Zurad'one's Lab

As you descend down the staircase, you find yourself in a musty stone hallway, the air is chilly and the can feel the extreme humidity in the air In front of you, the hallway stretches until the beggining of another staircase can be seen, going further down into the laboratory. To your right and left ther are old braziers lighting the damp place, as well as two doors.

---

When Anemone reached the foot of the stairs, she took the time to glance around, as she waited for Patamon.

Pat slowly descended down the stairs, careful not to slip. The sooner I get out of here, the better was his first reaction upon seeing the laboratory.
"Well, let's not waste any time." He unsheathed his blade and proceeded forward to where he could see two doorways or other corridors, looking out for any imps.

Anemone nodded as she held her spiked chain at the ready and went after Patamon.

A few seconds later, Patamon and Anemone got to the point between the two doors (G9). They now had a door on their right, one on their left, and a staircase leading down in front of them.

Well, forward would lead to the second level, no doubt so Pat decided he could go "Left?" He supposed it didn't really matter since they'd have to clean the whole place up, anyway, so he proceeded to the door on the left before his companion replied. He gripped the blade tighter and waited for his companion to get ready before opening the door.

Ready for action Anemone nodded her go at Patamon, and stood where she would have a good view when the door opened, still out of any direct harm incase anything just rushed out.

After receiving the go-ahead, Patamon opened the door slowly enough not to attract everyone (or everything's) attention in the room, but quick enough for him to make a swift entrance, which he did, jumping right im, blade held with both hands, ready for action.

A Patamon rushed into the room, he noticed it was a large research room, on the side opposide to the door there was a large desk covered with parchment, quills and an abacus. And on the walls to the sides were large,heavy bookcases filled with old looking tomes. the floor was litered with chewed book covers, torn papers and other rubbish and throughouout the room were 3 small humanoid creatures, at first resembling deformed children with odd skin tones.

---

Battle has started! Turns and positions are as following!
Patamon (L6)
Mana Imp 1 (L7)(*_*)
Mana Imp 2 (L8)(*_*)
Anemone (J9)
Diarka (I9)
Mana Imp 3 (K9)(*_*)
Mana Imp 4 (M7)(*_*)
Mana Imp 5 (K10)(*_*)

Patamon's turn! -

Not wasting anytime, Pat jumped towards the first imp and slashed his blade at it.

The mana imp easily ducked and aboided Patamon's attack, immediately counterattacking with his claw!

Seeing his attack foiled, Pat flapped his wings and jumped backwards to avoid the imp's counter.

The Imp clawed away at Patamon, but the fencer was too fast for him, easily avoiding the attack!

In the meantime, the second Mana Imp ran towards L8 and tried to claw Patamon as well!

Riding the momentum from his previous dodge, Patamon sidestepped to avoid this next hit as well.

As Patamon tried to dodge, the Imp jumped into the air in an unbelivable maneuver, landing on Patamon's chest and shredding his throat with his claw, dealing 11 damage and knocking the Hauken unconcious!

Anemone's turn! -

From the entrance, where she stood, Anemone saw Patamon fall to the ground. She frowned and with a hard grip on her spiked chain, she walked into the room. Quickly she fished out a Heal potion and rushed to Patamon's side and emptied the potion in his half open mouth.

Patamon now has 4/10 HP!
Patamon regained conciousness!

The third Imp moved to K9 and tried to claw the recently awakened Patamon!

No sooner did Pat get back on his feet that he saw another imp coming towards him. He put his blade in front of him in hopes to parry any attacks and backed away with the use of his wings.

This time around, Patamon managed to block the incoming claw, though just barely!

The fourth and fifth imp passed their turns!

Patamon's turn! -

Furious, the Hauken fencer grabbed his blade in both arms and thrust his feet firmly in the ground. With a roar of fury, Patamon passed through the two imps in front of him (L7 and L8) with lightning speed, slashing his blade at both of them (flashstep)

Patamon, knowing full well he couldn't run throuhg L7 and L8 in a straight line from K8, walked over to L9 and then went onto the flahsstep! He dealt 5 damage to the first imp and 7 to the second one, killing them both, but his impressive maneuver was interrupted when he crashed into the bookcase ahead of him, ending up in the floor, covered with tomes and with a broken nose!

Anemone's turn! - 

Anemone took the chance at being so close to the other imp and she threw a powerful horizontal swing at it with her spiked chain.

Diarka held his hand tightly on the grip of his blade as he reached the bottom of the stairs. At first glance nothing was going on, until his ears caught the sounds of a scuffle. He could only assume it was the two Zurad'one had mentioned, doing the so called cleaning. Not wasting time, he readied himself for battle, to test his skills finally.

Anemone's chain wrapped around the imp's neck and as she pulled, tore his head appart from his body, dealing 7 damage and killing the creature!

Diarka's turn! - 

Diarka quickly dashed through the doorway, leading to the brawl, and quickly drew his shuriken. His eyes locking on the the closest imp(N5), he let the shuriken fly as hard as he could at the beast.

Diarka threw the shuriken towards the imp, but his aim was rather bad, causing the shuriken to harmlessly hit a bookshelf.

The fourth imp ran to M7 and attacked Patamon while he was on the ground!

Wrapping the wings around him, Pat tries to roll out of harm's way.

Patamon managed to roll away from the imp, dodging the slash and get up at the same time!

The fifth Imp felt Anemone's latent magical power and quickly rushed towards K10, attempting to drain the girl of magic!

Seeing the imp dash towards her, Anemone jumped back to K8 and swinged her spiked chain infront of herself for any futher attacks the imp had in store for her.

Though Anemone was fast, the Imp just had to touch her with the tip of his claw to drain her of 3 MP!

Patamon's turn! -

With a bellow of rage, Pat rushed over to the fifth imp (K10). Sword in both hands, he hacked at the creature's back with every intent on making this the last bit of mana it would ever drain.

With a powerful slash, Patamon sliced the imp's spine, dealing 9 damage and killing it immediately!

