2017-08-20: Hope Reaching The Skies Above
- Log: Hope Reaching The Skies Above
- Cast: Lemina Ausa, Lucia, Seraph Ragnell, Hiro, Jean, Gwen Whitlock
- Where: Guardian Temple Dig
- Date: 8/20/2017
- Summary: Driven into the Guardian Temple by the chaos outside, one party attempts to find what mysteries lurk further within. Could there be an answer for Lucia's curse?
==========================<* 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> Lemina Ausa has posed.
As is the custom for Lunar's most notorious band of refugees, the solution to certain death is to sprint boldly into uncertain death. They've had to take a somewhat circuitous path to avoid the worst of the Aveh bombardment and avoid the Metal Demons, which means they may have even picked up certain new friends along the way!
For now, though, there's a relative lull in the pursuit -- with only a few Metal Beasts still circling around Lucia's entourage from either side as they at last make their way into the Guardian Temple. Lemina, ever the slowest member of her party in terms of raw land speed, is the first to decide to stop and round on their pursuers instead of continue running.
Pulling her staff off of her back, Lemina says, "I think we've lost the worst of it -- let's get these ones off our backs and head in! I dunno what's inside, but it's probably mega-better to be in there than out here!" She thrusts her staff out, and a veritable blizzard begins to rain down ice and hail and sleet on the quadrupeds to either side of them.
DG: Lemina Ausa has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Clash of Beasts.
<Pose Tracker> Lucia has posed.
Lucia, having just fought against her curse to invoke about as much magic as she has since they got to Filgaia, is not in good shape. She's never in good shape but she's in extra-bad shape at the moment. If Lemina hadn't stopped, the party would have had to anyway, because she just tripped over her cloak and sprawled out on the entryway steps.
And those beasts are closing fast.
Worrisomely, she doesn't even seem afraid. Does she see the Metal Demons? Her eyes are so glazed, so dull...
DG: Lucia has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Clash of Beasts.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Now this is one hell of a battlefield.
The only reason Ragnell interfered the last time with a Metal Demon raid was because it was specifically on a defenseless human village, and the one in charge specifically called upon Drifters to Come Get Some. Ragnell hadn't liked his attitude *or* his face, so she'd brought it, and the Princess Cecilia, to bear. Now... well, the Metal Demons are attacking an old temple. Maybe Sorey would take exception to that, but Ragnell doesn't really care. Her only problem right now is that the Vile Fiends have gone from one frying pan to another, and she's caught up with them.
She hasn't even been able to enjoy her bottle of Johnny Appleseed, though she does at least have it tucked protectively away.
The group of them enter the Guardian Temple in an attempt to escape the three-pronged battle outside, only to find Metal Beasts awaiting them within. Ragnell sighs, hops off the caravan, and steps up next to Lemina, twin pistols in hand.
"Could be worse, I guess," she remarks, though her tone makes it plain that she's not sure by how much. She glances briefly at Lucia as she trips, her mind steeled against that Malevolence, then leaves Hiro or someone to come to her aid and looks back at the more present and immediate threat. "Let's cut a path in and keep goin'."
And with that, she opens fire with both guns in all directions, sending jolts of bullet-lightning towards any Metal Beasts that stalk too close--which means she has to move *fast*, because so are they.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Clash of Beasts.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
"I think you're right Jean!" Hiro calls out once the sounds of bombardment become more distant- and the sounds of Metal Beast pursuit become louder. "We are really bad at staying out of trouble."
Lemina is the first to turn, so Hiro uses that opportunity to look over Lucia.
Given the reds and blacks of her clothing it was sometimes really difficult to see how injured she was at any given moment- and she seems dazed but- "Everything's gotten a little out of hand again huh?" Her says almost sheepishly to her, "It'll be okay though. We'll make it out of this just like we always do..."
He pauses for a moment as if to rethink that, "... well hopefully a little better than that."
Right now he's worried about Ruby too- but he saw her go with Fei and the others, so he tried to tell herself she could okay.
Turning around on their pursuers, he draws out that silver blade with the butterfly motifs, and charges into the Metal Beasts. Sword swinging. "Are you trying to jinx us Ragnell!?"
The boomerang comes out, whipping around to try to send it flying at one closing in on Lucia- "With our luck these things will bark and release... I dunno- metal bees on us or something!"
DG: Hiro has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, A Clash of Beasts.
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
"Of course I'm right!" Jean calls back to Hiro, careful to look around at each of them to ensure they're all moving right, still tense with battle readiness and admittedly for other reasons... Like Harken.
Then, there's the fact that she's been moving across a battlefield and now at temple's stairway loaded with rubble in her barefeet.
"Lucia," Jean says, "it's okay." Then look to Hiro as she doesn't smile at him; she's... not as optimistic as she wants to be.
"Right, there's more to do!" Jean cracks her neck and laughs, "It's always something." She reaches to a hidden pocket and... pulls out a little flask, watching the Beasts come closer. "I need a drink before we do this."
Jean downs a bunch of liquor all at once and puts her flask away, rushing forward. "I'll keep them distracted!" Jean says, and starts to dance, the shadow magic working through her movements turning soporific.
DG: Jean has used her Tool Emergency Liquor toward her party's challenge, A Clash of Beasts.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"Fancy meetin' y'all here!"
The Fiends certainly can't stay out of trouble for very long. Though, to be honest, it's not as if they're alone in this. There were many, many familiar faces Gwen spotted on her way in here, after leaving Cecilia and many many others to check in on Lucia and her friends. One could say 'having trouble staying out of trouble' is simply a way of life for many Drifters in general.
No, she still didn't get to chat with Cecilia, but There Was a Lot Of Bad Business Going Down. The Fiends may not be particularly up to date on the various political troubles in Filgaia, and Gwen is here to try to inform them, in her usual, truncated loosely styled way.
But first, there's Metal Beasts.
Gwen leaps into the fray from a high boulder, bullets blasting out of her right hand as she lands. Badly.
"Owowowowowow, that was really stupid-"
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Combat Basic Action 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 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hiro 0 --(16)--> 16 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lucia 0 --(15)--> 15 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 0 --(18)--> 18 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jean 0 --(17)--> 17 Fail Emergency Liquor 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lemina Ausa 0 --(23)--> 23 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 0 --(16)--> 16 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Hiro 0 --(10)--> 10 Fail Conditions: Fright(2)|Suffer Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Hiro has failed this challenge! The party gained 10 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: Lucia 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> Lemina Ausa has posed.
Unfortunately, things don't go particularly great. Lemina loses control over her blizzard as she's bit by a Metal Beast, and the creatures scatter too well and too quickly for Ragnell's hail of bullets. They don't punish Hiro's worries with Metal Bees-ts, and seem not to need to sleep, either.
Rather than stick around, Lemina starts a controlled retreat further into the temple, already bleeding a little bit; the rest of the party hopefully follows, as entry into the adjoining hallway is punctuated -- once everyone's inside -- with the dull thud of a stone door shutting behind the battered Lunarians (and friends)!
"... Well, that mega-sucked," Lemina offers, helpfully. "At least we're safe now, but jeez..."
<Pose Tracker> Lucia has posed.
Lucia doesn't seem to be physically injured (yet), and the encouragement of her friends gets her back to her feet, at least. She dials in just enough to wince as the Metal Demons push them, overwhelmingly, into the temple proper.
When that stone door slams down, separating them from the beasts with a great big whoosh of air that sends Lucia's hair flying all around her, it startles her into taking a step forward, into the next room, ahead of all the others.
*click*
---
LAST TIME ON LUNAR 2 PLAYS DIGGER:
*click*
*clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickcli-*
---
Lucia closes her eyes for a moment of profound resignation.
Which means she doesn't see the first arrow coming--!
DG: Lucia has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Arrow Crossfire.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"Pretty sure y'all are already jinxed!" Ragnell calls over to Hiro, wry humor in her tone. Despite this humor, things get fucked on them fast. Despite Gwen and Jean's help, they have to retreat to further inside the temple until finally they shake the Metal Beasts, thanks to the helpful (?) timing of a stone door shutting. Panting, Ragnell holsters her guns. "No kiddin'," she drawls to Lemina, one hand on her knee as she leans over.
Still, they've got to keep moving forward. They sure as hell can't go back. Lucia takes point on this, if out of startlement rather than anything else, and there is a distinct *click*. Ragnell turns around in time to see the holes in the walls--and she's explored enough ruins to know what those mean.
"Watch out!!" she shouts, diving for Lucia in an attempt to grab her and pull her out of the way of the first arrows. ...This means there's a new, next click. Ragnell doesn't even have a chance to curse before she has to dodge more arrows--and potentially help Lucia do so as well, unless one of the others takes point on this matter. But from there on, she knows how this goes, thanks to the Ruins of Memory, and will do a better job of dodging!
Unless she jumps high to avoid arrows firing below. The Guardian Temple apparently knows she's learned and is determined to punish her for it. Can she and the others manage anyway?!
