2018-08-25: Castle of Anxiety
- Log: Castle of Anxiety
- Cast: Seraph Beast, Catenna, Ethius Hesiod, Cyre H. Lorentz, Gwen Whitlock
- Where: Castle Rabenstein
- Date: August 25, 2018
- Summary: A group of well-wishers challenges Castle Rabenstein....
=============================<* Castle Rabenstein *>============================== Castle Rabenstein sits atop the summit of Mount Manfred, an exercise in engineering folly that has become the epicenter of a Malevolent Domain. Impossible though it may seem, the broad strokes of its architecture resemble those of fallen Castle Arctica, and the ever-present snowfall only strengthens the comparison. Though massive and imposing, its proportions don't seem to make sense upon close inspection--as though the Domain were bending space to accomodate the will of its masters. Inside, the castle is every bit as impressive. Its corridors are dark and vaulted, lit only by bobbing glass spheres containing Malevolence-laced electrical sparks. Portions of it look distinctly metallic, and contain churning, smoking industrial machinery with no apparent purpose. Other portions are uncomfortably warm, despite the glacial chill outside, and any fires started there can quickly spread out of control. Lesser Hellions of all stripes inhabit the place, ranging from eerie, ghostly felines to spectral soldiers to animated suits of armor. A small army of Mannikins stands at the ready to tend to the Domain's residents, and to their guests. Those who choose to intrude can expect a much harsher reception. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0LdIZ8TWYo
DG: A party led by Seraph Beast is now entering Castle Rabenstein. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
============================<* Castle Rabenstein *>============================= =======================<* CHALLENGE - Don't Wake Bitey *>======================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The front gates of Castle Rabenstein are closed and barred. On top of that, the skeletal, Malevolence-animated form of a truly massive wyvern is sprawled out in front of them. It looks like it might be asleep, as odd as that sounds. (He may or may not have a snore bubble coming out one skeletal, ice-rimmed nostril.) You might be able to climb the wall and access another entrance, but whatever you decide, you'll need to be quiet about it. If you get past the wyvern, you might be able to get inside without being noticed. Wake it up, and you'll have a problem on your hands. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Bad Luck===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Beast has posed.
Castle Rabenstein: the Malevolent jewel on a terrible crown.
It is, perhaps, inaccurate to describe it as any one glittering decoration; it is made of a hundred-hundred little horrors, each layering atop each other, each amplifying the next. The journey up the mountain is not a pleasant one - least of all for the Beast of Lohgrin, who feels the pressure of the Malevolent Domain here as keenly as any blade.
She has not come alone. Cyre and Catenna are friends, and she has beseeched their aid; Ethius is enigmatic addition to the Carakin's side, and... well, it's difficult to dissuade a wild Ethius from a task. Gwen is a stranger to her, but her aid is welcomed nonetheless - should she have the ears to hear it.
(It is an animate statue, after all. It is strange to imagine it talking, without a sense of Resonance.)
Let us not belabour the journey overmuch - between five Drifters, even a hostile mountain is a footnote, now it is known factor. Instead, focus on Castle Rabenstein's walls, high and foreboding: for the enemy's gate is not down. It is drawn and locked, and before it lies wyvern skeletal, in an almost comical repose. Its size promises that it will not be nearly as endearing if it wakes.
Quietly, the Beast of Lohgrin speaks: "The most direct path is foolishness, I fear. Shall we go around? I could carry you over the walls, have you no method to climb." She lowers herself down - there is, in fact, broad saddle upon her back.
DG: Seraph Beast has used her Tool Big Saddle toward her party's challenge, Don't Wake Bitey.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
What Catenna knows of Castle Rabenstein is little - only that it seems like every time she's been up into the mountains of Zulan, she's felt cold and unhappy. To that end, she put on a long dress and wrapped herself up with a large fur scarf and a pair of fur-trimmed boots. The Owlet is snoozing back at the CaraKin, in the care of Snowlune and Taara. (Or is it the other way around?)
When Seraph Beast speaks, Catenna nods to her simply and gravely. She doesn't speak, for there waiting for them is that skeletal dragon, something she would prefer to let sleep for as long as sleep deigns to take it.
Her answer is more simple. It is to pull a coil of rope and a grappling hook from within the folds of her cloak. Riding Beast is out of the question: Beast is a friend to her, and she wouldn't do her such an indignity as to treat her as mere transportation.
And thus, the cast. She slowly twirls the rope, then casts it upwards towards the wall a distance away. The hook catches with a metallic click, and the Moon Shaman plants a heel against the wall before beginning to deftly scale it, going hand-over-hand up the rope.
DG: Catenna has used her Tool Grappling Hook toward her party's challenge, Don't Wake Bitey.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The journey back up Mount Manfred is as environmentally treacherous as ever, even if the ambient Malevolence is less of an issue unto itself. Few would dare journey up there multiple times unless they have a compelling reason to risk frostbite and other such maladies in the process, and it seems the strange man has that reason.
He does not help Beast with their unease, whether ignorant of just how terrible the Domain weighs upon the Seraphim that resides inside the statue, or for some other weird human reason for this double weird human - but there is a sense that his gaze never leaves them, keeping by their rear flank at almost all times throughout the journey upward.
Events pass as such that they come before the gate with the giant skeletal wyvern. He either does not hear the Beast's invitation, or has been compelled to find himself another way around as he climbs up a nearby structure for elevation as he gets out the harness for that patchy sack of his. He recognizes the outer perimeter of the castle is not exactly consistent with one's memories or experiences prior, but that does not change his approach. From his present raised altitude from a different foothold, he casts the expected Symbology spell(s? Sometimes he does more than one to adjust for needed yield) as the sack fills with warm air, and sets him adrift to try and go over the gates.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Hot Air Sack toward his party's challenge, Don't Wake Bitey.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Mount Manfred is basically the worst. The worst kind of place. It's a castle, it's high up on top of a mountain, and it's full of more Hellions than should ever be found in the same place at the same time.
And yet, here they are.
Cyre is not actually going to be using his parachute too much today. He might need it intact later to make a desperate escape down the side of the mountain. So instead...
Well, Catenna has a rope, and climbing up from below her is not a bad place to be.
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Don't Wake Bitey.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"Okay, so, here we are." Gwen gestures to the castle, as if said castle needed any extra help in being noticeable. "Castle Rabenstein. I'd point out the entrance, but I think... damn." She snaps her fingers. "Yeah, that dragon thing is there. We can wait t'see if it'll move on to another part of the castle, but I wouldn't hold my breath there."
That just leaves the issue of 'how to get in'. "If I remember right, there's a place t'get in right over... guh, was it really that hard to get in, last time...?"
Looking to the lowering Beast, Gwen rubs the back of her head, underneath her wool-lined cap. "Y'sure? If you're offerin', I'll take it, but I ain't really a dainty lady weight-wise." Eventually, Gwen climbs up on the statue, careful of how she holds onto Beast, as well as how she doesn't fall into old habits that come from years of horse-riding. "Okay, uh... thank you!"
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Don't Wake Bitey.
============================<* Castle Rabenstein *>============================= =======================<* CHALLENGE - Don't Wake Bitey *>======================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The front gates of Castle Rabenstein are closed and barred. On top of that, the skeletal, Malevolence-animated form of a truly massive wyvern is sprawled out in front of them. It looks like it might be asleep, as odd as that sounds. (He may or may not have a snore bubble coming out one skeletal, ice-rimmed nostril.) You might be able to climb the wall and access another entrance, but whatever you decide, you'll need to be quiet about it. If you get past the wyvern, you might be able to get inside without being noticed. Wake it up, and you'll have a problem on your hands. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Bad Luck===========================================
=======================<* Castle Rabenstein - Round 1 *>======================== =========================< Results - Don't Wake Bitey >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Beast 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Big Saddle 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cyre H. Lorentz 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 0 --(0)--> 0 Fail Hot Air Sack 2 Agility Effects: Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Catenna 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Grappling Hook 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Seraph Beast 0 --(15)--> 15 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(2)|Slow(2) Effects: Quicken(1)|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Seraph Beast 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: Ethius Hesiod has drawn a new Challenge.
