2017-08-19: The Guardian Kinship
- Log: Guardian Kinship
- Cast: Lunata Croze, Ethius Hesiod, Catenna, Kourin, Cyre H. Lorentz, Shalune Amira, Jacqueline Barber, Matilda Whitehead
- Where: The Guardian Temple
- Date: 08-19-2017
- Summary: After the events of 'Water Margin', the Caravan Kinship(minus one) retreats into the depths of the Guardian Temple. Within, an extraordinary burden is laid on their shoulders...
==============================<* Guardian Temple *>============================== The Guardian Temple rests in the far west of Adlehyde, not so far from the Great Aveh Desert and the town of Milama. The Temple had been buried under the sands for ages, but like many things, the arrival of the Sorcery Globe affected it. The sands have been parted, showing an ancient structure of stone that still stands after countless years. However, it seems that Drifters were not the only ones to have found this remote temple...
DC: Lunata Croze switches forms to Spirit Initiate Lunata!
DG: Shalune Amira has left your party. DG: You are the party leader. Please pass Leader status to somebody else in your party before attempting to leave. DG: Catenna has left your party.
DC: Cyre H. Lorentz switches forms to Wind Shaman!
DG: A party led by Jacqueline Barber is now entering The Guardian Temple. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
==========================<* The Guardian Temple *>===========================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - A Clash of Beasts *>======================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
The Metal Beasts have forced their way into the foyer of the Temple, along
with other members of the Metal Demons. For those who seek to push in
deeper, there is a battlefield to be crossed. Gunsmoke ARM shots shoot
across the way, scarring the ancient stone of the foyer. Spells occasionally
hurl across, lightning and ice scarring the very ground that they walk on.
The Metal Beasts are ill-inclined to let others pass. As you make your way
through the confusion, a pack of armored hounds begins to lope after, anger
visible in their steely green eyes. They leap -- fangs bared, claws raised,
and the battle is joined before you can reach the door that leads deeper
into the Temple.
=Dungeon Conditions: Suffer, Fright===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
- Lunata is not exactly present at the moment--
- --since she's currently out in the battlefield, in the Rephaim. Jacqueline and the others can plainly see the pearl-white Gear in the midst of a clash with the Aveh forces, nearby the temple. She was called there by Captain Bart as the Yggdrasil came in to assault Aveh's forces, and the Rephaim was necessary to help mount a counter-offensive.
- Still, she knows when her operational time's nearly out, and Maitreya knows that as well.
- The giant BATTERY LOW |||||||||||| readout is pretty easy to understand even when you're Lunata.
- With a twist, the Rephaim's bright pink beam saber carves through one of Aveh's forward Gears, which lands into a crunch just outside of the temple grounds.
- "You need to go in there, don't you, kid?!"
- "B-but what about you, Captain--"
- "It's okay, we'll cover you!"
- "R-roger!"
- She can see the swarm of Metal Beasts that are advancing on her allies, and-- quietly nods with a look of resolve on her face. She has to help the CaraKin here, or they may get swarmed and mobbed before they even get to their destination.
- So it isn't Lunata, nor her sword, nor Ge Ramda that comes to their assistance.
- It's a giant blue-heeled Gear foot that just STOMPS on some of the Metal Beasts currently rushing at her, leaving a giant fissure of cracks in the wake of its crushing onslaught.
- Everyone, get inside, quick! calls Lunata's slightly raspy voice through the loudspeakers as she starts to get ready to disembark, two of the red Yggdrasil Gears flanking her to help return the wingless Gear back to the sandcruiser.
DG: Lunata Croze has used her Tool Orochi-Agito toward her party's challenge, A Clash of Beasts.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
- Ethius is one of the more abrupt entrances into the Guardian Temple. In this respect, it's all par for the course for Ethius to just happen to show up at the entrance of some ruin unannounced and uninvited, but...
- There will be time to make jokes about this sort of thing later!!
- His attempt to sneak in without notice through the fighting is not quite successful. Some members of the Metal Beast horde are part of another pack already on his scent, as he finds the distance in which to safely (for a given value of 'safely') begin casting. Lunata's thinning of the herd already on him is a welcome bit of assistance.
- A series of chants, hand gestures, and requisite sorcery-powered lights later, sparks of electricity fly out the palm of his left hand to try and intercept one that is about to tackle him.
- He's not in a position to shout ideas or orders at the moment on account of Metal Beast about to flop upon him.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, A Clash of Beasts.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Someone, blessedly, had stopped to help Catenna at the entrance to the temple. Her bustier is scratched up in the back where Berserk hit her but her broken ribs have been magically mended and she's up and moving around more or less normally, though she still aches.
She doesn't have time to hurt. The Metal Demons have entered the labyrinth.
So has Rephaim's foot. It comes down with a thunderous crash. Chunks of walling give way, debris and dust showering around the group. Wide-eyed, Catenna jerks away from the point of impact, throwing herself against the far wall to try and avoid both her friend's Gear and the onslaught of Metal Beasts ravening in the doorway, armed with ARMs and magic. "Lunata, be careful!" she calls out, looking up towards where she's sure the girl is about to jump down.
Her Medium hangs safely at her belt; she doesn't need to have a hand on it to use it anymore. That works out just fine given that she's got other things to do with her hands - like swing her sword. With a hiss of steel she sweeps the blade through one Metal Beast, leaving a slash across it, then whipping back to slash at another - not very skilful strokes, but enough to buy her a bit of time to level her left hand and utter a few words in her own language.
The power of gravity ebbs and surges; it begins to mount as Catenna draws upon the power of Celesdue. It pulls upwards as she attempts to yank several of the Metal Beasts bodily off the ground and slam them into the roof of the temple.
"We must hurry," she calls over the din of the battle.
DG: Catenna has used her Tool Celesdue Medium toward her party's challenge, A Clash of Beasts.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin's battling her way through the chaos. There's a lot going on, and it's all happening so quickly. Rapier in one hand, ice spells in the other, she is fighting towards her friends. That, and staying out of the way of the giant Gear sized foes. Spirit is sticking close to her.
DG: Kourin has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Clash of Beasts.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Cyre is in about as worse shape as Catenna has ever seen him, but it's tempered both by the healing he's received and the sense of desperation burning in his gaze. His robes are still in tatters, his body is covered in broad, dark bruises. There's a great scar from where it looks like something smashed straight into his chest.
Today is not a good day to be Cyre.
"We need to keep moving," Cyre says, whipping his hand through the air in front of him. A torrent of twisting wind tears into the Metal Beasts. The atmosphere seems to thicken, densifying as the air somehow becomes more breathable, as if he were enriching it. "Push through! Don't let them hold us up!"
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, A Clash of Beasts.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
- In the cockpit of the Rephaim, clung to the back of Lunata's pilot seat, Shalune is looking a little strained and a little green. It's not so much that she's dealing with the way the Rephaim swings around in its flight - though that might certainly be part of it, given the way she's had to tighten her grip more than a few times during some of Lunata's more vivid maneuvers. It's not even the way that she's facing down one of the biggest battles she's ever seen, with Lunata doing her best to guide her through it.
- If anything, it's the way that the battery meter fluctuates up and down; sat just on top of it, its neon light vividly shining, is her pot. Normally used to guide and supercharge the self-repair systems contained within Big Shal, she's instead hooked it up to the Rephaim's power systems, and has been concentrating throughout the flight, doing her best to keep the mech topped up and direct the energy towards some of the subsystems that she and Josephine hadn't yet managed to fully fix.
- Whatever the pot actually uses for power, it's visibly taking a toll on her, leading to her queasy look - but her eyes are shining with determination at the same time. When the Rephaim finally lands, she can't hide her relief, but at the same time knows they don't have room to breathe yet. Still-- she's not out of juice just yet, and an extra burst of effort helps ensure that the Rephaim can close out its entrance properly. "--l-let's go!" she calls to Lunata with a nod.
DG: Shalune Amira has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Clash of Beasts.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline hadn't participated in the fight against the demons themselves. Her primary goal had been to tend to the wounded and, if possible, discourage some of the combatants from continuing the fight.
With the latter goal, she hadn't been particularly successful and as artillery shells rained down around her, it became clear that even the former was becoming painfully difficult. She was stuck between two armies, and if she wasn't careful, she was liable to get swept up into the crossfire.
The sight of Rephaim in the distance, along with Lunata's voice on the loudspeaker, acts as a landmark amongst the chaos all around her. She begins to make her way forward, a pair of Crests drawn.
A pillar of earth pushes away a Metal Beast as it lunges toward her, and a flash of lightning discourages another from getting too close. She wasn't here to fight them, but they were sure here to fight her.
Eventually, with a wince, she decides there's only one way to get through this quickly. She stores away the lightning Crest and draws a bottle of black liquid.
She takes a running start and jumps, invoking the earth pillar in mid-air. It collides with her, sending her flying toward where she saw her friends and allies of CaraKin in the distance.
As she flies she hurls that bottle of repellant towards a group of Metal Beasts, hoping to dissuade more of them from the attack.
She just hoped she calculated her trajectory well enough...this was going to be a painful landing either way, but she didn't want it to be worse than it had to be.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Reliable Repellant toward her party's challenge, A Clash of Beasts.
==========================<* The Guardian Temple *>===========================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - A Clash of Beasts *>======================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
The Metal Beasts have forced their way into the foyer of the Temple, along
with other members of the Metal Demons. For those who seek to push in
deeper, there is a battlefield to be crossed. Gunsmoke ARM shots shoot
across the way, scarring the ancient stone of the foyer. Spells occasionally
hurl across, lightning and ice scarring the very ground that they walk on.
The Metal Beasts are ill-inclined to let others pass. As you make your way
through the confusion, a pack of armored hounds begins to lope after, anger
visible in their steely green eyes. They leap -- fangs bared, claws raised,
and the battle is joined before you can reach the door that leads deeper
into the Temple.