DG: Seraph Ragnell has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Arrow Crossfire.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
"That would explain a lot!" Hiro replies to Ragnell, "But just in case let's not risk it!" And at Gwen's rescue- "It was really cool though Gwen! ... ... ... Just need to work on the landing!" Hiro has trouble doing any notable damage to the things. His sword won't penetrate that armor, his boomerang pings off. And soon enough he's running- "Well..." He replies to Lemina, "...we lived?"
Into the pressure plate room. He sees that look on Lucia's face- he hears that click.
He remembers her hatred of the things, "LU-"
And thankfully Ragnell is there, grabbing Lucia- pulling her out of the way. "...Good reflexes Ragn-" And that's when he triggers one. "OH CRUD!"
From there on out, he can't really speak because, he's hot-footing it down the hall. Ducking low- then wind cantrip to vault him high as multiple bolts criss cross the hallway. And for the final stretch he even tries to dive onto the ground and slide home like a baseball player-
He has no idea what baseball is.
DG: Hiro has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Arrow Crossfire.
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
"Ragnell! Gwen!" Jean finally says as she moves, relieved at least to have them here. ...Here where she can see them, as opposed to elsewhere. Should she be relieved? It might be better if they weren't here at all. But since they are--
Jean huffs as they make it through despite the difficulty of that battle, helping anyone who needs it to run until now she's leaning back against the wall. Jean's hair whoopshes a little too with the door slamming down. "Right, we--"
*click*
Jean pushes off of the wall and rushes, hearing Ragnell's voice and stepping where Lucia was to duck down with her fans. From there she moves, trying to use them to block arrows and protect people as best she can while dodging arrows herself down the way.
She can sure jump, if it helps her.
DG: Jean has used her Tool Twin Fans toward her party's challenge, Arrow Crossfire.
<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.
"Uwah!" Lemina hurls herself to one side as the arrow comes streaking toward them -- which means she's totally out of the way of the second arrow and needs no help from a Seraph. "Jeez, really?" she asks of the temple, reaching down into her pack and -- as has become the custom for spelunking, at this point -- switching shoes. The rough Chiro-leather sandals -- an artifact of a slightly less complicated time in her life -- slip neatly onto her feet.
"Whoooo... okay. I think I have a plan," Lemina says. "We just -- run forward, and every time I hear a click I throw up a wall of ice around us! It'll be great!" ... Is this really okay?
It certainly seems to be the thing Lemina intends to go with, as she breaks out into a dead sprint. She doesn't even try to leap over arrows -- stopping them is the only trick she has.
DG: Lemina Ausa has used her Tool Chiro Sandals toward her party's challenge, Arrow Crossfire.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
There will always be a part of Gwen that wanted to be the hero, a side effect of all those stories and media about famous Drifters, especially Nightburn. Someone who came to the rescue of a friend in need, unlike the many, many times she's had to be the one rescued. "Well, I always wanted to try, y'know?" She finds herself laughing in spite of the entire situation, dizzily pressing her weight against the stone door that now stands between them and misfortune.
Well, for a moment or so, anyway.
*click*
Gwen is already reaching up that right hand with a sharpshooter's confidence, but lacking the necessary combination of speed and skill, it comes too late. Fortunately, other people in the party are faster. Lacking the necessary bullet, a quick electric pulse slings out of her right palm instead, singeing a few more arrows that have since come out to join their friend. "Sounds as good an idea as any, Lemina!" she answers back, squeaking as another arrow whistles past her left ear.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Agility Basic Action 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 2 *>======================= =========================< Results - Arrow Crossfire >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hiro 16 --(16)--> 32 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lucia 15 --(18)--> 33 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 18 --(18)--> 36 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jean 17 --(18)--> 35 Pass Twin Fans 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lemina Ausa 23 --(16)--> 39 Pass Chiro Sandals 2 Agility Effects: Cleanse and Sacrifice -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 16 --(18)--> 34 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Hiro 10 --(20)--> 30 Pass Conditions: Fright(1)|Slow(2)|Suffer|Tire(2) Effects: Cleanse|Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Hiro 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. DG: Gwen Whitlock has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* The Guardian Temple *>============================ =================<* CHALLENGE - Barbed But Makeshift Bridge *>================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Another chasm cut through the Temple's inner chambers lay ahead. Like others that you may have encountered, it splits the room in two, and the door leading further in is across it. This chasm, however, is far too long across to safely jump. Only one thing might act as a bridge: a huge pillar of gemstone, which is part of the natural caverns that the Guardian Temple was built into. However, this pillar poses a problem. The sides of the quartz-like gemstone is razor sharp and has little spikes of stone covering it, which are sure to cut and tear flesh if handled carelessly. Knocking it over the chasm and moving it into position will be difficult, to say the least. =Dungeon Conditions: Collapse, Suffer=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Lucia has posed.
Ragnell doesn't quite have to bridal carry Lucia through this challenge -- at some point she gets her feet under her and starts to float along with the Seraph with rather unearthly ease -- but it's a real near thing. She takes a lot of attention to babysit, certainly.
And to get everyone past the arrows more or less intact requires a convocation of efforts; Hiro's boomerang and Gwen's electric shock account for a few of the projectiles, while Jean and Lemina positively clean up between their fandom and ice walls, respectively.
Somehow they're all fine.
At the end of it all, after the last *click*, Lucia pauses on the threshhold of the next area, and speaks for the first time in quite some time.
"We must hurry," she says, with urgency that would be alarming if it wasn't the same tone of voice she uses for basically everything that relates to getting back to Lunar and thwarting Zophar, which is to say, 'basically everything.'
Nonetheless, there's an extra-intense look in her eyes. She means it this time.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Further in, no arrows are waiting to impede the group; instead, it's a dark chasm that cuts through the floor like the shattered halves of a piece of pottery. Gwen attempts to judge the length by palming a few rocks and throwing them as far as she can with her right arm.
None of them even manage to reach the other side, and none of them manage to make a sound as they arc into the depths below.
Maybe Hiro could use his wind to get them across? Gwen's face turns green at the thought. No, no, that wouldn't be fair to him, for one, and two, Gwen couldn't make a jump like that on a bit of wind alone. She's not going to die here.
"Hold on; I think I got this." Without another word, the courier jogs to the side of the gemstone pillar. Practicality is overpowered briefly by awe at the quartz-laced rock, and at the fragile spikes that cover it.
Fragile spikes never mean anything good, as anyone who's dealt with a number of desert cactuses can testify to. Of course, those were meant to break off against the skin, in order to better repel predators looking for a snack. Here, they're simply a construct of how how the minerals came together.
It just has the same effect.
It's beautiful.
And it makes her feel sad that she'll have to destroy it. "I'm gonna hit the base of this. Any of you guys that can use wind better be on duty, because I can't judge just how I can make it fall just right." There's just one pillar.
The gravity in Lucia's voice seems to summon a certain level of determination in lone Filgaian, even if she doesn't have the experience to know just how the young woman's voice tended to make everything sound to be the same level of importance. Reeling her right arm back, she begins punching. And punching.
Shards of quartz and rock embed themselves in the softer nooks and crannies of her right ARM. It won't take long for people to see that, despite Gwen's arm being made of metal, it's making her tear up all the same. However, it would have been worse for someone else to attempt the same. "It's getting to shift!" she almost screams. "Get ready!"
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Armored Fist toward her party's challenge, Barbed But Makeshift Bridge.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
That was a rough run, but Ragnell made it across in one piece, and so did everyone else... more or less. It was rough in particular to keep Lucia from getting skewered, but thankfully, even though she seems awful out of it, she's also very light on her feet. By the time veryone makes it to the other side, Ragnell can catch her breath, then look over the so-called Lord of Calamity.
Her mixed feelings may be apparent on her expression. Still, when Lucia's gaze intensifies by an order of magnitude and she says they must hurry, Ragnell nods. "Don't need to tell me twice, Lu," she says. Then, she turns and hurries on ahead with the rest of the group until they reach their next obstacle.
That's a wide, wide chasm. Even if she were a Wind Seraph, Ragnell doubts she could make it across in one jump. Fortunately, she doesn't have to: there's a pillar of gem on one side which looks to be taller than the chasm is wide. She eyeballs him. "Hmm--if we can crack that at the base an' tip it over..." Sure, there are those pieces of razor sharp spikes on the pillar, but that doesn't worry her. She quirks a grin at the others, pulling out a lightning grenade from inside her poncho. "Hey now, lemme help y'out there with that, Gwen," she says. "That thing's pretty thick, and we'll have a hell of a time gettin' across even if we break it down with all them spikes. I'll help ya break the base--*an'* take care o' them pointy bits. I don't feel like rippin' my boots to shreds tonight!"
