2017-09-15: Observation Routine
- Log: Observation Routine
- Cast: Loren Voss, Lily Keil, Elhaym van Houten
- Where: Stone Forest
- Date: September 15th 2017
- Summary: As far as Lily knows, Elly and 'Thomas' are just coming here to collect rock samples to sell. Except that Lily knows Elly is with Gebler, and 'knows' that 'Thomas' has a secret. But in reality, the whole trip is a setup to watch and evaluate some of Lily's ether ability in the field...
DG: A party led by Loren Voss is now entering Stone Forest. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
===============================<* Stone Forest *>=============================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Breaking And Entering *>===================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Ahead of you lies the natural structure called the Stone Forest by the locals, a densely-packed maze of stone pillars interspaced with glowing crystal spires. It's incredibly hot out. There's no comfortable entrance here; the outer spires form a barrier to easy passage inwards. On closer inspection, one of the shorter spires seems to have a deeply-cracked base. Perhaps it's possible to make a better entrance. =Dungeon Conditions: Tire=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
The best way to know what someone's capable of is to see how they react under stress. This is something that Loren understands to be true, rather than something he's learned, admittedly. But there is some wisdom to be found.
For instance, Lily Keil is a dangerous, unpredictable factor with an untrained but tightly controlled power she shouldn't have, who has killed Gebler soldiers before. Thus, an element that needs further observation, ideally also from someone other than himself.
And who is also -- currently -- working alongside a certain pirate crew.
...Which, as it happens, they have an in on.
So, while there are a number of people he'd rather be working with, Loren is as ever a team-player, no matter how he might gripe internally. Elly is talented with ether, and she has the notable advantage of being a known factor to Lily -- who he knows to be suspicious.
So the plan is, travel with Lily to a ruins-type location without noted hazards (this part is important, so he doesn't almost get killed again) and see how she does under stress factors.
OFFICIALLY, and as far as the cover story here goes, 'Thomas' approached Lily a few days back to ask about the possibility of doing some excavation-type work together, and Elly had asked to join them. A few decisions -- and days -- later and----
They're not even inside this place yet and Loren already regrets everything. It's unbearably hot out even early in the day, the kind of heat that manages to dessicate the throat.
There's also been no obvious entrance so far. Just spire after spite, as if this place were laughing at their attempts.
"...Ugh."
Pausing for a moment, Loren takes a swig of water. And his gaze, as he lowers the bottle, falls on a tight gap between the pillars here. "Is that really the only entrance?"
The one next to it is cracked, though. He approaches it, looks it over. Gives it a little push. ...Rock's loose. "...Keil, this looks like the sort of thing you're good at."
In silence, he glances at Elly. 'Watch her' that look might as well state.
For his part, though, he's moving to stand back.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Breaking And Entering.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily Keil does not know about the move and countermove factors behind her invitation here today, such as it is. She is surprised to hear 'Thomas' wanting to work with her in the first place, but maybe some of the things that she's said to him have sunken in. Maybe not.
Regardless, excavation is in order, and a simple enough split of any findings is established--Lily brings it up if no one else does, and fairly quickly at that. But it's been those few days...
She left a certain dog in town.
And now Lily is walking around with Loren, dressed in black, light military gear, ARM on her back and gloves still on. She seems to be less bothered by the heat than he is, for some reason. She is sweating, of course.
When Loren pauses, Lily glances over to him, walking ahead of Elly. "Not the only one," she says, "But the only one we're likely to find for now." A beat, "Sure you can handle it?"
She doesn't pick up the subtle insult in it as she agrees, "It is. Both of you stand back." The black-haired sorceress steps forward and uses... Not magic. She starts sticking charges in place, occasionally pausing to motion her hand out to measure something, doing math.
She steps back after a moment. "All right then. It's going here, and with these wind conditions, it should shift... there." She points. "Three... Two... One..."
She snaps her fingers at her side and the fuses burst into flames all at once, and quickly become a controlled detonation.
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Explosive Charges toward her party's challenge, Breaking And Entering.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly is fully on board with the prospect of working with Loren and not getting him killed. She has not sent him the charming photograph of a cucco she took with her tablet computer on a discreet basis, however, because she's still kind of sad that he resents her.
She is bearing up in the heat more or less alright, at least. She has a wide-brimmed hat and is wearing light gauzy stuff other than the leg-and-foot combo of jeans and boots. "I think so," she answers Thomas, looking back at him from beneath the brim of her hat.
mysterious~
After this, she reaches into her purse and fiddles around with several things inside of it. (She brought a purse.) However, it seems like Lily's demo-charges are going to serve, and so she steps back, lets her mouth hang a little open, even exhales -
"That's amazing," she adds, about the fuse-lighting.
