2018-06-24: Menacing Mount Manfred
- Log: Menacing Mount Manfred
- Cast: Ida Everstead-Rey, Sephilia Lampbright, Talise Gianfair, Layna Manydays, Seraph Lanval
- Where: Zulan Massif - Mt. Manfred
- Date: June 24th, 2018
- Summary: Fox Company finally heads out to the mountain they spotted while traveling up Mount Zulan, so long ago...but it proves to be a difficult, arduous climb. Will they be able to best the mountain, or will it claim them first?
==============================<* Zulan Massif *>============================== The Zulan Massif is the name given to a large area of tundra bordering the northern edge of the Meribus continent. Extending from the northern edge of the Goddess Plains to the mountain ranges, the Massif is a mix of pine forest, permafrost and finally snowfields populated by an assortment of hunters, trappers, and loggers who sell their goods to the rest of the continent. According to local legend, the Massif owes its name to the leader of the region's first colonists, Irritable Stephen, whose description of the region as 'massive' was misspelled as a result of a bout with frostbite. The spelling was formally recognized by the Chief Cartographer of the Magic Guild of Vane; the decade-and-a-half of increasingly acrimonious correspondence between the two remains on display in the Guild library.
DG: A party led by Talise Gianfair is now entering Mount Manfred. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
===============================<* Mount Manfred *>================================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - The Shuddering Bridge *>======================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 |
----------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------
The only way up the mountainside is a precarious footpath that might once
have been a cobblestone road. Up ahead is a decaying stone guard post, which
seems to be an indicator that you're going in the right direction.
Unfortunately, it's at the far end of a wide, steep-sided ravine. At one
point, there was a bridge here, but now the only thing left of that bridge
is a handful of chunks of rock, suspended in mid-air by the Malevolence
saturating the mountainside.
Tension builds in the air. The Malevolence takes hold of fear, indecision,
and anxiety, amplifying them. Little worries seem terribly important, and
deep fears grow all the more ominous. The floating stones shake and whimper
whenever they're touched.
This will not be a pleasant crossing.
=Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Entering a Malevolent Domain is no mean feat, and the one around the peak of Mt. Manfred is especially potent. Not only does the Fox Company have to prepare for the weather--this far north it's still cold, even at this time of year--they have to steel themselves against the Domain itself. The journey to the mountain is blessedly uneventful, aside from several encounters with tense, wary wildlife. This might be the first time Talise has seen a Chiro Mongrel flee at the mere sight of adventurers, but that is certainly a thing that happened about twenty minutes ago.
They're getting close. Malevolence trickles down the path, tense and hot and cold, pulsing like a frantic heartbeat.
Ahead, a guardpost, and the remains of a bridge. Wehaca was consumed by Despair, and Krosse by Fear, but this domain is engulfed by Anxiety. It is bound to make an already perilous crossing even more nerve-wracking.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia Lampbright is normally a font of cheerful energy, but on the approach to the mountainside the bubbly young woman has grown somewhat subdued and quiet. The source of her pensive attitude is fairly obvious...and there's little anyone can do to ease her mind about it as she spies the ravine and the difficult crossing ahead of her.
"Oh, good," she moans, pulling Chauncey out and embiggening him. "This is fun. We can do this, Chauncey..." She slows and takes several deep breaths, trying to calm down. Then, grabbing hang of Chauncey's back, she launches the big plush into the air to leap from rock to rock.
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Shuddering Bridge.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise's coat got torn up by Pearl going crazy on her. She couldn't get all the bloodstains out of it, though if nothing else, most of it was Pearl's. So she burned it.
Her new one has a big warm fur collar. It's taking some getting used to, but at least it's keeping her warm in the Zulan highlands.
It's not doing much to keep her purple inner voice from nattering ugly things at her. Even that Chiro Mongrel knows you're a dead woman, idiot girl. You're going to get Sephilia killed, don't you know that? Tethelle didn't come because she isn't stupid enough to invade a Malevolent Domain.
As she reaches the remains of the bridge, Talise stares across it. "Sephilia," she calls as the girl starts to jump. "Be careful...."
What are you going to tell her parents when you get her killed or turned into a Hellion, idiot girl?
Talise clenches her teeth and shakes her head. "I'm so sick of purple inner voice's shit," she mutters viciously as she squints at the gap in front of her, measuring distance. She takes a few steps back before running and jumping to one of those floating rocks.
She gasps and stares as it trembles and whimpers beneath her. And you didn't even bring a rope, idiot girl. You always fall off the fuggin' ropes. Just like you're going to fall to your death here. Idiot girl. Just kill yourself now.
"Shut up," Talise snarls to herself.
DG: Talise Gianfair has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Shuddering Bridge.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna expected that this wouldn't be easy. That much Malevolence...it reminded her an unsettling amount of Krosse. There's the way it weighs on her, body and soul, makes parts of her question everything. The way it draws out things she'd been keeping inside and brings them out into the open.
"Let's all hang in there, aye...? We just gotta keep moving." Layna says, then draws a bottle out of the warm coat she'd brought with her and takes a deep swig. With that done she breaks into a run and jumps over to the nearest floating rock, using her wind magic to aid her jump.
The next time she crosses paths, she hands the bottle over to Talise. She had a feeling she might need it just as much as she did right now.
DG: Layna Manydays has used her Tool Quartermaster's Stash toward her party's challenge, The Shuddering Bridge.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Nobody will ever forget the day they scaled up Mt. Zulan and caught sight of this. The point where Lanval excused himself from the lot of them on grounds of 'Seraphim things.' Whatever they are. He's never discussed them. When he returned he simply resumed being a loafing oaf who just contented himself with drinking, lying down in inconvenient places, and also not doing the dishes.
They're scaling this mountain now. If he has anything useful to say, he doesn't have anything yet. He's currently keeping himself within the comfiest confines of a much fresher, newly-minted Holy Bottle that has had minimal contact with mortal hands outside of any absolutely necessary circumstances. Who's actually carrying him is kind of a vague matter, at present.
He can hear their anxieties. Sephilia vocally trying to reframe this hazard as fun, even if out of sarcasm. Talise's further batering of the inner voice that bites at her. Layna grasping at her norms of being a captain trying to keep a crew rallied as they live on the fringe.
What is the anxiety of a centuries-old spirit who seems to laugh and laze about whatever sort of life he lived prior to meeting them? He doesn't share.
He shares bubbles instead, bubbles that all flit out from the neck of the Holy Bottle as he uses whatever arcane forces available to him to keep its contents from spilling out under any violent motions or what have you.
Water is said to be fragile and vulnerable to corruption. The pure, shiny, pretty bubbles float through the Malevolence-laden air, like little things just awaiting to be crushed and destroyed by the harsh realities of the world around them. Most don't last long before popping and spilling out onto the snow and rock below, but the message being conveyed might be loud enough to break through those thoughts.
He'll catch them if they fall.
Just like how he might drink the entire bottle of Quartermaster's Stash if both bottle necks meet, but, let's not build any anxiety over something as small as that...
DG: Seraph Lanval has used his Tool Bubble Pipe toward his party's challenge, The Shuddering Bridge.
