2017-05-28: To The Last
- Log: To The Last
- Cast: Lynnai Albrek, Talise Gianfair, Sephilia Lampbright, Ida Everstead-Rey, Rosaline Calice
- Where: Adlehyde
- Date: May 28, 2017
- Summary: With Adlehyde under siege, a familiar group of four women, a girl and a Chauncey attempt to rescue the innocent. Metal Beasts don't want to let them.
DG: Lynnai Albrek has created a party! To join, type +party/reset and then type +party/join Lynnai Albrek. DG: Talise Gianfair has joined your party! DG: Rosaline Calice has joined your party! DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has joined your party! DG: Sephilia Lampbright has joined your party! DG: A party led by Lynnai Albrek is now entering The Battle of Adlehyde. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
====================<* CHALLENGE - The Demons are Coming! *>====================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
The Metal Demon attack on Adelhyde has left the city in chaos. The Demons
and Adelhyde's troops are fighting everywhere, with the ebb and flow of
battle changing what parts of the city are safe and which are battlefields
by the hour. There are thousands of civilians trapped here, as well as a
number of Drifters who were visiting the city for the festival. The party
may simply have been at the wrong place, at the wrong time; they might also
have returned to the city in an effort to save those trapped within.
Time is short - there are civilians who flee into the area, seeing the
party and babbling about how the Metal Demons are on the way. Unless chased
off they'll attempt to follow wherever the group goes, but the sounds of a
large group of Metal Demons echoes down the street. Any delay will mean a
running battle with the Demons!
=Dungeon Conditions: Tire=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lynnai Albrek has posed.
Welcome to Adlehyde!
Lynnai has actually been in Adlehyde (and dealing with the demons) for quite some time. By accidents of fate she's never been at any of the huge battles, but she's been involved in several rescues and lesser defenses. Just like a whole lot of other Drifters, honestly. She's tried to meet up with her allies several times, but has never managed to either find them or get to them.
Right now, though, there's a knot of chaos that might make a convenient place to meet up. It's certainly a big cluster of civilians who are in a panic, and though Lynnai is trying to lead them to safety, she's probably not going to be able to do it herself. She's been jumping from high point to high point, gliding with her coat, to try to scout out a safe place, which means she's very visible to people who might be looking for her.
And it looks like she could /really/ use the hand...
DG: Lynnai Albrek has used her Tool Zephyr Coat toward her party's challenge, The Demons are Coming!.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Not long ago, Talise had picked up a couple of twelvers of Old Man Ettlesbury's Olde-Fashioned Heal Berry Liqueur. "Just in case," she'd explained.
She's stuffed them into the bag over her shoulder now. She has a feeling the sweet, sweet taste of heal berry alcohol will come in handy.
"Yes, we /know!/ You need to get out of here!" she urges the groups of fleeing civilians, waving both gauntleted hands urgingly as if to hurry them along. Quickly she looks back over her shoulder, biting her bottom lip as something explodes off in the distance. Well, not as distant as she'd like, anyway.
Exhaling heavily, she looks through the crowd - and then, blinking, she realizes who's jumping around up there.
Reaching over her shoulder, she draws Rastaban, pushing towards the head of the group of civilians. "Lyn!" she shouts towards her friend on the rooftops. "Lyn, are you alright? We've gotta get these people to safety!"
With a broad gesture, she looks back towards the civilian crowd, gesturing towards the streets ahead. "Everyone, stick together," she urges. "Don't get separated and whatever you do, /don't/ try to be a hero!"
DG: Talise Gianfair has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Demons are Coming!.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Speaking of sticking together and not trying to be a hero--Sephilia and Chauncey aren't far behind Talise, girl perched atop giant doll to let her see over the crowd. Otherwise she'd just be looking at everyone's midsections as they mill about.
"Yeah, don't worry, everyone, just stay calm and things will work out okay!" she calls, waving at Lyn.
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Demons are Coming!.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida has been running herself ragged. After getting to a relatively-secure point close to the castle with Claude and a few others, she took a moment to rest, reload, and use the last of her Symbol dressings. Then it was back into the fray to find more civilians, and escort them to a main route leading to the western gate. Then it was a harrowing dash through the ruins, portions of which involved being chased by a large, angry brass lion. She ended up outside the city, received first aid from an older man identified only as 'Doc', and headed back inside.
A figure hoists herself up a piece of decorative railing that's been knocked loose, and dangles above the street. She stops, takes quick stock of the civilians, and then starts climbing the rain gutter that leads from the balcony to the roof. It's Ida--and she looks like she's been beat to hell several times over. She's wearing a mixture of her street clothing and bandages, and she is splattered with both crimson and silvery blood. Assuming she can get to a vantage point, her next task is to draw a revolver, aim, and put a bullet in a lock in the gate behind the mass of civilians. She's so focused on this that she doesn't notice anyone else is here.
"Sephilia?" Ida says, with a start, recognizing the doll. "Talise?" a moment later, as she sees the figure pushing to the head. And that flickering in the air. "Lynnai? Oh thank Granas."
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Demons are Coming!.
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
Sitting on a horse-drawn supply cart as it crosses the desert, a nun and two others quietly chat under the stars. Sniffing the air, the beastwoman among them looks ahead, her slit pupils narrowing. Fire? She tugs at the sleeve of the priest sitting next to her, silently.
