2017-07-11: Rejection Complex

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DG: A party led by Cyre H. Lorentz is now entering Temple of Rejection.
DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
=============<* CHALLENGE - Open Entrance to the Closed Palace *>=============
|Type: Entry       |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 2          | 
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 The entrance to the interior of the temple is, generally speaking, a massive  
 stone wall with no noticeable locking mechanisms or method of operation.      
 Right now, though, that wall just simply isn't there, letting you freely      
 wander in to the massive entrance hall, full of beautiful, stone-wrought      
 paths and pillars and at its very center, three large, floating crystals:     
 one red, one white, one blue.                                                 
                                                                               
 At least, that entrance is open for as long as it takes you to step inside,   
 at which point the wall will just suddenly reappear behind you as if by       
 magic as alarms blare all around you for your intrusion, easily as big as a   
 Gear and dense enough to withstand the strongest of blows. There's no way to  
 go but forward, now, with a stone-carved console from a bygone era capable    
 of opening one of many paths further into the Temple of Rejection if you can  
 but figure out how to use it...                                               
=Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

The Temple of Rejection has an interesting name. Why is it called the Temple of Rejection? It seems to accept all who come in. The structure is very well preserved for its age; countless generations of Gounon's people have come and gone since the disappearance of Johnny Appleseed, and still the temple has stood timeless and unchanged, as if rejecting the grinding march of time itself. Maybe that's why it has the name that it does?

Well, it's not doing any rejecting today.

Quite the opposite, actually.

Cyre bolts upright as the dungeon's front door suddenly snaps shut behind his bold adventuring party. Most are friends from the Caravan, others are... Acquaintances, he supposes. Why is he here, though? Why is anyone here? Well.

That has something to do with the fact that the Temple of Rejection has recently become... not so timeless.

Something in here has changed. And it could be that something very interesting- or perhaps very valuable- is at fault.

"Weeeeellllll," Cyre drones, glancing over his shoulder at their suddenly sealed entranceway. "That's a problem." He turns his eyes forward again, slowly adjusting to the darkness as he makes his way towards a strange stone console in the middle of the room. It Seems Important.

"...Looks like we might have to make our own way forward," he mutters, examining the console for any indication as to what button he might need to press to make it do what he needs it to do. "Anyone more familiar with this kind of thing? Machines aren't exactly my forte."

DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Open Entrance to the Closed Palace.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.

For the most part, Catenna had stayed away from the tournament matches. She'd come out to watch her friends fight but otherwise busied herself exploring or cooking. In this case, exploring was the name of the game - including finding this mysterious ruin.

As the door flickers shut behind the group with no warning but for the sudden screech of alarms, Catenna jumps ever so slightly. She turns to grimace back towards the sealed entryway, lifting her hands halfway towards her ears as if to try and cover them - albeit in vain. "I wish Shalune were here," she mutters as Cyre asks the question; she eases forward nevertheless to squint at the old console.

The priestess has her shotgun already occupying her right hand, ready in the event she needs it. For now she rests it against the edge of the console and slides her fingers over the edges of it, considering and biting down lightly to her lower lip.

"I think... that most of these will open a door," she admits as she indicates a series of controls.

She looks up to Cyre and shrugs. "The question will be which door we open, I think... and whether it is the correct door."

DG: Catenna has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Open Entrance to the Closed Palace.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei Fong Wong steps inside with the rest of his party. He needs to make some quick cash and that's why he went into a ruin, hoping to make enough gella that he can not starve in Lacour. And also sleep in a bed. The doors behind everyone shut as he enters so this is a great start to the adventure.

Fei Fong Wong draws out his artist's kit and specifically his sketchbook. He draws a quick color wheel in the corner of the page and looks back up to the floating crystals. "Red white and blue. Maybe we need to get the red and blue crystals to shine against the white one somehow to open up more of the ruins."

He pauses. "Well it's a thought anyway." He pokes at the console experimentally in the meanwhile

DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool Artist's Toolkit toward his party's challenge, Open Entrance to the Closed Palace.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

It appears Ethius misgauged his window of opportunity in regards to certain matters about the Tournament. He got out of the brackets honorably... but it would turn out a later date would be best to continue investigations, to whatever mysterious end he seeks. He willingly comes along with the rest of the Caravan Kinship to this uncharted ruin.

When they get trapped Ethius draws his proper quarterstaff. Even if he should scrounge up some cash for a better quarterstaff than his starting one, that wooden pole still manages to appear far more dignified and capable a weapon than that ancient bronze spear he used in the Tournament... anyway, he circles the room while the alarms go off as though anticipating being an ambush.

After a time, when it doesn't appear enemies will show, Ethius goes through one of his standard operating procedures. Get out the eyeglass lens thing, zap a little Symbology-based electricity into it, observe the interesting mechanisms in question...

He points out where some mechanisms seem to meet and where they might link, but everyone else is on their own to figure out what any of this means. (It might corroborate Fei's theories.)

DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Spectral Lens toward his party's challenge, Open Entrance to the Closed Palace.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Jacqueline had heard rumors of this supposed 'Temple of Rejection', so when Cyre had asked other members of the Caravan Kinship along, she was quick to join up. She was especially glad she had decided to do so when she had heard that Gwen and Fei were coming along. They were both people she had had the pleasure of working with before, and people she enjoyed the company of.

And it looked like this Temple was forcing the situation, as no sooner than they had entered had a wall appeared behind them. They had no choice but to continue onward together.

She sends Catenna a smile.

"Don't worry. Shalune might have leagues more experience working with the interiors than I do...but I'm not too shabby when it comes to actually using machinery." She says, a bit proud, and joins her at the console.

"Let's see...yeah, I think you're right...if we do this..." Jacqueline presses a few buttons on the console. "We can get a brief description of what each option does...but of course we can't actually understand any of this, unless one of you happens to be familiar with this language..."

Jacqueline, as it happens...wasn't. She glances toward Fei as he brings up the crystals, and Ethius as he utilizes that lens of his.

"Hmm...that's an idea...there might be an option in here to adjust that..." She murmurs. It was certainly worth a shot.

DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Open Entrance to the Closed Palace.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

So this is the Temple of Rejection.

It's not very well named. Smashing her right fist experimentally against the side of the door, Gwen looks at the party assembled, an uneasy glance given towards Ethius's way before walking to examine the crystals, standing arms akimbo.

"Redirectin' some light? Well, just as long as we don't have to do any singin', I'm good," Gwen says, a glance going towards Cyre. ... It wasn't like it was his fault, but at least he'd appreciate what she was referring to.

Gwen gets out her med kit and pulls out a metal tin of some medicine or another, seeing if she can reach up and experimentally redirect some light. "Though we're gonna need a bigger piece of metal if we're gonna do it this way."

DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Medical Kit toward her party's challenge, Open Entrance to the Closed Palace.
DG: The party led by Cyre H. Lorentz has passed this challenge! The party gained 11 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> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

"Yeah, you're probably right," Cyre answers Catenna as the entire adventuring party seems to start fussing with a single stone plinth. Plinth-chan is feeling nervous. She is not used to all this attention. She lights up in response, glowing with embarassment, oh no!

Somehow, by the power of artistic talent, Fei seems to know just what to do with that glow. Or perhaps it's not artistic talent. Perhaps it's something else entirely. Regardless, Ethius can indeed confirm that he's on the right track, and so can everyone else when Gwen manages to redirect the light just so. Suddenly the room seems to shift, grind and churn, before a door leading further into the maze is revealed at the far end.

"Looks like that did it," Cyre says with a nod and a grin. "And without even a bit of chorus. Too bad, maybe we'll get to do some singing later, hey?" He starts off down the corridor. The way back is sealed, so the only thing to do is to keep moving forward...!

