2017-06-17: Curse of the Cascade
- Log: Curse of the Cascade
- Cast: Ida Everstead-Rey, Lunata Croze, Talise Gianfair, Claude C. Kenny, Rena Lanford, Janus Cascade, Jacqueline Barber
- Where: Haunted House
- Date: June 17, 2017
- Summary: A group of Drifters explore a haunted house with a notorious ruffian.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Two days ago, Ida found what she thought was a promising lead on an old archaeological site. The people of the sleepy little village next door think it's cursed, and want nothing to do with it--nothing grows in the earth, and every so often someone decides to go there and returns terrified. Ida explained to her companions that this may be a sign of buried Metal Demon or Dragon remains, as the chemicals present in their bodies sometimes leach out and react with other chemicals in the soil, killing off vegetation. It's why a good percentage of the land around the Boneyard is completely barren!
At least, this is what Ida /thought/. When her little, intrepid band got within a hundred yards of the site, an extremely unseasonable fog rolled in, pea-soup thick. Lights shone in the distance.
"How odd," Ida had said to her companions.
A short ways into the fog, she started to make out shapes--something that might've been a garden path, lined on each side with wrought-iron lanterns. A little further in, /it/ appeared.
It is an exquisite manor, or at least the corpse of one, out in the middle of nowhere. The stone path is cold and slippery, lined with elegantly-trimmed greenery. The air is cold, and the sky is an eerie, hazy shade of blue-grey--it's as if someone put a shutter in front of the sun.
Ida finds herself shivering. "Perhaps this was not, in fact, a boneyard," she says. She's standing in front of an extremely heavy-looking door. It's probably locked, but Ida hasn't so much as touched it yet. "I don't suppose anyone is home?" She looks at it, raises a hand, and considers knocking before seeming to think better of it.
She is presented with an etiquette dilemma, and might need to be shaken out of it if anyone is going to make any progress at all.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Barred Entry.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
One of the things that's left Lunata Croze really bothered in the last few weeks was... the haunted manor that they've gone to.
It just bothered her, the sorrow in that old general's eyes, how he was clearly disturbed by something. With that spiritual sense that let her feel how he truly felt, Lunata was dismayed that everything went wrong the last time they were there.
Fortunately, the manor seems to have presented itself back as she went along with Miss Ida's trip, tilting her head. "... there should be someone ..."
She wonders if that maid she befriended last time is still around. That was kind of fun, acquainting with a fellow hospitality worker from the afterlife.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise spent a lot of time hanging around either outside Adlehyde, or inside, counting on her bleached hair and a series of different outfits to keep Althena's Guard from recognizing her. But the time comes to get out of Ground Zero of the Althenian contingent's relief efforts, and the opportunity to explore with friends was as good a time as any.
So is the opportunity to remind Ida that not all things are explainable with science. "No. It's definitely ghost fog," Talise opines, voice low as she slides her gauntlets on, bringing her hands together with a leathery thump. "Fog doesn't just roll in out of nowhere like this. Definitely not metal demons, either - I think we'd see Riesenlied or Zed if tht were the case. Or one of the ones screaming about meatbags."
She glances to her friend and curls her lips into a grimace. "Nope... definitely not a boneyard. But a yard."
A door looms ahead. Ida won't touch it; even Talise hangs back for a couple of seconds. Then, reaching back, she gives Ida a firm thump on the back. Fortunately she doesn't draw on her gloves' power or she'd have put Ida through the wall. It's just a brisk, firm pat.
The tall woman grins wolfishly. "Hey! Stick with me, okay? I'm pretty sure this isn't an ordinary house. Now let's see who's home."
Talise strolls up to the door. She holds out her hands.
With a thrum of magic, she attempts to slam her gauntleted hands /through/ the door. Her shoulders bunch as she attempts to physically rip it off its hinges.
"Helloooo," she calls one way or the other. "Our cart broke down, mind if we use your carrier pigeon?!"
DG: Talise Gianfair has used her Tool Ogre Power Gauntlets toward her party's challenge, Barred Entry.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude C. Kenny came along to this so-called Haunted Manor, because he ain't afraid of no ghosts! He walked through the (supposedly haunted) Hollow without seeing what the big fuss was about, and is pretty sure that this is no different. "Usually these things are just a buncha nonsense," Claude offers conversationally to Rena, and anyone else who will listen (probably just Rena). "It's like those Seven Mysteries every school seems to have, where the statue is crying, but instead it's blood or whatever," he says reassuringly. The young man removes his tan Federation uniform gloves, tucks them into his jacket pockets, and then pulls something else out of his back pocket. "And if there /are/ ghosts, I've got these!"
'These' appear to be a pair of fingerless black leather gloves, like you would find worn by a biker or a 1980s bad boy in a Molly Rignwald movie. Except those ones usually don't have the words 'EFF U GOESTS' stitched into the backs with bright red thread.
"My ghost-punching gloves!" Claude says happily, gripping them tightly as he strides up beside Talise, hauling back a foot to kick at any hinges that might be stuck. He doesn't punch them, because he's pretty sure it's not a ghost door. Probably.
DG: Claude C. Kenny has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Barred Entry.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida's eyes widen. She looks somewhat scandalized; it hasn't quite occurred to her that no one will actually answer. "There may be a doorman!" Ida says, stepping aside as Talise and Claude go to work. "We have already arrived unannounced, we mustn't--" She swallows, shakes her head, and just kind of starts knocking on the door.
While Claude and Talise are trying to yank it off its hinges.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"I mean, we can apologize if there is one," Talise opines as she and Claude work to un-door the house.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.
The only reason Rena is here... is beause she figures that this is as good a lead as any regarding the Sorery Globe. Maybe there might be a clue or something regarding it in this place. Surely it's not just some silly haunted manor full of ghosts and traps and specters and spookies and ghosts and... ghosts. Right? Right.
She may also have come along to keep Claude from getting himself blown up in some fashion again. Because that always seems to happen. Damn it Claude. Stop getting blown up.
...It's not odd that the moment they so much as arrive, they've got a thick fog rolling in, right? ...Right.
"This place suuuuuuuure isn't creepy at all. Nope... nope." Rena mumbles to herself and a bit aside to Claude as well, hands clutching the hem of her skirt as she walks along. Sure is a nice looking place. Bet it'd look even nicer not covered in creepy fog and the feeling that there are eyes on you from all over. The elf shivers a bit, but steels herself and keeps on going. Going until they arrive at their first, and oh so conveniently timed, roadblock.
Claude says he's got something for ghosts and... pulls out a pair of leather gloves? "..... ......." Her ears droop at the sight, and she exercises EXTREME FORCE OF WILL, to avoid facepalming. Instead? She just smiles politely. "Yeah, you go Claude. Punch those ghosts out. I'll be here waiting to scrape you off the floor when it's over." Much faith, very wow.
If she had a little flag, she'd wave it right now. Go go ghost punchers. But no. She's just moral support here. Why not kick the door? Pish posh, her martial arts aren't for kicking doors down!
DG: Rena Lanford has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Barred Entry.
<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.
Why is Janus Cascade at a haunted house? Well, basically:
"The HELL do you mean you /dared him/?" Janus yells, at full volume, as he and one other man approach the ancient, creaking mansion.
"W, well, boss!" Dario stammers out, the unkempt man stumbling along the slick stones with rather more trepidation than Janus. "You know, I was drinkin', and he was mutterin' about the mansh'n, an', y'know, stuff jus' happens 'twixt friends sometimes, ya know, and--"
He's cut off by Janus emitting a long, exhausted groan and pinching the bridge of his nose. "Guardians preserve me," he mutters, just as he enters the party's space. He looks around at the crew. "...ok, /I'm/ followin' an idjit, but why the rest of you blokes here?" he wonders aloud. "These abandoned old houses 're always long picked clean, y'know."
....Ida's comment gets a blank stare. He looks up at the old house.