She pulls the pin out with her teeth, then tosses the grenade towards the base of the crystal as Gwen punches the bejeesus out of that crystal. The courier will have enough time to get out of dodge before an earth-shattering KABOOM follows shortly thereafter, and lightning dances up and down the pillar upon impact--perhaps chipping off some of those razor-sharp bits in the process. Hopefully it actually works the way Ragnell wanted it to...
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Electric Grenade toward her party's challenge, Barbed But Makeshift Bridge.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
Somehow they're all fine! Somehow. Hiro may get his orange scarf pinned to the wall for a while in the final stretch.
"Little help?"
Eventually he manages to get unpinned. Up on his feet, he hears that urgency in her voice. It's the same tone in her voice for basically everything but he still asks, "Are you sensing something deeper inside Lucia?" Though he already knew this was a temple to the Guardians...
He has no time to dwell on the matter though, as he's hurrying deeper within.
And then they reach the chasm, and he stops to admire that gemstone pillar- soon enough he's looking over the charsm though. "... I don't think I could make that jump on my best day." And he can jump pretty far with those aforementioned wind spells that Gwen already discarded as a possibility for getting them over.
But as Gwen says she's got this, he looks at her, then at the pillar- "Wait are you doing what I think you're doing..." He gulps, then nods- "Alright. It- it's just like controlling the direction a tree falls..." He's done that before- "A really big- and extra heavy... tree."
Which is when he claps his hands together. Between Ragnell's lightning grenade and Gwen punching it- once it starts to fall. He plants his feet and calls out- "Everyone brace yourselves-" The spell chant happens then, "-EXTRA FEROCIOUS WINDS!"
Mega is already trademarked by Lemina.
A gale several orders of magnitude higher than what he's usually used to doing rushes through the cavern and tries to direct it's fall in a more controlled manner.
He may need to change it's direction a few times if it looks like it's falling the wrong way.
DG: Hiro has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Barbed But Makeshift Bridge.
<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.
"You probably shouldn't try to do it all yourself," Lemina chides Gwen, even as the Drifter steps forward and starts to punch. "-- Ah jeez, I'm definitely not ready!" she declares, a moment later -- but at least she tries to be, in spite of it.
Thrusting out her staff, Lemina creates two half-bridges to either side of the pillar. They'd be too treacherous to cross with, and don't extend the full distance, anyway; her plan is instead to use them as guides for the pillar itself, encouraging it to snap into the proper position instead of falling into the abyss.
DG: Lemina Ausa has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Barbed But Makeshift Bridge.
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
Jean helps Hiro with his scarf, careful not to rip it as she makes swift motions.
"Hey, that could've been worse!" Jean says cheerfully after Lucia mentions they have to hurry. She's sore, and she doesn't feel very cheerful, but she wants to do something to keep the group's spirits up if she can. It could be a long trip down here, even if it is still better than being out there.
But soon there is this gigantic pillar and this... lovely... chasm. Jean peers down at it, judging jumping distances but Gwen has that right; there's no way. "That..." She sighs, finally, shoulers slumping. But Gwen says she has it, and--eh?
That makes sense, and Ragnell happens to mention the spikes. "Ha ha yeah," Jean laughs, "My feet are tough, but I'd like to be able to wear my heels when I get them back..." It's the sort of laugh that comes with a wince. "...Nice work, everybody..." She stretches, "If there's any big spikes left, I'll work on them."
DG: Jean has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Barbed But Makeshift Bridge.
<Pose Tracker> Lucia has posed.
Lucia nods to Jean, who is factually accurate, though the slice of her chin is as sharp as a razor. The same nod accounts for Ragnell's affirmation and Hiro's question.
And then she hangs back a bit, watching the efforts of the others. It can't be disinterest -- her interest is known now, and vested. But her eyes are unfocused again, her lips slightly parted, her jaw slack. Wherever she is, she is not here.
The pillar is falling, and its razor sharpness has caused many a minor wound. Wounds that might cause the group to flinch at the last moment, and in turn cause the pillar to not -- quite -- make it to the other side.
Light flashes, as Lucia finishes her invocation. She snaps abruptly back into focus, even as aches and pains and minor wounds are soothed away by the memory of a memory of a Goddess. It was beautiful light, from a beautiful gem, which glitters between her palms -- pressed together before her, as though they are in prayer.
DG: Lucia has used her Tool Althena's Aura toward her party's challenge, Barbed But Makeshift Bridge.
===========================<* The Guardian Temple *>============================ =================<* CHALLENGE - Barbed But Makeshift Bridge *>================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Another chasm cut through the Temple's inner chambers lay ahead. Like others that you may have encountered, it splits the room in two, and the door leading further in is across it. This chasm, however, is far too long across to safely jump. Only one thing might act as a bridge: a huge pillar of gemstone, which is part of the natural caverns that the Guardian Temple was built into. However, this pillar poses a problem. The sides of the quartz-like gemstone is razor sharp and has little spikes of stone covering it, which are sure to cut and tear flesh if handled carelessly. Knocking it over the chasm and moving it into position will be difficult, to say the least. =Dungeon Conditions: Collapse, Suffer=========================================
======================<* The Guardian Temple - Round 3 *>======================= ===================< Results - Barbed But Makeshift Bridge >==================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hiro 32 --(20)--> 52 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lucia 33 --(11)--> 44 Pass Althena's Aura 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 36 --(16)--> 52 Fail Armored Fist 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jean 35 --(23)--> 58 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lemina Ausa 39 --(18)--> 57 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 34 --(14)--> 48 Pass Electric Grenade 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Hiro 30 --(10)--> 40 Fail Conditions: Collapse|Suffer Effects: Cleanse|Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Hiro has failed this challenge! The party gained 10 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: Hiro has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* The Guardian Temple *>=========================== ===================<* CHALLENGE - Variable Gravity Well *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- When you enter the next room, you find a square-shaped room that has a pit filling the middle of it. The pit drops down ten feet, into a series of sharp spikes that would be painful to cross. Leaping over the pit -- or using some other means -- wouldn't be so hard. But, when you step forward, a complication appears. A black hole, a pinpoint of gravitational force, blinks into existence over the pit. Rocks, debris, and dust all swirl up into it and gravity causes the course of any leap to be thrown askew. Just before you could time a jump, though, the black hole vanishes... and reappears elsewhere in the room, over the pit. Crossing will not be easy. =Dungeon Conditions: Overwhelm, Hesitate======================================
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"I suppose it is," Gwen says in response to Hiro as she punches. "But'cha never see people try to punch trees down, right? Lemina's right- we should work together on this. It'll be easy that way!"
This is possibly where it may become clear to the party that Gwen's probably never seen many trees of the width and height that are possible on Lunar.
Moving away as the pillar begins to descend, Gwen nods to Ragnell, stepping back to a safer distance as she attempts to shake out the fragments of quartz from her right arm. Spikes fall off the pillar, the blast officially setting its descent into motion. With Lemina's impromptu support structure and Hiro's wind steering it, it falls towards the other side, just barely reaching the other side-
-and its weight simply cracking off that edge, allowing it to continue falling down into the chasm. Gwen cries out, wincing backwards.
There's a light, and pillar stills, Lemina's support and the cut of the pillar firmly wedging it into both sides of the chasm.
"W-we did it.." Gwen lets out a sigh, then runs over, giving the nearby exhausted Lucia a one-armed hug as she laughs. "We did it!!"
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
Hiro releases the winds- then winces as it cracks off the side. Then it turns out to be alright anyhow. He's just grinning from ear to ear as Gwen celebrates in the aftermath, "Aha! It actually worked! Good job everyone!"
As if crossing the chasm wasn't bad enough, beyond it they enter a room which is square shaped... which rhymes with pear shaped now if you think about it.
Not that you would... yet.
As Hiro takes a step inside suddenly a localized gravitational anomaly appears in the spiked pit across. He stands there slack jawed as he watches it pick up half the dust and debris in the room and suck it inside rapidly.
Before winking out of existence. And reappearing at another point of the pit to do that again.
Slowly he turns from slackjawed wonder to say- "That is so awesome!"
And then he looks up, "... though now we have to think of a way to prevent it from killing us."
Looking up at the ceiling, he sees an ornamental fixture jutting out from above, slowly pulsing to match the light of the anomaly. Maybe it's the source of it, or not?
The point is though, that it makes for a convenient place for him to toss his grappling hook up at-
And miss.
Then miss again.
Then miss again.
But finally he gets it! And tugs it taut, "Got it! Okay- so some of us can swing across and if that thing opens up while we're swinging..."
There's a lengthy pause, right before he says- "Well! We hang on as if our life depends on it- since it does." He takes a moment to hand Lucia part of that rope, "I won't let you fall." He promises with a smile.
DG: Hiro has used his Tool Ruby Being Helpful toward his party's challenge, Variable Gravity Well.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"Barely, but yeah," Ragnell says, peering at the crystal column as it lodges in place just in time. "It'll be a trick climbin' up again on the other side, but at least we got a path along the other side..." Sure enough, her lightning did in fact create a bath where the spikes are, if not gone, then at least not razor-sharp. Barefoot Jean will manage to cross without bleeding everywhere.
