2017-08-23: All of the Explosions
- Log: All of the Explosions
- Cast: Claude C. Kenny, Zed, Talise Gianfair, Tethelle Cirdian, Rosaline Calice, Ida Everstead-Rey, Layna Manydays
- Where: The Battle Front
- Date: Wednesday, August 23, 2017
- Summary: Most of the Fox Company, along with Claude, Tethelle and Zed, flee westwards. They encounter explosions in various forms along the way.
DG: A party led by Claude C. Kenny 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> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
'TWO HOURS AGO'
"AAAAAAAH!" Claude C. Kenny screams as he runs into the Guardian Temple, carrying a girl over each shoulder.
'ONE HOUR AGO'
"AAAAAAAAAH!" Claude C. Kenny screams, as the Guardians of Filgaia are GIANT JERKS.
'HALF AN HOUR AGO'
Claude C. Kenny stirs a pot of beans, then looks up at Tethelle. "So I'm from space," he says.
'FIVE MINUTES AGO'
"Hey Tethelle, what do you think this button doe---"
(floor disappears)
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
'NOW'
"AAAAAAAAAAAH!" Claude screams as he starts running through a war zone, ducking his head as far down under his bulletproof jacket as he can. THIS IS THE WORST QUEST EVER
DG: Claude C. Kenny has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Artillery Bombardment.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Do you know what Zed likes? Swords.
Do you what Zed likes a lot? Anime.
Also explosions.
He doesn't like Guardians much because they're kind of jerkfaces overall apparently but explosions are definitely something that he can get behind.
"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Zed cackles like some kind of bescarfed madman as he leaps and dodges JUST TO MAKE TOTALLY SURE that he has an explosion going off behind him at every possible moment.
Cool guys don't look like explosions, you know.
Zed is a pretty cool guy.
DG: Zed has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Artillery Bombardment.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise did not have a good time with the Guardians. In fact she might've cursed them out and drawn her sword on them.
She stuffed the Medium given to her in her pocket, after brusquely informing Noua Shax she's only saving his world because Lady Chloe would do it. Then she followed her friends to the exit.
Something explodes near Claude - and then a tall shape bursts through the fireball, trailing a plume of smoke. It's Talise. Her seafarer's coat streams behind her as she makes a mad dash through the artillery rain, clutching her sword in one hand.
She can't miss the screaming. Widening her eyes, she shouts, "CLAUDE! Claude, are you okay?!"
She tries to say something else but a shell lands not far from her and explodes, thunderously. The shockwave of it nearly hurls her off her feet. She staggers and continues on, her ears ringing.
"Zed, this is not funny!" Talise shouts up towards him, though she can barely hear herself do it.
DG: Talise Gianfair has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Artillery Bombardment.
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
AN HOUR AGO
Tethelle spoke to a Guardian, and not for the first time in her life.
It was an honour, even if she'd just been tested in such a way that pushed her to the limit.
FIVE MINUTES AGO
"I don't know, why don't you push it?" Tethelle lives on the edge.
This was a mistake and she is slightly regretting it.
RIGHT NOW
Tethelle is running after Claude. She does not have a bulletproof jacket, or indeed any jacket at all; what she has is her shoulder guard, a strangely curve-heavy crude sword, and a pack with some new equipment. She did eventually put the Medium in said pack, at least, instead of carrying it around in her hands everywhere; it is currently bundled in her spare shirt because it was the only thing that could provide padding. Why Tethelle thought a stone plate needed padding is a good question.
Either way, she's running after him, but she's not a fantastic runner - Tethelle doesn't precisely skip leg day but she's definitely stronger through her upper body, and also (though she won't admit it) she's kind of short. Claude is slowly outpacing her, despite best attempts.
"Wait for me!" she calls, putting her head down and breaking into a sprint. " - Wait, Talise?"
DG: Tethelle Cirdian has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Artillery Bombardment.
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
Today has, all in all, not been one of the best days. Rosaline and her friends should count their blessings that they haven't exploded yet.
However, they're still going to need a few more blessings before the day is done. Luckily, Rosaline has been praying very hard from the back row, while the group found its way back out of the Temple.
And now, it's time to start cashing them in!
She's using her hands to run as she escapes a large dust cloud, running inhumanly fast thanks to the perks of her strange Beastwoman anatomy. Unfortunately, said anatomy also has several downsides, such as a hyper-sensitive sense of hearing, one that turns into a liability when extra-loud explosions are involved.
"OH, HELLO!" she screams at the top of her lungs upon seeing Claude. She's run into him before! Tethelle, not so much, but a friend of a friend of a friend, etc. "AND HELLO TO YOU TOO!" Even with the loudness going on in the background, she's still being a decibel or twenty too loud right now!
"PLEASE FORGIVE ME," she explains, pointing to her ears, "I'M ONLY HEARING A HIGH-PITCHED WHISTLE RIGHT NOW!"
DG: Rosaline Calice has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Artillery Bombardment.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida is not in a good place right now.
Five minutes ago, as her team was emerging from the Temple, artillery shells began raining from the heavens--and somewhere, in the thick of it, she lost track of Kalve and Sephilia. The barrage has not let up since. The Ida that Claude sees running after him is ragged and fatigued, forcing herself to run even though she's exhausted her reserves. What's left of her shirt and jacket are covered in bandages, which Riesenlied applied after she took the brunt of Siegfried's fury. A ragged poncho flutters around her, still bearing the brooch with her family crest that angered Siegfried in the first place. She confessed to having a crush on a space alien not two hours ago, mostly because she was terrified the Guardians were going to kill him. She is running dangerously low on ammunition.
"CLAUDE!" Ida says, screaming to be heard over the explosions. "TETHELLE! THIS WAY!" She heard stories about the Celesti Civil War, and how they used artillery to shell enemy positions before moving in. Experiencing it is something else entirely--it's like an angry god is punching the earth all around her.
The Medium of Moor Gault grows warm in her pocket.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Artillery Bombardment.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Meeting the Guardians had...not quite been what Layna had expected. She had expected something...wiser? To her, she just saw a bunch of spirits who were only capable of bickering with each other and little else. Suffice it to say, her opinion of them was pretty low at the moment.
Still, the gift she had received was an...interesting one. It filled her with a familiar sense of ease. She didn't know yet which one was responsible for this Medium, but she intended to find out.
She had a feeling that if she could get along with any of the Guardians, it'd be this one.
Of course, if she wanted to do that, she needed to get out of here alive.
The outside of the Guardian Temple was heavily reminiscent of some of the ship battles she had been through. Of course, where those had been filled with artillery spells, the ammunition that was being fired here was like something else entirely - terrifying creations of fire and metal that threatened to slice apart anything they didn't burn.
While ordinarily she would be content to stroll confidently through the fire, right now, there's a sense of urgency in her companions that incites her to keep up.
Much like the way she had charged in to meet Lady Harken, Layna dashes through the battlefield surrounded in a green glow.
"Save the chatter for later, lass! Just keep moving!" She shouts toward Rosaline, owing toward the latter's currently-deafened state.
DG: Layna Manydays has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Artillery Bombardment.
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
"WHAT?" Rosaline answers Layna.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna rolls her eyes, makes a lip-zipping gesture, then points emphatically in the direction she, at least hoped, was safety, the direction everyone was running. Or relative safety, considering everything that was going on around here.
=============================<* 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 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Claude C. Kenny 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rosaline Calice 0 --(15)--> 15 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Talise Gianfair 0 --(16)--> 16 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Layna Manydays 0 --(13)--> 13 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 0 --(14)--> 14 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zed 0 --(16)--> 16 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tethelle Cirdian 0 --(16)--> 16 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Claude C. Kenny 0 --(10)--> 10 Fail Conditions: Slow(2)|Suffer Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Claude C. Kenny 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> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
"AAAAAAAAAAAA--"
Claude blinks as people start yelling at him; he stops in shock, which is generally a bad idea when artillery is landing around you, but it does give Tethelle some time to catch up. "I'm fine!" he shouts back at Talise, and then looks up at a sounds, just barely out of hearing, then turns on his heel and dives toward the running Sword Priestess, tackling her to the ground just as a blast opens a crater in the space he evacuated moments before. Fire and stone roar outward, and Claude ducks and covers... a few seconds later, he realizes he's not dead, and gets up off of Tethelle.
In that moment, his ears ringing from the blast, he forgets that he's afraid, and training takes over. His eyes sweep across the battlefield, stopping in a few places for an instant longer.
