2017-04-19: Fat Bats and Fossil Finders
- Log: Fat Bats and Fossil Finders
- Cast: Ida Everstead-Rey, Catenna, Ethius Hesiod, Rudy Roughnight, Emma Hetfield
- Where: Hillside Ruins
- Date: April 19, 2017
- Summary: Ida leads a team to explore the Hillside Ruins.
DG: That's not a valid party leader. DG: That's not a valid party leader. DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has created a party! To join, type +party/reset and then type +party/join Ida Everstead-Rey. DG: Catenna has joined your party! DG: Emma Hetfield has joined your party! DG: Rudy Roughnight has joined your party! DG: A party led by Ida Everstead-Rey is now entering Hillside Ruins. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
======================<* CHALLENGE - Don't Skip Leg Day *>====================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Don't you just hate it when ancient cultures pass judgments on your lifestyle choices? Clearly, this one thinks you haven't been getting enough cardio in your life, because there's a door on a ledge with no ladders or stairs leading up, just a layered, stone wall, with so many convenient indents and outcroppings for you to climb up. Screw you, ancient cultures. =Dungeon Conditions: Tire=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida is still looking for that damn Dragon Fossil. Where better to check than the place where she found the first one? After sending out feelers through the Adventurer's Guild--with several very successful expeditions under her belt, it's not terribly hard to get workers--she's returned to the Hillside Ruins. This time, the expedition has acquired a generous sponsor, who may or may not have actually paid for necessities like "train tickets to the Capo Bronco region" and "food".
"This is the right entrance," Ida says, checking some of the stonework against the notes she made in her journal. She turns back to Emma and the others, and starts uncoiling a length of rope from her backpack. "The fossil strata was deep inside, inside the usual encystment. I'm still not sure if the builders dug to that layer, or if it ended up being thrust up into the ruins. Filgaia's geology can be very finicky." She flips to another page, and holds up the journal--it shows a stone concretion of sorts, halfway broken open to reveal gleaming metal. The outside looks very solid, as though Filgaia itself tried to seal off the offending material like a human body sealing off a bacterial infection.
With that out of the way, Ida stows her journal, waits a moment for questions, and--once they're taken care of--starts up the cliff. She knows the handholds pretty well by now.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Don't Skip Leg Day.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
When it comes to people she would explore the depths of Filgaia with, Ida's a good choice in Catenna's book. The woman may have lied to her at first but she at least admitted it, and she's intelligent. That counts for something.
"Yes, it... appears to be correct, doesn't it," she murmurs as she holds station next to Ida, one hand resting at her hip and the other cradling her shotgun with its barrel pointed at the ground. With a moue of her lips she gauges the distance between the ground and the ledge. Finally she shrugs one shoulder and watches Ida begin to move. The glance at the woman's journal lets her know what they're after.
Her eyelids lower ever so slightly.
She holds her tongue, stepping back and letting Ida try the cliff. Then she shoulders her gun and reaches into the small pack hanging over her other shoulder. She comes up with a coil of rope.
Coiled fibers whisk through the air, weight trailing behind glinting steel. It arcs up past Ida. It's Catenna's rope and grappling hook - and the teeth of the grappler are sailing towards that ledge and biting into solid stone with a screeching scrape. Stepping back, the woman tests the rope a few times.
She starts up, giving Ida something of a long-suffering look. Should've waited before workin' those legs, Ida.
DG: Catenna has used her Tool Grappling Hook toward her party's challenge, Don't Skip Leg Day.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius, true to form, is presently loitering just before the established entrance to just one of Capo Branco's nearby ruins.
This is an occurence that is becoming increasingly common as of late - one particular strange white-haired man, masked like he's an outlaw, simply being at a place some indeterminate amount of time before formal parties get there.
Is it coincidence, at all, that he'd be here? Maybe he overheard some loud dark-haired kid exclaim something about Golem parts, or something.
"An investigation party, I see. May I accompany you all within?" That same polite word choice, the same nearly emotionless tone. But hey, look, another pair of hands! And if certain sponsors play their cards right, they might even be able to forget to pay them or anything of the sort!
"I assure you, I will not be a burden." So he claims. He also doesn't appear to be taking 'no' for an answer, as he attempts the climb without fanfare nor interesting conceits as to the hows of it, attempting to navigate what footholds and places to grip by hand there are at a slow and measured pace.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Don't Skip Leg Day.
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
~I like helping.~
The phrase is simple and child-like.
Yet for Rudy Roughnight, who considers himself simple, it's a fitting statement and a motivation for many things he does. Rather than finding steady safe work or looking for the Mother Lode like that, the blue haired individual just seems to find one job from another to help those in need. As Rudy gets to know more and more people who seem to accept him despite his quirks, there are more and more people who ask him for his aid. As of yet, he has not turned anyone down.
While his aid is freely given without the promise of wealth or the flash of a leg, Rudy is here to give his best, moving to join the group with a calm stride. It is sure that his current company may have nicer transport than boots, but it seems Rudy prefers to walk, though like a good escort, his gaze checking the area to make sure there aren't monsters or bandits attempting to take advantage of a popular dig site. "We're clear, Pro-err, Emma," the young man states awkwardly toward the green-haired woman before nodding toward the rest of the group. "I'm sure we'll find something." He flashes an awkward smile in an attempt (and likely a fail) to be an INSPIRING LEADER (which he isn't).
After the fact, Rudy looks over the cliff. His muddy brown eyes take in the ledge, appraising each possible way before he simply walks toward it. Gloved hands begin to pull himself up as the young man attempts to climb up the old fashioned way.
DG: Rudy Roughnight has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward its party's challenge, Don't Skip Leg Day.
