2018-04-21: A Trial is Meant to Test
- Log: A Trial is Meant to Test
- Cast: Rebecca Streisand, Dean Stark, Avril Vent Fleur
- Where: Vane - Trial Cave
- Date: April 21st 2018
- Summary: For the sake of curiosity (by several turns) the trio ventures forth into the Trial Cave of Vane. Rebecca applies the book. Avril explains herself. Dean lays down the law.
DG: A party led by Rebecca Streisand is now entering Trial Cave of Vane. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
===========================<* Trial Cave of Vane *>=========================== =================<* CHALLENGE - Transmission Machine Broke *>================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Something's not quite right with the Spring of Transmission today. Stepping into the center does nothing. It does not, in fact, put you in the Trial Cave of Vane. Is it a loose stone in the teleportation circle? All the overgrowth along the sides of the elevated stone platform? Did something use up the magic for the day? Did the thing just finally break? Have fun with that. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
Once upon a time the Trial Cave of Vane was legendary. A place where mages came to test their mettle and be accepted into the legendary Magic Guild of Vane.
Now... its standards have fallen somewhat.
The Spring of Transmission is a stone pentagram, rather than an actual spring. Supposedly just stepping on it transports them where they're supposed to go...
Rebecca Streisand steps on it - and the mage overseeing it. An apprentice in his late teens just sorta starts. "That's strange..."
Rebecca squints at him, "So... I thought you said this was supposed to send us to the start of the trial?"
The apprentice jolts at that and starts laughing - "Well it does but... this is part of the test! Like a prerequisite. If you don't know enough about magic to get it working then you definitely can't pass the rest of the test."
Rebecca looks at Dean, then Avril - then at the pentagram which looks like it's pockmarked by damage to the stone then at him, "How dumb do you think we are!? It's definitely just broken isn't it!"
The apprentice doesn't budge, "It's part of the test! Like I said!" Rebecca crosses her arms - "Fine. It doesn't matter how we get it working right?" "Sure - you can use whatever means at your disposal."
Rebecca glowers at him, and takes out her travel diary, but doesn't open it. The apprentice looks smug, "Gonna look up the answer sweetheart? Good luck if you haven't had years of lessons..."
Rebecca flaps it in mid-air with both her hands, "Nah - there's nothing like that in this book. But the cover is thick and the binding is real strong. And I was just thinking that since you outlined we can use anything at our disposal - that well..."
She offers him a sweet smile. "...I can't help but notice that despite the fact you've been mighty patronizing... that you're at our disposal."
He doesn't seem to get it for a few seconds before he looks at the book, then back at her - "Oh." Sweating at the sudden implication, he pulls at his collar, and clears his throat, "Well - some of the stones are... out of place, and if the circle is broken it just won't work."
Rebecca stuffs the diary back away, "There. See? Didn't need any fancy formal magic lessons after all."
DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Rebecca's Travel Diary toward her party's challenge, Transmission Machine Broke.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"Wasn't... something supposed to happen?"
That's Dean's puzzled remark when he and his friends and their guide step on the transmission stone on which a pentacle is drawn and, well, nothing happens. Then the apprentice starts 'explaining' it and he scratches his head. "A prerequisite? I never heard anything about that before." He doesn't necessarily doubt the older teen boy, but it sure would've been nice to have some warning about it. Isn't that the whole point of getting a guide to bring them here in the first place?
Then Rebecca calls the apprentice the hell out, and Dean blinks wide. "Wait, it is?!" he utters, probably much to Rebecca's chagrin. "So we gotta fix it, huh... No offense, but why don't you guys keep it... you know, fixed? This is an important place for you Magic Guild guys, isn't it?" At least, that was his impression. Still, while Rebecca starts "negotiating," Dean frowns and looks around at the Spring of Transmission for some sign of what exactly is broken. It's hard to tell; he's never been to the Cave of Vane before, so he's not sure what it normally looks like. Still, he's pretty sure they aren't supposed to, say, jump into that spring over there to wash their feet or something.
When Rebecca gets an answer, though, he grins at her. "Heyy, good work! Actually, if it's just about stones being out of place, I see a couple around that look like they're not in place right--" He points out one spot to her and Avril, where a brick is jutting out just a bit in between the vines coiling around the nearby pillar. "I bet I can get it back in place from right here!"
Twin Fenrir flash into his hands as he says that. An instant later, Dean fires upon it with the Standard Cartridge, aiming to knock it back into place. ...hopefully it doesn't just knock it further *out* of place, making it necessary to walk over there and set it right by hand.
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Standard Cartridge toward his party's challenge, Transmission Machine Broke.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
It's a magical trial. Perhaps in the end -- traveling to Vane to see the sights beside -- that was a good enough reason for Avril to want to attempt the challenge.
Something has changed of late for her. She's grasped some sort of power, something beyond that of the Medium she bears, something more akin to that strange state she at times attains. Perhaps in a place like this, she might be able to learn more of it, and of its origins.
This is a development she has still not fully explained to her traveling partners, even in spite of its partial manifestion in Zulan. Sooner or later, she will have to say more, but...
Perhaps it's possible to speak of that without also speaking of the thing she fears -- no, knows -- is true. At least, not yet.
A little more time. Just a little longer on this, like this...
But when they descent into the trial cave, things are... a little out of sorts.
"Oh... it does appear to be broken, does it not? Is this at all normal for a trial such as this? I would have expected something, hm..."
While she wrestles with that conundrum, though, Rebecca cuts right to the quick of the problem laid out before them, all with the completely not at all coerced assistance from the apprentice managing the cave down here. "So it is broken. Perhaps if that had been said from the very beginning, we would be able to properly put our skills to the test. This is after all a test of the ability to use magic rather than one's mental agility, is it not...?" she voices, her expression quite open and placid as she regards the apprentice herself.
To be honest, it's actually rather weaponized as far as a look like that goes, her gaze unflinching.
But at least at length she turns away, regarding the disarray of an array before her.
"Hmm. If we were to move that one there... and this one here..."
She begins realigning some of the stones herself, working from what appears to be the desired alignment from her viewpoint.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Transmission Machine Broke.
===========================<* Trial Cave of Vane *>=========================== =================<* CHALLENGE - Transmission Machine Broke *>================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Something's not quite right with the Spring of Transmission today. Stepping into the center does nothing. It does not, in fact, put you in the Trial Cave of Vane. Is it a loose stone in the teleportation circle? All the overgrowth along the sides of the elevated stone platform? Did something use up the magic for the day? Did the thing just finally break? Have fun with that. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
======================<* Trial Cave of Vane - Round 1 *>====================== ===================< Results - Transmission Machine Broke >=================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rebecca Streisand 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Rebecca's Travel Diary 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Avril Vent Fleur 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dean Stark 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Standard Cartridge 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Rebecca Streisand 0 --(10)--> 10 Fail Conditions: Stupify(2) Effects: Enlighten(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Rebecca Streisand 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> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
Avril's weaponized expression actually affects the guy more than Rebecca had, he looks positively unnerved under her gaze, "Look lady - I'm not in charge of maintenance I'm just supervising the testing. You're telling me I should just admit to everyone the maintenance budget got cut? That's embarrassing. Put yourself in my shoes."
Rebecca seems even more unimpressed, "Stop making excuses! Sheesh!"
