2017-10-01: Like Pounding Sand
- Log: Like Pounding Sand
- Cast: Josephine Lovelace, Lan Lilac, Fenrir
- Where: Great Aveh Desert
- Date: October 1st 2017
- Summary: Josie and Lan go off in search of an alleged bit of debris in the desert. They meet Fenrir while they're out there. Unfortunately, they don't like what they do find. ...Well, most of them.
DG: A party led by Josephine Lovelace is now entering Great Aveh Desert. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
============================<* Great Aveh Desert *>============================= ========================<* CHALLENGE - Shifting Sands *>======================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Upon entering the Great Aveh Desert, you find... sand. A lot of sand. Like, a LOT of it. And it slips out from under your feet as you walk. This is maybe not such a great idea. =Dungeon Conditions: Overwhelm================================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
There's an old saying that one can't truly know the size of the desert until one crosses it themselves.
Josephine Lovelace can confirm, having crossed the desert twice: the Great Aveh Desert is fucking huge.
Time, always a commodity that comes in either too large or too small of a package, has ended up being a little bit thinly dispersed of late.
And then there's the issue of money. ...Also thinly dispersed, of late. Luck is ever a fickle thing for an archaeologist forced* to make a living as a Drifter.
(*questionable)
But all that's fine. She's gotten a hot (pun unintended... maybe) tip about some potentially lootable remains -- artifacts or battle debris, could be either, could be both -- left scattered out at a certain part among the sands.
The good news was, someone had last seen the debris on a sandship not more than a couple days ago, not debilitatingly far outside Dazil.
The bad news: it's the Great Aveh Desert.
Still, it's just a short find-and-retrieve venture. What could go wrong?
"...I don't remember the sand being this loose," Josie comments aloud as she skids down the length of a dune. "Whoa--"
Penelope lazily glides overhead under the early-morning sun, the avian advantage in full display. "Yeah, you show off," she grumbles, gesturing pseudo-angrily at the bird. "I should have brought the horse. ...Well, I guess he'd get stuck, too," she considers, shuffing across a short distance of sand. "So this is probably just as well~"
Current status: indefatigable.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Shifting Sands.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Lan Lilac has been offscreen for a while, recovering steadily from the time a stranger cut her open and stuck his hand inside her. It was not fun.
But now she's all healed up, and sitting in town was getting super boring, and she's got to get back out into the field sometime, right? She can't spend the rest of her life in town.
There are a million white people there, to start out with. If she gets asked to identify someone's spirit animal one more time...!
"It's okay," she tells Josie cheerfully, sliding down the dune after her. Lan's new shirt is longer now, loose and light-colored to reflect some of the great desert's endless heat. "A horse would be miserable out here. It's better that it's just us."
DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Shifting Sands.
<Pose Tracker> Fenrir has posed.
After the big commotion at Wayside yesterday, Fenrir decided to leave town for a bit, go do something and settle her mind...and train. Id was there. She's not strong enough, yet. She's going to need to get strong enough to kill him.
Therefore, the wolf is travelling through the sands of the Great Aveh Desert, a cloak wrapped around her body and the right side of her face, a shield taped to the right of her torso. Fenrir is running through the sands, leaping over dunes and refusing to let the harshness of the desert bother her. As she moves, though, she spots something - a mirage? No, those are...people. Wait, is that...?
Moving up towards Josephine and Lan, Fenrir skids to a halt, speaking to the pair. "Lan. Is that you? We meet again." Fenrir sort of smiles, maybe, as the visible left side of her mouth tilts upwards, before a glance and a nod to Josephine. "Birdwoman. It seems you know Lan." After a few seconds of thinking, Fenrir approaches again, inserting herself into their travelling. "Where are you two heading? I'll join you humans, since I've got nothing better to do."
And no, she's not asking permission. Fenrir has joined your party!
DG: Fenrir has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Shifting Sands.
