2017-06-03: Bugs, Brute Force, and Book Words

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==============================<* Silver Coast *>==============================

The Silver Coast is the name given to the northeastern coastline of Ignas. The origins of the name are lost to history, but residents of the area tend to assume it reflects either the famous white-sand beaches northeast of Lacour, or the region's distance from the desertification slowly spreading out from the continent's heart.

The Coast and its surrounding territories are claimed by the Kingdom of Lacour, and contain a wide assortment of biomes, from plains to rocky hills and mountains to rolling beaches. Major roads between Lacour and its next two largest settlements - the Port City of Hilton and the Academy City of Linga - are heavily patrolled by the kingdom's soldiers, and are generally safe. The hinterlands, however, are plagued by monsters of all types; researchers in Linga can find a variety of uses for the body parts of monsters, and do a brisk trade with Adventurers seeking to protect the population and make a little coin to boot.

DG: Matilda Whitehead has created a party! To join, type +party/reset and then type +party/join Matilda Whitehead.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has joined your party!
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has joined your party!
DG: A party led by Matilda Whitehead is now entering Lolithia's Tomb.
DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Trusty? Elevator *>=======================
|Type: Entry       |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 1          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
  The descent into Lolithia's Tomb would be a challenging one in most          
 circumstances. But thankfully there won't be much of a physical challenge     
 today - one of the elevators is at the top of the dig site, ready to take     
 the party into the dark depths below. Of course the controls are also         
 somewhat complicated, promising a jarring ride or worse if someone hits the   
 wrong lever at the wrong time...                                              
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

If there's one thing Matilda has no patience for lately, it's failure. Everything seems so much more tense, so much more important -- where before she'd been content to simply attach herself to Drifters as a wandering associate on their efforts, or a sponsor... now she has something all her own to fight for. Something to Drift for.

It's that that's led her to try to put together a second attempt at Lolithia's Tomb -- though its biggest find is gone, there are no doubt countless others to be had, and Matilda desperately wants to know what's behind that door.

As a result, she's assembled a crew yet again -- with the commensurate warnings about one of the likely challenges waiting at the bottom, 'a door mechanism in need of repair or circumvention' -- and now has her party gathered in one of the elevators.

"Oh, it's working today! Fortune really is with us," Matilda says brightly. ... Then she actually tries to get it going with a small fit and start. Oh, boy.

DG: Matilda Whitehead has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Trusty? Elevator.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.

Everyone who's met Sephilia knows a few basic facts about her life. One, of course, is that her bodyguard is Lord Chauncey of Foxington, plushy extraordinaire. The other, a fact which she eagerly relates to anyone who will listen, is that her Dad is a famous explorer, back home.

Most people who have adventured with Sephy have seen that Chauncey's definitely capable of being a bodyguard, despite initial appearances, but aside from Sephilia's own competence--surprising for one so young, though she'll always insist loudly that she's not a kid--there's been no direct evidence that her Dad is as famous an explorer as she says.

Until now. "Oh! Oh! I finally finished reading through my Dad's old journal that I got, and he saw something that worked kinda like this one time!" Sephilia pages through the book eagerly, looking for the right page. "See?"

The page that the girl shows is written in a peculiar shorthand, and has a diagram that might, if one squints, look something like the controls for the elevator. Sephy got her artistic ability from her mother's side, apparently.

"It says if we push this one while pulling this one," she says, demonstrating...

DG: Sephilia Lampbright has used her Tool Dad's Journal toward her party's challenge, Trusty? Elevator.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

The steamship Ida would have taken to Guild Galad is probably somewhere off the Adlehyde coast by now. She's made her call. She's a Drifter now, like her mother was--and she actually kind of looks it now. Constant physical activity and time spent outdoors have left her tanned and toned, and while she's still got that everpresent curiosity, she's got a purpose above and beyond that. A mission she cannot deviate from. The Demons must be stopped--by peaceful means if possible, by force if necessary.

Ida listened to Matilda's directions, knowing well the value of having the lay of the land. She takes a moment to remove a trusty, heavily-bound book, reaching the section she needs easily. "Similar to the one in the Ruins of Memory," Ida remarks. "Which isn't surprising, this ruin may be of a similar age--" Sephilia confirms. Ida raises an eyebrow, turns to the others, and cracks a smile as she sees Sephy doing the exact same thing she did.

