2017-03-02: Pieces of Memories
- Log: Pieces of Memories
- Cast: Ida Everstead-Rey, Lestaci Delloro, Lynnai Albrek, Talise Gianfair
- Where: Ruins of Memory
- Date: March 2, 2017
- Summary: Ida, Lynnai, Lestaci and Talise challenge the Ruins of Memory.
<Pose Tracker> Lynnai Albrek has posed.
The Ruins of Memory are located in the Ranchlands, as a towering structure nestled in the foothills. The temple's outer layer has been thoroughly pilfered, with large and emptied rooms that have little but inscriptions on the walls. The Ruins allegedly date back to the Metal Demon War. The lower levels of the Ruins of Memory, however, have not been breached. There, one can find fiendish puzzles and drop traps that make this a dangerous place to explore. Nonetheless, it is said that ancient treasures and ancient history lay within.
And that's why Lyn wants to go, of course.
The group had planned for this operation and now they're gathering in the upper levels, where it's safe. Lyn is carrying a small pack along with her coat and other eccentric accessories, and has distributed chalk. It's hard to see what she's loaded the pack with, but there's a loop of rope visible on the outside of it, at least, matched with a shuttered lantern on the opposite side.
"Does everybody have everything they need? Once we breach it, we might be in there for some time," Lyn says. "I'd rather not constantly go in and out - the more trips we take, the riskier it is, and some other Drifters might spot us and try to follow on top of that."
<Pose Tracker> Lestaci Delloro has posed.
Lestaci marches in. She is not carrying a heavy pack, though she has several key things on her belt and does have /a/ pack - just not the heaviest one, because, of course, part of what she has is a long coil of rope in order to work with her darts, if need be.
She also has two stray packs of cigarettes because she knows what matters. One is already in her lips. "Good thinking," she says. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be, probably."
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise put her armour on this one, fully anticipating that the group would run into problems going past the first and well-picked few levels. Her breastplate isn't exactly polished or anything - it never is - but it protects her just fine. She tightens a strap around one shoulder, rolling it a couple of times, then sliding her hands into her gauntlets.
"I'm ready," she assures Lyn with a brisk nod, planting a boot heel against a large stone, then reaching back to slide her sword from its sheath with a steely whisper. She takes the hilt in both hands, taking a breath, then letting it out to mentally centre herself.
"I've got a few trail markers if you start to run out of chalk, Lyn."
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida has already been here once before. She hasn't said too much about what she found in the way of treasure, but she has informed everyone about the hazards that she, Claude, and Cecilia ran into in the depths. (Cecilia politely asked her for aid, Ida explained, and she wasn't about to turn her down.)
She's presently bringing up the rear of the group, and she's keeping a close eye out for potential tails; she's wearing her usual jacket-blouse-breeches outfit, and her hair is tied back in a bun. In addition to the usual supplies (food, water, rope, an additional lantern) she's got heal berries. Somehow, the little morsels are still perfectly ripe despite it being nearly two weeks since she and Talise picked them.
"And the entryway is a bit difficult," she says to Lynnai. "We're prepared for it, but someone who wanted to could easily trap us in there, and --well --" She doesn't need to elaborate.
DG: A party led by Lynnai Albrek is now entering Ruins of Memory. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party. == == == == == == == == == == == == == ===<* Ruins of Memory *> == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ===<* CHALLENGE - Entering the Depths *> == == == == == == == == == == == |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---< Challenge Information: > -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --- The exterior of the Ruins of Memory has been well-combed. Drifters have cleaned out the huge ground level, which is easily moved through. However, as you approach the deeper parts, you can find a great hole leading into the depths of the ruins. It will require caution to enter the depths in one piece, but the rewards may be worth it. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ===
<Pose Tracker> Lynnai Albrek has posed.
Lyn has been to the upper levels - once - but no further, certainly not into the undiscovered region. Ida's experience is welcome, as is Lestaci's scouting; without it she'd be shooting blind. "All right, let's get going. I'm ready to explore this place."
She even leads the way... for a while. She lets Talise go first where it's dangerous. But the top floors aren't very dangerous, and so the team finds a hole deeper in without trouble; Staci's exploration probably helps here, as does Ida's experience.
Lynnai looks down into it. "Hmm," she says. "Be right back." Her strategy is simple: rope. But she does it by tying the rope to a sturdy post that was probably structural support at one point, then literally /jumping/ into the hole.
It's not as dangerous as it looks, for her. Her coat catches the air, billowing, and she almost seems to glide down, the other end of the rope in hand. She'll bring it down and find a good place to anchor it on the bottom, even if it's just by standing on it. She leaves a faintly glimmering updraft behind her, making falling safer and weight reduced for climbing.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
It helps that Tal is tough and has armour on, saying nothing of the fact that she has a big sword. She doesn't run into anything to stab, though.
