2017-05-04: Strangers in a Strange Land
- Log: Strangers in a Strange Land
- Cast: Ethius Hesiod, Catenna, Ambrosius, Gwen Whitlock
- Where: Silver Coast
- Date: 5/4/2017
- Summary: Four Drifters converge on the Otherworldly Hollow, each with their own reasons for being there. Some have met before, others have not. Their reasons and their bonds may not survive what they find, down below...
===============================<* Silver Coast *>=============================== The Silver Coast is the name given to the northeastern coastline of Ignas. The origins of the name are lost to history, but residents of the area tend to assume it reflects either the famous white-sand beaches northeast of Lacour, or the region's distance from the desertification slowly spreading out from the continent's heart. The Coast and its surrounding territories are claimed by the Kingdom of Lacour, and contain a wide assortment of biomes, from plains to rocky hills and mountains to rolling beaches. Major roads between Lacour and its next two largest settlements - the Port City of Hilton and the Academy City of Linga - are heavily patrolled by the kingdom's soldiers, and are generally safe. The hinterlands, however, are plagued by monsters of all types; researchers in Linga can find a variety of uses for the body parts of monsters, and do a brisk trade with Adventurers seeking to protect the population and make a little coin to boot. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYbFnoRSW6M
==========================================<* CHALLENGE - Collateral Damage *>=========================================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | -----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------------------------- While few might be truly brave enough to test the depths of the Otherworldly Hollow, that doesn't mean no one has set foot here since the Hellions made it into their lair. Signs of recent battle mark the Hollow's entrance in a plethora of ways, but maybe the most noteworthy one is the sign of fresh rubble blocking the entrance. Whoops. Welp. Best get crackin'. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Batical Grotto has become a very interesting place, lately. Nestled about the coasts of Port Timney, there has been talk about the wildlife growing agitated. Aggresive. The beasts that roam Filgaia are hardly docile to begin with, but the stories, the rumors, the witness accounts that might have been overheard in passing...
Is this of concern to me? Wonders that strange white-haired man whom seems far more interested in dedicating almost every passing moment to seeking lost technology. The disquiet surrounding the port proves far too much to brush off. Even he had to agree that something had to have been wrong. He, himself, had a few close scrapes even wandering towards the port town to begin with for his latest thread chase.
This isn't a mere seasonal behavior. There is merit to someone looking into this - perhaps the sorts of people he, himself, would want to investigate will present themselves.
And so it goes, he unwisely wanders along up to the outskirts of the Batical Grotto by his lonesome. Miraculously, the wounds he has already suffered from the attacking wildlife are merely superficial, though Ethius already appears dirtied and worn down as he kneels before a big pile of rubble he suspects is blocking the way in.
There may yet be others whom arrive to seek answers, themselves, underneath the ominous overcast late evening sky that has taken more of a magenta hue rather than the familiar orange that a Filgaian might be accustomed to.
It's... kind of sinister. But it is just a color.
Ethius finds himself checking over his shoulder subconciously far more than he would care to admit between attempts to shuffle a larger piece of rubble out of the way.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Collateral Damage.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Last time Catenna delved into this horrific cavern, she exited, left the party, and promptly tore her clothes off and set them on fire, then dove into the nearest oasis and ritually purified herself. The pall of Malevolence was too heavy. It felt like it wanted to seep into her soul like water into a sponge.
She almost didn't come back.
But she has a responsibility to Filgaia. A responsibility to heal this world and do what she can to make it a better place.
The priestess isn't part of the party, but the group will find her here. She's kneeling out front, surrounded by a circle of small stones, spaced out broadly; in the centre; she's drawn a few lines in the dirt in the shape of strange lettering, and lit a few sticks of vague anise-scented incense, their aroma filling the air around her. She's on her knees with her hands cradled above the candle flames, cupping a small jewel between them, eyes heavily lidded as she chants something low and sonorous. "Chadani, chadani, chamashta... chadani, chadani, chamashta... chadani, chadani, chama--"
The sound of someone striding up jerks her from the ritual. With a breath, she looks up at Ethius, eyes wide as she follows him with her gaze. "I... I would be very careful," she urges, half-holding out a hand. She doesn't get up to help with the rocks.
For those who've seen Catenna before, her outfit's entirely unlike her and heavy on dark doeskin leather: Knee-high boots with slight heels, small shorts, a vest that fits more closely than she'd like. Her hair decs, at least, are still there.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Ambrosius had heard the rumors too, of course. Beasts, and sometimes even people, were growing agitated. Violent, even. Attacking everyone in their path, as they converged on a single point.
It was this single point that Ambrosius was currently investigating. This place was the Batical Grotto, once, and it was said there was an evil there that one could feel even in the very air.
Superstitious nonsense, of course. The very idea was unscientific. 'Evil' was not a measurable quantity. You could judge a person's actions, of course, and say they were 'evil', but to then go on and claim that true 'evil' actually existed in the world as some sort of aura?
Ridiculous.
Still, it was an interesting premise. There had to be something causing the wildlife to go...well, wild. And if it was anywhere, it seemed in all likelihood that it would be here.
Unfortunately, however, as it would happen...
'Here' had apparently been blocked off by a recent battle, or something of the sort, with rubble piling up and making entry impossible until something had been done about it.
He was not the first one to come here, it would seem - and not even the first to arrive on this very day. A familiar man who's name he had frustratingly yet to learn and...
It takes him a second to actually recognize Catenna.
"Faaate...seems ever eager...to draaaw us...tooogether..." He comments, looking between the two of them with a smirk and a dry chuckle.
Well, he would leave Catenna to her little ritual. His concern now was the entrance.
"Allow me...to assiiist you..." He says. He glides over to the stones and begins picking them up and hurling them away...hopefully not hitting anyone or anything important in the process.
DG: Ambrosius has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Collateral Damage. DG: Catenna has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Collateral Damage.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna just opens her mouth half an inch or so, then closes it, staring at Ambrosius in frustrated silence.
Meanwhile, in a corner of Catenna's mind:
. o O ( NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE )
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
There's a sound of someone approaching. A person of an average frame and build, but with none of the unpleasant thrum of Malevolence to announce their arrival. "H-hey, you guys, you know where you're headin' into, right?" And that's the voice of a concerned courier coming from behind the three. It's just her there, no Gulliver or cart by her. "This is where the beings infected by Malevolence went to after they were pushed out of Port Timney. Y'best be real carefu- oh." Catenna's face is new to Gwen, but Ethius and Ambrosius's faces aren't.
Gwen sighs. "I reckon I'm gonna regret this majorly, but I think I'd hate it even more to leave this be. If you guys ain't all that adverse to me joinin', I may be of some help." The casual stride and tone say one thing, but the solemn caution in her eyes and the set of her mouth say another.
She was there. She saw those beasts, as well as the fate of the humans that were also infected. She saw the black gas curl into the wound left by one of them, and felt its poison try to overtake her. "Whatever you do," she warns, her throat suddenly dry, "don't let it get into you. And if it does..." She looks to Catenna. Could her magic fight the corruption? "We'll just have to figure it out from there."
She reaches over and begins knocking away rocks with her hands, tossing them aside.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Collateral Damage. DG: The party led by Ethius Hesiod has passed this challenge! The party gained 7 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: Gwen Whitlock has drawn a new Challenge.
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Corrupt Crustaceans *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Things are quiet. Too quiet. An eerie creak. The soft sound of chittering mandibles. And then you see them, coming out of the cracks and crevices of the cavern -- exoskeletal Hellions, from chattering and enormous centipedes to to venomous spiders, they come from the dark, hungry for prey. You may ask yourself how some of these creatures count as Crustaceans, but who are you to question the taxonomy of the Hellion world? You're the one about to be eaten by them, after all, maybe you ought to just respect their classification system. And like, kill them, probably. ... Is that an armadillo in there? What-- =Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"My apologies. I do not mean to interrupt your rituals," so says Ethius to Catenna's warnings, who does not have the courtesy to make eye contact with Catenna but he does make it a point to try and shift rocks less obtrusively. He appears to have taken her warning as related to her practices, and not... to what lies beyond.
"I do not." Ethius responds matter-of-factly to Gwen's question. He is, at least, honest. He hasn't an idea, only the thought that something must lie beyond the rocks.
He wordlessly accepts Ambrosius' help. Ethius is going at this far too slow if they are intending to find a way in - the devil-may-care attitude the flamboyant man employs in tossing rocks aside is what proves the ultimate difference. With Gwen's added assistance as this carefree method of 'throw the rocks' quickly making work of the stack, what lies beyond...
...Darkness.
"I appreciate your assistance," Ethius says to the two of them, back turned, as he stands tall and brings a hand to his forehead. Should he ask more about this... what did the young woman by him call it? A poison, of some kind, then...
... Can't he feel it, in the air? To look into his eyes, eyes that oft seem to be lacking in much to speak of, the sight does not seem to comprehend what sort of abyss they are staring into.
This is unmitigated foolishness. If this man is innocent to what lies beyond, then he of all people deserves as much prayer and guidance as any that some divine circumstances will turn him away before he is swallowed whole by the darkness.
Drifters like this man with white hair and half-hidden face, or the tall man with the strange emphasis on dragging vowels, no matter how confident, experienced, or strong they are, all seem to share that lack of understanding to know when they are about to poke the hornet's nest... that the rocks which stand as a blockade may be there for a very, very good reason.
(A reason of more poetic strokes, rather than the more realistic and viable explanation of 'Kent Haunch tried to blow it all up not all that long ago.')
Can Gwen and Catenna moderate the ambitions and curiosities of Ethius and Ambrosius, as the maw of terror beckons to swallow some more unfortunate souls...?
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Skitter skitter skitter skitter skitter
tap tap tap taptap tap tap
cracklecrackle crackle
ticktick tick ticktick tick
chitterchitterchitter chitter
crunchcrunch crunch crunch
The many legs of a giant centipede writhe in waves as the red insect climbs down in a graceful, artful motion, quietly extending feelers and poisonous mandibles dripping with toxin.
