2017-06-19: A Panel Of Berries (Side 1)
- Log: 2017-06-19: A Panel Of Berries (Side 1)
- Cast: Lunata Croze, Shalune Amira, Emma Hetfield, Sephilia Lampbright, Jacqueline Barber, White Knight Leo (Scene Setting),
- Where: Berry Cave
- Date: 2017-06-19
- Summary: In order to gather more berries for the patients at the Starfall, Lunata and Shalune gather some friends and run off to the Berry Cave. Inside, they find something they did not expect...
This scene happens alongside 2017-06-19: A Panel Of Berries (Side A) and concludes in 2017-06-19: A Panel Of Berries (Ending).
===============================<* Berry Cave *>=============================== The Berry Cave once held an underground grove, where the curative berries found throughout Filgaia grew. However, monsters moved inside of it, which made the cave dangerous. The tenders of the Berry Cave relocated to Surf Village, located nearby. Since then, the cave has become a nest of the monsters known as Wels. The locals advise against entering these cavernous depths, but nonetheless, the Berry Cave's namesake lures people in: those berries still grow on vines in the depths and sell for a pretty penny. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C55flOnlXMg
DC: Shalune Amira switches forms to Girl of Blue Skies!
DG: Seraph Ragnell has left your party. DG: Lunata Croze has created a party! To join, type +party/reset and then type +party/join Lunata Croze. DG: Jacqueline Barber has joined your party! DG: Emma Hetfield has joined your party! DG: A party led by Lunata Croze is now entering Berry Cave. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Militia Checkpoint *>===================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- One of the local men from Surf Village is assigned to watch the entrance of the Berry Cave. He has been told to not let anyone pass -- especially those Drifters. But, he seems to be dozing off, and he is certainly bored. Maybe you can find a way past? =Dungeon Conditions: Tire=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
HOW THIS ALL CAME ABOUT:
Uncle Tom growls as he tries to ignore the calls coming from over the showfloor. "I heard ya already! We're continually short on berries 'n there's nothin' I can do about it, sheesh! We're at the mercy of whoever's got the goodwill to come 'n supply us with some!"
The Starfall Saloon is still aching, and those that are still hanging in the balance still need continued, intensive care. In this world where fruit is as vital as medicine, the Berry Cave, then, has become such a treasure trove...
"And where's Lunie? Lunie!" Tom calls out. He somehow misses the giant rumbling stomp of a Golem trundling off, carrying both Lunies, towards -adventure-!
HERE, AT THE BERRY CAVE:
"I--I feel bad having to sneak in again, but..." Lunata gasps. "We've definitely got to pick as many as we can!" She's managed to acquire an extra bobble hat from Shalune as she looks towards the gathered group. "Let's save some people today!"
Big Shal is probably looming just behind her, extra stealthy, that 12-foot Golem. "I'll need you to be... extra... sneaky... Big Shal, OK?"
She starts and tiptoes around the path that she's by now used to. Nin nin, nin nin...
DG: Lunata Croze has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Militia Checkpoint.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
It's hard to be sneaky when you're Big Shal, and the golem appears to know it; the twelve-foot mechanical creature, conically shaped with big doofy hands and feet, seems almost to sag as Shalune pats it on the foot. It was what brought her and Lunata this far, carrying them on a platform welded to its back for just that purpose, and probably anyone else who wanted a bit of a lift in a rather unusual style.
"It's okay, it's okay," she tells it, her voice kept low but still laced with pleased effort. "We'll just walk from here, okay? Wait for us, and we'll be back.
It's hard to be sneaky when you're Little Shal, as well, because as much as her face is usually hidden between layers of jacket and sweater and hat and pink hair, she does tend to stand out in a riot of colour. She's made an attempt, at least, having switched out the battered but well-loved jacket and hat for a similarly beaten-up hoodie in black; her stupidly long bangs still provide a shock of colour as they stick out of the hood, but at least she's a bit darker than she'd usually be.
For bonus points, the hood has a pair of adorable cat ears, and the sleeves end in paw-like gloves with space to stick your hands out. Exactly how old are you, Shalune?
"Wah, I remember sneaking in here when I was younger, I'm pretty sure... it was kind of a dare, back then, and it always helped to have a couple berries on you. Didn't they close it up when someone went missing?" she mumbles almost to herself, marking her way around the perimeter and using what appears to be a broom as a walking stick, its shaft reinforced with metal.
Colour aside, whatever she was up to in Elru for the last year seems to have sharpened some instincts - she keeps low, surpringly spry as she bobbles from outcropping to outcropping and quickly finding spots to hide behind.
DG: Shalune Amira has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Militia Checkpoint.
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
EMMA HETFIELD has been ogling that golem for a while and has affixed herself to the group, since she now has an excuse to ditch out instead of painstakingly wrapping copper around a chunk of iron again. She has left this work to others, who seek knowledge and wisdom, and are not her.
NOW she is standing behind Big Shal while wearing a sleeveless vest thingy that is like the upper half of a cheongsam (reddish) and a pair of paisley tights that she probably got off some waifish girl with sad eyes. She has the Emulator on her hip and one of those old stone tubes, now impressed as a cigarette holder, hanging from her lips, as if she were a gonzo journalist.
"Amazing... astounding... Uncanny... superior... unbeatable... detective... watchmen... giant-size," Emma mutters to herself. She has been in the lee of the golem and may not have been immediately spottable by Lunata.