=Dungeon Conditions: Suffer, Fright===========================================
=====================<* The Guardian Temple - Round 1 *>====================== =======================< Results - A Clash of Beasts >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jacqueline Barber 0 --(6)--> 6 Pass Reliable Repellant 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Catenna 0 --(7)--> 7 Fail Celesdue Medium 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ethius Hesiod 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shalune Amira 0 --(7)--> 7 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lunata Croze 0 --(6)--> 6 Pass Orochi-Agito 3 Combat Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kourin 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyre H. Lorentz 0 --(4)--> 4 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Jacqueline Barber 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Suffer Effects: Embolden(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Jacqueline Barber has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 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> Lunata Croze has posed.
- It is with a mixture of gravity and wind that the Caravan Kinship tear their way through the remaining Metal Beasts, with Lunata's cockpit sliding out into an open position as she-- reaches for the panel.
- In an instant, Ge Ramda transforms from the entire front dashboard of the cockpit into the familiar, slender katana Orochi-Agito as she looks to Shalune with worry. "Let's go... sorry, you spent a lot of power on the Pot, didn't you?"
- The Gear has dropped to a kneeling position, its Big Shal manipulator out with a fluffy rubbery gauntlet for them to bounce on.
- Catenna's gravity magic also probably allows the Lunies to jump down safer than they normally can, with the pulling weight of the world softened to feather their fall at the same time Cyre shreds through the remainders.
- Kourin and Ethius both bring up the rear as shreds of ice stab through with resounding success, and Ethius' electricity helps to shatter Jacqueline's vial and spread its noxious contents to deter the Beasts back.
- One thing's for certain -- this is one of the most intense fights they've ever been in.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================================<* The Guardian Temple *>================================================
========================================<* CHALLENGE - Duplicator-Sealed Door *>========================================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 |
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
You find a large, black stone door that forms a T-intersection with this
hallway. While the hallway continues ahead, to whatever awaits, you may find
that the door could have something worthwhile. However, you have certainly
not found the rare and lost Zeboim-era ARM-keys known as "Duplicators" here.
But, the tell-tale blue lines that glow flicker, sometimes.
The door does not have much give, but it has some. With a good enough push
(say, with explosives), you might manage to force your way inside. The room
is a small storage closet, but it has something valuable: stockpiles of
Potion Berries, held within jars that have preserved them.
=Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
- Ethius has a narrow save, as the bulk of a falling Metal Beast barrels into him. It's a bludgeoning, moreso than a crushing and a mauling. Nonetheless, as everyone continues in...
- Once they're in, things get much too quiet. Quiet, like they're in a tomb. Down the following lengths of tunnel, they come across a hallway that ends in a large black stone door... and some paths off to the side.
- Ethius takes the lead, putting his hand up against the black stone door. Blue lines paint its form, flickering and shining tantalizingly before a keyhole here. Ethius continues to run his hands about it.
- "Mister Cyre. Miss Catenna. Miss Lunata." Ethius speaks. "I am certain I may be able to open this door, if not by conventional means." Is he going to melt it? "Given the importance of this location to your faiths... and also the urgency inherent in our situation, may I proceed to attempt to melt it?" He sure looks like he wants to.
- If Ethius says it can be opened through brute force, hey, why not have everyone try? If the local shamans are all right with such an act of desecration, for their circumstances.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Duplicator-Sealed Door.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
- "... I'm--" Lunata looks rather dizzy as she gets down to ground and hurries into the temple, looking just a little bit freshly... it's not quite 'shellshocked', but the sensation of actually out there, fighting, in the midst of a battlefield in her Gear is an extremely new one to a greenhorn like her.
- "I'll help," she offers as she looks to Cyre and Catenna, before concentrating to bring forth Ge Ramda's looming form... to shove its gigantic, spectral claw onto one corner of the door to start to bunch its metallic form into something decidedly less door-like and something more bent.
DG: Lunata Croze has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Duplicator-Sealed Door.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna helps! She cranks the gravity down enough that the Lunie Twosome can make a safe landing. It helps, she hopes.
Even with her spells, she has to fight Metal Beasts at close range more than she'd like, and one of them slips through her guard and slashes at her; she winces and suffers a cut along her left arm, but manages to drive her sword through the beast's skull and smash it before scrambling over its body and pressing onward. It's one of the more frantic battles she's ever been in - not as difficult as Berserk, but far more intense and wild.
They do, eventually, stumble through, at least. Her hands fall to her thighs as she doubles and catches her breath. "Goodness," she manages. "So many of them...."
But they must brave them, she realizes as she looks up towards Cyre, as though to make sure he's alright. Even if they're hurt - even if something happened to him they cannot understand - they must prevent the Temple from being destroyed. The Guardians are counting on them.
Then Ethius speaks up. Catenna's eyes snap forward, and she blinks a couple of times. "Melt it?" she repeats.
For a moment, she wrestles with it. She doesn't want to hurt the temple. Eventually, though, she shakes her head. "I do not think the Guardians would mind if you did that... but we must be careful what we take. Only those things that appear to be supplies, and not things that appear to be offerings, or ceremonial things!"
She stands back and lets Ethius and Lunata hammer away at the door. Well, Ethius and Ge Ramda, anyway.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
"Are you well, Miss Lunata?" Kourin asks, concern evident in her voice and on her face. "This is not a good situation...for any of us, I fear..."
She is not the most suited to opening large, sealed doors, but Kourin helps by offering her back to the door and pushing with all her might. Better hope it's not a pull door. That would be embarassing.
DG: Kourin has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Duplicator-Sealed Door.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Cyre's already battered body is hammered even harder by the onslaught of Metal Beasts. But he presses deeper, he pushes harder. His body briefly burns green as he unleashes a torrent of wind to blast clear the way forward. They have no time to get bogged down by these things. If there are Metal Beasts lurking in the temple, then it's almost certain that the demons themselves have made a foothold.
To allow them to breech the temple's heart is simply unacceptable.
Speaking of which.
Cyre stares at the Duplicator Door. His lips draw into a tight line. "I'm not sure we have a choice," he says, then, and removes his incense burner from his side and sets it alight. He begins whispering a prayer of penance. At the very least, if they're going to be bashing down part of the temple, they should ask for forgiveness for it.
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has used his Tool Invigorating Vapors toward his party's challenge, Duplicator-Sealed Door.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Fortunately, Jacqueline had calculated her trajectory perfectly. She hits the ground with a roll and quickly stands to her feet.
"O-oh, good...I see most of us here... How is everyone doing? Has anyone seen Matilda?" She asks. Jacqueline sounds a little haggard, but it's to be expected. They are probably were, in one way or another.
Once she's assessed everyone's condition, she'll follow them all into the temple itself where she comes face to face with...
A door.
But...not just any door.
"Oh, this is...hm, I've heard about this. I think this is a special door, that can only be opened with a certain key. But...they're rare. Near impossible to find..." She comments.
Even immediately after a battle, it wasn't too soon for Jacqueline to start analyzing things. If they were to study it in its current damaged state they might be able to figure out how the locking mechanisms worked...but they hardly had the time for that, unfortunately.
"...Yes, let's do it. Stand back, everyone." Jacqueline says, and invokes her crest once more. A pillar of earth shoots out of the ground, attempting to slam into and damage the door. Her main goal was to weaken the structure of it and make it easier for Ethius to melt, as well as potentially give him more meltable material to work with.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Duplicator-Sealed Door.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
- Shalune is down on the ground before long, having to take a moment to actually find her legs; she wobbles, rather shakily, as she does her best to centre herself and suck in a deep breath. "I'll-- I'll be okay," she promises Lunata, both hands at her chest for a moment as her head swims, and then she shakes it away. "Just give me a sec, okay?"
- Besides, a second they have - and Shalune stares at the door and the way its odd light flickers and wanes, swallowing a little as she considers: "Uh. Is it... really okay to use explosives in a place like this?" she wonders softly to herself, but shakes her head as she reaches for the light satchel that's replaced her usual pack. Her hand strays towards her pot, as if wondering whether to try something more unusual - but she doesn't quite feel well enough, and just laughs softly to herself as she helps Jacqueline and Ethius work, packing some odd putty into any of the holes they manage to make in the structure around the door. It almost looks like clay - but the way she steps a significant distance away from the door after setting them, and the way a series of bright pops light up the stonework, both betray its actual purpose.
DG: Shalune Amira has used her Tool Soup of the Day -Shalune Ver.- toward her party's challenge, Duplicator-Sealed Door. DG: Catenna has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Duplicator-Sealed Door.
===============================================<* The Guardian Temple *>================================================
========================================<* CHALLENGE - Duplicator-Sealed Door *>========================================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 |
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
You find a large, black stone door that forms a T-intersection with this
hallway. While the hallway continues ahead, to whatever awaits, you may find
that the door could have something worthwhile. However, you have certainly
not found the rare and lost Zeboim-era ARM-keys known as "Duplicators" here.
But, the tell-tale blue lines that glow flicker, sometimes.
The door does not have much give, but it has some. With a good enough push
(say, with explosives), you might manage to force your way inside. The room
is a small storage closet, but it has something valuable: stockpiles of
Potion Berries, held within jars that have preserved them.
=Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
===============<* The Guardian Temple - Round 2 *>================
===============< Results - Duplicator-Sealed Door >===============
Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail
Jacqueline Barber 6 --(5)--> 11 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC
Catenna 7 --(7)--> 14 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC
Ethius Hesiod 5 --(5)--> 10 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC
Shalune Amira 7 --(3)--> 10 Pass Soup of the Day -Shalune Ver.- 3 Brute Effects: Fanfare
Lunata Croze 6 --(4)--> 10 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC
Kourin 5 --(8)--> 13 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC
Cyre H. Lorentz 4 --(5)--> 9 Pass Invigorating Vapors 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse
< Party >-----------------------------------
Leader: Jacqueline Barber 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Fright(1)|Save Point(1)|Suffer Effects: Cleanse
========================< Dream Chasers >=========================
DG: The party led by Jacqueline Barber has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 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.