DG: Elhaym van Houten has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Breaking And Entering.
===============================<* Stone Forest *>=============================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Breaking And Entering *>===================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Ahead of you lies the natural structure called the Stone Forest by the locals, a densely-packed maze of stone pillars interspaced with glowing crystal spires. It's incredibly hot out. There's no comfortable entrance here; the outer spires form a barrier to easy passage inwards. On closer inspection, one of the shorter spires seems to have a deeply-cracked base. Perhaps it's possible to make a better entrance. =Dungeon Conditions: Tire=====================================================
==========================<* Stone Forest - Round 1 *>========================== ======================< Results - Breaking And Entering >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 0 --(6)--> 6 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elhaym van Houten 0 --(9)--> 9 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 0 --(7)--> 7 Pass Explosive Charges 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Tire(2) Effects: Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss 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> Loren Voss has posed.
It'd seem that for all that they've had their disagreements, 'Thomas' and Lily have set aside matters for now. Understandable, since they have a similar predicament...
...Well, not really, but it's more convenient for him this way, even if he has to play nice.
Somewhat.
Is it for the better or the worse that she missed the insult? Honestly, Loren can't decide.
This sort of behavior is probably part of the reason he's not getting pictures of adorable cuccos sent to his inbox.
In any case.
Interesting, he thinks, he would have expected her to use a blast of ether instead of something mundane like demolitions... actually, he thinks, furrowing his brow, that is something to remember for later just in case Gebler ends up fighting her.
She definitely knows what she's doing. She's done this before.
And ever so slightly, a blond eyebrow lifts as she lights the fuse in an unorthodox way.
It's quite controlled. The explosion barely billows outwards, and cracks spider their way up the length of the spire as it simply collapses, shattering into dozens upon dozens of rocks. What was a tight squeeze is now an easily traversable heap of stone. Dust lingers in the air, but otherwise...
"That wasn't bad, I suppose," 'Thomas' comments with a shrug.
It's baking out here. Maybe it's cooler inside.
DG: Lily Keil has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Stone Forest *>=============================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - Back-Breaking Labor *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Ahead, one of the large stone pillars appears to have collapsed into a heap at some point and now blocks the path you're following. One way or another, it'll need to be cleared out before you can advance this way. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily continues on, not quite as sensibly-dressed as Elly in this case though her high collared jacket helps. It doesn't matter for the moment. Instead, Lily actually looks pleased for a moment, where her face is hidden from the others until it isn't. After all, Elly called her work amazing.
"Thank you Elly," she says, calmly and with some pride. She glances to her... And isn't going to talk about her secret right now, but is curious about something. Loren calls it not bad, and he shrugs.
The dust starts to dissipate even now. "Next time you can do it if you want," she points out. "Did you have a specific interest in this site?" she asks Elly as they move on, walking through crystals and rocks and sand.
Until... There's another in their path. She lifts an eyebrow. "...All right. This one is larger... I only have so many charges with me." She pats her satchel and considers. "Elly," she says, and walks forward. She looks around, doing more calculations, checks the wind... And points to a specific place. "Can you give me a blast right here timed with the explosives? If you have other ideas they're welcome."
In short order there's a repeat of the last event, but this time instead of snapping her fingers when she gets past '1', she just flicks the first two fingers on her right hand.
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Explosive Charges toward her party's challenge, Back-Breaking Labor.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly's cucco picture will be revealed when the time was right. Perhaps to Riesenlied.
She glances at 'Thomas' as they move into a deeper realm of rubble and rocks, but when Lily goes to set up her charges again, she says, "I think if you want... you only need to use a couple there. I think I can do a little more than light them."
She then gets something out of the purse and opens it up to take a sip, which may make Loren secretly crap directly into his pants until he gets a clear chance to ID one of the little brown glass bottles that hold Lady Antitam's Patent Rose-Sol Extract, in other words, an energy drink for magic users. She is, after all, not exactly a different species than Symbologists.
"It's a little convenient, isn't it?" Elly says to Lily with a small smile. Then she raises one hand, breathes in deep and
on cue
FWAM!
That thermal cube trick gets easier every time.
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Spy Purse toward her party's challenge, Back-Breaking Labor.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly also answered, at some point, thus:
"Well, I'd like to get a good look at the layers in the stone formations here... and I admit I'm hoping we find a nice fat geode or two. Those always sell for a nice bit of money." Her eyes cut towards Thomas momentarily after this, as she tells Lily a little carefully, "We've gone rock hunting once or twice in the past."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"I'll pass," 'Thomas' says, with a wave of a hand. He lingers for a moment, apparently letting the two of them more or less take point before glancing backwards and falling in after them. The desert's not a safe place, and somewhere like this... only moreso. It's bound to draw creatures in from the desert, with the shade cast from the spires.
