2017-11-17: A Ruin Eaten By Time... Or Maybe Just Worms

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  • Log: A Ruin Eaten By Time... Or Maybe Just Worms
  • Cast: Josephine Lovelace, Lily Keil, Noah Hawthorne, Jude Moshe, Morgan Newkirk
  • Where: Doomed to Obscurity
  • Date: November 17th 2017
  • Summary: Josie embarks on a long-anticipated expedition to a ruin with a few somewhat-trustworthy allies. Unfortunately, the worms beat them to it. Jude makes good on a promise. Penelope tastes first blood. Morgan has questions about the physics of sand. Noah regrets his life decisions. Lily possibly proves herself to be the only adult in the room.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

A long long time ago, there was a great nation. From what records show, they accomplished a great number of things. In parts of this world, their buildings still stand. Things they made can still function.
Can still change the world.

A long long time ago, this place may have had a name.

Only a part of the ziggurat pokes out from above the sands. In time, it's a certain thing that the desert will finish swallowing it whole, and it will vanish from history at last.

Doomed to obscurity, indeed.

Overhead, the sun beats down. Even well after peak -- late afternoon has already arrived -- it's baking hot, but still a better deal than what awaits the unwary in this place after dark. The desert is moody, and can switch from broiling to freezing very quickly.

This is the place, it seems. Josie gazes at the bit of the ziggurat still defying time itself pensively from her perch on a bit of shattered rock poking up out of the sands, resting her cheek against one propped up hand.

It's finally time. Rolling her shoulders, she slips off the chunk of rock, landing on the sand beneath in a puff of dust.

"Everyone ready?"

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

A long, long time ago.

The baking heat of late afternoon s barely abated by the breeze ruffling Lily Keil's black hair as she looks out at the ziggurat. ...Well, what's there of it. She's standing, her dark boots dusty from the sand, her face pale despite the beating sun. She's heard of this place of course.

The former soldier is dressed in black and grey, a few layers as a nod to the desert with pants, with armor in her jacket. ...The overall effect is refined, straight-backed, almost scholarly with the breezy scarf about her neck. Her ARM is slung over her shoulder, rosewood and steel, her satchel at her side...

But the most useful thing for this expediton is probably in her head. Of the things she has, anyway.

Unusually for those who've been with her recently, both of her eyes are visible, golden. Josie's word brings a shake of her head. "...Yes," she answers after that, glancing to the others wth them. She's been pretty quiet. Glancing down at a glove, she closes her fingers into a fist.

<Pose Tracker> Noah Hawthorne has posed.

 It's no small thing to cross the Badlands. Most people do it as swiftly as they can, head down and traveling at night to avoid the worst of the scorching sun overhead. There are those souls, however, who make a habit of traversing the unforgiving expanses, combing the shifting, dusty landscape for things like this: buried treasures, containing horrors, defending, one hopes, further treasures.

 For Noah Hawthorne the journey is often the destination. The experiences he reaps from a land grown increasingly infertile in every other way are as valuable to him as anything he might find buried in a craggy, dusty hole in the ground. Moreso, often.

 The Badlands tend to put that whole 'journey is the destination' thing to the test, though. The journey is terrible. The destination is the only reason to undertake it.

 He never complains. He makes the trip near-silently on the back of Shen, the destrier sturdy enough to facilitate all of his rangy adventures. The silence is unusual, but moisture is hard to come by, and speaking is a swift way to dehydrate in air this dry. It drives him half-mad, the boredom, but these are survival concerns long-since learned the hard way.

 He'd have been elated to arrive at the ruin under any circumstances, brimming with the promise of mysteries to unravel, but after a hard journey the sight is a thousand times sweeter. Relief hangs on the broad set of his shoulders like perpetually releasing tension, something in him unlocked and let return to fluidity again -- enough that when Josie speaks up, he tosses her a lazy half-smile from where he's standing beside the ground-tied paint horse, checking over his gear.

 "That a serious question?"

<Pose Tracker> Jude Moshe has posed.

Clear skies are illuminated blue by the churning light of the desert sun, hanging distant and yet so heavy above. The heat is intense, the ripples of it rising off sand turning everything into an endless haze that distorts the senses for miles just as much as it chokes the air from one's lungs with the sheer lack of moisture in the air. It is, in other words, the perfect weather to -not- be out in the desert.

Unfortunate, then, that most of western Ignas -is- desert.

And doubly unfortunate that Jude Moshe finds himself stuck in the practical heart of it all.

He's not exactly early, but not exactly late, either. He has things to do; preparations to make. Work to be done. But he got the message. He knows where to be. And even if it means a journey into the sweltering heat of the desert, well...

... it's not like he has much better to be doing, right?

He just had to get his necessities before embarking. Which is precisely why--

"Head's up!"

The voice rings out, prefaced by the low sweep of a bird reflecting sunlight off its metal hide as it flies past Josephine Lovelace, Noah Hawthorne and Lily Keil. These two things are the lone warnings that they'll get before something goes soaring through the air towards Josephine; something small, compact, and light:

A pack of cigarettes.

And there, off in the distance, approaches Jude Moshe.

On the back of a mule.

As nonchalant as ever, as if this were the most natural thing in the world, the redheaded reporter makes his way through the desert heat on his loyal (???) steed, the animal stubbornly and crankily trudging forward through the sun-soaked sands. Jude doesn't say a word. He just smiles, and when he's close enough --

Leans over just enough to offer Josephine a light. As promised.

"You have no idea how much of a pain in the ass this was," he finally asides, over the flicker of his offered match, in a way utterly and completely unapologetic for his word choice.

-Now- he's ready.

DG: A party led by Josephine Lovelace is now entering Doomed to Obscurity.
DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
===========================<* Doomed to Obscurity *>============================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Perilous Ascent *>========================
|Type: Entry       |Dungeon Ability: Agility   |Challenge Rating: 1          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The ruin's main entrance sits atop a large ziggurat, made of carved
 sandstone blocks. Most of the blocks are still intact, but some are in
 varying states of disrepair--they're cracked, broken, or waiting to slide
 out of place if enough weight is set on them. Watch your step!
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

The plan, for all the length of time it had ended up taking -- blame a cashflow issue, blame trouble finding the damn place again, blame each and every little hiccup that had wound itself out across the western half of Ignas, blame nearly a half-dozen things -- was rather simple:

Locate the ruin in question, gather supplies and a few good people, and go see what they could find.

There had to be something more to the tile Josie had found in here over two years ago. Even for a well known ruin, the fact that she'd found something of Zeboim extraction here suggested there had to be more to it, perhaps even a clue to what it was meant to do, or perhaps what was so important about it, age aside.

Or what the words that Lily had read off of it meant, or the change in shape she'd managed to prompt in it.
Perhaps even why, apparently, Josie's fellow scholars want her head.

Maybe they'll even make some money.

"Good!" Dark eyes flick between former soldier and fellow adventurer-archaeologist alike. Her mouth tilts in a lopsided smile as Noah calls her question into... well. Question. "Well, what do you think?"

A small shape slips out of the shadows of one of the tilted, slowly sinking chunks of rock. With a whirr of wings, Penelope alights on Josie's shoulder and settles, feathers fluffing out a touch.
Of course the bird is here too.

Josie waits for all of two seconds or so, glancing over at the ruin, then off into the far distance. She folds her arms over her chest, and sighs. "...The cavalry's late, though."
Something glints in the sun.
Penelope bristles.
She snaps out one hand to grab the small light object right out of the air as it plummets from the heavens, squinting at it once she has it in hand. "Huh." Not one to waste the chance, apparently, she opens the pack.
Extracts a cigarette.
And tilts her head in the direction of the path they rode in on themselves, as if already expecting to see the person she does see riding on up.