"FIRE!"
Hope Springs was practically a ghost town, most of the buildings empty piles of dry lumber by then, enough for it to go up like a tinderbox with the right provocation. Well, all buildings except one. They abandoned the cart, letting two ride on ahead while the remaining one guarded the supplies.
"No, no, no, no, no!"
"No, no, no, no, no!"
Rosaline received Gwen's warning earlier today. And yet, having had time to steel herself was small comfort for the horror that awaited her. Fire and death, familiar companions in the nun's troubled dreams, but now on a scale that seemed to her nothing short of apocalyptic.
But there was one difference, one crucial difference that Rosaline clung to: Today, she could do something about it.
"Come with me if you want to live," she says to a group of civilians, in the meekest read of this particular line in recorded history.
It's enough, at least. They're all too happy to follow the woman providing covering fire, regardless of what they think about Beastmen or the Ethos.
"Lynnai! Talise! Ida!" she says as Providence rears its head again to bring them together, and she adds a few new faces to their escort mission. "Praise be!" (She doesn't know Sephilia very well.)
She resumes firing over her shoulder between hurried scampers.
DG: Rosaline Calice has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Demons are Coming!. DG: The party led by Lynnai Albrek 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> Lynnai Albrek has posed.
Lynnai hears her name. That was unexpected.
She looks down, spotting - "Finally!" From the tone of her voice, she's more pleased that she's finally been able to find someone she knows, not irritated that they didn't show up earlier. "I'm trying to lead them to a church I can see that's still standing - it's stone, so it should be as safe as anywhere. But I can't scout as well as lead."
With the party to help guide, though, and Lynnai continuing to scout, it's a relatively short trip to the church - not completely safe by any means, but the worst thing they encounter is a fire and one of the weird metallic skeletons that appear to be wandering the city (which Lynnai deals with by the simple expedient of building a wall of air in the alley it's in, so that the people can get past it without incident).
Once they've guided the group to the stone church of Granas, Lynnai drops down off the roof she'd been perching on, coat fluttering around her as she touches down. "I am very glad to see you," she says, and means it. "I was worried about the results. Come on - we should move from here and guide the Demons away from the church." She heard them, too.
DG: Talise Gianfair has drawn a new Challenge.
=========================<* CHALLENGE - A Heavy Door *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------- There are a number of back alleys in Adelhyde that can be used to help evade the fighting on the main streets. Not all of them are readily evident, and some inns like to install gates or doors to ensure that vagrants don't have access to those back alleys. This is one of those doors - and the sounds of fighting are getting closer. With this good of a shortcut available, property damage is a secondary concern to a quick escape. Beware - as the battle progresses, the Demons are on the lookout for Drifters moving through the city, and escape will not be as easy. =Dungeon Conditions: Tire=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
It's like herding cats. It takes some effort on Talise's part - she has to wave her sword forward dramatically a few times - but eventually the villagers get moving. She does smile widely as Ida appears, though, then all the more broadly as Rosaline trundles into the party. "Ida, Rose!" she calls out, gesturing with her free arm to beckon them on. "C'mon, let's keep together!"
Soon enough, they reach the church. As Ida touches down, Talise reaches out with a gauntleted hand and claps her on the shoulder, smiling roughly but genuinely. "I'm glad you're okay, Lyn. All of you. But we've gotta hurry before those demons catch up to us."
With a glance around from the church, she nods towards a relatively broad back alley. "There. That should get us a little closer to one of the back gates," she says as she ducks down the alley. "Come on!" Kicking aside a crate of something, she guides the group down a bend in the alley -
And nearly slams into a locked gate. It's wrought of heavy-duty iron and has been padlocked twice. Grimacing, Talise squints through the bars - she can see open street beyond, and most of it not on fire yet.
"Okay. Let's just get this thing open quick," she urges, before rolling her shoulders, wiggling her fingers, and letting the magic begin to flow out of her gauntlets. Muscles tightening up, she plants a heel and grabs ahold of the gate frame, and begins to /pull./
Iron bars and hinges squeal in protest. The arch of the padlock strains, metal beginning to buckle, as Talise begins what looks an awful lot like what she normally does to doors. Namely, she wants to pull the thing off its hinges and rip it out of the frame.
DG: Talise Gianfair has used her Tool Ogre Power Gauntlets toward her party's challenge, A Heavy Door.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephy hops down from Chauncey for just a few moments, affixing the digging claws to the end of his arms before returning him to giant size. "Doors suck," she explains, and then Chauncey lets loose with a charge. He's not roaring, because he's a doll, but Sephilia lets out a passable battlecry. "You're goin' DOWN, door!
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has used her Tool Digging Claws toward her party's challenge, A Heavy Door.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida keeps up with Lynnai as best as she can, but it's a little difficult--especially when she's beaten-up, and still learning how this whole 'acrobatics' thing works. She lands on the same rooftop Lynnai does, and her boot goes right through a cracked slate tile, and the charred wood beneath. Ida catches herself, winces, and yanks her foot out of what used to be the church's attic. It /smarts/. She clambers downwards, using the updraft from Lynnai's coat to make the descent easier.
"They may be safe for now," Ida says, "But these are demons. We must clear a path."
Talise finds the first obstacle. Ida takes stock of the lock, notes it's too big and sturdy to shoot through. She moves in next to Talise, and starts pulling on one door while Chauncey takes care of the other one.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Heavy Door.
