2018-09-01: In The Hour Of Our Greatest Need
- Log: In The Hour Of Our Greatest Need
- Cast: Riesenlied, Lily Keil, Noeline, Matilda Whitehead, Maya Schrodinger, Dean Stark, Josephine Lovelace
- Where: Flooded Ruins Beneath Azado
- Date: September 1st 2018
- Summary: The Black Wolves and others venture into the ruins beneath Azado, in search of safety from the disaster that has fallen upon the city.
DG: A party led by Riesenlied is now entering The Flooded Ruins. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
===========================<* The Flooded Ruins *>============================ ===================<* CHALLENGE - Duplicator-Sealed Door *>=================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The terrifying rumbling from above gives some idea of what lay on the streets of Azado. Whatever brought the tidal wave with it has not stopped, and the occasional horrible groan of wood and shattering of stone indicates that not all is safe in the city. The sewers, too, rumble and shake as you move through them. But there are deeper things hidden within these sewers, and you come across one of several entrances... guarded by a sealed door. There are runes upon it, glowing softly. Those with experience on Filgaia may recognize the runes as Elw. The door has several sliding tiles, with images carved into them. Slide them in the right direction, and the door will open. Or, spend awhile breaking it down. =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Tire===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Azado was burning.
But that's really the least of its concerns at this point, given that in the span of a shocking hour or less, it has also been struck with the force of an enormous tsunami that's engulfed the flames within... and followed up by the raging vortex of a gravitational monster that has descended onto its space and summarily crushed it with the force of a Giga-Graviton that not even the Ghaleon's galleons could withstand.
And the Feresthe...?
Caught in the wake of the gravitational blast, the ship desperately attempted to pull out of the way -- but g-forces have a way of dictating movement, and the poor beleaguered ship has tithered over and rumbled towards the massive hole on the ground where Azado's Sewers once lay.
~*~
Sometime later, the Fereshte is tightly nestled into a miraculous pocket of displaced earth and soil; it's definitely damaged with its hull having seen better days, so many panes of makeshift repairs undone, but...
... that it's not in a million pieces? Is nothing short of a miracle.
"Put out those flames! Take care of the wounded! Dva, see that we have a way aboveground to evacuate!" Cetiri the robo-dog-mom-wonder is largely taking efforts around the now-open cargo hold containing so many Azado refugees trying to organise themselves into a semblance of order amidst the Waysiders.
And Riesenlied?
Last she was seen on deck... and Noeline had the good sense to tie herself onto the railing, so it's rather likely that she's still nestled in with the other Hyadean.
She is, at present, unconscious, however. Whether it was the hard hit to the head as she struck the side of the ship, or the empathic cries of all those lost to Obsession's Giga-Graviton...
...a soft light emanates from the Dragon's Tear, still reaching out to those around her even when she isn't awake. And by fortune, perhaps, some of them tease out towards a nearby door with glowing runes for those who are scouting nearby, like scoutflies pointing out something interesting...
... and interesting it is indeed -- the presence of Elw runes.
DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool Dragon's Tear toward her party's challenge, Duplicator-Sealed Door.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
The wounded. ...Like it or not, Lily knows she counts among them now. But that--that is as disjointed as she feels in the moment.
First there is the crush of Sin's power. There is the way it overwhelms her, before suddenly it... doesn't, and she hangs on for raw survival as the ship goes down. She is not sure what happens in the next few moments. She doesn't... think she lost consciousness.
Somehow despite her injury and the blood loss that comes with it the medic has remained conscious, more or less, though she is pale, and--perhaps more surprisingly--her markings are gone.
...She didn't go with the initial group leaving; instead, she needed treatment, and, well--
-=-=-
"Thank you," Lily says distantly to Matilda, letting out a slow breath and forcing herself not to touch the bandages wrapped about her head, covering her ruined eye and much of the flesh around it. Her hair is held down within them, as they wrap all the way around--but she is alive. ...Alive, and, thankfully, no longer feeling the empathic echoes of a city.
...The fact that it's because she's in throbbing pain until the painkillers kick in is unfortunate, but preferable to the alternative.
"...We can't stay here," Lily says, to Matilda first, and then loud to Cetiri, "Cetiri! I'm well enough to do some scouting if I don't go alone." Dog barks resolutely beside her. "I'm going to check things out."
She makes no arguments at anyone coming with her. Quite the opposite, she turns to Josie, and her expression goes just a little softer. "I..." She glances to the side, unsure what to say. "...It's worth it," she says to her simply. Then, she moves for a ladder, and--very, very carfully--starts to descend. "...The Tear is reacting..."
Lily pulls the small mirror Mikaia gave her, looks into it--uses it to look ahead without exposing herself to danger first, and then to get better angles on the tiles.
"...Elw... Right?"
There's a lot she could be saying about herself instead. She isn't.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Having gone up against Sin with Duras Drum screaming in her mind the whole way, Noeline is content to let herself slip into unconsciousness as the Fereshte ploughs down into the ruins below. She would be hard-pressed to admit it aloud, but she has... faith... that the Fereshte will somehow manage to make it through even this ordeal intact. (And as noble as she tries to make that sound, the blessed moment of silence in her head is very welcome, too.)
She's tougher than she'd like, though, and it doesn't take her that long to groan - clutching Riesenlied tighter to herself out of sheer instinct as she cracks one eye open and immediately winces at the bolt of pain that runs through her. They're alive, and that's a relief of a sort. There's yells of organization around her, and she lets her attention drift briefly before she looks up to hone in on one of them.
"Cetiri," she rasps, still feeling terribly woozy; she grimaces at the heat in her arm, realizing too late that her forethought has rewarded her with a serious set of rope burns. For a moment she tries to struggle up to a sitting position, but then feels a weight against her shoulder, looking down to find a familiar head of blonde hair cradled against her - and that's another wave of relief that rolls through her as she muzzily watches the controlled chaos rage around them.
In her half-away state, Riesenlied's trail of motes is what catches her attention most. Mind drifting, she watches the trail as it winds forwards to pick out a door covered in Elw runes. "--ah-- a Duplicator door," she mutters, some old memory from her ruin delving days sparking in her mind; she doesn't really say it to anyone, more to the open air. "Irritating things. If you've got the key, you can open it... but you could force it. Start from the top-left, every time..." she sounds a little delirious-- and then sucks in a breath as she forces herself towards lucidity.
This time, she's able to sit up, bringing Riesenlied with her - and sounds a lot more like herself as she huffs hard at the sight that awaits her. "Is it too much to ask for a flight time of more than a day or so? All I want is to have a good soar!" she grumbles aloud.
DG: Noeline has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Duplicator-Sealed Door.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
Matilda -- and a handful of Oasis mercenaries -- likewise still occupy the Fereshte; by this point, the Oasis team has realized that even if they're still lightly-to-moderately wounded, their options are 'get out of here safely' or 'die,' and have begun helping to put out flames as best they can. ... in a couple cases, this is 'not very,' given moderate-to-severe arm injuries. But they're trying. The oldest among them, a Kislevi woman in her late 40s, took a crossbow bolt to the knee and is *probably* past walking for the foreseeable future, but is doing her best to provide logistical assistance with the Azado refugees.
~ * ~
As for Matilda herself? She's been dealing with Lily's injuries -- though not a surgeon, she's likely the most qualified (or possibly second, after Lily herself), and between the two of them they can get through much of the immediately-doable work on that poor, poor eye. "Apologies that I can't get you anything faster-acting that won't knock you out," Matilda says --
-- aaaaand her patient gets right on the move. Welp. "I'll come with," Matilda says almost immediately; she's on the move in moments.
As they come to the door, Matilda nods. "That's correct -- it's definitely Elw," she says, reaching into her pack. She's been taking notes on these damn runes a fair bit by now -- they keep coming up...
DG: Matilda Whitehead has used her Tool Portable Library toward her party's challenge, Duplicator-Sealed Door. DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Mikaia's Mirror toward her party's challenge, Duplicator-Sealed Door.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
There's something uncomfortably nostalgic about the muted blinking of emergency lights. The murky amber shade thrown over the world robs it of contrast, files the edges off. There's more to it than that, of course, but this isn't the time or the place for a retrospective on fragmented memories of space-travel and starfields, so let's leave that one lie for now.
"Guh--hurk."
The girl in the sea-green patient's gown and yoga-pants thermal wear stirs and makes an uncomfortable noise from her spot on the deck, something between trying to clear one's throat and a need to be sick. Luckily, the latter doesn't eventuate, despite her brief bout of activity in trying to put the fires out in Azado drawing up on entirely-depleted reserves of strength. To say nothing of the nap that followed after the Fereshte's crash-landing in the wake of a fitful God's wrath.
Maya follows the trail of voices, leading her away from the ship. Barefoot and without a summoned form to hide behind, she's in a hell of a state and in need of protection. But lucid, and alive. More than many can say after the day's events.
"There was a door like that in the big tower. I think." is the drifter's greeting to her loosely-assembled comrades. An obvious hospital patient drops off of a crumbled boulder, holding an extremely plain-looking black A5-sized diary. And nothing else. "Maybe some of them match. I wrote them down. Um." a cough, "But I don't have a pen."
So we're doing this gimmick again.
DG: Maya Schrodinger has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Duplicator-Sealed Door.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Azado burned, then drowned.
It was quite a sight, even from a distance.
Kind-hearted do-gooders that they all are at heart, Dean and his friends Avril and Rebecca rushed to Azado as fast as they could when they saw the destruction on the horizon, but... frankly, it just wasn't fast enough, and honestly, they might be better off for it. Just seeing Sin's destructive power from viewing range is terrifying enough; seeing it from being-affected-by-it range? ...There's no doubt that a lot of people are dead and dying. That's why the three of them agreed to split up to cover more ground. Avril has her healing magic; Dean and Rebecca have berries and other curatives. With a three-way promise that they'll all see each other again, the trio dashed into the city to see what they could do.