There is a pause.
"Show him a little ankle, Lunata!" Emma encourages. She explains to Shalune, because Shalune is nearby, "I've done experiments. Guards can't resist a little ankle."
DG: Emma Hetfield has used her Tool Text File of Her Own Wisdom toward her party's challenge, Militia Checkpoint.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia has invited herself along for these shenanigans for a number of reasons, including a) to make up for being such a jerk to Shalune when they first met, b) to show Shalune how cool Chauncey is in a more productive way, c) to learn what she can from Emma, and d) because helping people is fun. She also just really really loves to explore and she has only been to the Berry Cave once before.
"I was here before and we found a back way in," she whispers, "but we only found it 'cos of Zed's scarf. Maybe..." She frowns, and pulls out her Dad's journal, consulting the strange, barely legible shorthand George Lampbright favors. "Maybe there's something in here about finding alternate ways into caves..."
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has used her Tool Dad's Journal toward her party's challenge, Militia Checkpoint.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
o_o
"P-Professor Hetfield...??" Lunata whispers embarrassedly, before...
... she lifts up one of her legs, ever so slightly. She's wearing opaque purple leggings today, with tiny :3 cat prints on them.
"I-is that good enough??"
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune is perhaps the perfect student, having immediately second-sensed Emma's Aura of Professor and gravitated in her sort of direction - while at the same time wide-eyed enough to listen to anything Emma might suggest. "Ohh..." she sounds out, forgetting even the scandalized 'wah!' at the sight.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline had been just coming back to Adlehyde when she saw it. Big Shal, walking away from the city carrying Lunata and Shalune. Knowing them as long as she had, there was only one thought in her head at the sight of that.
"I should...probably follow them..."
And so, she found herself at the Berry Cave once more. Well, this was fine. She could always use more berries, after all.
"You know...at this point, I feel that if they really wanted to keep people out of the Cave, they'd replace the guard." Jacqueline observes. "I'm starting to believe he's only there to keep out anyone who isn't resourceful enough to find a way past."
It was as good a guess as any, really.
It was an interesting group she'd found herself with, but not an unpleasant one. In fact, they were all people she liked, so it was looking like a good time.
"L-Lunata, you don't have to, really..." Jacqueline urges, shooting a glance towards Emma.
Was...was Professor Hetfield really that bad of an influence...?
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
"Show it all! The entire ankle!" Emma encourages.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Militia Checkpoint. DG: The party led by Lunata Croze 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> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia blinks. "Do boys like ankles? I thought they just liked..." The girl blushes. "You know," she finishes lamely, gesturing in a way to indicate bosoms and bottoms. "I have nice ankles," she adds.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata whimpers, and having personally failed her challenge, clearly did not show enough ankle to make the guard gasp and go, "Mr. Darcy!" and cause a scandal throughout the Filgaian Victorian Times (such a publication exists. You just have to know where to look.) on the unslightly flashing of ankle and how today's morals are being -eroded- by all of these heathen Drifters who do not believe in the good name of Granas.
Still, the guard, as Jay points out, appears to be one of exceptionally thick perception, such that he looks straight on at Big Shal for a long moment -- long enough for the group to sneak on through -- before he turns back around, shrugs and goes:
"Must've just been my imagination."
DG: Jacqueline Barber has drawn a new Challenge.
===================<* CHALLENGE - Precarious Rope Bridge *>=================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Occasionally, there are terrific chasms visible, where underground rivers have cut through the limestone here. Long ago, prior visitors placed rope bridges to cross them. These have frayed and worn away. They may be sturdy enough to cross, but care -- or another means of moving over the chasm before you -- will be required. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"L-let's move on from this subject..." Jacqueline says, her face a little red. She's quiet for a moment, until they near the end of this more hidden passageway.
The mouth of this entrance to the cave looms ahead...but before that, a long rope bridge stretches out before the party. It's a somewhat precarious construction, but it looks sturdy enough to support them all...at the moment anyway.
Jacqueline takes point, a Crest drawn from her pouch and a bottle of pale-green liquid in her hand. The potion would give her a lighter step, potentially allowing her to get across quickly and hopefully be ready to invoke the Crest, should anyone need to be saved from a long fall.
"I wonder how long this bridge has been here...you'd think someone would come by and replace it...or, at the very least, cut it down, to prevent anyone from doing some fool thing..." She comments.
You know, like they were doing now.
DG: You must use a Tool that matches the Challenge's Dungeon Ability. If you do not have one, use the matching Basic Action instead by typing +act Combat DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Invigoration Elixir toward her party's challenge, Precarious Rope Bridge.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune isn't used to ruins diving, exactly - she's more at home on the surface than under it - and it shows as she lets out a relieved sigh when they're safely past the guard and into the tunnel system. "... wah... somehow, it kinda feels like they've gotten more serious about it, huh?" she wonders aloud, glancing over her shoulder to check that they're safe before scurrying after Lunata, cheeks the colour of her hair. "Lunie's gotten pretty bold, huh..."
For all that she wanted to be stealthy, maybe she should have made sure that the cat-hoodie didn't have eyes and whiskers that glowed in the dark.
She seems to be a constant source of upbeat conversation at least, nodding to Sephilia with a pleased smile. "Aw, don't worry," she adds in between an uncertain glance at the chasms ahead, automatically heaving her stuffed pack off her shoulders to start rustling through it. After a moment she glances up, her grin encouraging the puppeteer with a smile. "I mean, there's--" curves motion, "--but there's cute factor too, right?"