===============================<* Mount Manfred *>================================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - The Shuddering Bridge *>======================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 |
----------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------
The only way up the mountainside is a precarious footpath that might once
have been a cobblestone road. Up ahead is a decaying stone guard post, which
seems to be an indicator that you're going in the right direction.
Unfortunately, it's at the far end of a wide, steep-sided ravine. At one
point, there was a bridge here, but now the only thing left of that bridge
is a handful of chunks of rock, suspended in mid-air by the Malevolence
saturating the mountainside.
Tension builds in the air. The Malevolence takes hold of fear, indecision,
and anxiety, amplifying them. Little worries seem terribly important, and
deep fears grow all the more ominous. The floating stones shake and whimper
whenever they're touched.
This will not be a pleasant crossing.
=Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
==========================<* Mount Manfred - Round 1 *>=========================== =======================< Results - The Shuddering Bridge >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Talise Gianfair 0 --(10)--> 10 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Layna Manydays 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Quartermaster's Stash 2 Agility Effects: Quicken ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sephilia Lampbright 0 --(10)--> 10 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Lanval 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Bubble Pipe 3 Agility Effects: Rally ------------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------- Leader: Talise Gianfair 0 --(15)--> 15 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ================================< Dream Chasers >=================================
DG: The party led by Talise Gianfair 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: Talise Gianfair has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Mount Manfred *>================================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Phantom Predators *>========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
----------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------
With a roar of wind that soon turns quite literal, a swarm of spectral
beasts emerges from the darkness and homes in toward you, with snapping jaws
and grasping talons. Trying to fight or flee from them seems to work at
first, but they prove very persistent and all too selectively tangible
They snap at your heels. You must distract them before you can elude them,
but how? The surrounding, abandoned buildings could give you something to
work with. Collapsing one of the more precarious ones could at least slow
them down. Or perhaps you have another flashy distraction in mind?
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The crossing goes about as smoothly as one might expect. The platform Talise is on starts trembling beneath her feet, as if it's terrified it won't be able to support her weight--this soon becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The platform tilts, and as ridiculous as the idea might be, she hears a scream that isn't her own as it pitches her into the gorge. Sephilia simply miscalculates the distance she needs to jump--easy to do when the platforms are bobbing all over like this--and doesn't quite make it. Lanval's bubbles help buoy the two up, helping them back to their feet. The platform that dumped Talise starts whimpering, incoherently, as if apologizing.
It isn't long before everyone is reunited on the other end of the gorge, in one piece.
They've attracted attention.
Things start to condense out of the Malevolence, spectral beings that don't quite match up to anything even Lanval and Talise would recognize. They look vaguely feline, but what they seem to be is elemental predatory malice, the sort of thing that reaches back to one's hindbrain and sets off ancient survival instincts. Up ahead, the remains of another guard tower--and crumbling buildings--offer shelter, or perhaps something that can be turned into a convenient barrier.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise grabs the bottle and takes a long swig before passing it back to Layna with a look of intense gratitude.
Then she falls off the gibbering platform. With a gasp she latches on to an outcropping on the edge of the gorge It takes her an awfully long time to climb back up.
Breathing heavily, Talise begins to push her way forward. "Okay," she says with a brisk shake of her... her everything, really. "Okay, new rule, guys. Don't listen to anything purple."
But there's enough purple that listening isn't required for danger to be a thing. Something presses against the back of Talise's mind at the sight of those amorphous shapes beginning to swell out of the ambient Malevolence in the area. Idiot girl. You let Sephilia come here. You're a fool. Just like you lost Ida and Rosaline, now you're going to lose her and Layna and Lanval, and it will be all your fault.
Talise closes her eyes and clenches her teeth. When she opens them again, she snarls and looks up towards the ruins ahead. She can feel danger closing in on her. "Everyone get ready to sprint," she says tensely. "And whatever you do, don't look back."
Talise darts away from the group. Her gauntlets shimmer with power as she darts to the foot of that guard tower. She snaps her right arm back.
"OOOOOORRRRA," she shouts as she slams her fist through it - and the gauntlet's magical strength causes one of the supporting pillars holding it up to begin to give way.
Chunks of masonry plummet towards the ground as Talise attempts to bring the tower down around the phantasmic spirits. She whirls among the falling debris, rushing to slam her fists into another wall, then another. Gotta buy the others time.
"ORA! ORA! OOOOORRRRAAAAAA!!!"
DG: Talise Gianfair has used her Tool Ogre Power Gauntlets toward her party's challenge, Phantom Predators.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephy sees what Talise is doing. "I'll help! Chauncey, let's pull down some of those buildings so Talise can get out here too!"
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Phantom Predators.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna makes it to the other side quickly - with the use of her wind sorcery, she doesn't need to remain on the stone platforms long enough for them to drop back. She's proud for a moment, but that fear creeps into her mind once more and she looks back to confirm that the others are still with her.
She notes with a pang of shock that the others are beginning to fall...but fortunately, Lanval is there to assist them. Layna breathes a sigh of relief.
All of this is made just a little bit more unnerving by the fact that the stones themselves seem almost to be whimpering.
"Aye, lass." Layna replies with a nod. ...But, she can feel that danger, too. Something at the back of her mind screams at her to run, so with a nod toward Talise, she breaks into a run when they get the signal.
As she moves, though, she reaches back and recites an incantation. She leaves a wall of wind behind her, attempting to help keep them away with its cyclonic force.
She doesn't look back...though for a moment, she feels the desire to. She shakes it away, putting her faith in the friends that had come with her to this place.
DG: Layna Manydays has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Phantom Predators.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Everyone got over to the other side. The Seraph-infused bottle... doesn't smile, because bottles don't have lips like that!! He can't help but let out a short laugh of relief, as Talise belts out the new rule.
The laughter is short-lived. The Malevolence coalesces into something he does not recognize in terms of sight or sound. The way the bottle tilts in whoever's grasp or pockets, it's like it wants to slip out.
Lanval catches himself from letting his vessel squirm further as Talise succinctly frames the matter - they got to run, keep going, and not look back.
Talise breaks ahead. Wow! She's a fast sprinte-- away?! She's running away!
Sephy is already on it, with help from her bestest friend (everyone's bestest friend) Chauncey! Lanval himself is not gifted in the art of physically moving things. Being in a Domain, he'd rather not risk manifesting outside of that vessel. Raw, primal fear chews away. What can he say?
"We're comin' ta heeeelp!" That's as much as he can offer. Wouldn't do any good for Talise to throw herself away... that's what all the purple is probably trying to say right now, huh.
DG: Seraph Lanval has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Phantom Predators.
===============================<* Mount Manfred *>================================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Phantom Predators *>========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
----------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------
With a roar of wind that soon turns quite literal, a swarm of spectral
beasts emerges from the darkness and homes in toward you, with snapping jaws
and grasping talons. Trying to fight or flee from them seems to work at
first, but they prove very persistent and all too selectively tangible
They snap at your heels. You must distract them before you can elude them,
but how? The surrounding, abandoned buildings could give you something to
work with. Collapsing one of the more precarious ones could at least slow
them down. Or perhaps you have another flashy distraction in mind?