Once they're on the other side, they proceed forward into another room. Pit in the middle, okay. Spikes at the bottom, okay. Black hole sucking up everything and then vanishing and reappearing in a different spot, not okay. Ragnell peers at Hiro when he declares it 'so awesome.' "Somehow, that explains *so much* about you," she says slowly.
All the same, when Hiro finally manages to get that grappling hook set and tug it taut, Ragnell will take a turn at swinging across after Hiro and Lucia go--possibly while carrying someone with her. It's just a matter of who between Jean and Lemina want to ride with this butch more.
"Where *is* Ruby, anyway?" she says aloud, something clinking into place mentally. "Don't think I've seen her in ages."
DG: Seraph Ragnell has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Variable Gravity Well.
<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.
"We sure did! There's nothing we can't get past!" Lemina resists the urge to high-five Gwen, given all the spiky rocks. She does give her a V-sign before moving across, though.
Crossing hastily, Lemina takes a second to take stock of the next room. At first, it seems like a jump even she could make -- but it proves a fair bit more complicated than that, and Lemina starts to look nervous. "... Can I even make this?" she asks, as she watches the gravity well carefully.
Hiro sets up a grappling hook, though, and Lemina breathes a sigh of relief. "Phew -- thanks, Hiro," she says, in a rare display of genuine, sincere gratitude. "Okay. Okay, okay. Okay. I'll just -- go last, so, Jean can catch me. Yeah. Okay." ... Then Ragnell offers a chance to ride with her, and Lemina says, "O -- oh! Pick me! We'll run together and then I'll jump onto you!"
And so, that's how they go across -- Lemina latching onto Ragnell mid-jump, like a champ.
DG: Lemina Ausa has used her Tool Chiro Sandals toward her party's challenge, Variable Gravity Well.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"That sounds like a terrible idea," Ragnell says to Lemina. She grins and winks. "Let's do it." And so Ragnell swings across, Lemina latching onto her mid-jump and Ragnell catching her with one arm around her waist. And at the apex of the arc on the other side, she lets go to make that final leap...!
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
Jean shifts away as the pillar starts down too, watching the others for what she can't do. Almost, it fails. But it doesn't. Jean lets out a relieved breath. "I knew you could do it!" she says, smiling. But she moves on across, careful of her steps but not so careful that it slows her down. What's left is hard on her feet, but doesn't tear them to ribbons.
Her footsteps are red when she makes it to the next room. Walking isn't particularly painful. She glances between Ragnell and Hiro and then laughs. "It's..." She tilts her head, looking at the weird little disturbance, "I'm not sure what it is? I guess it's cool..."
She has to admit that. But they're all figuring out ways across, and Jean listens, but mostly she's eyeing that thing and what it means for her jumps. "We got separated," Jean explains to Ragnell about Ruby. She's worried about her. But she doesn't say that. She looks to Lemina instead and laughs. "Looks like you found a good way across, Lemina. Well... Here I go!"
Jean runs and starts jumping, using her fans to shove herself away as necessary when the hole opens up, and using them to bat other people as she has to to help them.
DG: Jean has used her Tool Twin Fans toward her party's challenge, Variable Gravity Well.
<Pose Tracker> Lucia has posed.
Lucia is a little bit more than a coat rack for Gwen to hug -- she leans into it, just a little, as much as an exhaling lung leans into the rib cage. "Yes," she agrees, and in their nearness Gwen can feel the sweat beading on her skin. It is cold; she is cold. But Gwen warms her, just a little.
And she warms a little more when Hiro offers to help her across. She's taller than him, but nonetheless fits neatly in his arms, clutching to the rope white-knuckled as it swings across the gravitic, warped space. Her eyes follow it, sometimes seeming to flicker forward to wherever it's going to pop up next before the anomaly does so.
Which isn't to say she does anything about that insight. Or maybe it's just coincidence.
Either way, on the other side she watches Ragnell's grace and Lemina's perfect leap and Jean's marvelous technique.
She watches them help themselves and each other, and that warms her too.
DG: Lucia has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Variable Gravity Well.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Lucia feels cold. Gwen holds on a little longer than she intends to with her left arm, even as her new senses call on her to start backing away.
They need to move fast.
As they get to the next room, Gwen blinks, mutely watching the gravitational field.
"I think I heard about this once..." The redhead's face scrunches up as she mentally flips through the various odd lessons Auntie Frea had given her on science and the nature of the world. "-Wait, no, that couldn't be it, since those usually occur really high up in the sky, so..."
'Space' as a concept was hard for Gwen's head to get around, though that owed more to Frea's poor attempts at explaining it. Either way, Gwen can already hear her Auntie Frea's barrage of questions. 'You came across a black hole inside one of the temples? Were you able to observe the time dilation effect? Did any of your companions get sucked in so you could observe the effects of it as it sucked up-'
It's thankfully drowned out by Hiro's slackjaw'ed wonder. Like one domino onto another, Gwen just looks at him in astonishment, slowly nodding. "I know, right? A black hole must've gotten lost and ended up here!"
Ragnell, look out, because Hiro's enthusiasm is catching. You may be nex- too late.
Gwen eventually goes last on the grappling hook, not quite wanting her weight to possibly bring it down. "O-okay guys. You better be ready because I'm not sure how this is gonna go!" Confident as ever, she grasps onto the rope, runs, and swings, shrieking, as the hole shifts to just nearby where she once was. "OH WOW, IT SUCKS IN SOUND TOO-"
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Variable Gravity Well.
==========================<* The Guardian Temple *>=========================== ===================<* CHALLENGE - Variable Gravity Well *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- When you enter the next room, you find a square-shaped room that has a pit filling the middle of it. The pit drops down ten feet, into a series of sharp spikes that would be painful to cross. Leaping over the pit -- or using some other means -- wouldn't be so hard. But, when you step forward, a complication appears. A black hole, a pinpoint of gravitational force, blinks into existence over the pit. Rocks, debris, and dust all swirl up into it and gravity causes the course of any leap to be thrown askew. Just before you could time a jump, though, the black hole vanishes... and reappears elsewhere in the room, over the pit. Crossing will not be easy. =Dungeon Conditions: Overwhelm, Hesitate======================================
=====================<* The Guardian Temple - Round 4 *>====================== =====================< Results - Variable Gravity Well >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hiro 52 --(20)--> 72 Pass Ruby Being Helpful 3 Agility Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lucia 44 --(23)--> 67 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Gwen Whitlock 52 --(18)--> 70 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jean 58 --(20)--> 78 Pass Twin Fans 2 Agility Effects: Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lemina Ausa 57 --(19)--> 76 Pass Chiro Sandals 2 Agility Effects: Cleanse and Sacrifice ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Ragnell 48 --(19)--> 67 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Hiro 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(2)|Overwhelm Effects: Cleanse|Quicken(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Hiro 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. DG: Lemina Ausa 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> Hiro has posed.
"It does?" Hiro says questioningly to Ragnell saying it explains so much about him. "Like what?" And then to Gwen- "Yeah!" A moment passes and he asks- "Wait what's a Black Hole Gwen?"
She asks about Ruby though and he adds on to Jean's answer, "Yeah Fei got hurt pretty badly in the fight outside- she probably wanted to make sure he's alright. The two really hit it off during the tournament."
He grins at Lemina, "Don't sweat it Lemina. Just consider it a little bit of repayment towards the magic lessons."
Lucia is taller than him, making them seem almost mismatched swinging together. His arm flexes around her to make certain that his promise is kept while they move across, but it's more important than just simply keeping a promise to him.
Far more important.
On the other side, he let's go once they're steady, before tossing the rope back. Then he stays near the edge, ready to assist, either with wind spells or catching someone bodily if need be-
Ragnell and Lemina make it over somehow- with Lemina clinging to Ragnell like a giant koala. THE BAD IDEA WORKS SURPRISINGLY WELL!
"Doeesssss itttttt?" He calls when Gwen says that. That's not him actually elongating his words, the distortion is doing that. Gwen gots a slight nudge with a gust of wind, and everyone reaches out to catch her.
She gets a pat on the back from Hiro, "Turns out- it went real well!"
<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.
Once they are across, Lemina looks a little ragged; she's clearly starting to wear herself out in the trial. Fortunately, there isn't too much longer to go -- not that Lemina knows that, but on the other hand, how big could this place possibly be? She looks up toward Ragnell with an awkward smile on her face for a moment -- and then looks away awkwardly. "Haha, we did it," she says, in an unsuccessful effort to be too cool for school.
There are a few precious moments of nothing of consequence happening, as the group starts down the hallway; as they round a bend into another room, though, the ancient skeletons that dot the ruins of Filgaia take up arms and charge from the front.
