2018-08-29: Be Not Afraid
- Log: Be Not Afraid
- Cast: Seraph Lanval, Layna Manydays, Fei Fong Wong, Josephine Lovelace, Elhaym van Houten, Ida Everstead-Rey
- Where: Uzda Il-jam
- Date: August 29th 2018
- Summary: Linaweyul calls, and a group has answered. But do they have what it takes to withstand the First Trial?
DG: A party led by Seraph Lanval is now entering Linaweyul, the First Ordeal. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
===========================================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>============================================ ============================================<* CHALLENGE - Gerascophobia *>============================================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 | -----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------------------------- It is important to carry on, even when our strength begins to fail us. Even as time whittles away our vitality. And that is no more true than it is here: transported into a chamber full of motes of softly glowing gold rising like fireflies, your entryway -- your lone exit -- comes in the form of a pair of immense double doors that easily dwarf any average person in sheer size. To proceed further, you will have to push these doors open through brute force -- but as you to, those lights begin to pulse... and something happens. Skin starts to wrinkle. Muscles start to tire. Bones begin to grow brittle. And soon enough, you find yourself rapidly growing weaker the longer you stay inside of this chamber. You must get free to reverse the process, or else fail the challenge if you cannot do so in time -- but with that vitality failing you, can you continue to persevere? (OOC Note: As an additional flavor thing, people can choose to RP out rapidly aging along with losing their strength/vitality if they want to! This is optional, if you think it would be fun to do!) =Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous, Weaken======================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
An eclectic assortment of wills converge upon Uzda Il-jam. It does not judge the context in which the lot of them all arrive. It thinks nothing of the world outside of the tranquil isles. It merely persists, and ultimately allows their arrival by whatever sea vessel(s) they acquired. Steps are retraced through the oddly well-maintained, yet abandoned structure without incident, out into that odd void through the door marked with the Roman numeral for one: 'I.'
They are welcomed to a void of gold-hued crystals for footing, floating isles the only thing that violate the nothingness that abounds. Further energies of the same hue pulse and flit upwards, dispersing into eye-catching motes.
They find themselves upon a long road of this yellowed crystal, and through a whitish-yellow barrier, they find themselves transported before a chamber with two heavy double doors. It feels like a small ordeal to even walk along up to it, as though one might already be growing tired.
The Water Seraph, Lanval, sizes them up... then sits down and leans against it, facing back towards the others. A sense of weariness passes through him that he is not unfamiliar with -- actually there's a lot to say about that, but the more immediately important issue is that he's not doing that great a job of trying to push the thing open.
"...Mmmph." He grunts, tiredly, for someone who is not exerting all that much force. Can he?
DG: Seraph Lanval has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Gerascophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Uzda Il-jam - a ruin lost to time, only recently rediscovered, that held much mystery. The last time Layna came here, she found herself feeling...better afterwards, in a way, and now that word had reached her that a new section had opened up she decided it was worth visiting.
That's why Layna's here, along with Lanval and Ida, who she extended an invitation to. Curiosity, more than anything. She doesn't expect to find treasure or anything of the sort...though she certainly wouldn't say no if it happened.
And thus it was that she stepped through the first gate. It doesn't seem like much at first, but when the lights begin to pulse...Layna finds her strength rapidly depleting.
"Wh-what the hell...?" Layna hisses. It's surprising, at first, but... With the gateway behind them gone, there's only one thing to do.
"Push through it!" Layna calls out, forging her way forward toward the door. She just had to reach...!
DG: Layna Manydays has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Gerascophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Last time here Fei was forced to kill a dog so suffice it to say he doesn't find this place to be super special awesome but they found a shining door that led to somewhere after killing that dog so honestly what's he going to do? NOT look inside?
Of course not. Sure, going through mysterious doors are pretty much exactly the cause of all his miseries but it's not like he KNOWS that little fact so going through the mysterious door into a bad time it is.
Fei is looking towards Elly, whom of course he has come along with. "Hey Elly I've been meaning to ask..." Fei says. "Where'd you get your hair done? Were you just feeling a change?" While he seems surprised by the change in Elly's hair, he doesn't seem upset by it, at least.
Of course there's a yellow crystal and now they're before a door.
"...A door?" Fei asks. "We just got through a door." He frowns thoughtfully. "I don't see how this is supposed to be a test...I mean, I am a little afraid of doors after all the times they've confounded us but I wouldn't say it's a phobia--"
He presses against the wall and CRACK.
Fei grimaces and grabs at his arm. "Hahh??" He is a pretty young guy who ages well, but he's starting to get white streaks in his own hair.
"Okay this is..." Fei begins. "Very different."
DG: Fei Fong Wong has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Gerascophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Thanks to a date with a ruin along the other end of Meribus and a good bottle or two of wine, Josie herself had missed out on the initial discovery and investigation therein of Uzda Il-jam.
But what she had heard had sounded just interesting enough to get her full rapt attention, and shake her away from whatever Argus had managed to get his hands on this week (and other ruins aside).
The reasoning's fairly simple: if it's possible that the objects she's seeking have managed to cross over worlds in ages past, then this might be a reasonably fruitful place to search. It's not as if they have any idea of when or how they'd be able to return to Filgaia.
And if that whole hypothesis is completely wrong, well... it's still a ruin, and it's still bound to have a secret or two that might sell particularly well.
So eventually, untimately she'd made the journey on over.
Passage through the ruins itself turns relatively uneventful on her own. It's when she arrives at place that even she can't quite say she's seen the likes of before and passes through a yellow-hued doorway that things start getting a little weird:
Even taking a few steps along the path is akin to a long hike up a mountain. Even the trek thus far can't quite account for this one.
"Whew... feels like..."
She buckles under the pressure of it, propping herself up with the mattock she's come in with in hand.
On her shoulder, Penelope droops, a feather or three falling as if in a slow rain.
"Feels like I'm a geezer already," Josie gasps, hunching over as she forces creaking knees to straighten. "What's with this..."
Penelope continues to shed feathers. Josie's own skin has grown lined, aged.
She feels like she's going to break. But breaks, instead, into a jog of a dash, as far as aging bones will let her and straight for the door. "--I'm not," she calls out, her voice cracking with age, "gonna stop for this!"
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Well-Used Mattock toward her party's challenge, Gerascophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly van Houten is against the killing of any and all adorable pets, subject to terms and conditions such as rabies or the pet being Hammer.
Just kidding! She loves Hammer. Great guy.
Elly blinks once as she follows after Fei. Elly is in nondescript loose trousers and a peasant-cut blouse, making her, in this day, an accidental echo of Fei -- but it is really that her green day-dress got slime on it and needed laundering at the Vane Mega-Laundry. "What - oh!" she says, reaching up to push her hand back through the locks. "Oh, goodness. I was on a um, a journey. That place where I suppose you found Chaya... I found..."
She trails off. It wasn't happy.
They are then faced with a door. Staring at it, Elly blinks slowly. In this moment she is saved from the virtual perception of aging by the power of having gone to the doctor a lot as a child: Elly at 40 will be slightly sorer than Elly at 20, but not greatly different, all else being equal. "um," she says.
She reaches into the pocket of the work trousers she has on and digs. What she finds is one of the items that had just been laying around a ruin - she can't even remember what it was, but it seemed like this would be useful. It's a heavily eroded but smooth piece of something dark blue with the remains of some kind of little sliver of metal on it. M*s**rc**d is legible on the logo of it. "Excuse - me-"
Elly leans over, wincing at a twinge in her shoulder, and aims to slide this item in at the center of the doors and push downwards.
Somewhere, far away, Hammer sheds a tear. For you see, this is a mad skill Elly learned from him... on another world entirely.
("Don't be sad, Miss Elly, I know how to pop this kind of lock in a second. Do you have any thin smooth objects? Like a pocket mir- whoa! I recognize this. This is junk from... no... Miss Elly, I think we've discovered the purpose of these objects. I'm going to have to resell them at a much higher price now...")
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Inventory Clutter toward her party's challenge, Gerascophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida is mostly here because the islands above the place are pristine, isolated, and soothing. She'd spent several days recovering from the battle at Glenwood, but she could still feel it weighing heavily on her spirit. It was a fairly simple matter to get in touch with Captain Grey, and to explain to her the decision she'd made. She was honestly a little surprised when the Hellion didn't judge her for it, and almost seemed happy for her.
Ida steps throught he door after Fei and Elly, and immediately takes a moment to try and ground herself. She reaches out with both arms, as if balancing, making sure that she's not about to fall off into the formless void beyond the path. "It's like the Pleasing Gardens," Ida says. Except in some otherworld instead of the sky. She steps forwards, glancing at the pulsing lights, not noticing as her already-withered body starts to change. Streaks of grey start at her temples, and slowly spread through the rest of her hair. She sees the change come over Josie, though, as well as Fei. "...Fei?" She's almost surprised by the sound of her own voice. She looks down at her hands, and sees age spots. "Damnation. What's even--?" She doesn't finish. Her back is starting to hurt. She sets a shoulder against the door and pushes with all the strength she can muster, before that strength leaves her.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"If this doesn't work, we should try pulling," Elly also advises.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Gerascophobia.