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
==========================<* Mount Manfred - Round 2 *>=========================== =========================< Results - Phantom Predators >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Talise Gianfair 10 --(5)--> 15 Pass Ogre Power Gauntlets 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Layna Manydays 5 --(15)--> 20 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sephilia Lampbright 10 --(15)--> 25 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Lanval 5 --(15)--> 20 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------- Leader: Talise Gianfair 15 --(15)--> 30 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(1)|Injure(2) Effects: Strengthen(1) ================================< Dream Chasers >=================================
DG: The party led by Talise Gianfair 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: Talise Gianfair has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Mount Manfred *>================================ ========================<* CHALLENGE - Irrational Fears *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ----------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------- A cluster of run-down buildings sits astride the trail ahead. As you approach, the tumble-down walls subtly shift, back and forth, as if breathing. Something moves in the corner of your eye--something you could swear is a limb moving, languidly--but when you look, there's nothing there. The wrecked settlement is simultaneously fallen stone and rotting wood and a massive, unknowable entity, deep in slumber. Or is it? Either way, the Malevolence in the air is doing nothing for the sense of lingering, foreboding dread. Get through as quickly and quietly as you can. =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Layna's wind-wall delays the spectral predators just long enough. The phantasmal beasts find themselves running uphill into a headwind, buying the group a few precious seconds of lead time. Then, abruptly, they slip on through, as though mere magical air pressure could do nothing to hold them back. Horrible howls echo after Talise and Sephy as they reach the tower, and start slamming into it with main strength alone. Chauncey gives it his all, but despite his best efforts, the stone on his side of the tower holds firm. Talise has more luck--her fists find time-worn stone and rotting wood, reducing several key supports to splinters. The tower creaks, groans, and falls, emitting a horrible sound more like the scream of a human being than the collapse of a stone structure. The noise would certainly drive the predators away even if the bulk of the structure didn't slam right down onto them.
There's no sign of them afterwards. There's nothing there but rubble, dust, and Malevolence.
Or is there? The structures around the guard-tower look innocuous enough at first glance--nothing more than a cluster of run-down cottages, probably. But did that one just twitch? Is that one moving rhythmically, like the breathing of some immense creature? It's just your mind playing tricks on you. Right. Right?
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia lets out a moan. A quiet one. "I think...I think we should be careful," she says, voice low. "My Dad's journal has a thing in it on how to tell if things are piles of debris or sleeping monsters, but I think it is probably best if we just...go...carefully..."
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has used her Tool Dad's Journal toward her party's challenge, Irrational Fears.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"Sephy, be careful!" Talise shouts as the girl and her big stuffed friend come trundling in to help.
Buildings crumble. The tower falls. Talise stands with her back to the rubble, stone-faced, her hands held out in what might be a martial arts striker's stance were she actually a martial artist.
"Everyone alright?" she asks, her voice quiet and level, a bit more steely than it was five minutes ago. The gnawing anxiety of this place may still be with her, but she's fighting hard, internally, to silence it and remind herself of what she fights for.
'Why do you walk this star?' asked Ghaleon in her memories as she struggled to land a blow on him.
Talise sets her jaw and strides forward, giving herself a shake. The buildings looming around her are left alone.
Until one twitches. Talise pauses, glancing sidelong at it and watching for just a moment.
"Don't let your minds dwell on it," she murmurs as she opens up a box of cookies. She's at the bottom of Ida's box of Mrs. Mumford's; she kept the container, but the actual cookies are Ramus Select Choco-Crunchers. They taste just as good, at least. Talise begins to hand them out.
Sephilia gets two - one for Chauncey. "Just concentrate on how nummy the cookies are," Talise suggests.
DG: Talise Gianfair has used her Tool Chocolate Biscuits toward her party's challenge, Irrational Fears.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna only looks back at the sound of a massive structure toppling to the ground due to Talise's sheer strength. She offers a grin to her assembled friends, but it fades quickly.
Was there...something moving? She thought she saw something emerge.
A limb, maybe...
...Or a pair of eyes.
Layna's fists clench. She starts to murmur an incantation but Talise speaks, breaking her concentration. It's for the best.
"...Aye, I'm alright." Layna replies with a nod, then accepts one of the treats. Talise had a point - they shouldn't dwell on it. They needed to use this time to move on, rather than stand around and wait for a threat that may never emerge.
She hands the rest of the bottle of her drink over to Talise.
"Here, give this to Lanval, aye? He's been behavin' himself well enough." She says, then glances toward the bottle containing their magical friend. "How you holdin' on, buddy? Doin' alright?"
DG: Layna Manydays has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Irrational Fears.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
That cookie is going to have to crumble a bit to fit it through the bottleneck. Lanval will find it delicious, all the same.
"Huh? Oh! Talkin' to li'l ol' me... 'm fine."
I can see why they feel this way. Well, maybe not from the eyes of a mortal... He thinks.
"Hey... Shephy." Lanval speaks up. "It'sh okay. There'sh shome thingsh ya jusht won't find in booksh... yep! Jusht keep goin' on, goin' on."
The sorts of things he would ask, he recognizes, they wouldn't be able to answer. The anxieties that fill the air, drip from every surface, play tricks of the eye to both suggest the possibility of movement and prey upon one's own anxieties further...
I can't trouble teem with it. Plenty of that to go around.
"No need ta ashk me, Layna! Or anyone elshe. Jusht keep a good thought..."
Beat.
"'n keep the cookiesh comin'."
And so, Lanval continues to give reassurance to the worried, to the scared, and to the mortal that their gluttonous ghost friend continues to be a bastion of gluttony and laziness as a rallying point of normalcy and comfort.
DG: Seraph Lanval has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Irrational Fears.
===============================<* Mount Manfred *>================================ ========================<* CHALLENGE - Irrational Fears *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ----------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------- A cluster of run-down buildings sits astride the trail ahead. As you approach, the tumble-down walls subtly shift, back and forth, as if breathing. Something moves in the corner of your eye--something you could swear is a limb moving, languidly--but when you look, there's nothing there. The wrecked settlement is simultaneously fallen stone and rotting wood and a massive, unknowable entity, deep in slumber. Or is it? Either way, the Malevolence in the air is doing nothing for the sense of lingering, foreboding dread. Get through as quickly and quietly as you can. =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless=================================================
==========================<* Mount Manfred - Round 3 *>=========================== ==========================< Results - Irrational Fears >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Talise Gianfair 15 --(15)--> 30 Pass Chocolate Biscuits 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Layna Manydays 20 --(20)--> 40 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sephilia Lampbright 25 --(15)--> 40 Pass Dad's Journal 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Lanval 20 --(20)--> 40 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------- Leader: Talise Gianfair 30 --(10)--> 40 Fail Conditions: Injure(1)|Reckless(2) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ================================< Dream Chasers >=================================
DG: The party led by Talise Gianfair 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: Talise Gianfair has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Mount Manfred *>================================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Ghostly Sentinels *>========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
----------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------
The remains of a guard tower jut out from the snow, ahead. Spectral figures
in old-fashioned plate and thick, heavy furs stand guard outside, their
forms wavering slightly in the air. They might be little more than
Malevolence given ghostly form by the masters of this Domain, but the warped
blades they carry are perfectly sharp.
Without a word, they engage your party, fighting to the last with
unbreakable discipline and peerless martial skill.
What good did it do them? You killed them. You got them killed. They're all
dead because of you.