"CRAP!" Lemina declares, starting a chant to summon a storm of hail onto the ones in front of them -- and then yet more skeletons drop into the hallway behind them, and Lemina breaks the chant a moment to scream wordlessly. Unlike the Metal Beasts from outside, these seem quite keen on attacking everyone, even Ragnell. Spooky, scary skeletons shall smash Seraphim, too!
"Uh -- Lucia, any ideas?!" Lemina calls, knowing full well that Lucia has been a help in a fight, like, twice, ever. She thinks better of this a second later, and says, "Hiro, Gwen -- keep an eye on Lucia!" Much more practical.
DG: Lemina Ausa has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Spartoi Pincer.
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
Jean has no idea what Gwen is talking about with black holes. She is concerned by how close she gets to the thing though.
But they all make it over again, with a little help in some cases, and the sight of Lemina clinging to Ragnell is adorable which helps for all this. But once they're across...
Lemina tries to be super cool, and Jean walks over and outright ruffles her hair with her left hand. "We sure did. Nice jump, Lemina!" Big smile. But they keep going through the hallway until Lemina marks the ambush.
ean herself narrows her eyes, looking at the others, and can feel how sore she is. "Looks like they want a fight," she answers, and pulls her flask again, downing the rest of it in a few gulps, putting the empty flask back in her things. "That's a good burn," she says, and drops forward and handsprings into skeletons that she starts kicking and punching and dancing amidst.
She'll do what she can.
DG: Jean has used her Tool Emergency Liquor toward her party's challenge, Spartoi Pincer.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell just gives Hiro a wry look and half-smile. "I'll let you wonder about that," she drawls. It really is just like Hiro to be infatuated with something that could spell his destruction, though.
Regardless, they all make it to the other side, Ragnell with agility and grace as she lands with Lemina still clasped in one arm. She lets her down with a smile, apparently unbothered by Lemina's awkward smile, then flicks some hair out of her face. "I always did like the terrible ideas best," she purrs.
Is Ragnell flirting for real, or is she just messing with Lemina? The world may never know.
Regardless, once everyone's safe and they move on, there's only a moment of respite before suddenly there are Spartoi, and they *really* want Lucia 'n' Pals to join their ranks. Ragnell draws her guns as the skeletons rise up both in front of and behind them, and her lips curl into a snarl.
Too many to try to take out with her bullets. Instead, she starts chanting a series of Seraphic artes: "Lightning!" Then she moves immediately into the next spell in the chain: "Pierce through! Thunder Spear!" And then, again, into the next arte, the otherwise slow casting time speeding up due to the chain: "One true sword to smite the masses! Thunder Blade!!"
And so, in turn, a bolt strikes down from above, a crackling lightning spear shoots forward from the side, and then a blade of electricity slams into the ground and *explodes* all around the Spartoi blocking their way forward. If they need to retreat, it's better to have a path leading forward than back!
DG: Seraph Ragnell has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Spartoi Pincer.
<Pose Tracker> Lucia has posed.
Lucia exhales again -- Hiro can feel it -- when Gwen, who has to go alone and is, by her own admission, not such an expert at the 'grappling hook' kind of challenges -- makes it across safely.
And then they're attacked again. Lemina is wise not to ask for her help, because she isn't going to get any from the Lord of Calamity right this minute; there's no detonation of power and no rush of sublime healing. There is nothing at all but Lucia cowering, cowering behind Hiro, behind Ragnell, behind Gwen--
--in front--!
She's ducked her head and is charging forward, fleeing forward, trying to break past the skeeltons, heedless of her own safety.
"...hurry..." she repeats, as though from a great distance, echoing down the long corridor of her own soul.
DG: Lucia has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Spartoi Pincer.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
"Right Lemina!" Staying near Lucia as per her instructions, he intends to defend her.
Trying to fend off one skeleton with his sword... he tosses a boomerang at another one of the Spartoi-
And sees Lucia almost get clipped by it. "Wait Lucia! Don't run ahead!"
And then he's chasing after her. At the very least he's taking swings at the others on the way, trying to cleave through one or another on the way to a moving defense of her.
DG: Hiro has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Spartoi Pincer.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"Yeeeeeeaaaaaaaahh, iit does!" Gwen descends into the mass of arms, laughing with a quick embrace to anyone nearby.
It's good to keep her mind off things. Like what may possibly be a long and bloody war between two or more countries. That she'll have to get the Fiends through.
Could she manage something like that?
First, she needs to survive this. Nodding to Lemina, Gwen presses back protectively against where Lucia is, taking out and loading a few more bullets into her right ARM.
A few shots later, Gwen looks behind her, and notices the black and red uniform of Lucia rush past. "H-hey! Lucia!" Gwen flings her right arm outwards in an arc against a particularly spirited group of Spartoi closing in on her, clearing enough space for her to give chase after the running, fleeing possible-but-maybe-not Lord of Calamity.
-Please.- Gwen's mind reaches out into a cold space she had never truly ventured into. -If you Guardians are still around, please. She's one of us. She came back here.-
-Please, for her sake and the sake of her friends-
Gwen slams her arm into another Spartoi, embedding the last of the rock spikes from earlier into its chin.
-Help her. She's one of us Filgaians, too.-
DG: Gwen Whitlock 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 5 *>======================= ==========================< Results - Spartoi Pincer >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hiro 72 --(23)--> 95 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lucia 67 --(20)--> 87 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 70 --(22)--> 92 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jean 78 --(17)--> 95 Pass Emergency Liquor 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lemina Ausa 76 --(15)--> 91 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 67 --(21)--> 88 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Hiro 60 --(5)--> 65 Fail Conditions: Bad Luck(2)|Hesitate(1)|Injure(2) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Hiro has failed 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: Gwen Whitlock 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> Lemina Ausa has posed.
Things... don't go so well, all told, for our intrepid heroes. Lemina handles the ones in the front very well -- her blizzard handles much of the worst of the frontal incoming Spartoi. Jean mops up the rest of them in short order. The back, however, proves to be a different story; the ambush proves to be particularly awful as a second wave comes in, and the tight quarters make it hard for Ragnell to output consistent damage. Gwen and Hiro do a little better, and give Lucia time to flee forward into Jean and Lemina's relatively safe zone in front... but that's about it.
By the time Jean and Lemina have totally mopped up and created a clean room for Lucia to move into and begin assessing, those behind them have taken nasty cuts and bone-smashes (in both senses of the word -- smashes to and from bones!) from the ancient warriors.
Lemina's whole body sags as she starts to help with the rear Spartoi; once everyone can look in the same direction, the fighting is over quickly, at least.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
What was at first a refuge from the chaotic events outside has turned into an exhausting ordeal of its own. Metal monsters, giant chasms, mini black holes,
Pausing at the intersection, the courier closes her eyes and places her bare left hand over her chest, feeling that little wren of a heart soldier on, despite the exhaustion pressing into her bones.
It makes her smile softly.
There would have been a time she would have looked at such situations with a dour expression on her face. But back then, her heart was a weak nestling, shuddering in its nest against a worsening night chill.
Maybe that's the way Lucia is feeling, right now.
Sighting a door about the same time as the others, Gwen offers, "There might be somethin' on the other side that can maybe help. Any of you wanna see if we can force this door open? The rest of y'can rest for a bit. Dunno how long a ways we got, so take advantage of it while y'still can."
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Armored Fist toward her party's challenge, Duplicator-Sealed Door.
<Pose Tracker> Lucia has posed.
Last time Lucia invoked the power of Althena's Aura, it was in the midst of an intense moment involving a crushing, jagged pillar mid-topple. This time it's just the group versus a door, and she has plenty of time and no pressure to wreak her minor miracle.
That almost means that there's more opportunity to watch her do it. So, watch -- witness her, as she looks around the group sorrowfully, regretting the danger she's put them in with her own selfishness, and not regretting it at all. The pain in their voices is worse than anything she's suffered herself, thanks to their bravery. At least there's one thing she can give back.
She was collapsed against a wall, catching her breath, but now she straightens... too much, getting a couple of inches too tall. Beneath the hem of her ruffling robes, her toes are no longer quite touching the ground. Her hair flutters, billows like a banner in an unseen wind. Her pendant, with that unknown symbol, glitters in the faint light coming off the gem.
The gem -- she's brought it out again, and in full view it is an ancient artifact, indeed. Just now the crystal is glowing red, a passionate crimson quite at odds with Lucia's typical magic but wholly in keeping with her attire. It is bracketed by some kind of metal too esoteric to be simply gold or silver, and deeply engraved with runes that time forgot.
She concentrates.
Lucia cannot see into the hearts of men; if only she could understand them so easily, much less herself. If she could, she might have a lot to say about Gwen's one-sided conversation with Filgaia's Guardians. Or perhaps she would say nothing at all, as is her wont.
But right now her own heart is easily read. Her blank face, an open book; after all, pages can be blank, too. This openness is not the same as emptiness -- her face tips up to the unseen sky, her eyes open fully, she breathes deeply. This is a place of peace, if for a moment. A consecrated space -- the hallway, the woman.