Dean, for his part, saw the Fereshte crash into the ground and beelines over to his friend Riesenlied's city-ship. The ship itself seems to be... well, it's seen better days, but it looks to be in one piece, mostly. "GUYS!" he calls to whatever crew and others are on-board and visible on deck, waving his arms broadly to get their attention. He doesn't stop dashing over to join them. "How is everyone?! Who's hurt?! I've got gels and berries and stuff, just tell me who needs--huh?"
He skids to a halt near the blue light as it shines towards the sealed door, as well as those assembling to try to open it, like Lily and Matilda. Hearing Noeline's explanation, he nods with a frown. "So we've just gotta figure out how to make it turn, right?"
He's not sure *why* opening the door is important, but he trusts the others' judgment. Twin Fenrir flash into his hands. Start from the top-left, she said--so that's what Dean does, aiming his ARMs and opening fire with the Standard Cartridge's rubber bullets to attempt to make the sliding tiles slide correctly.
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Standard Cartridge toward his party's challenge, Duplicator-Sealed Door.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
The situation had been, to put it mildly, a god damn mess. What had started as a rescue mission had rapidly bloomed into something far worse, something that left even Josie reeling.
What was that thing? Even looking at it sent the mind towards fright. Lily had rushed down to engage that thing but...
Josie? Josie had stayed aboard, flinging herself towards the one thing she knew she could do: help see to the ship's engines. She hadn't seen the battle itself as a consequence, but had felt and reeled from the pummeling the ship had taken, right down to the very last.
The ship had survived. The damage could be fixed, if they could get the Fereshte to limp on home.
Lily, on the other hand...
~*~*~*~
She'd gone down below decks to sit beside the younger woman as Matilda worked. She'd said nothing, just taken Lily's hand and sat there, throughout the operation.
*~*~*~*
"Need another drink?" Josie murmurs, one hand resting a moment on Lily's upper back as they make their way on up. "Got enough." Her gaze lingers for a moment on the bandages, but she says nothing about that. Now isn't the time.
They have other problems on their hands.
"She's right. It's not stable here," Josie affirms, glancing hither and yon around where the Fereshte's become wedged. "I'll go on with her." She pauses, then smiles humorlessly. "I know a thing or two about ruined cities. Tell Riesenlied where we're off to if she wakes up. Otherwise, we'll just chat when we're back, eh?"
Even that smile fades when Lily comments to her that it was 'worth it'. Gingerly, Josie curls the fingers of her right hand. "...Not like I can argue with you there, kiddo," she says, lapsing into an older nickname. "But tell you what, we live through this, and I'll tell you off properly once we're in the clear. Deal?"
From there it's just a matter of making their way on down.
"Sure looks like Elw," Josie says, before craning back her head to take a look at Noeline, on the scene with the unconscious Riesenlied. "...Ray of 'Sunshine's' planning on waking up soon, eh? Well, you'd know better than any of us." She pauses, glancing back at the door. "Besides... it's probably not too safe out there. The sooner we can get down, the better." She folds her arms over her chest. "Door's a problem. I don't know much about Elw except their puzzles tend to be incredibly frustrating to deal with," see also: Pleasing Garden, "so your guess is as good as mine. Top left works."
She takes a step back as Dean comes in bearing twin guns, gaze moving silently from him towards the door.
There's a small hole above the door. Something moves within it.
"Coo," announces Penelope, blinking blearily from within the spot she'd claimed hours ago as a quiet nesting spot. It's not so quiet now.
MONTHS AGO: Penelope investigates an Elw device.
Penelope sets off a self-destruct mechanism.
NOW: Penelope hops out of her hole, down onto the upper rim of the door. With a different, curious-sounding coo, she leads down over the top of the door and pecks at a specific point.
"I was wondering where she'd gotten off to," Josephine comments, one pale eyebrow arched.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Penelope toward her party's challenge, Duplicator-Sealed Door.
===========================<* The Flooded Ruins *>============================ ===================<* CHALLENGE - Duplicator-Sealed Door *>=================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The terrifying rumbling from above gives some idea of what lay on the streets of Azado. Whatever brought the tidal wave with it has not stopped, and the occasional horrible groan of wood and shattering of stone indicates that not all is safe in the city. The sewers, too, rumble and shake as you move through them. But there are deeper things hidden within these sewers, and you come across one of several entrances... guarded by a sealed door. There are runes upon it, glowing softly. Those with experience on Filgaia may recognize the runes as Elw. The door has several sliding tiles, with images carved into them. Slide them in the right direction, and the door will open. Or, spend awhile breaking it down. =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Tire===========================================
======================<* The Flooded Ruins - Round 1 *>======================= =====================< Results - Duplicator-Sealed Door >===================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Riesenlied 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Dragon's Tear 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Noeline 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Josephine Lovelace 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Penelope 3 Wits Effects: Resilient and Liabili ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Maya Schrodinger 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Matilda Whitehead 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Portable Library 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dean Stark 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Standard Cartridge 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lily Keil 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Mikaia's Mirror 1 Wits Effects: Enlighten ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Riesenlied 0 --(15)--> 15 Pass Conditions: Reckless(2)|Tire(2) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1)|Resilient(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Riesenlied has passed this challenge! The party gained 15 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Earlier, a separate detachment of Black Wolves -- amongst them Leon, Hammer and Fei, as well as Xantia -- departed towards the right cavern, though it would seem that there's more than one entrance into the flooded ruins beneath Azado's sewers. Perhaps at this point, the timely presence of an Elw door is all but surprising...
"Do it," Cetiri nods to Lily as her tail lazily flicks to-and-fro, then looks to Dog. "Do the title of Dog honour, young one. Guard her."
Lily senses the Tear as it points her towards that nearby door... and finds that the distance is clear of enemies, mercifully. The tiles are indeed Elw, familiar from the Pleasing Gardens...
"Noeline," Cetiri intones towards the second of Wayside next. She looks with concern towards her daughter. "Please look after her." She doesn't even brook any disagreement about Noeline taking Riesenlied with her, given her pendant is already pointing towards it.
The Waysiders look grateful to have the Oasis mercenaries helping them; together, they're putting out what fires they can, and making sure nothing's going to just collapse on them outright.
Poor Matilda was never gonna keep Lily down, though, so she's definitely got her work cut out as she gets started on deciphering those runes. They're definitely the same set as those in the Gardens--
--as does Maya when she pops on in afterwards, much to the consternation of someone going, "M-Miss Maya? Are you okay to move--" as she joins the other Drifters in her hospital gown and thermalwear that hopefully doesn't roll down on her grumble grumble.
And then a bolt of sunshine appears over the distance! It's Dean, shouting to ask if everyone's all right. Dva whines for a moment to go, "I'm not cut out for thiiis..." as she gestures him towards the rest of them. "Riese's still out, but..."
BANG! Bang, the Standard Cartridges cause the runes to slide, which causes the colours to shift -- lining up with Penelope's click. ... well, no self-destruct mechanism has managed to activate, perhaps because bullets are involved.
"... where...?"
Riesenlied's eyes flutter softly as the combined efforts of the group unfurl the door -- no brute force is required, for the correct array of runes has been input. The door literally disappears rather than slides open...
Deeper within still... it beckons...
DG: Lily Keil has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* The Flooded Ruins *>============================= ========================<* CHALLENGE - Sinspawn Ammes *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Some of the hallways of the flooded ruins have been infiltrated by monsters from above. When you see floating conicL jellyfish, hovering in midair, you may think them beautiful. They glow, with a bioluminescence, and their tendrils hang low and twitch. But when they reach out, they shock with actual electricity, and prove quite vicious. That none in Meribus or Glenwood have seen these creatures before, though... that may be worrisome. =Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Fright===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"I appreciate what you can do," Lily tells Matilda with an extremely shallow shake of her head. Maybe a clear sign that she isn't feeling well is the simple fact that her voice is different--a little hollower, and she's not... arguing much. The truth is, even though Lily doesn't usually appreciate being touched, she didn't take her hand back from Josie during the process; she squeezed harder during the cleaning of the wound, a little hint at pain that she otherwise concealed.
"Yeah," Lily agrees with Josie. "I'll take one." She pauses, turns to nod to Cetiri--while Dog hears the older being's words and barks one, sharply, certain. ...From then she walks ahead of Lily.
She glances to Josie. "...Sure. You can yell at me then."
By the door, she pauses to glance at Dean when he arrives, looking him over. "Dean," she says. "Are your friends all right?" She's obviously wounded, but has just as obviously already been treated. Then, a look to...
Well, frankly, Lily isn't quite hypocritical enough today to tell Maya to walk back and stay out of danger. Instead, she considers. "...Schroedinger," she says, and pulls two things: one from her satchel, one from her boot. The pen and combat knife are both proferred to the girl. "...This is my best knife. I want it back."
It's... very sturdy, and partially serrated. It's not hard to imagine the sorts of things Lily's done with it.
"I'm with you," Lily agrees with Noeline. "It was a good feeling while it lasted." But eventually they do get through. "At least there's water," Lily offers to Dva, and then feels rather than sees RIesenlied's eyes opening, her presence. The door opens--
"Here goes nothing."
The beginning of the hallway is clear enough; old, certainly, dirty, but not a problem... until the beautiful things arrive. Dog growls immediately--they glow, and when they move forward--
Dog barks sharply at one of the first ones and leaps, grabbing a tentacle with her mouth as Lily pulls her revolver. She doesn't cast a spell--She just starts firing.