...Though it's not really all that cooler here.
Though that is probably also not helped by the fact that he hasn't really dressed appropriately. Addition of a hat -- if only because he tends to burn -- aside.
There's more rock in their way. "Oh good." Far from the ears of superior officers and wearing the guise of 'another person' it appears he's a little more chatty, as Elly might notice.
"As she says, it's partially academic, partially mercantile," is his own offering to the 'why' here, as he approaches the rock pile ahead, puts a gloved hand on the stone
gives it a little surreptitious etheric nudge, enough to introduce a little instability into the structure and hopefully allow it to be blown sky-high
and backs off a couple moments later. "All yours," he says, before glancing over at Elly.
Who is downing the contents of a mysterious glass, a little point of fact that makes his heart nearly skip a beat before he spots the label. And lets out a quiet sigh as he steps back well ahead of the detonation that follows.
If Elly's Gebler, and things tend to happen to people with certain skills who draw Gebler's attention... does that mean that Elly knew about Thomas?
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Back-Breaking Labor.
===============================<* Stone Forest *>=============================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - Back-Breaking Labor *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Ahead, one of the large stone pillars appears to have collapsed into a heap at some point and now blocks the path you're following. One way or another, it'll need to be cleared out before you can advance this way. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
==========================<* Stone Forest - Round 2 *>========================== =======================< Results - Back-Breaking Labor >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 6 --(6)--> 12 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elhaym van Houten 9 --(4)--> 13 Pass Spy Purse 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 7 --(4)--> 11 Pass Explosive Charges 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Slow(2)|Tire(1) Effects: Cleanse|Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss 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> Lily Keil has posed.
"...That's perfect. I'd rather conserve," Lily says to Elly, and steps back once she'd set the last of hers--fewer than she'd otherwise need to. But she didn't miss Loren's hand on the stone. Instead... She looks at Elly drinking something from her purse, and hmms.
"Yes," she agrees, "That's very convenient."
But on cue...
"That's quite the spell you have," Lily says to Elly. She's seen it more than once now, but that's still true. The comments and question actually offered to her though get, "Good reasons." Though... Is Elly really...Hm.
"Have you?" she asks, looking between Thomas and Elly. The rocks finish settling after the explosion at this point, into easily walkable rubble... if one doesn't slip on a free rock. She considers, "I'm here for mercantile reasons mostly, but..."
She looks between Elly and Thomas. "Is that all? Just a couple of rock hunting expeditions?" Uh oh.
But they're free to move forward.
DG: Elhaym van Houten has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Stone Forest *>=============================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - A Bridge To Cross *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Not all of the land beneath your feet in the Stone Forest is level. In this case, that specifically means the rather deep rift before you on the path you've followed until now. Going around it would prove time-consuming. But all is not lost. There are a number of tilted stone spires by the edge, perfect for building a makeshift bridge... but some level of force will be needed here. =Dungeon Conditions: Exhaust==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"Oh - thank you," Elly answers Lily with a slightly weak smile. "It's just a little trick I've figured out. It's very handy sometimes!" And then moving forwards, before she pauses at Lily's question.
"... yes?" she says, but perhaps suspiciously. Then she double-times forwards, perhaps to move away from the awkward implication. Inwardly she may be dying, perhaps literally dying; she may possibly not be able to "can" over it.
Soon...
"..."
Elly stares at the tilted stone spires and the prospects of a bridge from them. She is reminded, and not in a good way, of the Guardians' temple.
"If you can get them down," she tells Lily, moving towards a strategic location, "I can use this," and she holds up a tube of some damn compound or other, "to grease their way down into position. Then we just have to walk across. Instead of... well, leaping, and falling, and everything."
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Spy Purse toward her party's challenge, A Bridge To Cross.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
'That's very convenient'. Just for a moment, Loren's groundstate of paranoid receives a slight boost. His only saving graces are the (typical) near-lack of an expression except for his usual slightly-bored-appearing self and the fact that Lily probably isn't really watching him all that closely, anyway.
He's certainly not going to comment or do anything at all, really, beyond play the role he's set up for himself. Just a medical student. With a secret.
"Just that. Why, do you want to come along on the next one?" From someone else, that might be an honest question. From 'Thomas' though...
A ceasefire does not mean 'be nice', it seems.
Besides, he's a little suspicious about what she meant by that.
