2017-03-26: A Return? to Linga
- Log: 2017-03-26: A Return? to Linga
- Cast: Jacqueline Barber, Ethius Hesiod, Noeline, Zed, Kourin
- Where: Sacred Grounds of Linga
- Date: 2017-03-26
- Summary: A group led by Jacqueline and Ethius venture into the Sacred Grounds of Linga to chase a rumor...
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
This wasn't the first time Jacqueline had put together an expedition to the Sacred Grounds. The first had ended in tragedy, forcing them to leave behind a friend who had sacrificed herself nobly so that she and Ethius could escape. Some strange things had happened there, and Jacqueline wanted to know more. And, if possible, find anything that might give her more information on Riesenlied, who she believed to be dead but hoped that wasn't the case. There had been no sign of a corpse, from what Ethius had gathered.
She had heard the rumors in town, of course. For that reason, and her agreement with Ethius that they keep things discrete, she did not elaborate on any of the oddities that had occured. Only that they were hoping to find something that might have been left behind in the ruins that belonged to their lost comrade.
Her wagon, once painted with a garish assortment of colors that had since faded with time and pulled by a nameless horse, was currently parked next to Ethius's camp outside of the Sacred Grounds and affixed with Crests to provide security while they would be gone.
She could presently be found sitting on a rock near an outcropping nearby where Ethius had previously eaten his lunch - her stomach turned at the thought, but she kept it down for the sake of looking professional - where she agreed to meet with anyone interested in joining their expedition.
"With any luck, they will arrive soon..." She said, arms folded over her chest with her eyes firmly affixed on the ground. She felt some trepidation about going into the Sacred Grounds again, but it needed to be done.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Jay's enigmatic partner for this return trip into the depths, a man who seems to only ever sporadically bother to give his name as one Ethius Hesiod, stands near to the merchant with quarterstaff in hand. He's already a few steps ahead of her, surveying the way forward they have already been previously familiar with.
He seems content to leave most of the social graces to the expert apothecary as their help arrives, one hand over his eyes. He may be attempting to scope out the possibility of bandit activity from where they stand, but that yet proves inconclusive for the time being.
Given what he had eaten not long before, it seems he's holding up just fine. The drink he was given has yet to be opened, let alone consumed, but he has chosen to keep it on his person. For his apparent professionalism, it may be simply that he does not drink on the job.
"I have not heard word about outlaw activity on the road that leads here," he speaks in reassuring words, if still in that neutral tone of voice.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"My, don't look so stiff! It's not like there's going to be much down there. At least, not now, from what I heard of the matter." The teasing voice in Jacqueline's direction comes from a teenage girl who looks completely unsuited for ruin-diving, decked out in much too fine a manner of dress
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"My, don't look so stiff! It's not like there's going to be much down there. At least, not now, from what I heard of the matter." The teasing voice in Jacqueline's direction comes from a teenage girl who looks completely unsuited for ruin-diving, decked out in much too fine a manner of dress. She's grinning pleasantly from where she's peeking around the wagon, stepping around it with a hand at her mouth. "Room for one interested party, perhaps? I can pull my weight," she adds, in complete defiance of all evidence.
Following her, two metal spheres bob gently through the air, before settling just above each of her shoulders and seemingly hanging there. The girl steps forward a second time, apparently insistent. "But you know, when I heard about something that terrible happening, I decided I just had to go take a look myself."
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
'Sacred Grounds' of Linga indeed! What is so sacred about a cave, one might ask!? Well, apparently it's sacred enough to put Super Awesome Dragoon Riese into sickbay for a few days. Clearly, it's a place in dire need of some high-class exploration.
ENTER ZED.
SPECIFICALLY, ENTER ZED NEXT TO NOELLINE.
"What ho, weary travellers!" Zed calls with a grin and a wave. "Indeed! I'm here for similar reasons! There were strange rumors about this place, and so I have come to stab them in the face! Repeatedly!"
At least he's... straightforward???
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
The sound of a dog barking precede the next individual, as Spirit bounds forward ahead of his mistress, pouncing on Zed and wagging his tail happily at the sight of the young green-haired man. Kourin hurries up shortly after, breathless. She spies Zed being greeted merrily by Spirit, and sighs.
"I wondered who you were chasing," she says to Spirit. Then she spies Ethius--though she does not know him by name, the man is familiar to her as well.
"Perhaps...can I assist you as well? In return for your recent hospitality..."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
It doesn't seem to come as a surprise that finding a whole lot of monster corpses would draw attention. With luck, the rumor is simply just that - numerous corpses, indicative only of a triumphant last gasp for their lost ally.
Only those two know for certain the idea that there might yet be more, and yet, the well-to-do young woman and loud-mouthed young man earns a gaze from the dark-skinned Symbologist. His eyes do not betray his feelings, whatever they might be, as they linger upon the two.
The barking pulls him away from focus, to a sight he would see as familiar - the young woman who met with him some time ago under the evening sky.
"Would these two be your friends, Miss Kourin?" Asks Ethius, as if recalling the circumstances in which the two had met to begin with, as the young ice sorcerer transitions to offering to help. "I must apologize, but that is not my call to make... I leave that to Miss Jay, next to me."
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline looks up at Ethius's words and nods in understanding. She's thankful that he hasn't heard word on it so for she knew that if there were, they would meet a grisly fate.
The outlaws, anyway.