===========================================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>============================================ ============================================<* CHALLENGE - Gerascophobia *>============================================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 | -----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------------------------- It is important to carry on, even when our strength begins to fail us. Even as time whittles away our vitality. And that is no more true than it is here: transported into a chamber full of motes of softly glowing gold rising like fireflies, your entryway -- your lone exit -- comes in the form of a pair of immense double doors that easily dwarf any average person in sheer size. To proceed further, you will have to push these doors open through brute force -- but as you to, those lights begin to pulse... and something happens. Skin starts to wrinkle. Muscles start to tire. Bones begin to grow brittle. And soon enough, you find yourself rapidly growing weaker the longer you stay inside of this chamber. You must get free to reverse the process, or else fail the challenge if you cannot do so in time -- but with that vitality failing you, can you continue to persevere? (OOC Note: As an additional flavor thing, people can choose to RP out rapidly aging along with losing their strength/vitality if they want to! This is optional, if you think it would be fun to do!) =Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous, Weaken======================================
======================================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal - Round 1 *>======================================= ==============================================< Results - Gerascophobia >=============================================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Lanval 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ida Everstead-Rey 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Layna Manydays 0 --(15)--> 15 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elhaym van Houten 0 --(15)--> 15 Pass Inventory Clutter 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Josephine Lovelace 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Well-Used Mattock 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fei Fong Wong 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------< Party >-------------------------------------------------------- Leader: Seraph Lanval 0 --(10)--> 10
DG: The party led by Seraph Lanval 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> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Time is always going to pass... and there are no take-backs. Mortal lives, after a point, often dedicate themselves to very specific pursuits. No matter what this pursuit is, how well they do it, the end result is the same. They toil as they will, and time, itself, takes its toil.
Lanval gets up and faces away from the lot of them, as though not even wanting to look at the rapid aging, the inevitability that he has to contend with from a different angle - all the mortal friends he's made lately will go away due to time. He lacks the courage to face that.
A thin item goes through the doors, to some appreciable physical feedback of something moving. The heavy doors resound noiily to a mattock that also ages rapidly. The doors rustle and creak, equal parts mocking but sympathetic - as though understanding it, too, will one day meet an end from age or obsolesence. Soon, everyone's strength will leave them. For seconds that stretch into eternity... nothing.
Nothing, but a return to the road whence they came, right where they were on the golden crystal path. The barrier ahead remains, as Lanval sits back down with his back turned.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has drawn a new Challenge. ======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>=======================
======================================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal - Round 1 *>======================================= =========================<* CHALLENGE - Panophobia *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 4 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- This hallway stretches on for a long time; floating chunks of landscape decorate the vast white-yellow nothing that surrounds you, all leading towards a single barrier made of shining, ebbing golden energy. This barrier must be broken through to get to the other side and further open Linaweyul to you, but every time it is struck -- whether by hand or by weapon or any other tool, from any range -- waves of -something- uneasy ripples from it -- a queasy sense of fear that cannot be placed or explained but fills one with a sense of dread on the horizon, making hitting that boundary less and less appealing -- a sense of vague dread that continues to grow the more damaged the barrier becomes, and the more it is struck... =Dungeon Conditions: Suffer, Overwhelm========================================
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
TO BE FAIR TO FEI the dog was huge and trying to murder everybody.
Fei says, "...Oh," He is embarrassed for bringing up an unpleasant memory. "Sorry, I guess it was more--" He'ss not sure he should use this word but he does anyway, "--dangerous than I thought. Must've gotten lucky."
He then hears Elly's advice, he hesitates, then he tries pulling and there's a loud pop and Fei grimaces, clutching his arm. Ok maybe going back the way they came is the best option here.
"If this is the 'first' trial I'd hate to consider what the other ones might be." He shakes his head but luckily when everbyody, you know, leaves that test they return to normal, including Fei!
But you're still hungry.
I mean you're still exhausted.
The next test is a bit harder to quantify. There's a long hallway and, well, nothing happens during the walk down the hallway.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2aHcANs4GE
"Ida, I hope you're wrong about this being like the Pleasing Gardens." He grimaces just thinking about it. "But we should um... we should..."
There's a golden barrier. Just a golden barrier. "This is it?" Fei asks. "This...can't be it, can it?"
Fei steps backwards rather than forward to strike the barrier. He closes his eyes for a moment, and then gives it a faint rap with his hand, experimentally. He grimaces instantly as a wave ripples out from it. Can a DOOR cause anxiety? Of course, and what is a barrier but a higher level door?
Fei walks away from the barrier for a long moment, looking down at himself. He grabs at his chest with noe hand and then reaches into his pocket.
He hears it. He hears a song of a faint lullaby. He can't quite make out the words. "Do...you hear that?"
The dread continues to build and build he's just a coward it's just building and building he's just a coward.
Fei shakes his head quickly, clearing his head of thoughts and he takes his hand off from his chest and says, "Sorry about this in advance." in a faint murmur before unleashing a hefty red and blue chi blast for the barrier before the group, intending to just batter it down and push through the badfeels with his power. Maybe this is how he reacts to that which he fears--desperately trying to destroy it.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool Mother's Cross toward his party's challenge, Panophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna manages to hold on...but in the end, even she finds herself stumbling forward when they find themselves back where they once were before. Her strength is basic, but she still feels...tired.
"First test or not...I'm not about to give up just yet." Layna replies with a glance to Fei, shaking her head. Sure, it had been a little unnerving...but she wasn't the type to let that hold her back.
And when they pass through the barrier once more, they find...a rather long hallway it's pretty plain, but the barrier...
Fei says that it can't be that simple. A part of Layna hoped it would be, but, well...soon enough, they figure out what it is.
Layna feels a dull sense of dread, like the sensation of something horrible looming on the horizon. Layna grits her teeth.
"It's...it's alright, lad." Layna hisses through them. From somewhere she draws out an ARM - a drill that she slides one of her hands into before activating it. "Some things you just gotta put up with."
And with that she punches the drill toward the barrier, hoping that it'd be enough to pierce right on through.
DG: Layna Manydays has used her Tool Arm-Mounted Drill toward her party's challenge, Panophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Everything returns to normal, and yet, the Seraph that stands (...sits) among them has trouble wanting to look back at them. He didn't need that reminder, no matter how important it was he recognized such during a time of personal crisis. This place is not here to coddle curiosity with tantalizing but entertaining remainders of other times.
This place is here to test. A few of the mortals among them express an eagerness to keep going and let their limited time pass this way.
Silently, he has another sip from his gourd before he rises and happens along with the rest.
There is no soft but annoyingly incessant laughter coming from him while he staggers along down the long path. Somehow, he can feel the dread - the idea that maybe, just maybe, they don't want to go that way. That's the only way, though... and by the time they come up to the golden barrier, his good friend Fei expresses bewilderment.
Lanval feels it before the ripple washes out. He hasn't been here before, but a part of him just... knew. He didn't say before Fei took the tap at it. What sorts of things did he refuse to say that would've been helpful to say earlier?
He turns his head towards Ida, purified from having gone rather far down that Hellion rabbit hole. He withheld her identity as being one of the Domain Masters of Mount Manfred from those who spoke much for and cared for her. What was he afraid of if he did tell them?
He doesn't say that maybe they shouldn't do this now. He sits back down, facing away once again like he did at the end of the previous test. Afraid of what could lay beyond, but afraid to speak up... and afraid to stand up and walk away alone. The times he did fight against this, he was 'rewarded' with awful fates. Overcome with the sheer elemental dread of this place, Lanval only quietly mutters a single word.
"Linaweyul." Cowardice. All too fitting, isn't it? He tries to work up a smile as Layna just keeps having a go at it, as she reassures Fei - but maybe a part of him isn't that ready for it.
Something about that drill powering on - though he's heard it a few times already - startles him as he cartoonishly juggles the gourd he nearly flings right out of his grasp before settling back down to divine brooding.
DG: Seraph Lanval has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Panophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Somehow, Josie manages to power on through, though it seems like the door is almost mocking her as it slowly swings open.
It also feels like she's broken something, possibly in her arms. Possibly her hip. It's hard to really tell when every joint and every bone in your body feels like it's singing a low sharp chorus of pain.
All of which vanishes as she staggers over the threshold (and the small pile of feathers than a now more alert and seriously displeased Penelope has left behind).
Josie still takes a moment to breath out.
"Huh."
As if noticing the pair of them for the first time, she arches a pale eyebrow (oh no, her hair has been whitened by terror -- oh wait that's normal Josie). "Junior. Red. Didn't know you two kids were coming 'round here. Just think of it, we could have made a party of it--"
As her gaze shifts and lands then on Ida.