"You're late!"

Though there's no hiding that smile... or the honestly -- even if she was expecting it -- faintly impressed/astonished rise of her eyebrows as he rides up on the mule.

Just as promised.

"You also forgot the armor," she adds, lifting the lone cigarette up to catch the flicker of flame. "But I'll allow it this time."

A moment of silence follows, as she takes a drag.

"Just one more now."

And once Morgan does arrive, it's onwards towards the ziggurat...

And the wee bit of a jump and a hop (and a climb) that the scattered blocks present.
Grinding the remains of that cigarette underfoot, Josie moves on ahead to begin her own ascent. The rocks are somewhat unstable underfoot, but a clear path is visible, up to the entrance...

DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Perilous Ascent.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily is already off her horse by now. ...She hasn't bothered learning the animal's name, though she's cared for her well enough, made sure not to overwork her, underfeed her. She's rented, borrowed, because Lly has more than enough responsibilities without yet another living creture on her head.

...Seeing Noah again is something. He asks if it's serious, and she shrugs, looking away from her black steed. ...Until Jude shows up. Her gold eyes swipe past the little golden bird and watches the cigarettes, looing up to Jude with... his...

She watches hm, dead-eyed for a moment, shakes her head. That joke was bad. ...But more interesting is the way he and Josie interact a bit. She considers. ...She decides not to say anything, focusing instead on their move ahead.

The rocks are there, and Lily isn't thrilled to have to climb it like this, but one step at a time, one handhold at a time, she works at it, keeping her ARM at her shoulder. ...The horse she leaves tied with the others.

DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Perilous Ascent.
<Pose Tracker> Noah Hawthorne has posed.

 Noah takes the sudden reappearance of Jude Moshe in his life with the kind of mellow equanimity he displays in virtually every social engagement: a cocked eyebrow, an upward-nod of greeting, humor sliding into his eyes like a lacquer of warmth. "So, I could have ridden out here alone, just met up with everyone here?" Jude, then Lily, then Josie in turn get glances, cycling back around to Jude in the end, at whom he slowly shakes his head. He adds nothing on top of that remark, but the gist of the subtext is clear, anyway: and I rode out here with these two and a psychotic pigeon? What the hell?

 He slings a coil of rope over his shoulder, gives the horse that carried his weight one last stroke at the shoulder, and then turns his back on the rest of their things to ascend. That journal of his is visibly stuck in the back pocket of his pants, and there are a few other things lashed to holsters and straps in his typical kit -- some more identifiable than others. All of them stay secured for the time being, held in reserve for theoretically more problematic obstacles further inside.

DG: Noah Hawthorne has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Perilous Ascent.
<Pose Tracker> Morgan Newkirk has posed.


"Technicly," Comes a voice from over the hill. A voice familiar to everyone there. The drawl reveals the idenity as does the pair of tall fox ears that appear over the top of the hill. "We are late."

Mounted on horseback, with that odd cat of his drapped over the rump of the placid steed, the Fox of the party ambles up towards the rest of the group.

"But here just in time. Which is about right for me." He adds with a chuckle as he hops off his horse and angle a glance up towars the massive structure.

There is a deep sigh.

"Always something to do with climbing isn't there." He opines as he limbers up his ARM. The blue glow is familiar to many by now as the energy lasso arcs out and up, lashing on to a nearly invisible anchor point further up. He tugs at it, making sure its secure before he starts on his way up.

"And sure you could of, but I know you Hawthorn." He drawls as he starts up. "You just couldn't keep yourself away from Penelope's glowing personality."

DG: Morgan Newkirk has used his Tool Force Lash toward his party's challenge, Perilous Ascent.
<Pose Tracker> Jude Moshe has posed.

"I thought about risking the potential of suffering heat stroke before I got here..." Jude begins, with regards to the armor.

He looks up at the sun relentlessly searing the skies above, burning relentlessly even at his shadowed gaze.

"... but I decided I didn't like my odds. Sorry. I'm weak."

A helpless shrug follows, before Jude Moshe slips off his trusty and/or cheap mule that he probably didn't actually pay a dime for, and waits with the rest for Morgan, only offering a sidelong glance at Noah, brows lifted in what can just barely pass as genuine confusion.

"What? You didn't know? Well -- at least you got some valuable team bonding out of the trip, I'm sure. I'm a little envious."

Obviously.

When the last member of their stalwart (??), trustworthy (???) party arrives, Jude pushes himself up off of the mule he's currently using as a leaning post; Jacob, pleasantly oblivious to the bristling ire of Penelope, flits off moments later, ascending the ziggurat to scout ahead as the reporter peers up at the buried yet large structure.

"Sorry, buddy," Jude asides to the beast beside him. "Looks like this is the end of the line for you."

The mule just huffs lazily, shaking its head as if denying any chance it was going to follow along in the first place. Jude peers, again, at the ascent, and frowns.

"Frankly, I think you're the lucky one."

With that, the redheaded sellsword follows after Josephine; grappling with ahing rock, he begins his climb slowly and carefully, feeling the structure unsteadily shift beneath his feet as he rises.

"These places are nothing... if not... consistent."

It's one of the worst things about them.

DG: Jude Moshe has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Perilous Ascent.
===========================<* Doomed to Obscurity *>============================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Perilous Ascent *>========================
|Type: Entry       |Dungeon Ability: Agility   |Challenge Rating: 1          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The ruin's main entrance sits atop a large ziggurat, made of carved
 sandstone blocks. Most of the blocks are still intact, but some are in
 varying states of disrepair--they're cracked, broken, or waiting to slide
 out of place if enough weight is set on them. Watch your step!
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
======================<* Doomed to Obscurity - Round 1 *>=======================
=========================< Results - Perilous Ascent >==========================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josephine Lovelace                  0 --(10)--> 10                 Fail
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lily Keil                           0 --(10)--> 10                 Fail
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jude Moshe                          0 --(5)--> 5                   Pass
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Noah Hawthorne                      0 --(10)--> 10                 Fail
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morgan Newkirk                      0 --(5)--> 5                   Pass
Force Lash                          2   Agility Effects: Stalwart
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Josephine Lovelace          0 --(20)--> 20                 Pass
Conditions: Injure(2)
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> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

"Not a fan?" she asks Lily. "I thought it was clever." Josie has a notably terrible sense of humor.

And if any gaze ever spoke volumes, this one to Noah says:
'You didn't ask.'
She's smiling, too.

Josie rolls her shoulders in a languid shrug. "Fair enough. You're not doing anyone much good if you're dead halfway through the desert. You can just make it up to me later."

She's keeping that entire pack of cigarettes, to start.

"There you are." This is said the moment she spots Morgan. At his reasoning, she waves her right hand. Penelope on the other hand continues to bristle. "...Alright, alright, knock it off. So, let's get this thing on the road, right? If we wait around much longer..."
Well, there might be a fight, for one, if Josie's reading the room. Penelope is Not A Fan.

It should be a reasonably easy ascent up. The rocks are a little bit lopsided, the whole thing is definitely slowly succumbing to the elements. But it could all be worse--

Some of the rocks are also half-cracked and outright split the moment they're landed on. The perhaps fleeter-footed ones might find that a split-second is all they have to avoiding a nasty tumble when a foothold gives or a handhold stops existing in usable form. The others, though...
Even a rope won't save you now, Noah. Not when Josie plummets from her rock and grabs onto the first thing she can find, specifically: Noah.

Penelope meanwhile merely wheels up into the sky. ...Hopefully Jacob is not in her airspace.

