2018-09-03: Against The Fire
- Log: Against The Fire
- Cast: Dean Stark, Rebecca Streisand, Avril Vent Fleur
- Where: Azado
- Date: September 3rd 2018
- Summary: En route to Meribia, the trio spots strange lights in the sky which they initially take for fireworks, only to find the city is ablaze. They head in to assist with the rescue, only to quickly discover they may be up against more than they'd bargained for. ICly takes place before Leviathan Wakes.
DG: A party led by Dean Stark is now entering Azado Burning. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
==============================<* Azado Burning *>=============================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Will o' the Wisps *>======================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The night sky in Azado fills with lights. On an otherwise cloudy night, they stand out sharply: little balls of bright light that rise up over the city -- seemingly streaming out of the lighthouse in the town's harbor. However, they grow larger and larger, and the reason soon becomes clear: those balls of light are /crashing/ down towards the city. You see a trio of Will o' the Wisps slam into the nearby buildings. They go up in flame, as a supernaturally hot fire erupts along the roofs and consumes them too quickly. The trio of floating, glowing orbs lands before you, and then rush in. Bolts of fire shoot ahead of them, directly for you. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
It's a lovely night on Lunar. The Blue Star, Filgaia, hangs in the sky in between thick, torn clouds; though the Guardian's veil may keep the truth of life from those observing it, it's beautiful all the same. While Dean and his friends might not be out traveling specifically for that sight, there's no harm in stopping to admire it, is there? Even if it's well past dark, and it's still a ways away to Meribia... At this rate, it might be better to head to the nearest town and grab a room for the night there. And hey, there's the lights of Azado not too far away now!
Huh. That's a *lot* of lights.
"Woah," Dean utters, peering at said floating fireballs as they whisk about. "That's really cool! You think they're putting on a festival or something over there?" he wonders to his two companions. "If they are, I wanna check it out! I bet they've got all kinds of delicious festival foods, and maybe we can catch the show from close--huh?"
Those lights then careen down towards the town, not in the controlled way that a show would, but in a fierce, ravenous way like an attack. SLAM, SLAM, SLAM, go three Will o' Wisps on rooftops throughout town--including towards the edge, only a sprint away from where Dean and the others are.
Which means naturally that Dean breaks into a sprint towards it. "What d'you think you're doing?!" he shouts, his paired ARMs flashing into his hands. "C'mon, guys, we gotta put out those fires before they spread!" It's still a distance away, but even if Dean usually uses them for melee combat, his pistols are still, well, pistols. When the Will O' Wisps send fire spells careening towards him, Rebecca, and Avril, he returns fire, literally, with bullets.
DG: Dean Stark has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Will o' the Wisps.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
Rebecca's first impression of Azado? Not a fan. It's something about how the people live their lives. How early people get off the streets and how quickly they draw their curtains at the sights of strangers.
The last thing Rebecca would expect is... "A festival?"
She sounds surprised, but then her eyes alight on the wisps and there's a touch of wonder in them for a moment, "Look at them go! Hey maybe this town knows how to have a good time after all-"
And then they slam into the town - one two three.
Rebecca's mouth still open a little wide until she processes it, "Really!?" This'll teach her not to listen to her intuition. She gets punished for it every time.
However she then shouts, "Dean come on! Why are you running that way then!? Let's get the fire brigade or at least run to where we can draw some water-"
And then the flames are alive - and spouting fire spells. Rebecca skids to a stop, pulls out her Revolver and starts returning fire herself as she tries to seek some cover.
"Of course you'd run us right into the one kind of fire where bullets work!"
DG: Rebecca Streisand has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Will o' the Wisps.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
To say that Avril had become troubled of late would have been a slight understatement. Led here and there by the impressions (she'd felt that's what they might be at least) from the Original Sea Medium, she had yet to find any meaning behind the jaunts, or decipher where or what it might be asking her to do.
The other night she'd awoken suddenly from a dream of fire and water.
The Medium still seemed to pulse at a touch beneath her finders, as if agitated.
Worried?
Fearful?
Perhaps it might be clearer once they've made a return to Meribia. Perhaps she can try her luck again then with Medium by the sea.
But now it's dark and under darker skies. On such a night, she can forget for a moment the nagging sense that she's supposed to be somewhere, doing something. The Medium has stilled to her sesnes, as if it's quieted its agitation.
Fire lights across the skies. "Oh? A festival?"
They streak across the sky.
"Do you think that might be a spell? Perhaps they have a wizard to do fireworks for them," Avril suggests, a mild and pleased smile on her lips.
Before that expression turns to shock, and before she realizes--
That there might be a reason, perhaps, why what she takes for the Medium's discomfort had vanished.
Here. She's supposed to be here.
As Azado catches alight.
Dean isn't the only one Rebecca will have to worry about running into the flames. Avril draws Absolute Zero and rushes for the city gates, charging as if she were running down fate itself.
A cleaner, brighter light arcs through the air; Avril lashes out for the lingering animate flames.
