2017-07-16: Rocks Fall Somehow Nobody Dies

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  • Log: Rocks Fall Somehow Nobody Dies
  • Cast: Loren Voss, Ethius Hesiod, Cyre H. Lorentz, Seraph Ragnell, Elhaym van Houten, Cardia Ortell
  • Where: Temple of Rejection
  • Date: July 15th 2017
  • Summary: With the sudden hostility of the temple near Gounon, Drifters have begun to frequent the ruins, among them Ethius, a person of interest to Solaris. Once the Drifters and Gebler agents (in disguise) are trapped inside, a comedy of errors ensues.

DG: A party led by Loren Voss is now entering Temple of Rejection.
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Don't Wine About It *>======================
|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, but hey, it's not all bad: some kind soul left
 a couple bottles of that extremely popular and extremely expensive Johnny
 Appleseed wine out of the goodness of their hearts! Wait. Aren't those
 supposed to be a sacred offering to the temple--? Well, whatever. Enjoy!
 You're gonna need it.
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

There had been in recent weeks a few key rumors. Something about a ruin near Gounon -- a shrine still used by the residents that had gone 'berserk' and had become seemingly overnight intensely dangerous. There had even been some reports of people being 'swallowed up' by the temple, while those who managed to escape had spoken of mysterious glowing crystals, and shining panels.

Naturally, that had led to an influx of Drifters in the town, heading to the temple.

And naturally, it had caught the eye of a very particular Drifter.

The man that Loren only knows as 'Ethius' had been disqualified in the tournament (which might have been just as well considering how Lacour had been treating the young officer) and had head off into the wilderness once more. This time, though, it had proved a bit easier for him to work out where the mage had gone -- to that same ruin the locals were calling the Temple of Rejection. Knowing how the mage operated, it seemed likely he'd come back. Call it killing two birds with one stone -- investigate the ruins and stalk the mage.

And possibly take him into custody if things looked favorable, which is why he had contacted Cardia on this little expedition along with van Houten. Just in case.

As far as anyone else might care to notice, the medical officer looks like any wayward scholar poking their nose into a ruin they shouldn't -- as is typical these days he's assumed his cover of Thomas Blackwell, medical student.

The ruin is, meanwhile, quiet.

At first.

Within seconds of the disguised officers -- and any Drifters who might have met them there (or been followed there, as the case might be) stepping inside the temple, a shrill alarm cuts through the stillness within. Intruders detected. The door -- wall, really, solid and impenetrable as anything -- appears in a flash.

Loren glances back over his shoulder, far too late to do anything about the appearance of the door except stare at it.

"...I should have known," 'Thomas' says, sourly. A knock against the door (wall) just proves what he already knows -- no going out that way. Whatever it's made of, it's not coming down easily. Exhaling a sigh, he makes his way towards the console at the middle of the room. "Don't just stand around."

There's a bottle of wine here. Loren picks one up to investigate briefly, swirling the contents inside. Then he sets it back down as if deciding to leave it here, instead inspecting the console before him intently. This time, he makes no use of his glasses, only glances up occassionally at the floating crystals as if attempting to make sense of things. "This one might be..."

DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Don't Wine About It.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

Ethius and a few other fellow explorers managed to plumb the depths - or rather, climb the heights - to an interesting engraving. The return trip from there proved nerve-wracking. This Temple does not suffer intruders lightly. One visit should have proven more than enough for any of the few who are lucky to get back out of there alive.

Ethius appears to not have gotten the hint from the Temple, as he has broken away from the majority of Jacqueline's caravan's company for a return visit for... some reason, he can't put a finger on. He had a nagging feeling that it might be something relevant to... what, exactly? The window of time he has to work with before his best chance for... something... at Lacour is narrow. He could afford to leave no stone unturned.

He proves easy enough to follow. He's already moved into the entrance hall, but there is one curious detail already apparent - a raised hand and a few syllables quietly uttered as he faces the entrance. 'Thomas' might wonder for a moment if the jig is up, but following Ethius' eyes reveal it's not at them. He apparently had an expectation of something to come to pass that does not.

He must have been here before.

Quietly, he observes the bottles of wine. Does he have a taste for wine? It's probable, as he chooses to take one with him while attention is focused upon the crystals in the cent--.

THEN the wall comes down to a deafening alarm, and Ethius' eyes narrow. He doesn't move to assist directly with the floating crystals, as if intent to let 'Thomas' figure it out.

...

If they get stuck, he'll probably mention what the apparent solution is (or was).

DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Don't Wine About It.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

Cyre hasn't actually LEFT this particular ruin since the last time he was in Gounon. He'd actually taken up a room at the local inn in the hopes of being able to enter the temple a second time and hopefully figure out something or other about the cryptic warning they had found at its uppermost chamber. Maybe Ethius stayed around with him? Maybe not? In any case, there's something that Cyre is interested in learning about this place, and no amount of danger can keep him from pursuing his curiosity to the ends of the earth.

There's a saying about this kind of thing.

"Oh hey," Cyre says as the door shuts behind him. He's apparently unphazed. Or maybe he's distracted by the DELICIOUS WINE waiting for him in the middle of the room. "Free cordials!" The sirens start blaring, Cyre rolls his eyes as he stuffs another bottle into his pack. "Oh, just align the crystals again. I mean, worst case we don't get any further. Double Worst Case, we run into that asshole elephant again. It'll be fine."

"Probably."

DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Don't Wine About It.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

Ah, Ethius. Ragnell knows the man... passingly. But what she's seen of him has piqued her interest, *and* (tournament matches aside) she hasn't seen him since before the attack on Adlehyde. She's been meaning to stalk him for a while now, so when she caught sight of him leaving Lacour and heard rumors of where he was headed, she decided to skip ahead to his apparent destination, see what he's up to these days. This is an entirely different stalking session than Team Loren-Elly-Cardia, which is just as well considering how Ragnell's last run-in with the former two went. Not that it would bother *her*, but it would probably bother Elly, and that might cause some problems going in.

Hilariously, by the time they all sneak in, it's a total non-issue, since once the last has arrived, the Temple of Rejection betrays its name by locking them inside. This isn't great for Ragnell, who's heard the rumors aout the place but has yet to realize that this is it, having never been here before.

Ragnell, having walked in after Ethius (whose trail she picked up near Gounon), snaps around as the wall phases into existence, klaxons blaring angrily at the intrusion. What the hell? And despite having appeared as if by magic (how about that), when she touches it, it's solid as anything. She frowns, taking a few steps back and lifting the brim of her hat to give it a good once-over. She kicks it experimentally; it doesn't go anywhere. She shrugs in a c'est-la-vie sort of way, then turns around to inspect the rest of the room, and while there is that stone podium in the center, something else catches her eye. Something that makes her brighten and jog on over.

"Hey, check it out: free wine," Ragnell observes in approval to no one in particular, right before grabbing one of the Johnny Appleseed wine bottles and sticking it away somewhere under her poncho. She winks at Cyre, who's clearly got the same idea. "Fancy meetin' you here," she drawls, then steps to one side, arms folded. Hmm; apparently Cyre seems to know his way around in here. "You been in here before?" she adds, just to confirm it.

She glances to one side at Ethius, but he doesn't seem too eager to contribute one way or another. Then again, that's its own contribution, in its own way: too many cooks spoil the broth, as they say.

DG: Seraph Ragnell has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Don't Wine About It.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly had to disguise herself for this situation, AGAIN. Elly was faced with a dilemma, which is that she had to disguise her identity without either being some kind of student - too obvious - or just being J. Random Redheaded Girl, because if she does that, people are definitely going to remember. Even a -Lamb- will notice someone with Satan's garish red hair if she's around too much.

So.

Her hair has been braided into two pigtails that have been wrapped in turn into a fat bun resting at the base of her neck. Even her bangs have been caught up into this, although they threaten to break loose from their chemically induced confines. She is wearing a half-buttoned white shirt and men's dress slacks. She has a wooden sports club of some local professional athletics contest over one shoulder - it is closer to a cricket bat than a baseball bat, but the principle is the same. She has a nasty-looking black cigar which she is holding on to her teeth, but like Solarian philosopher Will Smith, it's for the look: she just bites it.

Also she is wearing mirrored sunglasses, which make her look tougher by hiding those big squidgey purple-blue eyes of hers.

"That horrible woman is there," Elly mutters quietly, remaining near 'Thomas'. She doesn't clarify, but she may assume Loren knows who she means.

NOT HER, LOREN

DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Officer's Sunglasses toward her party's challenge, Don't Wine About It.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

"Ehhh, just once," Cyre says to the Seraph before thumbing over in Ethius' direction. "We were in here the other day, found something weird up top. I'm wondering if there's anything else in here, though. Something to explain what we saw. And if not, hey!" He wiggles a bottle. "Free booze!"

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

Ethius brings a hand to his forehead as Cyre gabs on and on. The other hand goes to his toolbelt, for whatever reason, as he eyes some obscure part of the wall that does not appear to have anything special about it.

Hm.

<Pose Tracker> Cardia Ortell has posed.

Before they arrive at the ruin, there's just one thing to slip through the metallic rumble of Cardia Ortell's throat: "Are we sure this is the place?"

Cardia-- the Drifter Carde more often than not seen in the company of the nice lady Miang that frequents the Adventurer's Guild-- has her grayed hair worn loose, though a little more messy than normal. Her bright blue eyes peer out from under the brim of a hat, while she's dressed in familiar, comfortable clothes; a button-up shirt and loose vest, slacks, and a long jacket. Gloves hide her hands, and a short red scarf twines around her neck, keeping all but the barest hints of the woman's ruined, metallic throat from view.

She's said nothing to Elly's attire-- she's already given the Lieutenant the longest stare at the cigar chomping-- and she stays close to the pair like the watchful parent or the older sister that's honestly barely older than at least one of them, all the way through the entrance of the ruin. 'Thomas' starts messing with the wine; Carde pulls a large, worn metal canteen from her coat and twists off the cap, taking a quick drink of water.

The wall comes down; there's noise, drinks discussed. Carde paces, letting her eyes scan the room-- she's taking notes and starting to map the ruin inside her augmented vision. Her game face on, Carde turns to the Cool Tough Elly and Thomas, quickly jotting down in a book and holding up the page: 'Making mental map.'