DG: Lily Keil has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Doomed to Obscurity *>============================
=========================<* CHALLENGE - Tunnel Maze *>==========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 1          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 You've stumbled across a large, dense network of sandworm burrows, tunnels
 in the rock and sand that could lead to otherwise-inaccessible parts of the
 ruin. Unfortunately, they're pitch-black, and confusing to navigate--not to
 mention the danger posed by running into a sandworm. Can you make it through
 in one piece?
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

"And miss out on our pleasant company?" Lily asks Noah in her usual sort of dry voice. She adds for Josie's sake, "You know I don't have a sense of humor."

Morgan's arrival mentions being late... and Lily rolls her eyes, though not with any real rancor. "Always climbing," she agrees with him. Jude's armor... Well. It's a point.

"I agree, the ass is the lucky one," Lily says, as she makes her way through. ...The fact is, she does make it, but she makes it through falls and scrapes and wrenches here and there. But eventually here they are. Lily glance about to the others, and shrugs, looking forward to see... burrows.

"...Mm," she says. "Sandworms. ...Not that recent, to look at it..." It's pitch-black inside, but she has a solution for that, lifting her hand before abrubtly there's a fireball in it, serving as a makeshift torch, hovering there. In her other hand she draws her knife, to use to mark passages. "At least we don't have machine guns trained on us this time."

DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Tunnel Maze.
<Pose Tracker> Jude Moshe has posed.

Slow and steady wins the race, apparently; Jude Moshe takes his time (some of that time devoted towards giving a forlorn look that pack of cigarette's way) to ascend the side of the ziggurat. For someone who ostensibly spends most of his time writing news stories, he seems well-versed in climbing cliff faces, manmade or otherwise -- he knows where and how to move, avoiding weak points in the architecture, sidestepping crumbling, rocky outcroppings that have been too gripped by the slow and inevitable process of entropy, in a way that allows him to eventually reach the top of that structure without much in the way of issues. Clearly, he must know what he's doing.

"Huh. Thought for sure I was gonna fall there." Or he's just got dumb luck on his side. Clearly, it's the ass's moral support.

Either way, he'll wait at the top for the others, stretching his arms idly over his head as Lily makes it up. He looks down. Watches as Josephine falls onto Noah. Lifts brows. Whistles.

"Nice save, Noah," he offers idly, giving an encouraging, half-assed thumbs up.

"Always knew you were regular knight in shining armor."

Because, as well-established earlier, Jude definitely is not. Desert, sun, heat, cost of armor, cheapskate etc.

Hands crossing leisurely at the back of his head, he follows after into the darkness, only to see...

"Great," mutters the reporter, expression flattening towards sarcastic neutrality. "Sandworms. Have I ever mentioned how much I love the desert?"

A sigh, the shake of his head, and Jude looks around him. As Lily's hand ignites in flame, he glances back at the former Kislevi soldier for a silent moment before tilting his head in an idle gesture.

"This way," he mentions -- and ahead of him, where he gestures, Jacob flutters just beyond -- apparently having yet to run afoul of his flesh and blood nemesis (kind of) considering he's still, you know.

Alive.

Which is fortunate, considering that moments later he flutters off, to lead a way forward.

... Hopefully one that takes into consideration that the rest of them can't fly over sandworm nests.

DG: Jude Moshe has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Tunnel Maze.
<Pose Tracker> Noah Hawthorne has posed.

 "I don't want to talk about it," Noah says under his breath as they ascend. Whether he means the 'always climbing' bit -- that's probable -- or the bit where he traveled out here in the company of two women and a psychotic pigeon is unclear. Possibly Both. Probably Both.

 When the terrible thing happens, as terrible things are like to do, it happens so quickly that there isn't even any time for Noah to cuss, though he would surely like to. He's roughly grabbed and pinwheels his arms, eyes widening; for a moment it seems as though he might just manage to do it: use that prodigious sense of balance to stay upright.

 No, though. Nope.

 Somebody Noah's size goes down hard when they actually topple. The breath is summarily knocked out of him, and for one hair-raising moment he nearly begins to slide down the rough stairs in what would surely turn him into a skinless sleigh, topped with a woman who nearly kills him every time they're in the same place...

 Mercifully, he manages to plant his hands behind his head as the next step of the ziggurat rises up alarmingly toward the fragile, very necessary skull that belongs to him, bootheels dug down. It's an awkward position. It's made worse by the fact that, upside-down-ish and underneath a woman who doesn't know what the safety on her firearm is for, he can see that god damned pigeon spiraling upward into the air, escaping his fate.

 "Lovelace," he says, dry. "I'm flattered and all, but if you could save the transparent come-ons until we're somewhere a little bit less lethal I would be very obliged."

 When she has been safely displaced, he catches up with the others, still covered in dust where he had his up-close encounter with the infrastructure. One hand palms the journal out of his back pocket, and a gesture from the other ignites the glowing cabochon in the cuff on his wrist, triggering heatless illumination.

 "I've got this. I can map it as we go."

DG: Noah Hawthorne has used his Tool Personal Journal toward his party's challenge, Tunnel Maze.
<Pose Tracker> Morgan Newkirk has posed.


"Somehow," Morgan calls towards Jude as he makes his own way up. "I think you're being facious there, Jude." The Fox smirks smirks slightly and pulls his way up the angled face of the structure. "But you know I could be wrong."

Down at the bottom, Morgan's horse and Morgan's cat just look up to see the stupid two-legs doing climbing things. I mean what do they think they are. Squirrels?

The fox does look quite suprised though as Josie takes a tumble right into Noah. A smirk as he hauls himself up and dusts himself off, His ARM's power dissipearing as he chuckles. "You trying to make us all jealous you two?" He calls towards the pair before looking back towards the tunnels ahead. "Huh. Well after you then. Somehow I don't think climbing over a wormden is going to be a good idea."

DG: Morgan Newkirk has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Tunnel Maze.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

It's probably one of the least graceful tumbles on record, particularly when Josie appears to be absolutely intent on not going down alone.

On the other hand, at least there's padding for /her/, as the both of them go sliding/skidding down the rock steps a distance.

...There have also been less awkward positions to have landed in. Though if Josie is actually embarrassed by this, she's sure not showing it. Her left hand plants on his chest as she rises... perhaps a little too close to his throat, but, details. "Here?" she voices, lifting her right hand as if mock-affronted. "It wouldn't be doing your back any favors, now would it? And just think of the sand problem..." She closes her eyes, sighs, and picks herself up off him, dusting off her longcoat as she slowly steps over him and turns back towards the climb. ...Not even a hand up.

Somewhere overhead, Penelope soars, seeking in vain a thing which has since handily eluded her. There are a good number of things here that the bird appears to dislike, but chief among them is... Jacob. By a long stretch, for reasons only a pigeon can truly know.

"Jealous? Hmmm." She appears to consider Morgan's question. "I suppose that would depend on there being something to be jealous about."

A VERY SHORT BIT LATER

"Hmmm. Sure does look like sandworms got in here," Josie mulls, tilting her head to the right. "I've heard there's been a population boom lately, too~" Her gaze tilts sidelong towards Jude, and she can't help but smile like a cat. "Well, lead on, kiddo. I sure don't remember this part. Let's hope they didn't chew too much of the ruins up, or that's really going to be a problem..."

That smile has flattened significantly, leveling out into something almost grim, the sort of smile that keeps on going in spite of possibly unfavorable outcomes.

Meanwhile, with her left hand, she makes a series of short sharp gestures. Her mouth moves. And there, bursting into being, is a small floating sphere of light, just above her palm. "...There we go," she sighs.

DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Tunnel Maze.
===========================<* Doomed to Obscurity *>============================
=========================<* CHALLENGE - Tunnel Maze *>==========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 1          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 You've stumbled across a large, dense network of sandworm burrows, tunnels
 in the rock and sand that could lead to otherwise-inaccessible parts of the
 ruin. Unfortunately, they're pitch-black, and confusing to navigate--not to
 mention the danger posed by running into a sandworm. Can you make it through
 in one piece?
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
======================<* Doomed to Obscurity - Round 2 *>=======================
===========================< Results - Tunnel Maze >============================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josephine Lovelace                  10 --(15)--> 25                Fail
Investigate                         0   Wits    Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lily Keil                           10 --(5)--> 15                 Pass
Investigate                         0   Wits    Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jude Moshe                          5 --(5)--> 10                  Pass
Investigate                         0   Wits    Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Noah Hawthorne                      10 --(5)--> 15                 Pass
Personal Journal                    3   Wits    Effects: Rally
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morgan Newkirk                      5 --(5)--> 10                  Pass
Investigate                         0   Wits    Effects: BASIC
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Josephine Lovelace          20 --(20)--> 40                Pass
Conditions: Injure(2)
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> Lily Keil has posed.

Jude may not love the desert, but his leadership works out in this case. He tilts his head after glancing at Lily, and Lily glances back at him in turn, holding that gaze for a moment. Just a moment, though.

Jacob flutters ahead, while Noah, well... Amidst the banter he maps along, keeping good track of where they're going. Morgan's words don't get much response out of Lily as she walks along, but jealousy s jealousy. The sandworms were here...

But luckily, none of them actually find them. However, Penelope in the midst of her anger ends up fluttering right back to Josie for reasons no one will understand. ...Josie turns out not to be much help. There's a hole to fall into that she has to save herself from.

DG: Jude Moshe has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Doomed to Obscurity *>============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Surprise Tatzelwurm *>======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 1          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Something drops from above as you make your way down a corridor. It's a
 tatzelwurm, a voracious, fire-breathing Wasteland predator--small compared
 to the sandworms that inhabit this place, but no less vicious. It is
 alarmingly fast, and you may well be the first prey it's seen in months.
 Have fun!

 IMG: https://lparchive.org/Wild-Arms-3/Update003/53-42.jpg
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Jude Moshe has posed.

And so they manage to make it through; despite his complaints, Jude still takes to navigating through those indisputably deadly burrows with an almost overwhelming sense of nonchalance, like it was just part of a midnight stroll. He weaves from hole to hole, making sure to avoid them as he follows Jacob's guidance.

And, considering Penelope doesn't swoop in from above to murder the helpful automaton before he can successfully guide them all out of that dank, ugly nest of possible desert monstrosities, Jude is going to consider all this a win.

Or he would, if it weren't for...

"Huh," breathes out the reporter as he reaches the end leading towards the hallway into the zigurrat proper. He looks behind him. Takes stock of everyone assembled. Scratches the back of his head.

... And then his hand falls towards his coat and the ARM hidden within as he hears an ominous rumbling in the distance and one question becomes all the more pressingly obvious:

"... So... where's Josie?"

Uttered like the prelude to calamity.

 DG: Jude Moshe has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Surprise Tatzelwurm.

<Pose Tracker> Noah Hawthorne has posed.

 Noah has his eyes on his journal, and the walls. Those two places, and those only, because he's taking his job of mapping out the tunnels they're exploring very seriously. The possible alternative is winding up trapped down here with present company which, in spite of his earlier wise remarks, wouldn't actually be the worst possible end, save that the pigeon is here. It's not even as though the murderous bird would make for a satisfying meal, either. And it probably literally tastes like spite.

 No thanks.

 No, he doesn't look up until Jude asks that ever-so-pertinent question, and then he turns his head. No Josie. The head-turn evolves into a slow three-hundred-and-sixty-degree rotation.

 "...huh," he says.

 DG: Noah Hawthorne has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Surprise Tatzelwurm.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

"...There we go," she sighs.

Moments before Penelope, having given up on her hunt, flies into the depths of the ziggurat and straight down the sandworm tunnel to alight on Josie's shoulder.

Josie turns her head.

And immediately vanishes from sight.

JOSIE'S FUN BADLANDS FACT CORNER: Did you know that tatzelwurms favor digging their dens into sandworm tunnels? It makes it easier for them to hide when they're not on the hunt!

Josie lands somewhere in the depths of the hole with a grunt, Symbological light still glittering where it hovers over her hand.
It's not all that glitters.

She squints.

JOSIE'S FUN BADLANDS FACT CORNER, VOLUME TWO: Did you know that tatzelwurms breathe fire?

BACK OUT IN THE TUNNEL:
Something lets out a low, rattling bellow.

Josie emerges from the hole onehandedly, squirming in haste up out of the inky blackness below and wriggling her way up over the edge. She seems a little singed.

"It's entirely possible," she calls out, hauling up onto her feet and making tracks away from the hole, "we have a little problem!"

This is yelled seconds before the tatzelwurm comes roaring out of the hole...

...chased by an exceedingly angry pigeon.

Josie, nonplussed for a change, just watches this happen. Fishing her hand in her pocket, she pulls out her flask and takes a hit.
...Yeah, she's just going to let this one happen.

DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Liquid Courage toward her party's challenge, Surprise Tatzelwurm.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

...Where's Josie? That's concerning. Lily frowns. ...It's hard to tell that she's frowning because she has mostly been frowning, but even so. She looks around, but doesn't spot the other woman.

The map might help... but not so much right here. However... Soon enough, Josie helps them out. With... those... noises.

Lily is already pulling her ARM by the time Josie comes out of the hole, checking its loading and staring to aim at the tatzelwurm that comes out chased by the... pigeon.

"A little problem," she repeats. She narrows her eyes, taking aim, and then... passes her hand over the barrel, taking a grip again afterward as it starts to chill, condensation forming on its side.

She fires, and the bullet explodes into blue-white mist, which solidifies into razor-sharp crystals, much more precise than it could be. She stares forward, focusing through the whole process.

"I was wondering when we'd have to kill something."

DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Rosenwasser - Infuse toward her party's challenge, Surprise Tatzelwurm.
<Pose Tracker> Morgan Newkirk has posed.


"You know, Jude." Morgan replies with a sigh as he turns back to peer towards the way maze they just truged though. "That really is a leading question."

Slowly the man reaches for the gunsmoke pistol at his side, slowly drawing the weapon as he spins the cylinder with a soft clicking sound as it goes down his arm. Checking to make sure the bullets are there just in case.

...because he has a feeling he'll need that.

Then the woman comes crawling out of a hole. "There she is!"

Then the bellow.

"And she found a friend!" He calls out as the pistol is snapped up and his ARM begins to glow again. Light snaps up, solid panes of energy deflecting flames up and away from the others. Trying to contain the swift worm for easy shooting.

"Josie, I don't think Penelope likes your new friend!"

DG: Morgan Newkirk has used his Tool Shield Gauntlet toward his party's challenge, Surprise Tatzelwurm.
===========================<* Doomed to Obscurity *>============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Surprise Tatzelwurm *>======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 1          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Something drops from above as you make your way down a corridor. It's a
 tatzelwurm, a voracious, fire-breathing Wasteland predator--small compared
 to the sandworms that inhabit this place, but no less vicious. It is
 alarmingly fast, and you may well be the first prey it's seen in months.
 Have fun!