It takes her a while, her tongue stuck out in concentration, and then she evidently finds what she's looking for - a thick, flat sheet of metal with a propeller on one side and a rope tied to the middle of the other. "Mmm... I knew I should've brought the Little Dipper along, but I guess it would've been a bit hard to hide..." you know, unlike the golem. "But this should do just as well! I think?"
Unceremoniously, she heaves it out towards the middle of the nearest chasm, her grip solid on the rope - and unnecessary, as the strange plate just catches itself in mid-air, the propeller whirring as it hovers in place like a Megaman accessory. The way she reshoulders her pack and hops across via the strange device is also daredevil in how lightly she takes it.
DG: Shalune Amira has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Precarious Rope Bridge.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata kind of just flails and says, "E-enough about my ankles... or anyone's ankles, please!"
She pouts just for a moment and goes, "H-hey, Lunie, don't leave me behind!" as she very carefully tries to make it across... she doesn't exactly have any enhancements of her own, just common sense and a very healthy dose of cautious measure. Jay might want to keep an eye on her.
DG: Lunata Croze has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Precarious Rope Bridge.
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
"It's probably to keep small children and dogs from wandering in," Emma tells Jacqueline while messing with her fancy smoking thing, "so their bodies don't fertilize the vines."
Then she saunters forwards. She's wearing flats today, because her heels are breaking enough that she's already scheming to get a new set in Lacour.
Coming up to the gap, Emma pulls out her (punchy) gun and starts winding up the Emma Motor on the top of it. "Speaking of dogs and small children, this would certainly discourage them." She sets her teeth firmly on the cigarette holder and: POONCH!
A cute boxing glove flies across the gap, hitting a convenient outcropping and... did it just grab on?
Emma tugs a little even as she turns her head to look at Shalune pulling out a platter full of propeller-fueled plate. She looks to Lunata as she says, even while walking over to affix this newfound cable, "Our little Shalala's all grown up now... Has she talked much about the ARM?"
Emma then zips across her newly established zip line. She even leaves it there, for the good of the public.
DG: Emma Hetfield has used her Tool Punchy Gun toward her party's challenge, Precarious Rope Bridge.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia nods, looking glum. "Cute is all I'm ever going to be, I think. I won't get to be a beauty. But! That's okay too!" Suddenly brightening, she beams, happy to have someone to chatter to. Then she sees the bridge.
"At least Chauncey can be small enough to get over this without problems, but I sometimes wish I wasn't so small myself," Sephy complains as she carefully tries to get across a gap in the bridge's planks, short legs barely stretching the distance.
"Shalala?" she asks curiously.
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Precarious Rope Bridge. DG: The party led by Lunata Croze has passed this challenge! The party gained 17 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Shalune Amira has drawn a new Challenge.
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Poison Berries *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The curative berries that give this place its namesake are why many brave the depths of the Berry Cave. Some bright blue berries gleam, tantalizingly. They look like Potion Berries, the stronger of the two sorts of berries found here. But something about them is different... =Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"I-I see..." Jacqueline replies with a glance towards Emma at her...somewhat unnerving knowledge. Maybe...maybe she shouldn't have asked.
Ever the worrywart, she had already started to invoke some stone pillars from the side of the cave, just in case she needed to catch someone before they fell. This turns out to be fortunate for Lunata, as just as she's about to trip a pillar of earth reaches out, giving her a safer landing then the ground below.
Shalune's strange contraption gets an eying from Jacqueline. It was some form of bizarre machinery, but...it definitely seemed to be working?
How? ...She decided not to dwell on that for now.
Emma's own contraption proves pretty useful, as well, getting her across without even having to set food on the bridge.
"Shalune." Jacqueline explains to Sephilia, gesturing to the girl making her way across through the help of something that definitely isn't Item-1. "You met her before, right? Though I can't say I know what a Little Dipper is..."
One way or another, they all manage to get across eventually without falling to a horrible painful death...or at least horrible injury.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
"Sha-la-la~" singsongs Shalune in return to Sephilia's question, grinning happily as she tugs on the rope to begin gathering it up, the motion dislodging the flying plate from whatever force held it in midair. "It's what Teach always called me, and I guess it kinda stuck. I'm a Lunie through and through, though!" she huffs in rather toothless protest, though, planting her hands on her hips once she's hefted her backpack back onto her shoulders.
Quickly, she moves to help Lunata the rest of the way across, taking the other Lunie's arm in hers as she reaches over a chasm to help her - then beaming at her brightly. "Woah, look at you go! Jay's all adventurous now so I'd kinda expect it, but you're holding up really well!" she natters as they round the next corner--
--and her eyebrows rocket upwards at the gleaming collection of blue berries around the walls. "... uh-- wow, so soon?" she hums to herself, bobbling up towards them to peer closely at one. "You'd think they'd be harvested already if they were only this far in..."
Already, her voice betrays her suspicions as someone who's been kind of roughing it for a while, and she raises her broom to ever so carefully poke at one of them. "Umm... hmm... give me one sec. Maybe they're rotten?" she adds, sticking one hand into the cat-paw glove of her sleeve to collect a single berry, placing it on a rock - then carefully smushing half of it with a wrench to check the insides.