- Ethius gets to work on the destruction salvo. Once more, with another Symbological casting, an intense heat radiates against the strange door. Its markings pulsate and warp, as though its very nature were trying to resist... but the laser-like focus on sheer destructive deconstruction wins out, and the door ceases to shine its ancient lights.
- Then it becomes a regular obstruction that proves continually stubborn to open. With its ancient technological locks disengaged, it does become a simple matter of having the determination to just force the poor thing open. Pushing, explosives, earth pillars, ghostly katanas, praying for forgiveness, and nicely staying out of the way all contribute in some form or another to open it up.
- Inside are Potion Berries! Precious, well-preserved potion berries. These don't look like offerings, but instead supplies for long-term survival against onslaughts and injury.
- There are no moral quandaries involved in their looting. (The jars they're contianed in, different story...)
DG: Catenna has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* The Guardian Temple *>============================ ========================<* CHALLENGE - Arrow Crossfire *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------- The next chamber is a long, narrow hallway. You would be well-advised to run, because the entire area just past the door is a pressure plate -- and pressure plates line the whole floor. When you step on each, the numerous staggered holes in the wall begin firing arrows across the hall. It will take careful but quick movement to evade them all -- especially because some are positioned high, to hit someone who tries to jump over the lower ones. =Dungeon Conditions: Tire, Slow===============================================
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
Matilda, at some point, went to adjust the Honeybee's autopilot -- not long before the Carakin arrived.
She has not been seen since. Exciting!
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
"Potion Berries? Here?" Catenna says with a blink as she reaches for a handful of them.
She offers them to Cyre first and foremost, with a quiet smile. "Here," she murmurs. He looks like he could use them, after the beating he's taken.
She skips her share of Potion Berries, handing it off to Cyre instead, before continuing onward with her sword held at the ready. Her heels click against the stones, echoing through the old temple as she moves down one corridor and through another. Stepping forward, she brings her heel down --
And regrets it immediately. Arrows whistle through the air from either side of her, and she gasps and throws herself backwards. The arrows hiss through the spot she was just standing as she hits the ground on her back and somersaults awkwardly back towards the rest of the group, eyes wide with surprise. "There is some kind of pressure plate," she breathes, looking down.
Indeed, the tiles racing down the long corridor ahead all seem to be pressure plates. They gleam in a slightly off colour. There's no avoiding them easily - almost every time is a pressure plate.
Catenna stares for a moment. Then, grimacing, she reaches out and ducks her head, reaching to tap the pressure plate experimentally. This time, the arrows shoot off again - but they pass over her, and she steps onto the plate with care.
"I think that it only fires once so long as it is still pressed down," she calls back. "We must be careful...!"
DG: Catenna has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Arrow Crossfire.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin glances to Spirit. "Well," she says. "I suspect it would be best to either be very cautious...or run." She pauses, stretching her legs. "I will go ahead--someone may be able to follow me with my rope. It is...enchanted. And tricky."
With that, Spirit and Kourin are off, moving as the wind down the hall, the enchanted rope trailing after them, marking a safe(ish) path...
DG: Kourin has used her Tool Trick Rope toward her party's challenge, Arrow Crossfire.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
- Lunata looks weakly towards Kourin with an apologetic smile on her face. "I'll-- be all right," she remarks wanly. She's still distracted by the battle--
- The Rephaim's beam saber parries the Aveh Gear's heat axe, and in a deft move granted to her through the mists of memory, she pierces that cockpit with a radiant, indefatigable shine--
- "... ughh--" she covers her mouth for a moment. She kind of wants to throw up thinking about it. But they have to move onward.
- She marches a little further... and then looks towards the others as she gasps and steps back at the presence of the arrows. "... o-okay," she follows after Catenna, not particularly agile on her feet, but... it's the best she can do.
DG: Lunata Croze has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Arrow Crossfire.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
- "A most acute observation, Miss Catenna," says Ethius as he comes up the rear as he still stashes some of the Potion Berries into... wherever he's been putting much of anything. Before he steps in full into the hallway, he takes a moment to eye the walls... the ceiling... the floor itself, to mentally catalogue where arrows may possibly come from.
- "There is a probability that some projectiles may yet launch from the ceiling and floor itself," Ethius muses aloud as he follows behind Kourin and her helpful Trick Rope to attempt to bypass some of it.
- ...But the architects and engineers of place, did they consider the possibility that one may attempt this?
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Arrow Crossfire.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Potion Berries! Cyre wastes little time in popping several into his mouth. Almost immediately after swallowing, he seems to be moving more easily. The magic inherent to the little blue fruits begins working on his body, knitting together nicks and wounds, filling bruises in with fresh, dusky skin and sending strange, popping noises through his bones as they mend and fuse across microscopic fractures.
"Catenna--" Cyre smiles as he pushes back half of her share of berries. He'd eaten the other half already. "You take the rest. I'll be fine, though I do appreciate i--"
Arrows. Cyre moves, catching the woman as she somersaults backwards. "Are you alright? It looks like..." Pressure plates. His lips press into a fine line as he unfurls his personal parachute. "So as long as we don't step on the ground, we won't set anything off, right?"
"Who wants a ride across?"
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has used his Tool Reverse Parachute toward his party's challenge, Arrow Crossfire.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Potion Berries! This was quite fortunate, because Jacqueline was starting to run a little low on potions because she had used quite a few of them to treat people outside. The rest of her stock was on the Carakin itself, and she hardly had access to it in here.
She takes a share of them and stores them away before glancing in Lunata's direction.
She had been fighting out there, hadn't she...? What had she seen? What had she done?
This was one of the things she had been hoping to avoid...but there's nothing for it right now.
Up ahead...pressure plates and arrow traps! Fantastic.
Jacqueline frowns and folds her arms in front of her, before glancing towards Catenna.
"Hm...a pressure plate, huh...? But only while it's held down. In that case..."
Jacqueline invokes her Crest several times, sending out a series of earth pillars from the walls. They stood just above the floor.
With that done she draws one of the familiar bottles of green liquid from her bags and downs the lot before beginning to jump across over them.
Between her pillars, Kourin's rope, and Cyre's parachute, the party had plenty of options for crossing. But would it work out for them?
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Invigoration Elixir toward her party's challenge, Arrow Crossfire.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
- Shalune blinks before they've even set foot into the corridor, immediately sensing something off about the space ahead. Maybe it's her natural affinity for mechanics and contraptions that makes her more able to spot the holes in the walls and the odd, ever-so-slightly raised sections of floor. Either way, she's called out before she can make any conscious thought: "--wait!" she blurts, and her hand immediately goes to her back again.
- What might have looked like her trusty broom at first suddenly turns out to be something quite different - improbably unfolding itself outwards from the central shaft, she assembles the Little Dipper out of nowhere, hopping onto the craft as it hangs in the air off the ground.
- "Lunie, here," she offers her hand, some of the colour back in her cheeks; she glances at the space ahead, then guns the throttle of the craft just a little as it somehow managed to rev up despite no engine and no wheels. "Just hang on, okay?"
DG: Shalune Amira has used her Tool Little Dipper toward her party's challenge, Arrow Crossfire.
============================<* The Guardian Temple *>============================ ========================<* CHALLENGE - Arrow Crossfire *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------- The next chamber is a long, narrow hallway. You would be well-advised to run, because the entire area just past the door is a pressure plate -- and pressure plates line the whole floor. When you step on each, the numerous staggered holes in the wall begin firing arrows across the hall. It will take careful but quick movement to evade them all -- especially because some are positioned high, to hit someone who tries to jump over the lower ones. =Dungeon Conditions: Tire, Slow===============================================
=======================<* The Guardian Temple - Round 3 *>======================= ==========================< Results - Arrow Crossfire >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jacqueline Barber 11 --(6)--> 17 Pass Invigoration Elixir 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Catenna 14 --(4)--> 18 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 10 --(4)--> 14 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shalune Amira 10 --(6)--> 16 Pass Little Dipper 2 Agility Effects: Quicken --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lunata Croze 10 --(6)--> 16 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kourin 13 --(4)--> 17 Pass Trick Rope 2 Agility Effects: Quicken --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cyre H. Lorentz 9 --(6)--> 15 Pass Reverse Parachute 1 Agility Effects: Rally and Quicken ------------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Jacqueline Barber 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Slow(2)|Tire(2) Effects: Quicken(1)|Stalwart(1) ================================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Jacqueline Barber has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna gasps as she backs up into something firm and catchy. She tilts her head back and finds herself looking up at Cyre. "--Yes. Yes, I'm fine," she says with a gentle blush. "And I... I think I could use a ride."
She moves into position beside the Wind Priest. Carefully, she slips an arm around his waist, holding on as he prepares that huge parachute.
Those helpful tools help. The Lunies, of course, have the option of jumping on the Little Dipper. Shalune's scooter just sails down the corridor without triggering any of the plates, and before long she and her passengers have made it to safety.
Cyre, meanwhile, has a similar idea. He and his passengers take to the air and glide. The arrow launchers are silent as the Beastman lifts his friends above the pressure plates and makes a clean landing on the other side.
Those who take neither option can simply dart through the maze of arrows - but it takes more effort and more dodging. Soon enough, though, the CaraKin team clears the corridor and lands safely on solid ground.
Catenna blushes as she disengages from Cyre, stepping to the side. "Thank you," she murmurs.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* The Guardian Temple *>===========================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Spartoi Pincer *>=======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
Even in this hallowed place, the risen corpses known as Spartoi can be
found. As you round the next corner, the skeletons are already lurching
forward. Their blades have not been dulled with time and gleam in the dim
light here, and their eyes come aglow with a fell green light. They cease
lurching and rush.