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
"Good plan," Rosaline tells Lynnai as she speaks of going to a church. That should work. TAKE THAT, PARBODY. "I'm glad to see you as well. All of you." She's already been helping however she can, healing with one hand and shooting with the other, but now they're a /team/.
Talise takes point, and the nun is all too happy to follow, closing the march with some midly terrified suppressing fire, and an occasional agility spell to get the civilians running /faster/. But then, an obstacles!
"I can help," she says, holding up... a stick of TNT?!
"It's okay-- It's okay it'sblessedsymbologicalEtone-issueTNTitwon'thurtpeoplepleasetrustme--"
She places a lit stick next to Talise, giving her her most sincere 'Please, PLEASE just trust me' look as she places a LIT EXPLOSIVE right next to her.
And, as advertised, it produces a rather mean blast, while also somehow only feeling like a light breeze for Rosaline's fellow beastwoman. In fact, the effect is pleasant-- Why, the team might feel itself reinvigorated by its effect!
DG: Rosaline Calice has used her Tool Holy TNT toward her party's challenge, A Heavy Door.
<Pose Tracker> Lynnai Albrek has posed.
Lynnai actually seems in... decent shape. Dirty, tired, scratched up and bruised, but with no critical injuries. 'Fine' is probably a good way to put it, honestly.
"I'm glad to have found you," she says, with a very slight smile that doesn't touch her eyes or last very long. "I don't think I can handle this alone. Metal Demons..." She looks aside for a moment, then back. "I can't say I ever expected them to strike at my home. My family is fine," she adds.
This is true, because her family is rich enough to live in a good home and don't have anything the Metal Demons particularly want. They lit their own stable on fire (with no horses in it, just a wagon) to make them think that it had already been attacked, and then barricaded themselves inside. It seems to be working so far.
Lynnai moves with the group in time to encounter the door. She frowns when the TNT comes out, but gives Talise a slight nod - it really is Symbological, and though she can't figure out exactly what it's supposed to do without really tracing all the patterns, she can trust Rosaline enough to let her do her thing.
Lynnai backs it up with a pulse of air that slams into the door and spreads along it, a sudden gale-force gust trying to shove the door open along with people pushing it. It doesn't last very long, but it doesn't have to.
DG: Lynnai Albrek has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Heavy Door. DG: The party led by Lynnai Albrek 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> Talise Gianfair has posed.
As a team, the group begins to yank on the gate. Talise hunches her shoulders and pulls, smiling as Ida and Sephilia line up and pull with her - but then ROsaline plants a lit bomb.
Talise widens her eyes, but as she catches Rosaline's gaze, she swallows hard and nods seriously. She'll trust the cat-nun. She /does/ trust her.
The blast goes off. The gate rattles on its hinges, iron buckling and squealing as the explosion blows out the hinges. The wave of the TNT, though, does nothing to hurt the pullers - and in fact it gives Talise a second wind. With a roar, she wrenches her shoulders - and with a deafening squeal of tortured metal, the gate tears off its hinges.
Or rather, the entire gate frame tears out of the wall. A few chunks of masonry still cling to it.
"Who puts a door in the middle of an alley," Talise grumbles before she steps forward, hoists the entire gate, winds up, and throws the thing into the air as hard as she can.
Overhead, something goes 'CLANG' and 'SQUAWK.' The thrown gate collides with a flying Metal Beast. It spirals out of control and crashes into a roof.
Talise blinks and touches her hands to her cheeks with a 'did-I-do-that' expression.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* CHALLENGE - Ambushes are Terrible! *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The party is making their way through the city - everything seems fine. At first. And then there is a shout, and Metal Demons erupt from several nearby buildings. The party is rapidly surrounded, and the Demons are closing in for the kill from all sides. They have a clear advantage, and it will take some hard fighting in order to escape unscathed! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida glances down in something approaching terror as the telltale hiss of a burning fuse reaches her. She glances back at Rosaline, then remembers--yes, Mother's notes. Ida remains within range of the lit TNT the whole time, and then--
BANG
Ida allows herself a moment of shadenfreude at the Metal Beast's predicament, largely because it is a tiny bright spot in the middle of such horror. With the gate out of the way, she takes point, drawing Devil's Due from its holster. The weapon's barrel gleams as she stalks forwards, using cover--and then--
A single Metal Beast sits up ahead, something feathered and scaled and agile-looking, with very sharp claws. It's gnawing on what looks like a piece of gutter, and it has not yet noticed her. She sinks to a knee behind a barrel, takes aim, oh-so-delicately lining up Devil's Due's iron-sights while she motions for the others to get ready. "I believe I can get this one," she says, her voice a breathy whisper. She braces.
That's when the wall to the left of her explodes outwards in a shower of masonry, and three identical creatures leap from inside the building. Ida has no time for a pithy remark--she leaps into a roll, even as rubble pelts her, bruising and battering her. She comes up to a knee, and opens fire.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Devil's Due toward her party's challenge, Ambushes are Terrible!.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
"Chauncey an' I, we got this too!" cries Sephilia, the doll already lumbering towards one of the metal foes. "Chauncey, let's show them the power of Foxington Style Wrestling! Chauncey SMASH!"
The doll's hand--still clad in digger claws--rises and falls in a massive pound against the beast.
