2017-06-18: The Missing Child
- Log: The Missing Child
- Cast: Riesenlied, Noeline, Jacqueline Barber, Matilda Whitehead, Rose, Yarobeleedt
- Where: Ruins of Memory
- Date: 18th June 2017
- Summary: A child goes missing, last seen at the Ruins of Memory. Riesenlied heads a team to go find her, but what do they find inside but...?!
============================<* Ruins of Memory *>============================= ====================<* CHALLENGE - Entering the Depths *>===================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The exterior of the Ruins of Memory has been well-combed. Drifters have cleaned out the huge ground level, which is easily moved through. However, as you approach the deeper parts, you can find a great hole leading into the depths of the ruins. It will require caution to enter the depths in one piece, but the rewards may be worth it. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied, by all rights, should not be here.
She has an army to lead; she has troops to take care of; she has logistics to filter with a fine-tooth comb. She is by all rights and regards a terribly busy woman, and a story such as a child called 'Max' from Adlehyde missing after being seen wandering off to the Ruins of Memory should not catch her eye.
But it does, and it is why she is here, present with her companion Odjn.
"Geez, you're still such a softie, huh?" Odjn muses, bobbling up and down. "But that's what makes you the Riesey-poo I know!"
"I wish you wouldn't call me that....." Riese sighs softly, before turning towards the others assembled at the entranceway to the Ruins. "Thank you for agreeing to come with me. I understand that I do not hold myself in great standing with some of you after what has happened..." There is a frown. "But for the time being, the child's safety and recovery is imperative to me. Let us move quickly before any harm befalls him or her."
Here she is, a Metal Demon in the flesh, concerned for the safety of a human child.
She could be lying. She could be plotting something.
Or she could just be that foolish.
Just within the entranceway, there's a hole that leads deeper into the Ruins; she inspects the gap and frowns for a moment, holding up a small shoe, sized for a child. "It looks like they may have come down here..." She pauses, and calls out, "Anyone down there? Max? Call out if you can hear me!"
There's no response, prompting the Hyadean to shake her head and look to the group. "We'll have to go down. Here," her large wings spread from out her back, and she slowly descends after tossing a rope with an attached piton to one of the Drifters present.
DG: You use your Tool Dragon Wings against your party's Challenge, Entering the Depths!
DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool Dragon Wings toward her party's challenge, Entering the Depths.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
On the approach to the Ruins of Memory, Matilda's body language has been /achingly/ closed. Once she saw just who was helping them along, she almost immediately shifted toward the very rear, and quite nearly shifted /out/.
... then again, she's not going /alone/, so... she can just deal with it, she supposes. The compounder shoulders Freischütz, regarding Riesenlied with a critical eye as she takes stock of the situation. "I..." She pauses for a moment, looking at the rope. "... I think I'll work my own way down," she says, finally, after that hesitation.
Matilda starts down, using the existing handholds and footholds in the hole. It's slow going, but her path and Riesenlied's, it seems, are doomed to divergence for the moment.
DG: Matilda Whitehead has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Entering the Depths.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Of course, if anyone on this world were going to side /with/ Riesenlied, it would be the Crimson Noble herself. She and the Metal Demon arrive at the same time, the odd girl dressed in an overblown crimson dress that doesn't suit itself to ruins diving; she is chattering animatedly about recent Adlehyde events as they emerge on scene, full of wide gestures and what appear to be tales of the rebuilding.
When she gives Riesenlied the space to actually explain her reasons for being here, though, that smirk becomes a well-meant exhalation of breath - a timeworn but affectionate sort of sigh that speaks of her ability to read the commander. "Well, then. Let's not dawdle too much, shall we?" she suggests to the open air, offering those around her a grin - and in a couple of cases, a respectful little bow of her head.
She's in good spirits - though she has reason to be, after some of the strides she and Riese have made in terms of diplomacy as of late. It allows her to be a little less wary, and a little more openly curious as to how some of their retinue are going to act in this kind of situation.
"Well, then!... let's be off," she hums, taking a hold of a handle welded onto the side of one of the two silvery pods that follow her around; it beeps in answer, still coveting the hat that Matilda provided it, and begins to hover down the descent as it takes Noeline's weight.
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Strife toward her party's challenge, Entering the Depths.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline certainly wasn't going to ignore a request from Riesenlied, particularly not one that concerned a child's safety. Perhaps it was entirely due to naive sentimentality that she didn't doubt for a second the sincerity of the request. It was possibly that same sentimentality that saw Jacqueline leaving the safety of Adlehyde, alone, to meet with her, not long after the events at the fairgrounds.
Whatever it was, Jacqueline was here.
She gives a good-natured chuckle at 'Riesey-poo', but doesn't comment on it directly. Instead, she nods.
"I'll do everything in my power to help." She agrees. She makes her way up carefully to the edge of the hole that they were using as an entry-point. She catches Riesenlied's rope and draws out a Crest, creating a small pillar of earth to secure the rope onto before going down the hole herself.
She does not, however, make use of the rope herself. Instead, she has a bottle of pale-green liquid in her hands. She downs the lot then moves down quickly, jumping carefully from foothold to foothold.
Time was of the essence, after all.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Invigoration Elixir toward her party's challenge, Entering the Depths.
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
Some jobs you take because you want to, some you take because you need to, and some you take because it's the right thing to do. It didn't matter who the employer was if there was a child's life at stake, and certainly mounting a rescue like this would win anyone, Metal Demon or otherwise, some brownie points with Rose. Being from Lunar, it's not like she shared many of the legends or prejudices Filgaians have - not that she's blind to what happened to Adlehyde, either, but Rose has always been open-minded. Or at least she tries to be.
Also she might find Odjn adorable? That's a pretty big factor.
Rose catches the rope tossed up by the horned lady, and produces a rope and hook of her own that she tosses back to her. Why settle for just one rope when you can have two, producing a much more secure descent.
Once the ropes are set, Rose starts rappelling down, not far from Matilda. "You sure you don't want to use one of the ropes? I mean, it'd be a lot safer!" This might or might not be a prod to find out not why Matilda won't use the rope but what the hesitation is about.
"Say, what's this place called again? I've never been here, but I guess that goes for about half of the ruins in the area. S'what I get for playing merchant instead of adventurer full-time!" Not that she minded. Rose likes her occupations! ... all three of them.
DG: Rose has used her Tool Grapple Hook toward her party's challenge, Entering the Depths.
DG: You pass the challenge, and take 3 Exhaustion! You have 3 total Exhaustion.
DG: The party led by Riesenlied 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> Riesenlied has posed.
There is an amount of sorrow from Riesenlied as she looks distantly towards Matilda, but nods as she understands the woman probably needs her space for now. That she's still here, and willing to help... has to be enough.