She tilts her head to one side, as if sighting a rare and unexpected thing.
"Well, well. Someone's had a change, I'd say," she comments, resting her right hand on her hip. Welcome back to civilization, sweetheart."
She gestures towards the expanse of yellow light around them. "Such that it is. I'm impressed!" It is admittedly difficult to tell from pitch alone whether or not that's actually true, such are the ways of the caprious, but...
Maybe the sentiment still counts somehow.
Particularly when facing down a door that seems more than capable of facing back at them, so to speak. What was it about staring into abysses...?
Josie shakes her head as if attempting to shake off a stupor. Her left hand briefly inches towards her pocket before jerking away; her teeth grit as if pained.
"...Trying to scare me off, huh."
She glances at Layna, who seems to be undergoing something similar. Turns a glance towards Lanval, similarly feeling the effects of this 'trial'. Hefting the mattock again in both hands, Josie lets swing at the barrier.
"We'll see about that!"
...Her jugular is pounding out an allegro.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Well-Used Mattock toward her party's challenge, Panophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida's strength fails. She slumps forwards against the door, as if the very act of standing up was unbearable exertion. There's a soft flash of light, and then--
And then everyone is back where they started. Ida almost falls facefirst onto the road, but catches herself, stepping forwards just in time. She looks down at her hands, runs her fingers through her hair, takes a moment to reassure herself that whatever just happened to her wasn't permanent. Was it? "It has... similarities," she says to Fei, clearly unnerved. She steps forwards, into the field ahead, and the world warps around her--it reshapes itself into what looks at first to be exactly the same as the corridor they just left. Ida glances around, then watches as Fei walks up to touch the barrier. "...I don't hear anything," Ida says. As if to reassure him, she walks up and touches the barrier herself, pushing against it firmly--
And then a horrible, familiar sensation starts building in her guts. Ida jerks back, her breathing shallow. "...There's no other way." Layna says that some things they just have to put up with, but Ida doesn't seem to buy it. She grits her teeth, and manages to focus enough to redirect chi into her right hand. She steps forwards, swings at the same time Fei does, and immediately recoils the moment the bright flare explodes off her knuckles.
"I can't do it," she says. Her heart is hammering in her chest.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Panophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"... What even happened? I thought for a moment - it was like all of you had aged," Elly says, looking around with wide eyes. She tucks away the palstic card in her other pocket, and begins to stroll. "Are you feeling alright?" she asks Ida, probably for the like fourth time. She walks forwards.
Worries sneak in around her mind.
Tabitha's onto you.
They're in touch with Etrenank. They just never said.
The major knows. Loren knows. Everyone knows.
All of this - you'd be better off --
Fei speaks and she blinks rapidly. "I - I think so," she says, tilting her head.
Something in the distance. She smiles weakly at Josie as she so often has, and she takes a deep breath, lets it out, and closes her eyes. She can almost hear Josie's heartbeat, but somewhere -
"I don't think I have ever heard a song like that before," Elly says, but it fades before she can read more than a couple of bars. She then turns her attention back towards the shining door of gold before then, swallowing.
She's opening her mouth to say something to Fei -- when he suddenly just straight up Kamehamehas the door, supported by the drilling strike from Layna. She looks towards the Seraph, who she has always been able to see clearly, and pulls something else from her pocket.
It's a small brown glass vial. "... I can practically hear your pulses," she says to Ida, and to Josie. "I don't know if this actually works or if it's just a mixer for drinks, but I think it will help you calm down, if you need it."
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Inventory Clutter toward her party's challenge, Panophobia.
======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>=======================
======================================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal - Round 1 *>======================================= =========================<* CHALLENGE - Panophobia *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 4 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- This hallway stretches on for a long time; floating chunks of landscape decorate the vast white-yellow nothing that surrounds you, all leading towards a single barrier made of shining, ebbing golden energy. This barrier must be broken through to get to the other side and further open Linaweyul to you, but every time it is struck -- whether by hand or by weapon or any other tool, from any range -- waves of -something- uneasy ripples from it -- a queasy sense of fear that cannot be placed or explained but fills one with a sense of dread on the horizon, making hitting that boundary less and less appealing -- a sense of vague dread that continues to grow the more damaged the barrier becomes, and the more it is struck... =Dungeon Conditions: Suffer, Overwhelm======================================== =================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal - Round 2 *>==================
======================================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal - Round 1 *>======================================= ===========================< Results - Panophobia >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Lanval 20 --(20)--> 40 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ida Everstead-Rey 20 --(20)--> 40 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Layna Manydays 15 --(15)--> 30 Pass Arm-Mounted Drill 3 Brute Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elhaym van Houten 15 --(15)--> 30 Pass Inventory Clutter 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Josephine Lovelace 20 --(20)--> 40 Fail Well-Used Mattock 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fei Fong Wong 20 --(15)--> 35 Pass Mother's Cross 4 Brute Effects: None ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Seraph Lanval 10 --(10)--> 20 Fail Conditions: Overwhelm|Overzealous(1)|Suffer(1) Effects: Cleanse|Strengthen(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Seraph Lanval 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> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei is reassured by Layna and he gives her a small smile but somehow, despite him perking up afterwards--it doesn't feel that effective, as if the words reached him but they didn't really reach him. Ida doesn't seem to hear the lullaby but Elly does which is definitely something he doesn't want to think about. Maybe it's just the thumping of Ida's heart, the pounding of Josephine's jugular, that he hears? Maybe, but even as he tries to push it out of his mind, he feels afraid.
He doesn't even know what he's afraid of. In a galaxy full of frightening things, the strangest and most compelling fear is a fear of unknown origin, of something so buried deep within his genetic code that he can't even articulate it.
The test fades and once again, they have failed to pass. Perhaps facing one's fears is more harrowing than they had thought, but on the other hand--does this mean they haven't face their fears at all so far?
"Well," Fei says. "At least this won't kill us."
He exhale faintly, not wanting to think what 'penalty' there might be either.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has drawn a new Challenge.
=======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - Somniphobia *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Shining and ephemeral, full of white and gold emotes, the sheer, comforting warmth of this place feels like a dream. It is so peaceful in this wide, white room that one could realistically start to feel drowsy just entering it... and that is exactly the problem. Because the moment you enter, a massive, were-tiger-like Hellion drops down from above, snarling violence and immediately charging you to attack. To get further, to overcome this challenge and open the way further into Linaweyul, you must defeat this Hellion -- but the longer you linger in this place, the more its unnatural serenity and warmth saps more and more of your strength and makes you increasingly tired. The urge to go to sleep even when facing a horrible monster is increasingly high -- better hope you finish before you succumb to a nice, debatably pleasant nap. =Dungeon Conditions: Maim, Fright, Vault======================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
For a moment, Josie takes one hand off the haft of the mattock, presses a pair of fingers to her throat. It just tells her something she already knows.
"That bad, huh, Red?" she utters, offering up a world-weary grin for Elly before reaching out to take and immediately down that vial's contents without question. "Any port in a storm," she says, before swinging for the fences--
no
is perhaps the best articulation of the thoughts that follow, as they slam against the trial and fail the test
no more
She's left staggering in the aftermath of it, the yellow barrier shed as if it had never been.
They didn't break it. It shifted away like a disappointed instructor.
The fear, too, quickly melts. In its aftermath it's almost like diving deep into a deep cool sea, to settled into the warmth of a golden sun against the embrace of a beach's sands, to rest under the boughs of a great tree, to settle into a fresh-flowered meadow.
The sort of easy languid sleepiness that sinks into the bones.
Atop her shoulder, Penelope is the first to drift off, almost immediately falling asleep.
The peace that immediately sets in though is at odds with what else drops in from above, a massive tiger of a Hellion that roars out its intent.
The soporific lull only ratchets up in intensity. Josie shakes her head, again as if attempting to throw off the effects of this place.
The Hellion closes in.
Josie rallies, dipping a hand into her pocket and regarding for a moment the flask she pulls free.
Then, quite suddenly, darts forward to slosh some of the contents of her flask right for the were-tiger Hellion's blazing eyes.
Technically speaking, it's utterly a waste of liquor. But the way she figures -- a well-honed drinker -- she's just inviting herself to a nap otherwise. She already feels like she's had a few too many.
"Try not t'," she slurs, reeling, "t' fall... ashleep..."
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Liquid Courage toward her party's challenge, Somniphobia.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
They don't break through, and the resulting simultaneous disappointment and relief is not a pleasant thing to experience. All the same, they see the road of golden crystal out in the floating void again... and Lanval once more follows suit once he can gather himself and whatever remains of his courage before two trials have found the collective whole wanting.