She looks down to the ground once more, only to be distracted by an unfamiliar voice. This one belonged to a girl who looked...frankly out of place here in the wilderness, but at the very least eager.
She stands to her feet. It was true, it sounded like the owlbears had been soundly dealt with. Still, they should be careful. With the owlbears gone, it may leave room for other predators to take their niche.
"Ah, well, I-" Before she can continue, a rather...vibrant man appears next to the girl.
She considered asking if he intended to stab the rumors themselves, but...perhaps it would be best not to.
She nods at both of them. "Of course. If you're both interested, we'd be happy to have you." She says with a smile.
And after that, a familiar dog and a familiar young lady, who it seemed Ethius knew as well.
"Ah, miss Kourin. Yes, of course. We'd be glad to have you." She said with a nod.
With that, it seemed anyone who might be interested was already here. To herself, she nodded in approval. The group seemed fine enough.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"No, no-- just your ~average~ Drifter with an interest in rumours," the girl beams, trying to pin a cute smirk on the stiff-seeming mage and obviously playing up how out-of-place she looks. "Wouldn't you say there's always merit in figuring out the truth behind things? Noeline Carver," she adds brightly and suddenly enough that it takes a moment to realize she means her name, turning on her heel in the pause that follows. "In any case, isn't time a-wasting?" she adds, a motion of her hand sending the two little orbs hovering out in front of her as she starts to make for the cave's mouth.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin looks down at the ground. "These...are not the friends I had mentioned, no," Kourin replies. Spirit bounds over to Jacqueline next to greet her.
"In fact, I must honestly say that one of them is known to be a companion of those I am sworn to capture." She turns to Zed. "D-did Hiro get away safely before I reported him?" she asks, a note of concern in her voice.
What a strange girl.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Zed is not going to stab rumors! He cannot slay metaphysical concepts. Yet. He's working on it. One of the many things that he is busily training to accomplish, stabbing conceptual entities in the conceptual spleen.
But it seems he will first need to conquer another foe. A DOGGO. A doggo who receives so many headpats for his friendly demeanor. He is gone again in moments, but it's fine since Zed has a question to answer. "Oh, yes! He was fine. Our exit was peaceful, in fact. Too peaceful. It would have been more interesting if--"
Beat.
"Ah, nevermind! It's fine!"
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius' eyes follow the strange orbs in the air that hover around Noeline, as Kourin explains one of the complex political situations that he seems to be mixed into. She doesn't have his eye contact, but she does have his ear even as Zed stammers suspiciously.
It's not his first time in the company of a fugitive.
"I see," is all he comments as she goes from suspicion, and then into concern, a hand coming to his face as little webs of thought start to spin in his head about the whole picture. He casts a look back over to Jay, then to the path ahead.
This scenario may yet grow complicated, might be the unspoken thought, but time is of the essence.
To no one's surprise, he fails to properly introduce himself before anyone yet again. (One might begin to wonder if he does that on purpose!)
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline glances towards Ethius, who she assumes has come to the same conclusions. It sounds like some of their companions had a complicated history...but, at least they seemed civil enough about it.
She looks back to Noeline, and nods. "And I am Jay. A pleasure to meet you, everyone." She says. "But yes, you're right."
A hand has fallen towards Spirit, patting him on the head as he approaches her. She couldn't help herself, and it seems that neither could the exuberant stranger. She was glad, at least, that they seemed to have one thing in common.
"Well, then, if everyone is ready...shall we set out?" She asks, glancing around at the others.
DG: A party led by Jacqueline Barber is now entering Sacred Grounds of Linga. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
======================<* CHALLENGE - Annoying Ascent *>======================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The path to the Sacred Grounds of Linga leads your party up a long and twisted mountain slope. Bare patches of earth suggest a path once existed, but now it seems you'd have to be half-goat to follow it in places. The first challenge of the Sacred Grounds, it seems, is climbing your way to the entrance. =Dungeon Conditions: Tire=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
With everyone ready, Jacqueline set out, bringing up the front. Yet again, the cliffside slope leered up at them. Last time they - or rather, she, as Ethius had not needed it - had Riesenlied to fly a rope up there to help them up. They did not have that this time, and now they would have to manage without it.
"Be careful, everyone. Try not to slip!" She warns, rummaging through her bags to pull out a pale-green potion. She downs the liquid inside and begins to climb up, her movements increased in speed and efficiency by her drink.
Her gaze was focused primarily on the entrance above, though she did occasionally glance towards the others to see how they progressed.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Invigoration Elixir toward her party's challenge, Annoying Ascent.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius heads up along the slope with the rest, his quarterstaff a good means for keeping balance but otherwise provides little to add of consideration to navigating this route up the mountain beyond his usual silence and occasional unexplainable gestures.
How did he make it up there last time? It might just be that he was simply slower. He did seem distracted about something before... what it is and why might be a mystery for another time.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Annoying Ascent.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin has come somewhat prepared for this sort of thing--a length of rope is soon produced, and magically animated to assist in the ascent. Spirit trots along without apparent difficulty.
DG: Kourin has used her Tool Trick Rope toward her party's challenge, Annoying Ascent.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Rightfully speaking, there should be no way to be nimble in so overblown a dress - and yet, Noeline doesn't seem to give a slightest damn about the laws of sense or physics as she hops her way up from one rock step to another, making good time in her ascent.
When even that fails her, a momentary huff of air precedes a wave of her hand that brings one of her two orbs to her side. "Strife, do be a dear," she adds as she clings onto it - and with a whirr of motors, the little mechanical object simply lifts her to the next handhold instead.