Normally Dean's method would cause Rebecca a little concern. Because shooting as the solution to their problems? But instead she eyes the stonework and the kind of geometry involved to knock it back into place - and instead crosses her arms, "Alright Dean - show me your best trick shot! We'll see if you manage to impress me!" After all, Rebecca has pretty high standards on marksmanship and trick shooting.
And his cartridge hits the stone - and sends it flying way out of alignment.
Rebecca sorta gapes open mouthed. "... Deannnnn, you need more practice!"
Realigning the stones by hand is tiring work - but eventually they manage to do it. While the apprentice finally uses an earth cantrip to roll the final stone back into place, seeming extremely put out by having to lift a finger.
The pentagram lights up - and blue light shines, and they all disappear as they're whisked away.
"Sheesh - good riddance." He says once he's alone. "I hope neither of those girls join up. The redhead is hazardous to my health while the other..." He still seems unnerved, "... is one real ice queen."
DG: Dean Stark has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Trial Cave of Vane *>============================ =========================<* CHALLENGE - Fleshsucker *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- WHY THIS This... thing... is hard to fathom as something living underneath Vane. It's not the product of Malevolence; it staggers around on what appear to be its arms, a pair of stump-like, gnarled, oozing things attached to similar constructions that look kind of like shoulders if you don't think too hard about them. Tree-brown flesh winds around the outside of a central ball, with a smaller silvery head popping out of the center where... maybe... hopefully... the brain lives? The creature's heart and digestive tract hang out of the central mass entirely, bloody red with seemingly non-functional hand-shaped outcrops. It spits poison. Its gaze coats those in front of it in stone. Every time it pounds the ground ichor flies everywhere in torrents. Occasionally it pulls its stomach off, upon which time the discarded organ hardens like a rock and then gets used as a particularly harrowing projectile. This is an unreasonable demand to make of trainee mages. =Dungeon Conditions: Suffer===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"Yeah, exactly! That's exactly what I was thinking, Avril!" Dean says, nodding firmly at her putting his earlier thoughts into far more eloquent form. "A broken magic circle isn't something you should spring on people at the last second!" Then the apprentice makes more excuses. Dean is not impressed, and expresses it plainly: "I'd be *way* more embarrassed to have to lie to people just to look cool."
A good thing he doesn't worry overmuch about looking lame, then, because WOW that shot went way badly. "I-I wasn't trying to make a trick shot!" he protests, turning pink. "Better fix it the normal way, then..."
Eventually, they managed to complete it. The trio lights up as they're teleported, leaving the apprentice behind. When the light vanishes from before Dean, Rebecca, and Avril, they're transported somewhere underground. Well, it *is* a Trial CAVE, after all--but that's not really important.
What's important is that the first thing to greet them is an unholy abomination. Intestines, skulls, open muscles and ventricles and blood vessels and OH MY GOD IS THAT AN EYEBALL?? And before any of the three can even process what they're seeing, the... *thing*, for truly there is no more appropriate word, vomits poison in a wave towards them.
"GUYS, WATCH OUT!" Dean shouts, possibly shoving and/or taking his friends by the hand and diving to one side to avoid that initial blast of dear god what *is* that stuff. As he comes up in a crouch, Twin Fenrir flash into his grip, and he pivots on one foot and opens fire with as strong a barrage as he can manage, because he's sure not getting up close and personal with it. "What IS this thing?! I know this was a trial, but this goes WAY beyond what anybody should have to deal with!!"
DG: Dean Stark has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Fleshsucker.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Whether she just didn't have the alignment right at first guess, or because there are a number of stones missing from the magical array, it does end up taking a fair bit of time, however...
Poor apprentice, this probably leaves them in contact with him longer than he would have preferred. At least in the end, they work out the mystery for themselves and soldier onwards, vanishing in light as the array transports them from this place unto another place.
They have enough time to blink in the dim light within the cavern.
It's enough time for Avril's expression to etch in shock, but before she can so much as voice a warning--
It's upon them. A hideous creature, best forgotten deep within the earth... and not loosed upon mere apprentices as a part of a trial of admission. "Dean! Rebecca--" Avril calls out, skirting, barely, out of the wave of horrible fluids as they splash upon the cavern's floor. "Do not hold back! This thing is dangerous--"
And as if to follow her own advice, she draws forth Absolute Zero from beneath her wrap and dives into a surging charge, beam whip flickering to full life as she delivers swing after swing of arcing white light at the monstrosity without flinching.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Beam Whip Mode toward her party's challenge, Fleshsucker.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
"Yeah you said it Dean!" As she joins in at being upset at the guy. But then - "Huh you weren't!? You were just trying to-" Rebecca puts a palm over her face.
But then they transport out, and Rebecca sees it.
Now if Rebecca were seven years younger - she'd have totally screamed. But ever since she'd got her ARM she promised herself she'd be an adult. Things like screaming and crying were kids stuff.
But there's still a whimper - and she pales notably - and...
Somehow manages to keep her cool just a little - after seeing how Avril how it keeps calm. But she seems still a little panicked as she answers Dean, "I dunno I dunno! I DUNNO what it is!"
Drawing her revolver she pops off a shot which seems to just sink into the fleshy mass, absorbed as if it were nothing. But then she runs straight towards where she senses a Fire Ley Point.
Her medium invoked, Solais Emsu's power rises up around her as she's thankful to be far far away from it. "Never thought setting their heart on fire would be so literal!"
Get it - because there's a ventricle right...
It doesn't matter, she just tries to immolate it right there with a blast of roaring flames.
DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Sky Medium toward her party's challenge, Fleshsucker.
============================<* Trial Cave of Vane *>============================ =========================<* CHALLENGE - Fleshsucker *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- WHY THIS This... thing... is hard to fathom as something living underneath Vane. It's not the product of Malevolence; it staggers around on what appear to be its arms, a pair of stump-like, gnarled, oozing things attached to similar constructions that look kind of like shoulders if you don't think too hard about them. Tree-brown flesh winds around the outside of a central ball, with a smaller silvery head popping out of the center where... maybe... hopefully... the brain lives? The creature's heart and digestive tract hang out of the central mass entirely, bloody red with seemingly non-functional hand-shaped outcrops. It spits poison. Its gaze coats those in front of it in stone. Every time it pounds the ground ichor flies everywhere in torrents. Occasionally it pulls its stomach off, upon which time the discarded organ hardens like a rock and then gets used as a particularly harrowing projectile. This is an unreasonable demand to make of trainee mages. =Dungeon Conditions: Suffer===================================================
=======================<* Trial Cave of Vane - Round 2 *>======================= ===========================< Results - Fleshsucker >============================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rebecca Streisand 20 --(25)--> 45 Pass Sky Medium 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 20 --(30)--> 50 Fail Beam Whip Mode 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 20 --(30)--> 50 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Rebecca Streisand 10 --(10)--> 20 Fail Conditions: Stupify(1)|Suffer(1) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Rebecca Streisand 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> Dean Stark has posed.
"Don't need to tell me twice!" Dean calls to Avril as she warns them not to hold back. He's a brave kid, but this thing is going to haunt his nightmares. Rebecca panicking lets him keep his cool a little--but only a little, when it soon becomes apparent that his bullets are having no effect, and even Avril's beam whip gets countered by a rock bullet--in other words, the creature's own calcified stomach--in midair, sending a shower of... let's call it debris down upon the two intrepid adventurers. The *thing* would then be free to bear down upon them, if it weren't for Rebecca's blessed, blessed flames.