Spiders of many sizes leap and dart through the dark, followed by their slower blood-sucking tick brethern.
Nightmarish crabs on legs far too long for their bodies delicately pick through the rock and debris.
There are no voices, no calls. Only the scattering of many legs, with none baring less than six or so at a time. They are mechanical in their precision, each bleeding a black swirling mist, only seen and/or felt by those with a spiritual sense. But even those with a scientific eye would see this being odd- all these creatures are converging on them, rather than falling to simply prey on one another.
It is an unearthly ballet, and one that can't be watched without a prickle forming at the back of one's neck.
There is also an armadillo. It is very cute, but also very scary.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna wasn't much help moving the rocks, mostly because she didn't even try. She just scowls lightly after Ambrosius, then finally sighs and picks up her shotgun, rising to her feet. "So long as you are here for the right reasons then so be it," she says tartly.
Inhaling, she straightens her vest with a slight downward tug, before opening her mouth to say something to Ethius - who's not even looking at her. In fact he seems to have completely brushed her off. The woman lowers her eyelids ever so slightly and breathes out a slow sigh, giving her head a shake. For just a moment, she sincerely considers just letting this foolish man and Ambrosius go into the cave and die.
Then she closes her eyes and breathes in the incense again, and her cheeks colour ever so slightly. (No. I mustn't do this. The Hesiod man is not a bad man, though misguided. And while the other one may be a Stranger, it would be a disgrace for me to treat even a sinner's life so callously. Even if it means once again exposing myself to this... this... this FEELING.)
Lifting her eyes to the heavens almost as if to ask Celesdue why her, she loads a couple of shrapnel rounds into her shotgun and begins to move. As she does, she gives Gwen a considering glance. At least this Ignas person seems like she's sane.
Something skitters in the distance. Catenna frowns - and then takes a moment to do something she should've done to begin with.
"Hanosam munef," she intones, holding her medium in one hand. The air around her shifts subtly, the resonance of it barely felt by the magically sensitive before it's gone with a faint, barely perceptible flicker - but she seems to breathe a little easier as she levels her shotgun. It's a simple spell - one which locks her against status effects for the time being.
Leveling her gun, she blasts a shrapnel round into the centipede swarm with little fanfare.
DG: Catenna has used her Tool Shrapnel Shell toward her party's challenge, Corrupt Crustaceans.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Ah, Gwen. Excellent. Ambrosius offers her a friendly smile.
"It...wooould be...a pleasure...Miss Whiiitlock." He replies with an incline of his head. This was good. He was interested in seeing just what she was capable of, and this way he could do that while also continuing with his mission.
He mostly ignores the shocked manner in which Catenna is staring at him...though it does amuse him and get a chuckle out of him. Still, fortunately, the way is clear and they are allowed to move on.
But when they do move on...
Lots and lots of hard-shelled, many-legged critters - to his eyes, completely normal except for their violent nature. Too many of them, and too small to aim for with Conversator. In this situation, there is only one answer.
Drown them.
"Braaace yourseeelves..." He warns. His hands then fly out of his poncho, and water begins to converge. He then points them both out, and unleashes a wave with the intention of washing away many of the smaller threats.
DG: Ambrosius has used his Tool Deluge toward his party's challenge, Corrupt Crustaceans.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
This is something that should be surprising. Shocking. No, this is surprising. This is shocking.
This is terrifying. This is unnatural. No living creature should move through here with any sort of comfort, nor assurance, of where they currently are.
Confronted head-on with the very first encounter of something beyond an anecdotal experience, the way Ethius takes to getting his quarterstaff in both hands and swinging in an attempt to bat off the converging creatures... his eyes betray little additional emotion even in the thick of the cave's inhabitants coming together to kill the intruders - and yet not each other, a natural food chain disregarded over territory... or worse.
Is this man aware of what surrounds him? Even as a venomous fang glances against his arm - a coinflip as to whether that will inflict whatever evil ichor drops from the maw of the insect that wished to take a bite of him - the eyes do not waver. He is noted as a sorcerer, as evidenced by the strange markings that run up what's visible of his arms. This kind of combat situation is not what he should consider a comfort zone.
In some ways, even the simple lack of outwardly noticeable fear and caution should be, in itself, considered a curiosity that invites unease.
Ethius says nothing, focused entirely upon his survival with an apparent acceptance--
No. This is ignorance.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Corrupt Crustaceans.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
It's a sad day when the normally spritely Gwen is instead the sober, not-really-very smiley sane one of the party. But still, she's here, going in with them. Tipping her hat to Ambrosius and Ethius at their greetings, Gwen looks to Catenna. "We'll figure things out as we go, right?" Ah, there she smiles. Maybe she's just as insane as the other two?
----
As the onslaught crawls near, Gwen, pale-faced, takes her right glove off. Ethius knows, but no one else does. She's a bit too scared to let out a litany of unneeded explanations right now, however. Her hand is a flexing metallic thing, perhaps easily going unnoticed in the dim light of the cave. Ambrosius's water gushes right by her, giving her an idea.
The hand sparks as she holds it into the water, the electric current adding another obstacle to the creatures coming for them.
Somehow, through ARMS and magic and things, it will not shock the party as well.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Corrupt Crustaceans. DG: The party led by Ethius Hesiod has passed this challenge! The party gained 7 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> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
The waves of electrified water wash away the smaller creatures with ease, leaving only the larger entities for Catenna's gun and Ethius's quarterstaff to fend away, weaking them until the tide drowns the unearthly lot away from the party. So far, so good. Maybe things are going well?
DG: Ambrosius has drawn a new Challenge.
======================<* CHALLENGE - Ascend the Shaft *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- People once used the Hollow, before it was ultimately abandoned; their presence still lingers, here and there, mostly in rudimentary ways. Ways like the manual rope-and-pulley lift that leads up, further into the caverns. Hopefully you've got some people with great upper body strength with you, because it's sure as hell a long way up. =Dungeon Conditions: Tire=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
With the accursed crustaceans dealt with, the party is able to move on. Until, that is, they hit a wall - literally. A brief scan of the area reveals that this is not, fortunately - or unfortunately, depending on what waited them next - the end of the road.
There is a lift here. Primitive, yes, but the mechanisms have withstood the test of time.
Ambrosius sweeps into the lift's basket and pulls, experimentally, on the rope attached. In response, it lifts slightly, though it takes a little effort. It seems like this one still works, for the most part.
"Cliiimb in, everyone..." He says, offering everyone a polite smile.
It wasn't going to be an easy trip, in more ways than one, but at the very least their transportation was secured.
DG: Ambrosius has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Ascend the Shaft.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
This is incredibly terrifying. This is especially true because Catenna can clearly see the twisted forms Malevolence has imparted upon the centipedes that come scuttling at her. She handles it better this time.
"Yes... we shall have to figure it out together," she murmurs to Gwen. As the woman unveils her metal hand, the priestess's eyebrows arch, but she asks no questions, just biting her bottom lip and looking on with a soft breath.
The little group moves on. Keeping her shotgun at the ready, Catenna keeps her eyes open, glancing from side to side, alert for approaching malevolent beings - until the elevator looms ahead, and she bites her bottom lip with recognition.
Ambrosius gets on first. Catenna actually pauses for several seconds, as if she doesn't want to be on the same platform as him.
Finally, watching the deep-voiced man with wary eyes, she steps onto the elevator, keeping to the opposite end of it from him, so close to the edge that she seems like she could fall off if she jostles wrong. Sinking to her knee, she touches her medium with one hand and murmurs a few power words. A current of magic vibrates invisibly in the air, and the weight of the elevator begins to decrease, becoming easier for the pulley team to hoist.
DG: Catenna has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Ascend the Shaft.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius casts a glance over to Gwen's exposed hand - favoring a look at that over those of misshapen eyes peering at the lot of them from the veil of fear and uncertainty.
"Your tactical acumen is most impressive." Somehow, he finds it in him to find the air in his lungs for such small talk when he still yet walks in the company of mortal danger, of a force that would want little more than to reach out and twist these folks into hideous husks devoid of humanity.
As the team comes into the next stop of their journey, Ethius allows the others into the basket first in favor of looking upwards. A hand goes to his face, but the context that would bring upon one of his scant few body language tells does not appear to warrant any vocal commentary on his part.
"Yes, that does appear the only way forward," he says as he comes onto the elevator. He prepares himself to be ready to assist should Ambrosius show signs of tiring.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Ascend the Shaft.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
The glove is back on by the time they reach the rope and pulley system, though Gwen is certain she's fooled no one. Instead, she tries to remain confident in the idea that her actions will speak for themselves. Nodding with a wan smile to Ethius, Gwen says, "Thanks. You're holdin' up pretty good yourself, with that quarterstaff."
She's about to offer to help with the rope when Ambrosius does it instead, even welcoming everyone on board. Without any hesitation, she jumps aboard, probably providing a nice barrier between Ambrosius and the wary Catenna. "Lemme know if your hands are gettin' tired, Ambrosius. Might need to take turns, dependin' on how much we're gonna have to go."
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Ascend the Shaft. DG: The party led by Ethius Hesiod 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> Ambrosius has posed.
There is a long way to go, as it turns out. Catenna's magic certainly helps, but it still takes many turns between Ambrosius, Gwen, and Ethius before they finally make it up the top. By this part, their arms would likely be quite sore...but, they are here, and now they must move onward.
After all...going back would mean having to make their way all the way back down once more, and there is a good chance that none of them would be willing to go through that again so soon.
In his mind, Ambrosius curses the primitive human technology. If his people built this, it would have been a pleasant automated lift, not...that.
DG: Catenna has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* CHALLENGE - Malevolent Mass *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------- The Malevolence in this part of the cavern is thick, thick enough that even the most rudimentary of spiritual senses would still feel the hair on the backs of their necks standing on end, even if they couldn't see the reason why: condensed into a thick, unstable mass at the end of this passage, Malevolence has bound with rock and mineral to create a bulging, seething obstruction of blistering negative impulse. To press on, you're going to have to find a way to carve through bedrock and bitterness. Lucky you. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
It takes Catenna a lot of doing to try to lighten the load this time. It doesn't help that she's having to focus a lot on keeping Eraser in effect on her person. The spell is keeping her locked against the effects of Malevolence, but it's also taking some of her attention. As the elevator reaches the top, she exhales heavily, beads of sweat clinging to her forehead and figure, but she gives herself a small shake and presses onward nevertheless, wordless.