"We've got to get out of the killing ground!" he shouts, his voice a little off from the tinnitus. "Toward the artillery! Got to close with their screen, or we'll be chewed apart!" Claude begins sprinting in the aforementioned direction, drawing his sword on the move. He pushes throughts of Rena and Cecilia out of his mind - for now, focus on survival. Said you'd save everyone in front of you, he thinks to himself. Time to do it.
DG: Tethelle Cirdian has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* The Battle Front *>============================= =======================<* 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> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
Tethelle Cirdian's first instinct, when tackled, is actually to punch the person who did it; she manages to restrain herself from decking Claude, but it's a narrow thing as she's piled on top of.
Tethelle slides out from under Claude, more dazed than anything else from the nearness of the blast. She pushes herself to her feet, looking over the people nearest her - she doesn't recognize all of them, but she's seen at least some of them at least once. Unfortunately that means she sees Zed, and her hand immediately reaches for her sword's hilt. She draws it, still looking at him.
"Go that way!" she says, pointing with the curved blade - and not at Zed. And, indeed, it opens up a little in that direction; there are still enemies, but they look disorganized, like a gang of goons rather than part of the army. Because they are; bandits and opportunists, not elite fighters, not even regular troops. Tethelle spotted their mismatched weapons immediately.
Okay, so her group has mismatched weapons too. It still counts.
Tethelle reaches for her necklace, holding her thumb against the stone disc there before she charges. She's tired, but she's still willing to fight, and as long as everyone else doesn't leave her out in front by herself she figures it's the best option.
DG: Tethelle Cirdian has used her Tool Icon of Equites toward her party's challenge, Pre-Graverobbers.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Losing track of Sephilia is what's really eating Talise. She should've done better to protect the girl. What if something happens to her?
With a startled blink, Talise looks back towards the sound of the other voice. "Tethelle?!" she calls out, startled - but in spite of herself she smiles.
Talise, meanwhile, did not skip leg day. She's keeping a pretty good speed but that doesn't mean much with everything is exploding.
Including a shell right behind her. With a gasp she's hurled off her feet and flung forward, barely managing to stagger to a rough landing and stumble on.
"Damn it, I hate these guys," she growls as she finally escapes the worst of the shells. Looking back towards the others, she shouts, "Try to stick together! Don't let 'em split us up!"
Enemies loom ahead - but as Talise calls out, she can see they're no elite fighters, merely bandits, ruffians out looking for an easy mark. But she doesn't have time to be gentle for them. All she has time for is to rip one of the knives off of her belt.
Talise throws the knife into the cluster of bandits, and as the blade strikes the sand, the spell in the hilt does the work. An explosive blast of lightning bursts from the throwing knife to blast at the ruffian band, before Talise goes barreling into them, Rastaban swinging.
"TIDAL BLOW," she shouts as she attempts to cut one of them down with a violent, charging stroke.
DG: Talise Gianfair has used her Tool Bomb Knife toward her party's challenge, Pre-Graverobbers.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude C. Kenny is trying not to think about Zed right now, because those feelings are complicated. Complicated in a sort of an I-was-your-rival-and-then-we-tried-to-kill-each-other-but-you-saved-people-and-also-called-my-pocket-healer-and-we're-both-agreed-Harken-and-Berserk-are-lunatics-but-you're-still-helping-them-sort-of-and-why-is-Ida-still-giving-you-the-time-of-day kind of way.
Like he said: complicated.
He shoves a handful of beef into his mouth to help take the edge off the pain, then grits his teeth as he spots the looters. Claude swallows hard and dashes forward, firing an Air Slash and then engaging. "Cut through!" he shouts. "Cut through and don't stop!"
DG: Claude C. Kenny has used his Tool Pocket Steak toward his party's challenge, Pre-Graverobbers.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Explosions are a lot of fun! Except when you're caught up in one yourself. "Ahahahahaha-haa!?" Zed squawks as a big boom goes off right behind him! Conveniently, he's still facing away from it, which means he actually gains rather than loses coolness! Probably. He also conveniently begins sailing right towards that... particular gaggle of bandits.
They get a faceful of smoke and a Metal Demon's cursed sword to the face in repayment for arresting his fall.
It's only then, when Zed leaps boldly from the smokescreen, that he notices...
That... He is here.
"...!" Zed points! Boldly! At Claude! "My grand rival! I'm so glad to see that you were not bisected by Lady Harken that time in Lacour. Unfortunately, now is not the time for us to test our strength against one another. Instead, let us join hands! For victory!"
A bomb goes off nearby.
"ALSO PROBABLY SURVIVAL."
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
Rosaline mouths 'Oh!' and gives Layna a thumbs-up, kicking up dust as she turns in the indicated direction. She's having trouble hearing Claude's commands, ironically for the same reason his voice is off. Luckily, she still gets the gist of it. She's never been in the middle of a warzone like this, but Mother Oba's teachings are comprehensive.
She takes a moment, as she dashes, to concentrate on her crest and heal her ears. There! That whole joke wasn't going to last the whole scene.
But now, here come bandits.
"OUTLAW SCUM!" she roars, for a now entirely different reason, as she draws her ARMs and opens fire towards the bandits, giving no regard to her dwindling ammo clip supply. "GO TO HELL AND DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!"
She's had a rough day.
DG: Rosaline Calice has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Pre-Graverobbers.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Beat.
"Wait." Zed scrunches his face a little bit. "Where is your girlfri--"
Beat^2
"...Rosaline?" Zed tilts his head, "Uh. Are... Are you okay?"
You know shit is fucked when the Metal Demon is concerned that you're getting too violent.
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
Rosaline's only answer is to roar incoherently as she reloads. At least she's not shooting her friends, and Zed still seems to be on that list.
This might be a thing to talk about later!!
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise has started to almost get used to Rosaline's periodic descent into Angry Shootingsville. She still winces a little. "Ros', we're gonna have a talk about anger management later," says the world's biggest hypocrite as she continues stabbing bandits.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
A shell races for Ida. She hears it coming in, and the low whistle it makes as it soars through the air sends a fresh spike of adrenaline through her system. Run, her body concludes. Run, or die. She runs.
The shell hits dirt about twenty feet behind her, far enough that she's not hit outright, but close enough that the shockwave blows her off her feet. Ida flies forwards, hits the sand face-first, and leaves a furrow in the ground as she skids. Somehow, she manages to put down her hands, push off, and stagger into a run again--and make it look vaguely graceful. "Is everyone all right?!" Ida says, eyes wide. Kalve and Sephilia might not be, but Ida is desperately trying not to think about it. Claude seems to have identified where the artillery is located, and with luck, the group makes it out in one piece.
Bandits.
Rosaline immediately opens fire. Ida glances at the nun, eyes wide, having been knocked out of her own sudden wash of fury by it. "LATER, ZED!" Ida roars. She pulls a canister off the small of her back, ignites the fuse, and tosses it right at the bandits. They have guns. Ida does not care about the guns. "FLASH OUT!"
BANG goes the grenade, a moment later, sending a burst of blinding light across the battlefield. Hopefully Rosaline and the others think to look away.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Flare Grenade toward her party's challenge, Pre-Graverobbers.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna continues charging. Unfortunately, her momentum makes it hard for her to stop, and an unfortunately timed detonation near her sends her to the ground. While it had injured her, she still manages to get to her feet well enough. She looks worse than she's really feeling - while she's had access to plenty of recovery, her coat hasn't had the same kindness - it's a ragged, torn, bloody mess right now.
"Aye, I'm good. Just keep moving!" Layna calls out in response to Ida's comment.
Unfortunately, while they seem to have managed to get out of the main zone of artillery fire, there are plenty of troubles out here - namely, scavengers. Layna rushes in along with Talise and Tethelle to meet them headfirst, taking the former's suggestion to heart.
"Bah, these scurvy dogs aren't even worth my blades..." She mutters. And, indeed - she's delivering strikes solidly toward their guts unarmed.
When Ida calls out the flashbangs, Layna's sure to not look in that direction...by grabbing one of the bandits and using him as a shield against the light.
It's not going to be pleasant for him, but what did that matter?
DG: Layna Manydays has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Pre-Graverobbers. DG: Zed has used his Tool Smoke Bombs toward his party's challenge, Pre-Graverobbers.
=============================<* The Battle Front *>============================= =======================<* 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 *>======================== =========================< Results - Pre-Graverobbers >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Claude C. Kenny 20 --(6)--> 26 Pass Pocket Steak 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rosaline Calice 15 --(9)--> 24 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Talise Gianfair 16 --(8)--> 24 Pass Bomb Knife 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Layna Manydays 13 --(6)--> 19 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 14 --(8)--> 22 Pass Flare Grenade 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zed 16 --(7)--> 23 Pass Smoke Bombs 1 Combat Effects: Embolden and Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tethelle Cirdian 16 --(6)--> 22 Pass Icon of Equites 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Claude C. Kenny 10 --(20)--> 30 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(2)|Slow(1)|Suffer|Tire(2) Effects: Cleanse|Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Claude C. Kenny 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> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
"She's around," Tethelle replies to Zed, "but we took a rapid exit!"