Dog continues to play interference, to harry and bother the monsters a they try to strike the group, rather than going on the offensive herself, her terrible howling rather... intimidating.
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Dog toward her party's challenge, Sinspawn Ammes.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
TJosie hadn't said a word. Not until they'd left the makeshift surgical ward.
"Never can stand the smell of these places," she'd muttered.
~*~*~*~
"Here you go, Tiger," Josie says back in the here and now, handing over the flask. "I'll be wanting that back though, you hear?"
A swig should do it: what's in the flask is foul-tasting but strong.
That cheerless smile of hers gains perhaps a few grains of mirth. "Sure. I'll look forward to it," she says, taking the flask back.
And then as Penelope starts worrying at something at the door, she claps her hands together (wincing in the process). "Hey! Penelope!" Penelope looks up. Josie levels a long stare at the bird. "Hey! Penelope!" she calls out again, and this time the pigeon seems to get the message, taking off to wing on towards Josie.
"Let's take a look inside. Gotta make sure there's not a bunch of critters down here," Josie says, snapping her fingers and summoning forth a glowing sphere of light. Straightening her pack over her shoulder, she continues in shortly after Lily.
Something glitters. It's not her light spell.
"Huh," Josie utters, taking a step backwards. "Looks like we've got exactly that!"
Not one to waste an opportunity, she takes a nip of the contents of her flask before shoving it back into a pocket; with the light spell lazily orbiting her head she loads and joins with the general barrage of gunfire on here.
What are these things? Certainly not anything she recognizes. But there'll be time to interrogate that factor after they're dead.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Liquid Courage toward her party's challenge, Sinspawn Ammes.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"Maya... I'm so glad you're... Dean? Josie..." Riesenlied isn't quite on her feet yet since Noeline is still carrying her. She can more hear and sense her companions rather than see them, like Lily did earlier. And if we're going to be quite frank about it it might be a bit longer yet before she'll be upright and lucid. "Oh, everyone..."
It's not very long before Dog growls, and she can sense Dog's wariness inside of herself... her eyes widen at the large... jellyfish-like creature, ending in a sharp blade. "Just... what is this?" she whispers. "What were the Elw... sealing...?"
Riesenlied flinches against the noise of Josie's rifle as she breathes hard and tries to pull her guqin out from her knapsack. She tremblingly holds it to her, and tries to pluck the strings... but as she does so, she falters--
*clatter*
--yet it doesn't break on the ground.
A blue glove pulls back, and Dva sighs as she cradles the instrument and grumbles, "What're you even doing trying to overwork yourself again? You're the worst," she huffs. She stares out towards the creatures...
"It's more of those horrible things that death whale summoned, isn't it? You take me to the worst places."
Despite the nervous bravado, though, Dva's ARM-spear unhitches from her back as she lets its teeth open into a cannon. "Let us take care of you a little! Outreachhhh!"
There's a low whine--
--and a bolt of water blasts through the cavern towards the nearest Sinspawn.
DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool Bella Aeterna toward her party's challenge, Sinspawn Ammes.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
No, Riese, I'm pretty sure the Fereshte's stock of thermal undergarments isn't going to suffer from wardrobe malfunctions of any kind, so Maya is safe. Don't stress.
---
"GUYS!"
The sheer contrast between muted discussion and exuberant shouting causes Maya 'incognito' Schroedinger to startle--and startle easily she does, dropping her diary with a leathery smack as it hits the dirt. "I don't--need medical attention, it's fine, um." she clammers and stammers and stutters. But sounding curiously fine save for a nervous system trying to carry too much at once. "Actually. Uh. A gel would be... would be goo--good." there's a frown. Her tongue feels thick and heavy, which makes her think of allergic reactions and other similarly low-key but lethal problems.
One of the many surviving crewmembers familiar with the enigmatic Ebon Wing member asks a fair question: should she be up and moving? "Probably safer out here than in there. Maybe. Need to keep moving." and then Lily has a much more practical suggestion: get equipped. Despite looking 12x more frail than usual, Maya holds the eyepatched woman's gaze evenly as she hands her the two instruments any good scholar in this awful world should never leave home without: the pen and the sword. Mighty in equal measure. "I'll take good care--um--of it. The knife." a pause. "And the pen." another pause. "T--thanks."
The mindset-jump from Exploration to Combat isn't as instantaneous as usual. Maya is holding the knife in one hand when the beautiful phantomlike creatures drift into view, and it isn't until a sizzle and a spark from one of those trailing tendrils alerts her to the dangers that she moves to act. "Uh--d--don't get close until we're forced to." the Drifter speaks around her malfunctioning mouth, then grits her teeth in supreme irritation. Frustration gives rise to power, and the rush of that power burns a searing path from the nape of her neck to her fingertips. A boxy-looking handgun approximating some futuristic equiavalent of an M1911 materializes in her otherwise empty hand from thin air, and she brings the knife to the weapon's grip. Remember the age-old calculus of CQC: Knife + Gun = Knifegun.
"The te#¶dri×s h·ld s--somß--some kind of elec¦ric§ty!" Maya is constantly interrupted as her voice performs the equivalent of a worn tape skipping, or a particularly corrupted audio file running into errors. Whatever's going wrong with her, it doesn't prevent her from trying to body-block for Matilda in case one of the Spoilerspawn get too close, and it certainly doesn't prevent the firearm from barking with an angry report. "C--clear them all out fast!"
DG: Maya Schrodinger has used her Tool Tankbuster Cartridge toward her party's challenge, Sinspawn Ammes.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean smiles ruefully at Dva's complains, but hands her a fistful of gels all the same. "Thanks, Dva," he says. "Get these to the injured for me, would ya please?" His smile fades when she adds an important detail. "Out? What happened to her?"
But then Noeline talks about how to solve these puzzles, and Dean does his best to help, and so does Penelope (maybe), and Riese's eyes flutter open. "Riese!" Dean cheers, relieved. "You're okay! ...You *are* okay, right?" She has a tendency to overtax herself, after all.
But then the door *vanishes* instead of opening, startling Dean. Rather than frightening him, though, he's fascinated, leaving Riese to Noeline with a nod to the "Crimson Noble," then following Lily inside. "Yeah," he tells her, and probably everyone too--Avril and Rebecca are friends to several other people present. "We agreed to split up to help whoever we could. There's just--" He spreads his arms to what remains of Azado, the moment before they enter the ruins. "So much."
He half-turns to see Maya. He doesn't know her, but she doesn't exactly look like she ought to be spelunking. "Are you okay?" he asks, sounding dubious. Still, this is no time to argue with anyone who wants to press forward. "All right. Here you go, then," he says instead, handing Maya a gel at her request.
Within, it's dark and dusty. Josie suggests they make sure there's not any critters inside, and that's good sense, but it's hard to *see*. Dean's nose wrinkles, and he rubs a nose under it, then reaches out a hand to try to feel the wall. Before long, though, lights shine up, and not just Josie's spell. "Thanks," he's in the middle of saying to her, except creatures shine with bioluminescence.
"Woah," he breathes, eyes widening. He's never seen monsters that pretty before--but they are still monsters, as Dog's warning growls attest. She leaps, and Dean snaps back to it. "What *are* those things?!" he calls to the others, opting to charge into battle and help cover a good Dog, combat rods swinging and sailing towards any of the strange creatures that get in reach. 'Death whale' he at least has no questions on. He saw enough.
Wait, electric tendrils? Plus close-quarters combat means, if the Sinspawn don't get cleared out soon enough--
DG: Dean Stark has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Sinspawn Ammes.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
It takes a longer moment still for Noeline to lift herself to her feet; her stance is unsteady, still trying to find her strength again, but there's enough in the way of reserves there for her to manage to lift Riesenlied in her arms. She's limping heavily as she picks her way off the crashed ship and down to the others, but huffs as she manages to plaster a grin across her face, trying to present herself in good spirits.
"Of course," she replies to Cetiri with a lopsided smile. "You have my word, as ever. We-- may need the help, even with her unconscious. Let me know if anything happens here, or if the other team come back," she adds with a nod, letting out a breath as they face the passage ahead. "Dva, if things calm down here, we might need you ahead. The air's too moist, and we're close enough to the coast-- we may need the backup, is what I'm saying," she grumbles. "Better safe than sorry, after all."
With a pause, she raises her eyebrows at Maya's entrance; she's seen the Drifter like this before, and has to wonder if it's a matter of the girl simply being burnt out on power. If there were ever a time to be, this would be it. "... we can find one, if it will help," she offers, not entirely certain how Miss Schrodinger's powers work even at this juncture. "Let's face it, any amount of research would be welcome down here, but-- are you alright to travel? We could find you some shoes, at the least," she grumbles good-naturedly.
Lily and Matilda are a relief to see, and Noeline lets out a thankful breath at the sight of Dean and Josephine for good measure. "Somehow, we just keep setting our sights higher and higher. First the Quarter Knights, then a Lord of Calamity, now a gigantic-- whatever on earth that was," she snorts; she's feeling like there's some serious strength in numbers right about now, even when the door opens to reveal a collection of Sinspawn waiting for them.
Thankfully, they seem to be-- docile is not exactly the word, but they're not advancing fast enough to be a massive and world-ending concern so much as a regular one. Rather than jostle Riese, Noeline tilts her head as her twin pods open into fire over her shoulder, picking off those that threaten to encroach closer. It gives her a chance to brush at her partner's hair, trying to shush her. "It's alright. I've got you--"
She does have Riesenlied, but not the harp itself - she almost drops Riese in an attempt to stoop for it, but thankfully Dva has followed right after them, and Noeline lets out another huff of air, aware that she's doing that a lot right now. "I do try to stop her sometimes, you realize," she retorts to her fellow Metal Demon, even if she knows at this point that her statement is pretty much a white lie. "I'd be perfectly happy lazing around the rest of the day, myself."
