2018-05-19: Wrong Weylish
- Log: Wrong Weylish
- Cast: Ethius Hesiod, Bethany Liston, Tabitha deVriese
- Where: Weylish Ruins
- Date: 19/05/2018
- Summary: Ethius Hesiod has gathered a pair of adventurers to go explore the Weylish Ruins. It doesn't go well.
DG: A party led by Ethius Hesiod is now entering Weylish Ruins. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
==================================================<* Weylish Ruins *>===================================================
======================================<* CHALLENGE - Malfunctioning Vault Door *>=======================================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 |
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
The foyer of the Weylish RUins ends in a large vault door. Clockwork
mechanisms run across the entire thing, helping to lift it up into the
ceiling when it opens. There is a series of dials to one side, which look
particularly complex...
...and that is the least of your problems, because somehow, they have been
set-up so the door comes slamming down and reopens at regular intervals.
Getting through will take some care and precision.
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Jay and a number of her acquaintances have all decided to attend some fancy function out over in Rolance. Ethius is not pleased with this decision. There are certain matters of interest further out into the wilderness he believes are of more import than rubbing elbows with people that - if he has his way - everyone will get away from and never see or bother ever again. (He does not get his way very often.)
By whatever circumstances that bring this team together, Ethius is able to locate a reasonably safe route through Aifread's Hunting Grounds towards the entrance to the ruins - marked helpfully by four pillars as a landmark. The stairs lead through a place that seems less carved out of rock and more... manufactured... into something else. Metal supports line the entire way, as they come up to a great vault door full of fancy clockwork mechanisms. Ethius has seen this door open a few times and knows how to get it open. The process is abstracted for expedience.
"What lies beyond, I need not remind, is--"
SLAM. The door shuts. Ethius stares blankly.
It opens.
"What lies beyond, I need not remind, is--"
SLAM. The door shuts. Ethius stares blankly.
It opens.
"...Peculiar. I believe that--"
SLAM. The door shuts. Ethius stares blankly.
It opens again.
Ethius brings a hand to his forehead. It's obvious that they're all going to have to run through the narrow window of opportunity to cross without the vault slamming closed and crushing them. Mindful of some of the mechanisms on the ground as to not trip on them, Ethius ties a harness to some patchy-lookin' sack and goes about chanting and gesticulating a heat-based Symbology spell of appropriate yield. With a short running start, he hopes to float through the opening while putting the risk that he'll trip over something and leave himself vulnerable to having his spine pulverized to something much closer to zero.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Hot Air Sack toward his party's challenge, Malfunctioning Vault Door.
<Pose Tracker> Bethany Liston has posed.
One part of this adventuring party is here partly to make sure that when Ethius does something that should shatter all his bones, there's someone on hand to treat the injuries. That and because she still owes him for the Serpent's Coils back on Filgaia. Based on her last few sojourns, Dr Bethany Liston is prepared for things to get messy, and has prepared supplies accordingly.
Unfortunately, it looks like things are going to be difficult from the get go. Bethany hefts her bag, and sighs. "Is extremely dangerous, and so on?" She says, taking a guess at finishing Ethius' speech. "Doesn't seem so different from usual, then."
Sadly, not everyone can get through with fancy symbology and clever science. For her part, Bethany takes a few tries to evaluate the pace of the slamming door, and then, with little other option available to her, sprints for it. It's not elegant, but with any luck, it will do the trick.
DG: Bethany Liston has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Malfunctioning Vault Door.
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
So a priest, a doctor, and the king of planet No Fun walk into a dungeon...
It's not actually terribly hard to get Tabitha deVriese to come along; if the girl is present she's almost eager to stick her nose in something interesting, and the activities of drifters going about digging seems to fascinate the Etone (ordinand). She does not do much to hide her affiliation, inasmuch as her stations of office are not worn on the outside of her INCREDIBLY Wasteland-styled long, heavy traveling dress. She sets about examining the pillars while Ethius talks, tucking long blonde hair behind her ear. "Sorry," she says, offhandedly. "I couldn't hear what you don't need to remind me about because of the mangling defective vault door thing." She purses her lips, tipping her head a little at the pillars, before spinning around to examine the Masher - er, that is, the door. She considers. She glances down at the hefty metal brace on her wrist, her other thumb gliding over it thoughtfully, as if doing so had revealed some unseen secret.
Then she shrugs, takes a few steps back to get a good running start, and just runs up and throws herself through it, bulleting through the gap! Probably!