"Rebecca-- this is not a normal fire! It appears to be alive!" she calls back. "We must--!"
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Beam Whip Mode toward her party's challenge, Will o' the Wisps.
==============================<* Azado Burning *>=============================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Will o' the Wisps *>======================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The night sky in Azado fills with lights. On an otherwise cloudy night, they stand out sharply: little balls of bright light that rise up over the city -- seemingly streaming out of the lighthouse in the town's harbor. However, they grow larger and larger, and the reason soon becomes clear: those balls of light are /crashing/ down towards the city. You see a trio of Will o' the Wisps slam into the nearby buildings. They go up in flame, as a supernaturally hot fire erupts along the roofs and consumes them too quickly. The trio of floating, glowing orbs lands before you, and then rush in. Bolts of fire shoot ahead of them, directly for you. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright===================================================
=========================<* Azado Burning - Round 1 *>========================== ========================< Results - Will o' the Wisps >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rebecca Streisand 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Beam Whip Mode 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Dean Stark 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Fright(2) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Dean Stark has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Rebecca Streisand has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* Azado Burning *>============================== ==========<* CHALLENGE - Goodness! Gracious! Great Balls of Fire! *>========== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- As you sprint along, you come to a large avenue. The fire here is no natural thing, and the buildings overhead crackle and snap with a fire that is too hot and spreads too fast. It has other effects, too. As you run, you hear a whistling -- and flame leaps away from the buildings. As if it has a mind of its own, it forms fireballs -- and those come slamming down into your midst! =Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Slow=============================================
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"Yeah!" Dean enthuses to Rebecca when she talks about the town maybe knowing how to have a good time. When Avril wonders if it's a spell, he nods. "Yeah, seems like it to me! How else d'you figure they get those balls so round?"
And, well, he's not wrong. But then the fireballs crash down, then fling fire spells at the trio.
"There's no time! We'll just have to use water spells!" Dean shouts over his shoulder at Rebecca, proving once again that he's well-meant but maybe not very good at thinking things through, considering they need to have water hexes before they can use water spells. Then again, maybe he has a point; if this fire is not just alive but malicious, then trying to find a fire brigade might well mean the difference between life and death. Not to mention: "Besides, if there's a fire brigade, it'll be *inside* the town, right?! We'll just have to do our best to meet up with them!"
Avril unleashes Absolute Zero to slice the animate fireballs to ribbons, warning the others of their living status. Rebecca opens fire along with Dean, trading fire for firearms. Between the three of them, they not only evade those spells, but shoot and cut down the Will O'Wisps that would have eaten them and anyone inside those houses alive. The houses look to be okay, but there's more fire further in the city, so Dean nods to his two companions.
"C'mon, there's more trouble inside. Let's get going!" he says, gesturing past the city gates and hurrying through them.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
"Oh come on! I can't shift things over to water that fast-" However he does have a point. It'd be inside the town. Mainly it had been Rebecca hoping not to run towards trouble, that's how it always is.
Yet it's hard to argue with Dean being Dean.
"Well if it's alive - then let's make it dead fast!" Normally that line isn't something that would cross her mind... for people at least. She doesn't feel bad for killing living fire though. Fire just consumes and consumes after all...
Running through the city gates - there's no more fire coming, yet the fire that's already swept over the buildings?
It's spreading at a hellish pace into a roaring inferno that's soon not safe even for the people on the streets. As they come to a crossroads... "It's spreading too fast - come on! We gotta move!" Rebecca begins to jog down the way that seems to be the safest.
Or at least that's what she was hoping to do. Except there's a Chosen of Althena kneeling in the middle of the street in the opposite direction.
Hands clasped, rocking back and forth - mumbling to herself even as fire crashes down all around her, then splits off and dances all around.
"Gosh dangit! Prayers aren't going to save you right now! Move!"
She's not moving.
Rebecca scoots to a stop - and starts running towards that doomed street even as the fire continues to cascade around merrily...
Without a care for who it hurts.
She's not going to make it in time, but it's far more possible than one of the other two didn't delay...
DG: Rebecca Streisand has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Goodness! Gracious! Great Balls of Fire!.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
It's a strange thing -- perhaps it's similar to an elemental, or somesuch. Whatever animates it, it barely seems to react beyond a well-traveled circuit of 'attempt to set anything that gets close to it, Avril and her friends included'.
When Avril's chosen wisp to face down falls, it's but a brief jet of flame before it dies into the barest puff of smoke.
But this is just one. There are many, and Azado is burning.
"There's... more of them," Avril utters, gazing upon the city rooftops. It's an inferno, capped by yet more of those dancing flames that act as living beings: consuming whatever they touch, spawning more of their kind, and proceeding to render the city to ashes.
"Is there... nothing we can do," Avril states more than asks, coming to a standstill for a moment where an intersection once provided an interlude to the traveling routine of the cityfolk.
Lucadia surely -- must have -- lead her here for a reason, she thinks.