DG: Shalune Amira has used her Tool Trusty Wrench toward her party's challenge, Poison Berries.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
"You aren't just cute!" Lunata insists to Sephilia, "You're also smart and resourceful and can use magic-- ah-- whahh--" She yelps as she starts to rock the bridge too much! Her eyes widen as she starts to fall, but quite fortunately for Lunata indeed, Jay's just around the corner and with a stone pillar for her to lean to. "Thanks, Jay... someone really needs to fix this bridge...."
Lunata stares at Emma as she zips across on the punchy gun (inner thought: i want a punchy gun) and says, "O-oh... the ARM? Which ARM?" She's still thinking of a traditional ARM, i.e. a gun.
She imagines adorable little Shalune, with her bobble hat and mittens, carrying a shotgun. ... nawww.
"Wait! I've seen this before!" Lunata exclaims, thinking back to when she was last here with June and Fei. "Some of these are poisonous, despite looking like potion berries..."
She sets down and undoes her little dungeon soup thermos, while propping a sign next to it that cheerfully reads:
~*~ TODAY'S DUNGEON SOUP ~*~
Daikon soup with clear pork bone broth
with fresh, chopped chevril!
She pours a little cup, and then snips some of the berries and drops one into it. Sure enough, the clear soup turns... ominous and purple and bubbly and a skull and crossbones belches out of it. "This one's no good!"
DG: Lunata Croze has used her Tool Soup of the Day toward her party's challenge, Poison Berries.
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
"Mm hmm," Emma tells Sephilia as she firmly affixes her cable. She points towards Shalune so it's clear.
Then they go forwards and are confronted with a choice of berries. "Oh, this is a great opportunity," Emma says, as she pushes buttons on her Emulator. It beeps, makes several ethereal tones, and Emma frowns before cycling the power button.
"This happens once in a while underground," she explains. Then, "Wait!"
She turns the glowing green-glass panel around for people to see. "This one," Emma says, "is good. And this one is poison. So choose accurately!" The photos are reasonably accurate and there is a color shift, but between the lighting, the fact that it's Emma's strange ARM, and general cluster-foxtrottery, it isn't guaranteed.
"It's a way we use to refer to the entire field," Emma explains as she sidles up to score some soup - oh, no, it's a practical test. Emma frowns slightly, unsouped.
DG: Emma Hetfield has used her Tool Text File of Her Own Wisdom toward her party's challenge, Poison Berries.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata does have other little portable bowls of soup for those that want a dungeon break and take some soup. *_* Please, help yourself!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline pauses when they get into the room with the bright blue berries. She looks them over with a frown. The various practical tests going on here remind her of the last time she'd encountered these berries.
"Ah...a word of fair warning. The poisonous ones don't react well to heat." She glances toward Lunata's poison soup.
"Direct heat." She corrects herself. "If you apply some to one, it, well, it explodes, and releases a gas...which then makes all the others explode. So...avoid lighting any fires in here."
She folds her arms in front of herself and studies the room.
"I'd advise just leaving them alone...but then again, some of them might be the good kind..." Jacqueline frowns. Now she had to try.
She walks up to one of the vines, studying it carefully.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Poison Berries.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia brightens considerably at the stream of compliments, She looks pretty curiously at Emma's devices. "How does that work? Is it magic? Or is it that lightning stuff you were talking about that time? I'm still not very clear on all that stuff. Ida just told me to ask you, so far." She trips and falls at the end of the bridge, but safely, always safely. Just a skinned knee, that's all.
"Okay," she says, when she sees these berries, "when we were here before Zed ate a bunch of berries and I think the only reason he was okay is 'cos he got some of the good ones mixed in with the bad ones. Or 'cos he was...well..." The girl looks depressed for a few moments--Sephilia is many things, but good at hiding her emotions is not one of them. Her heart is worn on her sleeve, as the saying goes.
"This is where I met him, you know. And Ida and Lynnai and Talise an' bookguy. Arleph. That was right after I got here! Anyway, there's information on telling poison berries in my Dad's journal." She pulls it out, flips through the pages back and forth to find the spot, then holds it open to show everyone. "See?" she asks. George Lampbright may be a famous explorer, but unlike Sephilia, his handwriting is barely legible chickenscratch and his sketches are a little bit...wonky.
He has a good editor, fortunately.
"Anyway, if we follow what Dad wrote here we should be fine!"
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has used her Tool Dad's Journal toward her party's challenge, Poison Berries.
DG: The party led by Lunata Croze has passed this challenge! The party gained 21 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
"Ehehe..." chimes Shalune at the first sight of Lunata's thermos coming out, her smile vivid and overjoyed as she rubs her hand together. As much as she can be a surprisingly good waitress, a certain inventor is obviously also doing the job for access to the food, and eagerly accepts a cup to clamp her hands around to warm them. "Wah, I've super missed this..."
She perks up as she watches, listening intently to Emma's advice - though her attention is more on the device she pulls out, rather than the results thereof - and then perking up a little at talk of a massive explosion as it comes from Jay. "Ugh, well-- I mean, if we can spot them okay, that just means more harvest in the end, right?"
Fortunately for all involved, Sephilia even has a book on the subject, and Shalune leans across to peek a look over Sephilia's shoulder, simultaneously fussing over the girl to offer her a little protective pad she's absently tugged out from her backpack, placing it over her knee in a kind of unintentional big-sister sort of fashion. "Ooh, good job."