Unlike Noeline, though, Riese is still a little reserved and respectful about the deceased, knowing that even in the wake of Adlehyde's rebuilding... it is going to be some amount of time before people are able to move on, and even then... she isn't expecting some people to. She can't, not after what her brethren have done.
"The Ruins of Memory," Riese answers Rose, descending towards the bottom and giving the ropes that both she and Rose let down a test. "All right, it's secure!"
Rose rappels down, and Matilda follows suit; Noeline just flies on down with Strife, and Jacqueline hops down with her earthen pillars.
"Ah, you're a merchant, Miss...?" she looks to Rose, gesturing towards Jacqueline. "Miss Jacqueline here is another prolific merchant, I imagine you've done some patronage with her?"
Odjn points and goes, "Hey Riese, look!" the Dragon is pointing towards some footprints that go deeper into the ruins. She frowns and says, "I hope Max hasn't encountered monsters or fallen into a trap..."
DG: Noeline has drawn a new Challenge.
================================ <* Ruins of Memory *>============================= ============================ <* CHALLENGE - Rubble Pile *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------==== < Challenge Information: >-------------------------- A massive pile of rubble, consisting of small rocks and crushed pieces of wall, has fallen into the way ahead. Some work to clear it may be the only option! =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"The Ruins of Memory, they call it," Noeline calls back over one shoulder, a finger raised as she backs up Riesenlied's statement. "That said, I'm not really sure that anyone knows exactly what they're memorizing. A little ironic, I suppose, the memory of the Ruins of Memory being lost to time itself. From what I understand of it, it's been explored enough that it's become quite the place to go if you're twelve years old and looking to prove your bravery."
She lets Strife go, freeing the little ARM to float around her head with its non-pink twin, and huffs softly to herself at the sight of the footsteps leading onwards. "Still, there should really be a limit to one's curiosity, should there not? And this is /me/ suggesting that, do bear in mind," she huffs, planting her hands on her hips as she strides forward--
--and immediately stops as she rounds the corner, her eyebrows shot up in surprise at the barrier blocking their path. "... this must be recent," she adds, completely useless as she glances down to confirm that, sure enough, the trail leads past the blockade.
For a moment she sits there - and then puffs out a breath. "Well, I suppose I've made more strenous efforts than this around the city as of late, hm?" she adds a moment later, patting her dress down before striding up to start hefting part of the rubble away with a strength that looks entirely out of place on the noble-looking girl.
DG: Noeline has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Rubble Pile.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied looks rather concerned, but inspects the rubble rather quickly--
"The footsteps continue there, but I don't see any blood. I think this might have fallen after Max went through..." It only serves to make her more concerned, of course, but Odjn pumps herself up with a grin and say, "Let me do this! It's time for... Odjnnn Powerrr!"
She rears back and starts smashin' boulders, wham! Odjn Jab! Odjn Straight! Odjn... Haymaker!
DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Rubble Pile.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
Matilda can get a fair bit more animated when talking to anyone /but/ Riesenlied. The mention of merchantry gets a brief raise of an eyebrow as Matilda lands, and then a small smile. "Ah -- I've tried my hand at the merchant's life, too... though to tell you the truth, compounding is more of a passion than a business proposition for me. ... drifting has proven more profitable, anyway -- though I certainly wouldn't /mind/ if things were otherwise..."
Dusting herself off a bit, Matilda takes a look at the pile of rubble and rummages in her coat for her usual solution. She produces a flask of a thick, viscous liquid -- really more of a lotion -- and considers it for a few moments. "I suppose I should introduce myself -- my name is Matilda Whitehead! Theoretically Doctor, but people tend to... chafe."
She gives Noeline's spheres a brief wave before returning her attention in earnest to Rose. "I'm a friend of Miss Carver's. It's very nice to meet you..." She finally remembers to toss the bottle at the obstruction, where it sizzles and bubbles, eating through some of the rubble.
DG: Matilda Whitehead has used her Tool Bubble Lotion toward her party's challenge, Rubble Pile.
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
"Mhm! Name's Rose, I head the Sparrowfeathers Merchant Guild. I'm good friends with Jay, in fact, we frequently do business now! We teamed up to provide healing potions and assorted wares to Adlehyde's refugees, namely!" Well, that was their one big team effort so far. But surely there would be more!
"So, the Ruins of Memory... whose memories?" It's a valid question. "Or... what's the memory?" Also valid. At least these aren't the Ruins of Yet More Death Butterflies. The first set of those were just awful. The questions turn out to be answered by Noeline immediatly, and so we won't dwell on it.
Landing at the bottom of the pit, once everyone's gone, Rose withdraws one of the two ropes, since they might need it again later. Never adventure without an ample supply of rope. And a metal hook at the end. The uses are infinite, as long as you're imaginative.
Then she comes face to face with rubble, crossing her arms and showing disappointment. "Why's everything always got to cave in or be blocked like this? Did ancient civilizations not believe in support structures?" The answer is no, they didn't.
Rose sighs, and moves in to help. One stone at a time. It's not much, but it's better than nothing. She multitasks by chatting with Matilda. "Well, hi Doctor Whitehead! What're you a theoretical doctor of?" This might be a dumb question given the bubbly potion that was just used.
DG: Rose has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Rubble Pile.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline stumbles a bit as she makes her way down the hole. The effects of the potion wore off as she was about to make her next jump. Fortunately, Rose and Riesenlied's ropes are there for her to catch to avoid a rather painful fall.
Jacqueline sends Rose a smile as Riesenlied mentions her.
"Yes, Rose and the Sparrowfeathers are good people. I'm glad to know them." She agrees with a nod.
She makes her way over to the rubble pile everyone was inspecting.
"Hmm...I don't think it's that, exactly...time is the enemy of all great structures. I think it's more that any supports that might have been built were either worn away...or destroyed by an outside force." She comments as she looks the rubble over. Once she's got a good idea of its material structure, she draws out a Crest and begins to use it to shift rubble around.
Something that's said gets her attention though.
"Oh, I didn't realize you were a Doctor, Matilda. I'm impressed." She says brightly.
She knew she had gotten schooling, but somehow it never occurred to her to put the pieces together.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Rubble Pile.
DG: You fail the challenge, and take 9 Exhaustion! You have 12 total Exhaustion.
DG: The party led by Riesenlied has failed this challenge! The party gained 2 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"There is also a case to be made that, by moving all of this, we are also doing damage to the ruins ourselves," Noeline points out lightly, her voice not betraying any strain as she slowly heaves one of the rocks to one side. Her smile is pleasantly, but she does quirk an eyebrow as she shrugs one shoulder, an amused grin playing gently on her lips. "As each group of Drifters hunts through the place with explosives and ARMs and whatnot, the integrity of the structure will lessen - rather a necessary evil if you want to plumb the history of Filgaia, mind you."