Only to turn a corner not far from the top and gasp at the sight of what's ahead. A massive, bulging, pulsating mass of sponge-like stone, literally oozing semi-liquid Malevolence down its quivering and bulging form in tiny rivulets. It fills up the entire breadth of the corridor, blocking the way, bloated and quivering as if someone had stuffed a living human organ into the cavern. The pall of Malevolence hangs in the air like a thick fog here; just breathing it will be dangerous.
"It is repulsive," Catenna groans, recoiling from it a little and holding one arm up as if to try and shield herself from it.
With a heavy breath, she manages to steel herself. While she casts forth another spell, once again trying to lighten the gravity of the mass, she doesn't hold out a lot of hope.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The half-masked wanderer pays the fatigued muscles little mind beyond his right hand rubbing at his left bicep, keeping pace with the rest as they move forth towards the end of the next interesting passage, where they witness...
...What do they witness?
Ethius turns away from the group, pointing a hand down at the cavern floor. It doesn't seem like he's attempting to bring attention. It seems more that he seems to be drawing something in his mind, using the floor as a visual guide.
"Repulsive... I find that a... curious descriptor," Ethius lapses into those difficult words that the non-native language speaker among them may find vexing. While the tone of his voice maintains the even keel as always, the strange pauses between words are highly suggestive that he might not completely disagree.
He walks backwards towards it as he traces whatever strange line of thought he has about the floor and the odd stone he's not even looking at.
"So it would seem," he says in a quieter tone of voice, "I believe we have enough clearance," he continues in his more familiar volume and inflection.
"The ventilation is... adequate." These are words that some may greatly disagree with - he must feel it by now, being this close to something like that!
The tattoos light up around his arms, as he goes to the familiar chanting. Throwing his left hand back as far as he can without facing it, he starts an attempt to subject the awful thing to a sustained burst of Symbology-empowered heat that might yet stand to melt it into... some other state of being that might prove equally foul and inexplainable.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Malevolent Mass.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Ambrosius feels...something. The effects of whatever it was that was causing the wildlife to wild, perhaps? To think it would reach even him... Still, he manages to shrug it off, and instead focuses on the problem ahead - yet another wall.
Repulsive? Well, it did seem to be trying to repel them, but Ambrosius doubted that was what Catenna meant...and Ethius agrees.
"This caaave...it is as if it...does nooot want us to paaass..." He comments. Well, they didn't have much choice here. If they wanted to proceed, it would have to be through this wall.
Once more, his hand is outstretched and water converges into a swirling blade that would be familiar to two members of the party.
This blade is sent flying towards the wall, attempting to slice right through it.
Who knew what mixing symbological heat and etheric water would do. Hopefully nothing too negative!
DG: Ambrosius has used his Tool Aqua Cutter toward his party's challenge, Malevolent Mass.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"L-lucky us..." Gwen can see it. Oh, can Gwen _see it_. At least Catenna seems to 'see' it too. That makes her feel better. "That gunk is..." She grits her teeth and rubs her face with her gloved hands, slowly pulling them down over her mouth as she thinks. "I dunno if I can knock it away with electricity or by punchin' it. Rather not do that. Explodin' it away'd be bad idea too. None of us want that stuff touchin' us. Right?" The last word has an edge she didn't intend for it to have as she looks at her companions.
As Ethius moves up to engage with the mass, Gwen begins to wonder.
Moving up past Catenna to stand near Ethius, the courier silently takes her glove off again, and begins to generate a charge. "... Been havin' to take a more hands off approach lately," she quips through a grim, set smile as she attempts to generate a current to the mass. "Maybe you n' the miss back there have the right idea."
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Malevolent Mass. DG: Catenna has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Malevolent Mass. DG: The party led by Ethius Hesiod 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.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
The party tries and tries - but the huge, glob-like mass of Malevolence-soaked rock simply resists everything anyone tries to do. Reducing its gravity isn't enough to move it; hurling heat at it simply floods the hallway with Malevolence steam that chokes the senses with fumes and dread. The hurled blade helps, sinking into the stone, but nothing else really budges it, and after some time, the group is left with no real progress made.
Catenna lets her breath out in a soft puff. "...There must be another way around," she manages, wiping her forehead with the back of one hand. Malevolence has begun to pervade her senses now; she tries to ignore it as she turns, ready to backtrack towards a much narrower, more precarious path she'd have preferred to avoid.
(Celesdue, please preserve me from these feelings,) she prays silently.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has drawn a new Challenge.
============================================<* CHALLENGE - Phantasmagoria *>============================================ |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | -----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------------------------- Moist, cavernous outcroppings make the perfect breeding ground for fungus and bacteria and moss and all manner or disgusting things. Combine that with the presence of Malevolence here, permeating the rocks and the fauna... and even the flora. Spores riddled with Malevolence dot this narrow, rocky passage, making it glitter with beautiful violet light... but beware inhaling them, for they will settle into your very soul, and make you see the worst things about yourself made manifest. Your fears, your guilt, your regret... those deep, dark things that you would never wish to admit to anyone was real. And all it will take is one... little... breath. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
There's another path way off to the left, almost obscured by the... light? Of the abomination of a boulder that bears no further mention. Any sensory stimulus that suggests to the group that there's something else, something away, something different from what they stood before... no matter the idea that it might simply be for the best they turn around and head back down the primitive elevator, they find themselves choosing to find another way to go in further.
The cavern they head down is wet with moisture in the air. The ground they walk upon is soft with plenty of give - they are now walking upon fungus and lichens that have taken residence within this part of the cavern.
A violet light shimmers through it, though it tends to shine and fade depending on the angle in which the light hits one's eyes. It is a sort of pleasing hue, if taken as a stand-alone sense free of the overbearing dread.
There are specs of violet that seem to dance through the air. Floating dust...?
...Spores. Small enough to easily risk being inhaled, which seems... a bad idea.
Ethius stops where he is and gets out a lens. Why would he do that? It appears to be a straight shot through this narrow cavern from here to there. There's nothing suggesting a clever mechanism, or a fiendish riddle, or... anything. Following his casting, a bolt of electricity jumps from one hand into the lens, casting a blue-hued light from the monocle-like glass as he brings it to his eye.
He at least provides something of a landmark to follow, but...
...The sight is not the sense being challenged.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Spectral Lens toward his party's challenge, Phantasmagoria.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
This is why Catenna didn't want to go through this passageway.
Stopping well outside the haze of floating spores, the priestess in the leather vest and shorts curls into a wall of the cavern. Curled hands clutch her medium to her breast as she whispers under her breath, calling forth the spell of Eraser again as if to seal herself against what is to come. Even then, she hesitates; biting down to her bottom lip, she looks ahead as Ethius just gets his lens out and presses onward. The fool, she thinks.
Finally, steeling herself, Catenna makes her way forward. The sound of her heels on the stone feels wet and distant to her.
Not even magic can keep Malevolence at bay forever. Soon enough, she must breathe. She lets it out.
Tries to ignore the feelings around her. The distant sensation of wingbeats that only she can hear, fading off into the distance.
She is dully aware that she can no longer feel the others around her. As if she could ever feel these people anyway. As if she could ever feel Ethius Hesiod, a man so caught up in his big words that he does not care about her. As if she could ever feel the Stranger, a monstrous creature here to annihilate her. As if she could feel this woman with the metal hand. As if she is anything but an alien here. Less needed than the Stranger. As if she could ever do anything but walk alone.
As if she belonged here in the first place. As if there were anywhere in the world for her.
As she proceeds onwards, Catenna wraps her arms around herself and doesn't speak to anybody, merely holding her head low and looking down at her feet, ostensibly trying not to step on anything.
DG: Catenna has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Phantasmagoria.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
'Gunk'? Ambrosius glances at Gwen with a curious frown. What did she mean by that? This was just an ordinary stone wall. If he'd had explosives, he would've used them.
...What happened to the ones he'd picked up back in Lahan, then?
Well, no matter.
He turns and follows Ethius towards the more difficult path they had overlooked. He does not sense anything untoward.
But, this is not something that needs to be sensed to be felt. Even through his suit, it flows in...and he begins to wonder. His steps become strange and halting.
The man leading them with that lens. His motives are strange and unknown to him as his name. Does he know? Does he suspect what he is?
Beneath the poncho, Ambrosius's arms move. He grasps the handle of Conversator.
That woman, Catenna...she knew. She knew exactly what he was, what his people had done. She had been quiet up to this point, but there was always the chance that she would let something slip.
Someone would find out.
Conversator slips from its holster.
But...what of Miss Whitlock? She would likely not just stand there and allow him to do as he pleased. Destroying her would mean destroying potentially useful work. He did not know the extent of it personally, but...
No. He couldn't. It was too soon.
Think of the mission.
Keep your head down.
Don't do anything suspicious.
Think of the mission.
Think of the mission...
...Think of the mission...
DG: Ambrosius has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Phantasmagoria.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
It wasn't the right idea. At all. You can't reduce Malevolence to another state. It's not something that obeys the rhythm set by nature itself. Loosening the tie on her bandanna and throwing it over her mouth and nose, Gwen sights Catenna and Ethius moving towards a narrow path. Choking on the unnatural residue of their experiment with the black mass, Gwen pushes ahead into...
The cloth over her mouth and nose is too thick with the noxious debris that it can't really bring in the moist air in this new part of the cavern. Quickly, she she tugs it off, coughing. A pink scar leading underneath her blouse is visible now, hinting at a larger mass that's covered beneath her clothing, but Gwen takes no effort to be concerned right now. She's just going to breathe the clear, non-Malevolent Steam clogged air.
Her eyelids open. Blue-grey eyes focus on the motes of ??? in the air dazedly. She looks down at the lichens her boots are stirring below.