When all's said and done she straightens up, clapping her hands together. "Thanks for the food~" she adds, triumphantly hefting a small bag of berries. It's a start, at the very least.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia eyes the berries closely, tapping her nose in thought. It's a strange habit she picked up somewhere--probably from her dad. "I thiiiink if he's right, this one should be good," she says, plucking one from the vine and popping it in her mouth.
Moments later, she dashes back to the edge of the chasm with the bridge, gagging, and empties the contents of her tummy right into the darkness below. She straightens, weakly, reaching into her satchel and producing a handkerchief with a laughing fox embroidered on it, wiping her mouth. "I think berries look different on Lunar," she says.
DG: Emma Hetfield has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* CHALLENGE - Cliff Face *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The way ahead is a few steps forward and about a hundred steps down. To progress, one must scale down a sheer drop. A formidable cliff face, which will require care to not slip and hurt yourself on. =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata's eyes widen as she says, "O-oh no, Sephy! Here, have some soup, it'll clear your stomach..." It's probably true, too. Aunt Hilda probably provisioned something with an antitoxin method, knowing Lunata would sneak off here... as she has been.
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
"It's actually good to sick it all up," Emma explains as she supervises Sephy's upchucking, hands on her knees. "That's what we do this for. That's why horses die if they eat some plants - a horse can't vomit at all. If it goes in, it's not coming out until it hits the other end."
SCIENCE!
She also explains as she packs up the Emulator. "This is an ARM I've salvaged and repaired, as an ARMs meister. I'm very skilled at the matter... the Emma Motor is somewhat cruder, because of the materials available to me, as well as the inevitable gaps in my full understanding of the ARM."
Then she has some soup.
SOON!
"The flowers don't all bloom at once," Emma says. "I've actually theorized that these were developed as a renewable resource - you know of course that some resources are used up, and others restore themselves over time. Of course, some are only renewable if used more gently... But we also can't just let people perish, buried but un-berried. So - oh! Look out, big drop," Emma announces.
She shoots another POONCH! from that gun of hers and moves to affix it, but she says to everyone as she does this, "Go on ahead... I'm sure you can do it. I'll let you know if any monsters attack."
DG: Emma Hetfield has used her Tool Punchy Gun toward her party's challenge, Cliff Face.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
"Wah!" blurts the inventor as the poor girl stumbles back to them, her face scored with sympathy; she pats the girl gently on the back, fussing over her as she leads Sephilia back towards Lunata to collect some soup. "Aww, there there-- it'll be okay, yeah? Lunie's cooking will fix you right up."
She sticks close for a while, until she's sure the younger girl is on the mend - and then has scurried ahead, to where their path suddenly ends in a significant drop, leading Shalune to peer slowly over the edge as she judges the distance downwards. "... mmn..." Experimentally, she throws out her little platform again, hopping onto it - but the plate refuses to go downwards, suspended in mid-air as its propeller whirs.
"That makes sense, right?" she wonders aloud to Emma, who is on considerably more solid ground. "They wanna spread, so they make sure that people wanna actually use them, but you've gotta stay safe from predators too? Somethin' like that? --oh, oh--"
She perks up as she has a good idea - a 'good' idea - then holds out her hand to Lunata. "Hop on!"
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata gasps just a moment as she nearly trips against the drop, looking towards Emma as she says she'll keep an eey out. She looks towards Shalune with a bit of a squint and says, "H-hop onto... what, exactly?" She doesn't look like she trusts Shal-1 nearly as much as she trusts Little Dipper, though she holds her hand on regardless... she looks back at Jay. "Y-you'll catch us if we fall, right??"
DG: Lunata Croze has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Cliff Face.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
"Aw, it'll be fine," promises the pink-haired girl, grinning as she tugs Lunata across the empty distance onto the plate. Not exactly intended for two people to use at once, the little thing promptly starts to emit a low whine, as the whir of the propeller can't maintain its height and starts to slowly sink downwards.
shalune that is not a responsible way to treat your technology
DG: Shalune Amira has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Cliff Face.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Even after soup, Sephilia looks a little pale. Taking care to make sure Chauncey is secure in her satchel, she quietly begins to descend. Very carefully, this time. No more accidents for this Sephy!
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Cliff Face.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline listens closely to Emma's knowledge. It's certainly enlightening, if sometimes a little disturbing.
And then, ahead of them, a big drop. As before, Jacqueline draws a bottle of pale-green liquid from her bag and downs the lot before pulling out a Crest.
"Don't worry, Lunata. That's what I'm here for." She replies with a smile. She invokes pillars of earth along the wall with her Crest, using them as footholds to jump between as she makes her way downwards.
All the while she keeps a careful eye on the other members of her party, ready to summon another earth pillar to catch anyone who looks like they might be about to fall.
Hopefully she wasn't too focused on them to save herself.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Invigoration Elixir toward her party's challenge, Cliff Face. DG: The party led by Lunata Croze 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> Emma Hetfield has posed.
"Be careful, that's expensive, Shalala~" Emma calls down to Shalune, sliding down zippily as things progress. At the bottom, she meets Jay, and asks her, "What's that you've been sipping?"
There is not a ton of dramatic outcome here because it was a cliff. Emma does say to Shalune, with thought, "I hadn't thought of that. That's true... birds and wild animals might eat the berries for their restorative effects, then expel the seeds later..."
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
While looking up wistfully, Emma takes two steps to the side, crooks her arms, pauses to take the cigarette holder out of her mouth and then does it again. The reason for this may not be clear -- but Sephilia Lampbright may appreciate it, in just a moment or two!