DG: Noeline has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Sinspawn Ammes.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
"Dean!" Matilda calls; it may take him a second to recognize her, given she's bleached blonde and clad in a half-shredded padded layer for a breastplate, but her voice is pretty unmistakable. She seems genuinely happy to see Mr. Stark -- and is enthused about his... shooting of the problem.
Maya's arrival gets her attention too; she raises an eyebrow for a moment, but says, "Ah -- yes, it's... I'm glad to see you," with a smile. ... truthfully, having a mildly-concussed young lady with them makes her nervous, but she can deal with it.
As they head forward, Matilda -- seeing the bioluminescent creatures -- immediately draws back. She's forced to pick a weapon -- and settles for a pistol. She's not confident in Freischütz, and *definitely* doesn't want to get close.
Maya interposing herself gets some genuine surprise -- she blinks a few times, even as she starts to fire over Maya's shoulder. "Ah -- are you, quite --" she starts, not really sure how to approach the issue of the skipping.
DG: Matilda Whitehead has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Sinspawn Ammes.
============================<* The Flooded Ruins *>============================= ========================<* CHALLENGE - Sinspawn Ammes *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Some of the hallways of the flooded ruins have been infiltrated by monsters from above. When you see floating conicL jellyfish, hovering in midair, you may think them beautiful. They glow, with a bioluminescence, and their tendrils hang low and twitch. But when they reach out, they shock with actual electricity, and prove quite vicious. That none in Meribus or Glenwood have seen these creatures before, though... that may be worrisome. =Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Fright===========================================
=======================<* The Flooded Ruins - Round 2 *>======================== ==========================< Results - Sinspawn Ammes >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riesenlied 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Bella Aeterna 4 Combat Effects: Fanfare and Efficient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Noeline 0 --(0)--> 0 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Liquid Courage 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Maya Schrodinger 0 --(0)--> 0 Fail Tankbuster Cartridge 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Matilda Whitehead 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 0 --(0)--> 0 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Dog 2 Combat Effects: Stalwart -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Riesenlied 15 --(20)--> 35 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Injure(2)|Reckless(1) Effects: Cleanse ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Riesenlied has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily takes a swig, all right. A big one, suited to a heavy drinker--and then turns her head to the side when she brings it down, exhaling. "...That's vicious," she comments approvingly, handing the flask back. "And good." Looking forward to it. A weird thing to look forward to, maybe... But you take what you can get. As for Dean--
"That's good of you," she answers him. "There's a lot of people who wouldn't."
...Herself included, maybe?
"Another day, another new thing to kill," Lily shrugs at Noeline. But--
Yes, the monster is here, and it strikes out at the group, alien and horrifying. ...But through good fortune, through working together, the group is spared its worst:
Josie's shots work quickly--both alcoholic and percussive. Bullets at least do well in piercing the defenses of these... strange creatures, and Josie's dead aim manages to strike at, if not vulnerable points, then places that look important.
They may indeed need backup--the creatures facing them are terrible. Matilda's pistol interrupts a tentacle that otherwise would have wrapped about Dean; Noeline's twin pods provide covering fire that allows the group to scatter and avoid being grouped up as easy targets. Dean takes a hit while protecting Dog, but thanks to him the canine protector is spared the awful lightning--while Maya's gun starts to fire--but the stuttering throws off her aim. She's able to protect Matilda, though, with her body. Dva at the same time...
Her cannon crashes towards a creature, blasting it hard, finally stopping it.
Lily stops, as Dog returns to her, looking around. "...We got lucky," she says, as she stares to the strange lights that come from the fallen Sinspawn as they just... dissolve out of nowhere. It's unsettling.
"...But you're getting stronger, Dva," Lily points out to her. Not just her, though. That they did so well against stuch a creature...
It speaks to all of them, really.
DG: Maya Schrodinger has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* The Flooded Ruins *>============================ ==================<* CHALLENGE - Mysterious Ancient Door *>=================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Some ancient doors have keys. However, when parts of these ruins flooded, the key to this particular door washed away. Where it is, only the fish know. Nonetheless, a door engraved with runes and slightly glowing stands between you and your destination -- blocking off the hallway. You will need to force your way through this one. =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Luckily, it doesn't come to Maya actually having to get the bejesus electrocuted out of her to shield Matilda from harm. "Fine." she mutters in reference to her condition, quickly yanking the slide back on her pistol and depressing the magazine-release. Her projection concentration is so in tatters, and keeping the charade so far from her mind, that the empty mag doesn't even clatter against the floor, it just dissolves into ghostly smoke and scatters to the far shadows as it does so. She pulls a new one from thin air and loads it, sweat tangling her hair further. So not glamourous. Certainly, she doesn't look ready to take the lead: Josie is the one with a non-jellyfish-based light source, anyway, best to let her stay further in front.
Riese pipes up about her condition, and Maya exhales wearily. "No--no time to rest." she wryly tries to play it off, and then Dean slaps a medical gel into her hand. Consider that this is both a painkiller, hi-potion, and delicious candy. The blonde chomps it without a second's consideration. "Won't need shoes if I can't fe--feel my feet." she doesn't exactly nosell Noeline's concern, but her own concerns are pointedly further ahead right now. "'sfine."
G-rated candy healing fuzzy-pain bliss really takes the edge off of things. But after a few minutes, there's a faint shimmering and then the girl in the patient's gown is walking in what amounts to a big pair of clunky Doc Martins. Some advice is too good not to take.
---
The cautious advance through the very haunted-feeling ruins comes to a halt before too long, though. A splash as Maya steps in a deeper-than-first-assumed puddle gives her another case of the nervous shakes as everyone comes to a halt outside of a big stone door set into what is obviously a doorframe, and not just a wall with no path forward. But for all the intricate runes, engravings, and archaeological wonder this find ought to inspire, it's still in the way. The telltale path-forward glow on the ground continues through the closed portal, so, what's a Drifter to do?
"T--too enclosed for... for big explosives. I think." Maya pipes up as she peeks over Jose's shoulder at their latest obstacle. "Could... try to, um. They call it--shaped charge? Just blow up... you know, um, what's the... k--key suppoort. Yeah."
DG: Maya Schrodinger has used her Tool Schrodinger Special toward her party's challenge, Mysterious Ancient Door.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Unfortunately, Dean, Riesenlied is probably not all right... now, at the very least. Even considering her tendency to overtax herself and push herself beyond her limits, it doesn't really look like she's going to be of much help in this battle--
--but she doesn't need to, because Dva's there to her rescue. She looks up wanly, as she looks towards Maya and her eyes widen as her voice hitches for a moment. It isn't the only time she's seen it before, but she's fortunate to see her protecting others with the ARM she's created...
... as well as Matilda, who's assisting with the others as she bites her lip and thinks on where Kaguya could be for a moment. She worries deeply for her daughter. Were they... separated? Was she here in Azado? Too many questions are mounting...
As she watches Trouble and Strife, Dva hoists her spear over her shoulder again to go, "... I know you do. Just--" she grins bashfully at Dean as she accepts the berries and nods, saying, "Thanks, you're a lifesaver, Dean!"
Dva looks to Lily for a moment. Hitches her breath, thinking to that moment of hers in that underground cavern...
"Thanks... I've got a lot to learn myself. I'm headed back to deliver these berries!" as the spritely novice bounces back and up. Well, Dva will never change, it seems...
---
They come upon another door, not unlike the first one. Once more, it's engraved with runes and stands that loom in the way... though unlike the first one, it does not seem like they'll be able to configure the runes.
"The runes... do not resonate..." Riesenlied whispers, looking towards Maya as she lets out a pained little noise. "Let me..."
This time, she procures a much smaller instrument and has the werewithal to at least play three notes upon it. Nothing happens at first... nothing does.
Riesenlied slumps as she coaxes herself from Noeline, knowing that her partner is suffering too. She shakes her head, and looks towards her and confides, "I'm... I'm struggling. All those voices..."
Her head droops further. "So many voices... snuffed so quickly..." as a tear rolls down her eye.
Fortunately, Maya spots a stalwart and very round comrade juuuuuust around the corner that has indeed answered Riesenlied's call, even if she isn't aware of it.
=____________=;;?
DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool Flute of the Cucco Queen toward her party's challenge, Mysterious Ancient Door.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean double-takes at-- "Matilda??" he utters. Then he breaks into a broad grin. "Woah, I hadn't recognized you at first! I like the blonde hair--I knew you'd look good in brighter colors!" To Dva, he gives a firm nod. "No problem." Then he gives her a grin back. "It's what I came here to do!"
Of course, now he's ended up going spelunking instead, but that's life? Riese... definitely doesn't look okay, but between Dva, Noeline (Dean hands her a gel too, because come on), and a fat cuccobo, she looks to be getting taken care of. Even so, he gives her a concerned look before letting the others take care of her. To Noeline, he says, "Yeah, I can't even imagine while might come next."
Maya, meanwhile, attempts to brush aside Noeline's concerns. This grabs his attention. "Hey, you still need shoes! You're gonna feel your feet later!" Dean protests. Fortunately, even though she takes the gel, she also... materializes? Shoes?? How does that work??? And what was with the skipping???? Assuming that this is just one of those things he doesn't know about, of which there are many, Dean focuses on the fight.
He gets zorched badly a couple of times, but it's all in the name of protecting a good Dog, so it's fine. Another strike that heads his way gets shot down, literally, by Matilda, and he gives his friend a grin and a thumbs up. He still needs to talk to her about various things, but... for now, he can be glad that she's okay, and that they're all working together.