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Strife toward her party's challenge, Annoying Ascent.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
This... Is another cliffside.
Zed stares up at the entrance high above them. Why did so many treasure-filled troves lie somewhere at either end of some kind perilous slope? Well, no matter! There's only one thing to do for it! "Careful? Nonsense! This is just a little bit of a hill! We'll be fine!"
Zed braces.
Zed jumps... Repeatedly. He seems to... intend to jump up the mountainside like some kind of weird moss-haired goat. "Tally-ho! Onwaaaaards!
DG: Zed has used his Tool Grapple Scarf toward his party's challenge, Annoying Ascent. DG: The party led by Jacqueline Barber has passed this challenge! The party gained 22 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Ethius Hesiod has drawn a new Challenge.
==================<* CHALLENGE - Effervescent Elementals *>=================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- These strange, swirling creatures look like they may once have been guardian spirits, nearly-formless creatures of pure air. Unfortunately, the air in this part of the cave is pretty rank, and the creatures bring their full flavour to bear as they fight. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
It seems their crew is a rather nimble sort, or at least well equipped. The one named Zed seems even more nimble than she is under the effects of her potion, with him jumping everywhere. It is really quite astonishing, and so is that strange sphere that seems to be giving Noeline a lift.
She was a little jealous, all of a sudden. She wondered where she could get one of those. Or that fancy rope Kourin was using.
Still, she doesn't let it stop her in her climb. Eventually, they all make it to the top, one way or another.
Jacqueline stops, pausing to catch her breath. "Whew. Good work, guys..." She says, looking around and taking stock of everyone. Once she had her breath back, she continued on.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
For Jacqueline and Ethius, they aren't quite going down the same path overall as before, but perhaps it is for the best, knowing what was awaiting them before. The thieves might have been prepared for intrusion, this time.
...
The group's travels nonetheless take them into the caves. Rocky and overwhelmingly muddy in coloration, there are sparse growths in which herbs could be harvested, if one felt like picking a few along the way.
Breezy, swirly, vaguely-spherical spirits that harbor green coloration sway to and fro. The noises they make are windy, growing louder as the group approaches them.
Ethius brings his hand up as he is first beset by a gust of wind that is sharp enough that it might rend flesh. In response, he begins to chant - the familiar sights and sounds of Symbology are displayed before the lot as he draws a bag from his belt, and throws it into the earth before them.
Dust flies everywhere - a trick that Jay is already familiar with in action. One of his Powder Grenades.
"As we were," Ethius says, as he moves to go past the mob of them.
Incidentally, the dust counts as earth-elemental. That should help get rid of them.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Powder Grenade toward his party's challenge, Effervescent Elementals.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"Oh, good grief, really?" the girl in red and black grumbles to herself once she steps inside, picking lightly at her dress to keep it off the floor
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"Oh, good grief, really?" the girl in red and black grumbles to herself once she steps inside, picking lightly at her dress to keep it off the floor - out of thin air, a rather ornate blackened scythe materializes in one hand as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "Did it have to be fetid? Surely a massacre isn't going to cause that much in the way of miasma."
Not... that she seems like she's about to step forwards any time soon, opting to simply lean back with an unimpressed expression as she again languidly waves a hand. The other of her spheres bobs forwards in front of her, whirrs cutely - and perhaps 'unfolds' is the best word for the way a number of flaps open up on its front to reveal an array of barrels that start to spit scattering bolts of light through the murk.
"Sometimes dealing with things like this is such a chore," huffs the girl as she sits there doing absolutely nothing, completely ignoring the second of her pods squeaking in indignation as it nearly gets swept into a wall by the blowback of dust..
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Trouble toward her party's challenge, Effervescent Elementals.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Zed has scaled so many cliffs so far, you might even say his attempt at the mountain side felt like a BREEZE. By the time he's up top, he's barely even WINDED. Looks like he's not nearly as much a bag of HOT AIR as he appears so often to be!
Okay. Enough of that.
There's danger afoot.
"This... This smell. It's... It's terrible!" Zed grimaces at the reek and the stink. "It's like some kind of... SOME KIND OF STINK TORNADO...!! But don't worry friends. I... Have just the thing!!" Ethius has a similar idea. But Zed's... Zeds are FANCIER. He chucks a trio of white pellets at the root of the whirling storms, all of which explode into clouds of glittering, clinging dust...!! "Hahahaha! Now then, behold!" Zed draws his sword. He winds back-- "The true power... OF SPINNING!" He whirls! He twirls! He becomes... A HUMANOID TYPHOON OF SO MANY SHARP BLADES!
But will it be enough to... BLOW THEM ALL AWAY!?
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin wears a rapier at her hip and does know how to use it, but creatures like this are challenging to defeat with such mundane weapons. Wrinkling her nose at the stench of the rank air in the cave, she instead reaches for a small globe of clay, painted blue.
"Perhaps they will be slowed by this," she says, hurling it forward. It cracks and bursts, creating a field of frigid air.
Okay maybe it won't actually slow an air elemental...but you never know unless you try. She follows up with a quick spell, also unleashing the power of ice--if these elementals can't be hurt by such magics, then Kourin's certainly about to find out...