In the clatter of their advance, you may not notice another clatter. Behind
you, a trio of Spartoi drop down from the ceiling and land in a crouch.
They, too, rush in -- and you seen find yourselves being attack from both
sides!
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Bad Luck=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
The party makes their way further into the temple. Whether it was good fortune or not, they had somehow yet to run into any Metal Demons in here. However, that did not mean they were alone. Jacqueline holds out a hand, urging the party to come to a stop.
From up ahead, the sound of something moving could be heard...those more familiar with monsters, particularly the ones that might be found in a spiritual place such as this, would be able to recognize them as the bone sentinels known as 'Spartoi'.
And then, suddenly, the sound stops.
The corridor goes quiet.
And then, with the sound of rattling bones the movement continues, faster and faster as the Spartoi round the corner with blades drawn, having apparently already detected them.
One of the number thrusts its blade forward toward Jacqueline. She conjures a pillar of earth to try and parry it, but it merely diverts the blade's path and causes it to cut into her side.
If that wasn't bad enough, a familiar rattling can be heard from behind, as well. Bones rain down from the ceiling, quickly forming into yet another group of Spartoi. The party was surrounded.
With the Spartoi in front of her putting pressure on her, Jacqueline can spare the time only to remove another bottle of repellant and toss it over her shoulder at the other group.
"E-everyone! Behind us!" She calls out. They'll probably need people handling groups on either side of them.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Reliable Repellant toward her party's challenge, Spartoi Pincer.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
- Fortunately, even as Lunata appears to be quite beleaguered, standing kind of complacently near Jacqueline, Ge Ramda is there to their rescue.
- ... except it's not quite launching out to fight the skeleton warriors.
- It's kind of just...
- ... looming over them, arms folded and -staring- down at one of them.
- On one side: A skeleton warrior, dressed in armor and regalia, lost to the ages, entranced back to unlife by the powers of Death.
- On the other: A lichly warrior, dressed in bridal kimono and regalia, recently found from the ages, and a representation of the powers of Death itself.
- Result:
- The skeleton warrior bows profusely as if embarrassed, and then -runs off- at a particularly fast clip.
- You could just positively hear the snort from Ge Ramda's ... well, okay, she doesn't have a throat or esophagus or lungs or...
DG: Lunata Croze has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Spartoi Pincer.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Spirit barking also helps to alert to the Spartoi behind the group. Kourin nods, pulling forth a small blue clay ball and hurling it behind her at them, not bothering with her sword--as the frost forms beneath the feet of the flanking Spartoi, Kourin is already hurling balls of ice at the foes.
DG: Kourin has used her Tool Rimebomb toward her party's challenge, Spartoi Pincer.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
- Ethius joins the battle already with a fresh arrow wound. His left hand yanks it out of his right flank, and moves with his right hand to apply a Potion Berry against it. His eyes do not light up in panic, as he discards the bloody arrow. His left hand grabs one of the satchels at his belt. Coolly, he tries to get a gauge of every approaching Spartoi, any source of light, any detail... he takes note of that one Spartoi backing away. That may be their opening.
- He begins to chant, the give-away of another Symbology cast seeing to him preparing the satchel in question.
- "A Powder Grenade will be ready on your cue, Miss Jay," Ethius says. Normally he just up and throws it and expects everyone to move. Now, for the first time - as things take a most serious turn in the ongoing war of the Metal Demons against all of Filgaia - Ethius is outright communicating when he's about to toss down the smoke bomb.
- This is an improvement, but he may not want to wait much longer as he finds himself having to leap back from a Spartoi's blade. He wants confirmation on what direction Jay intends to take everyone, but the very moment they do...!
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Powder Grenade toward his party's challenge, Spartoi Pincer.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Good fortune seems hard to come by today, even in the shadow of the Guardians. Disengaging herself from Cyre, Catenna moves along behind her friends.
If nothing else, she's fortunate that she stopped wearing a dress in combat and switched to pants and a metal bustier. It's making this less tiring and less slow. As the Spartoi appear, she scowls, brandishing her sword with a glint of light from the moonstone set into the hilt - when something clatters behind her. Her surety gives way to surprise as she spots those extra Spartoi dropping in to make it a scissor attack.
"I do not think so," Catenna huffs as she levels her left hand and utters something in her own language. It's a new trick she's trying here and she's not sure it'll work.
There's a sudden sound booming through the corridor - like air being displaced. An immense source of gravity suddenly manifests behind the three Spartoi that have dropped in behind the group. The powerful force propels them forward for several metres - and then it yanks them to a halt.
At the same time, Catenna herself flies backwards a few metres. She makes a neat landing with a click of bootheels.
If the spell worked right, she's just dragged all the Spartoi into the front row - in front of the CaraKin contingent.
DG: Catenna has used her Tool Celesdue Medium toward her party's challenge, Spartoi Pincer.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Cyre stares at the walking dead. His gaze flickers between them, Ge Ramda, Lunata, and back to the undead again. "Huh. Well that... Makes sense, I guess?" After all, Ge Ramda does kind of have seniority here. You can't be a proper, Guardian-animated walking corpse and not respect an agent of the Guardian of Death, or you're probably going to be out of a job pretty quick.
And then Catenna REVERSES POLARITY.
Cyre is there waiting with a grin and a snap of the fingers. Suddenly, the region that the CaraKin USED to be seems to distort. Whirling mines of ultra-compressed air suddenly uncoil and explode, blasting into the skeletal trio. Or rather, the duo. One is kind of running away, good on him.
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Spartoi Pincer. DG: You've already acted for this round. Please wait for the round GM to push +act/complete.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
- Shalune isn't in much state to fight, all told - at least, not in the conventional sense. She's never been much of a fighter, and she's a bit unwilling to use explosives in a Temple that already seems rather close to coming down around their ears.
- On the other hand, she can't bring herself to simply hide behind Lunata at a time like this, and while the sight of Ge Ramda filling the air brings a faint smile to her lips, her gaze is set ahead on the Spartoi that are encroaching on their space - and as Catenna clumps them together she suddenly rockets the Little Dipper forward. Recent experiences with skeletons have suggested that they tend to be a bit fragile - whether they'll be more or less fragile than the recently-reinforced nose of the Little Dipper remains to be seen.
- But it's an experiment worth trying.
DG: Shalune Amira has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Spartoi Pincer.
==========================<* The Guardian Temple *>===========================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Spartoi Pincer *>=======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
Even in this hallowed place, the risen corpses known as Spartoi can be
found. As you round the next corner, the skeletons are already lurching
forward. Their blades have not been dulled with time and gleam in the dim
light here, and their eyes come aglow with a fell green light. They cease
lurching and rush.
In the clatter of their advance, you may not notice another clatter. Behind
you, a trio of Spartoi drop down from the ceiling and land in a crouch.
They, too, rush in -- and you seen find yourselves being attack from both
sides!
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Bad Luck=========================================
=====================<* The Guardian Temple - Round 4 *>====================== =========================< Results - Spartoi Pincer >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jacqueline Barber 17 --(6)--> 23 Pass Reliable Repellant 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Catenna 18 --(6)--> 24 Pass Celesdue Medium 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ethius Hesiod 14 --(6)--> 20 Pass Powder Grenade 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shalune Amira 16 --(9)--> 25 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lunata Croze 16 --(6)--> 22 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kourin 17 --(6)--> 23 Pass Rimebomb 3 Combat Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyre H. Lorentz 15 --(6)--> 21 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Jacqueline Barber 60 --(15)--> 75 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(2)|Injure(2)|Slow(1)|Tire(1) Effects: Embolden(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Jacqueline Barber has passed this challenge! The party gained 15 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: Cyre H. Lorentz has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* The Guardian Temple *>===========================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - The Shifting Tiles *>=====================
|Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
When you enter this room, you are immediately greeted by the sound of
rushing sand. A flowing river of the stuff moves through the center of the
room, and it moves far too quickly to wade into -- not to mention that no
one can be sure how deep it is. However, something else moves through the
sand: huge tiles of obsidian, which float across it, and are wide and sturdy
enough to hold a person. Crossing will require leaping from tile to tile,
even as it moves underfoot, until you get to the other side.
You certainly want to reach the other side. There, a huge doorway awaits.
Three relief statues of the Guardians of Water, Fire, and Wind are sculpted
around it, beckoning you forth. You suspect few of the other groups of
Drifters have found these trial rooms, so deep under the ground.
=Dungeon Conditions: Tire, Injure=============================================
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Spartoi were typically known as unflinching, uncaring marauders, perfectly coordinated with their kin and all the deadlier because of it. There was no treating with them. The only answer to them was to flee or fight back.
So, the appearance of Ge Ramda affords the Caravan Kinship a very rare opportunity - that of seeing Spartoi who have absolutely no idea what to do. They kind of halt in their tracks - one of them even running off, as earlier noted.
Of course, the party shouldn't feel too badly about taking advantage of this confusion. They probably would have resumed attacking before too long.
As it is, though, the flanking party of Spartoi find their feet frozen pretty solidly to the ground. This leads to an amusing side-effect when Catenna invokes her sorcery - they're actually ripped from their legs as they're flung forward into the initial party, where they're all suddenly assaulted by powerful gusts of air from Cyre, carrying the concussive force of Cyre.
With that, Jacqueline gives her signal.
Ethius's Powder Grenade goes off and Shalune rockets forward on Little Dipper. This doesn't actually destroy any of them, but it does scatter them well enough. Thanks to the Powder Grenade, by the time the surviving Spartoi manage to reform from their scattered bones(not to be confused with the Lunarian group of assassins), the party will be long gone.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
The world is filled with a persistent susurrus of sand grinding on sand grinding on sand grinding on ever more sand. A surfeit of sand pours through the great, vaulted chamber, carving a wide river across the center of the room. How this place has existed for so long without the veritable desert flowing through it tearing a hole straight through the bottom of the chamber is a mystery that is known only to the architects of this ancient temple.