As Fox Company would say, one of Lanval's favorite things to do seems to be to sleep wherever and whenever he wants, whether because he's at that much ease or just can't be bothered. The very air invites it, within this next chamber. Easy-going... though there is the painful scent of Malevolence in the air, in the form of a grotesque tiger-man leaping down and roaring out their contradictions turned power. They can't roar any louder than the pleasant invitation to come to rest in one's mind.
Too late, Lanval's already on his seat. It's only a matter of time, as the tiger's on them. A dumb, cat-like smile spreads on Lanval's equally stupid face... leaning back, then forward, back, then forward...
And then, in an uncharacteristic swift movement, he grasps a brilliant white bottle of glowing, sanctified liquid and just sweeps it outward, filling the space with a splash of Hellion-repelling potion with an additional quality more readily noted because he's splashing everyone with it.
'It' being, in this case, that the water is at an uncomfortably cold temperature to the touch - shocking and unpleasant to experience, but exactly as needs to be in order to try and break the sleep spell, if only for so long.
Great! Maybe they can all stand a fighting chance... er.
Emphasis on 'they,' because Lanval drifts off into one of his favorite habits picked up from mortals - snoring, face-down, while they deal with the problem.
DG: Seraph Lanval has used his Tool Holy Bottle toward his party's challenge, Somniphobia.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna shuts her eyes tight, trying to focus on the whirring of the drill as it grinds against the barrier in front of them rather than the steadily encroaching fear. But try as she might, the barrier continues to frustrate them.
The drill slows to a stop with nothing to show for it, and once again they find themselves right back where they started.
Layna exhales and stows the drill away once more.
"...This place sure don't pull any punches." Layna comments with a frown, folding her arms in front of her.
They soon progress from fear, to almost a sense of peacefulness. A fatigue that weighs on her shoulders, and makes it difficult to keep her eyes open. Layna nearly stumbles. She can feel herself drifting off, up until the point she gets incentive not to.
A Hellion, here? This was the worst possible time!
She tries to make an inspirational statement...but she ends up slurring her words, and Lanval splashes her in the face before she can even complete it. Layna splutters, but...well, she has a feeling the splash was more inspirational that whatever she was trying to say.
"...Right, just gonna punch..." Layna mutters and does just that, rushing in toward the beast to give it a somewhat-lethargic right hook.
DG: Layna Manydays has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Somniphobia.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida takes a swig of the offered vial without thinking. She can't think. "No," she says, to Elly. Even saying that much feels like effort. She doesn't strike the barrier again--she doesn't move until the group is deposited in that hallway again. Then it's as though someone turned on a light in her mind, and she can think again. "Horrible," Ida whispers. "I felt so anxious." The group moves on, and Ida shakes her head, trying to relax. Immediately, though, she feels exhausted. She hears a horrible roar, but she's so tired. She can barely keep her eyes open, even as adrenaline floods her system, tries to jar her to wakefulness.
Lanval's water splashes across her face. Ida's eyes shoot open just in time for her to see the tiger-entity rounding on her. She thrusts an open palm forwards, suddenly and violently.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Apple Gel toward her party's challenge, Somniphobia.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"It might be my imagination," she tells Josie, with another, even weaker smile. Just how weakly can Elly smile, exactly? We have yet to figure out the exact point where maximum smile weakness is reached, gaining immense powers according to the principles of homeopathy, which is objectively true.
And then things feel dreamy. "Mm," she says. She leans against Fei as they walk. She closes her eyes, heedless of the vicious tiger nearby. Of all things, it is the not very familiar tinge of the scent of alcohol in the air that makes her rouse back to awareness.
Tiger.
She laughs a little.
Then her brow knits. Wait, she thinks. "I've never seen a tiger in my dreams ever," Elly mutters. Then she glares back at the tiger.
... Nothing happens for a while, because Elly, slowed down, has to construct her Ether like she's a frigging fourth grader again. So it takes a while. It is probably a surprise when there is a sudden eruption from the earth, aiming to form an improvised stone tiger cage. Hopefully, BEFORE anybody gets mauled, or the tiger leaves the area.
DG: Elhaym van Houten has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Somniphobia.
=======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - Somniphobia *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Shining and ephemeral, full of white and gold emotes, the sheer, comforting warmth of this place feels like a dream. It is so peaceful in this wide, white room that one could realistically start to feel drowsy just entering it... and that is exactly the problem. Because the moment you enter, a massive, were-tiger-like Hellion drops down from above, snarling violence and immediately charging you to attack. To get further, to overcome this challenge and open the way further into Linaweyul, you must defeat this Hellion -- but the longer you linger in this place, the more its unnatural serenity and warmth saps more and more of your strength and makes you increasingly tired. The urge to go to sleep even when facing a horrible monster is increasingly high -- better hope you finish before you succumb to a nice, debatably pleasant nap. =Dungeon Conditions: Maim, Fright, Vault======================================
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Well it's probably good that Lily wasn't here, Fei reflects as he's starting to feel drowsy. To be totally honest, Fei often feels like he's living partly in a dream, that he isn't even really awake--but that doesn't actually extend very much to sleep deprivation. It does, however, mean that he doesn't quite notice the feeling immediately--only noticing when the hellion drops down that he seems a bit sluggish, that he isn't quite at his best. Did trying to break that barrier take more out of him than he thought?
Penelope has fallen asleep, Fei thinks.
He blinks a few times. It's only when Josie mentions that they shouldn't try to fall asleep that he realizes for certain that's what's happening.
"Nh..." fei manages, drawing out an RPS Badge into his hand. He says, "Lanval we've got to--"
He's already fallen asleep.
"..."
Fei takes in a deep breath. He's going to use this, he thinks, as he clenches the badge between his hands. HE IS GOING TO USE THIS. Think, what would a were-tiger be weak to? Consider the principles of Rock Paper Scissors, everything has a counter.
Fei jogs over to Lanval, rolls him over, and then jumps into the air and--
--onto Lanval's tummy--
--and then bounces off of it like a trampoline because THAT'S WHAT HE GETS and he dives in a flying jump kick for the tiger. Hey, if he passes out on the way over, at leasth is trajectory won't change.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool RPS Badge toward his party's challenge, Somniphobia.
=======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - Somniphobia *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Shining and ephemeral, full of white and gold emotes, the sheer, comforting warmth of this place feels like a dream. It is so peaceful in this wide, white room that one could realistically start to feel drowsy just entering it... and that is exactly the problem. Because the moment you enter, a massive, were-tiger-like Hellion drops down from above, snarling violence and immediately charging you to attack. To get further, to overcome this challenge and open the way further into Linaweyul, you must defeat this Hellion -- but the longer you linger in this place, the more its unnatural serenity and warmth saps more and more of your strength and makes you increasingly tired. The urge to go to sleep even when facing a horrible monster is increasingly high -- better hope you finish before you succumb to a nice, debatably pleasant nap. =Dungeon Conditions: Maim, Fright, Vault======================================
==================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal - Round 3 *>=================== ===========================< Results - Somniphobia >============================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Lanval 40 --(20)--> 60 Fail Holy Bottle 2 Combat Effects: Cleanse and Liability -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 40 --(20)--> 60 Fail Apple Gel 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Layna Manydays 30 --(20)--> 50 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elhaym van Houten 30 --(20)--> 50 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 40 --(20)--> 60 Fail Liquid Courage 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fei Fong Wong 35 --(15)--> 50 Pass RPS Badge 3 Combat Effects: Rally -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Seraph Lanval 20 --(5)--> 25 Fail Conditions: Fright(2)|Maim|Vault(1) Effects: Cleanse ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Seraph Lanval has failed this challenge! The party gained 5 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"You and mine both, Red," the archaeologist mutters.
Unfortunately, at a rote best, all the slosh of alcohol does is make the tigerman stagger.
And then it just gets angrier, letting out a roar as it handily swats Josie aside and charges on ahead--
It's worth pointing out that there isn't so much walls and ceiling here as a single solitary golden island, hovering in a universe of the same. Fortunately, Josie (and Penelope) don't go rolling over the edge. Instead they sort of slide to a stop and lie there.
(a moment's pause if it's possible will reveal the horrible truth: Josie snores)
A mean right hook -- under the circumstances -- backed up by a similar empty-palmed strike from Ida. But it shrugs off even these as if they were droplets of the rain, continuing to lay into those unfortunate enough to be close at hand.
Another slosh of a substance from a bottle. Another fell roar and surge forward. Perhaps tigers don't like liquor--
But this time the Hellion meets Fei coming as it's going. More than a stagger this time, it's sent rightly backwards to be caught in a staked-style cage of earthen spikes and--
and breaks on out again. Pure malice in its eyes, it comes at them for a third round, but like the tortoise racing against a certain hero, never actually gets there.
This time the realization may be more noticable. They haven't so much as passed through a barrier at any point as been sent on back to stare down the wall they'd faced at the very start. It waits, as if in anticipation of the next touch and the next challenge it will present to them.
Any sleepers, Josie included, will wake up with a start. "Wha...?"
She squints at the barrier. "Oh, this again."