Then a quick gesture at her robotic eyes. She'll make sure they don't get lost as they start this little stalker fiasco.

DG: Cardia Ortell has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Don't Wine About It.
DG: The party led by Loren Voss 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> Loren Voss has posed.

Earlier, Loren just might have stared, judgementally, at Elly.

Also earlier -- just outside the ruins -- Loren had met 'Carde's' question with a, "Yes. The information we have can't be mistaken." He's as sure as sure can be regarding this -- which just means that he's starting to wonder silently what happens if Ethius has managed to slip away again.

But as it happens the mage is, in fact, already here. Initially, there is that splintering second of self-doubt as Ethius looks right at him. --Impossible, Loren reminds himself. He's been nothing but careful up to this point. And indeed, as the seconds trail out after, it's apparent that it wasn't him he was looking at.

His glance slides towards the page Cardia shows his way. Nodding once, he makes a short gesture with his left hand, Solaris military handsign for 'scout ahead'.

Whatever's going on with the console and its controls is convoluted. How old is this?

'Just align the crystals again', someone says. Loren glances back. "--I was doing that," he says a touch sharply, gaze narrowing slightly as he sights the speaker. A beastman. Wonderful. Who is taking some of the wine left here. "...Helping yourself, are you?" he says, witheringly.

Whatever Elly did to her hair, he can smell it. Once again he wrinkles his nose.

He's distracted, as it happens, when Elly speaks to him. "...What horrible woman?" He glances up then at her, looking over his shoulder as if to see who she's talking about.

Just in time to see a bottle seeingly float up into the air. He twists around, backing up against the console rather suddenly, slamming his hand into one of the controls blindly as he stares.

The colors change their order. Just as Cyre had said, 'align the crystals.'

Must have been the right order there. The door opens.

(at the cost of Loren's sense of pride)

DG: Ethius Hesiod has drawn a new Challenge.
=========================================<* CHALLENGE - The Black Sun Rises *>==========================================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 3          |
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
 What is this? It's strange. You come across a room, completely empty, save
 for a lone altar. The altar emits a sphere of pulsing, violet light, cold
 and offputting. It doesn't look like an original fixture of the temple. It's
 hard to even say what era it comes from. But if you get to close, well...
 -it- appears. Tiny, golden, with a massive, angry black bobble head. The Sol
 Niger is upon you. And it is absolutely adorable. And it will destroy you.
 But if not, hey! You'll feel strangely refreshed after butchering such a
 furiously adorable thing. How strange. What does this say about you? Maybe
 it's best not to think about that too hard.

 Sol Niger: ht tp://tinyurl.com/y8yovope
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

Ethius is taken aback when the door opens. It appears to be not the way he believed would open? He turns over his shoulder to look to the very door that does. Notably, he hasn't drawn a weapon yet, as most would probably be wise to in case they get jumped by something... but a hand remains at the ready on one of the two satchels around his belt as he heads into the next room with the five (actually six) of them.

The room is empty. Featureless, even, aside from the basic contours and shapes that would be enough to say 'this is a wall,' 'this is a floor,' 'this is completely empty air,' and 'this is a mysterious altar with a violet light sphere surrounded by doodads pumping purplish energy into it.'

A digital display, flickering way, way, way below their gaze and off to the left no matter anyone's position or where they look, read the following:

AREA -- 02

ENC --- ON

Ethius approaches it. He looks to the rest, then to the altar.

"Hm."

The hand not presently clenching around the satchel begins to assume a number of gestures as light escapes from what tattoos are visible, casting a fancy circular pattern on the ground around him as he thrusts his hand forward, sending a bolt of electricity into it.

Something screechy yells, leaping out of it. A tiny spiked-and-winged gold-headed thing-or-another puts up its dukes, punching at the air angrily. IT has a scowling face made out of stone.

The Sol Niger. A source of terrible corruption!

Ethius hurriedly chants another spell and throws a satchel at it. Now it is a tiny spiked-and-winged gold-headed thing-or-another puts up its dukes, punching at the air angrily. It has a scowling face made out of stone now obscured by a fine smoke-and-dust cover.

No matter what, they're going to have to try and purify this thing before they can move on.

DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Powder Grenade toward his party's challenge, The Black Sun Rises.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

Ragnell grins at Cyre. "Nice," she says, holding up and tilting her own stolen bottle at him. "You know I'm all for free booze." Putting that bottle back away, she adds, "What'd you see, exactly, then?" A glance towards Ethius, who is staring at the wall. Hm indeed.

Horrible woman? That voice sounds familiar. Ragnell glances to one side at Elly, not recognizing her at first thanks to her shades and her ridiculous hairstyle. But then she looks over at the blonde man she's muttering to, and *now* she gets it.

"I see you too, darlin'," Ragnell drawls at Elly, just before blowing her a winky kiss, just to be obnoxious. "Did you get to patch up your 'boyfriend,' get 'im nice and grateful? Or did he just give you that same look again?" She grins unkindly. "*You* know the one."

But Loren gets the crystals to align, and the group of the move on. Before long, they reach a room with a strange altar, on top of which is an orb pulsing with violet light. Ragnell frowns to see it. It's almost like Malevolence, but... not quite. Still, there's a certain hostility emanating from it... What's this all about?

Oh. A monster. It figures.

Ragnell leaps back, drawling her twin pistols, when the Sol Niger appears and begins attempting to trash them all but good. As it charges at them with fury and vigor, she lets the others take point, opting instead to begin to cast a Seraphic arte. "Pierce through! Thunder Spear!" she calls, pointing the lance of lightning that manifests via her will towards to Sol Niger just before it takes flight across the room towards the angry little creature. Hopefuly, with the smoke cover that Ethius just put up, the creature won't see the attack until it's too late.

DG: Seraph Ragnell has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Black Sun Rises.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

"Yep!" Cyre thumbs right up at Loren, in that horribly obnoxious way that only someone with IMPECCABLE GOOD CHEER can ever hope to manage. "I mean, hey, I know this place is full of horrible machines and terrifying monsters, and not actually spirits. Not spirit-spirits. These--" He shakes another bottle. "Are the spirits that I always like to see. Anyway! By taking them, we're doing the locals a favor! If the booze is gone next time they come, then obviously the spirits took their spirits, right? It's all for the sake of their faith."

"Also, for the sake of my dinner."

Beat.

"Two birds, one stone!"

Beat.

Wait. What's this then. An altar? But it's... Odd. Strange, even. Almost as if someone had plucked it from some other, more terrifying (somehow!?) temple and placed it... here. The wrongness is palpable. The source is...

...Strangely adorable.

"...Uh." Cyre squints, extending the crook of his staff. Suddenly the air around him seemed to waver and gather, forming into lances of whirling wind. He swings his staff to one side, unleashing a barrage of hurricane-force projectiles! "That thing is weird. I feel like... Like we have to get rid of it. Somehow."

DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, The Black Sun Rises.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

Beat.

"Oh, you know," Cyre answers as the wind howls. "Just some stuff about The Lolithia and this place being, somehow, Very Important. Like I said, we need to learn more."

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Oh yeah, Loren, Elly is still going overboard with the perfume - though it's weaker now. Or is it that your nose cells are burning out? It's unclear. "The one from before," Elly mutters. She nods towards the floating bottle.

Then she squints at it when Ragnell blows her a kiss. It actually does look way more aggressive when she has the glasses on. She takes the Hauch-grade cigar out of her mouth and stuffs it in the shirt pocket of her hoodlum clothes and slouches forwards.

Cardia shows them something from her scrapbook and she says to her, "Understood," even as she reaches into that shirt again and pulls out-- a pistol! This is the gunsmoke model she's had in the past, and she holds it in one hand while wielding that bat in the other.

The gun is held out immediately and, on a thoughtless sort of reflex, braced against the club d'goon before Elly discharges two chambers in a cloud of gunsmoke that probably adds to the haziness in the room. The noise may not help Loren's hearing, either. Seeing that Ragnell is calling on lightning again, Elly considers for an instant.

Before intoning, "Aaaa -- Cut with a word as sharp as a knife - Ice Slasher!"

After this Elly exercises Ether, which is sort of a mental wiggle thing, and has nothing whatever to do with symbology. (Elly may have drawn on herself before they departed on this God-forsaken errand, just in case, but it's also why she's not showing her legs for once.)

The result is a crashing blade of ice, long and cold and jagged like yours truly.

Elly is none of those things. Maybe a skoche tall. Her head tilts slightly as Cyre speaks about Lolithia, but the BLACK SUN before them is a far more pressing topic of murderous import.

DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Sidearm toward her party's challenge, The Black Sun Rises.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

BEFORE THE DOOR OPENS:

"..." For someone as sour as the medical officer, Cyre's relentless cheer -- and petty theft perhaps -- can only be responded to in one way: a long, entirely skeptical stare. And it's paired with, for good measure, "So you intend to mislead them. How kind of you," he says, flatly, before turning his back on the shaman and continuing to investigate the console.

Surface-dwellers.

AFTER THE DOOR OPENS:

The room beyond is odd, empty and vacant in a way he's rarely seen down on the surface. The device at the center is also like and unlike anything he's seen prior in his life. He has little more than a moment before Ethius directs a spell towards the thing, prompting a--

Loren tilts his head to one side, regarding the tiny thing.

It's really attempting to fight them.

And it somehow radiates a presence of undeniable menace and corruption, no matter its size. "...What is that?" he asks, in the second before Elly unloads on the thing, a little too close at hand, at least as far as his ears are concerned. Between the smoke kicked off from that and the dust now swirling in the room, there's a bit of a visibility problem.

And then of course a lightning bolt wizzes past a little too close to him, and briefly, Loren even goes so far as to hope that was just Elly trying to kill him again.

But he knows better. That wasn't ether, whatever it was.

What he feels from Elly, close at hand and pretending to invoke Symbology, clearly is, resonating with his own senses. To an outside observer, the medical student, clearly reeling from that report of gunfire, braces himself against the wall and closing his eyes, readjust his glasses.

What he really does is invoke some ether of his own, a swirl of sleet and ice adjoining to Elly's own attack. Maybe someone will just assume that was an extra-fancy spell.

DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, The Black Sun Rises.
<Pose Tracker> Cardia Ortell has posed.

As Cardia scans the room, something interesting happens: The dust in the room, that haze, suddenly gets in her eyes. Blinking a few times, feeling unfamiliar tears well up in her eyes, the cyborg's arm lifts to hold thumb and forefinger into them as she lets out a short, hitched, "Hnh!" Teeth clench, her eyes sting-- the woman blinks a few times before trying to dab her face into her sleeve on instinct. Error messages flicker into her vision for a moment while she grabs for Loren's sleeve for balance.

The feed cuts; Cardia's eyes go dim and unfocused to the middle distance as she holds a hand close to her face while the edges of her eyelids look irritated and red. She's trying her best to covertly whisper to him with a metallic rasp, "Eyes are-- soft reboot. Just let me hold on."

The dust gets a bit worse. The 'Drifter' coughs-- a strange sound to the uninitiated-- teeth clenching and hand moving to her throat. What the hell is going on?

Her eyes refocus; her vision is briefly grainy before sharpening to the clarity it should have-- and then there's a weird little monster attempting to attack them.

Ether and bullets and magic fly. Looking more than a little irritated, she strides forward with a great deal of confidence and looking somewhere between 'cross' and 'furious.' One booted foot slams down to the floor to set her weight and balance, her other leg drawn way, way back.

And then she just tries to punt the poor little creature like it's going to just go straight into the wall.

DG: Cardia Ortell has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Black Sun Rises.
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has failed 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> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

The little bugger is tougher than it looks! It gets struck by a mysterious lightning blast out of nowhere! It gets blown around by wind! It basks in both of these elements and cackles in a high-pitched voice. Those two approaches... aren't working.

"ATTAAAAAACK!!" It calls, headbutting everyone its tiny little legs can reach. It hurts, it stings! What a scrappy little evil corrupt idol thing! Ethius gets pushed back by one such thing before he can contribute an additional spell to the effort.

When Elly fakes an attempt at Symbology (with special bonus covert help from our good friend Lor-- 'Thomas'), the effects appear dramatically different. The effectiveness of the gunsmoke rounds are indeterminate before the combined might of two skilled Ether slingers summoning forth great manifestations of ice that puncture, push, and throw about the Sol Niger.

Cardia goes for the coup de grace to put her foot against it.

The Sol Niger puts up a tiny little arm. It shakes its adorable oversized head to either side, waggling the other arm like one might a finger if it had any, and hurls her across the room.

The group will find (when following where Cardia gets thrown) that there's technically no blockade against further progress - the battle against the little demonic thing-or-another seems little more than a precious waste of time.

Ethius looks back at the crowd as he rises, parsing what events he's able to under the haze of smoke and strange sounds that happened, staring into the chaos before turning towards the open door.

"Move," he calls, not raising his voice, as the Sol Niger flips the double deuce at them. (With stubs for arms, it is always giving the double deuce.)

And so, they'll have to continue to suffer all the random encounters this place has to offer.

DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has drawn a new Challenge.
======================<* CHALLENGE - Seal the Scourge *>======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 3          |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 It happens the very second you walk into this massive room, with winding
 stairways and beautiful stone architecture: everything shuts off. Doors
 slammed close. Lights go out. The entire world seems to close off to you
 suddenly and abruptly. There was no obvious trap triggered here. It's almost
 as if it was the temple itself doing this, desperate to cut you off at the
 pass -- if it can't kill you, apparently, it will just try to quarantine
 you. There's no power in this place, no light, no clever mechanisms of
 escape. Nothing. Just darkness, and doors. Someone's going to have to try
 forcing those massive stone doors open, if they can find them in the dark.
 If they can overpower the temple's seeming adamant need to be rid of you.
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

"Ow! OW!" Cyre squawks as he's SO RUTHLESSLY HEADBUTTED by a tiny black sun totem man. "Okay, okay! Jeez, let's just go! This isn't worth the abuse!" And also it's nowhere near as dangerous as SOMETHING WAY WORSE THAN THIS THING. "Come on!" He rushes down the corridor past these little jerks. What kind of temple has ALL THESE AWFUL THINGS living inside of them, anyway!?

(Cyre has never been to Spira. There are worse things living inside temples.)

Past labyrinthine passageways, up and down snaking staircases, through ancient archways, the party finally arrives in... A chamber that was probably really quite beautiful! Except all the lights go out. And all the doors slam shut. "Uhhhhgh," Cyre groans, rubbing gently at his aching temples. "Okay. Hold on, there's always a mechanism or something--"

The party searches for a good while.

There are no mechanisms.

Just two enormous doors. One from where they came from, one to where they're going to. "Well," Cyre says. "I guess... We might just need to force them."

"Or rather," he says, lighting a censer filled with some kind of fragrant-smelling incense that seems to soothe aching muscles and rejuvenate fatigued spirits. "I'll keep this burning and the smoke coming, and someone big and strong gets to force them."

That's totally fair, right?

Cyre can't help it if his arms are noodles.

DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has used his Tool Invigorating Vapors toward his party's challenge, Seal the Scourge.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

"Huh," Ragnell utters, expression thoughtful. "Lolithia, huh. All right, I gotcha."

Meanwhile, Elly slouches over the blown kiss and pointedly doesn't react to anything else she has to say. Ragnell smirks at her and moves on. Then the Sol Niger happens. And Elly casts a strange sort of spell on it... Ragnell gives her a sharp glance, which slides quickly over to Loren when he adds his own sleet to her ice blade. There's that strange... magic again. The kind that Xantia and Keis were using during the tournament. Not knowing what ether is, Ragnell can't name it, but she knows it's different from anything she's sensed on Lunar or, up 'til recently, Filgaia too. Elly had used it the last time they were in a Dig together, but Ragnell hadn't been paying her much attention at the time and it ended up slipping her mind. She won't be so quick to forget this time.

For now, though, she doesn't remark upon it. She doubts Elly would give her a polite answer if she just up and asked. Too bad. But then, life's more interesting with challenges, eh?

...Speaking of which, uh. Did that weird golden idol thing just absorb her arte?

...That's a bad sign.

At least Elly and Loren's attacks are more effective, though it's hard to say if it's because of the different element or because of whatever thing they're using to cast their artes in the first place. Cardia, at least, doesn't get any respect--poor woman gets thrown across the room. Still, it looks like they don't HAVE to beat this thing to move on. Ragnell utters a low 'tch,' holsters her guns, and gives the Sol Niger a similar salute before hurrying after Ethius towards the open door.

Beyond there, the party makes its way through the dungeon until they reach a certain room. The moment everyone's inside, it slams its doors behind them and cuts all the lights. Ragnell pauses. "Seriously?" she utters, thoroughly annoyed. Beyond that, though... that was really weird. She didn't hear any telltale trap-triggering *clicks* or anything like that. Did she just not notice? Or is someone controlling these doors from afar? She frowns, rubbing her chin in thought.

"Yeah, probably," she says to Cyre, then helps search for a mechanism. There is no mechanism. Finally, he lights some soothing-smelling intense, creating a tiny light for the rest of them. "You're a real wimp, you know that?" she says to him dryly, but not without her special brand of caustic humor. "By the way, do me a solid an' tell the rest of these nerds there's about to be a big explosion." Whether Cyre complies or not--hey, Elly isn't likely to do anything she says, so she's done her due diligence by now--Ragnell reaches into her poncho and produces a perhaps-familiar grenade. She pulls a pin and tosses it towards the door they *didn't* just come through.

It explodes with lightning a moment later, potentially weakening the door and sending cracks spidering through it--the better for the others to knock it down.

DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Electric Grenade toward her party's challenge, Seal the Scourge.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

"Well yeah, I am a COLOSSAL wimp," Cyre says with a grin to, apparently, open air. But then Ragnell threatens an explosion! Cyre goes pale! "Hold on, wait, wait!"

<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

He coughs into a fist, then wiggles his fingers. "Ahem! I CALL UPON THE POWER OF THE STORM SPIRIT, RAGNELL! BY YOUR FULMINANT FURY, UNLEASH THE WRATH OF HEAVEN!" The little grenade flies, unseen in the dark, towards the door. "STEEL THUNDER EXPLOSIO--"

It explodes.

Cyre is cut off.

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

Ethius remains quiet and calm throughout their change of fortune, trudging into what ought to be their early tomb. He pulls out the little lens and channels an electrical spell into it to join the sweep looking for a proper mechanism to manipulate, and helps come up with the official answer of 'nope, nada.'

"I can offer an alternative," speaks Ethius as the incense is lit to provide a modicum of light in which to see, "though it is a risky proposition."

Cyre should know by now what it is, as Ethius stands on the opposite corner from the door to the next area - allowing no one to come behind him, and giving him about as good a view of everyone else as any.

"I will attempt to melt the door." You heard him. Not lift it, not open it, melt it. "There is a lack of ventilation at present. We may have consumed much of the available air in our search... to say nothing of the discomfort." He doesn't sound too troubled by any of this. It's... eerie, how calm this man seems to be in the face of an unglamorous, sad death to starvation in the depths of a temple of antiquity. That kind of composure is simply not normal, for a random wandering hermit.

"Mister Cyre, please get a hold of yourself." It sounds like Ethius appears presently unaware of Ragnell's presence, beyond having been unable to determine the origin of an earlier lightning bolt with that Sol Niger.

Cyre provides a somewhat believable cover (in the short term), as Ethius dedicates himself to the Symbological spell to be channeled in dealing with the door - and an invitation for everyone to step back as the stone door takes on a molten reddish-orangeish hue. His focus is enviable, not startled by the sudden explosion. It is dramatic to behold. If one overlooks matters of convection and suspends their disbelief about how organic life forms are not combusting into flames in presence of beyond bearable heat being applied to the stone door, it's more than a little frightening.

This is the same man that reportedly damaged the legendary Golem, Diablo, with just his Symbology. A door like this should be but a trifle... but the sorcerous application of heat turns their escape from this chamber into that much more dangerous a race against time - the risk of everyone blacking out and suffocating from lack of oxygen should not be understated (or from the heat, from that matter)!