DG: Catenna has drawn a new Challenge.
===================<* CHALLENGE - The Horror From the Hills *>===================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 4          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------
 This place is not right. The temple itself, certainly, seems odd in how it    
 seems to almost have a life of its own, and yet... this room, specifically.   
 This is not a part of its security. Something was contained here. Something   
 that should never be let free. It emerges from a cold light, massive,         
 elephantine, monstrous -- its physical strength is the stuff of legends, its  
 massive trunk able to level buildings, its hide almost impenetrable. The      
 best you can do is stall or weaken it long enough to get free to run. Which   
 you should. You should run. Run very very far very very fast. Chaugnar Faugn  
 is upon you.                                         
=Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck, Overwhelm======================================
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.

"I trust your talents, Jacqueline." Catenna bows her head shallowly to the apothecary, flashing her a gracious little smile.

Indeed, a door grinds open slowly as the group figures out how best to redirect the light and manipulate the console. Catenna nods simply back to Cyre, then picks up her shotgun in one hand, sliding her medium into her left to ensure she's ready for whatever is beyond. "I should hope that we do not sing overmuch... it may... draw attention in here," she murmurs as she begins to move towards the door.

She steps through it smoothly - and into a room that seems, somehow, cold. Chill light streams through - upon an immense form that rises from the floor itself. The vast monster shoulders aside chunks of flooring and a couple of support pillars. A sound like a vast, demonic war horn booms through the chamber as an enormous trunk slams through the air and into another pillar.

Catenna gasps as she beholds what it is. "Chaugnar Faugn," she breathes, her hand caught at her throat and her eyes wide.

She swallows hard, then immediately turns and heads for the hills. "RUN," she shouts. Catenna never shouts, but this is a special situation.

She's heading for another door, off to one side of the room. She pauses just long enough to fire off a spell - and the grip of gravity attempts to pull down upon the immense monster and pin it for a moment.

Not that she expects to buy more than a couple of seconds, because this foe is beyond any of you.

DG: Catenna has used her Tool Celesdue Medium toward her party's challenge, The Horror From the Hills.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

"Aw, I dunno. I think I'm a pretty good singer, and I'm pretty sure your lovely voice wouldn't be half that bad ei--" There's a sound that splits the soul and drives terror like a stake into the heart. Cyre comes to a dead halt, pupils narrowing sharply inside saucerlike eyes. "That..." He breathes as the beast is upon them. "What... Is that doing here!?"

Fight or flight.

The answer is obvious.

"Shit. Run!" Cyre roars, his hand wrapping about his own medium. A tremendous vacuum seems to open up behind the beast, sucking it back even as Catenna forces it down, but Chaugnar Faugn is far too great for such a meagre expression of the Guardians' power.

If he were alone, then maybe--

No. No need to think about that now. "Haste!" Cyre hisses, imbuing his friends with the speed of the wind. "Go. Go! Run and don't look back!"

DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, The Horror From the Hills.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

The cold is so chilling that even Ethius looks uncomfortable stepping in there. His gaze moves about rapidly. He's jumpy. That's not something he can normally be described as, but it is accurate in this situation. He's jumpy.

Then it appears, and Catenna gives it a name that - for the softness of her voice - cuts through the deafening call of the legendary beast. Ethius wastes no time asking who or what that is. The moment Catenna says 'run,' no, pardon, 'RUN,' Ethius already has one of the two satchels at his belt grabbed and primed with the proper Symbological incantation before throwing it back into the beast with an explosion of obscuring dust and smoke. He runs without looking back.

The dust cover may yet prove fruitless, but it is abundantly clear that they are in mortal peril and cannot afford to spare any option that might yet see them get out of this chase alive.

DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Powder Grenade toward his party's challenge, The Horror From the Hills.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Jacqueline follows the others through the door that opens up. And...it seems, perhaps...

That they chose the wrong door.

Within was a great, powerful beast. That Catenna of all people shouts is more than enough reason for Jacqueline to start running, when Cyre's own shout serving to reinforce what she had already decided. She rummages through her bags as she runs, drawing out a bottle of black liquid.

Would it really help, in a situation like this...? Well, she supposed it couldn't hurt.

Okay, that wasn't entirely true. It could just enrage the beast further and make it decide to just bring the Temple down on their heads. ...Well, that was a risk she was willing to take.

She looks back, but only to hurl the bottle in front of the elephantine monstrosity's feet.

DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Reliable Repellant toward her party's challenge, The Horror From the Hills.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei Fong Wong isn't about to let a challenge be UNANSWERED.

He turns his body to face this monstrous beast and walks towards it. He takes in a deep breath, waiting for it. The beast looks at Fei. Fei looks at the beast. Fei raises his fist. The elephant looks back.

"Rock! Paper! Scissors!" Fei shouts and shows off SCISSORS as his answer to TRUNK it seems.

The elephant is confused by the strange behavior for a few moments before it slams its trunk against a nearby wall, smashing it inwards and then throws a large block of it at Fei.

He leaps just out of the eway and runs.

"IT CHOSE ROCK!" Fei shouts. "IT KNOWS ITS STUFF!! I NEVER THOUGHT I'D MEET ANOTHER MASTER...!!"

DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool RPS Badge toward his party's challenge, The Horror From the Hills.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

"Oh hey, that works!" Gwen whistles cheerily as they move to the next area. "C'mon, it'll be great. Maybe we'll see somethin' new. It gets boring to deal with the same ol' same ol' all the time, y'know?"

Gwen's morale-boosting probably isn't needed, really, especially right now.

Because there's a nice, giant, mammoth beast just waiting to give them the biggest hug it can. With its mouth.

'Chaugnar Faugn', says the whispering Catenna. "Chug-gnar Fog what?" Gwen says, a bit too loudly, then turns to look at the beast.

Well, damn. "Maybe I should've used a bigger piece of metal?"

Up goes her right sleeve, Gwen pressing a few bullets into the top part of the Mockingbird (her shoulder) as she bursts into a sprint. Then, turning, she fires, trying to get out of those shots into the Rock Master's mouth. Or trip on a stone because she's running without looking forward.

Whichever happens first.

DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Horror From the Hills.
DG: The party led by Cyre H. Lorentz has failed this challenge! The party gained 13 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> Catenna has posed.

"Sir, please run!" Catenna shouts across the distance to Fei, eyes wide.

Chaugnar Faugn is not impressed by rock, paper or scissors. It takes the fourth option: Attempting to grab Fei with its trunk and suck out his blood.

In fact, the massive thing tries to get ahold of all of them and suck their blood. The power of gravity does nothing to encumber the creature, and it simply brushes through the repellant as though it's nothing. It slams through another column. Rubble falls around the group; a stone hits Catenna in the shoulder, and she gasps in pain, lurching towards the exit and through, albeit bleeding profusely down her left arm.

Somehow, all of them make it through an entryway too narrow for Chaugnar Faugn to follow.

It doesn't care. It smashes through part of the wall before the frame of the corridor beyond it finally proves too thick for it to plow through. Its trunk flails through the ruined doorway, grasping after the little band, the hideous proboscis flailing, bloody drool oozing from the business end of it.

Cringing away, Catenna glances at Gwen, her face pale. "It is... a monster which drains the blood of its victims," she pants.