DG: Elhaym van Houten has drawn a new Challenge.
======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================= ========================<* CHALLENGE - Nyctophobia *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 4 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- This area dank and dark, though not pitch black -- a long series of corridors, each one blocked off by a sealed door that requires defeating the Hellions assembled to progress further. Unfortunately, these Hellions seem to be impervious to harm... at least, until you exposed them to literally any form of light you can find, from shafts of it piercing through the ceiling, to any you may generate on your own. Light that, sadly, does not last long here when exposed to these Hellions until it is completely snuffed out and unable to be used again; to defeat your enemies and open the way forward, you're going to have to be conservative with whatever sources of light you might have on hand... and eliminate your enemies very, very quickly. Hellion Types: https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/faqs/57/72557-205.jpg / https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/faqs/57/72557-177.jpg / https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/faqs/57/72557-186.jpg / https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/faqs/57/72557-851.jpg =Dungeon Conditions: Suffer, Secret===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"At least," Elly answers Josie.
The lights go out.
Elly, in the dark, sighs audibly.
...
There is some rustling from Elly.
She says, with some confusion, "This is really strange. I can't feel out Fire any more. Fei, can you do anything here?" The gloom is able to dissipate slightly as the group finds themselves adapting to the dark, as you do, but the distant shafts of ruptures towards the surface are able to come into visibility. They're not a lot brighter than moonlight, but one of them highlights an inexplicably busty angelic figure wafting forwards, for a moment.
"... Did all of you see that? Lanval, what," Elly says
and then
she
SCREAMS!!!
FIGHT FOR YOUR LIVES
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Everything goes pitch black.
"Well, this is a pretty mess," Josie comments, unscrewing the cap of her flask of booze and downing the remainder. Atop her shoulder, it's a sure thing that Penelope has gone back to sleep again. "I wonder what this one's supposed to test? 'Fear of the dark'?"
She snaps her fingers after a fleeting invocation. Light flares into being, just atop her left hand. "Strange. Felt like that was harder just now," comes her commentary in the dark as she pushes on.
Something rustles behind her. She blinks, then glances back over her shoulder.
Just in time to see, framed by long dark shadows, a vile tree-like shape looming up from behind her, branches stretching out in obvious ill intent. Josie has a moment to blink, and a moment more to hurl that spell of hers forward in a detonation of light.
Whether it's effective or not, the light itself is stolen. It will not come back again.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Liquid Courage toward her party's challenge, Nyctophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Right now, Layna just really wants a nap. Even after they're booted out of the trial she feels that way, but...well, they've come this far.
She sighs and massages her forehead, wondering what'll come next. She doesn't have to wait long - soon they're plunged into the darkness.
"Damn! On your guard, aye!?" Layna shouts, backing up. She can see the silhouettes of creatures lurking toward them...and they're certainly not friendly. "Don't move too far from each other! You don't want to get separated!"
Unfortunately, without really being able to see everything they're up against, she can't safely charge in to fight...so she gets another idea.
She looks up, recites a quick incantation, and then punches toward the ceiling, letting out a powerful shockwave that puts a hole in it. This rains some rubble down onto the Hellions...but, more importantly, gives them a little more light to work with.
"Come on, we gotta make this quick!" She urges.
DG: Layna Manydays has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Nyctophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Ha! Take that!" Fei says. But too little too late it seems. The tiger is already moving out when the challenge ends. "Aw man." Fei says.
And then the lights goes out, "Aw man!" Actually maybe it's better to say 'Light' goes out because now Fei can't see anything. Fei makes his hand glow with his chi, summoning a small tuft of fire from his finger when a large naga, suddenly in front of him, reaches out and pinches the flame out.
"..." Fei 'says'. He still has his RPS Badge into the air so he flicks it into the air and snaps a quicker chi blast in it, sending it refracting off of it in several directions and, uh, hopefully not hitting any friends.
But perhaps it will at least provide some light as well.
"This isn't good! Elly! Are you okay?!" Fei shouts, looking around. He can't see her.
But he can hear her screams. He starts running in place, trying to approach the sound of her voice. You don't want to know what he's thinking.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool RPS Badge toward his party's challenge, Nyctophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval sleeps through being a belly trampoline admirably. This may have future applications in later platforming puzzles down the line.
He is unaware about how the battle goes, for when he wakes up, they're back right where they were before, so... they probably didn't 'win,' but they're also still alive. Lanval lazily rolls across the ground for a bit, then rocks back and forth to get his portly self back on his feet as they are once more brought forth to a new trial. Light shines, fades, and deposits them in a place where all is faded.
"...Mmm. If it'sh jusht the dark... we'll be fine," Lanval murmurs as his half-lidded eyes adjust to what little light there is, until They reveal themselves. Colors that don't exactly map to light, but yet accent forms ahead. This takes him off guard, especially, as a Seraph - these are Hellions out in the open that he can't even sense.
"Huh? What'd I shee-- whooaaaaa!!" A naga-like creature, dome reverse-shining a pale rose hue, slaps him off his feet. "Helli--" His late observation is cut off by Elly's screams. It's blind bedlam! Lanval finds himself lazily dragged along by the machinations of the fierce dweller of the darkness. Flashes of light here and there form, unable to last for long.
The best Lanval can do is to get out the bright potion bottle of Holy Water and sweep its contents outward. It's not bright enough to give any real visibility, only the assurance that maybe the creatures within will back off outside of the circle splashed as he ambles back to the center, back against someone or another.
From there, he just starts casting the usual array of Seraphic Artes to try and splash the outer reaches of the arena with water, pre-empting any added visibility (and vulnerability, as is actually key) provided by the light shafts above when expanded (and expended).
DG: Seraph Lanval has used his Tool Holy Bottle toward his party's challenge, Nyctophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"I want," Ida whispers, "to go back." She keeps following the others, though, and reaches into her pouch for a little green gummy thing wrapped in parchment. Ida pops the apple gel into her mouth, and feels the pain start to subside under its analgesic effects. It does nothing for the anxiety, which is steadily building inside her. She could've died back there. It could've been like that abandoned town where she almost got people killed because she was too scared to do anything.
The lights go out. Ida holds perfectly still. The sound of her breathing--gasping for breath, really--is audible for a moment. Malevolence caresses her, brushing against her senses in a way Ida can only interpret as 'mocking'. 'See what you gave up?', it seems to say. Elly screams. Ida sees something silhouetted in a shaft of light, and doesn't need to look twice to tell what it is. She rushes the humanoid shape, trying to shoulder-check it into the beam. Honestly, she's just trying to get it out of the way.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Apple Gel toward her party's challenge, Nyctophobia. DG: Elhaym van Houten has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Nyctophobia.
======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================= ========================<* CHALLENGE - Nyctophobia *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 4 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- This area dank and dark, though not pitch black -- a long series of corridors, each one blocked off by a sealed door that requires defeating the Hellions assembled to progress further. Unfortunately, these Hellions seem to be impervious to harm... at least, until you exposed them to literally any form of light you can find, from shafts of it piercing through the ceiling, to any you may generate on your own. Light that, sadly, does not last long here when exposed to these Hellions until it is completely snuffed out and unable to be used again; to defeat your enemies and open the way forward, you're going to have to be conservative with whatever sources of light you might have on hand... and eliminate your enemies very, very quickly. Hellion Types: https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/faqs/57/72557-205.jpg / https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/faqs/57/72557-177.jpg / https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/faqs/57/72557-186.jpg / https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/faqs/57/72557-851.jpg =Dungeon Conditions: Suffer, Secret===========================================
=================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal - Round 4 *>================== ==========================< Results - Nyctophobia >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Lanval 60 --(5)--> 65 Fail Holy Bottle 2 Combat Effects: Cleanse and Liability ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ida Everstead-Rey 60 --(5)--> 65 Fail Apple Gel 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Layna Manydays 50 --(5)--> 55 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elhaym van Houten 50 --(0)--> 50 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Josephine Lovelace 60 --(0)--> 60 Pass Liquid Courage 3 Combat Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fei Fong Wong 50 --(0)--> 50 Pass RPS Badge 3 Combat Effects: Rally ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Seraph Lanval 25 --(15)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Fright(1)|Secret(2)|Suffer(1) Effects: Cleanse ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Seraph Lanval 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: Ida Everstead-Rey has drawn a new Challenge.
=======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================== ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Basiphobia *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You find yourself upon a cliffside. Gentle and serene, overlooking a wide body of water that looks peaceful, if not a strange, golden hue. Behind you, the cliff terminates abruptly, and there is nothing but an endless, consuming white, like a piece of art the artist did not bother to finish painting. Trying to exit through the white just lands you back where you were. There is nothing else, but that steep cliff, perilously difficult if not impossible to climb down -- and the water below. One could swear they could see a faint glimmer of something beneath the sloshing, golden waves. Like a glow. Like an exit. But it'd likely take a leap of faith to see if that suspicion panned out to anything. Are you ready? =Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Battle in the darkness! Elly's hellacious shrieking, which may be a problem for Fei in several disks, throws SOMETHING back into a shaft of light. Elly may not be able to muster up the path of flames but she seems to still be able to do a lance of ice, which promptly skewers the creature. Light swings through the gloom - which seems to pour in, almost palpably, before Layna drops a big blast and opens up another crack, which leads to fiends and hellions blinking, hissing, and getting promptly kicked in the head by Fei.