DG: Tabitha deVriese has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Malfunctioning Vault Door.
==================================================<* Weylish Ruins *>===================================================
======================================<* CHALLENGE - Malfunctioning Vault Door *>=======================================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 |
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
The foyer of the Weylish RUins ends in a large vault door. Clockwork
mechanisms run across the entire thing, helping to lift it up into the
ceiling when it opens. There is a series of dials to one side, which look
particularly complex...
...and that is the least of your problems, because somehow, they have been
set-up so the door comes slamming down and reopens at regular intervals.
Getting through will take some care and precision.
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
=============================================<* Weylish Ruins - Round 1 *>============================================== ========================================< Results - Malfunctioning Vault Door >========================================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ethius Hesiod 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Hot Air Sack 2 Agility Effects: Resilient ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bethany Liston 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tabitha deVriese 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------< Party >-------------------------------------------------------- Leader: Ethius Hesiod 0 --(10)--> 10 Fail Conditions: Slow(2) Effects: Resilient(1) ===================================================< Dream Chasers >====================================================
DG: The party led by Ethius Hesiod 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. DG: Bethany Liston has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Weylish Ruins *>=============================== ===================<* CHALLENGE - Blocking the Foe's Path *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The next room you enter is two-tiered. You enter on a series of catwalks, which rises above a pit. There are stairwells leading up to the catwalks, along with large stone blocks. These could be moved to block access to portions of the catwalks... which may be a wise idea, for the pit below has animated suits of armor walking to and fro. As you enter, they look up, and then begin to move for the stairs. =Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius' plan to avoid tripping over anything that might be on the ground as part of the door's construction is sound. He fails to properly gauge what clearance he has, and the inflated former loot sack bumps against an overhang, repelling him backwards.
SLAM, the door mocks.
Bethany, resigning herself to the understanding of just how dangerous this line of work is, tries to run through, and...
SLAM, the door slams right in front of her face. That is the best worst case scenario, in which only dignity is sacrificed.
Tabitha takes her turn running for it, and meets similar results.
SLAM, the door just slams to rub it in everyone's face and remind them that it is victorious. Ethius staggers as he arrests his backwards momentum from the handheld hot air balloon being deflected, and returns to his own regularly scheduled staring of the door.
They'll get on the other side of it in due time. It's keeping to a steady rhythm, like clockwork. Once they all find their gumption, what they'll find beyond the--
SLAM. The door slams, interrupting the narration.
(Seriously. Let me finish this pose, stupid door.)
<Pose Tracker> Bethany Liston has posed.
A face full of door being her reward for attempting the simple way through, Bethany curses under her breath and gets ready to take another run for it. Eventually, studying the timing will pay off. Eventually.
At least the room beyond the door is functioning as intended. Provided 'as intended' is 'with moving suits of armour patrolling the place'. The suits of armour make their way up the stairs to the catwalk in a mechanical fashion, brandishing halberds as they do. They'll be dominating the catwalks sooner rather than later.
"Anything you want to try and say before we start dealing with these?" Bethany asks Ethius, before moving towards one of the blocks to shift it to block one of the nearest paths to the trio. "I swear I heard something about these..." She mutters, leaning against the block and pulling out her notebook.
"Well, if the adventurer I patched up last week is to be believed, they're pretty easy to discourage. So there's that going for us." Bethany casts a glance across the catwalks, and gets up to move another block. "I reckon we should split up, see if we can block us up a clear path. Any objections?"
DG: Bethany Liston has used her Tool Patient Notes toward her party's challenge, Blocking the Foe's Path.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Once more, Ethius finds his ears filled with the persistent ticking of the clockwork that runs through everything here. The sheer scope of who those who created this appeared to have envisioned, and that most of it is reasonably intac--
SLAM, goes the door a long ways behind them. Not 'a long ways' enough. But enough of that.
Just as Bethany asks him the important question, Ethius already has in his hand that eyeglass of his. One Symbological incantation for a small spark of electricity later to empower it, he brings it up to one of his eyes. Hopefully he sees something, because that's time not spent pushing blocks!!
"...We may not need to block one of the ways," Ethius mentions as he walks past a block HE COULD BE PUSHING BUT ISN'T towards another block that for some reason he decides is more important to push, "I do not see a connection between mechanisms from that stairwell," and it's amazing he can say this mouthful when the armored suits are busy CLANKING and everything and maybe even devouring a few of those syllables, as he puts his back up against one block and starts to push.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Spectral Lens toward his party's challenge, Blocking the Foe's Path.