Anemone's turn! -
Anemone turned to look at the only imp remaining in the room adn she moved to K7. From there she threw a horizontal swing of her spiked chain at the creature.

One more, Anemone's chain connected with the imp, slashing its way through its chest and ripping skin and flesh away, dealing 6 damage and killing the beastie!

Battle has ended!
Everyone gains 250 XP!

With a long sigh, Patamon sheathed his sword. He didn't look to see if Anemone was hurt, he didn't turn to look at the newcommer, but simply stared at the floor for a while.
Finally, he went over to Anemone, still counting mites on the floor, too ashamed to face her.
"Here-" he rummaged through his pouch and handed her one of his healing potions "I owe you one."

Anemone shook her head, "Keep it, I might as well need it some time later, but can't be able to use it myself, so it'd be better if you have it. Besides, maybe you don't like the idea much, but we're on this quest together.", she smiled and tied the spiked chain back to her waist.

"That's not what I meant!" The words came out of his mind like a rapid torrent, even Patamon was surprised how fast he reacted.
"Oh... oh you were joking. You were joking, weren't you?"
This was as awkward a situation as he'd ever been in, but then he saw a window of opportunity.
"Oh, hello there" he turned to the new figure "who are you?"

Placing the remaining shuriken in a pouch on his leg, Diarka closed his eyes and took a breath before deciding to reply.
"You can call me Diarka. I was hired to help with some cleaning. Are you two the ones Zurad'one mentioned?"
He was not perticularly interested, but keeping strictly to business working well with the two would make things run smoother, in his mind anyways and decided to play along.

"Not unless he meant these two" Pat pointed at two of the nearest imp bodies "Or those two over there..." he faked a stupid look "Oh, you mean the cleaners not the cleaned? That would be us, yes."

Diarka was not fond of the attitude that was being shown to him by the retorts of the hauken, finding it mocking and insulting in its nature, but decided to get his own revenge with words.
" Heh. With a remark like that, it suddenly makes sense why a bird will fly into a window... or in this case, a wall"
Letting a vengeful grin appear, as his eyes suddenly looked to the nose of hauken.

Anemone who could feel the tension between the two rising interfered, "Guys... please. If you want to deal with eachother, keep it for when we're done with this quest. After all, that's what the many arenas are for. But as for now, lets focus the anger on the imps.", she then paused and looked at Diarka, "I guess Master Zuard'one did tell you that there are three different levels, and we got to wipe two of them and then go back. We need to keep a close watch and not to use our resources wisely. I suggest we check the room across here now."

Thinking to himself that she was obviously the smarter of the two, Diarka nodded to her and decided to behave himself a bit to make things easier, and his vengeful grin turned to a somewhat false smile.
" True enough. A wise idea, but should we look around here a bit first? A battle won't always let us see the treasures which abound."
A softer tone rang in his voice now, as he moved his body from the door way and close to an imp's body (J10) and decided to search its remains (K10)(search)

Unfortunately for Diarka, the imp, as well as all the other mana imps, was naked. Hence he was not carrying anything.

Disapointed in the fact he touched a naked imp for nothing, Diarka decided to gaze around the room looking for anything interesting to search through (spot)

The three most obvious places to look for stuff, which Diarka noticed, were the bookcases to the left and right of the room, and a desk against the wall opposite to the entrance. There was also a small hallway towards the end of the left wall, but Diarka didn't know where it led.

"feel free to join in the hunt any time" Diarka mentioned with a smirk, before heading over to the desk first, to check off one thing in his list of a treasure hunt (search)

Diarka - Search
15 + 5(INT) = 20

Diarka carefully checked the desk, opening the main drawer, amongst some old pieces of parchment and a few broken quills, he found some gold pieces and a sling.

30 GP
Sling + 2

Pat stared blandly at the panther and said nothing. He was unimpressed by the effort to insult him. Instead he focused his attention on Anemone, but still did not open his mouth.
He fiddled a bit with the potion that was still in his hand before putting it back in the pouch and finally said:
"Let's see if we can find you another one of these... or something suitable."
And with that he went to the bookshelf he knocked himself into, hoping to find something worth a few coppers (search)

Patamon - Search
9 + 5(INT) = 14

Patamon checked the books on the bookshelf, most of them were old tomes he couldn't even understand, some of them were covered in mold, others had been ravaged by termites, amongst sveral ruined scrolls, he found one, wrapped in a small band of black silk, which seemed useable.

Magic Scroll (Unidentified)

Seeing that only the other bookcase was left unattended, Anemone decided to flip between the books and see if she could find anything. (Search)

Anemone - Search
8 + 5(INT) = 13

Anemone browsed through the bookshelve's tomes rather carelessly, as she pulled one of the bottom tomes, a small gemstone which had probably been forgotten there long ago fell to the floor.

Moss Agate (9 GP)



Diarka was wuite pleased with his findings and headed over to the bookcase where the female hauken had been searching.
"Perhapes we can find more if we all look in the same places? things i may not find useful may be useful to you after all miss... hmm thats right, i never got your names did i?"
He spoke, while deciding to browse through the bookcase as well. (search)

Diarka - Search
10 + 5(INT) = 15

Diarka searched the shelves, opening the books only a bit more carefully than anemone when he found a bent piece of parchment in one of the books, it was carelessly rolled up and bound with some blue string, but still readable.

Magic Scroll (Unidentified)


Anemone smiled, "I guess the adrenaline just made me forget my manners. I'm Anemone." She then looked at the desk Diarka had just left, "And I guess if that desk had only that drawer, there's little chance you haven't found all that was useful, but you're right, better check.", so she went to the desk and checked to see if the other drawers held anything. (search)

Anemone - Search
19 + 5(INT) = 24

Anemone carefully looked around the desk, opened the drawers and even took one or two of them out, pouring their contents on the floor, but found nothing of value. However, as she placed the last drawer back in, she figure she'd search under the desk. Immediately, she found what seemed to be a small button, she presssed it and a jet of flame emerged from the wall behind her, from what she had assumed to be just a crack, but was actually a cleverly concealed trap. The fire dealt 3 damage and burned her right arm, but as it estinguished, a secret compartment opened on the other side of the desk, revealing a scroll, a bag filled with coins and a small, wooden stick, straight and painted in different colors, with what seemed to be a silk handle made by wrapping silk around the thicker end of the stick.

