2017-08-20: World of Ruin
- Log: World of Ruin
- Cast: Ethius Hesiod, Kourin, Catenna, Cyre H. Lorentz, Shalune Amira, Lunata Croze, Jacqueline Barber
- Where: Outside the Guardian Temple
- Date: August 20, 2017
- Summary: The Caravan Kinship attempts to escape the war zone outside the Guardian Temple.
DG: A party led by Ethius Hesiod is now entering The Battle Front. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
=================================================<* The Battle Front *>=================================================
========================================<* CHALLENGE - Artillery Bombardment *>=========================================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 |
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
The vicinity of the Guardian Temple has turned into a full-blown war zone. A
rush of Kislevi forces and a counter-action by Aveh forces have resulted in
an enormous fight between infantry, Gears, and support vehicles. In the
distance, you can make out where the enormous Kislevi-controlled Golem is
sending huge gouts of energy into the ranks of Aveh's forces. This is truly
worrisome, but a more immediate concern presents itself.
One side has chosen this moment to begin an artillery bombardment. Shells
rain down near your position, huge fireballs and blasts of shrapnel hurtling
at you, posing a severe threat as you try to make your way westward.
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Suffer=============================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
There's no time to stick around and admire (or question) the decisions and gifts of the Guardians! A violent rumbling from nearby explosive weapons fire reminds everyone that there's a war going outside, and it cares not that a number of Drifters have an important task from the divine to fulfill.
Ethius takes the point outside, as everyone gets a brief moment to have a look at Kislevi and Aveh forces in chaos as an enormous Kislevi Golem spits out gouts of energy blasts into the Aveh forces.
Artillery shells dot the landscape outside. They have to move. Now.
"This way." Ethius calls. It may be luck that they don't get blown to itty bitty bits, but they are being blasted by shrapnel and sand on all sides with every deafening blast.
They must hurry.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Artillery Bombardment.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin and Spirit are not keen on getting hit. So they run! "Hurry!" Kourin cries to her friends as the mad dash continues, her trick rope trailing behind her to help pull them along if they need a boost.
DG: Kourin has used her Tool Trick Rope toward her party's challenge, Artillery Bombardment.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna had a pretty rough experience with Celesdue earlier but it didn't seem all that evident at a glance. She lingered behind for five seconds and came back from the doorway to the Guardian chamber very quiet, with something haunted behind her eyes.
Now the group's clawed their way out into the light. The thunder of artillery shells overhead leaves the Zoa Priestess gasping in surprise. She lunges to her right, hits the sand and rolls, a massive shell impacting metres behind her. She's on the ground for it, the shockwave buffeting her anyway.
The priestes looks up. Her thoughts are divided between the threat and something else.
You see things so clearly sometimes, and yet of all of them, you are the most blind.
"We must hurry," is all she can muster as she attempts to sprint forward, trying to keep low and under the hail of incoming shells. She would really prefer not to get hit by those. As Kourin dangles her rope, Catenna snags it and staggers after her.
DG: Catenna has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Artillery Bombardment.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
It would have been nice to have some time to ruminate over the mythological implications of exactly what just happened. The Guardians offering such unprecedented amounts of power to people who aren't even properly trained as priests is incredible. But as they emerge into the light of day, it's clear that neither Kislev nor Aveh are particularly interested in a theological debate.
Or introspective navel-gazing, for that matter.
Cyre clicks his tongue as he sweeps forward and seizes hold of Kourin's rope. His parachute unfurls and catches a shockwave of distant air-bursting explosives. "Hold on tight!" Cyre yells, straining against his own injuries as he and the others are carried forward on literally incendiary winds. "We can't stay in one place or they'll blow us all to bits, and I'd really not want to disappoint the Guardians twice in one day!"
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has used his Tool Reverse Parachute toward his party's challenge, Artillery Bombardment.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune leaves the temple at speed, the hairs on the back of her neck having risen up the moment she heard the first muted booms on their way out of the Temple and recognized them for the explosions that they were. She doesn't leave at a run - she flies out instead, already placed on the Little Dipper with Lunata at her back. This isn't the time for a leisurely flight - she guns the throttle, the craft making a distinct lack of sound as it swings out into the open.
"Where's Rephy?!" she calls back in a panic - but then spots it converging on their position, sweeping down to meet them with its hatch already open, Big Shal cradled in one hand - but leaping off to the ground the next moment with a heavy 'thoom' of noise. Banking the Little Dipper, Shalune all but skids right into the cockpit, expertly braking in time to allow Lunata to hop off into her pilot seat - and then sweeping downwards to land, a little hard and a little stumbling, on the platform on Big Shal's back.
"--let's go!"
DG: Shalune Amira has used her Tool Little Dipper toward her party's challenge, Artillery Bombardment.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata is holding Shalune's hand as they come out, feeling just a little unsettled from what had happened within the sanctum of the Guardians. The question of why the Guardians rejected her lingered in the air, and--
--the war outside is not letting up at all. In fact, it's only gotten worse, as she gasps and stares towards the Golem to murmur, "I--is that another Golem...?! It's live!"
"Lunata!"
The voice doesn't come from a person, but rather a nearby Gear that's descending towards their position -- gunfire is returned as the Rephaim descends once more, kneeling as Lunata makes the decision to leap up into it, beckoning for any others to follow her.
"I'll give you cover!"
She grabs hold of Shalune with a nod as she clings onto the pink-haired girl. Once she's inside, the cube morphs back towards the familiar dashboard as she stares towards the enemies near where to Ethius is calling them to go.
"Pick on someone your own size...!"
The Gear is mysterious in many ways, and chief amongst them is the presence of ethereal, ghost-like wings that appear made of the energy of the Leylines as it charges forward and draws its beam saber against one of the approaching Kislevi Mushas -- with a crushing strike, Lunata rends its head off and sends it spiralling into the dunes.
Is the Rephaim... reacting to the temple?
"Hurry!"
DG: Lunata Croze has used her Tool Wings of Rephaim toward her party's challenge, Artillery Bombardment.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
They hadn't been able to find Matilda. This information weighed heavily on Jacqueline's conscience. They had spent time looking for her...but she knew, the more time they spent, the more intense the combat outside.
It had been with a heavy heart that she issued the order to the party to flee the battlefield. She had to worry more about the people that were with her right then and there. Unfortunately, the way they came wasn't an option - that was where the fighting was heaviest. Fortunately, there was nothing for them there right now. Right now, their best chance of escape was to reach the place she'd parked the Carakin - thankfully safely far away from this battlefield, and get out of here before the battle moved any further in that direction.
She's quite as she runs, but that may be because she's focused solely on avoiding the difficulties in her way and the positions of her allies.
She runs aided by the familiar sensation of that Invigoration Elixir of hers.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Invigoration Elixir toward her party's challenge, Artillery Bombardment.
=================================================<* The Battle Front *>=================================================
========================================<* CHALLENGE - Artillery Bombardment *>=========================================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 |
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
The vicinity of the Guardian Temple has turned into a full-blown war zone. A
rush of Kislevi forces and a counter-action by Aveh forces have resulted in
an enormous fight between infantry, Gears, and support vehicles. In the
distance, you can make out where the enormous Kislevi-controlled Golem is
sending huge gouts of energy into the ranks of Aveh's forces. This is truly
worrisome, but a more immediate concern presents itself.
One side has chosen this moment to begin an artillery bombardment. Shells
rain down near your position, huge fireballs and blasts of shrapnel hurtling
at you, posing a severe threat as you try to make your way westward.
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Suffer=============================================
============================================<* The Battle Front - Round 1 *>============================================ ==========================================< Results - Artillery Bombardment >=========================================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ethius Hesiod 0 --(6)--> 6 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Catenna 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kourin 0 --(3)--> 3 Pass Trick Rope 2 Agility Effects: Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jacqueline Barber 0 --(2)--> 2 Pass Invigoration Elixir 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyre H. Lorentz 0 --(2)--> 2 Pass Reverse Parachute 1 Agility Effects: Rally and Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shalune Amira 0 --(3)--> 3 Pass Little Dipper 2 Agility Effects: Quicken --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------�@
DG: The party led by Ethius Hesiod has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
It is utter chaos! Between everyone's individual methods of making their way through, many of them navigate the troubling fields of fire, smoke, and jagged metal with only a sense of direction of where to go. They cannot double back towards the Adlehyde region.
