2018-02-22: Our Limits
- Log: Our Limits
- Cast: Loren Voss, Fei Fong Wong, Dean Stark, Kaguya
- Where: Krosse Catacombs
- Date: February 22nd 2018
- Summary: An unlikely group delves into the catacombs of Krosse. Limits are tested.
DG: A party led by Loren Voss is now entering Krosse Catacombs. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
=============================<* Krosse Catacombs *>=============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Sealed in Suspicion *>======================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
There are no guards holding vigil over this particular entrance to Krosse's
catacombs, long forgotten by most. But not by everything. Malevolence clings
like viscous adhesive to the hinges and gaps of this gate, sealing it tight
within a palpable morass of discordant ooze. It whispers its forgotten
thoughts of fearsome futures into the air as you approach, a song that grows
louder the more you try to pry it open. Passing will require breaking past
that Malevolent sealant -- a worrisome portent of just what might lie
within.
=Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous==============================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
EARLIER
What had been on the sheet swiped from the captain's desk at the checkpoint had only been mere rumor -- even there it had been an unsubstantiated collection of notes about an alleged series of catacombs beneath the capital of Krosse. The city most heavily touched, it was said, by the force that lay heavy upon the country.
Malevolence. First out east, then to the northwest, and now...
Given his choice in the matter, Loren would have preferred to have delegated to local contacts.
There's just one big, glaringly obvious problem with that.
So, naturally, that left one... option. No stone could remain untouched.
NOW
So here he is, somewhere to the outskirts of the city, amongst the stones of a great ancient graveyard. The tradition of burying the dead is still a strange one, he considers briefly, passing by the stones.
What he'd been able to learn suggested there was an opening the catacombs beneath right around...
He steps forward and hauls at the great stone doorway.
A sickly sticky squish of a sound echoes forth as the stone door budges all of a fraction of an inch and remains then firmly stuck. A questioning sound escapes the medic as he peers in to take a closer look.
It throbs and oozes welcomingly.
Loren's expression flattens in disgust.
He presses a hand against the door.
(Quietly sending a rip of vibrational ether through the door to shred the morass of Malevolence welding it shut.)
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Sealed in Suspicion.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Malevolence is pretty gross but Fei also has a determination to find out the source of the malevolence ESPECIALLY after what happened to Jack and Rosaline. Of course, the one person he's not expecting to be present is...
"Y'gotta be kiddin' me." Fei says. "I thought you were done with this place."
He doesn't interfere with Loren's doorssault but he does approach it. "Can you see it clinging there...?" He closes his eyes and then yells, "KAKEI!"
His hand bursts into flame as he punches for the door, intending to help break it apart. Of course, Fei's hesistance is door punching may dampen the blow somewhat.
"Can't believe this..." He mutters to himself, perhaps for once also being 'I wasn't even supposed to be here today'.
But not really. He was supposed to be here today. It was all his own doing!
DG: Fei Fong Wong has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Sealed in Suspicion.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean still can't see Malevolence. However, he's not about to ditch his friend Fei over that stuff, and he at least has a (tenuous) grasp of what it is and how to recognize when it's present. He hadn't noticed any during his trek through the checkpoint with Fei and Friends, and... he still doesn't notice any while approaching Loren (and Kaguya, though mysteriously he does not notice her just yet) with Fei.
"Hey, Thomas!" he says, not quite as upbeat as usual, but certainly more upbeat than the present situation would generally call for. He glances at Fei in curiosity and adds, "Why would he be done?"
Either way, it looks like this door is giving people trouble, so Dean approaches, pulling his trusty shovel out from under his coat in the meantime. "Here, lemme help you out with that!" he says before digging the edge of White Fenrir into whatever crack he can, then *pulling*.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean still can't see Malevolence. However, he's not about to ditch his friend Fei over that stuff, and he at least has a (tenuous) grasp of what it is and how to recognize when it's present. He hadn't noticed any during his trek through the checkpoint with Fei and Friends, and... he still doesn't notice any while approaching Loren (and Kaguya, though mysteriously he does not notice her just yet) with Fei.
"Hey, Thomas!" he says, not quite as upbeat as usual, but certainly more upbeat than the present situation would generally call for. He glances at Fei in curiosity and adds, "Why would he be done?"
Either way, it looks like this door is giving people trouble, so Dean approaches. "Here, lemme help you out with that!" he says, then sets his weight against the side of the door, then *shoves*. It might even be in time with Loren's subtle ether usage and Fei's flaming punch.
DG: Dean Stark has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Sealed in Suspicion.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Loren Voss is not alone, when he steps to the doorway. And neither is Fei Fong Wong.
It is not only because of the presence of Dean, or one another, that this is the case. It is easy to miss, after all. But when Loren pushes at the doorway, when he starts to brush it with Ether--when Fei punches the door with his fire--
...Someone rises from the shadows from behind a particularly ornate set of gravestones. Sunken green eyes glint briefly as she steps into the light. ...The figure is very small--less than five feet tall--but there is the shine of metal at her hands, a strange green metal, along with an unusual ARM at her hip, made of--Loren would recognize this--more plastics than anything. Her clothes hang loose on her; there are obvious dark circles under her eyes, and she looks as if she hasn't been eating well. ...The fact that she's standing at all may be a little disturbing, a strange look in her gaze as she quirks a smile.
"...Hey, everybody..."
She laughs a little. "Funny seeing you here." Kaguya steps forward, looking to the others, setting her strange shotgun at her shoulder for a moment. "You woke me up. ...But that's not that bad I guess." She glances to the Malevolence... and lowers her ARM. Cla-CLACK is the sound of her cartridge taking, the chamber sealing again, as she steps a little farther forward. "...Might wanna move." She takes aim--
A deafening roar comes as concussive force slams straight into the door, aiming to shatter the rest of it outright.
"You don't wanna go in here," she suggests. "But if you decide you do... Lemme come."
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Concussion Rounds toward her party's challenge, Sealed in Suspicion.
=============================<* Krosse Catacombs *>=============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Sealed in Suspicion *>======================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
There are no guards holding vigil over this particular entrance to Krosse's
catacombs, long forgotten by most. But not by everything. Malevolence clings
like viscous adhesive to the hinges and gaps of this gate, sealing it tight
within a palpable morass of discordant ooze. It whispers its forgotten
thoughts of fearsome futures into the air as you approach, a song that grows
louder the more you try to pry it open. Passing will require breaking past
that Malevolent sealant -- a worrisome portent of just what might lie
within.
=Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous==============================================
========================<* Krosse Catacombs - Round 1 *>======================== =======================< Results - Sealed in Suspicion >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 0 --(10)--> 10 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fei Fong Wong 0 --(10)--> 10 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 0 --(10)--> 10 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Concussion Rounds 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Overzealous(2) Effects: Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Malevolence is... a semi-new experience for Loren.
At the very least, the extent to which he can grasp its presence now. It's unnerving, to say the least -- nothing should writhe like that. Would it be better if he were still blind to it?
As if reacting on instinct, 'Thomas' jerks his hand away from the door moments after Fei arrives and announces his presence.
As does Dean.
Oh good, exactly just the sort of 'assistance' he needs he thinks, wheeling back from the stone door.
Approximately just as Fei's flaming fist collides with it.
And as Dean runs up to help, with a push.
None of these three things do much at all to budge the mass. It just wiggles a little, continues to ooze through the crack in the door. The door remains fixed in place. Loren's stoic resting expression falters slightly. Sidelong, he eyes Fei and Dean. "What are you two doing here?" he begins to ask.
A shadow darkens their path.
(A little bit. It's not a big shadow.)
Loren slowly turns.
Kaguya gets the critical once-over. "...Don't you have a nurse you should be bothering?"
That's his response.
Hers:
...Well, to take out an ARM that provokes a double-take from the 'medical student' before she presents her warning and, well.
Opens fire.
There was a door here. It's gone now. A little bit of char marks where the Malevolence rested.