As much as she seems to be handling the weight of the rubble along with Rose, though, it's still very slow going - and not just because Noeline is habitually careful not to stain her dress too badly, which means dodging some of the shrapnel of Odjn's many strikes. She's got a bad history with exploding rocks, okay, she's learnt to be wary.
There's more rock and stone than expected, and a sudden dangerous shift and rumble in response to Jacqueline's crests and Matilda's potion almost seems to threaten to land more right on top of them before it peacefully - thankfully - subides.
"... haah..." sighs Noeline afterwards, leaning a little on one of Riese's shoulders as she cradles a rather woozy dragon in one hand. "At least we can confirm that Max was not /underneath/, hm?"
DG: Rose has drawn a new Challenge.
================================== <* Ruins of Memory *>=============================== ================================ <* CHALLENGE - Spartoi *>============================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 1 | ----------------------------==== < Challenge Information: >---------------------------- Undeath is a terrifying state. None know what creates it, but ancient soldiers within these halls have not found peaceful rest. As you approach, skeletons stir. They rise, clad in long-tarnished armor and holding curved blades that are chipped but still sharp. =Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
"Well if we have to break a few stones to make our way deeper in, that's a cost you can't really avoid, is it?" Rose replies to Noeline, not especially bothered by the idea they might be damaging the ruins. The ruins, for one, have never done anything for her! So she's not about to look out after them.
It's exhausting, moving all those stones. Rose remains cheerful, despite obvious signs of already being rather tired of this place. Despite the growing frequency with which she explores ruins she's still not really a Drifter at heart.
It also turns out maybe all that rubble was protecting the party from what was on the other side, not the other way around. With the path ahead clear, leading into the dark poorly lit halls of the ruins, the party only need advance for thirty seconds to start hearing the rattle of bones, metal scraping against stone as creatures rise from their sleep. Fully armored, though the steel is rusty, these skeletons hold blades and some even have shields, the remnants of adventurers or soldiers past who have made these ruins their eternal home. Also you guys are noisy and have no respect for the sleeping dead.
And they're all too eager to let you know!
Rose does not like undead, and while a skeleton isn't a ghost, per se, they're still scary in their own right. She resorts to throwing down a smoke bomb to cover the party, pulling her knives out and only going after the skeletons that dare step inside the cover of the smoke. She's PRETTY SURE she can stab skeletons and hack their limbs off. Please don't prove her otherwise, beasties.
DG: Rose has used her Tool Smoke Bomb toward her party's challenge, Spartoi.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
Matilda /completely/ forgets what she was talking about at the shaking -- and indeed reflexively ducks back behind Noeline with a hasty, "M -- Miss Carter!" ... it subsides, though, and she breathes a sigh of relief.
A moment later, she remembers what she was talking about. "Ah -- right! Not a medical doctor, hence the 'theoretically,' though close -- compounding. The science of a verdant world." Matilda laughs, and there's a nasty edge to it for a moment. "It's... difficult, now. I can keep myself in basic ingredients for the most part, but..."
She gestures expansively. There's really nothing else she /can/ say about this, except a long retread of Filgaia's slow, agonizing death that no one actually wants to hear. Least of all her.
This just in: Skeletons!
Matilda shifts her position carefully, moving to where she can provide consistent fire support for Noeline and Jay in particular... but not before tossing another bottle from her coat. This one has a particularly rank odor -- but strangely attractive to monsters...
DG: Matilda Whitehead has used her Tool Succubus Bottle toward her party's challenge, Spartoi.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Odjn just kind of flexes, perhaps having waited far too long to really work some of the anxiety and aggression off in the last few weeks. Riesenlied can't help but chuckle just for a moment as she pets the dragon on the head, even in the wake of the rumbling that nearly threatened to cave them in.
"Just be careful," Riese advises Odjn... before she stares towards the skeletons, with a quiet long frown.
She's immediately flanked by three skeletons, and just as soon as they're about to strike her, she swipes her hand to the side.
"Begone."
Her eyes flash with a certain thrum of power, and her horn ebbs with a majesty afforded only to that of dragons, even failed ones. The undead dither for a moment... and, even mindless as they are, they are still constructs lifted by some power of the Ruins, turning to split apart and retreat deeper into the ruin.
"That's kinda cheatin'..." Odjn mumbles.
DG: You use your Tool Dragon Horn against your party's Challenge, Spartoi!
DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool Dragon Horn toward her party's challenge, Spartoi.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"Y-Yes, that's the important thing..." Jacqueline replies with a nod toward Noeline. She's a little winded after all the casting it took, so she has to take a short break to catch her breath before catching up to the others...but unfortunately, it seems something else has caught up to them. Quickly, draws another Crest from her pouch.
"Well, I might be a bit /biased/..." Jacqueline says with a glance towards Matilda, emphasizing the last word with an earth pillar that is sent rushing forward into one of the spartoi. "...But I think compounding is a perfectly legitimate subject to be a Doctor of."
She continues on in much the same fashion, using Rose's curtain of smoke to hide her casting from the enemies threatening them.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Spartoi.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
If Noeline has anything to say about Matilda suddenly appearing at her back, she doesn't voice it - though the amused little huff might really say it all. "Really, now, I think Max has proved himself twice or three times over at this point, getting past all of these - assuming he isn't amongst their number, I suppose," she adds almost conversationally, as one arm beckons Strife forwards.
It might feel like she's hamming it up a bit much, today. Does she have something to be proud of? Is she just pleased to be back as a Crimson Noble, doing a more familiar set of activities along with Riesenlied?
Whatever the answer, the little robot begins to fire as Noeline slips forward to protect the group, picking off single numbers of the Undead as they start to shamble through the smoke. When one of them gets close enough to slip past the orb's hail of fire, the vampire plants a boot firmly in its ribcage and pushes, sending it stumbling towards the ground - only to receive, moments later, a vividly crimson scythe smashing the undead creature in two, the weapon having blinked into Noeline's hands in the space of an instant.
The shimmering light to one side makes her pause for just long enough, as if paying it her respects. "... have you gotten better at that?" she wonders in Riesenlied's direction afterwards, tapping at her lips with her free hand ever so briefly. "Perhaps being able to sense such things as Seraphs has helped?"
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Trouble toward her party's challenge, Spartoi.
DG: You pass the challenge, and take 5 Exhaustion! You have 17 total Exhaustion.
DG: The party led by Riesenlied 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> Rose has posed.
Using smoke as cover, Rose proceeds to stab skeletons. It works better than you'd think, because if nothing else a knife can wedge itself between armor plates and clip limbs off well enough that a few skeletons lose their arms or heads (for what little it stops their march) getting too close to the spooked and perhaps veen panicking merchant. But there's smoke! Surely, no one saw that or heard that yelp.
