2017-05-09: To Those Who Lay Hollow
- Log: To Those Who lay Hollow
- Cast: Riesenlied, Noeline, Hiro, Jean, Ambrosius, Gwen Whitlock
- Where: Batical Grotto
- Date: 9th May 2017
- Summary: Gwen leads the Vile Fiends, accompanied by Riesenlied, Noeline and Ambrosius, towards the Grotto once more. There, they find a very uncomfortable truth, yet it is a truth that they no doubt must face sooner or later.
DG: A party led by Hiro is now entering Otherworldly Hollow.
DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
==========================<* Otherworldly Hollow *>=========================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Hellion Horde *>======================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- There can be little doubt you have found yourself at the right place if one but looks at the creatures that call this place their home; congregating at the yawning entrance of the Hollow, the animals wandering here are many and varied but all have one thing in common: to the spiritual eye, they are undoubtedly Hellions, warped in ugly and frightening ways and exuding a sickening sensation to all with the spiritual presence to sense it. To get inside, you'll have to clear them out, but you won't go entirely empty-handed: scattered bits of armor, potions and other intact provisions dot the landscape in front of the cavern; given the presence of blood smears and bone fragments, it's probably best not to dwell too long on how these boons got here. =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
It all started with a simple question. "Hey Gwen. Do you think you could lead us back there?"
The question comes accompanied with lingering dread. A pause, the serious mien, "I know you had a really bad experience there, so I'm not asking this lightly. You don't wanna go in, you don't have to- but I'd sure appreciate it if you would. We could use the extra hands, anyone you know of who's willing."
His grin splits open as if he realizes the danger but is trying not to worry about it. "Don't worry though, I'll be bringing Jean and some of the toughest folks we know, I'm sure it'll be al-"
~Later~
"-this is not alright at all! Hiro I really don't like this place."
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qalGezr76o
The approach was bad enough, a dark otherworldly fog within a twisted landscape. Everything feels just wrong, wrong, wrong- like the dying planet was shuddering in it's death knells here, gasping agonally within this miasma of spiritual poison.
The young man was nauseous, but surprisingly not even half as nauseous as he'd been around Lucia as of late. That was telling in ways he didn't want to think about.
"How's everyone doing? Anyone feeling sick? Jean? Riese? How about you Gwen?"
He gives them all a questioning look as he trampled on a branch which disintegrated under his boot, becoming blackness which seemed into the ground, "I hear as you become more spiritually resonant, this just becomes worse and worse."
As they finally reach that hollow into the ground, the feeling grows worse. Ruby holds up a lantern, which he lights in short order, providing some illumination- the walls are teeming with darkness as thick as maggots to those who are sensitive. To everyone else the first thing they likely noticed are the corpses, or at least you think they're corpses. It's mostly decaying clothes, laid out in some thin outline as if marking where someone died, and their equipment.
He blanches a bit at the sight. He's just about to say "Stay a-"
That's when a badger pounces upon him, or at least you think it's a badger. Badgers normally can't leap that high. It knocks him dead on the chest and clear out of the hollow, as he's pinned against the ground in a desperate struggle. The hellions had been silent before this, now they're all erupting in great numbers, and varied. It's not a pack of the same kind of animal, but many, their types and kinds all just blurring together.
Time to show your stuff everyone.
DG: Hiro has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Hellion Horde.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
'One does not reach their full potential by simply yearning for it.'
Riesenlied could not help but think of the Trial Knight's words. Malevolence. Without knowing the bindings of a cage, a bird cannot know how truly liberating it is to fly... but just what was this substance, and why is it that she could not sense it? Malevolence is the bar that holds that bird back... but, at the same time, it is what makes it know true euphoria when it does take flight.
Was this really the only way to go? Must the world be tried by fire? Was this really the way in which true potential should be met?
She does not know.
What she does know is that she heard that the Fiends were headed towards Batical Grotto -- and she'd wanted to take an opportunity to meet them again. What Agatha had told her about Lucia was troubling. Was she truly the reason Malevolence started to rise in Filgaia? Did Hiro and Jean know? It was not the correct time to question it, but...
... well, whichever way it went, she had multiple reasons to be here.
She needed to see it for herself, and the Trial Knight would understand that. One does not earn understanding by simply hearing about it.
"I cannot feel a thing," Riese admits, as she raises her side-sword. Her eyes flash as she charges that badger and shoves her elbow against it in a motion to push it back, then does a quick kick to push the rest of the cretins in turn. "These are no normal animals..."
Odjn bobbles in turn to whine, "They're all cara-zy!"
"Be cautious about your formation! Do not let them swarm you -- cover each other and do not overextend your reach!" she shouts.
DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Hellion Horde.
==== <Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed. ====
By this point in time, Jacqueline's shop had become rather well-known around Adlehyde - or at least that was what she liked to think. That didn't mean she could get complacent, however. If she wanted to keep getting business she'd have to keep working hard, and that meant occasionally shutting down the shop to make sure everything was looking as clean and presentable as her typical customer-base would tolerate - being the scruffy Drifter sort, they often mistrusted stores that were cleaner than they were.
The sign said 'Closed' today, but if one looked through the windows they could see Jacqueline hard at work. The items had been moved off the shelves, in order for her to more properly clean them.
She only had one regret in this, however.
"Really should've asked Heather to come in today..." She muttered.
Still, her employee deserved it for handling the store alone during the weekend. And for having to abandon her the other day to deal with another problem that had arisen.
Still, things were starting to look nice and clean. She was pretty proud of it, and it'd reflect well on her, too.
"Spiiiritually resooonant..." Ambrosius mutters with a scoff. The very idea was ridiculous, but he didn't say that out loud...though his tone certainly implied it.
It wasn't long before they ran into trouble. He expected this.
"If I could...maaake a request...could you...atteeempt...to leave some of them...aliiive...?" He asks. "But do not...riiisk your liiives in the...atteeempt..."
To go along with this, he holds a hand out towards the Hellions. In response to this, water begins to converge beneath some of the more dangerous looking creatures, accompanied by a shimmering blue light. This was the only warning they would receive before a geyser shoots up beneath them, knocking them into the air along with it and hopefully disorienting them, if not bashing them against a surface to further daze them.
DG: Ambrosius has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Hellion Horde.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"Really, now. Would you look at that..." Noeline trails off from where she's casually and daintily sat on a helpfully-sized boulder, legs crossed and her chin resting on one hand. For once, she lapses into a thoughtful silence - her brow furrows with a slight frown, as if the odd girl needs to pause and concentrate in order to actually maintain a focus on the prowling creatures.
- * *
If nothing else, it's a significant change when compared to her behaviour when she first showed up alongside Riesenlied: an obviously eccentric, larger-than-life young woman just past her teenage years, apparently capable of brushing off any perfectly sensible concerns about ability or reasoning or 'how exactly do you intend to go dungeon crawling in an over the top party dress' to instead pepper the other members of the expedition with constant remarks about everything and nothing - isn't Adlehyde's Exihibition going to be a sight? Oh, have you tried that little Starfall place just off the Main Street? Hmm~... you're not at all like I imagined, you know. A little clean-cut, perhaps?
Well, maybe that last one isn't exactly random, but the comment comes so quickly you could almost miss it - and Noeline immediately waves off any suspicion with a bright and airy grin, her enthusiasm barreling over the conversation nearly as quickly as it makes Riesenlied sigh in resignation, evading any questions in return - and when a pair of metallic orbs settle at her shoulders to beep softly, and she pats one of them with a distinctly fanged smile, there's the definite sense she's enjoying herself immensely.
- * *
Speaking of the orbs - as the first of the creatures leaps at Hiro the girl in crimson raises a hand in command, one of the pods answering with a soft beep. Apparently independent, it stays bobbing in the air where it is as Noeline hops off from the rock, suddenly opening two flaps on its front to spit a bolt of light at the incoming Hellions. "--these aren't normal! Do be careful!" she adds above the sudden din, as she immediately discards her own words and goes twirling into the fray.
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Trouble toward her party's challenge, Hellion Horde.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
The Batical Grotto...or, as it was called these days, the Otherworldly Hollow - was an area that had been of great interest to Ambrosius lately.
Certainly it was for entirely benign reasons, and not at the behest of the alien overlords plotting the takeover of Filgaia.
He had already been here once before with some others, and it had proved rather fruitful. Now he was here again, at the behest of one of his allies from that little adventure - Gwen Whitlock.
For a human she was quite interesting, and he hadn't wanted to meet up with her again after the last adventure left her unconscious, and he forced to flee.