============================<* Great Aveh Desert *>============================= ========================<* CHALLENGE - Shifting Sands *>======================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Upon entering the Great Aveh Desert, you find... sand. A lot of sand. Like, a LOT of it. And it slips out from under your feet as you walk. This is maybe not such a great idea. =Dungeon Conditions: Overwhelm================================================
=======================<* Great Aveh Desert - Round 1 *>======================== ==========================< Results - Shifting Sands >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 0 --(24)--> 24 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fenrir 0 --(26)--> 26 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 0 --(19)--> 19 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 0 --(10)--> 10 Fail Conditions: Overwhelm Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace 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> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
...Of course, indefatigable or not, this is some seriously rough going right now.
"Ha... I don't remember it being this rough the last time. But then again, I didn't come this way." Josie drags a hand across her forehead, plastering her bangs against it. "Maybe they should update that old saying. You know, something like 'you can only know the desert once you've crossed it in all directions' or something, huh...? Huff..."
Maybe this is a sand-ship route. That would explain a lot, she considers in silence.
Overhead, Penelope circles, before lazily drifting downwards to alight easily on Josie's shoulder.
There's someone coming. "Huh?"
Josie shades her eyes, tugging her headscarf -- almost a necessity in the sands -- back a bit and out of her eyes. "Hey, it's--"
Silence treads outwards.
"--You, I guess!" she settles for at length. That girl who didn't seem to know what a bird was. "Hey, what're you doing out here, are you lost? We're looking for some abandoned junk." A noble mission indeed. She glances back at Lan, then over at Fenrir again, as if silently weighing something. "Well, welcome aboard, kiddo. The more hands the merrier, right?" And she sticks out her left hand.
DG: Fenrir has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Great Aveh Desert *>============================ ========================<* CHALLENGE - Sand People *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Suddenly, the sand around your party bursts upward as a half-dozen bandits swatched in flowing robes and face masks emerge from the dunes. They heft small ARMs and heavy sticks, and rush to engage you. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Fenrir has posed.
Well, those are certainly some rough sands. Despite her ability to get to the group, Fenrir is covered in sand and already pretty ragged, coughing up a bit. "I am Fenrir." Introductions! "Just because I don't know where I am, doesn't mean I'm lost! I came out here on purpose. Testing myself." Yes, she's lost, as she frowns. "And you? Who are you?"
The answer will probably be delayed a bit, as the group approaches a dune. Moving past it, suddenly, a group of six bandits leap out of the sands in masks and robes, ARMs in the hands of some, and big clubs in the other. They flank around the trio of adventurers, moving in to attempt to swarm and overwhelm them with superior numbers. They don't speak, even if talked to, just shouting to 'attack' and 'kill them'.
Fenrir, for her part, grabs the guy closest to her by the face and moves to slam him straight into the ground, her hand growing into a claw. "You've picked the wrong group to attack, assholes!"
DG: Fenrir has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Sand People.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
The sand shifts under her feet, and it takes Lan more concentration than it used to to keep her balance. That's what happens, she supposes, when you have to take a few weeks off and stay in bed. She thought she was never going to get anything to eat besides 'clear soup and tea' ever again!! Escape couldn't come quickly enough.
And to think of all the trouble she'd gone through to find a doctor in the first place. She'd even bent the ear (and the arm) of a very nice Beastwoman who helped her limp back to town and didn't eat her. She wonders how that person (it was 'Fenrir', wasn't it?) is doing...
The blonde smiles as Fenrir inserts herself neatly into the expedition. Ah, that's just how it would happen, isn't it? Just like last time, Fenrir would show up out of nowhere--
Lan pauses. "Fenrir??"
Holy sh-
And Then There Were Bandits. "AAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWW!" Lan groans, but dutifully throws off her long cloak with a whoosh of cotton fabric. "I guess it's gonna be one of those digs, huh?"
It feels good to be out of bed. The sun's shining down on her, the sand is loose underneath her sandals, and Lan is like water, dancing from foot to foot and grinning as sand bandits (sandits??) surround them all. "Look out!" she laughs, and leaps straight up into the air for a two-heeled dropkick right into Bandit D's chest. "HYAAAAA!"
DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Sand People.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Fenrir, huh?" Dark eyes glide up and down the length of the beastwoman's (??) body. "Whoa there, kiddo. Take it easy," she urges, when the woman says she's not lost, "I can tell you exactly where you are." She pauses, as if waiting for the perfect second for the delivery.