DG: Fei Fong Wong has drawn a new Challenge.
==============<* CHALLENGE - Flighty Grapple Hooks in Flight *>===============
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility   |Challenge Rating: 2          | 
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 In the winding pathways on the outside levels of the temple, there are        
 large, gaping holes in its architecture, no doubt deliberate. Strange,        
 floating grapple hooks bobbing through the air would no doubt ease the        
 passage for the intrepid explorer -- were they not flitting about from place  
 to place in erratic patterns that make them seem like they're trying to get   
 -away- from being used by unfortunate intruders so they can fall to their     
 deaths, instead. Such adorably spiteful contraptions. Oh well. Enjoy!         
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

fei Fong Wong looks back towards Catenna, "hah?" And surprisingly he is able to backflip away from the Chaugnar Faugn as it grabs for him with its trunk. "Dah!"

He hand springs away and starts running backwards before sliding into the wall too narrow for the monster to get on through. He flops onto his face, already somewhat exhausted from the ordeal.

But then...

Fei stands himself up. There's now a slew of floating ... grappling hooks bobbing through the ir. And they're moving wildly around for some reason. Fei narrows his eyes.

"I think..." He says. "I think this is called the Temple of Rejection because it wasn't up to any sensible building code."

He pauses. "Well," pause. "This doesn't look too tough."

He makes a leap for a grappling hook, using his paint brush to swing by.

"Yeah this is pretty stupid!!" He shouts.

Hopefully he doesn't fall to his death.

DG: Fei Fong Wong has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Flighty Grapple Hooks in Flight.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.

"I had no idea that buildings had codes in the first place," mutters Catenna a she scowls up at the floating grappling hooks. They're moving far too erratically for her comfort, and she's not sure they won't just dart wherever they want if she tries to grab for them. Indeed, it's what they seem to be doing.

Favouring her wounded shoulder, the priestess touches it gingerly, fishing into her pack for a length of bandage to bind it snugly. It helps, at least, as she reaches into her pack and comes up with a length of rope all her own.

Her own grappling hook is rather more tame. Casting with her good arm, she arcs it towards an outcropping in the ceiling - a hole in its own right. Steel hits stone with a quiet tang and bites in, the hook fastening firmly into place. The priestess tugs the rope firmly a few times, just to be sure.

"Use this one," she says simply, before squeezing the rope between her thighs and holding on tight with both hands. Air whistles past her as she swings over one of the larger holes and bounds off at the far side.

DG: Catenna has used her Tool Grappling Hook toward her party's challenge, Flighty Grapple Hooks in Flight.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

Cyre staggers into the room full of grappling hooks looking approximately as pale as his cloak. He wheezes and leans hard on a nearby wall, seeming suddenly... Anemic.

That's what happens, one supposes, when you get your blood sucked out by a giant elephant horror.

He glances up, staring into the grappling hook-filled air, takes one single look, and then says... "Nope." He reaches back and unfolds an enormous leather sheet and fastens a plank to it. "Not dealing with this. I'm flying up. If anyone wants onboard, I've got room for a couple."

And with that, he squeezes a hand around his medium and a sudden gust of wind inflates his inverted parachute, sending him ever steadily upwards, towards their not-so-distant destination.

DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has used his Tool Reverse Parachute toward his party's challenge, Flighty Grapple Hooks in Flight.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

Ethius avoids getting his blood drawn, but he doesn't avoid being pelted by debris from the destruction the group just merely avoided. He brings his free hand up against the opposite shoulder to gingerly rub at it as they comeinto the chamber with the surreal floating grappling hook points.

Ethius gets out the lens again out of habit, as if checking to make sure there wasn't some central mechanism behind it... he discovers something far more unsettling a good minute or so after casting that electrical spell to give him sight.

"I do not detect a central mechanism that controls their movements." For whatever that's worth, as he stashes the lens to go join Cyre - he lacks a proper apparatus in which to interact with this set of obstacles.

"Mister Cyre, your assistance is most appreciated," Ethius remarks with the same calm that is... you know, that's kind of unsettling. He doesn't sound much like a guy who just narrowly escaped with his life from a legendary monster.

DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Flighty Grapple Hooks in Flight.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

That was a...very terrifying experience. Jacqueline has to take a moment when they're finally to safety. She's favoring one of her legs slightly, apparently having received some rubble to it that made walking a little difficult. She draws out one of her potions, drinking deeply of it. It helps soothe the injury, though it can only do so much.

Still, they were all alive, and that was the important thing. For a moment, it had seemed unlikely.

"Is everyone alright...? I've got potions here, if anyone needs them." She offers, then finally takes a moment to assess the room before them.

A bunch of floating hooks soared across the ceiling, and...frankly, Jacqueline had to agree with Cyre's comment. She doesn't join him on his leather sheet, though, instead opting to make use of Catenna's grapple. She trusted that a lot more than anything the temple had to offer.

Before she uses it, though, she draws a bottle of green liquid from her bags and ingests it before grabbing onto the rope as it swings back toward her.

It would, hopefully, give her the agility she needed to rescue someone with an invocation of a Crest, should she need to.

...Even if that someone ended up being herself.

DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Invigoration Elixir toward her party's challenge, Flighty Grapple Hooks in Flight.
================<* CHALLENGE - Flighty Grapple Hooks in Flight *>================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility   |Challenge Rating: 2          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------
 In the winding pathways on the outside levels of the temple, there are        
 large, gaping holes in its architecture, no doubt deliberate. Strange,        
 floating grapple hooks bobbing through the air would no doubt ease the        
 passage for the intrepid explorer -- were they not flitting about from place  
 to place in erratic patterns that make them seem like they're trying to get   
 -away- from being used by unfortunate intruders so they can fall to their     
 deaths, instead. Such adorably spiteful contraptions. Oh well. Enjoy!         
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

"I'm not good with these kinda deals..." Gwen queasily looks on the mess of grappling hooks whipping about the area. Looking around for an alternate route, she watches Catenna and Fei try their luck with the hooks. Surely, if she looks a bit more, there'll be... no. Ethius confirms it.

Jay, at least, has a potion. "Sure, I'll take one. If anything, my throat sure is parched from all that runnin!" Taking off the cap, the courier takes the offered potion and chugs it. When she finishes, she awkwardly regards the bottle. "Um... here. You recycle these, right? Seems like it'd be a waste otherwise."

The glass bottle just dangles there until it's accepted, Gwen looking at the abyss with invigorated despair.

Cyre offers a solution, and it's not singing! Gwen just scrambles over at the offer. "I'm joinin'! I don't trust me on those hooks." And, if they fail, she'll have company as they fall into the dark unknowns below.

DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Flighty Grapple Hooks in Flight.
DG: The party led by Cyre H. Lorentz has passed this challenge! The party gained 36 exploration! If anyone needs to use party
management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has drawn a new Challenge.
=================<* CHALLENGE - Crank You for Being a Crank *>==================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 2          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Hey look! There's a crank! What's it for? Well, there's a platform in the     
 center of this room, with an arrow, and a door on the other side, and as you  
 crank the crank the platform turns until eventually that arrow points the     
 proper way to open the door! Amazing, right? NOTE: The pointing the arrow     
 towards the door doesn't open it. Oops! Better start cranking that crank      
 until that door cranks open! Hope your arms have good crank strength!         
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Through aplomb, the team is able to get across the floating hooks. Even Fei, who was pretty bumbling about it. He's carved up his hands considerably. Having an actual grappling hook is incredibly helpful too, come to think of it, and despite the earlier problems, you probably feel pretty good about getting through this challenge so readily (all that exploration holy cheese!).

Fei ends up giving up on leaping from hook to hook and ends up flopping onto Cyre's Reverse Parachute halfway through to make it the rest of the way. "Maybe I shouldn't...have insulted it?"

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

Pressing onto the next area, the setup seems simple enough: a crank, a door, and an arrow.