Pushing the button counts as a rapid exit, right?
Tethelle is a little too occupied to hold a long conversation, but she manages to say a few things: "Yes, it's me; I didn't think you would be here with the Guardians." She is not sure if she means Talise, Rosaline, or Zed. Probably all three. She's a little worried about all of them - and the others - but that is definitely a thing to talk about later.
Right now, the group tears into the bandits. If there's one thing graverobbers don't want to deal with it's a septet of angry Drifters attacking them; there's no way they're going to fight for the death when they can go loot somewhere else, and so after some combat it ends up being something of a rout, with the bandits making a break for it.
That's fine by Tethelle, honestly. She'll fight forever, but if they can break out safely, she won't say no.
DG: Talise Gianfair 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> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"The Guardians didn't think he'd be here either," Talise calls back to Tethelle. There's a hint of something steely in her voice but she doesn't have time to debate it.
As the bandits go down, Talise heads for a sand dune just beyond where the group is standing. She moves to crest it - only to duck her head with a gasp and look back towards the others, holding a finger to her lips.
From over the rise, the heavy thud of boots can be heard, and it's growing closer. Just above the sand hill, a banner crackles in the wind - that of Kislev. Clipped voices can be heard shouting orders back and forth. There are a lot of them - probably fifteen or twenty. The group might be able to make a fight of it. But it'd be dicey, and they could call for backup.
Glancing rapidly from side to side, Talise widens her eyes as she looks for some cover. In the middle of a battlefield, not much of it is to be found. Looking down at the couple of bandits lying dead on the field (most of them got away but not all), she pauses for a moment.
Then she lets her legs go slack and falls limply to the side. She shifts Rastaban beneath her so it looks like someone's run her through with it, then lies there and pretends to be a dead bandit.
DG: Talise Gianfair has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Battalion Crossing.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"Y-yeah, they weren't really all that happy with me for... reasons." Racist, jerkface, discriminatory reasons. How dare they reject someone who just wants to be a buddy because he's part of a species whose end-mission description directly involves the Guardians' and Filgaia's inevitable demise!?
What monsters!!
But then, suddenly, there's a sound. A sound like... Jackbooted thugs marching in their direction? Zed grins because that's a near guarantee that he's about to KEEP FIGHTING in a hot minute here, but then Tethelle falls over with a sword in her gut out of nowhere, and suddenly Zed is confused.
What is it that she is doing, exactly?
Is she... Is she playing dead?
No, wait! Clearly this is ambush tactics! Yes, brilliant. Zed nods, "Very good! I'll have to STEP MY GAME UP. Ahem."
Zed bends one leg. He lifts another leg, also bent, behind him. Then he turns his arms, one angled up and the other down, all limbs at right angles.
He kind of looks like a running man.
But no, no that's not what he's trying to be.
This... Is this...!?
'Yes,' Zed muses internally. 'They will never expect... The Hidden Cactus Technique...!!'
DG: Zed has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Battalion Crossing.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida sees that banner, and her blood runs cold. Kislev. An organized unit, no way to tell how big it is at a glance, but probably 'more than they can comfortably handle'. Ida goes for the waterproof case at her side, which still clings stubbornly to her belt, along with her holsters. She pulls out her mother's journal, and checks a page.
"This way," Ida says. She glances down at Talise, but doesn't urge her to get up, lest one of the scouts see it. "They're probably in scouting formation," she concludes. "Fanned out like a V, ready to dig in the moment they see the enemy. This way--we might be able to sneak around them." She's not sure if they will buy it if there are too many suspicious 'corpses'
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude C. Kenny bites off a curse as the banner of a mass of soldiers - he doesn't even know who is fighting - begins tromping toward the impromptu group. Honestly, is he cursed today? Has his fortune been manipulated by some sort of retroastrology* cult?
He consults briefly with something that vanishes into his pocket almost as soon as he's drawn it - no other way around that he can see, so he drops down beside Talise and also plays dead.
* - In 3,645 SD, a latent cult of astrologers lamenting over the impending end of the Age of Aquarius - and infuriated by the fact that many of the stars they'd been reading for years were actually giant spotlights set up by alien trolls - decided to forestall the shift of the great Age through the hastily invented practice of retroastrology, which involved the physical displacement of stars into alignments that generated more advantageous flows of fortune or energy. The practice came to an abrupt end when the FSS Nostradamus - which has deployed with a crew complement of 76 astrologers and zero engineers - overloaded its engine and exploded.**
** - Their horoscope for that day: You may or may not want to be famous but you will get the chance to make your mark on the world. Whether or not you take it is your decision entirely but dont look back a year from now and wish you had been a bit more ambitious.
DG: Claude C. Kenny has used his Tool Tricorder toward his party's challenge, Battalion Crossing. DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Flora's Notebook toward her party's challenge, Battalion Crossing.
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
"Well," is Tethelle's response to that. She doesn't think Zed should be here, or that the Guardians should trust him with anything. He gets another glance out of the corner of her eye, because she does not trust him either.
She hears troops. Her first instinct is to challenge them, too, but cooler heads prevail and, after a moment, so does Tethelle's; she's not stupid, but when she gets going, it takes her a moment to cool down. Talise has a plan, and it doesn't seem like a horrible one. As an added bonus (?), Tethelle is already dirty from when she got tackled by Claude and rolled in the dirt, and bloody because she has been using a giant chopping sword at close range.
But it's more to her taste to follow Ida's plan. Tethelle edges to the side, staying low. "I'll call like an owl when they're past you," she says to Talise and Claude, inching towards a hollow in the rock where she can momentarily hide and then move past.
DG: Tethelle Cirdian has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Battalion Crossing.
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
Rosaline is not in a right state of mind. She doesn't even realize that one has to die die die before they can go to hell. Most importantly, she doesn't think to look away from Ida's flare grenade.
This has two effects where she's concerned. The first is that her shots fly in every other direction ineffectively (and, thank Granas, harmlessly).
The second is that this quickly knocks her out of... whatever that was.
"Granas, please," she whispers to herself as she clutches her cross, healing her own status effect for the second time in five minutes. She seems a little confused, but otherwise doesn't miss a beat. She seems to have missed people speaking to her entirely.
She peers over the dune, ducking quickly once she's seen the approaching batallion. She turns to see Talise's clever tactic, having a little smile.
But first, she has an idea of her own too. She clears her throat and lets out an INHUMAN SOUND--
~Meow~
Satisfied with her performance, she takes her bible out of her bag and slumps into the sand, keeping her mouth and eyes hanging open as she performs an eerily accurate impression of a corpse. The bloodstains on her habit and the bible clutches in a death grip give the scene an eerie realism.
But why the meow? So that if someone shifts or seems suspicious, the patrol will be inclined to think it was just a cat! (A desert cat.)
DG: You must use a Tool that matches the Challenge's Dungeon Ability. If you do not have one, use the matching Basic Action instead by typing +act Brute DG: Rosaline Calice has used her Tool Extreme Teen Bible toward her party's challenge, Battalion Crossing.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna discards the blinded and dazed bandit disinterestedly. She didn't ever bother finishing him off, she doubted he'd even try to come after them once he recovered.
However, as she begins to follow the others, she can hear...something up ahead.
A lot of somethings.
Layna ducks down and draws out her telescope, using it to take a good look in the distance. It didn't look like something they could comfortably deal with.
"Yeah...there sure are a lot o' those blaggards..." Layna mutters. She takes a quick headcount and counts them out for the group, just so they know what they're dealing with.
Rather than joining the 'corpse pile', she joins Ida in attempting to sneak. If it comes down to it, they might at least be able to ambush anyone who decides to come investigate the 'bodies'.
DG: Layna Manydays has used her Tool Captain's Telescope 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 3 *>========================= ========================< Results - Battalion Crossing >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Claude C. Kenny 26 --(6)--> 32 Pass Tricorder 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rosaline Calice 24 --(6)--> 30 Pass Extreme Teen Bible 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Talise Gianfair 24 --(5)--> 29 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Layna Manydays 19 --(3)--> 22 Pass Captain's Telescope 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 22 --(4)--> 26 Pass Flora's Notebook 1 Wits Effects: Enlighten and Fanfare --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zed 23 --(3)--> 26 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tethelle Cirdian 22 --(4)--> 26 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Claude C. Kenny 30 --(15)--> 45 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(2)|Wound(2) Effects: Enlighten(1) ================================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Claude C. Kenny 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> Talise Gianfair has posed.