"..." is Loren's response now.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Krosse Catacombs *>============================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Malevolent Kompression *>===================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
Malevolence soaks this place. And it does not want you to be here. It does
not want ANYTHING to be here that doesn't belong, and what 'doesn't belong'
seems to be a very short, very finnicky list. Malevolence thrums discordant
notes through this passageway as you walk it, threading into the foundation,
weaving its way through stonework. Which might explain why it seems the
walls and ceiling suddenly seem to start to come alive as segments of both
just -collapse- in churning pillars of malevolent masonry, creating barriers
to impede your progress just as much as they try to -crush- you flat. You're
going to have to brute force your way through this one -- unless you /like/
being compressed by angry architecture, in which case, by all means. Follow
your bliss.
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei Fong Wong doesn't have the heart to break the truth to Dean. At least not right now. "I thought he was heading out, is all." Fei tells Dean but that's all he really gets out before he hears Kaguya's voice.
He very quickly gets out of the way of the door. He does this at 'Hey, everybody' not 'Might wanna move'. He knows what's coming.
"We should bring Kaguya along." Fei tells Loren as he heads inside. "Careful, Dean! There's malevolence everywhere here. I'll uh. Try to point out the big stuff to you."
And then of course claustrophobic's nightmare. The masonry itself starts turning in on the group. Fei's throat tightens as he grips one hand across something in his pocket.
And his other hand launches a giant blue blast of chi energy through the architecture. Luckily it doesn't bring the catacombs down on everybody.
Well, it doesn't bring the catacombs down on everybody yet.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool Mother's Cross toward his party's challenge, Malevolent Kompression.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"Kaguya!" There's no mistaking the way Dean's eyes light up when he turns to see the Veruni--just as there's no mistaking the way they cloud a moment later. He frowns, not so much angry or even scared so much as-- "...Are you still mad at everything?" --worried for a friend.
Once Dean's convinced someone is his friend, it's damn hard to shake him of it. Even whalloping him over the head with a massive piece of masonry isn't enough.
Kaguya aims that shotgun, and Dean is at least smart enough to get the heck out of the way before she reduces the door to rubble. "Wow!" he utters, duly impressed. "Why, what's in there?"
Fei answers *that* question, thankfully, while Loren asks a question of his own. "Really? No wonder, then," he says to Fei. "I'll be counting on you, then!" To Loren, he says, "We're looking into all those disappearances that've been going on around here. That's what you're here for too, right?"
...Well, it probably is *now*. Regardless, Dean walks in with the others, looking around at the inside of the catacombs. It's... odd. It looks like a normal enough underground structure, but Fei says it's full of Malevolence, and Dean trusts him to tell the truth. Is the headache crawling in on the edges of his brain part of that, then, or just his imagination? It's hard to say.
What *isn't* his imagination is the masonry that comes to life and attempts to smash him harder than Kaguya did. "Come on, *again*?!" he yells, Twin Fenrir appearing in a flash so he can defend himself against that first, would-be jellifying strike. Then he attempts to charge his way through, shoving bullrushing past whatever gets in his way, before another strike can aim truer. He keeps an eye on his back, though, to help Thomas and Kaguya (though Kaguya honestly probably doesn't need his help) if it comes to that.
DG: Dean Stark has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Malevolent Kompression.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
It's not quite so new to Kaguya. Kaguya looks... a little off, to watch her, a little too amused; her eyes aren't glassy, though, it doesn't appear to be a drug factor. But Loren turns, gives her a response. Loren is a little silent, Kaguya shrugs, putting her ARM's barrel back to rest on her shoulder. "No," Kaguya says. "I don't."
A grin to Fei for a moment. "Guess you're going after all." She pauses, though, hesitates at Dean's look, the way he clouds over...
"I'm mad at a lot," Kaguya says, "But I'm not mad at you right now. ...It's fine, right?" She pauses. "Thanks, but mostly, really dangerous stuff. Not for you guys."
the stonework seems to come alive as they walk though, and Kaguya grits her teeth. Her very sharp-looking teeth.
"Yeah, Malevolence. But--" Cla-CLACK. Kaguya loads up--and, "I'm blowing us a hole!"
She gets to work trying to do just that. Any remaining debris she can throw herself.
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Concussion Rounds toward her party's challenge, Malevolent Kompression.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Loren pauses for a moment at that question from Dean. It's probably the pause of someone who just saw a sick girl absolutely destroy a stone door with a shotgun. Right?
"Yes," he answers a moment later, mental readjustment to the sudden shift in the situation complete. ...He can... probably use this to his advantage.
He has no idea what awaits them, at least.
"Fine," he says for good measure at Fei's suggestion, casting Kaguya a dubious look before stalking on in to the confines of the catacombs. "I suppose if you're willing to die in the streets, you're willing to die in some forsaken ruin. Come along."
This is not a good place to be. Even for someone used to tighter enclosures -- though not nearly as restricted as the living quarters of the 'Worker Bees' -- the confines of the catacombs are enough to scrabble distantly at the edges of Loren's paranoia.
Why did they make places like this? He thinks it was, again, to store their dead.
...How repulsive.
And then things slip past merely 'confining' and straight into 'deadly'.
It takes all his presence of mind to not immediately retaliate with a direct jolt of ether. Instead, as the walls press in, Loren's hands land on both adjacent walls and dredge forth an upwell of ether pressed with -- at least -- equal opposing force.
"I strongly recommend," he says, before taking a breath and pushing still further with etheric force, "running!"
It's as he forces more of his will into the wall that he realizes that Kaguya's aiming the shotgun again. The shotgun that destroyed a stone slab door.
And that's not even getting into what Fei is about to let loose with.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Malevolent Kompression.
============================<* Krosse Catacombs *>============================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Malevolent Kompression *>===================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
Malevolence soaks this place. And it does not want you to be here. It does
not want ANYTHING to be here that doesn't belong, and what 'doesn't belong'
seems to be a very short, very finnicky list. Malevolence thrums discordant
notes through this passageway as you walk it, threading into the foundation,
weaving its way through stonework. Which might explain why it seems the
walls and ceiling suddenly seem to start to come alive as segments of both
just -collapse- in churning pillars of malevolent masonry, creating barriers
to impede your progress just as much as they try to -crush- you flat. You're
going to have to brute force your way through this one -- unless you /like/
being compressed by angry architecture, in which case, by all means. Follow
your bliss.
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
=======================<* Krosse Catacombs - Round 2 *>======================= =====================< Results - Malevolent Kompression >===================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Loren Voss 10 --(15)--> 25 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fei Fong Wong 10 --(5)--> 15 Pass Mother's Cross 4 Brute Effects: None ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dean Stark 10 --(5)--> 15 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kaguya 5 --(5)--> 10 Pass Concussion Rounds 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Loren Voss 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Overzealous(1) Effects: Strengthen(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Again?" Fei asks, perplexed. "Do you normally...have to deal with this, Dean?"
He frowns. "Course I'm goin'. After what they did to Rosaline and Jack..." This isn't something he clarifies right now, and indeed he kind of regrets bringing it up. What if Loren tells it to a high ranking officer like Seraphita for example??
Anyway, with the aid of deadly ki blasts and Kaguya's shotgun and Dean's...guns! Not shovel! Guns! They can advance forward without being horribly crushed to death!
And that's a good thing. Loren's advice is solid too. Fei rushes despite being winded to make it through before the buildings uh...recover?
DG: Dean Stark has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* Krosse Catacombs *>=============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - The Nightmare Lords *>======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
This place was once -- and still is -- a catacomb, and while it has served
many functions over the centuries, at one point it served as a tomb for
those who have come before. And while the spirits of these dead may or may
not yet linger, their sentiments certainly do. It is that which Malevolence
clings to in this particular section of old, forgotten tombs, seizing
whatever lingering, negative sentiments of nightmares gone by still linger
in this place and forging them into Hellion spectres, black, angry phantasms
that emerge from the tombs of the long gone to assault you with their
malevolent magic the very second they sense the presence of those who do not
belong.