"Seems straightforward enough." Gwen just strolls in, stands next to the crank, then... stops. "No sounds or anything, maybe it really *is* as straightforward as this?" Her hands tighten around the crank, and she begins to turn it, her expression twisting to surprise with how much effort she needs. She stands up to alert the others to help her, allowing the crank to immediately wind back, the rusty handle slamming into her thigh as the room lurches.

"DAM....GH..." Gwen lets loose with a few choice examples of Badlands-style swearing, hunching down and holding her upper leg as she hops around.

Then, with a breath, she straightens, beckoning Fei over while she digs into one of the pouches of her vest, taking out a spare handkerchief. "I gave one to your friend the redhead, so I might as well give you one too. Could use yer strength, but if your hands are all bleedin' like that, you're gonna wreck your hands even more. Tie that on one hand and help me get this thing goin'. This thing could crack a skull open if you let it loose."

She does not ask Ethius- she didn't even think to.

If she did, she'd still be afraid to ask, for fear of seeing what his magic may do.

<O-Caravan Kinship> Moonbae Catenna says, "CaraKin, CaraKin, our fancy buffer saves all our win"

DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Armored Fist toward her party's challenge, Crank You for Being a Crank.
<O-Caravan Kinship> Dubiousbae Ethius Hesiod says, "Hooray!"
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.

Landing with a soft click of bootheels, Catenna exhales and casts the rope back to Jacqueline with a quiet smile. She steps aside to let her friend land. Quietly, she collects the rope; the hook remains embedded in the ceiling.

Soon enough, she's slipping after the trusty Ms. Whitlock. As the courier takes stock of the apparatus within, the priestess rests a slender hand at one hip, her other arm still dangling somewhat uselessly after her earlier run-in with falling rocks. "I... suppose we shall have to crank it quite a bit more," she murmurs as Gwen gives it a good, honest try.

The priestess takes a slow step forward. Her hand moves, for a moment, over the crank. But she doesn't start pumping just yet. Instead she sinks to her knees to squint at the arrow, as though she could divine where it's supposed to go.

She can't. It's an arrow. Sighing, she moves over towards Gwen and takes over cranking the thing for a moment. She doesn't get far; she's only got one arm with any real strength available, after all. "Hhh, curses," she breathes bitterly.

DG: Catenna has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Crank You for Being a Crank.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

"Sure, sure," Cyre says to Ethius as he scoots over to make room for the other man on his makeshift seat. They're sailing peacefully towards the exit when suddenly there's a *WHUMPF* of someone landing on the puffy top end of the makeshift balloon. Fortunately, there's enough wind to carry three, and the trio of Cyre, Ethius and Fei 'meathands' Fong Wong arrive at their destination more or less intact.

Their destination is...

...The kind of puzzle that Cyre would frown severely at under normal circumstances. With the added complication of 'currently missing half his blood,' Cyre honestly wants to have nothing to do with the task of pushing a crank around and around and around. Instead he... sits down next to the crank and huffs.

And puffs.

And produces a strange, metal censer that emits fragrant, invigorating smoke. Smoke that quickly begins to fill the chamber, and the lungs of all therein. It makes the body feel good. Or at least, less painful. "Haaah," Cyre sighs happily, wobbling ever so slightly. "Thaaaaat's better. Everyone take nice deep breaths. It'll help, promise...!"

Cyre's got the vapors that make you feel good...!

DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has used his Tool Invigorating Vapors toward his party's challenge, Crank You for Being a Crank.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

"When I can, yeah. Thanks." Jacqueline accepts the bottle back from Gwen with a smile and stores it in one of her bags. Of course, people who knew her would know that she could be sometimes be a little...reckless with them. Like throwing them at people, or monsters, or zapping them with electricity to turn them into shards of molten glass...

Being a glass bottle in Jacqueline's service was not a pleasant experience.

It's with a little difficulty thanks to her injured leg that she lands, so she has to grab onto Catenna to support herself so she doesn't tumble back into the abyss...or, more likely, onto a stone pillar she would've summoned. That still would've hurt, though. She nods her thanks with a smile and then proceeds on.

The next room brings with it...a crank and a door? That seemed...way too simple, from everything she had seen so far!

Jacqueline stares at it cautiously, but the true difficulty becomes obvious when Gwen, even with her strength, has trouble moving the crank...and it spins back into her thigh.

"A-are you alright?" She asks, concerned. It wasn't a potion-worthy injury, but it still looked unpleasant.

"I can't help with the crank, but I can..." Jacqueline draws forth a Crest from her bags, and attempts to summon a stone pillar beneath the door they're trying to open, hoping to pry it open just a bit and reduce the amount of work they'll have to do.

DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Crank You for Being a Crank.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

Ethius wisely takes notice of Gwen's initial challenges with the turn-crank. A thought comes to mind, as Gwen licks her wounds and some others express their own challenges.

"I cannot provide a shortcut to making it easier for the crank to turn, but should we believe it set, I will attempt to hold the mechanism in place." By melting it, Ethius? "But I will be honest and say that I can only estimate its apparent construction and the appropriate response on an educated guess. At present, I would risk attempting to jam the mechanisms on the inside as to prevent it from winding forward... or back."

He stands near the dial. He's probably one of the stronger people here, physically speaking? It'd be awesome if he helped push that thing forward, especially with that censer being passed around.

"To this end, I will need to stand here and be prepared to cast the spell to hold it in place." This puts him in the same category as Jacqueline in terms of overall contribution - being able to keep it solved once the others solve it.

DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Crank You for Being a Crank.
==================<* CHALLENGE - Crank You for Being a Crank *>==================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 2          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------
 Hey look! There's a crank! What's it for? Well, there's a platform in the     
 center of this room, with an arrow, and a door on the other side, and as you  
 crank the crank the platform turns until eventually that arrow points the     
 proper way to open the door! Amazing, right? NOTE: The pointing the arrow     
 towards the door doesn't open it. Oops! Better start cranking that crank      
 until that door cranks open! Hope your arms have good crank strength!         
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei Fong Wong stops when Gwen stops. He looks over to her, then back to the crank. "...Oh geeze, I don't think I'm that strong but--" He shakes his head. "I'll give it my best shot." He will take one of the handkerchiefs. It takes him several more moments to realize who Gwen is talking about. He stops, suddenly, and looks towards Gwen.

"The redhead?" His eyes widen. "You know--about her?" He pauses. "How do you know we're friends...?"

You haven't exactly been subtle about it Fei. You haven't been subtle about it at all.

But that doesn't stop him from turning away suddenly and working that crank, his hceeks burning brightly. Oh my god, he thinks, at least she doesn't know I have a huge crush on her and I have dreams about her and everything. That would be EVEN WORSE.

DG: Fei Fong Wong has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Crank You for Being a Crank.
DG: The party led by Cyre H. Lorentz has passed this challenge! The party gained 16 exploration! If anyone needs to use party
management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

crank, crank, crank, crank

"Nah, nah, just a little bit of bruising on my ego and my leg- oh, you guys could get it to stay in place?" Sweat builds on Gwen's forehead, but she shares with them a bright smile. "Any effort anyone can give'll be great!" As Catenna comes over, Gwen allows her to contribute to turning the crank, shaking out her own right arm as the priestess does her best. "Do what'ca can, we just need to get the arrow pointed to the door, and we'll be golden!"

She even starts humming to herself as she takes over. Sure, there'll be a nice bruise on her upper leg tomorrow morning, but they're nearly there. She is a tad surprised at Fei's reaction, but then chuckles. "Well, I mean, I kinda was kiddin' a little? She seemed to have a soft spot for ya, so I'm glad you're friends!"