The power comes.
It flows smoothly into the group, refreshing and restoring them as surely as a pure mountain spring. A natural analogy is inadequate to the task here, though; this is no shamanistic invocation. It is not elemental in nature. It is just... purely and completely itself, something set apart, something different.
Something holy.
The light fades, and Lucia closes her eyes. In prayer; in mourning; perhaps both. Perhaps neither.
DG: Lucia has used her Tool Althena's Aura toward her party's challenge, Duplicator-Sealed Door.
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
Exhausted, in pain from wounds and the crushing doubt at what they will manage down here, Jean pushes herself through and fights skeletons as long as it takes. Pain and exhaustion do not stop her yet, given all the pain and exhaustion she has had in her life, but she moves a little more stiffly than she did before.
Many wounds, many battles lately, running...
But she reaches over to rub Lemina's shoulder, rather than thinking of what jealousy she felt before, as they walk to this new area. "I'll try to help," she says to Gwen, but she waits, pauses, looks at Lucia without even a hint of judgement for Lucia's running.
She'd suffer worse than what she did, and gladly.
The red of the gem draws Jean's eye, but not so fiercely as Lucia herself, her face. She feels that peace, and it's a peace she so rarely has a chance to feel for herself. This holy light comes. It comes, and...
Jean straightens. "...Thank you, Lucia," she says quietly, and it isn't only for this. After that she moves for the wall, and starts to her brute force work.
But the peace lingers, for her.
DG: Jean has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Duplicator-Sealed Door.
<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.
Lemina is confroned with a door. Lemina has a single historical solution to a door, albeit one she's a little shaky on right now between having just expended a bunch of magic to handle the frontal skeletons and having been flirted with Ragnell, which has her still a different sort of distracted.
More importantly, though, Jean's rubbing her shoulder and that has her keenly distracted. She turns a little red, and it's not just from how out of breath she is; she gives an awkward little wave, before, "You've already helped a -- oh. Oh, the door. Yeah. The... the door." She laughs awkwardly, looking to Gwen before saying, "Lemme help too! I bet I can blow it open -- I mean, you might need to carry me afterward, buuut..."
She gives no further preamble before chucking a big old spear of ice into the center of the door. Fire might be better for this -- but she doesn't want to blow up Jean!!
DG: Lemina Ausa has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Duplicator-Sealed Door.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
And then there's a door. And as Hiro finally catches up to Lucia, he's worse for the wear, but he too doesn't admonish her for running ahead either. Instead after catching his breath, he finds himself staring at her face. There is a certain openness there. As always he finds himself desiring to understand her, but unwilling to ask the questions that might bring it about.
He just hopes that by travelling with her, he'll be able to one day be able to understand her, and that once he understands her he'll be able to travel with her forever. The holy power consecrates this place, and there's a hitch in his breath as he's restored, as he feels it flow through him.
And then her eyes are closed- and he still doesn't know what she's thinking, or feeling. He imagines it's something wonderful in that myriad of feelings on the emotional spectrum- no matter what it might be.
Inhaling once, he closes his eyes and smiles, "Be right there Gwen."
It's not long after that he's trying to help pry the door open. He's just using his actual arms, which means his effort is more ineffectual than Gwen's powered ARM or Jean's training. But he's still giving all he can.
DG: Hiro has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Duplicator-Sealed Door.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Well. When Ragnell called down her artes to clear a path through the Spartoi in front, she wasn't expecting Lucia to *dash* right through the opening as soon as it was created. "Wh--hey!" she utters, half-turning towards the Lord of Calamity. Hiro chases after her, and Ragnell curses and follows suit. The Spartoi close in on her, raking their weapons and bony fingers at her clothes and body; she's nearly dragged back into the crowd of army skeletons, but she kicks one in the face and manages to tear away and forward. It's a close thing, though, and by the end, she's panting.
"Fuck this place," she mutters under her breath. She looks up at the others. "Everybody--alive? ...Good."
Further along their way, there's a door. It's locked, and it's not opening easily. Ragnell rubs her temples, then dips a hand into her poncho. "Man, I love these things," she comments. "Lightning in the hole!"
And then she tosses the grenade towards the door, to *tink*, *tink*, *tink*... *KABOOM* its way through.
Ss she joins her power in with the others, she looks up and over at Lucia, feeling that... cleansing, healing power. It's certainly making *her* feel more at ease, a strange counterpoint to the Malevolence. Still, she accepts it for what it is for now. Whether they make it through or not... she'll accept everything that happens.
Just as *she* did.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Electric Grenade 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 6 *>======================= ======================< Results - Duplicator-Sealed Door >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hiro 95 --(13)--> 108 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lucia 87 --(6)--> 93 Pass Althena's Aura 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 92 --(6)--> 98 Pass Armored Fist 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jean 95 --(3)--> 98 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lemina Ausa 91 --(4)--> 95 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 88 --(3)--> 91 Pass Electric Grenade 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Hiro 65 --(20)--> 85 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(1)|Injure(1)|Save Point(1) Effects: Cleanse|Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: Hiro is too exhausted to continue! DG: The party led by Hiro 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. DG: Lucia 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> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
A coolness of a different sort falls across Gwen, comforting as a breeze from a passing rain storm. It causes her to pause and breathe, closing her eyes.
This heart...
Is this... Lucia?
"Thank you."
Punches are thrown. Ice spears are cast. Electrical grenades (likely with everyone running for cover) are tossed.
The door has no chance.
On the other side, there is a humble offering of stockpiles of Potion Berries. Gwen laughs, picking one up to offer to anyone who's near. "Bottom's up!"
<Pose Tracker> Lucia has posed.
Lucia's magic is occasionally mighty (and mostly not) but somehow her tiny smile, when Ragnell looks up, when Hiro and Jean look over, is mightier, right now. Like the sword has no chance against the pen -- that sort of thing. It is small, and memorable, and both affectionate and sad.
She does not eat a berry, though one gets the sense that it isn't out of some kind of snobbery. She just... doesn't tend to eat, unless reminded and urged. It isn't a major part of her life.
Once the party has supped their fill, though, she leads the way to the room of sand... and glances down at it.
Thought fills her, much as light did earlier.
"Do not worry about me this time," she says, rather coherently and also rather gently. "I will go last."
DG: Lucia has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Shifting Tiles.
<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.
Lemina takes a Potion Berry and pops it unceremoniously into her mouth; she feels a little better, though at this point her legs are killing her most of all. This is uniquely unfortunate because the next trial of the dungeon involves, almost exclusively, her legs. Ah jeez.
"Well... I'm not gonna go first," Lemina notes. "I kinda wanna go together with Jean -- they look like they support more than one person if you're light enough, so..." She doesn't wanna fall. She really doesn't wanna fall.
She does sit down to remove her sandals, at this point; she's starting to blister at the feet from her short bursts of maximum-speed running, and the shoes are definitely making it worse rather than better.
DG: Lemina Ausa has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Shifting Tiles.
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
Jean remembers the smile, too, not only because it is memorable, but because it belongs to her friend. She does offer Lucia a berry once they get to them, but doesn't push it. There's no need; she takes a couple for herself and feels a little more of her fatigue become easier to manage.
But soon she is on the way out, looking to this sandy room with the reliefs. Jean draws in a breath, looks over at Lemina. She puts on a smile. "If you want to go with me, then we can go together," she says, and adds, "I'll catch you if you slip, so don't worry, all right?"
She stretches a little more and gets her fans, to use for stability. Once Lemina's ready, she'll go right after her.
DG: Jean has used her Tool Twin Fans toward her party's challenge, The Shifting Tiles.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Even with the Potion Berries and Lucia's healing, the old song and refrain of exhaustion begins clambering back and settling right back at home in Gwen's bones. She feels guilty, finding herself already this tired.
The only way to get over feeling guilty is to just *do*. As in, action.
Which is a great thing to say, unless you're looking at a river of sand.
This is going to *suck*.
"H'okay... I'll go after you two, then," the courier says with a nod to Lemina and Jean. "And, uh, we'll just see how this goes!"
EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
Hiro takes a potion berry- but by the next room it's obvious the wounds of battle and the fatigue of the run is catching up with him. Whatever second wind he was feeling on Althena's power, he starts to flag hard there at the next room. It becomes obvious as he uses his grapnel to try to facilitate what's happening here...
Misses the throw completely...
Then blinks as he realizes he also let go of the rope for the grapnel. The thing clatters on the other side of the room, the rope listing as it's carried away by the sand, "It's okay..." He says kind of pathetically in his exhaustion, "...I'll go get it..." He almost steps right into the flowing sand, just as a tile moves under his feet.