=Dungeon Conditions: Suffer===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Loren stares at Dean. Dean stares back, expectantly. When finally the older boy answers, Dean smiles and nods. "I thought so!" His smile sinks into a frown when Loren speaks on dying in the streets and so on, though. "Hey, that's *really* rude. You shouldn't talk to Fei like that."
He sobers somewhat when he looks back at Kaguya. "It's fine between us, if that's what you mean," he replies. "I survived and so did everyone else. I bet there's still a lot of things with you that aren't fine." A beat. "If you're still mad at a lot, does that mean you still want revenge?"
Then the walls start to try to kill them. Fei wonders if this is a common occurrence for him. "Not *normally*, but Kaguya hit me with a wall last time we met," Dean explains to Fei, which probably doesn't actually explain very much. He doesn't quite follow what Fei means by his reference to Rosaline and Jack, and it's soon put out of his mind by, well, attacking masonry.
Fortunately, they make it through without getting crushed. Whew... He wipes his brow as he looks at the rubble they've left behind them; then he looks around at the others. "Everyone okay? At least we're out of the worst of it, but we better stay sharp. I sure didn't expect *that* to happen."
What comes next might be better, by comparison. You *expect* there to be crypts in a catacomb, which they find a few minutes later after they resume walking, and you in particular expect the wretched spirits of the dead in a crypt. Being animated by Malevolence, Dean can't see them, but he can *feel* them when they tear at him and everyone with their icy cold, undead fingers. Fei, Loren, and Kaguya will have both an easier and harder time of it, because these wailing spirits screech angrily as they run on bony legs towards the group, ectoplasmic, tattered robes trailing behind them.
"Waaaugh!! More Malevolence?!" he yells at Fei, before holding up his copy Sword Medium as he settles his feet on a glowing yellow hexagram, i.e. a nearby earth leyline. "This'll get 'em good!!"
And then a blast of concussive force *hurtles* forward in the form of an abruptly jutting crag of stone. Whether it actually hits its target or not is another matter, but clearly it won't be because Dean didn't try.
DG: Dean Stark has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, The Nightmare Lords.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"Oh, no," Kaguya answers, grinning to Loren. "I'm not likely to die here. You, though..." Heh heh heh. Kaguya grins. For the record, her shotgun seems to fire some form of energy blasts. ...Just, for the record. However--she focuses on Dean for a moment. She thinks about it, and shrugs. "...I dunno," she admits. "But yeah there's a lot that isn't fine. I'm still thinking about what I want. For now though, you can just assume I'm gonna keep working on it. Might as well not lie."
Kaguya doesn't know who Rosaline and Jack are but, "I'm only dying as much as usual!" she replies cheerfully... But then the spirits come. Kaguya narrows her eyes. "See, Bomas," Kaguya says, "If you aren't careful, these will kill you. Think you can get it?"
She pulls something out from a cpoket--a little packet on a string--and takes a deep sniff.
Her pupils dilate immediately. "...Heheheh..." Kaguya rushes in, starting to fire strange green energy at the spectres, at one point picking up and hurling a very broken tomb door of solid stone for another.
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Strange Potpourri toward her party's challenge, The Nightmare Lords.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei Fong Wong says, "It's alright." to Dean. He doesn't seem as bothered by Loren's comment as Dean is, though he does smile a little anyway. He's a sweet guy, really. Is that why she's by his side?. "It's my fault." Well that and Loren's punchable face, but Fei doesn't say that, because that'd be wrong and also because e didn't punch him in the face he punched him in the gut, so it doesn't matter how punchable Loren's face is, it clearly wasn't a factor in that particular punch. But you never know what punches may be coming in the future.
He grimaces faintly. He needs to stop thinking like this. It ain't right.
Lily can punch Loren in the face herself after all. Or more likely, well, Fei doesn't want to think about that in a place like this , especially when it comes to the zombie goasts that appear.
"That's right Dean! More Malevolence!"
He tries to imagine Dean as a hellion and goes pale at the very idea even if, okay, he can't actually think of it. Would it be like, Dean but he says golems are not that big of a deal?
Anyway, he tries to distract one of the monsters with a flick of his RPS badge before he goes to see if he can kung fu one to death.
Redeath.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool RPS Badge toward his party's challenge, The Nightmare Lords.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Loren nearly rolls his eyes, instead falling into an expression that's a little more weary than openly derisive for a change. "Not him." Then he glances over at Kaguya, who looks distinctly unwell and toting a shotgun. "Her."
It, well, probably doesn't make it less rude.
Though given the fact that Kaguya grins and delivers a retort...
"Oh good," he responds, as sour and dry as ever. "Just what I always wanted, dying in some hellhole."
Fei, on the other hand, is the recipient of a question. Specifically: "What 'they' did? Who are Rosaline and Jack?"
Not that he's all that concerned about their well-being, whoever they are and whatever happened to them. However, it might be something to be concerned about.
This is all before the catacombs attempt to eat them alive. Pushing on through -- and, perhaps, given whatever's done this to the walls something to think about -- is ultimately the only real option.
Something's in the walls, a part of his brain processes and the rest of it summarily rejects for his own sanity. Ears ringing from the shotgun blast, Loren races into the hall ahead.
That's strange. It's gotten cold in here. The hair on the back of his neck stands on end. His brow furrows, and carefully, Loren approaches one of those long stone boxes arranged in a row on the floor.
"What are these--"
His expression goes flat as a screech rings out from behind him. Slowly, the 'former medical student' turns, hand on the bag slung over his shoulder.
His expression retains that careful particular flat quality as he stares the phantom that hovers in midair all of feet from him, its jaw agape.
Oh, good, he thinks distantly.
He retrieves and hurls a vial of a caustic at it, springing back a step in the process.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Solarian Medical Kit toward his party's challenge, The Nightmare Lords.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"An Etone and a uh guy with a lot of baggage," Fei explains to Loren. "They were infected by malevolence."
=============================<* Krosse Catacombs *>=============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - The Nightmare Lords *>======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
This place was once -- and still is -- a catacomb, and while it has served
many functions over the centuries, at one point it served as a tomb for
those who have come before. And while the spirits of these dead may or may
not yet linger, their sentiments certainly do. It is that which Malevolence
clings to in this particular section of old, forgotten tombs, seizing
whatever lingering, negative sentiments of nightmares gone by still linger
in this place and forging them into Hellion spectres, black, angry phantasms
that emerge from the tombs of the long gone to assault you with their
malevolent magic the very second they sense the presence of those who do not
belong.
=Dungeon Conditions: Suffer===================================================
========================<* Krosse Catacombs - Round 3 *>======================== =======================< Results - The Nightmare Lords >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 25 --(10)--> 35 Fail Solarian Medical Kit 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fei Fong Wong 15 --(5)--> 20 Pass RPS Badge 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 15 --(10)--> 25 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 10 --(10)--> 20 Fail Strange Potpourri 1 Combat Effects: Rally and Resilient -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Injure(1)|Suffer(1) Effects: Cleanse|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean nods at Kaguya, serious and unsmiling, when she says she's still thinking on it but admits, yeah, continued revenge is likely. "Okay," he says. "I hope you change your mind, but until then, I have tell you the truth, too--if you try to hurt anyone else, I'm gonna do whatever I can to stop you. Okay?"
'Okay,' he says. There's something else on his mind, though. Dean looks from Kaguya to 'Thomas' to Fei back to Thomas again, and slowly his eyes widen as the lights finally click on. "Wait a second," he says slowly, lifting a finger at Loren. "Thomas... are you... actually...?? .............not on good terms with Fei and Kaguya? You guys don't seem to like each other very much, is the thing--"
Fei tells him it's all right, though, and Dean smiles back at him just as briefly, albeit with rather more warmth. "You sure? Well, if you say so, Fei." Though then Loren explains he wasn't talking to Fei. "Oh," Dean utters, "sorry." Pause. "Wait, but it's rude no matter who you say it to, Thomas!" Though Kaguya seems to have it well in hand, given her counter-quip.