Even if they can't save everyone--
"Rebecca! Look out!" Avril calls. Her reaction timing runs a splitsecond behind Rebecca's own -- as flames and flinders continue to rain down on the street -- but the thing is, Avril doesn't need to outrace Rebecca.
She just needs to ask Lucadia for a small portion of that Guradian's grace and speed. The Medium is produced with little fanfare.
"Lucadia! Please, help us--"
You brought me here for a reason, did you not--
Didn't she?
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Sea Medium toward her party's challenge, Goodness! Gracious! Great Balls of Fire!.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
It *is* spreading fast. Alive or not, Dean had no idea a fire could spread this quickly. And Rebecca has a point of her own; they first have to find a water hex before they can use water magic, and fire is quickly taking over. Even Avril, literal Ice Queen, is voicing despair over how to stop this much fire. However--
"There's *always* something we can do!" Dean insists to Avril. And when Rebecca yells a warning to the woman praying in the street: "If she's not gonna move, then we're gonna have to slow down all this fire!" Twin Fenrir flashes into his hands as Rebecca races forward and Avril summons Lucadia. He rotates the chamber until he reaches his Freeze Ray cartridge, then PSZAP PSZAP PSZAP--shoots off several lines of frozen energy to ice over the buildings and debris falling over that woman praying in the street.
It won't stop it long--ice melts--but maybe it'll be at least buy enough time for Rebecca and Avril to reach that woman and pull her to safety.
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Freeze Ray toward his party's challenge, Goodness! Gracious! Great Balls of Fire!.
=============================<* Azado Burning *>============================== ==========<* CHALLENGE - Goodness! Gracious! Great Balls of Fire! *>========== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- As you sprint along, you come to a large avenue. The fire here is no natural thing, and the buildings overhead crackle and snap with a fire that is too hot and spreads too fast. It has other effects, too. As you run, you hear a whistling -- and flame leaps away from the buildings. As if it has a mind of its own, it forms fireballs -- and those come slamming down into your midst! =Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Slow=============================================
========================<* Azado Burning - Round 2 *>========================= ============< Results - Goodness! Gracious! Great Balls of Fire! >============ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dean Stark 0 --(10)--> 10 Fail Freeze Ray 2 Agility Effects: Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rebecca Streisand 0 --(10)--> 10 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Avril Vent Fleur 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Sea Medium 2 Agility Effects: Quicken ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Dean Stark 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Fright(1)|Injure(2)|Slow(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Dean Stark has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Avril Vent Fleur has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Azado Burning *>=============================== ==============<* CHALLENGE - The Worst Hedge Maze in Two Worlds *>============== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Your flight through Azado has seen a few twists and turns. You take a turn down a narrow street, hoping for a shortcut. Instead, the alleyway leads into the grounds of one of the wealthier cleric's mansions... ...into a hedge maze. As you step foot into it, a building behind you collapses, and the way back is cut off. The hedge maze reaches out before you, with its many winding paths. Instead of whimsy, however, the hedge maze is filled with fire. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
What Dean says is contrary to what's going on in Rebecca's head right now.
Sometimes there's nothing you can do. Bad things happen and there's nothing you can do to stop them. Every miracle of courage requires risk and sacrifice.
Hearing Avril despair about that fact though... it makes her want to believe Dean.
It makes her want to save that woman despite whatever cost it may exact upon her. Not for some stranger's sake - but for Avril's.
Rebecca is trying to hot foot it through the fire with her acrobatic routine, but suddenly part of a building crashes down right in front of her just in time for Avril's warning - the debris blocking her way.
All the same, she tries for what seems like an impossible vault. She leaps sideways, kicks off the only patch of stonework that isn't burning and...
She's not going to make it.
She's going to slam right into the burning debris.
In the end - it's the boost from Lucadia that pushes her over as Rebecca dives down and scoops the praying woman up. Hefting her up into a fireman's carry.
Dean tries to freeze things to make things better - and that gives Dean and Avril a gap to get through this parting in the debris themselves - before the fire overwhelms it.
"Guess Dean was right!" Rebecca flashes Avril this smile once they're not in immediate danger. He was right because they were willing to foot the bill, to pay the cost for this.
The Chosen though isn't taking to it well. She's not fighting physically per se but... "Put me down... These flames are holy... holy... Althena's divine judgement has come..."
The way she's mumbling it is eerie, like she's cracked under the trauma of what's going on.
Rebecca does nothing of the sort, just picking up the pace. "Yeah how about I put you down somewhere less... on fire? Oh hey - this way!"
Which is why she then makes the turn towards the wealthy looking mansion. Those are definitely fire resistant right?
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"'There's something that can be done'," Avril echoes, stalling a moment on the baking city streets as Dean soldiers on. Something. Even if it's only a small thing, perhaps--
Even now: it's an almost thing. Almost they're too late.
But the Medium shines. Rebecca is sent soaring ahead just in the nick of time.
Avril's gaze travels the path between the woman Rebecca's rescued and Rebecca herself. 'Is this going to be okay', perhaps is the undercurrent of that look.