As she spots the rim of the hole, Talise slides her sword back into its sheath and hangs her gauntlets from her belt, rubbing her hands together briskly. "Okay," she breathes as she steels herself mentally. "A little climbing. Could be worse."
Lynnai glides down the hole, and Tal leans, peering down after her and blinking as the coat slows the woman's descent. The glittering updraft she leaves behind draws a slight huff from her. /She/ doesn't sparkle. Curses. All she does is test the rope with a couple of tugs; satisfied that the structural spar it's tied to isn't about to budge, she looks over her shoulder to nod to Staci and Ida. "It'll probably be more dangerous down there," she says, voice quieter.
Then she takes ahold of the rope, beginning to descend it the old fashioned way - hand over hand, heels digging into outcroppings in the wall of the chasm as she rappels downwards metre by metre, trying not to slip and fall off the stupid thing.
<Pose Tracker> Lestaci Delloro has posed.
Staci puts out her death stick before descending downwards as well, though she lets Talise, who is probably a good stress test for the knot, go first. As she descends she takes it pretty casually, even unfastening the covered holster on her side as she does. Why? To show... THE ARM.
A nixie tube on the top starts to glow a little as Lestaci pulls it out, looking up as she does to eyeball the height down. "Remember to take it with us when we come back. Oh," she continues, expression brightening, "or grind the end, so it looks like someone had met a horrible fate down here."
EXCLUSIVITY
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
And there it is. Looks like nothing's changed.
Ida watches as Lynnai and Talise anchor the rope, and make sure it's secure --the pillar looks like it's anchored, but one can never be too sure in places like this. "It's quite a long ways to the bottom," she says to Lynnai, noting that she still has the other end and hasn't yet dropped it. "But we can hold the rope and make sure it doesn't fray --"
Lynnai jumps. Ida's breath catches in her throat.
ALMOST ONE WEEK EARLIER
Claude C. Kenny, Cecilia Adlehyde, and Ida Everstead-Rey stand around this very same pit. Cecilia and Ida look utterly stumped. Claude, however, kicks a pebble down the hole to gauge the distance. It hits bottom, some distance below. He then grabs Cecilia and just sort of jumps.
Oh right, Ida realizes, a moment later. She has that coat. This puts her one step ahead of Claude, at least, and the trail of magic sparkles is welcome. Ida follows Staci and Talise, descending hand-over-hand.
<Pose Tracker> Lynnai Albrek has posed.
Lynnai does everything right - but she runs out of rope before she hits bottom.
That's not a problem for her. She just lets go and drops the rest of the way. But for everyone else it is a more challenging drop, and though Lynnai's updraft will save anyone from breaking a leg, that doesn't mean it's not an unpleasant landing if they do it wrong.
Lynnai herself looks up at the opening, shading her eyes to watch everyone else come down.
DG: Talise Gianfair has drawn a new Challenge. == == == == == == == == == == == == == ===<* Ruins of Memory *> == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==<* CHALLENGE - Blue Books *> == == == == == == == == == == == == == |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 1 | -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---< Challenge Information: > -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --- The Ruins of Memory used to be an ancient library. Bookshelves line the walls in parts of the ruins, such as this long hallway. However, when you enter, some of the books rise. They open, pages aflutter - and ancient Symbols on them flare to life. Then, ice, fire, and lightning come crashing down as the animated books attack. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise finds herself hanging from a rope several metres above the ground.
She looks up for a moment. Then she looks down.
"This sure is starting well."
The next part takes enormous effort; she starts making her way down with nothing but handholds. Grimacing, she feels about with her boots for a toehold. She makes it a few metres - until she brings a boot down on a soft chunk of rock, and it crumbles away under her. She gasps as she finds herself with nothing to stand on, falling the last few metres to land with a crash on her side.
She winces as she begins to push herself to her feet, spitting out a bit of blood. Her tongue hurts; her teeth caught it on the way down. Her side hurts more. "Next time I'm bringing another rope," she mutters to herself before rising to her feet, slowly sliding her sword out -
And turning to face the library into which the hole opened up. A library full of stacks of ancient bookshelves, all looming around her.
Bookshelves full of books that are even now opening of their own accord.
With a shout, Tal dives to her right and whips her sword into a defensive position; a chunk of ice rips past her, a fireball following. Snapping her left hand into her belt, she fishes out one of her knives and hurls it violently into one of the shelves. The spell within it triggers with a flash, lightning bolts racing from the knife to try to deal with some of the books.
Then she just starts chopping books off the shelf with her sword. "This is the worst reading material ever!" she shouts over the din.