Unsettling. Yeah, that's a word, as the Sinspawn bubble into nothing. "...That was weird," he comments aloud, looking around as Twin Fenrir vanish from his grip. (There's not a mote of self-awareness in him about this.) Further onward, they find a door, but the flooding has washed the key away. Maya suggests shaped charges.
"I've got a shovel," Dean counter-suggests helpfully, pulling that precise thing out from under his coat. "Take out the key part thingie, right? Got it!" Then, with an overhead strike, Dean SLAMS the shovel scoop-first at the lock mechanism. "METEOR DRIIIIIIVE!!"
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool The Trusty Shovel toward his party's challenge, Mysterious Ancient Door.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
There's one thing that's a constant in almost every ruin and catacomb and even some caves: doors. If there is a natural enemy to the Drifter, it is the Door.
Matilda stays close to Maya, in spite of the... unusual, staticky stuttering; Matilda's drawn to people who will protect her, even if she kind of feels more like she should be protecting *them*, given the circumstances. She looks to Riesenlied for a moment, though -- there's a hint of... nervousness? sadness? in her expression as she does it.
... buuut the most important thing is the path ahead of them. She takes the chance to address Dean, while she fiddles with her pack. "Ah -- yes, it, ah... truthfully, this was an accident," she says. She doesn't *explain* the accident, because she's a little tired of explaining it, but... well, Matilda often feels the need to justify herself.
She finally finds what she's looking for in her pack -- a familiar vial of blue fluid. She dashes it at the door just before Dean strikes at it, hopefully weakening it enough that it crumbles.
DG: Matilda Whitehead has used her Tool Bubble Lotion toward her party's challenge, Mysterious Ancient Door.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline's second sigh of relief is quietly amused, though it only comes once Maya relents and allows some shoes to-- form?-- upon her. To be honest that only offers Noeline more questions than it does answers, but it does at least take her mind off whatever she was about to say to rebut the Drifter's logic; she's more than aware that just because you can't feel something doesn't mean it's doing damage. If she casts her mind a long, long way back, she can remember some neonates that thought turning off their sense of pain would be a good idea. It rarely ended well, and it really is a relief when Maya makes that concession.
Pausing, Noeline looks across at Dva, her smile a little lopsided. "It's not like I'm trying to excuse myself, just--" she starts to say, then stops dead at the realization that she and the mermaid Tainted are often on a slightly closer wavelength than would be useful. After a moment, she tries again, this time aiming for behaviour fitting of a second-in-command: "--thank you. Knowing you've got our back helps a great deal. Good work."
She still huffs afterwards in bashfulness, but at least she managed to say it outright this time. "Strife, accompany her back."
---
Carefully, Noeline lets Riesenlied down to the ground, trying to ensure that the other woman has her footing - even then, the spy is distinctly unwilling to let Riesenlied go, and it's honestly as much for her own benefit as it is her partners. She's not feeling all that steady herself either, right at this moment.
Her pods have since rejoined her, returning from their escort task with a cheery beep that goes against the tone of the place around them. One of them is on hand to pass Dean's gel over to her, which she accepts with a gracious sort of nod.
"... it would be nice to imagine we might find a way home, I suppose. This ruin is distinctly Elw in nature, and I can't say I've found anything else quite so explicit about their involvement here. On the other hand, I do not exactly have a great deal of faith in their devices, these days."
She focuses - the medicine helps her fatigue, at least, even if it can't wash away the pulsing pain in her head left there by the Guardian's panic. "Trouble. If you would? --do not overexert yourself," she grumbles, feeling a need to be a little protective right at the moment. It's probably for the best, given the cheerful abandon with which the pod flings itself against the door in an attempt to, uh, 'help'.
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Trouble toward her party's challenge, Mysterious Ancient Door.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily hasn't forgotten that she was prepared to kill Dva to save Riesenlied. ...Maybe talking to her is her way of saying she doesn't hold the grudge. Sometimes you're on opposite sides; sometimes you're not. ...That's her life. She keeps eye contact with Dva for a moment--and then gives her a nod.
To Maya, Lily gives a Look, but Dean seems to have that covered, and she does make shoes.
"...It's a good job coloring," Lily says to Matilda in passing as they walk, perhaps something surprising enough that Matilda will assume she heard wrong. But here, at another door...
"Shovel's fair. I..." Lily pulls a set of small chains from her satchel, wending it about her hand, breathing, and--
Absolutely nothing happens. Lily blinks in surprise, looks down at her hand, tries again--
"...Damn," she mutters, and Dog tilts her head up at her. But she hears Riesenlied--
"...I know," Lily murmurs to Riesenlied. But that's all. She shakes her head. "If I had any charges left," Lily says to Maya, "I could make short work of this. In the meantime..." She sets her jaw, thinking.
"Josie," Lily says, eyeing their obstacle. "I need you to cast a lightning spell into my hand. Don't ask why; you'll see what I mean."
If she gets it, she'll use the magical chains to redirect, amplify it. If she can't use her own magic, then maybe...
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Rune Chain toward her party's challenge, Mysterious Ancient Door.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Only the best, and by that I mean the worst from the cellar. I figured I'd need something with a kick," Josie explains to Lily.
To be honest, if Matilda hadn't introduced herself, Josie wouldn't have known her from Eve, so to speak. "Not a bad color," she does comment absently, before the door opens.
"Take it easy, Sunshine," Josie cautions (!) Riesenlied. "I'm not going to say 'go ahead and rest' because we can't, but for once, we shouldn't rush either. Make haste slowly as it were, eh?" Or delegate, as the case may be. Case in point: Noeline, providing somewhat literal support for her girl.
Josie's lips split in a bright broad almost manic grin. "Can't go wrong with ambition, huh? There's a saying that goes something like, 'shoot for the stars so you'll at least hit the moon if you fail'." She gazes on ahead, as if chewing on that thought. "Of course, I suppose it's also possible you'll smack right into the sun. Heh... well, better to go out bright if you've got to go out."
But then there's evil squid to deal with.
Briefly, Josie glances over at Dean. "Eye on the ball, kid," she says, before she takes that first shot.
"Electricity? Got it!" Josie calls, pausing for a moment before taking aim and firing off another shot. "Hey, stay out of melee if you can hack it otherwise! Looks like they're packing a punch!" Under another circumstance, perhaps she would have recognized Maya. Right now, though--
And then, demonstrating the Way of the Drifter, nearly the entire party proceeds to unload upon the Sinspawn. They probably regret getting up in the morning.
Picking her way over to a piece of goop, Josie ginger prods at a chunk with her boot.
"Don't suppose we've got anyone into the natural sciences here? It's not my field."
The flesh perhaps emits a short static burst before continuing its way down the path of rapid decomposition.
"Huh. Guess it really is related to that huge whale," Josie comments, holstering her rifle before pressing onwards down the path before them. "Never seen anything like that before..."
Above or below.
Leading the way -- light, perhaps the least of a Symbologist's tricks coming in handy more than any impressive display of pyrotechnics yet again -- Josie takes a look or two about as she proceeds, watching the places where the light doesn't touch or the shadows become too long and dark. Eventually--
"Hmmmm."
There's another door. Unlike the one before, though, this is a horse of a different color. "Piece of cake," Josie proclaims, retrieving her mattock from her pack. "See these fracture lines here? A little pressure here and here, and the whole thing should come right down~"
Should she sound so cheerful about destroying a piece of history so utterly?
Well, that's Josie...
"Got a shovel, huh? That'll work. How about I hit here and you hit there--" she tells Dean, before Lily asks her for a favor.
"...Into your hand?" She actually does hesitate for a moment. Only to lopsidedly shrug. "Sure."
A few phrases. A gesture. And she doesn't so much cast her spell at Lily as reach for Lily's hand and brush the back of her hand.
As the charge rolls and coils its way down her arm and into the younger woman's grasp.
She steps away a moment later. "Hope that's what you wanted." And not to be outdone as the others collectively batter at the door--
Slams the mattock into it.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Well-Used Mattock toward her party's challenge, Mysterious Ancient Door.
===========================<* The Flooded Ruins *>============================ ==================<* CHALLENGE - Mysterious Ancient Door *>=================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Some ancient doors have keys. However, when parts of these ruins flooded, the key to this particular door washed away. Where it is, only the fish know. Nonetheless, a door engraved with runes and slightly glowing stands between you and your destination -- blocking off the hallway. You will need to force your way through this one. =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken===================================================
======================<* The Flooded Ruins - Round 3 *>======================= ====================< Results - Mysterious Ancient Door >===================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Riesenlied 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Flute of the Cucco Queen 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Noeline 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Trouble 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Josephine Lovelace 0 --(0)--> 0 Fail Well-Used Mattock 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Maya Schrodinger 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Schrodinger Special 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Matilda Whitehead 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Bubble Lotion 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dean Stark 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass The Trusty Shovel 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lily Keil 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rune Chain 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Riesenlied 35 --(20)--> 55 Pass Conditions: Fright(1)|Weaken(2) Effects: Cleanse|Strengthen(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Riesenlied has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
With her pod doing its best to help with the door and no enemies in sight, Noeline has a moment to glance to Riesenlied, turning her attention back to her partner; her head may be pulsing, but it's nothing compared to the way her partner is trembling, empathic senses overloaded with the enormity of what happened overhead.
"... you did everything you could," she mutters as she drifts a hand at Riesenlied's cheek, and gently leans the other woman against her in a hug. "Were it not for the Fereshte, there would have been many more. It may be a cold comfort right now, but-- you have made a difference. You did well," she adds, stealing a quiet moment as everyone else does the work.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
If you will, hum the Fat Chocobo theme under your breath whenever the rotund, hapless assistant is summoned from Riesenlied's magical flute. What good might an abundence of avian bulk do, you ask? An excellent question: one the noble bird desperately wishes it had an answer to.
