2018-01-02: Z-Sword
- Log: Z-Sword
- Cast: Zed, Claude C. Kenny, Tethelle Cirdian, Dean Stark, Carina Wynne, Talise Gianfair, Ida Everstead-Rey
- Where: Sword Temple
- Date: Jan. 2, 2018
- Summary: A band of Drifters explores a mysterious temple... only to find Zed already there, and a macho sword surprise waiting....
=============================<* Kislev-Aveh Front *>============================== The frontlines of the Kislev-Aveh War have shifted many times in the last few hundred years, but they have left their scars on the land. One can, of course, find fighting between their infantry and Gears here. Such places are dangerous, and most Drifters know to steer away from them. However, sometimes there is no choice; even the rail lines thought to be away from the front can get caught unawares by a patrol, and skirmishes have resulted in delays and death for those trying to get to the Badlands. The areas not currently being fought in are also dangerous. Deserters and monsters alike can wander them, and the dry, dusty land leaves little succor for those in need. To make matters worse, abandoned fortifications and trenches make an excellent hiding place for the bandits seeking to profit here. Drifters are sometimes drawn here, though, to either fight for one side or to excavate abandoned ARMs and Gears left behind in a battle. This sort of salvage work is risky, but the rewards can be great. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxynM-xwLUs
DG: A party led by Claude C. Kenny is now entering The Sword-Saint Sanctuary. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
======================<* CHALLENGE - The Ruined Hamlet *>======================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Making your way up the mountain pass was already a challenge, and now you find that the place you were going to is just as broken-down and decrepit as the rumors claimed. Locating the entrance to the temple-grotto amidst the broken-down, ramshackle buildings is going to take quite some time... especially since you'll probably need to move some rubble around to find it. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
DC: Monster Mash switches forms to Digger Enemy!
DG: A party led by Claude C. Kenny is now entering The Sword-Saint Sanctuary. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
======================<* CHALLENGE - The Ruined Hamlet *>======================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Making your way up the mountain pass was already a challenge, and now you find that the place you were going to is just as broken-down and decrepit as the rumors claimed. Locating the entrance to the temple-grotto amidst the broken-down, ramshackle buildings is going to take quite some time... especially since you'll probably need to move some rubble around to find it. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Legends are turning out to be more true than usual lately. Who would have guessed that mechasatan was secretly camped out at the north pole? It's not as if the Filgaian Tin Foil Hat Society is exactly right very often, and even then, the FTFHS has been busy worrying about telepathic towers and something called a Hyulkonton. And thus, when rumors begin circulating about a cliff face being literally cut in two and exposing some kind of ancient, broken down set of buildings, it may be perhaps a little bit difficult to dismiss first-hand.
Some are even whispering that this strange new feature is not merely your average seismic activity, but a miracle. The way the stone was hewn, they say, it was as if it was cut by a sword...!
A sword... Guardian...?
One way or another, it's not something that can just be left alone.
Those among you who are foolish enough to listen to the raving, fevered ramblings of a distressed old Kislevi mountain sherpas (read: apparently, ALL OF YOU) have followed the strange behatted madman high up into the craggy warzone, where you find that... He wasn't lying, actually! There is a horrible, bombed-out ruin up in these parts, and it is in fact surrounded by what looks like a mountain that's been cleaved straight in two.
But what you probably don't know... Is that you are being watched...!
Also what you don't know: Where the heck the thing you're looking for actually is. There's a lot of broken-down buildings to pick through here, but there has to be something to find amongst the teetering pagodas and crumbled homes.
DG: Monster Mash has used its Tool Obstruction Complication toward its party's challenge, The Ruined Hamlet.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Once more, the voice of the world spoke to Cecilia Lynne Adlehyde, the Innocent One and Chosen Shaman of the Guardians. Once more, they commanded her to venture forth with her boon companions to secure a statue marking the living embodiment of one of the Guardians of Filgaia, preserving it from destruction.
Unfortunately, the voice of the world did not account for the mother of all chest colds. Which has left the mission in the hands of Claude C. Kenny, God help you all.
Fortunately, Claude is smart enough to know when he needs backup, and has requested it in the form of the only other Shaman he knows, as well as anybody he could get his hands on in short order. The climb up the mountain is grueling, and it is only thanks to the sherpa that Claude has managed to find this place. Even now, when he sees the battered village, he seems skeptical. "Are you sure?" he asks the man, lifting a rough piece of paper, on which Claude wrote what directions he could manage to get out of Cecilia:
1. Head toward Kislev
2. Turn to northeast past first mountan rage
3. hack, hack, cough, hack
4. Path found under weird
5. hack, cough
6. face-looking thing with half a mustash
7. hack, hack, nearly barf
8. follow path up
9. you got that rite
Eventually, he shrugs. "Looks like the spot," he says, shoving the paper into his pocket and pulling out a bottle of SWEET DELICIOUS DRUGS (note: not actually drugs). He pops a little white pill that, as far as he knows, will boost his strength, then offers them around to anyone who wants one. He starts shifting rubble.
DG: Claude C. Kenny has used his Tool Pla-C-Bow toward his party's challenge, The Ruined Hamlet.
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
Unlike some of the party, Tethelle knows exactly what a sword-saint is.
Her temple has a similar tradition, though they use a different term for it. She follows the Way of the Sword, and to be one with the sword is the ultimate goal of the Baskar swordmasters of her home village. As soon as she heard of Wakatu Temple, she had to go.
When she heard about the mountain being miraculously cut in two, then she had to go immediately. That's not the kind of thing you ignore. Even if Claude didn't invite her, you were probably stuck with her. (And she invited one other sword enthusiast, because you can always use more swords.)
"I think it's right," she says to Claude. Tethelle is probably courting a cold of her own given she isn't dressed all that much warmer than usual despite being in a mountain in January, because Tethelle doesn't give a crap about your weather; her major concession is that she put pants on instead of shorts.
She pulls out her own gloves, pulling them on. This isn't for warmth, but because she's a lot less worried about sticking her hands in rubble and getting a good grip when she's not likely to tear open her fingertips when she does it. "In our temple, we would have put the entrance... this way. Though they might have done it differently, of course," she accepts.
But she really wants to get in.
DG: Tethelle Cirdian has used her Tool Power Gloves toward her party's challenge, The Ruined Hamlet.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean's also here! Although his Sword Medium may be a copy, it does feel important to him that he help out with the Temple of Equites, which is why when Claude, King of the Jobbers, looked around for help, he was happy to volunteer. Fortunately for him, he's young and buff, so while the climb up the mountain might be terrible, he's still got energy to spare... so far, anyway.
"It *looks* like the entry to someplace," he says, peering with a hand over his brow at the decrepit temple-grotto, filled with rubble. Well, actually, there's several buildings, but one of them's got to be the right one, right? Either way, he accepts a pill from Claude with a bright, "Thanks!" and pops it, completely assuming it's a mint. It's not very minty, probably, but that doesn't stop him from pulling out his trusty shovel and beginning to dig out rubble with the others at Tethelle's direction. "Only one way to find out!" he says when she admits maybe the locals laid out their temple differently.
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool The Trusty Shovel toward his party's challenge, The Ruined Hamlet.
<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.
"Beginning... to think... this wasn't a great idea..."
Even as the acrobatic, hella-high-jumping Metal Digger Locus, Carina still gets tired. As far as she's concerned, going up the mountain pass is seeming like the hard part, so far. But what are you gonna do? With great power comes great dungeon-delving ability, and she had to start looking for clues about her sister SOMEWHERE.
And so she followed the most fun-sounding rumor she heard. A temple! With swords! Maybe she could even get a legendary sword of her own there. It seemed like a good time. SEEMED.
"Is this... the Drifter life? Ugh, where DID my water bottle disappear to? Stupid magical mystery supersuit..."
But wait. There are people further along the path. People who had a guide and everything! WHAT!
She stops and considers her next move.
A moment later, a woman in sleek, red-and-silver armor appears standing atop one of the crumbled buildings, arms crossed. From her face-covering helmet reminiscent of an insect hangs a very long, blonde ponytail, waving dramatically in the wind!
One of the November City armor store's clerks has one exactly like that, but this is probably a coincidence.
"Never fear, citizens of justice!" her voice booms. "Today you are helped in your tedious manual labor by the mysterious Metal Digger Locus! Toh!"
She leaps off the roof, performing a flip in the air and extending a foot forward, jump-kicking towards the rubble pile and impacting it with only a LITTLE lightning. "SPECIAL KICK!"
HOPEFULLY nobody else wanted to make a big, dumb dramatic entrance today.
DG: Carina Wynne has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Ruined Hamlet.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
After her little ordeal in the dungeon of the Cursed Ring, Talise wanted to sleep. A lot.
Helping out Tethelle was much more important. Especially when her friend invited her along. Especially when there are whispers afoot of the Guardian of the Sword. It inspired Talise to leave her shotgun hanging from her saddle and proceed with only her sword and a couple of utility items to help her through.
Briefly, the woman touches the hilt of the large sword hanging over her shoulder. She rolls her shoulders, then lets them settle, peering ahead into the cloven mountain behind. A small frown crosses her face as the immensity of the task begins to occur to her.
"Althena's two-inch heels," she grumbles as she slides her gauntlets on and moves to begin lugging rocks out of the way with simple strength. The individual rocks aren't all that heavy, to be honest.
"But there sure are a lot of them," she sighs as she looks up towards the ruins. Then she pauses and blinks at Carina.
"Althena's hat, she's girl Zed," she groans.
DG: Talise Gianfair has used her Tool Ogre Power Gauntlets toward her party's challenge, The Ruined Hamlet.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude C. Kenny pauses digging, briefly imagining Zed with boobs.
He shudders, and continues shifting load.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"Woah! She's so cool!" Dean declares, eyes sparkling at the sight of Cari--(*AHEM*), Metal Digger Locus, and not at all bothered by the concept of a man with boobs. In fact, her inspiring arrival gets him digging twice as hard! ...Hopefully this is in fact the right entrance.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida planned on heading south to Krosse to take care of a very important matter. She was not expecting to be waylaid by Claude, who had yet another matter in need of urgent attention--she's going to cut it very close, but if this is half as serious as she suspects it is, the least she can do is aid one of the few people who still trusts her after... everything. She's quietly relieved to find out that Cecilia isn't in the party this time. "Don't let me see you again." is a hell of a statement.
Ida hitches Grey Lady to a post next to a convenient (if somewhat leaky) horse trough, and takes a few minutes to see if the rust-coated pump still works. It takes a few minutes, but eventually, ice-cold water splashes into the basin. "I'll be back soon," Ida says. She turns around just in time to see--
Not Zed, Ida realizes, a moment later. It's... Someone she doesn't recognize, though that mask is certainly distinctive. "Metal Digger Locus," she murmurs. Sounds like Zed. Talise even thinks she's Zed-like, and Ida turns to her with a faint little smile. It's strange how bitter even those memories have gotten.
Ida buttons up her coat, and goes to help Talise and Tethelle with the digging. She's got a full-arm gauntlet(?!) on the right arm, and the left is gloved, so she's not terribly worried, either.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Ruined Hamlet.
======================<* CHALLENGE - The Ruined Hamlet *>======================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Making your way up the mountain pass was already a challenge, and now you find that the place you were going to is just as broken-down and decrepit as the rumors claimed. Locating the entrance to the temple-grotto amidst the broken-down, ramshackle buildings is going to take quite some time... especially since you'll probably need to move some rubble around to find it. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
DG: The party led by Claude C. Kenny has passed this challenge! The party gained 15 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.
"Hey, thanks!" Locus tells Dean as she rises, dusting herself off. "I try real hard!"