"Delightful," Ida says.

DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Flora's Notebook toward her party's challenge, Trusty? Elevator.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Jacqueline seemed to be in a pleasant mood today. Perhaps it was because things had been going well for her, even considering everything that had happened. Perhaps it was because she recently received an invitation to go on an expedition with one of her idols. Either way, when she heard Matilda was forming a group to head into Lolithia's Tomb, Jacqueline was quick to join up.

Right now, Jacqueline's in an elevator with the three other members of her party. She's quiet, studying the controls. She smiles as Sephilia pulls out a journal, and Ida does the same thing. She turns away from them, eying one particular lever.

"I think this one is the...brake? I'll be ready to pull it, just in case." She says.

Not that she doubted their instructions, but you could never quite trust old machinery like this.

DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Trusty? Elevator.
DG: The party led by Matilda Whitehead has passed this challenge! The party gained 12 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

Though Matilda herself seems hopelessly out of her depth with the mechanism, everyone else manages to carry her through it courtesy of a combination of good sense, order of operations, and commonly-received wisdom.

"Ahaha, thank you, everyone," she says, brightly. "I definitely... wasn't looking forward to this, whether the elevators were in service or not," she admits. "Onward, then! Oh, and Jay -- thank you again for your help with the lavender the other day... I was able to distribute quite a bit of medicine in the camp outside Adlehyde, and I wouldn't have been able to without your help..."

DG: Sephilia Lampbright has drawn a new Challenge.
================================<* CHALLENGE - Plentiful Pillbugs *>================================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 1          | 
-------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------------------
 Pillbugs are modest sized for monsters, and generally tend to be slow and     
 unthreatening individually. Unfortunately, the party did not find one         
 pillbug. Or two. Or even ten. There's about a hundred that come rolling into  
 the room in a giant wave, looking to munch on whatever they can find,         
 including the unfortunate party!                                              
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.

Sephy is beaming. "See? My Dad's journal is full of useful stuff like that. I wish you could all meet him--maybe someday you can! He's suuuuper cool and then we could all have some of my Mom's meat pie!"

That's the other thing that most people know about Sephy. Her Mom makes amazing meat pies.

"And I could show you where I tra--EW BUGS BUGS BUGS!" The giant disgusting hungry pillbugs roll in, being disgusting gross awful monstrosities.

"CHAUNCEY!" Sephilia cries, magically growing the doll to his battle-ready size. "KEEP THEM AWAY FROM MEEEEEEEEE!"

Chauncey does his best to smash the horrible awful things, but there's just too many to handle alone...

DG: Sephilia Lampbright has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Plentiful Pillbugs.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

The elevator hits bottom in one piece, with no significant trouble, thanks in no small part to the collective management of its controls. Ida hops off first, drawing her revolvers as she hears the sounds of scuttling. An awful lot of scuttling. "Good heavens," Ida says, her lips tightening. She takes a step to the side, allowing Chauncey to charge in, and starts firing. These things have armor, but if nothing else, it's a good chance to test some of the rounds she picked up in Lacour--if they can get decent punchthrough on these pillbugs, then they might be somewhat effective against Demons.

DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Plentiful Pillbugs.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Jacqueline sends Matilda a smile.

"You're welcome! I'm glad to hear that it was able to help people." She says with a nod. "In times like this, people like us need to help each other, right?" If they worried too much about individual profits, then there would be people who might be left without the treatment they needed.

Sephilia gets a smile, as well.

"Well, I hope I get the chance to meet them both some day." She replies. Unfortunately, the moment was soon ruined by the arrival of a roly-poly menace. While Sephilia seems to be frightened, Jacqueline is...

"Oh, I've never seen them grow to be this big before. I wonder if the closed-off environment here had something to do with it...?" She comments, looking upon them in surprise. "Fun fact - did you know that pillbugs...aren't actually bugs? They're actually more closely related to crustaceans."

This was mostly used as filler while she rummages through her bags for a bottle of familiar black liquid.