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
The camera lovingly rests on where Emma's leg flashes through the slit in her dress repeatedly. Boy, how many green cheongsams does she own? (Twelve, is the answer.) She is, however, already loading a coil of rope into some sort of horrible punchy gun, saying as she does, "Do you really think so...? Many expeditions are lucky to escape with their lives. In many ways, we buy progress with the sweat, and the blood, of drifters."
She lets Rudy start climbing. After this she fires the punchy-gun-plus-rope upwards, possibly over his head, towards a specific spot in the rock crevice. After some testing of the rope, she starts using it to climb upwards, though her hair must be really pinned up well - it doesn't seem to be falling backwards in the way you'd expect. Nor is her blazer.
"You're doing well," she tells Rudy. "Have you ever done much searching for 'Fossils' before?" She also calls to Ethius, "Don't worry! If we find you having difficulty, we won't hesitate to act decisively!"
Which means what, Emma.
DG: Emma Hetfield has used her Tool Punchy Gun toward her party's challenge, Don't Skip Leg Day. DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey 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.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
It's cool, Catenna, Ida's been much more rigorous about exercising once she discovered how helpful it is. She does make use of both the grappling hook and the convenient line carried up by the punchy gun, since there are still places in the rock face without stable, convenient handholds. "Perhaps, Doctor," she says, at Emma's dire proclamation. "but perhaps it's best not to dwell on things at the moment?" Once everyone's assembled at the top of the cliff, Ida opens the door. What lies beyond?
DG: Catenna has drawn a new Challenge.
==================<* CHALLENGE - Perilous Posse of Pillbugs *>=================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------- There's probably some sort of groan-inducing joke to be made about how pillbugs are such a pill, but it's not going to be made here, because it's tasteless and uninspired and pillbugs are angry, vicious, spiky little things and you should probably watch out because a whole group of them are rolling down about to spew said spikes in your face. What a pill. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna stops before climbing and gives Ethius a long, considering look, as if trying to place who this very polite man actually is. Most people don't talk like that. Then she gets back to climbing without actually saying anything, though she does nod appreciatively as Emma gets the same idea she does. Hand over hand and taking care not to let anyone peek up her skirt, she clambers to the top, then huffs and unhooks her rope, coiling it back up once she's sure no one else will need it. Slinging the rope, she lets a breath out and tilts her head towards Emma, opening her mouth to say something.
She thinks better of it and closes it, though it's not entirely clear why she keeps her peace here. She just unshoulders her shotgun, pops a couple of shrapnel shells into it and pushes through the door - which opens on command, gratefully.
Opens up onto a long corridor with several oversized pillbugs rolling towards the group like a flock of oversized armadillos. They're not normal pillbugs, though, oh no - these ones are covered with spikes!
Spikes several of them are uncurling and jumping into the air to spew at our heroines plus Ethius and Rudy.
With a breath, Catenna ducks to one side, then levels her shotgun and fires a double blast into the pillbug swarm. Chunks of shrapnel buckshot carome everywhere as she tries to just clear the hall of as many as possible. "Dwell on it when these things are finished!"
DG: Catenna has used her Tool Shrapnel Shell toward her party's challenge, Perilous Posse of Pillbugs.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Suspiciously, Ethius is the last one to complete the climb. He might be within a hair's breadth of requiring decisive action. It also casts a further strange, distant character to this man as he makes up the rear of the party.
Following them into the corridor, the tip of his quarterstaff taps the stone ground when he first hears movement. He is rewarded for his vigilance with a shallow puncture wound to his right shoulder by a launched spike.
Going to a momentary crouch for cover, chanting and lights follow as he grabs something from his belt - to Ida and Rudy, this is a familiar trick.
Right on cue, a satchel is thrown into the ground and spews out a disproportionately high amount of smoky dust, adding an unpleasant beige haze to the blue-hued stone walls that now surround the party. A solid cover to allow everyone movement forward.
"I believe such decisive action will not be necessary... Doctor, was it?" Ethius addresses to the green-haired genius as he starts to move further down the corridor in hopes of evading further conflict with the pillbugs.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Powder Grenade toward his party's challenge, Perilous Posse of Pillbugs.
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
As Emma discusses the cost of progress, Roughnight offers a simple nod, "I suppose so" is his only response to her musings as he continues his hike up. Calmly, he dusts himself off once he is able to scale to the entrance, which some how causes a bit to bellow up as apparently the dusty trail left him some offerings as well. "I've done it a bit I had a good teacher." He doesn't say more on that, but well, he doesn't really need to considering his company.
Moving toward, Ethius gets a nod as Rudy continues into the ruins. "Good to see you," he states simply. He likely wouldn't say more, but even if he did, there isn't much he could say as the door is blasted open, revealing foes with spikes. A volley comes close to Rudy's face, causing him to twist to the side. The red blood flows gently down his cheek. He pulls out his firearm, attempting to place himself on the front line, as if hoping to get the brunt of the attack. The Hand Cannon is unwrapped. While so many have told him to keep it hidden, so many have begun to accept him regardless. Could it be something not to fear after all or will Rudy have to learn his folly once more? It doesn't matter to Roughnight at the moment, the blasts of his powerful weapon joining in on the concert of explosions.
DG: Rudy Roughnight has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward its party's challenge, Perilous Posse of Pillbugs.
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
"Oh, no; 'Professor' is fine," Emma tells Ethius even as they breach the surface and confront the terror of doodlebugs. Doodlebugs! Her ancient foe. Behind her glasses, Emma's eyes narrow.
She produces - the Emulator! It is not very dramatic. As Rudy draws out his ARM, Emma looks towards him, and then Rudy opens fire. The residual stray gunfire smell makes Emma take a deep, satisfied breath.
Then she pushes a button on her computer.
A horrible green cloud of SOMETHING that stinks horribly washes out towards the pill bugs. "Give that a minute or two to settle before we continue," she says, pushing her glasses back up her nose.
DG: Emma Hetfield has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Perilous Posse of Pillbugs.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida has come to accept 'weird' as standard operating procedure for Ethius.