The only way forward is to the west. Ethius catches up behind Catenna as he narrowly dives away from a direct hit - near-certain death - and points to her to where others are already moving. Already, there is the risk of being separated...
But they have a goal, and that goal is going to be what keeps them together.
To the west!
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has drawn a new Challenge. ============================<* The Battle Front *>============================
============================================<* The Battle Front - Round 1 *>============================================ ======================<* CHALLENGE - Pre-Graverobbers *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Some bandits do not wait for the battle to be over, before they begin the grisly business of looting the dead. As you move to the edge of the fight, you find a group of bandits that are not waiting long at all. Clad in heavy desert garments, toting Gunsmoke ARMs, they see you -- and drop bloodied bags of loot, before lifting their guns and opening fire. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck, Tire===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Immediately, Shalune has hunkered down on the back of Big Shal, gripping onto a handle welded onto the miniature catwalk she uses as a platform to ride the golem; her hand goes to a clip on her backpack, grabs the pot that hangs there, and slams it into place on a receptacle set in a recess on the golem's body.
In response, Big Shal seems to pick up speed, suddenly breaking into a sprint as the pot begins to glow. Each step threatens to rattle the golem's feet apart, to break and twist the chassis - but at the same time, every rise gives the golem's self-repair system a chance to turn its components back into shape, rebuilding the mechanical figure faster than it can break.
Bunkering down, Shalune doesn't spare a moment for the bandits, letting Big Shal trudge straight through them - her eyes are fixed on the live golem, studying it for as long as she can discern details. Comparing it to Diablo.
DG: Shalune Amira has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Pre-Graverobbers.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
"Lunata--" Cyre marvels as the Rephaim's wings ignite and launches towards the Kislevi machines. He nods firmly, then turns his eyes towards the more immediate problem: Cresting the next sand dune.
War draws in all kinds of morally questionable individuals. Some are mercenaries, selling their services to the highest bidder and then immediately offering a larger price to the other guy to stab the first one in the face the second they turn their backs. Back faces. Whatever.
The other kind is much, much worse.
There's something beyond the dune. Fresh corpses left behind by the Avehan War Machine, being picked over by... Dozens of strange men in sand-covered cloaks, each one carrying one or more ARM, each face obscured by a heavy gas mask to protect from sudden sandstorms. There are bandits here.
One notices Cyre's arrival and barks an order to the others. Bullets begin to rain on the dunes, and Cyre hisses in reply as a shot whistles by his ears. "Scavengers. Vultures! Take them out, steal their masks and keep moving! We might need them further in!"
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Pre-Graverobbers.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius withdraws the second satchel - the first already seeing use earlier within the Guardian Temple - and goes through the Symbological chanting and gesturing motions to activate the explosive element within. He lacks the time to coordinate with the rest about when to best use it.
Keeping his gaze level and the adrenaline level under management, he just hurls the second and last satchel into the firing crowd to obscure them in smoke as he staggers and twists in inventive - but completely intentional and controlled - ways, moving in to follow with Cyre's idea to get looting masks and other useful things for keeping sand and stuff out of the face and lungs.
Stuff like what's in his Powder Grenade.
Maybe he should be more considerate about prospective respiratory warnings regarding it, from here on out.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Powder Grenade toward his party's challenge, Pre-Graverobbers.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin scowls. Scavengers like this deserve no quarter. A barrage of icy snowballs flies from her outstretched hand, buying her time to work a more complex spell - an icicle storm!
DG: Kourin has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Pre-Graverobbers.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna staggers as she rushes towards safety, but Ethius manages to keep her on target. She nods to the strange, silent man with simple gratitude.
Letting go of Kourin's rope, the priestess brings her hand to her side, her sword in her other hand as she dashes forward. They must keep together. Getting away from them now would be a disaster. The looming bulk of Rephaim overhead seems to help - it gives them, at least, some surety against the armies lurking around this place.
The bandits ahead begin to emerge from their hidey-holes. Catenna's first reaction is sadness at the sight of those corpses sprawled in the dunes.
But then the bandits appear. Catenna snaps her left hand out; a surge of gravity hauls several of the bandits off their feet and propels them to the sand, holding them there as the power of gravity takes effect. Another bandit gets close and Catenna swings at him with her sword; blood flies from the wound, and she pales a bit.
And then she tries something else.
"Lucadia chadani!" she shouts in her own language. There's a mounting surge of magic -
And as if propelled by a surging wave, Catenna lunges forward - and ends up right beside a bandit, whom she proceeds to muay-thai kick in the face!
DG: Catenna has used her Tool Celesdue Medium toward her party's challenge, Pre-Graverobbers.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata turns towards the group as they charge ahead, and she spots the pack of brigands -- frowning. She shoves the flightstick forward as the Rephaim holds aloft in midair with its beam rifle held out...
...
"N-no, what am I--"
She holds onto her head with a gasp, before switching several buttons according to what Maitreya told her.
"If you're facing foot soldiers, use the CIWS!"
"S-seews?"
Appropriate to the name, the Rephaim's hardpoints turn as it launches several rounds of what feel like strangely aetheric ammunition towards the bandits, drawing upon them from the Leylines.
DG: Lunata Croze has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Pre-Graverobbers.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
This was...
...The reality of war, Jacqueline supposed.
Had she done the right thing, bringing her friends and allies here? This was one of the things she hadn't wanted to expose them to. Had she already failed, in that regard?
...There'd be time for that kind of soul-searching later. Right now, the situation at hand doesn't give her time to think.
She reaches into her bags and draws forth a familiar bottle of liquid as well as a familiar Crest.
The former is hurled into a larger assortment of bandits, while she uses the latter to invoke a pillar of earth to force the nearest ones out of the way, as well as giving her a platform to run and jump off of.
Thanks to her newfound connection to Earth, though, it comes out a little more intensely than she would've liked.
She hoped she hadn't killed him.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Reliable Repellant toward her party's challenge, Pre-Graverobbers.
============================<* The Battle Front *>============================
============================================<* The Battle Front - Round 1 *>============================================ ======================<* CHALLENGE - Pre-Graverobbers *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Some bandits do not wait for the battle to be over, before they begin the grisly business of looting the dead. As you move to the edge of the fight, you find a group of bandits that are not waiting long at all. Clad in heavy desert garments, toting Gunsmoke ARMs, they see you -- and drop bloodied bags of loot, before lifting their guns and opening fire. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck, Tire=========================================== =======================<* The Battle Front - Round 2 *>=======================
============================================<* The Battle Front - Round 1 *>============================================ ========================< Results - Pre-Graverobbers >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ethius Hesiod 6 --(4)--> 10 Pass Powder Grenade 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Catenna 5 --(5)--> 10 Pass Celesdue Medium 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kourin 3 --(6)--> 9 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jacqueline Barber 2 --(5)--> 7 Pass Reliable Repellant 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyre H. Lorentz 2 --(4)--> 6 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shalune Amira 3 --(4)--> 7 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lunata Croze 4 --(6)--> 10 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Ethius Hesiod 20 --(15)--> 35 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(2)|Slow(1)|Suffer|Tire(2) Effects: Embolden(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Ethius Hesiod has passed this challenge! The party gained 15 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
These bandits are... Woefully underprepared for a squadron of well-armed Drifters. Raking CIWS fire, pillars of earth, kicks to the face and reverse gravity are all things that they are not being paid nearly enough to handle. They've prepared for scavening, maybe for occasionally finishing off straggling soldiers, not this.
Not icicle storms, grenades, and catastrophic, hurricane gales.
In moments, the entire squadron is broken. Those who haven't been killed outright turn tail and run. Cyre snarls as he snatches a mask of one's face and sets it up over his own. "Come on," he says, a bit muffled. "Let's keep this pace up. We're doing fine."