DG: Zed has used his Tool Smoke Bombs toward his party's challenge, Effervescent Elementals. DG: Kourin has used her Tool Rimebomb toward her party's challenge, Effervescent Elementals.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline backpedals quickly at the sight of the air elementals before them. "Oh, goodness..." She mutters, shaking her head at the foul scent and raising a hand to cover her mouth. It was even worse than her repellent. She reaches to a bag, briefly considered to pull one out, but decides it against it. If she did that, it might just get sent every which way. The last thing she wants is to end up suffocating all of them. Instead, what she brings out is one of the clothes she uses when she experiments with her potions. This is wrapped around her mouth to shield her from breathing in the awful scent.
She removes a Crest from her pouch, conjuring a pillar of earth to give her a bit of cover from the winds.
Afterwards she begins to conjure several more pillars of earth, these ones coming up with greater force in an attempt to disperse whatever elemental lingers too long above them.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Effervescent Elementals. DG: The party led by Jacqueline Barber has passed this challenge! The party gained 22 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Noeline has drawn a new Challenge.
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Hellish Halls *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- It was... this way, right? Or maybe that way? All these passages look the same, and it's hard to tell just where you're supposed to go. It'll take some careful thought to find your way through this maze of corridors and get back to a familiar landmark. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The effluvious elementals are thrown asunder by a team that appears a little too well-prepared for the proceedings for their own good. First it was fine granular dust. Then, it was laser blasts. Then, it was a spinning tornado made of descending glitter, crystalized into glittery snowflakes that cool off the air elementals into suspended animation. The single spike of earth strikes through one creature that barely cling to corporeal form, and they explode. It starts a chain.
The stench they release is even worse when they expire.
At the end of the domino chain of exploded air elementals stands Ethius, who is now comprehensively covered in glitter. Unflinchingly, he gestures forward down the cave. (Could it be, someone almost as cool as Zed to be able to walk off a glitterbomb...? No, that's impossible.)
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
- AND YET, A COUPLE OF MINUTES LATER: ***
"Zed, really, how exactly can we be lost? You have only just made us leave a trail brighter than the midday sun," the strange girl huffs with not a little irritation as she brushes herself down and folds her arms, leant back against the scythe that has been temporarily wedged into the ground. She still seems somewhat reluctant to actually pick up and help just yet, staring over at the array of dark passages leading out of the larger chamber they've found themselves in. "Just-- go try each of them in turn, or something. It isn't as if it should be hard."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"At a glance, we might not have much of a landmark to work with," Ethius says as he withdraws something from under his poncho. It looks like a monocle? With the tap of a finger following the obligatory sorcerous chanting, it glows a brighter light following a jolt of electricity.
He brings it to his eye - his Spectral Lens - famed for the ability to look at energy signatures and connections. If he can find some kind of lingering energy marker, that could provide a very roundabout compass to work with.
"Perhaps... this passage leads somewhere," he pontificates at eloquent length about why this one way may be the way forward and not a trap, but there's only one way to test this theory in the end.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Spectral Lens toward his party's challenge, Hellish Halls.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Zed is not the only one cool enough to walk off a glitterbomb. He is the only one cool enough to walk off a glitterbomb ~with style~ though! Style that doesn't help him at all when... Uh.
...When they get terribly, awfully lost.
"Do not blame this one on me!!" Zed gawps at his way-too-frilly-froo-froo companion. "Clearly this place is cursed with some kind of... Strange... folded space-time. Be careful, one wrong step, and you might cause the world to collapse!!" Or the game to crash. One of the two. "But. You might be on to something. Hmn."
"...We could try them all one by one, or..."
"We could try them..." Zed's eyes flash. "ALL AT ONCE."
He... Starts running.
A moment later, he emerges from another tunnel, then darts back into it, only to emerge from out of a hole in the ceiling.
This might take him a while.
DG: Zed has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Hellish Halls.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin keeps quiet and trusts to Spirit's nose to get them through this. Spirit keeps quiet and trusts to Kourin's being a Good Mistress to get them through this.
DG: Kourin has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Hellish Halls.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"Ugh, it's really just some passages. It's not as if it can be difficult," Noeline maintains, finally straightening up from her impromptu backrest as the energetic NINJA bolts off down a dozen passageways in a short space of time, all accompanied by a slide whistle. "When in doubt, all you have to do is map it in your head. Even in the darkness, that shouldn't be all that difficult."
... she says that, but her hand stays skimming the left-hand wall as she overconfidently steps forward. What is she, twelve and doing her first maze?
DG: Noeline has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Hellish Halls.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
The air elementals were far too nimble for her earth pillars, it seemed. The pillar she summoned protected her from the cutting winds, at least...but there was one thing it did not protect her from. She is assaulted from all sides by...some sort of...
glittery substance...
It seems that her pillar combined with the air currents only acted to divert a good portion of it into her. The pillar in front of her retreats into the ground to reveal that Jacqueline is now covered from head to toe in the stuff, and looking somewhat unamused and positively radiant.
She shoots Zed -A Look-, but does not say a word. Instead, she moves to follow the others.
This was definitely a different path than they had taken before. She did not remember it being so...twisty and turny. Perhaps this is why those unfortunate souls they stumbled upon had recommended that they take an alternate pathway. A man could get lost for an eternity in here.
