers, placid and black.
    But from the shadows something strikes out. A claw, reaching from the darkness itself, for Cayde's cape to try and rip the Vanguard into the darkness.

"Not exactly. My armor is alive, sorta has a limited mind of it's own. When I am shall we say out cold or worse, it takes over hence the red eyes. Seeks to protect me. It acts defensively but does so in a hyper lethal way. Staying away is the best bet, if you can't just do not act aggressive at it." David Explains and as he looks around trying to find where the sounds are coming from he nods and starts to head down. 

Willing to help those here down ledges. Since he can fly he is on the look out for weak cave floors as well as up and around them for weak cave ceilings. And As he is walkiing by the Lake. the sensors Swivial in the direction of that movement as David Will move and turn his head trying to unleash a short burst of his head laser at the claw. "CAyde! Somethings in the water!" he calls out.

    Darn right Hunters do as they please, but Cayde did say he'd do a bit of scouting. At least the others would know that he hasn't abandoned them if he vanishes for more than two seconds.

    But down they go, and in that, the Hunter's pulled his handcannon from its holster. He doesn't much like the implications of that sound. 

    "Sundance says there's signs of life in all this, somewhere, but no real way to say if it's something to worry about or just local cavern critters. Which, I guess could also be a concern depending on what all crawls around here," he reports, shrugging. That's all he says for a while, knowing that each word just makes him brighter for the orange glow lighting his throat. His eyes can't exactly be switched off either, brilliant blue points of light in the ever growing darkness. Not that it stops him from moving along as they come within sight of something. But it's not the lake he has to worry about at the moment, it seems. 

    His Ghost's alarm comes just before Guyver's turned and started to shoot at him, horribly distracting when you're in the process of jerking around yourself to see what's trying to get the drop on you.

    "Whoa! Hey!" he yelps, which really only has his attention on David now rather than whatever's been shot at. It's only for a moment, his Ace of Spades trained at the shadows as he starts to turn about again.

    Tromping down the passageway is loud, because it looks like Uni is quite possibly the only one of them capable of moving quietly. As the group moves downward, Cecil does draw his sword, keeping Rydia's dagger at his side in case his foe proves immune to the black sword he carries. "If you are low on whatever requires you to change, we should use that as a last resort," he says toward Uni.

    The shout of warning toward Cayde gets Cecil's guard to move, fast and deadly. Spinning around, he aims a slash toward the motion, now that David has pointed it out. He doesn't factor that the two others in the group may also be going for it. Better overkill than sorry, right?

    "That was the plan." replies Uni towards Cecil, scanning the walls and floor then switching to low light on her scope, sighting down it and using it to help augment her goddess vision. The movement in the shadows draws her aim. She holds fire as Cayde is in the way, but drops to a knee and levels her aim in case the others don't end the threat. Calm and collected, just like a good marksman.

    Between David's initial laser, and the others instantly coming to alertness, whatever reached for the hunter screeches. Whether it's in pain or surprise, is hard to tell as that clawed arm retreats back into the darkness from whence it came and the singed smell of rotten fish wafts into the cave as it pulls the Hunter vanguard with it into the the shadows.
    The sounds of the tussle echo in the chamber and then silence follows, leaving the group down to three in a sudden twist of terrible fate.
    Remember, adventurers... Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer.
    There is no choice however but to move on. Onward into the depths of this watery abyss as the mountain descends into a warren of sea level caves where the salty brine seeps into the stone and the ominous whispers of sibilant and gurgling chanting can be heard from the chambers beyond.

    "Damn it." Uni utters as Cayde is pulled into the black. "I couldn't get a clean shot." She stands again and looks downcast. "Come on Uni, pull yourself together. People are counting on you." she admonishes herself, before linking back up with the other two remaining members of her party. "I can hear chanting further in... perhaps whatever took the metal man took him there."

The sudden loss of Clyde has David concerned as he will start to head in his direction and calls out for him, looking around his control metal flashes as his fists clench tightly. His blades come out, and this time they stay out. David can't smell the rotten fissh smell but he will look in the direction of the water debating diving in and dealing with what ever it is.

But he decides against it. He doesn't want to leave anyone here alone without him.