"Spiiiritually resooonant..." Ambrosius mutters with a scoff. The very idea was ridiculous, but he didn't say that out loud...though his tone certainly implied it.
It wasn't long before they ran into trouble. He expected this.
"If I could...maaake a request...could you...atteeempt...to leave some of them...aliiive...?" He asks. "But do not...riiisk your liiives in the...atteeempt..."
To go along with this, he holds a hand out towards the Hellions. Rather than converging around his hand, however, it began to coverge beneath several of the more dangerous ones. This was the only warning they would receive before a geyser shoots up beneath them, knocking them into the air along with it and hopefully disorienting them, if not bashing them against a surface to further daze them.
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
Jean did indeed come with Hiro; hearing about all of this, she had to go. It's not exactly something she relishes, but there are things that are worth doing regardless, and this is one of them.
But Jean, too, thinks this location feels worse than creepy--it's /wrong/, unpleasant, nauseating. One wouldn't know it to look at her, though; she walks carefully, head held high, fans at her hips. Hiro asks a question, and...
"I'll be fine!" Jean says brightly, smiling at him as he looks at her, intentionally working to keep everyone's spirits up. As he keeps going though she grows a little more serious again, as if she can't quite keep up cheer here. "Let's just say I'm not in the mood to eat," she allows. "But if anyone has trouble, let me know."
This place is awful. This feeling is awful. It gets worse the more she keeps walking. Why...? She couldn't say.
But Jean doesn't blink at what look like bodies to her; she's tense, but not surprised.
Riesenlied's battle expertise surprises her, but as Hiro gets pounced, Jean's eyes widen. "Hiro!" She swings over to /kick/ it before she rushes forward, pulling a ribbon from her side and taking it in both hands to start a deadly dance meant to keep the Hellion's distracted, deliberately moving out from the guard of the others and exposing herself to their danger. The scratches that come next don't stop her.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
That day, Gwen simply nodded to Hiro's request. "I got one condition," she simply said, after she pondered it over for a moment. "I'm comin' with." After that serious tone fades, Gwen then gives Hiro a wide, sunny grin, looking akin to a sunflower emerging from the shadow of a rain cloud. "So it'll all work out! I'll even see if I can bring a buddy. We'll examine what we can, okay?"
--Now--
"Okay, here's the deal. The deeper we go, the thicker it's gonna get," Gwen says to the people gathered, her voice unusually quiet compared to what some who have met her before may be used to. "If you see any litchen or fungi, try to not breath anything in. Y'can try and see if coverin' your mouth with some cloth'll help, but I ain't sure if it will. There ain't no problem with fallin' back, either. We ain't here to be matyrs."
Hiro causes her to pause. "I'll be fine." She grins. Spiritual resonance. Is that what her sight is? "I guess that's it..." Gwen goes slightly green at the thought, then, looking over her shoulder at Ambrosius and overhearing his mutter, playfully waves a finger over her shoulder at him. "Let's wait until afterwards for that, 'kay? This is valuable data!"
Whatever's going on, she sees it. And she's affected by it. "I'll be frank with whatever's goin' on. It affected me quite a bit last time, so I'll be the canary in the mines. If I start actin' up, you guys all... do something. We'll play it by ear!"
That's when a cute badger leaps from beside her, nearly taking her own ear off. "Gah!" Gwen flinches back, then, sighting a nearby deer coming in `-for the kill-, she jumps forward, attempting to punch it. "I'll try, Ambrosius!"
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Hellion Horde.
DG: You fail the challenge, and take 5 Exhaustion! You have 5 total Exhaustion.
DG: The party led by Hiro has passed this challenge! The party gained 21 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: Riesenlied has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* Otherworldly Hollow *>=========================== ==============<* 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> Hiro has posed.
Riese dazes the badger with the shove, which gives Jean the opportunity to kick it right off, which gives the young man enough time to unsheathe his sword, and inspired by her example as the commander, wades into the fray alongside Jean. His starts by using a squall spell, the wind picking up to momentarily stall the horde- or so he thinks, it doesn't even slow them down.
His other starts wielding the blade to do his utmost to help beat back the Hellions. "I've got your back Jean!" He tries his best to follow Riese's commands there, staying back to back, trying not to let them swarm him or her- not that Jean needs too much help, as she flows like water through the horde. Honestly he doesn't do all that much to turn the tide.
Ruby is frantic of course, though she can't talk all that well with that lantern in her mouth. And while she was also the most used to Malevolence in this group, she was also the most sensitive. She's momentarily dumbstruck with fear as it comes out in a great torrent. After a moment though, the little Wyrm-in-training stiffens her spine, swoops down to set the lantern down, and does what any Dragon of Althena is born to do. She protects. Swinging by Odjn, she declares, "Don't worry Odjn! Riese and I won't let them near you!" Though compared to Riese, her contribution is small, a little gout of flame every now and then.
Ambrosius makes his request, and- "What really!? You think we can take any of these alive?!" Which is when Ambrosius' font springs up from the hollow grounds, slamming the horde into the cavern ceiling, then back down, many of them momentarily stunned, "Uh- well maybe-" Which is when all of their eyes turn upon Ambrosius, tendrils of black mist rising off of them as they howl. "-NOT!" Hiro yelps.
Noeline's pod fires light blasts here and there, and everywhere, striking one creature and knocking them into each other with each blast, causing disarray in the hordes which Noeline then capitalizes on with her moves.
While Gwen jumps in and just starts punching, each blow carrying the force of an anvil- making her an effective brawler in smashing the ranks of the corrupted animals. Hiro considers the thought of Gwen acting up. That's not a thought he wanted to consider.
That's not something he wants to think about at all.
But once things start to die down, and the remnants start to flee- he does clap a hand on her shoulder, "Good work." He may give her a long look after, searching to make sure she's still fine. "Toughest canary I know." He says in a light joke as they slip by. But he sure isn't smiling any more. He looks completely serious as they move on.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied could tell that the Fiends have been fighting with each other for a while -- and Jean's fighting style, she could tell even at a glance, was far from an ordinary dancer's. The way she sprung to Hiro's defense to cover her in an instant meant she didn't need to worry.
"If it is truly spiritual resonance, I am uncertain if you'd find oddities in their bodies, Ambrosius... but it is not an unreasonable inquiry," Riese comments to the strange man. "I do not intend to kill by default, so you should have your study."
It's true. Despite wielding a sword, Riese rarely goes for anything resembling a kill -- she'd bash, trip or otherwise render her opponent disarmed or disabled. Was it just a preference, or was there something more to it?
Odjn's eyes light up at Ruby as she gasps and says, "My hero!" She pauses and sags, admitting, "Rieeeese, I'm not feelin' too good..." Was she... feeling affected by the Malevolence after all? Or perhaps it was the spicy tandoori chicken shawarma from Saeed's last night? It's hard to tell sometimes, with this dragon.
Riese listens to Gwen. "I see..." she nods and looks to the rest of the group. "I'll volunteer to take point, since I'm still feeling fine. Noeline, be my flank. If you feel more nauseous, don't hesitate to fall towards the back line, and..."
She looks towards a certain alchemist's potion satchel that she now carried, looking through it to pass out some powder-based remedies. "This may not be tailored for the situation, but it should subdue any fungal-based fumes. Use it if you need to, I've got more."
Deeper in, the group eventually come across the oozes as they start to drop from the ceiling. There was no time to admire how beautiful the crystalline structures were. Riese can't exactly spot the Malevolence attached to the ooze that's dripping from the cavern, but she could tell that the slime would be at least corrosive, if not worse. Her wings stretch and she rises, trailing a pattern from her superior vantage point; at the very least, she could tell where the ooze would be dropping from, and where they needed to go in this truly immense cavernous maw.
"There's less ooze on the right branch. I'll spot the oozes for the rest of you, so make haste!"
DG: You use your Tool Angel Wings against your party's Challenge, Forecast Calls For Slime Showers!
DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool Angel Wings toward her party's challenge, Forecast Calls For Slime Showers.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline evidently doesn't intend to let the Hellions even slow her down, where she can possibly help it; she comes out of the melee at a dashing twirl, scattering the last of the Hellions that were paying attention to her with a wrenching swing of her arm. At some point - and it's not entirely clear when it actually entered her hands - Noeline has gained a distinctly ornamental scythe. It looks as unsuited for combat as she does, a rather flashy mixture of black and crimson colouring, but the circle of space she's carved for herself certainly speaks of results.