Scroll of Deluge
Wand of Sleep (10 Charges)
130 GP


What the hell do I do with this? Unlike the others, Pat was outwardly disappointed with his finds. He hadn't heard the conversation between the two, so he went over to Anemone.
"Find anything? All I got was this." he held up the hand in which he held the yet unidentified scroll.

Remaining completely oblivious to what else went on in the room, Diarka decided to head over to the other book case finally, and search its contents hoping to find something a bit more useful than a scroll. (search)


Diarka - Search
20 + 5(INT) = 25

Diarka carefully searches the bookshelf and discovers that three tomes on the very bottom right were, in fact, not tomes at all, but a cleverly designed cardboard box painted to look just like books. Upon removing it he found several vials, most of them were empty, or had cracked and their contents were now dry stains on the wood, but two Lesser Healing Potions were intact.

Lesser Healing Potion x 2

Happy that he now had some healing items, Diarka decided he would take the bones from the imps after skinning them, which he began to do with his blade.

Diarka carefully skinned the first imp, then stuck his blade in the middle of the leg and made a long cut, perpendicular to the hip. He cut through some tendon and more flesh, and managed to retried a femur. However he found himself covered in stinky imp blood from head to toe.

Nicholas finished making his decent down the stairs and glanced around the hall. He stood still while trying to see and hear anything that might happen to be around him. (Listen and Spot)

Nicholas - Listen
3 + 5(INT) = 8

Nicholas - Spot
8 + 5(INT) = 13

Nicholas tried to listen to anyone who might be lurking around the area, unfortunately, he seemed to have gone momentarily deaf, after struggling a bit, and removing a clump of earwak the size of a catfolk axe, he reckoned his hearing came back. Though his sight did not do much better in the darkened place, he was able to see a door open down the hall, to his left.


Letting out a slight growl from being covered in such a nasty liquid, Diarka figured that he may as well disect another imp as he didnt think he could be covered any worse, and began skinning another.

Though much hard work, bathing in imp blood, and breaking of several bones, as well as unsuccesful extraction, Diarka managed to retrieve 4 Imp Femurs and a skull.

Nicholas reached over and removed a decently sized candle and made his way to the door while trying to listen for anything other than his foot steps and the crackling of the flame on the wick. (Listen Spot)

Nicholas - Listen
20 + 5(INT) = 25

Nicholas - Spot
4 + 5(INT) + 2 (Candle) = 11

Suddenly the world seemed different for Nicholas, he could hear a plethora of sounds which seemed to have been hidden from him in the past. Who knew how many years that clump of wax had deafened him, away from the audible wonders of the world. He immediately heard someone who seemed to be chopping meet in the next room. This hearing proficiency, of course, did not make him feel any less dumb when he tried to look around, but was so distracted that he tripped, putting out the candle with his forehead. (1 Fire Damage)


Anemone first glanced at her arm and decided to let it be, and forget about the burn by distracting her thoughts from it. So she looked at the scroll Patamon had found, "I found a few useful things, and some gold pieces. But lets see what this one is...", she checked the scroll more carefully. (Detect Magic)

Anemone did not really need to detect magic, since her magic training made it easy for her to identify scrolls, this particular was inscribed with the Blue Magic spell, Deluge.

Shuddering at the feeling of the disgusting imp's blood all over his fur, taking a break was the top idea on Diarka's mind, and so instead of carving a third imp for now, he headed to the narrow hallway (N5) and walked into the next room and looked around. (Spot)

Diarka entered the smaller room and immdiately noticed three bookshelves as least as big as the ones outside.

"Shit." Nicholas cursed as he rubbed the spot where his forehead was snapped at by the small flame. He stood and slowly looked around the room in an attempt to better look for the sound he'd heard. (Spot & Search)

Nicholas had gotten to the point where he could just peak in the room with the open door. As he did, he noticed a large room, well lit by two braziers, on the left and right wall were large bookshelves, though many books were now in the floor, and opposite to the entrance, a large desk, papers were also scattered around it. Behind the desk stood a Hauken woman, wearing the trapping of a mage and with a large spiked chain held at the waist, she was looking over a scroll. And near one of the bookshelves was another Hauken, taller than the girl, he had a blade attached to his belt and held a rolled up scroll in his hand. In the very center of the room were several carcasses that seemed to have been dismembered and partially skinned, they were lying in a pool of blood and disfigured, they seemed humanoid, but not quite.

With out hesitation Diarka began to decide which of the three book cases he would check first. Deciding since one was right in front of him, he would check all three respectivley from closest to furthest. (search)

Diarka approached the first bookcase and immediately noticed a small bag sitting on its own on one of the shelves, opened it and noticed a few gold pieces and agem,so he quickly pocketed the bag.

40 GP
White Opal(30 GP)

Nicholas looked at the disfigured beings and then to the two that stood across the room from his current position. "And who might the two of you be?" He stood readied incase something were to happen.

Anemone looked up at the figure standing in the doorway. She was rather surprised to see yet another person entering the labs. "I guess we could ask the same question from you, cause Master Zuard'one must have probably told you about us being here when he sent you."

Nicholas nodded slightly. "Indeed however I was not told as to what manner of description those before me had. For what I was told those mauled bodies could have been the ones that entered previously to my departure here."

"These are mana imps, which we indeed took care of. But as to who you should trust, us or these dead ones, I think you better check your memory and see which one you see walking around more easily when in public.", replied Anemone glancing at the imp corpses, "Anyway, we're the ones Zuard'one sent down here to clean the lab of imps and my name is Anemone."