Over confidance feh, he's battled gods and demons. And won. Still he narrows his eyes. "I sense Clyde is alright. Call it a hunch. Do we go on or persue after cayde. I do not fancy leaving him on his own!" he declares.

    It's impossible to see Cecil's expression through the helmet, but his reaction still seems to scowl. He sheaths his sword, trading it for the simple dagger Rydia gave him. The rotting stench tells him enough. It will not be as effective as a full blade, but it should get him by.

    "No," he decides. "It will not eat him, and if the chanting is the cause of this, then striking quickly at the root of the problem will work better to save him than floundering blindly," Cecil points out. The Dark Knight looks toward the chanting. "We can do more for him by quickly taking care of that, instead of leaping into the monster's lair where it has the advantage. Guyver, you and I should open up a clear shot for Uni here. Let's get to the bottom of this before Cayde is lost."

    This is no place for the weak or foolhardy. It is best to remain together now, even with the loss of an ally. And so the party heads toward the sibilant hisses of guttural chanting.
    In the next sprawling chamber is an effigy, twisted and misshapen. But it is an effigy that may be familiar to one member of the party. A serpentine beast of the sea, wondrous and terrible in rude appearance.
    And dancing about it are creatures of the sea. They walk on legs like man, but their slimy and scaled bodies are more fish like in appearance than human, with reptillian heads and terrible clawed hands. Their condition is... Poor. They shamble and lurch in their gait, large portions of their flesh rotted away and gangrenous, the Sahagin turn in unison, staring with milky and dead eyes as they lash out with claws and jaws upon the invaders upon their seaside caves.

David looks at the assemble he will see the undead fish people and then lunge. His blades are out, and instantly he kicks the sonic vibration up to full power. It will enable him to cleave cleanly through them when he connects. His armor should easilly protect him. He doesn't want to use his other abilityes, he might accidently bring the Cavern down.

    Uni hangs back as the other two charge in. She trusts them to keep the undead away from her while she lines up her shots. "No more hesitation." she says to herself, dropping into that one-knee bracing stance again. She breathes, sighting down her scope and tracking to the undead that might be hanging back, acting as ranged attackers or magic users. She flicks a switch above the grip, and squeezes the trigger, sending a pulse of concentrated flame in the form of a bullet out at one target, then refocussing on another, putting Fire elemental attacks down-range in a steady rhythmn of 'Pwum' 'chaclick'.

    "Undead, all right," Cecil grunts irritably. Yet despite this, he... puts the dagger away, reaching for his sword as he hefts his shield up. Claws scramble and scrape against the shield, driving him back, but he's doing a calculated retreat and not even trying to use the black-tinted blade.

    "Do what you can to keep them off me!" he calls out. "I'm going to try something!" The dark blade hums with power, pulsing with a crackle of black energies. A chill emanates from the Dark Knight.

    Of the four rotting sahagin, three lunge forth. Their claws are strong enough to rend steel like paper, and they approach with a mindless fearlessness. There is one that does hang back, chanting, dressed in tribal garb of seaweed and kelp, decorated in fishbones and shells. IT finishes its chanting just as it is set ablaze and crumbles to a heap of char broiled fish-- but not before it flings a spell of Silence at the Guyver, just as his blade cleaves another in twain.
    The others rush in, careless and with a wild abandon, lacking survival instinct as the undead do.

David manages to hear what Cecil says to him as he will take up a position to help protect and defend the Dark Knight. His blades slash left and right cleaving through any that get close to him. Providing a wall of blades. When his blades connect with any of them there will be a shimmer and a bit of a zinging sound as they slice effortlessly through the undead fishy fishy men. But also thrown in are kicks and the occational head laser shot intended to take off heads. That is how it works right? take off the head you kill them? Of course he will also just kick them off. More than willing to Grab hold of one of the undead fishies and throw it at it's companions.

His Armor does it's job protecting him, but the armor he has does have some rents in it. thankfully not too deep, but when that spell lands on him, all sound is silenced. And for a moment David is confused, as his blade looses almost all it's cutting power. Still he cleaves through but now his job is much more difficult. He has to power through with slashing.

He looks at the one that made a flinging motion at him. And as it falls he wanted to smash it it's self.