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
A wrapper crumples. A cookie crunches as Talise squeezes it into the neck of a bottle. Sephilia speaks. It's impossible to tell if any of these noises, by themselves, would be enough to alert whatever-it-is--if there even is a whatever-it-is to the group's presence.
'Doin' alright?', Layna asks, and in that moment, she sees something shift out of the corner of her eye. Those broken beams look like jagged teeth, spreading apart in a feral snarl. That rusty metal looks like mottled hide. For a few seconds, it seems as though Layna and Lanval's worst fears have been confirmed--there is a monster here. How they react to it is up to them.
It isn't until a moment later that the truth reveals itself--the irrational fear breaks like a wave, leaving only the ruins of tumbled-down buildings people thought were monsters.
Don't you look foolish? hisses a voice in Layna's mind.
Mercifully, though, nothing pops out to rend the group to shreds. The cobblestone path leads onwards, past more buildings, past a shattered stone plinth that looks like might've once held a statue. Past a guard tower--
Phantasmal human figures condense out of the fog. They carry blades, and while the emblems on their tabards look indistinct, they feel familiar, but not of the Blue Star. Adlehyde, maybe? Whatever they're supposed to be, these soldiers show no mercy, charging the group with swords and spears at the ready. All the while, feelings of grief and guilt and failure hang in the air, adding a sickening counterpoint to the anxiety.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Picking up Lanval's bottle, Talise nods back to Layna crisply, beginning to pour their Seraph friend a drink. "Hang in there, Lanval," she urges. "We're gonna power through this."
She almost doesn't. Fixating forward, Talise fights to prevent herself from looking towards the buildings. Don't let them play tricks. Do. Not. Let. Them.
They move past - but more phantasmal figures are appearing from the haze, these ones more human and with emblems on their tabards. Talise clicks her teeth together - she's sure she recognizes those emblems.
You should know this, idiot girl, she realizes. But you're missing something. Just like you did with Rosaline and Ida. You missed the obvious signs and the Witch got them. And now you're missing the obvious again. You're going to fail them, idiot girl. You might as well give up and kill yourself now, you worthless bitch.
Talise grunts and reaches back, drawing her sword. "Hey everyone," she says, her voice more tense than her actual word choice implies. "Just so you know...
"I believe in you. All of you."
Talise hurls herself forward. She plants a heel and begins to swing. Rastaban hisses through the air as she launches through a whirling series of strokes, coming in rapidly from all angles as she pivots and whirls and lets her eyes and hands guide the blade where it needs to go. She swats a spear aside and spins and slashes and moves and dances through the phantasmic figures as she attempts to slash her way through like a human blade hurricane.
DG: Talise Gianfair has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Ghostly Sentinels.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephy is on Chauncey's back, but is so very quiet compared to her usual raucous self in combat...
"I believe in you too, Talise," she says, quietly. Chauncey, for his part, is as good as always at smashing things.
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has used her Tool Folding Chair toward her party's challenge, Ghostly Sentinels.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
There's a movement. With a quick incantation, Layna sends a lance of wind flying straight into the building.
Things go quiet.
There's nothing there.
She frowns, even as that voice in her head taunts her. Of course there was nothing there. What could even be here? She exhales sharply, but her instincts still tell her that something is here.
She keeps going, her stance still a little tense. As they progress, however, they see figures beginning to approach them. Humanoid figures, with tabards bearing indistinct emblems. She's not sure what they are. She's about to throw herself into battle, when Talise says something that stops her.
Layna stares at Talise for a moment, then cracks a grin. She's looking a little more like the Layna they all know and love again.
"...Aye. Same here. I wouldn't've followed you here if I didn't." She replies, and then, with some of her confidence back, she dives into the fray. Blades of wind sweep off her fists as she moves and punches - she figures magic will serve her better here than physical strikes.
She holds back the thoughts that plague her mind.
DG: Layna Manydays has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Ghostly Sentinels.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
A terrifying visage appears. Lanval's bottle jostles as if it were to jump and stand at attention, as if to hop right out of anyone's pocket or grasp. It takes some finangling for him to stay upright after that...
The moments pass. Nothing. One of the many tricks the impurity here plays.
Talise takes the edge off by feeding Lanval some more alcoholic beverage. The crunchy cookie matter and mind-numbing substance all seem to swirl and disappear into the liquid matter that is already there, to forever sink under the shining concoction that gives the Holy Bottle its name.
He calms his thoughts. The phantasms that appear do not afford anyone that grace of resting, relaxing, or calming down. The air is full of grief and regret, to figures bearing colors and uniforms he doesn't recognize.
The offerings, the belief... Lanval has himself a bit of a laugh, as Chauncey comes in with smashing blows, Layna comes in with windy punches and kicks, and Talise joins that battle with Rastaban.
That's a powerful word she's said there. He muses.
The bottle joins the battle, as there is a great burst of shining liquid that blasts forward from the bottle, one part Holy Bottle repellant to some parts additional magical water of his own make to further increase its reach to try and splash back against the encroaching phantasms to push them back and repel them, to try and wash the sight of it out of... sight.
DG: Seraph Lanval has used his Tool Holy Bottle toward his party's challenge, Ghostly Sentinels.
===============================<* Mount Manfred *>================================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Ghostly Sentinels *>========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
----------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------
The remains of a guard tower jut out from the snow, ahead. Spectral figures
in old-fashioned plate and thick, heavy furs stand guard outside, their
forms wavering slightly in the air. They might be little more than
Malevolence given ghostly form by the masters of this Domain, but the warped
blades they carry are perfectly sharp.
Without a word, they engage your party, fighting to the last with
unbreakable discipline and peerless martial skill.
What good did it do them? You killed them. You got them killed. They're all
dead because of you.
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
==========================<* Mount Manfred - Round 4 *>=========================== =========================< Results - Ghostly Sentinels >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Talise Gianfair 30 --(15)--> 45 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Layna Manydays 40 --(10)--> 50 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sephilia Lampbright 40 --(15)--> 55 Fail Folding Chair 2 Combat Effects: Stalwart ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Lanval 40 --(15)--> 55 Fail Holy Bottle 2 Combat Effects: Cleanse and Liability ------------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------- Leader: Talise Gianfair 40 --(5)--> 45 Fail Conditions: Reckless(1)|Wound(2) Effects: Cleanse ================================< Dream Chasers >=================================
DG: The party led by Talise Gianfair 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: Talise Gianfair has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Mount Manfred *>================================ ============================<* CHALLENGE - The Fog *>============================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | ----------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------- As you explore some nearby abandoned buildings, a thick, choking fog starts to settle in--a fog so thoroughly saturated with Malevolence that it's now alive. It claws at you, trying to tear the breath from your lungs, but it's heavier than the air above it. You can escape it, but to do this, you have to take a perilous path across the snow-covered rooftops of long derelict buildings. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Bad Luck=======================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Whatever created these Malevolent apparitions has endowed them with phenomenal skill. Talise finds herself facing down two blademasters at once, and while she's no slouch herself, she finds herself on the defensive, exerting herself just to keep from taking a strike to something vital. The style these things use is unlike anything she's ever seen--swift and mobile, with the draw and the strike combined into one. Is it Filgaian? Where did it come from?