Too bad they're more distraction than anything else, because those roars sound as angry as they do pained. In short, she's hurting it, but now it's *pissed*.
"...I think this thing's out of our league," Dean observes, because brave doesn't equal stupid, and as dense as he can be, he's not *really* stupid. "Quick, while it's distracted, let's get out of here!!"
And so, once Rebecca and Avril have taken flight for deeper within the Trial Cave, Dean chases after them, to make sure he can cover their escape. Fortunately for them, by the time the *thing* beats the flames off itself, they're long, long gone.
Well! That certainly was a trial.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Trial Cave of Vane *>============================ =======================<* CHALLENGE - Purifying Spring *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Not everything in this cave is despoiled or collapsed. Pure, crystal-clear water lies off in the distance, just barely visible... but between you and it is a pitfall some fifteen feet deep. Falling in might not be deadly, but it'd be pretty miserable. Any plans for getting across? If there was some magical path through, some switch to raise the earth or some hidden invisible bridge... those wonders are gone now. It's just you, your wits, and a pit. This is an unreasonable demand to make of trainee mages. =Dungeon Conditions: Exhaust, Treasure========================================
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
A gasp escapes Avril's lips as that rock intercepts her strike, Absolute Zero's blaze of light shuttering to nothing as the charge thus expends itself. She's forced back in a spray of... debris, the rocky shards detonating close at hand and evoking short trails of red where they so pass. Staggered and off-balance, she would be easy prey for the monstrosity... were it not for the blast of fire that burns unyielding soon after. Avril is granted precious moments to fall back, to assess her injuries, and assess their opponent as well.
"Yes," she quickly agrees, glancing over at Rebecca. "We should retreat. I do not believe we can win without a heavy cost. Rebecca, I will be right behind you--"
With a worried glance at Dean as he holds the beast back, she flees into the circuitous tunnels of the trial cave, following after Rebecca as they race this way and that in an attempt to dissuade it from following their trail.
Of course, the problem with that is that they have now fully departed from the beaten path, so to speak.
It's very likely that no one has used this path much at all, in fact, for one important detail and one important detail alone:
The big jagged tear in the earth before them, spiralling into an inky sea of black below. It's too far to easily jump, though not impossible.
And in the distance, on the far side of the gap: the shimmering surface of a healing spring of some sort, silvery in what light is present in the cave.
"Ah," is Avril's assessment.
Returning Absolute Zero at last from whence it came, and drawing instead the Medium, she regards the difficult that has been placed before them intently.
"Rebecca... you were truly brave back there, against that creature. Were it not for you... The outcome may have been quite different for us."
This she speaks, before pressing her hand to the Sea Medium and setting alight with the Guardian's power. One simple surge of the Guardian's power should be enough to see them across.
"Lucadia," she intones.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Sea Medium toward her party's challenge, Purifying Spring.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
"Don't have to tell me twice Dean!" A beat as they run, "Isn't this supposed to be a trial for beginner mages!?" Rebecca high tails it behind Avril, complaining to her as the thing spits acid her way, sizzling against the rock - "Like do they want all their beginners to die!?"
Fortunately she's able to keep up with both of them down the winding labyrinthine tunnels and -
"Huh!? What kind of test is this!?" That's Rebecca's own assessment to the gap.
She's pretty certain she can make the jump, but what about any poor unathletic mages!?
But then Avril says that - and Rebecca looks at her in disbelief, as if she didn't hear her right. She scratches her forehead awkwardly, after a moment bringing herself to smile, "I mean... gosh Avril, when you put it that way it's kinda embarrassing..."
but it felt good too. To have someone call me brave. To say something that makes me feel really reliable. All I can do is admire her composure, but there she is calling me brave when I was scared out of my mind.
"... besides it's a lot easier to be brave when I see you keeping your cool all the time."
She's still all smiles when she gathers over near Avril.
"Almost feels too easy if you're giving us a boost."
DG: Rebecca Streisand has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Purifying Spring.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
On the plus side: the monster is well and truly gone!
On the minus side: ....where are they now?
Dean looks down at the crevice in the earth--who knows how deep it is, though considering it's pitch black there, the answer might well be "deep enough"--and then over at the spring across the way. It seems as good a destination as any, but...
"Say, how do you know you've passed the trial, anyway?" he comments to his friends. "Because Rebecca's totally right, this trial seems *way* too hard for beginners! We've been traveling and adventuring together for a while now, the three of us, and that monster back there was *still* way too hard for us! And then there's this!" He gestures towards the too-wide gap. "How could somebody just starting out manage?"
Still, he smiles when Avril and Rebecca have a Moment. "Yeah, Avril's right! I don't know what we would've done if you hadn't set that thing on fire!" he chimes in, grinning at his childhood friend. As emotionally resilient as ever, one can see; only a minute away from that foul thing and he's already mentally bounced back.
And so as Rebecca gathers near Avril, so too does Dean, so that Lucadia's power can sweep over all three of them. And just in case Lucadia's power alone isn't enough--or if, like usual, the Sea Guardian feels like being a jerk and only favoring Avril--Dean's primed and ready to fire his Freeze Ray on the open air (transparent bridge panels??) between the two connecting points to create points of ice they can jump or run across on!
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Freeze Ray toward his party's challenge, Purifying Spring.
============================<* Trial Cave of Vane *>============================ =======================<* CHALLENGE - Purifying Spring *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Not everything in this cave is despoiled or collapsed. Pure, crystal-clear water lies off in the distance, just barely visible... but between you and it is a pitfall some fifteen feet deep. Falling in might not be deadly, but it'd be pretty miserable. Any plans for getting across? If there was some magical path through, some switch to raise the earth or some hidden invisible bridge... those wonders are gone now. It's just you, your wits, and a pit. This is an unreasonable demand to make of trainee mages. =Dungeon Conditions: Exhaust, Treasure========================================
=======================<* Trial Cave of Vane - Round 3 *>======================= =========================< Results - Purifying Spring >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rebecca Streisand 45 --(5)--> 50 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 50 --(5)--> 55 Pass Sea Medium 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 50 --(5)--> 55 Pass Freeze Ray 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Rebecca Streisand 20 --(25)--> 45 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Treasure(1) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Rebecca Streisand has passed this challenge! The party gained 25 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: Rebecca Streisand has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Trial Cave of Vane *>=========================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Sudden Slide *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- What seemed like a perfectly reasonable slightly downward-pointing slope rapidly becomes treacherous as it floods with magically-created water. Trying to stay standing is a fool's errand at best, and a recipe for disaster at worst; you'll have to simultaneously go with the flow and arrest your momentum if you want to stay safe and not smash face-first into a wall at the bottom of the slope! This is an unreasonable demand to make of trainee mages. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Injure=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"It does seem strange," Avril answers between breathes as they make their retreat. "A trial is meant to test one's abilities, not crush ones hopes and spirits. But, perhaps, it was not always this way -- the city was in disrepair, and perhaps the caverns have also thus succumbed."
Which is a bit of a mouthful to have said while running away from a great monster, but, Avril's ways are ever mysterious.
Though to be fair, the pit before them is an excellent example of this problem. Perhaps there was once a more reasonable solution at hand, but whatever it was, it's now been lost to the ages.
Which just means they'll have to make a solution, as it were.
"...Is it embarrassing?" She holds the Medium before her, its light not yet kindled. "I only say what I mean. That was a terrible foe that we had faced down. Your assistance made a great difference. ...Hmm."