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
WONG
Tabitha staggers back and produces a compact from....somewhere, using the mirror to briefly check her face and such for mutilationscuffsetc. She huffs and tucks it away a second later. "Doors," she mutters, before round two.
Sometime after round six, they finally get to a new room. Tabitha quietly reaches in to a small notebook of her own, considering it for a long few moments as she steps on through on heeled boots, blue eyes scanning the room.
Then she shrugs, levers one leg up and SHOVES it with main strength!! That...should not...have worked?
Does, though. Now, was it useful, that's a separate question!
DG: Tabitha deVriese has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Blocking the Foe's Path.
==============================<* Weylish Ruins *>=============================== ===================<* CHALLENGE - Blocking the Foe's Path *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The next room you enter is two-tiered. You enter on a series of catwalks, which rises above a pit. There are stairwells leading up to the catwalks, along with large stone blocks. These could be moved to block access to portions of the catwalks... which may be a wise idea, for the pit below has animated suits of armor walking to and fro. As you enter, they look up, and then begin to move for the stairs. =Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
=========================<* Weylish Ruins - Round 2 *>========================== =====================< Results - Blocking the Foe's Path >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 20 --(5)--> 25 Pass Spectral Lens 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bethany Liston 20 --(5)--> 25 Pass Patient Notes 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tabitha deVriese 20 --(5)--> 25 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Ethius Hesiod 10 --(20)--> 30 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Slow(1) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Ethius Hesiod has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Tabitha deVriese has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* Weylish Ruins *>==============================
=========================<* CHALLENGE - The Chains *>=========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
The next room that you enter is a tall, narrow one. The stone stairs that
lead up have collapsed, but huge chains that run down from a hole in the
ceiling can be scaled. They sometimes shift up and down, as the clockwork
mechanisms on the inside of the ruins shift and move.
If you are particularly observant, though, you may catch a note -- and
before it is pulled into the small hole at the top of ceiling. The note, if
you pull it free, reads:
"The timing has been calibrated to the Black Star's movements. Our curse and
our boon shall not rule us. Time will be our salvation."
=Dungeon Conditions: Tire, Treasure===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Bethany Liston has posed.
Ethius' intuition about which path to not block off is correct, as is the fact that these suits of armour readily turn back when confronted with a block. Tabitha's chosen block stops a suit getting too close dead in it's tracks. With a little extra effort, the trio are easily able to get across the catwalks, no one worse for wear.
"Nicely done, then." Bethany gives a nod to Tabitha, then Ethius,before taking a few moments to catch her breath before the next challenge awaits.
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
It works! Hooray! "Oh, that does do something," Tabitha says, brightly, sounding genuinely surprised as a suit of armor clangs uselessly against the block she moved. She saunters on past, managing to make good time even with her somewhat strutting walk.
Following several varieties of tick-tocking leads to a new challenge, in the form of a room full of chains. Tabitha briefly examines the fallen stairs, then up at the room looming above. "Huh," she says, considering. Then she shrugs, reaching for her brace and fiddling with something there.
Then she flies.
Well, not quite. When she leaps for the chains it's a long, slow arc, entirely unlike what it should be. She grabs the chain and whirls around it like she weighed nothing at all, then leaps to the next. It's a peculiar kind of movement, unnatural in the extreme.
If you've never seen someone spacewalking, anyway. Which you can't do in planetary gravity without some kind of anti-gravitational device. Obviously.
DG: Tabitha deVriese has used her Tool Graviton Shackle toward her party's challenge, The Chains.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The tense moment in which they are being simultaneously threatened by marching suits of armor and the mockery of a door slamming lock clockwork over and over seems to pass without incident, but...
His gaze tracks Tabitha for a short while after she womanhandles a block like it weighed nothin'. (Maybe he is feeling inadequate as a man for his lesser leg strength? He might be all sads and frowns under that yellow bandanna that he always keeps wrapped around the lower half of his face.) He doesn't address Bethany's compliments so much, allowing both women to go on ahead so he can watch their movements a bit more closely.
It becomes more challenging to do so when Tabitha goes leaping. He's standing on the wrong side of her to see what she's trying to readjust on her arm. There is no wrong side to stand to watch her just leap about with such casual, unnatural, gravity-defying ease.