Nicholas simply looked away after her comment. He then made his way to another part of the room, looking around more. (Spot)

Walking through the room, Nicholas noticed another, smaller room attached to it, possibly a small library, in it, a Catfolk diligently looted a Book Case.

Patamon had heard Anemone's brief conversation with the newcommer but didn't care much for it. He looked over at him for a second... big, strong with weird tastes in clothing accesories, he'd seen his kind before. It bugged him a bit that the dungeon was getting crowded, but what was he going to do about it?
Instead, His attention turned to the scroll, now in Anemone's hand. Initially, he'd wanted to give it to her, sort of to pay off the debt of the healing potion but then he noticed the staff she held in her hand and felt... small, very small and his "gift" seemed quite insignifficant.
"You can keep it" he said at length "what do I know about magic, anyway?" Then he decided to try his luck with the desk as well, seeing as how the others had found things actually useful in them (search)

Unfortunately, as Anemone had already looked throug the desk with such care, there seemed to be nothing else for Patamon to find.

Nicholas slowly entered the other room. He watched the other being as he seemed to be almost diligantly skimming over some area of a bookshelf near the door. "Maybe he's trying to find something. Perhaps if I go to the back of the room and work my way to the front I can stumble upon something that he might be looking for." Deciding not to say anything to the being at the bookshelf, as a somewhat sign of respect, Nicholas moved beck between the 2nd and 3rd book shelves. He turned to the third one first and gave it a quick look over, before starting at one end and preparing to scan his way across it, looking for anything that could be of importance, or out of place, as well as for anything that he might find to be useful. (Search)

On the furthermost left of the bookcase, Nicholas found a small box containing an antidote potion and 100 gold pieces, along with a small pearl (50 GP). The rest of the bookshelf seemed to be filled with old dusty tomes with titles he couldn't even understand.

After having examined the antidote and pearl momentarily, Nicholas pocketed both into one of the pouches on his belt. He slid the gold into a pouch with the original amount of coins that he'd posessed. He then turned around to face the far side of the middle bookshelf. "Hmm. I don't suppose that other man was looking for either of these items...but I suppose I could make some use of them.", He whispered. Nicholas then focused upong the bookshelf before him and began to rummage through it as well, continuing to look for anything that may appear to be of importance or of some use or value, while keeping an ear out for any sound from the other in the room. (Search & Listen)

After a second or two of rummaging through the old tomes, Nicholas found a Spirit Guard Scroll stuffed into one of the books. Other than that, he could hear Diarka rummaging through the books as well, but nothing much from the adjacent room.

Scroll of Spirit Guard

Diarka quickly stashed his loot from the bookself, ignoring all sounds around him and made his way off from the book cases and entered into the room he was previously in. He ffigured he would get a head start on the other room across the hall.

"Curses!" This just wasn't Patamon's day. Utterly disappointed, he walked off towards the small room where the other two were, saying to Anemone while not turning "Let's round up the posse and continue cleaning."
He went to the first bookshelf and browsed through it carefully, though not really hoping to find anything. (search)

Patamon searched through the bookcase but seemed unable to find anything, then he accidentally bumped it and a bundle of arrows fell harmlessly from the top.

+1 Arrows x 15

Pat almost had a fit of rage and wanted to topple the bookcase over. Fortunately, he spotted the arrows first, which somewhat calmed him down. I think I could get a good price for these

Diarka looked over to Anemone before speaking.
" I'm going to check out that other room now. i left two of the book cases incase you decided to take a look. feel free to do which ever."
With that Diarka headed out into the hall way, walked up to the door across from him, and entered the room before looking around . (spot)

Diarka opened the door to the room on the other side of the hall, which wasn't locked, upon entering he saw a large storage room with several crates, barrels and the sort, however, he also noticed a group of Mana Imps staring at him aggressively, he had but a second before the imps rushed towards him, so he cried out for help, hoping to get some reinforcements from the next room!

---

Battle has started! Turns and positions are as following!
Patamon (D9)
Anemone (D8)
Diarka (D11)
Mana Imp 1 (C8)(*_*)
Mana Imp 2 (C9)(5 HP)
Mana Imp 3 (C10)(*_*)
Nicholas (D10)

Patamon's turn! -

"What?" Upon hearing Diarka's screams, Pat spun on his feet and noticed the shadow warrior was gone "Where'd he-- oh, for the love of..." He forgot to finish his sentence and dashed out of the room to get as close as he could to the troublesome rogue. (move to G4)

Anemone's turn! -

Anemone was as startled, and forgetting about the remaining bookcases, she turned and ran out of the room, across the hallway and to the other room. (to D8)

Diarka's turn! -

Diarka was frustrated with the addition of more imps, and quickly dashed forward (C9) and slashed at the imp infront of him (B9) aiming to vanquish the beast at once.

The Imp easily sidestepped Diarka, evading the slash, and releasing a small, gutural laugh as he did so!

Immediately afterwards, the imp in C8 clawed at Diarka, attampting to drain his magic power!

After his attack, Diarka pivoted his foot and turned his body to face the attacker he saw out of the corner of his eye, he quickly raised his sword to try and defend himself as he lept back to gain some distance. (C10)

Diarka was quickly able to deflect the Imp's claw upwards as the second imp retaliated from Diarka's attack, attempting to slash the catfolk's stomach open!

Diarka was now officially pissed off seeing the next attack coming at his stomach, but since his blade was already being used to block, he quickly brought his knee up hoping to deflect the attack from the force and the protective leather armor he wore.

Unfortunately for Diarka, the imp managed to slash his stomach before he raised his knee, opening a stomach wound and dealing 6 damage and draining 2 MP! However, in spite of the heavy bleeding, the catfolk still stood as the third Imp moved to D10 and tried to jump at him from behind, hoping to sink his teeth onto his back!

Wincing slightly from the pain, Diarka just tried to bear it, and try to hold on. His ears caught on to the possible attack behind him, and he tried to push himself off to the right and dodge, hoping the imp in front and the one behind would collide and give him a slight break to re-group.