And then he collapses onto the tile.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Shifting Tiles.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Well whaddaya know, the other side of the door has jars and jars of Potion Berries! Ragnell *really* needed that right now after what just happened with the Skeletons. "Hey Lemina, bet you could sell these for a pretty penny," she jokes as she eats a few. She catches Lucia's smile, and slows in her chewing for a moment... and then smiles back.
But the next room comes, and there is a sound of rushing sand and obsidian tiles gliding across the river of the desert... "Hey, if y'all don't wanna go first, leave it to me," she says, shrugging to the rest. Jean takes care of Lemina, though, utilizing her fans to make sure they get across. Ragnell doesn't have any such tools available to her--only her natural agility--and she looks over at Lucia and Gwen. "You sure you don't wanna come with?" she says. "I don't mind helpin' one of ya acro--"
And then Hiro attempts to cross, and collapses onto a tile. Ragnell frowns. "Never mind--I'll go drag him across, make sure he makes it to the door," she says. Hopefully she won't end up collapsing too by trying to help him... Even with that Potion Berry, her body (such as it is) is aching with exhaustion. Just making it to that door with the statues... might well be more than she can manage, even if she completely ditched Hiro to focus on herself.
They'll just have to see, though.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her 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 7 *>=======================
========================< Results - The Shifting Tiles >========================
Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hiro --()-->
Effects:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lucia 93 --(13)--> 106 Fail
Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gwen Whitlock 98 --(6)--> 104 Pass
Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jean 98 --(8)--> 106 Pass
Twin Fans 2 Agility Effects: Quicken
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lemina Ausa 95 --(6)--> 101 Pass
Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seraph Ragnell 91 --(13)--> 104 Fail
Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Hiro --()-->
Conditions: Injure(2)|Tire(2)
Effects: Quicken(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: Hiro is too exhausted to continue! DG: Lucia is too exhausted to continue! DG: Gwen Whitlock is too exhausted to continue! DG: Jean is too exhausted to continue! DG: Lemina Ausa is too exhausted to continue! DG: Seraph Ragnell is too exhausted to continue! DG: The party has passed this challenge! All party members are now Exhausted. This attempt is over. DG: The party led by Hiro has been fully Exhausted by The Guardian Temple! DG: The party will now draw a conclusion.
===========================<* The Guardian Temple *>============================ ====================<* 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> Lucia has posed.
With greater (Jean and Lemina) and lesser (Ragnell, carrying Hiro) ease, the humans and Seraph manage to make it across the tiles to the statues and the door.
And then Lucia stands alone, on the wrong side.
"Do not worry," she repeats, firmly.
Without any pretense of leaping, much less floating...
...she steps off the edge and plunges directly into the sands.
---
There is an immediate and dramatic change: the sand transforms from the stuff of the physical into the stuff of the spiritual, becoming spectral and blue; particulate light. It could not look more different from the Shepherd's flame, but it is instinctually obvious that it holds a similar power of purification.
It billows away from Lucia, who is now suspended horizontally in the center of the chasm, her hat lost, her robe now draped like a funeral shroud.
A heartbeat passes. It isn't Lucia's, though.
And then another veil is forcibly torn from reality -- Malevolence becomes fully visible, fully experienced. There are greater and lesser flickers around the other, but their variation is barely relevant against what, at Lahan, was described as Lucia's background radiation.
Here, now, battering against five senses and more, it is a maelstrom. Violent violet descending further into veins of black, it roars and rages. It crashes and pounds. It takes and takes and takes, and gives nothing back but pain.
The Lord of Calamity is not the eye of the storm, as is oft assumed. She is its heart; it swirls around and through her, impaling her repeatedly -- it pins her wrists and ankles, her core, even her eyes. It doesn't seem able to seep into her veins, though. She exists -- she persists -- a white afterimage of light, within her own skin.
---
There are more and more observers, and they're starting to manifest, fading gently but incompletely into this reality. They are shadows of shadows.
They do not speak -- but they do act.
The spectral blue light pulls even further back, cresting upwards, a tsunami of potential energy; and then it all comes crashing down.
It shreds directly towards Lucia and what binds her. The temple shakes, unable to handle the clash of these otherworldly, fundamentally world-ly energies. The air shatters.
The Malevolence roars, roars like it's a living thing -- or like there's a living thing behind it. It will not be so easily destroyed.
Lucia is silent, though surely she too is being worn away like the cliff is worn by the pounding sea. In seconds, only her pendant remains. But there are many more seconds after that.
It just goes on, and on, and on.
And then finally it ends. All the sandy light has flung itself against the Malevolence and been lost. There is none left to spend, at least not here and now.
Lucia's eyes open, briefly vibrantly green, at their full brightness, the brilliance Hiro saw for but a moment at the Blue Spire. She whispers a single word, and it carries with it hope and pain and grief.
"...please..."
The shadows do not speak as one, but this creates chaos; too many viewpoints, too many perspectives, from all directions and none at once. Still, they all have the same core reaction, and it comes through eventually.
wE hAvE fAiLed
There are stairs leading downwards from the ledge where the others are, into this chasm they surmounted. Below: mediums for the taking, and Lucia, who is falling with magical slowness towards that hidden floor.
Her eyes are dulling quickly -- consciousness leaving her entirely. But before it does, she has a perfect moment of crystalline lucidity, where she looks up at this shadow court, which is already departing, unable to remain.
"...I...will...not..."
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
Lucia is there, on the wrong side. Lucia says not to worry, and Jean blinks in confusion at her as she helps Lemina down. "What do you--" Lucia steps, and Jean feels alarm bursting through her senses.
She worries. Sorry, Lucia.
But then there is brilliance, and Jean starting to step for the edge stops short. This strange light is there and Lucia is farther than Jean can easily reach, and there is a heartbeat. Jean stands among her other friends and her heart twists as the Malevolence is visible. Jean stares into it, horrid violet and virulent black, roaring enough to seem to seep into her as she forces herself to stand. It hurts. It more than hurts, as Jean forces her eyes open to see Lucia--not a Lord of Calamity to her, but Lucia--in such light amidst everything. "Lucia!?" she asks, unaware of what's happening, tired and hurt and afraid of all this that is worse than injury but somehow stings from within. But the light comes...
Jean stumbles backward, reaches out to hang onto Lemina to steady her if she can without even thinking about it. The air shatters, and Jean falls to one knee, unable to stand anymore. The light goes... and it is gone.
Jean stares at Lucia's beautiful eyes amidst all of this and her heard breaks for that plea. The shadows speak, and Jean does not understand them. But she understands one thing, eventually. She understands that something tried to help, and failed, but still tried.
That matters to Jean, who stands again as she looks to those stairs, looks to Lucia, hears her, and with a look at Lemina, rushes towards those stairs. She slows as she sees the tablets, hears the words of the Guardians, and listens to this as well. She does not know the Guardians; she is not from this world, but she is here. Her green hair falls again as she doesn't move fast enough to make it move, her bare feet touching down on stone.
'You are all we have.'
Jean walks down and looks to the tablets presented them, watching Lucia coming to earth. "All right," she says. "I... have a lot to think about..." She starts, and shakes her head, "But we can't..." She takes another step forward and puts out two hands for one that calls to her.
"I won't run," Jean says, and picks up the Medium of the crescent moon.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
Hiro's insensate form is carried across the way by the Lightning Seraph. And then blue particulate sand is everywhere. He shouldn't be able to perceive it right now. And yet he does. He perceives every moment of Lucia swirling in the heart of her living curse of malevolence. Violet crashing against it, again and again and again... he sees Lucia being torn away. And he wants to reach out a hand, but his limbs don't respond. He wants to call out to her but her mouth doesn't.
All he can do is watch as she beseeches with eyes as vibrantly green as they were at the Blue Spire. He hears the failure of many. He doesn't fall onto stone, but he does keep falling. But he still sees the resolve in those eyes which does not give way even as the light does.
...I...will...not...
It's a moment that will seared into his consciousness forever. Like flame. Eternal blue gives way to an infinitely open sky. He's still falling, but nothing will obey him except his thoughts. It's a dream which feels far too lucid. And there's something else within.
You don't ask questions.
I don't understand? Who are you?
Yet you say the decisions you've made were all easy choices.
It's... how my Grandpa taught me.
He taught you to question history. Challenge it. To find the truth.
I meant- I meant that the choices were easy because of what he taught me about right and wrong.
How can you know the right thing if you don't know anything?
Pretty harsh - whoever you are.
So let's give you one you won't find so easy- it's still a simple test.
Alright. Just like one of his history quizzes. Go ahead.
You can save everyone else by sacrificing her. Choose.
...
What's wrong? It was easy to make this choice before. You sacrificed her in Adlehyde to do the right thing, and that was for far fewer people that 'everyone.'
It wasn't like that!
Didn't she tell you repeatedly that if all of you were randomly slain it would doom everyone?
...
You put her in danger for lesser causes every day. You sacrifice her all-important mission that you claim to respect and support so much on the altar of your morality and act like you're so certain you're correct to do that. Yet you balk at the opportunity to save everyone, to do the right thing- at the cost of one singular sacrifice?