DG: Ethius Hesiod has drawn a new Challenge.
=================================================<* The Battle Front *>================================================= ===========================================<* CHALLENGE - Garlyle Commando *>=========================================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | -----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------------------------- Aveh's ally in the war has not left it out. As you make your way across the battlefield, a series of fireballs comes raining dwon from above. You find yourself caught in a pincer attack by a team of Garlyle commandos. Their black uniforms are crisp -- and their aim is sharp, as gunfire peppers down around you. Several leap in after, short swords drawn, and ready to strike you down! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The team finds the extra resources useful for keeping all sorts of nasty things out of their face as they keep moving through the war zone. It's a life-or-death situation, on their part - what they have taken from the bandits may well be taken itself. There's no telling if any of the taken goods may resemble stolen military equipment that will draw undue atten--
Gunfire. Ethius gets down moments before the gunfire rings out, and calls for others to do the same. This pins just about everyone's movement, as they find themselves between two sides of soldiers in black uniforms.
"Scavengers." Scowls the head of this particular Garyle commando squad as they start barking out deep unintelligible jargon all around them.
Ethius is out of Powder Grenades. He cannot give cover, as the commandos draw their swords and rush in for the kill. The best he can do is draw his quarterstaff and attempt to use its superior reach to ward them off.
Their escape will be narrow, at best.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
This time, Kourin doesn't react with ice magic--she first hurls a small blue clay sphere at the commandos, causing frost to rime their guns, as she draws her rapier and prepares for melee combat. As always, she is efficient and silent in combat, focused and dangerous to her opponents.
DG: Kourin has used her Tool Rimebomb toward her party's challenge, Garlyle Commando.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Not that it takes a lot to take down those bandits.
Catenna winces as the one goes down beneath her boot, then takes off after Ethius, sword still swinging at the ready. "Let's hurry," she urges with a nod back to Cyre, sticking close to her feline friend. When this is over, they'll have to talk, she decides.
And then, soldiers in dark uniforms begin to pop up. Catenna narrows her eyes as she recognizes them instantly. "Men of Garlyle," she utters with distaste.
Leveling her left hand, the priestess once more calls upon the power she's most intimately bound to - that of Celesdue. The charging Garlyle soldiers will experience a sudden burst of gravity.
The gravity shock is brief but intense. If it works properly, it'll propel them backwards several metres - almost right back to the point they charged from. In the same motion, it propels Catenna backwards. She flips in midair and comes down in a crouched posture, some distance between herself and them.
She's bought her friends a clear shot at the commandos. Take it!
DG: Catenna has used her Tool Celesdue Medium toward her party's challenge, Garlyle Commando.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Cyre's hands twist into eldritch geometries as he rakes scything wind through the Garlyle ranks. "Oh come off it, we scavenged these from other scavengers. We're just trying to get through this Hell alive!" Of course they would be mistaken for the very vultures they just blew through. Of course. "You want the real ones, they're that way--" Another gesture. A column of air blasts through the dune to his back. "But if you want to try and stop us...
His pupils narrow dangerously. A predatory atmosphere settles in the air. "Come on. I'll dance."
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Garlyle Commando.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
"They've got a Gear with them-- open fire, open fire!"
The Rephaim starts taking the brunt of the damage as an anti-Gear shell lands square against the exposed shoulder it's got; it stumbles back with a rather uncomfortable slam as Lunata yelps, rocked back in her cockpit.
"I--"
She fires the CIWS again, but these commandos are much more than the scavengers they'd just dealt with, evading her fire as they scatter to the four corners. "I can't hit them-- aah!"
A second bazooka launcher lands closer and starts to crunch at the Rephaim's metallic cockpit, gasping as she whimpers, "I-- I must... I... everyone... I won't let anyone fall here... I..."
Her eyes widen as she gazes upon-- upon--
The girl's eyes glaze over for a moment as the pale flame of the Wheel's cycle takes over, and she quietly draws a side panel and types a sequence into it.
The sphere in front of her starts to shimmer.
- +=====================+
- ..........v............
- ...[o].................
- ............[o]........
- >....(....+....)......<
- .......................
- ...[o].................
- ..........^.........[o]
- +=====================+)
- "Rephaim... All Weapons -- Full Burst."
The Gear's eyes flash a menacing golden irisoid as it rears back -- and the
hip-swiveling ley cannons snap into place along with its rifle--
--and a devastating flash of light consumes the Commandos in its wake.
DG: Lunata Croze has used her Tool Rephaim Full Burst toward her party's challenge, Garlyle Commando. DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Garlyle Commando.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune bunkers down again, this time letting out a soft yelp as she realizes that some of their enemies are coming from above - but it's not like Big Shal has any weapons beyond raising its fist to try to swat some of them out of the sky. Gritting her teeth, Shalune sucks in a breath - and then grabs her broom.
It's all but unrecognizable from the simple cleaning tool of a few weeks ago, as the mechanic has continued to refine and upgrade it to be more of a combat tool. Now even the brushhead is gone, replaced with a thick cylinder that takes up the last foot or so of the quarterstaff's shaft.
Raising it to the air, she braces it against her shoulder, only stopping for a moment to gaze in awe at the sky getting lip up around the Rephaim before she grits her teeth. This isn't tested, has never been tested, is just Shalune flying from the seat of her pants - but that's how these things always go.
The end of the staff opens, Shalune squints down an improvised viewfinder, and she opens fire at the parachutes with what is apparently now a staff-gun.
She'll come up with a better name later.
DG: Shalune Amira has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Garlyle Commando.
=============================<* The Battle Front *>============================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Garlyle Commando *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------- Aveh's ally in the war has not left it out. As you make your way across the battlefield, a series of fireballs comes raining dwon from above. You find yourself caught in a pincer attack by a team of Garlyle commandos. Their black uniforms are crisp -- and their aim is sharp, as gunfire peppers down around you. Several leap in after, short swords drawn, and ready to strike you down! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"Y-you're making a mistake! We're just trying to-" Jacqueline calls out. She's interrupted by a sudden hail of gunfire that forces her to call up a pillar of earth to protect herself. Several are intercepted, but one comes narrowly close, slicing across her cheek right where the ghostly general's bullet had grazed her, those months ago.
This bullet, however, was very real.
She waits for the sound of gunfire to cease then draws another crest. The Pillar detonates, sending earthen shrapnel forward into the enemies.
"I-I don't want to hurt you! Just get out of our way!" Jacqueline shouts.
Unfortunately, they probably wouldn't listen. They couldn't exactly hold back here, any of them. She draws forth another bottle of black liquid and hurls it into their ranks, hoping it might at least discourage them.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Reliable Repellant toward her party's challenge, Garlyle Commando.
=================================================<* The Battle Front *>================================================= ===========================================<* CHALLENGE - Garlyle Commando *>=========================================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | -----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------------------------- Aveh's ally in the war has not left it out. As you make your way across the battlefield, a series of fireballs comes raining dwon from above. You find yourself caught in a pincer attack by a team of Garlyle commandos. Their black uniforms are crisp -- and their aim is sharp, as gunfire peppers down around you. Several leap in after, short swords drawn, and ready to strike you down! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
============================================<* The Battle Front - Round 3 *>============================================ =============================================< Results - Garlyle Commando >============================================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ethius Hesiod 10 --(8)--> 18 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Catenna 10 --(6)--> 16 Pass Celesdue Medium 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kourin 9 --(6)--> 15 Pass Rimebomb 3 Combat Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jacqueline Barber 7 --(6)--> 13 Pass Reliable Repellant 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyre H. Lorentz 6 --(13)--> 19 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shalune Amira 7 --(12)--> 19 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------�@
DG: The party led by Ethius Hesiod has passed this challenge! The party gained 15 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
This is war. There is no reason. The Garlyle commando squad fights to kill, in all circumstances. To show weakness for one minute, to suggest there's even room for any mercy... it is to join the corpses that already dot the desert surrounding them.