Things are made easier when Matilda's strange potion lures the skeletons to a concentrated area. How do skeletons smell? Who knows. It's a mystery they'll take to the grave.
Riesenlied abuses some manner of power to command some of the skeletons to buzz off, and they do so without argument or complaint. If they had facial expressions one might be able to tell if they were scared or just compliant, but alas, they do not.
Earth pillars from Jacqueline crush half of the remaining skeletons, caving their armor in and crushing their bones until they can't get up anymore. Which is good, because getting back up is a real possibility otherwise.
Noeline and her little robot round the last of the undead up, and with shots, boots to the ribcages and flashy red scythes, the undead horde is no more, having been put to rest (again) or retreated deeper into the ruins.
Rose wipes her forehead, a bit whiny. "Ugh, you just had to bring up Seraphim! They're all jerks, it's like they enjoy using their invisibility to scare people!" Huff. Rose has a chip on her shoulder, it seems.
DG: Matilda Whitehead has drawn a new Challenge.
================================= <* Ruins of Memory *>============================== =========================== <* CHALLENGE - Half-Closed Door *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------==== < Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Stone doors that slide down from above are common in this place. Some, however, no longer work. This one only half-works. It has fallen down to nearly knee-height. With some work, it could be pushed back into the ceiling - or otherwise disposed of. =Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
"It would be, were things not..." She pauses for a moment before eventually finishing, "... as they were." That's about as much sad as Matilda can muster for now though; with a brief watchful eye toward Riesenlied's incredibly naked display of power, the compounder keeps moving. Her body language seems to get slightly more tense for a few times almost every time Riesenlied does /anything/, or for that matter when the Metal Demon is within her field of vision.
She comes to a halt, though, at a door that -- at first glance -- seems closed. She spots the aperture underneath it a moment later... and then just frowns. "We /could/ try to squeeze through on our stomachs," Matilda says.
"Or we could break this door and be done with it." She tosses a bottle at the door, which hisses. Looks like someone's got her answer.
DG: Matilda Whitehead has used her Tool Bubble Lotion toward her party's challenge, Half-Closed Door.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
There is a momentary pulse of tiredness from Riesenlied as her power subsides, and she lowers her head as she mutters, "Just a little bit." Matilda's look of suspicion still comes about as a rather painful thing for her, and it isn't with ease that she glances aside as the rest of the undead retreat. She looks to Rose as she says, "If it is not invisibility, then it is teasing..." she sighs very quietly. "... I must agree, in some respect."
She looks towards the door for a moment and squints, just for a moment.
Odjn looks happily at Matilda to go, "Make way for... Odjn Puuunch!" She rears back and smacks it again, with all of her draco-puppy power!
DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Half-Closed Door.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
There's an audible snicker from the Crimson Noble. "You know, that does rather sound familiar, yes," she remarks to Rose, her eyebrows shooting up again in an expressive sort of grin. "At the very least, I have met two, I suppose. One of them was a rather quiet sort, but the other one certainly did seem terribly fond of playing around and going for surprises. I dare say that Riese bears the scars even today," she adds airily with a wave of her hand.
Her cheer disappears as she regards the suspended stone block, huffing out a solid breath of air. "That is-- quite the obstacle," she says, a little too politely to be genuine. "Or rather, I suppose we could simply go underneath - but I am reasonably sure that a slab of that size would do some rather terrible things to any of us should it decide to suddenly drop - myself or Riese included," she adds lightly. "Most of all, it would get dust everywhere, and that simply wouldn't do."
Speaking of which, she glances down - and true enough, their trail is still guiding them onwards. With a rather exasperated sigh, she beckons her two ARMs forwards. "You aren't going to let Odjn show you up, are you?" she encourages them, sending them both forwards to the door--
Bonk. Bonk. Bonk.
Maybe this plan should be rethought.
DG: Noeline has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Half-Closed Door.
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
Rose is vindicated by Riesenlied's agreement that Seraphim are awful people. Everything is right in the world.
Until she sees the half-closed door.
"Oh come on! TRAPS are always functional in these places, but of course doors don't work! Really, these people should have asked their architects and engineers for a refund..."
Sadly, stating the obvious won't get them anywhere.
Rose doesn't exactly have anything to contribute, especially with Matilda's potion already hard at work. She instead tries to look to see if maybe there isn't a switch, button or pressure plate to move the door. Ha, wishful thinking, but there's nothing else to do while waiting for the others' work to pay off.
DG: Rose has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Half-Closed Door.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline can understand how Matilda felt. It made her own job a little more difficult, too. It was partially why she couldn't make a living selling just potions, and had branched out into other things, as well.
And the next thing she knew....
A door. It was partially opened, but just enough that there was plenty of ground available beneath it.
"I've got another plan. If destroying it doesn't work..." She says, invoking her Crest. A pillar of earth rises up on one side, attempting to force the door open. She remains focused on it, though not enough that she can't talk.
"Are Seraphim really like that? I can't say I've spoken extensively with any of them..." Jacqueline asks, glancing towards the others as the subject of Seraphim is raised.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Half-Closed Door.
DG: You fail the challenge, and take 4 Exhaustion! You have 21 total Exhaustion.
DG: The party led by Riesenlied has passed this challenge! The party gained 27 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.
"I'm not terribly experienced with these -- Seraphim, I admit," Matilda notes, as everyone else follows up her effort to weaken the door. Rose /does/ find a pressure plate to try to press, and the door rumbles...
... and thanks to all the hits and pillar-prying attempts /before/ it, when it tries to pop up, it instead crumbles to dust. The way is clear!
The mention of teasing and invisibility from Riesenlied seems to have Matilda's attention for an extra few seconds... and she looks down for a moment, deep in thought. Working through whatever thought she seems to have here consumes much of her attention, and she's the last through the new aperture.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has drawn a new Challenge.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Finally, the door is opened, and on the other side...
Goblins. One of them holds a lit bomb in their hand that they had actually been preparing to chuck at the door when the party had opened it for them.
The goblins stare at the party for a moment, evidently just as surprised to see them as they were.
There is silence for a moment. However, the gradually shortening fuse on the bomb soon gets their attention and it is tossed aside, the explosion apparently motivating them into action. The most leaderly of the bunch - evident by his general height, bulk, and the amount of shiny things appended to his clothing - shouts orders and the goblins up front dash forward, brandishing knives, while the ones at the back harry the party from afar with arrows.
Jacqueline ducks away past the wall to avoid getting punctured by arrows and reaches into her bag for a familiar bottle of black liquid. She leans in to hurl it into the room as a distraction, then reaches into her pouch for a Crest...just in case.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Reliable Repellant toward her party's challenge, Goblin Raiders.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied flinches as the wall suddenly explodes, and she immediately notices and identifies the creatures coming through. Odjn exclaims, "What the gobu?!" as she strides into action, her horn ebbing once more with a certain emanation that deeply reverbs within herself.