Probably the Zeboim, considering the door they broke through to come this way.
Cyre's eyes turn to the statues looming in the distance. Schturdark. Moor-Gault. Fengalon. But no Grudiev? Then this challenge must be his...? Or perhaps the opposite? He frowns. "We're almost there," he says with dogged purpose even as a great obsidian slab sails right on by. Sure, they can try jumping across it, but...
Hm.
"I'm going on over," he says, unfurling his parachute again. "I can probably take a couple more again. But we need to hurry-- we're in deep, but... I'm not sure whether we'll make it in time regardless."
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has used his Tool Reverse Parachute toward his party's challenge, The Shifting Tiles.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
- Ethius draws his quarterstaff, holding it firmly in both hands, and sticks it into the rushing sand current. He finds himself almost pulled clean from the solid ground, finding himself jogging almost off the platform entirely from the pull. He flings the quarterstaff back behind himself as he falls to a kneel, at the very precipice of taking a dive into the sand around them.
- "I would not attempt to ford this." That's something Ethius doesn't need to say, as he aptly demonstrates the folly of the approach right there. He stands back up to retrieve his weapon and place it back on his back as other avenues are in the process of exploration.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
- Lunata lets out a faint and haggard breath as Ge Ramda manages to spook one of them off, and by the time they proceed--
- --sand surrounds their vision, and the power of the desert pours around them. "U-ugh... Yeah, I can use..." she reaches to the katana and holds onto its sheath, as Ge Ramda starts to slowly pull her out from the flowing sand current. "Lunie... help me?"
DG: Lunata Croze has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Shifting Tiles.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin, fortunately, again has her trick rope. Spirit, fortunately, is a good jumper. This makes for a good combination - Kourin and Spirit leap across from foothold to foothold.
DG: Kourin has used her Tool Trick Rope toward her party's challenge, The Shifting Tiles.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
The challenges of the Temple have taken quite a bit out of Catenna. She's breathing heavily - but the fact that her spell worked puts a little smile on her face and brightens her eyes. Something has gone right today, at least - even if it is the last thing.
The group bustles on, towards a river of sand that gushes through a vast chamber ahead. Beyond it--
Beyond it looms a sight that leaves Catenna's eyes wide and her hand drawing close to her heart. "There," she murmurs as she beholds the vast statues in the distance, framing that doorway. "Beyond that door, there must be--"
She looks over to Cyre, nodding briskly. "We do need to hurry," she says as she begins to move.
She won't burden Cyre this time, but she does reach out to touch his shoulder briefly. Then she breaks into a sprint and takes a long, running leap over the sand.
Catenna's heels hit one of the obsidian tiles. She holds her arms out for balance, wobbling a little. Carefully watching the other tiles as she's swept along, she takes two steps and leaps to the next tile. Then, the next one.
She must do this herself, she decides. Celesdue would not want her to cheat.
DG: Catenna has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Shifting Tiles.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
- Somehow - for once - Shalune manages to make it through the skeleton army without significantly denting the front of the Little Dipper. Bones bounce off of it - one Spartoi catches her trailing coat, and nearly manages to pull her straight off the thing completely - but she manages to slip through the majority of them, breaking some of them apart into animated piles of bones before she speeds out of the way of the explosive finale.
- She pulls up short, though, when they reach the wide room ahead of them - and in a flash has leapt to Lunata's defence, reaching over the side of the oddly stable craft to offer the white-haired girl a hand back up to the Little Dipper. "I'm here--" she blurts, obviously still strained, but more out of tension now than the tiredness and fatigue of earlier.
- Hauling the other girl up, she sucks in a breath as she takes the hovering craft over the river entirely - even as the glowing pads at its base flicker and spark as the engine begins to get gummed up with sand. This has happened before, when facing Ethius and his ash - and Shalune quietly hopes they can make it across.
DG: Shalune Amira has used her Tool Little Dipper toward her party's challenge, The Shifting Tiles.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline looks out over the river of sand with a slight frown. They weren't done yet, it seemed. She'd taken a potion to stave off the pain of the injury she'd received in the fight against the Spartoi, but she was slowly starting to tire from all the casting she'd done.
So, she'd hold out on the casting for now, then. Besides, with her potions, she could probably handle this just fine.
...Hopefully she wouldn't end up regretting this.
She draws out another bottle of that green elixir and downs the lot before rushing forward, jumping from tile to tile. Unfortunately, sand made a very poor medium for drawing out pillars of earth. She'll just have to hope one of the others manages to catch her if she slips on the obsidian tiles.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Invigoration Elixir toward her party's challenge, The Shifting Tiles. DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, The Shifting Tiles.
==========================<* The Guardian Temple *>===========================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - The Shifting Tiles *>=====================
|Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
When you enter this room, you are immediately greeted by the sound of
rushing sand. A flowing river of the stuff moves through the center of the
room, and it moves far too quickly to wade into -- not to mention that no
one can be sure how deep it is. However, something else moves through the
sand: huge tiles of obsidian, which float across it, and are wide and sturdy
enough to hold a person. Crossing will require leaping from tile to tile,
even as it moves underfoot, until you get to the other side.
You certainly want to reach the other side. There, a huge doorway awaits.
Three relief statues of the Guardians of Water, Fire, and Wind are sculpted
around it, beckoning you forth. You suspect few of the other groups of
Drifters have found these trial rooms, so deep under the ground.
=Dungeon Conditions: Tire, Injure=============================================
=====================<* The Guardian Temple - Round 5 *>====================== =======================< Results - The Shifting Tiles >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jacqueline Barber 23 --(4)--> 27 Pass Invigoration Elixir 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Catenna 24 --(6)--> 30 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ethius Hesiod 20 --(6)--> 26 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shalune Amira 25 --(6)--> 31 Pass Little Dipper 2 Agility Effects: Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lunata Croze 22 --(10)--> 32 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kourin 23 --(4)--> 27 Pass Trick Rope 2 Agility Effects: Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyre H. Lorentz 21 --(5)--> 26 Pass Reverse Parachute 1 Agility Effects: Rally and Quicken ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Jacqueline Barber 75 --(5)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(1)|Injure(2)|Tire(2) Effects: Quicken(1)|Stalwart(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Jacqueline Barber has passed this challenge! The party gained 5 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: Ethius Hesiod has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================================<* The Guardian Temple *>================================================
=========================================<* CHALLENGE - The Impossible Task *>==========================================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 4 |
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
The deepest rooms of the Guardian Temple are also the largest. This
cavernous chamber stretches out, and each of the walls has extensive murals
painted by hands deft and light -- hands that have produced art so sublime,
with such finesse, that one might wonder if human hands could master them.
The murals show the Guardians in abstract splendor; without revealing their
form, and yet with such care that one cannot doubt the form that they have
chosen.
Three tiles, each a gleaming silver, stand in the center of the room. Around
them are twenty-four statues on round pedestals. Each shows an abstract
concept related to each of the twenty-five Guardians: a sword, a sun dial, a
flame, a wave, and so on. As you enter, the three tiles flash.
The ghostly images of three Guardians appear: the enormous, tortoise-like
form of Schturkdark, the four-winged dragon form of Moor Gault, and the
winged tiger of Fengalon. Each rears up and looks upon you. Schturdark
speaks first: "We call upon your wisdom to break the past."
Moor Gault speaks next: "We ask that you show the understanding that ever
escaped your ancestors."
Fengalon finishes: "We ask that you show us that you know mankind's place in
the cosmos."
They fade away, but a twenty-fifth statue appears on the central tile: one
of a featureless, stylized human. It looks almost childish. Each statue can
be moved -- including the human statue -- to show where you think you might
fit in the cosmos.
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Reckless, Madness===============================
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Whether through the air, or across the obsidian slabs, the party manages to find their way across the river of sand. The ground is even less stable than first impressions suggested. With every step, the uncertain platforms would dip and swing, turning this way and that threatening to outright disappear into the flowing dunes.
One such instability threatens to consume Lunata outright. Her leg falls into the sands, and the grains drag at it, pulling with phenomenal, abrasive force. It's only thanks to her own agility and perhaps the aid of her personal protector that she isn't dragged bodily into the crushing flow...!
There's enough time to save her.
But one by one, each of the drifters find their way to the other side. Cyre turns his head respectfully towards the statues, his gaze lingering long upon the great white tiger before nodding to the doorway. "Come on," he says, "...We're so close now."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
- The group of them gather within the very deepest rooms of the Guardian Temple. For the wear and tear surrounding the outer perimeter, even going in, there's the sense of time and erosion eating away at this monument of worship. Of one of the most single greatest monuments of faith in all Filgaia, the work of the artisans endure. Pristine. There is not enough time to engage the subtleties of history immortalized before everyone here.
- Those of Filgaia can name each Guardian depiction by the abstracts, as per their upbringing and culture. They all lead to three tiles, with untarnished, gleaming silver standing in the center of the room.
- There are many statues on round pedestals. Each an abstract concept related to the twenty-five Guardians. The three tiles flash, gathering their collective attentions.
- Three spirits appear.
- "We call upon your wisdom to break the past." Speaks Schturdark, the ancient tortoise.
- "We ask that you show the understanding that ever escaped your ancestors." Comes Moor Gault, the four-winged dragon.
- "We ask that you show us that you know mankind's place in the cosmos." The final words are from Fengalon, the winged tiger - the patron deity of one of the shamans present.
- They disappear. A final statue appears. A featureless, stylized human that seems... young? Like a child? Each statue is light enough for anyone to move with fair ease - including the human statue - in which to communicate to these three great Guardians the answer.
- Ethius takes out that eyeglass he's known for, casting an electrical spell to turn it on as he brings it to one eye. In truth, it matters not what Ethius and his strange light shows.
