2018-09-16: The Stuff That Breams Are Made Of
- Log: The Stuff that Breams Are Made Of
- Cast: Erzebet Lefanu, Ree, Matilda Whitehead
- Where: Port Timney
- Date:2018-09-16
- Summary: Have three Drifters bitten off more than they can chew?!?
==============================<* Port Timney *>=============================== Port Timney is the Kingdom of Adlehyde's premier port town. The city hugs the southern coast of the ranchlands and several trains terminate in Ardyne Grand Station at the northern part of the town. Cattle brought from the ranchlands tend to end up in the northern part of town, before their meat and hides are shipped as far as Krosse and Nortune. Timney has the look of an industrial city, without much of the simple style that Adlehyde's other cities are popular for. While it has few factories, it has many workshops and tanneries in the northern parts of town. Most of the people live in between the northern factories and southern docks, in apartment homes of varying quality. The markets are functional, meant to serve locals rather than sell the imports and exports making their way through the port. The docks, however, are something to behold: numerous large piers, fit for both wooden sailing ships and the newer ironclads, extend out onto the blue waters of the South Ignas Sea. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9KZlk_t4Ww
DG: That's not a valid party leader. DG: A party led by Erzebet Lefanu is now entering Bream Chasers. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
==============================<* Bream Chasers *>===============================
============<* CHALLENGE - The Meal at the End of the Wilderness *>=============
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
It all started a short while ago, while you and your party traversed as you
often do, and went about your day. What was to be an ordinary day quickly
became bizarre when the sight of a red light shone across the skies -- along
with the screams of nearby travelers and villagers shouting that it might be
a monster.
Make no mistake. There is Evil afoot here.
It just so happens to be an Evil unconquerable through martial or sorcerous
prowess -- rather, it is an evil that must be conquered through gastronomic
keenness.
Do you dare... chase after your Breams?
When you finally catch up with the red monstrosity, you discover that there
is a gigantic ruby-red sea bream roughly 12 foot in length. It takes one
look at you, and decides to flee, flee high into the skies!! You'll need
celerity and fleet thought to catch up to your prey! The chase is fierce,
and draining; curiously, an aura about the bream seems to promote hunger and
thirst, depriving one of sustenance.
By the time the mysterious ruby-red bream is brought down, it settles before
your party, delicate flakes of whitefish flesh cascaded in bias upon a bed
of romaine lettuce contrast with arugula. Garnished with lemon, and spiced
in a balsamic vinaigrette that cuts through the richness of the Bream's
flesh...
... you'll need just as much dexterity to feed yourself this succulent
morsel, lest it slip through your utensils!
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
THE ONE FOOD STALL IN SOME CROSSROADS HAMLET ON A COACH LINE
"Sorry," says the faceless clerk. "No beef today."
"But the sign says -" Erzebet implores.
"We make a barley fillin' on these days, on account of otherwise our supply chain would break down with regards t' the peppers. You want one?"
"Is it cheaper?" Erzebet pleads.
"Nope."
Erzebet turns around with a coat-whirling flounce, pressing her wrist to her forehead. She looks stricken, like a queen of the stage. Then she opens one eye, peering around the edge of her glasses. Her brow furrows. And then distress leaves her. "Tilda! Fancy meeting YOU all the way out here! I absolutely am delighted to see you, because I need to ask you for a favor. Please," she says, "do you have trail meat or anything? Because I am absolutely going to staaaarve to deaaaaath if I don't get something that used to moo or cluck or something in me. Please!" Her hands clasp together.
She does look more sickly lately.
Then, suddenly, a red light streaks through the sky. Erzebet's nose twitches.
"A flying fish?" Erzebet says.
She slavers, almost literally. Matilda may have the impression that Erzebet has contracted some disease or other. Then her eyes turn towards someone moseying nearby and she calls to her, "You!! Come on!! Whatever that thing is, I can smell it. I can taste it already!!"