"J-just a little more, just need to get it pointed it towards the door and-"

But the door doesn't open. This makes Gwen a bit... _cranky_. What begins to fall out of the happy, spirited, laid-back courier is a broken sequence of Badlands swearing, gradually building in frequency, despair, and volume-

Then she breathes in some of Cyre's wonderful vapors, and everything just seems so much better. "Heey, Cyre, this stuff's great!" She giggles, her hand nearly slipping off the crank, but the rumble of Jay's magic sets her back on her task.

When the arrow points in exactly the same location they had found the contraption in, it helps that she's in high spirits. She just snorts as the door opens, helped along by Jay's earthen pillar and the crank held in place by Ethius's magic. She saw that blush, Fei. And the smoke just makes her able to see just what it could all be about.

DG: Jacqueline Barber has drawn a new Challenge.
===================<* CHALLENGE - This is No Mothra Boy *>====================
|Type: Climax      |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 2          | 
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 You come upon a conspicuously large and empty room, almost designed like an   
 arena floor. It must be a great surprise, then, when the door at the          
 opposite side of this chamber opens up to unleash an absolutely               
 massive-looking moth-like creature, unleashed upon you by the temple in an    
 effort to deter or, hopefully, kill you outright. Venom spews from this       
 creature's proboscis, poisonous powder from its wings. It'll soon fill the    
 entire chamber with its merciless venom to choke you with it, if you don't    
 kill it. Quickly.                                             
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

The door slowly, carefully opens into what looks to be an arena of some kind. Fitting, considering one of the bigger events that was going on these days.

"Hm...I wonder if they kept competitors in the room back there until they were needed? Of course...considering the difficulty of getting in and out of those rooms, I can only imagine what kind of competitors they used..." Jacqueline muses.

The situation might be starting to look familiar to some of the individuals present...and as such, might cue them into the danger that awaited them. For it wasn't long before the door on the opposite end opened and the door they had just come through closed.

Only partway, as it happened, thanks to the dust clogging the mechanisms and preventing it from closing all the way. That meant there would be an avenue of escape...but not particularly an easy one.

And it would become difficult soon as a large moth-like creature soars out of the door, roaring angrily.

...Well, okay, they're actually more like little squeaky noises(magnified by its size) that aren't exactly intimidating and might actually make you feel bad for attacking it, but the rest of it certainly is and it won't feel bad for attacking you.

"Catenna, am I correct in assuming that powder is probably poisonous?" Jacqueline asks, glancing toward her priestess friend.

That could...probably be a problem for anyone who tried to attack it up close. So, Jacqueline doesn't. That wasn't her specialty anyway.

Instead, as it comes soaring toward them she dives out of the way and draws another bottle of black liquid from one of her bags. This bottle is then hurled toward the moth. Before it makes contact, she draws a Crest and invokes Lightning, shattering the bottle and igniting the fluid inside to send flaming, foul-smelling liquid toward it along with molten shards of glass.

DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Reliable Repellant toward her party's challenge, This is No Mothra Boy.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.

Catenna wobbles just a little when Jacqueline grabs ahold of her, but she's able to support her with a hand on her shoulder. She smiles gently back to her friend.

BACK IN THE CRANK ROOM...

Catenna doesn't have enough strength to crank right now, with her shoulder still hurt. She tries her best anyway, groaning faintly and giving it her best. She can't even cheat on this one because it's a door, not a rock that she can just lighten with magic tricks -

And then Cyre H. Lorentz uncorks his magic bottle. Catenna inhales.

She blushes and looks at the cat-eared man out of the corners of her eyes, then dips her chin, biting her bottom lip hard - but she does help Gwen crank. And soon enough, the door opens!

Onto a vast, poisonous moth. Catenna draws in a breath and immediately goes for her cloak, drawing it around herself. Jacqueline's answer is evident in the fact that the priestess is covering her nose and mouth. She nods anyway. "Do not breathe it in," she says, voice a bit muffled. "Or get it on you."

As the moth comes soaring in, Catenna, too, ducks and rolls, firing off her shotgun wildly. The move serves mostly to spark off the loud noise that comes when a shotgun goes off, hopefully startling the bug away from her. Coming out of the roll in a crouched position, she begins to murmur beneath her cloak.

The force of gravity closes around the venomous creature. Every wingbeat comes more laboriously, as though the creature were being dragged inexorably towards the ground. The spell should encumber and slow it down - making it an easier target for her friends!

DG: Catenna has used her Tool Celesdue Medium toward her party's challenge, This is No Mothra Boy.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

"I guess this wasn't so bad." Fei adds, shaking out his hands which are now a bit sore from all the cranking, but he pauses and adds, "Well--" to Gwen. "I do like her. I think we're friends. I--" He pausues thoughtfully. "Well, I don't know. I mean we ARE friends but...aghhh...She's in such a tough position I don't know what to do about it. If I should do anything about it?" He pauses. "Uh--please don't pass that on. I'm still...I'm still thinking, you know?"

And then the team heads into an arena. He takes a look around. God, he thinks, if only a giant monster attacked so he could think about something else besides how embarrassed he is.

And then suddenly, Mothra.

Fei grips his RPS badge tightly in his hand. He breathes in and looks to the sky and thanks him. Thanks God. Whoever or whatever she is.

And that's about when he dives in, fists and feet punching and kicking. He will probably try to tap dance on this thing's skull.

Do moths HAVE skulls, he wonders, or is it like an exoskeleton thing?

DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool RPS Badge toward his party's challenge, This is No Mothra Boy.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

Cyre's vapors bring all the girls to the lawn, and they're like, 'dude that's pretty dank shit' and Cyre's like 'dude I know you want some' and they're like 'shit yeah dude i brought the tacos.'

Wait, no, that's just what usually happens back home.

Regardless, the purifying vapors seem to have lifted the priest's spirits by the time the party makes it to the BUTTERFLY ROOM, home to the...

Well.

To the enormous poisonous butterfly.

Cyre clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth, sweeping his cloak up and around to cover his nose and mouth. "Hold on--" His hand grasps tightly around his medium. A great gust of wind stirs, blasting the toxic scales to the far corners of the arena. "Don't worry, I'll keep that junk at bay. Go bring that thing down!"

DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, This is No Mothra Boy.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

"I do not see any clear ventilation in which to allow the venomous powder to disperse," remarks Ethius as he has to duck and cover his head to avoid the Twilight Venom that is swooping at him, leaving some of its poisonous powder in their wake. Between the lot of them here, there's not going to be a lot of ground left for the lot of them before they risk having to cross past areas which have the poisonous powder covering the ground.

When Ethius finds a place in which he is not being divebombed by a giant killer moth, the symbols present on his forearms begin to glow as he goes through the casting motions. The sights and sounds that come into being preclude the air about the moth growing more distorted, working in tandem with Catenna's gravitational spell that helps him be more confident about the area of effect and focus.

This is one of the few instances in which it is welcomed a concept for Ethius to make the air around something so hot it could spontaneously combust, which is graphic and horrifying even in a world where sorcerers regularly pelt one another with flames and ice spikes and whatever other terrible ways there are to die.

There is also the possibility that the powder could ignite and explode from heat, in which case Ethius would stand to lose yet another Burning Things privilege.

DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, This is No Mothra Boy.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

Already coming down from her temporary 'high', Gwen listens to Fei, nodding. It... would be a difficult position for Elly, wouldn't it? Fei's still a fugitive, just temporarily cast aside in favor of Bigger Fish. "No problem, nothing leaves this place."