"You're in the desert!" And she grins, brightly, as if this is the funniest thing to her in weeks.
"Anyway, the name's Lovelace. Josephine Lovelace, but call me Josie, okay~? None of this 'Miss Lovelace' stuff. And this is--"
She gestures to the bird.
Bandits leap out of the sands.
"...Really? Honestly, you guys have no sense of timing whatsoever. Well, fine, we'll have it your way."
She tugs a flask from the depths of her coat pocket and downs a mouthful of it, recapping it moments later and repocketing the thing.
Spoilers: it's not water.
"Whew. Okay~" she sighs out, before dusting off her hands -- as the two younger girls opt to engage the bandits directly -- and takes a step back. "Look sharp and get clear, kids!"
She draws her rifle in a smooth motion, before taking careful, careful aim at the head of the nearest bandit -- not currently getting beat on by Lan and Fenrir -- and takes a breath.
Bang.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Liquid Courage toward her party's challenge, Sand People.
===========================<* Great Aveh Desert *>============================ ========================<* CHALLENGE - Sand People *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Suddenly, the sand around your party bursts upward as a half-dozen bandits swatched in flowing robes and face masks emerge from the dunes. They heft small ARMs and heavy sticks, and rush to engage you. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright===================================================
======================<* Great Aveh Desert - Round 2 *>======================= ==========================< Results - Sand People >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Josephine Lovelace 24 --(8)--> 32 Pass Liquid Courage 3 Combat Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fenrir 26 --(11)--> 37 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lan Lilac 19 --(10)--> 29 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Josephine Lovelace 10 --(20)--> 30 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Overwhelm Effects: ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace 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> Fenrir has posed.
The bandits are trouble, at first. While Fenrir manages to get one to stop bearing off her, and Lan sends another flying down, they're being shot at and smacked with clubs, and there's still four left. It might be some tough sailing...
Nope, nevermind. Josephine just headshot a guy. As he falls backwards, blood pouring into the sands, another bandit gets spooked, allowing him to be taken out trivially, and the bandits' coordination falls as their numbers do. It's only a few moments before the group's torn through them, as Fenrir takes a moment to get the blood off her paw.
"Josie. Huh, got it. She's a Penelope, right?" Fenrir gestures to the bird, before turning to Lan and tilting her head puzzled, responding to what the shaman said before. "Yes? Is there something on my face, huh? You seem healthier. Got your guts all back together?"
DG: Lan Lilac has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Great Aveh Desert *>=============================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - X Marks The Spot? *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | -----------------------------< Challenge Information: >------------------------------ A pair of Gears, broken and damaged beyond repair, lie atop each other in the lee between two sand dunes. The pilots are long gone, but it appears the metal machines fell on top of some sort of vehicle. If you could get them even a little out of the way, you might be able to search the vehicle for supplies... =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Treasure=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
There's a loud boom fairly close to her ear, but Lan doesn't falter. It feels good to be dancing again, even when it's on somebody else's throat. She looks back at the other girls, leg still extended from the kick she'd given a second bandit, and makes a pleased noise. Look at the two of them go!
"Oh, so you two have met already," she smiles, brushing her long hair back over her shoulders before picking up her cloak. Even her skin can get burned after too long in the sun... "Whoops. No no, I was just surprised to see you show up out of nowhere!" Lan admits a bit sheepishly, ducking her head momentarily. That ditzy grin's not going anywhere, though. "Yeah, thanks to you. The town doctor said that I wouldn't have made it there on my own. Josie, you know Fenrir, right? She helped me back to town after I fought the stranger. You know, when the world turned inside out." She did mention that, right?
As they continue on, they soon come upon a hulking wreck of metal and glass. "Hey... are these Gears?" She hasn't seen one up close in... geez, it seems like forever. "I wonder why they're here...?" More importantly, maybe there's something they can scavenge! "This wouldn't be the thing you were looking for, right?" she asides to the archaeologist.
DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, X Marks The Spot?.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
A slight smile of satisfaction crosses the archaeologist's lips as she blows some poor bastard straight to the afterlife.
Penelope ruffles her feathers but otherwise settles in, as if she's used to this.
After that, things are pretty easy!