He moves past Bethany, but he couldn't hope to catch up to Tabitha as fast. Getting the harness of the Hot Air Sack back around one of his wrists is one thing. Chanting and gesticulating a heat spell of appropriate yield is another slowing factor. That it drifts at a moderate pace, at best, is yet another issue. That he can't even really ascend with it so much in most circumstances... proves that maybe he might've been better trying to climb the shifting clockwork chains by hand, but at least mitigates the injury risk of falling.
...
That he wouldn't be keen on leaving Bethany behind in an emergency is yet another factor that allows Tabitha a sizable lead.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Hot Air Sack toward his party's challenge, The Chains.
<Pose Tracker> Bethany Liston has posed.
"Hell's bells..." Bethany mutters, as Tabitha just casually spacewalks from chain to chain. At least Ethius' technique makes some sense. It's good old fashioned magic. "That's one hell of a trick."
For her own part, Bethany decides to take things slow and steady, grabbing onto a chain and starting it swinging, before reaching for the next one. It's hardly an easy path, relying on a lot of upper body strength. Basically, it's your standard awkward human movements trying to get from one end to the other without falling to her death. Such fun.
DG: Bethany Liston has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Chains.
=============================<* Weylish Ruins *>==============================
=========================<* CHALLENGE - The Chains *>=========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
The next room that you enter is a tall, narrow one. The stone stairs that
lead up have collapsed, but huge chains that run down from a hole in the
ceiling can be scaled. They sometimes shift up and down, as the clockwork
mechanisms on the inside of the ruins shift and move.
If you are particularly observant, though, you may catch a note -- and
before it is pulled into the small hole at the top of ceiling. The note, if
you pull it free, reads:
"The timing has been calibrated to the Black Star's movements. Our curse and
our boon shall not rule us. Time will be our salvation."
=Dungeon Conditions: Tire, Treasure===========================================
========================<* Weylish Ruins - Round 3 *>========================= ===========================< Results - The Chains >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ethius Hesiod 25 --(8)--> 33 Pass Hot Air Sack 2 Agility Effects: Resilient ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bethany Liston 25 --(13)--> 38 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tabitha deVriese 25 --(8)--> 33 Pass Graviton Shackle 3 Agility Effects: Rally ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Ethius Hesiod 30 --(25)--> 55 Pass Conditions: Tire(2)|Treasure(1) Effects: Resilient(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Ethius Hesiod 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: Ethius Hesiod has drawn a new Challenge.
==================================================<* Weylish Ruins *>===================================================
============================================<* CHALLENGE - A Hidden Cache *>============================================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 |
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
As you move down a hallway, you spot a large stone brick in the wall that
sticks out slightly. It is quite heavy -- and quite large -- but if moved
out of the way or destroyed, you can find a small cache of food hidden away:
well-preserved dried meat.
In fact, all of it is meat...
=Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
Tabitha makes it look almost ridiculously easy, sailing from spot to spot with breezy comfort. She whirls her way up and snatches the note at the top before sailing to the door.
Ethius also has an easy time of it, in the sense that he is not under great threat thatnks to his balloon. Sadly he is not making quick time of it due to shepherding Bethany, who is struggling enough to wind her by the time she reaches the top. The duo find Tabitha firmly rooted to the floor with the expected amount of apparent weight, a notebook out that she is jotting notes in. She looks up at the arrival, and profers the note she found. "Any idea what this means?" she asks, curious. "Sounds important."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
For the times Ethius has to help Bethany are times he has to re-cast heat spells with gesticulations using the hand inside the balloon. That is its own set of challenges. Once he is able to catch up the top, the hooded hoodlum-looking man with the completely out-of-character vocabulary fixes that stare on Tabitha, then to the note, then to some nebulous space in-between.
He says nothing, so that probably means 'nope, has no idea what it means.' He would be content to simply wait for Bethany to catch her bearings after the harrowing climb and then let the two move on ahead again, but...
Just down the halway ahead, there's a brick that looks about ready to fall out of the wall. A trap? He holds a hand out to the others as if to say 'wait, stay,' drawing his quarterstaff as he approaches this brick in the wall.
The way the man approaches it, it's like he might be moving in on an unsuspecting creature, or a TICKING TIME BOMB, or something...
Then he jabs the tip at the brick before taking a short hop back, like he's expecting something to go off. It... doesn't?
Does that mean it's safe to pass? He doesn't seem convinced.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, A Hidden Cache.
<Pose Tracker> Bethany Liston has posed.