It's still leant on one of her shoulders when they reach the cavern, the girl having taken up a ready position at Riesenlied's side. "/Be/ your flank, or pay attention to it~?" she wonders, playful despite the setting. "The two have very different--"
Her tease cuts off as as urgent voice fires in the back of her mind, alerting her to danger above them; her head snaps up, eyes open to pierce through the gloom, and before she's even really aware what she's doing she's reached back to grab for one of her floating ARM pods. Not the one that fired - this one's been dormant thus far, but the handle inexpertly welded onto its side suggests it still has a use. A port at its back suddenly ignites, propelling the Crimson Noble forwards in a rough approximation of Riesenlied's flight path.
It isn't exactly a smooth trip - the pod doesn't appear to be able to gain much upwards momentum, with all its effort put towards covering ground - but Noeline appears to be able to adjust quick enough to cope, kicking off from one rock to gain height then sweeping around a pillar to aim for the cavern's far side.
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Strife toward her party's challenge, Forecast Calls For Slime Showers.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
"That remaaains to be seen...Miss Rieeesenlied..." Ambrosius replies with a slight frown. Her actions had been able to spare some of the beasts, but it seemed as if others were too durable for his trick to work. He did not hold it against Hiro for doing what he had to.
Eventually the enemies are cleared out, and Ambrosius takes measures to ensure that any survivors are appropriately disabled and rendered immobile through methods best left to the imagination. Hopefully, they would remain there until he could leave and collect them. If not...well, he'd figure something else out.
He then proceeds to follow the others, seemingly completely unaffected by the things they're complaining about.
He is sure to accept one of the remedies she was handing out - he knew firsthand as well how dangerous they could be.
And then...the slimes again.
Fantastic.
Ambrosius sneers slightly, but breaks into a run with his poncho billowing behind him. Hearing Riesenlied's directions, he heads for the right path instead. He had no intention of experiencing those things firsthand.
DG: Ambrosius has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Forecast Calls For Slime Showers.
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
"Valuable data?" Jean asks Gwen and Ambrosius, "So are you two studying these things?" She sounds... skeptical. A little puzzled. But she lowers her eyebrow after a moment and shrugs. "I guess it's smart to understand what's going on that way..." But she sounds very dubious.
A pause and a look to Gwen though, "Just be careful."
But Jean is fighting with Hiro in short order, and she relies on him regardless of how useful he might feel; it lets her fight more freely to have Hiro at her back. So she keeps moving, hearing the jets of fire along the way.
Toughest canary Hiro knows? Jean grins, before she looks over Neoline's scythe again, watching the interactions between the two. But here they are at the cavern. Jean says nothing to Ambrosius. Instead...
Jean's eyes widen and she pulls her fans, throwing at the slimes as she goes when they get too close to someone else, swinging away as she gracefully bolts forward to keep them off of her.
DG: Jean has used her Tool Throwing Fans toward her party's challenge, Forecast Calls For Slime Showers.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
Hiro takes lantern duty for a while, scooping it up as he goes. He's not much of a researcher, "Studying hellions and malevolence." He scratches his chin, "Seems like one of those things that even Grandpa would say is too dangerous." He gives Jean a quick look, as if maybe a bit worried.
Ruby flies near Odjn, though her pink fur looks like it doesn't have much luster... like it's duller in this place, and she's listing a little every so often in her flight. "You're a dragon Odjn- so you've got oodles of resonance!" The little dragon looks positively ill right now. "Don't worry though. It also means you're really resistant... I think."
Was this the real reason she was at odds with Lucia all the time? Not on your life! But it may be a contributing factor.
Gwen's advice on fungal fumes had given him pause earlier, initially he'd just considered using a rag and wind magic, but Riese offers an alternate solution in the powder, "Hey thanks! What other kinds of remedies do you have in that bag of yours?" Before he quirks a brow at Noeline's comment towards Riese, looking decidedly red as it settles in and tries to look away!
Considering the situation, he drops the powder onto the rag, and balls it up so it'll be ready.
The crystalline ceiling gives him a lot of things to look at. It's beautiful but- "Right branch? Ruby- up for our usual solution?" "On it!" It's probably not the best idea how sensitive she is exposing her to more of it, but she flies on ahead, puffing out a small gout of flames to try to catch a few of the oozes on fire. This also has the positive of illuminating their path, but also possibly making it so that some of the ooze falling on them is on fire. A trade off of making it more visible, versus more deadly.
It might make Riese's job of spotting more easily, as Hiro leaps from side to side, hot footing it down the path, holding the powder filled rag up to his face. "This is more like what we're used to, huh Jean?" In the context of malevolence, it sure wasn't, but trying to find an anchor in similarities is how he coped.
DG: Hiro has used his Tool Ruby Being Helpful toward his party's challenge, Forecast Calls For Slime Showers.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
After the wave of Malevolence-infested animals are driven away, knocked unconscious, or, most likely, stamped out directly, Gwen takes a moment to steady herself. "... Well, uh, I think we tried, Ambrosius," Gwen says, apologetically as he manages to take care of a few for himself. Her stomach churns at the thought. Those animals didn't really ask to be experimented on, but if he can decipher some meaning through them, it'd be for the best, right? Even if, as Rieselied says, he probably wouldn't get much from them, not really perceiving the black mist curling off them minutes before. Looking to Jean, Gwen half-smiles. "He was here before with me. He likes to study stuff, like history and the like, and this whole deal is no exception." Jean's words of caution, however, aren't as quickly waved away. "You too. You guys, er, have my permission to boink me up the head if I get all wacky, okay?"
It's clear Hiro isn't the only one thinking about Gwen acting up. "I'm gonna make sure y'all don't have to do through that, though." Even if she does, well, go to the flank, occasionally passing suggestions to the front on possible routes to take next.
Which leads them to here, whether through her directions or Rieselied's. "Wait. I know this place," Gwen muses, her grey-blue eyes blinking. Her shoulders relax. She recognizes this place. It was just past that one cavern...
Gwen pumps a fist in the air in trimuph. "That means I just might've gotten us past the-" Oh. Right. Slimes. "Got it!" Gwen replies to Rieselied, booking it down the right path as fast as her legs can carry her. They're getting through this place at a great speed, thanks to everyone's combined experience and knowledge.
What could possibly go wrong, now?
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Forecast Calls For Slime Showers.
DG: You pass the challenge, and take 2 Exhaustion! You have 7 total Exhaustion.
DG: The party led by Hiro has passed this challenge! The party gained 41 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.
===========================<* Otherworldly Hollow *>============================ ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Waterworld *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Water rolls through the entirety of the Hollow in rivers and subterranean lakes and other forms. The deeper and more profoundly touched by Malevolence it gets, though, the stranger its nature becomes. Take, for instance, this narrow passage you find yourself climbing up. You hear a rush of water. Perhaps some flowing down from above, one might imagine, gravity taking its toll. Except... it's not flowing down. It's flowing up. A torrential waterfall rising up instead of falling down, right beneath your feet. Would that make it a waterrise, instead? Questions to wonder later; for now, it might be better to try to get the hell out of this passage before you're swept up into the waterfall. Rise. Whichever. =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
The group works in tandem, their footsteps ringing against the beautifully clear crystalline echoes of the cavern. As the slimes glob and drop behind them, they make their confidence, surety and speed known. Ambrosius' dash takes him far and clear enough that he's able to clip at a steady pace and not worry about any further slimes landing down upon him; Noeline's use of Strife rather conveniently brings her across without so much as a worry for footing or anything silly like that, but it's fortunate that their trajectory is headed downward rather than up, given poor Strife's limitations. Gwen, similarly, has a powerful sprint that brings her clear from any particular danger, given the cover the rest of the team is providing them.
Jean's artful twirl of her fan brings several of the slimes threatening to fall on the group apart -- with Riese wincing as she nearly falls onto one, with a nod of gratitude and thanks. "Thank you, Jean," as she speeds along with a hurry.
"Huhh... was that really why?" Odjn muses as she converses briefly with Ruby, holding at her belly and saying, "I definitely feel somethin' funky in the air, but I thought that was just gasses or somethin'... I'll be tough though, for everyone's sake!"
She hears Hiro's comment about how they're used to it... just in what context were they familiar with this evil energy? Given their origins, she would be quite unsurprised to find them experienced in dealing with it, but she wasn't quite certain in what way.
The group comes through the archway safely, and the slimes are no more. Riese takes a quiet sigh of relief and answers Hiro, "There is quite a selection in here, made by an expert hand..." she glances away. "It is a shame that I will not be able to visit nearly as freely."
A pause, as she /finally/, finally thinks about what Noeline said. "The flank... I mean, watching my--" A long pause, as she suddenly turns deep red. "You /are/ incorrigible. Focus, please!"