Why didn't she shout a warning?
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia drops from the cliff face into Emma's arms a moment later with an "oof!" and a mortified expression. "T-thanks," she says, clearly embarrassed at how poorly she's been managing to show off her dungeoneering talents to the older women this trip.
DG: Shalune Amira has drawn a new Challenge.
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Water-Slicked Path *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The underground rivers of the Berry Cave make some pathways treacherous indeed. Here, one has crossed the path. The water is only ankle high, but it has made the ground slick in the extreme. A slip could cause a twisted ankle -- or worse, send one sliding over the edge of the nearby pathway. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
"Right? Ehehe, don't think I haven't been learning," chimes Shalune triumphantly in Emma's direction, lit up with a slightly childish happiness at managing to score a scholarly point--
--and sufficiently distracted that she doesn't even notice the damp ground, one of her hiking boots catching on a rock and nearly sending her leg out from under her. "--wah!" she blurts, scrabbling automatically for any purchase in a brief fit of panic - and fortunately finding Jay there to help right herself, letting out a relieved if rather surprised breath as she scurries back onto dry land.
"Fuahh... well, um, at least we know why the berries grow down here! I guess there's enough damp and enough luminescence, and probably not much in the way of stuff to eat them," she adds, trying to stay upbeat about things as she reaches for the broom fastened across the top of her pack.
No, she isn't about to sweep the water away, so much as use the mostly-metallic shaft as a walking stick and a way to keep her balance.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata looks just a little bit disappointed as they come on down and there's... ankle-deep water. "What is it with this place and my ankles today...? I really don't want to get them wet, and I think I'd slip if I weren't careful..."
She holds her hands out to either side as she tries to ford the river by just kind of -- stepping on one stone, then the other... ooh dear, don't move too precariously, Lunata...
"It's true, though, Shallie's gotten so smart since we last saw her!"
DG: Lunata Croze has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Water-Slicked Path.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia looks around for a dry passage. "I wonder if there's some rocks I could cross on," she says, glumly. "Cos' I don't want to get Chauncey wet. He might get moldy if I do that!" Mournfully, she seems to accept that there's not any other way than to go through it, and begins to pick her way across.
"Normally I'm better at this kind of thing," she adds, for the benefit of those who haven't had the pleasure of adventuring with her before. "I'm...I'm just having an off day, honest!"
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Water-Slicked Path.
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
"Your ankles are quite shapely, Lunata," Emma says. "You really."
Emma is silent for about a second and a half, probably distracted, even as she takes off her shoes. Yeah, thats' what was up there. I almost said she was taking after her mother, Emma muses. But I can't say that aloud... how awkward.
"Oh, I spaced out. Forgive me. It's true! Shalala dear, you must tell me where you've been studying," Emma says as she splashes forwards, hissing through her teeth at the cold of the water.
"Oh, you're fine," she tells Sephilia while walking very carefully forwards.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline would never pass up an opportunity to explain one of her potions, especially to Professor Hetfield...even if she was starting to think that maybe she was a bit of a bad influence.
"Oh, this is my Invigoration Elixir. After drinking it, for a short time you'll find yourself able to move about quickly and more efficiently. As an added bonus, you'll also find you don't get as tired during that time. It's very handy when you need to get around places like this." She explains.
And, fortunately, the cave was providing her with another reason to prove that. She finishes the bottle and gets moving. She keeps her Crest at the ready, but she doesn't invoke it just yet. Shalune had a point - this was probably the berries' water source, and she didn't want to mess with it too much.
"The only downside is...its important to limit your doses. It can be a little hard on the body to take too much in a short period of time. I recommend a limit of three, personally, just to be safe. In other words, this will be my last one, unless we encounter something that necessitates it." She adds, then glances toward Sephilia with a smile.
"We all have them, not to worry. She's very reliable, you can trust me." The rest is said for the benefit of the others.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Invigoration Elixir toward her party's challenge, Water-Slicked Path. DG: Emma Hetfield has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Water-Slicked Path. DG: Shalune Amira has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Water-Slicked Path. DG: The party led by Lunata Croze 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. DG: Lunata Croze has drawn a new Challenge.
=========================<* CHALLENGE - Giant Rats *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Giant rats are a common nuisance inside the cave, seeking the curative berries hidden within. They scurry in the dark, moving in packs and becoming quite hungry. Not only could they attack in their hunger, they can also knock one over -- or be tripped over, for an unlucky adventurer. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
"E-ehehe--..." stumbles the inventor for a moment, with a glance towards Lunata and Jay - it's the telltale look of someone who knows they're been in trouble for this particular topic before, and may yet be again.
"Um, I kinda-- went out in Elru's direction. A bit," she adds, her attention kind of divided from the path for a moment as she says it - a factor which trips her up, literally speaking, and sends her scrabbling for more in the way of purchase. This time, Jay isn't around - and only an urgent wedging of the broom against a chunk of wall saves her from slipping down the dangerous drop.
"Wah--" she splutters a little as she finds her way eventually to dry land, puffing out a breath and looking forlornly at the gloves and arms of her hoodie now sodden with water. "Ugggh, I like this thing and now I've gotta wash it..." she whines, watching as everyone else takes a long moment to pick their way along the walkway, somehow more bothered about that than the long trek downwards. Who said she was smart, again?