Diarka managed to pull to the side, making the imp miss his attack, however, the imp simply landed behind Diarka, as his jump didn't have enough momentum to push him over the Catfolk!

Nicholas's turn! -

After the sudden, and brief, outbursts from Patamon, Nicholas had shift his attention from the scroll he was pocketing into his shirt. He then heard the fading sound of what must've been Patamon dashing out of the room. This caused Nicholas to have a bit of alarm within his mind and so he darted out of the room in an attempt to find out where Patamon was headed. He ran out of the room with the desk upon noticing Patamon was no longer there, and stopped upon reaching the midpoint of the hall. He noticed the door to the new room was opened and saw some type of movement within it but was unsure as to what it might be. He looked through the opening of the doorway hoping to notice what it was. (G9) (Spot) [if that's possible to do after the 2 action run thing]

Nicholas managed to get to G9 and took a quick glance around, he managed to see Anemone rushing to the next room, where Diarka was getting overwhelmed by a trio of imps, in the meantime, Patamon seemed to be making a run for the stairs up!

Patamon's turn! -

Clearly, Pat's nose was still bothering him, because instead of going to G9, where he wanted to, he skidded all the way to G4, near the stairs. The world around him seemed to be spinning, he hoped a violent shake of the head would make the walls stop their tango.
Finally, he ran into the room where the battle was. There he saw 3 imps ganging up on Diarka. He picked his target (Mana Imp 3) and slashed his Damascus sword upward at the fiend, as if trying to send it into the ceiling.

As Patamon approached and attack, the imp immediately ducked, using its momentum from the landing, the sword swung over the small humanoid, making just a gash on its shoulder and dealing 1 damage!

Anemone's turn! -
Seeing that the imps were surrounding Diarka, Anemone decided to break their semi-circle and with a calculated move she aimed at the Mana Imp 1 and swang the spiked chain at it.

Anemone's chain clung to the imp's flesh as the creature squealed and then ripped its rib-cage open as Anemone pulled it back, dealing 8 damage and killing the beastie!

Diarka's turn! -

Diarka decided to play it safe, so being injured he moved away and saved himself from being surrounded(D11), and consumed one of his healing potions just incase things got out of hand again.

Diarka ran farther into the room and then chugged down a healing potion, some of his wounds closing and the bleeding stopping!

Diarka now has 7/10 HP!

The Imp in B9 quickly moved forward to C9 and tried to claw at Anemone this time! -

Seeing the imp rush towards her, Anemone quickly started to swing the spiked chain like a big fan in front of herself in a rather quick motion, so as to avoid any clawing from teh imp, and then stepped back to add some space between them. (to D7)

With a powerful slash, the Mana imp ripped open Anemone's side, dealing 6 damage and draining 3 mp! The Hauken fell back as she started bleeding heavily, barely concious now!

In the meantime, the imp in C10 turned towards Diarka and tried to attack the catfolk while he was distracted!

While Diarka was trying to heal , he tried not to let his guard down at all by keeping one hand on his blade, and as the imp got close and tried to attack he reacted and attempted to block once more with his sword and defend himself.

As Diarka tried to turn and defend, he realized he was simply too slow to pull it off, he tried to block but the Imp's claw had already slashed his back dealing 3 damage and draining 3 MP!

Nicholas's turn! -

"This isn't looking good at all..." Nicholas swiftly darted into the room, slipping between Diarka and Patamon (D10). He turned to the thrid imp (C10) and brought his wakazashi down at a slight angle, slashing it down upon the creature with a sudden burst of force.

Nicholas's sword struck the unsuspecting Imp on the back, running along its spine and dealing 14 damage! The Imp, now almost cut in half, fell to the ground completely devoid of life!

Patamon's turn! -

Since the imp he was attacking had now been rendered very much dead, Pat turned to the last creature (mana imp 2) and proceeded to deliver a horizontal slash, holding on with both hands to his sword. His hopes were that he could finish off this creature before it could attack Anemone.

With another powerful slash, Patamon severed the imp's head, dealing 10 damage and bringing an end to the battle!

Battle has ended!
Everyone receives 113 XP!
Anemone has leveled up!
Patamon has leveled up!
Diarka has leveled up!

---

Seeing his blade strike true Pat smiled, but only for a second. After that he immediately ran over to Anemone.
"Are you all right?" He quickly reached in his pouch for a healing potion all the while trying to somehow hold her by her shoulders, afraid she might fall. "Here" he took it to her mouth and helped her drink.

After drinking the potion, Anemone was able to open her eyes again, without the room turning arounhd her head, and look at the mess after the fight. She glanced at Pat and then at wher ethe imp had slashed her, "These bloody imps are really annoying creatures." But then her slight anger just disappeared and she looked back at Patamon, "Thanks."

Without ill intent, Pat forgot to acknowledge the thanks in any way, instead he put both arms on Anemone's shoulder. "Are you all right, can you stand?"

Anemone tried her balance and as deciding that she was feeling better she replied, "Yes, I'm good now. I'll manage to keep standing I guess."

Glancing downward, from beneath his sakkat, upon the creature he'd slain, Nicholas found himself moderately inspecting the extinguished body. His eyes closed slowly then opened the same way, as he silently whispered the words of "May you find a more reassuring existence within the afterlife" within his mind. He then proceeded to step over the body and moved along side the two barrels. (B9) He turned toward the feline featured being of the group, who'd been attacked the most within the confrontation. "How bad is your wound? If it's deep we should tend to it before you try being too active again. Even if you have healed it well enough to stand, another scenario like that would only provoke such a fresh injury to reopen." He turned back to the barrels looked for a way to remove the circular tops to them, to examine the contents and determine if it were water or perhaps a form of alcohol. (Search)

Nicholas realized he couldn't take the lid off both barrels at the same time, so he had to settle for the barrel by B10, using his wakizashi to create some leverage, he popped off the lid, revealing an empty barrel.

never wanting to seem weak Diarka refused to admit to anyone and himself that he was injured badly and tried to fake his way through the pain.
" This is nothing too bad... i can handle it just fine, though i think it's best to wait a bit before i do any more fighting."
Pausing for a moment a realising that still sounded weak he tried to pull out an excuse quickly.
" Only cus I don't want to get infected with that vile imp's blood of course."