I won't do that.
Of course you won't. Because you think you can have everything, and do everything and everything will just turn out just how you will it. You're a child who can't actually make hard choices. Your choices are simply running away.
I'm not running away!
Yes you are. You even run away from your own feelings by making excuses. Can you even admit the real reason this test is difficult for you?
It... it's wrong... to make a decision like that.
And that is why you fail.
... Okay, so what happens?
Nothing for now- but if you continue to learn nothing... you might cost everyone more than you know.
...
You've seen her resolve. She deserves better than a half-hearted one from you.
I know. ... I'm not leaving her though.
That is fine... but only because there is no one else.
He falls for what seems like an eternity. Only for his head to jerk upright- "Lu... Lu...cia..." The two have traded places and the boy's breath hitches and his eyes sting with tears as he just looks her way. It'll take him some time to even have the strength to get back up.
But when he eventually does- as before, as always he's drawn to the eternal blue. Blue as infinite of the sky. The symbol of Solais Emsu.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
'Do not worry,' Lucia says, then steps off the ledge at their backs and directly into the river of sand.
"uM??" Ragnell utters, eyes going wide.
But there's nothing else to say. She instead loks on in amazement as the sand transforms into blue particular light. She's felt this feeling before; it's the same feeling as the Flames of Purification that Sorey wields against the Malevolent. The same shade of blue. When Lucia reappears within the flowing blue sand, Malevolence billowing around her like fumes from a factory vent, Ragnell understands immediately and implicitly: these are sands of purification, and they're trying to purify Lucia.
Which is good, because that Malevolence is hammering against her senses like hurricane-force winds on a tin shanty. She drops to both knees, clutching her chest one with one and her hat with the other. She feels sick, and if she were human, she might even vomit. The sands, and the shadows that surge up within them, throw themselves against the Malevolence again and again and again, but all for naught. One may as well send the Shepherd up against the most ancient of Fell Dragons. This Malevolence... will not vanish.
But it's worth noting that, even if it failed in this instance, the Guardians--for Ragnell knows instinctually that those *were* the Guardians, and even if she wasn't sure immediately, she is once they cross past the statues into the next room and the Guardians speak to them--have the power to Purify.
Mind, given the Guardians have their own problems, she's not sure how useful that'll be in the long run.
Even so, after trembling on the floor in the wake of that Malevolence, Ragnell staggers to her feet, possibly using someone else to pull herself upright to stumble down the stairs into the room below, where the Guardians, the Mediums, and Lucia await.
The shadows may have failed, but Lucia will not. Ragnell smiles, just slightly, at that, and wonders how Lailah and those under her wings will fare in this Temple.
'You are all we have,' the Guardians say, and Ragnell can't help but quip, "Boy, do I feel sorry for y'all."
Even so, there is a Medium, yes, even for her. Ragnell raises a hand to the Stone Medium that calls to her--one etched with a symbol of endless freedom and exploration, but also danger and darkness. One where a billion points of light glitter amidst the most infinite abyss: the Guardian of Stars, Rigdobrite.
For lightning can flash even across the endless reaches of space.
<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.
The spiritual and physical begin to break down each other's barriers as the bright blue light swells in the room, and Lemina... watches, agape. She sees that power -- and more importantly, sees it turn in toward Lucia. For a split second, she thinks to scream -- she still doesn't know what'll happen to Lucia, cursed as she is, in this situation... but her heart catches in her throat and all she can do is watch.
She slams her staff into the ground to give herself a foothold as she watches, buffeted back by the winds of Filgaia's purifying maelstrom. Before too long, though, she doesn't need it; Jean steps up instead, and Lemina is able to lean on her for the support she needs. Her eyes scrunch nearly shut, but still she watches as the Blue Star brings its dying power to bear for the sake of its princess.
For a split second, her eyes meet Lucia's. She's never seen eyes like those -- beautiful, sharp, vibrant. She reaches out to her wordlessly as she whispers those few words; as Lucia begins to fall to the ground again, Lemina finally starts down the stairs. "... it's okay," she says, with uncharacteristic softness, to the voices lamenting their failure to purify Lucia. "You aren't alone. We'll take it the rest of the way."
She looks down at Lucia again, but doesn't dare approach first; part of her is scared of all that Malevolence -- but more than that, she thinks that there's someone else better-suited to share Lucia's burden than she. Instead, she turns her attention to the stone tablets, just as Jean does, and reaches out. There's a... not a warmth, exactly, to one of them, but a sort of -- familiar light. It's not entirely unlike Lemina's own; it calls to her, somehow.
The world turns -- but for Lemina, it's not the brilliant blue of the Blue Star. It's a brilliant, white light that manifests -- not quite moonlight, not quite starlight. As much an absence as a presence. The clarity of the sky.
Why do you shrink from your challenges?
I don't know what you're talking about! I've been fighting mega-hard! I fought in the Tournament, I fought that Seraph --
Those are not your challenges.
Oh, come off it. I picked them. That means they're mine.
No. You use those challenges to turn away from your own -- daughter of Vane.
Is this about Vane, then? I've been trying mega-hard! I have thousands of gella to take home!
Not in the way you're thinking. Let us turn the question on its head -- why have you not restored Vane?
Because I don't have enough money! It's expensive to make something fly! I can't do it on my own! ... I can't even patch the roof with anything but ice...
Again -- no. Allow me to reframe this. Would Vane be restored if you were no longer in debt to Ramus Burg? Would Vane be restored if you had infinite resources to offer to any divinity you pleased?
Uhh, I'm PRETTY SURE that's the definition of restored.
Then you have learned nothing of consequence -- not from your time with Lucia. Not from your discussions with Ragnell. Not from your clashes with the Shepherd's retinue. Not from the loss of Virginia.
Hey, shut up, jerk! I -- who are you, anyway?! I'm not here to be lectured by -- by --
You aren't. That's right. That is your failure -- daughter of Vane. I ask you but to consider this before you proceed on your journey: what does it mean for something to be restored?
Lemina's awareness snaps back to reality, and she... elects... to scrunch up her nose and stomp her foot once, looking down at the Medium that yet calls to her with a scouring light that matches her own. "Jerk," she says softly, as she takes it up.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
The last one over, Gwen turns around, gleefully raising her hand to wave the blue-haired young woman over. "Hey, if I can make it, you should have no trouble at all, Lucia!"
And then, quietly, Lucia seems to take those words far too literally, dropping into the sands in a surreal motion that makes Gwen's stomach tie instantly into knots. "Lucia, no-"
A breath, and the sand is gone, offering a clear view into the ordeal below. Gwen kneels by the chasm, curling her fingers over the edge. She looks over her shoulder towards the rest, bewilderment and fear in her wide-eyed gaze. "What's goin' on...?"
Malevolence crashes through, overloading her senses. Her body wilts from the strain, sinking fully against the ground.
-Why won't anyone hear me?-
It's as if she was back in that kitchen of her aunt's, collapsed, her consciousness wilting away from her as she glanced at the home she finally had. Hope, so real she could put an image to it, rudely snuffed out before its potential was realized.
The pain Lucia must be feeling must be so much greater. Greater than a cooling heart. Greater than the searing heat of a blazing fire.
-I can't do anything.-
It's not as if she could remember what happened that horrible night, long ago. Beyond the pain, the smoke, the roaring blaze snuffing out a life before it had even begun.
She just remembers the moment when it changed, of something being lifted off of her. Of a comforting shadow.
The feeling that everything was going to be alright. Charity, given with nothing expected in return.
=Do you even know if that memory is what really happened?=
-It doesn't matter. I wanted to be that kind of person. Even when I had no reason to.-
=Even if it could eventually crush you?=
-Is it silly to think that it's possible, in this world?-
=Even knowing what you know? What you've seen?=
-It just makes it more important to remember.-
=Then get up, little fool.=
--------
For one part of her life, Gwen was taught about Granas by the Ethos orphanage. It was a concept that sounded hollow, but no less hollow than the idea of any deity, Guardian, savior, or otherwise, in the forlorn town of Little Twister. They were simply concepts. The second part of her life was around the sharply practical Frea, a woman so detached from concepts she deemed useless that she lacked a last name, all until the effort of adopting a child left people assuming the one with the last name of Whitlock was her. To talk of any religious notion beyond distant archeological or cultural terms was liable to grant Gwen a long lecture or two.
The Guardians were a safe bet, embedded in the cultural fabric of life in general in Filgaia. To believe in them further was akin to making a wish on a shooting star. A gesture of comfort, a calling out to forces that even Gwen would deem impossible to reach with the appeal of one heart alone.
Which is why there's two mediums there: one for Ragnell, and one, it turns out, for Gwen. Her hand reaches out and clasps it to her chest, tears glittering on her freckled cheeks. Always remember to gaze up at the stars, she remembered telling Riesenlied.
Always.