DURING THE PURSUIT
Erzebet periodically pops off a veritable barrage of rounds from her weird guns. Where did she get those?
TOWARDS THE END
Erzebet reaches forwards with both hands, seizing the delight and wrapping it up in its bed of greens to stuff the entire thing into her mouth, making inappropriate sounds of ecstacy. Hopefully she doesn't trip and lose it.
"SO TASTY!!"
DG: Erzebet Lefanu has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Meal at the End of the Wilderness.
<Pose Tracker> Ree has posed.
"You!! Come on!! Whatever that thing is, I can smell it. I can taste it already!!" said the coated women to a startled Ree, who shrugged. Hey, if she was offering to hire her, Ree was unemployed -- and, though she woudn't admit it, desperate -- at the moment. It's not like she was doing anything else pressing!
Though if she'd known how much trouble landing the magical(?) flying fish would be, she might have passed. Using her ropes to haul the thing closer, Ree takes a closer look.
It was HUGE! It would've fed the entire orphanage where she grew up with meals to spare! And, SOMEHOW, it was arrayed on a bed of greens, with dressing. The dressing chemically cooked the bream. Ree watches Erzebet stuff herself and takes the chance to introduce herself. "You can call me Ree. I'm a Geohound." Then, cursing, she awkwardly struggled her backpack off to dig out her mess kit. That aura of hunger and thirst was quite effective! Ree helps herself to handfuls of flaky white fishflesh, wishing she had a beer or two to wash it down.... She sure hopes Erzebet has some money to pay her. Otherwise she might have to take this meal as a down payment...
DG: Ree has used her Tool Sturdy Rope toward her party's challenge, The Meal at the End of the Wilderness.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
"Ah, Erzebet," Matilda says, with carefully-measured brightness. "I'm glad to see you as well! It's been some time -- at *least* a year, hasn't it?" Matilda pokes her hand into her pack, rummaging a bit. "... No, I'm afraid not -- I've been terribly busy the last several months, and many of my provisions are..." She gestures. "... Away from me." Explaining the last six months would take entirely too much time for this conversation.
Her attention turns to the sky, and -- honestly, no, she's feeling pretty hungry too, at this point. "... A -- all right!" she half-stammers, following along with Erzebet. She does *not* fire after the massive bream, because she is not *quite* having that rough of a time of it... though she *is* increasingly hungry.
She does spring after it, though -- and when at last it lands, she glances to Ree, nodding respectfully. "Well, ah -- far be it from me to discourage someone else from digging in," she says, a little awkwardly, as she starts in. "Erm -- Dr. Matilda Whitehead, Academy of Linga School of Compounding and Pharmacy," she adds, sounding nervous about even introducing herself given the circumstances.
DG: Matilda Whitehead has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Meal at the End of the Wilderness.
==============================<* Bream Chasers *>===============================
============<* CHALLENGE - The Meal at the End of the Wilderness *>=============
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
It all started a short while ago, while you and your party traversed as you
often do, and went about your day. What was to be an ordinary day quickly
became bizarre when the sight of a red light shone across the skies -- along
with the screams of nearby travelers and villagers shouting that it might be
a monster.
Make no mistake. There is Evil afoot here.
It just so happens to be an Evil unconquerable through martial or sorcerous
prowess -- rather, it is an evil that must be conquered through gastronomic
keenness.
Do you dare... chase after your Breams?
When you finally catch up with the red monstrosity, you discover that there
is a gigantic ruby-red sea bream roughly 12 foot in length. It takes one
look at you, and decides to flee, flee high into the skies!! You'll need
celerity and fleet thought to catch up to your prey! The chase is fierce,
and draining; curiously, an aura about the bream seems to promote hunger and
thirst, depriving one of sustenance.
By the time the mysterious ruby-red bream is brought down, it settles before
your party, delicate flakes of whitefish flesh cascaded in bias upon a bed
of romaine lettuce contrast with arugula. Garnished with lemon, and spiced
in a balsamic vinaigrette that cuts through the richness of the Bream's
flesh...