 IMG: https://lparchive.org/Wild-Arms-3/Update003/53-42.jpg
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright===================================================
======================<* Doomed to Obscurity - Round 3 *>=======================
=======================< Results - Surprise Tatzelwurm >========================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josephine Lovelace                  25 --(5)--> 30                 Pass
Liquid Courage                      3   Combat  Effects: Rally
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lily Keil                           15 --(5)--> 20                 Pass
Rosenwasser - Infuse                3   Combat  Effects: Rally
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jude Moshe                          10 --(5)--> 15                 Pass
Fight                               0   Combat  Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Noah Hawthorne                      15 --(5)--> 20                 Pass
Fight                               0   Combat  Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morgan Newkirk                      10 --(5)--> 15                 Pass
Shield Gauntlet                     2   Combat  Effects: Embolden
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Josephine Lovelace          40 --(20)--> 60                Pass
Conditions: Fright(2)|Injure(1)
Effects: Embolden(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> Jude Moshe has posed.

It's entirely possible we have a little problem!

Jude Moshe's lips purse. His head tilts. His hand reaches towards the hilt of his weapon.

And then out explodes a frenzied tatzelwurm writhing and spewing flames.

Being chased by a tiny, angry bird.

"Yep," he utters, half to himself, "not really sure what I was expecting, there."

It's only a second later that Jude produces his shotgun revolver, the runes engraved on it glowing a deep, oceanic blue as sorcerous energies crackle and charge along the barrel. He ducks behind Morgan's shield as the flames wash over them, aims as Lily's gunfire rings out in blooming, cool crystals that distract the beast enough to end its spewing flames, and...

The BOOM BOOM BOOM of the trigger squeezing and heavy rounds firing preface the sound of cracking air as the ambient moisture still clinging to the dank chambers forms into weaving crystalline patterns of ice around those bullets the very second each slug makes impact in the tatzelwurm's oversized maw.

The next time it breaths fire, those chunks of ice shatter in its mouth, sending the wurm writhing as Jude beckons for the rest of them to press on further into the ziggurat.

"Remind me not to piss off your bird!" Jude asides to Josephine.

And he may also make a good attempt swiping her flask to take a well-deserved drink as they go.

Frankly, he's pretty sure she owes all of them a drink.

DG: Morgan Newkirk has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Doomed to Obscurity *>============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Walk Without Rhythm *>======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility   |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 This portion of the ruin has been breached by the desert. The floor is a
 deep layer of sand, regularly disturbed by the movements of the colony of
 sandworms that inhabit this place. You'll have to sneak across this shifting
 terrain without attracting their attention, somehow. Or you could just climb
 across using the metal net stretched across the ceiling. It's your life.
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Noah Hawthorne has posed.

 Noah's expression empties entirely the moment he sees Josie, and she's bearing bad news. And lightly charred. "What-" Pause. "How did you even-" Pause. "You know what? Nevermind." Because none of the answers she gives him are going to improve his day, he's sure about that. They're not going to do anything about whatever the 'problem' is, either; he's damn sure about that. So rather than waste precious time and breath and sanity points on entertaining the narrative leading up to what is about to become everyone's problem, he disengages the catch on the holster at his right hip and draws the ARM there, sliding his journal back into his pocket. He doesn't even wait to see the nature of the thing coming up out of the darkness through that hole, he just aims, and shoots. Nothing fancy, none of the bells and whistles involved in those peculiar cylinders that half-circle each weapon: just bullets. Plenty of bullets.

 It's deafening in the cramped space, echoes of every report cracking sharply through the narrow tunnels. This is definitely how you get tinnitus.

 Later:

 Standing at the edge of that obviously worm-infested pit of horrors, Noah gradually tracks his gaze upward. The only other option, as usual, is climbing. His sigh is the very essence of theater.

DG: Noah Hawthorne has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Walk Without Rhythm.
<Pose Tracker> Morgan Newkirk has posed.


The fire breathing worm is defeated by a combonation of serious violence, serious magic, and one very angry bird. Its a winning combo, but its not one that leaves much to subtlety either. Rumbles begin to sound back within the maze as the larger sandworms begin to wake and move...

...then the way ahead of them shifts. And breaks. And starts to flow like a river in front of them all.

Morgan squints at that sand.

"You know..." He calls as he summons his rope once again. His lash flashes out to grab what looks like a solid piece of rock to drag it over though the rushing sand river. "...I never liked how sand doesn't obey the laws of physics around here."

Hauling on the rock he pulls it over, trying to give people a way over the sudden mess before them.

"Anyone else have a problem with that, or is that just my personal thing?"

DG: Morgan Newkirk has used his Tool Force Lash toward his party's challenge, Walk Without Rhythm.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

Against just about all odds out there, somehow Penelope avoids the friendly fire, while harrying a large fire-breathing monster worm the only way a pigeon can.

Josie, for once, doesn't draw. She's just watching all of this happen.

And, apparently, checking out some of the guys... 's ARMs.
The firearms definitely earn an appreciative look or two. Or three.

The beast, though, is felled, rendered little more than a twitching mass. Penelope alights upon it, apparently content for now.

Well, it means she's not hunting Jacob or Cat, so perhaps let wins be wins.

"She can be kinda ornery sometimes," Josie allows, shrugging as Jude makes his comment. "--Hey!"

Josie is also suddenly short one flask.

An abbreviated tussle might take place as she attempts to take it back.

At least, up until they reach the next area. "Looks like part of the rest of the ruin..."

She pauses, considering the vibrations rolling through the rock below. "...And I'd say we're not alone. So step light, okay~?"

The climbing thing is a little tricky when you only have one good arm, so it's out of the question. Sneaking it is.

DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Walk Without Rhythm.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily has concluded much the same as Morgan, but she lacks the good humor of... well, most of the group frankly. She's quiet and she knows it, and she stays that way while shooting. ...Mostly, anyway. Not entirely.

"...You're still good at that," she mutters, watching Jude's beautiful interplay of ice and gunfire, far more intricate than the brute-force manner in which she channeled her spell.

It does anyway. She sets her ARM over her shoulder again and shrugs. "..Worst that happens is we meet the locals."

Lily is more or less expecting it, frankly. She already has a spell at the ready. ...But she's going to try to sneak across the bottom. "...Sand does whatever sand wants. Spend enough time on the Kislev-Aveh border... You know not to bother caring."

DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Walk Without Rhythm.
<Pose Tracker> Jude Moshe has posed.

"I guess I've had a little practice with it," says Jude Moshe as Lily compliments him, brushing it all off as if it were nothing. Humble to a fault. Obviously.

Josie speaks up, after the wurm is down. And Jude's brows lift in effortless tandem. "'Kinda ornery' like the sun is 'kinda hot,'" he amends casually as he tilts back that flask. He pauses, one amber eye peering at Penelope sympathetically.

"Don't worry, it's part of your charms," he asides to the bird, preparing to take another sip from that flask--

*ONE FASTFORWARDED STRUGGLE FOR ALCOHOL LATER*

Jude Moshe, down one borrowed (stolen) flask, stumbles into the next area with the hapless stare of a man defeated but too lazy to muster up the effort to actually feel defeated. Hand rubbing at the back of his neck, he looks over the cavernous chambers...

... until -massive- bodies shift underneath them, causing rock to crack and sand to spill in a fluid deluge across the way, barring their path -- or at least making traversing it difficult.

"I don't like to point fingers," Jude begins, slowly, "but I can't help but feel this wouldn't have happened if Josie wasn't so stingy with her flask."

Truer words, never spoken.

His smile, despite their perilous situation, remains steadfastly nonchalant though; amber eyes sweeping the area, booted feet feeling the tremors running from the ground through his heels up to his spine, the redheaded reporter considers his options.

And then ultimately just shrugs. "Well, whatever happens, happens."

And with that, he follows after Morgan, trying to use the man's makeshift path to make his way path.

"Isn't this how sand works everywhere?" he wonders, casually. A second passes.

"Hey, did you know that sandworms can take up to a century digesting their food? Usually while the food is still alive, too."