The flurry of violence and emotion in play will prove a shell shock even to those who have seen the assault upon Adlehyde. There is no doing the experience justice with written word. Only the heart-pounding silence that follows as the Garlyle commando squad fight to the last, as the Caravan Kinship stand largely victorious - but not without their wounds.
Some of them may be mental or spiritual in nature yet.
DG: Catenna has drawn a new Challenge. =============================<* The Battle Front *>==============================
============================================<* The Battle Front - Round 3 *>============================================ ====================<* CHALLENGE - Controlled Demolitions *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------- As you run across the battlefield, you enter a section of hastily made trenches that had been abandoned. You feel the ground start to give -- and shift -- beneath your feet. You soon discover why. Explosives have been laced throughout the ground here. When you advance, they begin to explode -- and sections of the battlefield erupt into titanic explosions all around you! =Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Bad Luck=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
The group dashes on, but Catenna spares a look back for those commandos. She winces as she favours a slash mark across her arm. Much better than the Garlyle-men came away with.
The priestess vaults over the wreckage of a mechanical limb of some kind, her feet coming down - and something beeps.
"Oh no," she gasps.
She draws on Lucadia's power for the second time - and with a burst of speed, she hurtles forward just as a bomb goes off where she was just standing. A thunderous explosion hurls fire and sand into the air. Catenna touches down - and she lets out a yelp as another bomb beeps under her. She jumps once more, calling again on the power of that new Medium. This time she lunges to the side and a bomb goes off again.
More bombs begin to go off. They trigger in chained bursts, ripping through sand and dust in vast plumes. Looking back over her shoulder, Catenna shouts, "There are bombs everywhere! Hurry!"
(Please, Lucadia,) she pleads internally. (I know we do not know each other well, but please, lend me your power just a little longer--!)
DG: Catenna has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Controlled Demolitions.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius takes off to a dive just as an explosive to his left goes off, allowing him to avoid being turned into a fine pink mist. What was his cue? It seems instinctual.
Ethius cannot put an exact finger of the origins of these instincts. He did not see the explosives planted. He should not know where they are, or how he can pick up the sounds of them as deafening explosions, cracking gunfire, and death rattles fill the scorching desert air on all sides.
His eyes do not heighten in emotion, still. That same stare. On average, his composure is commendable. This is one of those times where it seems too commendable, for their situation. He halts up the group once or twice to re-direct them through a different path through the trench... moments before the other path would explode.
He may not lead them out completely unharmed, but something about him - whatever it is - lets him discern the less dangerous way.
There is no 'safe' way through.
Has he ever been through something like this, before?
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Controlled Demolitions.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin, as always, is at the forefront of the dash. Spirit, thankfully, is right at her heels. The trick rope is marking a safe passage behind her...that at least didn't explode when she stepped there. "Quick! Step where I step!"
DG: Kourin has used her Tool Trick Rope toward her party's challenge, Controlled Demolitions.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata's grimace doesn't disappear even as the Rephaim's full payload is visited upon the commandos--
--and her trouble does not diminish either.
--==OVERHEAT==-
The Gear starts to spiral away from the skies as visible trails of heat and smoke start to exhale from out of its vents -- and it lands near to the trenches where Lunata struggles to keep control as it starts to rail and slide and demolish some of the trenches.
This is bad, because the explosives start to explode and a hydraulic vent just goes *POP* on its left calf.
This is good, because Lunata just kind of demolished half of the trenches into clear, open ground for the rest of the group to run through.
DG: Lunata Croze has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Controlled Demolitions.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
There is no time to consider the ramifications of their actions. How many dead men will they leave in their wake today? To count the corpses is a surefire path to madness, and so Cyre does not. He can grieve for them later. Mourn for them. Build memorials, dig graves. At this time, in this space, all he can think of is how to avoid adding more bodies to the funeral pyre.
Of course, war has a habit of making things like 'survival' more difficult for some than for others.
Explosions rock the dunes for a second time. There's no warning from the sky, though- no whistling of bombs hurtling inexorably downward to deliver their deadly payload. Instead, the dunes simply seem to burst upward, sending flame and smoke and shrapnel and abrasive sand into the sky in vast geysers. Cyre growls as one erupts underfoot, and he disappears into the ensuing explo--
Wait, no.
There he is, in the sky, sailing on an unfurled parachute.
Now as long as he doesn't take flak shells, he should... Probably be okay.
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has used his Tool Reverse Parachute toward his party's challenge, Controlled Demolitions. =================================<* +CAMP - *>================================== ======================<* Catenna - Zoa Priestess Catenna *>====================== Brute: 3 Agility: 5 Wits: 6 Combat: 5 Exhaustion: 16/100 ===================================<* Tools *>=================================== Available Tool Slots: 2 1 Grappling Hook 2 Agility Limit: 3 Effects: Quicken 2 Celesdue Medium 2 Combat Limit: 1/3 Effects: Embolden 3 Ritual Incense 1 Wits Limit: 4/4 Effects: Cleanse Basic Actions: Force, Investigate, Rush, Fight. Ethius Hesiod Brute: 7 Agility: 4 Wits: 4 Combat: 4 Exhaustion: 18/100 Tools: Spectral Lens, Powder Grenade, Interface Spoiler. Jacqueline Barber Brute: 4 Agility: 5 Wits: 8 Combat: 6 Exhaustion: 13/100 Tools: Reliable Repellant, Invigoration Elixir. Kourin Brute: 3 Agility: 6 Wits: 5 Combat: 6 Exhaustion: 15/100 Tools: Trick Rope, Rimebomb. Lunata Croze Brute: 8 Agility: 5 Wits: 4 Combat: 4 Exhaustion: 19/100 Tools: Rephaim Full Burst, Wings of Rephaim. Cyre H. Lorentz Brute: 3 Agility: 6 Wits: 6 Combat: 4 Exhaustion: 19/100 Tools: Invigorating Vapors, Reverse Parachute. Shalune Amira Brute: 5 Agility: 4 Wits: 6 Combat: 3 Exhaustion: 19/100 Tools: Little Dipper, Soup of the Day -Shalune Ver.-. ===================================<* Party *>=================================== Party Leader: Ethius Hesiod Exploration: 50/100 Effects: Embolden(1), Quicken(2), Rally(1). Conditions: Bad Luck(2), Injure(2), Suffer, Wound(1). ================================< Dream Chasers >================================
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune winces as the staff bucks against her shoulder; it's a first version, after all, and there's a recoil that ideally shouldn't even be there, sending her shots wide - not that Lunata can't handle their aggressors given the power of the Rephaim, but it's something for the mechanic to put on her to-do list. Rather than stay with the melee, Big Shal opts to simply forge ahead, ignoring the yelp of surprise Shalune makes--
--or the next, as the ground suddenly collapses and gives way under them with a collection of explosions. Already stressed from the run, the golem's feet simply break apart, setting in course a chain reaction of explosions that further shatters more and more of the body.
"--Shal!" cries Shalune in the midst of the sudden din, but it's not a noise of panic so much as a command - and even as the platform crumbles beneath her, the mechanic's eyes remain bright and sure, yanking the pot from its place as the golem
falls
apart
into a whirling, spiralling tornado of its component parts, the pink-haired girl sweeping through the middle of the flow on the back of the Little Dipper, accompanied by the shorn-away torso and head of her golem. She grits her teeth - the noise of the pot an overwhelming whine as it powers up further - and past the trenches the cyclone of parts begins to reknit itself, feet and arms rebuilding themselves in midair as the golem's frankly ridiculous self-repair system works to recover from what should have been a catastrophic and complete failure.
Shalune lands heavily, her vision swimming from the effort as she stumbles - but she manages to hold on.
DG: Shalune Amira has used her Tool Little Dipper toward her party's challenge, Controlled Demolitions.