"We should see who we can rescue," she says, glancing down the streets as Rebecca picks up the pace. "Then move to see them to safety. We-- do not have much time."
Was that pulse from the Medium just now? Insistant almost, like a reminder of a task yet to be completed. 'Hurry-- hurry.'
A building, weakened by the fire eating its way through the city, simply gives up the ghost and topples into the street. Going back is similarly dodgy, as ever more of those flames begin their crawling descent down the side of beleaguered buildings.
Rebecca's making the best of a dire situation when she opts to turn towards that manor. The door is closed, but perhaps there's a way in back--
So they run around, pushing through a narrow stone pathway between the trees of what was probably a decorative orchard, before it started being on fire.
And arrive face to face with a hedge maze. From this point there's no way to immediately reach the manor.
This quickly becomes a moot point when the manor gives up the ghost with a deafening collapse, sending the trees behind them toppling as well to become a burning barricade.
"..."
Avril regards the burning hedgemaze before them.
"We-- cannot stop," she says then, bringing a small portion of her magic to bear in snuffing out a few of the flames close at hand. Here and there, enough that they can work their way through the maze to the other side.
Even in their dire situation to unleash too much of her power might have undesired consequenses... and this is hardly a normal flame.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Worst Hedge Maze in Two Worlds. DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Rebecca's Travel Diary toward her party's challenge, The Worst Hedge Maze in Two Worlds.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
I yearn for your warmth, your unquenchable fire.
Your princess waits within labyrinthine heart, ready to yield to desire.
Seeing what awaits them Rebecca considers breaking her personal rule of going back to rewrite her older poems...
"It seemed romantic at the time..." She mutters even as the Chosen mumbles, "... purify the wicked..."
"You're really getting good at that magic of yours Avril!" Rebecca shifts the woman over her shoulder she points out, "There shouldn't be anything waiting for us in the middle of this thing right? So don't even worry about solving it. Let's just cut a path out!"
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
IT's heart-stopping for a second, seeing Rebecca nearly crash right into that fiery debris. Thankfully, Lucadia shares her power with Rebecca, speeding her up and letting her pick up that Chosen of Althena. With his freeze ray, the four of them make it out of the area towards a richer part of town. "Yeah. I'm sure we're not the only ones doing our best to try to save people right now," Dean says to Avril, of seeing who they can rescue. "Let's hurry; I think this lady already inhaled too much smoke." And so onward and forward. The rich part of town'll have better fire insulation, right?
They don't have better fire insulation. And in point of fact, they all stop in front of a burning hedge maze.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"..." Dean echoes Avril. Then he nods to her and to Rebecca. "Yeah, let's just punch our way through!" He raises Twin Fenrir and opens fire with the Standard Cartridge, aiming to do precisely that: shoot holes directly through the blaze, so they can pass straight across.
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Standard Cartridge toward his party's challenge, The Worst Hedge Maze in Two Worlds.
==============================<* Azado Burning *>=============================== ==============<* CHALLENGE - The Worst Hedge Maze in Two Worlds *>============== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Your flight through Azado has seen a few twists and turns. You take a turn down a narrow street, hoping for a shortcut. Instead, the alleyway leads into the grounds of one of the wealthier cleric's mansions... ...into a hedge maze. As you step foot into it, a building behind you collapses, and the way back is cut off. The hedge maze reaches out before you, with its many winding paths. Instead of whimsy, however, the hedge maze is filled with fire. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
=========================<* Azado Burning - Round 3 *>========================== ================< Results - The Worst Hedge Maze in Two Worlds >================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 10 --(0)--> 10 Pass Standard Cartridge 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rebecca Streisand 10 --(0)--> 10 Pass Rebecca's Travel Diary 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Dean Stark 40 --(15)--> 55 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(2)|Injure(1)|Slow(1) Effects: Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Dean Stark 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> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"I do not think so!" Avril calls back over the roaring flames, taking a moment between the bursts of ice and cold she summons to stop the little fires everywhere in their tracks. Rebecca has seen the truth of this maze -- little lies within it, a fact that Dean will discover for himself and demonstrate to them (and possibly to their less-than-entirely-lucid rescuee should she take a moment from her frantic prayers) as he takes Twin Fenrir on the offensive and simply shoots through the burning bushes.
It still unfortunately does take longer than they'd like, costing them precious seconds and minutes.
But emerge they do on the other side. Avril glances up and down the street on which they've arrived.
"Where should we go to now?"
DG: Dean Stark has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Azado Burning *>=============================== =================<* CHALLENGE - Distracting the Fire Spirits *>================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Overhead, you see a couple dozen of the Will o' the Wisps that started the conflagration currently burning throughout Azado. They are surging towards you -- and towards a large tavern ahead, where people are still running out. A few Guard are shouting, hurriedly directing them away, before one looks up. If you act quickly, you might be able to distract the wisps, before they drop down upon them. =Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
It might cost them precious time, but it costs a lot less time than it would've if they'd tried to go around. Who knows how far that stupid hedge reached? Who makes a maze out of a hedge anyway?!