The winged woman shows her skill, as her thin sword is drawn -- one arrow is cleaved in two, another parried as she serves to protect the party from their damage. And when she cuts through the pack of Goblins to reach the leader, she lowers her head to stare at the one in charge to once more speak a word of power:
"Leave us."
Odjn glowers and says, "Y'ever think she's starting to get really lazy...?"
DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Goblin Raiders.
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
"Believe me, you don't want to!" Rose answers Matilda, before shuddering. "They're like... ghosts. Basically ghosts." She considers. "Yeah, definitely ghosts. Invisible, spooky people. There could be one with us right now and we'd never know!" If this was meant to spook Matilda, it seems to mostly spook Rose out instead, as she shivers at her own tale.
Luckily she won't have to fret about ghosts for too long as the noise of an arrow wiffing right past her lets her focus on the task at hand. Goblins, that is. Another smoke bomb blasts down, to prevent the ones with bows from being able to take shots at the party. Rather than unsheathe her knives, this time Rose reaches for a set of throwing daggers hidden in her vest, throwing a pair at two goblins. They're oddly accurate, considering it's a merchant throwing them. Right between the eyes, if the goblins won't move.
"Why're they listening to you anyway?" Rose asks Riesenlied, perhaps not-so-wisely, but she's really curious how the horned lady yelled at skeletons to go away and actually made them obey.
DG: Rose has used her Tool Smoke Bomb toward her party's challenge, Goblin Raiders.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
There's no time to pick up any dangling conversation threads for now -- the goblins make /quite/ sure of that. Matilda, for her part, seems to freeze up for a moment -- and then reaches into her coat for another bottle similar to the one she hurled at the spartoi earlier.
This time, though, she doesn't just throw it. Instead, she loads it into Freischütz, firing it at one of the goblins. In /these/ circumstances, it should be blinding -- but more importantly, it should get the other goblins to move toward that one even in their retreat.
Riesenlied's simple command gets another nervous look -- though this time, Rose's comment about invisible spooky people gets an out-and-out double take, too.
DG: Matilda Whitehead has used her Tool Succubus Bottle toward her party's challenge, Goblin Raiders.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
With an amused snicker, Noeline pats the little dragon on the head - but slips past Riesenlied, her scythe out again as it briefly spins in her hands before she slams the head of it against the ground. "There, there," she calls back to the little creature, obviously fond. "'Words are Riese's greatest tool'... is no doubt what she would say if she were not currently making use of them. In the meantime, we will simply have to cover her in case anyone gets too unruly, hm?" she encourages the dragon with a nod of her head and a well-meaning smile, one foot atop her blade as she positions herself as a wall.
Her oh-so-noble words are slightly marred by the way the Strife has hovered down in front of her, spoiling her protective pose with a barrage of relatively indiscriminate firepower.
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Trouble toward her party's challenge, Goblin Raiders.
DG: You pass the challenge, and take 3 Exhaustion! You have 24 total Exhaustion.
DG: The party led by Riesenlied 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> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
The goblins don't know what to do when one of the party just charges straight through the pack, cutting away any arrows sent in her way. The leaderly goblin takes a few cowering steps back as Riesenlied speaks her order. Seeing their leader intimidated sends the rest of the goblins into disarray, particularly when a smoke bomb from Rose engulfs the party. Two of the archers don't even see the knives before they impact them.
One of the goblins receives a face-full of Succubus Bottle and he recoils back, trying desperately to clear his eyes. In the smoke, the Bottle is more attention-grabbing than whatever the party is doing, leading some of his allies to start to turn on him.
Not only that, any goblin that tries to get too close to anyone receives laser fire courtesy of trouble.
Eventually, the leaderly goblin turns tail and runs, his weapons left behind. The surviving goblins follow suit, panic thoroughly instilled in them.
Well, it looked like the way forward was clearly now, at least.
"Hopefully Max didn't run into them..." Jacqueline murmurs, concerned.
DG: Riesenlied has drawn a new Challenge.
================================ <* Ruins of Memory *>============================= =========================== <* CHALLENGE - Sealed Doorway *>======================= |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------==== < Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The door at the end of this hall has a great lock on it. Unfortunately, no key was ever to be found inside of the ruins to this point. Perhaps it was stolen or perhaps it was lost. It is no matter - the door must be broken down through other means. =Dungeon Conditions: Tire=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied looks towards Rose, and then picks at her horn for a moment. There is silence and hesitation, but then she finally says:
"In Filgaia, Dragons are constructed of a kind of metal that reverbs with a certain low resonance. Most humans and other intelligent species can't hear it without equipment, but in lesser beasts and animals, it triggers some kind of survival instinct... it has come in useful to send monsters and Beasts running without having to hurt them."
That was perhaps a little more explanation than the Demon should provide, but it isn't as if she wanted to hide who she was anymore.
Odjn whines to say, "Hey, Riese, how come I can't do the whole i-ain't-the-dragon-you're-looking-for thing?"
"... You'll learn one day," Riesenlied offers.
Odjn sticks her tongue out as she -- perks up to go, "Hey, more footprints! Follow!" as she ambles along... to a great big door under which a single footprint goes under. "Geez, perhaps this Max should learn to be an adventurer, huh? He or she's gone in deeper than most rookie Drifters've gone before!"
Somewhere, Virginia lets out a little sneeze and puts her cup of tea on her Alraune minion's head.
Odjn rears her limbs and goes, "Well, if it's power we need, then... Odjn hoooo!" The most exciteable little dragon can't reverb her way through problems, but she sure can verb her way through problems. By which I mean -- crashing straight through in a little Odjn-shaped hole in the door.
WHAM
DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Sealed Doorway.
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
"Really? So... you're saying if we found the body of a dragon, we could figure out how to make it make sounds that ward off monsters?" No, Rose does not really realize how creepy that might be to say that to Riesenlied. In fact it's possible she HASN'T noticed the obvious yet, and just assumed those horns are cool horns and she's something like a beastman or an oni or... you know. Anything else with horns.
Still, that's really interesting. She'll have to share the find with Sorey.
That door, on the other hand, is far less interesting than what the horned lady had to say. Infinitely so, in fact. "Alright, well... all I've got for this is..."
Rose shuffles into her utility belt and pulls a single grenade out. "Clear up for a second, let's see if I can dent it!" It isn't, luckily, an especially powerful grenade. Actually it's on the low-end side of the spectrum of explosives. But it's still better than trying to use her noodle arms against the door.
She could try to wiggle them a lot? It'll look weird for sure. It won't open the door though.