GHOSTS. Zombie goasts, even. Kaguya follows up with Dean's Stone Crush with a rather more literal stone crush of her own, albeit after huffing some drugs like people who are NOT WINNERS so. Dean meanwhile nods firmly to Fei as Fei uses his chi kung fu, and Loren hurls a bottle of caustic at a spirit leering at his back. It's a difficult battle at first, given that most of them are using physical force against actual ghosts, but Fei's chi blasts manage to make relatively short work of the Malevolence spirits before things can get out of hand.
"Wait what?" Dean utters, looking over at Fei.
Save for the part where Dean just caught what happened with Rosaline and Jack, that is.
DG: Kaguya has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* Krosse Catacombs *>============================= ===================<* CHALLENGE - Striking the Suspecting *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Malevolent paranoia runs thick through the underground, making everyone here wary of even their closest comrades. It has already affected the Royal Guard stationed in the catacombs in earnest: take, for example, the Hellionized Guard members you come across in this chamber. Some lizard-men, some werewolves, some living suits of armor to those who can see the Malevolence that grips them, the Royal Guardsmen who -should- be on patrol duty are currently arguing amongst themselves, throwing accusations this way and that and just barely avoiding boiling over into violence. Maybe you can help them with conflict resolution and remind them of the importance of the bonds of friendship! By getting the drop on them and beating them to hell! Hurray! =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"That's fine," Kaguya says. "...I'll try and keep the details from you so I don't have to drop another wall on you." She considers. "...But you know, I've got some other stuff I want to do, too. It might not involve hurting anybody." Kaguya then laughs, abrubtly, at the question to Loren. "I like him!" she says. "I don't mind the way he is. I mean, I am sorta dying, and all. Just, not likely to here."
Pause. "I mean, unless things go wrong and we all die, I guess." She considers. "That's pretty possible. You guys sure you don't want to run? You're not gonna like it in here."
A beat, "I can tell you don't, after all." To Loren. But...
"I dunno what's your fault," Kaguya says to Dean, as they keep moving. And for her part, well...
Kaguya ends up pretty worse for wear after that battle, but does lead on. "This way," she says. "...Not that way."
And then they end up in thick paranoia; Kaguya senses it, all right. But she sees the strange men first, the strange creatures and armors and figures arguing amongst themselves... "Psst," she says. "Hey, Dean. Can you do me a big favor and look back the way we came for abouuut thirty seconds?" She smiles at him. Then she slips forward.
Huff. Once again, combat drugs. And then--
Kaguya straight-up attempts to snap a werewolf's neck with her bare hands. It only goes nicer from there.
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Strange Potpourri toward her party's challenge, Striking the Suspecting.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei says, "Yeah uh, we're not on great terms, Dean." to the guy. "It's okay. Sometimes that happens." He is pretty much only covering for Thomas's 'cover' here because he can't break Dean's heart. He just can't do it.
Of course, he probably should explain the other part to Dean which might also break his heart but in a way that's a lot more unavoidable. "Yeah," Fei tells Dean. "Saw it with my own eyes. I didn't know them too well, but I couldn't believe it." He frowns. "It's gotta be K.K's fault...! I can't forgive him for this!"
And then Kaguya breaks someone's neck.
Fei watches this for a moment and adjusts that thought to 'breaks a werewolf's neck'.
"...I guess..." Fei says slowly. "Selling flowers...is a lot harder and more violent than I thought it was."
He waves over to the arguing guards. "Hey there." Fei tells anyone whose neck isn't smashed at this point. "Sorry about your friend, but I figure if you don't want to meet the same fate, you can just like...go away and be chill."
Why does he keep having to save people from his own teammates, Fei wonders.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Striking the Suspecting.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Dean jabs a finger his way. 'Thomas' just gives the younger boy a long and very judgemental look. "Why, whatever gave you that idea?"
In other words, 'sure don't'. With either of them, and not the least because Fei punched him in the stomach.
Though it still saves him not from straightening and flinging Kaguya a -- briefly -- bewildered look when she says she likes him.
"You're a strange one." His eyes narrow. "Is your nurse hoping to save on funeral expenses? That would explain why they're letting you wander." He frowns, briefly. "Run where? Back through the walls that tried to kill us? I don't think so."
And as realization breaks over Dean about the rudeness of Loren's words, he stifles the urge to sigh.
If they're not straight-up idiots, they're too clever for their own good. Why is there never any middle ground?
At best, the substance (of course they'd use something as primitive as silver nitrate for wounds, he thinks, but at least it's easy to obtain) buys them time, long enough for the rest to team up for a rather physical exorcism of spirits.
"Infected by Malevolence? Hmm," he says, once the dust has settled, eying the spot where the phantasm was with all due suspicion.
Ugh. A restless spirit.
That report, from nearly a year before, springs to mind. Malevolence can irrevocably warp a body. Yes, there had been some who claimed to be able to cleanse it, but...
"--Quiet. There's someone up ahead."
Make that multiple 'someones'.
Subtlety might be out the window once Kaguya breaks a neck, though.
Several key facts undergo a swift reevaluation. A sick girl shouldn't be able to do that--
But there are more pressing matters at hand. "Incoming! Fall back--" 'Thomas' calls out, attempting to redirect maneuvers, as he hurriedly hands off some surface medications to those closer (Dean and Fei) to him.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Solarian Medical Kit toward his party's challenge, Striking the Suspecting.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean frowns at 'Thomas.' "Well, I guess that explains why you're acting super-mean all of a sudden," he says, as if this was not actually typical behavior from the medical student. He nods to Kaguya, glad that at least not everyone hates each other, though Fei apparently doesn't like Loren any better than Loren likes him. "Why don't you guys like each other? Except for you, Kaguya."
The group soon creeps close to a group of, as far as Dean can tell, a bunch of arguing guards. He doesn't see their werewolf or floating armor forms; they look perfectly normal to him, save that there's a bite in the air that makes him feel uneasy, like maybe whatever is making his friends all dislike each other should be a bigger deal to him than it is--
Kaguya tells him to look behind him for about thirty seconds. "Oh, sure," says Dean the perennially pure-hearted.
That said...
"Kaguya? I don't see anything over there--"
*crrrack*
Dean looks back sharply, just in time to see... something terrible.
Fun facts about Hellions: they're not any more impervious to fatal injuries than any other living creature; break their necks, knife their throats, and they will die. However, the Malevolence that's transformed them into monsters gives them a boost to their lifeforce, meaning even a Hellion with a fatal injury will keep moving--and thus keep fighting--for at least a few moments after their initial wound. Put simply, if you want it to go down fast, a Hellion will need *multiple* fatal injuries.
Which is all to say, Kaguya may be in for an unpleasant surprise, and that something terrible might not be what everyone expects.
Either way, there's likely to be a rather nasty fight up next, so while Fei attempts diplomacy and Loren calls for everyone to fall back and hands out medications, Dean jumps forward to defend his friends--and possibly attempt to drag Kaguya back if he has to. ...assuming he even can.
DG: Dean Stark has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Striking the Suspecting.
=============================<* Krosse Catacombs *>============================= ===================<* CHALLENGE - Striking the Suspecting *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Malevolent paranoia runs thick through the underground, making everyone here wary of even their closest comrades. It has already affected the Royal Guard stationed in the catacombs in earnest: take, for example, the Hellionized Guard members you come across in this chamber. Some lizard-men, some werewolves, some living suits of armor to those who can see the Malevolence that grips them, the Royal Guardsmen who -should- be on patrol duty are currently arguing amongst themselves, throwing accusations this way and that and just barely avoiding boiling over into violence. Maybe you can help them with conflict resolution and remind them of the importance of the bonds of friendship! By getting the drop on them and beating them to hell! Hurray! =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
========================<* Krosse Catacombs - Round 4 *>======================== =====================< Results - Striking the Suspecting >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 35 --(20)--> 55 Fail Solarian Medical Kit 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fei Fong Wong 20 --(20)--> 40 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 25 --(20)--> 45 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 20 --(15)--> 35 Pass Strange Potpourri 1 Combat Effects: Rally and Resilient -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 60 --(10)--> 70 Fail Conditions: Treasure(1) Effects: Cleanse|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has failed this challenge! The party gained 10 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"Selling flowers is really rough!" Kaguya announces helpfully. ...She still seems pretty off, frankly, swaying here and there, acting... a bit erratically. But she's also apparently very strong! She says nothing about whose 'fault' the other is. Instead, she grins at Loren. "Don't have one. Got a compouder, though. And a displeased doctor back home. But sure, sure, I guess. Just be careful..."