Sephilia doesn't fare much better. Chauncey wades into the melee, but the spectres scatter at the first smash of the folding chair. One is knocked aside, but another darts in from Chauncey's flank, laying into the plush doll with a ghostly blade that has no right to be as sharp as it is. Lanval's holy water spills out, washing over the ghosts endangering Sephilia. Malevolent energies boil up into the air, hissing and crackling, but the ghosts are still distressingly intact afterwards. Is that the best you can do, you drunken layabout? Whatever guilt is animating these things is powerful enough to keep them fighting--powerful enough to keep them existing as memories of someone's failure. Whose?
Questions for later. Layna manages to clear a path with fists and spells, buying the group time to run for it. The spectres do not give chase.
After a little while, the group reaches yet another cluster of buildings, but this time, there is no immediate threat.
Then, when everyone is inside the ruins, the fog itself turns on them. First comes a shortness of breath, then pain, then a sensation not unlike drowning.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
OF COURSE YOU CAN'T BEAT THEM, YOU STUPID BITCH, Talise's mind shrieks at her as she parries most of the attacks that come in toward her. YOU COULDN'T EVEN DEFEAT THAT CRAZY MARTIAL ARTIST THE OTHER DAY. BECAUSE YOU'RE ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE!! YOU'RE SHIT!! SHIT!!! SHIT!!!!!
Talise roars in frustration and kicks one of the Malevolent apparitions out of her way, the other one slicing across her hip in the process. She growls and whirls, trailing blood as she dashes after Layna. Her face has gone red and her arm comes up to hide herself from the others for a moment.
She doesn't want to look any of them in the eye. YOU WORTHLESS FUCKING LUMP! IS THAT WHAT YOUR BELIEF IS WORTH?! WHY DO YOU EVEN TRY?! YOU DON'T MATTER!! YOU'RE ONLY HERE BECAUSE THEY PITY YOU!!!
Talise's breathing is growing quicker - and then it stops altogether. She widens her eyes and claws at her throat with one hand, the other flailing at open air in front of her as if she could somehow swim to the top of... something. The fog, maybe.
She doesn't even realize, consciously, that she's staggering across the perilous rooftops. Her feet slip as she goes. She's probably going to fall and break her neck.
AND NOTHING OF VALUE WILL BE LOST. BECAUSE YOU HAVE NO WORTH! YOU HAVE NO REASON TO EVEN LIVE!
Talise pauses in mid-run to punch at the air, as if she could knock her inner voice's teeth in.
DG: Talise Gianfair has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Fog.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia, for her part, begins to panic, shallow breaths coming rapidly. "I can't--I can't--breathe--" she manages.
Chauncey takes action. Scooping the girl up, apparently without direction from her, he rushes forward to escape the fog.
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Fog.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
It's exhausting, wading through these spirits. Layna can't tell if it's due to hits she's taking, or if it's just the Malevolence weighing down on her. It's costly, but she manages to clear a path - she sends the others a confident grin in hopes of buoying their spirits a bit.
Before long, the spirits are left behind.
...Or maybe they never followed them to begin with?
This area is...foggy. Layna only realizes the danger of the situation by the time it's too late.
It's...it's like it's trying to choke the life out of them. Layna can hold her breath for a long time, but this...it doesn't feel physical. There's not much she can do about this, and it makes talking difficult - she can't even get an incantation out. She grits her teeth and runs, drawing out a bottle and taking a swig. It takes some effort to keep it down, but it helps, if only a little.
With Sephilia safe in Chauncey's arms, Layna aims to catch up to Talise, offering her the bottle and, if necessary, a steadying arm to catch her if she's about to fall.
DG: Layna Manydays has used her Tool Quartermaster's Stash toward her party's challenge, The Fog.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval's bottle leans back at the sight of the unmoved ghosts. It's goading him to expunge more of it. He might have to, but he's only got so much Holy Bottle juice to work with--
Layna renders the point moot, leaving that question forever hanging as he's carted along away from them through the opening she makes. The air grows ever heavier in ways he can never inherently quite grasp. Sure, he's mimicked human breathing - like snoring, oh my Goddess, when he snores - the same way other Seraphim sometimes just pick up other mortal behavioral tics or what have you. But he cannot truly appreciate the exact processes and feel that comes from the fog choking them. He's seeing how they struggle, expressing their discomfort through rage, or even starting to lose their will to move. There's a kind of weight against him that's not quite the same, but it's enough for him to extrapolate and re-center what he has to say next.
They believe. Can't let them forget that.
"Hey," Lanval speaks from his bottle, "heeeeey, you're all gettin' away from 'em... that'sh good! You're doin' great. We've losht 'em." He tries to assure them of this, to ease that much - he holds steady, emotionally, as Talise starts to trip, and Layna moves to assist them.
The treats too! That's good enough for me. Hm, hm, hm...
It is difficult to maintain any such cheer in a situation like this - in a world like thi-- no, let's keep it to the situation.
DG: Seraph Lanval has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, The Fog.
===============================<* Mount Manfred *>================================ ============================<* CHALLENGE - The Fog *>============================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | ----------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------- As you explore some nearby abandoned buildings, a thick, choking fog starts to settle in--a fog so thoroughly saturated with Malevolence that it's now alive. It claws at you, trying to tear the breath from your lungs, but it's heavier than the air above it. You can escape it, but to do this, you have to take a perilous path across the snow-covered rooftops of long derelict buildings. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Bad Luck=======================================
==========================<* Mount Manfred - Round 5 *>=========================== ==============================< Results - The Fog >=============================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Talise Gianfair 45 --(10)--> 55 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Layna Manydays 50 --(5)--> 55 Pass Quartermaster's Stash 2 Agility Effects: Quicken ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sephilia Lampbright 55 --(10)--> 65 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Lanval 55 --(5)--> 60 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------- Leader: Talise Gianfair 45 --(15)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(2)|Hesitate(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ================================< Dream Chasers >=================================
DG: The party led by Talise Gianfair 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: Talise Gianfair has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Mount Manfred *>================================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Cause and Effect *>========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 |
----------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------
A threat looms over this portion of your trek up the mountain. Massive,
precarious banks of snow hang just uphill from your path, and
Malevolence-fueled paranoia suggests that the slightest misstep or word out
of place could send it all rushing down. Since this is a place where fears
can become all too real, caution may be warranted.
But an option soon presents itself. A sturdy, tall guard outpost can be
climbed on top of. From there, you could safely trigger an avalanche with a
little controlled demolition work, and spare yourself the worst of it. Of
course, safety is relative, and you should be careful not to overdo it...
=Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous==============================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Sephilia grows faint, and it is only through Chauncey that she does not take a tumble back down below. Talise resolved not to listen to the purple. The purple screams ever louder, excaberating the latent anxieties within her - anxieties of this Domain reaching all around to find it, to just yank it all out. In battling her demons, she slips--
--only to be caught by Layna, who pulls her up and offers her a drink. Talise will be able to see proof positive in that moment that she matters. She has worth. It is in this moment of camaraderie that the fog ceases to grow heavier. It does not lift.
They'll just have to emotionally rise above it.
They've come to a stop before a (mostly) stable rooftop. A short trek up a ramp will take them to a guard outpost. Looks like they've been running atop a fortification. A fortification that seems to stand alone before the looming, massive banks of snow uphill. Snow that seems to just collect far higher, to snowfall that looks like it has accelerated. It looks like it could all collapse at any moment. Any mistake, any stupid thing anyone could do, and it could all come crashing down, burying them.