- Kourin and Spirit, too, may be lost before what any of these words mean. Kourin's patron deity of her upbringing bears no resemblance to any of these great spirits, and the teachings greatly differ.
- To Lunata, to Catenna, to Cyre, to Shalune, to Jacqueline... those words mean something far more. At heart, they may even know the answer... maybe in part, maybe in whole.
- What are their answers?
- Ethius is pointing at certain statues. His guidance is unreliable. He should know better, as a child of Filgaia.
- ...Right?
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Spectral Lens toward his party's challenge, The Impossible Task.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin shakes her head, unsure what she can offer here. "Mankind's place...in the cosmos...is standing together," she says, moving to stand next to the small statue representing mankind and standing there, conviction in her eyes.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Passing through the door of the three statues, Catenna draws in a breath as she beholds the chamber beyond. And then the ghostly forms manifest over each tile, among the statues.
Catenna immediately falls to her knees. Her eyes are incredibly wide as she folds her hands at chest level, then bows her head deeply. Her hair falls to either side of her face like a ritual veil. "Main aogi hun," she utters in her own language, not daring to lift her eyes. She says nothing more, merely listening with quiet reverence.
Show your place in the cosmos, they're told. The figures melt away into the ether. Catenna does not immediately get up. She reaches into one of the pouches at her belt.
Setting down a few sticks of something, she lights them with a quiet spark and begins to pray over them. The pungent scent of her incense begins to waft through the statue chamber. It is a mere, tangible thing, but one that seems to help to clear the senses. It teases at the mind with a bite that purifies and leaves thoughts whole.
Catenna slowly lifts her head. Her eyes focus again, a look of profound awe behind them. "The moon, a crescent above the earth," she murmurs, turning her eyes towards the statues. "The sun, its rays upon it... breathing flame and air into the earth... the waves and...." Trailing off, she seems to grasp for some thought that she cannot quite put into words.
Show mankind's place in the cosmos. Were she to follow her impulse, it would be at the side of all of them. (But is my vision too small...?)
The woman comes to her feet. She cannot find the right words. As the scent of the incense wafts around her, she merely directs, with gestures and little nods. Though there's uncertainty in her face, she urges the others to move some of the statues a little, some a lot. Adjusting the Guardians into their proper places.
Making some suggestions as to where to move the human.
DG: Catenna has used her Tool Ritual Incense toward her party's challenge, The Impossible Task. DG: Kourin has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Impossible Task.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
- The wisdom to break the past.
- The understanding that ever escaped your ancestors.
- And where mankind's place is in the cosmos.
- The rising figure of Ge Ramda looms over her, gazing back upon the figures of Fengalon, Schturdark and Moor Gault with a look that could be one of... respect, but it's hard to tell with her positively skeletal face.
- One of the statues is that of Ge Ramtos, bearing a similar presence, yet ultimately different from the lich that accompanies Lunata.
- She focuses, having had her countenance die down to a serious one.
- ...
- She sets the thermos she carries with her down.
- She pours some soup into a cup.
- She walks along the path gently as she proceeds to the statue of Ge Ramtos, to set the soup before it.
- "... it isn't any one person's duty to show where we stand in the cosmos," she speaks, as if entranced. Her eyes have a soft blue shine to them. Her gait isn't that of the waitress that just nearly sank before.
- "Since time immemorial, mankind has ever strived to stand higher than their station allows."
- She walks towards Moor Gault's statue, entrenched in stylised flames.
- "First, they mastered flame..."
- She proceeds to Schturdark, cascaded in water.
- "Then they took to the seas, on vessels of wood and metal."
- Then, to Fengalon, wreathed in wind.
- "And then to the air, where they soared high and flew close to the celestial bodies."
- 'Lunata' shuts her eyes, gently, chuckling.
- "Do you mean to have us answer the unanswerable?"
- She places her hand behind her back.
- "There are those, plenty within the past, that have been scoured for their hubris, to fly too close to the sun. Yet where others have strayed from their path, others yet continue to hold the torch, ever bearing regal posture to seek answers from their predecessors."
- She places her hands to their opposing elbows.
- "Such is the nature of humankind. Nothing less, and nothing more. A resplendent, ever-flowing, ever-shifting gravitas borne of chaos, desiring order in their daily lives as is their wont..."
- Then she slips that hand to the basket, and draws out that familiar blackboard and scribbles out a simple word on it.
- "Such is their blessing. And such is their curse."
- She sets it down next to the soup.
- TODAY'S SOUP OF HUMANITY:
- Primordial.
DG: Lunata Croze has used her Tool Soup of the Day toward her party's challenge, The Impossible Task.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
- "... Lunie..." mumbles Shalune, too taken by the speech to really register that Lunata's voice suddenly reverberates with the ages, or rather - too respectful of the chamber they stand in to do anything like petition the Impure Princess for answers at a time like this. Even if she doesn't know much about spirituality, about the Guardians as a whole, she can at least accept that this is a moment that should not be broken - a chance that they might never have again to commune with these beings.
- "--I--" she mumbles for a long moment, furrowing her brow as she shakes her head, not sure if she should be bowed or not. "I dunno about anything like our place in the cosmos. But I know that our place in the world, right now, is right here. We fought through your rooms - we fought through everythin' to get here, missiles and skeletons and traps and pits - and now here we stand. The fact we made it through is the important part. For me, at least, the fact that we're right here validates our being here."
- She looks back to Lunata again, chewing hard at her lip. "We earned that much, right?" she adds, almost to herself.
DG: Shalune Amira has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Impossible Task.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
These voices. This place. The resonance thrums through his heart. Pulses through the very foundations of his being. Cyre sucks in a gasp as the three guardians descend. Water. Fire. Wind. His eyes widen into saucers and affix upon the great, divine tiger. That voice-- the one he hears in his dreams. The one that resounds throughout every ounce of matter and every erg of soul that makes up the being called Cyre H. Lorentz.
And just like that, they're gone.
But they have left something for the Drifters. Their words, and... Their challenge.
Cyre stares at the child-statue. His eyes drift to the twenty-five positions arrayed throughout the room. He listens to all the answers the others produce. He helps Catenna move the Guardians into their proper positions. He follows along with Lunata's explaination even as he struggles to form his own.
What is the place of humanity in the cosmos?
Is there really an answer to that question? What is the place of humanity in the cosmos? The traditions of his people say that humanity and the guardians stand together, walk the same path. But that's just one answer- it doesn't answer everything. It doesn't really answer anything at all. Cyre clutches a hand to his head, rubs at his eyes.
Man is a multifaceted creature.
Man is chaotic. He seeks order. But he is not singular. There are as many kinds of humans as there are grains of sand in a desert.
But there is only one statue.
...
......
Cyre lifts his hand. A great pulse of wind rushes out...
And blasts the statue into countless shards that scatter all throughout the room.
He looks up, then, "This is my answer. Right or wrong. The first problem is the statue. One statue, equal to the guardians, to represent all mankind? That is wrong. A single human cannot stand to equal a guardian. Humans do not walk a single path, our lives flit in the wind, are carried by the tides, are warmed by the fire, and someday return to the earth. We are weak, but our potential-- the places that we can go, the things that we can see... We are weak, but each of those shards, put together-- The sum total of all humanity is different. A single human has... So much potential."
"And so I shatter the statue, the Singular Man. But those shards still dwell here, in this world, free to do all that they might choose. Whether righteous... Or profane."
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, The Impossible Task.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Here they. Battered, bloodied, and bruised, the Caravan Kinship finds themselves standing in front of ghostly images of the Guardians themselves.
How long had it been since mortal eyes had witnessed this chamber? Were the images before them truly the Guardians, or were they, in essence, pre-recorded?
Jacqueline didn't have an answer for that. She stares quietly at the Guardians, and then to the statues as a question is posed to them.
What was mankind's place in the cosmos?
Catenna moves the Guardian statues into their proper places, but as for the human...
"I think it's only appropriate that the Human stands in the center." Jacqueline says. This sounds arrogant, though...so she quickly amends her statement with a shake of her head.
"Not because everything is about us, or anything like that...but because that is where Balance can be found." She explained.
"The balance of Life and Death...of Light and Darkness, of Fire and Water...of the Sea, the Sky, and the Earth beneath our feet. We humans stand at the center of it all. We must learn balance. That's...my answer, at least." She explains.
But then again, everyone else's answer was good too.
"I don't...I don't honestly think this is a question that has a right or wrong answer. Not really."
And Cyre...Cyre chooses to just destroy the statue.
Even that, Jacqueline decided, wasn't necessarily a wrong answer.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Impossible Task.
===============================================<* The Guardian Temple *>================================================
=========================================<* CHALLENGE - The Impossible Task *>==========================================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 4 |
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
The deepest rooms of the Guardian Temple are also the largest. This
cavernous chamber stretches out, and each of the walls has extensive murals
painted by hands deft and light -- hands that have produced art so sublime,
with such finesse, that one might wonder if human hands could master them.
The murals show the Guardians in abstract splendor; without revealing their
form, and yet with such care that one cannot doubt the form that they have
chosen.
Three tiles, each a gleaming silver, stand in the center of the room. Around
them are twenty-four statues on round pedestals. Each shows an abstract
concept related to each of the twenty-five Guardians: a sword, a sun dial, a
flame, a wave, and so on. As you enter, the three tiles flash.
The ghostly images of three Guardians appear: the enormous, tortoise-like
form of Schturkdark, the four-winged dragon form of Moor Gault, and the
winged tiger of Fengalon. Each rears up and looks upon you. Schturdark
speaks first: "We call upon your wisdom to break the past."
Moor Gault speaks next: "We ask that you show the understanding that ever
escaped your ancestors."
Fengalon finishes: "We ask that you show us that you know mankind's place in
the cosmos."