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"They're infested by Malevolence. It'd be bad mojo to take one," Gwen says to Rieselied, just before she looks down. Wait, where *did* that crystal her party saw go? Is it still there? Clearly they would've listened to her, right...? Even, well, Ambrosius?
It's at the point, where everyone wisely takes the path Rieselied indicated, that Gwen begins to not recognize exactly where they are going. Was the path they took back there, or over that way? She hears water, so clearly, they're getting back on track. They'll just have to cross the raging river, using rocks that have yet to be infested by the Malevolence, and maybe she'll just have to point them out for people, so that they can then-
Wait.
This isn't it at all. For one, this narrow walkway is leading not *towards* the sound of rushing water. They're climbing upwards, yes, but the water isn't coming from up top. She looks down, over her shoulder. "There's..."
Oooh, so that's where it's coming from. Water is rushing *up* at them, not *down*. Mystery solved!
.... oh. Yeah, that's bad. Gwen's panicked yelling is probably the second thing the party hears as their warning of the- "Climb, climb, climb!! Backwards waterfall, backwards waterfall!!"
-'backwards waterfall'. DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Waterworld.
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
When Hiro goes all red, Jean quirks an eyebrow, debating capitalizing a little... But finds that Riesenlied has an interesting response anyway. If she had the heart for joking around a lot more here... Well. She doesn't for the most part.
Or maybe she does a little, as Hiro asks her a question and Jean actually laughs. "Yeah, it's a little more familiar."
She tilts her head at Gwen meanwhile. "I'm not really the scholarly type, but I guess it's valuable?" A pause, "I'll keep an eye on you, Gwen." Her tone is meant to be reassuring, showing caring for this woman she doesn't even know.
But then they're across the room, and Riese thanks her; Jean just answers, "Don't worry about it!" She checks Ojn, but says nothing at the moment. They're through the archway, and Riesenlied finally answers Noeline, turning a deep red, and--well, Jean can't help it.
"HA!" she laughs, resembling nothing so much as a pirate for half a moment. "Okay that's adorable. Is she always that easy to get a rise out of, Noeline?"
But as they walk they make their way to water, and Jean doesn't think much of that until she actually sees it. She stares down. "What?" It's rushing up hard and Gwen is panicking. The water hits her quick, and Jean blinks, starting to shift upward until--
She pulls her fans and uses them to control her ascent, swimming upward until she can shove away with them and hit the wall to start climbing. DG: Jean has used her Tool Throwing Fans toward her party's challenge, Waterworld.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
"I aaam, at the very leeeast..." Ambrosius says with a glance towards Jean. He did wait until they were all safely across and could carry on a conversation without having it interrupted by dropping slimes.
"We must...begiiin to understaaand these creaaatures...if we aaare to deal with them...approoopiately..." He explains.
As they walk, they eventually come to what is to Ambrosius, one who is quite familiar with water, a very disturbing sight.
Water.
Going.
/Up./
"...This is...very wrooong..." Ambrosius mutters, staring up at it.
How could this even happen? It was reasonable if there was Sorcery involved, but...there did not appear to be any apparent source for that.
He manages to shake this disturbance, and holds out his hand again. It was, still, functionally water. With some effort, he might be able to stem the flow temporarily to make their progress a bit easier as they climb.
DG: Ambrosius has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Waterworld.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"Well, teasing dear Riese is more or less my calling, you know~. If I didn't, someone else would, and I simply /couldn't/ have that," Noeline beams happily at Riesenlied's grumping, eyes momentarily glittering in amusement - though the taller and ostensibly wiser of the pair can certainly tell that despite her playing around, the Crimson Noble(?) is feeling pretty on-edge, patting herself down in order to give her hands something to do rather than remain idle.
"Forgive me for saying-- but it must be a terrible thing to get used to something like this, hm~?" she adds a moment later, turning her amused and bright grin on Hiro and Jean as her eyebrows raise. "The life of a Drifter... well, I suppose it's interesting, if nothing else. Still, that said-- ah..." she trails off as she rounds the corner, her smile fading at the sight of the bizarre and topsy-turvy world they've found themselves in. "... there is something terribly wrong here, to say the least. Filgaia has enough scars already to be particularly proud of a new one."
She seems determined to finish her statement, even with the encroaching water - one simply /must/ be suitably dramatic as a Crimson Noble, or probably it's some thought like that - but braces as she does so. When the first buffer of water hits she lets the momentum take her, turning it into an upwards leap to grab for handholds that becomes a remarkably agile ascent up the far wall.
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Strife toward her party's challenge, Waterworld.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riese stares between Noeline and Jean and suddenly senses /danger/, perhaps moreso than any amount of Malevolence can truly attest to. She's been in critical health before, fighting her way with only one functioning limb and making it through a frozen battlefield. She's braved monsters the likes of which no ordinary Drifter can even imagine. She can manuever through the intricate weaves of both demon and human politics as she would wear a velvet glove.
Being /teased/, however...
There's a quiet wince from the winged woman as she hears the water coming from /below/ them and Gwen's panicked voice. "C-calm down!" she might still be a bit too flustered from the teasing.
Riese launches into action immediately, boosting a little further upwards with the use of her wings as she gives herself height and hovers in place. She'd have a bundle of rope to tie onto a nearby rock outcropping and throw out for the rest of the group once she's safely perched on a ledge which she's confident -- by the way the water-rise is going -- would remain safe from the torrent of water. "I've secured the rope! Grab on for a boost!"
Odjn springs up with a bit of a climb after Riese to say, "W-wait for meee!" Her feet have turned into an adorable cartoon whirl as she zips up the ropeline.
Riese inwardsly winces afterwards while pulling people up, feeling the pressure and strain catch up to her shoulderblades; her system internals are rather evidently pointing out one thing for certain: No more flying, unless you want to rip your wingspan apart. Hopefully that won't... be an issue.
DG: You use your Tool Angel Wings against your party's Challenge, Waterworld!
DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool Angel Wings toward her party's challenge, Waterworld.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
"Heh." Hiro watches Riesenlied finally comprehend what Noeline said, telling her she's incorrible, and crosses his arms, "You two really get along huh?" Ruby is looking worse than ever before in this place, where the laws of nature itself are warped, "Hehe..." Her giggling sounding a bit creepy in these caverns. "Twinkle twinkle little star- how I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high - like a diamond in the sky."
Hiro is starting to get unsettled as he gets closer to her flight path, trying to murmur, "Hey Ruby I know you get a bit enthusiastic when Odjn is around but..." "When the blazing sun is gone. When the nothing shines upon-"
That's when he grabs her right out of the air- and she starts to flail, hissing impotently. "Ruby look at me. Look- at- me." And that's when the waterfall erupts around them.
The negative, it douses them in what's likely water charged with malevolence.
The positive is that Ruby is more of a cat in her mannerisms than she likes to let on. She hates the water. The rush of cold water causes her to screech all the more as the two are cast upwards in the sweeping torrent, the wild look disappearing in her eyes. He has two choices in this time. Trust in the Ruby he grew up with, or try to get them both out of this mess.
Hastily he grabs a grapnel off his belt, which is difficult while being cast upwards, thrusting it between her flailing paws. "Ruby." He sputters, "-HEEEEEEEEEEEEYUGH-" "Need you... need you... right now." And that's when he pitches his arm back, and throws her further up the wall. The screaming little dragonet manages to right herself mid-flight, beating off the water, and she goes up further, and further- and further than Hiro can naturally throw, to the top of the wall, where she let's go of the grapnel. Gravity causes it to fall on the edge, and hook right there.
"-shhheesss... we all... fall... down..."
This gives people who need one an additional line, to climb up the wall, in the stream, an extra lifeline. Ruby giggles at the top of the wall, all the while, as she shakes more water out of her fur. It's the longest climb of his life.
DG: Hiro has used his Tool Ruby Being Helpful toward his party's challenge, Waterworld.
DG: You pass the challenge, and take 3 Exhaustion! You have 10 total Exhaustion.
DG: The party led by Hiro has passed this challenge! The party gained 22 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Up is still up. Down is still down. Gravity seems to still work. But no one told the waterfall that. Ambrosius's magic still seems to effect it somewhat, slowing the momentum of the rushing water somewhat, enough for Jean and Noeline's unorthodox swimming techniques, as well as allowing for Rieselied to secure a rope for any to hold onto, as well as Hiro's grapnel to find a snag with Ruby's.... 'help'.
With everyone's combined efforts, the soggy members of the party manage to brave the current to the next area to rest- at least, for now.
As everyone regains their wits, Gwen looks over at the singing Ruby. "M-maybe Ruby's the real canary here..."