... you'll need just as much dexterity to feed yourself this succulent
morsel, lest it slip through your utensils!
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright===================================================
=========================<* Bream Chasers - Round 1 *>========================== ==============< Results - The Meal at the End of the Wilderness >=============== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Erzebet Lefanu 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ree 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Sturdy Rope 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Matilda Whitehead 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Erzebet Lefanu 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Fright(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Erzebet Lefanu 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> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
Erzebet pauses between rich gobbets of probably-enchanted fish flesh to ask Matilda with an incisive skepticism, "Finally finished your dissertation? I'm proud of you, but I can't remember what topic you were settled on!"
Then she sticks more fish in her mouth, which is standard Erzebet behavior, as her eyes return to Ree. Her eyebrows lift and her eyes crinkle in a smile even if her mouth is, understandably, full.
DG: Ree has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* Bream Chasers *>==============================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Job Level MAX Monkfish *>===================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 1 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
A flash overtakes the dining scene as an immaculately-garnished plate of
monkfish sashimi slides into sight before you. With shavings of daikon
radish and lettuce, as well as a pat of wasabi and soy sauce, the thin
slices of raw fish...
...are filled with raw chi to their every strand of fiber! This is no mere
monkfish, it's a Master Monkfish, ready to apply level-scaling fist damage
and take hits all day despite wearing no armour! Watch out for their waving
surge blasts and earth ravaging strikes, which are sure to devastate the
palate!
=Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous==============================================
<Pose Tracker> Ree has posed.
The three women watch in amazement as the slices of sashimi rise up under their own power, chi glowing through their muscle strands, and attack!
Ree is used to weird, but not THIS weird. "Ow!" she screeches as the fish slaps her. And they're too close-range to use her ARMs...she'll have to handle this the old-fashioned way! She hits back with her sledgehammer, HARD. Hopefully that'll teach the sashimi a thing or two! "Nice to meet you both," she mutters politely between strikes. At least she'd stay polite until she parted these other two ladies from their money, and any useful information they happened to have...
DG: Ree has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Job Level MAX Monkfish.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
Matilda's lips purse slightly as she goes to spear a slice of monkfish sashimi and promptly gets smacked on a gloved hand for her trouble. "Oh -- actually, I do have just the thing for this," she says, rummaging in her pack for a moment. "Hmmm..."
As she pokes around, she adds, for Erzebet, "*Yes*, actually -- surgical anesthetic choices for diverse populations."
Finally fishing out a bottle of something unnervingly yellow, Matilda pours it on her newfound, delicious sashimi. It shifts the flavor profile for the worse... but it *does* make it stop, at least for her. To Ree, she adds, "And you as well."
DG: Matilda Whitehead has used her Tool Shock Oil toward her party's challenge, Job Level MAX Monkfish.
<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
Sashimi rises. Erzebet turns her head to look at that. She says to it, "Chew," and then swallows, before muttering, "Thirsty..."
But there's nothing to be done for it. As she reaches for her weapons, she sees the new woman attack with the sledgehammer, and asides to Matilda, "I still think it's all aboot the snoot. All those dosage issues are due to different mouth shapes. Hair and bone structure are irrelevant!"
Erzebet then shoots like twenty screaming unnatural energy-fire bullets into the monk(fish). This may spoil the second course? Or at least, make it not sashimi.
DG: Erzebet Lefanu has used her Tool Haborym toward her party's challenge, Job Level MAX Monkfish.
=============================<* Bream Chasers *>==============================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Job Level MAX Monkfish *>===================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 1 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
A flash overtakes the dining scene as an immaculately-garnished plate of
monkfish sashimi slides into sight before you. With shavings of daikon
radish and lettuce, as well as a pat of wasabi and soy sauce, the thin
slices of raw fish...