That's about when they enter the next area. Whatever sort of nugget of heartfelt wisdom Gwen could muster at that point is forced to be tossed aside at Catenna's warning. She tugs the handkerchief around her neck over her mouth and nose, even if she doubts it'll do much against the dust. "Can I just say," she says, her voice muffled by the cloth, "that it's actually kinda cute? Or is it just me?"

She says this as she shoots at the adorable moth creature, trying to poke a few holes in its massive, beautiful wings.

Her attachment will probably make Ethius's combustion spell all the more horrifying to behold, even if it may have granted a faster death than anything they were attempting.

DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, This is No Mothra Boy.
DG: The party led by Cyre H. Lorentz 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> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Don't breathe it in or get it on you. Got it. Jacqueline is sure to draw out one of her filtered clothes and tie it over her mouth, just in case.

The magic of Catenna's Medium weighs down on the giant moth, forcing it to the ground. This leaves it an open target for Cyre's gust of wind, stripping away much of the poisonous powder and sending it flying to a safe corner of the room.

This makes it safe for Fei to close in land a brutal martial arts barrage on it. It tries to fend him off, but with Catenna's magic weighing down it doesn't seem to be capable of doing much in that regard. Gwen's ARM manages to punch a few holes in its wings, and then, finally...it appears to be gulfed in an fiery explosion.

The powder, as it happens, does in fact seem to be the sort of thing to ignite and explode.

Despite that, however, and it's supposed weakness to fire...its still standing, and chattering angrily as a result.

Gwen might be happy about that, but perhaps not about what happens next.

It manages to break free of Catenna's gravity and take to the air, though the damage inflicted to its wings means that it can't get much height. It's still producing its powder, however, and that was a problem.

This fight was starting to get exhausting. And the longer it went, the more likely it was that they would inhale an unpleasant amount of that poisonous powder. Therefore...

"The door's still open! Let's move!" Jacqueline urges and starts in that direction. She pauses in her running - or more like limping, now that the injury to her leg was starting to rear its head again - only to send a bolt of lightning toward the moth as a distraction.

DG: Ethius Hesiod has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================================<* CHALLENGE - Alternative Routes *>==========================================
|Type: Final       |Dungeon Ability: Agility   |Challenge Rating: 3          | 
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
 The path beyond leads to the outside, hundreds of hundreds of feet above      
 solid ground. The sanctum of the temple is just above -- but it'll take       
 navigating the winding labyrinth of the sanctuary's outdoor halls, scaling    
 its perilous walls, and attempting to snag the floating, flying grapple       
 hooks that dot this place to get there. There's no elevator, no stairs, no    
 clever contraptions. Whatever possesses this temple doesn't want you going    
 any further. So... time to do things the old-fashioned way.                   
=Dungeon Conditions: Suffer===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

As the group flees, it turns out that's the way they came in. This would be a disappointment, but there's another, more pressing issue at hand -

It seems the very geography of the Temple's depths reconfigured underneath them while they were occupied with trying to kill a giant poisonous moth with all the pomp and circumstance of a sub-par animated adaption. They are met with the open air, to a sunset of beautiful hues as a migrating flock of those annoying birds in the Badlands that like to steal stuff and give bad status effects in return make calls to the sky.

Ethius takes the lead, hand over his eyes. They narrow as they track upwards, towards the very sanctum. The way there seems to be full of incidental obstacles that iterate upon whatever things they've all had to deal with on the way here. Narrow wall climbs, those floating grappling hooks, a number of mid-air platforms...

And nothing to help them catch up if they fall, assuming the fall itself doesn't kill them outright!

"We have ourselves quite the ascent ahead of us," Ethius says to the rest, looking behind to the lot of the--

He turns away before his gaze could meet Fei's directly.

"I would also kindly advise anyone who has issues with heights to not indulge in your curiosity to look over six feet to my right." If you disregard Ethius' advice, it turns out they're... a very, very long ways up from the ground. It's funny - nobody recognizes this structure they're at being here, looking from the ground up. Where are they, exactly?

Nonetheless, Ethius starts the climb up one of the weathered walls.

Can they make it across the entire breadth of this otherworldly obstacle course?

DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Alternative Routes.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.

It's not enough. Casting one last spell in the hopes of pinning the vast moth down, Catenna coughs and covers her face with another fold of cloak, staggering out the door and making good her escape as best she can. She nearly trips on her way out, coughing heavily behind the cloak as a bit of that powder makes it into her lungs. A horribly rancid feeling grips her, like a fever taking hold.

She blinks away moisture welling in her eyes as she looks up towards the temple sanctum, far above. Her heart sinks. Just getting there will be a true nightmare.

But she has a grapping hook of her own.

"We must... be very careful," she manages, her voice a little thin with weakness. But she draws herself up, tosses her hair back with a sudden flick of her head, and draws her dignity up around her like a shield. She mustn't convey to her friends that she's hurting.

Not now.

Once more she puts her grappling line to use. Casting it with her right arm, she latches onto one wall and begins climbing. She'll make it to the top, then cast the line up again, attempting to skip entire sections of the obstacle course simply by throwing her line up towards platforms of opportunity. At the apex of each climb, she'll collect the grappling hook and throw it again.

DG: Catenna has used her Tool Grappling Hook toward her party's challenge, Alternative Routes.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

Sometimes, the death of enormous, venomous moths (some kind of... venomoth??) is just not meant to be. Sometimes, the venomous moths get so angry that they fill the room with toxic spores! Sometimes you end up getting some in your eyes and OH MY GOD THAT STINGS.

They manage to get out into the open air. Cyre is STILL pouring water over his face. His eyes are swollen and red, but it looks like they aren't getting any worse. More importantly, they... Seem to have a job to do.

Especially considering where they are.

He glances off to Ethius' side, at the enormous fall waiting if they screw this up. But... Well. There is something to be said for cats and the scaling of tremendous heights.

"Hold on, hold on," Cyre coughs, unwrapping the cloth from around his face. Lingering, purple scales drift off the fabric and scatter in the breeze. He reaches in and once more fishes out that handy expanse of leather fabric. "Alright, I can only take so many with me," he says as Ethius and Catenna start on their own climbs. "I'll come in from behind. If anyone slips and falls, try to aim for the parachute. Worst case, I think I can drift us back down to ground."

Hopefully they won't have to.

Hopefully, they'll get something cool out of this...!

DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has used his Tool Reverse Parachute toward his party's challenge, Alternative Routes.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei is blasted free from the monster and konks his head against the wall, passing out briefly, but he is largely okay. He seems to recover from being in the center of explosions pretty well, though it does take him a bit to wake up from it.

"Ahn..." He says, sitting up and covered in soot. He sits up gradually and adds, "It's over already? Woof. Guess I was out longer than I thought."

He rubs at the back of his forehead and wanders in for...More hooks.

His eyes sloooooowly slant towards Cyre.

His gaze is directed at him for several moments. It holds on Cyre as uhe unwraps the cloth. It is on him until he undoes the parachute.

The reverse parachute, Fei reminds himself.

"Okay," He says. "Good to go."

DG: Fei Fong Wong has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Alternative Routes.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Jacqueline stares. What once was solid ground was now completely...gone, replaced by a precarious obstacle course. Located over absolutely nothing.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. It was located over something, but that something was the ground, located far enough below that falling would...not be ideal.

She was...honestly not really in any condition for this. Still, she takes a deep breath and draws out a bottle of pale-green liquid and downs the lot before drawing a Crest from her pouch.

Unlike the others, she tries to take things a bit slowly - she conjures pillars of earth out of the side of the building and uses those to progress upward instead. Even with the potion enhancing her agility and dulling the pain in her leg it was safer, no matter how much slower it was.

DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Invigoration Elixir toward her party's challenge, Alternative Routes.
======================<* CHALLENGE - Alternative Routes *>=======================
|Type: Final       |Dungeon Ability: Agility   |Challenge Rating: 3          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------
 The path beyond leads to the outside, hundreds of hundreds of feet above      
 solid ground. The sanctum of the temple is just above -- but it'll take       
 navigating the winding labyrinth of the sanctuary's outdoor halls, scaling    
 its perilous walls, and attempting to snag the floating, flying grapple       
 hooks that dot this place to get there. There's no elevator, no stairs, no    
 clever contraptions. Whatever possesses this temple doesn't want you going    
 any further. So... time to do things the old-fashioned way.                   
=Dungeon Conditions: Suffer===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

"That's..." Gwen squints, raising a hand to shield her eyes from the setting sun. "... a very, very long climb."

Gwen Whitlock: super courier, master of the understatement.

The courier is already looking towards Cyre in hopes of there being some magical shortcut, but alas, such a shortcut could very well come at the cost of their lives.

"Yeah, that... sounds good. I could do this. Maybe." Her lips twist at the thought of depending on someone to catch her if she fell. Rudy did that, last time. It didn't go so well. Surprise falls make it harder to account for someone's weight, and Gwen... weighs more than she looks, for obvious reasons.

Gwen takes a breath, rolls her shoulders, then starts at the slow climb upwards, using the various obstacles to speed her ascent up whenever possible.

....

her leg really is beginning to hurt now, guys, that crank handle HURT "Cyre, uh." Gwen tries to keep her voice from breaking as she approaches the mid-way point. "Y'got any more of that nice smoke stuff for when we get home? My pain tolerance isn't what it used to be, y'know...?"

DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Alternative Routes.
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success!
DG: The party led by Cyre H. Lorentz has successfully explored Temple of Rejection!
============================================<* CHALLENGE - The Distortion *>============================================
|Type: Discovery   |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1          | 
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
 You come across one of the many security terminals lining this place,         
 currently deactivated -- though likely not for long. Everything here seems    
 self-automated to bamboozling degrees -- the data readouts and computer       
 consoles are all beyond the ken of most people on Filgaia today, the          
 language of this place ancient and strange, but it all seems to indicate      
 that this temple is looking for someone specific -- as if -someone-, not      
 just you, arrived here and triggered this place to activate its defensive     
 measures as almost a frantic response to get rid of them. The only clue? A    
 single warning on a stone plaque towards the back of the room, written in     
 ancient language that nonetheless seems wholly legible to anyone, regardless  
 of their native tongue:                                                       
                                                                               
 If the rumors are true, THE LOLITHIA has remained on Filgaia. If              
 learns of this facility,     will undoubtedly shut it down. We have thus      
 equipped the facility with an advanced security system. For the sake of our   
 planet, we must protect it at all costs...                                    
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

It's an arduous climb. Nerve-wracking. Any one single mistake could spell the end of them. Nonetheless, the obstacles are laid bare, and the Temple of Rejection cuts it out with some of its tricks with a single, honest path leading up to the sanctum. The Temple just honestly believes no one will get there.

Catenna is the first to arrive, thanks to her sure and confident grappling hook skills.

Jacqueline goes slow and steady, helping set up rock pillar platforms - very temporary ones - that nonetheless add leniency to a number of the scarier jumps that are made harder because the camera is in a bad place. (OK, that is a cheap trick on the part of the Temple.)

Gwen and Ethius make up the rear of the ones who keep to the main routes, moving slowly and carefully through.

Worse comes to worse at any point, it would've been Cyre to the rescue with Fei in tow. All six make it up to the sanctum together, and the door...

...opens.

Inside... most of them don't have words for what they see. Glass windows with a sort of bulge coming from the inside into total darkness. Long strands of wiring. Long streams of parchment in alternating white-and-green lines with circular holes punched through the edges in straight lines with text made of black dots. The language in question bears no resemblance with anything they've seen.

A stone plaque catches everyone's eyes. Somehow, it's readable (mostly)...

Ethius steps forward, one hand resting inside of his poncho as though clutching something.

"If the rumors are true, THE LOLITHIA has remained on Filgaia." He speaks. "If," pause, "learns of this facility," pause, "will undoubtedly shut it down. We have thus equipped the facility with an advanced security system. For the sake of our planet, we must protect it at all costs..."

His hand goes to his forehead after he's done reading that.

"Hm."

<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.

The nice thing about climbing while being Catenna is that she stops halfway and lowers her own relative gravity with a quickly murmured plea to Celesdue to bear with her. The rest of the climbing is much easier on her injured shoulder. Soon enough, she reaches the top, dangling her rope back down for others to scramble up. She keeps it there, waiting to help her friends to the top as they crest the peak of the obstacle course.

Then she's moving on, popping a round into her shotgun in anticipation of some danger to come. But there's none. Instead, there's a room that defies her vocabulary.

Catenna's expression is broken only by the slight arch of her eyebrows. Her usual reserve conceals any surprise she might experience. "How unusual," is all she says as she moves into the room slowly. Pale grey eyes drift from terminal to terminal to glass panel, then across towards the other side of the room, as though trying to decipher it in some way.

She can't. Instead, she frowns as she moves towards the plaque. Even with her limited ability to write Ignan, she can decipher the text - through her own language.

"The Lolithia," she murmurs, glancing towards Ethius with a small, clinical frown. "I seem to remember the Lolithia being the... device that Miss Hetfield recovered with her Emma Motor. The one stolen by...."

She trails off and glances away, pressing her lips together.

The one stolen by Riesenlied, when the woman revealed that their friendship had been a lie.

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Indeed, Jacqueline doesn't have any words for this. It's a little mesmerizing. She wanders in, wordless. She's starting to feel the pain in her leg again, but the sight of all this is distracting her from it. Her gaze is soon drawn toward the streams of parchment.

Come to think of it, that reminded her of something...though she couldn't make anything of the language on this.

Her gaze is soon drawn to the stone plaque, the same one that Ethius starts reading off of.

"The Lolithia..." Jacqueline repeats, folding her arms in front of her. Catenna seemed to be coming to the same conclusion that she was.

"And...what's so important about this facility that they have to protect it...?" She murmurs, confused.

For the sake of our planet...

<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

"Lolithia..." Cyre mutters, staring long at the words scrawled impossibly across the stone plaque. How could he read this? It's in Baskar of all things, or it seems to be. What is this place, really? Who is Johnny Appleseed? And more importantly... "Lolithia. The Golem of Ice. What does it mean it 'has remained on Filgaia?' Where else was it supposed to go?"

Were the Golems meant to be moved someplace else once their duty was done? Maybe evacuated to a different planet, or... To the moon...?

But then... What does that have to do with the rest of the message-- with this place?

"...Man, we came up here for something interesting and we found it, alright." Cyre sighs, rubbing at the back of his head. "I wish it was something more monetarily valuable, but this is... Still fascinating."

...For the sake of the planet.

What has this facility been doing? Perhaps... The Veruni might know?

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei Fong Wong is really glad for the reverse parachute. Let's just say that.

He doesn't have a strong FLASHBACK reaction to the facility, but he does read the warning. How can he read it? It's another mystery and, gratefully, one he doesn't feel compelled to investigate.

"You know," He says eventually. "It doesn't really bode well for the security system that protects the planet if we were able to get here."

He goes quiet for a bit.

"I guess I better tell Bart about this too."

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

"I find it curious." Ethius states, not looking anyone in the eye - but he doesn't have to be looking at anyone for the rest to figure out that he's been giving their environs the side-eye. "This facility's operators, in times of antiquity, appear to have considered Lolithia an adversary, if I am to understand the words presented... the ones that were legible."