"Watch out, everyone!" She warns. Once she has it out, she undoes the cork and, rather than tossing it, sends out two lines of the liquid on either side of the room. This was with the intention of forcing them to gather in the middle, allowing them to pick off more of them at once.

DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Reliable Repellant toward her party's challenge, Plentiful Pillbugs.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

Matilda, strictly speaking, is about to make things much worse. She reaches into her coat and pulls forth a dark magenta bottle, and whips it against the wall. If there are any more bugs, they'll come out in response to the scent On the other hand... more bugs means more bugs to smash, and no unfortunate surprises elsewhere.

"Oh, good!" Matilda says brightly. "Powdered chitin is a real moneymaker in some formulations -- mostly digestive... not the fun or sexy remedies Drifters tend to buy, but you'd be surprised how many people come to the doctor simply looking to make themselves regular... ahaha."

With that editorial comment out of the way, Matilda finally draws Freischütz and sprays rocks at the pillbugs, putting in her own work -- though she focuses first on any she may have attracted.

DG: Matilda Whitehead has used her Tool Succubus Bottle toward her party's challenge, Plentiful Pillbugs.
DG: The party led by Matilda Whitehead has passed this challenge! The party gained 17 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.

Sephilia is only able to be coaxed out of Chauncey's backpack when the last of the pillbugs stops moving. There's a mess of ichor around, but--good news for Matilda, perhaps--Chauncey's thoroughly pulverized the chitin of the ones he smashed. Those shot or otherwise slaughtered, maybe not so much--but then, Sephy wanted to be REALLY sure they were all dead before they proceeded.

"Bugs are icky," complains Sephilia as they pick their way forward.

DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has drawn a new Challenge.
===================<* CHALLENGE - No One Expects a Cave In *>===================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 1          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Part of the tomb has succumbed to the inexorable power of nature, and has     
 collapsed in upon itself. There appears to be no way forward except to clear  
 away the debris that is covered the door out of the room. The rocks are       
 large, heavy, and unappealing, but there is no way forward but to go          
 through!                                                                      
=Dungeon Conditions: Tire=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Midway through shooting, Ida runs into a dud primer. This would not be an issue if the pillbug she was about to shoot wasn't literally moments away from slamming into her legs. Ida almost sidesteps, the bug glancing off her boot--but there's still enough force there to stagger her. Luckily, Freischütz and Matilda make short work of it.

"Right, then," Ida says, once the pillbugs are dealt with. "Sephy, dear, you can come out now." The group advances.

...Into a deadfall. Ida takes a moment to stretch, rolling her shoulders. "I've heard that they have relatives in the deep," Ida says to Jay, because striking up a conversation makes the tedium of lifting rocks much easier. "I've never seen any specimens of those, though. But yes, things do develop in strange ways if they've been closed off from the outside. Perhaps there's a natural cavern network nearby, or perhaps they were just trapped in here when the tomb was sealed..."

As she talks, Ida starts to clear, hefting the smaller chunks out of the way so Chauncey can get at the big ones.

DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, No One Expects a Cave In.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.

Sephy sees big rocks to move and her mood immediately brightens again. "Chauncey and I can handle this!" she says, affixing the digging claws to the doll--temporarily reverted to small size for the re-equipping. "Just let us at these rocks! Go for it, Chauncey!

Chauncey's no slouch and he doesn't get tired easy, which almost certainly makes this entire task less exhausting for everyone involved. Yay Chauncey!

DG: Sephilia Lampbright has used her Tool Digging Claws toward her party's challenge, No One Expects a Cave In.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

For the most part, Jacqueline leaves the powder to Matilda. She already had enough funds thanks to an anonymous benefactor(or, rather, a benefactor who shall remain anonymous for Jacqueline's safety) for the 'project' she was working on, and enough to live on afterwards, besides.

Jacqueline draws a Crest from her pouch as they approach what appears to be a pile of rocks and stone blocking the way forward. She uses it to bring up pillars of stone to shift rock aside in an attempt to make the venerable Lord Foxington's job that much easier, much like Ida was. While she casts, her attention is turned toward Ida.