================================================<* Castle Rabenstein *>=================================================
=============================================<* CHALLENGE - Damaged Wall *>=============================================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
The mortar in this section of wall is riddled with cracks, and bits of stone
lie on the floor. It looks as though it was nearly brought down by a single,
massive impact, and traces of Malevolence leaking through the cracks smell
of desperate rage. What happened here? You don't know. With strategic
application of blunt force, you can bring part of the wall down, and see
where the path takes you.
All the while, it feels like there's something watching you. Judging you.
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Secret===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Beast has posed.
Scaling the walls - one way or another - is effective. Catenna's grappling hook finds purchase on a wall made ancient by time and Malevolence both; the stone chips and sloughs for a moment before it comes to a sturdy stop, against a raised section. Pull once, twice: it doesn't budge. Her footholds are sure, and so are Cyre's, climbing after her. It's only natural. Cats are notoriously good at climbing up things they shouldn't.
(Now, the difference between a set of curtains and a Malevolence-soaked wall can be argued for hours, but we are not philosophers.)
So, too, is a windy approach effective. The Beast of Lohgrin does not seem to think it an indignity, to help the mortals along; neither does she seem overly bothered by Gwen's presence. She is large enough that it is difficult to treat her as a riding-horse, but there are grips on the saddle which may be held as she leaps into the air. There is a rush of breeze, hot like summer against the cold presence of the mountain, and it is magic which bears them so unnaturally high. Claws catch against the edge of the wall, scrabble for a moment; and then she comes to rest atop it. And perhaps the Beast resembles a cat, too, for the brief moments before she leaps down to the other side.
Unfortunately, magic at times is a less reliable thing. While those of their party who band together find success, Ethius, who has struck out alone, will find that all his hot air is not quite enough to see him past the gates. Is this the end for the mysterious figure, Ethius Hesiod?!
(Well, no, we've already seen the next episode, he's fine.)
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius catches up... eventually. He's frozen solid for a good two or three minutes making absolutely sure that the dragon is not awake. This is tricky because it is an undead thing, and there is often no way to tell between 'actually acting like the dead thing it is' and 'is lying primed in wait.' They won't have much time to linger and check on him, because something... weighs down on them.
Let's get to that in a moment.
Their journey doesn't quite make it all the way inside the castle just yet, as they happen upon a section of wall that is almost not a wall at all - it is something that only barely clings together from the aftermath of a tremendous impact. The purple stuff leaks through the cracks, and it seems... desperate. Desperate to break the wall, desperate to hold it together? Both? Whatever happened here, there's enough of it lingering. Someone felt very strongly about this wall, or about doing something to this wall.
This might be a viable shortcut if one is willing to step up and break it, but... that weighing feeling. The idea that one is being watched. Being judged, for what they choose to do, or how they do it.
...No, not from Ethius, though he is coming on up from behind and is staring down everyone and everything as always. Further past him. Intangible, but omnipresent. It is distressing to consider - a sense of one's worth on the line.
"...I will not be deterred." It seems like even Ethius must be feeling that, in some form, as he starts the usual Symbological casting rituals to try and apply a great amount of heat to the cracks in the wall.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Damaged Wall.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
"What could have happened to this wall," Catenna murmurs.
The sight of Malevolence leaking through the cracks momentarily makes Catenna glad she didn't bring the Owlet. She remembers all too well its mother's run-in with the Demon King's Malice and doesn't care to go through it again with a different shade of purple. With a frown, she considers the wall for a moment.
She looks over her shoulder and purses her lips, as if checking to see if someone is watching.
Finding no one, she looks back, shivering a little and pulling deeper into her cloak. "...If you try to hit it close to the foundation, perhaps it will topple part of it," she suggests in a quiet voice. She doesn't move to help physically because she just isn't that strong.
DG: Catenna has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Damaged Wall.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
That was definitely an experience. All of Gwen's care and caution is thrown to the wind (no pun intended) as Beast leaps into the air with natural grace, magic carrying them the rest of the way upwards to grab onto a wall edge. Gwen spends her time grabbing onto the holds of Bast's saddle, hunched down and biting her mouth to keep from yelling the entire way there.
Which is likely why Gwen is running her tongue against that spot on the inside of her cheek, cautiously sliding off of Beast to land on her feet, wobbling as she gets used to the predictable call of gravity. "... wow..." she states, at a loss for words.
They need to keep moving, however. "There's a earth vein or somethin' deep within the castle, but I got no idea of the exact way of gettin' to it."
But maybe this nice, cracked wall may offer a shortcut. "Should come down real quick, no matter whatever made the dent," Gwen offers, rolling her shoulders with a healthy helping of confidence. "If some of you can weaken it a bit, I should be able to take it down with one blow, no problem." She seems ignorant enough of the presence, whatever it may be, but her eyes keep flicking to the sides, trying to catch any signs of movement.
It is, after all, Gwen's second time here. And that wasn't enough to be able to tell just what's happened here.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool ARM-ored Fist toward her party's challenge, Damaged Wall.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Ugh. What's that smell? That awful, terrible stink? Cyre, cat and expert curtain climber, knows exactly what that is. That's the awful scent of hatred. The damnable stench of rage. How the heck does Malevolence do that? Make emotions into scents like that?
It's kind of creepy, to be honest.
"I'm thinking," Cyre says, dragging that familiar censer up from his side. Fragrant smoke begins wafting from within, twisting in through the cracks in the wall, guided by gentle currents of wind. "That the malevolence is probably doing more than just making our lives difficult. It's like, some kind of awful, evil mortar or something. So."
So, he's using his smoke to try and purify it!
And, you know, try and make sure the team doesn't pass out from the stench.
That'd probably help. But if they do knock it down... There's probably even worse stink behind there.
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has used his Tool Invigorating Vapors toward his party's challenge, Damaged Wall.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Beast has posed.
Walls on walls on walls. Literally, because a castle is made to be the last bastion, designed to withstand wave after wave of enemy action. Metaphorically - because Ida wants to keep them out, does not believe she deserves to be saved.
"Are you all right?" Asks the Beast of Lohgrin, as she sees Gwen wobble. But - she seems fine enough. Fine enough to call attention to the wall ahead of them, as Catenna offers her structural suggestions.
Walls are a fascinating human invention, foreign to the Beast, whose concept of useful barriers is much skewed from mortal mean. Perhaps they suit mortal purposes. Perhaps they were not designed for long years. Perhaps it is expected, that they crumble.
And here she notices the judgement of her thoughts, remarks silently on them. It is critical air, and it too is foreign, in its way. It is a thing which reveals itself in the observation; presses down so much more obviously, once discovered.
Metaphorically - does she have any right to tear down Ida's walls?
Literally, she takes that right, as the wind picks up and slams into the base of the crumbling wall, just as Catenna has advised.
The Beast does not have a nose to smell, but Cyre's purifying incense is nonetheless relieving to her. It clears the air, after all.
DG: Seraph Beast has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Damaged Wall.
================================================<* Castle Rabenstein *>=================================================
=============================================<* CHALLENGE - Damaged Wall *>=============================================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
The mortar in this section of wall is riddled with cracks, and bits of stone
lie on the floor. It looks as though it was nearly brought down by a single,
massive impact, and traces of Malevolence leaking through the cracks smell
of desperate rage. What happened here? You don't know. With strategic
application of blunt force, you can bring part of the wall down, and see
where the path takes you.