With a smooth move he produces the flare gun from his pocket, whips it up side-long toward the door and fires a...sure let's call that a flare, sidelong straight into the door. It hits like a cannon shell, for some reason. Diggers, man.
DG: Janus Cascade has used his Tool Flare Gun toward his party's challenge, Barred Entry.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata does wince a little bit at Claude and Talise's actions, but looks towards Ida reassurringly as she speaks, "If this is truly the same manor, I think that it invites us to overcome its barriers..." She pauses, looking up towards a certain second-story window. "This time, I'll see that you get the rest you deserve--"
She 'eeks!' as Janus' cannon shell flies past her and slams onto the door.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
This fog...Jacqueline's seen it before. She glances, for a moment, towards Lunata. Did Lunata know their trip would bring them here, rather than the Boneyard Ida was searching for? Jacqueline didn't know for sure, but she wasn't going to ask.
She folds her arms in front of herself as she ponders the barricaded door ahead of them. One hand goes up to massage her left cheek. Last time she was here, she'd ended up with a scar from a ghostly bullet that had grazed her. She'd thought it'd finally vanished a while back...but now that they were here again, there it was. It was hard to tell if the wound had reopened, or if it was just visual in origin.
It was probably best not to overthink this ghostly, spiritual stuff.
"Hmm..." She draws a Crest from one of her bags.
"Watch out, everyone." She says by way of warning, then invokes a pillar of earth from the ground as a battering ram.
While the pillar shoots toward its destination, she glances toward Janus.
"Well, we were here on scientific matters...but then we wound up here. I think the Manor had other ideas." She replies.
It felt a bit silly to talk of the manor as it had its own mind...but after what she had seen last time, she wouldn't doubt it. Besides...the last time she had seen it had been in a different area entirely.
She was mostly just assuming it was the same one. She didn't want to believe there was more than one Haunted Manor running(?) about.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Barred Entry. DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey has passed this challenge! The party gained 12 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Claude C. Kenny has drawn a new Challenge.
=========================<* CHALLENGE - Old Memories *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The next room is peculiar indeed. One party member must volunteer to have this room be something from their past. It doesn't have to be a major, important memory. In this room, the party encounters relevant adversaries to the memory, as the phantoms of the manor twist and deform even pleasant memories into fearsome foes. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The door groans, unpleasantly, as Claude, Talise, and Rena put their backs into it. Ida stays there knocking a moment longer, at least until a too-familiar voice speaks from behind her. She blinks, and it takes everything in her power to not draw on Janus Goddamn Cascade, the man who opened their last meeting by trying to snipe her from a tower. "Hello, sir," she says, a little curtly.
The gun comes out. Ida clears out, hurrying to the side as Janus just straight-up /shoots/ it. Jay's crest more or less finishes off whatever resistance the door had left in it, and it kind of slams open as the earth beneath it rises up. It's still in one piece. They clearly forced it open, but it doesn't look damaged at all.
Ghost doors, man.
<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.
Janus looks at Ida as if looking at a total stranger. "Howdy, mate," he says, with /the/ most annoying grin /in the world/, and a wide-handed wave. "Looks like we're goin' the same way, so I'll be invitin' m'self along."
Not present: any implication he cares if they object.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude C. Kenny smiles broadly. Rena is cheering him on! It's nice to have a partner who has such faith in him. He steps out of the way of the cannon/flare shot and Jay's earth pillar ram, shakes chunks of door frame out of his space sneakers and strides confidently through the now-open portal and into the entryway, confident in his abilities and the support of his companions.
This happy state lasts approximately five seconds.
The scene that awaits the party is... strange, to say the least. It certainly looks like a large, vast building, but it is manifestly larger than the foyer of the manor, the walls fading slightly as the light begins to dim. For Rena and Ida, they will undoubtedly note the resemblance to the Academy at Linga, but... the walls are too straight, too clean, the floors made of a worn marble - once gleaming, now worn with age, but still possessing a majesty of their own. Claude sucks in a breath as recognition hits him like a bolt of lightning, at which point ghostly figures appear at a raised dais on the second floor above the entryway. Fragments of phantasms begin to appear around the party, every one of them facing forward, their features blurred in shadow with the exception of a mocking red grin.
Every one of them wearing a faded tan jacket and white pants. And then the whispers begin.
should have known /he'd/ be here
unbelievable
admiral's son the hero
bet you /he/ graduates lucky
doesn't even have to try
admiral's son so what
big deal
not that special papa's boy
look at his face worthless
The figure at the head of the congregation resolves itself slowly; its clothing a deep formal red, its face imperious, shoulders square, back straight, exuding authority. A dark beard begins to form from the shadows.
And Claude absolutely loses his mind.
"RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH!" he screams, spittle flying from his face as he smashes both fists into the floor, sending waves of stone spikes ripping up through the shadows. He tears his sword from its sheath in a shriek of metal and sweeps it wide around his body, wind blades shredding the tenebrous phantoms as they scatter. Claude continues to hack away, recklessly, almost tearing his blade left and right rather than using any sort of style.
DG: Claude C. Kenny has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Old Memories.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata gasps and cups her hand to her mouth, the emanations of the phantasms reverberating rather clearly against her mind. Each of them, dressed in the same faded tan jacket and white pants, each of them mocking, and--
Claude is emerging out of the shadows to hack away at them, causing her to flinch. She doesn't understand what they're talking about, but the anger is clear; she exclaims, begging, "Mister Claude, please, calm yourself! You're only seeing phantasms, images...! Don't let them have control over you...!"
She doesn't exactly want to step in while he's flailing that big menacing sword of his, of course.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise is well in the process of tearing the door open, with Claude's help, when Janus goddamned Cascade fires a flare at it. With a gasp she jerks herself out of the way. The flare slams into the door like an artillery shell and explodes.
"Do you mind?!" Talise shouts back at him, her shoulders clenching as she fights the urge to punch the man in the face. "Did you even see how many of us were in front of the door?! You could've --"
Something clicks in her mind. Images come back. A battle in a valley -
"Oh. It's you," she says with an unfriendly grunt. "What're /you/ here for?"
Whether he answers or not, she sighs heavily and draws her sword, sliding it into both hands and moving into the mansion - only to confront an odd sight that doesn't look like it belongs in a haunted mansion. "What," she begins with a rapid blink as whispering sentiments ripple around her. She can barely make heads or tails of them; all she knows is that they're incredibly unnerving.
As if Claude losing his mind wasn't unnerving enough. The young man howls and flies into a tornado of rage and anguish. "Claude!" she shouts at him. "Claude, get your head on straight!"
Not that that's going to work. Whipping a knife out into her off hand, Talise hurls it into the ghost mass, letting lightning bolts dance from it in the hopes of electrifying a few phantoms - actually she's not sure lightning bolts will even /work/ on ghosts, but at least it's something. It buys her a minute to run towards her actual target.
Pushing back her sleeve, she snaps her right arm back and bears down - and splays her fingers at the last second.
"SACK UP AND CALM DOWN!" she shouts as she attempts to jump inside Claude's guard and belt him in the face with an open-handed slap right across the mouth.
DG: Talise Gianfair has used her Tool Bomb Knife toward her party's challenge, Old Memories.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida reaches up to adjust her scarf, trying to seem as calm and in-control and imperious as she can on the doorstep of a literal ghost mansion. "Very well, then," she says. Claude takes the lead, and Ida steps in after him--
Everything stops for a moment. Ida doesn't recognize this place like Claude seems to, but she recognizes the uniforms--they're identical to Claude's. She puts things together very quickly after that.
Ida draws. Her revolvers flash out of their holsters, and a heartbeat later, the sounds of gunshots start thundering off the walls. Talise has Claude, it seems, but...
Is it just her, or does the vague face on the one in red look kind of like Claude's? It's hard to tell.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Old Memories.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.