The Kislev soldiers circle around the hill and find mainly a few corpses littering the sand.
The head of the battalion moves through the battlefield with a frown. "Ruffians," he snorts as he delivers a short kick to Talise's backside.
Talise rolls over limply, to her credit, and lies there like she's dead.
"Sir, look at this," one of the soldiers shouts.
A couple of the soldiers have clustered around Zed. One of them leans in and squints at him. The brigade leader strides over, frowning. "That's one ugly-looking cactus, Privates. What're you doin' starin' at the damn thing?"
"I think that's a guy, sir," one of the privates points out.
The brigade leader snorts. "Nonsense. I've seen a lot of cacti in my life and that is an ugly cactus." He waves a hand at Zed, then turns to his men and gestures. "Onward, MARCH! Move out!"
The Kislevi soldiers move on. Soon they've vanished around the hillside.
Talise lets out the breath she was holding. Only once Tethelle signals does she sit up. "Bastards," she mutters as she rubs at her bottom.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
"He really is an ugly cactus," mutters Claude, whose hearing seems to have recovered.
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
Tethelle Cirdian doesn't disagree.
Also, she knows how to call like a desert owl. Who knew?
DG: Zed has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* The Battle Front *>============================ ==================<* CHALLENGE - Caught in the Crossfire *>=================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Your westward flight is interrupted -- because as you run into this section of the battlefield, you find yourself moving between a line of Kislevi and Aveh infantry. Armed with gunsmoke ARMs, the two are firing on each other, sending bursts of gunfire into their ranks. They are behind trenches hastily dug, but you aren't so lucky. While they aren't aiming for you, bullets come whizzing by your head, threatening to shoot you down. =Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
'Yes,' Zed thinks. 'This disguise is impenetrable. There is no way they can detect me n-- wait, ugly!?'
A soldier walks right up to this thing that must surely be nothing more than a cactus.
Zed goes stock still.
There's a sound like a zipper coming undone.
Zed's eyes widen.
<<!>>
FIVE SECONDS AGO
"Hold on sarge," says Soldier 67. "Need to take a leak."
"God, 67. I told you you shouldn't have had the asparagus. Everyone knows MREsparagus gives you the piss."
"Yeah but it's so good though!! And that cactus is RIGHT THERE so--"
NOW
<<!>>
'AAAAAAAA--'
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH" Zed screams.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH" 67 screams.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" Zed screams harder and tilts forward and just sort of starts... Cartwheeling the hell away. There's a dust trail.
...Two seconds later, he swings back around, THROUGH THE AIR, screaming...!! "ZEEEEEDDDDER BOOOOOOOOO---!!!" And then he just straight up beans 67 right in the face with his boot.
And proceeds to plow right on through the rest of the brigade.
...And continues cartwheeling right into the middle of what looks like a heated, entrenched battle between a line of Avehans and a second line of Kislevi. Zed can be heard, echoing between gunshots, "--MEEEERAAAAAAANG!!!!"
You... should probably chase him.
He's heading in the vague direction of 'out of the battlefield' anyway.
DG: Zed has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Caught in the Crossfire.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude C. Kenny watches this happen. He stares after Zed. He starts to turn around. "Well, why don't we go---"
*EXPLOSIONS*
*ALL OF THE EXPLOSIONS*
*ALL OF THEM*
"....right," he mutters, drawing his sword and breaking into a sprint between the two lines. Claude sucks in a breath and whips his sword left and right, firing Air Slashes into the ground - and sending up clouds of sand that may help those behind him get by without problems.
"AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH! AIR SLASH!"
(well, other than the yelling)
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
"Well, that wasn't very nice," Rosaline says as she sits up, once the coast is clear. At least she wasn't the one to get kicked or called an ugly cactus. She looks at Talise hesitantly. "Do you want me to heal t--"
She turns her head when she hears Zed scream. Zed antics ensue. People go after him.
"Please wait for me!" she shouts, going all quadrupedal again because she's in a hurry. It's really a good thing that Etone habits are made to withstand a large amount of action stunts!
DG: Rosaline Calice has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Caught in the Crossfire.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise is right in the process of beginning to move off when a soldier doubles back and takes a leak on Zed.
The ostensible walking corpse just stares at the spectacle taking place before her. Then she stares after Zed as he takes off down the middle of a line of soldiers on both sides firing at each other.
"Althena's whisper-thin thong!" she curses as she hefts her sword again. "Zed, you're the worst cactus ever!"
Launching herself after her very stupid metal frienemy, Talise sprints flat-out down the middle of the line of soldiers even as Claude throws up a vast sand cloud. She tries nothing so elaborate as that. She simply keeps low, shields herself with her arms as best she can, and charges.
Then she reaches into her inventory and comes out with something she should not have.
The iron shield she stole from Amon Rau. Slowing, she doubles back to try and cover a few of her squishier party members. Specifically she doubles back to try and shield Rosaline with the shield.
DG: Talise Gianfair has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Caught in the Crossfire.
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
Tethelle Cirdian makes the executive decision that Zed can manage on his own. All she has to do is get across this battlefield, not chase him down.
While Tethelle is a trained swordswoman, she's not so much into the... army side of things. A superb duelist, or in one-on-many, or even in small teams, sure. But the tactics of the great armies elude her because she's never had to learn them. She is a champion, not a soldier.
She watches Claude for five steps before taking off after him. He's got the Air Slashes; Tethelle's strategy is less a straight sprint and more of a bounding, leaping movement. The movement makes it look like she's going to strike, though nobody is close enough to hit; instead her whirling, almost dancing movements make her a much harder target than otherwise.
This is not how Tethelle pictured using this series of maneuvers when she learned them, that's all she can say.
DG: Tethelle Cirdian has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Caught in the Crossfire.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida did not Thankfully, Zed manages to collectively distract the platoon long enough for Ida to sneak into the scouts' blind spot. Unthankfully, he promptly gets urinated on, and then goes flying down into the middle of the battle those soldiers were headed to. Ida gives chase.
"Damnation!" Ida cries, hurrying after Claude--Rosaline passes her, largely because she is taking shameless advantage of the cover he's throwing up. She covers her eyes with a hand, and starts flat-out running from cloud to cloud.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Caught in the Crossfire. DG: Claude C. Kenny has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Caught in the Crossfire.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna rolls her eyes.
Somehow, she should've expected something like that to happen eventually. She still can't help but be amused by it, of course, but this wasn't exactly the time or the place for that kind of thing.
And unfortunately, the same could be said for the direction he was running. She recites an incantation and chases after the rest of them, a whirlwind stirring up around her that kicks up yet more clouds of sand and obscures vision.
Hopefully none of them tried firing into the whirlwind itself...
DG: Layna Manydays has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Caught in the Crossfire.
============================<* The Battle Front *>============================ ==================<* CHALLENGE - Caught in the Crossfire *>=================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Your westward flight is interrupted -- because as you run into this section of the battlefield, you find yourself moving between a line of Kislevi and Aveh infantry. Armed with gunsmoke ARMs, the two are firing on each other, sending bursts of gunfire into their ranks. They are behind trenches hastily dug, but you aren't so lucky. While they aren't aiming for you, bullets come whizzing by your head, threatening to shoot you down. =Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
=======================<* The Battle Front - Round 4 *>======================= ====================< Results - Caught in the Crossfire >===================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Claude C. Kenny 32 --(3)--> 35 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rosaline Calice 30 --(4)--> 34 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Talise Gianfair 29 --(11)--> 40 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Layna Manydays 22 --(5)--> 27 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ida Everstead-Rey 26 --(12)--> 38 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Zed 26 --(12)--> 38 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tethelle Cirdian 26 --(10)--> 36 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Claude C. Kenny 45 --(15)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(1)|Injure(2)|Wound(1) Effects: ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Claude C. Kenny 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> Zed has posed.
The good news is that the party somehow manages to make it through without getting too badly shot to absolute shit.
The bad news is that the only reason that happened is because...
Well.
Zed sails through the air, screaming at the top of his lungs like some kind of heavy metal cross-boomerang. Unfortunately, the soldiers don't look at him and see a jolly Hyadean OR some kind of mis-placed subweapon from a totally different genre of game. Instead they see...
"CHOLLA!?"
"HERE!?"
"No! Not just a cholla! The... The legendary, Giant Flying Cholla!"
"FIRE!" The call goes out. "FIRE LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDED ON IT!"
And so Zed, and all those rushing closest TO Zed, end up taking the brunt of the gunfire.