It turns out that trying not to die is easier said than done, as Bethany needs regular assistance from Ethius to make it up the chains, breathing heavily. It takes her a few moments to catch her breathe, and a few more to stare at the note. "The hell...is the black star?" She manages to force out after a moment. "Sorry. Can't make heads or tails of it."
As Ethius takes the lead, Bethany pauses for a moment to pop a couple of pills. Painkillers, to dull the ache in her arms from dragging herself up the chains. Is it a reckless use of such medication? Possibly. But she'd rather be a little dulled than having the pain lingering for the rest of the ruins. She looks at Ethius' caution with the stone. The fact that it doesn't explode immediately gets a shrug from Bethany. "Maybe we can shift it?" She asks, before moving over to the stone to try and do just that with her bare hands.
DG: Bethany Liston has used her Tool Painkillers toward her party's challenge, A Hidden Cache.
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
"....huh," Tabitha says, tipping her head and squinting at Ethius with some burgeoning thought. "Well, aren't you just a bucket of sunshine." But she's grinning when she turns away, tucking the note back in her belongings.
She glances to Bethany. "It's the other moon," she notes. "You can see it in the sky sometimes, further out from Filgaia. Looks sort of like it's mirrored or something, which is...weird." She shrugs, taking long, swaying strides as they go.
And go they do, right up to a suspicious wall! Tabitha nearly goes past, but the ejected brick and Ethius' total alarm means Tabitha's interested.
Ethius and Bethany act with great concern.
Tabitha suddenly produces a small handle from her dress that, with a click, telescopes into a FULL SIZED STAFF, which she slams into the brickwork near the exposed brick, twisting until it's embedded. "I'll get it!" she chimes, helpfully.
Then she takes a few steps side ways, leaps up and drop kicks the staff, and from the way it bends, you'd think she landed on it rather than just kicking it. Regardless, tremendous force transfers into the stones.
DG: Tabitha deVriese has used her Tool Telescoping Lever toward her party's challenge, A Hidden Cache.
==================================================<* Weylish Ruins *>===================================================
============================================<* CHALLENGE - A Hidden Cache *>============================================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 |
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
As you move down a hallway, you spot a large stone brick in the wall that
sticks out slightly. It is quite heavy -- and quite large -- but if moved
out of the way or destroyed, you can find a small cache of food hidden away:
well-preserved dried meat.
In fact, all of it is meat...
=Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
=============================================<* Weylish Ruins - Round 4 *>============================================== ==============================================< Results - A Hidden Cache >============================================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ethius Hesiod 33 --(10)--> 43 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bethany Liston 38 --(10)--> 48 Fail Painkillers 2 Brute Effects: Resilient ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tabitha deVriese 33 --(5)--> 38 Pass Telescoping Lever 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------< Party >-------------------------------------------------------- Leader: Ethius Hesiod 55 --(20)--> 75 Pass Conditions: Save Point(1)|Tire(1) Effects: Cleanse|Resilient(1) ===================================================< Dream Chasers >====================================================
DG: The party led by Ethius Hesiod has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Bethany Liston has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Weylish Ruins *>===============================
==================<* CHALLENGE - The Underground Clock Face *>==================
|Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
The heart of the Weylish Ruins is where work was unfinished. As you step
inside of the chamber, you find a huge white clockface. It seems that it was
never lifted to the top of the tower that once rested above the ruins, for
it sits here, pristine. And yet, it is working: the clock hands move and
turn, and all of the machinery here has led to this: a working clocktower
clock, which has never been placed for the world to see.
There are also scores of corpses here. The skeletons of a whole lance of
Imperial Knights lay in repose, bodies decayed over the last two decades,
and garments rended and torn by some great claws. There is, it seems, a
doorway that the knights never made it to, in the clock face.
The door has a complex series of dials on it: a combination lock, not unlike
the one that blocked the entrance. The correct combination must be entered
-- a time of day, it would seem, judging by the dials.
Do look out for the clock hands, though. Some of them swing low enough
periodically to hit a person standing at the door.
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Wound, Injure====================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
What is Ethius expecting of a loose brick that he wants to poke at it until it stops being so offensive? Maybe he's upset about how out of place it looks and he wants this hallway to look nice and even? It doesn't seem to do anything out of the ordinary.
