2018-07-13: Trying To Show Us Something
- Log: Trying To Show Us Something
- Cast: Loren Voss, Cyre H. Lorentz, Seraph Ragnell, Lan Lilac
- Where: Glaivend Basin
- Date: July 13th 2018
- Summary: On orders to be useful but stay out of trouble, Loren hires Cyre and ventures in search of an apparent anomalous ruin. There, he reunites with Lan and encounters Ragnell. In the heart of the ruin, they find something hideous.
DG: A party led by Loren Voss is now entering The Feral Menagerie. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
===========================<* The Feral Menagerie *>============================ =======================<* CHALLENGE - The Rusted Gate *>======================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The maze of trees terminates before an enormous gate, seemingly built to accommodate the passage either of a monster of a beast, or of teeming throngs of humanity. The thing is soundly built, forged of twisted, rusted, but altogether sturdy steel. A pair of cedar beams seem to have become part of the local ecosystem- twisting vines and putrid fruiting bodies sprout from the worm-eaten wood. Even half-rotten as they are, they can still hold the gate shut well enough on their own. Breaking in is probably the easiest way through, but take care what you disturb; causing too much noise might startle the locals. =Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous==============================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
It's been, perhaps, a startling string of failures for Loren of late.
Well, no, take that 'perhaps' right on out of there. It's been a failure, ever since he first set foot on the surface of the moon.
He's pretty sure Command is well aware of it, too. Can't let him alone, can't put him on a team. And the ship doesn't need another hand in medical, and the last thing they need is another person idle.
So they'd sort of split the difference, told him to do some expedition work around Lastonbell but make sure to hire some adventurers.
Whatever's out here probably isn't even important, he figures.
...And this, fair listener, is the tale of how 'Thomas the medical student' and Cyre ended up venturing out in the horrible depths of the forest together. "Is... anything even out here?" the 'medical student' grouses, pushing on through the underbrush. There had better not be ticks out here.
Before he almost walks right into the gate itself, cycling back a step or two to stare up at the expanse of the gate before him.
"...Looks like it's halfway to rotted," he says to his companion, lip curled in disgust. "Do you really think there will be anything worthwhile in here? It's probably waste of time."
He says that, but still gives one of those rotted beams a hearty 'thump' with a gloved fist. Even if it's a waste of time, he still will have to check.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, The Rusted Gate.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
This is most definitely not the first time Cyre Lorentz has been in this particular neck of the woods. It's the first time he's brought along ~intrepid medical student~ Thomas 'my last name is not important' Mysteriousman, but the moon is a place of many firsts, so he's not particularly surprised. "There's something going on with this place," Cyre answers with a slight shrug. "I won't spoil the surprise, but the last time was a hell of a trip, let me tell you. Damn near killed me."
This isn't really a particularly extraordinary thing. Most ruins Cyre has decided to explore have nearly killed him. This is definitely in the top three in the list of Places That Have Nearly Killed Him, but that's not important. What is important is that they're at a gate.
"Hold on," Cyre says, lifting an open palm to the barred-up gateway. The wind around him stirs and swirls before gathering into a quartet of whirling, buzzsaw-like blades. "Wind Blade!" It's magic! Magic that involves cutting at rotting, wooden beams with buzzsaws of wind.
It might just be enough to break through. And if not... Well, he tried!!
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, The Rusted Gate.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ticks are indeed the worst. For humans, anyway. For Seraphim, they're not quite a thing to worry about. Yay for only partially-material bodies!
Now, while Ragnell might have other concerns, she'd happened to notice 'Thomas' hiring some adventurers--folks she knows, even!--and since it's been a long while since she had the opportunity to harass the jerk, the present moment seems like a good way to both gather information and blow off some steam. So, she'd followed Loren and Cyre at a fair remove... until the group, such as it is, reaches its destination.
"Hmmmm..." Ragnell murmurs, red eyes rising up the gate in the woods. "Now this is new." New-ish. Obviously it's been here a while. But then, what's new to a Seraph differs greatly from what's new to a human. Or a beastfolk. Cyre's recommendation intrigues her, so she strolls up then, offering a salute of greeting to Cyre, and inspects the half-rotten boards. "Looks like a few good kicks oughtta cave this in," she observes, before engaging in precisely that, timed along with Cyre's Wind Blade. Loren's complaints that there's probably nothing worthwhile inside get him a hearty eye-roll.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Rusted Gate.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
'Stay here,' Ashansi had told her. 'I'm going to go look for something inside, it shouldn't take more than a couple of hours.'
That was an entire day ago! To her credit(?), Lan has been very patient. Sometimes Asha gets distracted and wanders off - that is, adapts his goals to take advantage of rare opportunities. It had been something like that, right? But he's been gone for quite a while now, and Lan has already communed with every freaking nature spirit this place felt like throwing at her. She even finished her entire book of crossword puzzles. That's how she knows it's a dire situation... what's she supposed to do now, sit and stare at nothing? Try walking back to town? She barely knows where she is!
She's about three minutes away from using her Last-Resort Fortune Telling Device to navigate back to town when she hears it. The low mumble of voices (that become louder as the rotting beams come under attack).
Lan's head pops up out of the undergrowth she'd been napping in, a twig tangled in her bangs. "!!"
FROM THE PARTY'S PERSPECTIVE:
There is a sudden crashing in the underbrush slightly to the southeast. Whatever it is doesn't seem large, but it's going fast, and it's Not Stopping--
FROM LOREN'S PERSPECTIVE:
Something tall, blonde, and infuriatingly familiar explodes out of the trees, ricochets off of one of the beams, and attaches itself to his side. "OHMYGOSH I'M SO GLAD TO SEE YOU THOMAS WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL THIS TIME I THOUGHT SOMETHING ATE YOU"
DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Rusted Gate.
===========================<* The Feral Menagerie *>============================ =======================<* CHALLENGE - The Rusted Gate *>======================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The maze of trees terminates before an enormous gate, seemingly built to accommodate the passage either of a monster of a beast, or of teeming throngs of humanity. The thing is soundly built, forged of twisted, rusted, but altogether sturdy steel. A pair of cedar beams seem to have become part of the local ecosystem- twisting vines and putrid fruiting bodies sprout from the worm-eaten wood. Even half-rotten as they are, they can still hold the gate shut well enough on their own. Breaking in is probably the easiest way through, but take care what you disturb; causing too much noise might startle the locals. =Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous==============================================
======================<* The Feral Menagerie - Round 1 *>======================= =========================< Results - The Rusted Gate >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cyre H. Lorentz 0 --(15)--> 15 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 0 --(10)--> 10 Fail Conditions: Overzealous(2) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has failed this challenge! The party gained 10 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
The gaze Loren gives Cyre is best subtitled 'withering'. "It almost killed you, did it."
A beat.
"Good. I'm feeling so much more optimistic about this expedition already," Loren says, his tone as flat as a board and about as lively.
Speaking of boards!
The beam, naturally, does not oblige Loren or his ego by even so much as bending. Despite its current state, it holds firm...
Externally, Loren's face doesn't so much as shift. Yet, the temperature seems to drop a few degrees around him, as if he could subarctically obliterate the beam with a glance alone.
This, naturally, is when Ragnell strolls on up, prompting Loren to turn. "Oh, it's you." He pauses, as if to size her up. "Whatever it is you are. Here to help again, I suppose?" Well, his attitude hasn't shifted at all, that's for sure.
Something rustles in the brush. A monster--?!
Loren turns towards the sound.
Something bounds right out into the open, pings off a board and LEAPS with horrifying intent right for Loren. Is this the end come for him at last?!