All the while, it feels like there's something watching you. Judging you.
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Secret===========================================
===========================================<* Castle Rabenstein - Round 2 *>============================================ ===============================================< Results - Damaged Wall >=============================================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Beast 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyre H. Lorentz 0 --(0)--> 0 Fail Invigorating Vapors 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ethius Hesiod 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Gwen Whitlock 0 --(0)--> 0 Fail ARM-ored Fist 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Catenna 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------< Party >-------------------------------------------------------- Leader: Seraph Beast 15 --(20)--> 35 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(1)|Secret(2)|Slow(1)|Weaken(2) Effects: Cleanse|Strengthen(1) ===================================================< Dream Chasers >====================================================
DG: The party led by Seraph Beast has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Gwen Whitlock has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Castle Rabenstein *>=============================
==========================<* CHALLENGE - Sculpting *>===========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
The wall ahead looks like it's been recently repaired, and the only door
within it doesn't have a conventional knob or keyhole. Instead, there's a
perfectly-round hole in the center--and there's more than enough stone lying
around for you to carve into the appropriate shape.
If only it were so simple.
The rock is saturated with Malevolence. It does not want to take that shape.
It resists your attempts to sculpt it, but it can't hold out forever, can
it? If you're persistent, you can wear it down until it finally gives up and
does what you want it to. It's for the best, really.
=Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous, Stupify=====================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Cyre lights an incense with a pleasant air to it, as Ethius goes about trying to melt the wall. The wall warps and glows a bright color, but seems resistant to want to do much about it.
It meets the most resistance when Gwen punches it. It does crumble, in a way - but more like it reconfigures around her fist, like it wants to say 'NOOO, DON'T, DO NOT,' like it wants her to not be involved. That doing so might incur the disdain of the judging presence... out of concern for her?
The statue takes the cleaner, easier airs provided by Cyre's incense and moves to assist in Gwen's efforts with Catenna's more precise suggestions as to where or how to strike. Yes, they will break down the wall.
The wall shatters open, and rage explodes outward. Just the rage. It is heavy, overbearing, and loud...
...and completely impotent, beyond this noise. It does not linger for nearly as long as the judging sense that seems impossible to truly satisfy. The worst it can do is instill doubt. Should this wall have been broken? Are they worse off for it? Does it reflect--
Ethius just helps himself into the new hole in the wall without lingering on this point in the least - his true contribution to the conundrum at hand - and does not look back. They have a new way in, and he's going to take it.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
It could be seen as comedic, how the wall gives way to reveal... another wall. But the wall that was recently passed through.
Except, in a way, they're going against the will of the castle itself, and of the very design of the castle. It's not meant to have people go and make their own entrances, and it's certainly not meant for rooms to be sealed off.
The reason for why this room, now no longer a tomb, was sealed off is uncertain. What is certain is the means by which they can all move forward.
"Should be easy enou-yekk!" Malevolence seeps out of the rock Gwen grabs, causing her to drop it as if it had suddenly transformed into a pit viper. "..." She breathes, one hand over her heart. "... Well, should've expected somethin' like this, comin' into a place like this." Gingerly, Gwen picks another rock, and finds the same malevolence pouring out of it.
Looks like Cyre was onto something.
Carefully, Gwen tries to mold the rock in the combined, uneven strength of her two hands, wincing as the purple miasma leaks over her hands and upper arms. If she can do this quickly enough, will she get by?
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool ARM-ored Fist toward her party's challenge, Sculpting.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
More walls. Of course there are more walls. "Are you sure there is not a door somewhere around here," Catenna asks Ethius with a tilt of her head to one side. "Because I feel finding a door would be easier."
As Gwen picks up that rock and begins to sculpt it, Catenna opens her mouth with alarm as she sees what it is.
Malevolence. Again. The Moon Shaman takes a step backwards, setting her jaw and wrapping herself deeper in her cloak. At this point she seems about to vanish into it. "It has even cursed the masonry," she hisses, one hand dipping and clutching her Mediums.
Catenna does not move to help with this one. It's unsettled her in a way the last one did not.
DG: Catenna has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Sculpting.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Beast has posed.
A wall is a message, in mortal hands: 'KEEP OUT.'
The Beast of Lohgrin has never much cared for warning signs. She is above such concerns. It is a loftiness which comes at cost: the Malevolent Domain shifts and seethes around them, and plates lag slightly as the Beast steps through the hole they have made.
To another wall.
Keep out, keep out, she cries, and the Beast has no ears to hear her.
"I doubt any door would deign to open for us," says the Beast, regret in her voice which is not reflected on an iron mask.
Gwen bravely moves to reshape the masonry, despite the evil in the stones. The Beast of Lohgrin summons spring breeze about her, in hopes to reinvigorate her and chase away the cloying stagnant air of Malevolence.
DG: Seraph Beast has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Sculpting.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"A door, I suspect, would be further protected." But doors can be opened eventually and in fact are made to open, and close? But he won't have it that way, it seems, as he steps through into that curious, familiar sight. He eyes Gwen's difficulty with the stone that will not allow her to forge a key as the wind sweeps about the chamber.
Ethius makes sure that he's not standing within the Beast's direct range of sight. It is curious. Previously, he only saw a moving husk of metal. It would make sense, because that there is--
--no, he dares not risk thinking it aloud. He had enough of a run-in on a previous scouting mission touching that swirling sphere. He keeps his mind on the direct task at hand. Which is decidedly not putting a hand to his forehead, but he's doing that anyway. He is not sure what has changed between then and now that he can hear a voice, or see more green-hued winds flitting about.
He suspects the previous attempt to obscure themselves - at least to him - was deliberate. It would be more useful if he continued to play deaf and dumb until such time he can address the situation a bit more decisively. (Such an opportunity would not arise for some time.)
Rather than wrestle with making any such key, Ethius does exactly as he always does. He sees something in the way that offends him or gets in the way of his progress, he tries to deal with it.
Another intense Symbological heat spell is prepared. The wind that swishes through, somehow, for some reason, stands to enhance its potency. He cares not what the stone of the door or the would-be key sculpt thinks. It needs to get out of his way.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Sculpting.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
What is with this place and walls? Cyre grimaces at the second, double-wall behind the first. There's even a locking mechanism to this one! Who would put something like this behind a solid wall?
Someone who really likes walls?
Even worse, it seems as though THIS particular wall is responsible for the malevolence leaking out from the last one. Or at least, the keystone on the ground is.
Cyre frowns, smoke still billowing from his censer.
"Maybe not," the shaman grunts, setting his censer down next to the strange, self-aware chunk of masonry. "But I'm really not sure that it has any choice here today."
Like, besides just the fact that Ethius is both present and about to blast his way through the wall. There's also the fact that there are two shamans here, and while they can't purge the entire damn castle, a single chunk of rock is probably doable.
Worth a try, at least.
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has used his Tool Invigorating Vapors toward his party's challenge, Sculpting.
============================<* Castle Rabenstein *>=============================
==========================<* CHALLENGE - Sculpting *>===========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
The wall ahead looks like it's been recently repaired, and the only door
within it doesn't have a conventional knob or keyhole. Instead, there's a
perfectly-round hole in the center--and there's more than enough stone lying
around for you to carve into the appropriate shape.
If only it were so simple.
The rock is saturated with Malevolence. It does not want to take that shape.
It resists your attempts to sculpt it, but it can't hold out forever, can
it? If you're persistent, you can wear it down until it finally gives up and
does what you want it to. It's for the best, really.
=Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous, Stupify=====================================
=======================<* Castle Rabenstein - Round 3 *>======================== ============================< Results - Sculpting >============================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Beast 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cyre H. Lorentz 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Invigorating Vapors 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass ARM-ored Fist 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Catenna 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Seraph Beast 35 --(30)--> 65 Pass Conditions: Overzealous(2)|Secret(1)|Stupify(2) Effects: Cleanse|Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Seraph Beast has passed this challenge! The party gained 30 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: Catenna has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* Castle Rabenstein *>============================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Mannikin Fusiliers *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 1 | ----------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------- The sound of heavy, metal footsteps trails you as you make your way through the castle. As soon as you round a bend, you find yourself facing down a squad of strange Hellion automatons--human-sized metal figures, well-armored and faceless. All of them carry crudely-forged gunsmoke rifles, and without so much as a word, they drop to a knee and open fire! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Gwen doesn't seem to mind that Catenna and Cyre seem to hang back while she tries to handle the rocks; as the two people who are the closest the group have to a 'shepherd', Gwen appreciates them keeping their gifts ready and safe.
Especially when at least one of them has that nice-smelling smoke, Beast's breeze allows for some relief from the heat of Ethius's onslaught, but not much else, as Gwen carefully and firmly manipulatives the rock under the force of her hands.
It's ready. Like a piece of lava rock, Gwen suddenly shoves it into the door and jumps back, letting Ethius's magic do the rest.
All in all, they succeed, and the door opens, allowing them through.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Malevolence never fails to set Catenna on edge. She continues to hang back from that rock, as though fearful wrestling with it will cause the Malevolence to infiltrate her too - and while she has the capacity to cleanse it, she's not sure cleansing oneself is possible.
The corridor beyond is long and empty, something of a reprieve from scudding Malevolence seeping from everything, much to Catenna's relief. Nevertheless she draws her sword and moves it into a ready position, looking ahead alertly.
Until the sound of something hits her ears.
*clank clank clank*
It's getting closer. *clank clank clank.* Catenna drops back towards Cyre, giving him a warning look - and as they round the corner, the source becomes clear.
About a dozen human-sized metal figures, all faceless, all with subtle traces of Malevolence shimmering from within. Arranged in a firing line, the Mannikins hoist their gunsmoke rifles, twelve crouching and twelve firing over them. They fire immediately.
Shells rip down the corridor. "Look out!" Catenna gasps as she throws herself to the ground and rolls clear. Wincing, she reaches for her Medium as the bullets race over her. With a called word, she gestures with her free hand.
The Mannikins suddenly hurtle towards the ceiling as gravity briefly reverses!
DG: Catenna has used her Tool Celesdue Medium toward her party's challenge, Mannikin Fusiliers.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
*clank clank clank*
Ethius' head turns sharply. His quarterstaff is drawn in one hand, and the sound of wood hitting the castle floor is like the crack of thunder. This is extraordinarily stupid because now they know where they are.
He wants them to come. His free hand grabs at one of the satchels at his belt. The other hand grasping the staff parts fingers away from the grip to flutter the correct set of gesticulations to activate the spell that makes the grenades, well, work, as he mouths off the chanted component with a speed and precision even the Symbologist Supreme Arleph would be impressed by.
Shots ring down the corner. Ethius slurs more syllables with lightning speed as the staff-holding arm swings inward horizontally, and electrical sparks loudly and blindingly resound as the bullets bounce off of him with nary more than the force of 'being poked very rudely with a finger - kinda painfully but mostly rudely.'
From there, Ethius does what comes natural. He rushes in dauntlessly, hurling down a smoke cover as he charges at the dozen of them. He doesn't call for assistance. From within the smoke cover there is a tight sequence of violence intermixed with spellcasting that would be much easier to go into detail over had he not just thrown down a choking, blinding smoke cloud that ensures those stuck to the ceiling will not have any means in which to see or strike cleanly at anyone on the ground.
Together, between gravity and dust, the Mannikins may not stand a chance. Even if they do, they have to deal with an opponent who seems to be able to read how and when would-be riflemen can fire even when he's not looking directly at them, knows how to swing his staff with both force and accuracy to damage or destroy vital components, and... well...
Call forth intense bursts of warping heat, shocking electricity, or choking dust almost at whim so long as he has the opportunity to both chant and gesticulate.
It's Ethius at his most natural. Unnervingly relentless, obsessively thorough, and... well, by the time he's done it might be a miracle if there's any evidence there was ever anything more than piles of molten metal dripping from the ceiling.
...And that's just two of the gathered present. Imagine what it'll be like with everyone else chipping in.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Powder Grenade toward his party's challenge, Mannikin Fusiliers.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
It's okay! Catenna's not the only one who can cleanse around here. They have each other, and that's worth something. He squeezes gently at her shoulder as he passes, a gesture that seems to assure that everything's gonna be alright.
In the worst case, they can slap each other with the purification stick and it'll all be fine.
Probably.
In other news, they've finally gotten past the endless chain of walls. Instead, there's just a corridor. A corridor that smells faintly of gunsmoke. Cyre frowns, strange noises tickling his hearing. Awful, mechanical noises. He nods in reply to Catenna's warning and begins unlimbering a massive weapon strapped over his shoulder.
Battle is joined! And Cyre, Cyre has a reply.
It comes in the form of a great big sniper rifle and a whole fusillade of prismatic energy blasts. A veritable one-man firing squad!
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Mannikin Fusiliers.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Her glovd hands are still shaking. Gwen's thought race back to that dream, or what small memories are left from it upon her waking the morning after.
It's her imagination. And Malevolence, being the force that it is, can't change her that quickly.
And if it did... they'd be able to deal with it. If not her companions present, her friends present in this castle.
She'll be okay, especially if she keeps moving...
*clank clank clank*
It's enough to disrupt her quick therapetic denial session. Gwen looks up. "Oh Guardians, I forgot to mention the mannikins!! They're, uh, Ida's work, but I don't think they're acting under her orders right now!" She raises her right ARM, unbuckling the strap that crosses over her palm. "Sorry, Ida! Again! I swear I'll make it up to you later!"
She says this, as she loads bullet after bullet and fires, a nervous glance shot in Ethius's direction.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Full Metal Courier toward her party's challenge, Mannikin Fusiliers.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Beast has posed.
"Fine work," the Beast of Lohgrin compliments Ethius and Gwen's combined efforts to shape a key to the lock. (Cyre's air, of course, is always appreciated, and she cannot fault Catenna for hanging back at all.)
Finally, they break the door, they wrench the lock, they smash the door-posts, they force the doors.
Would you call this a descent? Would you?
Certainly, the unliving outnumber the living, as they make their way down the corridor. Equally certain is the fact that the creatures which line like toy soldiers could not be called dead; they have no flesh to pallor.
The Beast of Lohgrin is a match for them, metal unto metal, and she leaps about the corner, charges the front lines. "You shall not touch them!" Though claws catch and jaws bite, she is not aiming to destroy the animate figures: she is aiming to keep them from the mortals behind her.
And, in at least one case, beside her, as Ethius is an obscured storm of fury amongst them.
Well. She'll do her best to keep them all safe.
DG: Seraph Beast has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Mannikin Fusiliers.
=============================<* Castle Rabenstein *>============================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Mannikin Fusiliers *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 1 | ----------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------- The sound of heavy, metal footsteps trails you as you make your way through the castle. As soon as you round a bend, you find yourself facing down a squad of strange Hellion automatons--human-sized metal figures, well-armored and faceless. All of them carry crudely-forged gunsmoke rifles, and without so much as a word, they drop to a knee and open fire! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
=============================<* Castle Rabenstein *>============================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Mannikin Fusiliers *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 1 | ----------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------- The sound of heavy, metal footsteps trails you as you make your way through the castle. As soon as you round a bend, you find yourself facing down a squad of strange Hellion automatons--human-sized metal figures, well-armored and faceless. All of them carry crudely-forged gunsmoke rifles, and without so much as a word, they drop to a knee and open fire! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
========================<* Castle Rabenstein - Round 4 *>========================= =========================< Results - Mannikin Fusiliers >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Beast 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cyre H. Lorentz 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Powder Grenade 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Full Metal Courier 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Catenna 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Celesdue Medium 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ------------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------- Leader: Seraph Beast 65 --(20)--> 85 Pass Conditions: Overzealous(1)|Wound(2) Effects: Embolden(1) ================================< Dream Chasers >=================================
DG: The party led by Seraph Beast 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> Catenna has posed.