Multiple someones. That's definitely the case. Dean, of course, doesn't see anything. A sick girl shouldn't be able to do that--Thomas's medications turn out to be very useful. Because... Well...
Kaguya snaps the werewolf's neck and it starts flailing at her, along with the others staring to flail as well. It gets violent, pretty quickly. On the bright side: she does in fact kill it. ...And she shoots another one. On the downside...
They all take a bunch of wounds while they're at it, and finally end up on the other side--away from the patrols, which are now worse for wear, and in an open hallway.
"...That could've gone worse," Kaguya says to Dean, still held onto by him for the moment. "Look," she points out. "When they're that far gone, there's nothing else you can do anyway. It's them or us!"
Pause. "It's not like they're people."
DG: Loren Voss has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* Krosse Catacombs *>============================= ======================<* CHALLENGE - Barricade the Bad *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Hounds are great at sniffing out trouble. Hellionized hounds, even better, especially when they just assume -everything- is dangerous. This is a fact you get to acquaint yourself with intimately as a horde of patrolling Hellhounds, wreathed in black and purple flame, notice you at the end of a long hall opposite the simple, otherwise empty chamber you currently find yourself in. The dogs turn to rush you -- but with some quick thinking and plentiful applications of structural damage, you might very well be able to cause a cave in or establish a helpful barricade to bar their entry, and give yourself some nice breathing room. Or you could not, and just let the dogs try to eat you alive. Probably wouldn't recommend that. =Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Dean tragically learns that the current exploration party is not... precisely on good terms with one another.
"Does it matter?" Loren asks (rhetorically, but the specific type of question it is probably won't matter to Dean). "It isn't as if it will change anything. But don't worry about it." Someone else would have smiled disarmingly here.
Loren... does not.
"We're all on the same side. For now."
It's not precisely a threat the way he puts it, or a promise. But it's possibly not exactly comforting for Dean to hear, either.
Division's sunk even into the ranks of the Malevolently-infected, it seems. Hopefully an attempt at squad tactics will tip the odds in their favor, particularly with someone playing medic--
But there are a lot of twisted guards and only inferior surface medicines.
And, it seems, breaking a werewolf's neck is a good way to get a lot of unfortunate attention very fast.
Very, very fast, as it happens.
He never gets far past inspecting the myriad cuts he's received, let alone pick anything useful for them out of his bag. "Be quiet," Loren informs Dean, straightening as he catches a sound. "Something's--"
Here they come, wreathed in flame and slavering at the mouth. A whole baker's dozen of hellhounds.
And here they are, already battered and bleeding.
His assessment of their collective status is a swift one. Loren grabs for the nearest person to him -- Fei as it happens -- and whirls away from the oncoming rush. "Idiot-- don't just stand there!"
His own focus spreads into the floors, the walls. He'll drop sections of the catacombs in on them if that's what it takes --
But he'll settle for generating a localized earthquake, too.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Barricade the Bad.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei does sorta squint at Dean when he says Thomas is 'suddenly' being mean.
"He told Elly she should have died when Corwynt had attacked her."
NOTE: Loren did not actually do that.
NOTE: Elly told Fei he did.
Nevertheless, Fei does get considerably beat up while he tries to fight killer werewolf guards without killing them not because he is against killing werewolf guards that try to kill you but because it's kind of a point of pride at this point since he felt this particular battle was completely avoidable.
"That's not actually true I think--" Fei says. "Wasn't there someone who got fixed up?"
Wow, Kaguya, Fei thinks but he doesn't comment on it but he doesn't forget it either. How can she be so chill about it, he wonders.
He is distracted by Dean's queries and Kaguya's casual dehumanization of doggo people and is pulled out of harm's way by Loren before nay hounds can pounce on him.
Fei stares at Loren for a few moments, just standing there. It was just professionalism, Fei. He isn't secretly tsundere for you or elly or both. Probably. Probably.
Nevertheless he still starts launching ki blasts to help block the hellhounds from saying hell-o.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Barricade the Bad.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Eventually the Hellions are defeated. During this time, Dean realizes that the guards *are* Hellions, due to them being way stronger than any normal human would be, and also because Fei told him this place is reeking with Malevolence. Even so, when Kaguya says they're not even people, he can't help but give her an angry look.
He manages, just barely, to hold back the retort that's on his tongue. It's not fair to blame Kaguya for things other Veruni have said and done.
But he's pretty mad at her right now, as he carefully lets her go.
Loren is not much better either. "At least there's that," he says without enthusiasm--though when Fei tells him what Loren (allegedly) said, his jaw drops. "Did you really say that, Thomas?!"
Loren tells him to be quiet. Dean's about to chew him out when he hears the same thing the medical student heard--that is to say, a pack of slavering hellhounds. These Dean *does* recognize, sort of, since they were present in Rosaline's orphanage. He can feel the heat from their slobber even though he can't see it.
"Damn it!" he curses, then gets up and runs with the rest of them. As they do, he attempts to fire bullets at the ceiling and whatever loose rock is available so they can cave the way in before the Hellionhounds can reach them. It goes well with Loren's earthshaking and Fei's kiblasting, actually? Perhaps?
DG: Dean Stark has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Barricade the Bad.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"What?" Kaguya asks, confused, when people look at her. "They're not! They're like, totally just monsters." She pauses though, tilting her head at Fei. "Huh, really?" She blinks, thinking about it, tilting her head a little further. "hhhhhuh.... well, oops. I thought there wasn't a way. I guess that's not very nice then."
She thinks about it. She doesn't have to think that much though;t he Hellions--the hellhounds--show up. "Neither are you!" she points out to Loren, pulling her ARM and loading it once again as she looks around. What areas...
Pause. Wait. Hold up. "Wow, that's pretty rude," Kaguya admits to Fei belatedly, and holds up. Boooom, it'll pair pretty well with the others!
"Maybe we shouldn't smash these? I dunno, Dean, I'll let you decide what to do. Honest. No more smashing living things in here unless you sign off."
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Concussion Rounds toward her party's challenge, Barricade the Bad.
=============================<* Krosse Catacombs *>============================= ======================<* CHALLENGE - Barricade the Bad *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Hounds are great at sniffing out trouble. Hellionized hounds, even better, especially when they just assume -everything- is dangerous. This is a fact you get to acquaint yourself with intimately as a horde of patrolling Hellhounds, wreathed in black and purple flame, notice you at the end of a long hall opposite the simple, otherwise empty chamber you currently find yourself in. The dogs turn to rush you -- but with some quick thinking and plentiful applications of structural damage, you might very well be able to cause a cave in or establish a helpful barricade to bar their entry, and give yourself some nice breathing room. Or you could not, and just let the dogs try to eat you alive. Probably wouldn't recommend that. =Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
========================<* Krosse Catacombs - Round 5 *>======================== ========================< Results - Barricade the Bad >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 55 --(5)--> 60 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fei Fong Wong 40 --(5)--> 45 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 45 --(5)--> 50 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 35 --(5)--> 40 Pass Concussion Rounds 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 70 --(20)--> 90 Pass Conditions: Save Point(1) Effects: Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Fei helpfully 'informs' the class about the time Loren said Elly should have died.
The first time, this had taken Loren aback.
This time around...
He squints at Fei, exhaling a hard breath. This again. His gaze turns from Dean to Kaguya.
...Really? Just like that, they're buying it?