"...That'sh a lot of shnow." Lanval says aloud, obvious. He's got a good vantage point from someone's grasp already. "Wanna knock it over before we go back down?" He's almost making it sound like it'll be a catharthic experience.
It probably should not be done recklessly, because-- well, to even dwell on those questions might invite even more whispered promises of tragedy and ruin.
DG: Seraph Lanval has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Cause and Effect.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise is pulled up. She takes the drink.
It does nothing to dissuade the demons. /Layna only saved you because she pities you. Because she's the kind of person who will help the weak. And you're weak, you pathetic drag. They only travel with you so someone can make sure you don't poke your eye out with your stupid little sword.
Talise takes another drink. It helps, a little.
Exhaling, the swordswoman hands the bottle back to Layna without a word. She slouches forward, back across the rooftops, then takes a breath the moment she's able to do so clearly.
The snowbanks are precarious. Talise looks up at them, frowning a little, then moves to begin climbing that ramp. She keeps her mouth shut, remembering all too well what the last avalanche in her life felt like - that is to say, pretty bad.
Talise considers the snow for a moment before cracking her knuckles. She pops her neck to one side, then the other. And then, moving forward, she lets the magic in her gauntlets flow - and jabs her fingers into the snow in one place, then the other.
The touches are not strong. She's not trying to lift it all. But they come with enough force to shock the snow in just the right degree. Sections of it begin to give way gradually - and as some of the snow slides away, Talise waits for it, before poking the next section.
She's trying to stage the avalanche.
DG: Talise Gianfair has used her Tool Ogre Power Gauntlets toward her party's challenge, Cause and Effect.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia takes it easy, catching her breath, as Chauncey sets to trying to help Talise.
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Cause and Effect.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna sends Talise a grin as she accepts the bottle back.
"Hang in there, lass. It's like you said before - I believe in you, aye?" She says, and then continues moving forward alongside the others.
They find themselves on top of an old fortification - an outpost of some kind. Layna looks it up, thinking it over as Lanval points out all the snow.
...Knocking it over, huh?
Layna considers this.
"...Aye. Maybe it'll even clear out some of the problems back there, while we're at it." She comments. ...Or, it could make them worse. Or it could wipe out some poor soul trying to travel up it at the same time.
There was any number of things that could go wrong. It was foolish. They shouldn't do this.
Layna ignores these thoughts. She draws out her drill and gets to work, helping Talise in setting things up so that they hopefully won't bring all of them down with the avalanche, as well.
DG: Layna Manydays has used her Tool Arm-Mounted Drill toward her party's challenge, Cause and Effect.
==================================================<* Mount Manfred *>===================================================
===========================================<* CHALLENGE - Cause and Effect *>===========================================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 |
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
A threat looms over this portion of your trek up the mountain. Massive,
precarious banks of snow hang just uphill from your path, and
Malevolence-fueled paranoia suggests that the slightest misstep or word out
of place could send it all rushing down. Since this is a place where fears
can become all too real, caution may be warranted.
But an option soon presents itself. A sturdy, tall guard outpost can be
climbed on top of. From there, you could safely trigger an avalanche with a
little controlled demolition work, and spare yourself the worst of it. Of
course, safety is relative, and you should be careful not to overdo it...
=Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous==============================================
=============================================<* Mount Manfred - Round 6 *>============================================== =============================================< Results - Cause and Effect >============================================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Talise Gianfair 55 --(5)--> 60 Pass Ogre Power Gauntlets 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Layna Manydays 55 --(5)--> 60 Pass Arm-Mounted Drill 3 Brute Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sephilia Lampbright 65 --(5)--> 70 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Lanval 60 --(10)--> 70 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------< Party >-------------------------------------------------------- Leader: Talise Gianfair 60 --(15)--> 75 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(1)|Hesitate(1)|Overzealous(2) Effects: Strengthen(1) ===================================================< Dream Chasers >====================================================
DG: The party led by Talise Gianfair has passed this challenge! The party gained 15 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
The snowbanks are being cashed out. It's heavy, wet snow, wet with as much water as it is dripping with Malevolence. Talise's might cannot be doubted. There is no snow too heavy for her to dislodge. Every snowflake or droplet of water that splashes back is an ill thought to put reminders on what could go wrong in her mind. They are innumerable, and much like snowflakes, no two are the exact same - but all are crystal clear to have the expectation that something is going to go wrong.
Layna decides to get to work with her drill in which to dislodge parts of the nearby architecture to help form a bridge or otherwise some kind of structure to help navigate all this once Talise gets the bulk of the work done. The air fills with concepts and ideas of what will go wrong. Not what could. What will. They speak as though authorative, though prophetic. None of them appear to come true.
Chauncey is a non-living thing. When used remotely to help Talise keep steady, it cannot hear thoughts about whether they can trust others to not get them killed. This may be an unwelcome surprise a little later the next time Sephilia gives her friend a good hug.
Lanval sits there and watches. He is an ambiguously-bodied voice whose form is not present before them. Whatever suffering he may be experiencing just being here, he has no face to read.
"That'sh gonna be another shtory to tell your famoush father later," he tries to fill her head full of the things she finds fun to talk about, rather than linger on matters of how she's feeling, as the mortal adults among them get the work done. The snow banks are no longer a threat as they appear. If there is one, they've got a structure to pull themselves up to in order to keep going.
Keep going, they must, even as the fog seems ready to bear down that much harder...
DG: Talise Gianfair has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Mount Manfred *>================================
===========================<* CHALLENGE - Endure It *>============================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 |
----------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------
The mountain path ends in front of a strange, shrine-like structure, all
jagged ice and pulsing, congealed Malevolence. Heatless violet flames
crackle in the crater-like braziers encircling it. In the very center is a
stone platform, surrounded by slabs of cloudy ice and pale white marble--it
looks, at first glance, like a giant white lotus. The Domain itself seems to
impress a task upon you: one of you must step onto the stone platform, and
endure whatever follows.
As soon as someone steps forward, the lotus blossom closes, trapping them
inside. The faintest hint of Malevolence seeps into the tiny chamber,
flavoring the air with hot, tense anxiety. Thoughts spiral out of control
under its influence, turning worries into fears, and fears into
overwhelming, paralyzing dread. It's enough to make one shut down, to curl
up into a little ball and sit there, trembling, until it's over. On the
outside, Malevolence seeps out from the base of the lotus, infusing the air
with desperate fear.
You should break the lotus open. Should you break the lotus open? Will it
even help if you do? This test is arbitrary. It's cruel. Why should anyone
have to endure this? What do you have to gain?
=Dungeon Conditions: Suffer===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The landslide continues down the mountain. The path continues up ahead. It loops around the bulk of Mt. Manfred, looking less and less careworn as the Fox Company moves on. On one hand, this implies someone--or some force--is maintaining it, but it also implies they're getting closer to the heart of the Domain. The Malevolence in the air grows thicker, as does the ever-present snowfall that enshrouds the peak. It isn't long, though, before something reveals itself, through the falling snow...