Thank goodness for Cyre having a reply. He pulls his great big rifle out and starts blasting away. The corridor fills with smoke and light as blasts strike things and erupt brilliantly! The clouds of dust billow and gradually thin.
And every single Mannikin just looks at Cyre with empty faces in a corridor with several gun craters pounded into the walls, floor and ceiling.
Then they lift their guns again - but the other four are there to cover for Cyre's silly lack of good aim. Catenna's spell hurls the Mannikins off their feet, and Ethius quickly lunges in to begin pounding them into ruin with pinpoint magic. Several burst in midair. Gwen's shots are much more accurate than the catboi's, and two or three Mannikins shatter as her bullets hit home. And Seraph Beast comes barreling down the corridor, tearing the Mannikins asunder with heavy bites and scattering pieces of metal throughout the corridor.
The battle is one-sided. Before long, all that remains of the Mannikins are scattered parts. Blinking, Catenna looks down the hall at the Beast of Lohgrin.
"...That was very kind of you," she says with a deep, grateful bow of her head, moving forward to walk with the Seraph.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has drawn a new Challenge.
================================================<* Castle Rabenstein *>=================================================
============================================<* CHALLENGE - A Simple Game *>=============================================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 |
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
Tall, dark windows line the walls of the room before you, lashed by the
endless snowstorm outside. In the very center of the room, built into the
floor, is a large game board. It looks almost like the setup for a game of
chess or checkers, but it features Mannikins of different colors, each no
bigger than a human hand. A plaque of brass on the edge of the board bears
the following text:
RULES
1. Each player selects and places one gold Mannikin.
2. Opponent selects and places one red mannikin for each gold Mannikin.
3. White Mannikins are placed randomly on the board once all gold and red
Mannikins are placed.
4. Each red and gold Mannikin may move one space per turn, horizontally or
vertically, unless capturing. White Mannikins cannot move.
5. White Mannikins may be 'captured' by jumping another Mannikin over them.
6. Play ends when no white Mannikins remain on the board. The winner is the
side that has captured the most white Mannikins.
Simple, right? Malevolence illuminates the conflicts presented by the game.
Each gold Mannikin takes on the appearance of the player who placed it,
while each red mannikin takes on the appearance of someone that a player
considers an enemy. Most of the white pieces stay faceless, but a
handful--the ones that are most difficult for the gold pieces to
capture--take on the appearances of loved ones. The red pieces move on their
own, obeying the rules and exhibiting devious intelligence.
It soon becomes clear that 'capturing' means more than just securing a
piece--the white Mannikins simply reappear on the side of the board when
captured by the gold pieces, but "die" when captured by the red ones. Each
'death' feels real. Things only get more heart-wrenching if it's a piece
with the face of a loved one.
Do your best. Save as many as you can.
Even that won't feel like enough. You could've done more, couldn't you?
Maybe if you'd made fewer mistakes, you could've saved more.
The door won't open until you've tried.
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Somewhere in that cacophony of raw destruction, Ethius watches intently as components shower around. One by one - this is wasteful, calorie-wise - Ethius blasts more heat to make sure these components melt into unrecognizeable slag. Even the single smallest piece of them offends him in maintaining form, and yet, he conducts this without any outward heightened emotion. He just... does.
"So this location is, indeed, where they originate." Ethius remarks after Gwen's words. This might have some ramifications down the line, but to hear that seems to make something click. He knows what he must do the very moment the opportunity presents itself.
That's later, though.
They can hear the howling of the snowstorms. The windows must need replacing, with how they bang and shudder. In fact, the snowstorm seems to have gotten worse... as though it promises that not everyone will survive, no matter what one does, that the cold can, will, and must take them - just as it has taken many over the years. Mount Manfred is not a hospitable landmass.
What light filters through - and only enough for sake of visibility - is a large game board. There is just enough light to make it out clearly, featuring Mannikins of a number of colors...
And a plaque of brass that, in defiance of however light sources seem to work in this space (they don't), are crystal clear in their rules. Somehow, it seems to shift about where others' eyes go, as if to ensure they are read. If not understood, at least read... and so, the pieces are put in place.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius gets out that weird eyeglass of his and makes the cursory sweep to make it clear that, yes, everything here involves the game board. And so...
Ethius takes his piece. A part of him recalls this sequence, but somehow it's fuzzy in his head. It was a contentious episode, he remembers as such... but not much else. His red piece looks like a large man of features that are extraordinarily vague... like he does not know? Only that it is an enemy. For how much Ethius shields himself, whatever forces there are, they can find what he cannot.
Ethius' eyes narrow as the game begins.
Something is strange, if anyone can break away from their internal gut-wrenching dramas about those they may be helpless to only watch die, helpless to do anything to avert it by the arrangement of this cruel, cruel game.
None of the White Mannikins on Ethius' part of the board really look much like specific individuals. This is either telling or that much more confusing... many of them look more like amalgamations? Several definitely are in dress that can be attributed to trends in Glenwood. Quite a few of the Ignas region of Filgaia, some in the Badlands...
...and worse yet, he seems to be deliberately skipping over grabbing most any of the white ones unless they are directly in his way. In his way to what?
His piece pursues the red one. The rules of the game are not about those pieces ever directly interacting. This is not stopping him from trying to 'catch up' to the red one, as they move, as they take. He seems to be playing very badly with such intensity like, at heart, almost nothing else matters...
...with the same intensity displayed when he went to town on those Mannikins not more than minutes before.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Spectral Lens toward his party's challenge, A Simple Game.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Beyond the castle walls, those snowstorms howl some judgment Catenna can only guess at. What is more important is the grim game that is being laid out on the plaque, and on the gameboard.
"This must be some manner of joke," Catenna murmurs with a touch of disbelief. But as she places the golden Mannikin on the gameboard, she is beginning to realize that it is anything but. The piece, once set, shifts into the face of a small golden Catenna, without Owlet.
Just coming into view, one of the Mannikins on the far side of the board blurs. Its features begin to come into clearer resolution. For a moment, the piece wavers.
Then it resolves itself. The face across the board from them is...
... Someone unfamiliar. The red Mannikin has taken on the shape of a dusky-skinned woman in a red and white dress, her black hair done up in big, blown-out waves and parted from the middle, with a little silver and ruby diadem in the centre of her forehead. Her complexion and eyes are the same colour as Catenna's - and behind her looms a second red piece. A huge, splendid gryphon.
Catenna clicks her teeth together and grips the edge of the board as she begins to move her piece towards one of the white ones. A gold Cyre is already on the board, but a few of the white ones are visible as others. There's a little Jay Barber over there. Over here is Kourin and just over there is Lydia. But the one closest to the red woman and her gryphon is the tiniest.
A tiny white owlet.
A horrible sinking feeling grips the pit of Catenna's stomach. You're going to lose another owl, you pity project.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Look. Cyre is paid to be a shaman, not a sharpshooter. He can't help it if his aim is clinically terrible in so many ways.
But soon, soon none of that matters.
Soon, it all becomes so much worse.
"It's no joke," Cyre murmurs, his eyes focusing on crimson figures materializing across the strange gameboard. One in particular, a stalwart, proud looking figure whose facial features bear an uncanny similarity to one Cyre H. Lorentz.
Except, you know, for the facial hair.
Another, is probably familiar to most people here. A knight, shining armor and all, bristling with weapons and--
OK, it's K.K. It's just straight up K.K.