He's almost a little offended, on principle. "Believe whatever you want," he informs them. "But I'd think twice about who you trust."
Before things start out bad and spring headlong into worse.
There's too many hellhounds to fight. So, they do the next best thing:
Collectively -- bullets, ether, chi, and concussive rounds alike -- they drop the ceiling down onto them and barricade them off. At least a couple of the hounds are crushed, leaving the rest of them baying piteously out of reach. For now, things are calm and still in the passageway.
Loren catches his breath, stretching his hands. Maybe... that was a little too much, he thinks, surveying the damage.
Maybe dropping the ceiling onto the path they had travelled in by was not the best of plans.
"..." Loren readjusts his glasses and considers their options.
"...Let's keep moving."
DG: Dean Stark has left your party.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
'I guess that's not very nice, then.' Dean grimaces at this pithy statement too, but he softens when she offers an apology by way of promising to hold off on the murder until he gives the green light. Sure, the words 'I'm sorry' are not said as such, but they're implied, and that means a lot. "Thanks," he says, responding to the implicit words. "It freaked me out when that one guy kept fighting, and I've heard that Malevolence can be really nasty..." Fei adds that he's heard that Malevolence can be fixed, and Dean nods to him. "Yeah. I mean, I get what you're saying about monsters, Kaguya, but that doesn't mean they're not people, too."
This would be another perfect spot for a dearly nasty comment. This one, at least, Dean doesn't even think of. "I'm not saying don't defend yourself, either, if that's what you gotta do," he adds. "But, yeah. Let's hold off on smashing anything that isn't, you know, made of actual stone."
He frowns deeper at Loren, who refuses to actually answer his question. "I don't wanna believe whatever I want, I wanna know if you really said that!" he says hotly. "And if you did, why would you do that? I know you're not a bad person, but that goes beyond rude and into downright cruel!" At least when he quips at Kaguya about her dying, she sees it as a joke and jokes back with him, even if that sense of humor is beyond Dean. ...though maybe it was something like that with Elly too, and Fei didn't get it, like Dean didn't at first?
Regardless, this argument will have to get put on pause when, first, hellhounds chase after the group, second, the group caves in the ceiling behind them to get away from said hellhouds, and third, Dean ends up on the wrong side of a branch in the tunnels relative to Loren, Fei, and Kaguya. There's a bit of space at the top where he can jsut barely see the others if he gets on his tip-toes, but it wouldn't be a good idea to try to collapse the collapsed tunnel further or else they might all end up buried alive.
"You guys okay? Of all the rotten luck," he laments, peeking through the crack and testing the fallen rock. Yeah, definitely don't wanna try to mess with this too much. "I'm gonna try to find another way around, so you guys go on ahead, all right? See you soon!"
Then, with a wave, he'll hurry on along his way. Whether it deposits him outside or brings him elsewhere is another matter...
DG: Loren Voss has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* Krosse Catacombs *>============================= ===================<* CHALLENGE - Tomb of the Phobic King *>==================== |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- This hall is a dedication to the first King of Krosse, built within these catacombs ages upon ages ago. The great stone statue of the man who established this kingdom stands tall, and resolute, a massive bust of his upper body carve from and into the bedrock itself. Great. Glorious. Until ichorous Malevolence starts to bleed from its stone eyes. Until violet light throbs like veinwork along its stony figure. Until it starts to -move- with the great groaning shift of rock, possessed by the irrational phobias that grip this subterranean tomb, one mighty fist -pounding- the ground with a tremor. Its stone maw opens, and from it, your worst fears out themselves within the hideous scream that reaches deep into the dredges of your soul. Fighting the colossus would take too much time, too much resources -- but there is a way out of here, above the shifting stone king. A passageway on an upper level that can be accessed if one dares to try to scale the stone walls -- and the mighty, thrashing figure of a dead king's monument brought to horrible life. Scale the colossus. And try to ignore the fear and paranoia that tries to seep into your soul... =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed. <SoundTracker> Alex Roe - Beckon a Foul Beast ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukywVcxv5r4
"I didn't," he answers curtly. "Though, considering everyone seems to want to believe I did, maybe I should have. Is that the answer you wanted?"
What with the hellhounds falling upon them, though, this is a conversation that may yet await an answer.
Particularly when the roof comes down. As Loren turns, he makes a certain realization: they're a head short.
A call from beyond the wall gives lie to the truth: Dean's been separated from them, but is not, for instance, being immediate set upon by hellhounds or something.
Though the verdict's still unclear on whether he's trapped himself somewhere with no exit, the medic thinks darkly. And to wit, before Dean scampers off into the darkness of the tomb: "Try not to die."
(Dean will probably be more fine than the rest of them are about to be, as it happens.)
And, as it happens, there isn't much further to go. It's not long before the tightly confined cooridor opens up into what must at one point been a shrine, an ancient dedication to the very first king of Krosse.
The dust is thick in the air. It's still, the silence palpable here among anywhere else in the catacombs they've yet explored. Yet, someone must tend this place, as the lanterns on high still flicker.
It might be easy to mistake the silence for calm.
At least until the great stone eyes of the statue before them begin to bleed a sickly violet.
A noise escapes from Loren as he backpeddles way from the statue that begins to slowly rise with a cacophanous tremor. It's not so much a sound as a collection of syllables that no one in this room would rightly recognize as the cut-off fragments of words. No one here would speak Solarian.
The stone image of the king continues to weep as it struggles to rip itself free from its moorings. All around Malevolence etches its way across the rock and glowing brightly. One great stone fist slams into the floor spending spidering cracks. Then another. It's clear it'll free itself, even if it has to bring the entire catacombs down around it to do so.
Fighting it is probably not worth the Pyrrhic victory it will bring.
Loren's gaze shifts hurriedly about the chamber, as if in search of some way out of here. One glance is tossed back behind him, as fruitless as he already knows that direction will be to look for a salvation.
His eyes lift. "There! Up there!" He points, one finger jabbed towards the upper level above them. But there aren't any stairs. There's no immediate sign of how to get up there, except for the wall...
And the statue.
Loren hesitates, seconds squandered as he hurriedly tries to solve for the problem before them and--
And the statue's mouth rips open and lets loose with a hideous wail of a scream.
The sort that cuts right into the marrow of the bones, plucks forth terror from the depths of the heart.
This is no longer the hesitation of someone trying to work out the best way forward, this is the hesitation of someone gripped in fear's palm.
As familiar as it all may be, the reminder that he will accomplish nothing, be nothing.
Fail.
And die.
"Shut up!"
A reaction to the strain shunted upon him? A shift in the faultline? Just an impulse borne from fear itself? Whatever it is, with that shout he takes off like a shot towards the statue and the wall behind it. Emotion, in its way, powers ether.
He'll either find a way up or make one.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Tomb of the Phobic King.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Why would Elly lie about something like that?" Fei counters. "I wouldn't have even known who you were if it wasn't for what you did in Bledavik!" But when he looks over his shoulder, Dean's behind some rubble. Fei's eyes widen and he rushes to it, intent on digging Dean free--but he speaks up and Fei relaxes ever so slightly. He's just seperated.
"Good luck, Dean." Fei says, pressing his forehead against the rocks.
Fei HAS heard Solarian before but rest assured he isn't thinking about linguistic similarities from Loren and even if he was, he wouldn't be able to translate.
There is a horrible scream. His worst fears. What are his worst fears?
Is it Loren turning on the group and leaving them to die? No.
Is it Kaguya snapping his neck? No.
It's that child again. The child who speaks in red. The boy that only Fei can see whispers to him, a whisper that echoes into his ears despite the horrible noise.
"You know why she would."
Fei doesn't yell shutup or anything like that. Instead he just punches his fist THROUGH the stone wall. He snaps his hand back and uses that as a foothold to try and reach the upper level.