Well.
Why did she even come here? She's not supposed to be here. What did she think she is, some cool hero, jumping in to save the day? Gwen stumbles, falling back on moss a brilliant shade of blue-green. She looks at Catenna and Ambrosius.
They fear her. Before, she was weak. She'd get left behind. She drag people down. Now, she's strong. She could get through anything, with this arm. No, they're the ones dragging *HER* down. She doesn't need them. She doesn't need their approval. She'll be whoever she wants to be. She doesn't need their judgment. She *hates* them.
The courier moves to Catenna, her still ungloved hand reaching out towards her.
That woman is scared of her, isn't she? She'll show her that she's right to. They all are. 'They'. Who is 'they'?
The metallic hand diverts at the last second, instead reaching into her vest. A first aid comes out, and Gwen throws it at- no, to Catenna. "We need to keep moving," she says, her voice shaking.
Now Gwen's the scared weak one, all over again.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Medical Kit toward her party's challenge, Phantasmagoria. DG: The party led by Ethius Hesiod has failed this challenge! The party gained 14 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.
Ethius continues walking.
There are colors that flash behind him. They are far away, but somehow outside of the corner of his eye - no, a sense that he can see completely behind his own head - colors of warmth. A sunny morning, a soft orange that gives away to a pale cyan.
Green. Green makes up the foundation of the colors far beyond. Green, accented in uncountable motes of other hues. They all bleed together, but somehow he recognizes them as distinct.
Sound.
Voices? They aren't the voices of his traveling companions. They are voices. What do they say? No, that's not important, he finds enough presence of mind to determine such. I don't need to hear them. I am aware that--
...
...I am aware that...
...
A hand comes to his face as he stops mid-walk. The way his footsteps echo, the chamber feels wider. Longer - like the walls no longer exist. It is just him.
Him, and the colors and sounds behind. If he turns his head, the 'behind' moves with him. He cannot see the colors he knows are there. He cannot comprehend the sounds he knows he's hearing.
The lens comes back up to his face again, and he is immediately assaulted with patterns of light that flood and oversaturate his cognition. They move in logical shapes, into constructions and patterns identifiable and even mundane.
He cannot look back to the colors and sounds.
He cannot look away from the patterns of light that eventually overlay into the colors and sounds. From all directions, there is no escape.
There is no one else here.
His footsteps leave behind an unpleasant ichor behind him. He does not look down - does he know what is there? Is he aware? Lumps of... something... dot the comprehension, but the colors and sounds persist in apparent ignorance of the rest of the man's senses.
Ash? Harder shapes of ivory hue sometimes break through the ashen lumps.
'Forward,' into the patterns, a new sense arises. They appear to slowly descend into whatever passes for the ground, surrounded by the lights of an order and logic that he believes should not be there.
It tugs. It reaches ever higher. His left hand shoots forward...
...
I'm not finished, yet.
With what?
I don't know.
It will never be.
The man's eyes close, and open again.
Not as long as...
...
His outstretched hand proves a beacon to the rest that might be lost, but he will prove no emotional anchor. He seems to be chanting something - a spell? What is he about to cast... there's a building intensity that is worrying. A good, hard tug may be all that stands between the party and a terrible incident.
If they huddle together and move towards the way forward, they might make it - but it will prove emotionally harrowing every step of the way.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has drawn a new Challenge.
===============<* CHALLENGE - Forecast Calls For Slime Showers *>=============== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- This cavernous chamber is immense. Sprawling and full of natural, beautiful crystalline structures, the rocky ceiling to far up and full of striking stalactites and lovely, undulating oozes... wait. What? Yep. Clinging to the surface of the cave's ceiling are so many Hellion oozes it's hard to even see the surface. And they're all... dropping... down. Yep. It's raining highly-corrosive, gluttonous oozes en masse. Like angry dropbears, but ravenous, writhing gumball blobs. It's probably a good idea to start running. Fast. Like... now. =Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Lichens, fungi, and moss slowly give away to more crystalline forms, their clear surfaces riddled with iridescent, swirling ichor like a layer of gasoline over water, dripping much like liquid over the unsuspecting masses below. Drip, drip,
drip
drip
plop
Not even here are you safe. At the group's footsteps, the oozes quiver and begin to fall down nearly all at once. All a person can do is run forward.
And pray they don't reach a dead end.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Out of the haze of Malevolence, a shape looms towards Catenna. The woman inhales, turning and beginning to raise her arm.
Instead Gwen sends a first aid kit her way. Biting down to her bottom lip, Catenna blinks a couple of times, as though stunned that anyone would give this to her. She looks down at it in private wonder, then up at Gwen. "...Thank you," she offers, and though her voice is not obviously shaking, she is very, very quiet. Moreso than usual.
Beyond the smoggy room, her head begins to clear. She becomes aware of the others - not just Gwen. Even the fact that the disgusting, inhuman Stranger is present makes her feel a little better.
Less so the dropping corrosive Malevolence ooze.
With a gasp, Catenna lunges back; a few slimes drop to the floor where she was just standing, sizzling into solid rock. "Quickly," she calls out before unslinging a grappling hook and hurling it across the room. It catches on an outcrop of some kind.
With little hesitation, Catenna reels herself in as fast as she can, using the rope to guide herself swiftly through the slime rain towards what she hopes is the exit. Please, Celesdue, let it be the exit! Coming back here was stupid!
DG: Catenna has used her Tool Grappling Hook toward her party's challenge, Forecast Calls For Slime Showers.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius' stride, noticeably, appears to be breaking. A man who has managed to control so many of the natural facial tics and body language into an almost statuesque whole, leaving only movement that holds meaning - appears to start allowing some of it bleed through. Fingers shake. Eyes turn. Something might be spoken, but it is lost to the muffling of his bandanna around his face.
All he has to go by appears to be the sight of Catenna using her grappling hook's rope to guide them through - the only thing that might yet stop him from running into walls as the light of the evil-infused plant life flickers in and out of vision.
The only challenge is whether he will be able to keep up fast enough before the falling ooze envelopes and... no, let's not imagine what the next step would be following that.
The colors, shapes, and textures that abstracted what things he must be hiding under his mysterious surface all start to fade away to the pulsing adrenaline.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Forecast Calls For Slime Showers.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
...But...wouldn't it be better for the mission if they were gone? They would never understand. None of them would. What was the point of keeping them around in hopes that they would? They'd never suffered like his people had. Their lives were painfully short anyway. What would it matter that they died here, instead of elsewhere?
No one would know. Who even knew that they had gone here? Did anyone truly care about the white-haired man? And Catenna, she was a stranger in this land, just as he was...it would have been better for her that she never left.
The only true waste would be Miss Whitlock, but excuses could be made. The only people who would know the truth would be those in this room, and one by one they would cease to be a problem...
All's he has to do is raise Conversator.
All's he has to do is pull the trigger.
Once.
Twice.
Three times...
But, at the last second...
Ambrosius shuts his eyes tight.
No. This wasn't his intention.
He was here for a reason. And, if he was being honest here, he didn't want them dead. He had no personal dislike of them, and there were humans out there more deserving of his bullets.
He drifts closer to others.
And then, shortly after, he departs from them again as something splatters down nearby.
And just as they were beginning to bond, too. Alas.
But, there were more important things to be done here. Like not dying to those horrifically acidic slimes shortly after they had only barely succeeded in not dying to each other.
He runs, as quickly as he possibly can, using Catenna as a point of reference.
DG: Ambrosius has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Forecast Calls For Slime Showers.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Catenna's words feel like they're coming at Gwen from at the end of a tunnel, barely audible due to volume at the effects of the Malevolence thrumming in Gwen's ears. Quietly, she bends down and gathers the kit when Catenna is done, trailing begin the group like a meek child.
Just when she thinks she's begun to hit her stride, Gwen hears the falling plop of Hellion ooze, one falling just a few inches shy of her head. She yelps, nearly falling back into Ethius, then runs forward at Catenna's command, her head turning back to see if Ambrosius is behind h-
Oh, wait, they're all in front of her. Damn it! Gwen pants as her legs move as fast as she can manage, her eyes focusing on Catenna's back.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Forecast Calls For Slime Showers. DG: The party led by Ethius Hesiod has passed this challenge! The party gained 16 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> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
With Catenna in the lead, the party manages to make it past the field of crystals, ooze dropping audibly in their wake, sometimes mere nanoseconds after they had passed. No dead ends in sight, either, which is, perhaps, a good thing. Maybe. But it means going further in. Do you really want to?
DG: Ambrosius has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* CHALLENGE - One Big Push *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Oh hey look, it's a giant boulder. How'd that boulder get there? What was this boulder's life like, until it got here, resting on that lonely slope, blocking your way further down into the depths of the Hollow? Oh, what adventures this boulder must have had! Epics of scales one could scarcely imagine! Adventure! Intrigue! Romance!(?) A true hero, this boulder very well could be. But right now it's in your way so maybe you should try to just push it down that path so it stops continuing to be in your way. Alas, poor boulder. You were the best of us. =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Whether or not they want to, going further in is the only real option available. Backtracking now would mean having to go back through the field of spores - and they had only just barely survived it the first time. In their current state, would they be able to survive?
However, as it would happen, the path ahead isn't too great either - sitting in front of them is a boulder.
Not just any boulder, however.
"Hm...how faaascinating...this boooulder...it has a...very uniiique make-up..." Ambrosius observes, approaching it.
Among boulders, there were none like it. Could it be? Was this truly the king of rocks?
No, on further inspection, the Professor had nothing to do with this.
Given time, it may go on to do great things. Unfortunately, as fascinating as it was, it was also in their way.
"'Tis...a shaaame...but..." Ambrosius holds out a hand. Water converges, and Aqua Cutter fires out. Rather than attempting to slice the boulder itself, he instead goes for the ground beneath it. It looked like there was a slope just beyond this point, so if they could just move it only slightly...
DG: Ambrosius has used his Tool Aqua Cutter toward his party's challenge, One Big Push.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius almost doesn't make it out of there - Gwen might make up the back at first, but he falls behind as they come right at the end. A great splash of ooze comes within mere centimeters of grasping him - at the very end, he goes to a crouch before the rest.