"A pigeon," she comments, conducting a brief rundown of the rifle afterwards. "She's a fancy pigeon. And yeah, we've met. Both of you, in fact! Little Lan over there gave me a hand when I got a little turned around out in the desert, and Fenrir here... We met during an excavation."
The kind not funded by any academic organization.
"...What stranger?"
Lan suddenly gets almost all of Josie's attention, the woman freezing just after she slides the rifle home and into its holster.
Regardless of the response, there's no point standing around amidst the dead -- and the desert will do the honors of burial soon, one way or another. Not far in the distance, there are shapes.
Broken Gears. A convoy vehicle trapped underneath. Josie lets out a low whistle. "Might be. This looks pretty recent, it might be some wreckage from the battles lately. Hmm, I'm going to see if there's any scavangable parts. There might even be something inside -- who knows what got left behind, right?"
Onehandedly, she scrambles up onto one of the mostly-wrecked Gears and once she has a perch, begins to root around in the exposed guts. A number of pieces of metal, electronics, and assorted garbage are cast out onto the sands as she tears in. Where did she get those wirecutters? Or the pliers?
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, X Marks The Spot?.
<Pose Tracker> Fenrir has posed.
Fenrir nods to Lan's story, hmming as Lan says that it's thanks to her. She's appreciated! Excellent. Maybe helping random humans is worth it. As they walk up, Fenrir tilts her head at Penelope. "She's the only pigeon I've ever seen, so sure, I'll accept that she's 'fancy'." Fenrir will let the two talk about the 'stranger', because she sees...
"Looks like it. Let me smash it out of the way!" Fenrir's arm...begins to shift again, but this time, the paw formed is as long as her body, a massive wolf arm. Pushing it against one of the fallen gears, Fenrir heaves, and then moves to shove the robot out of the way, get it off of the vehicle enough to use.
DG: Fenrir has used her Tool Smasher Claw toward her party's challenge, X Marks The Spot?.
===============================<* Great Aveh Desert *>=============================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - X Marks The Spot? *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | -----------------------------< Challenge Information: >------------------------------ A pair of Gears, broken and damaged beyond repair, lie atop each other in the lee between two sand dunes. The pilots are long gone, but it appears the metal machines fell on top of some sort of vehicle. If you could get them even a little out of the way, you might be able to search the vehicle for supplies... =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Treasure=========================================
==========================<* Great Aveh Desert - Round 3 *>========================== ===========================< Results - X Marks The Spot? >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 32 --(20)--> 52 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fenrir 37 --(22)--> 59 Pass Smasher Claw 3 Brute Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 29 --(26)--> 55 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC --------------------------------------< Party >-------------------------------------- Leader: Josephine Lovelace 30 --(15)--> 45 Fail Conditions: Fright(1)|Overwhelm|Treasure(1)|Weaken(2) Effects: ==================================< Dream Chasers >==================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has failed 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> Lan Lilac has posed.
'Little' Lan still makes her smile a bit. Nobody else has ever given her a nickname before. (Fenrir calling her 'human' doesn't really count, does it...?)
There's precious little she can do about the Gears blocking their access to the car. She just doesn't know enough about them, and she's not strong enough to just... kick one out of the way or something! But Josie knows how they work, and how they come apart; Fenrir knows exactly the kind of strength it takes to shove one. Josie's Gear yields precious little besides scorched and fizzled pieces of technology, but the other one is smashed right the hell out of the way by Fenrir's morphing claw.
Lan has to just kind of stare in amazement because WOW! Beastwomen are awesome! And terrifying!
Approaching the convoy car, Lan peers in through the broken windows. "I thought I told you. Did I forget?" It's not as though talking about that time is easy, because... so much of it has become a serious nightmare images, a lucid dream that she couldn't control. Sometimes she wakes up and something is crawling up inside her, towards her heart--
"...He had blue eyes," is all Lan can say. She swallows back a shallow wave of nausea, swiping clumsily at the cold sweat on her forehead.
Sadly, there's nothing left inside the car - everything has been stolen already, or it was never there. "There's still the trunk...?" she offers weakly.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Great Aveh Desert *>============================= ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Quick Sand *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The sand beneath one of your party members suddenly gives way; apparently there was an air pocket underneath them. You've got a few seconds to pull them out and get away before the collapse widens! =Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Hesitate=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"You must be in from way outta nowhere, kiddo," Josie comments to Fenrir, as she did the last time they spoke on the subject.