He goes quiet.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Tomb of the Phobic King.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Believe whatever they want, huh? Kaguya 'hmms' about that a little, before she shrugs. "Whatever," she agrees, and as they make it through the damage... Well, they can't go back, that's for certain. Kaguya notices that too, and grins. "Can't run back now~!" the small Veruni singsongs briefly, laughing a little. Man, sucks to be those things. ...But she very much doesn't apologize. She instead looks thoughtfully at Dean without seeming to notice the comment. Well...
"Sure," Kaguya says. "Up to you. I didn't think there was a way to fix them, and, well..." She shakes her head. But--there's--
Dean's gotta find another way around. Kaguya frowns. "...Going off on your own..."
"If he's smart, he'll get out of here. Not like you two. I thought you'd be smarter, doc."
They walk up, though. Fei makes a counter, and Kaguya shrugs. "People like for a lot of reasons," she points out. "Sometimes for fun, sometimes not even thinking about it. Memory changes, and what people think might not have anything to do with what happened."
Beat, "Or she doesn't like him and wants a hero. Whichever, right? I'm on your side."
THe dust is thick... The dust is thick, and the statue bleeds. Kaguya freezes in place at the feeling of Malevolence. It is set to free itself--ther is one way up--and yet--
Kaguya stares at the statue after it screams, stares without her expression even changing as she looks upon herself... paler still. With the chill of the grave on her. Laughing.
...Kaguya takes the time to throw up before she starts climbing, forcing handholds in with her gloved hands.
DG: Kaguya has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Tomb of the Phobic King.
=============================<* Krosse Catacombs *>============================= ===================<* CHALLENGE - Tomb of the Phobic King *>==================== |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- This hall is a dedication to the first King of Krosse, built within these catacombs ages upon ages ago. The great stone statue of the man who established this kingdom stands tall, and resolute, a massive bust of his upper body carve from and into the bedrock itself. Great. Glorious. Until ichorous Malevolence starts to bleed from its stone eyes. Until violet light throbs like veinwork along its stony figure. Until it starts to -move- with the great groaning shift of rock, possessed by the irrational phobias that grip this subterranean tomb, one mighty fist -pounding- the ground with a tremor. Its stone maw opens, and from it, your worst fears out themselves within the hideous scream that reaches deep into the dredges of your soul. Fighting the colossus would take too much time, too much resources -- but there is a way out of here, above the shifting stone king. A passageway on an upper level that can be accessed if one dares to try to scale the stone walls -- and the mighty, thrashing figure of a dead king's monument brought to horrible life. Scale the colossus. And try to ignore the fear and paranoia that tries to seep into your soul... =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
========================<* Krosse Catacombs - Round 6 *>======================== =====================< Results - Tomb of the Phobic King >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fei Fong Wong 45 --(20)--> 65 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 60 --(20)--> 80 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 40 --(20)--> 60 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 90 --(0)--> 90 Fail Conditions: Hesitate(2) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has failed 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> Loren Voss has posed.
Time was, maybe he wouldn't have been so quick to state it so plainly. Maybe. ...A lie's a lie, even if it comes from one of his countrymen. Even if they're on the same side, even if he could attempt to justify its telling in fulfillment of her mission. Get pity from the Lambs, perhaps. But...
It's still a lie.
And she tried to kill him.
One that they're not even going to question, are they. Of course. "You still believe her." As if invoking the heavens above, Loren lifts his arms in an expansive shrug. "Why do I even bother? Forget it. I'm not going to waste my breath on you."
(He is, perhaps, very rapidly not making fast friends here.)
Beyond the ceiling caving in, beyond the statue that looms raging above them--
It's just the endless staccato of numb terror, ripping against their collective strings.
"It's pointless."
"You know, don't you?"
"How little is left."
They ascend -- as much as it costs them physically and mentally; they haul themselves over the lip as the statue rages in its madness below.
But where is left to go from here?
DG: Fei Fong Wong has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Krosse Catacombs *>============================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Your Limits *>=========================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
The prisons lie just beyond you now, a circular chamber that rings around
the heart of the catacombs. Within is the honeycomb-like maze of prison
cells built into the castle's underground years and years ago -- but to get
there, you must first get past the large antechamber you find yourself in.
There are no guards here, no resistance. Just a door. A door that glows with
faint, magical white light, thrumming a complex magical seal through its
simple, polished hinges. To those who have been to the Hollow, this seal is
no doubt familiar: the door cannot be blown open. It cannot be forced. The
magic that binds it is thorough and unyielding even to the most practiced of
magic-users. There is an inset on the door where some sort of object can be
inserted -- a magical key owned by captains of the guard.
But without those keys, there is another way past. A secret way. As if
whoever made this ward anticipated the arrival of those who were not meant
to be here, and put in a loophole in their own work for those with the
strength to move past it. The second someone -- anyone -- tries to touch the
glowing radiance of that door, pain will shock through them. Not physically,
but spiritually, the seal seems to reach out and challenge the convictions
of everything they hold dear. To undermine and belittle, to question the
limits of the resolve of whomsoever is brave enough to grip upon the seal.
It is not pleasant, yet it is not Malevolent. And to those who can manage to
persevere, to those who can hold on and withstand the seals burning and
unrelenting judgment for long enough, that seal will subside... and the door
will open.
The Hollow desired to know what you would sacrifice.
The Catacombs seek to see what you will never surrender.
=Dungeon Conditions: Vault====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei.EXE seems to have crashed. There's no further response from Fei.EXE at this point in time. Any other subprograms of Fei are also quiet for the moment. Maybe it's just a soft reboot.
Ahead of the party is a honeycomb like maze of prison cells but first--there's the antechamber. Is saving these people worth the pain it takes to save them? Maybe not.
Fei walks forward through the antechamber. He glances around. No guards. He looks to the door. It's a door of ... light? Fei throws a chi blast at it--
--but it doesn't even scratch the seal. It'd be easier to bring the catacombs down upon them than it would be to break through that door.
His eyes scan towards the 'lock'.
There is no key that any of them have, of course. Maybe they should have broken more necks.
Fei exhales once and walks towards the door. He doesn't explain it. He just presses his hand against the seal.
He immediately screams in horrendous agony. It's attacking his spirit, his resolve.
The man in the dream paints.
Fei focuses on that.
The man in the dream paints a woman.
Fei howls in agony. Are the others going to try and find another way? Or are they going to try and push through with their own convictions?
The man in the dream is never done painting the woman.
The man in the dream never finished painting that woman.
Even she is human, and so was that man, and so is the man that calls himself Fei.
SD. The three lineages.
SD. SD. SD
You know, don't you?
"NO I DON'T!!" Fei bellows.
He's a weirdo.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool Artist's Toolkit toward his party's challenge, Your Limits.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
A lie's a lie. Kaguya is 'they' of course, but but she doesn't seem to especially hold it against Loren, either. "Bet you're gonna talk more anyway," she points out to him. ...Luckily, she seems to be just fine with jerks. But...
That was then, and with the ceiling caving, with the statue looming, it rips and rips and rips against her and Kaguya has to just keep going. It's a cost, all right. The statue rages, but where is left...?
Here. This place. These honeycombs, these prisoners, the circular chamber that is beyond a door Kaguya sees, beyond the symbol. She has not been to the Hollow, but she watches it. An inset... The key. Kaguya tilts her head, at that, and looks to the others. She waits. ...She waits, to see Fei touch the door. He screams, in agony, and Kaguya thinks a little more. The door ahead, it speaks to their convictions, to what they will refuse to surrender...
"Heh, heh, heh..."
Kaguya starts laughing faintly, though it's with a wince; she isn't feeling so great. "So all the way through this, all the way through this clear pain, this awfulness... You're willing to go through. But... Why?" she asks. "What's so important there that matters to you? A bunch of people you don't know? ...A bunch of people who had this in them, to begin with...?
"Well, it's your funerals. Or worse, I guess. You can't stand each other and still you work together to get through. You must really care about all this... Or just not think much about what you'd do otherwise."
A beat, and Kaguya lifts a hand, waves a finger. "I like you guys... But..."
She looks up to the ceiling, "I don't belong in that place. You do." She looks down to the others, shrugs widely, and leans against the wall, crossing her arms.