...are filled with raw chi to their every strand of fiber! This is no mere
monkfish, it's a Master Monkfish, ready to apply level-scaling fist damage
and take hits all day despite wearing no armour! Watch out for their waving
surge blasts and earth ravaging strikes, which are sure to devastate the
palate!
=Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous==============================================
========================<* Bream Chasers - Round 2 *>========================= =====================< Results - Job Level MAX Monkfish >===================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Erzebet Lefanu 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Haborym 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ree 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Matilda Whitehead 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Shock Oil 3 Combat Effects: Liability and Resilie ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Erzebet Lefanu 20 --(15)--> 35 Pass Conditions: Fright(1)|Overzealous(2) Effects: Embolden(1)|Resilient(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Erzebet Lefanu 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> Ree has posed.
At last the monkfish slices stop moving -- Matilda's because they're covered in Shock oil, Erzebet's because they're flambed, and Ree's because they're now SQUISH FISH. Of the three, only Erzebet's may be worth sampling. There is no longer any sign of chi in any of them. They lie motionless, yellow, overcooked, or squashed as the case may be. Presumably if the three women had defeated them with martial arts they would've calmed down and allowed themselves to be eaten...or at least lain on the platter peacefully! The ladies look about nervously, wondering what they'll be up against next...
DG: Matilda Whitehead has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Bream Chasers *>===============================
==================<* CHALLENGE - Loquatious Loquaciousness *>===================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
In a rather ghastly turnabout that few could've seen coming, a fruit salad
of bright and vivacious colours emerges before you -- primarily garnished
with slices of loquat, a rich and decadent Meribian favourite with its
lemon-fresh yellow colour adding the vibrance of summer to its mix.
No, what makes this one rather terrifying is that the loquats start
speaking, speaking rather loquaciously:
"Loquat! No, I'm a high cat, I'll have you know!
"Hey! Hey! Loquat me! I'm quite the loquer I'll have you know!"
You'll need to put this one under firm loqu and key...
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
As yet more sides are added, Matilda just stares at them with mute worry -- even moreso when the garnish of loquat starts to talk.
"... Erzebet," Matilda says, softly, looking away from it. "... Handle this." She doesn't even provide a particular line of inquiry for her to begin with -- or start in on the details of her thesis. She just leaves this one to her... slightly more aggressive compatriots.
She needs a moment to get her appetite back.
<Pose Tracker> Ree has posed.
It...was a fruit salad. A talking fruit salad.
Ree stares.
Did speech mean the fruit was sentient, or was it preprogrammed to say those things?
Either way, there was only one solution.
Ree reaches once again for her sledgehammer. It looked like Matilda wasn't going to be any help.
DG: Ree has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Loquatious Loquaciousness. DG: Matilda Whitehead has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Loquatious Loquaciousness.
<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
Erzebet's glasses seem to become opaque as if catching the light. There is no light for them to catch. She gives Matilda a wide grin that shows off all her teeth.
Advancing forwards, she picks up one of the wiggling, speaking things and raises it up in the air. "You're very loquatious, but are you also -"
She drops it in her mouth and bites with crushing force. "DElicious? Why - yes -"
Her shining glasses look towards the fruit salad. "Yes you certainly are!"
Hopefully some of them will escape and avoid being loquaght.
DG: Erzebet Lefanu has used her Tool Haborym toward her party's challenge, Loquatious Loquaciousness.
==============================<* Bream Chasers *>===============================
==================<* CHALLENGE - Loquatious Loquaciousness *>===================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
In a rather ghastly turnabout that few could've seen coming, a fruit salad
of bright and vivacious colours emerges before you -- primarily garnished
with slices of loquat, a rich and decadent Meribian favourite with its
lemon-fresh yellow colour adding the vibrance of summer to its mix.
No, what makes this one rather terrifying is that the loquats start
speaking, speaking rather loquaciously:
"Loquat! No, I'm a high cat, I'll have you know!
"Hey! Hey! Loquat me! I'm quite the loquer I'll have you know!"