<Pose Tracker> Lestaci Delloro has posed.
"Whoop --" Lestaci twists round as it becomes clear she's running out of rope before she runs out of ground, holsters her ARM, and lets herself slide loose. Her limbs spread out like a flying squirrel's - she lands, rolls forwards, and seems to be otherwise unharmed.
Twisting around, she doesn't get up in time to avoid seeing Talise hit the ground with a thump. "Shit, I should've reinforced it," Lestaci says, before turning her head to see...
"Damn!" The ARM comes out and Lestaci undulates around again to stay low as she pops off shots at the airborne literature as if they were police officers and she was a right-thinking person. Remember, children: Only trust your ARMs! Police will never help you!
DG: Lestaci Delloro has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward its party's challenge, Blue Books.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"Don't worry about it!" Talise manages to call back to Staci over the screech of a lightning bolt.
Then she whirls, grips the Rastaban Sword in both hands, and slices clean through a hurtling copy of what might be 50 Shades of Grahf.
<Pose Tracker> Lynnai Albrek has posed.
At least nobody is dead. "We have Heal Berries," Lyn volunteers, though it's a little late. Also, they're not her Heal Berries, unless she has some stashed in a pocket out of sight.
Books seem promising to Lyn, and she'd taken a step forward to actually start looking at titles to see if any of them are valuable or interesting or both. Unfortunately, this means that the damn things taking flight startles her sufficiently that she lets out a startled yell.
She recovers quickly, though. Quickly enough to bring her hands through some patterns, runes appearing in front of her, before a veritable wall of wind appears in front of her; a vertical pillar that she sends into the cluster of books. They're light. She figures it will throw them around and start smashing them into the ceiling, which is fine by her. "Why?! I just wanted to read them!"
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida runs into more or less the same situation as Talise, and listening to her struggle does not help matters. She waits as long as she can, takes a breath, and lets go of the wall, and falls. Lynnai's magic is basically the only thing that keeps her from cracking something, again. (Thanks, Lyn.) Luckily, as Lynnai pointed out, she has Heal Berries. Ida pops one into her mouth, and will give one to Talise once she gets the chance.
Pages flutter. Ida clambers to her feet, her hand already reaching for the holster at the small of her back. She draws an ARM --something like a rifle with the barrel hacked down to pistol-size --and fires. A blast of sulfur-laced flame shoots from the barrel, accompanied by hot lead. Then, more.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"We can read 'em once they're not shooting us!" Talise shouts as she catches Lyn's lament.
The books don't have much of a chance against the punishment brought to bear on them. Lightning and wind tatter and shred many of them; Lestaci's shots pelt old tomes out of the air. A last book hurtles off the shelf at Ida and she gets a brief, fleeting look at one page:
ANASTASIA, DOST THOU DESIRE THE POWER?
Then she torches the damn thing and removes it from the sum total of human misery, and the cacophony in the library dies down. The torched, ravaged remains of books lie about the library, around our heroines.
Tal inhales, then lets it out. Then she adjusts her breastplate. "Right! Good reading," she says with faux cheer. "Let's press on."
She turns and heads towards a door at the back of the library.
DG: Lestaci Delloro has drawn a new Challenge. == == == == == == == == == == == == == ===<* Ruins of Memory *> == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ===<* CHALLENGE - Gargoyle Statue *> == == == == == == == == == == == == |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---< Challenge Information: > -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --- Those who built this place crafted a mighty gargoyle statue to guard over this room. Wings spread out, fanged mouth open, and claws held wide, it looks fierce indeed. It does not attack, but when you try to walk past... a barrier of red light shimmers into existence and keeps you from going further. =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ===
<Pose Tracker> Lestaci Delloro has posed.
"You've got to be careful about books," Lestaci says as she pushes herself upright again, cycling in another magazine of scrap metal into her ARM. "They just say what they put on the page..."
Through the door. Into a room with a gargoyle statue. "Hey, how did they know what Lin looked like," Lestaci complains as she keeps walking forwards RIGHT square into that shimmering red barrier, recoiling afterwards.
Fortunately she is unhurt. Rubbing her nose's bridge, Lestaci looks around at the dust and sundry other grimes of ages. Then she twists round her ARM and starts to slowly swing it round. The nixie tube on top glows a steady orange; metal objects, such as they are, fly up to stick to the side.
- Lestaci got 3G!
There may also be key items involved. Or a literal key.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"Ugh, I didn't have a ton of books back home," Talise admits as she makes her way through the door, shouldering through it with little fuss.
She pauses as she spots the gargoyle statue. As Staci starts forward, Tal opens her mouth to say something, but blinks with surprise as the other woman hits a wall. " --Oh. It's -- it's a magic wall?" she asks, scratching at her head with one gauntleted finger.