She turns her bug-masked helm to Talise, scratching a cheek. "Who's Zed?"
Who indeed?
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise glances towards Ida as she works. The woman's subdued again, she realizes.
Damn it, I'm really running out of ideas, she laments inwardly. Something has got to cheer Ida up.
"He is a very special man," Talise informs Metal Digger Locus in a very dry tone as she sets aside a large boulder. "With very special ways."
She lowers her eyelids a shade, then shrugs and scratches the back of her neck. "...For all his quirks, he's kind of cute, though," she has to admit. "In a... Zeddy kind of way."
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Who indeed...?
Okay maybe there was one person who wasn't foolish enough to follow a mountain sherpa up into the hills like some poor sod about to walk into a terrible hillbilly-themed slasher flick. Unfortunately, Ida is also being a total gloomy gus and accidentally manages to pull something in her shoulder in the process of helping the others out with their enormous loads.
"What!? Yes it is the right place!" The behatted sherpa insists as he shoves what appears to be an ear of corn directly into his face. "Can't you tell? It's here, I tell you! GOOOOOLD!"
The old man opens his hand at Claude, apparently he expects to be paid. "SIIIIILVEEEER!!"
But... The question remains.
Who... indeed...?
As the diggers press onwards, as they tug lumps of broken down building, they speak of the one who you must never speak of except in most circumstances. The one whose name, when mentioned, strikes fear in absolutely nobody. Carina kicks the rubble...
And she is...
Not... alone...!
"Nyeheheheheheheh!"
Oh no! That sound! That laugh!
"NYEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEH!" There! In Carina's shadow, that scarf, that hair, that perfect, flying-kicking form! It can only be one person. It can only be...
"YOU CALLED, ADVENTURE FRIIIIEEAAAAAAOOHNOOOOO---"
Oh no
Zed is gone
But where did Zed go?
Apparently, the diggers were on the right track, because it looks like Zed's foot straight up slipped through a little crevasse in the rubble and the rest of him followed it straight into the mouth of an enormous stone torii and into the cave beyond.
Oh no
Zed... has a head start...!
But at least the rubble is clearing out...!!!
DG: Tethelle Cirdian has drawn a new Challenge.
=========================<* CHALLENGE - Pumping Iron *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- What luck! You've found what can only be the temple training room! It looks like the warrior ascetics who lived in this place kept all sorts of sophisticated weightlifting equipment and exercise machines. There are a few benches here and there and a chest of drawers full of medicinal herbs, too. It seems as though this is a good place to catch a break and maybe loosen up a few cramps too =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Save Point=====================================
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
"He's really not," Tethelle objects to Talise.
She does look at Locus. She doesn't seem like a Metal Demon... even if her getup is, let's say, weird as hell to Tethelle. She gives a very slight nod. Well, she doesn't seem so bad. But there's a problem.
The problem is Zed.
"You!" Tethelle actually draws her large red-tinged sword as Zed arrives, and leaves just as quickly. Running over to the place where he vanished, she looks down into a hole. This isn't the real way in, Tethelle thinks, but it'll do. "Get back here!" she yells, and jumps into the hole after him, managing a more controlled descent.
Into an excercise room.
Tethelle manages to crash into a device that appears to be mostly resistance belts and pulleys with a deafening clatter, dropping her sword against the floor - which she automatically gets a foot on the hilt of so it doesn't skitter away from her. She grunts, having to use the machine (in, admittedly, a rather unorthodox manner) to get out of it.
"If any of you land on me you are fired!"
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"DAH," Talise shouts in surprise as that familiar laugh rings out. She jumps a couple of feet and comes down with a jingle.
Her cheeks immediately colour; her first thought is that Zed might've heard her calling him cute. And that would be too damn much.
"Damn it, Zed!" Talise shouts as she draws her sword about a second after Tethelle does. Taking off after her shorter swordfriend, she stops at the edge of the hole, then vaults down after Tethelle, landing in a crouch and rolling out of the way to make room for Claude.
Talise, notably, does not land on Tethelle.
The sight of the workout room, however, does leave her narrowing her eyes a little. Sweeping Rastaban off to one side and still holding it with the point up, as if ready to defend herself if needed, she sizes the place up with a glance.
"Zed, get your ass back here!" Talise shouts through the room, circling and beginning to hunt for an exit. There's enough exercise equipment there that she eventually has to pick up a stair-stepper and bodily throw it off to one side in the name of making more room for her to try to figure out where the hell Zed went.
"Damn it, Zed, I thought you wanted to fight!" she shouts again. "Come back here and finish fighting me, goofball!"
DG: Talise Gianfair has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Pumping Iron.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Zed does not land on Tethelle.
This is because Zed got a HEADSTART. He was technically in the same spot Tethelle currently finds herself, but he got out before her big butt squashed him like a bug on a windshield! Instead, as Talise peers around the room to find him, she sees that he is...
...In a totally different piece of exercise equipment, grinning like an idiot who knows exactly just what kind of people he's dealing with.
"I do want to fight!" He says, making no mention of being called cute. Hopefully that means he didn't hear, or that might be EMBARASSING. "But! There are many ways to fight, Talise. Swords! Fists! Occasionally, I fight by posing! Other times by dancing. But now... Do you see!? We are given... AN ARENA!!"
He sweeps his arms out at the complete home gym. It's in remarkable condition, in all honesty. "Yes, Talise. Tethelle. Claude! Mysterious lady in the fetching armor! Even Ida! I challenge you all...!"
Zed...
Flexes...!
"TO A CHALLENGE OF IIIIROOOON."
And then Zed grabs hold of a set of matching weights and lobs them at his friends at speeds just quick enough to be a problem but just slow enough that they're easily snatched out of the air. "Come on! First one to a thousand reps is the winneeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrr!"
DG: Monster Mash has used its Tool Obstruction Complication toward its party's challenge, Pumping Iron.
<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.
Locus learns who Zed is.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH," she concludes, enlightened.
"The heck!" she tells Talise as she points at the newly-opened hole. "Don't be a false advertiser!"
"I'm way cuter," she explains, thumbing to herself.
Tethelle leaps in, and Locus follows, ponytail graciously trailing along with her fall. Tethelle would rather they didn't land on her. "Whoops! Got it!" She kicks herself off a wall and makes a three-point landing next to her...
And in front of Zed, who issues a challenge and provides weights!!
Is this the end of Metal Digger Locus? Luckily she has superstrength, or at least more strength than Carina normally does, which might as well be super where she's concerned.
She snatches the thrown set of weights before they cave her face in. Effort is Carina's only weakness, but it's not Locus'. She may be unfamiliar with the Bodybuilder's Code, but she can't refuse this challenge.
And so, she begins LIFTING her way to victory! "AAAAH!"
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"Cute?" Dean echoes, blank, to Talise. This gives him a rather different picture in his head than what Zed actually looks like, so when the Metal Demon arrives and slides down through the torii, rubble clearing out, Dean blinks, thoroughly nonplussed. "Wait, was that him?"
He looks over at Ida, befuddled in general and also concerned for her. "You okay? I've got a Heal Berry if you need one." But everyone's moving on, so once Ida says yay or nay and he gives or doesn't give her a Heal Berry in response, he gives Locus a friendly nod, then chases Tethelle into the inner sanctum... or inner exercise chamber, anyway. "Hey, wait for me!"
Zed's inside. He wants to fight! Dean falls into a combat stance, hands widening to summon Twin Fenrir... but before they can appear, the Metal Demon makes a formal challenge. Of IRON. Dean blinks. Then Zed pitches lifting weights at him, and he snaps out of it quickly enough to catch them. This? *This* he understands.
"You're on!!" Dean declares. And then... the challenge of a thousand reps... begins...!!
DG: Dean Stark has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Pumping Iron.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
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Claude C. Kenny lands in the classic superhero three-point style, both feet and a single fist connecting with the ground; he misses landing on Tethelle by at least four inches, so that's one good thing. Even better is that, as far as he can tell, he's landed in only the second adequately-appointed exercise room since he landed on Cow Patty Planet, the other being Bart's personal gym on the Yggdrasill.
The bad news, though, is that Zed is throwing weights at them. Claude reacts to this by catching them out of the air; he's getting ready to throw them back at the Metal Demon, but then pauses as Zed issues his challenge. He frowns. He opens his mouth, but does not speak. He frowns more deeply. He closes his mouth. He looks around, spotting a horizontal bench. He walks toward it, and lays back on it, pulling the weights back toward his chest.
He presses with his left hand. Pauses.
He presses with his right hand. Pauses. Shifts his grip a little.
And then Claude's arms begin to accelerate, pumping up and down in ever-more-rapid movements, little blue and yellow motes of chi swirling around his body like fireflies as his arms begin to blue out of sight. It's a variation on an attack many of the people here will have seen Claude perform before, except this time instead of punching Zed in the face, he is punching the air with iron dumbbells.
"REPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEP EPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEP EPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPE PEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEP---"
(deep breath)
"---EPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEP EPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEP EPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEP EPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEP---"
(deep breath, again)
DG: Claude C. Kenny has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Pumping Iron. DG: Carina Wynne has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Pumping Iron.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
One of Ida's shoulders is still somewhat less-capable than the other, owing to the fact that it had chunks taken out of it by relatively-lethargic Wels a while back. Claude prescribed her an exercise regimen, but she hasn't had the energy to keep up with it lately--she's barely had enough energy to keep up with life in general. Therefore, the sudden, sharp pain in her right shoulder is not entirely unexpected. It's still unpleasant.
Ida drops the chunk of rock she was holding, and reaches up to rub at the sore, strained muscle beneath her gauntlet.
'Who's Zed?'
'Nyeheheheheheheh!'
Ida's head snaps up. She knows what to expect by now: the grandiose entrance, the scarf, the...
The slipping and tumbling into a buried cavern. Ida rushes forward, moving as close to the edge of the hole as she dares. She can't quite see the bottom, but God only knows what Zed is here to do, and if it has anything to do with Claude's urgent business, she needs to deal with him. Maybe he will go away, Ida thinks, as she works a coil of rope loose from the back of her gauntlet. She knots it firmly around a metal pole that might've been a support, and descends.
The light reveals the room's contents. Ida looks on with something approaching wonderment--she's reminded of Claude's cobbled-together exercise equipment--but that fades as soon as Zed issues his challenge. "Very well," Ida says. She takes a small vial of heal berry cordial from her pack, downs it in a decidedly unladylike fashion, and returns the vial to its proper place just as Zed chucks some sort of ball-with-handle weight at her. Ida catches it moments before it impacts her face, lets out a hiss of breath, glares at Zed...
And dips down into a low squat, the weight tucked against her chest. Her shoulder might still be aching, but her legs work just fine. And what gym rat would dare question someone doing squats?! "Is one of these machines Tee-Arr-Ecks Device?" Ida asks Claude, a little while into it. God, she's out of practice.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Pumping Iron.
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
Tethelle manages to disentangle herself and glare at Zed while everyone else makes their approach.
"Fine," she growls. "You're on." It's a waste of time, but damn if she's going to let Zed of all people show her up. Plus, she works out a lot. How hard can it be? Even if the machine she's still using is a little unfamiliar, surely she can figure it out well enough to get some flexing in...
DG: Tethelle Cirdian has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Pumping Iron.
=========================<* CHALLENGE - Pumping Iron *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- What luck! You've found what can only be the temple training room! It looks like the warrior ascetics who lived in this place kept all sorts of sophisticated weightlifting equipment and exercise machines. There are a few benches here and there and a chest of drawers full of medicinal herbs, too. It seems as though this is a good place to catch a break and maybe loosen up a few cramps too =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Save Point=====================================
DG: The party led by Claude C. Kenny has passed this challenge! The party gained 15 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
None dare violate the sacred rite of the CHALLENGE OF STEEL. These bonds, forged in fire and the the burning, awful ache you feel when you do something stupid at the gym and live to regret it the next day, are inviolate...!