You'll need to put this one under firm loqu and key...
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
=========================<* Bream Chasers - Round 3 *>========================== ====================< Results - Loquatious Loquaciousness >===================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Erzebet Lefanu 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Haborym 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ree 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Matilda Whitehead 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Erzebet Lefanu 35 --(25)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Overzealous(1)|Treasure(1) Effects: Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Erzebet Lefanu 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.
None will be saved.
Matilda lets the other two handle this ghastly business; she doesn't raise a finger to help -- but also doesn't raise a finger to stop them, either. One by one, the loquats are eaten -- at which point the rest of the fruit salad is unearthed, and Matilda practically buries her face in it.
- Now* she can talk. "Mmm -- there's more than that," she explains, to Erzebet. "Dosage is important, but there's also Beastman populations that don't tolerate some of the standard formulations... I've more or less stopped keeping rose hips at all, for instance -- the cognitive overhead of having to audit the medicine I have with me by patient just isn't worth it when I could just stick to working with aceras..."
DG: Erzebet Lefanu has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Bream Chasers *>===============================
================<* CHALLENGE - Quattro Fromaggi de Cavaliere *>=================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
The deadly four known as the Quarter Knights have certainly left their mark
in Filgaia, when they descended upon Adlehyde at the peak of 499 PC. This
next dish appears to have been made in their... dishonour? It isn't quite
clear, but you do have a quartet of deadly delicacies to contend with. Just
one is enough to overpower your palate, let alone four! From the top left:
A dangerous cheese only known amongst select communities, in hushed
whispers, as Brieserk; with a gleaming white rind cascading like a shock of
war hair, and a shocking interior that knows nothing but battle with the
palate...
The newest cheese and one with the very least known about, Lady Havarti cuts
a striking figure with an ominous red rind that seems impenetrable. Some say
the cheese has been left in torpor for an extraordinary amount of time, and
others say this was a fond acquaintance that was stolen from Monterey Jack,
which has been so warped by...
... the Fetalhazred, a feta cheese so nasty that the mad creator of this
dish felt the need to put a tablecloth over it.
And last, but certainly not least, the leader of all the cheeses looms upon
its own corner, a blue cheese of such maturity and certainty that it will
undoubtedly cut down any who unwisely stand before it... Stiltonfried,
always paired with its eternal partner in life and death, Encheedu.
This may be the most dairy situation your group has ever been in!!
=Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Reckless, Fright, Overzealous==================
<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
Erzebet licks her lips. It's sort of obscene in a low key way. She answers Matilda even so. "Oh, you're just looking for excuses to be lazy. Rose hips have value for the majority, right? Sure, don't mix them in automatically, but you have to give to each according to their needs, not YOUR needs."
Forward. Beyond the salad. Beyond space. Beyond infinity. There lies...
CHEESE.
The cheese course is a most delicate time. The spread is rich and flavorful - no mere saurkraut and boiled goose. Erzebet gazes admiringly past the white-rinded Brieserk - the red-rimmed wedge of Havarti, promising pleasures despite a cruel outer exterior with a well aged texture.
The feta gets peeked out. Erzebet's nose wrinkles. To her it's kind of ripe; to Matilda and Ree it might be far worse. Then again perhaps Ree's smoked her nose dry. The final pairing looms.
Erzebet looks at the others.
"Well, whatever's going on with this," she says as she draws out one of those carbines from her hip holsters, "I think we can all agree that THIS ONE," and then she STRAIGHT UP SHOOTS THE FETA CHEESE, PLUGGING IT LIKE IT WAS FIFTY CENTHAZRAD INSTEAD, raising her voice over her inexplicable barrage of streaking fire, "Isn't! Safe! To! Eat! It's! Worse! Than! That! Fly cheese! In! Port Timney!"
"I'm Erzebet by the way!" she calls to Ree while continuing to shoot the feta.
DG: Erzebet Lefanu has used her Tool Haborym toward her party's challenge, Quattro Fromaggi de Cavaliere.