=============================<* The Battle Front *>============================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Controlled Demolitions *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------- As you run across the battlefield, you enter a section of hastily made trenches that had been abandoned. You feel the ground start to give -- and shift -- beneath your feet. You soon discover why. Explosives have been laced throughout the ground here. When you advance, they begin to explode -- and sections of the battlefield erupt into titanic explosions all around you! =Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Bad Luck=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline follows her friends, her allies, her comrades, into the trenches nearby. These were ordinarily supposed to be safer, to help avoid the bullets flying overhead...but it seemed like that wouldn't be the case here, as soon explosives begin to detonate all around them.
She tries to reach out with her mind, to the Medium she had received in the temple...but it was too soon. She hadn't had enough time to build up a relationship with Grudiev, and with all of the stress and pressure that was on her mind, she couldn't build up a solid connection.
For now, she has no choice but to follow behind Ethius, taking in another Invigoration Elixir to keep her moving quickly.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Invigoration Elixir toward her party's challenge, Controlled Demolitions.
=============================<* The Battle Front *>============================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Controlled Demolitions *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------- As you run across the battlefield, you enter a section of hastily made trenches that had been abandoned. You feel the ground start to give -- and shift -- beneath your feet. You soon discover why. Explosives have been laced throughout the ground here. When you advance, they begin to explode -- and sections of the battlefield erupt into titanic explosions all around you! =Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Bad Luck=========================================
========================<* The Battle Front - Round 4 *>========================= ======================< Results - Controlled Demolitions >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 18 --(3)--> 21 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Catenna 16 --(4)--> 20 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kourin 15 --(3)--> 18 Pass Trick Rope 2 Agility Effects: Quicken --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jacqueline Barber 13 --(4)--> 17 Pass Invigoration Elixir 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cyre H. Lorentz 19 --(3)--> 22 Pass Reverse Parachute 1 Agility Effects: Rally and Quicken --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shalune Amira 19 --(3)--> 22 Pass Little Dipper 2 Agility Effects: Quicken --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lunata Croze 19 --(3)--> 22 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Ethius Hesiod 50 --(15)--> 65 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(2)|Injure(2)|Suffer|Wound(1) Effects: Quicken(1)|Stalwart(1) ================================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Ethius Hesiod has passed this challenge! The party gained 15 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna gasps as Big Shal seems to be torn apart behind her. "Oh no," she breathes, covering her mouth with one hand.
The explosions continue to tear the sand apart. One by one, though, the group manages to weave their way through - even Shalune, scooting through on the Little Dipper. Fortunately the blasts don't seem to be targeted, and even Rephaim can get through unscathed if Lunata's careful - and she is.
Before long, the group lands on the far side of the thrashed, crater-riddled proving grounds. Another shell erupts in the distance. "Everyone alright?" she calls back, brushing back her hair roughly. "We must hurry--!"
DG: Shalune Amira has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* The Battle Front *>============================ =====================<* CHALLENGE - Battalion Crossing *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Some of the forces arrayed on this battlefield are far beyond what an individual Drifter can handle -- or even a dedicated team of them. As you approach, you hear some shouting ahead of you, and the steady clomp of boots on the ground. You may want to find a way to be very inconspicuous -- because rounding the bend of the large hill ahead is a cluster of some hundred soldiers, armed to the teeth and looking for a fight. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck, Wound==========================================
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
"--Lunie! Jettison the batteries! You should have enough power to make it with the lighter weight!" Shalune calls; the golem suddenly lurches underneath her as more and more of the whirlwind of components lurches beneath her feet, the platform rebuilding itself as a light comes back to the golem's eyes. They flash - and Big Shal is moving once more, joints and pipes following the golem along like a cloud of angry bees, each of them drawn in by that strange attraction to attach back into place.
Glancing over the golem's head at their way forward, the mechanic lets out a shaky breath she didn't realize she was holding. "... you did good," she mumbles to the mechanical creature beneath her, settling around it in a hug.
Unfortunately, there's just no way to be inconspicuous - so Shalune just decides to go in the opposite direction instead, holding her hands up in the air. "--we're non combatants! We just want to leave this area! Please don't shoot us!" she cries.
It would be more effective had Big Shal chosen to stop, rather than plough through them.
It would be way more effective if the Rephaim weren't right there in its sleek white and blue.
DG: Shalune Amira has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Battalion Crossing.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin grabs at Shalune, covering her mouth. "Shhhh! They clearly haven't noticed us yet...somehow...please do not draw attention! Listen, if these men are military--have any of you served in a military unit before?" She looks around the group, somewhat hopefully.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius crouches low behind some shrapnel and starts to try and rapid-cast a bunch of otherwise inconsequential dust spells, one after another, in an attempt to force up a series of smoke clouds that might obscure the team from view so long as there's adequate distractions otherwise pulling the attention of the oncoming forces.
...
After all, they have Ethius Hesiod right there, the sort of person that kind of tends to scream, visually, 'I am a scary person who might be up to no good! Shoot me!'
He turns his head at Kourin's suggestion. Has he served in a military unit before? He can't say yes or no because he's busy chanting and gesturing like crazy to maintain a smoke screen.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata grimaces just a little deeper as she hears Shalune's suggestion, and hits the emergency button that she's told her about --
--with a rather oddly satisfying 'THWUNK' sound, the battery pack jettisons out of the back of the Rephaim's thruster pack and crashes against the dunes, which... actually serves to go distract some of the soldiers who chase and investigate.
This also has the side-effect of debilitating the Rephaim's oscillating barrier for a moment, causing its white and blue to turn decidedly grayscale and statue-like.
As it powers down for a moment, it sits on a dune, one elbow on a knee as it... thinks.
Yep.
Just a statue.
A 50-foot Gear-sized statue.
Please don't mind it.
"... does the Yggdrasil count...?"
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Once safe on the other side, Catenna pauses for a moment to catch her breath.
Until a vast army of 100 soldiers looms ahead. Catenna blinks a couple of times as she realizes just how many of them there are. "Goodness," she murmurs, then looks up towards Shalune as she realizes there is no way to hide Big Shal and Rephaim.
She looks around. Blinks a couple of times as she realizes there is a fallen soldier lying there. Her heart quails as she realizes what she must do. Ducking behind a sand dune, she sets to work.
When she steps out, Catenna is in the uniform of a Garlyle soldier. Her hair has been pulled up under her cap. What looks like a cigarette dangles from her lips. It is actually some of her incense.
She strolls up beside Big Shal and snaps off a brisk salute. "Lance Corporal Cat F. Tenna, 41st Brigade!" she says in a forced Garlyle accent, trying to remember the name and brigade on those papers she got from the Sult Ruins. "Escorting these civilians through the combat zone, sir!"
DG: Catenna has used her Tool Ritual Incense toward her party's challenge, Battalion Crossing. DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Battalion Crossing. DG: Lunata Croze has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Battalion Crossing.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Meanwhile, Cyre is still floating through the air.
...High, high up in the air.
Sailing, peacefully, through the air and over this bizarre confluence of inexplicably bad infiltration techniques.
Cyre just kind of sighs and quietly whispers a prayer to Fengalon. Please, Great God of the Wind, allow your humble servant the gift of ventriloquism, for he must debase himself to save his friends.
Cyre takes in a long breath...
And then, from a pile of rubble out off to the side, there's a sound...
It's... Cats. Cats meowing. Yep. No sneaky travellers here, just a bunch of sand cats.
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Battalion Crossing.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Inside, Catenna resists the urge to squeal behind a hand at the sound of Cyre meowing.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin steps up behind Catenna. "Orders, sir! From the General directly!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Fortunately, they all manage to make it out without exploding! Unfortunately, it sounds like they're not alone here.
Fantastic.
Jacqueline really didn't want to hurt any more people today. This wasn't what her talents were supposed to be meant for. She had tried to hold back, but she couldn't really be sure what kind of condition she had left her victims in.
So, whether or not they could handle them, if they could avoid anymore run-ins with military-types, she'd take that opportunity where she could.
Kourin poses a question.
"No, I've...mostly just been traveling on my own. I'll follow your lead." She says with a nod.
Kourin probably knew more about military protocol than she did.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Battalion Crossing.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin knows--and would have explained--that any soldier is going to be relieved to have the responsibility of taking initiative and possibly getting reprimanded away. Therefore, she's backing Catenna's play by offering further support to the bluff...and hoping these soldiers are like the soldiers she knew in the Guard.