Damn. This one's so busted she can't even get any parts from it. Just a lot of wind-worn metal, corroded wires and bits of electronics, and other assorted mechanical garbage. Frowning into the depths of the hole she's too-easily dug into the Gear, Josie ultimately sighs and begins her descent.
As Fenrir digs into the remaining Gear and knocks it easily aside. Jarred loose from her current perch, Josie drops rather than descend the way she meant to, landing in a puff of sand below.
"...Maybe you did. Tell me again, though," she urges the Baskar girl before pressing her lips thin in a frown.
...Blue eyes.
"Huh," Josie says, almost thoughtfully as she approaches the vehicle.
"A guy with blue eyes. Sounds familiar. Used a sword, did he?"
Nothing inside the convoy car. Josie exhales a breath of air out through her nose. "No dice? Hey, Fenrir, pop open the trunk. We'll take a look in there next--"
Traitorously, Penelope abruptly takes flight. The ground shudders underfoot a moment later. The sand is begun to pour downwards as if flowing into a drain. And it's seeking to take car, Gears, Josie with it.
"Fengalon's--"
That oath is mercifully (?) cut off. Josie leaps to the side, scrambling and almost swimming in her attempt to fight against the sandflow.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Quick Sand.
<Pose Tracker> Fenrir has posed.
As the gear is moved aside, Fenrir flexes her paw, watching as Josie looks inside the car. "I'm from pretty far off." It's not a lie, even if it's said super flatly. As Josie tells Fenrir to open the trunk, the wolfwoman begins moving over to it...when the ground rumbles. "The hell?!" And the ground's caving in, with Fenrir beneath it. "The hell is wrong with this place?!"
Fenrir's arm shifts again. This time, it's a chain with a hand at the end, attached to her side. This is probably not a normal Beastman skill. Probably because she's not a Beastman. "Get out of the way!" If they're falling...Fenrir could help them, couldn't she? She helped Lan before...and it felt good, and it had good payoff. So why not again? Celesdue would have to approve, too. Sure, it's saving some humans, but it's the opposite of murder, and that's always good.
Firing her claw past the sands, Fenrir pulls herself forward, aiming to get into the path of Josie and Lan. "Grab on to me! I'll pull us up, I guess." Being nice is hard, so Fenrir then distracts by trying to ask Lan a question.
"You still haven't tracked him down?"
DG: Fenrir has used her Tool Grapple Claw toward her party's challenge, Quick Sand.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
"He had a sword..." Lan says it like she isn't sure. It was a blade, she knows that, but... Violet eyes go distant as she tries to piece together the ragged, blurry scraps of memory. "He had a blade, and he didn't die even when I killed him..."
She felt his throat collapse underneath her heel, she knows she did. Lan doesn't have any code against killing, but to take a life is a grave matter - not something done carelessly or without reason. She knows what she did.
The rumble of moving earth snaps her back to reality. "Wha- Josie!!" Caught close to the edge, she has a slightly easier time of it than the older woman, and the ribbon in her hair bursts into shimmering light as she instinctively draws on the antigravity magic of Rigdobrite. "Hang on!"
She's never tried to float someone else before, but what better time could there be than now?!
Lan grabs for Josie, and is grabbed by Fenrir in turn as the Beastwoman reaches for safety. "I was kinda buuuusyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy--!"
DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Quick Sand.
============================<* Great Aveh Desert *>============================= ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Quick Sand *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The sand beneath one of your party members suddenly gives way; apparently there was an air pocket underneath them. You've got a few seconds to pull them out and get away before the collapse widens! =Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Hesitate=========================================
=======================<* Great Aveh Desert - Round 4 *>======================== ============================< Results - Quick Sand >============================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 52 --(11)--> 63 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fenrir 59 --(10)--> 69 Pass Grapple Claw 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 55 --(8)--> 63 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 45 --(20)--> 65 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(2)|Injure(2)|Overwhelm|Weaken(1) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace 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> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"A sword, huh. And some bullshit magic, too? ...Darkness? Sounds like he faked you out, too..." She shakes her head, grimaces as if she's just tasted something foul. "...That bastard. He did a number to you, too, huh."