Cyre fixes the figures on the board with a stony expression and then... More of those prismatic apertures lens open. The shaman gestures, unleashing a barrage of arcing beams at the not-so-distant red pieces.
As long as nobody takes a move, they're stationary, after all. Stationary, and thus easy targets.
The rules never said a single damn thing about not straight up obliterating the crimson pieces, after all.
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, A Simple Game.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Beast has posed.
The battle calms, and the Beast of Lohgrin reaches bonelessly back to her saddle - the motion should not be possible, and yet with segmented pieces, there it is - to pluck water-skins from it and pass them around. "It is important to stay hydrated," she instructs them. Humans are mostly water!
And then, they come to the next challenge. There are enemies, amongst the board, from every mortal heart.
And yet - strangely enough - there are no strangers which look as if they might be the Beast of Lohgrin's contribution.
It is as if she does not view anyone as an enemy at all. And perhaps it fits, when considered. Pull back on a long enough timeline - and everyone dies. How is it possible to get invested enough in your hate, when they will cease to exist? Oh, there are people she could have disliked. Deserters and drunkards and miscreants and marauders.
They died.
She carried on.
It is a terribly patronising thing. There is ugliness in remove.
Let us move on, then, to the white pieces, for these are ones to which she contributes. A statue of Althena may be brought to mind with one piece; she is the Goddess in resplendent glory. Another scribes a woman broad of hip and arm, in empress-waisted dress, a large upraised collar about her fine cloak. There are roguish figures recognisable to those who know them as the Seraphs Ragnell and Nimue - and the wasted-away form of Ida, sans her Malevolence.
"I -" chokes out the Beast of Lohgrin, though she has no throat to constrict. "I-I cannot..."
There are many to save, and that so many are faceless does little to assuage her. This is the price of remove: everyone blurs together. Everyone is important. Everyone must be saved.
"It is just a game," she says, to herself, to those gathered, but her voice wavers in the speaking, and she does not reach out with segmented claws. "It is just a game... is it not?"
Cyre cuts the Gordion knot of her uncertainty, and the Beast of Lohgrin shakes her plates out. "Of course," she murmurs to herself, as she sends a flensing storm of wind towards the red pieces. If this is a game, the only winning move is not to play.
DG: Seraph Beast has used her Tool Emergency Supplies toward her party's challenge, A Simple Game.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
It's disturbing how easy it is to punch in the face of a mannikin, no matter how close they may look to human. Gwen would find them oddly fascinating to potentially talk to and investigate, if it weren't for the worrisome memories that gnaw at the pit of her stomach, and the fact that these ones were trying to kill her.
She's glad to move on. At least, momentarily, as her memory fills in the sight that will present itself to everyone in a few moments.
Gwen sucks in her breath. "Be careful," she starts, but people have already moved forward. "Yeah, it's... not really a joke. It's gonna throw some punches at you, so be careful." At least, here, she's prepared for what will happen. She will see the blue-eyed assassin whose name she does not know (Isiris), and she will see her dear Aunt Frea, and assorted others. And, one by one, the assassin will murder each and every pawn, each in the exact same manner. To the point that the middle of her back will itch right in that exact spot-
She takes in another breath, and steadies herself as her gold piece transforms, and in turn, her red piece. The piece morphs and resolves itself, slowly becoming...
A smirking young man with swept back hair and a confident, smug smirk. Janus.
".. eh...?" Gwen blinks. The other pieces form as well, each forming various people she's known and cared about. Frea. Various drifters. A large man in an Ethos robe. ... And Janus, along with Dario, Romero, and faces no one here would recognize.
There's a Janus on each side. Surely it must be because the chess game couldn't find anyone better to throw at Gwen?
That must be why. Janus *did* kind of stab her in the stomach, after all. But she shot him back! And...
She feels sick. "... Just do whatcha can," she murmurs to Beast. She doesn't have the heart to force Beast to do anything here.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Simple Game. DG: Catenna has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Simple Game.
================================================<* Castle Rabenstein *>=================================================
============================================<* CHALLENGE - A Simple Game *>=============================================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 |
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
Tall, dark windows line the walls of the room before you, lashed by the
endless snowstorm outside. In the very center of the room, built into the
floor, is a large game board. It looks almost like the setup for a game of
chess or checkers, but it features Mannikins of different colors, each no
bigger than a human hand. A plaque of brass on the edge of the board bears
the following text:
RULES
1. Each player selects and places one gold Mannikin.
2. Opponent selects and places one red mannikin for each gold Mannikin.
3. White Mannikins are placed randomly on the board once all gold and red
Mannikins are placed.
4. Each red and gold Mannikin may move one space per turn, horizontally or
vertically, unless capturing. White Mannikins cannot move.
5. White Mannikins may be 'captured' by jumping another Mannikin over them.
6. Play ends when no white Mannikins remain on the board. The winner is the
side that has captured the most white Mannikins.
Simple, right? Malevolence illuminates the conflicts presented by the game.
Each gold Mannikin takes on the appearance of the player who placed it,
while each red mannikin takes on the appearance of someone that a player
considers an enemy. Most of the white pieces stay faceless, but a
handful--the ones that are most difficult for the gold pieces to
capture--take on the appearances of loved ones. The red pieces move on their
own, obeying the rules and exhibiting devious intelligence.
It soon becomes clear that 'capturing' means more than just securing a
piece--the white Mannikins simply reappear on the side of the board when
captured by the gold pieces, but "die" when captured by the red ones. Each
'death' feels real. Things only get more heart-wrenching if it's a piece
with the face of a loved one.
Do your best. Save as many as you can.
Even that won't feel like enough. You could've done more, couldn't you?
Maybe if you'd made fewer mistakes, you could've saved more.
The door won't open until you've tried.
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
===========================================<* Castle Rabenstein - Round 5 *>============================================ ==============================================< Results - A Simple Game >=============================================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Beast 5 --(100)--> 105 Fail Emergency Supplies 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyre H. Lorentz 5 --(100)--> 105 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ethius Hesiod 0 --(100)--> 100 Fail Spectral Lens 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Gwen Whitlock 0 --(100)--> 100 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Catenna 0 --(100)--> 100 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------< Party >-------------------------------------------------------- Leader: Seraph Beast 85 --(10)--> 95 Fail Conditions: Stupify(2)|Wound(1) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ===================================================< Dream Chasers >====================================================
DG: Seraph Beast is too exhausted to continue! DG: Cyre H. Lorentz is too exhausted to continue! DG: The party led by Seraph Beast 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.
===========================<* Castle Rabenstein *>============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - A Spectre of Guilt *>=====================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
Mist swirls though the vast hall before you, cloaking the walls and ceiling
in shadows. The screams and shouts of battle echo through the fog, coming
from everywhere and nowhere at once. Phantoms dart through the mists, half
remembered figures from a battle long since over. Memories of a man stuck in
time.
Suddenly, spectres loom out of the fog, shadows with solid features. Six
figures. Knights all of them. Some wield swords, some wield bows, some wield
spears. Lead by a massive man in armor they turn to face the opposite end of
the hall as one. The last figure in the line, a woman with a sword, is solid
enough to almost be real. She smiles slightly as she draws her weapon.
"Make them pay for every inch," booms the leader.
Then come the whispers, taunting, cutting words whispered on the swirling
purple mists.
'You should have saved them.'
'You let them die.'
'You should have fallen with them.'
As the whispers grow, so does the sound from the opposite end of the hall.
Metal scraping against stone. The whirling of gears. The screech of metal
plate sliding across metal plate. Massive figures form out of the mist.
Demons of Metal. At their head is a massive hulking 'man' in armor, spear
held upright. On one side of him, a floating cloaked figure that seems to
snatch and discard corpses with long, tendril-like manipulators.