Helpful Facts Brought to you by Jude Moshe!

"Just thought that was an interesting bit of information."

DG: Jude Moshe has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Walk Without Rhythm.
===========================<* Doomed to Obscurity *>============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Walk Without Rhythm *>======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility   |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 This portion of the ruin has been breached by the desert. The floor is a
 deep layer of sand, regularly disturbed by the movements of the colony of
 sandworms that inhabit this place. You'll have to sneak across this shifting
 terrain without attracting their attention, somehow. Or you could just climb
 across using the metal net stretched across the ceiling. It's your life.
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
======================<* Doomed to Obscurity - Round 4 *>=======================
=======================< Results - Walk Without Rhythm >========================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josephine Lovelace                  30 --(5)--> 35                 Pass
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lily Keil                           20 --(10)--> 30                Fail
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jude Moshe                          15 --(5)--> 20                 Pass
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Noah Hawthorne                      20 --(10)--> 30                Fail
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morgan Newkirk                      15 --(5)--> 20                 Pass
Force Lash                          2   Agility Effects: Stalwart
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Josephine Lovelace          60 --(20)--> 80                Pass
Conditions: Fright(1)|Injure(2)
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> Morgan Newkirk has posed.


Sneaking. Climbing. Grappling across. There are so many ways around the unnatural flowing sand. It just doesn't seem right. "I'm just saying it bothers me. I mean sand should get everywhere, but it shouldn't act like this..." Morgan calls as he hurriedly makes his way across.

Rock to rock. Leap by leap. The fox is agile as his ears would suggest.

Most of rest of them are in fact. By hook or by crook they make it though. One by one reaching the safe stone on the other side...

...except...

...the metal net Noah had chosen for this little climb suddenly and without warning gives way to send the Drifter tumbling down with an angle that seems to intersect with Lily's sneaking.

Of course where he lands seems perfectly fine....

Until it starts moving...

 DG: Noah Hawthorne has drawn a new Challenge.

 ===========================<* Doomed to Obscurity *>============================
 ========================<* CHALLENGE - Ride the Worm *>=========================
 |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
 ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
  Trembling earth and falling rock herald the arrival of a massive sandworm.
  It doesn't so much as slow down, and it starts slithering down the corridor
  as though it were just another burrow. The hallway isn't wide enough for you
  to get past, and the worm is moving quickly--to get past, you're going to
  need to hitch a ride. But can you do it without being injured by this
  colossal desert predator?
 =Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================

<Pose Tracker> Noah Hawthorne has posed.

 Noah says nothing about the sand. He's made his thoughts about it abundantly clear previously, so all he has to contribute to the thread of conversation is a taut, distracted frown as he maneuvers hand over hand across the not-at-all-suspiciously-convenient metal net that just happens to be hanging from the ceiling.

 Here's the thing about these Zeboim ruins, though: they're old. Very, very old. Metal would usually be an incredibly suspect material to use for any purpose requiring tensile strength in a place like this, butthe Zeboim at various points in their history perfected alloys capable of withstanding the passage of time far better than most of the civilizations to rise and fall in the wake of their own.

 No, it's the stone into which the net is bolted that gives way, offended enough by Noah's weight that it just says its final goodbyes to the ceiling and collapses. The word he hisses is not polite in any language, but most especially in the one he's using -- that's a mystery, it's awfully obscure -- and he collides with Lily, and the net does an unusual physics-based twirl as it topples into the moving sand, and...

 And gets caught on a gigantic sandworm.

 ...Which is now racing off. It dips beneath Morgan's carefully cultivated rocks. It swerves around wildly, precisely like a gargantuan sandworm caught in a net. Then, it veers down a hallway.

 Dragging them. Draggin ALL of them.

 "FOR THE LOVE. OF. EVERY. SINGLE. HORRIBLE GOD-"

DG: Noah Hawthorne has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Ride the Worm.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

"She's a perfectly nice pigeon most of the time," Josie insists, which might go a short distance in explaining why in the name of any merciful god she keeps the bird around.

Penelope, atop a monster corpse, starts preening. This has probably been the immediate subject and beginning of at least one person in Filgaia's nightmares to date.

ONE SHORT TUSSLE LATER

Josie snatches back the flask, briefly triumphant as she wiggles it overhead, before consigning it back to the depths of her pockets.

There's a saying, 'if looks could kill'. It's somewhat applicable as Josie just gives Jude a comedic-level withering glance as he speculates on the true cause of their current difficulties. "Unfortunately, I didn't bring enough for everybody," she laments, before making her way across.

"It might be because of an ancient bit of machinery. There was some odd sand in the Singing Ruins, too," she comments, shuffling carefully across the flowing sand. She thumbs towards Lily. "Kiddo knows what I'm talking about."

Arriving on the opposite 'shore', she peeks through the half-damaged remains of what was once a door leading deeper into the complex. "You know, I heard something like that. Don't they have acid glands in their stomachs?" Josie comments absently, her focus more on the doorway than on what he's talking about. "If we head through here..."

Something rumbles. She staggers, stumbling backwards.

The netting flies downwards in a rush of ancient alloy mesh.

IT WRAPS AROUND THE WORM

And really, at this point -- as the netting catches one of her legs and drags her along, the better option is to wrench her leg free and hold on for dear life.

"Hawthorne, I'm blaming this one on you--!"

DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Ride the Worm.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

It might seem strange that Lily didn't bother trying to fight over the flask too. ...It might. But it won't much matter. She continues looking around the room, trying to identify rouble, letting the others speak...

"I do," she comments absently when Josie mentions her, and indeed she remembers. But... "That doesn't seem plausible," Lily answers about the digestion. "That's a long time to keep prey alive in a hostile environment without access to much of a diet."

But that's the point at which,a fter a few more steps, Noah comes tumbling down to Lily's position. ...Colliding, in fact. She's sent partly to the side before she's caught up in that damned net of metal, dragged backward very uncomfortably. Heading through here. Well...

"I don't know who I'm blaming for this," she says, "but I don't like it." She complains as she pulls some thnigs from her satchels, which quickly become apparent as explosives. "If we're going to drag--" she hits a rock and starts bleeding, "might as well.." She pulls her knife and cuts some twine.

Lily twists in place and hurls her bombs outward, the fuses igniting seemingly spontaneously. They can guide it where they need to go anyway. ...Or kill it. Whatever.

DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Explosive Charges toward her party's challenge, Ride the Worm.
<Pose Tracker> Jude Moshe has posed.

Jude, at least, makes his way across without much in the way of events or fanfare.

The same can't be said for everyone, though.

And therein lies the immediately life-threatening problem.

Jude, near enough to the other edge and sweet freedom from the veritable bevy of sandworms they've found themselves entrenched in, hears a crack. A crumble. A stoney rip reverborating through the churning caverns in a way that echoes off its excellent acoustics.

And he just winces.

"Let me guess--" he begins, slowly, as he looks behind him...

... and then stops as he sees that colossal sandworm rear itself up out of the depths of all that liquid-like sand, overshadowing -everything- and practically scraping the ceiling with its behemothic stature.

"... huh. Okay. It's much worse than I thought it was going to be."

The beast rears back.

"Fantastic--"

And -plunges-, dragging everyone within the veritable maelstrom of sand it is creating as it swerves through that hallway. Caught up in the raging rivers -- yes, rivers -- of grainy minerals, Jude sputters out some sort of wry curse about his fate in life and how he's going to die and -probably- become pigeon food as he grabs a more secure hold to his gun. Runes start to glow as he discreetly pumps maic into the weapon designed to channel it, a whining pitch slowly but surely gaining in volume until it practically matches the cacophonic sounds the titanic sandworm is currently producing by dint of its frenetic existence.