But hey, at least the make it through more or less in one piece! Zed ends up buried leg-and-arm in a sand dune and manages to extricate himself even as his body rapidly begins chowing down on the utterly mundane bullets that managed to penetrate his protective armored suit. "Ugh! That was terrible! Why are humans full of such awful fluids!?"
DG: Rosaline Calice has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* The Battle Front *>============================= ======================<* CHALLENGE - Barricade Breaking *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- A barricade erected by infantry blocks your path ahead. Built between two outcroppings of rock, it would be hard to go around -- and even though it was placed in quickly, it is quite sturdy. Huge beams of steel and spikes make it hard to move. It could be dangerous, too; the chance of cutting yourself on those spikes is a real threat. =Dungeon Conditions: Tire, Bad Luck===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
"T-The legendary Giant Flying Cholla," Rosaline lets out, before remembering that this isn't a cactus she's looking at, but a clever disguise.
"Thank you!" she says as Talise shields her while she closes in, then overtakes the party and ends up ducking very, very low to avoid the gunfire! Luckily she's in one piece as the whole party makes it through the gauntlet, and this means she can put them back together.
But the chase slows down when a barricade comes into view. The Etone-in-training's ears droop at the sight. "More of these?" She rustles through her bag to pull out another one of her trusty sticks of Holy TNT, which she lights and throws forward!
"Let's keep moving, everyone!"
The confidence in her voice is undercut slightly when the thrown dynamite only ends up landing a few feet in front of her. Stupid spellcaster arms. Not slowing down, she grabs the stick again and runs with it right towards the blockade!
As almost everyone here knows by now, she's not worried about getting blown up, because this stuff can't harm people. How? Something about ludonarrative dissonance.
DG: Rosaline Calice has used her Tool Holy TNT toward her party's challenge, Barricade Breaking.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise does her best to keep the shields up but a couple of bullets slip through her guard anyway. One of them hits her just above the hip. With a hiss and a wince, she staggers, but she keeps on running, moving the shield to try and cover the team a little better. More shots ring off the iron surface.
Taking bullets for Rosaline only seems natural. The priestess may have a temper like a firebomb, but protecting the healer fits Talise's paradigm.
The barricades loom ahead. Shouldering the shield and letting it hang there, Talise sheathes Rastaban and straightens up, continuing to run forward, albeit a bit lopsidedly and with a limp. Letting out a low growl, she lets the magic in her gloves flow forth. "Let's clear 'em out!" she shouts, voice rolling aggressively as she bolts forward. Tightening her shoulders, she reaches for one of the barricades.
She grips it - and the fingers of the Ogre Power Gauntlets bite into the heavy steel beam. She snaps off several of the spikes by simply grabbing and twisting. Then she takes ahold of one of the beams itself. Her muscles bunch and tighten, a vein in her neck pulsing dangerously as she exerts herself.
And then, with a roar, Talise attempts to just rip the beam straight out of the rock outcroppings, and hurl it through the air and away.
DG: Talise Gianfair has used her Tool Ogre Power Gauntlets toward her party's challenge, Barricade Breaking.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude C. Kenny sheathes his sword at the end of the sprint, half-falling behind a chunk of stone. He takes advantage of the few seconds of space (and the hard cover) to suck in a few desperate breaths of air. Between the Metal Demons, the other Metal Demons, and the Guardians (who are buttmunches, with one exception), it's already been a long day, notwithstanding the break for beans earlier. He's beginning to feel the effects of it, and he's slow to get up.
Until Rosaline starts running at the barricade with TNT in her hand.
IN HER HAND
TNT EXPLODES PEOPLE AS WELL AS ROCKS
...PROBABLY
"OH MY GOD!" he shouts, then tries to fire a hadouken at the barrier to blow it up before Rosaline gets her ass dead. "Rigdobro, why are these people so crazy?" he asks desperately. The Star Guardian remains silent.
DG: Claude C. Kenny has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Barricade Breaking.
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
Tethelle has to slow down several times to try to deflect bullets, which actually works better than you'd think, in that she actually manages to parry a couple of them. Every time she manages it, there's a loud ringing sound, and she feels the impact all the way up her arms.
Unfortunately she can't get all of them, and when she slows down to do so she becomes an easier target. She gets to the far side, still running, scraped but not beaten.
Talise has a good plan, and Tethelle is quick to join it. She lets her break off some of the spikes and then slides in next to her, tugging her gloves up as she rests her sword back in its carrier. The protective leather lets her really put her arms into it without tearing up her hands by exerting her full strength, and with a grunt she tries to shift some of the barricade.
They don't have to move all of it, she figures. That would take too long, to throw all of it aside. They just need to scatter it so they can walk or jump over it. And that's just a matter of pushing through. When Tethelle realizes that Rosaline's TNT won't hurt her, she cheats; she picks up the TNT and jams it deeper into the barricade to loosen things up a little more.
"This is not," Tethelle grunts, "what I expected to be doing after speaking to the Guardians."
DG: Tethelle Cirdian has used her Tool Power Gloves toward her party's challenge, Barricade Breaking.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Fortunately, the whirlwind actually serves to divert many of the bullets away from Layna herself, so she makes it out without acquiring any real injuries. Unfortunately, there was a rather sturdy barricade with her. Layna sighs.
She finds herself regretting that she didn't bring along that drill ARM she had picked up in the Lightless Shaft. It would've been particularly useful, here and in the temple. Still, she has to make do with what she has, and what she has...
Is alcohol. And also some kind of non-alcoholic beverage for Rosaline specifically.
She passes out drinks to everyone assembled before strolling up the wall, studying it, and getting to work.
DG: Layna Manydays has used her Tool Quartermaster's Stash toward her party's challenge, Barricade Breaking.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
A bullet clips Ida's right shoulder, which is still recovering from being forced to taste the (negative) rainbow by Siegfried. She bites back a cry of pain, her eyes snapping open--and since she's in the middle of a sand cloud, she immediately shuts them again. She staggers out of the other end of the combat zone, her eyes tearing up. Everything is a blur.
By the time she manages to get the sand out of her eyes, the group has reconvened. Layna offers her alcohol. Ida takes it and downs it in a single shot. Alcohol does wonders to assist the already formidable Galadian stoicism.
That out of the way, Ida grabs the other end of the beam Talise is handling, letting her take the brunt of it while she assists in the fine maneuvering.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Barricade Breaking.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Hm.
Well, this appears to be a large, man-made fortification. "What," Zed huffs, hands on his hips. "They think they can stop us with something like this? I drill through thicker stone on mine duty back home!" Where do you think they get the metal to make more demons? It doesn't grow on trees!!
Not usually.
Z-Metal Trees are kind of a rarity in this part of the galaxy.
Zed wastes little time. Even as Talise flexes her muscles and Rosaline decides to stand in the explosions, the Hyadean warrior has already... removed his scarf from around his neck?
He's... Spinning it overhead? Like some kind of... gymnast's ribbon!? No! Like a spiral! A DRILL! He spins it faster, faster, fasterfasterfaster--
Soon, the world is filled with drill noises.
Soon, Zed is holding onto a giant, golden drill...!
"Here we go," he grins as the tool seems to spin on its own power. "Piercing destiny and the world, a story of drill and demon, eternally retold! Behold, the power of a MASTER OF SPINNING! Gigaaaaaa--" He braces, drawing his drill-ensconced fist back. "--Driiiiillllll--"
He kicks off, and thrusts his drill mightily into the wall! Rocks fly! Metal tears! Zed roars!! "--ZEEEEEDDDDEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!!!!
But is there a barrier he cannot breach? Has the Zedder Drill finally met its match!?
DG: Zed has used his Tool Drill Scarf toward his party's challenge, Barricade Breaking.
=============================<* The Battle Front *>============================= ======================<* CHALLENGE - Barricade Breaking *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- A barricade erected by infantry blocks your path ahead. Built between two outcroppings of rock, it would be hard to go around -- and even though it was placed in quickly, it is quite sturdy. Huge beams of steel and spikes make it hard to move. It could be dangerous, too; the chance of cutting yourself on those spikes is a real threat. =Dungeon Conditions: Tire, Bad Luck===========================================
========================<* The Battle Front - Round 5 *>======================== ========================< Results - Barricade Breaking >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Claude C. Kenny 35 --(9)--> 44 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rosaline Calice 34 --(4)--> 38 Pass Holy TNT 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Talise Gianfair 40 --(6)--> 46 Pass Ogre Power Gauntlets 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Layna Manydays 27 --(6)--> 33 Pass Quartermaster's Stash 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 38 --(4)--> 42 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zed 38 --(5)--> 43 Pass Drill Scarf 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tethelle Cirdian 36 --(6)--> 42 Pass Power Gloves 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Claude C. Kenny 60 --(15)--> 75 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(2)|Injure(1)|Tire(2) Effects: Stalwart(1)|Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Claude C. Kenny 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> Rosaline Calice has posed.