Through all the commotion of everyone trying to get the door open, *and* the door actually giving way, Rena... stumbles and faceplants into the open doorway in the process. "Mmmph!" Oops. Should have been more careful. She's still for a second, then she pushes herself back up and grumbles, 'Ow." Ears drooped, she stands up, only to find the lobby she saw for a split second as she fell... gone.
And replace with inner architecture that she is not familiar with in the least. It looks... like nothing she's ever seen. But it's only a couple seconds before she connects the dots back to that conversation she and Claude had some time back. "Ohhh-" Oh wait, no, she can't go around saying CLAUDE IS A SPACE MAN FROM SPACE. So she leaves that intonation at that. But... what is all this? People that are dressed... actually kind of like Claude himself. But they look distorted... negative. Something is wrong here. That feeling grows worse when they start talking. Talking about Claude, no doubt. All sorts of things, some she doesn't understand, but most clear as day. And that figure in red... Rena blinks, not knowing who it is, but kind of noticing that it's what he reacts to the most.
Then he loses it. Actually *loses it*. Rena is shocked, and taken aback at the ensign's wild actions, blinking rapidly as he swings his blade without any sort of discipline to it. Dias would sure be disappointed if he saw that!!! Nevermind that, Rena has to do something. Something... Okay, think rationally. How to solve this? Those things are making Claude mad, so... get rid of them!
That in mind, the girl pulls a black sphere from her belongings, tossing it up and down a few times, before channeling a bit of power into it to activate it. Then she tosses it right into the crowd. Whoosh... and kaboom! It explodes, but not in flames. Frost rapidly spreads across the floor and across those phantasmal figures, hopefully assisting in dispersing them.
DG: Rena Lanford has used her Tool Frost Bomb toward her party's challenge, Old Memories.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline places the Crest back into her pouch and follows the others carefully into the Manor. She wasn't sure what to expect from here - the last time they came here, they'd take an alternate route up and into the Manor. She does, however, realize that the aesthetics of this place...aren't quite what they should be.
And then the voices begin. Jacqueline takes a quick step back, reaching into her bag for another Crest. She pauses, however, as one of the shadowy figures steps forward and Claude throws himself at it, screaming wildly.
The voices, and that man...they must have some significance to Claude. But how could the Manor have produced them...? She sends him a sympathetic look, but right now it doesn't seem like he's in any condition to notice it.
She invokes the Crest, sending lightning crashing down towards any shade that gets too close to Claude and Talise as the latter tries to bring the former back to reality.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Old Memories.
<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.
"Can't say as I do, ma'am!" Janus replies cheerily to Talise. He puts the gun away and reseats his ARM - the massive Sniper Shark XR, a full-sized rifle with a bayonet as long as it is on the front - in both hands, not so much as a direct threat as because it is so huge there's not really much other effective way to hold on to it. "And you're fine, so it all works out. Crazy how this world keeps on workin', that way."
He's about to step right on past when Talise apparently /also/ remembers him. From. Somewhere? Maybe he met her in a bar. Probably beat her at poker or something. "I'm here 'cuz my partner got a hair up his ass and got lost inside," Janus grunts.
"Prolly, yeah!" Dario chimes.
"Yeah, probab--" Janus turns, glaring flat-eyed. "The hell you mean 'probably', Dario?"
"Well 's' not like I actually /saw/ him go /in/, he just, y'know. ...Disapparated."
"Dis-what."
"Like I was lookin' away, and looked back, an' he was gone!"
Janus is looking about ready to bludgeon Dario into another, different kind of stupor when the voices start, and he finally notices their surroundings. "...that's...new," he says, slowly, and his posture immediately gets more guarded. And then Claude loses it. Janus' lips curl up. "Spirits," he assesses, with the analytical speed of a man who actually has seen his share of Digs. "Damnation! Dario! Romer--" ... dangit, Romero, how are you /more/ useless when you're /not here/?! "Fine, just Dario, I guess!" Janus snaps, and pulls up his ARM into a rifleman's pose. Dario galumphs up behind him and pulls his own sidearm, an oversized six-shooter, and croaks an awful laugh. "Haw! You do care!" he cackles.
Then there's a loud series of bangs as the Cascade Gang attempts to solve ghost nightmares with bullets.
DG: Janus Cascade has used his Tool Dario & Romero Do Something Useful toward his party's challenge, Old Memories. DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey has passed this challenge! The party gained 22 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Shadows tear and freeze and vanish in bursts of lightning and bullets, their forms dispersed by even the softest of blows. Because when it comes down to it, they are ephemeral in nature - not as ghosts, but as echoes of Claude's memory. He can't even remember their faces, just their words and the feeling behind them. In any event, he knows who is truly to blame, and starts moving manfully toward the figure in red, who is becoming larger and more substantial as Claude approaches the focus of his ire. The blonde swordsman hews his way through the shadows, his teeth bared. It's all /his/ fault. It's all---
Talise's blow strikes sharply across Claude's face, and his head spins around, eyes blazing as he searches for his attacker, ready to gut Rony---
---no---
The young man staggers and the shadowy images vanish, returning the foyer to its original form. Claude's shoulders and chest heave rapidly as he sucks in air, his face flushed with exertion, eyes wild as---
---right. Right.
".......thanks," he says to Talise, his voice rough as he sheathes his sword. Claude looks around the room, glances at Ida... at Rena... and his face flushes as he looks down at the floor, fists clenching. "I'm all right now," he lies, looking away. "We should keep moving."
DG: Talise Gianfair has drawn a new Challenge.
================<* CHALLENGE - I Just Cleaned That! En Garde! *>================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------- Stepping into the next room proves to be a mistake. As their feet comes to rest on a long, obviously valuable carpet laid out in a small hallway, shadowy manservants of the manor turn to glare. They just got done cleaning the carpet and they are not happy. =Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
For a moment, Talise is convinced Claude's going to turn around and attack her. She makes ready to defend herself.
Instead he comes out of it and seems to recover. The tall woman watches him with worry for a moment, then reaches out at a slower pace, finally taking him by the shoulder and giving a simple pat. "No problem," she says with a simple, rough smile, stepping back and away from the young man.
Whatever demons Claude may have - and Talise doesn't fully understand what she saw, nor the uniforms the phantasms wore - she'll stick with him, at least. Glancing over to Ida, she gestures with her sword and begins to move forward. The room itself was actually the house's foyer; pushing through a pair of creaky double-doors, Talise swats aside a drifting cobweb with a grimace as she steps into a long chamber beyond. It's a broad corridor, lined with paintings and unlit wall sconces. Underfoot there's a delightfully colourful Persian-style carpet done up in rich colours and patterns.
It alone seems to have accumulated no dust at all. "Huh. Wonder who cleans the carpet around here," she says with a glance back at the group, stepping forward. Her boot hits the carpet once, then again.
And a door a ways down the hall flies open with a crash.
Out of the doorway rush several swirls of ectoplasmic haze. They resolve into ghosts, all of them in fancy butler outfits, carrying dusters and brooms and mops. The phantasms hurtle at the group, hazy eyes glinting with sudden rage. They swing; a phantasmic mop whistles through the air Talise just occupied. With a gasp, she hurls herself aside, attempting to swing her weapon through the ghost.
"I can't believe this," she breathes as her sword hits mostly insubstantial phantasmal material. "It's... it's a ghostly /carpet-cleaning brigade?!/"
DG: Talise Gianfair has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, I Just Cleaned That! En Garde!.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata perks up happily, which is--
--totally not the reaction one should have to glaring, shadowy manservants that're staring at them. But undoubtedly, by some mysterious hand of fate, one of the manservants -- a maid, actually -- floats nearer towards Lunata and hovers over her for a moment.
"We meet again, Ghost Maid," she cheerfully says, putting her hands behind her back.
"Indeed we do, young handmaiden.
As fellow arms within the hospitality service,
We share a kindred spirit unbreakable by any other.