"My apologies," he utters in that even tone of voice that may now be unnerving to the picture of a man whom appears to grow ever more exhausted.
And yet, he's keeping hold of his voice, and the way he speaks.
As Ambrosius lifts the boulder with the power of water, Ethius uses his quarterstaff to help himself walk towards it. Straightening himself out, he thrusts the tip of his weapon into the boulder in hopes of guiding it down towards that slope that might be able to take it out of their way - or at least create enough of an opening for them to move on by.
He does not stand to appreciate how ordinary the boulder before them is in comparison to what they all just went through.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, One Big Push. <Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Letting out a heavy breath, Catenna takes a moment to replace her divot, so to speak. She hangs back, hands on her thighs as she doubles forward and breathes in deeply, then lets it out. Sweat beads down her forehead. She hurts and she's dizzy, her eyes a little unfocused.
With a flick of her hair she's soon straightening up again. As Ambrosius fondles the giant boulder, the woman lowers her eyelids and sighs, a flash of momentary irritation dancing across her face, suppressed soon enough.
They're all treating this casually, she realizes. How can Ethius and the Stranger treat it that way?
For lack of any real tools she can use against a huge rock, and for lack of a desire to stand anywhere near Ambrosius, Catenna takes a few steps to one side and once again begins to work her gravity magic on the boulder. A few pebbles around the base of it vibrate slightly; one or two actually begin to float a few inches off the ground. The boulder itself grows gradually lighter as Catenna's spell eases the effect of gravity upon it; it should be much easier to move now. Or so she hopes.
In reality it's doing less than she thinks because she's running low on mana.
DG: Catenna has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, One Big Push.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
As Ethius falls behind, Gwen notices. The man who seemed to have the answer for everything, and never seemed to slow down, is... crouching. Needing to rest. The sympathy that guided Gwen's actions before being blasted away by the Malevolence begins creeping in again like a beggar creeping in through an unguarded open window. She bends down and, before she really can think on it, reaching over to extend a hand for Ethius to help himself up, if he allows for it. Unfortunately, it's the right hand, the metal parts laid naked to his eye.
Thus, even if Ethius allows for the hand to be there, she's quick to draw it back, not comfortable with the memories of what happened just a few moments ago.
At least she can handle this. Gwen wearily looks at the proud boulder, the one thing in this damn cavern that *isn't* infested with Malevolence or ooze or *something* in there that would worm into their very brains and deep into their soul and corrupt it from the inside out.
Yeah, it's a pretty fine lookin' boulder. Shame if someone... smashed it...
Yeah, after Ambrosius blasts it with water and as Catenna tries to dislodge it with gravity magic, Gwen begins hitting it with her metal hand, getting out some frustration in the process. Sorry, boulder. It's not you, it's her.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, One Big Push. DG: Ethius Hesiod is too exhausted to continue! DG: The party led by Ethius Hesiod has failed this challenge! The party gained 2 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> Ambrosius has posed.
Through the magic of teamwork, the boulder is soon sent hurtling down the slope.
However, as it would happen...sometimes, sending giant boulders rolling down slopes when you didn't know what was at the bottom was not the best option in the world.
The boulder shatters into rubble when it hits the end of the slope. Unfortunately, this happens right in front of the path onward. They can still continue, but they will need to make a pathway through the rubble before they can do so.
Ordinarily an easy task, but the party is already tiring...even easy tasks seem far more difficult than they should be.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The inner thoughts of the wandering priestess are worthy of being made into a more pointed question - how can someone like Ethius emotionally appear, at least on the surface, to hold themselves together against the overwhelming, choking, crushing... annihilating... weight of negative emotion?
The physical wear and tear is there. He moves more slowly, more labored - now more out of necessity, rather than by practice as he's appeared before.
And yet, on the very surface...
His head lifts up slightly at Gwen offering a hand, that is quickly retracted faster than he can seem to make up his mind. As half of his face is hidden behind a bandanna, there's no frown to gauge, or much to go by other than his eyes.
His eyes don't seem to say much of anything, one way or the other, as he staggers back from the boulder - wherever it goes, if anywhere, and kneels again.
"Please allow me to take up the rear," he suggests. The outer shell of himself is intact, but the way he now holds the quarterstaff, his difficulty in standing back up and walking...
He appears to be spent, vulnerable in the heart of this vortex of something unimaginable to the people of Filgaia... and yet, something about him maintains that stiff upper lip.
But, for how long?
DG: Catenna has drawn a new Challenge.
===============<* CHALLENGE - Color-Coded for Your Convenience *>================ |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------- Torrential waters run through the Hollow; you've stumbled upon one such location, a gap between dry land and the raging river carving through the Hollow that will most assuredly sweep you away somewhere unpleasant if you're not careful. The only way to cross? A series of natural stepping stones. Easy enough, right? For those that can sense such thing, though, the presence of Malevolence permeates even through rock, and several of these natural outcroppings reek of the violet-colored spiritual blight; stepping on those infested with it will make them crumble away within an instant. Best hope you're very careful -- or have someone who can see them to guide you. =Dungeon Conditions: Tire=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
The effort of trying to pick through the boulder debris leaves Catenna bruised and tired. She again has to stop about halfway there and catch her breath. It takes her a lot longer this time. With a worried glance back towards Ethius, she bites down to her bottom lip. He seems to be in a bad way - even worse off than she is.
Though that's hard.
Beyond the boulder, a river rushes through the grotto. A few obvious stepping stones loom out of the water. At first it seems like an easy crossing --
Catenna pauses. She breathes out wearily as she spots violet light brooding within one of the rocks. Malevolence. Of course.
"Some of the stepping stones... the dark magic has taken them," she manages, her voice tired and drawn. "We must be careful."
Gingerly, the woman bounds to one of the stones, then the next one. To her, the stones stand out very clearly - she can see the Malevolence as if it were perfectly tangible. And as she hops from stone to stone, she's using that knowledge to give hand signals - jump to this stone, jump to that stone. Every time she's about to jump, she points to where she's going, then hops, then points to the next stone, then hops. She takes her time - lets the others see the pattern.
DG: Catenna has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Color-Coded for Your Convenience.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
'Dark magic'? How absurd. They looked perfectly fine. Ambrosius studies the stones that seemed to serve as their only pathway across.
Were he more contrary, he would scoff and attempt to pass through them anyway. However, he has already seen that the pathway Catenna has chosen is safe. There is no point in taking unnecessary risks.
Not when they've come this far. Not when danger rushed beneath them - too much water moving much too quickly for his Sorcery to properly affect.
He follows her lead. Carefully, slowly, and surely.
DG: Ambrosius has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Color-Coded for Your Convenience.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"H-hey, you alright?" Gwen looks to tired Catenna. "Take it easy. We can always go back. Or go forward." Looking to Ambrosius, who still seems well, Gwen presses a hand to her head, her head looking downwards.
If it weren't for this ARM, she would have had to give up at not even half the distance they've now traveled so far. Because of this ARM that clasps her heart, she's here. It's a small amount of comfort, even if it can't keep her from becoming tired, or out of breath.
But that's a part of being human, isn't it?
Gwen's embarrassment over her minor freakout continues as she hears Ethius notify the party that he's taking up the read. Or, rather, asking to. Looking behind her at the white-haired man, she nods towards Catenna. "I'll handle this, but I'll drag you both out if I have to, okay?" Her light tone adds a bit of wry humor to the air, even as they look across an impossible feat to cross. "Okay, Mr. Hesiod? I think I know which stones I can go on- I think I can see the... whatever Malevolent stuff is. So I'm gonna carry you. I can do this- you just need to hold onto me. Can you do that?" She takes off her tool pouch, and, throwing a few rusty tools out, tries to mark which stones are safe to tread on as best her aim will allow her. "We'll make it."
She won't force it. She's learned her lesson there. However, she'll find a way to ensure the man gets across, one way or another.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Tool Set toward her party's challenge, Color-Coded for Your Convenience. DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Color-Coded for Your Convenience. DG: Catenna is too exhausted to continue! DG: Ethius Hesiod is too exhausted to continue! DG: The party led by Ethius Hesiod 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. DG: Ethius Hesiod has drawn a new Challenge.
============================================<* CHALLENGE - Burnt Offering *>============================================ |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | -----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------------------------- Before you is an altar. Beyond it, a door, the only door to be found in the entirety of this cave system. The door will not budge. Not for all the greatest force in the world, not for all the most clever keys, not for all the most dextrous devices. Besides the altar is flint and fuel for burning. Upon the door, a simple message: OFFER UNTO THE PYRE. Flesh, possessions, it matters not -- as long as it has meaning. As long as it takes something from you. As long as it satisfies the whimsy of this altar's wards. What will you give? =Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Until she reaches the far side of the river, Catenna doesn't answer Gwen. She just hops along, bounding from stone to stone and increasingly growing more tired, until finally she reaches the far side of the river. Her heels touch down among wet gravel, and she takes a couple of steps.
Beyond, the cave narrows to a tunnel, angling upwards - and a light flickers in the distance. It's the sort of light only cast from a guttering flame. Still a ways off, perhaps, but it seems like it could be the next chamber the group would find.
A chill races through Catenna, and she takes a single step back, colour beginning to drain from her face.
"I can go no further," she says, turning to Gwen, and though she does her best to remain reserved, behind her eyes there hangs a hint of something. A deep, profound horror.
"This place will ask you to give of yourself," she advises gravely, but wearily, reaching up to gingerly rub at her bicep. "Do not do it lightly. A burnt offering... it is to a god or a demon as good as a permanent contract."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"Is that so," Ethius says - but is it to the request to carry him, or what Gwen can see? It is not clear. His eyes close for two seconds before opening half-way.
He nods his head. That's a yes. Even if he said no, there's no way he's going to limp across the stone platforms. Stable or no for a quick jog through, one would dare not take chances on walking slowly through.
He does not resist, nor hesitate. With Gwen's help, he is safely carried across to the other side...