It's a bit of a maze, weaving between pillars here. But before long, standing before them is--
Loren folds his arms over his chest. "Wonderful. So we'll get to try to make a bridge," he comments, before lifting a hand to readjust his glasses a touch.
He walks on over to one of the pillars, as if merely investigating their angle. A hand rests on one for a moment.
The nature of earth is stress. It's just a matter of adding a little disruption here, there; the structure can be distabilized quite handily. You can even think of it as a wave, if it helps, a tremor that pours through the stone and adds cracks where there weren't cracks before.
Loren moves his hand away. "I think it'll take more than that," he comments as Elly pulls out one of her helpful tools, acting as if the total contribution he's made just now is merely observational.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, A Bridge To Cross.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily watches Elly for a few moments, not sharply but without letting go exactly at the weak smile. She does a lot of those. But she focuses forward a moment later, boots stepping through the sand.
But... It is kind of suspicious, Elly's answer. Lily thinks about it. She continues on the way, though to Loren she adds, "Depends on how competent you are this time, Blackwell." ...She's not very nice about it, either. But she takes up the rear again, until Elly...
Elly has a good idea. She's mentioning it, and Lily watches. "I prefer to avoid leaping, and failing, and everything," she says flatly, as if focusing on something else. Particularly... As she watches Loren. He does his work on the rock, and she lifts her eyebrow at him, looking into his eyes if she can catch him and then shrugging, looking over to Elly. "All right... Let's see..."
Lily hops up and climbs onto the fallen rock in short order, with the athleticism of the soldier they all know she was, and starts setting charges. "...Given what I have to do to get these down... This blast is going to be larger than the others." Still flat.
She jumps off, ensures both are out of the way, and lifts both hands this time. There is a sudden spike of Ether. Orange-red circles shimmer into existence about her hands, inscribed with strange symbols, and the fuses do not merely burst into flames; there are bright, large explosions accompanying each, still controlled but well...
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Explosive Charges toward her party's challenge, A Bridge To Cross.
===============================<* Stone Forest *>=============================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - A Bridge To Cross *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Not all of the land beneath your feet in the Stone Forest is level. In this case, that specifically means the rather deep rift before you on the path you've followed until now. Going around it would prove time-consuming. But all is not lost. There are a number of tilted stone spires by the edge, perfect for building a makeshift bridge... but some level of force will be needed here. =Dungeon Conditions: Exhaust==================================================
==========================<* Stone Forest - Round 3 *>========================== ========================< Results - A Bridge To Cross >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 12 --(13)--> 25 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elhaym van Houten 13 --(4)--> 17 Pass Spy Purse 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 11 --(6)--> 17 Pass Explosive Charges 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1) Effects: Cleanse|Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss 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> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"Think of what we're doing for the benefit of other rock hounds," Elly says to Loren even as she squirts the clear gel (it's super slippery!) on the space where the pillars have to slide in order to get properly in position. She gets out of the way as Lily gets out her charges.
"I know it's not something that you may want to do regularly, of course," Elly tells Lily, with a slightly weak smile. Then, here comes the burst of explosives -
Stone falls over -
DOESN'T crack - no, one of the pillars does crack, but two more slide forwards, stumping to a halt against several other protruberances. While Elly's tube of personal lubricant is thoroughly sacrificed due to this outcome, it seems to have created a navigable bridge to the other side.
"Would you like to lead the way?" she asks 'Thomas,' smiling innocently.
Yeah.
"INNOCENTLY," RIGHT?
DG: Loren Voss has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Stone Forest *>=============================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Twisty Little Passages *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Oh no. It's happened. In the maze of the multiple pathways through the tightly packed and nearly identical-looking pillars of the Stone Forest, you've lost your way. Every direction looks about the same as the last, even the direction from whence you came. With few obvious hints of where you are in the pillar maze or which path is best to take, you'll need to use your mental fortitude and reasoning to figure out where to go. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"Competent? At least I'm not the one who runs around while still injured," he says, apparently vaguely irritated enough to throw a barb her way.
...Maybe a little too much force in the destabilization, there. Emperor, Loren thinks, squinting slightly in further irritation as that one just collapses to fall down into the ravine below.
Conversely, the combination move of personal lubricant and explosives (and an interesting display of ether power and focus, one that he has the space to observe, from over here) is more effective.
Take point? Across the bridge? Loren looks over at Elly. Looks at Lily. Looks back at Elly.
"...Fine," he says, hauling himself up to cross.
The upshot is:
Loren doesn't fall off the bridge midway because that would probably be nonsurvivable.