The last is when Rebecca turns a compliment Avril's way, prompting her to consider that facet of herself for the moment.
"I only did as I must, myself, but nevertheless... thank you, Rebecca."
Dean opens fire with a different type of bullet. "Aim over there, near to the edge, Dean," Avril suggests, perhaps somewhat aware of the Sea Guardian's whims.
And with that, summoning forth the power of the Sea Medium, she sends them forward in a surge--
It almost isn't quite far enough.
But this is the point where they land as safe as any upon the platform of ice frozen there by Dean moments before. Safety is found only a few steps more forward.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
And then Dean notices, grinning like a little puppy - in that same way he always has. And her cheeks grow a little pink along the edges, "Well it was pretty quick thinking on my part." She admits, as she let's go of the feeling that she was scared. That journal entry is just going to keep growing in length. But what Avril says, "A little I guess..."
But what she says next, "Do what you must huh? When you put it that way it sounds... like you're not giving yourself much credit. Just because you need to do something doesn't make it easy."
Like... telling someone how she feels, for example.
Fortunately the two of them make the leap extra easy. And she lands lightly on her feet on the ice bridge Dean creates, sliding around in a circle before giving a little salute like she's tipping a hat that isn't there.
Speaking of unreasonable things to demand of trainee mages...
It's a corridor that's a slight slope pointed downward. "This has gotta be a trap..." Rebecca remarks. "... let's be careful." As she asks for caution. And it's only a few steps down it as suddenly a sound as a glyph flares to life, creating a globe of water that starts to gush like a legion of fire hydrants! "REALLY!?"
Rebecca just takes off running, hands slicing through the air to try to keep ahead of it - the flow of water gushing past their heels but a greater torrent coming soon enough.
THE GOOD NEWS: The end is in sight!
THE BAD: WELL: "Dean - Avril! If we get caught up in that it's gonna smash us into that wall! Do the thing again!"
What thing does she mean? Well - they both just did it not long ago. The Sea Medium and Freeze Ray both seem astoundingly well suited for this... if used correctly.
DG: Rebecca Streisand has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Sudden Slide.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"Oh. That... actually makes a lot of sense," Dean admits when Avril offers a suggestion as to why the Trial Cave seems so unreasonably difficult. "I mean, that apprentice guy admitted they don't even maintain the entrance." Technically he said they don't have the budget for maintenance, but in Dean's eyes, that's the same thing. If this Trial Cave is so important to them, what's it matter how much it costs? (Ah, childhood, and the blissful ignorance of how money rules the lives of adults living in a capitalistic society.)
Doing what you have to doesn't make it easy, huh... "You say some really deep things sometimes, huh," Dean comments thoughtfully to Rebecca. He's oblivious to the way this could sound *super* jerkish. But then Avril directs the fire of his Freeze Ray, and Dean obliges, aiming for the opposite ledge. A moment later, and that's *exactly* where they land.
"Great thinking, Avril!" he enthuses. "Man, if we'd been short those few steps... I don't even want to think about it!"
They probably wouldn't have plummeted to their deaths. But grabbing hold of a ledge, and then climbing back up, would have been grueling at best.
Dean grins at Rebecca's smooth moves before the three of them move forward. The spring is a nice spot to wet their throats, and after that, there's a downward slope, leading to... who knows where. Rebecca names it a trap, and that hadn't occurred to Dean at all, but he nods regardless. Sure enough, a moment later, it starts to flood, the magically-produced water shoving them *way* too fast downhill.
"Woah, woah, *woah*!" he utters as he too picks up far too much speed far too quickly. Rebecca makes a sound point, and he nods firmly, already raising his paired ARMs. "I'll try to freeze a slope we can slide against! I'll leave the rest to you, Avril!" he calls as he fires the Freeze Ray to do precisely that. A curve forms against the wall, one they could potentially slide into safely as long as they don't pick up too much more speed... Perhaps that's where the Sea Medium comes in?
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Freeze Ray toward his party's challenge, Sudden Slide.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"Is it?" Avril asks, glancing sidelong at Rebecca. "I suppose I do not think of it that way. If there is something that I must do, then I must do it." She tilts her head as if in thought, considering this elemental nature of herself for the first time. "Hmm... perhaps the person I used to be also felt that way."
The sword plunged deep into the Quarter Knight's chest, and Avril knew with certainty that this was not the first time she had committed such an act. Even the feel of flesh yielding against blade had been familiar.
Her eyes hood; she instead presses her hand against the Medium.
And for a moment, they fly.
"Hmm. I'm certain we would have thought of something," she suggests, as he wonders about their fate had the block not been placed there. She still has the Medium in hand as they pause by the spring, before they press on through the corridor that slopes downwards.
"Of course. We'll proceed slowly, Rebecca."
Though perhaps, not slowly enough.
"Aah--" She turns for a moment to regard that sphere of water, a hand raised to her lips. This is done before she shakes her head and, chasing after Rebecca, bolts down the slope.
The Medium is still in hand. A fortunate thing as they plunge downwards, water lapping around their heels -- the promise of a worse fate starting its roar behind.
"Yes, if we freeze the water--" she gasps out, tossing a look back over her shoulder at the path of the deluge to come. Worry criss-crosses her expression before she shakes her head. "Dean, Rebecca, prepare yourselves! I'll use the Medium's power to control our speed!"
Light flashes from the Sea Medium, in tempo with the spread of frost along the water lining their path. "Lucadia-- bless us with your grace!"
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Sea Medium toward her party's challenge, Sudden Slide.
===========================<* Trial Cave of Vane *>=========================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Sudden Slide *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- What seemed like a perfectly reasonable slightly downward-pointing slope rapidly becomes treacherous as it floods with magically-created water. Trying to stay standing is a fool's errand at best, and a recipe for disaster at worst; you'll have to simultaneously go with the flow and arrest your momentum if you want to stay safe and not smash face-first into a wall at the bottom of the slope! This is an unreasonable demand to make of trainee mages. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Injure=========================================
======================<* Trial Cave of Vane - Round 4 *>====================== ==========================< Results - Sudden Slide >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rebecca Streisand 50 --(25)--> 75 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Avril Vent Fleur 55 --(25)--> 80 Fail Sea Medium 2 Agility Effects: Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dean Stark 55 --(15)--> 70 Pass Freeze Ray 2 Agility Effects: Quicken ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Rebecca Streisand 45 --(10)--> 55 Fail Conditions: Hesitate(2)|Injure(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Rebecca Streisand 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> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
You know - it's always interesting hearing about who the person Avril used to be might have been, based on her feelings now. It makes her wonder though.
What kind of person used to believe something like that?
"Huh!?" She then jolts up at Dean's remark. Does that mean Dean thinks she's a deep person!? "You think? I just... well... guess I have a lot on my mind lately."
But she had to admit that she wouldn't do so much thinking if not for Avril and Dean and this whole journey. It used to be her thinking was on her future, and examining her feelings. Now. Now the net has kinda widened to thinking about people and the world. She didn't know what she wanted to do with any of those thoughts. Dean was the doer after all.
But they were still things she was thinking about all the same.
"Go for it Dean!" The good news! Dean makes their uncontrolled descent a little more controlled based on freezing the water pushing them along. The bad news is they're sliding even faster, even if their footing is more sure than rushing water. And when Avril adds in her efforts- "Alright! We've-"
Well the bad news is that they just reached the wall. But thankfully Avril's medium creates a cushion of water for them at the last moment. All three of them splash into it- and hit the wall with less than bone-crunching force.