"Oh? Well, perhaps we'll get the chance some day." Jacqueline replies, interested. She listens as Ida continues, nodding in understanding all the while. "Hmm...yes, that does seem distinctly possible." She agrees. Unfortunately, there's no way to really confirm that at this point...unless they wanted to conduct an expedition to find the caverns Ida suggested were there.

DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, No One Expects a Cave In.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

"Even icky things have their uses," Matilda points out, with a small shake of her head. "Though I must admit, I don't blame you..." She adjusts her coat, saying, "I wonder why I never saw any of them last time? That is -- we are using a different route, thanks to the elevator, but even so... you'd think with so many..."

After gathering what she wants from the pulverized pillbugs and giving Ida an easy, pleasant smile, Matilda moves on. "Nice shooting," she notes. "Was that a jam, or something else?" If there's one aspect of normal gunplay Matilda is completely unfamiliar with, it's failure states.

"... oh, they must be working on a new passage through," Matilda reflects, as they find the collapsed room. "That's why the elevator is in service again, and why it's so..." She purses her lips. "... hmm."

Matilda, for her part of the rubble-clearing initiative, pulls a bottle of lotion from her pack and... loads it into... Freischütz. Huh.

Then she starts blasting holes in the rubble with corrosive-covered rocks. This is just what's happening. We all have to accept that this is our collective life now.

DG: Matilda Whitehead has used her Tool Bubble Lotion toward her party's challenge, No One Expects a Cave In.
DG: The party led by Matilda Whitehead has passed this challenge! The party gained 37 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.

"Dud primer," Ida says. "Not terribly difficult to work around, with a revolver, nor terribly common, but unfortunate when it happens."

Between Jay's crest sorcery, Ida's diligent lift-and-carry routine, Chauncey's brute force, and Matilda's... inexplicable ARM, it isn't long before the group has cleared out the worst of the rubble. "Should make things easier for anyone who follows us," Ida says, dusting off her hands. She looks satisfied, and she hasn't strained anything. Progress!

DG: Jacqueline Barber has drawn a new Challenge.
=================<* CHALLENGE - Return of the Gear Puzzle *>==================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 2          | 
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 A large stone block has been rolled across the exit to this room, leaving     
 the party with no way to venture forward. However, there does appear to be    
 an ancient machine consisting of a vast of large gears set into the wall      
 that can be manipulated by moving the parts about. This is getting silly.     
 Who puts this many gears into a wall just to open a door?                     
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

As the party moves forward into the passageway that had been blocked by debris, they eventually come across a rather peculiar room. A block of stone barred the way forward, and on the wall around it were many, many gears.

"This looks like some form of ancient mechanism..." Jacqueline commented, moving up to the wall to examine them.

"Hm...not all of them are connected, but...I think it might be possible to..." She reaches up to one of them, pulling it off of its setting experimentally. That essentially confirmed her fears.

"I think we're supposed to try and find a configuration that works. Any suggestions?" She asks, putting the gear back and looking towards the others.

DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Return of the Gear Puzzle.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.

Sephilia's eyes widen and a slow grin spreads across her face.

"My Dad saw something like this," she says, rummaging quickly through her Dad's journal to find the right page, excited. "His journal shows how to control it! See?" She shows everyone the...page...is that the SAME PAGE AS BEFORE?!

DG: Sephilia Lampbright has used her Tool Dad's Journal toward her party's challenge, Return of the Gear Puzzle.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

Matilda nods to Jay, taking a look at the set of gears. "Oh -- oh, this... this is much more complex than the torches, or at least, complex in a different way," she muses -- mostly for her own benefit. "We could simply brute-force it, of course -- but better would be to look for signs of a consistently more common setting."

She turns to the others, asking, "Any thing in your old texts about this kind of thing...?" -- And sure enough!

DG: Matilda Whitehead has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Return of the Gear Puzzle.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

As soon as she hears the word 'mechanism', Ida is already cross-referencing one of the pages she's internalized as 'clockworks, novelty and dungeon-based.' She walks over to the gears proper, giving them an inspection--first the one Jay pulled off the wall, then the others. "Looks similar to this one," Ida says, squinting at Sephilia's journal and cross-referencing with her own. "The final gear must turn clockwise, and all the gears before it must be positioned so it can do this." She looks at some scuff marks, picks up a gear that's roughly the proper circumference, and puts it in place.

DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Flora's Notebook toward her party's challenge, Return of the Gear Puzzle.
DG: The party led by Matilda Whitehead 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: Matilda Whitehead has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* CHALLENGE - Excessively Electrical *>====================
|Type: Final       |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 2          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 This passage into the heart of the Tomb has been blocked off by a heavy       
 powered door that does... not appear to have any power at the moment. The     
 reason why becomes clear relatively quickly - something has ripped out much   
 of the electrical circuits that run the motor to this door, and they've been  
 left scattered across the room. Even worse is the fact that someone has       
 already made a set of jury rigged repairs here already, and the new damage    
 on top of that means that repairing the door and gaining access to the inner  
 ruins will be even more challenging...                                        
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Jacqueline looks towards Sephilia's journal and...it seems to be very familiar. But...it does seem like the nearby control panel uses the same principles to activate the device as the elevator they used before.

Ida puts the proper final gear in place, and the party works backward from there to put all of the proper gears in place.

"Moment of truth..." Jacqueline holds her breath as she activates controls.

For a moment, nothing happens except for the turning of the gears. But, after an agonizing wait, there is the grinding of stone as the blockage starts to move aside...

<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

... And after all that, the stone rolls away and Matilda ends up back in exactly the place she was aiming for, much faster than expected. It's a new route but it leads exactly where Matilda thought it would -- the broken mechanism. "Oh, dear -- they still haven't fixed this...?" Matilda says, wth a frown. "Ah -- so! That mechanism there," she says, pointing to it, "Should open the door -- but after last time I was here, I'm certain there's a part missing from the room." She gestures to the motor, saying, "Honestly, I'm more inclined to try to get the jury-rigged component running than the original... unless someone has a better idea?"

She starts sorting out the parts that are there -- conveniently mostly work that she did last time she was here.

DG: Matilda Whitehead has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Excessively Electrical.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.

"Why are there always doors?" Sephy pages through her Dad's journal some more, looking for anything that will help. Back and forth, she pages, till finally settling on a strangely familiar diagram, vaguely notated in her father's peculiar shorthand. Is it just because of his incomprehensible scrawl that it looks so familiar, or is Sephy using the same diagram every time they come across a machine?

It's worked so far, either way!

"Okay, I think...if we move this here...and move that to THERE...and bypass THIS..."

DG: Sephilia Lampbright has used her Tool Dad's Journal toward her party's challenge, Excessively Electrical.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Ida smiles as the rock rolls aside. Matilda confirms that she's seen this mechanism before, with the kind of emotion that only comes from having been foiled by it. Thankfully, this time she's brought along one of the handful of Drifters in circulation in Adlehyde who both knows how electrical mechanisms work and is in a position to put this knowledge into practice. (HI CLAUDE)

Ida looks at Sephilia's book, frowning a little this time. "They have electricity back home?" she says. She consults with her own notebook, mostly by turning to one of the newer bookmarks in it--a flyer all about the wonders of the Emma Motor(tm). Ida has made some annotations of her own on it, and cross-references those with the pieces in the wall before them. "It looks like it shorted out," Ida remarks. "which means that someone tried to feed the mechanism too much electricity, with nothing there to impede it." She glances over at Jay a moment, having identified the place where the resistor was supposed to go. "May I have a rubber stopper, please? Two, to be safe."

Presumably Jay has those on hand. They get plugged into the spot where the resistor is supposed to go, and glued together with some glue from Ida's pack.

<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.

"What's electricity?" Sephilia asks.

DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Flora's Notebook toward her party's challenge, Excessively Electrical.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Ida looks to Sephilia, now deeply concerned about the integrity of those notes. "We have it back home in Guild Galad," she says. "It's the force behind lightning. Have you ever run across wool carpet in stocking feet and then touched something metal?"

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

'Why are there always doors', indeed? Because after the door they just puzzled there way through is...another door!

"So, you've run into this before, huh?" Jacqueline asks, glancing towars Matilda. She then sighs, folds her arms, and studies the device ahead of them.

"I really should've asked Professor Hetfield about the inner workings of her motor when I went to visit..." Jacqueline muttered. She had learned how it worked, but not how it actually...worked.