No, Loren manages to slip on a jutting bit of crystal (the non-shining kind) as he reaches the other side. In what is probably a moment that makes his old field instructor somewhere squint in disbelief for no readily apparent reason, he slips, flails briefly, and falls flat on his face.
Well, there's such a thing as divine punishment, so maybe...
Not too much is injured but his pride, at least. Picking himself up and dusting himself off, he doesn't even dare to look back. "The path's headed this way," he says, pointing ahead.
And indeed, the path they follow twists
winds
turns
weaves
bends
...huh.
"I feel as if we came this way already," 'Thomas' comments. He glances back at last. Glances to his right, to his left.
Glances up, as if there were an answer up on high. ...Just spires, though.
He thinks they might be lost. Which after what happened with the bridge is... ...really awkward to admit.
"..."
Shoving his glasses up the bridge of his nose as if his life depended on it, he instead furiously studies the pathways leading this way and that. It has to be a path they haven't taken, so a simple examination should unearth...
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Etheric Lenses toward his party's challenge, Twisty Little Passages.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"If you remind me of that conversation any further I'm going to hurt you, Blackwell. Or do you think I forgot?" Lily has ice in her tone as she responds to that particular barb, and doesn't budge so much as an inch where she is as she delivers the threat. ...Not until she lifts one hand fingers-upward and slowly makes a fist, palm-in.
Rock hounds. Well, it's something anyway. Elly smiles at Lily again and after the explosions she finally adds, "No, I have other priorities. But now and then if it's lucrative it's not a problem."
Being on the run can get expensive... The way she does it, anyway.
"As long as it at least gives me enogh to replace the explosives I've used." She doesn't really seem to mind the loud noises or watching the slide. Instead she watches the bridge for a moment. "...All right then."
Loren looks at both of them and Lily doesn't bother volunteering to move ahead. Instead she walks on, carefully, slowly, and doesn't trip at all. He falls down and she looks at him--there he goes. They walk... and they walk... and they walk...
"Mm," she answers, when he comments that they already came that way. "So we're lost." Lily glances up to the sky, checks the sun... and then pulls out her notebook from her satchel, flipping it open. "Let's see, I made some notes when I was here..."
But in the meantime, she casually lifts her hand and, with a pulse of Ether, is suddenly holding a knife made of pure blackness that's painful to look at. She uses it to gouge a mark into the nearest pillar.
"We can at least keep track of where we go."
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Kislev Field Manual toward her party's challenge, Twisty Little Passages.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"Ah!" Elly cries when she sees Loren slipping, an ! almost visible over her head. She reaches out - but he just faceplanted. She keeps on going...
Going...
Going...
"... It does look familiar," Elly admits, when 'Thomas' verifies that they seem to have been wandering. "The pillars are so... It's like something organic. I suppose we might have made a loop, just naturally following the tendencies of our feet..."
At which point Elly looks over and sees Lily just sort of -- produce a gash of vantablack in the air and strike a mark on a pillar.
"Good plan," she says, and every few dozen yards she makes a scorch mark herself with a touch.
The scorchmarks look vaguely like hearts.
shut up
DG: Elhaym van Houten has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Twisty Little Passages.
===============================<* Stone Forest *>=============================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Twisty Little Passages *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Oh no. It's happened. In the maze of the multiple pathways through the tightly packed and nearly identical-looking pillars of the Stone Forest, you've lost your way. Every direction looks about the same as the last, even the direction from whence you came. With few obvious hints of where you are in the pillar maze or which path is best to take, you'll need to use your mental fortitude and reasoning to figure out where to go. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
==========================<* Stone Forest - Round 4 *>========================== ======================< Results - Twisty Little Passages >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 25 --(0)--> 25 Pass Etheric Lenses 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elhaym van Houten 17 --(0)--> 17 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 17 --(0)--> 17 Pass Kislev Field Manual 1 Wits Effects: Rally and Stalwart -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 60 --(15)--> 75 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(2) Effects: Enlighten(1)|Stalwart(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss 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> Loren Voss has posed.
"So we're back to threats again?" he asks aloud, shaking his head as if weary with it. He opens his mouth as if about to say something more only to glance over at Elly, turn a glance towards Lily's way -- along with the fist she pointedly makes -- and sighs. "I really don't care."
What an asshole.
But wounded pride aside, he soon finds himself lost.
Ugh.
"I suppose," he says at last, in response to Elly's kind suggestion that it probably was just natural. "We definitely already went that way," he says, pointing to the left. Somewhere around here should be a sign they can work with...
Or they can do things the easier way and mark their path as they go. This also works.
In fact, Lily doesn't even look like she's focusing, or casting. Or much of anything. An almost-painful blackness just is, and it leaves what may well be a permanent gouge in the rock.