And more importantly, where should they go next?
"Over there!" Dean says, pointing towards a crowd of people down the street in front of a tavern. Several Althena's Guards are directing people out of not just the tavern but the houses on the street out and through a thoroughfare that apparently will lead to safety. "We can help them get these people out of--uh oh."
Overhead, a flash of fiery light draws his eye and changes his tone as he sees more Will-O'-Wisps pass overhead--and a lot of them. They seem to be drawn to the larger crowd, and the Guards haven't seen them yet. If the Wisps get there first, then the semblance of order they've managed to cobble together will turn to ash, literally.
So what does Dean do?
Shoot at them, naturally.
"HEY! HEY, YOU DUMB FIREBALLS! OVER HERE! YEAH, I'M TALKING TO YOU!" he roars as he shoots as many of the two-dozen Wisps as he can. In a lower voice, he adds, "Avril, help me distract those fireballs! Rebecca, get that lady over to the Guards, then help us out!"
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Standard Cartridge toward his party's challenge, Distracting the Fire Spirits.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
"Somewhere where we can get our bearings-" Dean mentions the tavern, and Rebecca looks, "Oh hey there's the Guard!" That'll make for a good place to regroup... she thinks. And hand off this poor traumatized woman...
However Dean sees the will-o-wisps, and Rebecca does too...
And she already knows what he's, "Dean wait don't-"
TOO LATE!
There's nothing to do but go with it.
Rebecca dashes forward, "Avril make sure he doesn't get himself killed!" She adds to the plan in her own way.
Before running up to a guardsman, "Here take her!" The guard is flabbergasted, like he's trying to give her back, "Hey wait - I need my hands free, you carry her and come with us!" Rebecca thinks fast, "The poor woman is obviously in shock! What kind of man are you if you don't help one of Althena's Chosen when she's in need?"
He bristles a little under her comment but Rebecca immediately follows up before he can reply, "Also you need to get moving now now now-" She points to the dozens in the sky, "-because my friends are putting it all on the line to delay them!"
Looking up, his eyes grow wide, "Single file! Everyone head west! Rear guard keep your eyes to the sky."
Rebecca's already running back full tilt, now thankfully unencumbered, using her free arms to take out her diary. Ripping out a blank page from the back, she puts the diary back away, crumples it into a ball and rears back her arm to pitch it skyward in an arc away from Dean and Avril.
"Hey - you like burning things don't you? Well that tasty morsel is getting away!"
She's not even certain it can understand her but...
Maybe a few wisps will break off to try to ignite it.
By her standards this is a really dumb plan but - it's what she's got right now.
DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Rebecca's Travel Diary toward her party's challenge, Distracting the Fire Spirits.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Over there, a tavern remains, largely unclaimed by the flames. Avril nods in assent, Medium still held against her chest as she makes a sudden dart forward just after Dean, apparently intending to help lead their rescuee towards her fellow people, who might be able to provide her with the support and evacuation she so desperately needs.
But more of those shimmering fireballs descend quickly, hovering in a triad, then a quintet, then...
There's a lot of them. Avril's gaze shifts from their point of destination, over at Rebecca, then Dean, and then she nods, lifting a hand to indicate that Rebecca should hurry their charge on ahead.
"I promise!" Avril calls back, then turns a gaze as frosty as a glacier for the intruding fires.
One of those fireballs will feel a shot of purest cold clip them right off the starboard side. It's followed by another, for a different fireball. Then another, and another line of pale blue.
None of them should hit dead-on -- her intent isn't to hurt them, simply to alarm or worry them by forcing them in conflict with the fire's worst fear:
Cessation of movement. Suffocation. Cold.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Distracting the Fire Spirits.
==============================<* Azado Burning *>=============================== =================<* CHALLENGE - Distracting the Fire Spirits *>================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Overhead, you see a couple dozen of the Will o' the Wisps that started the conflagration currently burning throughout Azado. They are surging towards you -- and towards a large tavern ahead, where people are still running out. A few Guard are shouting, hurriedly directing them away, before one looks up. If you act quickly, you might be able to distract the wisps, before they drop down upon them. =Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
=========================<* Azado Burning - Round 4 *>========================== ===================< Results - Distracting the Fire Spirits >=================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 10 --(0)--> 10 Pass Standard Cartridge 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rebecca Streisand 10 --(0)--> 10 Pass Rebecca's Travel Diary 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Dean Stark 55 --(15)--> 70 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(1)|Injure(2) Effects: Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Dean Stark has passed this challenge! The party gained 15 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Rebecca Streisand has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* Azado Burning *>============================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - Flamehound *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- As you run down the next street, a wall in front of you bursts apart into shards of stone and charred wood. The monster that emerges from it is not a Will o' the Wisp, but a hound the size of a horse, with a body wreathed in -- or perhaps composed of -- fire. It roars, and then lunges forward, jaws of flame spread open to bite and burn you all at once! =Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Too late indeed. At least Dean is nothing if not decisive, a necessary and important quality in a situation like this where time is of the essence. "Hey, I'm not gonna get myself killed!" he protests to Rebecca, but Avril's promising her and Rebecca's dashing off already.