But then again, this kind of motor may be different than her Emma Motors... but judging from the page in Ida's notebook, she was thinking along they were along same lines.

A rubber stopper?

"Just a moment..." Jacqueline replies. She reaches into one of her bags. She still had the one from the bottle of repellant earlier, but she needed to sacrifice another, as well.

Well, that one would work.

"Mind the first one." She says as a word of warning, handing over said stoppers to Ida so she can do her thing.

DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Excessively Electrical.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.

Sephy frowns. "Oh, and got a spark? Neat. How does that help here?" The girl cocks her head to one side.

DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success!
DG: The party led by Matilda Whitehead has successfully explored Lolithia's Tomb!
======================<* CHALLENGE - Plentiful Pottery *>=======================
|Type: Discovery   |Dungeon Ability: Discovery |Challenge Rating: 1          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 An exploration of this part of the inner Tomb reveals a large amount of old   
 pottery and other cultural artifacts. Most are painted with abstract          
 patterns, but a few show stylized scenes of large humanoids fighting against  
 smaller, demonic looking creatures set before fields of fire, water, or       
 mountains. As cultural artifacts of the ancient past, these will fetch a      
 decent price with a collector, the Ethos, or the Adventurers' Guild.          
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

"Yes! This isn't my first attempt at plumbing this particular tomb," Matilda says --

-- and Ida's expertise and good work saves the day. Matilda has picked a good buddy to bring along!

Rather than something to match Lolithia, what's inside is... pottery. Lots and lots of it. "Hmmm... I expect the best price for this will come from a private collector -- though we'll have to sell in Lacour instead of Adlehyde," she says. "-- Actually, come to think! One of my old schoolmates would pay top Gella for these..."

Her lips purse a little as she walks around their newly-unearthed room, taking a good look at the pottery. "... I'd like to make copies of these patterns and designs, too, though..."

<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.

Sephy's already got her own journal out and is eagerly copying down some of the cooler designs and scenes. "This is really neat stuff!" she says, apparently having forgotten her question about electricity.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Ida gets the improvised resistor in position! She even turns the wet side so it's not going to be an issue. Unfortunately, as she's finagling another piece into position, the jury-rigged mechanism decides to lash out at her, a small but painful jolt traveling from an exposed conducting coil to the hand that accidentally jostled it.

Ida lets out a soft, muffled noise, bites her lip, and finishes finagling.

"The spark moves through this machinery," Ida explains, "and into the mechanism that unlocks this door. It has to be just the right size, or it won't activate--and it could damage something, if it's too large."

The door slides open. Ida steps into the room beyond, still tensing and flexing the hand that got zapped. "Is this colleague of yours a collector, Matilda?" Ida says, "Or is this her field of study." She picks up one of the pots with the less-stylized designs on it, frowning as she notices the difference. "I think," she says, "that some of these may have significance above and beyond interesting artifacts." She holds up the pot so that everyone else can see the battle scene on it.

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

The door, thankfully, opens. Jacqueline keeps in mind the process Ida used, just in case. She pulls out a notebook of her own, taking notes on both the built-in and jury-rigged mechanisms before shutting it, placing it back into one of her bags, and following the others into the room.

She is somewhat awed at what they find. It was rare to get a chance to see artifacts like this in their natural habitat.

"Amazing..." She murmurs. then glances towards Matilda when she mentions one of her schoolmates.

"Oh? Well, that might be our best option, then." She says...but Ida soon takes her mind off money.

Jacqueline studies closely the pot she was holding up.

"Are those...Metal Demons? Then...these must date back to the time of the War." She observes. "Do you think we might be able to learn something about them from these?"

<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.

Sephilia seems to grasp Ida's explanation, at least. "It sounds like it's something I should learn about more if it's in ruins like this a bunch," she says. "Can you tell me more about it later so I can note it in my journal?"

She goes quiet at the mention of Metal Demons, though.

<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

"A collector -- Lacour upper class," Matilda says. "We got along very nicely because both of us had a lot of free time -- most Academy students work the local shop or restaurant to pay their way through, but she and I had paid our tuitions lump sum, so we had weekends to spend doing nothing..." Hot on the heels of this explanation: some nervous laughter.