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Ambushes are Terrible!.
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
"Congratulations," Rosaline tells Talise, in response to her FEAT OF MIGHTY STRENGTH. But there's no time to dally.
She watches Ida, holding her breath, and lets out a tiny shriek when the wall explodes, bounding away in reflex. She skids to a halt on the cobblestones, then holds up her crucifix-- and the Crest Graphs attached to it.
"Please let me help!" she calls out, and battle quote aficionados will recognize an incoming buff. "Holy Sword!"
Ida's bullets soon find themselves imbued with an extra, holy power kick. Hopefully her gun doesn't explode as a result, LIKE ZED'S SWORD DID. At least it got better.
"Please let me help. Holy Sword! Please let me help. Holy Sword!" Praise be! Holy Swords for everyone!
DG: Rosaline Calice has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Ambushes are Terrible!.
<Pose Tracker> Lynnai Albrek has posed.
"Good work." Alone, Lynnai would... well she'd probably have gone over the door, admittedly, but that would have taken time and it might have led her into an ambush.
Kind of like this one, actually.
Ida might have the one she sees first, but Lynnai is acting as soon as the building bursts outward. Gathering her power without bothering to muffle it, this time a Symbological ring of characters appears around each arm, floating in the air near her wrists; she channels it outward, a burst of air radiating away from her in all directions. "Stormy... PLUME!"
A pillar of what looks like cloud explodes upward from the ground in front of the ambushing Metal Demons. It blasts upward, possibly launching one of them away entirely, but if it doesn't the sudden staggering blow from underneath will certainly rattle them and disperse their combined charge.
She doesn't need a holy sword. What's she going to do, punch them? Lynnai doesn't even /have/ a weapon... her Symbology is enough.
DG: Lynnai Albrek has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Ambushes are Terrible!.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise spots the preying Metal Beast right away. She clicks her teeth together, readying Rastaban to strike if necessary.
It becomes necessary. Metal Beasts explode out of the wall; chunks of brick and mortar pelt Talise, and she gasps and shoulders through as best she can even as a few masonry shards slash across her face, leaving a cut across her cheek. Her teeth clench as she moves to position her body between the creatures and the civilians behind her, the group of them at this point in something of an abject panic.
With a sweep of her sword, she attempts to slash at one of the creatures, then slams her elbow out to try and knock it backwards; if necessary she'll kick it. She's on a deadline. She doesn't want them to get too far apart from one another.
"Damn it, ambushes are terrible!" she vents as she reaches for her belt, coming out with one of her knives. She hurls it towards the nearest of the three serpent-creatures. The knife lands with a blast of lightning that chains between as many of the serpents as she can, hopefully stunning them enough for the party to escape.
DG: Talise Gianfair has used her Tool Bomb Knife toward her party's challenge, Ambushes are Terrible!. DG: The party led by Lynnai Albrek 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> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida's bullet punches through one of the Beasts, leaving a glimmering silver exit wound in its back. As it falls, two more come running out of the same building. Chauncey slams one into the ground with a massive plush fist, imbued with holy magic--and Lynnai's spell catapults two more into the air. Talise strikes another down. It isn't long before all the Beasts are dead, but--
Something nearby lets out a deep, heavy groan. It's the building the Beasts were hiding in, and they just smashed through the last intact wall. "Move!" Ida cries, as it starts to collapse, a veritable landslide of shattered brick and crumbling stone.
Well, /that/ way is out of the question now. The noise might've even attracted something else.
DG: Rosaline Calice has drawn a new Challenge.
======================<* CHALLENGE - The Flaming Terror *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- As the party creeps along, there is a terrible sound from a nearby street. And then a building erupts into a cloud of debris and soot, flames erupting through the facade as a Metal Dragon crashes onto the street. This one seems more or less intact, although it is fairly young as far as such beasts go, and as it turns to see the party it's jaws open and a gout of flame erupts, rolling down the street and incinerating everything before it. As these are generally large, unfriendly metal lizards that breathe nuclear fire... RUN. RUN FOR YOUR LIVES. =Dungeon Conditions: Suffer, Overwhelm========================================
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
Rosaline screams, covering her head as a wall collapses dramatically. THIS HAS NOT BEEN A VERY GOOD NIGHT. She still makes sure everyone is still with them, but she wants to cry the whole time.
"We can do this, we can definitely do this," she repeats to herself as the group runs along the Plan B path. It seems like a safe enough route, at least, until...
THIS HAS REALLY NOT BEEN A VERY GOOD DAY AT ALL.
A dragon lands in the party's way, crashing into the cobblestones with a roar loud enough to shatter windows. It sets its sights, glowing with atomic fire, on the group of Drifters and their escortees.
"RUN, AND DON'T STOP!" Rosaline manages to scream out as she starts heeding her own advice. The Beastwoman's speed may have proven outstanding in the past, but her obvious concern is to make sure everyone /else/ can get out of the way first. She chants ("Please let me help!", again and again) several times to imbue the civilians' legs with greater speed. Even if she and her group don't make it out, /they/ should be able to outrun the draconic war machine, or at least so she dearly hopes.
Her skin is already deathly pale by the time she's done, a result of her having spent too much spiritual power in too short a time. But still she smiles, tiredly.
And THEN she takes off like a locomotive, running on all fours.