When the three exit the tunnel not long after, soaked and battered and bruised, Rebecca declares as she rings water out of one of her braids, "I bet that smarmy little apprentice is making this extra hard for his own amusement. I bet he's getting a real kick out of this."
-=-=-
Not far away. Said apprentice depresses the glyph used to control the cleaning system. That whole thing was just something to pipe sluice water in to wash up after each trial. It wasn't actually a part of the trial.
But he definitely got a kick out of punishing them for his own amusement, "Heh heh."
DG: Dean Stark has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Trial Cave of Vane *>============================ ===================<* CHALLENGE - Door Stuck! Door Stuck!! *>=================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- At some point in the centuries between active use and the present, this door -- once used to gate two disparate segments of the Trial Cave -- rusted solid. Honestly, for most Drifters, this sort of thing is almost old hat. The only way in which this door is particularly galling is in its sheer insistence on being stuck; it's entirely possible there's something stuck behind it. And while for Drifters this sort of thing is pretty traditional... This is an unreasonable demand to make of trainee mages. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"Well, it's not like you're *wrong*..." Dean remarks to Avril, of doing what one must. Then he shakes his head. "No, you're actually spot on! When there's something you need to do, you just gotta go for it! But... I don't know. When you say it, it sounds..." He trails off, unsure of how to phrase it. *Cold-blooded* was the word that had popped to mind--but even Dean has the sense that this would be an unnecessarily mean word to use. Eventually, he shakes his head and drops the topic. He doesn't even know what he's trying to get at.
To Rebecca, he nods firmly. "Yeah! Well, you've always been smart and stuff, so looking back, it's no surprise. Now if you'd only stop bugging me about every little thing!" He says this as a joke, but... honestly, there's a kernel of truth in there too.
The three of them hurtle towards the wall below! They manage not to break every bone in their body, but it's a hard landing all the same. Dean's pretty sure he'll have bruises for days. He groans as he rubs where he landed, then offers a hand to Avril if she needs it getting up. Otherwise, he'll be wringing ice-cold water out of his jacket. Of all the days to be wearing a bare midriff...! (Like he hasn't been wearing that all the time since they got to Lunar.)
"I'm sure he's not *that* much of a jerk," Dean says to Rebecca, unaware that the apprentice *is* that much of a jerk. "If they can't even keep the entryway clean because they're so cheap, there's no way they'd be able to monitor us! How much would *that* cost?"
As the three of them move further inwards, perhaps using Rebecca's fire magic to warm themselves and dry off after they've wrung out their clothes, the trio eventually reaches... a door. It's rusted shut, and pushing against it gives one the sense that there's something on the other side providing extra resistance. Dean gives it a few good hard pushes before at last he steps away, retrieves his shovel, White Fenrir, from behind his back, and then *jams* the edge between the door and its frame. Then he attempts to use White Fenrir to *force* this dumb rusted door open. Hey, how hard could this be?
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"..." Silence meets Dean's assessment of the situation.
The sort of person that Avril was... Avril herself has some speculation on that. No memories to speak of, nothing concrete she can name. Just the dreadful familiarity that comes with certain acts... and the conviction that joins certain styles of thought.
Even now, she does what she feels she must.
Who was she?
Who will she become?
Who is she now?
"Yes," she says ultimately, before pressing on to the cave.
As if to suggest, she knows what it must sound like.
And after that, with the glyph, the slope, and the terrible revenge courtesy of the apprentice, it's a discussion that may be left on the sidelines, at least for now.
The bad news that ensues is considerable.
The good news though: they're only battered, bruised and soaked. There's no question that this situation just might have gotten worse for them here.
Dripping as they perhaps limp out of the tunnel they ended up in, Avril pauses a moment to wring some water out of her hair -- etherial looks or not, sometimes you've got to be practical about things, and at the moment, that entails not dripping entire pools around her as they continue their exploration of the trial cavern.
Long hair is tragically good at holding water, and drying won't come easily in a cave like this (outside a spot use of some magic -- at least there's the presence of the Sea Medium to tend to those many many bruises). Still, with luck no one will catch a cold...
"A door... Dean, is it stuck?" she asks, leaning in as he applies a shovel to the situation in an attempt to pop the portal open.
"Hm..."
Approaching it, she leans in as he attempts to pry it open with the shovel, placing her hand on the surface of the door.
She closes her eyes and...
It blooms like frostflowers under her fingertips, the chill spreading far and wide across the surface of the door, cold sinking deep into the metal.
Weakening it.
This is not the power of a Medium.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Door Stuck! Door Stuck!!. DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool The Trusty Shovel toward his party's challenge, Door Stuck! Door Stuck!!.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
Cold-blooded is similar to what she was thinking too. But she had discarded it. Because... well. Avril isn't someone she likes to think of like that. She thinks the best of Dean even if he could be a little dumb, and she thinks the best of Avril even if she's a space case sometimes - but now she's coming to realize when she's a space case she's actually thinking really deeply too?
Avril's silence is not one she wants to analyze.
Rebecca is taking it as such a compliment but then... Dean may say it as a joke, but Rebecca almost reflexively replies - 'I bug you because I care about you you dope!' Almost. It's like a moment where she mentally claps her hands over her mouth. Instead she just just looks away, "Well maybe I bug you for a good reason..." She mumbles.
Thankfully there's something to get her mind off that - "You think? I would have just thought they'd use secret passages or something where we can't see them... but Dean I think you're underestimating how petty people can be!"
She absolutely does dry them all off at first opportunity.
Once they get to the rusted door - "Well... let's see if we can get it open." -she takes out her revolver, and aims off a few shots at the hinges. If they're rusted - maybe she'll manage to break them enough that Dean can pry it right open?
But shen she's caught watching Avril work her frost magic. "Huh. I didn't know you could use Lucadia's power like that."
Rebecca doesn't know much about magic at all...
DG: Rebecca Streisand has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Door Stuck! Door Stuck!!.
============================<* Trial Cave of Vane *>============================ ===================<* CHALLENGE - Door Stuck! Door Stuck!! *>=================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- At some point in the centuries between active use and the present, this door -- once used to gate two disparate segments of the Trial Cave -- rusted solid. Honestly, for most Drifters, this sort of thing is almost old hat. The only way in which this door is particularly galling is in its sheer insistence on being stuck; it's entirely possible there's something stuck behind it. And while for Drifters this sort of thing is pretty traditional... This is an unreasonable demand to make of trainee mages. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
=======================<* Trial Cave of Vane - Round 5 *>======================= =====================< Results - Door Stuck! Door Stuck!! >===================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rebecca Streisand 75 --(20)--> 95 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 80 --(20)--> 100 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 70 --(10)--> 80 Pass The Trusty Shovel 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Rebecca Streisand 55 --(5)--> 60 Fail Conditions: Bad Luck(2)|Hesitate(1)|Injure(1) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Rebecca Streisand has failed this challenge! The party gained 5 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Avril Vent Fleur has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Trial Cave of Vane *>============================ ===================<* CHALLENGE - Elemental Weakness Test *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- At first glance, the puzzle seems simple: eight elemental globes on the wall, cranks to rotate, an appropriate order of two sets of four. The problem with that, unfortunately, is that each crank moves three elements around. A prospective puzzle-solver needs to be aware of both the ways in which elements interact with each other /and/ the particulars of the puzzle itself in order to proceed. This is an unreasonable demand to make of trainee mages. =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Bad Luck=======================================
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean doesn't know what to make of Avril's silence. "Sorry," he says, just in case. Still, it doesn't look like she's hurt or upset, so that's good. Rebecca mumbles something, and he looks at her and says, "Huh? What'd you say?" Rebecca may or may not follow up on that, though the flames of her magic do a lot to warm them up and dry them off. Colds are pretty unlikely this time around, fortunately!