For a moment she peers at the wall in front of her. THen she squints past it at the gargoyle.
"I wonder if the eyes on that thing are gems or anything," she suggests.
Then she winds up, clenches a fist, and pounds it against the forcefield. It doesn't do much except sting. She grunts and punches the thing again. "C'mon, go /down!/" she shouts at it.
<Pose Tracker> Lynnai Albrek has posed.
"Well yes," Lyn replies to Staci, "but that doesn't mean there's not plenty to learn from them!"
She slides one of the now-damaged (dead?) books aside with a foot as she walks past it. This means Lyn is well to the back of the group this time, as both Staci and Talise got there first, and she doesn't walk into the wall because she's already seen someone else do it and has no reason to think that it will work any better for her.
Instead, Lynnai reaches into one of her inner coat pockets. She pulls out a hand-bound book, leafing through it to a specific set of pages, as she approaches. "We might be able to deactivate it," she says, before reconsidering it. "Or turning it." Finding the section she's looking for, Lyn makes a quick reference of her notes, adding something else with a stub of a pencil, before trying to get right next to the statue, inspecting it for signs that it can be rotated or otherwise turned aside. "You may be needed to push," she adds to Talise.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida did not get a good look at the page before it was incinerated. This may be for the best.
After slapping a fresh cartridge into Devil's Due, she settles back into formation --and when she sees red light flicker up ahead, she frowns at the statue. "This is new," she murmurs, and she reaches for the book that might have saved her a lot of misery on the previous foray. Ida spends a moment flipping through her mother's old diagrams, and finds a cutaway of the mechanics of some sort of devious rotating dart-thrower (coupled with a puzzle, because someone was just that cruel.) "I think you're right," she says to Lynnai. "Talise, Lestaci, see if there's a dial or gears or something."
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has drawn a new Challenge. == == == == == == == == == == == == == ===<* Ruins of Memory *> == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==<* CHALLENGE - Distant Switch *> == == == == == == == == == == == == |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---< Challenge Information: > -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --- A large stone door has slid down the entrance at the end of this hallway. To make matters worse, the hallway has deep pits between the path to the door and the walls. The door may be opened by a switch on the wall, but one of those pits blocks easy access to the switch. Some clever thinking may be required. =Dungeon Conditions: Injure == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ===
<Pose Tracker> Lestaci Delloro has posed.
"You think there's a Gear down here?" Lestaci asks with naked greed.
Then, "Oh - oh, right." Something rattles eventually and it turns out the secret involves dust-concealed railings in the floor, amenable to pushing, shoving, and lever manipulation. Did anyone bring the lubricant?
And after this, through another door, the cool air brushing up tiny devils in the dust they have disturbed behind them. "Whoa!" Lestaci says, nearly hitting a pit, raising up her arms to signal. Stop it.
Then she squints.
Lestaci unshoulders her length of rope and holds it out towards Ida and Talise. "That look like a switch over there to you?" Lestaci asks Lynnai as she puts a tight nautical knot into the metal loop on one of her iron darts, before loading it into her ARM. "I mean I can't be sure, but I think the thing over it says 'DOOR SWITCH'. Or SWITCH DOOR? I don't know."
After this Staci aims, shoots, and leaves - well the leaving is more a matter of looping her hands on the rope and hustling over, in the hopes that Ida and Talise won't let go and drop her in the pit.
<Pose Tracker> Lynnai Albrek has posed.
Lynnai did indeed bring the lubricant, a little bottle of something that smells vaguely unpleasant in a mechanical sort of way. Of course, she can also just ask Talise to push it, because often having an ally with bigger biceps than you is a net positive.
It's not too long before they get to a pit-covered hallway with, unfortunately, a pit in the way of where they need to go. Lynnai's heart sinks a little. Fortunately, Staci appears to have it covered, with the aid of her rope dart. "It does," she agrees. "Though with our luck it's stuck or useless. Still, worth checking out."
Lynnai doesn't even ask before she takes Ida's place holding the rope. This is for the best, she thinks. Unfortunately she didn't give Staci her coat beforehand (and if she had, it wouldn't have helped, as Lynnai uses Symbology with it and not, say, an ARM) so this is about all she can do for the moment.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"There needs to be more pushing in life," Talise grumbles as she punches the forcefield one more time. She's breathing heavily.
By the time the shoving happens, she's a bit winded, but more than ready to just give the goddamn statue the heave-ho, firing up her gauntlets and just planting a palm against it to give a stubborn lever a shove. She doesn't even try. If she had half that much thinkin' power, life'd be a lot easier.
"I hate when caves do this," she grumbles.