<Pose Tracker> Ree has posed.
Fortunately Erzebet is literally 'shooting the feta' and it's not a naughty euphemism. She's right about it, though: it's rank and vile. Ree joins her in shooting, drawing a gunsmoke pistol in each hand. Brieserk, Lady Havarti, Stiltonfried, and Encheedu each receive two bullets, while four are reserved for the disgusting Fetalhazred. Reload and repeat (or Reeload and Reepeat). Soon the cheeses are Swissed with bullets from Ree and Erzebet's combined efforts. Ree makes certain to reload once the cheeses have stopped moving. She will also move in to see whether she can salvage what's left of them once they seem dead. Except for the feta. Eating that might be feta-l.
DG: Ree has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Quattro Fromaggi de Cavaliere.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
Matilda sees everyone else open up on the cheese with bullets, and frowns big about it!! "I -- I like all dairy, even the most fragrant," Matilda -- who has actually, like, touched a cow, and encountered milk on every step of its process to becoming multiple types of cheese -- half-complains.
Matilda lets the topic of pharmacy drop for the moment; the direction of the conversation is not, precisely, dinner-friendly. She takes a much more subdued approach to subduing cheese-based threat: cover in oil, heavily salt, eat.
It's fine. Farmer diet. It's. It's fine.
DG: Matilda Whitehead has used her Tool Shock Oil toward her party's challenge, Quattro Fromaggi de Cavaliere.
==============================<* Bream Chasers *>===============================
================<* CHALLENGE - Quattro Fromaggi de Cavaliere *>=================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
The deadly four known as the Quarter Knights have certainly left their mark
in Filgaia, when they descended upon Adlehyde at the peak of 499 PC. This
next dish appears to have been made in their... dishonour? It isn't quite
clear, but you do have a quartet of deadly delicacies to contend with. Just
one is enough to overpower your palate, let alone four! From the top left:
A dangerous cheese only known amongst select communities, in hushed
whispers, as Brieserk; with a gleaming white rind cascading like a shock of
war hair, and a shocking interior that knows nothing but battle with the
palate...
The newest cheese and one with the very least known about, Lady Havarti cuts
a striking figure with an ominous red rind that seems impenetrable. Some say
the cheese has been left in torpor for an extraordinary amount of time, and
others say this was a fond acquaintance that was stolen from Monterey Jack,
which has been so warped by...
... the Fetalhazred, a feta cheese so nasty that the mad creator of this
dish felt the need to put a tablecloth over it.
And last, but certainly not least, the leader of all the cheeses looms upon
its own corner, a blue cheese of such maturity and certainty that it will
undoubtedly cut down any who unwisely stand before it... Stiltonfried,
always paired with its eternal partner in life and death, Encheedu.
This may be the most dairy situation your group has ever been in!!
=Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Reckless, Fright, Overzealous==================
=========================<* Bream Chasers - Round 4 *>========================== ==================< Results - Quattro Fromaggi de Cavaliere >=================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Erzebet Lefanu 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Haborym 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ree 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Matilda Whitehead 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Shock Oil 3 Combat Effects: Liability and Resilie -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Erzebet Lefanu 60 --(15)--> 75 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Hesitate(2)|Overzealous(2)|Reckless(2) Effects: Embolden(1)|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Erzebet Lefanu 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> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
"Ei! Don't shoot them all! Just this one that's a plague bucket!" Erzebet says to Ree. She waggles her gun as if it were a scolding finger.
"You always eat so much of that," Erzebet says as she carves off a sensible, snackable three-ounce chunk from the Havarti. She pauses to dig out the bullet in it.
<Pose Tracker> Ree has posed.
Ree pauses to hack off chunks of the harder cheeses to stow in her backpack for later. Living in the Badlands taught one never to waste food. And after all...
Cheese was cheese, no matter how you cut it.