Catenna's sudden chill and refusal to go any further is an ominous precursor to what lies next.
The room is empty. One does not even see walls, but they can comprehend an enclosure.
There is a door. It does not come to anyone's mind that they can, or should, attempt to breach the seeming nothingness surrounding it.
Before it, an altar.
"Thank you. ...Excuse me," Ethius says, as he limps off of Gwen, and uses his quarterstaff to approach the door. Whatever it says... it doesn't seem to get much of a reaction out of him.
His right hand withdraws a metallic stone. It disappears just as quickly.
He replaces it with the lens, but he doesn't have the strength to channel any further sorcery. He tries to bring it up to his eye, anyway, and looks dow--
He immediately removes it from his sight. Startled?
"...Intriguing."
What?
"...Offer unto the pyre." He faces the altar, in which flint rests on the ground next to a nearly empty oil lantern. The way he speaks, matter-of-factly... to their stresses, their fears, it sounds almost commanding.
"That is... what it says." Does he not question it, what it could mean to offer...?
DG: Catenna has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Burnt Offering.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
"Gooods...deeemons...riiidiculous... You, boooth of you, are...merely letting this...plaaace...get the better of...you..." Ambrosius replies, shaking his head with a scoff. He had had enough of this.
"Such thiiings...do not exiiist...! They are merely...a faaabrication...to allow maaankind...to evaaade respooonsiblity...! Do not...let them...swaaay you...!"
This was all ridiculous. They were tired. It was making it difficult to think, yes, but did that mean they had to ignore reason, as well? He was feeling frustrated.
He glances towards Ethius.
"You...whoooever you are...do you beeelieve in this...this inaaanity...as well?" He then starts towards him. Something clicks in his head. His eyes narrow.
There is movement beneath his poncho. Subtle, but his motions are similar to when he drew Conversator before...
"Iiindeed...whooo are you? You haaave...neeeglected to tell me...all...this tiiime...and I fiiind...myself...quiiite curious..."
There is the sound of an ARM being drawn from its holster.
"Faaate...such...a riiidiculous noootion...! That I would...briiing it up...myseeelf...!" He chuckles wrly.
There is no humor in it.
"Why...have you...been...following me? Who...are...you...!?"
The poncho falls aside. He has not pointed it yet, but the revolver is clearly gripped in his hand.
DG: Ambrosius has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Burnt Offering.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Gwen may seem lackadaisical at times, but when Ethius allows himself to be carried, she's careful with her steps, moving from stone to stone with a solemn expression on her face.
She doesn't let the man down until he asks, kneeling down to allow Ethius to examine the altar. Turning to regard Catenna, the courier nods. "I see." Gwen looks to Catenna with a sad, almost sweet smile, if perhaps in contrast to what's around it. "... Did ya come with us to make sure we knew that? Or, at least, that was one of your reasons? Either way, uh, thanks." She bobs her head. "I'll do what I can." She came down here to make sure no one gets lost to this place. She nearly got lost herself. If they can at least peek into the mystery of what's behind here, they could be able to resolve it. Maybe.
It is this notion that brings her to a contradictory notion. She looks to the door, then to the pyre. "I don't have a whole lot that's mine to give." A hand itches at the burn scar as she listens to Ethius.
She does have something to give. Something that'd have meaning, though would an altar percieve it? She starts the flint aflame and sets the pyre, almost as if in a trance, as she hears words nearby her. She rolls up the sleeve on her left up, exposing her skin.
Ambrosius's words cut through her fog. Gwen lifts her head and sights the ARM in the Veruni's hand. "Whoah, whoah! Calm down there, Ambrosius!"
They're going to possible kill each other if she doesn't decide.
"There's one way to decide this. If it can't detect this, it can't be real," she yells, snuffing out the flame on the flint and pressing the tip of it, still hot, against the underside of one part of her arm.
It hurts. She probably would've backed down if she wasn't pushed. "This'd... prove it...!"
Thank goodness for the medical kit.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Medical Kit toward her party's challenge, Burnt Offering.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
The pyre seems to physically bother Catenna; she follows the group that far but, true to her word, doesn't go through the door, just cradling her shotgun and hanging back with the weapon trained on the fire. "Shapit lao," she hisses, lapsing back into her own language, speaking more to herself than anybody else. Holding her weapon on it makes her feel better, at least, even if she's got about as much chance of shooting the flame as she does of getting out of here without Gwen's help.
Or worse yet: The Stranger's help.
Then Ambrosius says something. Catenna clicks her teeth together and reminds herself that she must remain in control.
She's too tired to. Her gun swings away from the flame as she slams the butt of it violently into the wall with a loud crash, then turns the weapon on him. "Ap kutch ke baramen kya janate hoa?!" she snaps hotly as she hastily slams a couple of rounds into her gun. "Amanevy!" It breaks down from there; she goes on for at least thirty seconds in a language that's completely incomprehensible unless you're from the right part of the world. It's not even Baskar.
Ambrosius may be lucky nobody else speaks Zortroa, or else she'd have outed him and then chewed him out for dismissing the existence of the Guardians. As it is, it's probably just gibberish.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius is unnervingly unmoving to the shouting Ambrosius puts forth, nor the sight of him grabbing the revolver with the almost implicit threat that speaks of. He is a sitting duck, if Ambrosius so much intends to pull the trigger right then and there.
"Who I am," Ethius speaks, looking away as he returns to supporting himself with his quarterstaff, "I do not believe that urgent. I am... simply possessed of curiosity." THIS horror is a curiosity? This all-encompassing terror that many in a distant land have lost lives - even their very souls - to all this?!
"Our time together begins and ends within these expeditions." He continues with that same tone, even exhausted and wounded as he may be.
"Even if... we are to continue to encounter one another as we have... my aim does not change. I seek my answers, and nothing more."
Gwen goes through with the process of lighting the fire, resting her arm against it. Ethius, not watching what she's doing, does not seem to react much.
The flame is a different story, as it starts to grow ever hotter.
"I need not be paid additional mind once we part company. I only ask for one's discretion." To be silent about what, exactly?
Ethius brings a hand up to his head. He seems to refuse to make eye contact with anyone, only leaving his words hanging in the air.
"If you must insist, if it is believed that we cannot foster our temporary partnership without..."
There is a poignant pause, as Gwen snuffs the flame.
"My name..."
"Is Ethius Hesiod."
The pyre flame flickers again around Gwen's thumb in brief - a smaller gout of flame in comparison to using her very arm, but one that does rise! - in time to these very words.
Nothing was added to the pyre, though... mere words identifying oneself cannot possibly be seen as an offering, or any sort of sacrifice. It must be coincidence.
How can anyone hold the idea of their very name being something precious to give up? That's... ludicrous.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Burnt Offering. DG: Catenna is too exhausted to continue! DG: Ethius Hesiod is too exhausted to continue! DG: The party led by Ethius Hesiod has passed 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.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Catenna's loud yelling, her aggressive dialogue, it seems to drown out all else as the flame goes out to a fell breeze that runs through this hallway. The grains of ash flitter invisibly across, towards the big door.
There is a deafening rumbling that drowns out her words as the doorframe connected to seeming nothingness shakes, rattles...
It opens slowly, agonizingly, as if intended to make each and every sacrifice ask themselves if what lies beyond will be truly worth what they have decided to give - be it flesh, or a name.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has drawn a new Challenge.
======================<* CHALLENGE - Hellionized Hydra *>======================= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Beyond is a large and empty cavern, beset by a spacious lake. The air is still, uncomfortably so... and thick with choking Malevolence. And then there is a roar, so violent it makes the ground rumble. From the lake bursts forth a tremendous, scaled hydra; once the one who called this place its home, now warped by the grotto's new denizens, this Malevolence-twisted hydra is fueled by maddening rage and torturous corruption and wants nothing more than to squash anything and everything in its path, and right now that includes you. Perhaps you should try encouraging it not to. With violence. http://tinyurl . com / klzaxyp =Dungeon Conditions: Tire=====================================================
DG: Catenna has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Hellionized Hydra.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
It may be notable that Gwen didn't immediately object to what Ambrosius said, but then again, she *was* the one lighting the pyre and pressing the flint against her skin as a 'sacrifice'.
As the door opens, Gwen looks to Ambrosius and Ethius, speaking quickly. "My auntie told me there's a lotta things in this world that can only be figured out by testin' them out. And even then, they'll still resist being figured out. I know logic says a door can't open just because I burnt the skin on my arm or Mr. Hesoid offered his name, but Malevolence itself ain't real logical either." She points to Catenna. "She's been here before. Even if she didn't believe it before, she believes it now."
And maybe, they should've listened to Catenna and walked away.
Either way, what awaits them on the other side is a tremendous space, normally so expansive that it'd stifle a person in its size. Now, that size is filled with Malevolence, squeezing into every pore and crack of the place. And that isn't all that's here.
There's the hydra. It cries, and the ground shudders.
Gwen readies her ARM, revealing its full length by pinning back her sleeve. SHe begins loading bullets into an opening at the shoulder. "Ambrosius, I'll need everything you got- either we do this, or we make a mad dash out of here and hope for the best!"
She points her hand towards the hydra and fires through an opening hole in her right palm, each blast nearly knocking her off her feet.
Frea's experiments bore some fruit, it seems.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Hellionized Hydra.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
His attention turns towards Catenna as the sound of the gun striking the wall catches his ears. It is hard to tell if he understands her words or if he is simply reacting to the accusative tone, but they cause him to turn towards her instead. He hears Ethius speak, but right now there is another matter at hand.
"Lower it." An order. Simple, and direct. Unlike every time he'd spoken before.
And then, he hears it. The sound of the door slowly opening.
He turns and stares, looking between Gwen and Ethius. Did that actually work? No, he refuses to believe it. It must have been related solely to the flame being lit.
And suddenly, they are not alone.
He can hear it. They can all hear it.
He looks towards Catenna.
"If you shoot me. You will not. Leave here. Alive." It almost sounds like a threat, until he turns towards the door and begins to walk away - Conversator in one hand, and water converging around the other.