"A -- at any rate..." Matilda scoots up toward the pot, getting a good look at the design. "-- Yes, we'll definitely have to copy these designs down," she says, with a firm nod.

She glances off to one side, suddenly looking a little gloomy. "... Could this be some piece of the secrets you were looking for? Miss Carver... Miss Riesenlied..." Her gloved hand clenches into a fist, quietly.

<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.

Sephy sniffles. "I miss Riese.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Ida knows that situation, Matilda. "Oh, I was in a dining club," she says. "It didn't occupy all my free time, but it provided me with some wonderful opportunities."

TWO YEARS AGO

Ida kneels atop the roof of Englesford Hall, a wrench in one hand, and a handful of bolts in the other. She's piecing together the underbody of an automobile with speed and precision--she can afford no mistakes. The other members of the club shuttle parts up to her with an elaborate system of pulleys.

The morning after, Professor Bridges found his private automobile sitting on a roof, with no explanation whatsoever.

"It was such fun," Ida says, looking nostalgic. The subject, though, dampens her mood a little. "Better have them looked at by an expert, just to be certain. My usual contact is unavailable, but perhaps someone else might be able to assist." She rests a hand on Sephilia's shoulder, and squeezes. "Chin up, Sephy. We'll gather this up, and I'll give you one of my old texts on electricity."

<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.

Sephilia groans. "You're gonna make me read a book for it?"

Somehow, Sephy's got a distinction in her brain between the concept of 'journal' and the concept of 'book'. She loves journals. Books?

Sephy hates books.

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Jacqueline listens as Matilda explains, but the sound of Sephilia's sniffling distracts her. Poor thing...it must be hard, to have to deal with a friend leaving in that manner... Fortunately, Ida is already seeing to the reassurance.

"Ah, that does sound like it must have been fun...sometimes, I wonder if I should've sought out a more proper education." Jacqueline comments, looking to Ida and Matilda. Of course.

Sephilia's groaning about books gets her attention back.

"Oh, come now...books can be quite entertaining, and informative, too. Perhaps I should give you some of mine? If you don't mind ones that are...a little beaten up." She offers.

They weren't in sellable condition thanks to...everything, but she could always give them to a friend.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Ida blinks. After seeing Sephy dive into her dad's journal, the idea of her not liking books seems weird. "I still have my own annotations, if you'd prefer those," Ida says. "I could read them to you?"

<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.

Sephy brightens. "That sounds way better!"

Yeah, it doesn't make sense. But that's part of Sephilia's charm!

<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

"I wasn't quite so outgoing as to get involved in something on that scale," Matilda admits, with a laugh -- but it's Jay who really gets her attention.

"That's -- my, and I'd assumed you just had the background... if you're trying to hide that you're an autodidact," she notes, "you're doing a magnificent job." She laughs lightly, pushing some hair out of her face.

<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.

Sephilia frowns. "What's an auto...di...dact?" she asks, struggling with the unfamiliar term.

<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

"Self-taught. Auto, self -- the same as in automatic or automaton! And didact, teaching -- though that one... doesn't see much use, ahaha... ha." Matilda realizes she's the biggest dweeb in the room and hangs her head in shame.

<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.

Sephy narrows her eyes suspiciously. "That sounds like a book word to me," she says.

<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

"It's true," Matilda says, despairingly. "It's all true. I have brought book words into our fun adventure."

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Ida seems to get it, at least! She gives Matilda's shoulder a friendly pat. "Do we have anything we could use for packing material?" she says. "Or should we come back with more proper storage?" Crates and straw are trustworthy, especially on that damn elevator.

Pillbugs, presumably, are out of the question.

<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.

"That's okay," Sephilia says, pat-patting Matilda. "You explained what it meant so you're better than a book." Is that supposed to be praise?

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Jacqueline chuckles slightly.

"Well, it's not that impressive..." She says, a little sheepish at the praise. "I come from a merchant family, so...I certainly had some help starting out..."

Everything she had picked up afterwards had been on her own, however.

Ida then brings up the issue of...how to actually get everything out of here.

"Hm...I have some crates we could use in my wagon. We'll have to go back out and get them, but I don't see any issues with that." She offers.