I would be pleased to once more call myself thy Mask."
The handmaiden shimmers, and a ghostly blue flame erupts out of Lunata's hand and she sends her own handmaiden in a sweeping strike in turn. "Then, please, aid them, my Other Self...!"
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.
Everything calms down through the combined efforts of those present, and Rena breathes a sigh of relief. "Phew..." That was... ugly, to say the least. But now, she kind of understands just a little of what Claude may have been going through off in the stars. Wherever that was. She can't tell anyone about SPACE MEN FROM SPACE, but... she can still show her support for him. Patiently, Rena smiles and says nothing. Instead, she steps over to Claude's side and takes one of his hands into her own, squeezing it just a little. A silent 'I'm here for you', and a nod.
She lingers for a moment, then lets go and steps aside. Juuuuust in time for them to catch the attentions of ghostly manservants in another room. She blinks, looks down at the rug, then back to the advancing servants. "Oh no." Both hands shoot up and she waves them about. "Wait, wait, wait, we were just-ACK!" She dives out of the way of a swinging mopstick and rolls. Tucking into a spin, she gets back to her feet and then lashes out with a sweep kick into a palm strike to the nearest offender. Ghost or no ghost, she's not getting beat with cleaning implements!
...And WHAT is Lunata doing anyway?
DG: Rena Lanford has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, I Just Cleaned That! En Garde!.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline follows the party through the double doors and...sees a familiar carpet.
"Ah, hold on, if I recall-" She starts...but it's too late. They've already tracked mud all over the lovely carpet.
Whoops.
Like before, the ghostly servants appear in a rage...and also like before, Lunata communicates with one of them, and works together with it - her?
Well, there's nothing for it. They'll have to defend themselves. She reaches into one of her bags...but rather than a Crest, she draws out a silver knife. She parries a shadowy broom as it comes rushing towards her head then slices off the end, leaving the ghost butler in front of her holding nothing but a ghost stick.
"Let's try to keep the mess to a minimum..." She suggests...though she doubts anyone will be in the mood to listen.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, I Just Cleaned That! En Garde!.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida watches Claude for a long moment as he comes down from his rage, her brow furrowed with concern. As the group regroups, she approaches her friend, and--if he'll allow--she places a hand on his shoulder, and gives a reassuring squeeze. Rena has a similar idea, and Ida nods to the elf woman, smiling. "Onward," she says.
The door swings open. "Oh," Ida says, expertly camouflaging a wave of horror as polite curiosity. "The help! Perhaps they can--" Or perhaps not. Ida looks down at her boots, which are still covered in trail dust... which she just tracked all over this nice, white carpet. Part of her realizes that feeling guilty is completely ridiculous, these are not normal circumstances. Another part of her, the one that had good mannerisms engraved upon it at a very young age, is more mortified by the breach of etiquette than the ghosts.
"M--my apologies!" Ida says, lightly stepping off the rug. She twists her guns into pistol-whip position, settles into a defensive stance, and starts parrying cleaning implements. Her expression is an almost comical mixture of fear and embarrassment.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, I Just Cleaned That! En Garde!.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude C. Kenny hangs near the back of the group, pulling a snack out of his pocket and munching it down. It doesn't do much to make him feel better - not really - but it's what he's got... or so he thinks. His spine stiffens as Rena grabs his hand and squeezes it companionably. Or... maybe not just companionably? Maybe...
The moment passes, Rena walks away, and Claude is left standing there. He sucks in a breath, lets it out, and tried to rally what remains of his dignity as the group continues through the Manor. Now what he could /really/ use is something to punch.
This is when Claude sees a floating ghost maid hovering over the nice girl from the Starfall Salloon. He sees ghostly blue flame hovering between Lunata and the ghost. And he reaches the only logical conclusion: the ghost is trying to burn her. WELL NOT ON THIS SPACE COP'S WATCH. "Don't worry!" Claude says as he dashes forward, suddenly zweeing into the space between the ghost maid and the not-ghost waitress, rising from a crouch and unleashing a powerful backfist strike witht he back of his right hand. For a moment, glowing letters appear on the front of the maid's apron.
U FFE
!STSEOG
Then they explode, and Claude clenches a fist. "GHOST PUNCHING GLOVES!" he shouts cheerily.
(He's back.)
DG: Claude C. Kenny has used his Tool Pocket Steak toward his party's challenge, I Just Cleaned That! En Garde!.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata stares as Claude suddenly intercepts and smashes the handmaiden that she's just managed to evoke with the inkling of powers that she still scarce understands-- "Ah, Mister Claude--"
-WHAM-
She stares down towards the handmaiden, who's lying with one leg twitching as she waves a little white flag to denote her surrender. Well, I guess Claude wins this one...
<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.
The shadows clear, and the room returns. Janus and Dario glance at each other, and for all Janus belittles his companions seemingly endlessly, they seem to share this wavelength, at least; Janus steps forward into the manor, while Dario starts...wandering around kicking objects to see what they do.
"Damn spooks hide in all sortsa shit," Dario mutters, the first time anyone shows the slightest interest in his actions.
This lasts right up until Talise discovers the next place they're hiding, and Janus is soon right there again; back in his rifleman's stance. "Ghosts," he mutters. "Damn, friggin'...shadows of..."
His eyes cut to the side; Claude blowing up a ghost with his fists is actually merely regular impressive, but Lunata seeming to...bond with it? Somehow? That's interesting. Spirits...hell, he doesn't know. He'll whistle up a little bird about it later.
For now, he slides up near Talise, apparently unconcerned about further angering the ghosts by re-murdering them. "Why's the old houses always got so much spooky shit," he mutters, loud enough to be heard, before his gun goes off and starts putting holes in ghosts and also walls, which, really probably isn't that pleasing to them either, actually.
DG: Janus Cascade has used his Tool Dario & Romero Do Something Useful toward his party's challenge, I Just Cleaned That! En Garde!. DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey has passed this challenge! The party gained 12 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
What the hell is Lunata doing? Talise stares at the girl for a second. "Lu...nata...?" she questions, blinking twice.
She has ghosts to deal with. Unwilling to throw away her second knife right now, she clenches her teeth and just powers through another ghost with her sword. It passes through, but the ghost ripples past her, substance eddying a little. Even physical blows are enough to inconvenience them slightly, it seems.
Then Jacqueline lops the head off a broom. Talise blinks - then pivots and swings Rastaban upwards. There's a satisfying hiss of ectoplasm as an insubstantial broom is cloven in two. "Look," she shouts down the hallway, "would you guys cut it out if we /wiped our feet/ before we came down the hallway?!"
Some of the ghosts give way as Ida asks nicely and backs off; a few go down as Rena unloads her martial arts. But more and more, it seems like backing off is the answer. Following Ida's cue, Talise drops back defensively and steps off the carpet - and she wipes her feet in the doorway to the foyer. More of the ghosts flicker and vanish.
Then Claude punches out the ghost hovering over Lunata. The other ghosts all stop and blink at him a couple of times.
Perhaps awed by the awesome power of EFF U GOESTS, the phantasmal butlers begin to phase back through the walls and out of view. Talise lets out her breath in a slow rush. "...I think we can go through now," she suggests mildly. "Just... wipe your boots first." She does just that.
As she does, she gives Janus a sidelong look and shrugs. "If they were new houses, nobody would've died there yet."
DG: Jacqueline Barber has drawn a new Challenge.
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Mirror Mirror *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The party enters the safefy of a hall of mirrors. There are dozens, perhaps hundreds of mirrors in this massive room, and what's worse, something is following you. You can't make it out, but the shadowy beast is definitely there. Perhaps you could use the mirrors to confuse it, or deploy some ancient light source meant to blind it, if you could only figure out how to angle the mirrors... or lure it inside the beam! =Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"There may a lesson to take away from all this. Perhaps it is a good thing to consider your manners before entering someone else's home. Or else ghosts will get angry and try to hit you with brooms...?" Jacqueline pauses, and shrugs. "...Sorry, I guess that doesn't quite work.