"Wait, er--" Maya starts to try to formulate a plan, but she is:
1) Bodily bumped outta the way by Fat Loccy the 'Cucco'
2) Interrupted by Dynamic Shovel Finish
Which leaves her recovering her footing with relative ease, since Matilda is right there to steady her. "T--that bird, I s--swear." despite the stutter, it's the healthiest she's probably sounded yet. Fight on, Loccy! But--wait, why did you snatch that little brick of explosives!?
So, the order in which things roughly progress: Matilda preps the operation by weakening the key structural points on the door, since she's a smart cookie. The ancient stone is no match for modern chemical engineering, and the compound seeps into the cracks, quick-setting and wreaking hell with the door's qualities of tensile and compressive strength. This means that Dean's strategy of double-fisting the Trustiest Shovel and bringing it down on the lock like a mighty knight of yore actually works a dang treat. Frail mechanisms split in twain and tumble, and the many fancy-pants magical locks requiring sphere puzzles are all bypassed.
There's a hole in the door, even if it isn't particularly big, and Trouble soars on through it with a cheerful whir to see what's on the other side. So maybe if nothing else works, it can just flip the latch and let everyone else saunter on through!
Maya recognizes what's going on before it happens and covers her ears quickly as Josephine channels a magical charge through Lily's body and sinks her mattock into the frame. Magical amplification and redirection is taking place, and a frightening amount of force is leveled at the obstacle just as a helpful bird tosses the borrowed explosive charge into the mix! Loccy, no!
*FWUMP*
Well... it isn't a big explosion, really, and in the scheme of things, it's the combined assault that really does the trick of smooshing the door to bits and leaving the path clear. On the opposite side, as the smoke clears, is a cheerfully chirping floating cutie-robot pod. Mission success!!
DG: Matilda Whitehead has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* The Flooded Ruins *>============================= ========================<* CHALLENGE - Elevator Ride *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- As you move down this hallway, you find an elevator. When you approach, the stone doors slide open automatically. The controls inside are simply enough; there are buttons directing you to the floors below and above, and translating them isn't terribly hard. However, you discover a problem once the elevator gets moving. It speeds past the floor you pressed. In fact, it appears to have malfunctioned and /keeps/ moving. It is not a dangerous movement, but it is a constant one, and could prove to be a problem -- at the risk of taking you somewhere that you would rather not be. =Dungeon Conditions: Tire, Treasure===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
It's... strange, for Matilda, to get so many compliments. It honestly kind of weirds her out, though she's not going to say that to anyone; after years of dressing specifically to downplay her entire presence, it's very strange for her to suddenly be getting wave after wave of compliments. As they head past the ruined door, though, she gives Josie a smile and a nod. "I -- appreciate it, ahaha..."
She's not entirely certain she heard Lily right, and isn't touching that one.
As Noeline gives Riesenlied those kind words, Matilda looks at what they've opened the door to: an elevator. Matilda's expression brightens. "Oh -- these symbols I already know!" she says, pleasantly, as she glances down at her Elw Symbols Notebook for just a moment. "If I remember them from the Gardens correctly, these are up and down..."
As everyone piles in, Matilda aims the elevator downward. It lurches slightly, then starts on its way...
... and doesn't stop. "U -- um." Past another floor. "Mmm." Another. "Errr..."
Matilda looks at everyone else, thoughtfully. "... Any ideas about how to stop it...?" Back up, slightly, now. What is even happening.
DG: Matilda Whitehead has used her Tool Portable Library toward her party's challenge, Elevator Ride.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Maya materialising things out of nowhere isn't even that much of a surprise, even if it causes a lot of awe from Riesenlied every time the Schrodinger heiress does it. She can still feel the pulse--
"Mother... mother!!" screams a little girl, voice muted in the span of a blip--
She looks to Matilda, realising that the Oasis strategist was looking at her; she tries to look more confident, and winds up looking more sheepish. "Sorry. I won't... I won't hold us back."
She glances to Noeline in front of her, biting her lip as she tries to rally her mind and not be dragged further down into the mire of her own empathic ravages. Lily tells her that she knows--
"I will always... lo--" speaks the mother in question, before she, too, disappears into that gravitational void.
--and perhaps a thrum between their two minds is more acknowledgement than words can bring.
She looks to Josephine as she encourages her to take it easy, nodding quietly. She knows she can't very well rest right now... she confirms that it's related to the whale. Hmm... it wouldn't be the first time that such a large creature had the ability to spawn lessers.
Noeline has a moment with her, though, and she-- wilts into that hand of hers. "I know... thank you." She bites her lip, knowing it to sound a little insincere right now. Because it's the voices they couldn't save that linger in the air.
That Bird! Such an annoyance to Maya Schrodinger! But it... won't lose? It never gives up? It's not quite Skeleton -- in fact, you could argue it's something of an opposite of Skeleton, given all the meat and fat and feathers around it.
But really, it's the--
BOOM!
--that sends Loccy flying into the air once more, and once more Maya might have to spend some time saluting a translucent image of Loccy giving her the 'it's a-ok, boss' ring with its thumb and index finger.
We won't forget you...
Riesenlied and the others step into the elevator, next, once the door's been burst open. She looks quizzically at Matilda as she expresses, "You do? Wow..." as she looks towards her notes and the elevator starts moving. "Ah--"
"It's-- not--"
There's a somewhat terrified gasp as she drops to the elevator floor, the Dragon's Tear starting to shimmer instinctually. "I'll-- try what I did back at the Pleasing Gardens... if it's Elw technology, then I can..."
... can suffuse her light into it and try to quite literally Jack-In to the elevator (or ElvtrComp as it were) and go through an annoying dungeon and get a whole lot of battlechips and fight a Navi boss, but that's all happening in not-physical space so let's gloss over all that.
DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool Dragon's Tear toward her party's challenge, Elevator Ride.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Loccy's brave, non-lethal sacrifice notwithstanding, it looks like the gang make it into a distant elevator relatively unscathed. If having to deal with Elw technology is considered better than having to bomb your way through the place, anyway.
The boot-wearing Maya Schrodinger, who looks kind of eclectic as heck with her patient's gown to go with, offers Riese a sympathetic glance and she opens her mouth to say something--but alas, nothing comes out. She frowns.
In the meantime, then, she opens her notebook and traces quickly through it with the pen on loan from Lily. Trying to match up the runes Matilda is referencing with the ones in the elevator, but misses her chance to point out that one of them is actually the 'brakes off' button. The blonde's race to find an equivalent fix in the language she doesn't understand is, to be frank, not one that goes terribly well.
But when all else fails, press the one that looks like a stop sign and hope for the best.
DG: Maya Schrodinger has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Elevator Ride.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"Oh, really?" Dean says to Matilda. "Well, it was a pretty lucky accident, then!" And that's that. ...Truthfully, he assumes she means, like, a hair-dying accident, and not something potentially more dire. He smiles at Noeline when she accepts the gel.
A moment later, after Matilda weakens the mechanism and Dean coordinates with Josie and everyone gives it their all, the lock pops off. "Yeah!" Dean cheers, putting his shovel away. He sobers as he glances over at Riesenlied, but... Well, again, Noeline's got it covered. Also, a fat chocobo. Better not to overwhelm her.
The group heads into an elevator. It goes down. It doesn't stop going down. "Uhhhh," Dean utters. He looks down, to the side, and up. There seems to be some kind of trap door in the top. "Hey, if we need to get out, maybe we can try going through there?" he says, pointing over their heads. Twin Fenrir flash into his hands the next second, and he opens fire on the escape hatch to pop it open.
It'd probably be best if someone could make the elevator stop, though. Having to jump off an elevator onto a specific, possibly unopened exit, when there's so many of them here, sounds like a less than ideal time.
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Standard Cartridge toward his party's challenge, Elevator Ride.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline can only watch as, once again, the Fat Cucco elbows into a situation and elbows out of it just as suddenly, and in a brief flash of what one could charitably call 'insight' Noeline is forced to wonder if perhaps the bird is doing this on purpose in an attempt to leave Riesenlied's service. It's-- it's frighteningly sensible, given everything she's witnessed, but it's also a slippery idea - and before she can really countenance it any further she discards it, chalking it up to being mildly delirious. That's all. Right?
Instead, she leads Riesenlied onto the lift, still supporting her with a shoulder and arm; the expression she gives her partner in return to her thanks is rather lopsided and uncertain, but not judging in the least. She cannot say for sure what Riesenleid is feeling or sensing - but she's learnt enough about Riese's situation to be able to offer a good guess. "... a little further, then we can find you a safe place to rest," she offers quietly in return. It's not a promise she can be certain of keeping, but it's more an encouragement than anything else.
She can't hide the way in which she peers over Maya and Matilda's shoulders; while she's encountered Elw ruins before it wasn't exactly as a scholar, and while she can pick up on the general meanings of some of the runes from sheer association, that's about as far as her knowledge goes. But, as curious as ever, she's always willing to try to learn a little more.
"These things must have some sort of safety," she mutters. "Every time I've seen one it's been more than capable of stopping well before the end of its tracks, even without any power whatsoever." ... ... it's somewhat cold comfort, perhaps, but she does at least seem adamant in saying it.
DG: Noeline has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Elevator Ride.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie, well-familiar with the way these sorts of things tend to go down, has already raised a defensive arm before the explosion rings out.
What is that bird? Why does it keep showing up? And why is it so very helpful?
The world may never know.
Penelope has nothing for Loccy except a baleful glance as the Fat Cucco(bo) goes flying away in the aftermath of the explosion.
And Josie, as the dust settles, stuffs her mattock back into her pack and walks across the obliterated threshold without batting an eye.
Though she won't get far before reaching the elevator.
Things become mighty cramped for a moment.