Grumbling good-naturedly, he keeps up the gunfire and the trashtalk while Avril assists him by clipping the fireballs with ice needles. Their harrying does an excellent job of distracting the fireballs, which turn and hiss at the two, bobbing and weaving in midair. Rebecca, after safely seeing the traumatized woman over to the Guard, heads off the team of fireballs from the other direction by hurling a wad of paper away from the evacuating citizens. Once they get a hint of a tasty treat, *then* they whip off in another direction, leaving everyone--from the citizens to the Guard to the three Drifter friends--free and clear.
"Yeah, we did it!" Dean cheers, grinning as his ARMs flash out of his grip. "See, I told you I wouldn't get killed!" He sobers quickly, though. "But we've still got a ways to go. C'mon, let's head down the end of this road and make sure no one was left behind!" And then it's forward dash.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
If there's anyone that she trusts to take care of Dean in a pinch - it's Avril.
Sure maybe she'd be worried about the kind of pinches the two could get into together. Yet since they're already in one there's noone better to...
She doesn't finish that thought.
"Only because your luck is as stubborn a hold out as you are Dean Stark!"
As Dean dashes forward though Rebecca turns to Avril and mouths, 'Thank you.'
Before heading off after him-
As Dean nears the end of the street though, the building at his flanks explodes into a hailstorm of wood and stone as a giant Hellhound leaps out.
Then again it might just be flames shaped like a dog...
Do semantics really matter though when you're face to face with a slavering beast this size composed of fire?
As it begins snapping at him, "Dean!"
Rebecca invokes her medium and plays Russian roulette with the fire hex she's standing on.
Solais Emsu shifts it all around and-
By some twist of fate she's standing on- on a water ley. "Let's cool down that fiery disposition of yours!"
A pressurized geyser of water erupts from underneath the creature to blast it head on.
It occurs to Rebecca in that horrifying moment that Dean Stark was right.
1. Water spells won the day.
2. By running into town they didn't just find the fire brigade. They became the fire brigade.
"Guess we're animal control now too..." Rebecca says to noone in particular.
DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Sky Medium toward her party's challenge, Flamehound.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
If only it was possible to defeat all of the animate flames currently harrying the city so handily.
"Whew..." Avril breathes, slouching her shoulders for this eyeblink of a moment before they rush off, the better to not potentially draw those lingering flames back after them or the group at the tavern.
"We should... perhaps if we were to unite with one of the evacuation groups, we might be able to keep them clear of these fires while they help the survivors escape," Avril suggests, as they run down a well-baked city street, heading onwards through where the flames and debris let them pass on by.
Until -- just seconds after something plucks jangedly at her nerves -- a large dog of flames erupts from the ruin of another of Azado's buildings, lunging right for Dean.
"No!" Avril shouts, cradling the Sea Medium in the crook of an arm while reaching for Absolute Zero with the other. "Rebecca! Let's do this together!"
Light surges from the hilt of the ARM. Overhead and overhand, she drives a pinpoint lashing hit for the ravening flaming hound.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Beam Whip Mode toward her party's challenge, Flamehound.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"That's a good idea," Dean says to Avril, nodding. "If we can do that, maybe we can pick up more people, too." To Rebecca, he scowls. "I still wouldn't get killed! I'm not just gonna roll over and die just because a strong enemy shows up! Don't you think I know how much that'd hurt you and Avril?!" he protests.
Something to keep in mind when the three of them successfully distract the herd of Wisps and hurry down to the end of the street, only for a horse-sized fire dog to leap out of a building and charge at them, snapping its lava-slavering jaws at Dean in particular.
Twin Fenrir flash back into his hands, and he crosses the combat rods defensively in front of himself just in time for the Hellhound to CHOMP down on them. Kudos to whoever made these ARMs; despite the intense heat, they hold up without any sign of melting or transferring that heat to the grips. He pushes back stubbornly against the Hellhound, growling right back as he stares it in the eye, despite being at least a head or two shorter than the creature.
It's fine. He doesn't need to overpower this beast. He just needs to keep it right where it is--so that Rebecca and Avril can take it out in a cascade of water and flashing ARM-steel. 'Let's do this together!' he hears Avril shout to Rebecca, and he forces all of his weight forward to attempt to shove the Hellhound back. "NOW!!" he calls to his friends, opening fire on the beast.
DG: Dean Stark has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Flamehound.