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Eventually, they find their way up the waterfall - or whatever the proper term would be for what they had just encountered. The pathway ahead was a little slippery from moisture, but otherwise uneventful - at least, until they reached the chamber beyond it.
The chamber with the pyre that demanded sacrifice.
It was a familiar and unwelcome sight to Ambrosius.
"Thiiis again..." He mutters with a scoff. "This nonseeense..." He shakes his head.
"I will...merely ooobserve...I wish to...deeetermine...how this wooorks..." He says.
This wasn't worth indulging personally, but if he watched more closely this time, maybe he would be able to observe the mechanisms by which this functioned.
Last time he had been...a little distracted, to say the least! DG: Ambrosius has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Burnt Offering.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Odjn whimpers in exclamation, "Ruby, I'll always remember you!" with tears in her eyes, clamping onto her side with a bit of a blubbery whimper. A pause. "W-well, she's not... geez, I've never seen her out like this! This Malevolence stuff's real bad mojo, that's for sure!"
Riesenlied sighs as she helps pull people up the rest of the way and says, "I can certainly see that it has an effect on you..." That she still can't sense a thing is... well, she should be happy about it, but it kinda makes her feel a bit singled out. Even Noeline looked bothered by it, not that she'd ever show any sign of weakness. She'd get teased long before Noeline would admit anything approaching weakness to a group of people.
The winged woman silently stood over the pyre for a moment, her eyes closed as she steeped herself in focus.
There was no reason for her, perhaps, to conduct this ritual. There was nothing that she sensed here, and in turn, she could not be convinced if whatever magical nature that this pyre held could sense her in turn. It might simply do nothing. It might simply be a waste.
But potential is not reached by simply yearning for it.
She lowered her head, and quietly turned from the brazier. There was a sudden popping noise, and her wings spread wide with a bit of a screech and a hiss -- and the translucent amber retrices start to molt from her wingspan. They touch upon the flames of the pyre and start to dance, lapped up by so much dancing bouquets of embers, turning into naught but cinders upon the conclusion of their weaving and bobbing.
When all was said and done, there was naught of the feathery expanse of Riese's wings that she's usually seen in. The outermost feathers are some kind of cover, like a coat, an aid to help her fly, for the true structure of the wings underneath was far more chitinous and dragon-like, with a colouration much evidently matched to her horns. It was... sad, in a way -- decrepit and dilapidated, with pockmarked and punctured stretches of what passes for a leathery membrane between the 'fingers', unfit for flight, except in the shortest of bursts.
Odjn looks more than a little alarmed at the routine, mumbling, "R-Riese..."
Riese is quiet, her voice lower than it normally would as she says, "I offer it my feathers, and cast off another layer of deception that I wear upon this world." DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Burnt Offering.
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
Ambrosius comments that it's very wrong, and Jean agrees; under other circumstances a reversed waterfall might be wonderful, magical, but this isn't the kind of magic Jean would like to encounter; there's something slick about it.
And unfortunately she ends up submerged.
But before that, Jean beams over at Noeline. "Of course. That'd be terrible, right?" We couldn't have someone else teasing her.
"THere are worse things," Jean answers Noeline about getting used to this. Obviously she means the Malevolence, not Drifting in general, and doesn't specifically count this cavern as one of the worse things. However...
"Ruby?" Jean asks as the little dragoncat giggle and talks. "Ruby--" But the waterfall erupts, charged with horror, and Jean can't say more than that t the moment. The truth though is that even once she's out, she's colder than even cold water should account for, frigid. She neds to make it to Ruby, too. Still soaked herself, Jean is worried about her. So when they make it over...
The first thing Jean does is amble closer to Ruby and scoop her up in her arms, holding her gently and close. "Hey, hey Ruby. It's okay. You're going to be okay." She won't hold her for long--she's wet herself--but long enough to deliver those soothing words and try to look her over.
...She keeps her for the moment, walking along as they make their way over to what looks like... an altar. Jean's eyes widen. She stares through as the others talk, but she's staring into it, untl Riesenlied... sheds her feathers. "I..."
She looks her over, and looks back to the altar, before gritting her teeth. The green-haired woman shakes her head, glaring down at it.
"Never again," Jean says, and she might not be aware she's speaking aloud to the room. "...Never again will I sacrifice what I am to evil."
DG: Jean has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Burnt Offering.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
For once, Noeline just stares at the message in front of the altar, her lips pressed tightly together. For once, the bizarre and capricious girl actually seems angry, or at least significantly put off - where Hellion attacks and dropping slimes and the outright confusion of gravity were enough to phase her, the idea of giving up something for an unreliable and uncertain outcome seem beyond the pale.
When Riese makes her offering, she jolts into action, eyes wider than Riesenlied's ever seen them. "Wh-- what are you-- what are you doing?!" she blurts openly, grabbing for some of the feathers to save them before they can reach the flames. Those she can grasp she holds against her protectively, her hackles obviously raised. "For something as ridiculous as this, you'd--!"
Whatever she was about to yell is cut off by Riese's quiet proclamation, and something within the confidence of those words is enough to stop the other girl dead in her tracks; she swallows for a moment, flicking out her hair with one hand in an almost defensive maneuver.
"... fine," she mutters after a moment, holding out the handful of feathers and stretching open her palm; her eyes are narrowed, glittering again but this time with anger as she turns towards the altar. "Fine, then. Let my offer be the thing I deem most important: information."
Even through the veil of Malevolence all around them, the twang of sorcery is clear enough; Noeline concentrates, and the small gout of flame on the altar is mirrored by one in her hand, burning away the last of Riese's offering herself. DG: Noeline has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Burnt Offering.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Oh. Right. Gwen sucks in her breath.
The pyre.
"A person in the party Ambrosius and I were in said that the sacrifice is pretty much a covenant between you and another party. Last time I was here, what was on the other side of that door was the hydra." Her lips thin as she strikes the flint, setting the brazier aflame, much like last time. Fire doesn't bother her when she's the one setting it, but the thought of offering anything else to it, without something egging her on in the background...?
Gwen frowns. "I doubt offering it what I did last time'll have the same effect." Her right hand goes to clasp around a part of her left arm, feeling the developing burn scar that's there. "... I gave enough to fire. It don't need anything else from me. The door opened even though only a few of us offered, so. Don't be forced into this."
Jean seems to feel the same way. The courier gives her a sympathetic smile and nods.
Rieselied's actions, however... The redhead steps back as Rieselied bares her wings to the flame, a look of thin terror creasing over Gwen's features. "Rieselied..." Her voice sounds like a pleading, concerned child before she promptly shuts herself up. This is Rieselied's moment.
And it's done.
Gwen reaches over to Rieselied then, pressing her left hand on the horned woman's shoulder, should Rieselied allow for it. Her words are soft, barely heard over the fire. "It just means a bit less weight to carry in the end, doesn't it?" The leather glove creases.
Her gaze turns back towards the pyre, adding, "... Now, if you try to sacrifice your hair, I'm gonna have to slap you silly, okay?"
She can't go too long without trying to relieve the tension she's feeling, even here.
It'd be like dimming the single light down a long, cold, scary tunnel.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Burnt Offering.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
Hiro doesn't take time to tend to the grapnel, screw the grapnel. Once he's clambered up the cliff, he walks over to Ruby who's walking, rather than flying, shakily listing one way then another. "Four and score black... birds... pie..." Jean scoops her up first, but he goes over to her. "Hehe... Jean... don't feel so..." The tiny Dragonet rests in her arms.
He gives her this long pat on the head- looking decidedly ill, "Hang in there." He murmurs, "Sorry, if I'd known this would be that rough on you... sorry..."
Up to the pyre they come. The message simple and yet profound. There may be no reason for Riese to conduct this ritual, but the young man watches solemnly- as he watches Riese, who he assumed up until this point to be a Beastwoman, sacrifices something. He watches the fire run up her wingspan, consuming the feathers- turning them into membranous wings, like that of Ruby's to his reckoning, save for the pockmarks.
Hiro can't hear what she says, only Odjn's alarmed reaction, "They're beautiful."
Before he gives Jean an even longer look. His eyes sad. He doesn't say anything, just puts his hand on her shoulder for a moment, before letting it slip away. He decided he'd sacrifice something for them instead.
Reaching up beneath his orange scarf, and into his now sodden pack, he takes out something - wrapped in oilcloth.
Flipping off the cloth to reveal the leatherbound notebook, through the foreword, he stops at a certain page, staring at it for the longest time. "Sorry Grandpa." He murmurs, before the ripping of parchment enters into the room. He folds the page up in half.