In fact, he's going to linger behind her a few steps just so he can -- as surreptitiously as possible -- investigate the mark she's left. It'd be a good idea to figure out how well it can cut.
Which also means he comes across Elly's little scorch-hearts. ...Really? runs the unkind thought.
When she murdered their classmates in cold blood, were there also hearts--
Actually he doesn't want to think about that anymore right now, while trapped with her and Lily in a winding maze of a dungeon that he's starting to have second thoughts about.
But it only takes a few rounds of trial and error for them to work their way out of these particularly labyrinthine nest of passages and emerge into a new part of the Stone Forest.
DG: Lily Keil has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Stone Forest *>=============================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Into The Cactus Patch *>===================== |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- In the near distance sits a short stone tower. Could this be the heart of the Stone Forest? More sunlight shines down upon the ground than in other parts of the maze. In turn this means lots of plants. Cactus plants. The way to the tower leads through more varieties of cactus than most people will see in their lifetimes. Yes, that also means the ones that break off and stick to you when you brush against them. Picking your way through the large cactus patch unscathed is going to take a lot of deft and careful footwork. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Maybe Lily should've been worried about Loren slipping, but it turned out okay. Right? It's fine. Besides...
"Yes. We're back to threats." If he doesn't care she's not going t bother trying to corner him verbally; she just lowers her hand.
But here, working on the puzzle of this maze, Lily nods to Elly. "That seems likely," she says, finally closing her notebook. They start moving... And Lily lifts an eyebrow at Elly's heartmarks, sighing softly. It's not quite exasperated.
When Loren looks a the mark she left... It isn't terribly deep; she didn't stab it after all. It's only a couple of centimeters. But what is more notable about it is that it is perfectly smooth, a nice little hollow inside that, if he didn't know better, would look more like unmaking the stone than cutting it. ...Does he know better?
Bu as they make it out, they reach a sunny locale full of.. cacti, forward. So many varieties, beautiful in their way, standing in a little forest of their own in the ground between here and a great tower. Lily sighs openly, putting a gloved hand to her temples.
"...Son of a bitch," she comments, and just starts stepping forward without bothering to plan ahead, dealing with it when she inevitably gets stuck many, many times.
DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Into The Cactus Patch.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly "Cold Blooded Murderer" van Houten gives Loren a slightly baffled look when he starts talking about threats - but he doesn't care. Oh, they're being playful, Elly thinks when Lily responds in kind.
"That's an impressive technique," she tells Lily quietly as they walk, even as the gorgeous little forest reveals itself, her eyes widening at the sight. "Ah - ! There's so many of them. It must rain in here now and again - I know even cacti need some water, don't they?" They teach you that in Gebler school, Elly?
(No, in Solaris. There are classes on plant facts. The Emperor Cain created them all just the way he wanted them to be.)
Elly is wearing tough blue jeans and colorful reinforced pleather boots, so she just kind of walks forwards and tries not to rub herself against any cactuseses. "At least this is a natural site, so it isn't like someone planted them," she calls to the others, and by gosh is she trampling some of them with her sassy boots?
She IS. See, Loren? Sometimes a 'destroyer' can be helpful!!
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Sassy Boots toward her party's challenge, Into The Cactus Patch.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Wonderful. They're back to threats. Loren rolls his eyes as if he's So Done With This.
To be fair, soldier or not, he is eighteen, and there are no commanding officers here.
The rock's etching -- courtesy of Lily -- gives him more to puzzle over. It's as if she neatly carved out a section of rock. Or, no...
In Jugend, they teach proper technique when it comes to channeling ether. Ether usage aligns, or so they've been taught, with one of the four foundational elements. Earth, wind, water, fire. But... there have always been a few complications to that easy story.
For example, to get right down to it: what is ether?
And this mark doesn't fit with anything he's ever used or seen. It's as if it neatly ate the rock away. Not shaped. Not carved. Destroyed outright. Shouldn't be possible. And yet...
He'll have to file it away for now, under 'questions for someone with a higher understanding of ether use'.
The sun is shining brightly out here.
...Wasn't that one variety of cactus, he thinks, in the field guide to the Aveh Desert under 'do not touch'. Something about it breaking off and clinging.
He furrows his brow.
"Rain...? Maybe. There could be also be another source. Water underground perhaps." He shrugs, watching for a moment as Lily picks her way across as quickly as she can, while Elly, apparently, has boots made for walking.
...This is going to be bad, isn't it.
Pulling himself together, he angles for the best (quickest) path through himself. Might as well get this over with.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Into The Cactus Patch.