Except for Talise. Who is probably wise for not just going for it. She is now officially smarter than Ida today. Congratulations, Talise!
Regardless! All the rest of the party is swept along in Zed's ridiculous... zeddyness. "Squats!!" Zed says at the squatter, "Are OK! I don't have a prize for you if you win, but if you do, I'll owe you uh..."
...
"I dunno," Zed pumps iron, his arms basically a blurr of steel and skin, "Do you need a new hairpiece or something? Perfume? Ah, whatever. I'll deal with it later. Right now. I need to... win...!"
But how can anyone compete with Claude? Look at that speed! Those reps! Those glowing, shiny motes of light...!
Answer: By doing the SAME THING. Little winking, glittering stars of purple and green and gold flicker through the air as Zed's arms whirl. The reps are intense. The pain... incredible...!
But in the end...
...A... tie!?
Apparently. Zed and Claude finish almost simultaneously, shortly folowed by the others but largely by virtue of who started first and who amongst them were crazy enough to burn that kind of muscle power on something like this...!
"Hah...hahahahhhh," Zed pants, his arms hanging limply on either side, "Wow... You guys are... pretty good...! I am proud to call you all... rivals...! And friends! Even you, new boy! EVEN YOU, NEW GIRL!"
Zed throws Dean and Carina a big ol' thumbs up.
Except he can't really lift his arms, so it's really more like he lunges sort of and his arms just kind of jelly-flop the thumbs-up their way.
Unfortunately, Carina might just have... lifted too much. Is this her first time? Even the power of her mighty mechanical suit can't help save her from MUSCLE SPRAIN. You gotta work on those gains, girl...!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"Ahahaha, but I can't... just sit here with you all and shoot the breeze," Zed says, getting back up to his feet. His arms might be screaming at him, but his legs are still fine. "I'm looking for something! I've heard... Rumors...!"
And with that, Zed turns! "I'll see you soon, friends! Ahahahaha!" He runs deeper into the dungeon. You'd better follow him... OR ELSE...!
DG: Talise Gianfair has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* CHALLENGE - Ruined Corridor *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ----------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------- Time has not been kind to this place. A corridor leading deeper into the temple has been blocked by a pile of rubble. It'll take some time to clear, but even more time to try to find a way around. Best get to digging. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck, Tire===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.
Locus tries hard, but soon she's collapsed on the floor. Ugh, ugh, ugh, muscle sprain. Carina has never lifted once in her life, hammers aside.
"Heeeey, guys, I'll be riiiight back," she says, holding up a finger and crawling away behind a set of unused, stacked-together exercise equipment.
Once she's somewhat out of view (right?), Carina sits up against the machine and says a few words under her breath. "Untransform, or... somethin'."
A flash of light. She looks down to see the bag she had before she summoned her armor. Oh, good. She pulls out her bottle and downs it, coughing a bit. "Aw, jeez... Aw jeez."
She puts it back in. "Re-transform," she says, with another flash of light, and... Metal Digger Locus is back!
"I really need to come up with a good transformation phrase," she mumbles as she walks back towards the group.
Hopefully no one saw that.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"Look, he's an acquired taste," Talise sighs, pressing her hand to her forehead.
Zed starts hucking iron at her before she can explain all that much more. Sighing, Talise holds her hands out, catches a weight in each hand, and abruptly closes her gloved hands, crumpling the two barbells into twisted lumps of iron before dropping them. "Zed, stop being dumb and just show me a little bit of respect and pull a knife on me already." she chides with a roll of her eyes.
Soon enough, Zed goes scampering off into the dungeon. Sighing, Talise pauses for a moment to slide a bottle of something to METAL DIGGER LOCUS --
Old Man Ettlesbury's Olde-Fashioned Heal Berry Schnapps
"Get'chaself feelin' better," Talise suggests before she takes off after Zed. Darting through the corridor, she turns a corner -
She nearly slams into a giant wall of rubble. Planting her hands against it, she catches herself with a gasp before her face goes into it. The stonefall looks fresh and clogs up the entire corridor ahead.
"Zed!" Talise shouts into the rubble. "How did you manage to bring down the ceiling in the literally ten seconds you escaped my line of sight?! And what are we supposed to do about all these rocks?!"
That's when Talise looks to the right and beholds the bas relief on the wall beside her.
It depicts a pair of very buff and very shirtless muscular men flexing dramatically as they lift large rocks. An inscription above them reads as follows:
DO THE MUSCLE, GUY!!!
Talise smacks a gauntlet into the rubble heap and the other into her forehead. "Althena's thong, this must be Zed's literal house," she groans.
DG: Talise Gianfair has used her Tool Ogre Power Gauntlets toward her party's challenge, Ruined Corridor.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude C. Kenny, whose arms are also burning and drooping at his sides, regards the heap of rubble with a resigned expression. "God," he groans, rolling his weary shoulders. "I wish they made some sort of pill or something that could help with..."
......
"OH RIGHT!" exclaims Claude, who forgot he had just those, even though he doesn't. A fresh round of magic sugar pills is passed around, after which the boy from Earth attacks the pile with a vengeance.
DG: Claude C. Kenny has used his Tool Pla-C-Bow toward his party's challenge, Ruined Corridor.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"LOOK," Zed's muffled voice calls out from...
...Inside... the rubble...?
"I'M AS CONFUSED AS YOU ARE. I WAS JUST MINDING MY BUSINESS AND THE CEILING DROPPED ON MY HEAD." Zed sounds... put off? Nonplussed? More just 'my arms hurt and I don't have the space to drill' than any of those things. "LOOK, YOU DIG FROM THAT WAY AND I'LL DIG OUT FROM THIS WAY AND HOPEFULLY WE'LL ALL BE FINE."
Unless the ceiling collapses again.
This place has it out for him, it seems. Maybe it's because he's... not meant to be here...??
DG: Monster Mash has used its Tool Obstruction Complication toward its party's challenge, Ruined Corridor.
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
Tethelle pulls herself away from the machine with a grunt, breathing heavily. "I do that every day," she boasts toward Zed, wiping sweat off her brow.
She does not, in fact, do that every day. Or really any day. But training with a heavy greatsword really does build your upper body strength, so she's worn down, her arms and pecs burning with the effort (she had a different machine), but not completely useless.
Tethelle does not see Carina do her thing, but she does spot the flash of light out of the corner of her eye, and so she's looking that way when she comes back around the exercise machines. Hmm, she thinks to herself again, but decides not to bring it up. For one, Zed has run off again, and she can't ignore that.
"What does he even want in here?" Tethelle can guess, but Zed doesn't seem smart enough to figure out the hidden location of ancient magical relics by himself. Maybe he just likes working out. She follows the others to look at...
...too many rocks. "Nope," Tethelle says. "No. I'm not lifting those." Instead, she draws her sword, shifting it a couple times for a more comfortable grip before driving it, with a yell, into the mass of stone. Chi builds along the blade before exploding in a sudden blast, dislodging rocks like dynamite went off in there.
After that, Tethelle reshoulders her sword (she doesn't want to blunt it) and starts shifting smaller, broken pieces, basically shovelling them out from the side rather than lifting intact pieces. Hopefully Zed wasn't in the part she blew up. Or maybe hopefully he was. She hasn't decided.
DG: Tethelle Cirdian has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Ruined Corridor.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Oh, Ida has her own Heal Berry potion thingie. That works too! Meanwhile, Dean does his best at the reps, but in terms of completing them the fastest, yeah, there's no way anyone's out-performing Claude here. Or so Dean thinks, except Zed starts doing the same thing...?! Dean, recognizing that this is a contest he just can't win, instead opts to do his best and reach the goal at his own pace, which means he isn't reduced to total jelly-arms by the ends, so who's the *real* winner here, I ask you.
"Wow, that was energizing! I'm real pumped up now!" he enthuses at the end, setting down the weights with shaky hands (I said TOTAL jelly-arms, after all) and returning Zed's horrifying jelly-flail thumbs up. "Thanks! You too, mister!"
Dean has no idea what's going on here, but that doesn't mean he can't roll with it. He also totally doesn't see Carina's retransformation. YOUR SECRET IS SAFE... FOR NOW, LOCUS.
"Wait, you *want* him to pull a knife?" Dean asks Talise, eyebrows furrowed dubiously. But Zed hurries on ahead, and there's a sound of something caving in, and... oh. Zed appears to be trapped under rubble. Thankfully, digging is a thing Dean does well. He pulls out White Fenrir, successor to Black Fenrir, and starts shoveling. Good thing he didn't totally wear himself out lifting weights, ZED.
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool The Trusty Shovel toward his party's challenge, Ruined Corridor.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"I'M NOT OLD ENOUGH TO BE A MISTER," the pile of rubble says. "I'M ONLY LIKE NINE HUNDRED AND CHANGE."
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"CALL ME ZED," says the demon inside the rubble
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"THE ULTIMATE MACHO MAN, THE GRIM REAPER'S PEN-PAL, THE DARK HERO WHAT FIGHTS IN THE DARK SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO," the mound of refuse clarifies, "ZED."
<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.
"Oh, hey, thank you!" Locus tells Talise, catching the thrown bottle. She uncorks it and...
Tink!
Stupid helmet. "Don't worry, I'll catch up," she says.
A brief skit ensues as she turns back into Carina, notices the bottle that was in her hand is gone, turns back into Locus, sees the bottle is there, hits her helmet with it again, turns into Carina, notices the lack of bottle, turns into Locus AGAIN, puts the bottle down, turns into Carina, takes the bottle, drinks it, and THEN finally turns back into Locus.
She catches up with the group, seeing the collapsed ceiling and the crushed Zed. Claude hands her a pill.
"What? OH MY GOD."
She runs back around the corner. Fast-forward through at least three transformation sequences. She returns, holding a broken schnapps bottle, an empty water bottle and an uneaten pill.
"What! Ever!!" she says, tossing them over her shoulders as lightning crackles around her fist, which she swings towards the obstacle until it's no longer one.
"OKAY ZED," she answers, having missed the beginning of the conversation.
A beat.
"I'm not saying all the other stuff!!"
DG: Carina Wynne has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Ruined Corridor.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"I'm like sixteen!" Dean replies. "Nine hundred's totally ancient! You're so a mister!" He pauses. "Wait, are you not human or something? Who lives to be nine hundred??" He pauses again. "Anyway, I'm Dean! Nice to meet you, Mister Zed! And... all that other stuff you said."
He's still shoveling.
========================<* CHALLENGE - Ruined Corridor *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ----------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------- Time has not been kind to this place. A corridor leading deeper into the temple has been blocked by a pile of rubble. It'll take some time to clear, but even more time to try to find a way around. Best get to digging. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck, Tire===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"I'M A HYADEAN," Zed replies to his new blue haired buddy. "ONE OF OUR SUPER-POWERS IS DIGGING WITH OUR FACES. TECHNICALLY I WAS FROZEN FOR MOST OF THAT TIME. SO YEAH!! HI DEAN!"
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"I cannot lift with an injured arm, Zed," Ida says. She's sweating by the time she finishes her reps, but other than that, she doesn't seem terribly put out. In fact, the brute physical exertion seems to have given her the boost of energy she needs to keep up with... everything. She turns to Dean, realizing that he offered something to her before Zed showed up and distracted everyone. "Perhaps later," she says. What did he even offer? She can't quite remember. She does accept Claude's pill, though, and swallows it down with a gulp of water. Tethelle has a good idea, Ida realizes--and after the burning glow from the chi explosion dies down, she steps towards the junk heap with incidental Zed contents. "I believe Talise is of the general sentiment that a straightforward fight would be preferable," Ida says. She curls and uncurls the fingers of her left hand, feeling the flow of chi through the meridians within. She clenches her right hand, holds it up--
And then surges towards the pile with a vicious left jab, trying to dislodge a particularly large chunk that's holding some smaller bits in place.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Ruined Corridor.