The cool air brings at least some ebbing of her frustrations; she slips along after Staci, biting her lower lip, then holding onto the length of rope. "...Yeah. It might be a switch," she confesses. And then Staci's off, and Tal's going with her.
She gasps, clutching the rope, but manages to hang on, gripping and clenching her teeth.
"I hope I'm not going to weigh you down again," she mutters.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Locked door, puzzle, switch. Ida did not encounter this room in person, but it seems textbook for the traps in this dungeon. "Something along those lines!" she says, with a bit of forced cheer, because forced cheer never goes out of style. "Whomever built this place certainly liked their pit traps." But what if it is stuck or useless?! Ida rummages through her pack, comes up with a little tin can of something, and tosses it underhand once she is sure no one is going to fall in a pit trying to catch it.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
/clunk/, goes the oil can, as it lands at the bottom of the pit in front of the switch. Stabbing pain shoots through Ida's right shoulder as once again, it insists that she should not be doing this thing. Her face screws up in a horrible wince, but the door is open, at least!
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Predictably, Talise falls off the rope about halfway through.
"I HATE ROPES," she shouts as she falls down the pit. She manages to catch herself on a rocky outcropping several metres down.
She swears profusely every single second of the climb back up to safety. You'd think she was a sailor. (She is.)
<Pose Tracker> Lestaci Delloro has posed.
"Are you quite alright? Here," Lestaci calls from her position near the secured end of the rope. She also sees the oil can get thrown down, and calls to Ida, "Medicine?"
After this and perhaps with some help from Lynnai, towing people across can be accomplished. There may be some clinging and careful waist-wrapping involved, of course.
DG: Lynnai Albrek has drawn a new Challenge. == == == == == == == == == == == == == ===<* Ruins of Memory *> == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==<* CHALLENGE - Sealed Doorway *> == == == == == == == == == == == == |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---< Challenge Information: > -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --- The door at the end of this hall has a great lock on it. Unfortunately, no key was ever to be found inside of the ruins to this point. Perhaps it was stolen or perhaps it was lost. It is no matter - the door must be broken down through other means. =Dungeon Conditions: Tire == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ===
<Pose Tracker> Lynnai Albrek has posed.
Lyn holds the rope.
She actually manages it, even when Talise falls down, by virtue of being further back - but she doesn't like it, her arms feel like they're going to come out of her sockets as she momentarily holds up both Talise /and/ Lestaci. She makes her own way across afterwards, but everything hurts, and she's so distracted she can't even manage her gliding aura - she has to go across with someone else pulling her, because she's certainly not going to be able to make the climb herself. If she was Talise, she'd be swearing right now.
A lot.
But eventually they get to the far side, and Lynnai encounters... a door. A door when her arms are already killing her. Like hell is she going to force that (with her hands). "One moment," she says, holding up one hand to forestall someone ramming into it. This is because she builds up a ball of air against the hand, letting it build -
She projects it forward. The impact slams into the door, hopefully helping force it. "Go," she says - she just didn't want to hit anyone else with the airball, apparently. Lyn prepares another one, to strike it between people hitting it with other strategies.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"I'm alright," Talise assures Staci, though she seems rather miffed about the whole thing. Seeming to realize it, she pauses with a huff and shakes her head. " --Sorry. Didn't mean to be snippy."
She allows herself to be towed across. She does not grumble overmuch even as someone's arms wind around her waist, and she doing the same to someone else.
Then it's a hallway - and a door with no key and a great big lock.
Drawing in a breath, then letting it out, she slides her hands into her gauntlets, then takes a few steps forward, letting Lyn blast the door a couple of times. Her brows furrow as she focuses. A subtle vibration begins to race through the gauntlets; her muscles bunch and tighten visibly, shoulders rising and falling as she steps up to the door.
Which she promptly punches as hard as she goddamned can, right near the hinge, attempting to put her fingers through it.
She does the same thing with her opposite hand. One way or another, she attempts to just punch a pair of handholds into the door - and her punches hit a lot harder now. It's like a speeding bus just hit the thing. One way or another, she's grabbing onto it and bracing herself, shoulders squared - and she begins to pull.
"Gaaaah," she snarls at it. The snarl deepens to a loud grunt of effort as she attempts to just rip the entire door off its hinges with all the power her gauntlets can muster.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida is a moment in answering. "It was oil," she says, "for the switch." And now it gets to sit down there until someone finds it, unless of course Talise brings it back up. Ida pops another Heal Berry into her mouth, and offers one to Talise once she's back on stable ground again. After that, it's a harrowing few minutes as she traverses the rope, her shoulder still tense, and anxiety still boiling in the pit of her stomach.
And then --the other door. "Very similar to the one we encountered," Ida says. And since she only fell down one pit this time, she's actually in decent shape to try and do something about it. Bullets probably won't do much good, so she approaches the door (being sure to get out of the way of Lyn's air blasts) and kicks it with all her strength.