DG: Rosaline Calice has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Flaming Terror.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia's eyes widen. She stares for a moment, then breathes a nasty word that may surprise anyone who hears her say it--does Sephy KNOW that kind of word?!
"Oh, doody!"
Well...okay, no, she doesn't. "Chauncey, everyone, RUN!" she cries next, as the lumbering doll turns to make good on her instruction almost before she says it. He knows his mistress' mind well, it seems!
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Flaming Terror.
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
Rosaline, a nun, doesn't reprimand or even give Sephilia a disapproving look. These are EXCEPTIONAL, TRULY DOODY CIRCUMSTANCES.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Something crashes through another nearby building, pelting Ida with bits of rock. She raises an arm to shield her face, and as the dust clears, she hears... a deep, bass rumble that seems to shake the ground itself. Her eyes widen in fear.
That's... a Metal Dragon, Ida thinks. A real, live Metal Dragon. It's massive, and it's not even as large as some of the biggest specimens she's seen. Now, though, she's seeing more than bones in the ground, or a reconstruction--she's seeing a living being, wounded and angry, right in front of her and the civilians.
It looks nothing like the reconstructions, Ida thinks. How funny! She's about to die to a real, actual Metal Dragon, but now she finally knows what they look like--
No.
Rosaline has the civilians in hand. Ida leaps to the side. She /runs/, tearing down the street. Inwardly, she's trying to remember what the estimated temperature of its breath is--but 'at least hot enough to just melt most metals'. There's a reason they use dozens of the ignition filaments in blast furnaces back home.
Now, it is trained on her and her comrades.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Flaming Terror.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"Damn it, the wall!" Talise gasps, lunging away - even as more and more masonry falls around her. Bricks slam into her back and shoulders; she winces and snarls in pain, hunching and pulling herself out of the wreckage as fast as she can. It's not easy. She's bleeding from one corner of her mouth as she comes out of it.
She can hear Rosaline screaming. So are some of the civilians. "Fuck," she hisses through her teeth.
And then an immense metal dragon crashes to a landing and breathes fire of a kind she's somehow never experienced before. Talise opens her mouth slightly, then closes it.
"This foe is beyond any of us," she murmurs.
She does about the only thing she can think of in this situation: She turns and breaks into a dead sprint, urging the civilians along with a wave of her sword. Eventually she does slow down, but only to fall back to the rear of the group to ensure that if the thing does catch them, she'll be the first one in its path.
"This is not what I had in mind when I said I wished there were dragons on Filgaia!" Talise shouts over the noise of the dragon thing screaming and spitting fire.
DG: Talise Gianfair has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Flaming Terror.
<Pose Tracker> Lynnai Albrek has posed.
Lynnai thinks a bad word when the wall collapses, having to move quickly away from it to avoid anything hitting her.
What she actually /says/ is, "I think I saw another route when I was up high. We should turn this way," with a gesture. She's the native to Adlehyde here, and though this isn't an area of the city she's always in (plus, it's rather more on fire and damaged than she's used to), she thinks she knows which way to go.
Of course, that way is blocked.
By a goddamn dragon.
"What," Lynnai manages to get out, and it's rare for her to stumble over her words like that; she's more likely to say nothing at all. Her eyes widen, and she gestures with her Symbological arm. A vertical wall appears in the street between the dragon and the party - no, not quite vertical, angled slightly backwards. Lynnai knows she can never stop flame from a dragon like that, but she might be able to deflect it (once, if she's very lucky).
Then she runs. Lynnai bounds to the front of the running group specifically so she can use her coat; she pushes more power into it and starts taking longer, leaping jumps, accelerating everyone around her with friendly winds. She says nothing else - she's saving her wind for running.
DG: Lynnai Albrek has used her Tool Zephyr Coat toward her party's challenge, The Flaming Terror. DG: The party led by Lynnai Albrek has failed this challenge! The party gained 8 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> Rosaline Calice has posed.
The dragon roars again. Rosaline's sensitive eardrums are put to the test, but that they aren't giving out is reassuring-- It means they've put distance between it and themselves.
Friendly winds and Crest Sorcery-enabled empowerment enable the group to pick up speed-- and let's not forget the contribution of good old adrenalin. An angled wall of air is erected, sending a gout of green flame away from the people and towards what used to be a shoe store. Debris fly everywhere, and the residual heat along is enough to burn the skin, but at least no one has been burnt to a crisp.
In what Rosaline can only see as an act of divine intervention, the Dragon finds another target to harass, right around the corner. Please let it be just a dog, Rosaline thinks, frantically. Just a dog, or another Drifter, or a soldier, someone who knows what they're doing. No one here will get to find out.
And so, significantly worse for wear but not out, the group proceeds, having eluded a foe who could have otherwise meant certain death for all of them.
DG: Lynnai Albrek has drawn a new Challenge.
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Collapsing Building *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Taking a shortcut through an abandoned home or shop can avoid a good bit of the fighting - but as the party approaches the exit there is a tremendous crash as a huge chunk of stone smashes into the side of the building, cutting off egress. A horrible laugh comes from outside, and a huge Metal Demon immediately begins slamming into the building. The walls crack, and pieces of the ceiling begin to fall down. The party has to try and stabilize the building for long enough to break out of the barrier, or risk being crushed as the Demon knocks the entire building down. =Dungeon Conditions: Collapse=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lynnai Albrek has posed.