Her hand at her side flexes, relaxes.
"But, don't worry. I'll kill him for you, too." She flashes a smile to Lan that would be cheerful enough... if it weren't so damn cold.
And then the earth, well, moves.
A piece of shining ribbon seems to almost float through the air for an instant. Not one to waste time dwelling on the particulars, Josie grabs for it as behind them, the car and Gears are sucked down the drain. Fenrir follows up in the next heartbeat, surging up behind both of them and hauling them over the lip of the sandy sinkhole.
There is at last a moment for everyone to catch their breath.
"That was close," the archaeologist breathes. "I owe you two one."
She gazes off to the horizon. ...Now what?
DG: Fenrir has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Great Aveh Desert *>============================ =========================<* CHALLENGE - Still Lost *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- EVERY SAND DUNE LOOKS THE SAME! Honestly, next time someone should remember to bring a MAP and maybe a COMPASS and maybe a DUNE BUGGY while you're at it. =Dungeon Conditions: Tire, Reckless===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Fenrir has posed.
As they pull up to safety, Fenrir turns her arm back to normal flesh, stretching it out as she heads further across the sand. "Let's keep going." A turn to Josephine and Lan involving the stabbing man, as Fenrir flares her nostrils. "As I told you before, Lan, if I see him, he's dead. I'll tear him in two." Another flex of her arm, as she leads them through the sand...and further through the sand...they've passed that dune already, haven't they? It looks just like all the others. After a few moments of walking, Fenrir pauses, and turns to the other two.
"We've been in this direction before, right?" She tilts her head, glancing at the dunes. "I am absolutely sure we've been in this direction. We need to go in another one, if we're going to find anything. Let's go..." And then, spinning on her heel, she points in another direction. Hopefully it is not the same one. "That way."
DG: Fenrir has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Still Lost.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
There was a black sun over a lake that was endlessly deep. Lan had felt drawn to it as if by gravity, even though her immediate reaction was disgust and no small amount of terror. Things man was not meant to know, indeed...
"You ran into him too? Oh jeez, are you okay?" Lan pauses in the middle of dumping sand out of her sandal. "--Well, I guess you are, you seem just like you did last time we met." Moderately scary, but not in a way that's aimed at her.
Fenrir reiterates that she'll kill the man dead, and Lan feels sad for a reason she can't really identify. She'd been horrified by him, but she'd felt sorry for him too. She doesn't know why. So she bows her head, letting the pale strands of her long hair shade her face. "Thanks, you guys," she murmurs quietly.
Following the other women, Lan is quite content to be led for now. After all, she's comfortable enough in the desert for not-endless periods of time, and she doesn't really have a map or anything. "I... it all looks the same," she has to admit. "If the stars were out we could navigate that way, but that's a while from now." She'll just... keep following Fenrir and Josie, but at least Lan has a backup plan in case this one doesn't work!
DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Still Lost.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"It was a while back," Josie comments offhandedly. "I'm fine, now. But I'll definitely kill him someday. I'll just tell him it's a gift from you, too. And you, I guess. Well, maybe a little help won't hurt," she says, glancing over at Fenrir.
That's an interesting trick, she thinks, regarding Fenrir a moment after the 'beastwoman's' arm returns to normal. In her experience, beastfolk normally...
Don't.
Well, whatever's going on here -- and she lacks sufficient experience with Metal Demons to really call a spade a spade here -- it doesn't to her mind change the valence here.
Which leaves them with now a bit of a situation on their hand:
Which way did they come in from, anyway?
A little wandering doesn't precisely change things. "No, I'm pretty sure this is a different one," Josie says, before turning and pointing at a different dune. "That's the one we passed before. See the little indentation on the top?" Actually, it'd help if she had a little bit of an assist, a little eye in the sky as it were--
"Hey, Penelope!"
Silence. Nothing but the wind, the shuff-shuff of the sand underfoot.
Slowly, slowly, Josie squints in irritation.
"Oooh, when I get back, you are definitely not getting a treat," she mutters, scowling.