It rattles. It does not budge. Ida kicks again.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Sealed Doorway.
<Pose Tracker> Lestaci Delloro has posed.
"I've heard of these," Lestaci says, faced with that door.
Presumably she means 'ominous locked portals' not... doors. She knows what a door is. Even if she seemed a little mixed on books. Either way, she plops another of her iron darts into the ARM, spreads herself into a wide stance, and takes aim. That nixie tube on top of her gun starts to flash with increasing frequency as a weird whine that is probably entirely unfamiliar to anyone present begins rising up.
She doesn't shoot with someone in the way of course, that'd be pretty rude. Though when Talise REALLY gets in there, she shifts her aim towards any spots that seem like they're weakening.
Did the gun whisper 'super'? No, that's probably just an echo.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has drawn a new Challenge. == == == == == == == == == == == == == ===<* Ruins of Memory *> == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ===<* CHALLENGE - Ancient Elevator *> == == == == == == == == == == === |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---< Challenge Information: > -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --- This passageway consists of two levels. Unfortunately, the level you enter on ends in a sheer wall, polished far too smooth to climb easily. However, there is a section of white stone that raises up before it. There are grooves in the side, like that stone slab may raise and lower. Unfortunately, there are no obvious controls for this ancient elevator. A closer look may be required. =Dungeon Conditions: Tire == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ===
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The door is dealt with. It is far more laborious than it should be, and the only one who doesn't end up inconvenienced somehow is Talise. Perhaps, like one Claude Kenny, she knows what leg day is.
Behind the door is a short corridor, and a sight that is very familiar to Ida --a set of pictogram-covered tiles, all set up so that they depress like buttons. "This one is identical," she murmurs, approaching the elevator. "This platform raises up, but only if we work the mechanisms in the correct order." Or cheat. "I copied the notes down here," Ida says, holding up Flora's notebook --there's fresh diagrams in the margins, ones Ida made! She's contributing to her mother's legacy as a Drifter! "Lynnai, can you corroborate?" And she's reasonably sure there's metal parts in there, too, if that doesn't work.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Tearing a door off its hinges should not be as much of a problem as it is. Eventually Talise manages the damned thing. She lifts it up, growls with frustration, and hurls the damn thing down the hallway she came through. It makes it all the way back into the room with the pit, which it tumbles down.
Then she's heading into the next room - and there's another thinker trap in it.
She deflates visibly and breathes out a hard, slow sigh.
"So it's some kind of... lifting platform?" she asks, frowning and trying to wrap her head around exactly how something like that would work. It's harder because she has no baseline for the technology in the first place. Sticking close to Ida, she peers over her shoulder to look at the notebook the woman's brandishing, trying to make sense of it.
She moves to the elevator a moment later, kneeling by it and beginning to scope it out, peeking under it to look for something that might lift it. "...So there must be some part that pulls or pushes it, right? Maybe we can make it... push...?"
<Pose Tracker> Lestaci Delloro has posed.
Lestaci's completely sick railgun bolt snaps forwards, hits the door and leaves a dent, rebounds up off the ceiling and carves a bloody gash in Lestaci's calf on its way back to the pit.
Lestaci's reaction is "ahhhhh"
Followed by a deep breath and another "ghaaaaah"
And then a more pained, "ahhhhhh"
After a couple more cycles of this she dribbles some sol on it and ties a silk hankerchief around it, walking in a gingerly but not deeply handicapped way.
She seems much less buoyant here now. As she looks around, glancing at Ida and Lynnai as they get their nurd on, she looks then to Talise. Then she raises up her gun --!! To do that glowy thing again, emanating a magnetic field that might, perhaps, make something hidden twitch or bounce around, or just tug a little at people's jewelry.
"Tell me if I'm breaking something," Lestaci grouses.
DG: Lestaci Delloro has used her Tool ARM Discharge toward her party's challenge, Ancient Elevator.
<Pose Tracker> Lynnai Albrek has posed.
Stupid doors.
Lynnai isn't sure how much the airballs actually help. They tend to disperse and splash across it when they hit a broad solid area, like - say - a door. But it certainly doesn't hurt... except for the part where it literally hurts because she really needs to let her arms rest for a moment.
Fortunately, the far side requires brains, not brawn. She's better at that.
"Yes, an elevator," she says to Talise. "Except I don't see the controls, so... ah. Perhaps they're hidden." Lyn pulls out that book from before, finding a different page and getting to work, investigating some of the patterns on the stone and tracing routes to possible control surfaces. She has a /lot/ of notes on this kind of thing. She's willing to really work at it.