Lan's momentum knocks him right off his feet and onto the forest floor with a solid 'thump' as he sprawls out beneath the stick-crowned blonde.
"What... what in the..." He manages to focus his gaze, his glasses askew. "...You! What are you doing here?" that's not very nice "--And get off me!"
It's in the gap that follows after this decided comedy of errors that the shamanic buzzsawing blades cut in, neatly clipping the boards through as Ragnell joins in to put the boot in and finish them off. No muss, no fuss.
...Persons with possible concussions aside, at least.
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* The Feral Menagerie *>=========================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Boreal Face *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- It's as if you've stepped into a freezer. This entire section of the facility seems to have been plunged into the depths of winter. Frigid tendrils creep across the corridors and twine through broken doorframes, chilling the air around them. The temperature drops further and further as you progress, and you go from seeing your breath to watching as the moisture flash-freezes into glittering diamond dust before your eyes. Suddenly, the apparent source of the frigid cold erupts from a nearby room on a stalk of crystalline wood. It blossoms into a beautiful, frozen flower, unleashing a wave of freezing, creeping tendrils that set out to drag you to an icy grave unless you can tear free of both their grasp and the smothering cold that surrounds you. =Dungeon Conditions: Overwhelm================================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
One way or another Loren somehow manages to extricate himself from Lan's tender embrace (at least long enough for him to stand and brush himself off, that is) and after a shake of his head readjust his glasses before pausing to squint into the depths of the gateway.
"...Ugh," is his determination on the matter. "Fine. I suppose that's taken care of. Let's get moving, shall we?"
SO AFTER THAT, IT'S INWARDS
Into what he would have mistaken for a freezer, had they not just been picking their way through a forest and breaking down a lot of rotted doors.
On a moon with a roughtly iron-age culture at best, at that.
"What's going on w-with this," he utters, hunching his shoulders as he creeps inwards. Is it a broken cooling system? ...Why is there a cooling system on the moon to start with? Did someone else...
Such thoughts don't get too far beyond that when the apparently frozen-solid tendrils start to slide across the floors and the walls.
And there, in the heart of it
a perfect frozen flower carefully unfolds its petals.
Ice glitters in the air.
The tendrils move fast now, seeking to grasp, bind, drag down. It will take fast, decisive action to end this immediately.
Loren's eyes go wide. He sucks in a lungful of frigid air. His gaze unfocuses.
As if by happenstance, earthen pillars knife up from the ground, seeking to slice the tendrils to bits.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Boreal Face.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell pauses when Loren eyeballs her. Then she shows him all of her teeth in a wide, white grin. "Sure am! I'm the helpfulest around," she drawls. "Aren'tcha happy t'--" The underbrush rustles violently. "--see--" A young woman attaches herself to Loren at speed. "--me."
She raises an eyebrow at Lan, the side of her mouth slowly pulling up. Then she gives Loren a pointed look that can only be described as Absolutely Appalled, Harrumph, complete with predatory gleam in her eye.
"Thomas! Don't tell me you've got a *woman* on the side?! Are you aimin' t' break poor Elly's heart all over again?!" She shakes her head in Clear Disgust. "The deepest layer o' hell is reserved for philanderin' scum like you!"
The gate breaks down, largely thanks to Cyre's magical efforts. Brute strength never was Ragnell's strong point. Once entry has been beaten through, she brightens, as though Loren's Philanderin' Ways are but a glimmer of memory. "Oh hey, path's open!" And then she passes through into the freezing depths just beyond. ... They *were* just in the forest, right? In the middle of summer? What exactly caused this ice to coagulate over all this greenery?
Ragnell's silent question is answered when the group advances deeper within, only to encounter a piece of crystal-wood that unleashes a frozen flower that in turn unleashes icy tendrils that--you know what, let's just say it tries to drag them to a frozen tomb.
Ragnell hollers when one of them grabs her by the ankle and *yanks* her off her feet. She catches her hat with one hand just in time to avoid losing it--but the risk alone makes flames dance in her eyes, and she pulls one of her pistols from her holsters and unloads a clip of electric bullets on the tendril until it either lets her go, she shoots it off, or she runs out of bullets. The lattermost is unlikely considering they're formed from her own Seraphic magic, though they may well be not quite strong enough to actually break through the ice. "Fuck off!!" she snarls regardless.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Boreal Face.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
She's saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaved!! Not that Lan was technically in a whole lot of danger - not more than usual, at least - but it's so good to see a familiar face! Any weird ruin that ate Ashansi would certainly be able to eat her too, and then they'd both be screwed over. Now that Thomas is here, she can at least ask him for help--
Lan is unceremoniously shoved off of him, which is really probably for the best. It doesn't seem to deter her much. She looks up from being held at arms' length to stare a bit uncomprehendingly at Ragnell. "Huh?"
"Oh! No, I'm nobody's woman," she corrects the colorful seraph cheerfully. Now that people are here, everything's coming up daisies. "Listen, seriously though, I need your help."
They trek deeper inside, Lan trying to explain just what she's doing here in the wilds of the moon. "--So he told me to wait here, but that was forever ago, and I'm really worried about him! Asha can take care of himself, but it's been so long. What if he got in trouble, or he dropped his sword down a well, or--"
Lan pauses, watching her breath float in the air. "..." Oh. Uh-oh.
Instinct has her dancing out of the way of the tendril that tries to wraps around her ankle. "Hey, stop that right now!" she yelps indignantly (at the plant???) and charges the frozen flower with a powerful palm thrust. "HAAAA!"
DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Boreal Face.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
So apparently 'Thomas' has girlfriends falling out of trees on top of him. Wow. "Lucky bastard," Cyre mutters as the human pileup that was once a medical intern and some kind of strange forest nymph. "What are you complaining about, having a beautiful lady throwing herself at you like that? Sheesh."
SHEESH.
Well, at least they manage to make their way inside, to...
To... What Cyre can only adequately describe as Too Damn Cold for this or any world. The shaman shivers, his teeth chattering against each other and his arms wrapped around his chest. "Y-Y-Y-You're ask-k-k-king the right questions," Cyre chatters at Loren's most astute observation. What IS this, even? Apparently, 'this' has a source, and that is a beautiful, crystalline flower blossoming amidst the ruins.
It'd be almost beautiful if it wasn't also trying to kill them.
"Ragnell!" Cyre yells as a half-dozen magical apertures wink open all around him, each forming a glimmering array of arcane light. The arrangement flashes, blazes, and finally erupts, disgorging beams of scything, white-hot light into the creeping tendrils. Whether shooting lasers at perfect ice crystals is a good idea or not is... a dubious proposition.
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Boreal Face.