The pillbugs, though, those are unexpected. Ida's eyes widen ever-so-slightly, and a flying spine traces a bloody gash across her right cheek. She reacts instinctively, ducking and rolling to the side as Ethius deploys his cover. Ida rises to a crouch, drawing both of her revolvers in a lightning-fast motion--thankfully, the rest of the spikes go wide. Emma does her thing, and once she gives the signal, Ida rushes through the cloud and starts shooting.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Perilous Posse of Pillbugs. DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey has passed this challenge! The party gained 12 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.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
The pungent dust Ethius throws up causes Catenna to crinkle her nose ever so slightly. But it helps. It helps a lot.
Her eyes widen a little, though, as Rudy reveals his Hand Cannon. Then she starts coughing as Emma lets the stinkbomb off. Retching audibly, she stumbles backwards and bumps into a wall.
Fortunately, the pillbugs are even less able to manage perilous gases than Catenna is. They roll around in confusion as Ethius throws his grenade; several splatter under the blasts from Ida and Catenna's guns, a couple more popped by the Hand Cannon. And then the survivors physically uncurl as they inhale Emma's hideous stinkbomb.
The high-pitched sound of coughing pillbugs can be heard, along with weird gagging sounds, before it goes quiet.
When the clouds pass, what's left is mostly dead pillbugs. A couple of them still twitch, spikes scraping on the ground.
"I think I am going to go with 'or two,' Professor," Catenna says with a blink at Emma, her cheeks a little pale as she covers her mouth and nose in the crook of her elbow and waits. Only once she's sure the rancid scent is gone does she begin to move onward.
"I did not think pillbugs could smell," she admits.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has drawn a new Challenge.
========================================<* CHALLENGE - A Puzzling Puzzle Door *>======================================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | -----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------------------------- Before you is a door that just won't quite open, even if you say please. Pressure plates line the room, perhaps meant to have pressure applied onto them in some specific and obscure order. One could stop to wonder who would be so bored as to put so many pressure plates in a dingy old ruin, but it probably won't get that door open faster than a good pressure plate puzzle would. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius does not have very expressive eyes. But they are probably the closest they're ever going to get to 'joy' that he has a bandanna over his nose to keep out most of the stench.
...Moving on.
The party happens upon the next interesting thing to happen upon the party. A dead end? Ethius non-verbally volunteers to head up to the closed door ahead of the rest, perhaps in anticipation of further pillbugs.
He pushes it. Nothing.
He runs a hand across the frame. Nope.
He even thinks to kneel down and see if it can be pried open from below. No dice.
"I do not believe I see a keyhole," he muses aloud. "Curious, indeed."
There are, however, pressure plates. Someone might have stepped on one along the way (how he managed to avoid them all coming up to the door, that's probably a plot hole, shhh).
Without any better ideas, Ethius withdraws something from under his poncho - a monocle? Some kind of lens. Doing the usual Symbological casting, a spark of electricity jumps from one finger into it, casting a light into the chamber.
"It appears there are mechanisms connected to the door from the ground," he says, "though I can only hazard an educated guess beyond this point."
Thus, the task at hand - how do they connect?
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Spectral Lens toward his party's challenge, A Puzzling Puzzle Door.
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
Emma raises an index finger as Ida dashes forwards, but - "Well, she won't learn any other way," she says with a small sigh. It's more thoughtful than anything. As they move forwards, she asks Rudy, "Are you enjoying the experience?"
And then.
Emma squints at the door, then down at her tablet.
"I'll fix this," she tells Ethius, "while s--" She snaps her head around. "Rudy! You're injured!"
She steps over towards him, drawing out a gauzy little handkerchief from her pocket and raising it up to press to his cheek. It stings! That's because it's impregnated with alcohol in some form - impregnated so hard you might as well call it Rockin' Heels Jane at the Starfell Saloon. "Tsk," she says as she fusses.
Then it passes as soon as it began. "Pressure plates... let's see... from this layout... I propose that we all try to press these plates down together. It was a security measure - to keep one person from seizing whatever was behind these doors."
"Everyone, find your plate... I'll count down. When I say step, 'step'. Four... three... two... one point seven... one point one... zero point four... Step!"
DG: Emma Hetfield has used her Tool Text File of Her Own Wisdom toward her party's challenge, A Puzzling Puzzle Door.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida does not react to Rudy's ARM at all, but that's probably to be expected, given she's got ARMs of her own. What she does react to is the haze--another pillbug spine grazes her hand, and she startles ever-so-slightly, sucking a breath. Smoke powder floods into her lungs, and she coughs violently, staggering out of the cloud. She fires three rounds before she has to stop, stumbling over to the tunnel wall and coughing. Fortunately she wasn't so distracted as to run right into Emma's stink bomb, but the fumes do not help matters. She takes a good minute or so just to focus on breathing again. If she cannot breathe freely, then everything else is going to be a problem.
Once she's got her breath back, Ida treats her own wounds, binding them with more of those symbologically-sticky gauze pads. The others are already analyzing the puzzle. She tries her best not to look sheepish, and to turn to one of the segments of her notebook she classified as "Hillside". "I have a a diagram of--" Here, Ida coughs again, and braces against the wall. "Excuse me. The mechanism involved." Emma starts the countdown. Ida gets in position, and presses the plate when indicated! Not a moment sooner or later.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Flora's Notebook toward her party's challenge, A Puzzling Puzzle Door.
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
The Hand Cannon is placed back into its appropriate place, but only after Rudy cleans it with a rag. He takes good care of it, seemingly much more familiar with the weapon than most of his Drifter peers when finding such things. With the ARM wrapped and secure, he offers a simple thumbs up toward Ida for her assistance and a nod to Emma as saying he's got her safety handled as he looks around.