The head goes flying. Not the rest of that one.
Lanval's acts and artes thin the ranks. "Ida, Josie, Captain, everyone! Keep - keep saying your name!" Elly cries out. "So we know it's you!"
But this becomes, soon enough, superfluous. Especially when the group reaches a space with lots of open natural golden light and--
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"It's Ida!" Ida screams. She charges ahead, swinging blindly at anything that crosses her path that doesn't respond. "It's Ida!" This continues until the group reaches the end, and Ida sinks to her knees. There's a flash of light as the group passes the barrier, and--
They're back in the corridor. The barrier that impeded them is gone. Ida blinks in disbelief, then mutely rises and walks forward.
The scene changes to one that would be serene if not for the circumstances. Ida glances back over her shoulder, into the strange nothingness behind them that has them effectively pinned against the cliff. She takes a step forward, then another, and then a third--she stops, there, less than five feet away from the edge of the cliff. Something underneath the waves is calling to her, but all she sees ahead of her is a sheer drop that reminds her of the platform edges she consciously kept herself away from when the depression was eating at her. She spreads her arms, as if trying to catch her balance. Her eyes are wide.
"Why am I falling apart again?" she whispers. It may be up to the others to help her on her way.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Basiphobia.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
"'m Lanvaaaal~" Lanval drags his name on, figuring doing that instead of saying his name over and over is more economical (but it is also more annoying). Soon enough, they break through... and that barrier's gone. There's more ahead... and Ida doesn't waste time enacting the next trial before a breathtaking cliffside. The Water Seraph contemplates it. He's never really been up a lot of high places. A distant memory of over five hundred years ago, a very early one - maybe even one of his very earliest intact ones - sees him looking up to the skies and watching his fellow water elementals drop from great heights in the sky. He was never sure how they got up there, but they came down with the rain. They sounded like they enjoyed themselves.
Mostly.
It was the sort of thing one could have only experienced when very, very, very young. He never got to. Maybe he was already too strong for whatever force enabled or performed such a feat that he simply couldn't come along for those weird sky drops. He was already comfortable with lying down. That is what water does, after all - it goes where it will rest.
In this moment of peaceful contemplation, Lanval has that kiseru-style pipe out, smoking bubbles pretty much everywhere as he teeters on the edge of the cliffside. This is mortally dangerous for, er, mortals. He's water. Water with a specific thirst for some other kind of water, but water.
He's one of the last ones to attempt the climb down, as bubbles waft and flit about the air.
"...Take it eashy." Lanval says aloud. "'n I'll shee ya at the bottom..."
He lets himself roll down the cliffs like an eager raindrop racing down to the bottom, twisting and turning across the guiding earth in which to reach its final destination below. The others have the option of taking the bubbles, or perhaps being saved by the bubbles... unless they pop at too high an elevation, but...
That Lanval's descent looks completely identical to someone suffering multiple grievous impact fractures at least three dozen times along the way is a complete coincidence. He's got the placid cat smile on his face, so he's fine. Maybe.
DG: Seraph Lanval has used his Tool Bubble Pipe toward his party's challenge, Basiphobia.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"I'm..."
A pause lingers in the air, followed by the crack of an ARM, somewhere in the dark. Perhaps she's not leaving it to magic alone. "It's Josie! I'm over here!"
Inch by inch, glimpse of light by flicker of light, they make their way through.
It's as if the veil were lifted, night turned to day in a single push of a button. Groggily, Penelope stirs atop Josie's shoulder, blinking in the sudden presence of 'light'.
"Whew..." Josie breathes, holstering her sidearm. The now-empty flask gets a single shake; a drop of golden liquid drops from the lip and falls to the ground. It's all that's left. She tucks it away. "Now what?"
The patches of white just earn a long lingering stare, tinged with a faint frown. "Huh. Like we're in an incomplete painting or something," she comments, pacing her way over to the edge.
She stares down at the waves rolling in and out, far below. Something's calling. The urge to just jump is palpable, and for a heartbeat, Josie looks like she's going to do just that. Leap, or step off over the edge to fall, down into the depths--
But before she can do that, about her, bubbles seem to swarm. "Hm? What's all this?"
Before her lips split in a grin.
"Sounds like a plan. Try not to die, now!" With that, she finds the best looking handhold and swings down without a second thought. --Wait, doesn't Josie have a hand that doesn't work right--
--is this a good idea--
Ida, unfortunately, might need to look towards someone more attentive than the happy-go-lucky archaeologist for aid...
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Basiphobia.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei is far more relieved when he can see again. He gives Elly a small squeeze of a hand to reassure himself that she is there.
"Seems like ww can handle some of this temple," He tells her before looking to Ida. He walks up to her.
He says, "Ida, do you want to head back? These are cruel tests, but.." You aren't the kind of person that lets others suffer. "We'll jump together."
He takes Ida's hand, intent on helping as a friend. He looks towards Elly with a smile but he will wait for her.
And when they are all ready...
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Elly shouts at her, telling her to keep saying her name so that she isn't lost in the dark.
"Aye, lass! I'm Captain Layna Manydays, of the Ruby Empress!" She calls out. ...It's very vital that she list the entire thing out. And for what it's worth, it does seem to help. For the first time, they find the barrier that been blocking their path is no longer there.
...But, of course, immediately afterwards, they encounter yet another barrier.
This one leads them to a...surprisingly calming location! Or at least it would be, if they weren't stuck on the edge of the cliff with the water below them and an endless void of white behind.
"Whew, that's quite a drop..." Layna says...but despite her words, there's a bit of a grin on her face. She's kind of a daredevil, but that might be a natural thing to those attuned to the wind. She's about to step off...when she hears Ida say something that causes her to pause.
"...It'll be alright, lass...Ida. We're here for you, aye?" She says, taking a step back. "See?"
Fei offers a hand, and Lanval goes down first, providing bubbles.
"An' if somethin' happens, I can catch any o' you, don't worry. This sorta thing is kinda my specialty." With that said Layna draws a bottle from somewhere, takes a swig, offers it to anyone who wants it...and takes a leap.
She doesn't aim for the bubbles this time, leaving those to the others. Instead, she adjusts her descent with quickly-incanted bits of wind magic.
DG: Layna Manydays has used her Tool Quartermaster's Stash toward her party's challenge, Basiphobia.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Relief comes to Elly as they emerge. Elly, a little winded from thrashing around in the dark, puts her hands on her knees and crouches a bit. She wonders if this is how Fei feels. He must overheat a lot, Elly thinks, keeping his legs covered like this. As she wipes off her forehead with her sleeve, she looks towards Ida.
"... You aren't falling apart, Ida," she says.
Elly's hand reaches out to take Ida's own. It's a little clammy but it's warm.
Then she laughs, kind of squeakily, as she sees Fei on the other side of Ida's hairstyle. "Let's count to three together," she tells them both. Looking forward, she says, "See, the Seraph's making bubbles... if we have to I can try to catch us with a cyclone at the bottom. It'll be alright, Ida," she tells her.
"One... two..." She even swings hands back and forth a little.
"Three!"
*jump noise*
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Expedition Boots toward her party's challenge, Basiphobia.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Elly tells Ida she's not falling apart, and takes her hand. Ida squeezes Elly's hand, and for a moment, it feels like she's a little girl again, holding on to her mother's hand for reassurance. Is it wrong to feel that way? "I do," Ida says, to Fei. She could deny it, but that would just make everything so much worse. She swallows, and takes Fei's hand, too. "But if--if I keep running, I'll only return to where I've started."
They step forward. They jump. They fall.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Basiphobia.
=======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================== ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Basiphobia *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You find yourself upon a cliffside. Gentle and serene, overlooking a wide body of water that looks peaceful, if not a strange, golden hue. Behind you, the cliff terminates abruptly, and there is nothing but an endless, consuming white, like a piece of art the artist did not bother to finish painting. Trying to exit through the white just lands you back where you were. There is nothing else, but that steep cliff, perilously difficult if not impossible to climb down -- and the water below. One could swear they could see a faint glimmer of something beneath the sloshing, golden waves. Like a glow. Like an exit. But it'd likely take a leap of faith to see if that suspicion panned out to anything. Are you ready? =Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
==================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal - Round 5 *>=================== ============================< Results - Basiphobia >============================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Lanval 65 --(15)--> 80 Fail Bubble Pipe 3 Agility Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 65 --(15)--> 80 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Layna Manydays 55 --(10)--> 65 Pass Quartermaster's Stash 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elhaym van Houten 50 --(10)--> 60 Pass Expedition Boots 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 60 --(15)--> 75 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fei Fong Wong 50 --(15)--> 65 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Seraph Lanval 40 --(10)--> 50 Fail Conditions: Save Point(1)|Secret(1) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Seraph Lanval 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: You have left Seraph Lanval's party. DG: Josephine Lovelace has left your party.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
They fall. Ida feels herself hit the water's surface, and the impact knocks the breath from her lungs. She clings tightly to Fei and Elly's hands, but they suddenly feel like they're weighing her down, like she's going to drown if she--
Light.