DG: Kourin has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Battalion Crossing.
============================<* The Battle Front *>============================ =====================<* CHALLENGE - Battalion Crossing *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Some of the forces arrayed on this battlefield are far beyond what an individual Drifter can handle -- or even a dedicated team of them. As you approach, you hear some shouting ahead of you, and the steady clomp of boots on the ground. You may want to find a way to be very inconspicuous -- because rounding the bend of the large hill ahead is a cluster of some hundred soldiers, armed to the teeth and looking for a fight. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck, Wound==========================================
=======================<* The Battle Front - Round 5 *>======================= =======================< Results - Battalion Crossing >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ethius Hesiod 21 --(16)--> 37 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Catenna 20 --(10)--> 30 Pass Ritual Incense 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kourin 18 --(12)--> 30 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jacqueline Barber 17 --(11)--> 28 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyre H. Lorentz 22 --(9)--> 31 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shalune Amira 22 --(17)--> 39 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lunata Croze 22 --(17)--> 39 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Ethius Hesiod 65 --(10)--> 75 Fail Conditions: Bad Luck(2)|Injure(1)|Suffer|Wound(2) Effects: Cleanse ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Ethius Hesiod 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.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
For a long moment, one of the soldiers stares at Catenna. And then at the twelve-foot golem that Shalune is riding, pieces of it still rebuilding the rest of one arm as one hand hovers improbably in midair. And then at the stone-like figure of the Gear that, due to its size, you could pretty much see coming.
"Are you 'avin us on?" grunts the Private in return, before recoiling from one of the civilians, his eyes wide at Ethius. "I-it's him! Get them!"
The mad dash that follows is helped when Big Shal's detached hand simply swings around as the last of its arm sets back in place, scattering the front line of the troops to the ground before discussions can get as heated as the assault that follows it.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has drawn a new Challenge.
=================================================<* The Battle Front *>=================================================
========================================<* CHALLENGE - The Shattered Landship *>========================================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
The Golem Sado has dominated the battlefield in the distance. A fully armed
and operation Golem is a terror to behold, and the violet, snake-like
machine towers over the battlefield. Gears lay scattered and shattered
around it, and periodically, a beam of energy lances across the ground and
burns something from existence. That happens now, as a land battleship from
Aveh hurls through the air.
It has been blasted through and burnt -- and it smashes into the very ground
before you. It shatters apart into so much debris, and makes a huge mountain
of fiery wreckage. You cannot possibly clear it.
But you must climb, hack, and cut your way through -- because on the other
side is a final escape from the battlefield.
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
They have to run. The chase goes for longer than anyone imagines that they can. Gunfire and heavy artillery seem to want to home in on their direction, which kind of begs a question - do people want to kill Ethius that badly?
The answer seems to be 'yes,' as the mob of soldiers come closing in...
5tOnly for one half of an Aveh land battleship to, by the grace of Chapapanga, collapse and cut them off with a great big splash of sand that knocks everyone over. This seems to be it, right? It must be--
The other half comes in, so badly ravaged that it has taken a horseshoe shape in which to lock the eight of them within. (That's Chapapanga's doing too!)
Ethius stands up again before the smoldering wreckage that smokes and sparks as an impassable wall of wreckage. They may be safe if they wait here. They are, on one hand, safe from attack on all sides by being trapped (and surrounded by fire and smoke, which is not quite safe but safer than artillery fire).
"We cannot wait." Ethius speaks, as he dares to walk towards something that might yet still explode in his face. If he's choosing to approach it, then he must be confident it is not.
"We must find our way through, at once," so says Ethius as he begins the usual processes for him. Melting down obstructions to expose weak spots - anything to help see them cut, blast, dig, or help their way through.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, The Shattered Landship.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
The beam cuts through the air and lances through that shattered landscape, which collapses in front of the Rephaim -- now operating on backup power with a sharply limited lifespan. She's going to have to return to the Yggdrasil before long, but both Lunies knew they needed a backup as that battery alone wasn't gonna cut it.
"I'm going to cut a hole through!"
She doesn't do this with hands or bombs -- she draws that magenta-pink beam sabre once more and just--
--thrusts a hole straight through the landship. On the one hand, there's an exit... but on the other hand, there's a lot of superheated debris falling down and the risk of collapse, as the Rephaim attempts to pry the remnants of the ship through.
DG: Lunata Croze has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Shattered Landship.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
"I knew this was a bad idea!" Catenna shouts, abandoning her uniform as she scrambles away.
The looming Golem in the distance is terrifying in its immensity. Catenna's never tried to confront anything so massive before.
All she can do is try. Clutching her shortsword in her right hand, Catenna starts forward, but comes up short as the vast land battleship slams into the sand before them, throwing up particles and debris. Then the other half comes down, smashing around them. She covers her face with her arm, coughing sand away from her mouth and shielding her eyes.
They cannot wait, Ethius proclaims. Biting her lower lip, Catenna moves after him. Brutish challenges like this are always a struggle for her; she searches the battleship for weak points but finds none she can exploit.
She simply falls in with Rephaim and Lunata. "I am right behind you," she calls as she draws upon Celesdue's arcana again, propelling the debris safely away from the hole Rephaim tears in it with a gravity inversion.
DG: Catenna has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Shattered Landship.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Another yelp rips from Shalune's lips as the remnants of the battleship fling over their heads with an almighty crash; she has to gape at it for a moment before she looks back to the rampaging golem, feeling her throat dry. "--don't-- don't ever become that, okay?" she asks quietly of Big Shal beneath her, patting the golem once on the shoulder as she sucks in a breath--
--then spins her staff in her grip, wrenching the cylindrical end off of the modified broom and letting it clatter to the base of the platform she's standing on. Her hand flicks to a pocket on the side of her backpack to withdraw a new one, even bigger with a suspiciously shaped end; it latches onto the end of the staff with a satisfying sort of clunk as she straightens up, aiming it over Big Shal's shoulder towards the barricade.
Shalune doesn't know what an 'RPG' is, in terms of munitions, but a lack of knowledge never stopped her from inventing something before. "Watch out!" she yells, and: "Incoming!" before a low thoomp noise sends the projectile spiralling into the midst of that falling rubble, seeking to simply blow most of it away.
DG: Shalune Amira has used her Tool Soup of the Day -Shalune Ver.- toward her party's challenge, The Shattered Landship.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin's not strong. Kourin's not equipped for this. Kourin doesn't have rockets, or a Gear, or a helpful big buddy like Big Shal.
Kourin does, however, have the ability to summon an Ice Golem. It doesn't last long, but it's gonna break stuff while it's there!
DG: Kourin has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Shattered Landship.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
By virtue of having been launched into the air by several tons of explosives, Cyre actually has a pretty peaceful flight. Sure, there are soldiers pursuing his friends down below and, this high up, he's almost completely helpless to aid them, but at least HE'S safe, right...??
...That doesn't help much.
...
An ear twitches. Cyre whispers a curse and pivots just in time for the sundered hulk of an Avehan battleship to smash through the space where he USED to be. The vacuum draws him downward, the priest plummets to the ground and rolls to a stop just short of the broken vessel. "Damnit," he mutters, unlimbering his censer, its flames lighting their way even as his incense soothes aching muscles and calms frenzied souls. "Come on. Keep it together everyone. We just have to make it a little further. I saw it from above-- past here, the way is clear...!"
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has used his Tool Invigorating Vapors toward his party's challenge, The Shattered Landship.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
That Golem truly was a terrifying sight. To set it loose on the battlefield...this must be what Riesenlied had feared most would happen. Who was responsible for this madness? Jacqueline didn't know, but she wasn't about to go searching for those answers just yet.
Somehow, they'd become trapped. On either side of them, the wreckage of a giant landship. On one hand, it meant they were cut off from the pursuing soldiers...on the other, it meant they would be stuck here, until they figured out a way through or around.