Still, at least she has a good head for this sort of thing. She studies their path carefully, trying to keep in mind the way they had come from just in case they needed to go back.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Hellish Halls. DG: The party led by Jacqueline Barber has passed this challenge! The party gained 26 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Kourin has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* CHALLENGE - Minor Miners Minor in Mining *>=========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | -------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >------------------------------------- Down this corridor, you find a pair of centuries-old skeletons - miners, from the looks of them, their tools lying where they last fell. A barely-legible map suggests they were trying to dig their way around a particularly fiendish section of the Sacred Grounds...is it worth trying to finish the job? The tools are right there... =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"You see? As easy as that," huffs the Crimson Noble(?) with the full force of her selfconfidence, as scattered and rough-hewn passageways of stone start to peter out and coalesce back into a single tunnel. "Surely it's easy sailing from here."
Satisfied, she pats one of her orbs gently - it spins under her hand, making a pleased noise as the girl looks up towards the ceiling. "Zed, do stop-- whatever on Filgaia you're doing, and hurry up. There is only one of you, no matter how much you might try."
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin, silently glad to be out of the maze of tunnels, nonetheless feels disappointed in Spirit when the dog barks and heads down one passageway eagerly. Following, she realizes that the source of the dog's interest in this tunnel was not that it was the right path, but that he wanted to play with bones.
Rather than try and explain this to her companions, Kourin indicates the tools. "It looks like these poor souls were digging to avoid a part of the ruins ahead," she says, as Spirit happily barks and plays with the bones behind her.
"Perhaps it would be wise to follow their-- Spirit stop that at once!"
DG: Kourin has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Minor Miners Minor in Mining.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"... can't we just go around?" Noeline notes with distaste and disbelief, picking at the handle of a pickaxe lodged into the rock wall. "More than that, however did people get this far into the ruins all of a week ago!" Her hands have gone to her hips at that last comment, leaving her to spit out a litany of low-key grumbling in its wake.
"In any case, I'm hardly made for heavy labour," she adds, preening for a moment as she flicks out her hair. "Zed, won't you give it a try for us both? Show us all your might, or something of the sort."
DG: Noeline has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Minor Miners Minor in Mining.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius comes to a stop before the two dead miners, the pathway before them closed off.
"If I may," he speaks up, "I may be able to melt the stone in our way, if it would appear it is too much for us to simply dig through the traditional way."
Ethius made this offer previously in the company of... another. Their own expertise, as is their stalwart ally, is not available to assist.
He looks to Jay. Given their circumstances, that might be for the best to try this, as he gets to chanting. An incredible heat begins to rise from the rocks of the tunnel.
As such, each of his sorcery disciplines have now come to the forefront - earthy dust, electrical power, and immense heat.
"I can ascertain we have clearance, ventilation, and time, for lack of immediate pursuit by hostile entities."
Still, it's not pleasant to be in close proximity of molten freakin' rock!!!
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Minor Miners Minor in Mining.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"Ah, this is..." Jacqueline starts, glancing towards Ethius. A familiar-looking situation. She didn't know if these were the same pair from before and the same room, but it looked similar enough. If it was, though, a single glance told her that the shortcut they had made had collapsed. Ethius said it would, so she wasn't surprised.
She glances towards Kourin with a nod. "Yes, I-" She stops, her attention on Spirit as he picks up one of the leftover bones.
She glances away with a slight grimace. She felt bad about it, but...well, those two weren't using them anymore. She didn't want to take it away from Spirit not when he looked so...so happy...
She needed to focus on the task at hand or she may find herself distracted.
"Yes, that should work." She says, nodding towards Ethius. Last time she was a little hesitant to allow it, but now that she was sure he wasn't going to just stab her in the back she was a little more lenient.
"I'll just...move some earth out of the way." She said, removing a Crest from her pouch and getting to work.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Minor Miners Minor in Mining.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
By the time they find a way out, Zed has... Apparently run in circles at least a dozen times. At the very least, keeping track of where he's been might have made it easier to figure out the right way to go! But even so... He's a bit... Winded.
...And then they get to... A rock wall. And a pickaxe. Zed gives Noelle a look that seems to say 'are you really serious right now' but... But then again... She IS pretty delicate. So maybe she just... Can't do this kind of hard labor?
...Hm.
"Well. Alright! LET'S DO IT!" Zed grabs hold of the pickaxe and starts AXING AWAY. "MA-ZED POWER, ACTIVAAAAAATE!"
Then Ethius sets the rock on fire.
...
Zed keeps right on digging through the fire and the flames. He's determined, if nothing else!!!
DG: Zed has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Minor Miners Minor in Mining. DG: The party led by Jacqueline Barber has failed this challenge! The party gained 0 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Zed has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* CHALLENGE - Bandit Band *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- A group of bandits appears to have been using the winding tunnels as a base camp, to hide themselves from what passes for the law near Linga. As your party approaches, they draw swords and rush to the attack! =Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Treasure=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin eventually gets Spirit to stop playing with the bones, and despite the puissant abilities--rocks on fire for Althena's sake--digging an entirely new tunnel may not actually be the best way forward. Or a way forward at all. "Let's...let's just go a different way," she finally concedes.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"NO!" Zed roars, hammering at the burning rocks with his pickaxe. "I WILL NOT BE DENIED! I!" Zed digs! "AM!! He digs! "THE DRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLL!" The camera zooms in on his eyes. A bright green spiral blazes a trail out from the pits of his pupils, before itself being split by a wave of RAINBOW LIGHT. He digs he digs he digs he digs he digs through the molten rock, until he's covered in the stuff, and even then he still digs. Like some kind of dwarf with a fixation or a crafter with a mania, his mind and body and soul are set on digging...!!
And then... They get to the other side.