Bethany tries to remove it with her hands. She will find that, though the brick is not aligned properly, it does seem... wedged. If this were a trap mechanism, it's jammed. Bethany solves the problem as thus, it's not a trap of some kind, it's safe to ignore and move o--
Tabitha exclaims she has it, deftly works the tip in there, dropkicks the staff, and then the brick just straight up explodes. There is now a gap in the wall that does not smell of rust, metal, or anything of that sort in the least.
Why, it smells like... meat?
It also happens to look a lot like meat too.
Fully preserved, dried meat, with no clear indication of how it may have been kept viable over the who knows how many years? (There are also some roman numerals, but those are not tasty and thus are free to be ignored.)
Ethius does not partake in the meat, unless he happens to eat by absorbing errant photons of light through eyes that stare, which is a scientific theory worth testing later.
<Pose Tracker> Bethany Liston has posed.
Caution and care really do not seem to be serving too well in the ruins. At least not compared to flashy free floating and destructive prowess. Bethany just sort of stares at the... wall full of meat. Yup. That happened. "...I'll pass, I think."
Moving on from the finest in structural cuisine leads to an unpleasant scene. "Oh hell." The massive clock face, the hidden door, and the remnants of an imperial force. "Here's hoping we don't run into whatever did that."
She pulls out her notebook, scouring the recollections of patients for anything of use with this massive combination lock, or any clues as to the way through. "...Hey, you don't suppose your note has anything to do with this thing, does it?"
DG: Bethany Liston has used her Tool Patient Notes toward her party's challenge, The Underground Clock Face.
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
Tabitha says, "Oh, my, provisions! How fortunate! We are blessed today," with a big smile, and the finds a sack she...happened to have in a pocket? Etones are weird, to toss the meat into. What a lucky day.
In all honesty, she's interested in what state these things are in as much or more than their potential actual use...
Regardless, solving the mystery lets them progress efficiently. Tabitha grabs her lever and flicks it back down into its pocketable form, stepping along behind Bethany and Ethius, as they approach...! A DIRTY GREAT CLOCK
Also, the remainders of a fight.
Tabitha seems more interested in the corpses than the door mechanism, picking over the remains. "Rolance Imperial," she murmurs. "Makes sense, they're what's nearby." Her hands linger on a frayed uniform shirt, fingers slipping in to the rent of claws. "Something huge fought these men," she murmurs. "Interesting..." .... "Also, be careful of very big, I don't know, bears, probably?"
She walks over to the combination. She checks her note again. 'Timing has been calibrated to the Black Star's movements...'
"Maybe," Tabitha offers, and with her other hand, produces her notebook, which she flips open and thums through. "Though I don't have terribly good measurements on the Black Star's movements to even guess at what it means."
DG: Tabitha deVriese has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Underground Clock Face.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ahead of them, a view of the legacy of impeccable workmanship... and another of death, marring the near-completed work of clockwork perfection, as Bethany expresses concern about what could've done what happened here.
"The bodies are not fresh." Ethius states, all too calmly. Maybe it is because he has that bandanna around the lower half of his face, so that he doesn't have to smell all the decay and death in the air. He doesn't seem too alarmed by the prospects of being jumped by whatever did this to the local soldiers, back when.
Rather than consult the note directly on the off-chance anything seems relevant, Ethius stands back and gets out that lens again. The lights that give away a Symbological spell being cast give way to a soft, sort of teal glow from the eyeglass that he uses to spy upon the dials. It's a given that they're connected to the door, as that much would reveal. He squints. He should step a bit closer for a finer look--
--A swinging clock hand nearly clocks him upside his head. Problematic.
...Come to think of it, he's been in this chamber before, hasn't he? Details are a touch fuzzy. Maybe because of how many times he's taken a hit to the head between then and now.
"The dials upon the lock are used to display a time." A time that might be relevant to when the Black Star might be in some culturally relevant place in the day? It's not clear. Maybe with all the endless Althena worship and rituals, some times of day from their time here might stick out more than others.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Spectral Lens toward his party's challenge, The Underground Clock Face.
==============================<* Weylish Ruins *>===============================
==================<* CHALLENGE - The Underground Clock Face *>==================
|Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
The heart of the Weylish Ruins is where work was unfinished. As you step
inside of the chamber, you find a huge white clockface. It seems that it was
never lifted to the top of the tower that once rested above the ruins, for
it sits here, pristine. And yet, it is working: the clock hands move and
turn, and all of the machinery here has led to this: a working clocktower
clock, which has never been placed for the world to see.