========================<* CHALLENGE - Ruined Corridor *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ----------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------- Time has not been kind to this place. A corridor leading deeper into the temple has been blocked by a pile of rubble. It'll take some time to clear, but even more time to try to find a way around. Best get to digging. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck, Tire===========================================
DG: The party led by Claude C. Kenny has passed this challenge! The party gained 15 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
With npthing to blow up rocks with, Talise settles for just picking boulders out of the rubble heap and chucking the damnable things.
As Talise sets the big lump of rock aside, she huffs and glances over towards Dean. "At least if he pulled a knife, he'd be taking this at least a little seriously," she says with a stiff shrug, reaching for the next lump of rock. "Showing we're worthy adversaries in his mind. All he's doing is treating us like a joke."
Her eyes harden, and she chucks another rock roughly into the wall. It smashes into smaller fragments. "...I hate being treated like a joke."
With a grunt, she hurls another big ol' hunk of rubble out of the way, throwing herself into it with that much more effort.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"I TAKE OFFENSE TO THAT," Zed says from inside his stony tomb. "THERE'S A TIME FOR FIGHTING, TALISE! AND A TIME FOR SITTING DOWN TO TEA! AND A TIME FOR DRINKING BOOZE! AND A TIME FOR EATING WAY TOO MUCH! THIS IS NOT A TIME FOR ANY OF THOSE. THIS IS A TIME... FOR LEARNING!"
"Also!" Zed... stops shouting. He sounds closer, though. "A time for digging! I'm taking this seriously! Really! But I can't fight you right now! I mean, if I fought someone every time I went adventuring, I'd be..."
...
"......"
"Actually that's pretty much every time, huh? Well, whatever! Exit's up ahead! I'LL SEE YOU ALL SOON!" The rubble gives way, and Zed... is already running down the corridor!
What did he mean by 'a time for learning' though...???
DG: Carina Wynne has drawn a new Challenge.
=========================<* CHALLENGE - Living Armor *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- A corridor flanked by suits of armor suddenly comes alive! Each of the armors rise, animated by ghostly flame and wielding ancient weapons. The spirits of these long-dead warriors have returned to protect the secrets of their monastery. Put them to rest before they stick you full of rusty, tetanus-ridden steel. =Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"Oh wow! A Hyadean! Hi, I'm a Dean, too!" Dean says with perfectly earnest sincerity. "I can't dig rubble with my face, though. I need a shovel for that." He pauses when Ida turns to him and says 'maybe later' to the Heal Berry. "Oh, sure! If you get hurt again, just let me know," he tells her with a nod and a smile. That smile fades when Talise talks about how Zed is treating this like a joke. "He is?"
Then the rubble gives way and Zed erupts from it and dashes on ahead. Dean watches him go, fairly confused by now. "..."
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"You would be ZED!" Talise shouts back as she takes off after Zed.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Beat.
"Ahahahaha! Hyadean. Hiya, Dean! Nyahahahaha that's the best I-- uh oh."
UH OH!?
<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.
"Digging with your faces??" Locus asks, eyes wide behind her mask. "Impressive..."
She mostly continues punching rocks for the rest of the back-and-forth, at least with her non-sprained arm.
Zed erupts and runs. "Hey, get back here!" Locus gives chase, mostly out of principle. She follows that scarf, and the rest of the group can follow that ponytail, still visible as she rounds a corner.
She and the group soon find out that Zed apparently aggroed a whole corridor's worth of suits of armor.
"Aw, futz," Locus lets out as half of them turn towards her.
She assumes a fighting stance, preparing to do to them the SAME THING SHE DID TO THOSE ROCKS, but suddenly, her vision changes. What she calls the Matrix Eye turns on, first showing her the armors in black and white x-ray display, and then in...
"Huuuuh, I'm seeing in rainbow-vision? Is that everyone or just me?"
It's just her. And she can still fight that way even though she's not sure how to turn it off and it's very distracting! But one armor gets her attention, as it seems to be... glowing.
She kicks it, and a red, marbled orb pops out. From her vision, however, it looks like a beacon of light. She reaches for it, and...
The orb flies into her belt. Electricity crackles around her briefly, to be replaced with a burst of flame. A similar, yellow orb pops out of the same belt and rolls to the floor.
ELEMENT MARBLE:
FIRE_
"Huuuuh, okay, sure!" Carina says, winding her fist back and shoving it towards another of the assailants, wreathed in a large, falcon-shaped flame, like some kind of...
"LOCUS PUUUUUNCH!"
Yes, that.
DG: Carina Wynne has used her Tool Element Marble toward her party's challenge, Living Armor.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude C. Kenny is... getting a little tired of lifting things. Those little pills are great for a quick boost and surge of energy, but they're not as good over the long haul for some weird reason. If he didn't trust Bowman Jeane implicitly, sometimes he'd think that---
"Oh man, GHOST ARMORS!" Claude announces as the metallic monstrosities march mforward to do battle with the desperate diggers of derring-do. Fortunately, he's got the perfect tool for this job, he thinks, reaching for the pocket that contains his ghost-punching gloves---
His arms sort of twitch a bit, and he winces. Okay, Plan B, he thinks, lifting up his right foot and slamming it into the floor; this causes a wave of spikes to shoot up out of the rock and move their way toward the armours. He does it again and again, seemingly not caring about the SP costs or the possibility that causing localized earthquakes MIGHT NOT BE A GOOD IDEA IN A PLACE WHERE THEY JUST CLEARED TWO SETS OF FALLEN RUBBLE CLAUDE
DG: Claude C. Kenny has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Living Armor.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Once she's out of rocks to huck, Talise growls and takes off after Zed, a few paces behind Locus. She draws her sword quickly, quite intent on making this a fight. "Zed, this is not teatime!" she shouts down the corridor ahead.
It turns out to be sentient armour time. Screeching to a halt, Talise blinks a couple of times, then frowns as Locus talks about her rainbow vision.
"Are you sure you didn't inhale something," she suggests as she shoulders forward, interjecting herself between Locus and the armour critters for a moment, assuming the girl in the strange equipment must've snorted something she got off of Cyre or someone of similar ilk. Whirling Rastaban, the tall swordswoman sweeps forward and addresses this problem the old fashioned way.
> BRING STABBITY
> You bring stabbity. Aren't you proud of yourself?
Talise does pause to blink in surprise as she watches Locus play with her powers. "Huh. That's cool," she remarks before plowing forward and attempting to grab one of the armours by the collar, at which point she attempts to rip its chestplate open and whirl to slam one of the pieces into the next armour.
Sometimes Talise fights like a cheap jerk. Now is one of those times.
DG: Talise Gianfair has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Living Armor.
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
"Nobody cares," Tethelle yells at Zed, while trying to dig past him without freeing him until they're already past.
She doesn't even laugh at the wordplay. Maybe she didn't immediately get it.
Scrambling and squeezing past the fallen stone before it's completely cleared, Tethelle hits it from the far side to let more people through (and, unfortunately, possibly Zed) before she advances toward what is turning into animated armour.
Tethelle brings her hand to the stone at her neck, mouthing some words. If there's ever a place where Equites will listen to her clearly, it is here - and so, with a battle cry of "Equites!" Tethelle joins the battle, sword out. Apparently, burning arms or not, she's willing to keep using her sword, which is shining white with her chi as she strikes, causing a burst of bright energy.
She's aiming to disable the armour more than destroy them, taking out legs and arms. There's no benefit in killing the spirits, after all. Re-killing. Whatever. "What rainbow?" she asks Locus, as she sweeps the greatsword in broad arcs.
DG: Tethelle Cirdian has used her Tool Icon of Equites toward her party's challenge, Living Armor.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida feels a glimmer of satisfaction as the rock goes flying. The rest of the barrier is easily dealt with--and while Zed still has his lead, that scarf makes him very easy to follow. Ida vaults over what's left of the rubble pile, and gives chase. A familiar burning sensation starts creeping up the backs of her legs, but she pushes through. Then:
A suit of armor steps out in front of her, pivots on its heel, and swings a massive greatsword at roughly shoulder-height. Ida ducks, rolls, and tumbles under the blade, digging the armored fingers of her right hand into a seam between tiles to halt her forward motion. She sweeps both legs around to try and knock the armor off its feet, then leaps upright to throw a punch at one of the armors menacing
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
The others chase! Dean figures that he ought to start chasing too! And so he chases, until like the others he reaches a corridor full of living armor. Living and apparently very cranky armor. He screeches to a halt, arms flailing, and stares around at all of them.
"Uh oh," he utters. A pause. "Rainbow-vision? What, like... everything is rainbows? That sounds really neat but I don't think I'm doing that!" He holds out his hands; Twen Fenrir flash into them, fitting his grip as perfectly as ever. Then, guns in hands, he leaps towards the armor and...! Starts beating the hell out of them with the rods stretched out from his gun handles.
Because that totally makes sense.
DG: Dean Stark has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Living Armor.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida feels a glimmer of satisfaction as the rock goes flying. The rest of the barrier is easily dealt with--and while Zed still has his lead, that scarf makes him very easy to follow. Ida vaults over what's left of the rubble pile, and gives chase. A familiar burning sensation starts creeping up the backs of her legs, but she pushes through. Then:
A suit of armor steps out in front of her, pivots on its heel, and swings a massive greatsword at roughly shoulder-height. Ida ducks, rolls, and tumbles under the blade, digging the armored fingers of her right hand into a seam between tiles to halt her forward motion. She sweeps both legs around to try and knock the armor off its feet, then leaps upright to throw a punch at one of the armors menacing 'Locus'.
That little sphere pops loose, and rolls across the floor. "A sensor?" she says. She knows what those are, now! Her Gear has a whole suite of them, and one of them displays heat signatures in rainbow colors. She used it against the giant Wel.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Living Armor.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
CYRE TAKES GRAVE OFFENSE TO THAT, his stuff isn't so blase as to cause rainbow vision. Baskar weed is the serious stuff.
"Uwahahahahaha, h-hi again, friends!" Zed has... somehow aggravated an entire hallway worth of ghost armors. What a surprise! What could Zed have possibly done to tick off all of these very ancient spirits, some of whom were probably around the last time his people tried to kill the planet?
Huh.
Well. That might have something to do with it.
For what it's worth, he seems to be giving it his all, even with his arms still flopping around like a couple of tubes full of jelly. He dances through the blades whirling at him, pirouettes between some of Claude's earth-tearing spikes. But how will he ever fight without arms...!?
"Uwah! That's so cool!" Zed says of the SUDDEN FIRE PUNCH. "Hold on, I've got something like that too! HERE I GO--!" Zed... begins to spin. Faster and faster and faster. His scarf sweeps out as he does, flailing about like... well, like a pair of a scarf-tails. What the ghost armors (and the diggers) may not realize is that Zed's scarf is no ordinary scarf...!
It's... A drill scarf...!
AND RIGHT NOW, ZED IS SPINNING LIKE A DRILL-TOP!
Either he's going through the floor, or accidentally cutting some fools. Lots of them.
DG: Monster Mash has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward its party's challenge, Living Armor.