"Run faster," Lynnai calls back, when she hears the dragon.
She does not stop as she takes a side street; she's definitely in a worse part of town than she's familiar with. The smell suggests there is a leatherworks around here somewhere, or was, and all its chemicals are burning, but that's not Lynnai's target.
What Lynnai sees is a relatively clear path that cuts between two buildings and then goes through a third that sells, by the look of things, bridles and other horse-riding gear. Nobody will be in it now, and if Lynnai is remembering right, there's a back courtyard where they bring horses, which opens to a lane that'll take them where they need to go - "Through here," she says, gesturing.
And indeed it probably would be fine - if it wasn't for a Metal Demon slamming into the side of it. The ceiling starts to drop, a wooden crossbar falling in with a thump; Lynnai bounds away from it, hopping on a table as one of the opposite walls starts to make an unpleasant grinding noise.
"Block it!" she calls again, summoning up what winds she can to push against the ceiling. But it's so damn heavy... she feels it pushing against her net of air almost immediately, and sinks downward, still trying to hold it.
DG: Lynnai Albrek has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Collapsing Building.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Staying behind means Talise gets set on fire instead of the civilians.
By the time she comes lurching down the side street, much of the train of her coat has burned off. Nuclear fire laps from her shoulders; she swats it out with a grimace, fighting not to cry out.
(I'm pathetic,) she thinks bitterly, a surge of anger building up in her stomach. (I can't even stop these monsters from hurting the innocent. If Lady Chloe were here, she'd laugh at me! Damn it, I'm the /worst/ hero! Why am I the worst hero?!)
Something slams into the wall next to her. Whatever it is is laughing. Probably at her.
With a furious snarl, she charges power through her gloves again - and she leaps up onto something, lifting her hands and catching the wooden crossbar. A pained groan rips from her as she begins to physically push the crossbar back up with all her strength. Her muscles strain and labour against the weight of an entire building.
"Go!" she shouts hoarsely over the groan of structural beams. "Go, get out of here! Leave me!"
She has every intention of sacrificing herself so that the others can escape.
DG: Talise Gianfair has used her Tool Ogre Power Gauntlets toward her party's challenge, Collapsing Building.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida is not incinerated instantly. Things are already going better than the worst-case scenario.
Nevertheless, that does not mean they're going well. She follows Lynnai, her boot-heels pounding out a frantic rhythm on the cobblestones. She stops to catch her breath in the building's lobby. And then--
Damnation, Ida thinks, but does not say. Her eyes are wide again.
She springs into action. While Lynnai holds up the ceiling, she sights a filing drawer, and shoves it against the wall as a brace. Talise tells them to leave.
Ida turns and looks her friend in the eye. Tears start to slick her vision, but she does not stop--she takes a barrel full of something reasonably dense, and shoves that against the wall too. "No," she says. Her voice is like steel. "We're not leaving you."
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Collapsing Building.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia is also scorched--though she managed, somehow, to shield Chauncey from the worst of the flames. Now, the big doll comes out again.
"I'm NOT leaving you! You're my friend!" Chauncey lumbers into position next to Talise, offering some relief, some assistance, with his big, soft, strong arms.
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has used her Tool Digging Claws toward her party's challenge, Collapsing Building.
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
There is but a semblence of a moment's respite before the party's next trial. Rosaline has been taking the opportunity to drink and distribute some potions to the civilians as they run. She puts their health ahead of her own, but doesn't skimp on the magic carrot brew for herself. She'll be useless to everyone if she can't use magic. She is, for a moment, quite glad she's friends with Jacqueline and Matilda.
She shrieks as she narrowly dodges a flying piece of wall, looking forward in horror. She suddenly feels claustrophobic, a long-forgotten sensation.
"Bombs away," she calls out as she lobs, as hard as she can, another stick of Holy TNT through one of the holes currently being punched in the building. The blast isn't meant for the Demon, since it wouldn't even hurt him anyway, but meant to distract him as it loudly blows up... whatever is across the street.
Hopefully nothing important.
But Talise means to sacrifice herself. One can hear Rosaline's heart break as she lets out a "N-No, please!" But she isn't one to talk back, not any more than that. Grimly, she incants a shield spell for her friend. "Please, please, please protect her... Shield of Faith!"
It's only meant to protect one person, not a building. But every bit helps... in theory, at least. She's staying too, for now, but this place is turning into more of a death trap every passing second!
DG: Rosaline Calice has used her Tool Holy TNT toward her party's challenge, Collapsing Building. DG: The party led by Lynnai Albrek has failed 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> Lynnai Albrek has posed.
"No," Lynnai grunts, at Talise. "Better idea. Move toward the exit. I'll use air to hold the other end as you move so it doesn't suddenly fall as you move away from the center."
And that's exactly what she does. Ida helps brace things up with tools, while Lynnai and Rosaline use various force barriers and Sephilia (well, Chauncey) joins in to help Talise with sheer arm muscle. It's kind of a mixed reaction, because it is indeed possible to get to the exit before everything falls in on them. Lynnai has to shift her mental 'stance' several times to hold up different areas as she moves around, which is challenging.
That said, it's a hell of an effort, and it falls in almost immediately after people are out. Lynnai actually gets a cloud of stone dust to the back as she puts her hands on her knees and gasps to catch her breath after her Symbologic display, and there's definitely no way to get back out that way.