Hesitation takes him, before he gives it over to the fire, filling the air with the smell of burning ink and charcoal and paper. "Just my past."
~Ten Years Ago~
The old Beastman started as the sound of footsteps pounded down into the basement into his library/study- apparently having fallen asleep, he adjusts his spectacles to look down, "Guess I finished after all..." Then looks at the rascal in front of him. Adorned with a bucket on his head, wielding a stick, "Grandpa, Grandpa! Come play Dragonmaster with me!" "I don't know about today Hiro. Your ol' Grandpa is feeling mighty tired."
"Aww- but today I was gonna beat the Magic Emperor!" After some hesitation, he finally said, "I ain't as spry as I used to be, but- why not? There's strength still left in these old bones."
Later, after tucking him in, and cracking his back, he went back down to his study, looking at the open book on the desk wearily, he starts to shut it, "Actually, just needs one final touch."
To my beloved Grandson - My most precious find.
Picking up his quill, he started to sketch something below the foreword, before filling it in with charcoal.
He's asleep later, but now his head isn't on the desk. Beneath the foreword is a drawing of an older bearded Beastman, ruffling the hair of a younger boy who was trying to avoid his hand, a winged cat balancing precariously upon the bucket clinging for dear life, which was being shifted about by his Grandfather's gnarled hand.
~Now~
It seemed like such a small thing compared to what Riese gave up, just a piece of paper; that no longer has shape and form as it's consumed. He just hopes it'll be enough as he says quietly to himself, "No sense looking back. Can only promise to go back once we're done."
DG: Hiro has used his Tool Grandpa Gwyn's Notebook toward his party's challenge, Burnt Offering.
DG: You pass the challenge, and take 2 Exhaustion! You have 12 total Exhaustion.
DG: The party led by Hiro 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> Ambrosius has posed.
Ambrosius watches Riesenlied's actions curiously. She unfurls her wings again...and sheds her feathers? Interesting.
Was she truly a Drifter from Elru? He frowns slightly, but does not comment. No, he had learned his lesson last time. His suspicions were best kept to himself until he had more information.
One's deceptions, one's past, information...the pyre greedily accepts all that is offered it, the material and the immaterial, consuming all and reducing them to ash.
To whatever entity was responsible for watching over the flame, these offerings seem satisfactory enough and, with a rumble the door ahead opens, shaking dust loose as it does so.
"I don't...understaaand...how...?" Ambrosius says, shaking his head.
The answer did not seem forthcoming.
DG: Noeline has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* Otherworldly Hollow *>===========================
=====================<* 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.
=Dungeon Conditions: Tire=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline lets the last of the ashes drop from her hand; she seems completely untouched by the flame she apparently conjured, letting out a heavy breath as she watches the last of the feathered pieces trickle away. "... such a waste," she mumbles to herself, shaking the thought loose before she picks herself up. From out of nowhere, her scythe appears in her hands as her expression hardens. "Let's go and see what awaits at the centre of it all, shall we? Odjn, please watch over Riese," she adds, the lilting tone of the statement not reaching her eyes as she strides forward.
At the sight of the gigantic creature before them, Noeline can't say she isn't surprised - but at the same time, her step does not hesitate for an instant, the demon already having figured that /something/ similar would be waiting for them. So, rather than pause, both she and her scythe begin to speed up, the blade making a circle in her hands as she darts forwards. "Strife," she commands, and no more than that - nothing more is needed, not when her orbs flank her intercept path to begin a bombardment of laser fire and spitting light.
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Trouble toward her party's challenge, Hellionized Hydra.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"... true," Riesenlied softly answers to Gwen, adding her own hand to Gwen's left hand on her shoulder, "I had enough to carry, without adding more to the burden..." It was rather evident that neither of them were talking about anything as trivial as what they were physically carrying. But when Gwen adds that second line, she chuckles and says, "I-- think Noeline would behead me, right after you."
She looks to Noeline with a wan smile that nonetheless carries the weight of their long, slightly bizarre, slightly forlorn, but nonetheless true relationship. "... I am sorry to put you up to this. But it is important that I do so. To some, this may be a flame of judgement, a flame of deceit..." She turns towards the pyre. "But this is as much a flame of cleansing." She narrows her eyes. "And I do not need to be able to sense Malevolence to know that."
She looks to Jean, and quietly contemplates what the woman had said. "I admire your strength," she speaks firmly. "Please do not forget that, even as the world finds new ways to twist before you." She glances aside. "Never let yourself be compromised, no matter how difficult it is to do so... for it is at that point that you may lose your way."
Would she be able to do that? She'd like to think so, but...
Finally, it was Hiro's page that burned and she saw, shaking her head as she says, "Memories take the form of so much more; even when one kindles away in flame, the way in which it sparked within your mind is the most precious of all."
Odjn whimpers and is about to drop what looks like a tasty soft-shelled taco stuffed with pork carnitas she was hiding all this while over the flame-- before going, "B-bweeh? It's open? Hooray! I don't have to sacrifice lunch!"
-GWOMP-
... is what the Hydra is about to do, as Riese grimaces and stops the beast from barely chomping down on her. "Ngh--" she breaks free with a twist and her now exposed wings hissing with motes of light slowly emanating from them.
"Take this slow," she advises. "It is many-headed, but that does not mean it has complete peripheral vision. I'll serve as a distraction -- someone get up on the hydra's back, I estimate that its weakest point would be the base of its neck!"
Satisfied that she's said enough to eventually enable a (/_\) button prompt to pop up for someone else, Riese squares off as she moves towards one side of the battlefield. Odjn floats down next to her to say, "Not alone you're not!"
The hydra heads lunge for her and slam straight, but the winged woman is holding on strong -- she's held onto one of the heads and caused it to roar in pain as she drives her thin, rapier-like sword with precision into its eye. "Now!"
DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Hellionized Hydra.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
There it is again...the Hydra. This wasn't Ambrosius's first encounter with the beast. He and Gwen had handled it just fine alone, but it had been an exhausting fight. Doubtlessly it would be much easier with more allies.
He keeps his distance, but keeps on the move to avoid attacks. Like before, he draws his revolver Conversator from its holster. He aims with one hand, while the other is pulled back with water converging around it to signify the beginnings of a spell.
It would be excellent if he could somehow bring back /this/ specimen fully alive...but a creature of this magnitude would be difficult to transport out of the caves, and even harder to keep sedated. It had to go.
Conversator's cylinder is emptied into the beast, and then followed up by what could adequately be called a 'beam' of water, with pressure high enough to cut through most things in its path.
It probably would've been nice if he warned them first. DG: Ambrosius has used his Tool Deluge toward his party's challenge, Hellionized Hydra.
==========================<* Otherworldly Hollow *>===========================
=====================<* 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.
=Dungeon Conditions: Tire=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
Jean isn't in a position to watch over most of the offerings to the pure, as focused as she is. But she has peripheral vision, can see much of the group. She can hear Gwen, too, but the only thing that actually draws her attention away starts with Hiro's hand on her shoulder. Then she starts to look at him, blinking. "Hiro...?"
A page, from the journal Jean /knows/ is so important to Hiro. She has a pang of regret that she couldn't spare him and the others this, that she stood back from it... rather than doing something to crush it. Did she do the right thing...?
"Best not to think about it," Jean says to Ambrosius, shaking her head. "This place is too awful for its sense to be anything we want." She holds Ruby close.
She looks to Rieselied, next. "...Thank you, but..." She shakes her head, though the haunted look in her eyes can't be mistaken. "...It makes me wonder about you, Risenlied." Her voice is soft. "...If you want to know who helped me find my way, it was Hiro."
But soon they're going; soon there's a hydra. Riesenlied offers a strategy, mentions a weak point on the back of the creature's neck. Jean narrows her eyes. "All right Ruby, just be careful." She'll ofer her to Hiro if she can, and if not... Well, her choreography is about to get really interesting.
Pulling a ribbon again, Jean charges upward and does a one-handed handspring to launch herself onto the Hydra's bag, using her new weapon to give herself leverage to strike the Hydra herself with a driving punch meant to shatter through its weakpoint, the ribbon wrapped about her wrist and helping her twirl around for another punch right after.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Just a slip of paper. As Gwen watches it disappear into the fire, something tugs at her heart as painfully as in those days before she had that metal arm at her right side. That notepad was something he used before- it had something to do directly with that man. Hiro told her about how he missed his grandfather, as well as how he wondered if he was okay.
Rieselied's words ring true, just then. Could Hiro be taking one piece off of his burden? ".... There'll be more memories we can make, after this is all over," she quietly says, to everyone and no one in particular, all at the same time. "We have all the time in the world."