Ideally, everyone will spread out and allow ample clearance for the melted stone material to spread into a lump and cool off with a speed as improbable as their continued existence in the proximity of temporary lava. (A best case scenario is a harrowingly close brush with death on multiple fronts!)

DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Seal the Scourge.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

As the group moves forwards, Elly gives a look towards Cardia. Her sunglasses come off and she asks her, "Are you -"

She is then hurled.

Elly looks at the Sol Niger with great dismay and then hastens around the immediate area around the creature. No, it seems, random encounter isn't going to stop today. Soon enough, though, they are plunged into darkness. There is a dim smoulder from the incense, and little else.

"That woman's doing something," Elly warns them, before the grenade is thrown with a shocking flash. Her eyes squint then, and she tilts her head down, lips drawing back. Of all the times to WISH she'd left the sunglasses ON.

"This deep... I suppose it's to be expected that there wouldn't be any light." Elly breathes in once, lets it out. She looks towards where Cardia is, or should be. Maybe Cardia has secret technology to hide it.

"But," Elly says, even as she raises that wooden bat aloft, "I don't believe in standing aside in the face of darkness...!"

Where the hell did THAT come from, Loren may fairly ask afterwards. The upraised wooden bat, though, answers things by immediately and stunningly getting struck by lightning; the wood is lacquered and reinforced enough that it does not split, smouldering in the darkness for a moment before Elly waves it around enough for embers to flare and varnish to melt and an improvised torch to be formed!

"Um - No matter where you go - there you are, on Filgaia! Ahh--"

Elly's eyes turn in the red light towards Loren, which may make him flinge for a moment. Then Ethius helpfully sets her up, because what she is about to do is going to be way easier with soft rock rather hard.

"Stone Free!"

Where is Elly getting these things from? Probably old children's programming from Solaris, generated without human intervention in the bowels of SOL 9000. Just like actual Super Sentai programming. Either way, all this flourishing and dramatics erupts into a wave of free-flowing rippling Earth Ether, which Elly had intended to shudder and crack against stone, and which may now - uh - "Stand back!" she calls ahead to Ethius and Cyre and probably also Ragnell, if not necessarily, in the latter case, on purpose.

DG: Elhaym van Houten has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Seal the Scourge.
<Pose Tracker> Cardia Ortell has posed.

Cardia shoots a glance to Elly. Though the skin around her eyes is a little irritated and red, she gives a nod-- she's all right. Her foot echoes it's mighty kick against the hide of the creature; though she'd give anything to pick it up and throw it off a cliff right now, they're pressed on to more, horrible, tragic things-- things like the room being plunged into darkness.

In the total dark, Carde... sighs.

As censers burn and plans are made, Cardia's vision flicks from a standard to a low-light mode. While there aren't many lights or natural sources of light in the room, she's aware of her own equipment-- and then slipping one arm out of her jacket, unseen in the dark, she takes a small pack out of one of the large sling-pouches hanging from her left hip. From her direction, there's a few mechanical clicks and clacks-- the sounds of her opening and affixing the object to her back-- before lights start and the worst of things start happening: Explosions, superheated objects, and of course, Elhaym van Houten reciting children's programming.

Carde's already shrugging her jacket back on as the lights start coming up, but the cut of her jacket seems a little more snug than before; a bit more bulk inside. The 'Drifter' breathes hard on her hands, moving closer to the heated-and-cooled, detonated, blazing stone doors before she pulls back her gloved hand... then STABS one into the crevice. The other follows suit a moment afterward. Her hidden cybernetics briefly redline as Ether surges through her enhancements; her arms strain, internal components twist and work against the weight, the odd dust and haze, the burning in her eyes...

... and she does try to physically pull the doors apart with all the brute strength she can muster.

DG: Cardia Ortell has used her Tool Ether Supercharger toward her party's challenge, Seal the Scourge.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

Lolithia? Wasn't that...

Cardia grabs at his sleeve just as he leans against the wall. He glances sidelong, gaze questioning but doesn't flinch or pull away. The dust isn't irritating to him at all, while it's having an untoward effect on her and her... parts.

This is also just about when the... thing attacks, headbutting its way into his shins with alarming speed and ferocity. Loren steps back a step, wincing as it manages to draw blood and hissing out a short breath. It's speedy enough that a reflexive retaliatory kick from Loren doesn't even remotely begin to hit home -- it catches only air.

His invocation of ice follows.

As does Cardia's...

This could have gone better.

He only lingers long enough to ensure that Cardia is fine.

He doesn't spare the little monster more than a glance over his shoulder as he hurries to leave it -- and its headbutts -- behind.

Trailing somewhat behind the rest, he's still caught inside as the lights go out and the door slams ominously shut. "...Again?" he asks, backing up just long enough to slam a hand into the door, from there feeling his way to the nearest wall, then using that wall as a guidepost as he makes his way forward.

Eventually they find a pair of doors. In the dark, Loren prods at them, then gives them a somewhat meaningful test shove. "...Force them. Wonderful, assuming they can be forced. ...At this rate, we're going to die in here," he opines, taking a step back. The air in here seems to be getting a bit thin.

And then the man who inflicted substantial damage to a Golem says that he's going to melt the door.

While saying that this could be dangerous for various reasons, available air and a bit of a heat issue that could arise among them. "--What? Are you out of your mind? You could get us all killed--" he starts, having perhaps forgotten his protestation just moments ago that they could die if they can't get the door down. And then Cyre -- as Elly murmurs that 'that woman is doing something' -- to all appearances calls down the wrath of a terrible spirit upon the door, even as Ethius begins to invoke his spell.

Loren, in a display of self-preservation, gets away from the damn door.

At least there's some light aside from the discharge of spells (?) unfolding their merciless might upon the door.

It does however, come after what is probably one of the weirder comments he's had from Elly -- wait, wasn't that from a show a decade ago...? -- and before she glances his way. He does, in fact, flinch back, half-raising a hand as if to defend himself.

The burst of ether's directed at the door, though, making him once again feel faintly foolish. Where other people give the door everything they have and move to kick down the remains he... hangs back.

DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Seal the Scourge.
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has failed 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> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

On the bright side, the door is COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY EXPLODED. Thoroughly exploded. Lightning and fire and stone and everything else explode everywhere forever. The resulting conflagration sears great black spots into everyone's retinas. It's terrible! ALSO TERRIBLE, THE FACT THAT EVERYTHING IS EXPLODING.

THIS WAS ONLY A SMALL LITTLE CORRIDOR GUYS.

That much firepower in such a small place, it's... Well.

It's not comfortable to be around.

After the dust clears, a pile of rubble on the far side of the room rumbles... Then falls apart, revealing a thoroughly scorched Zoa Priest. "Uggggggghhhh," Cyre groans, "Was that... All really necessary...?"

At least the way forward is clear!

DG: Seraph Ragnell has drawn a new Challenge.
=========================<* CHALLENGE - Kompression *>==========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 3          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 This temple really doesn't want you here. Or anyone. Take, for instance,
 this room. It's relatively simple and straightforward, with a massive, open
 entryway leading into an ascent further into the temple. Nothing more,
 nothing less, decorated by beautiful pillars and murals of bygone days. But
 the second you step into the threshold of that entry way? A stone slab will
 just -drop- from above with every intention of crushing you flat if you
 don't stop it somehow. Destroy the mechanism, stop the slab with brute
 force, it doesn't really matter -- but with its speed there's probably no
 way you're getting out completely unscathed through speedy escape alone.
 Don't get kompressed!
=Dungeon Conditions: Collapse=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

Ragnell roars with laughter when Cyre attempts to use foreknowledge of her grenade to act as though he's calling upon a spirit or a Guardian or whatever. Sauntering over to him, she slaps him on the shoulder in a friendly-ish sort of way. "Nice try! Gotta be a little faster next time, though!" She winks and grins at him. "But hey, I liked the idea! Maybe next time, eh?" She leans in and adds, for his ears only, "'Sides, you're not the only one in this group who can see me--Red over there can too." She leans back and, in a normal tone of voice, adds, "But you probably knew that already, huh?"

She turns to watch when Ethius offers an alternative and then proceeds to melt the door, filling the room with noxious smoke. Ragnell, being a Seraph, fortunately is unaffected by it, but she still can't pass through solid walls, and spending the next however many years trapped in this room with a bunch of dead humans and humanoids as they starve and rot doesn't sound like a fun time to her. Fortunately, Elly then contributes by doing... *something* to the slaggy door, and Ragnell stands back as suggested, eyebrows rising. They rise further when the last member of the party, whom she'd hitherto paid little attention so far, *also* channels that strange... something, that Elly and Loren have. Ragnell frowns, focusing in on Cardia.

...Is she trying to physically pry those doors apart??

.......that's kinda hot.

And then Loren does something and yadda yadda yadda, whatever, Ragnell's admiring the cyborg lady, you do your thing over there, nerd-boy. And they do blast the door open! Perhaps a bit too well. Ragnell gets out of dodge when the explosion start to chain, but poor Cyre... well, he *did* agree with her when she called him a wimp. "*Completely* necessary," she reassures him, right before moving on with the others. A few rooms later, and there's a nice, wide, open entryway leading forward. Nice and spacious! Plenty of room for all of them to go forward in one line. Which means that all of them are in one spot when a slab just SLAM, right down from above, fast and deadly intent on squishing them all very, very dead. It's too big and moving too fast to possibly dodge or run out of the way in time, so Ragnell does the next best thing: she whips a hand into her poncho again, slams another grenade upwards, and uses her natural affiliation with lightning to direct it upwards and across the slab.

"LIGHTNING IN THE HOLE!!" she snarls just before it explodes, hopefully cracking or weakening the thing as the others... hopefully do *their* things to avoid all of them getting crushed. Crushed like candy. CANDY CRUSHED.

DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Electric Grenade toward her party's challenge, Kompression.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

OH GOD THE CEILING IS FALLING.

OH GOD RAGNELL IS TRYING TO EXPLODE IT AGAIN.

"Augh! No! Why are there always so many explosions!" Cyre screams and FURIOUSLY SHAKES his censer, continuing to fill the air with SO MUCH SMOKE.

Also this time, he actually does go to push the ceiling up.

Well. He does if he's still in one piece once all the explosions happen.

Cyre really doesn't want to be spontaneously combusted. It's pretty bad for your health.

DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has used his Tool Invigorating Vapors toward his party's challenge, Kompression.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

Ethius escapes the worst of everyone's destructive efforts thanks to having positioned himself on the far side to begin with. The bandanna around the lower half of his face helps minimize the smoke inhalation from his own, um, preferred way of handling obstructions. As it all clears and everyone moves forward, he brings a hand to his head as he watches everyone file out and forward in contemplation.

"Most curious," he murmurs under his breath as he moves into the next corridor, still largely taking up the rear (unless Ragnell decides to be clever and run behind him).

Ethius spies gears turning from the corner of his eye the moment he hears that huge slab of stone begin to descend. He hasn't been in this corridor before to his knowledge. He shouldn't be familiar with this trap, then, but some kind of latent instinct and/or educated guess wins out.

The spells that follow are about as rapid-fire as any Symbologist can manage with a rumbling, loud ceiling deafening out words of panic and advice and the non-zero possibility that this is where they will all die.

A spray of corase dust to try and stop the gears.

Another wave of heat to try and fuse them.

He alternates between the two without missing a beat, having found some kind of tranquility and rhythm when once again caught in the middle of mortal danger that might be out of reach of anyone's ability to do much of anything about at the speed the situation calls of them!

DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Kompression.
<Pose Tracker> Cardia Ortell has posed.

For what it's worth, Carde dug a really huge chunk right out of the door.

The 'mute' Drifter lets out a silent 'harumpf' of air, rubble still spilling down around her shoulders as a sting of pain moves through the transitions between metal and flesh. The dust is driving her a little batty; her limbs feel a little more ill-responsive, and while she doesn't have problems breathing, she's got more than a few worries lingering at the back of her head.

Smoldering and ragged on the edges in what may have been a bad idea-- but not the worst idea Cardia Ortell has ever had in the field-- she still managed to do her part. Keeping Loren and Elly within eyeshot as she tries to collect herself and survey the damage, the cross through to the next hallway leads to another trying reason as to why she prefers the military field work rather than digging around in dungeons:

The slab dropping on them from above.

With naught more than a thought, the supercharger tweaks online again with a hiss of power surging through the woman's arms. While some work at the mechanisms, she takes the brazen, perhaps not-quite-brilliant move of charging to catch the slab with her gloved hands held over her head as though it might just do something.

As long as the supercharger holds out, she may just.

DG: Cardia Ortell has used her Tool Ether Supercharger toward her party's challenge, Kompression.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

There's fumes, there's heat, there's multiple explosions.

Suffice to say it's a bad place to be. Loren covers his mouth and nose with his right arm as absolutely everything starts to go to hell, but it only helps so much -- it feels like his throat is on fire, in comparison to the rest of him which might just be 'on fire' to judge by the shockwave of heat and pressure rolling back into the tight corridor. He at least manages to not get knocked off his feet -- throwing up his left arm as the wave of destruction rolls past -- but with breathable air in here all but consumed in that blast, it's not a large consolation prize.

When he escapes the confines of that room he immediately doubles over, coughing. "Could have been killed..."

All is not well, though. Loren glances up.

Emperor Cain have mercy.

He straightens, eyes skywards towards the ceiling as it begins to descend. Rapidly. Other people might go for the mechanism; Loren only goes for what's right in front of him, sheer desire not to die down here taking the fore. He lifts a hand to his glasses, dredging up a pillar of earth from the floor as Cardia takes point and attempts to catch the slab, a supplement to what she's attempting to try. His gaze slides across the contents of the room, harried. There, he sees it. "Hurry up and break it!"

In his panic, he has sort of less-than-properly-hidden the spell he's used, though.

At least with the lights on, Loren can actually see what Cyre is doing -- well sort of -- with the censor instead of assuming that odd smell was Elly's perfume or something.

DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Kompression.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly coughs. "... Look, don't judge it when we didn't begin the explosions," she says, before moving forwards, through the extremely and comprehensively owned door, slouching a little.

And then the roof starts to descend.

Elly looks up and there's an electrical surge of feeling of despair because something about this - did she - why does it seem like -

- Cardia -

The stink rising in the air is chaotic and the sight of Cardia throwing her body ahead and placing herself ahead as a meat-and-steel obstacle between themselves and all of death makes Elly shriek, "NO!"

There is no veiled effort of what Elly does next. Loren did one pillar: Elly throws in three of similar mass, girth and heightiness, quickly, running up towards Cardia with obvious anxiety on her face, even as the machine grinds on.

She tilts her head back, her eyes widening as her face blanches and her cheeks puff out slightly. She gathers herself. Loren may feel a sense of something imperious and massive passing by him, like the invisible fist of a Gear, as Elly, in desperation, reaches deep --

Well, in a sense, it's just an even larger Fire ether effect. But oh, the question of how she got there! And just how well could that mechanism survive it?

"C, come on! Let the rocks hold it up!!" she urges Cardia: "Come on!"

DG: Elhaym van Houten has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Kompression.
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has failed this challenge! The party gained 6 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> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

Good thing Cyre still has that incense stuff. Good thing Ethius is so quick-witting, attempting to halt up the gears sending the slab down towards them rather than stop the slab itself. Good thing Cardia has, at least for the moment, enough strength to simply *catch* the slab and hold it in its tracks. Good thing Loren casts a spell to bring a slab of earth up to, if not smash the slab outright, then at least help Cardia hold it at bay for the nonce. Good thing Elly throws in with Loren, pitching several more earthen pillars.

Too bad it's not enough.

The grinding gears hold for a few seconds, churning against each other; then the entire mechanism just shatters, slab and all. What no one took into consideration is that, even if they break the slab, there's still only one direction for all those rocks to fall: down. Right on top of all of them.

Rocks fall, everyone dies.

WELL NO, not really, but when Ragnell digs herself out of the pile of rubble, it's with a lot of weary cursing. Good Goddess, what is *with* this damn temple?

In a moment of panic, she pats herself down. Then she breathes a long, heartfelt sigh of relief.

"Wine's safe," she announces to no one in particular. Because clearly that's the thing that matters most here.

DG: Elhaym van Houten has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* CHALLENGE - Fourway Floor *>=========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 You stumble upon a simple, fourway intersection, the kind that would make
 any driver furrow their brows in irritation. The door behind you is open,
 but there doesn't seem to be any other entryway or exit at the end of any of
 the halls -- just an ancient console at the very center, and a stone arrow
 pointing in one direction or another. Whenever the console is operated, the
 arrow will move, and a new pathway will open. Or maybe nothing will happen
 and you'll just waste a bunch of time until you get the right combination.
 It's hard to say. Aren't ancient ruins great??
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

The good point of this intersection is that it is not full of death or crushing horror or things to explode further.

The bad news is - well - it's a puzzle scenario. A labyrinth extends out ahead of them and there will, it seems, be a lot of running back and forth to figure out what goes where.

Elly draws out her sunglasses, coughing at the scents still lingering in the air.

This place is miserable, she thinks. They should just leave.

Out through that wreckage or something. Break away from this man they're supposedly observing. From that horrible woman and her wine. From Cyre and his reeking acts of censership.

"... I know none of you have any reason to listen to me," Elly says, "but... if I understand how this works..." And here Elly fiddles with a control several times, making the arrow move, and something go "clunk" and "rumble" in the distance.

"Then, it'll work better if someone stays here and works the controls. I know you may get out of shouting distance - but I'll operate it every twenty seconds, and I'll tell you which way it's pointing for as long as I can. If we string out, then we should be able to carry things... This place can't be that big!"

... leader... ship?? is that the boat you sail to Victory Island on? (yes)

DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Officer's Sunglasses toward her party's challenge, Fourway Floor.
<Pose Tracker> Cardia Ortell has posed.

The slab hits her hands. Cardia's arms give a degree as the weight starts to settle in on her. She doesn't feel-- register tactile sensation-- like the others. She feels weight, strain, yes, but more than anything it's all just a scroll of data and numbers blitzing through the sides of her vision as warning numbers and data on the current status of her own body.

The slab's weight settles on her shoulders. By some ungodly Filgaian miracle, she's holding it. She's holding it, even with the visible strain on her features; sweat crowns her brow and the scowl on her face is one of intense concentration. Not even the few beads that trickle down over scarred lids and into open eyes cause her to so much as blink. She's got this.

It'll hold.

The others start blasting; Loren attempts to supplement her efforts and support the weight-- and then the slab comes down heavier, as though the whole place were trying to just land on their heads at once. Cardia's leg bends, her left knee hitting the floor with a deep metallic *thunk* and a strained, "Ngh!" escapes her as the weight now distributes across her shoulders. And then all hell breaks loose-- the collapse happens, but it at least doesn't result in them all getting buried and Rejected from the mortal coil.

Still supporting most of the weight of one of the largest slabs with her back and shoulders, the cyborg heaves hard and shrugs the stone off, staggering a few steps and breathing heavily. Her gaze casts around-- is everyone all right? Her priorities are immediate-- check for the status of Loren and Elly, first and foremost.

The only way seems to be to keep moving forward. Forward-- into another strange, labrynthine labrynth. Elly seems to be taking charge. Cardia looks at her-- and the sunglasses, again, with that outfit-- but nods, taking to her canteen for a heavy swallow of water. She points at her eyes again before turning her attention to the labrynth, trying to make a 'mental' map again even with how things went before-- and whatever guidance she can give with this mental map, as though she's totally got a really good memory and not just a bunch of robot parts helping her cheat through this.

DG: Cardia Ortell has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Fourway Floor.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

After all that dust and dirt and effort and everything, by the time the group reaches the next puzzle, Ragnell is more than happy to pull out her personal fan and turn it on, letting the air brush against her refreshingly. She sighs in real pleasure, rubbing her chin and jaw. Ahhh. Yeah, that's the stuff. She leaves it on for a moment as she studies the room and its fourway intersection and a console in the center and the stone arrow. Huh. It seems simple enough, but... God. After getting crushed by rocks, it's just so hard to think.

Elly's right. This place *is* miserable. "Works for me," she says to Elly, apparently happy to cooperate when faced with bullshit ruins. "I'm probably better off headin' forward, though; don't think it'd go over too well if the controls started workin' themselves," she adds wryly. She turns off the fan and returns it to her poncho, refreshed for the moment, and ready to move forward when needed.

DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Portable Fan toward her party's challenge, Fourway Floor.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

Ethius crawls out of the wreckage, face-down with both hands against his pounding headache and a number of measured breaths. The last few seconds are a hazy blur. His attention too focused on trying to stop the descending ceiling, the minutae surrounding mysterious sorcery and Cardia's superhuman strength is lost to what may be a concussion.

The pain reminds him he's still among the living. His body aches all over as he pulls himself out of the crushing rubble, and the feeling that comes when you are freed of being crushed to death is the worst.

He runs a hand against the wall for support as they head further inward, once again trailing as they come across the four-way intersection. He starts to grasp the odd eyeglass he sometimes uses, as--

An unexplained breeze. He stops, and puts it back. He remains still for a few poignant moments.

The Solarians' current mark walks up to Cyre with an uncharacteristic urgency in his step, looking back over his shoulder - vaguely in the direction of Elhaym, 'Thomas,' and a very bold and powerful woman whom has shown incredible courage versus red-hot molten rock, falling ceilings, and tiny stone-faced gold-plated manifestations of pure evil. His gaze narrows slightly, as he looks back towards Cyre and whispers something into his ear.

"We're being followed."

DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Fourway Floor.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

Cyre's censer serves a very important role in this group. It keeps everyone from stinking something fierce! In this way, it has done what no telecommunications technology has ever achieved. It can censor... Smellovision.

What an innovation.

Unfortunately, it doesn't do much for being CRUSHED UNDER A PILE OF ROCKS.

"Uuuuugh," Cyre groans, an uncorked bottle of cider clutched in one hand. He sort of staggers against a wall, then tiiiiilts it back into his mouth as the Solarians... Do their thing.

With their shades.

And their Totally Cool Outfits.

...

"Oh no," Cyre groans right back at Ethius. "Is it the elephant? I bet it's the--"

He stares right back over at the people that his good adventuring buddy is staring daggers at.

"...Ethius, buddy," Cyre whispers back, "I don't know how to tell you this, but... They've been with us this entire time."

Beat.

Is this like one of those 'forget to tell anyone my name because reasons' things again?

...

"Look, maybe we can get away when one of these doors swings open, hey? Just... Just keep your eyes open."

DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Fourway Floor.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

Destroy the mechanism is what he meant but...

In the end, specifics probably don't even matter anymore. Not when there's a different problem at hand, namely, the entire plate above them cracking up and shattering into a million (still large and dangerous) pieces and raining down upon them.

A hand reaches up from beneath the rubble. The rest of 'Thomas' (largely intact but battered and now featuring a streak of blood down one side of his face) emerges after. He's had better days, but he'll live, for now, as Cardia will be able to assess quickly.

He shakes his head, as if somewhat rattled from that. "Let's... keep going."

At least what the next area holds for them is a good deal less deadly. But that doesn't mean it's any less smooth sailing. Making his way over to the device, Loren eyes the thing, as if giving it some silent but critical assessment.

You know what, he'll go with her assessment. He's just survived a ceiling falling on him.

"I'll check that way," he says, pulling away to head down a lane adjacent to (but not exactly the same as) the one Ethius glances his and Cardia's way, and then leans in towards Cyre.

"..."

He might share a glance with Cardia but otherwise remains silent, inspecting this avenue as he taps a short current of ether and activates his glasses, searching for any tell-tale signs (disturbed dust, etc).

DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Etheric Lenses toward his party's challenge, Fourway Floor.
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 26 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: Elhaym van Houten 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.

 Twilight Venom: ht tp://tinyurl .com/ycbggmyh
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly's cheeks puff out again when Ragnell validates her decision to stay put. It's a pretty goofy face. Ragnell is probably now reinforced in her behavior.

But...

As people spread out, speak, conspire, self-medicate, glance among each other, search out evidence - the wave-front of everyone spreads out, and despite some false starts and Elly shouting herself hoarse, an actual, factual DOOR is found. It isn't even LOCKED. Or TRAPPED. Or full of EVIL BEES.

Elly comes trotting up. "Oh thank - kgh - thank goodness..."

"I suppose... it's really through here..."

Elly mumbles to herself for a moment. Ragnell would just hear some gurgling like she's clearing her throat, probably. 'Carde' and 'Thomas' would hear 'these braids hurt...' But that's just Elly having to meet her whining quota, probably.

The door swings open...

The air has the faint chalky-burning scent of death on it already.

The wings of the poisonously gorgeous insect flap as it languidly takes off, rises into the air... hovers, beating its wings as it sheds powder, the scales disintegrating as they fall. It is almost insolent. But why should it not be? It is confident that it will slay them. Live by the dust and gas weapon, die by the dust and gas weapon...

EXCEPT...

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Elly empties the chambers of her pistol, ALSO just behind and to the left of Loren, as if she's trying to equalize his chances of tinnitus. After this she raises up the smouldering remnant of that bat, saying as she does, "Cremate the just and the unjust alike..."

What? Well, that probably means she's going to drop another big fire effect on the bug. Unless she dies of poison first, or having her blood drunk, or something.

DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Sidearm toward her party's challenge, This is No Mothra Boy.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

And so, Ethius meets the moth that nearly took him and his fellow Drifters' lives some time ago.

Ethius remembers what happened when he tried to turn up the heat against the moth - the powder is the sort of thing that explodes when it gets too hot. He spends a lot of time considering his movements, and doesn't appear to contribute to the immediate combat effort as the big giant veonomous moth goes and spreads venomous dust everywhere.

He watches. Is he watching everyone's combat potential? Every move they make, scrutinizing any out-of-place behavior? 'Thomas' might stand to notice that Ethius may or may not be On To Something(tm).

He casts a quicker, lower-end heat spell when the time is right to burn the air around the moth. There will inevitably be a dangerous explosion.

He can't see them. He can't hear them. He can't completely sense them, beyond the nagging feeling of there being something that does not belong.

Cyre andor Elly might be dismayed andor overjoyed to find out that Ethius appears to be trying to blow up the electric boogeyman dancing out of his perception off of an educated guess of where she presently is, using the moth's own combustible powder as a proxy that may or may not actively contribute to taking down the moth.

It's kind of a jerk move!!!

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

Elly puffs out her cheeks. Ragnell grins at her. "Now, now," she says. "I ain't changin' my mind just 'cuz you look at me with those come-hither eyes." IT's ridiculous and she knows it, and that's precisely why she says it.

Ragnell doesn't hear what Ethius whispers to Cyre, on account of him having whispered it. She *does*, however, hear Cyre's groaned response. She glances over at him, then sees him whispering back to Ethius. ...oh yeah. Ethius starts losing his shit anytime she uses her fan, doesn't he? After nearly getting crushed by rubble, she'd completely forgotten. She grins wolfishly, but leaves the two be for now while Loren uses his glasses. He might not see any extra disturbances in the dust, considering how many people have just tromped right through it, but he might detect a certain something in the air...

Onwards they all go, and soon they run into a venomous moth, perhaps a relative of the decaying butterfly that Ragnell encountered in Rujm el-Hiri. Ragnell didn't like *that* thing, either. For that reason, she's quite happy to stay well out of its range despite knowing nothing of its abilities--ironically, this means she also completely avoids Ethius's attempts to blow her up by sheer coincidence. Ragnell, for her part, draws her pistols and opens fire upon the huge insect, firing lightning-bullet after lightning-bullet at those vast, powdery wings. They might find themselves lost in the explosion Ethius creates against its powder. Hey, between the both of them, maybe they'll be able to shred the damn thing's wings, leaving it easy picking for the others!

But Ragnell glances back at him, and realizes... he's watching all the rest of them. She laughs silently. Oh--was that last one meant for her? She almost feels sorry for him. Once this battle's complete... she'll have to make sure to get in *behind* him. Which she should've from the start, but Elly and Loren and Cardia kind of presented new and intriguing distractions, what with their ether and all.

DG: Seraph Ragnell has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, This is No Mothra Boy.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

"Over here," Loren says, as the door is finally, finally found.

But that was funny, for a moment there he'd swear he'd seen something, some sort of disturbance in the dust while he engaged ether channeling into his glasses, unrelated to the doorways they were searching for.

And the door opens and what else is waiting for them but a giant moth. Bleeding poison scales from its wings.

That. Right there. Four shots, perilously close to him on his left. If she's not trying to kill him, she's certainly attempting to make the remainder of his life unpleasant.

'Thomas' reels for a moment. At this rate he will be suffering significant hearing loss by the time he's 30. If he even lives that long. "Be careful--" he bites out at her, steadying himself as he watches the giant moth descend in a low arc.

Loren pulls a vial out of his bag.

And then, on reflection, pulls out a few more. At this point? He's not going to hold back. Sizing up the moth, its distance from them, and various other critical factors, he pauses for a second.

In doing so, his gaze falls on Ethius. Who is also watching everyone else...

...Surface-dwellers are too damn smart. He's just realized what the mage has been doing throughout this expedition. He takes a breath, then, and hurls the vials, one after another, at the moth. Or at least roughly its way. Even when thrown antitoxins work well.

DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Solarian Medical Kit toward his party's challenge, This is No Mothra Boy.
<Pose Tracker> Cardia Ortell has posed.

If need be, Cardia will just pick 'Thomas' up by the scruff and carry him through the rest of this nightmare scenario. Their original mission is something of a toss-up, hanging in the air; the Lieutenant just wants to get out of here in one damn piece more than anything right now. So far, the building itself just seems to want to end their lives as quickly as possible.

Her eyes go on the fritz again, too-- fortunately, no blindness, no need to soft-boot them back up, but they start to ache and tear up. Maybe it's just the dust from all the ceiling falling on their heads? The active, aggressive strain she's put on her body?

-- and then her head swivels to just stare at Ethius. Yes, you're being followed.

Of course, now there's a big angry creature blocking their way. Cardia huffs one more time, aggressive and tired and offput-- and just not even bothering to care right now. Pulling iron from inside her jacket, the profile of a beaten, weathered, plain-as-toast gunsmoke ARM is now in her hand; a stylishly larger-than-normal but steady, easy-to-handle weapon all the same.