No way out, in fact, but forward!
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has drawn a new Challenge.
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Non-Stop Escape *>======================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- One of Adelhyde's gates is in sight - once beyond the party and anyone accompanying them will be in the clear, as those holding the line against the Metal Demons outside the city will be able to cover them! The Demons and a squad of the Adelhyde Guard are fighting in front of this gate, and the guard seem to have the upper hand. However, if the party waits for the battle to finish its likely more reinforcements will arrive to help the demons - the best course of action may be to hit them from behind and decisively turn the tide of this part of the battle! =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The group hurries onward, the crowd of frightened civilians still in tow. Ida looks up, and sees the outer gates looming large in the distance--they're on a large thoroughfare, now, which was at one point home to more tool and specialty-goods shops like the one they just came out of. Now, everything is either smoldering or on fire--bits of broken glass and wood litter the street. Another group of Metal Beasts is up ahead, the same kind that ambushed the group earlier. This time, though, they're attacking someone else, a group of Adlehyde soldiers. Looks like a gunsmoke-rifle squad. Some of the soldiers look up, and the squad leader raises her hand in the signal for 'civilians on field'. The firing does not stop, but it gets more selective.
Ida is not about to leave this to them. Her hand darts for Devil's Due, hauling the weapon out of its holster. It feels at home in her hand, like it's an extension of her body, like it makes her whole. Just like Kalve said. She cycles in the first round. "BURN, CREATURES, Ida roars, in what might be a shocking display of anger to most. Anyone who's never seen just how angry she gets when she's incensed enough to get rid of the public face. She pulls the trigger, sending a spray of sparks, molten lead, and rage at the creatures. The encore is a deep, booming roar, and a gout of red-gold dragonfire, not unlike the flame that nearly incinerated all of them minutes ago.
Turnabout is fair play.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Devil's Due toward her party's challenge, Non-Stop Escape.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"Damn it, we can't all die here!" Talise manages to grind out through her teeth. But there are tears beading down her face as she does it - and she doesn't push it any further.
As the roof finally gives way, Talise barely manages to get out in time - in fact a beam lands across her, and she goes down with a heavy gasp, spitting up blood and sprawling across the ground. Wincing, she pulls herself forward, managing to push the beam off of herself with the help of one glove. She still comes up limping, blood running down one leg of the hardy pants she wore. They're quite ruined at this point. It probably explains why she changed out of them before fighting Zed and Berserk.
Looking back over her shoulder, Talise checks to make sure they didn't lose any civilians. Once she's satisfied with that, she scowls ahead, towards the creatures battling that last group of Adlehyde soldiers.
"Get 'em through the gate," she growls as she reaches for her knife. Winding up, she throws it as hard as she can.
The blade sparks off the cobblestones. As lightning erupts through the horde of Metal Beasts, blasting and shocking, Talise hurtles forward with Rastaban in both hands. Blood streams from her leg, mouth and hands, but she doesn't move like a woman who's bleeding internally. Her expression is etched into a resolved scowl as she swings once, twice, three four five six seven times, eight nine, ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen--
It all seems to take place in a few heartbeats. She moves like a blur, pouring every last ounce of her energy into it. Soon enough, she drops into place on the far end of the Metal Beast horde, framed by the city gate.
She wilts forward, coughing up a mouthful of blood.
That's about when, if she did it right, that many many Metal Beasts should begin sliding apart along various axes, and probably exploding.
DG: Talise Gianfair has used her Tool Bomb Knife toward her party's challenge, Non-Stop Escape.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia and Chauncey are always up for a good, clean fight. After what they've been through already, even as exhausted as Sephy is, it's gonna be a relief to do something so simple as beat up some bad guys.
"LORDLY LARIAT!" cries the girl--it's time to really cut loose, apparently!
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Non-Stop Escape.
<Pose Tracker> Lynnai Albrek has posed.
"None of us are," is Lynnai's response for Talise. That she's doing this while trying to get stone dust off her coat only takes a little bit away from the gravity of the situation.
Lynnai thought this was the right way for this thoroughfare. Good, she thinks, I'm not /completely/ turned around. She's never been happier to see this gate, and that's including the day she left home to go study and realized she would not have to spend her life doing something with the business, but could go out and explore.
She digs deep inside and actually finds some energy left. For the last push, she has reserves she didn't even know about it. Drawing in a breath, Lynnai strides forward as some of the other party members charge, not nearly as fast because she's trying to cast while she's walks and that's never easy. Power flares around her arms, the hidden tattoos shimmering with energy.
"RAZOR TEMPEST!"
A green spike of compressed air and Symbological power lands in the midst of the Metal Demon group, striking vertically. It expands, turning into a small green-tinged and sparking tornado, little flecks of energy drifting away from it as it whirls its way through the crowd, clearing a more or less direct path through them.
Lynnai runs through the cleared area afterwards, pulling the tornado in an arc to keep chasing some of them down.
DG: Lynnai Albrek has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Non-Stop Escape.
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
Rosaline hands Lynnai a bottle of Magic Carrot Brew with a grateful smile as the group-- Talise included, thankfully, leaves the freshly-collapsed building. The one who seemed in a hurry to die (not that Rosaline can speak) gets herself a soothing cast of Holy Kindness ("Oh no, you're hurt...", etc.) for her troubles.