"Oh, thank you!" Rosaline tells Layna when she's handed a refreshment, one that she can even drink without losing her paladin powers. Her TP is refilled!
"And thank you as well!" Rosaline says when Tethelle takes her Holy TNT in hand and places it somewhere it'll actually be effective. A moment before it explodes, the nun conjures up a shield for those busy digging through the obstacles before them. The TNT itself might not be harmful to them, but it's still probably be to protect themselves from the debris.
And so, through the work of four sets of hands, at least two of which are equipped with task-appropriate protective wear, a hadoken and a GIGA DRILL ZEDDER ('What is a zedder?' Rosaline wonders) the barricade SPECTACULARLY EXPLODES, leaving the way open for our fleeing friends!
"Thank Granas," Rosaline sighs out, trembling, as she holds the shield overhead while sharp metal debris rain all around them.
DG: Layna Manydays 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> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida clambers up the slope, bleeding and winded. It has taken her incredible effort to come this far. The adrenaline is fading from her body; she's shaking, visibly, from the strain of her accumulated wounds. She hasn't pushed herself this hard for this long since Adlehyde. It hasn't gotten any easier.
In the distance, on the horizon, a shape like a great winged serpent rises up against the setting sun. Something flashes, and a ray like the sun lances through the Aveh forces arrayed against it. Soldiers die instantly, erased from existence. Gears are tossed aside like broken, half-molten dolls. A battleship takes the beam full in the stern as it crests a dune, and it's like God reached down and flicked it with a finger. It goes sailing end over end, tiny figures thrown free from it to plummet to the earth below. Ida stares at it. Her eyes are round, and the color has drained from her face.
She remembers Adlehyde. She remembers facing down a Metal Dragon, a creature of myth--a creature she dreamed of as a child. This--there's no cruel, ironic nostalgia. This is just an ancient war machine. This is what Siegfried fought, centuries ago.
The battleship hits ground a hundred feet ahead, lodging itself in the earth The ground shakes, and boulders tumble down. Twenty feet of burning, twisted wreckage lie between Ida and her team and freedom. Ida stares, stunned; she chokes back a sob as her brain finally catches up to the unfolding violence.
She curls a hand into a fist, and it glows.
Ida strikes. She screams as she does, a sound of anguish, despair, horror. Metal gives beneath her hands. She takes a step forwards, and strikes again. Is she trying to literally punch through the battleship?
Yes.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Shattered Landship.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
It feels like this has gone on for a long time. Wrenching the barrier aside, Talise struggles her way through. She's covered in sweat, soot and dust at this point, her mailshirt long since consigned to the battlefield and left for dead.
And then, a vast shape slashes through the battle - a serpentine shape, a blinding ray. With a shout, Talise shields her eyes with one arm, but she can't shut out the screams of the men-at-arms or the scent of flesh being flash-fried.
The battle of Adlehyde was horrible. This is somehow worse. She opens her eyes - and there's a thunderous crash as the battleship slams into the sand. Bodies spiral through the air. One of them lands just feet from her, barely recognizable. Talise stares at the dead men, her cheeks growing pale. Then she stares up at the immense thing barring the way forward, and at Ida's back as her friend shrieks with absolute despair and begins to pound on the battleship hull.
Wearily, the half-Beastwoman moves forward, stepping up beside Ida. As her friend pounds away, she briefly rests a hand on her back, as though to assure her that, even though everything isn't alright, at least she isn't alone. Or perhaps to assure herself that she isn't alone.
Looking up towards the hull looming in front of her, Talise breathes in, then lets it out. Magic vibrates through her gauntlets. Alone, her strength is awesome enough. The gloves give her an edge most people lack. Laying those metal-clad hands on the hull beside where Ida's hitting away, she clenches her teeth, forcing out a long, rushing breath through them.
(Lady Chloe would've been able to stop all this war and hatred,) she tells herself mockingly. (What kind of hero are you, Talise Gianfair?)
She doesn't answer her inner critic. Instead, she pushes her hands forward.
Her fingers tear through pure steel with a single, violent push. She grips the edges of the rip she's sliced into the metal hull of the ship. Her voice rising to a roar of effort and raw anguish, Talise begins to physically pull apart the thick bulkheads of the landship, aiming to wrench an immense hole in the hull for her friends to pass through.
She couldn't save those soldiers, or stop the fight. But she'll be damned if she lets Ida, Tethelle and the others die here like that.
DG: Talise Gianfair has used her Tool Ogre Power Gauntlets toward her party's challenge, The Shattered Landship.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
A few short months ago, Claude C. Kenny accompanied Cecilia Adlehyde and Ida Everstead-Rey as they uncovered the resting place of the Golem Lolitha. He was... unimpressed, frankly, at what seemed to him to be a suit of powered armour - something so stupid that Earth had stopped using them back during the old Terran Alliance days. Why would you deploy a suit of powered armour when a giant robot could simply step on it and crush them? The Boy from Earth came away from the encounter convinced that even a standard-issue AMWS could waltz through these old-ass pieces of crap without breaking a sweat.
The sight of the Golem Sado is sufficient to revise that opinion.
Claude gapes openly at the sight as the violet monstrosity carves through ancient Gears and battleships with almost contemptuous ease, its beam weapon simply washing parts of the battlefield away. It's insane. It's incredible. And for the second time in a day, Claude C. Kenny comes to the realization that he just might possibly be in over his head here.
The impact of the landship drives Claude down onto his knees, and he stares openly at the devastation in front of him. The blonde swordsman swallows and then steps forward, applying raw strength (and fireproof gloves) to tear apart enough of the ship to help them clear a path.
In the back of his head, though, he starts to worry. And so he works the zipper on his jacket, opening it to the air.
DG: Claude C. Kenny has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, The Shattered Landship.
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
Tethelle protects herself from falling debris by a combination of Rosaline's shield and a chunk of sheet metal she pulled out of the barricade. It seems to work well enough, in that she can hear things hitting the other side but nothing penetrates enough to actually smack her upside the head.
But what works for an exploding barricade does not work for a landship. Tethelle is far enough away that it doesn't land on her (which is good, because she wouldn't survive that). She's far enough away that it's a rumble through her feet, and a rain of smaller debris from overhead, which she tries to hold back with the improvised shield.
It takes her a good few seconds to realize what she's looking at, because Tethelle has never seen a land battleship before except at extreme distance and this one is rotated significantly from its intended orientation. It resolves, eventually, as an obstacle.
But there's people. She should -
But it's an obstacle. If she doesn't go past, she's going to get caught and die. And they're soldiers, not civilians; that makes a difference.
Tethelle pulls up her gloves, straightening the cuffs. She moves with Claude, no longer chasing after him or rushing ahead; she's going to work with him as a team, as they should have been doing all along. It's less tearing and more finding a route through what's already damage, but it counts.
But if she finds an injured soldier en route, she may have to stop and help.
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
Awestruck horror takes over Rosaline's features at the sight of the winged Golem in the distance. They won't have to fight it, thankfully, but it's hard to see the destruction it's spreading without being reminded of the horrors of Adlehyde.
But she turns away. Freedom seems so close now. Until that ship is sliced in half and lands...
The nun shields her eyes and ears as stone and dust are kicked up by the trembling earth. Tears well up. "Why? Why must you test us so?" She's nearing the end of her strength. All she and her friends want to do, right now, is live. Why must it be denied them at every turn?
But Ida won't be deterred. Rosaline's tearful eyes widen at the sight. She blinks. Right. They can't stop after coming this far.
"Please let me help!" she cries out, dust swirling around her as she clutches her Ethos insigna. "Holy sword!" Ida's fist may have been glowing before, but it's about to glow even moreso.
"Actually... Here, take this!" she shouts, going through her bag and pulling out her last stick of holy TNT. "Catch!" And so, she hurls it towards Ida with both hands.
And she immediately resumes casting, despite her pale face, panting and sweating indicating that she's nearing the end of her rope. There are more Holy Sword spells where that came from.
DG: Rosaline Calice has used her Tool Holy TNT 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====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna stares out at the violent serpent as it rampages across the battlefield. The sight of it was enough to crush even the spirits of Layna, who had been able to retain a manic grin even when up against a force as dangerous as the Quarter Knights.
This was...horrible. None of the previous sights on the battlefield had bothered her, really. Her life had been filled with violence or bloodshed. She was numb to it.
But this?
This was beyond that.