DG: Rose has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Sealed Doorway.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"... I have to agree with Odjn," sighs Noeline after a long moment, her hand coming to her forehead. "I dare say that Max has made a very accomplished attempt to come too far. ... alternatively, it may be possible that we've missed him entirely," she muses, tilting her head at the 'footprints'. "This is a Ruin of Memory, after all, and one such memory is likely to be 'other visitors'."
She steps up to the door, watching as Odjn tries to burrow through it - and leaning down to peer along the length of the lock, one eye closed as she squints a crimson eye to study it. "... I dare say we would not be unlocking this, even if we did find the key. The mechanisms look old and worn," she adds a touch hopefully, "And I suspect the whole thing has become one lump of rust. Still--"
She sighs expansively, flicking out some of her hair before bracing a shoulder against the lock. "I suppose let's see if we can't force it in the good old-fashioned way, as well."
DG: Noeline has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Sealed Doorway.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
Doors. Whether they're the type of automatically locked doors Matilda is /great/ at dealing with or the type of dumb, awful doors Matilda has /never/ managed, like this one, doors have often been the bane of Matilda's existence. She scowls as she looks at the door for a moment. "I'd be surprised if he managed to get through...
Then again -- he is a /child/, and could find alternate routes that grown folk could not. With a nod to Rose, Matilda says, "Allow me first, then -- I should have a /little/ more of this... so if nothing else, I can weaken the door for the rest of you."
She reaches around in her coat one final time, and sure enough, draws more of that thick lotion out. She gives the bottle a quick twirl in her hands, and then a nice, forceful toss.
DG: Matilda Whitehead has used her Tool Bubble Lotion toward her party's challenge, Sealed Doorway.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline pauses as she listens to Riesenlied's explanation.
"Huh...I didn't know that. That's...quite clever, actually." She says. A thought occurs to her, though. Riesenlied said that 'Dragons' were constructed that way. But...if she was capable of it, then did that mean she was a dragon, too?
Jacqueline studies Riesenlied for a moment. Would it be too probing to ask if it was uncommon for a dragon to have a humanoid form? She wasn't too familiar with the various classes of Metal Demons. She decides against it, instead focusing on the door ahead of them.
"You know...this door doesn't look damaged beyond rust and age. Is it possible that Max found the key? Maybe that's why they were so interested in coming here..." She considers.
Or, like Noeline said, maybe Max wasn't here at all - the door wasn't exactly in the greatest shape.
Once the door is weakened enough by dragon, explosives, and lotion, Jacqueline draws out a Crest.
"Stand clear." She warns, before sending a pillar of earth out as a battering ram.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Sealed Doorway.
DG: You pass the challenge, and take 10 Exhaustion! You have 34 total Exhaustion.
DG: The party led by Riesenlied has failed this challenge! The party gained 0 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"... no," Riesenlied answers Rose. "You would need more than the body. You would need a core and... well, you would need life," she expresses in turn. "It would be the same as any human, would it not? Human bones alone do not do anything..."
Odjn peeks through on the other end to call out, slightly muffled, "The footsteps still go through! We're totally on the right path!" It's either Max, or some other devilish devil with some other kind of ominous footprint. But don't leave anything that requires hard thought to Odjn.
Still, between Rose's grenade and Matilda's lotion, enough of the lock is disintegrated enough for the rest of the group to shove and slam their way through with a battering ram--
--that kinda hits Odjn and sends her flying to go, "Odjn's blastin' off again-- bweeee~" and disappear into a twinkle in the darkness.
DG: Noeline has drawn a new Challenge.
================================ <* Ruins of Memory *>============================= ========================== <* CHALLENGE - Ancient Elevator *>====================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------==== < Challenge Information: >-------------------------- This passageway consists of two levels. Unfortunately, the level you enter on ends in a sheer wall, polished far too smooth to climb easily. However, there is a section of white stone that raises up before it. There are grooves in the side, like that stone slab may raise and lower. Unfortunately, there are no obvious controls for this ancient elevator. A closer look may be required. =Dungeon Conditions: Tire=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"--ah..." Noeline utters as Odjn goes flying down a side passage; she stares for a moment, watching as the dragon disappears in a little twinkle, and then robotically turns towards Riesenlied to raise her eyebrows in a kind of 'is she okay' question. "... you may wish to go help her up," she advises quietly, letting out a softly amused noise. "Though I'm sure she will be fine."
Her attention is tugged past the commander, though, when the door finally gives away - and her second hum has much more in the way of understanding to it. "Ah, no wonder the door would not open so easily. It was probably designed to be a failsafe - to stop anyone falling down the shaft of this space," she comments, sounding like she's had more than a little experience in such things.
She lazily marks out the grooves on the side of the wall, her eyebrows raising as she follows them upwards. "Hopefully, this is still in working order - it should have a way to lift us up to the next level, you know, though mechanical failures are as common as structural ones."
Still, she examines the walls, peering up through the gloom to try to check the machinery - in short, applying a couple of centuries of Digging knowledge to the problem.
DG: Noeline has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Ancient Elevator.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied cups her mouth for a moment as she leans in and calls out, "Odjn!" A pause, as she sighs softly to say, "I think she will be.. all right, yes."
She pauses, as she rubs at her forehead for a moment. "I can sense something..." Her eyes narrow just a little as she looks towards the mechanism and presses her hand very softly towards the marking upon the wall. "There are definitely gears and cogs here... but how do they all interact together?"
She closes her eyes, that same reverb pinging out as a sonar would to other objects, giving her a little vision of how the mechanism all interacts. It's stymied by the fact that it's hidden behind stone, much like other radar systems, but...
DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Ancient Elevator.
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
Rose kind of stares flatly at Riesenlied. The stare seems to communicate something akin to: You can't possibly mean that after we JUST encountered skeletons. She wagers the spirit of the advice is true though - the metal of a dragon's body on its own won't be useful. She'd have to find some way to replicate the low frequency hum and arrange the metal in the right shape and... this is not really her field of expertise. It might be Emma's, and that'd be somewhere to start.
But can you imagine it? Selling little metal devices you strap to your caravan and it keeps monsters away? She'd be RICH. Also in general that's really useful, profit not considered.
Reaching some sort of... elevator? Platform thing? Rose pokes at the suspiciously smooth wall, then glances up at the pit above, and assumes the same must be under the platform. That is no help getting it going, though.
"Say, do you think all these ruins are from the same civilization? A lot of them so far have these really advanced things in them, but... they all kind of feel a bit different, too? Like this one, for instance, it's all smooth, polished. There's barely a sign of any kind of control panel or mechanisms, right? In the Sult Ruins, there were flashy crystals and buttons, visible controls, and there were engravings everywhere. How many super-advanced ancient civilizations HAVE there been?"
She does her best to poke around places, hoping some part of the wall might end up fake in an attempt to conceal something useful.