Ethius, fortunately, was always reliable in his propensity to melt through obstacles. Rephaim was a great boon here, as well...and of course Shalune's explosives were always handy.
Jacqueline joins in, sending earth pillars rushing towards the ship in an attempt to punch enough conveniently-sized holes in it for them all to fit through.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Shattered Landship.
=================================================<* The Battle Front *>=================================================
========================================<* CHALLENGE - The Shattered Landship *>========================================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
The Golem Sado has dominated the battlefield in the distance. A fully armed
and operation Golem is a terror to behold, and the violet, snake-like
machine towers over the battlefield. Gears lay scattered and shattered
around it, and periodically, a beam of energy lances across the ground and
burns something from existence. That happens now, as a land battleship from
Aveh hurls through the air.
It has been blasted through and burnt -- and it smashes into the very ground
before you. It shatters apart into so much debris, and makes a huge mountain
of fiery wreckage. You cannot possibly clear it.
But you must climb, hack, and cut your way through -- because on the other
side is a final escape from the battlefield.
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
============================================<* The Battle Front - Round 6 *>============================================ ==========================================< Results - The Shattered Landship >========================================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ethius Hesiod 37 --(100)--> 137 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Catenna 30 --(100)--> 130 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kourin 30 --(100)--> 130 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jacqueline Barber 28 --(100)--> 128 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyre H. Lorentz 31 --(100)--> 131 Pass Invigorating Vapors 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shalune Amira 39 --(100)--> 139 Pass Soup of the Day -Shalune Ver.- 3 Brute Effects: Fanfare ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------�@
DG: Ethius Hesiod is too exhausted to continue! DG: Catenna is too exhausted to continue! DG: Kourin is too exhausted to continue! DG: Jacqueline Barber is too exhausted to continue! DG: Cyre H. Lorentz is too exhausted to continue! DG: Shalune Amira is too exhausted to continue! DG: Lunata Croze is too exhausted to continue! DG: The party has failed this challenge! All party members are now Exhausted. This attempt is over. DG: The party led by Ethius Hesiod has been fully Exhausted by The Battle Front! DG: The party will now draw a conclusion. =================================================<* The Battle Front *>=================================================
============================================<* The Battle Front - Round 6 *>============================================
=========================================<* CHALLENGE - Cornered and Trapped *>=========================================
|Type: Escape |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 3 |
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
Try as you might, eventually everything goes wrong. The presence of a Golem
has given Kislev the upper hand in this battle. As you struggle, you find
yourself surrounded by soldiers in dark green uniforms. Kislev infantry run
in, surrounding you -- and more than twenty have soon cornered you, ARMs
pointed at you. A sharp command comes your way: "Stand down!"
OOC: You have been captured by Kislev! You are free to pose your escape --
the soldiers would certainly leave you injured and hurt, but you could get
away. Alternately, you could be captured and taken to Kislev, to require
rescue. If you want to go that route, please send in a +request!
=Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
It's inevitable. There is nothing that will hold the lot of them back, as they smash their way through with the methods all available to them. The wreckage collapses all around. It burns, it cuts, it chokes... but they've all got the will and the way to make it through. They can't wait. They must keep moving.
They break through, back into the sunlight after a torturous final trial. The open air greets them with new fresh scents of burnt metal, death, and the friendly greeting of twenty soldiers in dark green uniforms pointing ARMs with one single call of 'stand down!'
...
That's not friendly at all.
Ethius doesn't show his head above the hole they just made. To anyone else behind, he shakes his head and signals with one hand, 'two' and 'zero.' Twenty?
That's the exact number out there.
In the distance, an engine roars - calling forth further attention from the squad surrounding them as a bunch of no-good scavengers are now barreling through the warzone on an awesome new abandoned motor vehicle...
Theirs!
It erupts into chaos.
"We're surrounded," Ethius calmly explains to those not aware, "our options at this juncture are limited."
Someone else is going to have to give the good(?) news of the stolen Caravan Kinship vehicle careening a bit too close to the site of the standoff.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune grits her teeth; she's still atop the back of Big Shal, but now she's there with a gun trained on her, and after a moment she raises her hands and lets her staff clatter back to the metal gantry. The golem pauses, as if willing to go on - but then stays where it is, almost powering down to quiet. "... why? ... why are you taking this out on other humans?!" she blurts, actual anger laced behind her tone. "What did we do?! You attacked us!"
Dimly, she recognizes the incoming caravan - her eyes flick towards it for a moment before she bites her lip, planting her feet a little apart and more firmly on the golem as she prepared for impact.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata is breathing harder than she ever has before as the wreckage nearly collapses and digs in on the Rephaim, try as she might -- the oppressive presence of warning symbols are starting to surround her, and it doesn't feel good.
The CaraKin is somehow moving towards them -- perhaps because of scavengers. Or perhaps Matilda is on her way to save them -- but even Lunata isn't feeling that optimistic right now (and Matilda probably would opt to use the Honeybee rather than the CaraKin, which is decidedly not a weapon.)
"I'm... I'm going to buy you time," Lunata declares. "When you find a chance, run for the CaraKin!"
She doesn't brook any disagreement right now -- the Rephaim suddenly launches into action as another filter of memory starts to claw its way into the recesses of her mind--
--The Rephaim draws its arms in. With an indefatigable charge, the shimmering, oscillating field of its barrier starts to crackle as bullets and gunfire rain down abound its surface harmlessly... and it discharges outwards. Trees, buildings, parks, passerby all vanish in a blinding sphere of light--
--and memory becomes reality as that sphere detonates in front of them, surrounding the Rephaim and the Kislevi squad in a shining light surrounded with what the CaraKin can see is a golden, burning, shimmering wheel.
The Wheel of Spirits.
The howling echo of death and demise eerily stings through the warzone in the wake of its disaster--
--and when it fades...
...the Rephaim simply isn't there anymore. No debris, no husk, no wreckage to call a Gear. It's just simply... disappeared into thin air -- vaporised, perhaps, or... displaced, elsewhere.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune takes the opportunity to bolt forward in the direction of the Caravan - or rather, Big Shal does, making the decision for the mechanic as it suddenly bursts into a run, not at all scared of the odd light coming from the Rephaim as it sweeps through it. The pink-haired girl is forced to throw up her hands to try to shield herself; dimly, past her fingers, she realizes that the Golem is shielding her as well, both arms up and stuck in a cycle of disintegration and rebuild as it protects its passenger--
--and then the light has gone, and with it, the Rephaim, and Shalune is left staring wide-eyed at the space it inhabited. "L-Lunie--...?" she murmurs to herself, and then grabs for the edge of the gantry. She'd clear it with a vault were it not for Big Shal's hand catching her - restraining her, even, the golem apparently determined to get them safely away from the battlefield as a first priority. "What-- Shal?! Let go!" the mechanic blurts as she struggles against the grip, her eyes wide.
"Let-- there's gotta be something, let go!" she yelps afterwards, voice strained and in hysterics. In front of the Golem, the scavengers have noticed the twelve-foot mechanical figure, evidently headed on a beeline for them - and in a wake of cries and panic, they're already fleeing the Caravan like rats from what they believe to be a sinking ship.
==========================[ The Carakin ]===========================
Name Idle Pose %HP Exhaustion
Shalune Amira 1m 3m 100 139
Lunata Croze 32s 16m 100 139
Ethius Hesiod 5m 25m 100 137
Jacqueline Barber 2m 35m 68.4 128
Cyre H. Lorentz 13m 36m 100 131
Kourin 11m 38m 100 130
Catenna 1s 45m 100 130
Matilda Whitehead 4m None 100 124
====================[ Sun Aug 20 22:37:28 2017 ]====================
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
It was inevitable.
After eradicating a squadron of Garlean soldiers and utterly botching the attempt to sneak by a Kislevi division, is it any real surprise that they managed to make their way to the enormous fallen Avehan warship to seize these vagrants? Each and every one of them is guilty of the crime of accidentally happening into a warzone, after all. There's no mercy for such immoral debauchery.
Twenty Soldiers.