There are also scores of corpses here. The skeletons of a whole lance of
Imperial Knights lay in repose, bodies decayed over the last two decades,
and garments rended and torn by some great claws. There is, it seems, a
doorway that the knights never made it to, in the clock face.
The door has a complex series of dials on it: a combination lock, not unlike
the one that blocked the entrance. The correct combination must be entered
-- a time of day, it would seem, judging by the dials.
Do look out for the clock hands, though. Some of them swing low enough
periodically to hit a person standing at the door.
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Wound, Injure====================================
=========================<* Weylish Ruins - Round 5 *>========================== ====================< Results - The Underground Clock Face >==================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 43 --(5)--> 48 Pass Spectral Lens 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bethany Liston 48 --(5)--> 53 Pass Patient Notes 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tabitha deVriese 38 --(5)--> 43 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Ethius Hesiod 75 --(0)--> 75 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Weaken(2)|Wound(2) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Ethius Hesiod has passed this challenge! The party gained 0 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Tabitha deVriese has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* Weylish Ruins *>==============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - The Sealed Armoire *>=====================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
The inside of the clock face is a massive room, where gears, chains, and
clockwork mechanisms make the machinery work. The room itself has an office,
with a wooden desk and crates. It is in a serious state of disarray: much
has been knocked over, and there is a secret door in the wall that leads to
a tunnel one must crawl through.
An armoire catches your attention. It is immense, a huge thing of wood and
steel and brass against one wall. It has three large locks and banding that
makes any effort to open it difficult indeed. However, it could easily
contain something of value -- or perhaps explanation for where this place
is.
Of course, one must be careful to not destroy the inside in opening it...
=Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous==============================================
<Pose Tracker> Bethany Liston has posed.
It turns out that a bit of luck, and some educated guessing gives the correct time. The hour could be considered opposite to a common prayer time that comes up repeatedly in Bethany's notes, while Ethius sets the time appropriately, narrowly avoiding another swing of the clock hands. The door shifts open with an old creaking noise. But the way forward is opened, and the trio are free to advance. They certainly did better than the dead men.
"Yeah, looks like they've been here a while. Still, who knows how long these things can stick around for." Bethany says, her hand reaching inside her medicine bag to check her shotgun is still in place. Still, she moves towards the door, following after those who are more enthusiastic, watching the room they're leaving all the same.
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
"Well, these guys aren't living here anymore," Tabitha notes. "The other guys still might. Or their, like, grandons, or something." She's light on her feet as she hops over a spinning clock hand, floating strangely before she touches back down.
Sauntering in through the door, Tabitha takes a long, considering look around the resulting chamber. "Looted," she mutters, more to herself. "Guess that's expected." Her eys travel to the secret door. "And I guess there's nothing defending it? Lucky!"
She leads the way through into the CHAMBER OF SECRETS.
Where she discovers the thing defending this place.
She grabs the door and yanks hard. It doesn't give her an inch. "That's a heck of a cupboard," she says, wrongly, and reaches for her telescoping lever again. She tries to ease it in between the seam of the door - intent on just prying the damn thing open.
DG: Tabitha deVriese has used her Tool Telescoping Lever toward her party's challenge, The Sealed Armoire.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius spares commentary for the most part, though he does linger a bit longer in the already looted office for some reason. It should be abundantly clear that there's nothing of value left... but when Tabitha goes on ahead and heads through the secret door, he drops what he's doing to follow.
All the way up to the armoire with no less than three locks, an immacuately crafted and built thing made of wood and steel and brass and-- it's a lot to admire in its workmanship.
He leans up to the side of the armoire and rests an ear against it while Tabitha's busy trying to carry on in prying the thing open. His gaze shifts over to her every so often as he satisfies his curiosity about whether or not he can hear anything inside.
He gets out the fogged-up Spectral Lens and goes through the usual casting rituals, for one last look to make sure there isn't some crazy interconnecting devices in play. This turns up nothing.
...
He rests a hand on one of the locks contemplatively as he stands off to Tabitha's right. He's not certain where to begin, unless...
"I do not see a clear way in which to open it from this side," Ethius remarks, as he travels around to the side of the giant armored closet. "I suspect it is facing the wrong direction."
The only way to test this theory is to wear himself out and attempt to somehow shift and move a super-heavy mega-armored thing, as he starts to put what strength he has to muster to try and coax it from its resting place.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, The Sealed Armoire.
<Pose Tracker> Bethany Liston has posed.