DG: Rose has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Ancient Elevator.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
... /Technically/ they get through, at least -- though Matilda doesn't have a whole lot of fun trying to battering ram. It's really not her speed, and unlike /most/ of what they've been doing, it seems to put her out a fair bit.
Looking at the newfound opening, though, she brightens a little. /This/ she can handle! "All right -- as is the usual, look for more-worn segments of stone, odd abutments, and general... incongruities," she says. "These things often can be discerned simply from signs of use."
As she tries to find something, she looks at Riese one last time. "... truly, there are things even a dragon's fossil cannot do?" she asks, with a small amount of surprise.
DG: Matilda Whitehead has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Ancient Elevator.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"O-oh no." Jacqueline whimpers, paling slightly, as Odjn is hit by her battering ram and goes flying. "I hope she's alright..."
The door opens, however, leading them into what appears to be some form of ancient elevator. The sight of it is impressive enough to take her mind off of what just happened...at least somewhat.
"Hmm...if you can direct me...I might be able to use Crest Sorcery to shift things aside into working order. It's...a little more...'fine' than I'm used to, but...I think I might be able to manage it." She offers.
While she waits for a response, she studies the machinery herself. Maybe she could figure out something on her own.
Rose's question does get a glance from her.
"That's...a good question. Honestly, I don't think anyone really knows for sure." She replies with a shrug. "Sorry...I know it's a bit of a cop-out answer..."
DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Ancient Elevator.
DG: You pass the challenge, and take 7 Exhaustion! You have 41 total Exhaustion.
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success!
DG: The party led by Riesenlied has successfully explored Ruins of Memory!
================================ <* Ruins of Memory *>============================= =========================== <* CHALLENGE - Ancient Tomes *>======================== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Discovery |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------==== < Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Some of the rooms on the deepest levels of the Ruins of Memory are libraries. This room is stacked to the ceiling with shelves. While many of the books have crumbled to dust, several are yet salvageable. The contents, at a glance, are novels and comedies from the Metal Demon Wars era - on social issues, rather than history, but they may well find a home with a serious scholar. =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"That is - frankly - an extremely good question," the Crimson Noble comments of Rose's thought. "To be honest, I would like to think of myself as something of a historian - and yet, even I could not particularly begin to guess. They are at least somewhat regional in nature - not to mention, you should account for structures intended for habitation, for worship, and for resources. A mine is never going to look all that similar to a habit intended to be lived in."
It's a fairly common-sense statement for so wild and strange a girl, but she does at least seem to know what she's talking about - even if Wild Arms 3 kind of bucked the trend due to not having enough tilesets.
"... there is probably a large counterweight suspended somewhere - something that will balance the weight of this platform, and can be lowered and raised with a little more in the way of ease," she comments towards Riesenlied, her eyebrows raised. "If you can locate and we can actually get to it, it would make this process much easier - if significantly more dangerous," she adds with a huff.
But then her fingers brush an errant section of the wall, and the stone block suddenly lurches into 'life'. "Ah-- all aboard~," Noeline chimes pleasantly, her grin disarming as she swirls her skirts and makes a pose of it, her fingers splayed at her lips. "Next stop-- well, probably 'destiny' or somesuch, don't you think?"
Or, you know, a library. Noeline looks no less pleased about it, briskly stepping forward before ever so carefully tracing the spines and then extracting one from the shelf with infinite care.
"Oh, my. This isn't exactly what I was expecting - but it is quite a find," she hums happily as she starts to carefully page through the tome. "It's been a very long time since I've read something quite this well-aged."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied lowers her head at Matilda's question, with a surprisingly hurt tone to her voice: "... it cannot connect with people's feelings, or understand them ..."
She blinks a few times, before realising she's perhaps getting a bit too maudlin for her own good -- which is why, at that exact point in time, Odjn resurfaces as she just about slaps her upside her head to go, "No bein' a frowney-face, Riese!"
The elevator descends along with the rest of the group, but her attention isn't towards the tomes like Noeline, it's to their missing quarry. "Max! Please, are you here?" She was likely to side with Occam's razor and think that it's more likely that the child isn't here, but then--
"Yaaah!" goes a girl's voice. "Get away from me, you creepster!"
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
Over there! There's a flash of a yellowish metallic thing or another that moves and swerves to the call for attention for some sort of creep. Something kind of serpentine? There's a hunch to its back in its current posture, as the yellowed flash of metal reveals a sickle in place of a proper left forearm, which drips with some unpleasant-looking liquid that causes smoke to rise as the droplets hit the ground. "Sit unmoving!! Close up!!" Comes a screechy voice that has the unwanted distinction of being ever familiar. "Noisy ^Tiny Stoic Warrior Caste^!! Not obtaining a way! Fufufu." That sickle-arm rears back, a fell discolored light glinting off of that little tip, revealing the side profile of a googly beady eye and a long, hanging tongue accompanied by breathy chortling.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Max -- evidently a girl rather than a boy -- sticks her tongue out, rather spunkily holding a trowel and waving it in a manner that might be construed to certain types of Metal Demons as menacing. She's got yellow overalls on and doesn't look particularly injured, owing to her Future Adventurer Extraordinaire (tm) status, clearly. "H-hey! Help get this weird thing offa me!"
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
"Whaaaaaat?!" The large demonic serpent-slug-worm thing recoils. "Not 'this weird thing'!! Metal Demon! Most granular destroyer of humanity! Such lip!!"
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
The panel slides open to reveal...a library. Jacqueline strolls in, an awed look on her face.
"Wow...there must such history in these tomes..." She murmurs. She's distracted by the sight of them, until the sound of shouting brings her back to the mission at hand. Jacqueline quickly reaches into her pouch of Crests and whirls in the direction of the voice.
"Max? Hold on!" Jacqueline calls out. She rushes forward to witness...
Yarobeleedt. Not that she...actually knows too much about the creature before her. Any time she might have witnessed him clearly doesn't stick in her memory. But...it called itself a Metal Demon. She glances back in Riese's direction. If that was the case, there might be trouble for her if it sees her here. No time to wait, then.
"Sorry about this!" She says, before invoking a pillar of earth beneath Yarobeleedt with the hopes of send him flying up and away and away from Max.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
The initial sight of the library gets a sparkle in Matilda's eyes -- but the scream brings her out of it, and she's back to a careful, measured stance and Freischütz at the ready in almost no time at all.
Reaching into her pockets, she pulls forth a bottle of -- something, and dumps it into Freischütz's magazine-slash-reservoir slot before shutting it. She takes a half-step forward, and with clinical precision, takes aim and fires --
-- at Max.
Max finds herself with a sudden immense burst of energy as Matilda calls, "Run!" Running should be faster and easier, at that.