They fade away, but a twenty-fifth statue appears on the central tile: one
of a featureless, stylized human. It looks almost childish. Each statue can
be moved -- including the human statue -- to show where you think you might
fit in the cosmos.
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Reckless, Madness===============================
==========================================<* The Guardian Temple - Round 6 *>=========================================== ======================< Results - The Impossible Task >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jacqueline Barber 27 --(100)--> 127 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Catenna 30 --(100)--> 130 Fail Ritual Incense 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ethius Hesiod 26 --(100)--> 126 Fail Spectral Lens 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shalune Amira 31 --(100)--> 131 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lunata Croze 32 --(100)--> 132 Fail Soup of the Day 3 Wits Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kourin 27 --(100)--> 127 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyre H. Lorentz 26 --(100)--> 126 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Jacqueline Barber 80 --(10)--> 90 Fail Conditions: Injure(1)|Madness|Reckless(2)|Stupify(2)|Tire(1) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: Jacqueline Barber is too exhausted to continue! DG: Catenna is too exhausted to continue! DG: Ethius Hesiod is too exhausted to continue! DG: Shalune Amira is too exhausted to continue! DG: Lunata Croze is too exhausted to continue! DG: Kourin is too exhausted to continue! DG: Cyre H. Lorentz is too exhausted to continue! DG: The party has failed this challenge! All party members are now Exhausted. This attempt is over. DG: The party led by Jacqueline Barber has been fully Exhausted by The Guardian Temple! DG: The party will now draw a conclusion. ===============================================<* The Guardian Temple *>================================================
==========================================<* The Guardian Temple - Round 6 *>===========================================
========================================<* CHALLENGE - The Guardians' Lament *>=========================================
|Type: Landmark |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 4 |
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
The final statue is moved into place... and then there is a soft hum, before
the room grows dimmer.
"Ever has humanity failed us. Ever have they been a disappointment." The
voice rings out over all of you, though it is disembodied. "Odoryuk. You
have much to answer for."
A second, lighter voice answers the rumbling basso. "Zeldukes! Be at peace.
I am disappointed to... and yet look before us. Acknowledge this truth! We
have no one else to turn to. None of the other groups have succeeded in our
task either!"
The first voice speaks again. "So be it. Know this humans: you are our
lament. And yet we share this world. We share its pain... and its future.
The Metal Demons seek to shatter our statues -- seek to shatter the binds we
have placed upon their goddess. If they do... then all Filgaia shall
tremble. You are not who we would seek..."
Odoryuk finishes the thought: "...but you are all we have. Go with our
blessing. Save Filgaia from them."
In the center of the room, a collection of stone tablets appears -- one for
each of you. The voices fall quiet and still, then.
OOC: You have acquired the Stone Medium for one of the Elemental,
Terrestrial, or Celestial Guardians. You can pick which you receive. If your
character is not a Zoa Priest or a Shaman, their use of a Medium will be
limited. Please refer to recent +bbposts for information. Thank you for
playing at Dream Chasers MUSH!
=Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
- The answers are made. Some of the 'answers' consist of impolite loitering and, spiritually speaking, very rude things. Ethis should know better than to be walking aroun dwith an eyeglass over his eye while GUARDIAN SPIRITS ARE TALKING. One of them even brought a dog in here! A dog!! The nerve! What if they decide to mark their territory here? That'd be... a real faux pas... that'd require a whole lot of penance.
- The room grows far dimmer, except for a light that surrounds the humble merchant among them... Jacqueline Barber, as she gets a sense of eyes falling upon her. All will hear. All will listen.
- Jacqueline, however... gets a sense that she is being... recognized.
- "Ever has humanity failed us. Ever have they been a disappointment." Who is speaking? Someone is. "Odoryuk. You have much to answer for."
- "Zeldukes! Be at peace. I am disappointed too... and yet look before us. Acknowledge this truth! We have no one else to turn to. None of the other groups have succeeded in our task either!"
- They are in the presence - the diesmebodied presence - of Zeldukes and Odoryuk. The Castle and Life Guardians, respectively.
- The first voice speaks again. "So be it. Know this humans: you are our lament. And yet we share this world. We share its pain... and its future. The Metal Demons seek to shatter our statues -- seek to shatter the binds we have placed upon their goddess. If they do... then all Filgaia shall tremble. You are not who we would seek..."
- Odoryuk finishes the thought: "...but you are all we have. Go with our blessing. Save Filgaia from them."
- Their voices fade. The balance of light and visibility return to normal, leaving everyone within a dim chamber - a chamber that speaks of fading hopes.
- But all is not lost to darkness yet.
- A collection of stone tablets appear... one for each. They are not labeled, specifically, but each and every one among them, as if by instinct, will find one that coaxes them forward.
- There are no more words. The implication is clear. They will take these seven tablets with them... and from there...
- ...
- ...
- ...
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
- Lunata's eyes glaze upon that chamber as she folds her arms, that flame still lightly burning upon her irises.
- "... furtive, as always," is her final comment--
- --as Lunata lets out a gasp in turn as she brings bear to where the guardians are -- in particular, Zeldukes.
- It brings back such memories.
- Memories of when she was just a waitress, and she spent every weekend washing that statue of Zeldukes' -- even when others would pick upon her for it, she would steadfastly do so, for she found protection there. A sense of purpose. A sense of belonging.
- She quavers, just for a moment.
- She lays her hand down upon one of the stone mediums--
- --but then it sparks in her hand, as she lets out a yelp of pain. "Ah! What?"
- She stares towards it with a confused look upon her face, then the others. She touches it again--
- --and once more, it shimmers with a light that prevents her from touching it.
- "... why ...?"
- She looks just a bit lost, as the cube slowly comes round to hover around her. "... Ge Ramda...?" A pause, as she casts her head down with a look of lament. "... is it to do with what Avril said ...?"
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin steps forward, slowly, arm reaching out, her expression rapt and full of wonder. "We...shall strive to become worthy of the task you have set before us, O Guardians." She feels drawn to one of the stones in particular--and as she places her hand upon the medium of Celesdue, a sense of rightness fills her.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
- Shalune pulls herself forwards; she doesn't look particularly tired anymore, at least not physically - though certainly mentally. In fact, her stare down at the set of stone tablets is rather dulled and uncertain, the light kind of gone from her eyes as she furrows her brow. "... is this... really okay?" she wonders after a long moment, reaching out to accept one of the stone tablets - finding herself drawn for whatever reason towards the plate embossed with the symbol of Dinoginos, the Mountain Guardian.
- She hefts it in her hands, wondering for a moment if there's really supposed to be a connection there. As she is right now, she can't feel anything much - but then, she's never exactly been the spiritual type, too fond of machines and too practical when it comes to the workings of the world and the cogs within it. Metaphysics leaves her at a loss, Malevolence is an unknown to her - even her ability to sense Seraphs is woefully underdeveloped, with Ge Ramda being the only exception.
- Her uncertainty is cemented by the way the Guardians appear to almost taunt Lunata; her brow furrows again as she looks to the stone in her palm, chewing hard at her lip as she studies the light sheet of rock. It seems too tiny, for what the Guardians ask. "... you're not s'posed to go 'we're not who you'd ask'," she mutters sourly, feeling rather put out and petulant in the wake of it. "Sorry for not knowin' a thing about what's going on."
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
In her heart, Catenna knows that there is no true way to answer this question.
Because humanity is a flawed thing - an imperfect creation, lacking clarity of vision. So certain of its own small place in a small world defined by its own narrow vision. The Guardians emerge forth and speak to each other, the guardians of Castle and Life arguing back and forth.
Catenna again falls to her knees. She closes her hands together and bows her head, genuflecting in the silence of her heart, knowing that what they say is not wrong - that she has chosen a harsh path, one where she stands painfully aware of her own failings.
But then the first voice speaks again. Lifting her eyes, she parts her lips a little as if to say something, but it catches in her throat. There's something behind her eyes - a plea she doesn't dare voice. She swallows it. She can feel the spirits around them.
Can she feel the one - the one she knows best?
In the centre of the room, something shimmers. Seven stone tablets, one for each. Climbing from her knees, Catenna starts forward quickly, eyes wide.
As Kourin's hand falls to a Medium with a familiar carving upon it, Catenna moves up behind the rogue Priestess of Althena. She lays a delicate hand on her shoulder, and nods to her simply. The woman has taken a great step on the road to understanding, and Catenna encourages it with a quiet smile and a little light in her eyes.
Then she too, steps forward, and her hand lowers where it will. She does not have to think about it because what she chooses is not her choice, but a call to the depths of her heart, a whisper on a shimmer of moonlight.
Lifting the tablet of stone, she turns it over in her palm, and bows her head over it, one finger tracing the emblems of Lucadia upon its face. "So as the Moon ascends in the heavens, so too does the sea crest upon the bosom of the earth," she murmurs. "Rise, fall, crest, wane. All the world is one... but the Moon and the Tide walk hand in hand, always."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
- "So, it was not a recording," Ethius muses as he brings a hand to his face... he thought it was a mere echo, and not the Guardians themselves?! Can a man be so godless, so bereft of faith? He can say this, and yet, he is usually a willing and sporting participant in whatever religious rituals there are among the CaraKin that require his assitance...!
- His gaze turns towards Kourin, as she speaks piously of the Guardians before her with full reverence. Is she to renounce her previous goddess? His gaze lingers on her for some time, as the hand to his head moves before his bandanna, then down over his chest. His posture slouches noticeably, with the tilt of his head.
- ...There is one tablet standing there, alone. As Ethius turns his head, he steps forward towards it. He holds the Spectral Lens to it, with the same cast. Why? What does he hope to find? Is he expecting there to be a final mechanism behind the Stone Mediums - the great blessing of a desperate pantheon?
- He lowers the lens from his face. He regards it with the same stare as much anything else. Putting the lens within his poncho, he reaches out with both hands to touch upon it. Hands that, in some ways, do not seem like they should dare belong there.