"Oi," says a bandit squatting over a pile of gold, amidst a bunch of other bandits all of whom seem to be dressed in what look like ratty old school uniforms. One has a pompadour. "W-wot's all this, then!? YOU WANT OUR TREASURE!?" They raise their swords! Their axes! Their nail-bats! "ON 'EM LA-AAAUUUGH MY ARM!!"
Zed...
Is still digging.
Right through the bandits.
Something falls out of his pocket and explodes into a cloud of glitterdust.
But the rest of the party should probably do something about the band of bloodthirsty bandits who seem to be equally terrified, baffled and enraged at this whirlwind of ultraviolence in their midst. Most of them are thankful that it seems to be directed at the rock walls instead of... any of them.
DG: Zed has used his Tool Smoke Bombs toward his party's challenge, Bandit Band.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Her arms folded, Noeline is back to leaning on her scythe - her expression isn't dumbfounded at Zed's surprisingly successful attempt to hew through the wall, but there is a slight sagging of her shoulders as she lets out a disbelieving breath. "... haaah..." she sighs at some length, hand going to her forehead. "... well, you certainly did make a fervent attempt. I suppose that must be considered good work, given the circumstances."
At the first shout, she tilts her head, directing her expression towards the hole that Zed created, and lets out a second heaving sigh. "Really, I can't even muster the energy right now. Trouble, if you would. I do suggest covering your eyes, by the by. Zed, you may wish to move," she adds, shading herself as the darkness is once again interrupted by several lancing spikes of light.
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Trouble toward her party's challenge, Bandit Band.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius halts the casting once Kourin suggests taking another way - and perhaps deciding that no matter how amusing it may prove to an outside observer, setting the exuberant, energetic swordsman on fire is probably not in his immediate interests.
"Very well, Miss Kourin." He does not sound displeased with the proceedings. Even in an inconvenient failure, he appears to take well enough in stride.
He grossly underestimates Zed's determination, and hides his face behind a hand when it is discovered Zed just went through anyway... to think they almost left him behind.
"Ah, I recognize them," he comments, "it appears they felt it prudent to take initiative."
Jay may recall that Ethius does have at least one more Powder Grenade at his disposal. He does not reach for it.
Instead, Ethius seems to be willing to join the fray proper with quarterstaff in hand, attempting to navigate enemy blades with respectable grace and power while he's being showered by glitter.
...
The narrative apologizes. He absolutely cannot rock it as well as Zed, especially as some of it gets in his eye and momentarily distracts him.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Bandit Band.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
There is something refreshing about knowing that one's enemies are evil and that righteousness is on your side. These are the bad guys. Kourin and her allies are the good guys. There are no shades of grey, no moral ambiguities, there are only the bandits and them. And the bandits, Kourin thinks, will make very satisfying "thumps" as they hit the floor.
Spirit charges in, a bolt of white fur close behind Zed, biting and tearing at the flesh of the bandits. Another ball of blue clay shatters, creating a patch of icy air--and this time, Kourin follows the bomb in with rapier extended in a practiced series of quick, agile strikes.
And the bandits will make some very satisfying "thumps."
DG: Kourin has used her Tool Rimebomb toward her party's challenge, Bandit Band.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
What on earth was that Zed fellow? It seemed they had failed to push through the wall in the way...but he powers through it anyway, screaming something about...drills? That sounded familiar for some reason, but she put that thought aside. Maybe it was something one of her brothers read once.
Her bafflement is clear on her face but she follows, cautiously, only to find that on the other end of the new pathway was a familiar band of bandits.
She hoped they wouldn't be slaughtered this time.
The bandits, that was. She remembered what happened to the last one.
After preparing herself mentally and nodding, she pulls out a bottle of black liquid and hurls it into the bandits, splashing them with the foul-smelling contents. Hopefully that would help break them up a bit for the others.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Repellant Vial toward her party's challenge, Bandit Band. DG: The party led by Jacqueline Barber has passed this challenge! The party gained 27 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Noeline has left your party. DG: Jacqueline Barber has drawn a new Challenge.
=====================<* CHALLENGE - OWLBEARS OWLBEARS *>====================== |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Part owl, part bear, and part hate, an owlbear is a giant monster with the body of a bear and the head of a very angry owl. Also they use swords. An owlbear - the Linga Academy-approved word for a gathering of owlbears - of owlbears owl out in fury and barrel their way toward you, swords waving. =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Injure===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Devastated by pickaxe, by frost bomb, by quarterstaff and by REALLY STINKY STINK JUICE. This is a fate no bandit should be condemned to. This is a fate... That no human should be forced to suffer. "Boss!" One cries as their boss falls victim to a pulse of freezing, glittery, foul-smelling madness. "No! Those fiends! They've made him... FABULOUS!!" "I think he smells kind of pretty-- OH NO MY POMPADOUR"
Zed's pickaxe...
Cleaves through a pompadour. His voice... He hasn't once stopped screaming. Hasn't once stopped charging ever further ahead. But surely... Surely he must run out of energy sometime, can't he? He can't... He can't keep this up...!!!
Beams of light shatter what's left of the bandit horde.
One strikes Zed... Square in the back.
"This..." Zed wheezes as the beam breaks across his shoulders, enshrouding him in a wreath of impossible brilliance. "Is what I was waiting for!" His eyes... They burn! With an awesome power, his hands are aglow! Zed's scarf dissolves into the beam, it swirls, spirals, sweeping in stench and frost and light and force alike before solidifying into a great spike of pure power...!! It's undergoing quantum breakdown!