=============================<* Azado Burning *>============================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - Flamehound *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- As you run down the next street, a wall in front of you bursts apart into shards of stone and charred wood. The monster that emerges from it is not a Will o' the Wisp, but a hound the size of a horse, with a body wreathed in -- or perhaps composed of -- fire. It roars, and then lunges forward, jaws of flame spread open to bite and burn you all at once! =Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
========================<* Azado Burning - Round 5 *>========================= ===========================< Results - Flamehound >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dean Stark 10 --(0)--> 10 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rebecca Streisand 10 --(0)--> 10 Pass Sky Medium 3 Combat Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Avril Vent Fleur 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Beam Whip Mode 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Dean Stark 70 --(20)--> 90 Pass Conditions: Injure(2) Effects: ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Dean Stark has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Avril Vent Fleur has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Azado Burning *>=============================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Open and Shut *>========================= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You round the next corner to find, finally, safety: for both you and anyone you rescued, as well as a cluster of a dozen people ahead of you. The city's guards have unlocked a massive floodgate, which leads into the sewer system below the city. A few people have already rushed in. One of the guards, upon seeing you, calls out: "Hurry!" All seems safe, but you hear the strangest sound behind you. A titanic roar, and a rush of wind that blows in front of you. When you turn, you see the reason why: cresting above the burning roofs of the city, even as high as the distant lighthouse, is an enormous tidal wave. It slams into the city. Buildings shatter, as fire is turned to steam in an instant, and the wave is crashing for you. "GET INSIDE! WE HAVE TO CLOSE THE FLOODGATE NOW!" =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
'Don't you think I know how much that'd hurt you and Avril?!'
Every so often Rebecca Streisand thinks she's got Dean Stark figured out.
Sometimes though, the things he says make her wonder.
Does he really know?
And what does him citing her and Avril really mean?
There's nothing innately romantic about the comment but Rebecca wonders if maybe his heart is divided between them.
The creature rears under their initial assault, but it's not even remotely finished.
Together-!
Rebecca square up her stance - as light flashes from Avril's ARM.
Avril is poetry in motion. Even as Dean calls 'NOW!!'
Dean shoves the Hellhound back - right into the swing of Avril's ARM. The light lashes through it at the same moment that it's doused with even more water from Rebecca's medium.
The creature falls to the ground smoking.
"Numbskull! It's not that I think you'd just roll over and die or something!"
Giving up is the last thing she thinks Dean would do... it's just, what if he just dies before he can do anything? What if his stubborness isn't enough - and he's gone in an instant? Or he just gets in over his head and overwhelmed.
These are the kind of thoughts that keep Rebecca up at night. Even as she starts dashing ahead again.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
The hound is defeated, its remains hissing upwards into the air in streamers of steam and ash.
And Rebecca lays into Dean, in retort for the comment he'd made prior.
She steps up between them. The fight -- they're old friends, they grew up together. Of course they fight and argue.
It makes her a little jealous, sometimes.
But right now, she glances between them, her expression far more grim.
Something -- is it the Medium -- is wrong.
"Dean. Rebecca. Please--" she starts, but never finishes.
The city itself rumbles, a low bass roar that makes even the scorched cobblestones rattle where they rest in the street. Avril glances down for one heart-stopping moment, then suddenly wrenches her gaze upwards, silver hair flooding out behind her like a cape.
Her lips part, and wordlessly, she points for the cresting wave, far off on the horizon.
Nearby, one of the guards shouts.
"Hurry! GET INSIDE! WE NEED TO BARRICADE THE GATE!"
That means them, Avril realizes, with sudden certitude.
Tucking both ARM and Medium away, she reaches out with both hands, grasping to take Dean and Rebecca's hands in her own before she joins them in an all-out flight for the entrance to the sewers and the frantically gesturing guard.
Once the gate slams shut she turns, slipping her hands free from her friends' own.
And pulls that strange device free from beneath her wrap.
The button, that appears to hold dominion over fragments of lost Golems.
Avril pushes it. This one, Dean will not see, but the sudden more localized rumbling from just outside the floodgate suggests that it's arrived, doing its one final duty to hold the door.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Remote Golem Override toward her party's challenge, Open and Shut.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Rebecca probably wouldn't be too keen to learn that Dean got that line from Fei, who in turn asked him to take care of himself because of how much it would hurt him and their other friends if Dean died. Dean in turn has to wonder why everyone is so concerned all the time that he's going to die. He's not *that* reckless, is he?
The Hellhound falls, regardless. Even though they're victorious, Rebecca still chides him. Dean makes a face. "What d'you think I *would* do, then?" he argues back. But Avril interrupts, and is interrupted in turn by the rumbling of the city, of something threatening to overtake it...
Dean gawks at the wave in the distance, but growing much, much closer, very, very quickly.
A guard shouts for them to get inside. Dean snaps his head around, suddenly realizing what's going on, just before Avril grabs his and Rebecca's hands. Twin Fenrir vanish, and he runs with the two for the floodgates. There's no argument left here. Even Dean knows when he's up against something he can't fight.
He helps close the gates, but how to make sure they'll *stay* closed? Avril pushes her Golem button, and for once, Dean doesn't devolve into fanboyish glee when the Golem piece takes hold of the gates from the other side. Knowing what must have happened, though, he looks up over the edge and gives it a determined nod of thanks, even if he can't see it.