She does it so hard, in fact, that she forgets all about her sore arms for a while.
DG: The party led by Lynnai Albrek has successfully explored Ruins of Memory!
== == == == == == == == == == == == == ===<* Ruins of Memory *> == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==
== == == == == == == == ==<* CHALLENGE - Mural of the Fallen Knight *> == == == == == == == == ==
|Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Discovery |Challenge Rating: 1 |
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---< Challenge Information: > -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---
Hidden within one of the deepest levels of the Ruins of Memory is a room
that can be lit by lanterns. Doing so reveals no particular treasure, save
for a taste of history. On each wall, there is a mural. The south, east, and
west walls all have images of mankind fighting the Metal Demons; familiar,
though more detailed than most. The north wall, however, has a different
battle scene - three knights, in profile, kneel down before a fourth. That
one has fallen and lay dead. There are names scrawled below each knight, but
most have been worn away... except for the one of the fallen knight. If you
read closely, you can make out the letters "E-(scratch)-K-I-(scratch)-U."
You should send a +request regarding this discovery!
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ===
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
After much puzzling from Lynnai and Ida --and some lifting and stubborn-mechanism-jostling from Talise and Lestaci --the lift starts to move. Fortunately, there's enough time for everyone to scramble aboard. Ida notices Lestaci's injury on the way up, extracts a heal berry from her designated berry-carrying tin, and offers it to her. It's tasty!
The top floor opens into a gallery, a chamber with high, arched ceilings and broad, sturdy columns. It almost looks like a cathedral, complete with detailed frescoes on the wall --Ida stops in her tracks, her lantern bobbling at her side as she takes it all in. "This is... the chamber we reached," she says. She takes her lantern, and walks a little ways in, where another, identical elevator rests at the bottom of its shaft. She can see it, even from all the way up here. There are several sets of footprints in the dust, as well, and they're extremely recent.
"We found murals," Ida says, her voice hushed and eager. "This way, let me show them to you --!" She heads deeper into the room.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise is once again stumped by the magic of machinery. She scratches her head.
Fortunately she has very smart friends, and they help her jostle the right thing, even if she feels like an idiot about it. She does kneel near Lestaci as the elevator hoists the two. "Are you alright?" she asks, voice a bit rough from sheer weariness. She's not bleeding from anywhere but the bruises under her armour are beginning to wear on her.
Finally, the elevator reaches the top. Warily, Talise slides her sword into her hand again. She steps through the gallery, into the arch.
Her eyes widen. "...What, murals?" she murmurs, looking towards Ida again, then back over to Lyn and Staci, keeping close to the latter. She hustles after Ida in time with the others, bootprints stirring up a bit of dust. She coughs lightly and blows some of the drifting particles away from her mouth.
The frescoes leave her silent with wonder. Her lower lip drops slightly, eyes wide as she takes in the ancient images - old relics of the Blue Star's past, unveiled before her. "Amazing," she murmurs.
<Pose Tracker> Lestaci Delloro has posed.
The elevator rises upwards and Lestaci puts her gun back in its holster. She looks around -- footsteps are here already, she sees, not entirely approvingly. Monsters? Another team?
No, Ida's been here -
"Oh! Murals," Lestaci says, before she digs out a cigarette and lights it on the way inwards. This area does not seem disaster-laden, though she does look around with some wariness, just in case. Once they come in...
Lestaci's transient disappointment that this was not some easily fencable goods fades in the sight of the murals in general. "Whatever this was about must have been important," she says, "if they took the pain to paint THIS much about it."
<Pose Tracker> Lynnai Albrek has posed.
Lynnai traces routes to control surfaces - or what she thinks might be some, concealed - and gets to work trying to make them operate. Eventually she does manage something; some of her poking triggers ancient machinery, assisting in getting the elevator up and running. For a couple transits, anyway. (Lyn is mostly hoping for one in and one out, because the thought of climbing up does not fill her with glee.)
But then they get to the murals room.
This is something Lynnai has not seen before. She slows as she enters, looking up; she takes it all in, panning around, looking at the images. She wishes she had some way to take the image with her, but unfortunately she does not, short of sketching it. "It's the Metal Demon War!" She isn't quite scolding toward Lestaci. (Talise is perfectly safe from any scorn because, being from a different planet, Lyn does not expect her to know anything about Filgaian history.) "I've seen something like that one before," she adds, pointing to the west wall. "This one is in much better repair. And the north..."
A beatific smile spreads across Lyn's face. She might be distracted for a while.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"We couldn't figure out who these people were," Ida says, noticing that Lynnai is looking directly at the puzzling mural. "All we have is this tiny, tantalizing fragment of a name. Four warriors, one of whom died on the battlefield a thousand years ago, and was memorialized here, in this. This is buried history. And there will be an exhibit on it at the Exhibiton, and --well --it would be improper for me to not credit you for our follow-up."