"I'M PRETTY SURE" he starts over the roar and the whine and the -everything going wrong- "THAT THE LOVE OF EVEN HORRIBLE GODS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS."

Orange glows like a burning core within the barrel of his ARM, the revolver's chamber spinning as he loads in a specialized shell.

"DOWN IN FRONT!"

And that's the only warning Lily and Noah are going to get, because a handful of seconds later --

click

A demolition shell screams off like a furious fireball, aimed to lodge into the back of what amounts as the creature's head in tandem with Lily's bombs.

And then --

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!"

BOOOOOM

DG: Jude Moshe has used his Tool Demolition Shell toward his party's challenge, Ride the Worm.
<Pose Tracker> Morgan Newkirk has posed.


Morgan was dusting himself off when he heard the rock give way. Turning round to stare as Noah tumbles down and into Lily the fox's ears perks up. "Don't worry! I'll get ya two!" He calls helpfully as he lets his already deployed lasso fly towards the pair...

...right as the sandworm bursts out of the sand...

...and the lasso sticks onto one of the ridges of its skin.

"...ah hell." He says with a sigh as he watches the slack in his lasso swiftly go away.

Suddenly jerked off his feet the fox flies though the air, trying to twist to land boots first on the massive yet swift creature. "I'm all for blaming Noah!" He gives his vote to this as he hangs on for dear life. "Rock, spike, ceiling things ahead!" And one crashes into Lily. "Yeah those ones!"

But then Jude and Lily are pulling out the explosives and Morgan just sighs and pulls up his shields again. "Nevermind! I think you got the rocks!"

DG: Morgan Newkirk has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Ride the Worm.
===========================<* Doomed to Obscurity *>============================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Ride the Worm *>=========================
|Type: Climax      |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Trembling earth and falling rock herald the arrival of a massive sandworm.
 It doesn't so much as slow down, and it starts slithering down the corridor
 as though it were just another burrow. The hallway isn't wide enough for you
 to get past, and the worm is moving quickly--to get past, you're going to
 need to hitch a ride. But can you do it without being injured by this
 colossal desert predator?
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
======================<* Doomed to Obscurity - Round 5 *>=======================
==========================< Results - Ride the Worm >===========================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josephine Lovelace                  35 --(5)--> 40                 Pass
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lily Keil                           30 --(5)--> 35                 Pass
Explosive Charges                   2   Brute   Effects: Strengthen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jude Moshe                          20 --(5)--> 25                 Pass
Demolition Shell                    3   Brute   Effects: Fanfare
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Noah Hawthorne                      30 --(15)--> 45                Fail
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morgan Newkirk                      20 --(5)--> 25                 Pass
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Josephine Lovelace          80 --(0)--> 80                 Pass
Conditions: Injure(1)|Wound(2)
Effects: Strengthen(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has passed this challenge! The party gained 0 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> Noah Hawthorne has posed.

 Life is hard for Noah Hawthorne.

 These things go pretty well when he handles them on his own. It's when he comes in here with other people that everything goes horribly, absurdly, unbelievably wrong. Reverse-waterfalls. Bearcat-wielding-krakens. Blondes who somehow manage to step on the only thing of value in an entire useless bug-infested pit of misery, and shatter it into a thousand pieces.

 Nets caught on behemoth sandworms, to which he is desperately clinging with one hand as he's dragged and scraped and slid over sand that doesn't behave itself, but still somehow manages to get into all of his clothes.

 And that's before people start hucking bombs.

 Down in front, says Jude Moshe, and Noah attempts to be further down than literally being dragged on the ground. It seems prudent. His free hand comes up, that arm folded like a wing over his head to protect against shrapnel. Good thing, too, because Lily, caught in his predicament, starts hucking explosives, too, which earns her a wide-eyed look.

 "But why?" is all that he has time to say, before the sandworm decides that explosives are irritating, and decides to make something of it. The net falls away as it rises up, leaving Noah sprawled on his back and thoroughly exfoliated, staring upward at a bad day getting worse.

 "Why though," he repeats, in a much smaller, wearily exasperated voice.

DG: Josephine Lovelace has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Doomed to Obscurity *>============================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Fight the Worm *>========================
|Type: Final       |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The sandworm reaches the end of its tunnel, and promptly turns, rearing up
 and the spreading the fan-like tendrils on the sides of its maw. It's a
 bigger specimen, with crushing coils, mandibles the size of swords, and
 spittle that can eat through solid rock. You are particularly convenient
 prey items. Have fun!
=Dungeon Conditions: Tire=====================================================


<Pose Tracker> Morgan Newkirk has posed.


"Because," Is Morgan's only answer for Noah as he manages to use his shields to take cover from the flying shrapenl, the spires of stone, and the horrible breath of this acid spewing worm.

Somehow he manages to land on his feet though as he is flung skyward into the chamber and the giant worm postures in the middle of the massive cavern.

"Oh wait, gravity."

That defintally asserts itself as he starts to tumble back down towards the bottom of the cavern. "You know..." He calls. "...I've always wanted to try this!"

His ARM swirls to light as his shields reconfigure themselves. Curved and angled downwards, one long contunious slide that arcs around the angry worm. One that Morgan hits boot first as he starts to well...slide.

Shooting the entire way and laughing like a madman.

Because sometimes things are so strange you just have to laugh.

"Look Josie! You were right about the whole acid to eat rocks thing!" He adds as he notes the green goo dripping from its fangs. "Just think, if we never came we would never have found out about this!"

DG: Morgan Newkirk has used his Tool Shield Gauntlet toward his party's challenge, Fight the Worm.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

The only thing that matters to Josie right now is that they're apparently getting dragged away from the ruins.

Some people brought explosives. "Good idea! See if--" Josie makes a little noise as the tunnel pulls her apparently right over a rise, or a lump of rock. "--See if you can drop some rocks on it! That'll stop it in its tracks!" She pauses, still hanging on for dear life at this juncture. "Or maybe just the one?"

...It's entirely possible that Noah is the only sane person in this room.

It's time for yet another game of good news/bad news.

Good news, most of them don't get banged around too much or fall off the worm (or the net).
Bad news, they totally didn't stop the worm as it progressed all the way down into its lair.

...Worse news, it's pissed.

"For the record, if we die here?!" Josie calls out, pulling free of the rest of the netting as the worm rises up, ready to make its last stand.

"This was a normal ruin last time!"

Perhaps deciding she's not drunk enough, Josie downs the remainder of her flask.
She's not sharing.

The worm hisses, gill-like structures flaring as its spreads its maw. ...It has loads and loads of little tiny teeth.

"Oh, so it does," Josie comments, glancing over at it as she draws and loads her rifle.

Some of the fluid sprayed from its mouth sizzles on the rocky floor of its lair.

"Tell you what." She lifts the rifle at last, drawing a bead on one of its tiny eyes.

"Let's put this thing down and find what we're looking for, shall we~ <3"

She pulls the trigger.

DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Liquid Courage toward her party's challenge, Fight the Worm.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Jude's warning is brief, but good enough; it's almost like being back in the war for a moment. She throws her arms before herself, hands about her face, to guard against shrapnel into soft, important parts.

"Sure did," she comments to Morgan about the rocks, bleeding a bit. ...And that's when life is much harder for Noah. Much, much harder. He asks why.

She looks back at him, after that wide-eyed look at him, deadpan, stares straght into his eyes with the look of someone who has seen things, who has no answer for why. Then,s he actually grins lightly. "...Could be worse."

Is... Is Lily actually having fun with this?

As the net falls, Lily twists and gets up to her feet, looking up at the creature. "I wonder how old it is," she commens, as she narrows her eyes, focuses.