=========================<* CHALLENGE - Living Armor *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- A corridor flanked by suits of armor suddenly comes alive! Each of the armors rise, animated by ghostly flame and wielding ancient weapons. The spirits of these long-dead warriors have returned to protect the secrets of their monastery. Put them to rest before they stick you full of rusty, tetanus-ridden steel. =Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
DG: The party led by Claude C. Kenny has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has drawn a new Challenge.
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Shuriken Special *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- A ghostly throwing star whisks by your ear. It seems as though a pair of ghosts are practicing their throwing techniques here, hurling spectral shuriken and necrotic kunai through the exact same space you need to pass to proceed. Dodge or you may find yourself stuck full of sharp, pointy things! =Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.
"Oh-- Whoops, thanks for the assist!" Locus gives a thumbs-up to Ida, who saves the superhero while she's still figuring out how her own powers work.
"I don't think I did??" Locus answers Talise. She hasn't even seen Cyre in what, a week? "It's really kinda neat!" she agrees, as she switches from fire-punching to fire-kicking because, yeesh, tired arms. She probably won't be moving her body much at all tomorrow, if she can help it.
"Yeah, seems it's for sensing stuff," she says in answer to Ida, while tapping the side of her helmet and-- "Oh, there we go, normal vision again. Cheezy wheez, I was getting a headache."
The battle is pitched, as the foes seem surprisingly resilient. Punching, kicking, drilling, pistol-whipping and stabbity-bringing seem to work at first, until the armors reform. Claude's earth sorcery, as ill-advised as it is, does work wonders keeping the foes off their feet and disrupting their spirits. The Guardian power Tethelle brings to bear works wonders as well-- Appropriately enough.
"But I don't need the Matrix Eye," Locus then dramatically announces to the armor in front of her, "to see all your weak spots! Your armor SUCKS!!" And she sweeps a fire-trailing leg, snapping her foe's metallic portion in half and sending the spirit back to whence it came.
"I think that's all of 'em," she says, dusting her hands with a secret, satisfied grin. "Good teamwork, Rainbow Rangers!" This reference won't make any sense to anyone present who wasn't into Badlands pop culture ephemera ten years ago.
The group can continue ahead-- But Locus takes a moment to snag the yellow orb she dropped. The moment she does, it vanishes in her hand.
She squints. Now she really is having a headache.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida takes a moment to catch her breath. Damnation, she needs to start exercising regularly again. A few months off, and it feels like she's lost something. She doesn't get the reference, either.
The hallway ends, abruptly, at a sight that would be quite serene in other circumstances. It's a rock garden, with a high, domed ceiling painted to look like the night sky--water bubbles up from a spring in the middle, flowing in an S-shape towards both the northern and southern ends of the room. Moss grows on several of the larger rocks. Low benches sit off to the sides, just the right height to sit on while meditating, or observing a duel.
A duel is exactly what's happening at the moment, though it's hard to tell at first. At one end is a bright, spectral shape--humanoid in the broad strokes, but clearly not a living human. At the other end is another spectral shape that exists largely as a dimming in the air around it. The air between them is filled with throwing blades. They dodge and duck and weave, and neither one can get a solid hit on the other.
Ida skids to a stop as her brain processes all this, and steps into the corner of the entranceway. The only way out is through, but how can she get to the other side without ending up injured as well as aching? She looks up at the domed ceiling, holds out her thumb to gauge the distance, and then pulls something out of the side of her gauntlet, tucking it between her fingers. It looks like a sideways pistol-grip, with a button for the thumb and a trigger for the index finger. Ida pulls the trigger, and a sharp bang echoes through the room. Something halfway between a bullet and a bolt flies from the barrel, embedding itself in the ceiling above the far door. "Dean," Ida says, offering him her shoulder. Once everything's set, she pushes the button. The clockworks and tension-regulation devices that Ida pieced together from literal Veruni-engineered scrap get to work, hauling the line in. Ida shifts her weight this way and that to try and weave through, but she's mostly relying on speed.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Line Launcher toward her party's challenge, Shuriken Special.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Since arriving upon Cow Patty Planet, and more importantly since learning that he couldn't just phase-gun his way through every problem that fell into his lap, Claude C. Kenny has learned a lot about himself. One of the things that he learned about himself was that he has settled rather naturally into the adventuring role known generically as the tank** - the person responsible for shielding his companions from danger by attracting and absorbing physical punishment. Claude's a good fit for this role - he's loud, big, tough, and his absurdly advanced Federation uniform blunts most cutting and piercing weapons from penetrating his tender flesh.
So when the air suddenly fills with throwing blades, Claude does what his training and character suggest he should do. "If you're not with her, behind me!" he shouts, lifting his jacket up, sucking his head under it, and running down the hall, trying to stick toward the edge of the room.
It is here that Claude makes another discovery: that Federation armourweave does absolutely nothing against ghost knives.
"OW SHIT OW!" he yelps as a couple of kunai penetrate his defences and sink their ghostly blades into his right shoulder and left thigh; the people behind him, if any, are still protected in the sense that Claude is eating the damage, so that is a thing. The big blonde swordsman stumbles a little but carries forward, grimacing as a third kunai grazes past his left side.
With technology having failed him and his ghost-punching gloves in his back pocket, Claude does the only thing he can think of that has proven effective in situations like this; he thinks back to an ancient pre-Space Date documentary*** he watched on how a group of surprisingly sloppily dressed paramilitary forces defeated a ghost invasion of Old Old New York****. After coughing to clear his throat, he starts singing, in a very loud voice, the theme song***** to the aforementioned documentary, reasoning that it's the best thing he can do without one of those weird spaghetti guns they had.
- - Or, at least, a lot about himself given how little introspection he tended to subject himself to prior to the aforementioned arrival, viz., not very much at all.
- - Though not on Filgaia itself, of course, what with tanks not really being a thing.
- - i.e., Ghostbusters
- - Or as it was known at the time, New York.
- - The song Claude thinks he is singing is the theme from Ghostbusters. The song he is actually singing is 'I Want A New Drug' by Huey Lewis & The News.
DG: Claude C. Kenny has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Shuriken Special.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise makes a mental note to invite Ida to work out with her.
-----
SEVERAL DAYS LATER...
"See, Ida, you do it like this," says a very sweaty Talise in shorts and a tank top as she somehow manages to combine an insane number of crunches with an insane number of beers.
-----
MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE PLOT...
"Wait, why is there a rock garden," Talise asks with a rapid blink. She pushes one hand through her hair and frowns, scanning the place - and then focusing in on those distortions in the air.
Someone is there. More than one someone. Squinting, the tall swordswoman struggles to resolve the phantom shapes into things that fit the logical parameters of critter, person or Zed.
She assumes critter.
The exact moment Ida pulls out her gauntlet, Talise is fishing into her hookshot. What she comes out with has a large spearhead with a double hook sprouting from it, but the head sprouts from a large metal cylinder with a chain coiled around it and a complex-looking handle on one end. Smiling lopsidedly, Talise shoots Ida a glance.
"Picked it up from a guy," she explains, taking aim at something across the room. She shifts her grip on the handle, then curls her finger into a trigger and presses down.
With a boom! of explosive charges, the hookshot head fires, trailing the heavy-duty chain behind it as it arcs towards a spot on the ceiling. Talise taps the trigger again, then gasps as the thing begins to retract, dragging her in with shockingly little effort as the mechanism inside the hookshot rapidly reels the chain back in.
"I THINK I MISS FALLING OFF THE ROPES," she shouts, this close to gagging.
DG: Talise Gianfair has used her Tool Hookshot toward her party's challenge, Shuriken Special.
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
Tethelle Cirdian was not into Badlands pop culture ten years ago. For one, she wasn't in the Badlands then.
Tethelle smashes the last of her armours away. Her blade is a little lower than it should be, but she forces it up, getting herself back into position even though her back and shoulders really object to the abuse they've been put through - and only once she's held it in the proper position for a few seconds does she sheath it. Tiredness is no excuse to avoid proper form.
"I'll wait," she says to Locus, which is absolutely not an excuse to catch her breath. She watches the girl catch her orb, though she can't figure out what it is, and eventually heads to catch up with the others.
By the time she gets there, there are already ghost knives and Claude is finding out that ghost knives do not obey rules like 'armour'. Tethelle is pretty tough herself, working on being a swordmaster as she is, but she can tell immediately that this is a time for reflexes.
Fortunately, she's almost a foot shorter than Claude even if she's broadly built, and so when she goes into a crouching run she makes a little less of a big target than he is. Tethelle just sprints, which is not something she's actually very good at, trusting to speed and momentum (she's better at momentum) to at least moderate the amount of knives that successfully hit her.
Running while hunched over sucks, Tethelle decides. She wants to stand up and take a deep breath more than anything. But she has to get to the end for that!
DG: Tethelle Cirdian has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Shuriken Special.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
CLONG. Owwww. That... would be the armors giving back as good as they get. They do go down, at least, but oof, now Dean's the one needing some Heal Berries... He dips a hand into a pocket and shoves them into his mouth, then jogs on after the others.
It's a pretty destination, too. A rock garden, and at first he thinks they're outside again until he realizes the ceiling is actually painted. But what *really* catches his eye... are the ghost ninjas. Yes, the ghost ninjas. And it looks like there's sharp bits of metal flying everywhere. That's not great.
"Hmmm, I wonder if I..." he starts to say, before Ida offers him her shoulder. "Ida? ...Okay!" And once he grabs hold, half of Twin Fenrir comes to hand--and he shoots the freeze ray at the floor so runs can turn into controlled slides, potentially accelerating Ida and the others to be better able to avoid those ninja stars. "Let's goooo!!"
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Freeze Ray toward his party's challenge, Shuriken Special.
<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.
Locus catches up with the group and whistles at the sight of the rock garden. "Pretty..."
What isn't so pretty is the GHOST DUEL occuring in front of them. It's cool, but that isn't the point. She'd rather avoid attracting their attention if she can help it. To tell the truth, she's about done with this dungeon and its exciting challenges.
"Yeesh, starting to wish I'd brought my ghost-punching gloves*."
Ida has a solution, for herself and Dean at least. "W-Whoa!! That is rad."
She's fairly confident that she doesn't need the line. Instead, she uses the icy floor to pick up speed, then leaps from one rock to another, taking the highest road she can find and doing what she can to weave between the ghostly projectiles. Hopefully she can keep her balance and also not become a pincushion.
- Those are technically Claude's ghost-punching gloves, but she doesn't know that.
DG: Carina Wynne has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Shuriken Special.
========================<* CHALLENGE - Shuriken Special *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ----------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------- A ghostly throwing star whisks by your ear. It seems as though a pair of ghosts are practicing their throwing techniques here, hurling spectral shuriken and necrotic kunai through the exact same space you need to pass to proceed. Dodge or you may find yourself stuck full of sharp, pointy things! =Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
So it turns out that a bunch of ghost armors with a serious grudge against you and all your people can get pretty good at fighting Metal Demons. It's as if they have some kind of Favored Enemy: Hyadean feat. By the time Zed makes it out of the hallway of angry armor, he's been stuck in more ways than he cares to think about. There's a spear sticking out of his back! It looks horribly, terribly uncomfortable.
But Zed... Seems to be just as high-spirited as always!!
Maybe a spear or two in the back is still not nearly as painful as what might happen if he fails in his mission here today...?
Or maybe he's just really good at absorbing damage. He is kind of... Zed... After all.
But what is awaiting him in the next room but... A gaggle of ghosts throwing daggers at each other? That's... That's...!
"THAT'S SO COOL," Zed gushes, as he bleeds.
"This is a perfect opportunity... To test my special attack...! AURA CHARGE!!" Zed roars! The air around him begins to waver and ripple. Power surges through his body, up his limbs, and... "AURAAAA SCAAAAAARF!"
Into... his muffler.