It was a grim, cruel massacre. This was no longer a fight, or even a battle. Nothing that was in the golem's vicinity stood a chance. Encountering it meant death, all hope crushed by the golem's coils.
This introspection is cut off by the sight of a giant ship landing ahead of them. Even from here, the shockwave was nearly enough to knock her off her feet. Unfortunately, from here they had only one path of escape, and that was through it.
She passes out drinks again, but it's not with her usual bravado. They're merely there to give everyone just a little bit more strength.
DG: Layna Manydays has used her Tool Quartermaster's Stash toward her party's challenge, The Shattered Landship. DG: Tethelle Cirdian has used her Tool Power Gloves toward her party's challenge, The Shattered Landship.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
That...
In the distance. The red-eyed behemoth. The serpentine engine of destruction. Zed... Zed has seen it before-- once, in the old archives of the Photosphere. That thing is...
"Golem--" Zed's eyes shoot open, and he actually physically pales at the sight of its beam raking the battlefield. "Golem of Darkness... Sado...! I've heard stories about that monster. What are they doing activating it out here!? Do they have some way to control it?"
Apparently, 'nearby active golem' is enough bad news for Zed to abruptly drop all pretense of sillyness and get on with the business of getting on. His jaw snaps shut with an abrupt click of teeth as he begins spinning his drill back up-- just in time for Ida to start trying to straight up punch through a ship.
"Not like that, Ida! You can't just punch it- you gotta PUNCH it! It's a wall! Hit it like you want to break your hand, but make IT break before YOU do!!" Metal screams and shatters as Zed advances with his spiralling, unusually sturdy cloth-based digging technique. "THAT'S TRUE PUNCHING TECHNIQUE!!"
M-maybe he shouldn't be trying to coach a student of the Shining Finger on how to use it properly, but he kind of probably DOES have some kind of fisting seniority here.
DG: Zed has used his Tool Drill Scarf toward his 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Claude C. Kenny 44 --(6)--> 50 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rosaline Calice 38 --(4)--> 42 Pass Holy TNT 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Talise Gianfair 46 --(5)--> 51 Pass Ogre Power Gauntlets 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Layna Manydays 33 --(6)--> 39 Pass Quartermaster's Stash 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ida Everstead-Rey 42 --(6)--> 48 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Zed 43 --(6)--> 49 Pass Drill Scarf 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tethelle Cirdian 42 --(6)--> 48 Pass Power Gloves 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Claude C. Kenny 75 --(35)--> 110 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(1)|Tire(1)|Wound(2) Effects: Stalwart(1)|Strengthen(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Claude C. Kenny has successfully explored The Battle Front!
============================<* The Battle Front *>============================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - The Lucky Find *>=======================
|Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
As you tear your way through the battleship, you come to a room that has not
been shattered. The hangar is damaged and burnt, but a small number of Gears
sit here. They are largely unharmed -- though unarmed, and they will need
some repairs before they could be used in combat. However, the engines are
active, and you could use these to force your way out.
OOC: Congratulations! You may each do some +request work to repair these
Gears and make them serviceable for a fight, if you wish.
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude C. Kenny stumbles through the hole in the wall into the hangar. He is dripping sweat, and a bit of blood, and there is a smear of grease or carbon on his left cheek. He coughs through the smoke and looks up to see...
"Borjanons?" he says suddenly, and he is staring at the Gears with wide-open, disbelieving eyes. Claude steps forward, walking closer to one of them, shaking his head. He's heard of the machine model, of course, because they were one of the first mobile weapons systems employed by the Terran Alliance - a model more than ten thousand years old. By modern standards, and certainly by Golem standards, it is a piece of utter garbage. But here, on Filgaia...
Claude moves forward quickly, hopping up onto the Gear's knee, then to its hip. "Should be...here," he says, pressing some sort of switch, causing the cockpit to hiss open, dust and sand falling down as a result of the motion. "Tethelle or anyone, if you want to get in with me, you can," he says, then focuses on the forward screen.
And starts speaking in tongues.
"Initiate emergency start-up sequence," Claude says, his voice even, level, and confident. "Load default calibrations and reset the zero moment point and CPG. Set control modules adjust based on pilot performance, and reconstruct the neural linkage network to..."
Claude pauses. He blinks at the screen, which remains unchanged. He slowly extends a finger and presses a button.
"Wait, this thing is ANALOG?" he screams. "WHAT THE HELL?"
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Zed is gone.
There's a little dotted outline where he was standing just a second ago. Where could he have gone? Did he escape to leave the others to their fate? Did he run off to fight Sado and buy the group some time? Did he--
"OH MY GOOD GOLLY GOSH THERE ARE GIANT ROBOTS" oh, no he's just already in the cockpit of...
Why is that thing so big??
"Oh man oh man oh man oh man--" the cockpit block is closing. "OH MAN OH MAN OH MAN OH MAN" Y-you can still hear Zed from outside.
"OHMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN-- GIANT ROBOTS!" The Gear's optics suddenly flash! Inside the cockpit, Zed is... Apparently lovingly rubbing his cheek against the controls. Somehow this is making the thing move. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA---"
Well, that's confirmation.
Metal Demons can in fact squee in delight.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
It's a strange, high-pitched noise.
It may in fact be debilitating to small animals.
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
Tethelle Cirdian, who has been sticking pretty close to Claude, does not climb up with him because it looks kind of cramped in there. She goes to her own, which is a slightly different model (nobody really has standardized Gears). "I don't think I'll fit with you," she says, though that's probably not actually true.
Once she gets into it, Tethelle is completely lost. It's a Gear all right. Unlike Claude, she does not try to talk to it because that method of controlling it doesn't even occur to her; she simply starts poking and gripping things, assuming that one of the buttons, levers, and other things that can be manipulated will eventually do something. Her sword hilt keeps getting dangerously close to jamming into things every time she turns her body.
Claude (and everyone else, actually) can see the Gear she is in cant alarmingly to one side as she manages to make its leg do... something. "Hmm." Maybe she didn't think this through very much. Raising her voice, she yells, "CLAUDE, HOW DO I WALK?" The cockpit hatch is still open so she can do this.
Actually getting it moving may take a few moments.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Metal squeals and warps as Talise spends her emotions and her sheer physical strength upon it. After use upon use, the magic of her gauntlets eventually fades, spent. Talise keeps on widening the hole. Even without the enchantment, her natural strength verges on terrifying - the metal's still bending when she pulls on it.
The metal gives way, finally. Staggering through the opening and into the wrecked hangar beyond, Talise doubles over, hands on her thighs as she pants for breath. Then she lifts her head.
Her eyes widen as she sees what's in here.
"Althena's giant hat," she curses with awe as she approaches the line of mobile weapons. The model may be archaic by Claude's standards. By Talise's, the machines are beyond incredible. She slides her gauntlets off, resting a hand on the foot plate of one of the towering machines. Watching as Claude climbs into the Gear, she cants her head to the side, then looks back towards Ida.
Smiling tightly, the blade-bard begins to climb up the Gear. "Ida, thanks for the tech lessons," she says as she scaled the Gear. Scaling the machine deftly, she soon reaches the open cockpit, settling into it.
Her hands move across the various levers and buttons inside. The first thing she does is try to read the labels on things. A flicker of confusion dances behind her eyes.
A moment later, the Gear's cockpit grinds closed, and it begins to lurch out of its docking clamps. Its engine thrums a little. It takes an unsteady step; AMBAC prevents it from toppling as it takes another, slow and probing. Both arms extend in front of it.
They wave around, as if it's doing the robot.
"Tethelle, there are little labels under some of those levers near your hands," Talise's voice comes through an external speaker. "And there's a foot pedal down there that controls your speed. Just try pressing it lightly."
How the hell she figured it out when she's from a planet even more technologically backward than this one and had never touched a Gear in her life before now, one might never know.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida's hand does not break, even as she vents her anger, her despair. She does, however, hit a point where she calls upon more than she can safely control--and it feels, for a moment, like her hand has been smashed in a vise. Claude sees her stop in her tracks after they've collectively broken through the hangar wall, shaking out her hand. It looks like it's burned. She doesn't meet his eyes; she knows she did what he told her not to do, in her loss of composure. She follows.
Gears. Ida saw Morgan's machine at rest not that long ago, even asked him to show her how some of the controls worked. Now, though--
Ida rushes over to the machine standing next to Claude's. Unlike him, she takes the ladder, carefully--one rung at a time. She watches as he opens the cockpit, frowning thoughtfully. She duplicates the motion, and... the cockpit opens. She clambers inside. She takes a moment to fasten the belts, because she's actually driven a car and knows that's the first thing you do. Giant robots shouldn't be too different. In the process, she jostles the radio controls, and therefore everyone can hear her take a moment to just sob.