==========================<* The Feral Menagerie *>=========================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Boreal Face *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- It's as if you've stepped into a freezer. This entire section of the facility seems to have been plunged into the depths of winter. Frigid tendrils creep across the corridors and twine through broken doorframes, chilling the air around them. The temperature drops further and further as you progress, and you go from seeing your breath to watching as the moisture flash-freezes into glittering diamond dust before your eyes. Suddenly, the apparent source of the frigid cold erupts from a nearby room on a stalk of crystalline wood. It blossoms into a beautiful, frozen flower, unleashing a wave of freezing, creeping tendrils that set out to drag you to an icy grave unless you can tear free of both their grasp and the smothering cold that surrounds you. =Dungeon Conditions: Overwhelm================================================
=====================<* The Feral Menagerie - Round 2 *>====================== ==========================< Results - Boreal Face >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Loren Voss 20 --(25)--> 45 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Ragnell 20 --(25)--> 45 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyre H. Lorentz 15 --(20)--> 35 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lan Lilac 20 --(25)--> 45 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Loren Voss 10 --(10)--> 20 Fail Conditions: Overwhelm|Overzealous(1) Effects: ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has failed this challenge! The party gained 10 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* The Feral Menagerie *>=========================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Herbal Essences *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The faint scent of something sweet and spicy drifts through the air, leading you to what appears to be a chemical storage cabinet stuffed to the brim with exotic ingredients, herbs and extracts. The labels are all written in some form of scientific jargon and are maybe somewhat too precise in the information they contain. You'd need to have some experience in deciphering this sort of thing if you're going to have any hope of figuring out what's inside the mason jars and test tubes. While this is an excellent opportunity to stock up on some useful medicinal compounds and tend to whatever wounds you might have suffered so far, take care that you know what you're doing or you might end up doing more damage than you fix. =Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
As it turns out, unleashing a veritable torrent of ~beamspam~ into a field of frigid, twining tendrils is only a good idea if you're flying by the seat of your pants or if you don't give a single goddamn about the resulting collateral damage. The only idea that is probably worse than that is to try and punch the source of said field of frigid, twining tendrils. Lan tries that. She feels the icy grasp of death and near-frostbite creep up her arm, even as her palm-strike shatters the vines that weave in to protect what is apparently this organism's core.
Loren and Ragnell have better luck, largely by virtue of attacking the frosty flower from range. Electrical bullets smash into the ice, doing more damage with their impact than with the lightning that struggles to flow across a stream of frozen electrons. Pillars of stone rise to shatter a few dozen more, filling the air with deadly diamond dust but preventing the plant from claiming any of their lives, and Cyre...
...Cyre shoots lasers into the ice... which then proceed to split, because ice prisms are a thing. Beams shriek out in all directions, transforming the corridor into a haze of smoke and flash-sublimated steam. "Quick," Cyre yells, "Down this way!"
He turns and sprints down an adjacent hallway, only looking back once he detects the feeling returning to his extremities. "Is-- is everyone alright...?"
Everyone is probably suffering just a wee bit of frostbite from that.
Just a bit.
Fortunately, it appears that they've found themselves in a much more hospitable section of the menagerie. Delightful scents abound from the cabinets lining the walls. It all smells... spicy. Exotic. Possibly also restorative. Unfortunately, most of the jars are labeled in such a way that suggests some super scientist decided that common names were for lamers and instead scribbled down the genus and species instead. Lunar genus and species.
It'll take a little bit to figure out what's useful and what's potentially lethal, but... Hey, just the thing for frostbite, right?
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Cyre tackles this problem... Uh.
Is he sniffing?
Yes, he does seem to be sniffing. It's about then that the members of the party not yet acquainted with this particular beastman shaman might notice a pair of somethings twitching under his hood. "Some of this stuff smells familiar," he murmurs, turning his nose to one bunch of cabinets in particular. "I think I might know what these are... Maybe? Let me see if I can't place it..."
Sniff.
Sniff-sniff.
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Herbal Essences.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"Oh, you're not? Good, 'cuz this guy's a cad. He's always makin' his lady cry," Ragnell says confidentially ('confidentally,' at normal conversational volume) to Lan while jabbing a thumb Loren's way. "I've seen the two of 'em. It's disgustin', the way he treats her, but..." She shakes her head sadly. "There's no convincin' a woman in love to leave before she's ready. You jus' watch *your* back, young miss."
She does listen to the young woman as she goes on at length about *why* she's out here, if only because Lan is cute and what else is there to listen to? Ragnell keeps an eye open regardless, and then ice flowers happen, and it's really pretty terrible. Cyre comes to the rescue with his LASER BEAMS, which lead to even more terrible things because ice prisms. However, the tendril grabbing Ragnell's ankle shatters, and she scrambles after Cyre, holstering her gun along the way.
Once they're down that hallway and in a nicer, *warmer* part of the menagerie, Ragnell straightens, feeling out her ankle with foot rotations, then nodding. "I'll survive," she says. A healing arte will do the trick nicely--
Is Cyre sniffing strange ointments??
Ragnell peers at him, then shakes her head. "Well, you do you," she says, opting to take this as a signal to take a break. She leans on the wall, pulls out her harmonica, and plays a relaxed, laidback tune.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Tarnished Harmonica toward her party's challenge, Herbal Essences.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
There's enough space for Loren to yelp out an, "ABSOLUTELY NOT," as if his personal dignity were affronted in some fashion by Ragnell's... insinuations. "I have no idea what you're trying to imply," he continues, as he attempts to extract himself from Lan's terrifying hug. "--And we are not 'involved' either, for that matter!"
Cyre, on the other hand, merely receives the deadest flattest stare. Strictly speaking, it's not that Lan is unattractive, he supposes, but...
At the end of the day, she's still a Lamb. Absolutely not.
But in the end, he manages to free himself from Lan's grasp, and immediately walk into what is essentially a freezer.
"Sh-shut up," he responds, quite eloquently, to Cyre's commentary on his own speech.
Lan's here looking for a friend, huh? Asha.
He's probably dead, and it's only because it's just that cold in here that prevents him from gracelessly saying that one aloud.
And then the source of the cold presents itself. Loren lashes out with a direct application of his more brute-force ether talents, but...
Parts of the plant might shred, but more and more of it is spat into the air, burning the mouth and lungs with cold. He's aware of lightbeams, of sparkling bolts of electricity, and still, the damnable plant's continued resilience against the force they bear against it until--
'Quick' yells Cyre, and Loren, jerking an arm free of a questing tendril, turns and grabs for Lan's wrist before plunging onwards through the corridor before the plant can recover.
He runs until his lungs feel like they're on fire.
Letting go of Lan's wrist, he promptly doubles over, heaving out a breath, then another.
"Ha..."
He straightens into a slouch.
"Somehow, I still seem to be alive," he comments at last, before taking a few steps back to slump against a nearby wall. Damn, it feels like he's had to run a marathon, and they're barely into this place. At this rate...
He dips a hand into his bag, and palms a small vial within.
He downs the contents with a bit of slight-of-hand, only to cough as the sol burns the back of his frost-seared throat. "Been... better," he wheezes, before his nose wrinkles.
"...What's the smell," he states rather than asks.
He makes an attempt to subtly clear his throat. Ugh. Still feels like it's burning.
And only then approaches the shelf Cyre's investigating.
"Why are you sniffing those? You have no idea what's in them, if they're toxic, or how old they are."
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Modafisol toward his party's challenge, Herbal Essences.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
"If they're toxic and I can smell them," Cyre says, continuing his sniffing adventure to the tune of Ragnell's harmonica, "Then we're already dead and the best we can hope for is to find an antidote. Right?"
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
The look on Loren's face -- a melange of horror and disgust -- speaks louder than words ever would.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Note to self: don't touch magic ice.
When her palm strike ends up hurting herself more than the frozen flower, Lan is all too glad to book it down the hallway after the others. She has little trouble keeping up with Thomas, at least, because her legs are longer than his. (She may also be an accomplished run-away-er.)
Luckily, the vast majority of the insinuations floating around seem to float right past her head, probably because she's busy trying not to die. "Oh? Thomas, you should be nicer to all girls, not just me, okay?" She says this as he's half keeled over, wheezing for breath. Maybe she ought to expand their deal to 'all people', but... he's probably having a had enough time...