Still, what she does appear to have are reserves of energy and an upbeat nature tougher than diamonds - and so she picks herself up with a bit of an effort to help haul Sephilia the rest of the way. "After this we'll all pile into Lunata's room, and I've got a heater that'll get us super toasty," she promises.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
SOMEWHERE ELSE
Instead of sneezing when Meredin feels like she's been mentioned, she just tilts her head, rubs her chin, and goes, "I really am that amazing, aren't I, Emmie?"
HERE
Lunata yelps as she trips and winds up splashing herself onto the river, and her leggings and dress get quite wet as she groans and sniffles. "Ohh, these underground streams are really cold--"
Squeak.
Blink, blink.
Squeak squeak.
"Did anyone else hear..."
The last one to make it to the end of the line, Lunata looks around herself as suddenly, eyes emerge from within the depths of the caverns! "T-t-those aren't what I think they--"
Squeak!
"AAAAAAAAAH MICE!!"
They're rats, Lunata. Giant rats. The waitress flails and whimpers, hucking a trowel clear across the room as she flees to go find the closest person to hide behind -- probably Jay -- as she whimpers, "Mice are scary!!"
Take no notice of the little sticker underneath the trowel that says 'OROCHI-AGITO TROWEL: MADE OF HANZO STEEL'. This in no way indicates what she'll get in the nearby future, nope, not at all.
DG: Lunata Croze has used her Tool Orochi-Agito toward her party's challenge, Giant Rats.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephy slips and falls in the water, flat on her butt. This, apparently, is the last straw, as the girl starts sniffling as she is soaked in water and sore and her ankle twisted in the fall and everything is going wrong.
"I hate this!" she says. Then...rats! Giant rats!
Sephilia, wincing, pushes back up to her feet, pulling Chauncey out with a determined expression. "Okay, Chauncey," she says, sniffling once more. "It's time to show them what we can REALLY do here!" She holds the doll out in front of her, and with a strange visual burst he grows to hulking size, with Sephy curled up in a backpack on his back. Chauncey has had a nice felt top-hat added to his wardrobe, courtesy of Fei Fong Wong, and is now looking even lordlier than ever!
"All right, Chauncey, let's hit them with the smash!"
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Giant Rats.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
"Oh, wow, you guys are huge," blurts Shalune, taking up a defensive position in front of the other cowering Lunie with her broom readied in her hands. "What have they been feeding you, little guys? Not-so-little guys? Don't suppose you'd like to show us the way to the rest of the goods, or anything?" she wonders aloud in something of a litany, an experimental swing sending a nearby rat scattering backwards. It's not as if she's trying to wound, or anything, nor even than she's making contact - but huge sweeps allow her to flick enough water and dust at the creatures that she can dissuade them from coming closer.
"Y'know, I had to evict a couple of these guys out of my tent once? If I hadn't put up a bit of a barrier around my food, I would've had a heck of a time for the next month 'til the caravan came back around. One of them even got into Big Shal," she adds, an extremely disapproving frown on her face.
DG: Shalune Amira has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Giant Rats.
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
"I see... so not to Elru in specific," Emma says, before her foot hits slime and
kslpash!
Emma gurgles and pushes herself up on her elbows, hissing as her still-healing arm is plunged into cold water. She is able to get clumsily up, dripping, not calling for help. Her face tightens but her hair is in the way of it, and it's gone by the time she's upright.
And then they're faced with rats.
"That's why you elevate your food," Emma answers Shalala not very loudly, even as she just opts not to mess around, brings out the Emulator, keys up the 'Cast Fire on Rats' app, and
well
it's in the app name
DG: Emma Hetfield has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Giant Rats.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Giant rats. What dungeon was complete without them, really? Jacqueline was used to them, frankly, so she's not at all surprised to see them. She glances behind herself at Lunata with a smile of reassurance.
"I know they are." She says, her expression still a bit on the cheery side. "And they're a bit of a menace. They eat their way through the berries quite recklessly."
As she speaks she draws out a bottle of familiar black liquid.
"I don't know if you remember this solution, Shalune, but you might want to stand clear!" She calls out as a warning, before hurling the bottle at the largest of the rats, splattering the foul-smelling contents everyone in hopes of putting them into disarray.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Reliable Repellant toward her party's challenge, Giant Rats.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
"Does elevate mean "tie up and hang from a tree?" Sephy asks as Chauncey does a Foxington Double Axe Handle on a rat. "'cos that's some book words there if it does."
DG: The party led by Lunata Croze 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. DG: Jacqueline Barber has drawn a new Challenge.
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Rotted Corpse *>======================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The Rotting Beasts that call this place home are rare. Sometimes, some unlucky Drifter finds one and kills it. Here, towards the very lowest levels of the Berry Cave, one was felled. However, the Drifters who came before did not clear its corpse away. Now, a pile of rotten meat, mighty bones, and the sickening remains of the Rotting Beast's victims are blocking the way into the final chamber of this route. This is grisly work, but must be done to continue. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Acrid, vile-smelling smoke wafts out of the tunnel up ahead, carried along on the breeze. The stench only gets worse as the group proceeds further, until it comes to the source. A carcass of truly colossal proportions lies across the way deeper into the cave, having slid in front of the tunnel on a trail of... ooze. Best not think too much about what's in that ooze. The carcass is clearly that of some hideous amalgamation of smaller creatures, and the astute might recognize it as a colossal Reaper. Someone has burned away a considerable portion of its mass. Someone else essentially took a shovel and brute-forced off one of its limbs. Part of it is thoroughly exploded.