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The glow from Ida's lantern illuminates the wall behind her, as well. While bits of it have been worn away, it's in roughly the same shape as the other fresco --many of the names have been worn away by time and decay, but some of them remain. Over Ida's shoulder, for example, is the dynamic image of a woman in martial garb punching a Metal Demon so hard its body all but jacknifes around her clenched fist. As with so many others, there's the fragment of a name nearby:
L_I__ R_Y
[OOC] Lynnai Albrek says, "Oh yeah definitely gonna put the request in tonight"
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"The Metal Demon War?" Talise echoes Lyn with a slow blink. It doesn't click for her as immediately as it does for Lyn, even though she's been told a thing or two about Metal Demons. "You mean... it's some ancient war with those monsters from the past?"
She follows Lyn's gaze towards the northern wall, particularly as she realizes Ida's also looking at it. Dropping to a knee with a thump of a knee plate against the stone, she leans to squint at the mural. "E blank Ki blank U," she reads out. "What could that even spell? Elki...pu...? Er...ki...ku? Maybe there's supposed to be letters in front of it?"
Looking up again, she blinks at Ida a couple of times. "You were here before?" she asks.
Her train of thought is diverted by what looks to her like a martial artist punching demons. She presses her lips firmly together and squints at it, eyes narrowed. "Who's that?"
<Pose Tracker> Lestaci Delloro has posed.
The Metal Demon war doesn't put money in my pocket, Lestaci thinks but does not say. Her gross revenues so far are 3G!!
"Oh, sure, I could tell, with the Metal Demons and all," Lestaci says. She tries not to exhale onto the murals; she wasn't raised in a barn. "Oh - Credit? Hah, well, I'd be glad to hear it. Now remember my last name's got two Ls -- Oh?" Her head turns to look at that decayed fresco of a woman punching the bejabbers out of a Demon. "... Huh."
"Liry," she guesses when Talise asks.
<Pose Tracker> Lynnai Albrek has posed.
"It's a mural showing it." Lynnai sounds distracted; she's gotten a different book out and now she's taking notes, rather than reading from it. There are pages at the back specifically for this, and she writes neatly given she's doing it standing up with a stub of a pencil instead of sitting with a good pen. (She'll rewrite it for the real book later.) "Whether it's actually made in that era or not, I can't say. It might have been made somewhat later, since there are names, if fragmentary..."
Lynnai is a ruin explorer to find things like this. It's thrilling. To think that someone, then, could transmit information to her, now - information thought long-lost, no less! She's certainly excited.
Right now, she's cataloguing what she finds. "Thank you," she says to Ida. "I'll make my notes available to the exhibit, if you're crediting us." And she's glad, because otherwise she might have to make a competing exhibit and that's no good. But the notes she's taking are likely to be more... let's say /exhaustive/ than anything Claude C. Kenny, king of jumping into things, is likely to produce.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Lynnai certainly has a lot to take in --there are many more fragments of names, and many more artistic interpretations of humanity's defenders. She could probably spend a very long time cross-referencing, digging through local histories, and generally trying to track them down, if she were so inclined. PERHAPS SHE WILL.
"That's where I went the other day," Ida says, to Talise. "The Princess requested assistance, and, well, we ended up here." As for the name, Ida just shakes her head. "Perhaps? I admit, it's difficult to tell in this light. If we had a portable electric torch, it would be easier, but I can't imagine hauling one through /that/." 'Portable electric torch', in Guild Galad terms, is essentially what a flashlight would be if it were attached to a gigantic car battery, and prone to breaking under strenuous circumstances.
Then Talise points something out. Ida looks. "I don't know," she says. "I suppose I was so excited about the north wall that I didn't closely examine the others! Inconsiderate of me. But I suppose we could find out, theoretically."
Pause. "I think there's a space there --yes. Two names."
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
A part of Talise loves this kind of stuff. "Liry, huh," she murmurs, glancing at Staci again. "Yeah, I think there might be a space... Li Ry. Huh."
She steps over towards the wall; sword sheathed at this point, she removes her gauntlets and sets her hands at her hips, looking up at Martial Arts Mural Girl with quiet wonder. She closes her teeth around her bottom lip. "I can't believe this," she murmurs, more to herself than anything. Her eyes are slightly wide. "Ancient murals from the Blue Star... it's like I've woken up in an ancient myth."
She wraps her arms around herself and closes her eyes, her head tilting back as if she were looking to the heavens. She stays like that for a long few seconds.
Her eyes open again, cheeks gently colouring as she lets out a slow breath. "...I'm glad I got to see this," she says, voice soft.