"Here I go! PILED DRIVER!! PSYCHOOOO CLOOOOOTH!"
Zed... begins spinning amidst the ghost knives as he dashes to the other end of the room. To his credit, his spinning, shining scarf actually DOES deflect some of them...! But others might just get through!
AND MORE IMPORTANTLY Zed is inadvertently showering ALL THE OTHERS with even more erratic sprays of ninja projectiles. WHOOPS.
DG: Monster Mash has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward its party's challenge, Shuriken Special.
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Shuriken Special *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- A ghostly throwing star whisks by your ear. It seems as though a pair of ghosts are practicing their throwing techniques here, hurling spectral shuriken and necrotic kunai through the exact same space you need to pass to proceed. Dodge or you may find yourself stuck full of sharp, pointy things! =Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
DG: The party led by Claude C. Kenny has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Monster Mash has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* CHALLENGE - The Clashing Swords *>===================== |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- You enter a chamber and find yourselves suddenly plunged into darkness as the doorway seals itself behind you. Only once your eyes have adjusted do you feel it. A rush of cutting force buffets against something vital with the din of metal striking metal. In the space of a breath, it strikes again, then once more. The blade does not blood, but it expresses its killing intent quite clearly. The next blow would not be so merciful. In the darkness, you cannot see the strikes coming, but perhaps if you listen to the ringing of the blade, perhaps if you can see the blows in your mind's-eye, you might just be able to deflect them and prove yourself to the spirit of this place. =Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Exhaust==========================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Claude's decision to rush right down the centerline ends up being a gamble that pays off--the ghosts aren't interested in hitting him, after all--and he ends up on the other side with most of his blood still in his body. Tethelle is less lucky, and ends up taking a few hits from ghostly kunai before she can get clear. Nothing serious, fortunately, but the necrotic energy leaves behind a dull, numb sensation long after the kunai themselves dissipate into motes of ectoplasm.
Ida's decision, likewise, ends up paying off--she and Dean zip right across the makeshift arena on her rope line, after which she lowers both of them to the ground. She pushes part of the gauntlet forward and presses it into a slot, cutting the rope loose. Metal Digger Locus gets doubly unlucky, in that Zed blazes right past her in a flurry of reflected projectiles, and in that she's on Dean's ice patch when he does so. The results are not pretty. At least she's got armor, right??
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Talise, of course, lands right beside Ida as she's loading another grapple. "Where did you get that ARM?" she asks, as everyone regroups.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"Me?" Dean says, looking at Talise. "A friend gave it to me!"
He doesn't appear to be lying. It's questionable if he knows how to lie.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Wow! Zed truly has mastered the power of the Aura Scarf! Of course, he's going to need to give it a better name. But that can come later. The euphoria of exertion has invigorated him. He's even able to move his arms again! Look at that! "Wahahahaha!" Zed laughs as he again dashes into the distance and rounds a far-off corner, "I can feel it, friends! It won't be long now. It won't be long... Until we find what we're ALL looking for! THERE'S A LESSON TO BE LEARNED FRIENDS, A LESSON TO BE-- hupp!?"
Zed... stops?
He's gone uncharacteristically quiet. By the time the others have caught up, they find that the Metal Demon has drawn his blade-- and more importantly, that the hair at the back of his and all of their necks have gone all too rigid.
"Something..." Zed murmurs as he squints into the strange room. There are no lights but candles dripping wax down slender, lacquered stalks. The floor is a sturdy set of tatami mats. But more worryingly, unlike all the rooms they've seen thus far, except perhaps for the zen garden, this chamber is utterly untouched by time. Unfortunately, they have little opportunity to contemplate why.
The doors slam shut. A killing wind extinguishes the candles. Darkness swallows the room.
And with a sudden clamor of steel, each and everyone would feel the terrible, unmistakable sensation of a blade cleaving them clean in two.
Only... No. They're still intact. But the threat is there. The air seems to vibrate with menace.
Show me
A voice stirs in the dark, fortelling, just this once, the sound of another ringing of blades.
That Filgaia still has warriors...!
DG: Monster Mash has used its Tool Puzzle Alteration toward its party's challenge, The Clashing Swords.
<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.
"What the," Locus blurts out when knives start flying from an unexpected direction, and just when she's sliding, too. "HEY, watch it!" She dives out of desperation, because those knives have very specifically proven armor-piercing, and Mild-Mannered Carina Wynne would probably not handle that sort of injury very well.
It's about as graceful a maneuver as someone falling down a flight of stairs. On ice! She ends up loudly crashing into one of the stones. She peels herself off and ends up changing her strategy, using it to sneak past the battle.
"Yeesh... I'm okay... I'm okay..." she limps into the next room with the others, where Zed seems... unusually serious. There's a threat hanging in the very air, one even she can feel.
And then... The lights turn off, and Carina feels the slice of an unseen blade.
She staggers back, taking in air sharply before she forgets how to breathe. Just like that? It's over, just like that?
No, of course not.
But a voice is heard. It isn't over, but it may be soon.
The Matrix Eye's black-and-white X-ray display blinks on, once again without Carina's apparent input.
This is probably cheating. It goes against the test's intent. But Carina doesn't care. She wants to live. It's that simple. But even with that advantage, all she has to deflect the blades are two metallic-gauntleted, bare and inexperienced hands. Will they prove enough?
DG: Carina Wynne has used her Tool Matrix Eye toward her party's challenge, The Clashing Swords.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"One moment," Ida says. "I think a moment to recover from that is in order." She reaches into her pack, and pulls out a paper package, opening it. The smell of chocolate biscuits wafts into the corridor. Will it be enough to distract Zed from his mission? Ida... seems to be including him in the invitation. If nothing else, a quick boost of carbohydrates might help everyone bounce back from all this horrible exertion.
The group proceeds. Ida barely has time to notice that this chamber looks oddly... intact. A frisson of fear races down her spine, and then--
Lady Harken did her level best to cut Ida in two at Lacour. She would've, certainly, had she picked any other battlefield--Lacour Coliseum has wards to prevent exactly that. But by God, if this doesn't feel like what she would've done if she could've. Ida doubles over, fully expecting to see blood and internal organs, but there's nothing. She's alive, but only because that was preparation. Her pupils widen.
OVER ONE YEAR AGO
Ida kneels on a mat in the garden, watching attentively as her mother begins the lesson. She takes a moment to size up her daughter's posture and breathing, nods, and walks around behind her. Ida stays still and calm until a folded bandana drops down in front of her face. "You cannot rely on your eyes alone," says Flora Everstead-Rey, from somewhere to Ida's right. She ties the bandana into place. Ida turns her head, but her mother's voice is always one step ahead of where Ida thinks she is. "There will be times when they fail you, or lie to you. When they do, know that the fire rarely lies. It exists within every living thing, and even in--"
NOW
"Some of the dead," Ida whispers, finishing her mother's words. Ida closes her eyes and breathes, a cloud of ephemereal motes fading into nothingness as her breath becomes air. In her mind's eye, she sees something. It's faint, but there, and it's--
Ida drops to her knees for no apparent reason. She tumbles, comes up to a knee again, raising a gauntleted fist. Her whole body is aching.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Chocolate Biscuits toward her party's challenge, The Clashing Swords.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise looks a bit flustered as she lands, tucking her hookshot back into her jacket. "Traded for it," she admits breathlessly, flashing Ida a lopsided grin. "Guy from Aquvy. Got a deal on it. Didn't even think it'd work."
Following Zed's babbling braggadociousness, Talise sighs a little at the silliness of it all. She doesn't even dream that something is amiss, until she approaches and finds him with his sword out.
Almost on instinct, Talise draws hers - and a second later, the hackles on her neck rise. Green eyes dart from one side to the other, then close as she lets her breath out through her nose. They open again.
The light gutters and dies.
And a feeling rips through her with all the intensity of that time it did months ago. A cold heat racing through Talise up the middle. The scar hidden beneath her coat and mail aches sympathetically as she tenses up, drawing in her breath through her nose.
It's the feeling of being ripped almost in two with one clean blow... but without the feeling of dying that came with it when it was Glumzambor seeking to take her life.
Talise hears the voice but does not hear it. She doesn't need to hear anything. All she needs to do right now is...
...feel.
Draw on the memories. The lessons learned before Filgaia was even opened to her. The memories of a small girl who thought that all she needed was good eyesight and a strong arm. A headstrong girl who pushed her luck once too much, and ignored the obvious signs, and nearly died when Althena's Guard taught her the harshest lesson.
That swordsmanship is more than her eyes.
Talise can see nothing. She can touch and taste nothing. But she can feel and hear. In the darkness, all she can feel is the way the air shifts. Something cold is moving through it. There is no sound to it; there is merely the sensation of something. A steely something, like the sound of the air itself beginning to divide.
With a sudden, swift movement, Talise steps well clear of Ida Everstead-Rey, not seeing her, but knowing she is there - and she sweeps Rastaban out in an elegant arc.
There is a sharp sound in the darkness. Steel upon steel. Then another one, an inhuman amount of time later, seemingly distant from the first one. Again the sound of steel rings out. A spark is swallowed by the night.
Carina Wynne, with her X-ray display, may be able to see it, but perhaps not understand it. Without any sense but the subtleties of the way a steel sword dances in air, Talise is letting her body move on instinct in a stunningly graceful dance of pure swordsmanship, the defensive techniques she learned at the hands of Althena's Guard and innovated of her own accord coming together as one.
It is an exquisite display of the School of the Thousand Stormless Tides. But it surely cannot last against what Talise assumes she faces.
DG: Talise Gianfair has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Clashing Swords.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
For Claude C. Kenny, this room pretty much confirms his working theory that the Guardians are all a bunch of mega-jerks. As he picks himself up off the ground, marveling at the fact that he's still intact, he hears the voice of the world, or at least part of it, speaking in his mind. For a change, it isn't Chapapanga mocking him. It's another one he doesn't recognize. And it offers a very specific challenge.
Show me that Filgaia still has warriors, it whispers.
"Yeah, about that," Claude mutters under his breath. He reaches into his pocket, fumbles around for a second until he grasps his tricorder, and then swipes his thumb left and right across the screen. At which point the darkness of the room is split by a SUDDEN AND UNEXPLAINED BLUE LIGHT emanating from Claude's left hand. It's hard to tell what it is given the contrast between light and darkness, but it's lighting up the room enough for people to see.
"Go, go, GO!" Claude shouts, waving people forward as he keeps projecting the light in the direction of those ephemeral blades. This is totally cheating, but hey - he's not a Filgaian warrior. If the Guardians wanted him to play it straight, they could get off their semidivine butts and come up with proper instructions.
DG: Claude C. Kenny has used his Tool Tricorder toward his party's challenge, The Clashing Swords.
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
Tethelle didn't make the run as well as she would have liked. She's more worn out than she thought, and running hunched over wasn't doing any favoures; after nearly stumbling, she runs straighter so she can breathe, and that gets her a GHOST KNIFE.
In the shoulder.
It sucks.
"I am not your friend," Tethelle says, firmly, at the far side. Now she's definitely breathing hard, and wishing that she had brought some water - but she didn't, and she doesn't have anybody to ask (she's kind or proud). She wipes sweat out of her face again before she steps into the room.
And it's dark in here. Tethelle curses under her breath, letting her eyes adjust as much as they are able, trying to see - or feel - what cut the candles out. She starts to walk forward, but then... no.
Tethelle draws her sword again at about the same time Talise does, a ringing sound in the darkness. She's done this before, she tells herself, as she feels the force gather again. It's a feeling she's familiar with, similar and yet somehow very different to her training back at her temple.
But she left that before she became a priestess, didn't she? She was eventually chosen by Equites herself. She brings that memory back, in the Guardian Temple; she feels the Medium of Equites she bears right now. "Guide my blade," she says, under her breath.