Normal last time? Maybe. Lily shrugs, and murmurs something in an unfamiliar language to most, "Let's find the best place..."

She's holding her ARM, s she does, heedless of the monster's approach. She aims closely, holding onto her weapon as her eyes begin to glow golden, her hands on the weapon. She waits. She waits...

There's a bang and a column of golden light erupts from the barrel of her ARM, nuclear fire crashing in violently yellow pulses straight down the sandworm's gullet.

DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Rosenwasser - Infuse toward her party's challenge, Fight the Worm.
<Pose Tracker> Jude Moshe has posed.

Why though

It's a helpless utterance that caps off the very angry sandworm coming to an abrupt stop, sand gushing around them and rocks crashing in the space between and around the massive, unnecessarily smooth and slippery creature. Through it all, Jude Moshe holds his left arm in front of his face to shield him from the drowning wreckage, amber eyes glancing Noah's way through the veil of his hand.

"Yeah, well," Jude projects over the sounds of the worm's inertia as it gradually drags to a stop.

"I'll take a 'thank you for saving my life, Jude' when you're done bemoaning your sorry fate. I'd like to think I'm pretty--"

The worm stops. But isn't -stopped-. It spins around, gills fanning out like a threatening frill as it bares row after row after row of very sharp, very tiny teeth, and gobs of burning saliva with which it will assuredly use to digest them for a hundred years.

"--reasonable. Huh. Well."

A second passes by within bleak, relative silence.

"How about we put a pin in that thank you?"

Fluids spray, and Jude's reaction is instant, lunging backwards as the fringes of the splatter slathers on the edges of his coat, chewing through it as he curses into the stale, sand-and-dust-choked air. "Every -- time --!" he laments as he lands on the back of the worm, sliding across that slick, grainy substance covering its thick hide before he stumbles off the back of it. He grips tight to his gun.

And despite it all, still manages a helplessly lopsided smile.

"I don't know," he asides to Josephine, voice all but resigned,

"I don't think Noah's done regretting coming here, yet."

And he aims that gun. -Slams- it into the beast, the bayonet blade on the ARM snapping into place to try to impale a large hole into the side through which to stuff the barrel of that gun. Runes begin to thrum with an ominous, purple glow.

"And I'd hate to rush him!"

Which, sadly, doesn't stop him from pulling the trigger to unload an electrified slug straight -into- the worm's insides, to try to literally cook the creature from the inside out.

Some things just can't be helped.

DG: Jude Moshe has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Fight the Worm.
<Pose Tracker> Noah Hawthorne has posed.

 "How about we do that yeah," Noah agrees stridently without a single glance sidelong at Jude. Moments later he's the one laughing, and he doesn't leave it any mystery as to why: "You really can't keep a clean coat to save your life, can you? Man. I mean, I remember that was a thing, but I thought it was just banter-"

 Meanwhile, he's doing things with his hands, still laying there on the ground. Fitting one of those mysterious little fluid-covered vials -- it's a sphere, actually -- to one of his arms via a special mount, and aiming upward. Last time he did this it glued a bearcat to a kraken, but there's no bearcat here tonight, so it's probably safe?

 "But no, you actually really can't. Amazing. Why you would wear your best stuff into an unholy pit in the ground like this one I don't know, but for whatever it's worth-" He squeezes the trigger. The glass sphere goes spinning upward, hopefully into the thing's mouth.

 Spoilers: it's insanely strong glue.

 "-you look good! Real put together, aside from the entrails or the spit or whatever." Who can even keep track of disgusting fluids at this point in their adventuring career? Noah doesn't even try anymore.

DG: Noah Hawthorne has used his Tool Clever Traps toward his party's challenge, Fight the Worm.
===========================<* Doomed to Obscurity *>============================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Fight the Worm *>========================
|Type: Final       |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The sandworm reaches the end of its tunnel, and promptly turns, rearing up
 and the spreading the fan-like tendrils on the sides of its maw. It's a
 bigger specimen, with crushing coils, mandibles the size of swords, and
 spittle that can eat through solid rock. You are particularly convenient
 prey items. Have fun!
=Dungeon Conditions: Tire=====================================================
======================<* Doomed to Obscurity - Round 6 *>=======================
==========================< Results - Fight the Worm >==========================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josephine Lovelace                  40 --(8)--> 48                 Pass
Liquid Courage                      3   Combat  Effects: Rally
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lily Keil                           35 --(8)--> 43                 Pass
Rosenwasser - Infuse                3   Combat  Effects: Rally
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jude Moshe                          25 --(13)--> 38                Fail
Fight                               0   Combat  Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Noah Hawthorne                      45 --(8)--> 53                 Pass
Clever Traps                        2   Combat  Effects: Resilient
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morgan Newkirk                      25 --(8)--> 33                 Pass
Shield Gauntlet                     2   Combat  Effects: Embolden
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Josephine Lovelace          80 --(35)--> 115               Pass
Conditions: Tire(2)|Wound(1)
Effects: Embolden(1)|Resilient(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success!
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has successfully explored Doomed to Obscurity!
===========================<* Doomed to Obscurity *>============================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Courier Corpse *>========================
|Type: Discovery   |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 In a small side-corridor, behind a rockslide, you find the mummified remains
 of a man in trail-worn clothing. He's sitting on a rust-colored stain that
 was probably blood at one point, and his body is curled around a leather
 courier's satchel. If pried loose and examined, the satchel is empty except
 for a metal tube sealed with a wax stopper. Inside the tube is a message of
 some sort, but it's written in an alphanumeric cipher you don't understand.

 You should submit a +request about this discovery!
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

A few things happen pretty quickly, as the small group of explorers sort of collectively load up and open fire on the giant worm:

(which has, probably, regretted having woken up at all today)

#1: Morgan slide/slams right into it before it can do more than /start/ to snarl at them, leaving one heck of a mark
#2: the worm receives a mouthful of glue, cutting short any attempts to have a little snack or three
#3: Josie does in fact shoot one of its eyes out
#4: it takes a good old smack of a lightning bullet to its underbelly from Jude, which while it's got a thick old hide there and thus doesn't leave perhaps the dent that was hoped, definitely does shock and stun the thing, which is good for
#5 the blast of molecularly-ripping fire that cuts right on through all those little weak points the electric charge had left on the stunned worm

Which is collectively probably why the worm sort of stops, looks like it regrets everything, and true to nature with sandworms lately, explodes.

Somewhere, the catchy victory tune has started to play.

And naturally, right on cue, there's a whirr of wings. Was Penelope waiting for all this to be over, or did she notice she was ditched and finally catch up?
The world may never know.

One thing is clear, the further they trek from what remains of the giant worm:

This was the ruin -- some of the tilework on the walls down here is similar to the object Josie apparently found -- but it's really, really had a worm infestation problem.

"What a mess," Josie laments, prodding at a crumbling wall, half-washed with worm acid spittle/digestive juices. "Pretty impressive, though, I guess, at the same time. They must have done all this in about, oh... two years or so."

To be fair, the worms are really big.

"Well, we can probably backtrack and see if there's anything else that's more, eh... complete, but it'd probably be a good idea to take some notes while we're down here."

She squints at one section of tilework.
A good chunk of it falls right the heck off, as if on cue. "...See what I mean? Some of this might not last long. Take some sketches, too. Rock samples, you name it. This really isn't going to last."

The archaeologist continues to walk along the passageway, her lips pressing thin as she scowls.

She rounds a corner.

"...Huh."

There is a pause for about five, ten seconds.

"...You guys might want to take a look at this."

Josie has found a body, which she's kneeling alongside by the time everyone else catches up to her. It's been here for a while, so she probably didn't cause this one.