- He lifts it free of the place the stone tablet rests, holding it on high as if to inspect some small quality underneath it. Those who surround him see the markings of the Guardian in question...
- The Star Guardian, Rigdobrite.
- What would draw this amnesiac Drifter to the notice of such a Guardian? Does the answers he seek reflect upon the splendor of Rigdobrite upon the night skies? He regards the sacred stone for far too long for someone who speaks as though educated, but yet proves uncultured and ignorant.
- "It would appear there is a trust being placed upon us." Ethius at last speaks, turning around to face the rest. His gaze is not level with the rest of them. "I know not whether it coincides with my own curiosity, let alone my reason."
- "Miss Jay," he says, as he steps towards her, "as the circumstances stand, I will follow your lead."
- Regardless of who or what this strange man is, it would appear that he will make the attempt to do good on the trust of the very Guardians of Filgaia - however much they may have - and be another set of hands in the fight against the Metal Demons.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
So. That wasn't it, huh?
Cyre sighs as the voices of the Guardians rise again, and they are... Not pleased. That much is abundantly clear. But there's something else, too. These spirits: Odoryuk the Guardian of Life, Zeldukes the Castle Guardian. These are not... insignificant spirits. One is a Guardian of Ideals, the other a Greater Guardian.
So, at the very least, if they must be rebuked, then they are being rebuked by Extremely Important Spirits. It soothes Cyre's ego just a little bit. Was it arrogant to assume that a handful of priests and their friends could find the solution to a problem like that?
Probably.
It stings none-the-less.
But here, in the presence of the myriad gods-- standing in the presence of Filgaia's twenty-five great spirits, it feels... Insignificant. He closes his eyes and takes a breath. They're all here, their attention drawn from their scattered shrines to this one, singular temple.
He can feel the pulse. It surges through his veins. They are here too. Fengalon and... One more...
...The spirits fade, but they leave something behind. Those tablets-- gifts from the Guardians themselves. Cyre frowns, touching at the scar stretched over what was once a gaping wound. After all that happened, they would still choose him to carry on their will...?
...Or is it just that they have no choice.
Cyre frowns, even as a particular tablet draws his eye. It's... Familiar. He reaches out to it, touches the stone... And feels a chill shoot through his arm. A sensation. A warning? Not yet, it says. Not yet.
The stone warms, then. He draws the tablet from its pedestal and finds...
Solais Emsu.
His brow furrows. The Sky Guardian...?
But then-- He could have sworn this tablet was--
No. Not yet. He couldn't hope to, but... "Sky and Wind, huh...?" Cyre smirks, a hint of regret creeping into his eyes. "It seems like there's something missing from that picture, doesn't it, Fengalon? Solais Emsu? Mmh."
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
The room darkens, except for a halo of light around...Jacqueline herself. Were the Guardians...watching her? Judging her. She wasn't entirely sure, but she does her best not to quail beneath their gaze. She stands strong, and listens.
The Guardians...don't sound particularly pleased. And yet...it didn't sound like they had much choice but to accept the situation. To accept them. And when their voices fade, a pedestal appears before them, bearing a series of stone tablets.
Jacqueline walks up to the pedestal wordlessly, and looks upon them.
It was a heavy choice. Which one was the one most fitting for her?
...But...
In the end, there was one that called out to her. She picks up the Medium of Earth, shuts her eyes, and places it close to her heart.
"Grudiev...if you'll accept me, then...I'll take up your Medium." She says quietly.
She had always felt a connection with Earth. It had become one of her primary ways of defending herself, and of moving about in general. But...there was more to earth than just flashy stone pillars and hurling rocks everywhere.
Earth also represented the soil, that supported the lives of everyone and everything that lived on or within the surface. To someone like her, the state of the Earth was exceptionally vital. Its bounties made her profession possible. She had always lived hand-in-hand with the Earth. It only felt...
Right.
That was what she was feeling now.
She opens her eyes, then and sends a smile toward Lunata, Catenna, and Cyre.
"We can trust you all to teach us how to use these properly, right?" She asks.
And then, Ethius turns and addresses her. She nods toward him and takes a step back to get everyone in view.
Her friends, her allies, her companions. They were missing one, and she could only hope that she was safe. But for now...she addresses them.
"Everyone...thank you for everything. We couldn't have made it here without working together." She says.
"The Guardians have given us, the Caravan Kinship, a mission. A role to fulfill. Filgaia is in danger, and they need us. When I gathered you all together, I never imagined we'd get caught up in something like this... It'll be dangerous, but...will you continue to work together with me?"
In her heart, however, she knew the answers she would most likely receive.
It was never a question.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
- Finally, Lunata has no choice but to leave the Stone Medium where she can't even touch it, looking towards Jacqueline with uncertainty.
- "... I'm not sure..." she admits, sighing faintly as she shakes her head. "...but... even if you didn't ask --"
- She pumps her hands together, as she looks towards everyone else, then Jacqueline with a look that's more certain than ever before.
- "Of course I'll follow you, Jay! To the ends of the wasteland, the wilderness, anywhere!"
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin nods firmly. "I will stand with you, my friends." At last, at long last, Kourin doesn't stumble over the word friend.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Spirit barks his agreement as well!
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
- "If I must be frank, Miss Jay, it is arguable that I am the one who ultimately entangled you within this." Ethius says. Of course, their first meeting with a Metal Demon was back in the Sacred Grounds of Linga. Riesenlied's bid to save them all as things took a turn for the worst...
- The origin point for how both a humble merchant and a strange, secretive wanderer would gradually cast a wider and wider net yet.
- "I cannot leave the matter unattended." As if he has a choice, as Filgaia is his home by his reckoning. By... just about everyone's reckoning. "Your assistance in the matter remains appreciated, Miss Kourin."
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
- "... this is kind of a lot to take in... what can we even do, against stuff like that outside?" asks Shalune, pumping her fists gently. "I just-- signed up to go look around the continent, you know, just sorta roll around having a good time and learning stuff." In quite the reversal, she's the one who's uncertain here, chewing at her lip still as she glances at Lunata and sucks in a breath.
- "But-- but I can't just leave somethin' like this alone, either. And if there's a chance it'll help learn more about Ge Ramda from the Guardians, then-- well, that's for the best, right?!" she blurts, suddenly fired up at the thought.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Smiling serenely even with the rebukes of the greater Guardians still stinging in her ears, Catenna lays her hand over the Medium in her grasp once more. Then she looks over to Cyre. With slow steps she moves to stand alongside him, looking up at him with quiet eyes. "Are our lives ever truly complete, Cyre," she asks, her voice very quiet. "We are imperfect creatures... our lives are spent searching and wanting. Perhaps we cannot complete what is missing. But we can join together, and share what little we have, and become greater."
Turning her eyes towards Lunata, she watches the girl and her pesky hovering companion struggle to claim the Medium. A touch of sadness flickers in her expression.
"Jacqueline," she says then. "It was not chance that we came together... it was more than fortune. We are together for a reason. That I am sure of. I will travel with you. Together, we must do as we can to protect this world, and the spirits of it."
Then she turns, and steps over to the last Medium. It is not for her to take, but she takes it anyway, and holds it out to Lunata, fully expecting to get zapped.
"If you cannot take it now," she offers, "will you allow me to hold it for you until you are ready?"
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
"Do you think I'm really going to say no when I just got word from the bosses?" Cyre laughed, moving to shove his hands into his pockets, only to remember that those were kind of exploded off after the fight outside the temple. "...You know I'll do whatever I have to in order to protect this world. I am a Nahual of Fengalon, after all. If not me, then who?"
"But yeah, you can rely on us to teach you guys how to use those things. It won't exactly be conventional lectures, but I think it'll be the fastest way to go about it." Beat. He looks to Jacqueline, then coughs. "Well. Okay. Second fastest. I can't use the fastest method for reasons."
Jacqueline-shaped reasons.
He looks to Lunata and Catenna, then, and frowns. "...I suppose Ge Ramtos has reasons for what he's doing. But maybe he will change his mind someday. I'd take Catenna up on that offer, I think. I'd be glad to watch over it, too, until then."
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
- Lunata isn't certain why she's rejected -- for all she knows, she isn't a Metal Demon, she is a flesh and blood member of Filgaia... ...
- ...
- ... and yet, she did make a contract with an unknowable power, ostensibly an extension of Ge Ramtos' power. Yet there is no mirth in their contract -- there was death, and there was circumstance that led her to the way she is right now. Was there a connection between her situation and why the other Guardians reject her?
- The truth can only be found in the Ruins themselves.
- "... yes," she nods slowly. "I know that you will keep it safe. ... maybe someday, when this cycle of mine is complete ... I will be able to accept it."
- Yet she knows, at the completion of that cycle, that she may yet be the one to pay the ferryman his price.
- She pats Shalune on the head as she smiles warmly, and says, "Yeah, that's right! Cheer up, Lunie! We did-- I mean, we did succeed as a group, still, you know? We worked very well together, and that really counts for a lot!"
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
It was expected, really. After everything they had experienced together, they wouldn't break apart here. She nods, and offers them all a smile.
"I had a feeling you all would say that." She said with a nod. "Thank you. Let's work together then. To protect Filgaia, so we can make its future brighter."
With that said, she glances toward Ethius.
"...I know that. Maybe initially that was the case, but...this, right now...this is a decision I'm making of my own free will. Even if the Guardians hadn't asked it of me...I'd be trying to protect Filgaia anyway." She relies, shaking her head.
She then offers Shalune a smile.
"I know, and I'm sorry...but hey, nobody says we can't do both at the same time, right?" She offers with a smile.
With that said, she turns. Presumably there was an emergency exit everywhere.
"Alright, Caravan Kinship, time to move out! Let's try to find Matilda, then after that, we know where we're headed. Our destination is the Badlands!"
And everything that awaited them there...