"Good." He waited a few seconds before he was finally convinced she could stand by herself, then Pat turned to Nick, who was already starting to loot.
"Hey, you! Come here! Before you loot any more we need to discuss a few things..." then he snapped at Diarka "like going into an unexplored room by yourself. What were you thinking?"

'Damn, this one is empty it won't do any good at all...perhaps the other one...' Nicholas was thinking to himself, '...so long as there's some form of alcohol or water in here I can atleast try to clean his flesh wound, then I can use some of the body taping on me to wrap around it with a padding as a bandaging.' Nicholas slowly repeated the levering motion on the second barrel, in hope of having a bit more of a successful finding. (search) That was when he heard the words "Hey, you! Come here!" He stopped his actions with his wakizashi still fimly set into the barrel. "Excuse me. If I can hear you from here you may discuss all you please from there. As for looting, don't be so naive. Why would I have picked the barrels over the crates or that chest if I'd hoped to be looting? If those that are clearly not yet your enemy are injured, and as the man over there had stated possibly infected, why would you not want to try cleaning the infection? A barrel tends to carry one of two things. Alcohol. Water. Both of which can be used in cleaning a wound and on of which capable of killing most infections. So if you don't mind, I'd ask that you think before speaking about my actions so disrespectfuly." He pressed down on the wakizashi-fashioned lever to try opening the barrel again.

The second lid came off just as easily. This barrel was nearly filled with a strange, inky blue liquid, very thin and waterlike.

"What i was thinking..."
Diarka thought for a moment, he had many reasons to go into there but he figured he would just say what ever sounded best.
" It's better for only one to be ambushed then the whole squad tactically... i was scouting it out. Atleast this way there was more of a chance only one of us would have been taken by surprise. Do you have something against that?"
He spoke trying to sound like a tactition, and caring though it wasnt 100% ment, as he walked over towards the two hauken wincing slightly.(C8)

Having seen the strange liquid Nicholas was unsure yet as to what he should expect from it. He was not yet willing to try testing a sample of it and therefor simply made a mental note to come back to the barrel later for further analysis. He then turned and walked over to Diarka. "You want any bandaging or wrappings to help hold the wounds closed?" He made sure to place the words in such a manner to avoid making it sound as if accepting the offer would bruise one's pride, after having noted that this particular being seemed rather concerned with avoiding much attention drawn to any possible weakness within himself.

Being hesistant at first with the offer Diarka paused for a moment while thinking it over, but seeing no harm in the offer he nodded slightly in agreement and shot a look as if to say thanks without words.
" I suppose it would prevent any infection, and the scent of the wound may just draw more beasts... So alright... I'll accept this time."

"Understood." He said as he reached into one of the pouches that were held along his arm and removed a small roll of more body taping. He handed to Diarka as he walked over and closer to him. Nicholas then looked back to the barrel with the inky blue liquid inside. "Well it seems there may be nothing of use. Though that's primarily because I'm unsure of the substance within the second barrel. I'm not sure as to whether or not now is the best time to try looking over the substance and trying to determine its properties to identify it. I also know for a fact that I have not the required tools to safely identify it without risk of physical contact to the solution. However, this is not to say that the contents of that barrel aren't to prove useful to us sometime later. So if anyone happens to have a smaller sized containment device perhaps we could identify the liquid now or even on the way back through from the lower levels, assuming we are still venturing further in." He was speaking to all of them but still mostly focusing his attention on Diarka to see if the bandaging was doing any good for him.

Nicholas bandaged Diarka's wounds the best way he could, but having no skills in healing or first aid of any sort, it did not help much.

" We've come this far, why wouldnt we go further? So unless you three wanna just finish looting and stop at the shops to restock, i suggest we should continue on once we get everything in order."
Diarka was trying to make it perfectly clear that he could go on, but decided to mention the idea of shopping considering that if the second floor would be harder they may not have everythign they would need for the battles, and especially not if he planned to venture to the third level later which was a deep thought on his mind. After all, even if it wasnt assigned it could very well be worth the venture, in his mind anyways.

Looking back to the crates and then over to the chest, Nicholas contemplates his physical response to the term loot. He thought over what they might contain. Perhaps all that the venturing group would need to advance further into the lab could be located within those casings. Afterall, it didn't seem that unlikely that potions or perhaps some other items could be down here given the fact that he'd already come across an antidote potion. Still, the strange liquid caused him to keep pondering as to what it was. He looked over at Diarka again and a small expression of a sudden idea graced his parting lips. "Excuse me. Perhaps that bottle from the potion you just took. That may be able to be used to hold a sample of the liquid inside the barrel. We could all take a look at it in such a smaller scale and likely we could identify it fairly easily."

Looking at the bottle for a moment before entedning his hand as if to say take it, Diarka really had no use for the bottle anymore, so he figured why not. Perhapes the starnge liquid ciould be of use to them later on, not to mention the fact that his curiosity was slowly getting the better of him, which also led him to glance over at the chest in the room.

Nicholas took the small bottle from Diarka and made his way over to the barrel and steadily scooped a fair amount of the substance into the bottle before placing a cork into the opening and setting the bottle upon the floor where the others were. He sat down and observed the contained liquid while trying to determine what exactly it was (identify)

Nicholas failed to detect any magical or special properties within the liquid. But then again, this could be due to his lack of experience or expertise with magic.

Anemone pushed herself to stand straight from the wall she was leaning on and slowly she walked to the barrels. She glanced inside at the liquid and then at the bottle in Nicholas' hand, "May I take a closer look too?"