But soon, in the distance-- Hope. A light at the end of the tunnel. The winding, improvised path may not have taken them to the church, it seems the light of Granas guided their paths.
But there's still a battle to be fought, one it seems they might actually be able to win. Maybe. If they don't think too hard about the odds. That it's possible at all is heartening to Rosaline, compared to the giants they just eluded.
Seeing Ida so enraged is frightening to the nun, who ironically missed the sight of this last time, when she was caught in the throes of her own bloodlust. But the scholar is still on their side, and Rosaline-- who has been on the verge of losing herself the whole time, make no mistake, but still hangs on --turns her attention to the massed Metal Demons.
"Esdras and Judith," she says, rising her ARMs, bearing the will of a departed friend, "please, please help me smite these foul Demons..."
And so she fires her two submachineguns into the mass of mechanical footsoldiers. As one of many miracles tonight, the Etone-in-Training's aim is actually steady. But will it be enough?
DG: Rosaline Calice has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Non-Stop Escape. DG: Talise Gianfair is too exhausted to continue! DG: Rosaline Calice is too exhausted to continue! DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Lynnai Albrek has successfully explored The Battle of Adlehyde!
=====================<* CHALLENGE - It's Over - For Now *>====================== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Discovery |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The party has made it out of the city, along with any civilians who were traveling with them. Outside of the city, the line is being held by parts of the Adelhyde Guard, the Yggdrasil Pirates and their Gears, as well as a number of Drifters who have set up defensive positions and safe areas for civilians to rest and prepare to move away from the city. For those who have escaped to Adelhyde castle, the fighting at the walls continues, but food and shelter can still be obtained. However, the fighting continues, and there are more people yet trapped inside Adelhyde City... =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The Beasts never stood a chance. Talise is suddenly standing right in front of the line of gunners, causing one of them to drop his rifle in surprise--behind her a Metal Beast simply loses its head. More of them suffer equally sudden, violent injuries, a belated chain reaction. Chauncey slams into the Beasts' flank a moment later, scattering them like tenpins with his massive fists. Ida sweeps her flame arc to avoid the doll and his master, seemingly stoking the ARM through chi, breath, and force of will alone. She's never managed the Dragon's Breath without a shell and primer, until today. Rosaline's gunfire picks out stragglers as they try to flee the flames. Ida watches them die with an odd sort of satisfaction that she will feel bad about later.
Lynnai's tornado touches down. If the Beasts could offer any more resistance before that, they can certainly offer no more after. Gale-force winds pluck them off the street, throwing them into buildings and the walls around the city gates.
Ida staggers forwards. The soldiers stare at the group, and at the cluster of civilians they just saved. "Medic!" the soldiers' commander cries, raising a hand and motioning to someone beyond the gates. "We have wounded incoming!"
She looks like she's just seen a miracle.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
As the beasts go down, Talise slumps forward and lands on her knees. She supports herself with her sword, the blade sunk into the turf. Panting heavily, she looks back to make sure the civilians got out alright and her friends are all alive.
Ida's alright. Lynnai is. Sephilia and Rosaline are. In spite of herself, she smiles. Blood drips down her chin. Bowing her head, she lets her weight sag against the arm supporting her with a hand on her sword. They made it.
(Althena must have been with us after all,) she realizes with a rush of euphoric relief.
Breathing hard, she reaches into her inventory. Her hand shakes as she pulls out a bottle of something. There's a label on it:
OLD MAN ETTLESBURY'S OLDE-FASHIONED HEAL-BERRY LIQUEUR
With a long swig, Talise downs half a bottle of it in one go. Sweet healing booze runs down her chin.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia, now hopping off Chauncey, makes herself useful. "I have healing magic," she volunteers. "Can I help the wounded?"
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
The battle is won. The civilians are safe. As she lowers her ARMs, Rosaline's eyes are filled with tears.
"Thank the Lord. Thank Granas. Thank you. Talise, Ida, Lynnai, Sephilia... Chauncey... Thank you all so much..."
The city may still burn, but thanks to her friends, a few more names were scratched off the list of casualties. She soon moves into gross sobbing territory, attempting in vain to wipe her face off with her drenched sleeve and only making things worse.
History has been averted, in some small way. Despair and guilt may be this woman's lot in life, but one piece of the immense burden she took on has just been lifted off her shoulders.
She unceremoniously collapses, spent.
Hopefully this doesn't turn into a habit. She'll need some of that heal berry liqueur, thank you very much.
<Pose Tracker> Lynnai Albrek has posed.
Lynnai's tornado doesn't last very long at all. She mostly takes advantage of it to run through the now-cleared, if slightly zig-zagging, line it cut - though before it left, it did do damage, that certainly can't be denied.
But when she gets out, she nearly collapses. Not all the way, but she ends up with her hands on her knees again and slumped over. They made it. Even after they had to switch to Plan B after they couldn't get to the church, even after they saw a goddamned Metal Dragon and ran through a collapsing building and everything else they did... they did it.
She's going to have to spend more time in church, she thinks to herself.
"I'd like to watch," she says, after Sephi makes that announcement. Her eyebrows go up slightly. Crest Magic can do healing, of course, but Symbology can't, and so she doesn't actually know that much about it. Maybe it's time to learn, even if she can't cast it herself.
But first, she has to tend to Rosaline. It's part of that whole 'spend more time in church' resolution.