How unfortunate, that he couldn't make heads or tails of what might have been key names to give further context.

He runs a hand across at least one of the bulging glass windows that appear an entry point to some indeterminate dark gray void without detail, a flat plane of nothingness separated only by this odd glass cover. He probably shouldn't be touching it. What if it breaks and sucks everyone inside?

He turns his head half-way to Fei before thinking better of it at mention about speaking with others. "Very well." That's it? No call to say 'nobody talk about what they saw here,' or... anything like that? Yet, he seems to find it keen to stand in the way of some of the more potentially interesting details of this chamber.

<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.

For a long moment, Catenna doesn't say anything more. She's got a certain Metal Demon on the mind.

"Some things have value beyond coinage, Cyre," she finally murmurs with a glance towards Cyre. Slowly, she moves over to stand beside the Beastman, clasping her hands before herself and letting her shotgun hang from its shoulder strap. "Perhaps I do not... fully understand this. Nor could I, without help. But it is... something which adds to our understanding. Something of the importance of Lolithia, and the thought of... other places."

Her eyelids lower ever so slightly. "Perhaps there is some connection to... wherever it is that Metal Demons are said to come from." She doesn't name it; she keeps that bit of Riesenlied's story a secret, at least.

Then Fei makes a good point. Catenna's frown deepens a little, and she leans back slightly to give the man a thoughtful look. "If the temple does protect Filgaia, it was doing a terrible job even before we got here," she murmurs, her tone just a little bit dry.

<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

"Yeah, well," Cyre shrugs at Fei. "I'm pretty sure anyone worth their salt could just fly up here to begin with, so the whole security system thing is probably bunk."

"This whole place is a damn mystery," Cyre says to Ethius. "Who would have come all this way just to prevent something to do with Lolithia from getting here? You think maybe the guys who built the Golems are... Still out there, somewhere?"

He sighs, then, taking a seat next to the stone plinth. "I know some things are worth more than gold, don't worry. I was just kind of hoping we'd find some kind of..." He hand-wiggles, "You know, Johnny Appleseed relic, or something. Something that'd mean something to someone, more than just an ominous warning on a sign."

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

Finishing that long climb, Gwen stumbles and squats into a sitting position, catching her breath before being forced to move on, which she does so, reluctantly pulling herself to her feet.

It's amazing how less that happens, nowadays. Getting out of breath, that is. But if that climb only managed to steal her breath away for a few moments, the insides of the terminal do that and more.

"... how... how did..." She gestures to the glass and the wires, her mind failing to supply the necessary words. "Auntie would've given her right pinkie to see somethin' like this," she finally manages, trying to take in as much information as possible and commit it to memory. "To think, the world was so wide that if included things beyond anythin' I could've imagined..."

She steps to examine one of the computer consoles, leaning over to peer at her dim reflection in its screen. "I remember comin' across a box kinda like these in Berry Caves." She grimaces, wondering if she'd have to pull yet another stunt to get some information out, but the stone tablet fills in that role. "Lolithia. I know that name." She looks over the words on the stine plaque, as Catenna recounts, spurring Gwen's own memory of where she came across that name. "One of the golems," she says. "There was a little mini-display of it at the Exhibition."

A vision of KIng Justin's pallid face appears in the back of Gwen's mind, along with the few words he had for her. 'The golems are--it's too late. I've no doubt of that. They... they were at the fair. The Demons must have focused some of their attack there. We could never get them working...'

"The Metal Demons. Though that's probably the most obvious sorta answer." She moves to the glass, staring into the black beyond- or not, if Ethius stands in the way. "I think the only reason we managed to get this far is because this place ain't exactly brand new. If it was brand new, I think we would've been fried at the entrance."

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

Gwen considers. "I'll ask my auntie if she knows anything. She's a scholar, so she might have come across some stuff that could shed some light on things." She shrugs. "Or not. I mean, she was based in the Badlands, so..."

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

"You might be right..." Jacqueline replies with a shrug toward Gwen, then takes a look around the room.

"Anyway...this place looks safe enough. I suggest we take a moment to rest here. We still have to make our way down, after all." She says, reaching into her bags to pull out some potions.

It was...not a prospect she was relishing, but they didn't have much other choice.

<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

"Well, making our way down should be easy," Cyre says with a grin. "I can probably manage to glide us down if Catenna gives me a little help with the whole 'gravity' thing."

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

"I really hope the door opened." Fei says. "Because this place kind of... is unfortunate."

He seems chill with this plan otherwise.

He's sure Bart can keep his trap shut about the facility while still preparing for some manner of trouble arrayed against it. Surely.

<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.

"Then I am glad it is not brand-new," Catenna says with a nod back at Gwen.

Sliding her shotgun off her shoulder, the priestess sets it down, moving to the foot of a console and sinking to a resting position. She tucks her legs up a little, calves angled off to one side, and reaches into her cloak, coming out with a heal berry and popping it. As she swallows, she breathes a little easier, rolling her injured shoulder. It helps - quite a bit, actually.

Pale grey eyes turn to Jacqueline, watching the girl move. "Part of me wonders what a more skilled worker of machines would think of this place," she murmurs.

Cyre's slyness draws a raised eyebrow from her. "I shall lighten you, of course. I would hate for you to fall. Though, I hope we do not encounter the Chaugnar Faugn again."

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

Gwen closes her eyes. "Adlehyde could never get the golems to work. The Metal Demons might be able to. Though, I mean, a golem's like an ARM, right? Whoever's usin' it determines what it's doin', to a degree. Maybe this place is from a time when Lolithia was bein' controlled by someone who was usin' it for bad things?"

<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

"Chaugnar Faugn..." Cyre's lips draw into a thin line.

"Well. Maybe next time, there'll be something that we can do about it."

Beat.

"It's weird, though. Why did they call it THE Lolithia?" Cyre asks, scratching his chin. "Doesn't that seem like it's a title more than anything else? Maybe there were a whole bunch of ice golems once upon a time, and only the strongest got to be called The Lolithia?"

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

Ethius moves out of the way of some of the windows to the deep gray void as Catenna starts seguing into curiosity about what could be done had they had an expert here. The secrets they could uncover, the very things they could unearth through a ritual with the weird tiny rectangular buttons with illegible and unknowable markings that paint light before a viewer...!

The Technology Hunter grows a bit more restless with every movement across the sanctum...

"This place is not safe." He remarks. "Inconvenient as our location and timing is, for what we had encountered," and narrowly survived, "I cannot ascertain we are free of the reach of this temple's defensive mechanisms."

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

"But if we don't try to rest," Fei says. "We'll probably just get murdered by a giant rampaging elephant."

That might happen anyway, honestly. He looks Ethius over though. This man seems

well

Weirdly sane???

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

"Oh, oh, so like there were a buncha them, so-" Her eyes track to Ethius, caution dulling her enthusiasm. "Yeah..." she says, reluctantly. Regardless of who Ethius is or what drives him, the temple's shown itself to be a danger. "I wish I could just take in everything. There's so many little things, so many questions, so many little blinkie lights, and... man, I bet, if Fei sketched this entire room, everyone'd think he made it up, but here we are." Her excitement briefly overtakes her wariness, but Fei's mention of the creature brings it right back. "Can't we just... sail down?"

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

"Yes, I'm...not in much condition to be running from that creature..." Jacqueline admits, gesturing to her leg. "But...I suppose I do have one last safe dose of Invigoration Elixir...and Cyre's parachute along with Catenna's magic might be able to get us out of here without going along that route..."

It was a difficult choice, but it sounded like they had few options.