Penelope, in the meantime, has effectively fucked off back to Dazil and is enjoying a nice late-morning nap.
The tool with the greatest liability is the one that isn't there.
She sighs. "Anyway, let's try that way," she says, pointing off roughly towards the south, judging by the current position of the sun. "We left from the north face of Dazil."
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Still Lost.
===========================<* Great Aveh Desert *>============================ =========================<* CHALLENGE - Still Lost *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- EVERY SAND DUNE LOOKS THE SAME! Honestly, next time someone should remember to bring a MAP and maybe a COMPASS and maybe a DUNE BUGGY while you're at it. =Dungeon Conditions: Tire, Reckless===========================================
======================<* Great Aveh Desert - Round 5 *>======================= ===========================< Results - Still Lost >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Josephine Lovelace 63 --(27)--> 90 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fenrir 69 --(31)--> 100 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lan Lilac 63 --(31)--> 94 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Josephine Lovelace 65 --(10)--> 75 Fail Conditions: Hesitate(1)|Injure(1)|Overwhelm|Reckless(2)|Tire(2) Effects: ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: Fenrir is too exhausted to continue! DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace 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> Fenrir has posed.
The path they take leads to a dune. And then another dune. And then a dune they have to go around, and then another until they finally feel like they're actually getting anywhere. However, there's a 'casualty' along the way, sort of: a snake springs out of the sand at one point and bites Fenrir's heel. She snaps its neck and kicks it off, but a few moments afterwards, falters a bit. "Guh. The hell?" A little wobbling, but still able to walk, even if she's forcing herself so she doesn't get lost in the desert. "Strength's sapping out of me. I don't think I can do much here except be a meat shield. Sorry." Not that she's leaving, but she falls a bit back behind the other two. Her regeneration will handle the poison...but probably not as fast as she'd like it to.
DG: Lan Lilac has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Great Aveh Desert *>=============================== ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Buried Treasure *>========================== |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | -----------------------------< Challenge Information: >------------------------------ A crashed vehicle of some kind lies abandoned in the sands, with a trail of footprints heading off in a different direction. Near the vehicle, the corner of a large footlocker can be seen just barely peeking out of the sand dune. It's almost totally buried, and getting this thing out of there will be a trial... =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
It feels like they've been wandering for hours. Lan shades her eyes to squint at the sun, checking its position against her own shadow. She's pretty sure that's not too great, but at least they aren't permanently lost.
She does, however, panic a little bit when the snake comes out of freaking nowhere and bites Fenrir! But eventually she realizes that if the Beastwoman isn't panicking then... well, there's probably nothing to worry about???
But she finally spots something off in the distance. "Hey, isn't that...?" Another vehicle? As they get closer, she sees the footprints leading away. "It couldn't have happened too long ago, right? The wind would've swept the tracks away in less than a day." Even in the lee of a dune, nothing is forever in a world made of sand.
At least there may yet be something to take home with them - not the dig Josie was hoping for, maybe, but with any luck there might be something valuable. "C'mon, Josie, help me dig this thing out? Fenrir, wanna watch out for any more sinkholes?" She says it with a grin, but Lan's not really joking.
DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Buried Treasure.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Round and round and round they go, where they stop...
The sun, slowly, rises higher into the sky.
"...Hey?"
Fenrir has just stumbled, earning a concerned look from the archaeologist. "You okay there, kiddo?" she asks, looking her up and down. Briefly, Josie hesitates, before offering an arm. "Don't worry. We'll be outta here soon at this rate."
Probably not, she thinks to herself, but it's best to keep a positive spirit at these times.
Up ahead is another object. "Hey, it's another convoy car," she says, squinting at it. "Maybe that's the one, or something more recent. Let's check it out."
If nothing else, there could be some supplies, like some more water. Or a medical kit, come to think of it.
"Stay here," she tells Fenrir, before approaching the stranded vehicle and dropping her pack to root through it. She produces... a spade. Slipping her pack back on, she steps on over and starts digging.
It's not as good as a shovel for this, but it's better than nothing.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Buried Treasure.
<Pose Tracker> Fenrir has posed.