When it fades, everyone is once again on the path in the featureless void, dry and safe. The golden field hangs in the air in front of them.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
However the rest find their way down, there is no sign of Josie at the bottom. There is, however, a rather ornery-looking Penelope.
She's had a very bad day so far.
DG: Layna Manydays has drawn a new Challenge.
======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================= =========================<* CHALLENGE - Acrophobia *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The first thing you feel is the wind, gushing upon your face. And then, when you come to completely after the lights fade, you see why: you find yourself perched upon a dangerously small ledge on a tower possibly hundreds of feet up from the ground; the wind rushes around you, a thick mist obscuring anything and everything beneath you. All you can truly tell is that this tower stretches to dizzyingly tall heights... and that shining point at the very peak of it suggests the only way through is up. Scaling this tower, god knows how many feet above anything resembling terrain, is your task -- a task that you might slowly find harder and harder as oxygen gets thinner the higher you climb. Just don't look down! ... Maybe that warning came a little late. Whoops. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Injure=============================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval is on his back when he hits the water. He doesn't feel like he hits the water when they return to the familiar passage.
He decides that maybe he wasn't missing out on much with the whole 'falling from the sky' thing.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
They jump...and, eventually, they find themselves on that golden plane. But, there's no Josie. There is, however, a Penelope.
"Oi, lass, where'd Josie go? You didn't eat her now, did you?" Layna jokes. For that, Layna gets a pigeon on her shoulder - most likely so that said pigeon can keep an eye on her and plot something appropriately terrible.
Regardless, there's nothing left but to continue pushing onward. Though the barriers still remain, Layna can't help but feel like they're still making progress...
She'll force it, if she has to.
The next time they touch it, they're taken to...an eerily familiar set-up.
Once more they find themselves on a small ledge, very, very high up. Higher than even before, perhaps. ...Jumping, this time, is obviously not the answer.
"...Whew. Don't look down, aye?" Layna says with a nervous chuckle, and then looks up. "...Up, then?"
Indeed, there's a lot of tower above them...and at the top, there's a vaguely shining point.
Layna takes another swig and hands the bottle off again. She'll need her hands free for this anyway. She cracks her knuckles and gets to work, slowly making her way up bit by bit.
"Be careful, you lot!" She warns.
DG: Layna Manydays has used her Tool Quartermaster's Stash toward her party's challenge, Acrophobia. Lead Whisper
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval, in fact, almost drops off the ledge out of force of habit because he tends to like just being at the lowest elevation he can find. Only some tinge of a sense not inherent or describable to any of the gathered mortals convinces him that he can't take it any further than his delicate balancing off the back of his heel as everyone evaluates the climb ahead. (That, and the wind generously giving him a mulligan by blowing at his back helps. IT will not extend this same grace again.)
A half-open eye peers upwards to the shining point up top... it's quite a climb. "...Yep... shure are goin' up..."
He finds just enough space on that ledge to sit down and get out that silly bubble-spewing pipe again. While he sits there, he can only imagine - well, no, he has an educated guess - about the amount of turmoil Ida there went through, and allowed herself to come back from. It doesn't free her, or anyone, of unease. Even he's been plagued by incredible fears coming in through the first trials, but now...
He breathes in, not even really needing to do that but does so out of that habit he seems to like of mortals in general, and exhales some bubbles.
By the time Layna's bottle passes to him, its contents will never be seen again, as he is currently gulping down the rest of it while floating inside one of his bubbles.
The bubbles, he hopes, will provide a bit of a safety net and say that he has Ida's back - and anyone else's. Well, Lanval does. Bubbles are bubbles, they kind of float as they will...
...
Maybe it's not helping that much.
DG: Seraph Lanval has used his Tool Bubble Pipe toward his party's challenge, Acrophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly doesn't know exactly what Ida's thinking, but she does cry out, "Ahhh!" - with an overtone of delight - as they land in the water. Soon enough they are being vigorously wind-dried, and Elly opens her eyes.
And frowns. "This place is awful," she says with a sigh. A moment later she realizes the up shot of Fei's peasant garments, or similarly styled ones, because now she's not freezing her peaches off in the face of insistent winds when still damp. Her hair streams out behind her, resembling, for a few moments, something like flame.
Her grip on Ida's hand shifts, and tightens.
"Fei," she says. "I think you're the strongest... and I can catch us on a rock if we start to slip. Do you think you should be in front, or you?" She glances towards Layna as she gets her crunk on, and Lanval as he gets his smoke* on, and decides they're probably solid, for now.
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Expedition Boots toward her party's challenge, Acrophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei Fong Wong notices Josie is missing quickly but--she is gone. And Penelope is still here. So ... ... she ... ... is probably ... ... okay? Even Penelope would shed a tear if Josie drowned right? Or maybe the tests decided Josephine failed. That's not great if that's the case. He's not sure how long he can keep it up himself, quite frankly.
This kind of height is frankly even unnerving for Fei. His grip actually tightens in Ida's as he takes in a deep breath. "Just keep breathing..." He murmurs, half to himself as it is to Ida. "Just keep breathing..."
He looks down at first and grimaces. MISTAKE. "Guess we're not going down." He looks up. "...Aw geeze."
Climbing this tower WHILE holding Ida's hand is gonna be rough. He looks towards Elly and says, "I'll...let you take lead. If nothing else I can probably catch someone if they tumble, but these shoes aren't made for climbing." ELLY'S SHOES ARE THOUGH.
He'll get to work when it's his turn. He is a little worried about his weight but he knows someone should be ready to comfort Ida and it may be easier if she can see Elly and simply know he is behind her.
"I don't want to think about what comes after this one." Fei admits.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Acrophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida doesn't say much of anything. As the featureless void gives way to an actual scene, she feels her guts twisting, her chest tightening. She's not... mortally afraid of heights, but everything about this feels awful and the anxiety still has her by the throat.
'Just keep breathing.'
Ida does so. Deep breaths in, deep, long breaths out. Eventually, she lets go. "I--I wouldn't want either of you to fall because of me," she says. "But we can climb together." With that, she sets off, climbing after Elly. She keeps her eyes locked on the stone in front of her. She does not look down.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Acrophobia.
======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================= =========================<* CHALLENGE - Acrophobia *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The first thing you feel is the wind, gushing upon your face. And then, when you come to completely after the lights fade, you see why: you find yourself perched upon a dangerously small ledge on a tower possibly hundreds of feet up from the ground; the wind rushes around you, a thick mist obscuring anything and everything beneath you. All you can truly tell is that this tower stretches to dizzyingly tall heights... and that shining point at the very peak of it suggests the only way through is up. Scaling this tower, god knows how many feet above anything resembling terrain, is your task -- a task that you might slowly find harder and harder as oxygen gets thinner the higher you climb. Just don't look down! ... Maybe that warning came a little late. Whoops. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Injure=============================================
=================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal - Round 6 *>================== ===========================< Results - Acrophobia >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fei Fong Wong 65 --(20)--> 85 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elhaym van Houten 60 --(10)--> 70 Pass Expedition Boots 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Lanval 80 --(10)--> 90 Pass Bubble Pipe 3 Agility Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ida Everstead-Rey 80 --(20)--> 100 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Layna Manydays 65 --(10)--> 75 Pass Quartermaster's Stash 2 Agility Effects: Quicken ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Seraph Lanval 50 --(10)--> 60 Fail Conditions: Injure(2)|Slow(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Seraph Lanval 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: Seraph Lanval has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>============================================ =============================================<* CHALLENGE - Chronophobia *>============================================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 4 | -----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------------------------- This place you find yourself in is huge. Tall pillars of irregular and inconsistent heights dot this yellow-crystalline landscape, like, bony natural spires sprouting from the earth. Across the distance from you is a massive door, with a simple lock. A lock that cannot be destroyed, a door that cannot be forced open. So how do you get free? It might be around now that you notice the cucco. Yes, a simple, green cucco, helpfully standing out amongst the swath of yellow. Around this cuccos neck dangles a key. A simple key for a simple lock. To proceed, you'll just have to catch that cucco and take the key from it. Simple. Except that whenever it notices someone on the approach, the cucco turns red, and time itself seems to slow like molasses for you, for -everything-, except that cucco, who proceeds to waddle off at high speeds elsewhere, leaving you to have to find it and try to steal its key once more. Fun! Cuccos! Tiresome suffering! What more could anyone ask for?? =Dungeon Conditions: Tire, Suffer=============================================
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Everyone climbs up, up, and up...but while the ledge they started on keeps getting further away, they find themselves no closer to the glimmer at the tower's peak.