Flexing her fingers carefully, the Baskar abandons Thomas to his fate and peeks into the cabinet with Cyre. "Hey, these smell good..." There's a dry, medicinal scent that reminds her a little bit of her grandmother's kitchen and a little bit of a tannery. Unable to make out what the labels mean, exactly, Lan resorts to asking for help.
Meaning, she pulls out a folded piece of paper and ignores everyone else for a moment, manipulating the folds as she asks the local spirits for guidance.
To the others, perhaps unfamiliar with Baskar shamanism, it looks a little bit like she's talking to a piece of origami.
DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Paku-Paku toward her party's challenge, Herbal Essences.
==========================<* The Feral Menagerie *>=========================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Herbal Essences *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The faint scent of something sweet and spicy drifts through the air, leading you to what appears to be a chemical storage cabinet stuffed to the brim with exotic ingredients, herbs and extracts. The labels are all written in some form of scientific jargon and are maybe somewhat too precise in the information they contain. You'd need to have some experience in deciphering this sort of thing if you're going to have any hope of figuring out what's inside the mason jars and test tubes. While this is an excellent opportunity to stock up on some useful medicinal compounds and tend to whatever wounds you might have suffered so far, take care that you know what you're doing or you might end up doing more damage than you fix. =Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
=====================<* The Feral Menagerie - Round 3 *>====================== ========================< Results - Herbal Essences >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Loren Voss 45 --(5)--> 50 Pass Modafisol 2 Wits Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Ragnell 45 --(5)--> 50 Pass Tarnished Harmonica 2 Wits Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyre H. Lorentz 35 --(5)--> 40 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lan Lilac 45 --(5)--> 50 Pass Paku-Paku 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Loren Voss 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Overwhelm|Save Point(1) Effects: Enlighten(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
"Hey," Cyre deadpans at Loren's apparent distaste for PRACTICAL HERB FINDING. "Don't knock it just because you haven't been in enough ruins and their medicine cabinets. You just need to get a better sniffer, like mine." Cyre sniffs. His hood twitches again.
Meanwhile, Ragnell keeps right on playing her harmonica. It may not seem to be doing much, but unbeknownst to the party, music is the secret weakness of the dangerous Invisible Gigaraptor, which falls asleep immediately when played to. Ragnell saves the party. Hooray!
Ultimately though, Cyre and Lan both manage to find two totally different things that are both extremely useful given the circumstances. The spirits guide Lan to a salve that is immediately effective on frostbite, and Cyre's nose detects a cache of healing herbs. The result is a ~full party heal~ as they progress deeper into this terrible place.
"Hey," Cyre perks up at Lan's amazing paper doohicky. "Hey, is that a Paku-Paku?" Hey, it's someone who actually knows what kind of crazy thing she's doing with that mysterious origami! "Wow, I haven't seen one of those in ages. You one of my people, then?"
'His people?'
...Is he asking if Lan is also some kind of cat-person, or... The trim of those robes do look distinctly baskar-y.
DG: Lan Lilac has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* The Feral Menagerie *>============================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Adventurer Adaptation *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | -----------------------------< Challenge Information: >------------------------------ You enter a room to find... A chest! What luck. The thing is an earthy brown except where its frame glitters with gold leaf detailing. Who would leave such a thing here? You approach, but something about this chest doesn't quite seem right. Like, for instance, the fact that there seems to be a vine poking out of the back of it. It also seems to be a bit too... fleshy for a treasure chest. Is it a mimic? But there does seem to be a faint outline of something inside-- a glimmer of gold, even. How does one safely open up some kind of chest mimic plant without risking life and limb...? =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
"...Thank you," Lan finishes her prayer, beaming at the paper doohickey as if it has just become her new best friend. The jar she picks up contains a bit of salve, which she carefully passes out to everybody who needs it. If you can't trust medical advice from invisible spirits channeled through a derpy-looking blonde with great legs, who can you trust? A medical student or something?
She's tucking the paper thingy away in a pocket when Cyre calls attention to it. "Hmm? Oh yeah, you've seen one before-- oh, duh," she laughs, finally catching on. "Of course you have. Where are you from? Have you ever heard of Little Firelight...?"
Once they've finished resting, it's back to the ever important task of 'delving deeper' and 'maybe hopefully figuring out where Lan's friend has disappeared to'. Sadly, there hasn't been much recent sign of anybody but themselves yet. "Maybe he didn't even make it this far," she murmurs quietly, right before they find... the box.
Inside Lan's mind, a horrifying memory wells up. Ashansi, yelling and thrashing in the distance, her way barred by totally terrifying goopy fungus monsters. Ashansi, showing up to rescue her... with a snarling, teeth-gnashing treasure chest strapped securely to his back. It got drool on her sandals!!
"Ugh... Do... do we even want to try?" she totally doesn't whine. But if they don't... Resignedly, Lan takes a deep breath and starts meditating again. Crinkle, crinkle goes the paper.
DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Paku-Paku toward her party's challenge, Adventurer Adaptation.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"Stop lying," Loren says a little sharply, his expression the pained one of someone pushed past his limits for endurance (or at least, it sure looks that way) as Ragnell continues and does not stop. "I am not involved with... with either of them!"
Then Lan suggests he be nice to other girls, and not just Lan herself.
Loren makes an expression that suggests his world, on the other hand, just tilted. "...What?"
But he has his own pains to tend to, first among them his continued capacity to continue upon this expedition into the depths of this ruin. Fortunately, the drug will see to that. The rest...
The rest is going to all come down to whether his current companions will be the death of him yet or not.
Which, speaking of!
...Why is this happening, he thinks.
"Your funeral," he says to Cyre, before turning away from the Baskar's indepth investigation of the medicinal (?) herbs to... probably go sulk off to the left, to be honest.
Though, whatever objections he's voice to now, he still goes to take a closer look when the medicinal herbs are uncovered, and these, to judge by his closer assessment and subsequent nod, pass whatever silent test he's administering.
Herbs aren't as good as proper drugs, but when you're in a pinch, he's learned it's not always good to be too picky.
As she strikes up a conversation with Cyre, he watches on in relative silence, gaze traveling between the two of them. Familiar, huh...? Oh, that's right, the Baskar come in a variety of shapes, don't they.
And they use those stone tiles.
The same sort that answered him that night when he'd nearly died on the road to Pendrago. That princess, Cecilia, had answered questions of his about the Guardians, but...
And then, they find the box.
Loren stares at it a moment. Squints at it.
"It's alive, isn't it," he comments, deadpan from the rear.
Emperor, he has a headache, he thinks, fumbling for another one of those vials in his bag and similarly downing its contents. Must not have taken enough of a dose of the other. He's already... ugh. He fixes his attention on the box again.
"Please tell me none of you are going to put your hand in it," he says. "It's definitely breathing." There's a pause, before he once again digs in his bag.
"But if you insist... try this."
He hands over a somewhat weighty instrument.
(It's a bone snipper)
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Modafisol toward his party's challenge, Adventurer Adaptation.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"That's right, you're not 'involved.' You're just stringin' her along 'cuz you can, aren't ya? Jus' to slake your lust string-free. You make me *sick*," Ragnell sneers at Loren. The smirk on one side of her mouth may ruin the effect somewhat.
The smirk overtakes her entire mouth when Lan solemnly chides Loren to be nicer to *all* women. "Wise young lady," she drawls, winking at Lan. "Let's pray he listens to ya."
Then she plays her harmonica, watching Loren and his cranky face with open, visible amusement. Then she glances at Lan as she calls upon the local spirits. Being literally a spirit herself, even if she isn't familiar with this brand of Baskar shamanism, it's kind of funny to see.