Tethelle goes on the defensive. She switches from stance to stance smoothly, trying to adapt and anticipate the way the spirit of the temple will strike at her, her sword sweeping through whirling arcs around her that aren't a blow aimed at anyone (though people may not want to stand too close, anyway). She never stops moving, graceful for all her power. She's trying, as hard as possible, to ignore the exhaustion, the burning in her muscles - she has to trust to her training.
If she can't pass this, how can she ever become a swordmaster?
DG: Tethelle Cirdian has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Clashing Swords.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"What's wrong?" Dean asks as he walks into the strange room with the others. But before anyone can answer, the doors slam, a wind blows out the candle, and... then Dean feels the distinct sensation of being cut in half. He gasps, staggering, and left cold, and he claps his hands all over his body. He's... alive?! What the heck was that just now?!
The air vibrates with menace. A voice tells him to show them that Filgaia still has warriors. "I'll show you, all right...!" he hisses as Twin Fenrir flash back into his hands.
Except... Dean's never received any formal training of any kind. His combat style is entirely self-taught. He really has no idea whatsoever how to move with the precision blocking such strikes requires.
But he's determined and full of youthful vigor. Perhaps just trying hard enough, for long enough, will see him through.
Or maybe Claude could illuminate the room and tell everyone to BEAT THEM SWORDS. That works too! Possibly!! Maybe it just ends up blinding everyone instead?!
DG: Dean Stark has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, The Clashing Swords.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise... doesn't actually... go. Not even when Claude turns on his light and shouts at them all to get going. Those who do head for the exit will find that she's still standing there with her eyes closed and her sword moving.
Lady Chloe wouldn't run from a test like this, she thinks, keeping her eyes closed and sensing....
======================<* CHALLENGE - The Clashing Swords *>======================= |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ----------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------- You enter a chamber and find yourselves suddenly plunged into darkness as the doorway seals itself behind you. Only once your eyes have adjusted do you feel it. A rush of cutting force buffets against something vital with the din of metal striking metal. In the space of a breath, it strikes again, then once more. The blade does not blood, but it expresses its killing intent quite clearly. The next blow would not be so merciful. In the darkness, you cannot see the strikes coming, but perhaps if you listen to the ringing of the blade, perhaps if you can see the blows in your mind's-eye, you might just be able to deflect them and prove yourself to the spirit of this place. =Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Exhaust==========================================
====================<* CHALLENGE - The Clashing Swords *>===================== |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- You enter a chamber and find yourselves suddenly plunged into darkness as the doorway seals itself behind you. Only once your eyes have adjusted do you feel it. A rush of cutting force buffets against something vital with the din of metal striking metal. In the space of a breath, it strikes again, then once more. The blade does not blood, but it expresses its killing intent quite clearly. The next blow would not be so merciful. In the darkness, you cannot see the strikes coming, but perhaps if you listen to the ringing of the blade, perhaps if you can see the blows in your mind's-eye, you might just be able to deflect them and prove yourself to the spirit of this place. =Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Exhaust==========================================
DG: The party led by Claude C. Kenny 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> Zed has posed.
For what it counts, Zed totally does take a cookie. He's Zed. Come on. He'd never turn down a cookie! They're too tasty!! Zed is thankful for these presents. These tasty, tasty presents.
But that was then.
This is now.
The blade, perfectly honed, cuts through the darkness without hesitation. Guided by skill that can only be called supernatural, blade meets blade. It sweeps through the empty air, barely tickling Ida's scalp. It bites into Carina's gauntlet, her unique vantage point allowing her to catch the barest flash of a blade manifesting moments before impact-- and yet, it leaves her arm unscathed.
The pattern repeats elsewhere. She can see as the metal demon whirls like a dervish with every clatter of steel. Where the Hyadean's style is impetuous and reckless, his instincts are undeniable. Elsewhere, Ida punches aside a second blow, her warrior's impulse guiding her fists. Elsewhere...
Elsewhere, Claude turns into a dirty cheater and dispels the darkness. The only problem is...
There are no ephemeral blades to see. The attacks come as if from nowhere at all, manifesting in an instant and then vanishing again.
What his light DOES do is prevent them from tumbling into one another, which is admittedly more useful than it might seem at first brush. And it seems to attract the attention of whatever is behind this. A phantom blade scythes in, but he might just be able to block it, but only because it's going for the obvious glowing blue spot, and probably also because his mother did this to him at some point except with a lot more bruising.
Elsewhere... Dean is subject to the spectre's wrath. If Carina and Claude take notice, they would hear a ring of metal on metal, followed by the sound of flesh being split apart as a gash opens up across the young man's chest.
- -1 ARGUMENT MUST BE POSITIVE INTEGER
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
For what it counts, Zed totally does take a cookie. He's Zed. Come on. He'd never turn down a cookie! They're too tasty!! Zed is thankful for these presents. These tasty, tasty presents.
But that was then.
This is now.
The blade, perfectly honed, cuts through the darkness without hesitation. Guided by skill that can only be called supernatural, blade meets blade. It sweeps through the empty air, barely tickling Ida's scalp. It bites into Carina's gauntlet, her unique vantage point allowing her to catch the barest flash of a blade manifesting moments before impact-- and yet, it leaves her arm unscathed.
The pattern repeats elsewhere. She can see as the metal demon whirls like a dervish with every clatter of steel. Where the Hyadean's style is impetuous and reckless, his instincts are undeniable. Elsewhere, Ida punches aside a second blow, her warrior's impulse guiding her fists. Elsewhere...
Elsewhere, Claude turns into a dirty cheater and dispels the darkness. The only problem is...
There are no ephemeral blades to see. The attacks come as if from nowhere at all, manifesting in an instant and then vanishing again.
What his light DOES do is prevent them from tumbling into one another, which is admittedly more useful than it might seem at first brush. And it seems to attract the attention of whatever is behind this. A phantom blade scythes in, but he might just be able to block it, but only because it's going for the obvious glowing blue spot, and probably also because his mother did this to him at some point except with a lot more bruising.
Elsewhere... Dean is subject to the spectre's wrath. If Carina and Claude take notice, they would hear a ring of metal on metal, followed by the sound of flesh being split apart as a gash opens up across the young man's chest.
No. Guard your vitals more closely. Learn the touch of danger. Live. Learn.
The spirit's attack abates with that, at least. It'll hurt, but he'll live.
But then...
Tethelle and Talise.
The sword priestess. Follower of Equites. She whispers a prayer to her god.
The self-taught swordswoman, skills honed on a path slick with her own blood.
The phantom blades gather to them. They test them. Strike. Strike. Strike. Tides of steel meet in a great confluence of martial skill. It is testing them. It is feeling for their weakness.
One... is found wanting.
Do not waste your breath on prayer.
A force like a hammer blow smashes into her guard- she recognizes it as a slash of some kind, delivered at... incredible speed. Speed great enough to tug her guard open. A second is split, a gash streaks open across Tethelle's body, starting from her hip and carving a clean, crimson line up through her shoulder. A spray of blood paints the ceiling.
Equites hears worship in action. Is given praise in skill at arms.
Your strength would not have failed you had you remembered, priestess.
Finally, the storm of slashes abates with one last ring of blades. The candles come alive again-- though it wouldn't matter much, if Claude managed to protect his tricorder light. The back door opens, and beyond...
But... Sufficient. Go find what you seek.
DG: Monster Mash has drawn a new Challenge.
=====================<* CHALLENGE - The Sword Guardian *>===================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- As the darkness clears, you find yourself standing precariously close to a precipice at one end of a ruined, stone corridor. Something thrums in the very depths of your soul and reverberates outwards, filling your heart with heroic will. There, in the distance, at the far end of a passageway, hidden behind a grand knot of pure, white rope is the statue of a woman and a beast locked together in glorious combat. The woman wields a halo of swords, the beast's front half is itself a blade. This can only be the statue of the Sword Guardian, Equites. Now, all you need to do to reach it is to cross the chasm. There are some platforms that still look sturdy enough to make a series of leaps across, but who knows whether one might give out underneath you. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
A ruined corridor. It's as if the grasp of time had seized quite suddenly on this place. As if the time that the previous chamber had lost found its way here. The path is dilapidated, broken down in a way beyond what they had seen so far. And there, at the very end, a statue of a beast and a maiden, locked in mortal combat. The young woman is slender, beautiful, her stone skin without flaw or blemish, her lips are drawn back in a fierce, exhultant grin. The beast is an enormous, reptilian creature, a colossal, wedge-like blade mounted to its skull. It rears back, teeth bared as if ready to pounce.
And there... In its maw... A... cylinder, of some kind...?
"There...!" Zed grins, "That's what I was looking for! Here we go! ZED... JUMP...!"
This must be what he was after. Get to the statue before it's too late...!
DG: Monster Mash has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward its party's challenge, The Sword Guardian.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude C. Kenny staggers out of the room of clashing blades to lean against the walls of the ruined corridor beyond... and nearly falls onto his face when the stone he's leaning on comes out of its seating. This place has seen better days. Hell, it has seen better centuries. And at the end of it...
"God damn it," Claude groans. He flexes his leg, where the ghost knife is still jutting out; he remembers from basic medical training that you're not supposed to pull out things that stabbing you (because they're keeping your blood in you instead of out of you), but he can't remember if that also applies to ghost things. For some reason it never came up in the Q&A. The young man grimaces. He probably can't hop high enough to get to the statue, which means he can't get there. Which means... which means...
...
"I am so glad Cecilia is not here," Claude grumbles, then turns to Tethelle. "Hold this," he says, handing her his (read: Cecilia's) Magic Guardian Statue Sealing Stick Thingy. He turns his head to look up at the statue, judging the distance by eye. It is at this point that Claude bends down, grabs the front of Tethelle's belt in his left hand, and hauls her up over his head.
"You might also want to tense up a bit," he suggests.
<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.
Carina manages to deflect the blade at the last second, and it loses interest in her. But it does get--
"Dean!!" She rushes over to him, though she can't... do much to help. She did bring one or two of Jay's concoctions, but they're sitting... wherever the rest of her stuff EVEN WENT. "Are you all right?"
He's going to be, but she's worried for a second. She offers a shoulder for him to lean on, even if that probably won't be necessary. It's all she can do, really.
They proceed to what seems like the heart of this temple. Locus gawks a moment at the sight of the statue. She doesn't know the stakes, she hasn't been briefed on them. But the sight is awe-inspiring, still.
"H-Hey!" Locus' head snaps as Zed takes off. She leaps along as well-- If Dean took her up on that shoulder offer, it comes to an abrupt end --hopping like a grasshopper from one platform to one another.
And if she gets to the end first... Well, what she does next is a good question. She's pretty sure Zed is their ally, right?
She does however glance back to see... whatever Claude and Tethelle are doing. She's not entirely sure what it is, but it looks like an awesome, great idea.
DG: Carina Wynne has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Sword Guardian.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean does his best to counterattack--but it's not countering but defense he needs to do hear. He hears, *feels* a sword tear at his flesh, and he screams in pain as he drops to one knee. Still... he's still alive, and while the pain may be real, no blood pours from his 'wound.' He hears a ghostly whisper, telling him to do better at guarding his vitals. "I-I'll do my best," he breathes through grit teeth.
He staggers up to his feet, Twin Fenrir vanishing. Carina, or rather Locus, hurries over to him, and he offers her a weak but relieved smile. "Y-yeah. Oww, that really hurt... I'll hang in there, though!" Maybe that shoulder won't be necessary, but he accepts the help anyway. It's a nice gesture, and it's good for the moment. ...Until Zed goes on ahead towards the statue and is a butt, and Locus goes off chasing him. That's fine, because this is Dean skidding to a halt in front of the precipice and the long, long drop therein. He raises his arms for balance, Twin Fenrir flashing back into view, and he looks ahead at the platforms. There's gaps in between them, and if he could just close them...!