In lieu of attempting to revise her statement, she just follows the others into the next room.
For a moment, everything becomes dark. And then, just enough light is provided to illuminate their surroundings - the pathway seems to be lined with mirrors on every side. In some mirrors everything seems normal, but in others, the reflection is distorted in a variety of different ways. A panel slides down over the door they just came through. It, too, has a mirror on it.
It's easy to get lost in a room like this and, as the party travels through it...though may notice something unusual in the mirrors around them.
It appears for only a moment...but for moments at a time, there appears to be a ninth member of their party of eight, with an as-of-yet indistinct form. It starts out far away from them...
But as they continue...
It gets closer...
And closer...
"I'm...not the only one seeing that, right?" Jacqueline murmurs, her pace picking up a bit.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Mirror Mirror.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata nods at Jacqueline as she puts her hands behind her back. "I certainly would be upset if someone walked in with wet boot print..." Was... was that supposed to be a warning? Maybe, maybe not. The Saloon's floors are always so immaculate, though. Does Lunata clean them herself, or is there some other kind of magic at work?
She blinks as she heads along the haunted house hall of mirrors, cupping her hands to her cheek. "This is pretty disorienting, and--" she gasps. "I-- I did see it... ah... umm... I don't think you could just hit it either..."
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"That is a very specific moral to this story," Talise says with a deep nod back at Jay. "But I'll take it under advisement next time I'm in a house full of cleaning ghosts!"
Sword still in hand, she bustles along into the next room, blinking as the lights go out. When they come up again, she finds herself staring at her distorted reflection. With a surprised hiss of breath, she steps backwards; her reflection seems stretched horizontally, like there's a fat swordswoman looking back at her who shares her face. Sort of. "This is weird," she mutters - but the hackles on the back of her neck are beginning to rise.
Moving along behind Jacqueline, she lets the more perceptive members of the party take the lead. As Lunata gasps, though, she shifts her position within the party, falling back to walk beside the young girl. Her hands curl around the hilt of her sword as she glances at the mirrors, then down at Lunata. "...I saw it too," she says, voice low. "And trust me, if it shows up again, we're going to /see/ if I can hit it."
Her eyes dart from mirror to mirror to try and catch sight of that phantom again - but more importantly, to try and discern a way out. "Ida," she asks tensely, keeping her voice low. "I don't think the floor is mirrored. Maybe following where it goes will lead to the exit... but I've gotta watch for our friend."
DG: Talise Gianfair has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Mirror Mirror.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
As far as Claude is concerned, the moral of this story is not to go to haunted mansions. If he wants to punch ghosts, he'll go to graveyards like a normal RPG protagonist.
He trots along with the rest of the party, but doesn't sense the arrival of the shadowy beast until the others point it out to him. And this is not a good place to fight a ghost, he thinks; the mirrors are everywhere, and while you could just smash them to cut down on the confusion, the flying glass would hurt people and not ghosts. Unless they're ghost mirrors! (They're probably not ghost mirrors.)
SO instead he has to use his brain. Or, rather, the thing he keeps in his pocket that thinks for him instead of his brain. Claude palms the wireless earpiece, discreetly cratches his ear to insert it, mutters a quick subvocalized command, and...
CALCULATING OPTIMAL PATH
CALCULATING...
CALCULATING......
CALCULATING.........
"Left at the next intersection," he says confidently. "Then straight past to turns, right, left again, and straight on." Claude tugs his ghost-punching gloves a little more snugly, wondering if they work on shadows too. Probably, he decides. They're basically the same thing, right?
DG: Claude C. Kenny has used his Tool Tricorder toward his party's challenge, Mirror Mirror.
<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.
"..." Janus gives Talise a flat-eyed look for a long few seconds. And then he bursts out in a loud laugh, only not slapping his knee because he would probably accidentally make another ghost out of somebody. "Well, shit! That's a good point, doll!" he laughs, and saunters off. He...probably meant that? That grin of his might be cocky, but it's not the mean kind, so maybe he's not trying to be mocking, probably?
He's a man who's hard to read, either way. "You gotta be careful with ghosts, but...me, I'm more worried about..." ...that grin dims for a moment. "...you know, /big/ ghosts," he mutters, and then sucks in a breath and carries on.
...into....a confusing, warping hall of mirrors. "Oh, good," Janus mutters. "Here, lemme try something. ROMERO!" he yells, into the maze, and then just...listens. "...GIT OUT HERE YOU DUMB SON OF A GOB!" .....nothing.
"Don't think he's here, boss," Dario whispers.
"...yeah?" Janus mutters, eyes cutting to the side. "Then who's--"...
Ah, hell. /Mirror monsters/. "...welp," Janus grunts, and releases the bolt on his rifle, stuffing in a cartridge. "Here, maybe this'll piss it off.
Then he whips around, sudden-like, and fires the rifle.../up/.
A hail of birdshot crashes down behind them, hopefully shattering some of the mirrors. That makes shadows weaker, right. This is how Janus helps. It's always bullets with this guy.
DG: Janus Cascade has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Mirror Mirror.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.
Phew, that takes care of that. Rena wipes her brow and straightens up. "I'm starting to doubt this place has anything to do with the Sorcery Globe." She mumbles in mild exasperation, plodding along with the rest of the group.
...And then comes a room full of mirrors. Wow, that's not confusing at all. Warily, she eyes her reflection in the passing mirrors, and slowly, an amused smile forms. "Mirror mirror on the wall..." She starts, and trails off right after. That statement isn't finished. Because this place is damn haunted and she's not going to give the place a chance to scare her! No thank you!
Then a shadow sweeps out of the corner of her eye and she freezes. "..... ....."
Crap.
She decides to keep walking. Yep. Juuuuuust gonna keep it moving. Don't look back. Do not look back. It's not there. It is not there. Yep.
...Yep. Just gonna follow Claude. Mmhm.
DG: Rena Lanford has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Mirror Mirror.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida turns and bows to the cleaning phantoms. "You have my humblest apologies," she says, her face still a little red... but at least no one was seriously hurt.
The sudden darkness is a little startling, but Ida manages to keep it under control--as the lights come back up, she looks around, frowning. Each mirror seems to have something strange about it. In this one, she's upside-down. In this one, her reflection is distorted so it looks like she has a giant head and tiny feet. In this one, she has dragonscales creeping up her neck, and a little silvery bruise on her cheek where one of the ghostly staff got her with a broom. Claude walks in front of her, and his reflection appears as well. It's wearing something that looks vaguely like Zed's jumpsuit except more heavily-armored, a strange ARM molded into the right side of his face.
Ida stares at that mirror a moment more. The strange, shadowy /thing/ that flickers across it sets her nerves on high alert.
"Watch the floor," Ida instructs, nodding to Talise. Janus straight-up shatters some of the mirrors, which earns him a stony look from Ida--she's already going for the exact set of notes she needs in her mother's journal, and she doesn't need him screwing things up! "Allow me to focus this," she says, referencing a diagram for some sort of reflected-sunlight trap--
And as the party makes its way on, Ida adjusts the mirrors, trying to reflect a beam into where she thinks the monster is going to show next. She might be able to stop it, or at least slow it down!
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Flora's Notebook toward her party's challenge, Mirror Mirror. DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey 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. DG: Rena Lanford has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* CHALLENGE - Spar With The Owner *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The shadowy owner of the manor has caught you! Its form is massive, pitch black like shadows. Features shift and change every second,as though it had no form. One moment it's a fearsome demon, another a dragon, the next a wolf, and so on. Luckily, the next room has a door! You'll only have to fend the fiend off until you reach it. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
The party follows the instructions Claude reads out from the Tricorder. In the mirrors, their ghostly follower continues to draw closer...but, it seems that Talise's watchful eye is stalling its progress, at least somewhat.