>> SUMMARY[David] >> Guyver Just lost the use of his Sonic buster, and the enhanced cutting power of his sonic swords. Also he is deaf effectively.

    Cecil really isn't going to complain about David's strategy, even if it's NOISY AS HECK! That's fine, though, the Dark Knight just needs people to keep the mess off him. The Dark Sword thrums with power some more as he grunts, getting a few impacts and wincing as he feels the battering. But with the others he hopes he'll last long enough to-

    "HRAAAAH!" The blade slashes downward all at once... at nothing. But the pulse of darkness that erupts from it shears a piece of Cecil's life force out as well, and the arc of black energy leaves a furrow in the stone as it demolishes everything in the way that ISN'T undead, sending a massive blast of life-fueled energies directly at that mockery of a shrine.

>> GAME >> Cecil Harvey spends an Edge for: Darkness Bolt toward the effigy.

    Uni tchs. "Not fast enough." she chides herself, cycling the mechanism and flicking the switch, adjusting her rifle back to kinetic blasts, much like regular, ordinary bullets, but made of compressed energy. Using incendiaries on close-range targets to allies is a good way of burning your friends as well as the enemy.

    Uni sights down and fires at the head of one of the Undead trying to flank around Cecil, if not outright killing it, at least stunning it long enough for one of the others to take it out with their melee weapons. She fires as rapidly as her bolt-action weapon allows, pumping shots out in a steady pattern.

    Shots ring out from none of the party currently present at the fish fest, and undead fish don't seem to be toting firearms and are for the most part already engaged with the aforementioned. Thankfully they're not being aimed at Guyver, Uni nor Cecil. 

    So where is that coming from?! 

    Just back the way they'd come stands their formerly missing Hunter, knife in one hand, Ace of Spades held at armslength in the other from his pulling the trigger. He may or may not have a clawed arm hanging off a shoulder.

    "...hey guys! What'd I miss?"

    The Sahagin are vicious but sluggish at best. It's of trifling consequence to evade their attacks or put them down before they can make contact as David hacks down another and Uni blows the head clean off another.
    It's as one more emerges from the shadows that Cayde arrives, putting the new threat down and adding to the combined teamwork that allows Cecil to focus on empowering his dark blade.
    Where that blade would barely work against the undead, it cuts stone and bone well enough as the wave of darkness that comes from the cut rends the defiled and brazen effigy, shattering it to nothing and causing something to screech hideously in the darkness before the cave falls to silence, and the last of the sahagin collapse on their own, leaving the adventurers alone in the dark.

After a while the Silence spell finally fade on David as he missed the screaming sound as the place falls silent. As he assumes the battle is over he stops the blades sonic vibration once sound comes back. And he turns looking around. "Was that it?" he is concerned ready to keep talking. his first time with undead..."I really hate magic."

    Tapping the side of his helmet, Cecil makes sure any interference is gone. "There. It was... a twisted shrine to Leviathan. A sort of protector of the oceans here. This was a defilement. I doubt Rydia would have approved of it being here..."

    He turns, "Glad to see you made it. We were hoping that defeating these would help free you from the monster, but it looks like you didn't need our help." He himself can't see, so while he's talking, he lights a torch and holds it up. "We should get back to Kaipo."

    Looks like the threat's been dealt with, but what was that noise? It leaves Cayde narrowing his optics in the enveloping darkness as he wonders if he'd just imagined hearing it. His finger taps against his gun's trigger, but nothing else seems to break the stillness. He allows himself to relax a little but keeps his weapons in hand as he makes way down to where the others are. You know, just in case. Full me once and all that truck.

    "Everyone all right? Still got all your fingers and toes?" He gives his knife a twirl and sheathes it, holding out a thumbs-up at Cecil. "Still appreciated! And looks like you guys got everything else squared off here. So if we're done, seconding getting out of this place."

    Uni lets out a sigh of relief as the undead fall. She looks over her shoulder at Cayde returning, and offers a smile when she sees him. "I'm glad you're okay." she remarks, standing and dismissing her weapon, though the distant scream makes her summon a lighter one in reflex. A heavy pistol that looks like one of those old Lightgun accessories. "I agree, we should leave quickly, there might still be danger in this place and I believe we have some wounds that need tending."