Between Lan and Cyre, the party is healed of all their ice burns! It's very nice. She tilts her head at Cyre when he strikes up conversation with Lan, though. "A Paku-Paku?" she repeats, looking over at the folded paper. "I take it that's some kinda spirit communication tool?"
Soon, they get back to delving deeper into the menagerie. They find a chest! It is a suspicious chest. One that seems rather... toothy. And. Breathing. As Loren points out. Ragnell eyeballs the box, then pulls out her harmonica again. "Music soothes the savage beast, as they say," she remarks before playing an upbeat but soothing melody. She leaves actually trying to open the box to someone else.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Tarnished Harmonica toward her party's challenge, Adventurer Adaptation.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
"Look man, as long as you're able to make sure they're all happy and content, more power to you," Cyre says to Loren, his expression curling into a terrible, cheshire smirk. "I mean, wow. Good job guy. You know how many people would kill to be in your position? Just let it ride, man."
Just... let it ride.
"I mean, you've got a good Baskar girl from Little Firelight comin' after you. Wait-- Firelight? Heh, that's actually not too far from home. Just on the other side of the Badlands." That's STILL PRETTY FAR. Cyre chuckles, stuffing his cloak full of various herbs and spices for... future use. "I'm from Wehaca, myself. Nice to see another wastelander up here!"
Though uh, she does seem like she's a little... Weird.
Like, not as weird as Lydia, but that's still pretty weird to be honest...
Maybe Baskars are just weird overall? Even to other Baskars?
Hm.
Their customs can seem pretty weird to outsiders, that's for sure. "Paku-Paku's kind of... Yeah, a little something like that, or that's what they say. It's something the elders teach to kids, kind of as a first-timer's fortune teller. Mostly they're just toys, but hey, apparently sometimes they work better than that."
Or maybe Lan is just magic.
Oh, but they've found a treasure chest! Except it's pretty obvious that this is some kind of terrifying treasure-chest-shaped plant, one which is probably highly carnivorous. "Yeahhh, let's cut it up as a last resort, huh? It might have friends. Here, let me try something."
Cyre reaches into his cloak and retrieves a collection of herbs, only some of which he had stolen from the storage room. He piles a selection of them on the ground in front of the chest and sets it on fire with a quick blast of laser light. The resulting smoke is... Unusually calming. Like, wow that's some kind of relaxation, like super incense. The wind stirs, blowing a majority of the smoke over toward the 'chest.' "There. Now hopefully we just need to wait."
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Adventurer Adaptation.
==============================<* The Feral Menagerie *>============================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Adventurer Adaptation *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | -----------------------------< Challenge Information: >------------------------------ You enter a room to find... A chest! What luck. The thing is an earthy brown except where its frame glitters with gold leaf detailing. Who would leave such a thing here? You approach, but something about this chest doesn't quite seem right. Like, for instance, the fact that there seems to be a vine poking out of the back of it. It also seems to be a bit too... fleshy for a treasure chest. Is it a mimic? But there does seem to be a faint outline of something inside-- a glimmer of gold, even. How does one safely open up some kind of chest mimic plant without risking life and limb...? =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
=========================<* The Feral Menagerie - Round 4 *>========================= =========================< Results - Adventurer Adaptation >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 50 --(5)--> 55 Pass Modafisol 2 Wits Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 50 --(5)--> 55 Pass Tarnished Harmonica 2 Wits Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cyre H. Lorentz 40 --(5)--> 45 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 50 --(5)--> 55 Pass Paku-Paku 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten --------------------------------------< Party >-------------------------------------- Leader: Loren Voss 40 --(25)--> 65 Pass Conditions: Overwhelm|Treasure(1) Effects: Enlighten(1) ==================================< Dream Chasers >==================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss 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.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Thomas always looks like he's being tested beyond mortal limits, poor guy. Lan doesn't envy him whatever kind of life he's leading, because it looks like it must be stressful as hell. He complains, as usual, but offers the bone snips (weird sharp pliers???) anyway. "The box is definitely alive and that's definitely the problem," she frowns contemplatively at them. She looks like she's about to take the snips when Ragnell really just... won't let it go.
Outwardly, Lan squints at Ragnell. Inwardly, she sighs. "That's enough, okay?" she pipes up. "You're just doing it to annoy him. It's probably fun, but can it wait till later?" This is Lan's idea of a compromise. Sometimes Lan's negotiations fail. For instance, Thomas will never listen to Lan, but that will never stop from trying to talk sense into him. In something of a conciliatory tone, she offers the folded paper 'flower' to the Seraph before taking the bone snips from Thomas. "It's pretty crude, but it can get good results with spirits that can't use human speech. Here, wanna see?"
Together, they wait for the smoke to calm the strange monster. "Oh, Wehaca? I think my mom's been there once or twice when she went out for her journey," the blonde remarks offhand. "Wouldn't it be funny if we were related or something?" she laughs cheerfully.
Has it not occurred to her that she and Cyre are different species? ...Does it matter to her??
At least, with the mimic spaxing out and drooling, she very carefully reaches out, and... gently plucks something goldish and covered in goo out of its mouth. "Got it!"
DG: Seraph Ragnell has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* The Feral Menagerie *>============================ =========================<* CHALLENGE - Tremor Wurm *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The rattling of cages, doors and cabinets presages its arrival. An earthquake! The ground beneath your feet shakes and rattles as the floor all around you gives way to a broiling mess of mud pots and liquefied earth. Something erupts from the ground, a sort of massive insect like a centipede or worm with a gyrating maw of steel-shod fangs. It twists through the air and dives back into the earth, leaving behind a veritable slurry of churning soil, impassable except for the rare patch of solid ground, just barely rooted in place by the strange flora encroaching upon the rest of this place. It may be possible to make it across to safety by using those as temporary footholds, but the ground is treacherous, and it's impossible to say when the wurm will return. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck, Tire===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell pauses when Lan attempts to encourage her to lay off Loren. She gives her a curious look; then, in personable tones, she replies, "Oh, I'm not doin' it *just* to annoy him. I'm also doin' it because I genuinely dislike him an' think he's a piece o' shit." Pause. "But you seem like a good girl, an' you asked very nicely, so sure, I'll lay off 'im for now." Then Lan offers the Paku-Paku to her, and Ragnell accepts it. "Sure, thanks. Hmmm..." She manipulates the folded paper. It's not bad work for something crude, but you don't need to be super-advanced to get results. "Nice," she decrees, handing it back.
And so the mimic chest is soothed, and its insides looted! Ragnell, saying nothing about Wehaca, puts her harmonica away in her travel pack with immense satisfaction--but when the ground starts rumbling, she looks around quickly. "An earthquake? No, this is more like--everybody, off the ground!" she barks before leaping for a ceiling bar.
A few seconds later, the ground ERUPTS with a shrieking, snarling worm that liquefies the ground and leaves brown slurry in its wake. It's really gross. Ragnell curls her nose in disgust, then reaches down one-handed to her travel pack and fetches a snack.
It's a chocolate snack. She eyeballs the twice-baked bread, then sighs (shallowly) and eats it anyway. If Cyre, Lan, or Loren want one, they'll get one too, though she doesn't bother to explain the magical properties of said snack to prevent slips and slowdowns while running.
Which is what they'll need to do a lot of to get out of here before that strange earthworm returns, because there's only so many solid spots left in the room in its wake.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Chocolate Rusk toward her party's challenge, Tremor Wurm.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
The face Loren makes at Ragnell now is also one of those expressions that speaks volumes and volumes. "Why are you doing this," he hisses at her, as if he were a man on the verge of losing it when she straight-up admits she's doing this just to mess with him. "What is your problem with me?" You know, besides the obvious. His patience, it seems, is short.