Unknowingly, Rudy has triggered something in Emma as she attacks him! Err, helps him. That's it. While Rudy flinches at first, he takes the aid and just offers a sheepish smile and a soft "Thanks". A glance is given toward Ida, who had a similar hurt but without anyone messing with her cheek. Rudy moves and if unless stopped, just tries to run a finger over the cheek wound (even though Ida has treated it). After all, he doesn't want someone to feel left out, perhaps having dealt with that feeling far too many times to enjoy.
As the new challenge presents itself, Rudy pulls out his own device. "This should help," he quietly offers before going down on one knee and pressing the button on the small circular machine, which causes a bleep to occur and Rudy begins to point out things. Ethius knows what this device is: something that points out various things the average Digger can interact with. This information pairs well with what Emma is saying, as he seems to have pulled up information that seems to suggest which person should go with which panel which he motions with hand motions without nary a word. A quiet one, that Rudy.
DG: Rudy Roughnight has used its Tool Portable Radar toward its party's challenge, A Puzzling Puzzle Door.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
"She is intelligent. I suspect she will figure it out," Catenna answers Emma from behind her arm.
Shifting her gun to her off hand so she can cover her mouth with her other arm, the woman soldiers on, making sure not to breathe as she walks through the fumigated bug pile.
Ethius tries the door and Catenna looks on with a little frown, finally lowering her arm and slinging her gun back over her shoulder. The woman's hands come to rest at her hips as she peers between the door and the tiles on the floor. Still a little foggy-headed from the various smoke weapons thrown around, she's left to frown as she tries to decipher visually any patterns in the tiles, but she's not coming up with much.
Moving into position near one of the tiles, she gives Emma a considering look, then Ida, folding her arms beneath the curve of her chest. "...We may have to do it in a certain order, not all at the same time," she murmurs, eyes drifting a moment to let her watch Rudy, as if gauging how badly he's hurt. Then her focus shifts back to the countdown.
She lifts her heel right when she thinks Emma's about to count zero.
It hovers there for a couple more numbers. She sighs faintly before bringing it down in due time. Some people.
DG: Catenna has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Puzzling Puzzle Door. DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey has passed this challenge! The party gained 12 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.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Corroborating the knowledge cobbled together by sight of energy lines, ample diagrams of constructs of this ilk, detailed analytical information of who should stand where, Emma's brilliant deduction about the nature of the mechanism, and Catenna's caution that probably would have yielded a way forward if the initial mass same-time pressing didn't pan out, their work is rewarded.
There is a click. The chamber rumbles as the stone door opens up, segmenting into halves and receding into the blue-hued stone walls.
Ethius takes a cursory step off his plate as to ensure it isn't a mechanism that requires certain people be left behind. The door remains open.
"Excellent deductions." These are words of praise, but they're spoken in no different a tone than much anything else he says, so it's difficult to consider them encouraging words of warmth. On one hand, Ethius didn't appear to react to the appearance of the Hand Cannon initially... but in the wake of the team's recent triumph over a door mechanism tied to pressure plates, he does seem to be choosing to walk just off to his left.
He gets around to picking that spike out of his own shoulder en route to what lies next.
DG: Emma Hetfield has drawn a new Challenge.
===============<* CHALLENGE - Everyone's Favorite Block Puzzle *>=============== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Who doesn't love pushing around crates? A well-known and deeply beloved passtime in Filgaia, even the ancients understood the value of a good block-pushing romp. So push those blocks around until a path opens, and love it! It's your heritage! =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
As the door opens, Emma smiles to herself in some pride. "Hm, hm," she says, heels clicking as she walks forwards into the open doorway, looking down at her tablet and then coming to a sudden, slightly skidding halt.
"Crates!" Emma exclaims. "Everyone, be careful. Two or three good strikes and the crates could break and leave us unable to solve whatever..."
Emma pulls herself on top of a crate, raising her Emulator above her head to try to get an overhead view. "Oof. Puzzle this may turn out to be... Let me try to analyze it," and now she gets off the create, which is for some reason impossible for anyone else to get on top of. "I'll give you all suggestions, as I see how the structure of the problem develops."
DG: Emma Hetfield has used her Tool Text File of Her Own Wisdom toward her party's challenge, Everyone's Favorite Block Puzzle.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Standing a ways off from everyone else - having broken from being near Rudy's side upon coming here - Ethius stands just outside of the smoothed floor that exists for the sake of the large cubical structures that require a goodly amount of muscle to move, and a sharp mind to figure out where and how.
"Crates... should we not instead consider the possibility that there may be items of interest within them, having laid undisturbed for as long as they have?" ...
A so-called Digger who would profess to be able to pull his own weight, and yet, he seems more than a little lost by even suggesting they be anything other than part of a time-honored sliding puzzle... where did this man grow up? This is something in the blood for all who walk Filgaia!! He should probably be flogged for stating something so... stupefying.
On top of that, wouldn't this be a good time for another run of the Spectral Lens, just in case? Instead, he brings a hand up to his head. He stands more of a spectator among them while the Professor works out the appropriate solution with the available manpower while he works out whatever it is that seems to be on his mind.
Another curious anomaly for the record.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Everyone's Favorite Block Puzzle.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida appears to have recovered from her mistake by the time the door opens. Her face lights up a bit at the sight of the crates, and she pages through the hard-bound book for yet another page bookmarked with the string representing 'Hillside'. "We encountered one of these on a previous expedition," she explains to Emma. The same expedition that introduced her team to one Agatha Pyrelight, to the detriment of everyone involved except Agatha. "See if there's a subtle ridge in the floor. There was a ridge, about an inch or so tall, near the final switch position of the other puzzle."
Ida gives Ethius a vaguely curious look, but says nothing. She sees the switches and the little tracks on the floor where crates have gone, the whole thing is self-evident to her.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Flora's Notebook toward her party's challenge, Everyone's Favorite Block Puzzle.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna's heels don't click quite as much because they're not very high.