However, when they get to the end of the path the Tricorder described, they find what looks to be a dead end...
...At least, until further observation reveals a doorway behind the shattered frame of a mirror. It looks like Janus's obsession with putting bullets into things was actually helping the party this time.
Unfortunately, the sound of something shifting behind them seems to indicate that their 'friend' noticed this exit formed as well, and it rushes towards them with hostile intent!
Ida's resourceful notebook saves the day here, however - with the way she's adjusted the mirrors, when light is shined upon them it reflects and intensifies, and makes contact with their shady adversary. As enlightening as this was, however, it did not shed any light on its nature...but still, they made it out of the hall of mirrors alive and whatever it was, it does not appear to be following them.
For now.
"...Well, that was harrowing..." Jacqueline mutters.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.
W-Well... They aren't blindsided by shadowy beasts and make it out of that mirror hell unscathed. Which leads them... right into an open room. There are stairs on other side that lead up to somewhere. Who knows. It's collapsed with rubble blocking the way. Straight ahead on the other side, however, is a door that's clear and leads forward. Perfect!
...Not perfect is the fact that the shadows gather and merge together, coalescing into...into... "What the heck is that?" Rena asks no one in particular as the thing rises, rises... twists and turns, and rapidly takes on the form of a furious demon! ...No wait, not looks like some kind of wolf- nope, nope, now it looks like a thieving scumbag, oh wait, now it looks like street dolphin- oops, now it looks like a turtle dressed suspiciously like an assassin! Oh wait, it's back to demon! Or no, it's a man... but what is a man? Whoops, now it's a big ass bird!
"..... ......"
It seems to gesture with a hand... flipper...paw... wing... in a 'bring it on' motion, before charging forward to meet these intruders in glorious battle!
Rena.... Rena's ears droop. Her eyes are narrowed. Instead of meeting this challenge, she just... pulls out a little black sphere. Activates it, and sort of underhand tosses it right into the path of that shadowy, ghostly fiend's face.
KABOOM~ Ice everywhere.
DG: Rena Lanford has used her Tool Frost Bomb toward her party's challenge, Spar With The Owner.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata hurries along with the rest of the group, following Claude's instructions and retreating past the shadowy beast... only to be confronted by another one -- this one, however, triggers a different reaction from Lunata. "This is...!" She holds at her head for a moment. "There's no doubt about it..."
She tries to appeal to the beast, spreading her arms. "Please, you have to stop this! You can't just let your anger control you! Your wife wouldn't want--"
She gets about halfway through that statement before ice chunks fly all over her face. Ow!!
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise opens her mouth to say something sassy to Janus, but finally decides to take his chortling at face value.
Besides - there's a mirror phantom to deal with.
Between them, they manage to find the way out. Ida's flicker of light keeps the monstrous form at bay, and Talise breathes a low sigh, nodding back at Jay. "Yeah... yeah, I'd rather face the enemy head-on," she mutters, more tense than before now that things are getting outside her paradigm on her.
And then things snap /back/ to her paradigm and, privately, she wishes they hadn't.
The monstrous demon looms before the group, shifting its form rapidly into one thing or the next. With a clenching of teeth, Talise sweeps her weapon into both hands again, dropping back into a martial stance as she readies Rastaban to parry any blows that come towards her. It doesn't - and Rena gives her the perfect 'in.'
The girl's blast smashes towards the demon, and Talise isn't far behind, sprinting forward with her blade sweeping out. She attempts to slam it through the frost to try and strike at the demon, cutting across its midsection, then swinging back to try and slice across an arm.
"I don't think reason's going to work here, Lunata!" she calls back before she snaps her blade down - and brings it up in a violent, arcing cut. It's a Tidal Blow, of course, but this time she doesn't shout.
She does, however, do it again. And again. And again.
Tidal Blow: Meant to be macro'd.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida slips the journal back into its appointed place, and takes a glance over her shoulder as she makes the final adjustment. Her breath catches in her throat--she can't see the shadow proper, but she sees it moving in the mirrors, and it's coming right at them.
It meets the beam, and vanishes. Ida breathes again. She takes a moment to collect her wits before falling back into line again. Before she knows it, there's /another/ shadowy thing coalescing in front of her, or is it the same one? It's hard to tell. "Miss Croze?" Ida says, looking at the young waitress. She saw her reacting strangely to certain elements within Rujm al-Hiri, so it's not as much of a shock as it could've been... but still! "Please, get back!" Her hand darts around her back, and comes up with Devil's Due. She aims and fires with startling speed, putting a round at the shadow's shifting torso. It looks vaguely like Siegfried in the moment Ida does this, or perhaps just like a big armored thing. It makes it a little easier.
Wife?
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Devil's Due toward her party's challenge, Spar With The Owner.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Ida is lucky Claude was wearing his jacket; god only knows what she'd have seen in that mirror if she'd caught a glimpse of the phase gun strapped in an underarm holster. Regardless, he palms the earpiece again and shoves it into his pocket with the tricorder. Aside from the whole unveiling his childhood trauma to half the world thing, this run is going well! He trots along and---
"Man," he says when he gets into the room. "I am /so/ glad I brought these things today."
Claude C. Kenny prepares to rush in to punch the ghost owner dragon demon shapeychangey guy in the schnozz, but Rena beats him to it with the ice bomb. "Nice!" he shouts, lifting his shoulder to shield himself from the blast; he tries to help Lunata and guard her as they skirt around the edge of the room. "Here," he says, offering her a fully cooked ribeye steak from his pocket. "And don't worry about that guy. If any ghosts come up in your face, just start humming this," he suggests, then begins humming a short melody.
Fact 1: Claude rolled Perfect Pitch and Sense of Rhythm instead of something useful like Dexterity for pickpocketing.
Fact 2: Claude thinks he is teaching Lunata to hum the theme to Ghostbusters.
Fact 3: Claude is in fact teaching her to hum Huey Lewis's 'I Want A New Drug'.
DG: Claude C. Kenny has used his Tool Pocket Steak toward his party's challenge, Spar With The Owner.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Unfortunately for Lunata, she isn't a secret spacewoman (nor is she a cool spy) or anything, so she doesn't exactly understand the difference between bustin' and one that won't make her nervous, wonderin' what to do. She does stare a little agog at the steak offered to her--
"O-oh, it's perfectly seared on the outside and--" she tests it against the thick of her palm, "--medium rare, with a beautifully marbled cut the way you can tell the fat's melted throughout, and wonderfully seasoned too! It's just glistening with juices! A pan reduction sauce or an au jus would go really well with thi--" A pause. "W-wait, what am I supposed to do with this??"
Lunata doesn't understand the meat dimension yet......
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"Claude, can you show her your meat later," Talise shouts while continuing to TIDAL BLOW the ghost.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline flinches back as the giant...let's just call it a 'thing' challenges them to a fight.
She does send Lunata a worried glance as her friend is pelted with shards of ice from Rena's bomb, but fortunately Claude is already seeing to her protection...and is apparently trying to teach her some kind of song?
Okay.
She reaches into her bags, pulling out a familiar bottle of black liquid.
"Watch out, everyone!" She shouts as a warning, hurling the bottle towards the monstrous thing ahead of them. It shatters upon it, covering it in the foul-smelling liquid. She...didn't actually know if it would have any effect on a creature like this, but maybe it'd be helpful for tracking it if it tried a more stealthy form?
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Reliable Repellant toward her party's challenge, Spar With The Owner.
<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.
Janus has never once screwed up anything, anywhere, in any way, for any reason. See, they found the door! Janus is a /trailblazer/. A...path...optimizer. Eat that, computer he doesn't know exists. "Friggin'.../spooks/!" Janus yells at the shadow beast as it recoils from the light. "Come over here and I'll /shootcha again!!/"
"Boss no if you're up close you need to use the spear," Dario says, in the gentle tone of a person reminding a dear friend of a recurring personal flaw.