Unfortunately for him, it probably just makes him easier to tease...
Cyre is not helping matters, either. "...What are you talking about? Are you dense?" he asks of the man with the horribly cat-like grin, "How many times do I have to tell you I'm not interested in... in, any of," he gestures, vaguely and towards the room and assembled persons at large, "any of that!" he finishes, before tossing his hands into the air and letting the rest of them gain before continuing on.
Then they find the chest.
"Do you really think that will help?" he comments, when Ragnell pulls out her harmonica to play a tune once again. "It's some sort of monster. ...It might not even have any appreciable auditory structure, come to think of it." ...Do treasure-shaped creatures have sense organs as is generally known by science?
DeVriese would probably insist on cutting the thing up for basic research.
He shudders at the thought of deVriese, for no externally apparent reason.
And, for that matter, do they even have a nose?
"I didn't mean... cut it up. Use it as a probe," Loren sighs, lowering the hand that holds the field medical tool as Cyre starts taking out the apparently calming incense. Lan will find it easy to take from him. "...Fine," he finally says, slouching. "We'll try it your way."
Much to his eternal shock, it works.
Lan's even able to extract... something from the creature's gullet.
"I'm... not sure I want to know what that is. Or was," he says. If she offers it his way, he quite firmly turns it down.
Wehaca, huh.
...
But there isn't much time to contemplate what had lain in the depths there. Not when the ground shudders. Loren, perhaps a little better attuned to the movements of the earth by dint of his particular affinity, stops dead in his tracks. "No, it's not an--" He leaps, grabbing hold of an overhead bar and hanging on for dear life.
He's reminded, unpleasantly, of the field training courses in Jugend. Still, he's a product of that institution -- he doesn't lose his grip.
The matter of the floor after the wurm has passed is another matter. Dropping down once things are stable, he's doubly surprised to suddenly catch a flying chocolatey treat tossed his way. Staring at it, he gives it an experimental sniff, remembers how long it's been since he's eaten something, and...
Did he just eat it in one go? Yes.
"Let's not linger. Things like that are sensitive to movement. It'll be back," he says, before hopping to one of the more solid points in the room as he attempts to make his way across.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Tremor Wurm.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
"Jeez Rags, you really don't pull any punches do you?" Cyre laughs over the unusual sound of a snoring treasure chest (!?). "I guess that's just part of your charm though, so it's fine."
It's fine, right?
Right.
After all, med students exist to be bullied.
"Yeah? I wouldn't be surprised. We're about the only town on that side of the Badlands. So if she was in the area, she might've stopped by for water and supplies. Though uh," he sniffs, scrubbing at his nose to clear the lingering smoke and spice clinging to the insides. "I mean, maybe we're distantly related? I dunno though. You got any uh. Ears. In your family?"
Cyre's hood twitches.
This is not, as it turns out, just to punctuate the topic of his fluffy, fuzzy earbits.
"Hey," the shaman pauses, looking suddenly uncertain, "Do any of you feel that?"
Fun fact: Cats can detect earthquakes before they hit.
Apparently that means they can also detect Tremor Worms.
"What the heck is that thing!? It's like a sandworm, but twice as awful!" A gust howls down the corridor, catching in a bundle of cloth and leather Cyre has tied onto his back. It unfurls, the wind lifting him (and the parachute) off the liquefying ground. "Hang on," he grunts, stringing a rope out from his pack and across the bubbling, quickening mire, "Grab on quick! Let's go before that thing comes back."
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has used his Tool Reverse Parachute toward his party's challenge, Tremor Wurm.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Beat.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
"Hey Thomas," Cyre yells, "What's that you said about sniffing stuff you didn't know?"
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"I said it was a bad idea!" 'Thomas' yells back. "You have no idea if you're inhaling something toxic or simply noxious!"
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
"Wow," Cyre also yells back, "Way to insult Ragnell's delicious chocolate goodies!"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"I'm deeply hurt," Ragnell drawls, tone indifferent.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Loren stops for a second. There might be a moment where there's a nearly audible record scratch. "--This is different!" he shouts back.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
This feeling... Lan frowns a little harder, but can't bring herself to argue with the Seraph. After all, isn't a person entitled to their opinions? And Thomas can be an entirely frustrating creature when he feels like it. Sometimes Lan wonders if he isn't secretly an alien, never quite comfortable in Filgaia's atmosphere. Even the moon doesn't seem far enough away for him!
But if they can hold their peace until they're out of here, maybe things can still turn out for the best--
Or there could be a horrible, brain-scarring earthworm underneath the floor, and it could be incredibly icky, and Lan could reach up to palm at the silver ribbon holding her hair back and jump for the ceiling. Her own gravity partially negated, she hangs from a light fixture with infinitely more ease than her companions do. "Ew!!" She waits for it to pass by, only drifting to the ground after everyone else has let go. "--So anyway," she continues, as if the worm were only something mildly annoying, "Not that I know of, but everybody always talks about the time a couple of centuries ago that the tribe adopted a Seraph--"
She's still blathering as they walk away.
DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Butterfly Ribbon toward her party's challenge, Tremor Wurm.
===========================<* The Feral Menagerie *>============================ =========================<* CHALLENGE - Tremor Wurm *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The rattling of cages, doors and cabinets presages its arrival. An earthquake! The ground beneath your feet shakes and rattles as the floor all around you gives way to a broiling mess of mud pots and liquefied earth. Something erupts from the ground, a sort of massive insect like a centipede or worm with a gyrating maw of steel-shod fangs. It twists through the air and dives back into the earth, leaving behind a veritable slurry of churning soil, impassable except for the rare patch of solid ground, just barely rooted in place by the strange flora encroaching upon the rest of this place. It may be possible to make it across to safety by using those as temporary footholds, but the ground is treacherous, and it's impossible to say when the wurm will return. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck, Tire===========================================
======================<* The Feral Menagerie - Round 5 *>======================= ===========================< Results - Tremor Wurm >============================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 55 --(5)--> 60 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 55 --(5)--> 60 Pass Chocolate Rusk 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cyre H. Lorentz 45 --(5)--> 50 Pass Reverse Parachute 1 Agility Effects: Rally and Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 55 --(5)--> 60 Pass Butterfly Ribbon 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 65 --(20)--> 85 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(2)|Overwhelm|Tire(2) Effects: Cleanse|Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"I sure as hell don't," Ragnell tells Cyre with a gives-no-fucks grin. "If only everyone found me as charmin' as you do~. An' by 'everyone' I mean 'cute Baskar girls.'" She winks at Lan, even as she frowns at her. Is she flirting? Is she joking? Knowing Ragnell, it's probably both.
She then smiles at Loren with sugar and cyanide when he hisses at her, demanding reasons for her dislike. "What's my problem with you? What's my *problem* with you?" She chuckles contemptuously, raising her chin so as to better look down her nose at him. "My problem with you is....... somethin' you'll have to find out another time. 'Cuz I told the pretty young lady I'd ease off~."
Meaning she respects someone she literally bet maybe twenty minutes ago more than she does Loren. Whether Loren reads between the lines well enough to pick up on that is another matter, though. Either way, she leaves him to stew. For the same reason, when he questions her harmonica-playing, she just raises an eyebrow at him and doesn't answer.