AND DRIVES STRAIGHT INTO THE BACK OF HIS NECK!!
"ONWARDS, FRIENDS!" Zed yells as he draws his sword and smashes into the opposite wall, dual-wielding pickaxe and blade to mine a path forward in twice the speed. Thrice the speed! INTO THE UNKNOWN, and out again into the caverns. "FORWARD, ALWAYS! ONWARDS AND UPWAAAAARD!" Up ahead, there... There, rising from the murk, drawn by the impossible glow of this strange, absurd man and his strange, absurd digging technique are... Enormous creatures. Half owl. Half bear. All angry.
Zed stares them down like they were mere windmills.
"Do you know who I am, you overgrown poultry!? WHO WE ARE!?" Zed... somehow hurls more of those smoke bombs. Despite having no hands free. "TELL THEM, FRIENDS! TELL THEM WHO WE ARE! TELL THEM WHAT WE ARE HERE FOR! LET'S BREAK THROUGH THIS ONE LAST WAAAAALLLL!"
Zed charges into the darkness after the titanic and terrible creatures, smoke erupting all around him. It may be a suicidal charge, but... But...!!!
AT LEAST HE LOOKS COOL DOING IT.
DG: Zed has used his Tool Smoke Bombs toward his party's challenge, OWLBEARS OWLBEARS.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
To Jay's sadness, she will find that Ethius is exactly as thorough as he was the last time. He throws himself into that bandit fray whole-heartedly, taking on wounds about as good as he gives back. To those bandits that lay defeated with help from the rest, his movements are quick and decisive to silence them.
Under the shadows of Zed's incredible theatrics of light beams, less amusing things happen.
Kourin, depending on her comfort with being in the company of death, might yet be put off by seeing a man who did her a kindness do the exact opposite to these outlaws. That his eyes do not show sadness nor hesitation - and yet, no anger or glee - in doing so. What kind of person is Ethius to be able to do this so readily, without a moment's hesitation or unspoken regret?
...
Moving on to the owlbear of owlbears...
"Here." Ethius asides to the rest as he pulls out the other Powder Grenade, barely able to be made out over Zed's shouting. "I must entrust this battle to the rest of you."
The implication is easy enough to grasp - he will move under the cover of smoke through the hordes. One of the major reasons that he is here stands before the lot of them, deep within the bowels of the Sacred Grounds of Linga.
Little does he suspect that other powers may yet hold a stake, and that his six may not be safe to move freely, as the clouds of dust spread anew.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Powder Grenade toward his party's challenge, OWLBEARS OWLBEARS.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin curses herself silently at her lack of foresight. She should have known that there could be still more fighting before she exhausted her supply of rimebombs. These bears look particularly vicious, but Kourin is a blur of motion among the large creatures, her rapier flashing out to inflict painful wounds before being withdrawn in an instant as she dodges and spins to strike her next target. She pauses on the far side of the group, casts a quick spell to coat her blade in frost, and returns to the fray with a vengeance.
Spirit sticks close to his mistress, nipping at ankles and harrying targets to give her a chance to strike here, a reprieve from an angry riposte there, and ever avoiding the enraged blows of the demented creatures surrounding them.
DG: Kourin has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, OWLBEARS OWLBEARS.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline should have expected that. Ethius seemed the thorough type. She looks away, unable to confront him on the matter.
She follows Zed quietly, the strange, exuberant man at this point was like an engine of destruction, and all she could do was follow in his wake. Anything she could add at this moment would only take away from his grand display, really.
And then, owlbears again. For a moment she froze, but this was soon replace with a feeling of anger. These were the creatures responsible for the tragedy that had occurred last time.
She pulls a bottle from one of her bags, but is stunned by the sight of Zed charging in there like the maniac he probably was.
Wait, who were they? Was she supposed to say something here?
Well, in lieu of something clever to add she pulled out a crest and raised a pillar of earth beneath her, rising above the others and the owlbears. Partially for effect, and partially so that she could see over the smoke from both Zed and Ethius.
She removes another bottle of black liquid, tossing it up in the air once before catching it. "Watch your heads, everyone." She says, her expression and tone grim, and hurls the bottle towards a group of owlbears.
Over, not at. The bottle is struck in mid-air by a bolt of lightning conjured by another crest.
The liquid, as it turns out, is rather flammable.
The group of owlbears is showered in both flaming, foul-smelling liquid and molten glass. With that done she proceeds as she did the last time she faced creatures such as these, bringing down bolts of lightning on any owlbear she sees moving.
And possibly Zed a few times, but not on purpose.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Repellant Vial toward her party's challenge, OWLBEARS OWLBEARS. DG: The party led by Jacqueline Barber has failed this challenge! The party gained 0 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Ethius Hesiod has drawn a new Challenge.
======================<* CHALLENGE - Punishing Piston *>====================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- With the owlbear of owlbears defeated, the treasure you have sought lies in the room beyond! Unfortunately, the door to it is already closing, thanks to some ancient mechanism triggered in the fighting. If your party can manage to hold the door open long enough, someone might be able to slip through and grab it, but it's been a long dungeon and you've had no time to rest since the fight... =Dungeon Conditions: Suffer===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
With heart and soul and every ounce of will, the party slams face-first into a great swath of owlbears. Claw is met with sword, beak is met with bomb, stink is met with... stink. But they made a critical error, one that turned what would have been a heroic victory... Into an awful, terrible slog.