Her eyelids lower as she realizes what sort of file they're dealing with. Sighing, she pulls out the stone tablet of her medium, resting her opposite hand over it. "I should hope that nobody would... ah, strike the crates all that firmly," she says with a tilt of her head, eyes settling on Emma as she watches the woman analyzing the puzzle.
From on top of one of the crates.
She frowns. How'd Emma even get /up/ there?
As Ethius makes his suggestion, Catenna raises her eyebrows and gives him a long, quizzical look, as if she's not sure if he's human or some kind of mad alien from another world.
"This is a simple and common puzzle," she states.
Long fingers curling, she plays them over her medium and murmurs something, voice low and resonant. The grip of gravity on the crates begins to ease; their weight decreases. They don't float off the ground, but she's making it far easier to push them around by simply subtracting their gravity with an unseen-but-felt spell.
DG: Catenna has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Everyone's Favorite Block Puzzle.
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
A nod is given toward Hetfield as Rudy is able to bask in her brilliance. She does seem good at these puzzles, that's for sure. The young boy continues onward with little fanfare and as Emma does her part to offer again her unique wisdom, Rudy merely adds in his own assistance, pulling out the familiar device, triggering it again and moving to a box that seems unwilling to move and inspecting it, pulling out a rock that was wedging it against another object and beginning to push it as instructed. Somehow this just reminds him of the warehouse work he's done in other jobs while waiting for Drifter work to come in.
DG: Rudy Roughnight has used its Tool Portable Radar toward its party's challenge, Everyone's Favorite Block Puzzle. DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey has passed this challenge! The party gained 17 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.
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
"While that's possible, we should first treat them as objects of exercise," Emma explains to Ethius. "If it all proves to be a false lead, then... Break them open."
"Good thought," Ida gets replied to, and Emma even seems to be... tapping something? Like a shorthand transcriptionist? on the Emulator as if to update something. She glances up from there and gives Catenna and Rudy the occasional remark, a warning here and there to avoid getting a corner-stuck...
And then, before you even really notice it -
A sudden sharp chord!
The way is open. (In an obscure corner, what looks like a rotating medal is revealed. Probably worth a few gella, or at least some Agent Honor.)
"Yes! Good work, everyone. Shall we proceed onwards? With this level of security, I'm hopeful we'll make a good find. What are you hoping we'll discover, Rudy? And please, give me a concrete example... 'hope for the world' goes without saying."
DG: Rudy Roughnight has drawn a new Challenge.
================<* CHALLENGE - A Disagreeable Dud of a Door *>================ |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- It's a door! There's a puzzle here, probably, or a locking mechanism of some sort, some clever trick to open it. But no matter how much you do the clever trick, it just won't open. Maybe age has worn away at the contraption's cleverness. Maybe the game bugged out and won't let you progress further no matter how much you reset. Wait, what? Nevermind that. Regardless, you should probably just vent years of unexplainable frustration and open it up the old fashioned way: forcefully. =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
"I don't really hope to find anything exactly, just something of worth. Just happy if it helps, to be honest. A lot of people have questions. About themselves, certain events that happened in the world. I hope they find what brings them peace," Rudy admits as he walks forward. To some it would seem like an evasive answer, as if hiding some secret truth. However, for the blue haired boy, he doesn't wonder about himself nor does he question the world around him, content with the simple things in life.
Like doors that open.
Rudy reaches for the door. He twists it.
Nothing.
Rudy pulls it. % Nothing.
Rudy pushes it.
NOTHING.
Rudy Roughnight is being foiled by a door. The brown eyes of the young man narrow into thin slits.
Calmly Roughnight begins to mess around with a small bag that he has with him. He does this for about ten seconds, giving enough time for people to do what they want to do with the door before he tries his own solution: large amounts of explosives that he puts around the non-functioning entrance.
DG: Rudy Roughnight has used its Tool Excavation Charges toward its party's challenge, A Disagreeable Dud of a Door.
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
Emma smiles slightly during the walk. Perhaps Rudy's answer pleases her.
The door does not please her.
Emma stands by, arms folded, and remarks, "Try to leave a cavity on the /inside/, facing the door... that can increase the blast pressure and increase the chances of a breach."
Other than that she does absolutely zip to help.
DG: Emma Hetfield has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Disagreeable Dud of a Door.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"You're very humble, Mr. Rudy," Ida says. It's an honest compliment, especially coming from someone whose faith values humility as one of the highest of virtues. And whether Rudy meant to or not, he's lifted Ida's spirits, just a little. Things are going to be okay--
The door. Ida allows herself a moment to glower before dialing it back to mild concern. "Is there any sign of another breach attempt?" she says, taking a moment to duck in and inspect before Rudy sets his charges. "That might be a hairline fracture?" Once everything's all set, Ida hurries back, removing herself from what is probably a considerable blast radius.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Disagreeable Dud of a Door.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
"Yes. Let's move on," Catenna says with a quick nod back to Emma, flipping her medium into her left hand andushering her way through the open doorway.
Only to find... a door that is /not/ open.
Catenna's expression immediately hardens. She takes a step back and sets her jaw, folding her arms across her midsection. "These doors never seem to show signs like that," she says with a shake of her head towards Ida, her tone level.
She doesn't do anything to help either - unless you're really, really benefited by the way she moves to stand beside Emma, arms still folded as she helps the professor... supervise.
"Try not to hit us with any, ah... pieces of it," she suggests as Rudy lays the charges.
DG: Catenna has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Disagreeable Dud of a Door.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"Your earnest words, Mister Rudy, are laudable." It's praise in words from Ethius, though the tone continues to be devoid of further character beyond the simple statement. He had previously confessed his own angles, his own intents, and own challenges on a previous dig alongside this young man. Perhaps he will yet find his own peace, in whatever draws him here today.