"I'm fine. Think I got poisoned." Fenrir replies, shaking her leg. She does squint at Josie for a moment, mainly because she called her 'kiddo' and keeps doing it, but doesn't say anything. Instead, as the pair moves up to investigate the vehicle, Fenrir takes a seat on the sand, checking her heel briefly before making a look out for watch. "You look like you've done this a lot, 'Josie'. Why do you do it?"
===========================<* Great Aveh Desert *>============================ ======================<* CHALLENGE - Buried Treasure *>======================= |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- A crashed vehicle of some kind lies abandoned in the sands, with a trail of footprints heading off in a different direction. Near the vehicle, the corner of a large footlocker can be seen just barely peeking out of the sand dune. It's almost totally buried, and getting this thing out of there will be a trial... =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken===================================================
======================<* Great Aveh Desert - Round 6 *>=======================
========================< Results - Buried Treasure >=========================
Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josephine Lovelace 90 --(20)--> 110 Fail
Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fenrir --()-->
Effects:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac 94 --(23)--> 117 Fail
Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC
----------------------------------< Party >-----------------------------------
Leader: Josephine Lovelace 75 --(5)--> 80 Fail
Conditions: Overwhelm|Reckless(1)|Tire(1)|Weaken(2)
Effects:
==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: Josephine Lovelace is too exhausted to continue! DG: Fenrir is too exhausted to continue! DG: Lan Lilac is too exhausted to continue! DG: The party has failed this challenge! All party members are now Exhausted. This attempt is over. DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has been fully Exhausted by Great Aveh Desert! DG: The party will now draw a conclusion.
===========================<* Great Aveh Desert *>============================ ======================<* CHALLENGE - Gallagher Oasis *>======================= |Type: Landmark |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- As you limp toward the crest of a distant dune, you see a glimmer of light off a reflective surface, surrounded by a flash of green. It's an oasis - a small pool of life-giving water, around which some hardy ferns and other plants are somehow resisting the encroaching desertification... but for how long? =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Lan digs for a bit, and then Josie takes a turn, and then Lan tugs on the box, and then Josie digs some more, and finally... With a shuff of sand falling, the desert releases the trapped crate to their tender mercies. There isn't even a sinkhole. Hooray!
"Oh man, please be something good," Lan absolutely doesn't whine. Thankfully it's not locked! The lid is lifted... breaths are collectively held...!
There's nothing but a few empty food wrappers and a single mitten.
Lan falls back on her ass in the sand and refuses to get up for at least ninety seconds. She may need a minute for her morale bar to refill...
At least there's the sight of a distant oasis to comfort the three of them!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Fenrir says she thinks she got poisoned. This earns her a raised eyebrow. "That good, huh?" And then she shrugs, because whatcha gonna do? "Well, we'll work something out, one way or another." She's nothing if not optimistic, it seems.
Case in point, the attempts to excavate the crate left behind here.
"Why?" Josie glances up mid sand-shuffling, over her shoulder at Fenrir. "Well," she offers, smiling lopsidedly, "because I'm an archaeologist. I guess I just want to know about things, in the long run~"
Said relentlessly cheerfully.
Hopefully she still has some cheer in reserve. The result of their work is...
Josie sighs out a breath and tilts a little to her right at the sight of it, as if the recipient of a devastating blow.
Current status: defatigable.
At least the oasis, once spotted -- probably about minutes from their current despair-ridden moment -- will be a welcome sight for sore eyes.
And hopefully Fenrir won't die of a snakebite.
<Pose Tracker> Fenrir has posed.
Moving up to the trunk slowly as the others have their...reaction to it, Fenrir glances inside, and pauses. This is what they did this for? A mitten and some sort of wrapper? Fenrir pauses...and then reaches in, grabs the mitten, and looks over it, before sliding it over her hand. It's a fit! Raising her hand to the others, and noticeably...not seemingly dying from her bite, Fenrir waves it around a bit. "I don't see why you're so upset. I got a mitten." Despite being delivered with Fenrir's usual cadence...it's probably a joke to elevate the mood, right? Seeing the oasis in the distance, she starts hobbling that way. "I don't know what exactly you were looking for, but we've exercised our legs, atleast. Will be able to run much farther than before, right?"