That's something Gwen would certainly say.
And it's a frame of mind that slips into her next actions, as she strolls towards the hydra. The glove on the courier's right hand is slipped off, the sleeve rolled to reveal nearly all the expanse of the ARM below, the Mockingbird ESR revealed in its fullest, with no offered apology or context. Curving mechanical plates seize, then spring, answering each of her unvoiced commands. She directs it at a head, not occupied or otherwise being subjugated to someone's attentions, locking onto it as she pulls out a round of bullets from her vest with her left hand, one between each finger. Compartments open, and a hole opens in the base of her right palm. Slipping the cartridges in, she fires, shifting her body weight to compensate for each blast.
Her ARM feels... warm. Like it's there, physically, underneath her fingers, yet as much a part of her as the heart beating in her chest. IT certainly felt like that before, but was that because she didn't know what this felt like, before?
It will only be later that Gwen begins to realize just how strange it all really felt, just how 'in the zone' it all was, whether it was her mind being distracted by some emotion, her familiarity or confidence in dealing with the hydra, or something else.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Hellionized Hydra.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
For a moment it looks like he's just going to stoically play it off to Riese, but he gives her the longest look, and his lips crack into a smile, even there's this sad look in his eyes, "Yeah. That sounds..." He trails off for a moment, tips his chin upwards, "...right."
He looks intensely vulnerable for a moment as Gwen adds onto it, "Everyone's gotta leave home sometime right? Go on the greatest adventure of their lives." He then looks back Gwen's way, and the smile looks more genuine, "You and me both Gwen. Plenty of time to make new ones once we do go back."
The door shifts open, he looks at Odjn, blinks his eyes a few times, then says with a certain cheer, "Hey that's great. Nothing worse than having to go through something like this on an empty stomach..."
And then Hiro starts to feel a wave of nausea taking him over, his thoughts becoming a chaotic mess- the same thing he feels in Lucia's company now, only not as intense. Staggering as the Hydra starts his assault, he holds his stomach, pressing a hand against the wall to steady him, as he doubles over and loses /his/ lunch.
It's not his proudest moment. Fortunately, it isn't quite that intense, as he looks up at the Hydra through blurred eyes, "Crud."
Agatha's offer sure felt like a dumb thing for him to have rejected right about now.
Riese's advice is good, but right now he feels like he can't /actualize/ any of it. "Jean-" He takes Ruby back from her shakily, before fumbling to put her in his pack. "-counting on you." He offers her this ill-looking smile as he finally deposits Ruby in the sack. But even if he's sick, he's going to do his best to support her.
Taking the powder covered rag from earlier, it's damp, but he puts it to his mouth and sucks it in through his nostrils- it's an antifungal, not anti-malevolence, but it sure is a bracing feeling. The young man straightens up, grabbing the steel boomerang out of the sheathe on his belt like it were some sort of Gusnmoke ARM.
He then rears back his arm, as if calculating the throw, then recalculating it when he feels a bit sick again.
Then he throws. It swings around to the left of the Hydra, when he mumbles something. A cross-breeze from the wind spell smacks into the boomerang, breaking it apart dead center- revealing it was actually two of them attached to each other. The whirling boomerangs arc before they would cross their path- right at the Hydra's necks.
Likely the thing has regenerative powers, but if his aim was true, maybe it'll lose it's head? Or a few of them- before it has a chance to grow any back.
DG: Hiro has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Hellionized Hydra.
==========================<* Otherworldly Hollow *>=========================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Corrupt Carcass *>======================= |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Discovery |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Scattered within this cavern within the depths of the Otherworldly Hollow are countless corpses of beasts... and the occasional human. All of them, to the spiritual eye, seem to be in various states of the malevolent metamorphosis that have affected the rest of the beasts here, as if the Malevolence in this place was being tested on them before the stress proved too much to them. At first glance, there seems no rhyme or reason to them -- but those who know the regions of Ignas might recognize them. From the wolves to the hobgobs, all of them seem to come from the areas surrounding Lahan... =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
The hydra might have many heads, but so do the group arranged against it. Some of them are currently retching, others are sinking confusedly in Hiro's backpack, but they all still count. Noeline claims the final strike this time, darting up past one head to drive the blade of her scythe home in the hydra's body; she hesitates there, then /pushes/, as her weapon seems almost to momentarily liquefy and trickle around the blackened scales. Perhaps that's what actually happened - when she tears the blade away again to the hydra's pained roar, it strips much of the scaling away with the strike, and leaves the creature rearing-- then dead.
The noble girl takes a moment to recover herself, panting heavily - and then aims a swift kick at the creature's bulk, probably only hurting herself in the process but apparently feeling it necessary to get the last of her feelings on the matter out.
"... that is that," she mutters to herself, immediately scanning the room around them as her weapon wafts away into so many motes of light in her hand, trudging forwards to study one of the corpses with--
'Interest' isn't the word, for once. She looks disgusted, more than anything, and still as if the hairs on the back of her neck are firmly raised. But they made it this far for this much, and the girl is obviously determined to take in every instant and every piece of information available to her.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Unfortunately, thinking too much about things was basically Ambrosius's job. He had to piece together how all of this worked, and it only made things seem more baffling.
Was there truth to this 'Malevolence' nonsense? ...No, impossible.
He is certain to keep an eye on Gwen as she utilizes that interest ARM of hers, even as they battle the Hydra.
It was very interesting data, after all.
After a long battle, the Hydra is eventually silenced.
He is quick to scan the room quickly, hoping to find another one of the crystals, but what he finds instead is...a pile of corpses.
"Diiisgusting...they did not...deseeerve this..." He hisses, looking it over.
The humans, the demihumans, or the beasts...even he would agree that none of them did.
He is angry for a moment, but takes some time to study the pile before turning away.
"There is...nooothing we can...do for theeem..." He concludes. They were too far down to bother with dragging them out to bury, after all.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied lets out a tired and haggard-sounding wince as she pushes the hydra head away, and helps Hiro to his feet. "There, there... it's over now. You did well, Hiro. Take a moment to steady yourself, okay?" Odjn has kind of just slumped on her shoulder, rather clearly out of it herself.
Riesenlied looks more than just a little bit bothered at the sight, as they come upon the corpses. There's a quiet frown as she clutches her hand to her own chest, the chitinous wings on her back creaking up slightly. It bothers her. It bothers her deeply. From the context, she knew why they had to be here. Test subjects, in more than just a manner of speaking. Were they pushed to the point where they succumbed to the Malevolence?
"Hobgobs... native to the fields surrounding the Blackmoon Forest -- Lahan wolves," she frowns quietly. "They're far from their natural ecosystem. They definitely did not just wander here..."
There's a quiet, concerned frown on her face as she considers that a little longer. Was there a particular reason the wildlife was chosen from that area? Was that just what was convenient for both K.K. and Agatha? Was it because Lahan had been blown away? Too many questions, too little in the way of leads... not that she'd be able to follow up on those leads anytime soon.
Then, there was the occasional human too. Did they just cross them at a bad time, and were drawn in because of it?
The Trial Knight had admitted as much that it was not easy to control. In their hands, this was more like a barely restrained flame than a tool of precision. Yet she couldn't deny that it was effective. A self-spreading, almost invisible virus that sought weakness where it could find it... and one that their brethren was, by and large, immune to, by virtue of non-detection. It's an extremely sound weapon.
It deeply bothered her that she still couldn't sense a thing. Hiro looked like he was still about to fall over. Was she so accursed as to not be able to empathise even in the slightest manner? It frustrates her. It was a similar feeling that she felt once, a long time ago...
She glances up towards the ceiling, as if staring at someone. Was this really the cage that was necessary? Are the only worthy birds to fly the sky the ones that truly cherished their freedoms?
"This..." Riesenlied murmurs, well under her breath.
"The new world... is still so far away..."
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
"Just hang on, Hro," Jean answered at the time Hiro said that he was counting on her. She feels nauseus herself, has sympathy for what he's doing, but nausea is one of many things she was brutally trained in fighting through. She finds her center, and keeps fighting. And while she can't keep down the Hydra..
As a grop, they can.
Jean as she walks nods, "I agree, Ambrosius. No one deserved this." The whole thing disorients her, seeing them one way and another. But Riese has more to say, and she tries to focus on that. It's some effort.
"This is dustrbing... And not accidental," she agrees, though she wouldn't known Lahan if not for it being mentioned. After all, this isn't even her world.