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
Yeah, probably lots. And the answer might be depressing to know. Rose doesn't press, even if like most people she's still curious to know the answer. We all wish we knew everything about the past, after all; not necessarily out of interest but just because it'd be neat to have all the answers and not need to puzzle these places out. Like trying to figure out if these ruins were indeed a house, a mine, a mansion, a school, or who knows what else.
The sight of an old library isn't especially impressive to Rose, whose interest in books is mostly how sellable they are. These books do look quite sellable, in fact! But she's not head over heels at the notion of books. She's not like Sorey and Alisha who'd probably rather die than give their Celestial Records away.
There's also very little time to gawk at books when an oddly-spoken Metal Demon and a screaming child make themselves heard. Rose dashes in without thinking - exhausted as she is from the ruins, she might not be the most dangerous of opponents, but she can't ignore the cries of a child either.
A throwing knive twirls in her hand, and she flings it towards Yarobeleedt! It multiplies in the air, a flurry of yellow and gold illusionary knives. They don't pierce so much as whack, being projections, but anything to knock the monster's attention off Max.
Even if that means THEY'LL have to deal with it.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Leaning back a little at the first noise of a scuffle, Noeline's eyebrows rocket upwards - then she smirks openly at the sight of a spritely girl attempting to smack a certain snake demon on the head with a trowel. "Oh, my," she comments rather glibly, the book still held open in her hands. A wave of her hand and Trouble bleeps, rotating into position to fire - and then swivelling upwards to watch as Yarobeleedt blasts off, sent sky-high by Rose's flurry of knives and Jacqueline's stone pillar.
"'History'... you could say that," she hums afterwards, glancing with some humour towards Jacqueline. "Though I suspect they are more signs of the times than actual historical records. Not to denigrate them - you can tell a lot about an age by what its authors write about, fact and fiction alike. I definitely recall a section of Adlehyde history where tales of evil landlords took precedence. --did you-- shoot that child?" she asks abruptly, her eyebrows shot upwards in rather stunned surprise before she solidly huffs. "--surely there has to be a more tactful and harder-to-misunderstand way to apply something like that?"
says Noeline of all people.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
"Not at this distance," Matilda explains to Noeline, with a bit of an awkward laugh. "I've tried throwing it and it doesn't work! Something about the ARM itself..."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Max takes the chance to just sprint with a 'yowza!' from her lips, as Matilda shoots her with the good juice (tm) that enables her to put a spring to her step and charge out of the way of the demon getting bounced up high! Whee! "Heyyy! Were you lookin' for me? I found an awesome book!" She's, indeed, got a bundle of books in her arms. There's a chance of this one being a protagonist Drifter in the future...
Riesenlied doesn't bother with the subtleties or the tact, at present, walking towards Yarobeleedt as he's sent flying up high, moving wordlessly after the creature. "You," she states, "I am taking back right now. Just what do you think you are doing?"
She turns towards the rest of the group and states, "... I thank you for your assistance. I would not have made it this far on my own, and... please, return that child, because I cannot." Her wings shrink a little as they draw in towards her back, and she places a hand towards the Demon when she's certain that he's both not critically injured and ready for transport...
...and then the two disappear, beaconed back somewhere (the Photosphere?) through the wonders of the Demons' technology. Dragon Fossils. Does everything except what Riese wants it to do.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline picks her eyebrows up at the sight, picking up on the fact that Riese intends to teleport away; she huffs softly to herself, resolving to join the commander at the earliest opportunity as she gently closes the book in her hands. "... we'll see her safe back. I promise," she bows lightly, her voice kind enough to make the statement genuine as she gives Riesenlied a nod of recognition.
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
"No carnivaaaaaaaaaal~" The blight upon all that is good and beautiful upon Filgaia whines as they lay sprawled upon their back after being unceremoniously flipped over by a surprise earth pillar. The illusory knives see panicky swishing of arms at the knives. The arms are a blur - this thing is fast! But it also seems fast to panic and go on the hard defensive, screeching at the top of its cursed little slug-butt lungs. They flip right-side up and hide underneath their arms, shaking... and then poking an arm up as if to peek out from underneath their taffy-like shapeshifting forearms. "So entertaining a letter 'E,' it is!!!" The thing's voice shakes. "I'll present yy--- eeeeeeee." They rise up. Their eyes seem kind of... drippy? Their too-wide mouth quivers. "Buttbuttbuttbuttb-b-b-b-b-b-b," he stammers, motionless, shaking in his, um, not-really-a-boot? The analogy doesn't work here. He freezes as Riesenlied holds an arm out at him-- --and that is the end of that, for now. What the hell was that thing? How did it even get down here all the way, through the traps and the doors and everything? (Throwaway boss monster trade secrets!!)
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline watches as Yarobeleedt is sent flying into the air, pelted with knives, and then scolded by Riesenlied and...teleported away, apparently.
Jacqueline shakes her head, then glances toward Max.
"I hope you know that what you did is very dangerous, Max." Jacqueline scolds, arms folded in front of her. She lets this set in for a moment before her expression lightens a bit into a smile.
"...But I am impressed. You made it this far all by yourself, and there doesn't seem to be a scratch on you. Just be more careful next time, alright? Tell someone where you're going, and bring some help with you." She says, a bit proud, then strolls over to the shelves.
"Hmm...well, that sounds good to me, too. I should take some with me, too..." She says, in response to Noeline's earlier comment.
They found Max safe and sound, and they were all getting some fascinating reading material out of it, too. It was definitely worth coming along.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"Of course it is!" Max answers Jacqueline glibly, then looks towards Rose and says, "Teach me how to knife people! And also crest people and also shoot them!" This one's /definitely/ got the lack of common sense to be a Drifter one day.
<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.
Well, that... happened. Rose didn't expect to get out of that one with no Metal Demon-caused injuries, and yet, here she is. It seems the horned lady really did have the safety of that child at heart.
Rose pats Max on the head, grinning at her enthusiasm. "Now now, how old are you, Max? You're at the age where you should be playing with other kids, not learning to use knives to hurt monsters or people!" This is pointedly untrue and Rose wasn't exactly that old herself when she started.
"Buuuuut, if you're going to keep running into trouble like this, I guess it'd be the responsible thing to do to teach you how to defend yourself. I'm just a merchant, but, you know, we'll see what we can do! ... just promise you'll be more careful from now on, alright? And help us carry all these books out."
Debatably, Max did a better job getting into these ruins than the party did, so maybe she should be the one giving advice.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Max just pumps her arms as she says, "I'm seven! But awesome! I've always wanted to do that!" And thus, valuable Metal Demon-era books in hand and child safely rescued, the group is due a just reward! The reward of a job well done, books that are worth a pretty penny to sell and to study from, and the satisfaction of knowing that this child won't go wandering off into a Ruin without the ability to sneakily leave a knife in the underside of some poor Gob's shank sometime!