They didn't tell the Owlbears what they were here for.
I mean, come on guys, that's like rule number one in the list of things you don't forget to do in a JRPG. If you don't remind the game every thirty minutes what your objective is, the player will forget and start wandering off to do random sidequests! Or in this case, the owlbears will fail to be intimidated by all this bluster and bombast, and prove EXTRA-HARD to dislodge!
But... dislodge they do.
Zed's shoulders cycle with great, heavy breaths by the end of it. His weapons are slung under either arm, dragging across the ground. "Are we... Almost there... Guys??"
Careful. He's getting dangerously close to Speedlines Territory now. It's a little early in the plot for that yet.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Jay will remember this part - the light of the fungus a ways above. They're in the same place as before...
The ground rumbles as a great mass of stone begins to descend before an eye-catching treasure. The door opened again after all...! And yet, it has begun to close anew. The clock is ticking - can the three of them still among one another find a way to retrieve it in time, or stall the closing?
Wait, three? Where's... Noeline? Or Eth-- there he is, jogging up to the group.
For his part, Ethius seems reasonably unscathed for basically running head-first through the owlbear. On the other hand, aside from giving the smoke cover, he did very little to help everyone else through the monsters that - were it not for an apparent noble sacrifice - they probably would not have lived through.
"Miss Jay, Miss Kourin... and you," he asides to Zed, "my apologies. I cannot stay long."
This time, however, Ethius is prepared for the mechanism that would lead to the door closing. Internally, the moment he came here, he already pondered the possibility of what determines the way the door closes. Unfortunately, the best he has to offer is theory, and a literal shot in the dark.
Standing underneath the closing door for a moment, he gets to casting. His fingertips point up towards the ceiling past the view of anyone else - including him - and there is another cast spray of dust.
He pulls out from under there. What did he do? It may not be too clear, but he seems to be attempting to rationalize what determines the door's movements... and jam them under fine, clogging dust.
He does not explain this so much vocally.
"I have found the slain owlbear," he says, "please keep one another company until I return."
His eyes suddenly narrow, looking to either side. He takes off back into the depths, leaving the three of them to the prize - if won.
Jay might have reason to be concerned - something else has Ethius' attention. What is it? It must be urgent, if he will not stay to attempt to hold the door up under his own power beyond his shot-in-the-dark contribution.
Especially if he seems intent on investigating them... alone.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Punishing Piston. DG: Zed has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Punishing Piston.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin frowns. "I...I may be able to create a pillar of ice to hold the door in place?" she suggests, not sounding very certain.
DG: Kourin has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Punishing Piston.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
They weren't...they weren't stopping. Jacqueline's eyes open wide in fear. This was what happened last time. Nothing they did would slow down the owlbear of owlbears for long.
Nothing.
Nothing.
What could they do? Would they get trapped again? Would one of them have to...
Her breathing starts to get heavy as panic begans to set in, and her barrage of lightning slows just long enough for an opportunistic owlbear to climb up her pillar and slash at her with its great claws, sending her tumbling off.
This time, it is Jacqueline who hits the ground with a "thump". She survives her fall, though she is looking worse for wear. The pain, at least, serves to force her back into the moment after a short time.
Wincing, she draws another bottle from her bags - this one a pale-blue with a sweet scent - and downs it. That should take care of the wound for now, but she would definitely have to get it looked at properly when they get back to town.
She groans and uses the pillar to force herself back onto her feet, and casts her gaze around worriedly for the sight of the owlbear that had attacked her.
Fortunately, it seemed to have been satisfied by seeing her fall and went off to get dispatched by one of the others. It seemed that her allies had made decent progress while she was out cold.
She looks up at Zed when he speaks, and nods. "Yes, this is where-"
Right. The door.
She remembers where it is and looks quickly in that direction. Like before, it was closing. The owlbears were off of them for now, but there was always a chance they would be back.
Quickly she rummages through her bags, pulling out another Crest.
She holds it out to the door, conjuring a pair of earthy tendrils that seek it out and grab on, trying to keep it from closing any further.
"Ethius, I-" She starts, but before she can continue he is gone. What was he doing? Panic starts to set in again, weakening her spell somewhat. He wasn't going to stab them in the back, was he?
DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Punishing Piston. DG: Ethius Hesiod is too exhausted to continue! DG: Zed is too exhausted to continue! DG: Kourin is too exhausted to continue! DG: Jacqueline Barber is too exhausted to continue! DG: The party has failed this challenge! All party members are now Exhausted. Your party can no longer continue and is forced to retreat! DG: The party led by Jacqueline Barber has been fully Exhausted by Sacred Grounds of Linga!
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The door is relentless. It is cold to the touch, unfeeling to the plights, angst, and events that have happened around it for many years. It has seen warriors die before the hordes that live about and around this final chamber of interest. Whatever secrets it holds, it has done so for years before any of their lives.
The ice pillar is crushed. The earthy tendrils splinter and scatter. Zed... well, he's Zed. The narrative will not presume so much about him.
It shuts against the ground, shuddering the entire chamber with a deafening echo. The secrets that lie beyond shall remain so for at least another day.
On the plus side, the war cries of the owlbear they had just barely squeaked by are not filling the room. They are not yet surrounded, but therein lies another immediate concern.
Two of their own have not yet returned to rejoin the rest. Where did Ethius and Noeline go?