"...This is as far as I go. Good luck, guys."
DG: Kaguya has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Your Limits.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
What awaits them? A honeycomb of prison cells, occupants unknown, if there are any. This is... all familiar, he thinks, pausing for a moment as he thinks back, sifting his memory.
The Hollow, he realizes, approaching the keyless door with that start of recollection. That place had asked a sacrifice. This one asks--
Where Fei sets his hand upon the door and screams, Loren instead hesitates, his gaze fixed on that symbol.
"It's pointless."
He'd realized it a while ago, hadn't he?
Glory or death. Those are the options for someone in Gebler. That's their mission, in so many words. Seize glory or die trying.
But how does one do that?
Isn't it by taking risks?
Isn't it by having what it takes?
At most you've only ever been second best, speaks the rational half of his mind. You never even matched up to 'him' and he died. What do you think you can do?
He'd realized it a while ago. If you can't seize glory, then there's only one option left.
"But... Why? What's so important there that matters to you?"
He glances back at her. Because it's his job? No. That's not it. Because he can't turn back? No...
He wrenches the glasses from his face, feeling the frames bend marginally into the palm of his hand.
His other hand plants on the panel. The shock of pain is instantaneous.
"Because... someone has to finish this--!"
For the sins of that damn idiot, his own brother. He can't bear the alternative.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Etheric Lenses toward his party's challenge, Your Limits.
============================<* Krosse Catacombs *>============================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Your Limits *>=========================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
The prisons lie just beyond you now, a circular chamber that rings around
the heart of the catacombs. Within is the honeycomb-like maze of prison
cells built into the castle's underground years and years ago -- but to get
there, you must first get past the large antechamber you find yourself in.
There are no guards here, no resistance. Just a door. A door that glows with
faint, magical white light, thrumming a complex magical seal through its
simple, polished hinges. To those who have been to the Hollow, this seal is
no doubt familiar: the door cannot be blown open. It cannot be forced. The
magic that binds it is thorough and unyielding even to the most practiced of
magic-users. There is an inset on the door where some sort of object can be
inserted -- a magical key owned by captains of the guard.
But without those keys, there is another way past. A secret way. As if
whoever made this ward anticipated the arrival of those who were not meant
to be here, and put in a loophole in their own work for those with the
strength to move past it. The second someone -- anyone -- tries to touch the
glowing radiance of that door, pain will shock through them. Not physically,
but spiritually, the seal seems to reach out and challenge the convictions
of everything they hold dear. To undermine and belittle, to question the
limits of the resolve of whomsoever is brave enough to grip upon the seal.
It is not pleasant, yet it is not Malevolent. And to those who can manage to
persevere, to those who can hold on and withstand the seals burning and
unrelenting judgment for long enough, that seal will subside... and the door
will open.
The Hollow desired to know what you would sacrifice.
The Catacombs seek to see what you will never surrender.
=Dungeon Conditions: Vault====================================================
=======================<* Krosse Catacombs - Round 7 *>======================= ==========================< Results - Your Limits >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fei Fong Wong 65 --(5)--> 70 Pass Artist's Toolkit 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Loren Voss 80 --(5)--> 85 Pass Etheric Lenses 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kaguya 60 --(5)--> 65 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Loren Voss 90 --(35)--> 125 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(1)|Vault(1) Effects: Enlighten(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Loren Voss has successfully explored Krosse Catacombs!
============================<* Krosse Catacombs *>============================ ==========================<* CHALLENGE - The Farm *>========================== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- This large series of ringed halls were once a dedication to important figures of Krosian history. Ages ago, its structure was deemed more appropriate to be used as a prison for Krosse's most notable and dangerous criminals against the state. Concentric circles of prison cells dotted with old architecture and statues of forgotten history stand as testament to this mixed heritage; but that is not what strikes the senses most profoundly, here. No. It is the Malevolence. It is thick in this place, palpable in the streams of it that flow like spiritually discordant rivers of black and violet through the air. They wind and converge and split in branching, Malevolent patterns, whispering almost beautifully through the stale, stagnant space surrounding these prison cells. And then you see where all that Malevolence is coming from. The prisoners. They line these cells, the outsiders and dissenters and various others who have been captured by the Guard and brought to the catacombs. All of them now give off some levels of low-grade Malevolence that lifts off them like vapor and winds into the air as if it were being sucked away from them even as the thickness of that spiritual dissonance in the air seems to inspire yet more Malevolence within them. Like an ouroboros, constantly feeding for eternity off its own tail. And that is when it becomes most immediately apparent. This is not a prison. It is a farm. And whatever they are harvesting that self-perpetuating Malevolence for here... whatever grim thing they might want it for... it can be found by following those trails towards the center of this circular prison, towards a sealed chamber at the very heart of Krosse's catacombs, where the discord seems to distort everything that surrounds it the heaviest... (OOC: This leads directly into the scene on Sunday, the 25th! For the sake of convenience, assume this Digger ICly happens on that day; if you do not intend to have a particular alt show up to that scene, or you can't make it, or anything else, you can have your character evacuate the prisoners or otherwise go to get help! Any questions, toss them K.K.'s way!) =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
And now for the first time, and lets face it probably the last, Loren and Fei TEAM UP and shatter the seal around the door. It fades, revealing the path forward to the cages and the prisoners.
Fei glances over to Kaguya for a moment, his screaming pausing to answer her very important question. The 'why'?
"Isn't it obvious?" He asks of Kaguya. "Anybody, any group, that would do this to people needs to be destroyed and stopped at every turn. It's different than being an enemy. This--" He gestures. "--is a threat. Not just to those who are here, but to everyone on Filgaia. Including you." He pauses. "Maybe especially you. Hang tight. We can handle it."
He moves in further, and well--
--Outsiders, drifters, anyone who is 'Other' to these people, they give off malevolence, malevolence that is being sucked away to fuel ... something. Itself? This in turn creates more malevolence and so on and so forth.
What could this force be farmed for?
But Fei closes his eyes and thinks to himself for a moment before advancing forward. "We don't have much time. We gotta free as many as we can."
And that red voice in his head?
You know I've seen some pretty awful shit. But this certainly ranks up their, fake.
"Yeah." Fei says, to...someone?
You know what this stuff does to us, don't you?
"Yeah." Fei says again as he shatters locks with his fists.
Heh. Well, I'll tank it this time. Just 'cause that masked prick pisses me off
And then Fei just starts laughing like he heard the most amazing joke.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
The seal gives way. Heaving a breath, Loren takes a step back, glancing sidelong at Fei, shaking his head as if in disbelief, then slips his glasses back on.
He turns back towards Kaguya. "...As much as I hate to admit it, I have to agree. We can't exactly ignore this."
The whole region could get destabilized. There might even have to be a purge if this keeps up.
Why waste the time, resources, and funding if it can be avoided? To say nothing of the effort they'll then have to employ to keep that from causing further extraregional issues.
"What a pain," he mutters, rounding back towards the doorway.
He probably can't even get a signal down here even if he could be sure they'd send backup.
Why do his missions always turn out this way?
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Obvious? Kaguya looks at Fei thoughtfully, without the pretense of humor or anything like that with what she can feel beyond. It is not obvious, her expression suggests--and also, that she's watching him, studying him, for a few moments. "...A threat," she agrees. "Maybe that's right. But hey, thanks. My hero." She smiles at Fei, and then looks to Loren as Fei starts talking to himself. IT's... It's sure something.
"Can't. ...Doesn't that just mean won't? I mean, you could run off and just avoid it all. That's still an option, you know. ...But I doubt you'll do it. A pain, huh...?"
Kaguya shakes her head, laughs a little. "Like I said, good luck guys. It's out of my hands now. You'll have to tell me how it goes."
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei doesn't like feeling respect for Loren. It makes him uncertain about things he didn't even question.
Fei doesn't blame the flowergirl for this. Even with her inhuman strength, this is more likely to be about endurance than power.
What a pain, he thinks, is right.