The six Knights turn to face down the Demons, raising weapons. The doomed
last stand. The Demons' horde is beyond counting, filling up the room, the
noises they make amplified by the mist.
The knights charge.
Can you save them?
Can you save her?
He couldn't.
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Cruelty abounds, as reality enforces itself in abstract through the game.
Cyre tries to shoot the red Mannikin. Even without the actual presence there, there is that sense of being judged, as though his anxieties and angers aligned with another's in that moment, as it goes forth and claims one close to him as though it were never shot. Such fury will not change their fate.
Beast will find that even without a direct opponent, humans are prone to continue harming one another short-sightedly. Those close to her get swept up as collateral by moves of other red pieces on the board. She cannot save them all.
Gwen seems to fare well, until she comes across a most ghastly thing - her red Janus, eventually, comes to that white Janus... and claims it, all with that same smug smirk like it ain't no thang to just up and do that.
Catenna has to deal with two opposing forces that, individually, are too much for her to handle. Together... one by one, they challenge her ability to nurture or protect the Owlet. Once the unfamiliar person pulls her attention in order to go and try to save one of the Carakin, the Owlet... is caught up to by the gryphon.
Ethius seems least disturbed by the losses, only caring that he seems to chase down his red piece. The red piece seems cornered, and that is fine and well as he makes the move that ensures there is no escape... but then he sees something that he could not have, the way the pieces coincidentally angled. A white piece of someone that is not exactly of human proportions...?
His eyes widen, as he feels a stab of something he can't quite describe as the red piece he pursues goes forth and claims that....
You could've done more, couldn't you? Maybe if you'd made fewer mistakes, you could've saved more. The very air of this place mocks, leaving them to feel the stings of loss... but wait... they're all here, aren't they? Some of them here were white pieces, weren't they? They're okay, they all... they all must be okay, right now, it was just a game... right?
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Inevitability and futility seem to swirl about the air. They can't save them all... that implies a quantity greater than zero. They are all left emotionally reeling at this punch to the gut by a mere board game, as the entire near-lightless chamber shudders and rumbles while the snowstorm grows greater.
They hear footsteps. Heavy footsteps. Unnatural ones... armor rustles nearby. Are they about to be accosted by knights here?
No, the knights seem to have their backs to the windows. Did someone send reinforcements to protect the castle from someone...?
"MAke them pay for every inch," booms the leader. They don't seem to mean those who are inside. Who are they fighting?
'You should have saved them.'
'You let them die.'
'You should have fallen with them.'
- - B O O M - -
Metal monstrosities seem to pound through the walls as the knights disappear into the ball of confusing violence. It feels very real. The scent of blood, the screams of fury, the slashing of claws and fangs and other weapons 'natural' and not.
Metal Demon hordes in the mists of the coldest winter of a fallen kingdom.
It feels real as though one were there - and if they don't move or act fast enough, they will be swept up in it, as Ethius musters up just enough in him to throw down a smoke cover... and only the smoke cover, as though that grabs all the presence of mind he has.
Something he saw, or something that happened on the board, got to him. What was it? He doesn't know... and at last, CAstle Rabenstein manages to strike a blow against a man who seemed to treat the rest of it with a stunning disregard for anything beyond what interests him. Whatever the hell it is...!
But enough on that, because the hordes are here!
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Of course it couldn't be that easy. Ida is the exact and specific kind of person to build a failsafe into her horrible emotional abuse engine. Because hope is apparently a cardinal sin in the halls of Rabenstein.
In this case, it takes the form of a horrible emotional assault. An attempt to make him hurt for daring to attempt to cheat fate.
Cyre stares at the board.
And then it eats Catenna's owlet.
And then there's a green flash and a giant tiger man is smashing a giant tiger claw straight through the game table.
Emerald cracks spiderweb through the surface of the game board, hurricane force winds screaming up through the cracks with the roar of a raging beast. The cracks surge outward, twisting through the stone, blasting into the earth, and then...
The whole thing explodes.
It explodes up in a great torrent of foul energy and raging wind. The earth ruptures, sending massive flagstones surging upwards into the furious tempest. And below them...
A vast darkness. A churning, malevolent mist-- the power source feeding the board, or... Something else?
Cyre tumbles into the dark, his divine form dispersing in a haze of green light. He sags, exhausted from the exertion, but...
"Finish it," Cyre growls at the other. "Spit in this nonsense's eye and give it hell."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Beast has posed.
There is darkness to be paid for cutting Gordion's knot. The Beast of Lohgrin leaps to catch Cyre; a flagstone glances against metal plates, unyielding and cold.
Ah - but there is a power source feeding those plates, as well.
And it is a source which is harmed so much more by foul energy than by anything physical.
"Go!" She cries out, and she clatters down. She will try and catch herself long enough to deposit Cyre on a ledge, before the end. She does not have the strength to keep herself together long enough to join him. They will not end up in the same place. She will have a long way to go.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Everything breaks in a squall of wind, carrying them away... maybe? There's a sense of movement and transition, but also the sense of being rooted where they are as the world... changes.
They hear footsteps. Heavy footsteps. Unnatural ones... armor rustles nearby. Are they about to be accosted by knights here?
No, the knights seem to have their backs to the lot of them. Did someone send reinforcements to protect them...? No, most of them don't seem to be completely there. One of them, a young woman, seems a bit more in focus, but other than that...
"Make them pay for every inch," booms the leader. They don't seem to mean those there. Who are they fighting?
'You should have saved them.'
'You let them die.'
'You should have fallen with them.'
- - B O O M - -
Metal monstrosities seem to pound through whatever barriers there are as the knights disappear into the ball of confusing violence. It feels very real. The scent of blood, the screams of fury, the slashing of claws and fangs and other weapons 'natural' and not.
Metal Demon hordes in the mists of the coldest winter of a fallen kingdom.
It feels real as though one were there - and if they don't move or act fast enough, they will be swept up in it, as Ethius musters up just enough in him to throw down a smoke cover... and only the smoke cover, as though that grabs all the presence of mind he has.
Something he saw, or something that happened on the board, got to him. What was it? He doesn't know... and at last, Castle Rabenstein manages to strike a blow against a man who seemed to treat the rest of it with a stunning disregard for anything beyond what interests him. Whatever the hell it is...!
But enough on that, because the hordes are here, and they will not be stopped by a mere cloud of dust.
They could've saved more, back then - but can they save any of them here? No, they cannot. An inevitability plays out before them. Do they still yet dare defy it?
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Powder Grenade toward his party's challenge, A Spectre of Guilt.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna does not often want to scream. She does not scream here. But when the game ends, she stares at the game board for a long time without saying or doing anything.
You could've done more. Incompetent idiot. Fake Zortroa. Follower of foolish forgotten faith.
She's not sure if she's thinking that, or if someone is whispering it to her. Or shouting it to her from a distance. Either way, Catenna doesn't seem to care right now, so caught up is she at staring at the board. Will you lose the Owlet like you lost Huri, you sad, pitiful excuse for a Zortroa? Will you lose Cyre as well? Will you lose all of them? Will you be able to live with yourself when you walk alone again, knowing what you left behind?
Slowly lifting her head, Catenna gasps as Cyre smashes through the table. "...Cyre...."
Beast vanishes soon enough. With a gasp, Catenna recoils - or maybe she's moved? Who knows. But before she can do anything more, those metal monstrosities burst into the chamber. Catenna barely has time to think about what's going on, automatically reaching for her Medium and beginning to belt off spells. Gravity runs haywire, hurling the demons back, trying to pin them down and encumber them.
Will you fail them too? Sad weakling. Momma's pity project.'
DG: Catenna has used her Tool Celesdue Medium toward her party's challenge, A Spectre of Guilt.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"Cyre!" Gwen yells as Cyre smashes the chess board, releasing a torrent of wind. Beast goes after him, disappearing in the resulting confusion.