Besides, they're all kind of busy extracting treasures from mimics and avoiding Tremor Worms as they chew through the floor. Lan partially negates her own gravity with the power of her ribbon, Loren eats his share of snacks, Cyre unfurls his escape parachute and offers a ride to the others, and Lan and Ragnell hang on for the ride. Between the four of them, they easily make it past the crumbled earth, well down the next hall.
"Your tribe adopted a *Seraph*? Really?" Ragnell asks Lan, eyebrows going up. "Tell me more." And so the blathering continues, until the four of them uncover...!
DG: Loren Voss has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* The Feral Menagerie *>============================ ======================<* CHALLENGE - Mother of Monsters *>====================== |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Finally you find your way to the core of this place. What used to be some kind of laboratory of unnatural and twisted alchemy has become a monstrous womb. Half-formed beasts slumber in translucent egg sacks nestled in cradles of vine and twining wood. The deep throb-throb-throb of a quickening pulse resonates through the vast network of twining roots and winding mycelium that surround you. Motes of light shoot through the strands of plant-fungi-amalgam, racing to and fro and connecting the rest of this place to whatever it is sleeps at its heart. There, in the distance, a beacon of softly pulsating light shines through the jungle of winding vines and abominable chrysalises. You can see, just barely, the outline of something or someone clutching a glowing orb which radiates power into the network of rampant life, sustaining its apparently unceasing growth. That must be your goal, but to reach it means tearing a way through the bramble without disturbing the monsters slumbering within, a tiring and time consuming prospect by any measure. =Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Weaken===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Loren pauses up for a moment as Ragnell starts to explain.
(she does not explain)
If there were ever a textbook example of the facial expression equivalent of 'really?' this would be it. He holds it for a good five seconds, then sighs and utters, "Fine. Have it your way."
What a pain, runs the approximate thought, as they make their way across the treacherous pathway of solid stepping 'stones' littering the floor.
He's wary, as he crosses quickly, on edge for that initial tremor announcing the advance of one of the worms. But it never comes. They cross, and plunge on ahead through the door.
"What... the hell is this," Loren utters, stopping dead in his tracks as they walk right into what reminds him of a biological lab.
One that has definitely taken a trek for the nightmarish. Even gross anatomy wasn't anything like this...!
(*Loren has never been anywhere in or near certain high-security laboratories back home)
"Don't... tell me they're still alive," he says with no small horror, watching the light pulse its way upwards. Listening to the dull thud-thump of a pulse.
How?
And for that matter, why?
Something over there glows, finally serving as the fulcrum to tear his attention from the egg sacks lining the room.
He moves for it, reaches out a hand for it, only to pull back, just shy of one of the chrysalises hanging low from the ceiling. "That... that's powering this place. Maybe if we removed it..."
He swallows. Takes a breath. Focuses his will.
It's a cool spray that seems to settle within the selves of everyone present here. The flow and flexibility of a stream, all the easy motion of the water. Maybe it's enough to help guide and bolster their current quest.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Mother of Monsters.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
"Woah, woah woah--" Lan said what now? Cyre double-takes at least twice before touching down on safe and solid ground. "Firelight did what? I hadn't even heard of Seraphs 'till they started dropping down out of the moon. When the heck did this happen? Tell me all the details."
...That may, possibly, be something that'll need to wait for later.
They've reached somewhere familiar. Cyre makes an unpleasant noise, clutching nervously at his robes and feeling the thump-thump-thump of his heartbeat pounding against his chest. "It's not so much a question of if they're 'still alive' and more that they're 'being born,'" Cyre provides the answer that Loren was likely dreading, "This place... makes those things. Monsters. I don't know how, I don't know why, but--"
Cyre gestures, summoning another series of small, whirling wind-discs. Each one cuts away at a separate vine-fungus-root-thing, carefully trying to avoid disturbing the slumbering beasts. "One way or another, I want to get down to the center of it."
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Mother of Monsters.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
She flushes pink and laughs. "Oh gosh, it's just a story! It probably wasn't even a real Seraph! Don't you guy have silly kids' stories like that where you're from?"
They're getting close to something. Something sleepy, something maternal... in the most biological, base definition of the word. The kind of maternal that alligators are. This whole place has been unlike anything Lan has ever seen before, but what they find surrounding the heart of it all...
She can't tell if she's fascinated. She should be, right? Outwardly, Lan has gone a little grey around the gills just looking at the room. There are so many...
Please don't wake up, she prays silently, edging behind the others.
DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Mother of Monsters.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell steps into the next chamber and stops when she actually sees what's inside it. Slowly, she resumes watching though, but it's while eyeing all the egg sacs, not yet broken. One has to wonder what would happen if the four of them just... tore them open. Was there a prize if one managed entire year of keepaway.
Well, either way, if they want to get through this menagerie, they'll have to picture out what they've seen on their own. ...Ragnell rather doubts it, too. And anyway, there's a portion that will still allow her to kick the shit out of him if he backstabs them. For now, she powers through.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Mother of Monsters.
===========================<* The Feral Menagerie *>============================ ======================<* CHALLENGE - Mother of Monsters *>====================== |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Finally you find your way to the core of this place. What used to be some kind of laboratory of unnatural and twisted alchemy has become a monstrous womb. Half-formed beasts slumber in translucent egg sacks nestled in cradles of vine and twining wood. The deep throb-throb-throb of a quickening pulse resonates through the vast network of twining roots and winding mycelium that surround you. Motes of light shoot through the strands of plant-fungi-amalgam, racing to and fro and connecting the rest of this place to whatever it is sleeps at its heart. There, in the distance, a beacon of softly pulsating light shines through the jungle of winding vines and abominable chrysalises. You can see, just barely, the outline of something or someone clutching a glowing orb which radiates power into the network of rampant life, sustaining its apparently unceasing growth. That must be your goal, but to reach it means tearing a way through the bramble without disturbing the monsters slumbering within, a tiring and time consuming prospect by any measure. =Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Weaken===========================================
======================<* The Feral Menagerie - Round 6 *>======================= ========================< Results - Mother of Monsters >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 60 --(25)--> 85 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 60 --(25)--> 85 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cyre H. Lorentz 50 --(25)--> 75 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 60 --(25)--> 85 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 85 --(0)--> 85 Fail Conditions: Injure(2)|Weaken(2) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has failed this challenge! The party gained 0 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. <Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"Being born..." Loren echoes, the hair on the nape of his neck feeling as if it's standing on end. Involuntarily, he shudders. "So this is just some wayward piece of... of biological machinery? Set on 'make more monsters'? It doesn't look like anyone's been here for a long time."
How long has it been going? Has it been spitting creatures out into the surroundings for ages?
"...Yeah. So do I."
It this, it seems, Loren and Cyre are of one mind.
Carefully, now. Everyone moves so carefully.
But the way inwards is so thin. The pods are packed so close.
It takes such a very, very, long time to work their way inwards--
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* The Feral Menagerie *>=========================== ================<* CHALLENGE - The Word for World is Forest *>================ |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Emerging from the nest of brambles and vines, you enter a grove of thin trees surrounding a central wooden pillar. The pillar is a strange thing-- its center is carved into something that resembles a child curled unto herself, as if deep asleep. Calm, emerald light pours out from the sphere cradled in the young girl's arms, filtering out through the lush greenery surrounding you. The idyllic tranquility lasts for but a moment longer. Then there's a sound almost too high for human ears to detect as the orb's light suddenly doubles upon itself. It's a keening, desperate cry wrought into a dissonant harmonic. Trees erupt from the ground, transforming the peaceful grove into a verdant maze. The wooden columns press outward as they grow and thicken, forcing you back toward the crush of brambles you'd just emerged from. You must think quickly to find a solution to the maze and make your way to the center, lest you be impaled on the tangle of thorns or pulverized between the march of trees. =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless=================================================
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Tarnished Harmonica toward her party's challenge, The Word for World is Forest.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
It is then perhaps somewhat worrying that, when they emerge from the rat's nest of biomatter into a distinctly tranquil grove, Cyre pauses for a moment and says: "Well, this is new."