"I got cartridges for that!" Janus grunts, but they're retreating just the same; Janus fires a couple rounds back behind them because for some reason he has this thing about creatures that want to murder him, and then they're clear. For now. "Haunts! Never worth the /damn/ trouble!" he growls, storming off...his ears start ringing, like some evil, swarming presence, and--
"And who's this thirsty fella!?" Janus calls in something approaching alarm. He snaps his ARM up to fire, gets a shot off, and then realizes that shooting /shadow demons/ is not quite working as well as shooting ghosts. He starts a slow retreat, bombarding the thing with shots. Dario lumbers backwards as well. He saw that door. All they have to shoot the darkness until they get there! Excellent planning!
DG: Janus Cascade has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Spar With The Owner.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
"Uh, you mostly just shove it in your mouth," Claude explains to Lunata, unaware of what a train wreck this conversation is becoming thanks to Talise. "It goes down faster if you don't use your teeth so much."
HE IS HELPING
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.
"Claude, you could have waited until we were back in down to show her your meat, gosh!" Rena grouses over the din of gunfire and blows and shouting and rushing wind.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"Look, she'll learn the proper technique when she's older, /goddess!/" Talise shouts as the ghost beats on her for awhile.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
"A-ah, thank you," Lunata bows her head, but quickly whips a little nappy bag to store the steak away for later. "I don't mind meat, but I like peach pie myself..."
HELPING
DG: Talise Gianfair has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Spar With The Owner. DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey has passed this challenge! The party gained 36 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: Janus Cascade has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* CHALLENGE - The Mournful Father *>===================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Finally, the party reaches the most ornate bedchambers they have ever seen. Pictures of a beautiful blonde woman are everywhere. In some, a gentle old man is holding her hand, and together it seems they saw countless sights. On the bed, hundreds of flowers form a crown like one might see at funerals. With a crack of thunder, the old man appears, dressed like a decorated general, rifle on his shoulder. He seems hostile, insulted. Perhaps, laid about the room, are the clues you need to calm his raging spirit, at least temporarily? =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.
While Claude is teaching Lunata all about meat 101...
Frost stalls the shadowy thing's path, and then Talise is running in with a myriad flurry of TIDAL BLOWS... and more....more...more.....another.....another on top of that...
She's really just spamming it, isn't she? How does her TP hold up?
But no, Jacqueline tosses some sort of flask with a pungent black liquid at the thing, and it breaks, coating the creature. .... Rena pinches her nose and frowns! But it seems to be distracting the thing somehow. SOMEHOW. Maybe the smell was so bad that it can smell it even in undeath. Wow Jacqueline. Good job.
Ida opens fire and the bullet pierces through shadow... It doesn't actually seem like it does anything, but the creature lets out a silent howling motion anyway. Huh. Weiiiiiird. And then comes Janus and his buddies! Shots! More shots! Shots in the dark! And for some reason that Rena cannot even begin to fathom, gunshots appear to be working! Is it the noise? Is it the combined feelings of their will being imposed upon the area that allows their attacks to have weight!?
Is this all just total nonsense and she should stop thinking about it pretty much immediately for the sake of her sanity!? Right.
Okay.
Eventually, the thing shudders and 'explodes' into wisps of shadowy ichor... then it's gone, leaving the way clear. "I.... I guess that's it?" Rena mumbles uncertainly. ... Looks like it.
"What a weirdo."
Yes, thank you, Rena.
<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.
It's Janus who gets to the far door first, kicking the thing open with approximately zero respect for the dead.
The wisps of shadow, sensing this perhaps, snake through the door, whirling and swirling around each other until they erupt apart. A man appears; older, but no less powerful of build for his age. Ghastly, but no less imposing for his etheriality. Janus storms three steps into the room and raises his gun. Dario tromps up next to him, raising a shaky pistol. "Whadda we do, boss!?" he yells, looking around. "The, the pictures, maybe? Yeah! You make a ghost happy and he fucks off, right!?"
Janus glares down his rifle's sights like the world has stopped existing. "Good news, old man," he says, cold. "You get to get done by Janus Cascade!"
Maybe someone with an operant brain should step in, here.
DG: Janus Cascade has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, The Mournful Father.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
("Hey, uh, should he shoot the pictures?")
DATA NOT FOUND
"Sounds good to me," Claude agrees, so if Janus and Claude agree it's a good idea, IT IS CLEARLY FINE
DG: Claude C. Kenny has used his Tool Tricorder toward his party's challenge, The Mournful Father.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata stammers and looks towards Janus and Claude, just about shouting, "N-no! No!" She looks towards the two, shaking her head and turning towards the old man insistently. "It's like Mister-- um, Mister..." she gestures towards Dario and his totally unzipped pants, whimpering for a moment.
"Please, let's stop this, Mister!" she begs towards the ghost. "Your wife wouldn't have wanted you to be so engulfed in your misery like this..." She takes a deep breath, concentrating on that spiritual sense of hers. For a moment, there's a soft aura as she begins to reach out towards the phantasm. "She's waiting for you... past the great veil... let me take you there..."
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Check the interface, Rena, and you'll find that Tidal Blow costs maybe 2 TP.
Talise tires herself out a bit throwing sword swipes, but the repeated barrage of heavy blows does its job. The shadowy phantom explodes, shadows rippling around Talise. With a little wince she pulls away, breathing heavily and fanning herself with one hand. "Tough guy," she mutters as she passes her blade to her off hand.
Sheathing her weapon, Talise moves along with the rest of the group. As Janus kicks the door down, she doesn't say anything one way or the other, mostly because she doesn't see any problem with that - but as the old man's ghost appears, the woman draws in a breath, turning and opening her mouth to say something.
Janus, however, has other plans. The Drifter levels his gun.
Talise sweeps her arm out; magic pours through her gauntlet as she attempts to grab ahold of Janus's gun barrel and direct it towards the ceiling. With the gauntlets active, there's enough power behind it that it's going to be pretty damn difficult not to go where she wants to take the man - which is 'right where he is but not shooting at the guy they need to use persuasion on.'
"Shush," she chides shortly. "Lunata's talking to him."
DG: Talise Gianfair has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Mournful Father.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.
This is clearly not a good idea.
Rena sure isn't stopping them though. She's just gonna stand riiiiiiiight here and wait for the fallout. That is, if the fallout doesn't fall on her. Because that's totally possible.
"Pleasedon'tgetuskilledpleasedon'tgetuskilledpleasedon'tgetuskilled." She murmurs in a monotone mantra.
DG: Rena Lanford has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Mournful Father.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline shuffles into the room. An immense sadness washes over her as she looks over the pictures in the room. The general appears shortly afterward. Perhaps...
Perhaps this why Lunata was here. She glances toward Janus and Claude with a disapproving frown while Talise gets a smile, then turns her attention towards the man. It was time to move it and help. She was able to get the basics of the situation from Lunata's words.
"Yes. I...can only begin to imagine the immensity of what you must feel...but you can't let your hatred and sorrow blind you from what's important to you any longer." She says, placing a hand over her heart.
"Listen to her. She'll help you...if you allow it." She nods towards Lunata.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Mournful Father.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida's lips peel back from her teeth, and Devil's Due seems to tremble in her hands. In a flash, she raises the gun, takes aim--
BANG
There's enough force behind that bullet to tear Dario's gun right out of his hands, and potentially do some damage to the weapon if it hits just right. Dario himself will end up unharmed.
Ida blows metallic smoke off the weapon's barrel, twirls it, and holsters it. Talise seems to have Janus well in hand, so she raises her hands, glances around, and sees something familiar. There's a picture of the old man and his daughter next to someone who might be a priest of Granas. The vestments are a little archaic, but not that unlike the ones she's seen in old paintings and drawings.
The gravity of what exactly they've stumbled into comes to rest on her. She lets Lunata and Jay take point, as she reaches for her mother's book, flips to a bloodstained page, and starts to read.