"Got it, Matilda? Good. Let's see where this takes us."
It had been for floor four, right?
"..."
4
5
6...
"Hm," Josie observes, leaning against the back wall of the elevator. "It's sure not stopping."
7
8
"It'll stop eventually, but I don't think we want to be there when it does," she adds, before shouldering her way past Matilda and suddenly (where did that come from?) taking a screwdriver to the plate.
"I'm very good at taking things apart," she informs Matilda.
Apparently, the wasteland teaches you thinks like this because this certainly wasn't in Josie's skillset back when Matilda (sort of) knew her in Marze.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Elevator Ride.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily doesn't repeat herself about the coloring in Matilda's hair. Instead, she nods at Josie. ...She doesn't care right now about history. Instead... Her hand's taken--the charge moves in, and Lily breathes. Lightning--she lifts her hand, pointing it outward, wills--
And it works. It takes a lot, though; she's breathing heavily after, wincing. "...That's what I needed," Lily answers simply. "Damn."
She isn't feeling great, and not because of the lightning, either. She moves into the elevator at least. "All right. I'll trust your judgement."
'U -- um.'
Lily reconsiders, turning to Matilda and lifting an eyebrow. The alcohol, the drugs--they're starting to kick in, but at the same time, she doesn't feel... strong. Instead--
Lily feels the connection with Riesenlied, nods silently for an instant, and then says, "I'll figure something out--" She does not mourn the poor bird for now. Instead, she is working on... figuring out a solution.
...She does not entirely notice that she starts muttering in Zeboim. "<Son of a... falling, falling, counteracting force, reversal... where is-->" Lily pulls her mirror again, uses it to redirect light, to point to one spot--There. The glare disappears into it.
"Cover your ears!" Lily calls, and pulls her giant handgun, pointing it straight at the point in the mechanism she's concerned with and fires. ...Not at the same plate, luckily, as Josie.
Dog whines.
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Mikaia's Mirror toward her party's challenge, Elevator Ride.
============================<* The Flooded Ruins *>============================= ========================<* CHALLENGE - Elevator Ride *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- As you move down this hallway, you find an elevator. When you approach, the stone doors slide open automatically. The controls inside are simply enough; there are buttons directing you to the floors below and above, and translating them isn't terribly hard. However, you discover a problem once the elevator gets moving. It speeds past the floor you pressed. In fact, it appears to have malfunctioned and /keeps/ moving. It is not a dangerous movement, but it is a constant one, and could prove to be a problem -- at the risk of taking you somewhere that you would rather not be. =Dungeon Conditions: Tire, Treasure===========================================
=======================<* The Flooded Ruins - Round 4 *>======================== ==========================< Results - Elevator Ride >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riesenlied 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Dragon's Tear 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Noeline 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Maya Schrodinger 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Matilda Whitehead 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Portable Library 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Standard Cartridge 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Mikaia's Mirror 1 Wits Effects: Enlighten -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Riesenlied 55 --(25)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Tire(2)|Treasure(1) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Riesenlied has passed this challenge! The party gained 25 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
"... It's not that," Matilda says, holding up a hand, as Riesenlied responds to her glance. "I'm just -- concerned." As they go bouncing around on the elevator for a little bit, people try to stop it -- but nothing *quite* seems to work...
... at least, until Riesenlied jacks into it and stops it dead. The bad news is that it stops at a bit of an awkward position, not *quite* in either of the floors it's between... but Lily and Dean solve *that* problem by blowing open the maintenance(?) hatch in the top of the elevator. At the very least, they can crawl out the top, pry open the door to... *a* floor, at least, and start moving around again. At least they're *somewhere*, even if it isn't necessarily what anyone was aiming for...!
DG: Noeline has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* The Flooded Ruins *>============================ ======================<* CHALLENGE - The Water Level *>======================= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- In the depths of these flooded ruins, you find salvation. Those who were at the Pleasing Garden recognize, instantly: a circular room, with a crystalline structure in the center. A teleportation station, which will activate a wide-area teleportation for smaller people. Those in Azado could be whisked away from the thing destroying their city. However, there is a problem. You have entered on the third level of a three-tiered room -- and it is flooded. You will need to swim down, and swim past some fences and rails that pose obstacles, to activate the teleporter. The activation is a simple matter of pressing the crystal into the receptacle. And, of course, you will need to hope enough others can do the same... =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
And, as it turns out, the party's wild elevator ride leaves them hitting the jackpot.
Prying the maintenance hatch and the doors open takes something of an effort; they are all old and rusted shut, and give way only after a great deal of effort and some significantly heavy lifting, but the sight to which they open is worth the price of admission and then some.
The chamber is intimately familiar, though the memories that it dredges up may not be terribly pleasant ones; even half-submerged in water, the Elw machinery that covers the room is recognizably identical to that found atop the Pleasing Gardens, and the thrum of the mostly-dormant machinery is almost comforting in the way it seems to drown out the din above and offer a blanket of white noise to cover the senses.
It isn't all good news; the main reason for the lift's failure is obvious given the size of the room and its state, a massive amount of water leaving much of the machinery clogged and possibly useless. As if that weren't enough, the damage that so much moisture has wrought has also made itself evident, with what was once a gantry now hanging in pieces with much of it left as nothing more than a gigantic rusted pile of debris on the floor. Here and there, mesh walls attempt to delineate parts of the huge device and its control room - but with the ruins in the state they're in, they now act more as walls that will need to be swum under.
Still, Noeline sucks in a breath as they make their way inside, edging along a railing that creaks ominously but manages to stay upright as the most makeshift diving board of all time. Whatever else she was about to say is chased away by the sight of the device, her eyebrows soaring as she furrows her brow. "I did not truly think we would find--..." she trails off, before her brow furrows; it's remarkably convenient, and she's starting to get suspicious of coincidences.
On the other hand, they're not in a position to look a gift horse in the mouth, not at a time like this.
"--we need to get down there," she decides a moment later, wincing as she tries to size up possible routes through the myriad of underwater obstacles. She doesn't need to breathe, strictly speaking, but it still doesn't look like a particularly pleasant trip, especially not when she's feeling her fatigue and the mental exhaustion catch up to her. "Strife, will you-- map us a path, if you could. Or-- try to cut a hole in that grating over there," she suggests, momentarily lacking her usual conviction as she realizes:
"... this will mean uprooting an entire city... but it is not as if we have a choice, I suppose."
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Strife toward her party's challenge, The Water Level.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Does Riesenlied ever wonder the way Maya or Noeline does about Loccy? Maybe she just implicitly and explicitly trusts it such that it doesn't occur to her that the creature is just trying to get away from a terrifying contract with her flute that it never agreed to...? Questions that -- should keep her up at night, but doesn't.
Riesenlied lets out a very tired breath as she lets go of the machinery, shaking her head -- she's still seeing blue from all the lights of Elw technology for a moment. "Ah..." she nods quietly towards Matilda. "Thank you... I don't mean to--" she cups her mouth.
"Just a little further..." Riesenlied agrees, but what's awaiting beyond them is not a place to rest, but rather a...
A...
"Teleporter...?" Riesenlied sounds more than mildly surprised. She swallows faintly. This... may be their only chance. A chance to return... a chance to enact all those promises and plans she'd made to everyone on bringing forth the Wayside Outreach to fruition.
There's a half-moment of hesitation, before she presses her hand to her throat and speaks:
"This is Riesenlied. We... we believe we've found a similar device from the one we saw at the Pleasing Gardens. We can't guarantee its effects -- but I'd like everyone to secure themselves and prepare for a shock or turbulence. Please move everyone to the remaining surviving bulkheads and deploy the restraining nets for the Fereshte."
She lets go of the microphone, before staring down towards the pool. She should leave this to the others, but she-- she really wishes to assist where she can...
... so down she goes. The dog paddling that she's enacting is kind of... adorable, if it weren't such a dire situation, but she's trying her hardest.
Together... if we can just return... together...!
DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Water Level.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Ah, Maya, you fool! If only you had read a book about underwater divers, you could have come more equipped for this than you are. Well, no matter. The strange concussion might prove more of an issue, though.
"I--it is remarkable..." Maya murmurs after Noeline's brow-soaring breath of amazement. And while it is stunning, indeed, to see such an intact and intricate ruin of such age, it isn't like the last set of Elw ruins they dove through left them in much of a state. "But--how are we s--supposed to... get home using this...?"
To hear Riese speaking coherently and calmly again, after suffering so much... has a slightly calming effect. Or at least, it helps to see that she's not incapacitated by her troubles at this critical turn. So, the blonde takes a deep breath--and turns briefly to Dean. "Um--t... thank you for helping me, earlier. I'm--usually not like this, s--so when I'm better, uh, I'll thank you... properly?" she forces the words out, despite the struggles. Ugh. Base form is so hard to deal with.
Then, Maya looks to Lily. "I'll... return this to you on the other side." and puts the knife in her teeth before diving into the water. The promise of returning home after such a long time--to a place where she can resume trying to find answers about herself, and the world, rather than running into more and more questions pushes her. But as she soon finds: breath is a limited resource, and her tired limbs struggle underwater.
But if she can just do her bit, then all of them...
DG: Maya Schrodinger has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Water Level.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
Uprooting a whole city, potentially... honestly, the thought doesn't bother Matilda. Anywhere's better than here, with Sin attacking. She takes a deep breath, fluffing out her hair a little and looking at the water. "... I'm glad I'm not wearing that armor anymore," she muses aloud, then slowly breathes out. All right -- it looks like it is, in fact, time to go.
She takes a little bit. Making sure her pack is secure -- think of all those books! -- is important... making her peace with the fact that she's about to take a step forward without Kaguya is important, too.