"Failing the blast, I might suggest--" He leans off to one side to see the amount of heavy-duty explosives being employed.
"--pay my words no mind, yes, I believe that is more than adequate," he says as he steps half-way into the way back out of the chamber, inviting the rest to come for cover as he works out the optimal distance to stand from the blast alongside the rest.
Let's be honest, when that many bombs are involved, there is scant little one could contribute beyond that.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, A Disagreeable Dud of a Door. DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey has failed this challenge! The party gained 17 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.
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
"I just like helping" is the calm answer to Ida's compliment, Rudy blushing as he attempts to follow everyone's aid. Offer cavity on the inside, like Emma said. Put them close to where the hairline fracture is, like Ida suggested. Try not to get other people in the cross fire, like Catenna suggested. The only advice he doesn't listen to, is likely the sage one, that of Ethius who speaks of not using too much boomstick.
Well, Rudy does.
The blast sends shrapnel around the area, and the blast goes around Rudy who stands there its wake, by luck or design having most of it go around him. The only odd thing that a keen eye might notice is that as the explosion goes off there is a hair of a grin appearing on Rudy's face, the faintest twitch in his hands as if an unknown itch is being scratched.
However, it only last a moment as Rudy turns around in horror to realize what might have happened to others. "Is everyone okay? I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to do that, I should have listened better," he states, his eyes looking down to avoid seeing the pain or, worse yet, the disappointment in his peers.
At least the way is open, so that's a plus!
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has drawn a new Challenge.
===================<* CHALLENGE - A Cantankerous Camazotz *>==================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- And so you reach the end of your journey, in a suspiciously large room with so many hills of dirt conveniently piled up for you to dig through for hours and hours of grueling work -- just what you always wanted. You prepare to claim your muscle-straining, thankless reward when what should appear but what looks like a gigantic, morbidly obese bat! Hey, it's a Camazotz! It looks mad. Probably because it's stuck in a suspiciously large room that nevertheless inexplicably has man-sized doors. How is it still even alive? How did it get in here? Deep, troubling questions to ponder over, preferably when it's not about to eat you. =Dungeon Conditions: Tire=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida was well out of the blast radius up until the explosives went off. She was anticipating a nice, controlled detonation that would break a hole in the door, and there isn't that much hallway before she's just back in the block puzzle room again. (She has no idea if it resets itself somehow, and does not want to find out by getting locked out.) Rudy explodes the door. Chunks of it fly everywhere, in what is most assuredly not the controlled detonation Ida was expecting. A shard of rock goes sailing through the air before slamming into her shoulder, sinking in like an arrowhead. Ida bites back a cry of surprise and pain, gritting her teeth as she presses a hand to the wound.
The party gets no time to tend to their wounds, though--a horrible noise echoes through the hall, something halfway between a grunt and high-pitched clicking. Ida knows what that means. "I thought it was dead," she says, enunciating the words from between gritted teeth.
Well, time to correct this matter.
Ida hangs back this time, reaching towards the small of her back with her left hand. She whips Devil's Due out of its holster, raises it, and braces as best as she can with her injured right arm. "Back, you devil," she says, and she fires, right at its ugly batty face.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Devil's Due toward her party's challenge, A Cantankerous Camazotz.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius is found down in a crouch, hand over his head in the wake of the massive, eardrum-shattering explosion. The first of Rudy's words don't completely register, but, nonetheless, the Technology Hunter steadies himself up with the help of a quarterstaff for balance.
"I'm uncertain there would have been a working alternative, Mister Rudy." So says Ethius, as he moves to help up anyone else that might've lost footing from the explosion. "I would have attempted to melt the door myself, though that too would have been a serious risk."
A small trickle of blood comes down from his forehead. He does not seem to think much of it, one way or the other. So, all is largely forgiven on his front...?
Then, there was company. A ginormous bat. Its giant fanged maw comes within inches of taking a bite out of Ethius' torso, avoided with only a small back hop.
"I will provide cover for you to move," he says - this time, a warning, thankfully! - as he brings forth another satchel with the requisite spellcasting motions to cover the entire area in obscuring dust, with enough distracting particle matter that might throw off echolocation attempts atop of that.
Should the bat prove a need for a more concentrated effort, Ethius contributes ample enough sorcery-based offensives to weaken and wear down the beast.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Powder Grenade toward his party's challenge, A Cantankerous Camazotz.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna just nods, slowly and approvingly, at Rudy's diligence. He seems like a good man, she decides.
Then the bombs go off. Shrapnel sprays towards her. With a gasp, she holds her arm up to shield herself. It doesn't do a lot of good; chunks of broken door bounce off of her, leaving a few cuts and scrapes behind, a particularly large chunk glancing past her shoulder and sending her spinning away until her back thumps against the cavern wall.
As the flames pass, she exhales, righting herself with some effort and shaking her head at Rudy as the young man apologizes. "No... no, it is alright," she assures, voice pained, but quiet, and not unkind. "You did your best, what none of us could have done... you should not be ashamed."
The group bustles on through the hole - only to meet that horrible screech of a noise.
It doesn't ruffle Catenna, perhaps surprisingly. "A camazotz," she murmurs immediately, tilting her head to one side and calmly reaching back for her shotgun. For a moment she checks over the group's composition, as if to check if anyone around is meaty enough to cover her while she casts or reloads her arm.
...She promptly whirls away in a ripple of skirts, positioning herself in Ethius's shadow, Medium in her hand. Her gun loosely held in her right, she closes her eyes for a moment and focuses as she begins to cast, a low, echoing murmur spilling from her lips in some foreign language. Finally her eyes open; a vibrating current of magic thrums through the air around her.