She's inhaled enough terrible crap today-- now, while those weird flaps of it's wings and the mites it leaves fluttering in it's wake, she's going for the sane, safe, ranged option: She's just going to keep pulling the trigger again, and again, and again.

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

Oh. It's this asshole again.

Cyre stares down the enormous, fluttering death that is the Twilight Venom. Its wings beat heavily, each stroke unleashing great plumes of toxic scales. Mere touch will bring stinging pain and persistant itch. Prolonged inhalation is almost sure to result in crippling toxic shock; enough of it will kill.

"Oh," Cyre says as the beast drifts closer. "It's this asshole agai--"

Ethius is already throwing explosions around? Good God man, this temple can't take this much punishment! Or maybe it can. JRPG dungeons tend to be pretty resilient, considering they regularly need to withstand cataclysmic maelstroms, literal giant robots, and occasional meteor impacts. "Look, just... Just be careful not to breathe in any of that junk, alright?" Cyre wraps his cloak tight around his nose and mouth, then tilts his staff vaguely in the direction of the deadly butterfly. The air trembles "Fengalon," Cyre mutters gravely. "Hear my prayer. Answer your humble servant in his moment of need..."

The wind howls.

"AND BUST A CAP."

And the storm is unleashed!

DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, This is No Mothra Boy.
DG: The party led by Loren Voss 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.
DG: Elhaym van Houten has drawn a new Challenge.
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Reject the Rejection *>=====================
|Type: Final       |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 3          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 You stumble upon one of the many security terminals that dot the Temple of
 Rejection. Entirely self-automated, this is what has been controlling - at
 least in part - the lifelike ways in which the temple has tried to eliminate
 your presence here. Alarms blare the second you enter. The temple knows you
 are here. The sound of combat dolls activating en masse to scourge your
 presence is all too audible. And if you cannot find a way to temporarily
 shut down the temple's rejection protocols amidst all these glowing consoles
 from an era long past, then they will purge you from the temple. One way, or
 another.
=Dungeon Conditions: Madness==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

The moth, underneath a barrage of

  • Bullets
  • Fire ether
  • Thrown chemicals
  • More bullets
  • Wind attacks, to which it absorbs
  • Electric pistol bullets

Just kind of hangs out, although the situation eventually becomes unpleasant enough that it... leaves. Perhaps it can do the calculus of the situation in its head, perhaps it simply does not like being shot repeatedly by people with firearms or coated in noxious chemicals, even if it would survive. Animals are mysterious.

"Gh... it's... over?" says Elly, looking greenish.

The other side of this vast arena reveals...

Ancient terminals! As alarms start going off, alien but recognizable, Elly looks over the rims of her sunglasses at Cardia, then Loren, then perhaps Ethius, probably Ragnell, and finally Cyre. It is a very imploring look.

She's got nothing but maybe one of them... do!

DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Officer's Sunglasses toward her party's challenge, Reject the Rejection.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

Look, the wind wasn't really to kill the butterfly. The wind was to make sure its scales stayed WAY OVER THERE. That's what wind does. It blows things! It also sucks things. But not today. NOT TODAY.

(Except that today, wind seems to kind of suck. Does everything absorb wind here!?)

Well, these consoles won't absorb wind. They do, however, seem to be very angry at these adventurers who just won't quit. After being buried under at least two piles of rubble, accosted by an asshole butterfly, headbutted by small, strangely adorable sun-faced critters and overall having a very bad time, a bunch of angry consoles seems... Downright tolerable.

Except that if they don't deal with them, they're probably doomed.

Cyre stares right back at Elly. He meets her gaze. She sees deep into his soul, and realizes the dreadful truth.

This asshole has never seen a proper computer in his life.

"Uhhh," he says, wandering over to one console. "I hear if you push the right buttons, it stops? Let's... try..." Cyre pushes a button. Then another button. Then once the lights flash, he pushes a third button. Then he pushes a fourth, a fifth.

This continues until, for one reason or another, it stops.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

(Yes, it does -- Mgmt.)

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

Ringing ears. Watery eyes. Tickled lungs. Aching skull. Growing paranoia. Disparate observations afforded no time to coalesce into anything greater in the face of what Ethius judges in the short term to be more immediate threats, as he moves with the team away from the marauding moth monster that's been giving him as bad a run as the owlbear of the Sacred Grounds of Linga.

Elhaym gives him a look with the glasses on. He gives that same sort of emotionless gaze back at her. Staring. It's not a welcoming stare. Little about this man's manner is terribly welcoming, but the time to move is now regardless of decorum, etc, etc.

He withdraws a lens from his poncho and puts together the electrical spell to give it sight, a soft glow as he observes the connections bet--

He recoils, clutching an eye with a hiss as he lowers the lens eyeglass away from his face. Too bright! So many connections and energy movements between this point and everywhere else... as his hearing returns to him, he picks up... movement. He can't quite explain it. The sounds. On some level, he instinctively understands some of the ambient noise going on under the sirens. They're coming closer.

"Here." He points at the terminal itself. The terminal - it could give so much insight as to the hows and whys of this wretched temple! What about it? Does he know what to put in? The Solarians could glean a lot of helpful intel if any of them know how to manipulate its secrets and--

He starts to cast again, but abandons the idea. What, why? What is he thinking, what is he going to do--

He pulls out the wine bottle that miraculously survived. That delicious, expensive, amazing wine--

And smashes it against any part of the terminal system that appears most exposed, to short the whole damned thing out.

Not only is that a terrible waste of amazingly expensive wine, he may or may not stand to ruin anyone's ability to pull useful things from this terminal ever again.

Surface dwellers.

DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Spectral Lens toward his party's challenge, Reject the Rejection.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

A win is a win, even if it's because the big flying bug decided it got bored of this fight and felt like going away. Twilight Venom... Kind of a romantic name, though. Something you'd call a television program. Ragnell would watch that.

However, with the bug gone, they can finally move forward... only to be faced with one last obstacle. Some terminal with controls that Ragnell's never seen before, and klaxons blaring as combat dolls tromp this way, looking fit to expunge them from the temple in a most permanent fashion. She stares down at them, flipping out her fan and giving herself another breeze of fresh air. She catches Elly's pleading, even begging look from overtop her shades and nearly snorts. The only reason she doesn't is that she kind of gets it. It's natural for humans to not want to die.

This place has her feeling severely put out, too. Even if those combat dolls can't sense her (and she doesn't know for sure that they can't), she doesn't relish the prospect of being stuck in here until the next band of hapless adventurers stumble by. If they even make it this far. Fuck this place.

But Ethius indicates the terminal, and Cyre starts messing with it, and as that fresh air waves her face, Ragnell gets an idea. She puts her fan away, extends her hands out over the terminal--

Ethius smashes a goddamn bottle over the terminal, potentially sending electricity arcing wildly within the terminal--

--which coincidentally may make it easier for Ragnell to access the insides--

--and she extends her senses within the thing, through the electricity coursing through it, in an attempt to ride that wave and find the switch for 'OFF.' This may or may not involve also destroying the whole thing. She'll try not to if possible, favoring knowledge over destruction, but quite frankly, she's not too picky if the odds look bad. And they're looking pretty damn bad right now.

DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Portable Fan toward her party's challenge, Reject the Rejection.
<Pose Tracker> Cardia Ortell has posed.

She can add 'evaded and fled for her life from a giant angry rage-moth' to her list of things she did not expect to have to go to through this week. But they survive-- they escape, the creature has it's fill of attacking them and moves on. Cardia's marksmanship is put to the test and found wanting; something that she's a little embarassed about even while her eyes continue to burn and sting.

Cardia's eyes sweep across the panel in a way that shows she's committing every last inch of this thing to memory-- her eyes acting weird or not-- trying to remember every button, every display, every little bit of information she can glean from the consoles as it tells it's own story: How old it is, how it's survived through the ages. One starts poking buttons. One breaks a bottle on one of the consoles.

Her heart jumps in her throat.

Instead, the cyborg tries her own poke at two keys on the unfamiliar board:

Alt+F4.

DG: Cardia Ortell has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Reject the Rejection.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

Loren throws things at the moth.

The moth does not seem very fazed by this. Still shedding scales, it does leave, though.

Wordlessly, Loren shoves his one remaining vial into Elly's arms, stalking off towards the room beyond as if he can't hear her.

To be fair, he really, actually, can't.

Alarms are going off but at the moment, Loren can barely hear them. His hearing has decided to get the hell out of here for now, replaced with only a highpitched screech where it's not absent altogether.

But there are a lot of flashing lights -- it's not hard to surmise that Something Is Up. His gaze meets Elly's and--

The temporarily deafened 'medical student' makes haste towards one of the terminals, pushing his glasses up his nose (and silently once again expending a short burst of ether to activate them).

There should be some clue he can find here to make the system grant him access. It's just a matter of carefully but quickly working out--

Cyre interrupt!

"--What are you doing?" he asks, as the shaman emerges right before him and starts hitting buttons. Loren might be temporarily semi-deaf but he knows blind fumbling at a machine when he sees it! And this is--

"Not that one, this one!" He reaches over, attempting to jostle Cyre out of his way.

Even as Ethius smashes a bottle right overtop of terminal system, taking a shorter route to their goal.

(never mind that Cardia is vaguely attempting something similar, he's just not going to notice it at the moment)

DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Etheric Lenses toward his party's challenge, Reject the Rejection.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

"Oh my fuzzy but horrifyingly lethal God!" Cyre yelps at Loren's SUDDEN INTERRUPTION of his DELICATE PROCESS. "How do you even know which ones to press!? You've never seen these things either! It's this one!" Cyre PUSHES ANOTHER BUTTON.

DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Reject the Rejection.
DG: Elhaym van Houten is too exhausted to continue!
DG: Ethius Hesiod is too exhausted to continue!
DG: Seraph Ragnell is too exhausted to continue!
DG: Cardia Ortell is too exhausted to continue!
DG: Loren Voss is too exhausted to continue!
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz is too exhausted to continue!
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success!
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has successfully explored Temple of Rejection!
=========================<* CHALLENGE - The Dormant *>==========================
|Type: Discovery   |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 They're here, in the next room, as the security of the temple dies down for
 a brief reprieve: a long series of human-like, life-like dolls known as
 Scutums, bedecked in fiery red and icy blue armor and all hanging from racks
 and pods like weapons just waiting to be deployed. They look so human, the
 technology behind their creation must simply be mind-boggling. For now,
 they're all offline, deactivated while the temple's alert systems are
 offline. These things are endlessly dangerous when there's just two of them,
 and it might not be a good idea to dally here for too long... but for the
 daring, one of these could fetch an astounding price, or be otherwise put to
 use, if one wanted to risk hauling its heavy weight along with them. A very,
 very big risk.
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

People make their gambits. Cyre looks at Elly and sees only endless softness and also Elly's slow realization that she's surrounded by surface-dweller -Lambs- and is going to get killed shortly. As Cyre walks over, he begins to whack on buttons.

The terminals make odd noises.

https://media.giphy.com/media/o0vwzuFwCGAFO/giphy.gif

Ethius, for his part, gives it the ol' McReady try.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv_XaPp-XIY&t=48s

Ragnell reaches deep into the machine with her senses, following the electrical power that has given it motivary force throughout the aeons of Filgaia. The networks are long, complicated... and one of the connections is now restarting thanks to ENV. DMG

Loren fusses with Cyre about their imminent doom. Elly tilts her head down and reaches into her pants pocket, pulling out something small and gray, about the size of a split-open gooseberry, her finger resting on a - a button? She sucks in a deep breath, looks at Cardia -

Cardia marches up and hits ALT-F4.

The screen chimes. Something turns into a little circle... the glowing screens seem to gray out, leaving only that little spinning circle...

And in the distance, there is a feeling like a sigh and a great many things going still and quiet that had been tensed and readied. Something goes 'clack' and a wall panel opens, revealing --

SCUTUMS!

Elly quickly pockets her Gear Call again. "Oh - Oh!! We did it?! I don't think anything's coming for us now--!"

<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

After all this suffering, after collapsing half the temple, after almost dying to monsters both terrible and incomprehensible, they find...

...A whole bunch of human-looking robot things in matching outfits.

...

Cyre stares up from over the console he's sharing/fighting over with Loren. So... many robots.

...And not even a single scrap of evidence pointing toward whatever the hell this place has to do with the Ice Golem.

"Oh," Cyre groans, slumping over his console. "Are you serious? Is this real? Uggggggggghhhhh."

...

"...Well. Let's take a few home. Might as well get something out of this."

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

Ethius whirls about-face to the open panel, drawing the quarterstaff for the first time as the butt of it slams against the floor with a far softer 'whump' than it ought to as he moves in front of the opened panel, free hand pointed outwards towards the... approaching... Scutums...?

One can see it in his eyes. Anticipation, like he might have expected something to come from that angle to begin with. The first few spoken syllables of some Symbological spell or another, a few which move towards being able to be legibly understood - a sense that the lot of them are probably inches away from watching another rash act of destruction on the scale of what happened to Diablo.

The sounds of movement have since stopped when he started, as though a part of him were still under the idea that there is a threat worthy of his attention, that someone, or something, has to be utterly destroyed even as relief washes over the five (six) of them about their narrowly averted fates of rejection and ejection from the mortal coil.

He may need to be (not-so-gently) coaxed to stop right then and there, lest they lose their prize.

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

Most of what Cyre has to say to him is entirely washed out beyond a muffled 'this one!' as, yes, the shaman pushes another button. Doom appears to be at hand. Even mostly deafened, Loren isn't blind to the fact that the security system managing this place has gone into overdrive. They need to neutralize it and fast -- and ideally without damaging the technology here but --

And then abruptly everything dims and powers down, entering what is perhaps some sort of standby mode. Panels in the walls slide open, probably because their power has been cut.

Loren straightens, pulling away from the terminal, and stares. The rug's been pulled out from under him, in their favor yes, but it's still a startling reversal of fortune. Give him a moment. He's trying to figure out what just happened and who did it.

Though 'who did it' is rapidly of decreasing importance as, over there, Ethius begins to work a spell. He can't hear what Ethius is saying but body language speaks volumes, as it were. As does the sudden sense that all hell is about to be let loose. It stirs Loren from his reverie and he lurches forward, attempting to close the distance.

Other people might be faster.

"--Stop him!"

<Pose Tracker> Cardia Ortell has posed.

Cardia has pulled open a hole in a hot exploded stone wall, caught a ceiling, kicked a mask thing in the face, fought a poison moth, and had a building try to kill her more than once today, all while Ethius makes madly maddening decisions like beating up a computer with a wine bottle. She was temporarily blinded, her eyes burn still, she's been coughing, and had even more roof drop on her head.

Her patience is short; their prize is in front of them, and this is something she definitely needs to bring back to Myyah.

The gray-haired woman definitely steps up for the not-so-gentle coaxing: She steps up behind Ethius, clutching the gunsmoke ARM by the barrel as she brings the butt of the weapon down at the back of his head like an impromptu blackjack with a big, bad, frustrated frown.

Turning to look at Elly and Loren, she jerks a thumb toward the machine-people.

After all this, they're not leaving without something to show for it.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

The leader ship is what you sail on to Victory Island, Elly tells herself. She is propping up a wall somewhat when Cardia regulates, and then she looks up.

"How heavy are they? ... If we can only take one," Elly decides, "I think we should take the red one."

She then looks over towards Cyre and Ragnell, if relevant - not with words yet, but just a sort of steadiness.

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

It's rare to say there's much of anything in Ethius' eyes. Even at a time of heightened emotion, for a man who seems so good at keeping his emotions in check on average, there should be more there - but there isn't.

Is there some sort of deeply ingrained reflex in this man that dictates he move aggressively before anything and everything a surface dweller cannot understand the scope of? A man whose Symbological spell suite weaponizes a desire to continue wallowing in shameful, shallow ignorance of how far forward the world can - or did - march, from times of antiquity into a distant and unknown future?

Cardia renders the whole thing moot with one decisive blow to the back of Ethius' head, forcing him face-down against the ground - his hyper-focus on what was ahead of him robs him of who or what everyone else was doing around him. Something... something about what he saw, or otherwise perceived, appeared that much more important in an instant.

The result of mounting stresses... or worse?

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

It's a genuinely curious, even thrilling sensation. Ragnell doesn't know enough about electronics to be able to truly decipher the signals pulsing within the machine, but she can follow them, and she senses a restart, and then a shut-down... It's honestly fascinating, and when she withdraws her senses and opens her eyes a moment later, she gazes down at the now-defunct station with a look of wonder. These machines are so fragile, but they're so powerful, they hold so much *information*... If she could learn how to read what's inside on of these things, who knows what she'd be able to learn?

It's exciting, even heart-pounding, just to think about it.

Then Ethius attempts to blow everything up, and Cardia 'gently' convinces him to stop. Ragnell breathes out a sigh, then hooks her thumbs in her jeans. Her gaze meets Elly's with athat same sort of steadiness; then she pats Cyre on the shoulder and inspects some of these machine creatures too.

...They really are fascinating. She wonders if she'd be able to possess one, to make it move... On the other hand, she doesn't relish the team flipping out and deciding to attack. "Y'all can take one if you want," she says. "Don't think I'd be able to carry one a' these fuckers out if I wanted to. But I'll stick around a little longer, take a look-see. Might be somethin' I can find in here."

Translation: she's totally waiting until the others leave before attempting to take one of these Scutums as a vessel and walk it right on out. If she can't, well, she knows where the exit is. She know she doesn't have that long to mess around.

<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

"Oh no Ethius please do--" Someone knocks him right the fuck out. Cyre actually goes to catch him! WHAT A NICE GUY! WHAT A GOOD FRIEND! Also because the faster he gets up, the faster they don't have to carry a body AND the loot.

Cyre looks right up at Elly.

He looks to her hair. Then to her eyes.

And he... shoots her the finger guns. "Heeeey. Sure, take the red one. It'd match your eyes better, pretty lady. I'll be happy to take the blue one." He looks to Ragnell, winking, "You don't mind not getting red, do you Rags?"

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

Ragnell snorts, then grins over at Cyre. "An' here I thought you were a wimp," she drawls. "Blue's fine by me, then. Though--" She gestures at the racks and pods of the humanoid weapons. "S'not like we couldn't *both* drag a red one out, y'know? Assumin' we can carry more than one out between the five of us." She eyes Ethius's unconscious body. "'Specially if we're carryin' *him* out, too."

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

"This... this exotic... construction," Ethius murmurs a short while after he's caught, coughing and sputtering as the fading adrenaline ensures what lung irritants found their way start to rob him of his breath. He can be coaxed back to his feet eventually. "Pray... tell... does this... not... invite your... superstition...?"

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly smiles at Cyre, a little slowly.

"... Thank you. Thank you for everything, Mister--?"

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

Despite what is commonly believed, violence can definitely solve problems.

Cardia drops Ethius, stopping whatever he had been about to do. Loren, for his part, slows to a stop, exhaling a short breath. That was lucky.

And then his blue-eyed gaze slides over to the scutums.

Elly says something. He knows she said something because he can see her lips moving. He really can only catch a few words and fragments of words, muffled and cut out in places by the prolongued and headache-inducing hearing damage he's suffered. The rest might as well be garbage.

But he did hear 'red' somewhere in the mess.

Wordlessly, he approaches that one and attempts to get it out.

...

Oh this is not happening. Not by himself. He gestures towards Cardia.

They'll work something out.

<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

"I am suspicious as all get out, buddy. That's why I went through this hell maze twice." Cyre whispers to his damn-near-knocked-the-fuck-out buddy. "Just relax for now. We can come back again later. We've all been through too much today to do any more investigation though."

There's a moment as Cyre adjusts Ethius's position on his shoulder.

"Cyre," Cyre answers Elly with a grin and a wink and a little flick of one ear and a tilt of the other. "Don't worry about it! I do this kind of thing a lot. Name's Cyre H. Lorentz, travelling Zoa Priest and professional traveller. Nice to meet you, miss...?"

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"Oh," Elly says -

I practiced this. My name is Scarlet, but my actual name is Sarah Raye, Elly tells herself.

SCARLET, but ACTUALLY SARAH RAYE.

"Elly," Elly says.

Silently she screams.