... she'll be safe -- right? She... has to be.
Matilda dives, without another moment's thought. She can't simply do nothing... even if thinking about the future is paralyzing.
DG: Matilda Whitehead has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Water Level.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Underneath the panel for the elevator is...
Not even a trace of wiring. Had that thing been decorative?!
Josie squints at it, screwdriver still raised.
As it turns out, there's more than one way to stop a falling elevator. It slows, then the doors open. Probably at some point in the past this would have been heralded by a cheerful ~ding~ but perhaps such systems have long since been eroded.
"You know," Josie says, as she steps out onto non-flooded surface of this section of the depths here, "This just proves what Lombardia was saying. There must have been more of an exchange between Filgaia and Lunar in the past, or there wouldn't be any Elw ruins."
She puts a hand on her hip as she surveys the deep pool of water before her.
"The Elw vanished a long time ago, after all."
Meanwhile, this is going to be quite a dive.
"A teleporter, huh. Come to think of it, the Pleasing Garden was... huh. Maybe this was where it was supposed to go." Except the rock was in the way. And the city, let's not forget there used to be a city here. "Just goes to show you that time's cruel."
A couple of the others hop into the pool, aiming to dive deep to reach the mechanism below. Atop her shoulder, Penelope shifts, as if to suggest, 'are you kidding me'.
"Any of you sticking around here? Looks like it should still catch you if you hang around."
Then she shrugs off her pack, handing it over to whoever will take it. "Guard that with your life. It's my life's work, after all <3"
And then reaches up to pluck Penelope from her shoulder and hand the struggling pigeon over. "Keep an eye on her, too. She's trouble when she's unsupervised."
And with that, she turns around, rolls her shoulders, and dives into the water.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Water Level.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily slows, by the time they're climbing up, moving around again. She can't quite help but lean along the wall as she goes. "Yeah," Lily agrees, looking down to the pool. "...Here... In Lost July. Buried, forgotten. A link between." At least they made it through the lift. "I... don't know," Lily admits to Noeline. "But--"
She pauses, looks over to her as she mentions the city. "It's better than the alternative," Lily answers. "Uproot them or leave them to die. Their lives as they knew it are over either way."
She looks upward, as if she could see through the ceiling to that creature. "...My own way, was it, Fei...?"
"Go for it," Lily says to Maya, and steps towards the water. Matilda goes, too. She stares down...
And wobbles in place, for a moment, leaning against a pillar before she stops, shortly, and coughs, wetly, again, a few times before she looks down to see blood on her hand.
"..."
Dog pads over and noses at her leg, worriedly. Lily pulls a handkerchief from her satchel, and leans against the wall.
"Looks like we'll be relying on them. ...Letting them get close enough to stick the knives in our ribs..."
Lily closes her eyes. "We'll find our wings together," she murmurs, "And fly home."
DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Water Level.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Hatch: open!
The team exits the elevator to safety. The water clogging up everything makes Dean uneasy, though, especially with all the mesh walls that block the way out. And they they reach the innermost sanctum, which Dean recognizes from the Pleasant Gardens: a circular teleportation array. He doesn't know that's what it is, precisely, since he hadn't been in the room where the teleportation had been initialized, but still.
"That's..." he starts to say, before Maya thanks him for his help earlier. "Oh, sure, no problem! I'm always happy to help," he says, turning towards her. He blinks at the rest of what she says, not sure what she means; nonetheless, he smiles and nods. "Okay! But first things first: we gotta get out of here and to safety!"
And... to home. Filgaia. Riesenlied makes it clear when she makes that communication to the Fereshte. They'll be teleported back to Filgaia, like they were to Lunar... It's happening all of a sudden. Dean thinks of Avril and Rebecca--are they okay? Are they safe? He looks down at the mechanism. He knows full well he can't swim down there, because he can't swim. There's talk of uprooting the folks of Azado, but...
"Yeah. Lily's right," he says, nodding to her and Noeline. "As long as they're alive, there's a chance they'll find a way back home. We came here, and folks from Lunar came to Filgaia, so I'm sure it'll happen! But if they're dead... that chance is zero." He nods firmly. "We've gotta move forward."
Metaphorically speaking. For Dean's part, he'll look over the waters, make a face, attempt to use his Freeze Ray to make an ice block, realize after jumping on it that this doesn't actually help in the slightest, and then return to 'shore' with Lily and Dog while the others dive down.
Dean sits down next to the two of them. "Home already, huh?" he says. He gives her a confident smile and nod as he crosses his legs. "Don't worry. I'm sure everything will work out fine. Riese and the others won't let the rest of us down."
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Freeze Ray toward his party's challenge, The Water Level.
===========================<* The Flooded Ruins *>============================ ======================<* CHALLENGE - The Water Level *>======================= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- In the depths of these flooded ruins, you find salvation. Those who were at the Pleasing Garden recognize, instantly: a circular room, with a crystalline structure in the center. A teleportation station, which will activate a wide-area teleportation for smaller people. Those in Azado could be whisked away from the thing destroying their city. However, there is a problem. You have entered on the third level of a three-tiered room -- and it is flooded. You will need to swim down, and swim past some fences and rails that pose obstacles, to activate the teleporter. The activation is a simple matter of pressing the crystal into the receptacle. And, of course, you will need to hope enough others can do the same... =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
======================<* The Flooded Ruins - Round 5 *>======================= ========================< Results - The Water Level >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Riesenlied 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Noeline 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Strife 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Josephine Lovelace 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Maya Schrodinger 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Matilda Whitehead 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dean Stark 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Freeze Ray 2 Agility Effects: Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lily Keil 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Riesenlied 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(2) Effects: Cleanse|Quicken(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Riesenlied has successfully explored The Flooded Ruins!
===========================<* The Flooded Ruins *>============================ ====================<* CHALLENGE - Teleporter Activated *>==================== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- You swim down into the depths of the teleportation room. It is hard, but you manage to press the crystal into the activation chamber. There is a moment to wait -- perhaps to swim back up -- as other groups must also press in their crystals. When you look around, you realize: this room is similar enough to the one in the Pleasing Garden that it must be part of a network. Then, however, the room rumbles. There is a flash, as all of you are whisked away. You have returned to Filgaia. =Dungeon Conditions: Secret===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline seems to hesitate, ever so slightly; she grimaces at the realization that they're considering moving refugees a significantly larger distance than 'to the next town', and she has to admit to some trepidation on the part of that. This is a distinctly different case to the Pleasing Gardens - so high above the Filgaian surface and resting in the midst of a dead city, there was only so much in the way of collateral that could be affected there. Here, it isn't just Drifters that will be thrown back between the planets - but all of the refugees aboard the Fereshte, not to mention anyone else close to Azado. How many people is that? How can they hope to keep the veil up between Lunar and Filgaia at this point?
It's Riesenlied that knocks her back out of her thoughts; the order to secure the Fereshte leaves her blinking, and then she firms up her expression and furrows her brow. The thing above them is not going to wait for such moral quandaries to be resolved. Be it on Lunar or Filgaia, the people of Azado will at least be alive and well, will still be able to move forwards with one foot in front of the other. Better than being swallowed, she adds to herself ruefully.
Matilda and Maya are the first in the water after Riesenlied, while the rest of the group hang back to offer some words; Noeline plants a hand on her hip, letting out a sigh as she flicks out her hair and tries not to pretend like she's stalling for time before she jumps in. "I know that, but-- in my experience, people are oftenvery mad at us for suggesting that we were doing what's best for them in the moment. I dare say that there will be many tribulations yet," she sighs ruefully, but then shakes her head and - in a remarkably fluid motion - dives in after Riesenlied to catch up with her.
Swimming is not exactly something Noeline is known for, but she's remarkably good; with Strife's assistance in plotting out a path and Riesenlied's own efforts, they're able to navigate through the worst of the debris and to a position in front of the machine. The sudden creaking collapse of a gantry above effectively adds an extra wall to the path of the rest of the swimmers - but something like that isn't about to stop Josephine, as the three of them manage to more or less shove it out of the way.
Being on the surface does at least allow Dean to help to some degree; the Freeze Bullet helps to shore up more of the debris and prevent any more unwelcome surprises, while Lily hangs back and looks after a pigeon.
Once they're arranged around the machine, Noeline nods in the midst of her swirling black hair - and one by one, the crystals are set home in the pedestal. Immediately
the
world
lurches--
--and then everything stretches in a moment of complete disorientation.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied is not a fan of displacement taken in a vacuum. The presence of ARMs in Hyland, the presence of the Althenan Guard in Adlehyde... it is arguable that so much wrong has occurred from the displacement of those that have been taken out of their environs.
But at the same time...
Dean has a strong point. If they can just survive, they can be moved. They can find their home again, they can rebuild. Riesenlied doesn't like being the one to make the decision -- but beggars have very few choices, and here as Sin was about to decimate them all...
... such is the thought she has to put on pause for a moment, because she rapidly feels her lungs running out of air. Bubbles trickle from her lips as she realises she's not really trained for this, and even as she hangs onto the ice block--
A faceless Hyadean hangs onto a shard of ice underwater. Close by, Dean reaches out to her and urges her to not be afraid.
--what was that memory? Was that from a dream? She can't...
She looks to Matilda nearby, and Maya as she tries to push, just a little closer... she holds that crystal and places it to set onto the pedestal as she clings onto Noeline--
--she lets go of what little air she has left and fels like she'll drown and then the world lurches around her.
Her head spinning, as she gasps and is thrown about and casts a glance long enough that she realises one truth of the Elw network:
This was the same style of room. Were there more? Was Lucia's theory correct after all? There was more connection between Filgaia and Lunar than they ever thought possible... and from an old unexpected friend, Lombardia, they also...
Father... I've learnt so much about you...