"Ni'oalan diale," she says in a ringing voice. The air around the massive bat thing distorts visibly -
And then gravity around the camazotz suddenly reverses itself. The spell takes effect, attempting to hurtle the massive fatbat off the floor as gravity attracts it towards the ceiling, where Catenna's aiming to slam it bodily into place before letting the spell go. If she can get it up, it'll once again begin to fall to the floor...
...where she's standing by to pump a pair of shrapnel shells at it.
DG: Catenna has used her Tool Shrapnel Shell toward her party's challenge, A Cantankerous Camazotz.
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
Emma lets out a little breath of satisfaction. Her hair has been mussed by the blast, but it seems she stood in the right place. She seems misty-eyed, perhaps at the power of the blast.
"What?" she asks Rudy.
Her ears, of course, are ringing.
Moving along, a creature appears itself. "Oh?" she asks Catenna, who she still can't hear clearly, which also means she doesn't clearly parse those words she's speaking. What Emma does is perhaps predictable for those who have seen her in battle, but may still be maddening -- She raises her Emulator...
>> Download
... and pushes a button, drawing SOMETHING, she hopes, out of the Camazotz as others shoot it in a quest for gun's slay. She barely notices Ethius's grenade! That bomb WAS a little zesty, wasn't it?
DG: Emma Hetfield has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Cantankerous Camazotz.
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
As the blast seems to have hurt Ida, Ethius, Catenna, Rudy seems ready to actually cry but for different reasons than Emma. But they move on, Catenna offers kind words, and the monster's cry breaks Rudy out of any pity parties or self-flagellation before it begins.
Perhaps ashamed of tech hurting his friends, Rudy doesn't actually go for the ARM. Instead, he goes for a bowie knife that's at his side. Magic, blasts, and bullets fly and Roughnight waits for the opening. Once he gets it, he races forward, just leaping for the creature and attempting to just stab it repeatedly. Sometimes it's the simple ways to kill that are the most effective.
DG: Rudy Roughnight has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward its party's challenge, A Cantankerous Camazotz. DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey has successfully explored Hillside Ruins!
========================<* CHALLENGE - Dragon Fossil *>========================= |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Discovery |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Well, aren't you a lucky devil. Buried deep in the dust and debris of this ancient and rotting ruin, you've found something that countless others, by some chance fluke, never saw. It sparkles in a mysterious way that just screams "pay attention to me because I'm important to your current endeavors." You push away rubble and cough out powdered stone and you find it: the glinting, metallic fangs of a Metal Dragon of yore. Tremendous Dragon Fossils, forged with dead circuitry that once raged with power, and now would probably just make a nice set piece to hang over your fireplace. Or, sell it to an ARMsmith for a lot of gella, that's a thing too, probably. =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The camazotz surges out of the darkness, and is greeted with gunfire, and a powder grenade to the face. It lets out a horrible, hissing screech, and whips its head around violently, as if trying to shrug off a ringing in its ears. This distraction gives Catenna just the opening she needs to throw it into the ceiling. It hits with a tremendous, meaty /thwack/, the floor rumbling from the force of the impact. Ida shoots it again while it struggles in vain, hissing and shrieking the entire time. When the spell subsides--Catenna will note it does take considerable effort to pull off, given that is one fat bat--the camazotz falls. It lands with another of those horrible thuds. Rudy fearlessly runs up and stabs it, a lot. Debris rains down from the ceiling, and tiny little landslides shake dirt off the walls.
DOWNLOAD COMPLETE
Downloaded File: Camazotz
The shrieking fades and stops. The camazotz just lies there, and it's difficult to tell whether or not it's actually dead. Ida takes a moment just to breathe. She recognizes this place, and part of her is excited, but it will be cold comfort if someone was seriously hurt. "Is everyone all right?" she says. She saw Ethius almost get eaten, but it's hard to tell where he is now thanks to the cloud.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Indeed, it's hard to tell where that man's gone to in the wake of the beast's great fall. The way forward past the giant beast is now clear, the lingering cloud of disturbed particle matter only briefly obscuring the way forward. The door forward is wide open, inviting one and all to come into the great big piles of gravel that have accumulated here from who knows how many searches and expeditions into these ruins.
There used to be an ornate floor here, as evidenced by some of the marks in the stone surrounding the outer perimeter of the room, but one day, someone - or something - decided this was a prime place to stash things. Someone took note. One thing led to another, and now, this room is more of a curiosity - a testament to the greed of those whom desperately search through ruin and rubble for something, anything!
There's a water gem near the entrance.
Someone dropped a single gella coin.
Someone else dropped a single gella coin worth fifty to collectors.
Mostly junk...
...
...There's Ethius, who has once again mysteriously pushed ahead at an opportune moment with a haste in his actions that is normally not seen. Rudy might remember this from when they found that little servant Golem.
Those familiar with them will know why right then and there, as something glints in what light filters inside.
That's a set of some particularly large fangs. An old beast that died many, many ages ago...?
No, as more and more of it can be seen, the coloration is unmistakable. Those are fangs that belong to a Metal Dragon. There's quite a few of them there, in varying shapes and sizes - there might yet be more under this find.
Ethius says nothing. He is continuing to move away gravel and debris restlessly.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna does not normally have to use divine magic to heft fat bats around. She's sweating by the time it's done, and breathing hard. As the camazotz finally goes down, the woman exhales and shoulders her shotgun, clasping her hands around her medium and lumping to her knees. Silently, she moves her lips, a wordless prayer.
After a moment she opens her eyes and lifts them towards Ida. "...I am alright. I hope... that everyone else is, also." Slowly, she comes to her feet, sliding her medium back into her waistband and giving the camazotz a last, vaguely sad look.
She pushes past nevertheless. Her heels click against the flooring as she moves to figure out where Ethius is. The gella coin is spotted but--
--but she overlooks it. For some stupid goddamned reason.