Having his head turn toward Anemone as she addressed him, Nicholas stood and walked over to her with the small bottle. "Sure thing. I can't really figure out what it is still. Seems just like a darkened form of water. It hasn't given off any particularly stong odor as of yet, though I suppose that it may not be giving one detectable to my sense of smell as of just yet." He handed over the bottle. "It may just be nothing at all, but then again it's just as likely that it could be useful as it is that it could be useless."

For some reason, Patamon went numb, oblivious to whatever was going on around him. Why? He couldn't say, maybe it was Nick's retort, calling him disrespectful when that was not what he wanted to seem like. He always had these moments when he containd himself and became completely introvert.
So, ignoring the conversation, attempted healing and whatever was going on in the room, he pranced around aimlessly.
Eventually, he headed to the larger crate at the end of the room (B8).
"What I meant about looting..." he suddenly burst out, unsheathing the blade to try and open the crate "I wan't implying anything-- what was your name again? What I wanted to say was that whatever loots and spoils we find" and he hoped his search would help him by giving a palpable example "...we share."

Patamon used his sword to easily lift the top of the large crate, opening it without much trouble,.

Taking the bottle and holding it up between her fingers, Anemone took a closer look at it (identify), "You're right, it may or may not be anything of use, but one can't be sure without putting some time and patience into it."

Unfortunately, Anemone failed to detect any magical effects in the liquid as well. What's more, it was probably unfit to drink at all. It smelled a bit like the scrolls she had gotten in the previous room.

Letting out a slight chuckle seeing that Patamon couldnt resist looting as well, Diarka decided to walk over to the chest in the lower area of the room (B12) and decided to check it's contents.
" If that's the case, then im gonna happily search this thing thats been just calling out to me since i saw it, heh. For the group of course." Letting out a slight smirk with the last sentence. (search)

Diarka began searching the chest, unfortunately all he could find was that the chest was locked.

finding it was locked, Diarka let out a sigh because it just ment more work, but fortunately he knew how to pick locks and he quickly got to work on it so he could search the contents. (lockpick & search)

Diarka was about to pick the lock when he realized he didn't have any thieves tools on him to do the job with.

Frowning a bit, Anemone brought the bottle down and then held it out for Nicholas, "There's nothing magical that I can find out about this thing. I don't think we could find anything about this as of yet, so maybe it's just wasting time."

The Hauken was getting impatient. That cat was getting on his nerves, and he really wanted to get out of this dungeon.
Rummaging through the crate for anything useful, Patamon continued his speech: "I'm not asking you to split the gold you already found... even though you should, but from now on we split the spoils evenly." (search)

Rummaging through the crate, Patamon found a a few things, first off were two carefully folded shirts of Chainmail, then a crossbow wrapped on rough drafting paper and finally.

Chainmail x 2
Crossbow

Nicholas took the bottle back and stored it away in a pouch then looked back and forth at the two that were rumaging a crate and a chest's outerworkings. His gaze moved to and fro between the two males as he released an inaudible sigh. He was growing somewhat weary of the discontent within the atmosphere. Was he really going to be expected to lend his strength to them? As it stood, it seemed that they were each too solitary for him to effectively be of any assistance to the three of them. It seemed like a task of working for three employers where each job had the same hours. His eyes shut for a bit as he began to concentrate. He didn't feel like tossing out the bottle with the liquid and then again why should he? It may prove useful in a manner that isn't it's intended purpose anyway. He glanced at the bodies of the imps that were strewn upon the floor. The puddle of deep crimson from the one he'd nearly cut into two portions. They were such unsightly things though he still hoped that they would be at ease within their demise. "Thank you for trying, miss." He turned around and walked into the doorway (E9) and looked out into the hallway. "I'm going to keep watch incase anything comes from the lower levels. Let me know when we're all finished here..."

Anemone walked over to where Pat was and looking over at the chest she said, "Any good catch?"

"Actually... yes." Patamon said, not believing his luck. "I found... two chainmail shirts and a crossbow. So.. sharing. I obviously take one of the chainmails. Big guy..." he turned to Nicholas "you look like the fighter type, so you could use one too. And... who wants the crossbow?"

Diarka stood up frustrated with the chest, and with him self, because what self respecting shadow warrior would forget his tools somewhere and lose them. Looking back at Patamon he responded to the question.
" Well since you to are planning on taking things head on like a fighter type, i would possibly get in the way at the front. Perhapes I can provide cover fire of sorts with it... if you think you'll need it that is. The choice is yours."
Diarka didn't know what to do about this chest right now, so he looked around the room to see if there was anything that may have tools, or possibly something lying around which he could use to pick the lock. (spot)

Diarka looked around carefully, maybe a dagger could be used to pry the lock open, but not to lockpick, if anyone had a heavy, bludgoning weapon, like a hammer or the sort, he could also bash it open. Then, looking at the mana imp, it struck him "Finger Bone!" one of the long finger bones/claws from the imp would make for a decent lockpick, it'll probably break after one use, but that's all that's needed.

Nicholas turned and walked toward Patamon and accepted the proposal. He bowed his head in a form of thanks and looked back up at Patamon after taking hold of the armor piece. "Sorry for the lack of introduction on my part. My name is Nicholas." He then glanced over at Diarka who seemed somewhat frustrated while looking around the room."Is something the matter?"

Diarka's eyes remained on the imps for a second before looking over to nicholas with a slight grin.
" Not any more i beleive." Speaking as he headed over to the dead mana imp closest to himself (C 10 ) while preceading to draw his blade. Upon arriving next to the deseased corpse of the filthy beast, Diarka preceaded to harvest a finger bone, but attempting to harvest multiples just in case they should ever come in handy for something else in this dungeon.Figuring while he was at it, he would attempt to harvest a few more bones for his collection from the imp as well. (search/mutilate/harvest)

Unfortunately for Diarka, cleaning the fingers from flesh and skin down to the bone so they could be used as improvised lockpicks was a bit harder than the had expected, in the end, he could salvage only 2 fingers that could fulfil that purpose.