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
Tethelle Cirdian's Gear is dead silent for about ten seconds as Tethelle shifts around in the cockpit.
"NONE OF THEM ARE LABELED WALK," Tethelle yells back, having not yet mastered the loudspeaker. "OH - YOU SAID PEDALS."
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"JUST PLUG A NERVE SPIKE INTO THE PRIMARY DATA JACK AND YOU'LL BE JUST FINE!" Zed yells through what appears to be a built-in surround sound system. This is how you know that God is a cruel, heartless monster. Because he gave Zed a built-in surround sound system sized for a giant robot.
"I SAW IT IN AN ANIME ONCE. IT WORKS JUST FINE!!"
Zed says, "I mean the alternative is-- uh. These cockpits don't look like they have guitar-controllers, so you'll just have to make do I guess!!"
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
This is it! Rosaline, in spite of herself, makes a weak punching motion in the air. They can really do this! Metal gives way, the group heads inside, and...
The beastwoman's ears perk up. Her eyes open wide. Suddenly, the reason for this test becomes clear. How, why did she doubt, for even a moment? "Praise be!" Deep down, she knew such a moment would come sooner or later. It's one of the main reasons the Ethos instructed her on gear operation at all.
She presses her hands to her ears when Zed lets out his Zed sound. She's a bit tired of going deaf today, thank you very much. And while she doesn't get into the cockpit with Claude, she does lead in to look at what he's doing.
She stares at him, blankly, as he speaks. She knows... Well, she knows some of these words. But what was that even?
"You can... You can bring up the help menu with this button," she points, helpfully, without breaking eye contact.
Until people start doing STUPID THINGS with their robots. "P-Please be careful, everyone! You could break something or worse if you press the wrong thing!"
She sighs and swings off the platform, looking around for one of the unoccupied robots, which she quickly climbs into. This is her first time in a gear, but the controls seem familiar to her. She allows herself a tiny smile as she powers the machine on.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude doesn't immediately know how to make it work, because he has literally never had to make an AWMS walk using actual hand or foot motions, because why would you do that? The brain power and muscle power you're devoting to making the machine move is brain power you can't use to, y'know, fight! Talise's mention of labels (ugh, really?) helps.
And then Zed, speaks, and Claude finds the intercom. Quickly.
<<Do not do that,>> Claude advises. <<Abolutely DO NOT do anything that Zed just said.>> He fiddles with the controls a bit, and then sighs. <<Okay, uh...>> The Borjanon slowly unfolds from its crouch, then whirls and punches the one next to it. <<Okay, uh... sensitive little thing.>> A few more looks, and then: <<Yeah, Talise is right. Right pedal controls speed, left pedal chooses the direction you're walking. Forward is forward...>> The Borjanon moves. <<Back is back.>> It demonstrates again. <<Your arms control its arms with the sort of...paddle...things.>> Claude sighs, forgetting the intercom is on. <<God, these controls are so dumb. What is this, the three thousands?>>
He sighs again. <<Okay, uh, just...sort of aim it at the wall and go forward at full speeed,>> he suggests. <<We should be able to outrun most things.>>
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise's gear stops doing the robot for a minute.
She watches Tethelle's Gear flailing around maniacally, but her attention is elsewhere. Lowering her eyes to the controls in front of her, she listens to some of the transmissions. Not the shouting ones. Her eyes search the panels in front of her again, trying to decipher some of the labels. Some, like 'computer input,' she has no idea.
Talise's Gear jerks a couple of times. It wobbles awkwardly as Talise tries to figure out how to rotate it. Eventually it manages, maintaining its balance only through an act of the Guardian of Ambac. Then Talise begins to apply a little bit of pressure to the foot pedal, in tentative spurts. Again her Gear begins to plod forward, arms waving around awkwardly before she manages to get them held out in front of the machine.
Biting her bottom lip, she steers the Gear in to give Ida's Gear a very awkward-looking robot-on-robot hug.
Five seconds later, the cockpit opens, and Talise leans out of it, resting a hand on the front of Ida's Gear's chestplate.
Talise Gianfair deals with the stress of these situations differently from Ida. She's usually the one to try and put a brave face on things, if only because one of her main traveling companions is a young girl who needs a big sister figure. For now, her instincts tell her one thing: That the right thing to do is to offer a shoulder, even a robotic one, and to be there for her friend at a time when Ida clearly needs help.
Her tears are held inside. For now.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna's starting to look a little tired as they force their way through the interiors. But then again, they all were. But still, eventually, they smash their way into the interiors of the ship...and inside they find...
"Gears?" Layna comments, surprised. Claude referred to them as 'Borjanons', whatever those were. Maybe that was the specific type or make of them? Whatever the case, there was one here for everyone.
A grin appears on Layna's face. She's tired, but the sight of these machines reminds of her of her own Gear, and of her crew that was waiting for her.
She goes over to one of them and climbs into it.
The inside is...different, but it's similar enough to her own that she can adjust pretty quickly.
"Heh...this is nothing compared to the Corsair, but it'll get us out of here. Maybe I'll give it to Victoria when we get outta here, she's been wanting one of her own." Layna comments over the loudspeaker.
She looks over to Talise as she manages to somehow maneuver the robot...into a hug??
"You catch on fast, aye? Took me ages to figure out how to throw a proper punch with the Corsair." She comments, approvingly.
That first one didn't count. The Gear she'd punched...was kind of garbage.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida rubs a bandaged hand across her eyes. Unlike Claude, she doesn't know the start-up commands necessary to abbreviate the calibration sequence. This results in her frantically scrambling to remember that stuff Father taught her about how Gears worked. People typically took those to the Ethos instead of him, but there were some exceptions. She takes a moment to test the controls, make sure the AMBAC's working as intended. She barely notices Talise's Gear approaching--except then it's hugging hers. Ida swallows. She looks over to see that the radio's on.
<<Thank you,>> she says. A moment later, her Gear raises its hand in what Ida tells herself is a testing gesture. It claps Talise's Gear on the shoulder to test the calibration. Yes.
A few moments later, Ida maneuvers the Gear into a jog. <<All of us at the wall together?>>
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
Tethelle Cirdian hasn't figured out the cameras, either. She's still looking out by physically looking out through the cockpit hatch. As a result, she misses some of what Talise does, being somewhat distracted with trying to do... anything.
Tethelle is a travelling Baskar priestess from a tiny village. Before she left home, she had never seen technology even as complex as clockwork except for the very occasional excavated ARM, and not many of those. In Guild Galad she saw more, and now of course she's sitting inside a landship with a Gear, but she is feeling rather out of her depth.
Eventually she closes the cockpit hatch after giving a big thumbs-up out of it toward Claude's Gear. Tethelle figures out 'forward' pretty shortly, though she does not actually manage to turn even once as she approaches the wall. Hopefully Claude's 'aim at the wall' was a good plan, because it's the only one Tethelle can manage.
Some people are just not nature's Gear pilots.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"Actually you're gonna have to tell me where the backwards button is," Talise admits with a blush as she glances at Layna's Gear.
Ida seems to perk up for a minute - enough so that her Gear calibrates hers on the shoulder. Talise bows her head and lets her hand linger on Ida's Gear's hull for a moment. Then she cranks the cockpit lever again and flops back in the chair. "Yeah. Let's do it," she says as she manages to lower the arms.
She finagles with the controls a little. Talise's Gear awkwardly shuffle-steps into a very slow, ridiculous-looking turn backwards. It's as if she doesn't quite know how to back up. She manages to get herself facing the wall, but it's a chore.
"I think I'm callin' it Alexander," she transmits, as if to try and inject something uplifting into the horror of it all. If nothing else she figures Layna will match the name to the last Dragonmaster.
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
Rosaline awws at the sight of Talise's giant robot hug. She doesn't move in for the same, but vows to be extra-nice to Ida once they're finally out of this whole mess. It seems, finally, that things are looking up for them!
<<Please don't try anything too complex,>> she says, having found the intercom herself. <<For now we should focus on making them walk and get out of here. The weapons and other subsystems might have been damaged in the crash, so it's best not to risk it and hurt ourselves.>>
She sounds confident, far more than she usually does. Maybe it's because it seems Granas is finally smiling upon her. Maybe it's the realization that He always was. Maybe it's the rush of power from being in a giant armored death machine.
<<I love all of you,>> she adds, apropos of nothing, before maneuvering her Gear to run into the wall with the rest, elbow-first.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Within her Gear Layna grins, thought it might not be visible from the outside. It's audible in her voice, however.
"Aye, Talise. A good name, that." She replies, then moves to join the others at the wall.