Bethany is the last one through the secret door, not having a huge amount of interest in a ransacked office. At least not this time. She continues to focus on watching the groups back until, well, the armoire and two competing methods come into play. Does she help to try and lever the thing open, or to try and move the damn things.
First, she takes a second to down another few painkillers before looking at the armoire again. It's almost like she suspects whatever she's going to do is going to hurt. "I'd say those locks are more the problem."
It's then that Bethany, in a show of brute force and ignorance, gets her shotgun from her bag and attempts to use the stock to bash open one of the locks. They look sturdy, sure, but if there's a weak point, it would seem to be those. She only swears a little as her arms continue to complain at this insistence on being used.
DG: Bethany Liston has used her Tool Painkillers toward her party's challenge, The Sealed Armoire.
=============================<* Weylish Ruins *>==============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - The Sealed Armoire *>=====================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
The inside of the clock face is a massive room, where gears, chains, and
clockwork mechanisms make the machinery work. The room itself has an office,
with a wooden desk and crates. It is in a serious state of disarray: much
has been knocked over, and there is a secret door in the wall that leads to
a tunnel one must crawl through.
An armoire catches your attention. It is immense, a huge thing of wood and
steel and brass against one wall. It has three large locks and banding that
makes any effort to open it difficult indeed. However, it could easily
contain something of value -- or perhaps explanation for where this place
is.
Of course, one must be careful to not destroy the inside in opening it...
=Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous==============================================
========================<* Weylish Ruins - Round 6 *>========================= =======================< Results - The Sealed Armoire >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ethius Hesiod 48 --(100)--> 148 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bethany Liston 53 --(100)--> 153 Fail Painkillers 2 Brute Effects: Resilient ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tabitha deVriese 43 --(100)--> 143 Fail Telescoping Lever 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Ethius Hesiod 75 --(10)--> 85 Fail Conditions: Overzealous(2) Effects: Cleanse|Resilient(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: Ethius Hesiod is too exhausted to continue! DG: Bethany Liston is too exhausted to continue! DG: Tabitha deVriese is too exhausted to continue! DG: The party has failed this challenge! All party members are now Exhausted. This attempt is over. DG: The party led by Ethius Hesiod has been fully Exhausted by Weylish Ruins! DG: The party will now draw a conclusion.
=============================<* Weylish Ruins *>==============================
======================<* CHALLENGE - The Memory Stone *>======================
|Type: Landmark |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
Your efforts to uncover the truths of the Weylish Ruins have ended in vain
-- but not in total loss. Though the secrets of the great clock are not
apparent, you find a massive black stone among the treasures, and unscarred
by the battles that occurred here. It has names written upon it, in modern
language, like some of the notes you viewed.
At the bottom is a hand-carved message: "May they be remembered. May our
failures be forgiven. Know that we tried. Know that we love you still."
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
Tabitha strains against her lever. She pulls, and pulls, and pushes, and pushes, and then it slips free of its seam, sending Tabitha toppling forward onto her face, ignobly.
Ethius tries to move the armoire with the power of HANDS, which is a power that apparently cannot move armoires. He pulls his shoulder. It's going to hurt for like a day.
Bethany does not, in fact, shoot herself in the face, but bashing the lock does nothing and now her fingers hurt from the shock.
Tabitha, helpfully, rolls over onto her back and says, "Hey I found a rock or something!"
It isn't a rock, in that it doesn't quite have the portability 'rock' might imply, in that it is kind of huge, if not so big as to prevent it from being extracted. Tabitha kips-up, easily reclaiming her feet and stepping over to the work. She squats down, eyes alight with interest.
"Something happened here," she murmurs, excited.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
There is no lack of trying on part of the man who seems to be convinced that the appearance of locks and the like are a front - but he underestimates just how well fortified and unassailable this armoire must be, unless one dedicates themselves to utterly annihilating it.
A path that, for whatever reason, he has not elected to go down this day. Just when he gets his gloved hands somewhere he thinks he can grip and pull...
He exhales sharply as pain runs through his left shoulder. He staggers back and away. His shoulder cries for pain for the opposite palm to come clutch it and nurse it back to not-achy health. His opposite palm is a jerk and does not do this.
He turns his head slowly at mention of the rock. A massive black stone full of names in readable language...
It is a curious story. He doesn't match Tabitha's excitement, unless his brand of staring is a perpetual state of excitement and awareness of amazing and or terrible things.
It may also be because they will have to leave the same way they came - through that door that keeps opening and closing.