Because right now, the biggest threat in the room was not the Stranger, it was the Hydra, corrupted and angry.
"Riiight behind you...miss Whiiitlock..." He says, returning to his usual mode of speech.
He observes her weapon with awe, but it does not distract him from getting into battle position.
He then dashes quickly to the side, firing at it with Conversator as he moved. He wanted to try to force it to divide its attention between the two of them. And then, once he sees an opening, he sends out the burst of water as a high-pressure beam, hoping to take a large chunk out of it.
DG: Ambrosius has used his Tool Deluge toward his party's challenge, Hellionized Hydra.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
A new threat looms... and Ethius, against all common sense, lurches forward, choosing to elect to offer little in the way of presence or commentary to the arguments.
He contributes very little. He might hamper the effort just by being there, providing a potential distraction to the pitched battle effort yet to be put forth. He is guided by his curiosity - the talk of this malevolence...
...He can't think or speak as though he is unaware any longer, as its very being bears down. No one could come this far and claim full ignorance, as he closes his eyes and reflects upon what it is that nearly overcame him when going past the spores... or whatever just happened, now.
A hand darts for one of the satchels on his belt. What it does... he would not be able to use it to contribute to the battle. But, if the need arises, one final burst of adrenaline might be all he need to help secure an escape.
...Would he stay away, as originally suggested, if he managed to leave with his life?
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Hellionized Hydra.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna manages to take a breath after getting that rant out in her own language. Her eyes flick towards Gwen for a moment, her tone a little quieter. "I... I did not want you to face the cursed fire unknowing," she says, her voice a bit pinched. She still doesn't exit the doorway into the pyre room, even knowing what's beyond the door on the other side.
Notably, she doesn't take the gun off of Ambrosius. She actually spits as he tries to order her around again. As if she were a dog, she realizes.
This time she stops herself from shouting at him. Instead, her eyelids lower. "You are no master as to any of us," she says instead, voice low and full of acid. "Go to your fate."
Then the rest of the group ushers into the Hydra room.
Catenna keeps her gun trained on Ambrosius until he's fully in battle with the Hydra. Only then does she turn around and move off as fast as she can in view of how tired and hurt she is. She simply bails out and goes back the way she came, taking advantage of the fact that most of the puzzles have already been moved or solved.
She does divert around the mushroom room, though.
DG: Catenna is too exhausted to continue! DG: Gwen Whitlock is too exhausted to continue! DG: Ethius Hesiod is too exhausted to continue! DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Ethius Hesiod has successfully explored Otherworldly Hollow!
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Fragmented Crystal? *>====================== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Discovery |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You find it, perhaps by chance, at one of the tables lining this cavern that seems to have been dedicated to strange and arcane experimentation. A simple shard of crystal, so small that it could go completely overlooked if it didn't gleam such an eerie yet captivating violet. It pulses, cold to the touch, the very sight of it enough to make someone uneasy. For those who can see, reeks with Malevolence and power. It might be of value to someone, if you want to risk keeping hold of it. But just what as its purpose? =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
The odds are against them. Two people, against one, bolstered by the efforts of two, one of which is already smartly fleeing.
Yet, after a rigorous but mercifully short standoff, the Hydra falls and the cavern falls silent, all save for the persistent thrumthrumthrum of the Malevolence. The Hydra may revive of the force's own accord later, but for now, it's dead.
There's nothing to be done but to examine what's here, as there seems to be no exit but the way they came in.
"Thank you, Ambrosius." Gwen flashes Ambrosius a smile, but stumbles, her ARM crackling with feeble sparks. "... I think I overdid it. Need to head back before one of you has to do it for me..."
Scanning the room, Gwen's head tiredly looks to a crystal on one of the tables lining the cavern. Something... sparkled. But also pulsed with a finer point of the purple force that beats all around them. "This crystal's got somethin' weird about it," she says wearily. "It's infested with that power. I can see it." She looks to Ambrosius. "I'm not takin' it, and I suggest no one else does, either. This ain't for people like us to handle."
It's an odd phrase to hear from the courier, but a line of thinking Ambrosius may recognize.
Frea was, at heart, forever a Veruni.
"I suggest at least not touchin' it with yer hands..." With that, she crouches down, suddenly dizzy.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"So... this is," Ethius muses aloud, as Gwen moves forth after the Hydra at last falls.
"Malevolence," his voice taking a notable downturn as he removes the hand from his head. There is no comfort nor relief for the fall of the corrupted creature that had to have been felled, for their sake. Approaching this place, he hadn't the foggiest about what he was getting into. The hairs sticking at the back of his neck, a reflex he appeared to have forgotten...
Last Gwen saw of the strange white-haired man, he wasn't suddenly off to the right side of her peripheral vision in this very room. His left hand is extended. His eyes are closed.
He says nothing to justify why he's there. This may be a red alarm - was there something more to his being here, beyond curiosity? Sucking in air, light starts to form around him again. Casting. He's attempting to cast, even at this level of exhaustion...!
The hand seems to be pointed in the direction of the tables. His eyes closed, something deep within him reflects upon what just transpired. In truth, he doesn't seem to have consciously come to what he's doing now - a part of him feels as though on auto-pilot.
This doesn't... he thinks.
This doesn't what? Electrical power starts to build at his fingertips...
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
"That ARM of yours...it is...really quite faaascinating...Miss Whiiitlock..." Ambrosius says, sending Gwen a polite smile. "But...do nooot overexeeert yourself..."
He then follows her gaze around the room until he sees it.
The crystal.
He walks over to it and is about to pick it up when Gwen speaks again, warning against taking it. Ambrosius frowns.
"I...understaaand your...trepidaaation...however...if we...leave it heeere...it may fall...in the haaands of those...who do not...realiiize what it is..." He explains.
"I shall taaake it...and see to it that it is-" He reaches for it and pauses. From behind them, he feels energy. He turns.
Ethius Hesiod.
A frown crosses Ambrosius's face.
Water converges and launches out. He doesn't intend to kill him, only to knock him off his feet.
"I head...heeeard the ruuumors...but...to think they truuue..." He glances towards Gwen.
"I believe he has been...aaaffected by the madness plaaaguing the beeeasts of this place...you maaay need to...restraaain him..." He warns.
He then attempts to, subtly, pick up the crystal and draw it into one of the pouches beneath his poncho.
He would have to find a way to deliver this to those with equipment better suited to studying it. If it was responsible for this madness, perhaps they could find a use for it...or a way to harness its powers for another purpose.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The spray of water rushes forth into Ethius' outstretched hand as the electrical power between his fingertips build. To look upon him for that moment, there is a burst of emotion upon the man's face. Eyes widened to their utmost, reflecting... something, about the whole situation, striking a chord.
The spray does double duty - enough raw concussive force to knock Ethius right off his feet, and enough saturation of water that the electrical sorcery is turned against him.
Slammed against a wall with enough impact to crack a structual support, the white-haired sorcerer convulses and spasms face-down against the fouled, violet-tinged cavern floor.
It would not appear that Ambrosius will have meaningful resistance for the removal of a crystal that is only a tiny, insignificant fragment to the naked eye.
His breathing grows ever more labored. The fingers of his right hand, once he regains at least some of his faculties, clench at the ground... but that is a meaningless show, signifying nothing. He has no fight left to protest.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
While this was going on, Catenna was out of the room. She'd planned to pick her way back through the caves on her own.
Instead she sat down. She ate a couple of heal berries. And she thought about what she was doing.
About Gwen Whitlock, who never did anything to hurt her - and about Ethius Hesiod, an insufferable man, yet one who has never done her any wrong.
---
From the doorway, there is a sudden, sonorous chant in a language not of this continent: "Ni'oalan diale!"
There is no visual warning for Ambrosius - only a low, vibrating thrum of something in the air, as if nature itself were groaning. And then, all of a sudden, gravity around him simply flips upside down. An inexorable force tugs at him from above; the floor seems to have no power to hold him anymore.
Standing in the doorway to the hydra room, her medium cradled in her left hand, a tired but scowling Catenna holds her right hand out, guiding it upwards as she attempts to steer Ambrosius along with the reversed pull of gravity. The spell, if she can pull it off, will wrench him from the ground as she attempts to slam him bodily into the ceiling, where she'll try to hold the spell and pin him.
Her jaw sets. "I should have known never to trust you," she declares flatly.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Ambrosius reaches out for the crystal, unconcerned about Ethius's current condition. It was his fault. If he hadn't tried to attack him, it never would've happened.
But...just before he can grab the crystal itself...
He hears the sound first, but there is no time to react. He rockets upward, and his world explodes into pain as he slams into the ceiling.
"You...stubbooorn fool...he...attaaacked me...fiiirst..." He hisses.
"Releeease me...and I will...forgiiive...this transgreeession..." Another order.
He'd given her plenty of chances. Did she realize how patient he was being? How generous? That she was still alive to this day was only because he chose to allow her to leave, despite knowing what he was.
He grits his teeth.
And now, she was making him regret it.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius lies face-down on the nearby ground. There is a token attempt at movement, but to say he's on the verge of a third wind is thoroughly untrue. Coughing noises escape the confines of his throat, which is as much witty riposte as he can verbally muster.
A hand meekly raises from the confines of the muddy slurry of corrupted ground about him. It sways a ways to the side, vaguely in Gwen's direction as it collapses against the floor. The fingers curl and clench again, seeking purchase and traction - an attempt to pull himself towards another.
"Don't--"
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Holding her hand out, Catenna keeps the spell in place, the force of gravity pulling Ambrosius up into the ceiling and pinning him there. The woman's jaw sets as she takes a couple of slow steps forward. If nothing else, she doesn't seem to be trying to shoot him while he's up there. "Do not think that I will believe anything you say," she says shortly. "I, who understand what you are. And I will not hear you speak to me as though you are my better and I am your servant, do you understand me?" Her tone is increasingly tart, but she's not quite shouting.
For a moment longer, she holds the spell, before the force of gravity begins to lessen on its own; she can't hold it anymore. She lets it go and exhales, letting Ambrosius drop to the floor.