A castle. It hunches atop the mountain's peak, spires stretching upwards in ways that defy conventional architecture--despite its height, it's solid, sturdy, a mass of black stone that looks almost like an extension of the mountain. Encircling it walls are waves of raw Malevolence, moving like the winds of a funnel cloud. The Domain is only growing stronger. Actually entering the castle may be beyond the Fox Company's present means.
That's not to say it's the only thing in the area. There's a smaller structure sitting in the middle of the path, an unearthly shrine-like thing that looks eerily organic. Veined marble 'petals' twitch ever-so-slightly, and scenes play themselves out in the braziers around them--
--A gate slamming shut. Someone very important is on the other side. A moment's hesitation--
--Lying on the ground as a masked woman looms above. Pain. Rage. Frustration--
Step forwards. Endure what others have endured.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
The very castle they saw on the peak that day looms ahead.
I knew what I was looking at from Mt. Zulan.
"Over there." Lanval speaks up, less in his 'heyyyy, guys' tone and more speaking as though it is something of import to draw one's eyes away from the castle itself. "That'sh..."
Something like this shouldn't happen here to begin with. That's not a good sign.
"All right. Thish ish where I come in." ...In this much Malevolence?! He's not going t--
Yep. There he is. The lovable, cat-smiled, oafish middle-aged-looking man with the long beard. He goes on ahead and snatches that Quartermaster's Stash, letting himself drink all of it.
Not even enough left behind for them to have a boost to run away. That's his level of commitment. Also his level of gluttony.
Wherever you went, whatever happened... I'm sure you did your best. I'm not angry to see this.
Lanval helps himself up to the stone structure. He has himself a bit of a laugh, even through the dreary anxiety. Carefree to the end, that one.
Don't worry. I'll figure it out for both of us.
The lotus blossom closes...
...What the hell is he doing?!
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
There are some people who are practically ticking time bombs of inner doubt and anxiety. Talise has turned into one of them over the last few years. With all this Malevolence around her, it's a miracle she doesn't become a Hellion right this second.
Snowflakes brush past her cheeks as she makes her way forward, up towards that peak. She lifts her face towards the castle and lets out a slow breath through her nose even as something else rushes into her. More grim thoughts. Memories.
Memories from the encounter she didn't tell the others about. The duel in the depths of the flooded cavern. When will you be satisfied with who you are?
Someone very important must be up in that castle. You let yourself be defined by what others have taken from you. What others have done to you. Or am I wrong?
Stepping forward, Talise moves towards the bulk of that smaller structure. Doubt gnaws at her mind, but there's only one thing she can really think of right now.
A man Talise once worshipped in song, passing judgment on her.
Finding her wanting.
The swordswoman holds out her hands and stares forward, letting the doubts roll through her mind. Everything tells her that doing this is useless, because Ghaleon is right about her.
Especially when Lanval just pops up and walks into the lotus blossom.
"LANVAL, DON'T!" Talise screams. She rushes forward into the shrine without even thinking about it. Her gauntlets flare with magic as she prepares to absolutely demolish that lotus for the sake of her Seraph friend.
The Malevolence is telling her it's futile and he's as good as a Hellion already. She fights through it. Lanval is more important than all the shit Ghaleon told her.
DG: Talise Gianfair has used her Tool Ogre Power Gauntlets toward her party's challenge, Endure It.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
"Lanval, no!" Sephilia cries out! "Chauncey, help Talise get him out of there!"
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Endure It. DG: Seraph Lanval has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Endure It.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna continues forward alongside the others. As they do, the path begins to look less and less worn...but as they move further, the Malevolence thickens, as well.
And through the snow, something becomes visible as they forge on ahead...
...A castle.
Layna looks up at it, shielding her eyes a hand and wishing she had her telescope here with her. She can see the Malevolence swirling around it, strong and powerful - and brooking no incursion.
But then, something else draws her attention, looking notably and worryingly organic.
Layna frowns, and looks the shrine over. She has a feeling she knows exactly what needs to be done here. She reaches into her coat and draws out the last bottle she brought with her here today.
"Alright, I'm gonna-" Before she gets any further, though, Lanval takes the bottle right out of her hands, downs it, and makes it clear that this was his time to shine.
"Wait, Lanval, ya great blaggard, don't do this!!" Layna roars at him. She's both angry and concerned...but it's too late. The blossom closes around him.
Layna clenches her fists and hisses through her teeth. Flames shoot up from the bracers around her wrist and she draws out her drill, slotting it over one of them. The drill whirs to life, becoming a torrent of wind and flame.
She rushes in alongside Talise, slamming it into the blossom, attempting to pierce right through into it.
She shouts at him, all the while.
"Damn it, Lanval!" Her other fist, wrapped in flames, slams against the outside of the blossom. Each word is punctuated by another punch.
"We're gonna-" Again. "-have a talk-" Again. "-about this-" And again. "-when we get you out!!"
DG: Layna Manydays has used her Tool Arm-Mounted Drill toward her party's challenge, Endure It.
===============================<* Mount Manfred *>================================
===========================<* CHALLENGE - Endure It *>============================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 |
----------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------
The mountain path ends in front of a strange, shrine-like structure, all
jagged ice and pulsing, congealed Malevolence. Heatless violet flames
crackle in the crater-like braziers encircling it. In the very center is a
stone platform, surrounded by slabs of cloudy ice and pale white marble--it
looks, at first glance, like a giant white lotus. The Domain itself seems to
impress a task upon you: one of you must step onto the stone platform, and
endure whatever follows.
As soon as someone steps forward, the lotus blossom closes, trapping them
inside. The faintest hint of Malevolence seeps into the tiny chamber,
flavoring the air with hot, tense anxiety. Thoughts spiral out of control
under its influence, turning worries into fears, and fears into
overwhelming, paralyzing dread. It's enough to make one shut down, to curl
up into a little ball and sit there, trembling, until it's over. On the
outside, Malevolence seeps out from the base of the lotus, infusing the air
with desperate fear.
You should break the lotus open. Should you break the lotus open? Will it
even help if you do? This test is arbitrary. It's cruel. Why should anyone
have to endure this? What do you have to gain?
=Dungeon Conditions: Suffer===================================================
==========================<* Mount Manfred - Round 7 *>=========================== =============================< Results - Endure It >============================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Talise Gianfair 60 --(15)--> 75 Pass Ogre Power Gauntlets 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Layna Manydays 60 --(15)--> 75 Pass Arm-Mounted Drill 3 Brute Effects: Fanfare ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sephilia Lampbright 70 --(20)--> 90 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Lanval 70 --(15)--> 85 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------- Leader: Talise Gianfair 75 --(35)--> 110 Pass Conditions: Overzealous(1)|Suffer(1) Effects: Strengthen(1) ================================< Dream Chasers >=================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Talise Gianfair has successfully explored Mount Manfred!
===============================<* Mount Manfred *>================================
=========================<* CHALLENGE - Bandit's Stash *>=========================
|Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 |
----------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------
After what seems like an eternity, the lotus breaks apart, revealing the
person who was trapped inside. The petals break apart into glimmering motes
of Malevolence and flit off into the air, leaving behind a sensation of
lingering guilt and jealousy. Did you prove yourself? Does it even matter?
Regardless, you're now free to take a look around.