Twenty Soldiers surround them. The CaraKin is running amok. Lunata...
Lunata is--
"No--" Cyre gapes as he feels a spark of recognition surge through him. The Great Wheel. THAT Great Wheel. "No, Lunata, don't do it, you don't know what that will d--"
She's gone.
...But there are still more soldiers.
Cyre's mouth hinges shut with a snap of enamel. He looks down to the gathering soldiers. Their commander whips them into a frenzy. Vengeance. Cry Havoc. Cyre breathes a long, trembling sigh.
"...Catenna," he says, fishing a flask out of a pouch on his hip. "Keep... Keep the others safe, alright? I'll need to... Take care of this."
He closes his eyes and tips the last dregs of fluid back.
They weren't able to see it before- not up close. Perhaps they felt it. That wave of raw power that causes the very air to tremble with barely-restrained energy. They see Cyre double over, clutching his medium to his chest, they hear him howl a cry of pain and grief and power as his form distends and expands, growing rapidly beyond the constraints of mere mortal man. It surges with strength, long black lines stretching across a field of pure white. The Great Tiger closes a clawed hand into a fist. Its eyes open.
And without a word- but with a roar that shakes the very foundations of heaven and earth, the Nahual explodes from the broken ship. His claws spread wide as the air transforms into a storm of razor-sharp winds. One soldier is dead before Cyre hits the ground. The beast's eyes narrow into murderous slits as its maw opens to issue forth a roar that pulverizes another man's bones.
And that is only the beginning. The Wind's Wrath is unleashed.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
...Oh no. They made it through the battleship just fine, but...then...
Things get worse.
Soldiers.
Kislevi soldiers with weapons pointed at them. Jacqueline stares at them all in shock.
This...wasn't the way things were supposed to be. She stands there in silence as she tries to think of a way out. She hears the CaraKin moving in the distance. To the person who had overseen every step of its construction, that sound was unmistakable. That was an opportunity...
And then...
Things get worse.
'I'm going to buy you time.'
"L-Lunata!? What're you doing!? Don't-" Jacqueline calls out, concerned. But it's too late.
She's gone.
"LUNATA!!" Jacqueline calls out, anguish unmistakable in her voice.
...And then she was gone, Rephaim and a good portion of the Kislevi soldiers along with her.
Jacqueline stares in disbelief. The only thing that snaps her out of it is what Cyre does.
She doesn't understand what Cyre does. One moment he was himself, and then the next...he rushes the Kislevi soldiers, ripping through them with a ferocity she had never before seen from him.
It was, in a word, horrifying, but it was enough to snap her out of her trance.
"E-everyone! We need to get to the Carakin, now!" She shouts, and breaks into a run. Fortunately, Big Shal had done them a favor and had apparently already emptied the Caravan of thieves, meaning that Jacqueline does not feel bad at all about what she does next.
Being so familiar with the vehicle, she knows exactly how much punishment it can take. She also knows that what she's about to do won't cause any lasting damage, and nothing that'll hinder its ability to get them out of here.
The thieves had fled, but they hadn't bothered to put on the brakes. It was still running away from them. She draws forth a crest, and a pillar of earth pops it into the air. And then, with two more castings, two more come in from the sides, catching it in a surprisingly gentle manner.
She then breaks into a run. Once everyone is inside she'll dispel the pillars, but before she gets too far, she'll take a look back to see how the others are faring in making their way to the vehicle...
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna's small enough that she can snake through the hole Rephaim knocks in the side of the battleship. She clambers through it with some difficulty and drops down on the other side.
Into the hands of no less than twenty soldiers with ARMs. Catenna immediately levels her left hand and begins to chant something.
She's cut off with a strangled yelp as one of the Kislev soldiers opens fire and shoots her in the shoulder. The Zoa Priestess is thrown off her feet, twisting unhealthily in the air as she goes down. As she attempts to struggle back to her feet, she clutches her sword all the more tightly, clenching her teeth. Blood pours from that left shoulder, seeping down her side in a red trickle.
One of the soldiers promptly takes her by the other shoulder and wrenches her to her feet, another pinning her arms behind her back and wrestling her sword out of her grip before tossing her aside, apart from the other six. She still manages to catch what Cyre tosses to her, her eyes wide.
That's about when Lunata and Rephaim do something truly insane. The Wheel of Spirits encompasses much of the squad. A few of the soldiers attempt to lunge out of it. Most fail to succeed. Most that do are torn apart by the ravening Nahual.
A couple, however, do. "Lunata," Catenna gasps as she scrambles back to her knees, going for her sword again.
It's short-lived; one of those two surviving soldiers abruptly kicks her in the face. She hits the sand again, dazed and bleeding from the nose. The pair of soldiers abruptly take ahold of her and begin to scramble to safety, simply manhandling their prisoner along. They try to get out of there before Cyre can turn on them.
Her sword is left buried in the sand behind her, the hilt sticking out.
<Pose Tracker> Kourin has posed.
Kourin follows Jacqueline to the Carakin.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
All around, gambits are in employ. This could be everyone's last stand, today... but all of them have a task as declared by the Guardians themselves. There is blood, there is screaming. There are tears that will stain the desert sands, only to be evaporated by the heat of the sun into nothing.
Ethius makes his move, as everyone makes it clear they will face the odds.
He has no choice but to fight through those soldiers still there through all of this en route to helping with Jay's own mad dash, and he puts a hell of a show of it. Some shots are snapped, but there's a certain flow to the way Ethius moves - one that doesn't seem to require catlike agility or inhuman grace. It borders prescient. A keen understanding of how and when a gun is being pointed, and when the trigger may be pulled. His only limitation is the limits of his own mortal reflexes.
He navigates a position the Kislevi squad is trained to understand is certain death. Bullets that should hit the heart or brain find debilitating but less fatal places in which to strike. His right shoulder, his abdomen. Three just graze past the left side of his head alone, as he goes low and scoops up a handful of sand.
He has to try and complete the gestures for the spell that enables a Powder Grenade to go active with just two fingers in his left hand, and an unsteady shaking in his right as the tattoos light up to give away the cue that he is up to something. Clutching what sand he can tight at the tail end of it, a pained cramping grows in his left hand. There is a reason he keeps the contents in a satchel - an empowered burst of dust wants to do just that.
He whirls up to a stand as another round of gunfire passes above him. Another bullet in his lower back. Another in his right forearm. A bayonet slashes against his upper back and even comes close to spearing through his neck.
His eyes do not go wild. He palms his left hand into one of the soldiers to release the blast of dust. His left hand's fingers shudder as they're snapped back from the force of its explosion.
How Ethius can still move as he does through several surges of pain that should disable him right then and there goes beyond mere toughness. This is a man who seems to be able to mentally compartmentalize physical pain, to an extent, out of the way of thoughts and sensations he deems of more immediate concern as he staggers out from the cloud.
The same sheer stubbornness and grit that sees a man survive a year and a half out on Filgaia with virtually no resources or memory of who they are (beyond name) or what they're even doing there. The same sheer stubbornness and grit that sees him willing to hurl himself in the face of far better-armed opponents and - if not win - survive.
Whatever his ultimate purpose is, it must be of great enough import that he will not allow himself to slow down or properly get killed by well-trained soldiers that should be more than a match for him on paper.
His legs, even through his wounds, carry him fast enough towards the CaraKin vehicle, with Big Shal successfully scaring away the would-be thieves from everyone's only means of escaping the battlefield. He just throws himself in there with one final dive to what is only safety as long as they stay there.
Inside the vehicle, a bloodied left hand slaps itself against whatever surface Ethius can use to stand up, as he moves towards the back.
"Miss Jay, Miss Shalune, Miss Kourin," he can still speak so politely after at least six near-death scenarios back-to-back?! "We must take our leave immediately."
"Now." He adds, his tone of voice marginally but yet appreciably harsher as he falls to a crouch.
He's not going to wait for the others to catch up? For Lunata to reappear? Or... he's going to let them go - and maybe even Matilda, who they have been separated from - fend for themselves?!