"Hang in there, aye!? We'll get there eventually, we just gotta keep climbing!" Layna entreats. They continue to climb. The process is exhausting, and the further they go up, the further away they seem to be.
Looking down at this point would be more than enough to instill fright in someone. But eventually, someone does...and in response, a crack begins to go through the tower.
"...Oh right, I forgot..." Layna says with a beleagured sigh. It continues to crack, and crumble, until it can no longer support their weight...and they fall. "...that this place was garbaaage--!!"
...Mercifully, they find themselves back in the golden plane before they fall too far.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
There are no more heights. They did not pass the muster of the trials of descent, nor ascent. Yet, forward they are compelled, if they still hold onto their courage - or what's left of it. Another flash of light compels them to another game of metaphysical chicken...
...almost literally, as they are all deposited in another landscape sculpted out of this golden crystal. Another door stands in their way - almost anyone would be hesitant to approach it, for what happened last time. It looks too sturdy, at a glance, to destroy. There is an obvious lock mechanism, so there must be... a...
*cluck*
...green cucco with a key, all alone. There is no sustenance to be found, but it pecks at the ground every so often as though there were morsels to consume from the crystalline path.
"Heeeeeeyyyy," Lanval staggers along, his weariness offset by that goofy smile. Wait. Oh no, he doesn't really know about--
"Could ya give that key yer holdin' ta--"
The bird turns red. A deep-seated instinctual mortal terror fills the air, as the cucco stares at all of them. Time slows to a crawl of a crawl. Even a snail's movement would be light speed compared to what little else moves. Its beady little eyes are filled with spite and hatred above any and all of its kin--
--then it screeches and runs away with the key to somewhere else in sheer mortal terror. Uhh... that's... new.
Lanval doesn't seem to get it, as he staggers after it with tired laughter. "C'moooon~"
The process repeats itself every time. Someone draws too close by making too much noise, or just being in the line of sight, time slows, and it runs like Glenwood to get the hey away...
How does one overcome others' fears, when your very nature seems to impart such on them?
DG: Seraph Lanval has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Chronophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The first thing Ida does, when presented with this strange and unsettling new landscape, is to stare at the cucco. Part of her is expecting it to immediately savage them for trespassing, but it looks at them, and time slows, and--
"I--need to sit down," she says. This seems like a plan. They don't have to climb anything or fall or fight anything and she can just sit down and try to collect herself. What a silly game! Chasing a cucco. She can do it once she calms her racing heart.
Ida goes to sit in the shadow of one of those pillars, positioning herself so the cucco can't see her. This is her contribution.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Chronophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly's hand is freed, after that journey up a mountain. Her heart is racing, if less fearfully. She's feeling, honestly, pretty tired. When Ida splits off, she says to her, "Alright." She looks at the cucco - even as it seems to flash red.
Elly stares dead on at the cucco. Those with subtle senses could feel that she was about to do something magical when it stops dead and her eyes widen. "Of course," she says breathlessly.
Gazing at the bird, she says, eyes still wide, "It's so obvious. It's so simple once you see it."
Elly reaches into her pocket - and draws out a couple of things. A cloth napkin wrapped around some week-old corn tortillas. A heel of bread, similarly stale. Some roast barleycorns. She heaps them on the ground in front of her. She then raises her left foot --
-- and stomps them into a coarse powder!!
Before stepping back, nearer to Ida. She crouches slightly.
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Expedition Boots toward her party's challenge, Chronophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
From climbing towers, to chasing chickens. It almost feels like this place is mocking them. That's what Layna thinks, anyway, but she wasn't there when the fowl menace descended upon Adlehyde and unleashed hell.
She doesn't Know, like they do.
Layna rolls her neck and draws out another bottle of her stash. It's the last one she's got...or, rather, the last one she's willing to use here. She charges at the cucco alongside Lanval...
...and time slooows dooown...
...before finally returning to normal, with the cucco having gotten far away.
...Layna blinks.
"...That little feathery blaggard..." She hisses and prepares to charge off again before she notices Elly has a plan. Layna stares for a moment...and then shrugs, before joining Elly and Ida behind the pillar. Might as well give it a shot!
DG: Layna Manydays has used her Tool Quartermaster's Stash toward her party's challenge, Chronophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"...Can't we just fail this one," Fei asks.
Time feels like it slows and now it feels like it's going to take forever just to chase a chicken. That's even worse. He supposes that wouldn't exactly be in the spirit of this particular ruin, right?
He closes his eyes for a moment, and upon he opens them again he gives chase!
...in slow motion? Maybe he's trying to lead it to that powder Elly has provided.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Chronophobia.
===========================================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>============================================ =============================================<* CHALLENGE - Chronophobia *>============================================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 4 | -----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------------------------- This place you find yourself in is huge. Tall pillars of irregular and inconsistent heights dot this yellow-crystalline landscape, like, bony natural spires sprouting from the earth. Across the distance from you is a massive door, with a simple lock. A lock that cannot be destroyed, a door that cannot be forced open. So how do you get free? It might be around now that you notice the cucco. Yes, a simple, green cucco, helpfully standing out amongst the swath of yellow. Around this cuccos neck dangles a key. A simple key for a simple lock. To proceed, you'll just have to catch that cucco and take the key from it. Simple. Except that whenever it notices someone on the approach, the cucco turns red, and time itself seems to slow like molasses for you, for -everything-, except that cucco, who proceeds to waddle off at high speeds elsewhere, leaving you to have to find it and try to steal its key once more. Fun! Cuccos! Tiresome suffering! What more could anyone ask for?? =Dungeon Conditions: Tire, Suffer=============================================
======================================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal - Round 7 *>======================================= ===============================================< Results - Chronophobia >=============================================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fei Fong Wong 85 --(33)--> 118 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elhaym van Houten 70 --(33)--> 103 Fail Expedition Boots 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Lanval 90 --(23)--> 113 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ida Everstead-Rey 100 --(33)--> 133 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Layna Manydays 75 --(33)--> 108 Fail Quartermaster's Stash 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------< Party >-------------------------------------------------------- Leader: Seraph Lanval 60 --(10)--> 70 Fail Conditions: Injure(1)|Slow(1)|Suffer(1)|Tire(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ===================================================< Dream Chasers >====================================================
DG: Fei Fong Wong is too exhausted to continue! DG: Elhaym van Houten is too exhausted to continue! DG: Seraph Lanval is too exhausted to continue! DG: Ida Everstead-Rey is too exhausted to continue! DG: Layna Manydays is too exhausted to continue! DG: The party led by Seraph Lanval has been fully Exhausted by Linaweyul, the First Ordeal! DG: The party will now draw a conclusion.
===========================================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>============================================
==========================================<* CHALLENGE - The Path Deterred *>===========================================
|Type: Escape |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 |
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
As exhaustion overtakes you, a warm white-and-yellow light consumes the
space you occupy. It does not matter where you are, or what you were
attempting -- that light takes you, and shuttles you away, before the
consequences of exhaustion in this strange, alien place can truly take hold.
When you come to, you find yourself once more in the Room of Doors in Uzda
Il-jam -- but upon the doorway leading to Linaweyul, there is an etching, a
message that slowly fades away overtime:
COWARDICE IS NOT FEAR
BUT ALLOWING THAT FEAR TO DETER US FROM OUR PATH
And the message fades...
=Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Chickens are chased. Fei, Layna, and Lanval throw caution to the wind. There might actually be an undercurrent of sadism to it, in a way - they've been belittled, pushed about, shown their fears. This might even crop up in their psyches, every so often, as they are caught in a nearly endless game of red light, green light. Is it courage to turn around and try to inflict one's will to reclaim what was displaced from oneself?
One by one, those three are exhausted by this endless chase. Elsewhere, as Ida rests, Elly reflects upon a different approach as she sets down food for the poor creature whom has already gotten enough of a rise from the three brutes chasing it!
Fei is the last one standing among the chasers, and will find his strength leaving him as the cucco looks to the crushed food before it. It waddles over and feasts contentedly... but none are of the will to stand up and address it again while it eats.
...
It waddles over to where Ida and Elly take their breathers, cocks their head, and a light flashes. It is warm - comforting? At least a plaeasant warmth - as it deposits them within the Room of Doors. The doorway remains open to Linaweyul, and hey, that's Josephine over there. Penelope would be apathetic to know they're all right.
A message appears on that door back to the realm whence they came, which says at follows:
COWARDICE IS NOT FEAR
BUT ALLOWING THAT FEAR TO DETER US FROM OUR PATH
...
And then, nothing else.