"Our Lord Granas, light and salvation of the world,
Your name is raised above all others.
Provide for us, shelter us, sustain us.
In Your infinite kindness, grant us peace.
In Your infinite wisdom, grant us forgiveness.
Deliver us from our sins, and from those who would see Your world brought to ruin."
Ida makes a sign over her heart, and then repeats the gesture over the ghost. Is this it? Is he just waiting for his funerary rites?
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Flora's Notebook toward her party's challenge, The Mournful Father. DG: Janus Cascade is too exhausted to continue! DG: Claude C. Kenny is too exhausted to continue! DG: Talise Gianfair is too exhausted to continue! DG: Rena Lanford is too exhausted to continue! DG: Jacqueline Barber is too exhausted to continue! DG: Ida Everstead-Rey is too exhausted to continue! DG: The party has failed this challenge! All party members are now Exhausted. Your party can no longer continue and is forced to retreat! DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey has been fully Exhausted by Haunted Manor!
<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.
Janus is sighting in. There's a presence, to a skilled rifleman; a terrible concentration. For a moment that grinning, smirking drifter seems far away. Like death itself, unblinking, he reaches for the trigger.
And then Talise punches his gun and he reacts like a man whose headphones got yanked out, jolted unhappily back to the world. "'ey!" he yells, sharply. "Fuck off! That's a big ol' ghost, innit!? I'm gonna SHOOT it with an ARM and it'll GO AWAY, that's how these things WORK!" He points at Claude. "Even the kid knows the story!"
Dario was sort of iffy about the whole gun thing but his grip is rock solid. Ida's gun blasts it out of his hand but the glare he gives her back is red hot. "Watch it, lady! You missed the ghost!" he slurs, lumbering over to fetch his gun.
While Janus and Dario have a bad few seconds, Lunata steps forward, entreating; begging, playing to truths herein. The general's eyes drift to her, more interested in the speech than the gunplay. But...
His nose flares, but not with breath. His e lips curl with monstrous anger, and his face, opens, and he SCREAMS - a sound that begins at inhuman and rapidly rises to elemental; washing across them, sound so great it erases sound, forces one to knees...to the ground, until the darkness comes.
When the party wakes, they are back on the porch.
The door is closed again.
Romero Gigio is leaning against the wall, eating a fresh apple and looking kind of nonplussed.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude wakes up, looks around. Looks at the house.
.........
"Well, that sure was a weird dream we all had," he decides, pulling his GPGs off. "Who's up for beer?"
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata nods slowly, seemingly entranced, not at all absorbing the argument of Lasers versus Feelings behind her. She's on the Feelings side, anyway; she nods towards the general, eyes gazed together. "That's it..." she encourages, gesturing forth and--
--and suddenly, he screams and she clutches at her head, her concentration broken. "Ah-- ah!!"
She's lowered to the ground, rumbling as she whispers, "I'm sorry... I'm sorry, I can't..."
She's--
--on the porch, her eyes wide as she stares all around her, then towards the group. She looks rather exhausted by this point, looking up towards the manor. "I won't give up... next time..." she sucks in a gentle breath, and places her hands to her heart. "I will send you. Because that is... what I must do. I know that now, in my heart..."
<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.
Janus is sighting in. There's a presence, to a skilled rifleman; a terrible concentration. For a moment that grinning, smirking drifter seems far away. Like death itself, unblinking, he reaches for the trigger.
And then Talise punches his gun and he reacts like a man whose headphones got yanked out, jolted unhappily back to the world. "'ey!" he yells, sharply. "Fuck off! That's a big ol' ghost, innit!? I'm gonna SHOOT it with an ARM and it'll GO AWAY, that's how these things WORK!" He points at Claude. "Even the kid knows the story!"
Dario was sort of iffy about the whole gun thing but his grip is rock solid. Ida's gun blasts it out of his hand but the glare he gives her back is red hot. "Watch it, lady! You missed the ghost!" he slurs, lumbering over to fetch his gun.
While Janus and Dario have a bad few seconds, Lunata steps forward, entreating; begging, playing to truths herein. The general's eyes drift to her, more interested in the speech than the gunplay. But...
His nose flares, but not with breath. His e lips curl with monstrous anger, and his face twists, his mouth opens, and he SCREAMS - a sound that begins at inhuman and rapidly rises to elemental; washing across them, sound so great it erases sound, forces one to knees...to the ground, until the darkness comes.
When the party wakes, they are back on the porch.
The door is closed again.
Romero Gigio is leaning against the wall, eating a fresh apple and looking kind of nonplussed.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.
Rena wakes up, eyes opening and finding herself leaned back against a wall. ".... ....." Blink. ...Blink blink. "... I just had the weirdest dream... like... like Claude and Janus did something completely stupid and then-" She looks about, then she shakes her head.
"Naaaaaah."
No way. Claude mentions beer. Rena is *sorely tempted*.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"Shush, child," Talise chides Janus again, once more reaching out to try to whack his gun away.
Not that she has much of a chance to do much more. The ghost starts screaming and Talise presses her hands to her ears. Wincing, she slouches forward, beginning to drop to one knee. Her vision darkens --
a single ship
sails off
into
the distance
a girl waits on the dock
and never
sees them again
"--'om," Talise gasps as she suddenly jolts awake on the porch, reaching for something and sitting up at the waist. It takes her a second to realize that the person standing there is someone she's never met before. She blinks at Romero a couple of times.
"...How long have you been standing there?"
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline raises her hands to her face as the man screams. She aims to protect herself...but she is unable to defend herself from the assault on her mind. She collapses to her knees, and...
...Everything goes dark.
When she comes to, she finds herself on the porch. With a groan she forces herself to her feet.
"Everyone alright...?" She says, brushing her dress off. She glances around...and her eyes fall on Lunata. Jacqueline walks up to her wordlessly and places a gentle hand on her shoulder.
"...Next time." She agrees, following her gaze upward. "I'll go with you again, whenever you want. Just say the word." She says quietly.
<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.
Janus holds a hand up. "Beer yes. Beer please."
Romero gets asked a question and shrugs lackadaisically. "'iunno, around the point y'all went inside?"
"YOU I WILL HIT" Janus yells.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida's breath catches in her throat. There is a long, tense moment as she tries to figure out which section of the Scriptures to turn to next--
She doesn't get the chance. Something reaches out and hits her square in the soul, takes her legs out from under her, knocks the breath from her lungs. Her senses seem to switch off, one after another, until finally, consciousness itself fades.
Feeling trickles back. Cold, slick stone beneath her body. A chill in the air, and the sensation of mist. People's voices. Ida opens her eyes, and picks herself up as soon as she sees where she is. "Miss Lunata?" Ida sees her, hurries over, does her best to ignore Janus's sudden screaming at his wayward friend(?). "Are you all right? What... what happened in there?"
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise just scowls at the Cascade Gang members and rubs her temples with firm fingers.
She turns to the rest of the group. Sighing heavily, she reaches out to pat Jacqueline on the shoulder, seemingly convinced the woman is alright. Then she's moving to kneel near Ida. Whatever happened in there, she doesn't seem to be /physically/ injured.
Her head's swimming with something, though. She's not sure what it is because she usually doesn't have ghosts in her head.
"You okay there, Lunie?" she asks with a tilt of her head, on a knee as she looks up at the gentle girl.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata nods very gently, looking sheepishly to Miss Ida. "I'm sorry.. I followed you knowing this manor would present itself again... I could sense it, from far away." She takes a deep breath and looks with a gentle smile at Talise. "I'm okay, Miss Talise."
She looks at Jacqueline and says, "Thank you. Now I feel more sure than ever..."
But there were those that wanted beer. Jacqueline must be rubbing off on Lunata, because she smiles to say, "The Starfall Saloon is more than happy to serve you ice-cold refreshments!"