On this side, there's no need for a hole, but there *is* a need for something strong and sturdy to hold up against the incoming impact. He sets White Fenrir in between the gate handles to give it a bit more lasting power against the tsunami, to be a lynchpin for the barricade.
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool The Trusty Shovel toward his party's challenge, Open and Shut.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
She's ready to really lay into Dean. "You really want to know what I think Dean Stark!?" However something about Avril's plea-
And the way the city is rumbling.
It nearly shakes her off her feet - even as she follows Avril's finger.
"Is that a wave!?"
It's ridiculous. This wild shift between the city burning to a literal tidal wave.
For once, Rebecca finds herself frozen. For how sensible she counts herself, her mind has no solution to something of this magnitude.
It takes Avril's grasp upon her hand to get her to move.
In a stumble stagger she whirls about - recovering quickly as she takes off in a full panicked sprint towards the sewer gate.
Avril hits the button, Dean wedges the shovel in...
There's literally nothing she can do here. Even the wild thought of mashing her back up against the gate seems insignificant.
Rebecca Streisand squeezes Avril's hand harder and closes her eyes to brace for impact.
It's moments like these she wishes she could just actually say how she feels...
DG: Rebecca Streisand has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Open and Shut.
==============================<* Azado Burning *>=============================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Open and Shut *>========================= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You round the next corner to find, finally, safety: for both you and anyone you rescued, as well as a cluster of a dozen people ahead of you. The city's guards have unlocked a massive floodgate, which leads into the sewer system below the city. A few people have already rushed in. One of the guards, upon seeing you, calls out: "Hurry!" All seems safe, but you hear the strangest sound behind you. A titanic roar, and a rush of wind that blows in front of you. When you turn, you see the reason why: cresting above the burning roofs of the city, even as high as the distant lighthouse, is an enormous tidal wave. It slams into the city. Buildings shatter, as fire is turned to steam in an instant, and the wave is crashing for you. "GET INSIDE! WE HAVE TO CLOSE THE FLOODGATE NOW!" =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless=================================================
=========================<* Azado Burning - Round 6 *>========================== ==========================< Results - Open and Shut >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 10 --(0)--> 10 Pass The Trusty Shovel 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rebecca Streisand 10 --(5)--> 15 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Remote Golem Override 4 Brute Effects: None -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Dean Stark 90 --(30)--> 120 Pass Conditions: Injure(1)|Reckless(2) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Dean Stark has successfully explored Azado Burning!
==============================<* Azado Burning *>=============================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - In the Darkness *>======================== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The floodgate slams behind you, locked shut as the tidal wave slams into it... but bounces off, and those waters rush into the city. That leaves you in the catacombs of Azado, in the darkened sewers and tunnels that run beneath. There is no light down here -- and no answers as to what terrible fate befell the city above. There is only the way forward. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
The tsunami roars as it crushes through the city, extinguishing fires and crushing houses in its wake. Avril's Golem fragment, Dean's shovel, and Rebecca's hopes, along with the various other barricade material put up by the rest of the guard, is sufficient: the floodgate SHAKES, but holds. They're not going to be instantly killed. However...
"It's sloshing over!" calls one of the guards--and indeed, there's more than enough water on the other side to spill over. While they might have a bit more time, there's still... precious little left.
Dean fists his hands, then turns to Avril and Rebecca. "There's still a lot of people who need helping," he says seriously. "At this point, I don't know if we can get as many as possible if we're all together. There's a whole city, and there's just the three of us. But if we split up--Avril, you've got your magic, and Rebecca, you and me have a lot of gels and berries between the two of us. If we split up, we can get that to people who've been hurt and help get them to higher ground."
He looks between the two of them. "And of course--we'll all promise we'll make it through this and see each other again. But I don't want to force either of you into it. Either way, we've gotta act quick. What do you two think?"
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
They're not safe yet. None of the people here are actually safe yet. Pulling away from the door, it's here that Dean quite seriously and quite openly states what he thinks they should do.
They all have their particular skills, and there are many people here who need those skills. "I agree. Let us split up and see who we are able to assist."
She pauses, looking at the both of them now, nothing short of pure strong determination spread in her features.
"I promise, we will meet again."
Something inside her shudders, as if to push away from that turn of phrase.
But there is no time to interrogate it. There is no time to wonder.
No time except to do what they said they would, and split paths.
They'll meet again.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
Something in Rebecca twists up at the idea of splitting up at a time like this.
She's so hesitant that she doesn't even take part in the planning as Dean lays it out and Avril backs him up. It feels like there's something caught up in her throat. 'I don't want to force either of you into it.'
Rebecca almost says: 'I don't want to.'
However Avril says - we'll meet again. And there's something about the way Avril says it that holds gravity. Like it tickles something in the back of her subconscious.
We will see each other again. I promise.
"It's a promise then."
She finally says. There's no time to debate.
"Let's do this."