She steps back to Hiro in any case. "You need an arm out, Hiro? If you throw up on me it's your turn to cook dinner tomorrow." She says the joke gently, looking up offer and offering him a hand, a shoulder... WHatever.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
They somehow made it through. As the hydra falls, the rush filters like the tide from Gwen's mind, leaving the Malevolence ample room to resume the thrumming in the back of her mind. Her quips and positive thoughts were simply a sandcastle against this particular tide, and with nothing quick to replace those as barriers, she begins to feel ill as well. "W-well, heheh, let's see what we find, okay? Then we're skedaddle out. Hiro, c'mon, we can do this! Miss, er, Jean? How's Ruby doing? Everyone else is lookin' good, and I'll feel good when I get out of herreee."
It'll probably just be a crystal, or some bit of data they can use to resolve the mystery of this place, maybe even of Malevolence itself.
If only.
"H-how-" The mystery was deeper than they could imagine.
It had only been a few years, a career spanning from age fifteen to nineteen, but Gwen had seen a good amount of Ignas- at least, the parts that could be freely traveled by a drifting courier at any one time. One of those regions was the one surrounding the peaceful village of Lahan. At least, there was once a village there. She knew the wild life there. She had to. She was a researcher's charge, and, for all she seemed like something of an idiot, some of those habits did wash on her. She identified distinct animals and plants, and could, to a degree, identify them, especially when they didn't seem like they belonged.
Riesenlied confirms Gwen's suspicions. "... Yeah. No doubt about it." Gwen's cheeks look splotchy and pale in the dim light. "So not even the animals could escape it? Whatever happened there?" It's not the animals that are in her mind, though.
It's too much. She was able to ignore it before, when the face of Lahan's destruction was a bumbling artist who seemed to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. She humored it with thoughts of the guardians being angry with her for trusting him, then let the matter slide. Now all she can think of the times before, when she delivered there. The smiling people that she kept at a pleasant, safe distance, the way the children would play with Gulliver. The smile of a grandmother when she received a letter from her son in the Big City Far Away.
No more letters, hand written. She'll not go there ever again. She'll never see that place again. A place she knew, and yet didn't.
She sits down, shaking. Then, without caring, she begins to cry.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
He doesn't catch the boomerangs when they come back, clatter against the cavern wall. Riese helps him up. He's not too proud to accept her help. Not too proud at all. He's a little unsteady on his feet for a moment, "Yeah. Sorry. Still not used to it." His face looks pained, pinched- she says he did well. He sure doesn't feel like he did well, "I can do better. I'll do better next time."
He picks up both boomerangs, afixes them to each other, puts it back in his sheath, then opens his pack, to check on Ruby, who's mumbling within. He just gives Gwen a silent look.
Ever walk into an abattoir?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGUi6spQ9M0
The feeling as he enters into this place, sees the corpses of so many beasts and humans spread- out. Even if it was by malevolence, it feels like senseless maddening slaughter.
That feeling of helplessness, seeing so many dead within a mass grave- feeling the swell.
Realizing to your horror, why.
And not liking the answer, at all.
He listens as they outline where they all came from- entranced as his eyes fix upon the people, picking one out here, one out there.
He wanted to pass out. He really, wanted to. Much preferable for this to turn out to be a nightmare.
But this is reality, and he can't turn away.
After a while he gets his throat working, "Yeah Jean. Mind holding me steady for a moment? Lost- lost the lantern." Gingerly, he reaches into his pack, to bring out a trembling dragonet. He immediately covered her eyes- unravelling his scarf, and wrapping it around her eyes, "...shes... Hiro." "Hey Ruby. This'll help." He says weakly, "Something I need you to do."
"'sat?"
There's this long pause as he fondly holds the cat which might as well be his little sister, trying not to let her catch wind of what's going on, "Just need you to make fire when I say so. Tell you why later." "...kay... hehe... 'ire..."
"You know. It'd probably be better to wait for the Shepherd to get here." Hiro says as he speaks to the group, "Let him see this. Let him do his duty."
He takes a breath of the stagnant air, and stands, while holding Ruby. "But it's a long way back to Lahan right-?" He looks to Gwen, and Riese for confirmation, only vaguely knowing the lay of the land, "-and the folks who died here among the beasts, they don't deserve having to wait in this until one guy shows up."
BGM Change: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypzPw2DHes0
Ruby didn't have to look. It's gonna be one long walk back. The smell of burning flesh, and smoke likely makes it worse. Worst of all though is probably the silence.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
With a deep breath, Noeline flicks out her hair. She looks bizarre, dressed so finely as she wanders around the blackened cavern, studying a fallen wolf and then doing her best to make a mental note of a villager's ruined features. "Nothing good on this world, old or new, did this," she decides after a long moment, thinning her lips again as she stares over at Riesenlied to share her findings. "... it isn't easy to see if you're not the sort to be able to, but there's quite the spiritual residue on them."
Her gaze doesn't waver, as she lays it out more clearly for their commander - for anyone else, the idea of a Crimson Noble being spiritually aware probably isn't all that far fetched. For the Noeline who counts herself as a Metal Demon, on the other hand... she holds her look for a long moment, watching for Riese's reaction to it. Perhaps it's a slight olive branch for Riese's sacrifice earlier, giving up something like that.
But Noeline sighs the next moment, breaking eye contact as she waves a hand and relaxes her pose, watching the first of the flame begin to wash over the bodies. "I am-- all for leaving, with all haste. And a very, very long bath."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"... I know that," Riesenlied ... had to accept that outcome, as she murmured back to Noeline. Not because she could see it, but because the context was clear. It was a long way back, and most importantly, it was a dangerous long way back. Just because they'd come onto the end and slain the hydra did not mean the cavern was cleared of all threat. It may very well be the only way to cleanse this area... and she knew it wouldn't cleanse the Malevolence.
But the dead deserve their rites.
If Ruby wasn't up to it, Odjn certainly was there to help... though the shy, young dragon really looked like she'd gotten more than she bargained for. Riese didn't really want to bring Odjn here, but the dragon was insistent. Just for a while longer, she wanted to... help keep that ideal outlook alive for a little longer.
They needed to have a talk after this.
"Miss Gwen... here," Riese sounds tired as she kneels by Gwen and helps her up gently, patting her on the shoulder. "I can't profess to know how you feel entirely, but... we'll keep their memory alive."
She looks towards Noeline, her hands rather full. "Yes, let us leave, post haste."
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
A hand raises to Ambrosius's hat and he removes it respectfully, placing it over his heart. You can get a better look at his face now, without the hat covering his face, and at the hood that covers the rest of it.
He didn't know these people, or really had any reason to care. And yet, the senselessness of it got to him. If they had died for a purpose - such as for the sake of his people - it would've been acceptable. But what purpose did their deaths here serve, at the end of this cavern?
"...Agreed." He says. Unlike his usual demeanor, it was a very plain, direct statement.
With that, he begins to walk away silently.
He needed to go collect those beasts he had left behind at the beginning, after all. Though...he didn't think he'd mention this incident in his report.
They didn't need to know.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Gwen hears her companions speak and react, some feeling it as heavily as she does, while others observe with an eye unclouded by emotion. Yet, even there, there is sympathy.
She'll gladly call them all friends, right now. They were all small lights of hope in the dark tide that surrounds them.
There's a tired voice, and someone helping her up. Storm blue eyes look up blearily at Riesenlied, accompanied by a small smile. "I don't even know how I feel," Gwen says, quietly. "S'not like I knew them. Was just a Drifter." She trails off, then sinks into Riesenlied, her arm wrapped around one shoulder and she becomes a mass of sobs. "I dunno why I feel like this..."
Humans are confusing creatures, indeed. She'll make her promises to Riesenlied, as well as everyone else for that matter, for free deliveries and free rides on the cart as they get back to the entrance, but it's best for it to be regarded as the babblings of a very, very weepy courier.
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
When Hiro asks, Jean holds him steady. She looks down at Ruby, not sure what he has in mind, but willing to offer her shoulder regardless of what it is. She trusts him implicitly; if that much isn't obvious to the others already, it may become clearer in the simple fact that she doesn't even ask him what he intends to do.
Hiro speaks up, makes his speech, which to her it sounds, and she inclines her head at him. It's time. The smoke of bodies doesn't seem to faze her; she looks down at them, in complete silence. Only after all of that...
Jean looks to Riesenlied and Noeline, and to Gwen and Ambrosius, and remains silent, still propping up Hiro for as long as he needs. She remains silent until Gwen starts sobbing.
"...Death on this scale would take a toll on any normal person," she offers calmly, gently, to Gwen. She doesn't cry herself though, doesn't do anything else except move out, quietly.
She keeps walking, careful of Hiro and Lemina in particular.