Rebecca tells Dean he's underestimating the pettiness of humanity. His mouth twists to one side. "Maybe," he says. "But I still hope I'm right. The world would be a sadder place if that guy really is as mean-spirited as you think he is."
But soon, door. "Yeah," Dean tells Avril. "It's rusted good and solid. Still, I'm sure we can force our way through if we keep at it!" He keeps heaving, and Rebecca shoots the hinges, and Avril calls up frost blossoms to weaken the integrity of the door... It's not the power of a Medium, but... if it's not, what else could it be?
"Hm?" he utters, looking around when Rebecca calls attention to it. "Huh! Maybe it's the other Medium? The, uh... Aru Solato, I think? The Ice Guardian! You know, the one Avril got from the Guardian Temple?" Dean, for his part, got one of the Fire Guardian--though its power is supportive rather than offensive--and Rebecca got... what was it she got again?
Well, regardless, despite their combined efforts, the door doesn't budge. Oh, sure, technically it might move maybe an inch or so, but what good does that do the three of them, who are definitely more than one or two inches wide? Still, there's no other way forward, so they just have to keep trying!
And keep trying.
And keep trying.
And keep-- Look, it's easier just to say it takes them a long-ass time to finally prise the door open wide enough that the trio can slip through, and it leaves the three of them exhausted. Dean's not one to give up easily, if ever, but he's reaching the limits of even his considerable energy reserves.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"Ah?"
Avril blinks, the moment Dean apologizes. She shakes her head. "...No, there isn't anything for which you must apologize. It's, hmm... something to consider..."
Her gaze yet gains no cheer--
--at least not until the point wherein Dean and Rebecca banter, like the old friends they are, and this prompts Avril to giggle, one hand lifted to her lips.
And at least the three of them catching a chill is now more statisically unlikely.
Particularly when Avril applies that power to the door itself.
"..."
In the end, Avril shakes her head and pulls her hand away.
"No. This power is not of Lucadia, or any of the Guardians. This power..." She takes a step backwards, extending a hand and uncurling her fingers to there manifest a single shimmering shard of ice, "...is my own."
Her gaze travels between both of her friends. "...I apologize for not mentioning it earlier. I had been worried that even attempting to use it might be dangerous. I had wanted to understand more of the nature of magic, first." Her gaze tilts away. More to the point, she had feared that it might transport her into that strange fugue state once again. "It appears, however, I have gained some control over it. ...Ever since the battle in the Pleasing Garden... I've possessed an understanding of it, if only partially. Perhaps that encounter stirred something in me? ...I cannot say. I had hoped to perhaps learn more by undertaking this trial, but..."
But this is no mere trial, unless it's a trial by fire.
Or a trial by door, as the case may be. Mysterious magic or not, the door remains jammed until their collective struggle finally cracks it open, allowing the exhausted trio passage beyond.
...A small chamber awaits them on the other side.
There are globes arranged in small circuits, before which there are cranks, such that turning a crank will shift their position one way or another -- or, rather, that the crank will shuffle three of the globes around.
First complication: there are eight globes.
Second complication: the globes are marked with strange symbols. Some investigation will reveal that they're representing the eight main elements of magic and the world, but the markings are rather faded.
And then there's the third and final complication: what is the nature of this puzzle?
There aren't any signs. Or hints. Or anything at all to suggest the recommended order, or what was even suppose to be tested here.
Avril spends a few moments gazing at the orbs and the sequence they are set in before suggesting, "Perhaps if we were to start with light at the left..."
Though this presupposes a reading of left to right to begin with.
Wait, what's light strong against again?
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Elemental Weakness Test.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
Rebecca finally replies with. "I said that maybe I'll stop bugging you when you grow up a little, Dean!" She amends, because even if Dean is Dean, maybe he'd figure out what she just said before has a deeper meaning. Maybe. It's unlikely but she's not taking the risk he figures out she has a crush on him because if he found out because of an accident rather than him falling madly in love with her and confessing first she'd just die on the spot.
That's how it's supposed to be anyhow! The boy pursues the girl... not the other way around.
Dean theorizes that it's Aru Solato - and Rebecca's eyes light up, "Oh right!" She'd forgotten that Avril had received that Medium but- Avril mentions that... it's her own!? And Rebecca seems a little stunned at this revelation. What kind of girl from Filgaia has the power to freeze things with her hands? Well - apparently the same kind that fall out of the sky riding golem hands.
"Hey you don't have to apologize - that's pretty sensible of you to be cautious with it. These kind of things you have to be careful with. I'm just glad you learned how to control it!" She sideeyes Dean with sly look, "And I mean if you'd told Dean earlier he probably would have been bouncing all over the place trying to get you to show him your ice magic - and that might have been disastrous."
Cracking open the door is a struggle. Rebecca eventually resorts to just alternating blasting it with every element possible between attempts to help Dean and Avril pry it open.
She's exhausted though after from calling on her Medium so many times.
And then - "Great." Rebecca groans in response to the puzzle. Then opens up her travel diary, turning hastily to the page of the section she wrote down. It's like a cliff notes on Althenian Sorcery. "So Vane... Vane doesn't consider Light and Shadow to be true elements. They're not really studied. That's more the province of Althena's Church... and their..."
She scratches her brow, "Litanies? So it's a safe bet they're excluded somehow... probably excluded in a way that keeps them opposed to each other? I'm gonna bet the other elements are arranged... in some order of what they're strong or weak again."
DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Rebecca's Travel Diary toward her party's challenge, Elemental Weakness Test.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
'This power... is my own.'
"Oh," Dean says. Then he remembers the time with the Cascade gang, and the time with Kaguya, and the time with Lady Harken, and... "*Oh*," he repeats, comprehension dawning. "Ohh, that explains a *lot*..." He gives Avril a worried look, but like Rebecca, he waves off her apology. "Nah, it's okay! There's no wonder you'd be worried about it." Ever since the Pleasing Garden... in other words, ever since the fight against Lady Harken. Dean nods. Yeah, that makes sense too. "If we can help you out with anything at all, just let us know, okay?"
And then-- "Wh--hey!" Dean opens his mouth again to protest Rebecca's accusation that he'd have tried to get Avril to show off her innate ice magic... but then he laughs sheepishly and rubs a finger under his nose instead. "Actually... you're probably right!" He turns thoughtful then. "I thought Filgaians had to use... you know, things to use magic, though. Focuses? Like Crests, Symbology tattoos, Mediums... That kinda stuff. I don't know a *lot* about magic, but I know that much, at least. I heard that Lunarians can be born with it, though--maybe you really are from Lunar, Avril? That'd explain why we had no luck finding Johnny Appleseed no matter where we went."