Gwen's never really truly seen it up this close and personal, but she knows enough to understand.
"Jack..." Gwen's eyes begin to tear up.
For all she acted the cheerful one, always being the silly, funny one to get people to laugh, to let them forget their worries around her?
This is the reality for all those who pretend to be the fool, but aren't strong enough to embody it completely.
They only serve to make that guilty blade go deeper as they try to pull others up.
Gwen throws her hands outwards, fingers splayed, her ARM generating a rapidly expanding field of electricity. "Gh-!"
Maybe, if she throws herself into this, she'll feel a little bit of that pain...
And then, maybe, when she smiles and tries to make Jack remember himself, he'll see a little bit of that pain in the smile of his friend.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Full Metal Courier toward her party's challenge, A Spectre of Guilt.
================================================<* Castle Rabenstein *>=================================================
==========================================<* CHALLENGE - A Spectre of Guilt *>==========================================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 |
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
Mist swirls though the vast hall before you, cloaking the walls and ceiling
in shadows. The screams and shouts of battle echo through the fog, coming
from everywhere and nowhere at once. Phantoms dart through the mists, half
remembered figures from a battle long since over. Memories of a man stuck in
time.
Suddenly, spectres loom out of the fog, shadows with solid features. Six
figures. Knights all of them. Some wield swords, some wield bows, some wield
spears. Lead by a massive man in armor they turn to face the opposite end of
the hall as one. The last figure in the line, a woman with a sword, is solid
enough to almost be real. She smiles slightly as she draws her weapon.
"Make them pay for every inch," booms the leader.
Then come the whispers, taunting, cutting words whispered on the swirling
purple mists.
'You should have saved them.'
'You let them die.'
'You should have fallen with them.'
As the whispers grow, so does the sound from the opposite end of the hall.
Metal scraping against stone. The whirling of gears. The screech of metal
plate sliding across metal plate. Massive figures form out of the mist.
Demons of Metal. At their head is a massive hulking 'man' in armor, spear
held upright. On one side of him, a floating cloaked figure that seems to
snatch and discard corpses with long, tendril-like manipulators.
The six Knights turn to face down the Demons, raising weapons. The doomed
last stand. The Demons' horde is beyond counting, filling up the room, the
noises they make amplified by the mist.
The knights charge.
Can you save them?
Can you save her?
He couldn't.
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
===========================================<* Castle Rabenstein - Round 6 *>============================================
============================================< Results - A Spectre of Guilt >============================================
Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seraph Beast 105 --(X)--> X
Effects:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cyre H. Lorentz 105 --(X)--> X
Effects:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ethius Hesiod 100 --(0)--> 100 Pass
Powder Grenade 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gwen Whitlock 100 --(0)--> 100 Pass
Full Metal Courier 2 Combat Effects: Embolden
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Catenna 100 --(0)--> 100 Pass
Celesdue Medium 2 Combat Effects: Embolden
-------------------------------------------------------< Party >--------------------------------------------------------
Leader: Seraph Beast 95 --(25)--> 120 Pass
Conditions: Wound(2)
Effects: Embolden(1)
===================================================< Dream Chasers >====================================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Seraph Beast has successfully explored Castle Rabenstein!
================================================<* Castle Rabenstein *>=================================================
=========================================<* CHALLENGE - A Dragonbone Sphere *>==========================================
|Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 |
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
A perfect sphere rests atop a workbench of some sort, among a variety of
metalworking tools. It's warm to the touch, and smells of ozone and hot
metal--it has a distinctly metallic sheen, like treated, polished
Dragonbone. Inside, Malevolence pulses against the shell containing it, as
if begging to be freed of its prison. It feels like it's desperate to tell
you something, but what?
(OOC: You should send an @mail to Ida about this Discovery! Be sure to tell
her who else came into contact with the sphere.)
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
They hold out... maybe, at best, to save themselves as they get caught up in the hordes. With the smoke, maybe they can't see them. With the forces of gravity, maybe they can't reach them. With electrical fields, maybe they can intimidate them to go away.
A young woman slips away with... themselves, another? There's a displacement here that comes from just how real this feels, but it's not real time. It's a memory being replayed...
'You lack courage...' She chides. It's not the Malevolence as much, it's as though she is - whoever she is - is saying it right then, right now, as there is a sensation of anger and fury at oneself for choosing to run, wanting to stand and fight. Do they - the three here - lack courage for daring to stand and fight, however they might?
Is the question for them? It will ring loudest for a while as the gnashing hordes of the Metal Demons disappear. The lot of them are beyond exhausted, pushed to the brink, but... alive, and still holding onto their humanity.
Or whatever Ethius has in substitution of it, maybe, as they're all deposited before a workbench of some kind... among a variety of metalworking tools--
Among a lesser variety of metalworking tools, as Ethius snaps back up to a stand and rips some of them off the table with loud, deafening clatters. Much more catching to the eye is a perfect sphere that really should have been described first. Warm to the touch, the smels of ozone and hot metal... metallic, like it were made of polished Dragonbone. The purple stuff pulses against its shell, like it wants to be let out--
"...Don't touch it." Ethius says, which is generally an excellent endorsement to touch it, as he takes a step back. As though disturbed by it... but for those who consider Ida a dear friend, knowing how this environment matches her history and interests, this... might be a key to helping her?
The enigmatic man stands taller, a hand up against his forehead as he gathers himself. He knows what he's here for. He's just awaiting that perfect opportunity. He can't go about it while everyone is standing at attention, in a place to interrupt him... but what would that opportunity entail? Would there be a point in time where they'd all let their guards down willingly...?
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Tense, Catenna casts her spells with a certain vigor and intensity. She hurls the Metal Demons back as best she can - and somehow, it seems to work out. But it's left her exhausted, breathing heavily and slouching forward with her hands on her thighs. Her hair hangs around her face like dark curtains.
Idiot girl....
Catenna lifts her head, pressing her lips together firmly. When she returns home, she resolves, she'll purify herself anyway. She'll get Cyre to do it to her. She can feel those negative feelings insinuating themselves into her mood in a way they normally do not.
That orb, however, presents an interesting question. Pursing her lips, the Moon Shaman starts forward and rests a hand on the table beside it, looking into it.
Catenna's aware of the density of Malevolence in this place. Her concern for herself wanes, though. This orb might hold some secret worth knowing, after all.
"No," she says with a glance at Ethius. "If this attempts to take me over, knock me out and have Cyre perform the purification ritual."
She gives Ethius a couple of seconds to either object or get his big stick. But she reaches out nevertheless, laying delicate hands on the orb.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
When Ethius touched it in a previous scouting mission, he only had to make contact with it idly as he sifted through the workshop.
Because he is a man of strange priorities even in the face of glowing spherical things - now because maybe a kind of wrench here seems to offend him - he first brushes off the 'no' as more of a soft 'they are about to be argumentive' and not a 'no I am going to touch it.'
Ethius knows what happens if one touches it. (Turning into a Hellion doesn't seem to be it, going by him being himself...) That may also contribute to why he wastes those precious seconds in which to convince Catenna otherwise to instead focus on this other tool here he decides can not be here any more, and from there...
Too late.
He turns his head as Catenna makes contact. She only needs that momentary touch from either hand to see it...
To see what it is in the depths of their memories being laid bare for one's consumption.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna...
...doesn't experience anything. She is not currently asleep and is not dreaming. Visions of scared girls trying to understand what's wrong with Mama will come, but only when the night falls and the Moon Shaman is alone.
"Curious," Catenna murmurs as she moves her hand away from the orb, her hand moving up to her collar. "There is something there that wants to come out but I do not think it is yet."
Just wait, Catenna. Just wait.