Possibly because her attention is on something else. The glint of a metal of a type that should not be. Something behind her eyes darkens as she stands to one side to regard the find, but her expression is otherwise unchanged from her usual air of reserve, albeit coloured by weariness. Her skirt ripples around her legs as she steps forward and touches a hand to the gravel heap - then seems to think better of it, fishing an empty burlap pouch from her backpack and wrapping her hands in it to begin brushing the gravel away.
She doesn't seem to want to touch the Metal Dragon fangs with her bare skin if she can help it.
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
Emma's astonishing powers of staying in the back rank work out here, though she too has to cough her way through that shower of dust. She rubs at her eyes, squinting forwards, and then steps ahead, looking at...
"Oh!" Emma says in astonishment. "These fangs..."
Emma looks at the others. She can hear no complaints, and so she begins.
"Metal Dragons is the term we apply to large creatures from the Metal Demon era which were presumably from the same source as those Demons. Yes," she answers Ida, "I am better than alright." Back to explanation. "These creatures were not quite literally 'made of metal,' but their biology had the ability to incorporate metal into alloys that are very difficult or impossible to reproduce... which also made them extremely difficult to defeat or slay, which is, of course, why we discuss the Metal Demon wars, and not the Metal Demon affrays of wildlife management."
Emma takes off her glasses, wiping them on that same alcohol-soaked cloth she used to dab at Rudy's booboo earlier. "I'd have to assay these - but they're often raw materials for the creation or repair of the ARM. After all, many of these alloys are impossible to find or recreate, so why not take advantage of such a conveniently situated source."
Emma then crouches down to pick one up and points. "As you can see, however... Rudy, please pay attention... This one was not immune to the allure of sugary snacks. Please, everyone: If you take nothing away from this, remember to brush your teeth with a soft bristle brush and a little salt, every now and again. Rinse a little liquor in afterwards, swishy swish, and you'll be well on your way to modern dental health."
It helps that much of the water is naturally fluoridated. (Thanks, exposed fluoride-rich rock layers that produce all that scenic dust!)
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
After the wake of the battle, Rudy moves toward a piece of wall, putting away the knife and just taking a nice rest as he folds his arms and leans all cool protag style. As stated, the treasure doesn't really appeal to him and it seems people know what they want from this as they begin to plunder the Metal Dragon remains and as long as he gets money to pay for his room and board, he's just fine taking a quick nap here. That is until Emma requests that he pay attention, which startles him and causes him to fall over. Well, he is paying attention NOW at least.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida is used to Ethius wandering off with little or no explanation, so she pays it no mind--at least not at first. She's simply glad he's all right, and with that confirmed, she does a head count of the others. Rudy is in one piece, Emma seems okay, Catenna is...
Ida nods, once. "I will be, once I get this thing out of my arm." She is remarkably composed, despite being in a great deal of pain, and this gives her the helpful advantage of hearing Emma's exclamation. It doesn't /quite/ distract her from it, but it's damned close.
Ida circles around the vast dead(?) body of the vast bat-monster, and peers at the remains that Ethius found. Her eyes are wide as she inspects the surrounding rock. "It looks like part of a skull is there, too," she interjects, kneeling down next to it. She pulls some gauze out of her pocket, wads it up, and presses it against her shoulder.
Then the sparkle in her eye fades, just a little--she's looking past the fossil, now, not at it. "This is going to the museum," she says. "where it will be preserved for future generations. If this is an issue, presumably we can arrange for adequate financial compensation." Is it just her, or can she still hear the echo of Riesenlied's tears?
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Pausing as she attempts to scoop out some of the gravel, Catenna looks over her shoulder towards Emma, her eyebrows arched shallowly. She doesn't say anything, though.
Shehe clears the gravel away from her fang. Taking a few steps back, she drops the burlap pouch to the ground and leaves it there, as if it were ruined somehow. As Ida makes her statement, she presses her lips firmly together and looks off to one side. "Do what you will with it," she says tensely, and there's an undercurrent in her voice that seems vaguely ill. "It is unclean."
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Pausing as she attempts to scoop out some of the gravel, Catenna looks over her shoulder towards Emma, her eyebrows arched shallowly. She doesn't say anything, though.
She clears the gravel away from her fang. Taking a few steps back, she drops the burlap pouch to the ground and leaves it there, as if it were ruined somehow. As Ida makes her statement, she presses her lips firmly together and looks off to one side. "Do what you will with it," she says tensely, and there's an undercurrent in her voice that seems vaguely ill. "It is unclean."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius is remarkably quiet throughout. No justification for his actions, no explanation for what's going on, but there is another curious detail to note during Emma's helpful explanation about good dental hygiene on top of the history lesson - he's got the lens out again. The same casting, the same little zap of lightning...
...is that how he found it to begin with? Just a cursory look, and then just going to town on the gravel? These are fossils, though, dead remains - there shouldn't be any sort of energy line connections between itself or anything else. (He might have just instead scoped a look at some puzzle mechanism further down, and just hit pay dirt by accident.)
It's impossible to get a read out of what he thinks about what he's seeing, as the lens once again disappears under the poncho.
"That is enlightening, Professor," he says several awkward seconds after when it would have been a good time to say so, as he brings a hand to his head.
He turns his head at Catenna's discomfort, alternating with Ida's declaration of intent as to where these fossil pieces might ultimately go.
"I see." Who does he concur with? He kneels down and seems to move away some more of the gravel. In reality, he's moving to pocket the smallest fang of the mostly complete fossil set he can covertly grab - but to what end? He professed in the past he's not certain as to why he's there, why he's looking for any of this, or... anything of the sort.
"I thank you for allowing me to sate my curiosity," Ethius says to the lot of them, no more gentler or friendlier in tone than normal, closing his eyes and nodding his head. "All I ask in turn is merely your discretion."
He abruptly motions to leave, just like that - but hey, Emma doesn't have to think of some way to mitigate his pay!