Though if that's true, why does the name Johnny Appleseed also exist on Filgaia? Gounan certainly's been producing their famous apple wine for far longer than there were Lunarians spirited away to the Blue Star. That implication doesn't hit Dean, but... maybe Avril or Rebecca--or both--will pick up on it instead.
Speaking of magic, though, there is a *puzzle* here, and it's a puzzler of a puzzle. What's worse, it's on magical elements, and Dean... only kind of grasps those. He knows fire, water, earth, and wind well enough, but the extra table? That's a little more opaque to him. Especially when you factor in Lunarian quirks, such as--
"Litanies?" he echoes as Avril gives the puzzle a good hard once-over. "What're those?" He scratches his head, whether it gets explained or not, and then looks at Avril as she attempts to at least start on it. "Uhhh... This is beyond me... but if there's anything that's out of reach that needs hitting, let me know and I'll shoot it!"
Honestly, one might be tempted to shoot this puzzle regardless.
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Standard Cartridge toward his party's challenge, Elemental Weakness Test.
============================<* Trial Cave of Vane *>============================ ===================<* CHALLENGE - Elemental Weakness Test *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- At first glance, the puzzle seems simple: eight elemental globes on the wall, cranks to rotate, an appropriate order of two sets of four. The problem with that, unfortunately, is that each crank moves three elements around. A prospective puzzle-solver needs to be aware of both the ways in which elements interact with each other /and/ the particulars of the puzzle itself in order to proceed. This is an unreasonable demand to make of trainee mages. =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Bad Luck=======================================
=======================<* Trial Cave of Vane - Round 6 *>======================= =====================< Results - Elemental Weakness Test >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rebecca Streisand 95 --(5)--> 100 Pass Rebecca's Travel Diary 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 100 --(10)--> 110 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 80 --(5)--> 85 Pass Standard Cartridge 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Rebecca Streisand 60 --(15)--> 75 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(2)|Reckless(2) Effects: Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: Avril Vent Fleur is too exhausted to continue! DG: The party led by Rebecca Streisand 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. DG: Rebecca Streisand has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Trial Cave of Vane *>=========================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Broken Puzzle *>======================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Praise Althena. What looks like it used to be an unnecessary, overcomplicated, and frankly trial-padding puzzle is now just a giant pile of nonsense objects in your way. On the one hand, it's going to take forever to clear unless you just blow it all to hell and back with bombs and magic, which is admittedly not the worst idea in the world. On the other hand, this is a moment of damn near serene contemplation in a place like this. What knowledge was lost here? What knowledge was gained by those who were forced to complete this puzzle previously? Do all ancient ruins guard their secrets so jealously? Was the designer of the puzzle alive to see its collapse? Were they seraph, human, beastman? Is this entropy the ultimate fate of all things? Can any knowledge, any artifice truly be considered to be permanent? Contemplating these questions... This is an unreasonable demand to make of trainee mages. =Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
There are a number of reasons why Avril was reticent about it... and as of their arrival and settling on Lunar cautiously testing what she was able to do with the magic that seemed to be so innate to her.
"Is it? I'm glad to hear that from you, Rebecca. ...And you, as well, Dean. Again, I did not intend to keep this a secret."
not when there are so many other secrets she feels she at least partially knows
"...It does feel much better to speak of it now, of course. It is as if a weight has been removed from my shoulders." As if to underscore this point, her shoulders do indeed... relax a little.
But isn't this sort of magic unusual for a Filgaian?
"Yes," Avril agrees, inclining her head in a nod. "That is also my understanding. Magic such as this is, to my knowledge, not possible on Filgaia." She smiles, a little ruefully. "...It may be that I am not a child of Filgaia after all." Though, she still pauses, inclining her head as if to speculate. "Or perhaps, there are possibilities of which we are unaware? I do not wish to presume prematurely. Nevertheless, perhaps some time spent in Vane may be worthwhile. It's possible that the Church may also know more. A Lunarian mage of either stripe may be able to shed light on this."
Because if she is from Lunar... that still leaves a lot of details in question. What of the Golem? What of the people searching for her on distant Elru?
How long have people been in transit from the Moon and back again?
And there is as always the question of the elusive Johnny Appleseed: man, title, and popular drink.
"That would be religious teachings, Dean," Avril answers, glancing over at her friend. "...Oh, I see. Then, perhaps we should place Light and Dark at furthest ends from one another. For the rest, hmm, perhaps start with Fire...? That would be the element closest to Light."
As it happens -- and as Rebecca is able to suss out rather quickly -- the correct positioning would be mirrored from the order Avril suggested -- Dark to the left, Light to the right. And so on, in between the excluded elements. Some rapid-fire shooting to keep things moving quickly -- the switches are made of extremely durable stuff -- speeds up the otherwise tedious job of getting the right spheres into the right order.
The door clicks open at last. Success!
And this is the point where Avril sets herself down on a nearby pedestal (...Was there another heretical element here?) and closes her eyes briefly. "...I feel a little light-headed. Perhaps that use of magic before was an overexertion... I shall be more cautious next time. I will follow after you, but please, proceed. I should be fine shortly."
Eyes still closed, she exhales a long breath, as still as a statue where she sits.
Wherever she walks, as long as she walks, the wall still stands.
TURN BACK, says the voice.
From where did she come? To where was she going?
To what ends?
Still, she proceeds on her path, seeking the way inwards.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
"Gosh Avril. You think? It never occurred to me that you could be anywhere but from Filgaia... I mean all the clues about Johnny Appleseed have been there, and what about the bounty on your head? ... But then again..." It would explain a lot if she were from here huh? Like how she fell from the sky. And how there are golems on Lunar... "Guess we were right to broaden our net while we were here."
"Litanies are kinda like... healing magic. And support magic. Anything sorta defensive or healing rather than offensive? Wow I still can't believe that's actually a thing though. I mean think about what life in Capo Bronco might have been like Dean if we'd just had a Priest to go to and heal you up every time you ran a fever instead of taking some medicine and waiting it out?"
Fortunately - working together, they manage to get through the puzzle. The door clicking open- and then Avril - "Huh? Hey - are you alright?" She looks behind them nervously, "I don't know about just leaving you right here... what if that monster happens to find you...?" She fusses just a little bit - all the same though, eventually she accedes. "Alright well - we'll just take care of this then swing by to pick you up!"
Carved into a stone archway are the words: The Final Trial
And in an empty room beyond is an old rusted thing that looks like the kind of mecha a circus would use. It's inert as they enter. And it's right beside a giant mushroom tentacle monster that looks to be sleeping-
"Oh my gosh are we going to have to fight both of those things!?"
Rebecca then squints - "Wait a second-" The mecha 'thing' is rusted over and inert in a way where it's going to stay inert. And the mushroom monster is... a corpse. It's petrified.
They're both wedged into the way out of the room. And behind them both are several bookshelves. And behind that is a corridor that's just full of rubble.
Rebecca's eyebrow twitches, "Don't tell me the final trial is just blasting through their old junk!?
She'll get to that in a moment. Standing on a Ley Point and just starting to blast the junk with Solais Emsu's power. Maybe sometimes switching up the point she's standing on - but for right now she's frustrated.
DG: Rebecca Streisand has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Broken Puzzle.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean smiles warmly at Avril and gives her a firm nod. "Glad to hear it! And you know you can talk to us about anything if you need to, Avril. Right, Rebecca?" But... unusual magic. Dean frowns thoughtfully as he listens to Avril go over the possibilities... including the possibility that maybe this is just a form of magic no one knows about. "There's no harm in researching it more, yeah," he says. "And we're already in Vane anyway! May as well make the most of it. Maybe we could each try asking around?"