"Wretched" does not even do justice to the smell.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia feels better having smashed some grotesque verminous menaces. She wouldn't phrase it that way, of course, those are book words. But the feeling, that's the important part. Unfortunately for Sephilia, there's still more awful ahead.
"I think I might throw up again," the girl says, gagging in disgust. "I'm gonna have to give Chauncey a serious wash up after this."
Chauncey seems unbothered by the smell, for his part.
Sephy shrinks her bodyguard back down to his ordinary size, affixes a pair of digging trowel claws, then returns him to hulking brute size, the claws increased in bulk as well.
"All right, Chauncey," says Sephilia, pinching her nose to avoid the smell, "Let's get to clearing this so we can get through
Chauncey, ever the stoic, hard-working buddy, sets to work.
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has used her Tool Digging Claws toward her party's challenge, Rotted Corpse.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
One thing that was always a constant in the Berry Caves was the chamber at the end. No matter the state of its denizen, it always carried an awful, awful smell. Fortunately, Jacqueline was prepared. She reaches into one of her bags, pulling out a set of filtered cloths and passing them around to her party before tying her own around her nose and mouth.
It would help, but only to a certain extent. At least it was less likely that they'd get sick or something from it. But what awaited them...
"This...I think someone got here before us..." Jacqueline mutters. That couldn't be natural decay. She then glances back toward Lunata and Shalune.
"I'm...I'm sorry you guys had to see this. Sometimes...sometimes this business isn't pretty." Unfortunately, it was still blocking their way. She draws a Crest from her pouch, and attempts to shift some of the remains aside to make things easier on them.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Rotted Corpse.
<Pose Tracker> Emma Hetfield has posed.
Emma, perhaps piqued by having her book larnin' critiqued, hangs back in the face of this horrifying rotted THING, and this is where the death-sticks she's been waving around come in handy. Igniting one and taking a long drag means she isn't smelling rotting creature!
"I think someone else is ahead of us," Emma muses aloud. "Can any of you hear them?"
DG: Emma Hetfield has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Rotted Corpse.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
"Um! Nope! Totally Elru," she admits to the Professor, somehow managing to scratch bashfully at her cheek in the midst of a broom-swing. "Um, it's kinda a long story, and I need to sit down and explain it to Lunata's Mom too because otherwise she said she'd headlock me, so--... um. Yeah," she finishes rather lamely--
--but then perks up as Jacqueline's potion comes sailing overhead. "O-ooh, you're still using that? Uggh," she whines, but then she would - after all, she did her best to replicate it for a long while, and the sudden memories of a score of failed attempts stinking out her house still manages to be fresh in her memory. She does at least pull her broom back, set in position - and then baseball-bat the vial forward into the midst of the rats. "Sco~ore!"
- * *
"--oh-- oh, wow--" she blurts as she rounds the corner to find the rotted carcass, her hand instantly coming up to help her sink into her hoodie, her mouth and nose covered by fabric for all that it would help matters.
"U-uggh-- look, um-- I think I've got some stuff to help clear that thing away so it's less messy..." she whines petulantly, reaching for her pack again - where, fasted on via a loop of tough-looking leather sits a totally innocent looking pot that is in no way an ARM. White-gold and shaped like a traditional alchemist's cauldron, little spiderwebs of neon lighting glow on the sides as she takes a hold of it, setting it in front of her as she hunkers down.
TOTALLY INNOCENT.
A light inside of it starts to glow as she begins to concentrate, hunting through the pouches on the side of the overstuffed pack and squinting against the smell. "I'm out of bombs, but I can probably knock one up. I'm sure I've got some in here-- oh, yay--" A small block of pumice gets tossed into the pot, followed by a few matches and a little bag of some greyish powder. Upending her broom, the girl sticks one end into the pot and begins to lightly stir, immediately activating whatever mechanism the pot uses; it rattles for a moment, grinds as if unhappy-- and then falls silent as it emits a little ring of smoke.
"Okay, I'm gonna blast that side," adds Shalune brightly as she extracts a round, red object that looks very much like a cherry bomb. "Hopefully it should burn up some of it, too, kinda help the smell."
Surely a little thing like that can't--
BOOM
DG: Shalune Amira has used her Tool Soup of the Day -Shalune Ver.- toward her party's challenge, Rotted Corpse.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata makes the most horrified-looking face as she stares at the rotten and thoroughly dead corpse, which smells even worse. "Uhhghh--" she cups her mouth as she turns up towards the group and kind of looks to signal like she's totally done with Digs for the day and wants to just go -home-.
But then she remembers the people in need...
And that's why a totally invisible and thoroughly unseen bony claw that she shouldn't have yet starts to heave one part of the beast out of the way, unbeknownst to all -- especially her. It's like... it's like an editing error. Okay? Okay. This episode aired early.
DG: Lunata Croze has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Rotted Corpse. DG: Sephilia Lampbright is too exhausted to continue! DG: Jacqueline Barber is too exhausted to continue! DG: Emma Hetfield is too exhausted to continue! DG: Shalune Amira is too exhausted to continue! DG: Lunata Croze is too exhausted to continue! DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Lunata Croze has successfully explored Berry Cave!
What do our intrepid heroes find beyond the battered Rotting Beast? Treasure? Demise? The most mysterious and powerful of Guardians? Find out...next time, on Dream Chasers!