(Shoot him,) her mind screams at her.
She doesn't listen to it. The soft part of her heart tugs at her. "Leave this place," she says instead, gesturing towards the door, her voice taking on a weary note. "I do not care where you go but I cannot... simply stand here and watch you skulk about and scheme and lie and dictate to those of us who belong in this place."
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Ambrosius does not respond right away. He watches her. And then, slowly, he can feel himself dropping, until the gravity gives away completely and he plummets. Jets of water are conjured beneath him, somehow slowing his descent. He glances back to the crystal, but returns his attention to Catenna shortly.
"Do you...really beeelong here, Cateeenna...?" He asks, with a dry chuckle.
"Iii was here...beeefore you...aaand I shall remaaain...aaafter you are gooone..." He turns, once more aiming to pick up the crystal and pull it into his poncho.
"If anyooone is...a straaanger in theeese lands...it is you..."
He glances to the side, noting that Gwen had fallen unconscious. It seems that Ethius's current condition had fallen completely out of his mind.
How troublesome.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
The crystal has more or less escaped Catenna's notice given that she wasn't in the room when it was uncovered. She assumes it's one of Ambrosius's things and thinks no more of it. Keeping her fingers curled around her medium, she narrows her eyes slightly. "You twist the truth and attempt to manipulate things until you have convinced yourself that they are not lies," she says shortly. "It is disgusting. The sight of you makes me want to retch."
With a slow click of heels on flooring, the woman circles to one side, her steps measured and weary, but she forces herself to do it anyway. Clear grey eyes follow Ambrosius, watching the being's movements with almost falconlike alertness, as if ready to throw him again if he seems hostile.
She doesn't, though. A fight isn't what she wants.
For a moment, the priestess glances towards Ethius, as though checking to make sure he's still alive. Gwen gets a glance from her too. Then it's back to Ambrosius, and she jerks her head towards the door again.
"Go," she urges again. "And trouble us no more!"
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The fallen man continues doing a terrible job of convincing anyone or anything that he has the strength to even crawl. Each attempt at pulling himself is paired with labored breathing. He shouldn't keep moving - he should save his strength. There is nothing he can do to stop Ambrosius from leaving--
"Don't," he repeats, head tilting upwards. He is incapable of stringing more than one word at a time, under the weight of injury, atmosphere, and whatever oppressive impression must be crushing mind and soul.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
The crystal disappears into his poncho. It had been quite the challenge actually getting it, but it seems that finally they've stopped troubling him.
Good. He didn't know what this crystal was, but it may prove quite useful to his people. He would have to find a time to deliver it to them for further study.
He turns to leave, though he pauses in the doorway and glances back towards Catenna.
"Aaah...and...if you wooould...see to it that Miss Whiiitlock and...Mister Heeesiod..." The last name is said with a hint of distaste. "Maaake it out...aliiive... Unless...you inteeend to abaaandon them...because Iii...asked it ooof you...?" He chuckles, though a word from Ethius grabs his attention.
'Don't?' Don't what?
"This day's...eveeents...may be best left...unrecooounted...Mister Heeesiod..." He comments with a slight sneer.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
"Stop trying to be sly," Catenna says with a lowering of her chin and a bleak scowl. "You fail at it."
For her part, she seems content to let Ambrosius go; Ethius is saying something but she can't quite hear him. As the Veruni man turns towards the exit, the priestess glares after him. It doesn't even occur to her that what Ethius is talking about might be the crystal.
As quickly as she can given the soreness and exhaustion she's done her best to conceal, she whisks her way over to Ethius, dipping into her inventory for a handful of heal berries. One hand coming to rest at his shoulder, she offers the berries up to him. "Here, eat," she urges, voice low and rather more tender than she's shown thus far.
Again she looks up, over Ethius, back at Ambrosius. Her scowl returns, a small, indignant thundercloud. As if she could somehow scare him off with the power of her meanie face.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Ambrosius doesn't bother to respond. Instead, unless someone manages to stop him, he simply leaves, gliding out of the room as he has a tendency to.
He will find his own way out of the Hollow, preferably one that will not take him past those spores again.
This had been a...trying experience, but at least he did not leave empty-handed.
Deep within his pouch, the crystal glimmers menacingly...
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
To place a hand upon Ethius' shoulder, Catenna would feel the tension underneath. This is a man who, normally, is about as calm as anyone can be. He seemed to hold up against the Malevolence to a degree only attainable through sheer ignorance.
It could be dismissed to the lingering spiritual poison that may yet stand to permeate all of them. He makes another gasp as she offers a handful of berries - it sounds angry.
Those eyes. The sheer intensity within them, like something caged for so long under the surface deseperately attempting to break free.
Could it have gotten to him, as Ambrosius claims? The emotional state he cannot conceal any longer could leave some credence, but...
"If," he starts, but never goes anywhere. The offered berries are nearly squeezed into juice in the hand that now holds them, as the other tries in vain to point a finger towards the exiting Veruni.
The last of his defiance leaves him, raised arm and face going limp against the floor.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Life seems so much easier to Catenna now that Ambrosius is gone.
That said, dealing with an injured, frustrated Ethius isn't exactly fun. Her hand tightens on his shoulder to give a gentle squeeze, meeting the anger with a faint smile and holding those eyes. For all the intensity Ethius beams back at her, she beams him back simple, quiet peace. At least, as much peace as she can manage - but it's a growing calm.
The smile fades a moment later as she realizes he's pointing after Ambrosius.
"What of him," she asks as she digs out one more heal berry and offers it up to Ethius, seeming not to hold it against him for crushing the first handful of delicious healing fruit she'd tried to give to him.
"I am almost out of these so I would hope that you would not crush this one," she murmurs politely. "Come, heal."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
His breathing grows ever more labored... shallower. As the footsteps wane in volume from their increasing distance, so, too, does it seem Ethius' own intensity - whatever aggression spurs him, be it borne from the purple text or some other reason - seems to evaporate.
The hand in which the new heal berry now rests lies against the ground, facing upward, holding them in a yellowish pyramid of healing berry goodness as the other hand tugs down his bandanna.
White stubble prominently marks his jaw and chin. Laughing lines have formed around the mouth - this pegs this man as being about in his thirties... or maybe someone who has seen enough that it has aged him appropriately.
It's only visible for a moment, as the other hand moves towards his mouth - as if an attempt to obscure it as much as it is to try and consume the heal berry plus gross crushed mush he just made in his earlier last... crawl. (One can't call that a last stand.)
He chews at the heal berry with... reluctance? Heal berries are life-saving medicine. He can't be a stranger to them. Does he not like the taste? Maybe he's one of the weirder folk who prefer to apply it as a salve, rather than orally, but that's a question for another time.
"My apologies," he speaks more coherently at last, though his voice is weak. "I failed to..."
He breathes in deeply, coughing once.
"...I failed to destroy it."
The other hand raises off the ground a good two or three inches.
"He has... he has taken something dangerous."
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
In anime world, white stubble is totally a mark of someone in their thirties. It's a fact.
Keeping a hand on Ethius's shoulder, Catenna watches him with quiet reserve, nodding as he finally eats the berries. She can't help but be reminded of a stubborn child, but she tolerates it.
Men!!
Then Ethius actually starts talking - and he says something the priestess doesn't want to hear.
Catenna sinks back, settling into a crouch, one knee to the ground, one heel planted near it. Her hand touches to the stone beneath her as she looks out to the door, as if to check if Ambrosius is within range. Gradually, a dark blush begins to radiate across her cheeks as she puts two and two together. Something in here was dangerous. He must have attacked Ethius to get it - and possibly the other woman, too.
"...I am sorry," she says, as if it could turn back time. Her chin lowers and her eyes dip towards the ground.
"I should not have let him come in here," she says, as much to herself as to Ethius. "I should have known he was an evil one and confronted him at the entrance."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"I... never would have imagined."
The curative berry's brand of magic works only so well under duress. All of them were pushed beyond their limits coming here. The Malevolence did not spare any one of them a moment of peace, no matter how unaware some of their senses might have been. Bit by bit, inch by inch...
Ethius feels a return of the strange abstractions. Behind him, the colors and sounds that he can no longer look at. Further ahead, the patterns that twist, turn, and lace further and further out of reach.
Above him, situated in abstraction where Catenna crouches... eyes.
The eyes pierce. The whites turn blinding. He recoils as though their sheer presence could stab into his soul, and the bandanna is pulled up against his face with a wincing sound. Turning towards Gwen, the abstraction of an ash-strewn landscape underneath seems to grow where she rests. What features peek out of there are bleached, like--
He sucks in a breath.
Then, nothing. The troubled breathing slows... calms? No, not quite calms, but now is not the time to dig through a thesaurus.
"We must leave." His voice makes an approach back towards his standard. The nearly emotionless speech that seems intent to speak exactly the meaning of the words themselves, and little more.
His eyes are closed. The hand that once bore berries rests against his forehead. Now his forehead is going to have sticky berry juice all over it. It might get in his eye. It's going to be hell to wash out of his hair.
"Miss Gwen... she will..."
He seems to consider his word choices, though it doesn't seem like it would be difficult to finish the sentence.
"...She will require our assistance."
Proper thanks for saving the two of them with her return will have to wait until they're all out safe.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Malevolence doesn't fuck around. Catenna knows this better than most.
The fact that she's under the influence of her status-locking spell again - for the moment - helps a little. She's not hallucinating anymore. But the sudden recoiling from the man in front of her tells her all she needs to know - shadows nag at her senses, little niggling doubts that her failure to stop Ambrosius only serves to magnify.
"Yes... let's hurry," she murmurs, rising and moving towards Gwen, but with one last look towards the strange man who seems to consider his name something to sacrifice.
There will be time to bring Ambrosius to justice later, she decides as she moves as stoically as possible towards Gwen, though she's still labouring somewhat, even heal berries not enough to stave off how exhausted she is and how little magic is left in her. Moving to one side of Gwen to try and help Ethius get her out, she makes a few mental plans.
(I should never have trusted him,) she echoes again.