Letting out a slight sigh at the lack of comleted picks, Diarka slowly stood up as the pain was affecting him a bit still, and he headed back towards the chest.
"This better work this time..." He muttered to himself as he began to attempt to pick the lock again to find what was inside. (lockpick, search)

Diarka started fiddling around with the lock, trying to get the tip of the claw in, after doing this, he moved it carefully trying to unlock the chest, but the claw just snapped and was rendered unuseable.

Out of a slight annoyance at the chest Diarka preceading to kick it, before taking a deep breath and attempting to use the last claw he had on him hoping that he would have some better luck this time.
" how troublesome..." (lockpick)

Diarka bashed the chest with a powerful kick, almost causing it to fall over backwards and, to his surprise, the kick loosened the lock, which just popped open and fell to the ground.

Dumbfounded by the simplistic answer of opening the lock, he let out a sigh for the wasted efforts he has been up to. Diarka was about to open the chest but after seeing what happened earlier with anemone, he wanted to do a quick inspection to find any traps , and once all was clear he would search the chest without hesitation. (search)

Inside the chest, Diarka found 20 bolts, three unidentified scrolls with blue markings, 40 GP and two Aloe Vera leaves.
Bolts x 20
Unidentified Scroll x 3
Aloe Vera x 2
40 GP

At the sound of Diarka kicking the chest, Anemone glanced at the other side of teh room, "Nice. Never thought a kick would be the solution." She then just looked at the crate to see if there was anything worth left inside (search).

Anemone checked the chest but there seemed to be nothing else of value inside.

Looking back at the others and the newly and uniquely opened chest Nicholas was forced to bite back a laugh as he watched. He stepped toward the door again. "Well then, I suppose the only thing that remains to be done is to go down the stairs over there." He looked back with a slight grin. "Should we prepare our defenses and ofenses first? Now that we have bolts the crossbow shall prove more useful." He then turned and placed his back against the wall by the doorway. "Oh and also what type of formation should we set up? I mean who goes into an area in what order. I suppose each of us has our own specializations, correct? We should probably take a moment to contemplate them and organize an effective strategy." He then pulled the chain armor Patamon had given him onto his body. "I know I can move with a fair amount of agility and speed. Aside from that though I'm pretty much only any good for close quarters combat. I have no real experience with magic or ranged fighting so I would be no real use in such categories."

"I'm definatly not as good with magic either thats for sure..." Diarka spoke as he looked over to Anemone, before taking out all 4 of his scrolls and gesturing for her to take them.
" You can have these if you'd think they would be of any use. I have no idea what they do but im sure you would be a more worthy user of them then I."

"Magic will do you no good against mana imps..." said Patamon swinging his blade around. "I suggest you and I go in first" he motioned to Nick "and slash whatever we see moving. Then Anemono should stick close behind, but no heroics..." he turned to her "they'll more than likely be drawn to you. Then you... Diarka, was it? You know what to do with that crossbow." Then, as if it just hit him "And I think any of us is capable of killing these imps in one swing, so maybe we should each pick a target and not gang up on just one."

Anemone took the scrolls, and thanked Diarka with a bow of her head, "Although I can't use any magic against imps, but I'll surely find a use later on, so Thanks." She then started to see what the scrolls were, as she listened to the strategy hints and suggestions others made. (Identify)

Anemone Succesfully identified the scrolls!

"I agree." Nicholas pulled out his wakizashi and looked over it before gripping it tightly in preparation for their traveling to the lower level. "So you and I shall take the frontal attack. Anemone will be in the rear since they shall be more easily drawn to her and she can assist as a back up role. Diarka will be able to get a target from a distance. If things work to our advantage we will indeed be able to execute a kill per attack. However, this is not guaranteed. We may only scathe or worse, completely miss our target. Provided this happens it may be wise to eliminate that target as quickly as possible so that it is incapable of furthering an assault against us. To do this Diarka shall likely prove the most potent with the ranged attacking." He turned to Diarka. "I would say in general that you should assault any threat you deem hazardous at all. However, I'd also like to point out that if either of us do not instantly strike down our enemy that you keep a keen eye to that fact and finish the job if you are able. Taking on one a piece is our best method of efficiency but if they survive our initial attack it is only going to leave us vulnerable. All methods have their double edges. Scattering has that as its up and down. So to ease and lower the chances of the downside to our plan I think it'd be best for Diarka to keep an aware mind to the attacks we make. If they aren't successful enough, then please execute a finishing blow."

Nicholas looked back at everyone before leaving the room while saying over his shoulder, "I'm going to check out the next floor. When you're all ready follow down." With that he moved to the stairs and descended them.

Anemone looked over at the door just as Nicholas disappeared from the frame, "Oh, nice! Come one guys, we don't want another ambush from the imps. We better stick to our positions and help keep those heal potions unused for a little bit more." And she followed after Nicholas, expecting the other two follow soon after.

Pat took a moment to put on his freshly acquired chain shirt, then silently went after Anemone.

Diarka looked at the items he was now carrying from both the crate and chest. "This crossbow definately has the upside of letting me choose my own targets while remaining relatively stationary. I need to keep in mind that I only have twenty bolts at my access though. Hm I should get an early start and ready myself.", he thought while the others started to leave the room. He loaded one of the bolts onto the crossbow and smirked at the thought of maybe making a direct headshot with his first attack. He then decided to hastily walk after the rest of the group.

Slowly, but surely, the group walks down to Zurad'one's Lab - Level 2.

On the stairs from the lower level of the lab, Patamon was right behind Anemore, and beginning to wonder if politeness applied to claustrophobes in tight spaces as well.
"Could we, uh... could we maybe move a little faster?"

"hmmm?... Oh yeah, of course.", replied Anemone as she glanced behind here shoulder at Patamon and saw Diarka fallowing. She then hurried across the room and up the stairs to the Training Area 3.

Diarka seemed to be lagging behind a bit, so he quickly hurried his pace trying to catch up, and headed out of the lab.

---

Back to Training Area 3
To Realms of Lemire Arena