The whole glade is filled with young saplings, just barely beginning to grow into anything that properly resembles a tree. At its center, there stands a single wooden pillar that *thrums* with living essence. It radiates a gentle glow, bathing the grove in a soft, emerald light. But it isn't a perfect cylinder; the thing terminates in branches and roots which reach down toward an immaculate work of art-- a statue of a young girl, curled peacefully around a brilliant, green orb.
"No," Cyre murmurs, "That is familiar. Careful, something's comi--nnng!" Cyre winces, clutching at his head. A sound! A terrible sound. A high-pitched melody that sings out like nails drawn against the chalkboard of the mind. There's a fearful, fevered pitch to it, like a song which embodies raw emotional desperation. The earth rumbles-- then splits. A maze of tree trunks erupt from the ground and begin grinding outward, pressing the party back toward the bramble of gestating beasts.
"D-damnit, come on!" Cyre yells over the terrified song, sprinting into the labyrinth, "We need to hurry! If we don't find a way through and get to that orb...!"
Well, he doesn't need to say what'll happen.
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, The Word for World is Forest.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Loren, perhaps unhelpfully, stops once he emerges into the apparent grove. His gaze tilts this way and that, as if seeking out the cause behind this apparent distortion between the place they were and the place they are now. "...This doesn't make any sense. The size of this place... it shouldn't be possible!" he utters, beginning to slowly walk amidst the young trees sprouting in the green.
His eyes are telling him that this is real.
His mind says it's got to be a lie.
The sound starts up at this moment.
It's sharp, painful. Keening just on the edge of his hearing, shrill enough to make his teeth ache at the noise of it. "What's... that--"
the eye writhes in the depths stirred from its rest deep in the corridors of his mind.
what is that
Loren takes a ragged breath, reaches for his bag, and less carefully before pulls something from within and downs it all in a single go. Focus, focus--
He stretches out a hand, pushing back with all the physical and mental force he muster. All of his will, to a singular point.
You can't let it defeat you.
After all, you're a first class citizen--
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Modafisol toward his party's challenge, The Word for World is Forest.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
It takes far longer than she would like it to, but they reach the interior of the monster nursery. That light and that feeling are here, the thrum of a steady heartbeat echoing deeply in Lan's head. The source of the light and the emotional current isn't what she'd expected at all, but... somehow... Even in spite of its shape, a figure she ought to find peaceful, she's still on edge. It doesn't even have that much to do with all the creepy monster sacs. (It has everything to do with the sacs.)
"What is-" the shaman begins, but something alerts the core to their presence. Lan crams her hands against her ears as the song turns sour and desperate, breaking into a run for the lighted orb. Even if it's a monster, even if it's screaming, isn't it a mother?
"Thomas! COME ON!" He's stopping to pop a pill or something! Isn't this a bad time?!
Lan jackrabbits through the trees, leaping over crawling roots and ducking through grasping thorns.
"Please!" Her voice rings out as she races for the statue. "We're not your enemy! We're not here to hurt you!"
Yeah, she's... trying to make friends with the orb. Lan leaps, arms outstretched to embrace the sleeping child. The Paku-Paku is crushed, gripped tight and forgotten in her fingers. "Please stop, okay?"
DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Paku-Paku toward her party's challenge, The Word for World is Forest.
==========================<* The Feral Menagerie *>=========================== ================<* CHALLENGE - The Word for World is Forest *>================ |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Emerging from the nest of brambles and vines, you enter a grove of thin trees surrounding a central wooden pillar. The pillar is a strange thing-- its center is carved into something that resembles a child curled unto herself, as if deep asleep. Calm, emerald light pours out from the sphere cradled in the young girl's arms, filtering out through the lush greenery surrounding you. The idyllic tranquility lasts for but a moment longer. Then there's a sound almost too high for human ears to detect as the orb's light suddenly doubles upon itself. It's a keening, desperate cry wrought into a dissonant harmonic. Trees erupt from the ground, transforming the peaceful grove into a verdant maze. The wooden columns press outward as they grow and thicken, forcing you back toward the crush of brambles you'd just emerged from. You must think quickly to find a solution to the maze and make your way to the center, lest you be impaled on the tangle of thorns or pulverized between the march of trees. =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless=================================================
=====================<* The Feral Menagerie - Round 7 *>====================== ==================< Results - The Word for World is Forest >================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Loren Voss 85 --(100)--> 185 Pass Modafisol 2 Wits Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Ragnell 85 --(100)--> 185 Pass Tarnished Harmonica 2 Wits Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyre H. Lorentz 75 --(100)--> 175 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lan Lilac 85 --(100)--> 185 Fail Paku-Paku 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Loren Voss 85 --(10)--> 95 Fail Conditions: Injure(1)|Reckless(2)|Weaken(1) Effects: Enlighten(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: Loren Voss is too exhausted to continue! DG: Seraph Ragnell is too exhausted to continue! DG: Cyre H. Lorentz is too exhausted to continue! DG: Lan Lilac 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 Loren Voss has been fully Exhausted by The Feral Menagerie! DG: The party will now draw a conclusion.
==========================<* The Feral Menagerie *>=========================== ================<* CHALLENGE - Emeritus Mementos *>=========================== |Type: Landmark |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Denied at the last by the power at the Menagerie's heart, you find yourself pushed back into one of the laboratory's few safe nooks- something of a private study or office space. What you find is a wealth of bestial specimens suspended in glass jars and a variety of dusty old texts that have somehow survived the passage of ages. You might be able to harvest the former for useful materials and the latter for a smattering of academic information, but the most unusual find in this place is the pile of unpublished, hand-written notes on the nearby desk, detailing the arrival of a disease known only as 'daemonblight.' There is a meticulously drawn sketch lying among the notes. It portrays a middle-aged man in thick robes sitting alongside a pair of vibrant young women, with a much younger girl perched, grinning for the artist, atop his knee. A father and his daughters? What is something like this doing here? =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Unfortunately, no amount of maze-navigating is able to overcome the unceasing outward pulse of plantlife. The forest marches inexorably outward, pushing out, out, out. Cyre whispers profanity as he turns back around from the fourth dead end in a row, only to find himself back where he started. 'Thomas' manages to gather his thoughts, blasting a hole through the vegetation to allow passage to the pillar at the center of the impossible grove, and Lan seizes on the opportunity.
And... Embraces the pillar.
Suddenly, everything is awash in emerald light.
And for the briefest of moments, Lan finds herself in a pitch black void, empty except for a young girl curled up around herself. Dark except for the steady pulse of green radiating from her form. The girl looks up with uncertain, lonely eyes, and then...
*FLASH*
The song has ceased. The party finds themselves... Somewhere else. A private study. An old, abandoned office space filled with mementos of ancient experiments and reagents from long-abandoned work. Notes and loose sheafs of paper litter the ground, the cabinets, the workbench. Cyre groans, still rubbing at his head to try and scrub that song from memory. "What... What was that?"
'That,' by Loren's reckoning, was probably something impossible. By Ragnell's, it was some unknown form of magic. And by Lan's...
Well, maybe someone is trying to show them something?
But what, exactly?
...There's a photograph on the desk.