So he aims and first with Twin Fenrir's Freeze Ray, and the very air solifies, forming a path from one platform to the next. And then Dean, too, joins the race, forming more connections for those behind as he hurries on ahead!
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Freeze Ray toward his party's challenge, The Sword Guardian.
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
Tethelle still almost does it.
Almost doesn't count in parrying.
The blade (?) slashes into Tethelle's flank, carving up the side. She does not cry out - she shows no expression at all despite what must be pain, and in fact tries to keep up her defense, though she ends up staggering to the side when the assault of blades ends.
She has always used Equites for guidance. To try to be the strong arm like her patron Guardian - but maybe this is Equites' way of saying she's too needy, that she calls on her too often. She'll accept that. But she won't let the others see her weakness any more than she must.
Tethelle actually pauses, pressing her sword against the wound as it shimmers with white chi. When she removes it, the wound is less bloody - not perfect, but better. She'll finish here. She can't let Zed get to -
Oh no.
"Claude!" Tethelle calls, having had a slightly different but at least related idea. She sees what he's doing almost immediately and gives it at least a mental approval. She grabs the sealing rod with one hand, sheathes her sword with the other, and tenses up. As Claude lifts, he has to shift his grip to avoid having a (thankfully also sheathed) knife pressed into his wrist, since she tends to hang it in front of her hip with the hilt pointing upward.
But there is no taking the fun-loving priestess out of... well, the fun-loving priestess, and Tethelle can't help herself. "I didn't know you wanted to grab that," she says, planting her feet on his back as he lifts to reangle herself slightly before tensing up. She's going to have to get this landing just right...
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Strike. Strike. Strike strike strike. The only signs Talise has that something is coming are subtle shifts in the ambient feel of the place. She can hear Tethelle moving; she can feel the unseen blades, if inexactly. Again she moves, again, again --
One last ring of blades echoes through the room, but in her mind, there is something else. Not meant for her; the words are Tethelle's alone.
But there is an air of reproof.
Talise opens her eyes. Sweat drips from her forehead as she pants for breath, somehow making it through unscathed. "Tethelle," she manages, looking over to her friend with a profound sympathy behind her eyes.
Perhaps they're more alike than before, now, she realizes with a certain bitter sadness. Being found wanting by one's god is something Talise - a bard who loves to sing, laugh, drink and fuck at a time when all of these things are heresy to the goddess she loves - can relate to.
Before she can say much more than that, however, Zed is hurtling towards something - and Talise gasps as she realizes what awaits for them ahead. Her heartbeat quickens as she realizes that Zed is probably going to beat them there.
Sheathing Rastaban quickly, Talise practically rips her support ARM out of her coat and levels it forward. She cranks the chain of the hookshot tight, takes aim, and lets fly. Charges go off with a bang! as the head of the grappling line arcs out, trailing that sturdy chain behind it. It sails through the air, gravity and trajectory dragging its head downwards...
...as Talise attempts to hook Zed with the hookshot.
Biting down to the tip of her tongue, Talise begins to reel the hookshot in - hopefully reeling Zed in along with it.
DG: Talise Gianfair has used her Tool Hookshot toward her party's challenge, The Sword Guardian.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The lights come back up. Ida doesn't really need them to know what's happened--the coppery scent of blood hangs in the air. Ida opens her eyes, and turns to Tethelle, already reaching for another Heal Berry Cordial. "Here," she says. She doesn't linger. Zed's already ahead of them again--and they've never gained ground on him.
The Medium of Moor Gault starts to grow warm in its pouch at Ida's side. Tethelle's Medium is probably doing something similar, long before Ida's starts giving her the signal. At this point, Ida knows what that means. She forces herself to run faster. The sudden surge of fear-laced adrenaline does wonders for her aching legs. She doesn't bother with the platforms, or with Dean's path--instead, she raises her arm, braces, and fires.
The hook launches with a thunderous bang. It sails through the air, landing in the ceiling above the white knot; Ida grips the line tightly, the harness attached to the gauntlet distributing her weight so it's not all hanging off that one point. She swings, and pushes down on the button to retract the line. The movement feels agonizingly slow, much like it did when she was racing to seal the Statue of Schturdark. There's one key difference, though. As she approaches Zed, she twists a little, using core strength to push her body into a spin.
Id Zed's not careful he's going to get roundhouse-kicked in the head.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Line Launcher toward her party's challenge, The Sword Guardian. DG: Tethelle Cirdian has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Sword Guardian.
=======================<* CHALLENGE - The Sword Guardian *>======================= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ----------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------- As the darkness clears, you find yourself standing precariously close to a precipice at one end of a ruined, stone corridor. Something thrums in the very depths of your soul and reverberates outwards, filling your heart with heroic will. There, in the distance, at the far end of a passageway, hidden behind a grand knot of pure, white rope is the statue of a woman and a beast locked together in glorious combat. The woman wields a halo of swords, the beast's front half is itself a blade. This can only be the statue of the Sword Guardian, Equites. Now, all you need to do to reach it is to cross the chasm. There are some platforms that still look sturdy enough to make a series of leaps across, but who knows whether one might give out underneath you. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
'i didn't know you wanted to grab that'
Claude C. Kenny chokes, nearly tips Tethelle over, but recovers in time to keep them both upright. His face is blushing red as he sputters for as moment before managing to speak again.
"I... y... I'm going to go now," says Claude, whose life with friendgirls (not girlfriends) is sufficiently complicated as it is without adding additional complications, but he's pretty sure she's joking anyway, probably? Probably. Rule 1 of the Federation Ethics Program* rears its head.
After composing himself, Claude takes several quick steps forward, leaps up as high as he can manage (read: not very high - only about a dozen feet or so), leans back, and then throws Tethelle as hard as he can toward the statue (read: quite hard).
- - The Federation Ethics Program is a detailed, multi-year training session. THe introductory course syllabus is as follows.
DG: Claude C. Kenny has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, The Sword Guardian.
=====================<* CHALLENGE - The Sword Guardian *>===================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- As the darkness clears, you find yourself standing precariously close to a precipice at one end of a ruined, stone corridor. Something thrums in the very depths of your soul and reverberates outwards, filling your heart with heroic will. There, in the distance, at the far end of a passageway, hidden behind a grand knot of pure, white rope is the statue of a woman and a beast locked together in glorious combat. The woman wields a halo of swords, the beast's front half is itself a blade. This can only be the statue of the Sword Guardian, Equites. Now, all you need to do to reach it is to cross the chasm. There are some platforms that still look sturdy enough to make a series of leaps across, but who knows whether one might give out underneath you. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Claude C. Kenny has successfully explored The Sword-Saint Sanctuary!
=================<* CHALLENGE - Scroll of the Comet Blade *>================== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Waiting for you at the end of your quest is a scroll resting before a statue of some fierce warrior-spirit, perhaps the Sword-Saint themselves. It's contained in an unremarkable casing, but examining the manual reveals that it's much more. This is nothing less than a perfect record of one of the Sword-Saint's special techniques: the Comet Blade, which allows a swordsman to launch a fiery crescent from their sword. You might be able to learn a thing or two if you try to follow the lessons contained within! =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
As surely as the falling guillotine, Zed, the greediest Metal Demon to have ever laid eyes on a statue, launches at incredible speeds down that ruined corridor. He moves with all the surefootedness of a graceful crane atop a forest of bamboo. That is: not even there. What he does is more of a scramble, a rampant charging forward that is only aided by the use of that spear lodged in his shoulder as a pole vault. He's close. He's so close...! And then...!
"Huh?" Zed blinks as his momentum suddenly... stops.
He looks down.
There's a... grappling hook around his waist?
"Wait. What!? NO!" Suddenly, Talise is yanked forward! "I AM NOT A GRAPPLE POINT--" And Zed is yanked along with her! They collide in mid air, the momentum carries them, they roll, tumble, smash into a wall... A safe distance away from the statue.
Fortunately, it also means he dodges Ida's Boot To The Head technique. She makes it over as surely as Dean forges a frosty new road to their destination. Tethelle lands shortly thereafter-- in a heap, perhaps, but close enough to the statue to do the job...
"Wait!" Zed squawks, "Wait, what are you all doing!? STOOOOOPIIIIIIT!"
The sealing... will likely go off without a hitch.
And should it do so- or even should they FOR SOME REASON decide not to do... that- The cylinder within the beast's mouth pops open, and a lacquered scroll-case slides out.
Within is... Basically a treasure trove to any self-respecting swordsman.
"I wanted..." Zed whines, "I wanted to read thaaaaaat~"
...Oh.
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
Tethelle grins down at Claude, because she hasn't been a tease to him yet and he was missing out. He'll hear more later. (And probably about the wisdom of throwing people... possibly with tips as to how to do it better.)
Unfortunately, Tethelle does not land well. By which we mean she basically rams face-first into the statue.
But that's still landing, and Tethelle manages to hang onto it, sliding down slightly. She untucks the Sealing Rod from where she'd put it (under her armpit - the less bloody one) and gets to work. She may not use her Medium much, but she knows enough about ritual and magic to manage a sealing - even if it takes her a few moments longer.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Zed has more inertie than Talise anticipated. Then again, he is made of metal, and she's made of meat.
"SHUT UP AND GET GRAPPLED!" Talise shouts at Zed irrationally as she's dragged towards him - and there's a meaty *THUNK* as she hits Zed and bounces off like a pinball. The grappling hook comes loose; she slouches back and spins away from Zed, hitting the ground and bouncing once with a jingle of chainmail before landing on her side with a groan.
"Althena's bootstraps," she grumbles bitterly, wincing and touching a hand to her lip and coming away with a bit of blood from a sore tongue. Sometimes having sharp canines sucks ass.
Looking over towards Tethelle, Talise's pain fades away, and she smiles at the sight of her friend managing the sealing. She begins to move towards Tethelle - and once the sealing is done, she'll move over to clap the shorter swordswoman on the shoulder.
She doesn't say anything, but her smile is wide and warm and full of happiness. You did it, it says without putting it into words.
<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.
And so, the day is saved!! Not that Carina knew it needed saving after all, or that it actually really didn't.
She leans against a pillar, her ponytail blowing in faint wind. She's pretty sure she looks cool, but this is secondary to her needing to stop and catch her breath. Adventuring is fun but hard!
And also now she knows how being sliced in half probably feels like, a fact she is trying hard not to think about.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
The day is saved! ...Did it really need saving? That Zed guy didn't seem all that bad, even if a lot of the others don't seem to like him much. Either way, Dean is gonna... gonna have a seat nearby and catch his breath after his near-cleaving incident. He can still feel the steel through his skin. Like Carina, he's trying not to freak out about it.
But hey, the Statue's sealed, and there's a neat scroll to real too! Maybe someday, even though he doesn't use a sword himself, Dean will be able to apply it to his Sword Medium...?
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Zed pauses.
He glances up at the statue.
"Oh!!" Zed gawps, "What is that doing here!?"
Beat.
"S-so can I read the scroll too?"
oh god he's using puppy dog eyes
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida cuts the line, and collapses to her knees next to the statue. Tethelle has this well in hand--and honestly, Ida wouldn't take this from her unless the Statue were at risk. It's all right. It's safe. Another one is safe.
Ida looks up at Tethelle. Her brow is glistening with sweat, and she looks a little winded from that last stretch, but there is genuine respect in her eyes. She bows a little--as much as she can while her core muscles are still protesting. It's the least she can do.