Religions teachings, healing and support magic. "Oh," Dean says. He turns thoughtful at her example. "Wow, yeah... You're right! I could've gone back to digging in the Hillside Ruins right away instead of resting in bed a week! What a rip-off."
And then Rebecca points out that there was a bounty on Avril's head. He scratches his head. "I dunno--Lucia's from Lunar and she had a big bounty on her head too. Maybe whoever put out that bounty's from Lunar too? Though you got a point about the hints about Johnny Appleseed."
The puzzle is then solved... with a lot less fuss than one might have expected. "Whew! That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be," he says, wiping his brow. He grins ruefully. "Though I bet it would've been a lot harder if you two hadn't been here."
Avril says she's dizzy and needs to sit for a time. "Are you sure you wanna stay here by yourself? We don't mind waiting for you," Dean says. He nods, too, when Rebecca points out that the monster from earlier could come back. Still, Avril nods them forward, and he nods back. "Okay... No harm in checking out what's in the next room, at least. If there's trouble, we'll come back and get you. And if trouble comes to you, don't hesitate to shout for help!"
And so Dean and Rebecca head into ~ The Final Trial ~ together.
It looks like a dump.
Arguably, it *is* a dump. Sure, with a bunch of creepy stuff mixed in, but... a dump of rubble and junk.
"This is so lame," Dean complains, chiming in after Rebecca. He shakes his head. "We came all the way here, so we may as well give it a shot. But I'm starting to think you were right and this was all just a mean trick." He retrieves his trusty shovel, White Fenrir, from under his coat, then gets to working on a straightforward dig through the dump while Rebecca tries to blast the biggest pieces out of the way. But which will last longer--the duo's patience for this 'trial,' or the mass of junk?
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool The Trusty Shovel toward his party's challenge, Broken Puzzle.
===========================<* Trial Cave of Vane *>=========================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Broken Puzzle *>======================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Praise Althena. What looks like it used to be an unnecessary, overcomplicated, and frankly trial-padding puzzle is now just a giant pile of nonsense objects in your way. On the one hand, it's going to take forever to clear unless you just blow it all to hell and back with bombs and magic, which is admittedly not the worst idea in the world. On the other hand, this is a moment of damn near serene contemplation in a place like this. What knowledge was lost here? What knowledge was gained by those who were forced to complete this puzzle previously? Do all ancient ruins guard their secrets so jealously? Was the designer of the puzzle alive to see its collapse? Were they seraph, human, beastman? Is this entropy the ultimate fate of all things? Can any knowledge, any artifice truly be considered to be permanent? Contemplating these questions... This is an unreasonable demand to make of trainee mages. =Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
======================<* Trial Cave of Vane - Round 7 *>======================
=========================< Results - Broken Puzzle >==========================
Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rebecca Streisand 100 --(5)--> 105 Pass
Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Avril Vent Fleur 110 --(X)--> X
Effects:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dean Stark 85 --(5)--> 90 Pass
The Trusty Shovel 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart
----------------------------------< Party >-----------------------------------
Leader: Rebecca Streisand 75 --(35)--> 110 Pass
Conditions: Bad Luck(1)|Reckless(1)|Save Point(1)
Effects:
==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: Rebecca Streisand is too exhausted to continue! DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Rebecca Streisand has successfully explored Trial Cave of Vane!
===========================<* Trial Cave of Vane *>=========================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - Basic Formula Book *>===================== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- This book details many common formulae for magical convenience creation on Lunar, and can be found discarded on one's way out. For a Lunarian mage or an immediate friend thereof, this book is a delightful resource; there are few resources on convenience crafting this comprehensive. Such arts aren't lost, but they aren't exactly commonplace outside of Vane due to the relative paucity of sufficiently talented (often multi-talented) mages. For motivated Drifters, however -- especially those that can provide certain elemental components by other means -- the book is a path to a remarkably comfy Lunarian experience, especially if they can find a wizard to supply the actual baseline casting. Extended-use light, small dark orbs to hover over the head while asleep, self-freezing instantaneous ice packs, and the like are detailed inside. =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
"Right! You can always rely on the two of us!"
"I dunno if their situations are really all that similar though... I mean they're so different. Poor Lucia was all tearful that whole time we got to know her..."
Whereas Avril is calm... composed... cool. She couldn't really see her crying like that?
Facing the final trial together - Dean uses White Fenrir in a junk clearing battle that looks like a montage on some anime. Of a Shounen hero training by clearing this sort of thing. While Rebecca blasts it alternatively. She's feeling light-headed herself but she pushes past it out of pure annoyance.
She really hated this trial.
By the end of it though, Rebecca sorta just sinks to her knees, breathless as the dust settles. "... I don't think... I can take another step..."
There's a light awkward laugh - because the thought occurred to her that maybe she could ask to lean on Dean as he escorted her out properly - but NO SHE CAN'T JUST ASK THAT. Dean has to offer that kind of thing - hopefully while saying something cool like he'll protect her or something.
Instead though she sorta waves a hand tiredly, "Go on ahead Dean! Show those stupid mages that we passed their dumb trial at least!"
As Dean makes it out of the corridor at least - a victory fanfaire plays in the air. Then something pops, and confetti drifts all around him.
There's also a book on the ground. It could be construed as a reward - but it's more that... it's just there. It might even have been blasted out of the junk from before.
And the apprentice mage from before is there: "Well I can't believe it but you actually passed." He clears his throat, "Congratulations on completing the legendary Magic Trial of Vane - a trial that many storied heroes of our past have undertaken. Who knows - maybe you'll be the next one? It comes with membership to the famous Magic Guild of Vane - membership dues are payable immediately upon joining."
He then looks around and shrugs, "Guess you're the only one who made it out huh? Ah well - I'll go extract the other two after my break."
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
No one's more surprised--or pleased--than Dean when, with their powers combined, he and Rebecca manage to clear a path out of the final chamber and whatever was supposed to be here that wasn't a junk pile. "We did it? We did it!! Wow! I guess it wasn't a trick after all!" he declares, beaming over at Rebecca--which soon turns to worry when she sicks down to her knees. "Rebecca!" he calls, running over to her side. "Are you okay? Sheesh! First Avril, now you...! You guys gotta take better care of yourselves, okay?"
He does not, however, say that he'll protect her or anything. Rebecca waves him on, and he nods firmly. "Okay! I'll be right back to get you and Avril!" And then he presses forward...
To the sound of a victory fanfare, and a hail of confetti. He stares around in naked confusion, eyes finally settling on a tome on the ground. He stoops down to pick it up, then turns it back and forth; it's talking about formulas or something on the cover, and he's not sure what that's about, but Avril or Rebecca would probably know, so he tucks it inside his jacket.
Then he looks up at the apprentice mage from earlier. Dean opens his mouth--and then shuts it, when the apprentice talks. Dean frowns. He frowns harder. He frowns *hardest*.
And then finally, with an anger that's rarely roused, he marches right up to the guy and grabs him by the wrist. "Now," Dean says, voice clipped, "you're gonna help me 'extract' them now. You can take your 'break' after you've earned it!"
And then Dean will drag the apprentice, quite literally if he has to, back into the Trial Cave to fetch Rebecca and Avril. He won't let go until his friends are safe.