===============================<* Stone Forest *>=============================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Into The Cactus Patch *>===================== |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- In the near distance sits a short stone tower. Could this be the heart of the Stone Forest? More sunlight shines down upon the ground than in other parts of the maze. In turn this means lots of plants. Cactus plants. The way to the tower leads through more varieties of cactus than most people will see in their lifetimes. Yes, that also means the ones that break off and stick to you when you brush against them. Picking your way through the large cactus patch unscathed is going to take a lot of deft and careful footwork. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
==========================<* Stone Forest - Round 5 *>========================== ======================< Results - Into The Cactus Patch >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 25 --(0)--> 25 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elhaym van Houten 17 --(0)--> 17 Fail Sassy Boots 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 17 --(0)--> 17 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 75 --(5)--> 80 Fail Conditions: Bad Luck(1)|Slow(2) Effects: Stalwart(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has failed this challenge! The party gained 5 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Oh, they're totally being playful. ...In a world in which that's true, which isn't this world at all. Lily is older than Loren, and the one who stone-cold issued the threats, so she doesn't feel the need to respond.
...Neither does she notice his look at her Ether's effects.
But they are moving through cacti soon, aand Lily has needles jabbing into her legs, into her arms, and into her back in short order. Elly calls out and Lily says, "It's still a pain in the ass, intended or not."
But she doesn't hold t against Elly. Instead she thinks that maybe she needs to get a better pair of boots. But Loren mentions the possibilities and... "Desert gets rain sometimes. Just rarely. I've been in it."
They all end up poked and prodded by cacti, with a bunch of little cactus things on them, the small ones that detach. Elly stomps many but eventually is unwieldy with those stuck, and they all end up at the base of the tower worse for wear.
"..." Lily sighs loudly, and lifts her hand to mist herself in visibly frigid mist, her hand frozen over as she starts yanking off cholas.
DG: Elhaym van Houten has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Stone Forest *>=============================== ===================<* CHALLENGE - The Writing On The Wall *>==================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- A single doorway greets you once you find and enter the short tower at the center of the Stone Forest. This semi-circular room has no obvious doors or exits, only a long-cold fire pit, lit solely by a few baskets filled with dimly glowing stones. Across entirety of the wall here are a spectacular array of pictographs incised onto its surface, demonstrating everything from abstract but clear depictions of the land, animals and people to some that are a perhaps little more mysterious. Somewhere on this wall has to be some clue about what you're supposed to do to pass deeper into the sacred ground of the little temple tower. It's just a matter of finding and deciphering it. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly doesn't get cactus needles in her ankles, but the webwork of thorny succulents ends up drawing some blood from her, too. "Guh!" Well, that's a water source, isn't it?
For no good reason the camera focuses on a couple of drops of Elly's blood landing on a patch of barren land.
Presently, though, picking their way to a space where the cacti thin out, a tower reveals itself, and Elly sounds slightly abashed as she laughs. "I suppose it wasn't as all natural as we thought, was it?" Did she really suspect it was? It's not clear.
Either way she lingers at the entrance and smiles at Lily as she gets closer. "I don't think anything's moving in there, at least." Past her, she looks at Thomas - no, at Loren - and says, well, she doesn't say anything. But she lets her face get expressive. There's an expression of 'I'm impressed...'
Then one of 'concern.' Then a shrug of her shoulders, before she tells him, aloud, "I think we're going to have to chat about this one sometime, if you can find the opportunity. But I won't be offended if you have a lot to do. Good luck with it." And then she crouches down to slip inside -
Elly falls silent as she looks at the pictograms. Her expression is one of soft wonder.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
It is, yes, exactly as bad as he had thought it was going to be.
It sort of looks -- and feels -- like an entire one of those cactuses lept off its bush and snuggled up to him. His clothing (cloth) isn't exactly providing a lot of help with this either.
So by the time he (stiffly) approaches the entrance to the tower at the center and escapes the fell grip of far too many cactus plants, he's attained the expression of someone who has walked straight into the heart of hell itself. The glazed over, vaguely traumatized but also sort of beyond the reality of the moment part, anyway.
With a sigh, he starts picking the pieces of cactus off.
He's about to stalk inwards when Elly draws his attention with a look. A series of looks, in fact He makes for the moment as if nothing happened, but waves Lily on ahead idlely, acting as if there's a bit of the architecture he's interested in here.
He makes a gesture with his hand as Elly addresses him. It's a handsign she should know. This one means 'listening'.
He might resent Elly. He might even fear her, and what she can do. But they're in this mission on Filgaia's surface together.
If there's anything that can unite people who don't get along, it's a common foe. A threat. Lily fits the bill.