A tiny tuft of burlap peeks out from a hole in the trunk of a
long-dead-tree. The wood shivers uneasily as you pull it free, but the
contents appear to be relatively untouched by Malevolence. Inside are a
half-dozen old silk purses, loaded down with antique silver coins. The rest
of the stash is small valuables--jewelry, a letter opener, a well-made
foldout knife--and some of it still has monograms. You could try and track
down the original owners, or keep it for yourself.
You're just going to keep it for yourself, aren't you? You don't even care
about the consequences of your actions. You make me sick.
OOC: Congratulations! The Malevolent Domain has grudgingly granted you
passage up the mountain. Narratively, it will be a lot easier for your
character to get to subsequent digs on Mount Manfred, including Castle
Rabenstein. You might have also gained a small measure of spiritual strength
from the experience!
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
You should break the lotus open. Should you break the lotus open? The mortals are posed with this question, along with alternating viewpoints, teasing them as more of the amassed spiritual venom thickens the air. The petals are just translucent enough to watch Lanval fall onto his seat.
Is he suffering? The thoughts that creep in there say so. Their anxieties and worries are amplified under it, unable to be conveyed through by their mechanical machinations. Layna's drill spins no faster, though it seems to find some purchase as Layna frees up a hand to punch it. Chauncey struggles to pull away at it, empowered by the love and concern of Sephilia. Talise, haunted by recent encounters, can only smash at them with her gauntlets. Only?
They keep going, going, going. The lotus rocks, creaks, shifts. They can move it. Will it open?
Inside...
Lanval closes his eyes. What is he seeing? What is he thinking? He's how many years old? How much crap could he have seen, or been affected by? Is it throwing his own fears into his face? Someone else's? The reflections of the lotus when they were open suggest they belonged to at least a someone. The gate slamming shut with someone cherished on the other side, hesitation... someone lying on the ground as a masked woman looms above...
All the while, Lanval seems about as placid as he or anyone's going to manage. He rocks back and forth. Eyes are still closed. Takes in the approximation of a deep breath, given he doesn't actually need to breathe.
The three of them do not let up. That is how much he means to them. The lotus continues to tease and taunt with little shifts and movements. It doesn't give the three of them the visceral satisfaction of shearing apart under unrelenting force like they put forth.
They peel away as though the wind itself were doing so, breaking apart into glimmering motes - mocking. Did you do it? What good was it...?
Lanval's eyes open up, a shining aquamarine from his eyes. He looks... okay? Aside from how he staggers up, one hand on his forehead. "Ahh... shorry, shorry, I wash--"
It's okay to punch him, run and hug him, or what have you. The air grows calmer. A tuft of burlap peeks out of the hole of the trunk of a nearby dead tree - so full of goodies that appear relatively untouched by Malevolence. A half-dozen old silk purses full of ancient coins, jewelry, some cool fold-out knife, a letter opener... monogrammed, too! There's even some leftover chiding commentary from a disembodied voice about one's greed of keeping it for themselves!
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia launches into a hug! "Don't scare us like that!" she admonishes Lanval.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The lotus breaks open, releasing its trapped occupant into fresher air. Layna, Sephilia, and Talise have a few moments to collect themselves, and to chide or comfort Lanval as they see fit. Then--
The earth rumbles, a slow, deep, reverberation that seems to shake the entire mountainside and everything on it. Lanval will sense it before the others do--a prickling, electrical surge that races through the air, devoid of Malevolence. The castle shudders, too--and on one of its higher floors, pale blue light flashes in a window, as though magnesium powder went off inside. A Malevolent surge follows like thunder after lightning--rage, terror, dull shock.
Then nothing.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Of course they should break the lotus open. One of Talise's friends is in there. She grabs ahold of one of the petals and starts smashing shit as efficiently as she can.
And inside... there's Lanval. Talise draws in a breath, then reaches out with a big, silly smile, fluffing the disheveled Seraph's hair vigorously.
"Next time you go run off into strange flowers, at least warn us," she says with a genuine laugh that cuts through the Malevolence for just a second.
Until the earth rumbles and shudders. "The deuce?" Talise gasps, dropping to a knee. Looking up sharply towards the castle, the tall swordswoman stares as she realizes one of those windows is lit.
Her lips come together in a tight line. "That didn't feel like Malevolence," she says tensely. "Someone's up there...." She rises to her feet and starts forward.
Almost perfunctorily she snaps her hand out towards that tree and grabs the bag of loot. She holds it up and squints at it.
"Maybe it's whoever's monogram this is," she muses. "Or maybe someone swiped it, I dunno."
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
"I bet we could find out who they belonged to. We should! I betcha they miss their stuff a lot." Sephy is still hugging Lanval but she's also being perky.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
For Layna, there's no question - she has to break it open. She isn't going to leave Lanval in there. She keeps punching, even as her drill keeps on drilling. She doesn't stop, no matter how much the thoughts creeping into her mind try to reconsider.
Even when it begins to exhaust her. Even when her drill begins to become worryingly hot due to the fire magic running through it.
But eventually...it opens. It feels almost like it does so on its own, tauntingly...but the important thing is that it's open and Lanval is there, and he doesn't seem any worse for wear for it.
Layna's drill slowly whirrrs to a stop, hissing as it emits some smoke. She doesn't bother to remove it right away - it's way too hot to touch. Instead, she walks up to Lanval, rears back a fist...
...and then points at him, putting a finger right up in his face.
"I'm cutting you off for a couple of days for that stunt, got it?" She says...and then grins, relief creeping into her expression. To Lanval, that may very well be the worst punishment of all...
Her relief doesn't last long. The earth almost seems to shake light flashes within the castle and Malevolence surges. Rage, terror, shock...
...And then nothing.
...Layna frowns, then glances toward the others. She shares an uneasy glance with the others, and it seems like the same thought is on all their minds.
"...What the hell was that?" She asks.
...The answer doesn't seem to be arriving readily, however. Instead, she glances toward Talise as she draws out a bag of...loot!
A voice chides them for just taking it, but Layna ignores it completely. She's a pirate, after all - she had already become numb to those kinds of feelings.
...But then Sephilia says they should look for who it belonged to, and Layna sighs begrudgingly.
"...Aye, maybe we should..." She replies. Well, she didn't want to disappoint Sephilia.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Sephy runs up to hug the lug! Talise laughs and fluffs about that messy rag of silver hair he's got going. Layna pints a finger up to that dumb face of his and lets him know he's lost Quartermaster's Stash privileges for a few days. For all the strong emotions in play, Lanval gets to laughing to keep things there... for a while.
They believed. That's the big one. That's all I neede--
The ground shakes. Lanval turns his head, eyes still open. He doesn't have a free hand in which to stroke his beard. It might confuse the rest as to why. The shine of his open eyes peer towards the shuddering castle, into the light that flashes from one of the windows.
"...Mmmph." His gaze fixates there for a while.
...Oh, no. If that's right here...
He's going to need a bit of help standing back up, as others start to discuss matters of finding the old owners of loot. Talise speculates about what might be going on there.
"Let'sh," Lanval's eyes close, droopy, as he makes his way back towards that Holy Bottle vessel, "go back. Iiiii'm... not gonna shtay out here aaaaaany longer. Ha ha ha... whew!"
I got to see them back first. After that... ahh, I'll figure something out. In the meantime... I'll drink away your worries, too.