"We might. This has been more dangerous than expected," he said, and someone listening in might assume they're just talking about the Stone Forest.
And he glances at Elly, as if to silently say, gaze slightly narrowed, 'my feelings haven't changed'.
With that, he ducks inside.
"...Is this everything?" he says aloud after a moment, glancing this way and that at the wall. "No, there has to be something more to this. It can't dead-end like this." Pushing his glasses up, he takes a closer look at the wall and its inscriptions. "It starts with the animals, followed by the hunters... a settlement... hmm."
So what's the question here?
"Something about this building? When was it... built?" he wonders aloud, attempting to find the silent riddle posed here.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Etheric Lenses toward his party's challenge, The Writing On The Wall.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Soon enough Lily has at least gotten enough of the needles off to get by; her clothes are thick enough that most of the needles aren't jabbed too far into her skin... most. There's blood regardless; she'll have to sit and pull the rest out when she can.
For her part though, the Kislevi woman doesn't bother hanging back. Elly laughs, and Lily guesses maybe she really did think it was. A shrug, "Maybe not."
There's no sense in being harsh about it.
Instead whe the to hang back like she doesn't, she steps inside to start to look at the pictograms...
"Hrm," she says, and already has her notebook out when the two arrive. "I'm sure there's more here. I was in a tower in this place before, and I found some things. I took notes and made some sketches; let's have a look."
Indeed there's a room with glyphs and and a mirror in her sketch, and some of those might also be present here.
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Kislev Field Manual toward her party's challenge, The Writing On The Wall. DG: Elhaym van Houten has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Writing On The Wall.
===============================<* Stone Forest *>=============================== ===================<* CHALLENGE - The Writing On The Wall *>==================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- A single doorway greets you once you find and enter the short tower at the center of the Stone Forest. This semi-circular room has no obvious doors or exits, only a long-cold fire pit, lit solely by a few baskets filled with dimly glowing stones. Across entirety of the wall here are a spectacular array of pictographs incised onto its surface, demonstrating everything from abstract but clear depictions of the land, animals and people to some that are a perhaps little more mysterious. Somewhere on this wall has to be some clue about what you're supposed to do to pass deeper into the sacred ground of the little temple tower. It's just a matter of finding and deciphering it. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
==========================<* Stone Forest - Round 6 *>========================== =====================< Results - The Writing On The Wall >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 25 --(0)--> 25 Pass Etheric Lenses 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elhaym van Houten 17 --(0)--> 17 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 17 --(0)--> 17 Pass Kislev Field Manual 1 Wits Effects: Rally and Stalwart -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Slow(1)|Stupify(2) Effects: Enlighten(1)|Stalwart(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Loren Voss has successfully explored Stone Forest!
===============================<* Stone Forest *>=============================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Ceremonial Mask *>======================== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- In the semi-lit depths of the dilapidated shrine tower, some searching eventually uncovers an alcove with an interesting object. Lying on the floor near one of the empty alcoves is an unusually well-preserved mask. Undoubtedly, this had some sort of ceremonial use for the worshippers of this shrine, long ago. Made from the shell of some great insect, the mask is fragile but has held up well; the mask has been shaped to evoke the form of a beetle, a single clear crystal placed where the head of the beetle might be. Those familiar with the Guardians may recognize the form of Stare Roe, Guardian of Light. It seems possible, given the trappings of this shrine, that this may have been a holy site for that Guardian once. In spite of its clear age, the mask is in excellent condition. If one chose, they could collect a good price for it. Any number of Baskar tribes nearby might also be interested in this. Or one could keep such a relic for oneself. =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
There's nothing that looks like it suggests the tower itself, though. "What's the story here..." he murmurs, glancing over at Elly, apparently transfixed by the array of petroglyphs. There's always some order here, he thinks, looking back at the wall again. Even if these are in seemingly chaotic array. Right?
Lily comments that she knows there's more here. She even has notes. "Hm." The irony here is that what Loren does next is something he absolutely HATES when other people do it to him.
He steps back and leans over, skimming the page Lily's reviewing in her guide. Over her shoulder.
A mirror.
An oval shape.
Pulling away from Lily, he steps up to the glyphs across the wall and gently taps the one singular oval, set somewhere in the middle.
"This one seems important."
The glowing stone-filled baskets brighten a touch. The tower gently rattles as if a very localized and kind earthquake were going off somewhere just... underfoot and overhead as it happens.
And light shines down, reflected from something further up.
A section of the floor slides open, revealing a small chamber below. There's not much left inside -- a short hop will see them down -- as the elements have chewed up much that could rot, but...
There is a single beetle-shaped mask. Lying there, as if abandoned.