DG: Ree has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* Bream Chasers *>==============================
==========<* CHALLENGE - Have You Told Your Waitress 'SAYONARA?' *>===========
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
The legendary King of Beasts, Ragu o' Ragula, looms before you--
No, wait, sorry, this is the legendary King of Pasta Sauces, Ragu alla
Ragula... it is tough to culinarily point out where 'alla Ragula' comes
from, exactly, but tales of the legendary King of Beasts' trillion degree of
heat--
whoops a part of it just catches on fire
--might point a little to the kind of deadly cultivars used in this piping
red-hot sauce, composed of bhut jolokia, ghost peppers, Shevat reapers, and
who knows what else lurks just underneath of this practically deadly
culinary finale. At least the rigatoni noodles that come with it look nice.
So the only question becomes...
Have you told your Waitress... 'SAYONARA?'
=Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
<Pose Tracker> Ree has posed.
The three women gasp as rigatoni noodles rain down, followed by a red sauce that *smells* extra spicy. There was no denying the fiery sensation in their nostrils and down the backs of their throats. Watching, they could even SEE bits of hot pepper in the puttanesca. Ree wondered how exactly a ruby-eyed sea bream could produce pasta with sauce, but, hey...magic! At least the dish looked and smelled delicious, and, for once, WASN'T trying to kill them -- except, perhaps with capsaicin! Ree touches the Symbology tattoos running up her right arm. They're for ice magic. Could she perhaps use them to counteract the heat somewhat? She's never used her training this way before, but, hey, no harm in trying! She takes one bite, and then another...
DG: Ree has used her Tool Sledgehammer toward her party's challenge, Have You Told Your Waitress 'SAYONARA?'.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
"It's *good* and it's energy-dense," Matilda shoots back to Erzebet. "And you have cheese for *years* once you get a cow to maturity. You only get beef once. It's good to have a taste for cheese."
Matilda visibly pales, though, at a dish hot enough to literally catch on fire. "... Hmmm, you know, I've never seen one of these," Matilda says, looking at the Shevat reaper. She pockets one for herself to poke at later...
... and then starts in on the food. Her eyes water before she even puts it in her mouth -- and she lacks the Symbological prowess to make it cooler any other way, too...
DG: Matilda Whitehead has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Have You Told Your Waitress 'SAYONARA?'.
<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
"It is fine as a flavoring, but it's hell on your digestion," Erzebet says. "Why can't you just can some vegetables and some fish, eh? Why do you have to go through all this rigmarole and try to eat so much of it? I remember when you brought that casserole to group and it was just - pfeuh! - elbow noodles and those two kinds of cheese..." Erzebet is leaving out how she ate a third of it all by herself, once she'd figured out how to add pepper.
She opens her mouth to say more - but then comes the pasta. Scooping up a plate, she says, "Now this is what I call food." She swirls the noodles up and puts them in her mouth and -
Her tongue, for some reason, goes numb. Huh, she thinks, before tilting her head back in order to just slurp it all down like she's eating Guild Galad soup noodles. Her face does turn red for the first time in like nine months.
DG: Erzebet Lefanu has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Have You Told Your Waitress 'SAYONARA?'.
=============================<* Bream Chasers *>==============================
==========<* CHALLENGE - Have You Told Your Waitress 'SAYONARA?' *>===========
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
The legendary King of Beasts, Ragu o' Ragula, looms before you--
No, wait, sorry, this is the legendary King of Pasta Sauces, Ragu alla
Ragula... it is tough to culinarily point out where 'alla Ragula' comes
from, exactly, but tales of the legendary King of Beasts' trillion degree of
heat--
whoops a part of it just catches on fire
--might point a little to the kind of deadly cultivars used in this piping
red-hot sauce, composed of bhut jolokia, ghost peppers, Shevat reapers, and
who knows what else lurks just underneath of this practically deadly
culinary finale. At least the rigatoni noodles that come with it look nice.
So the only question becomes...
Have you told your Waitress... 'SAYONARA?'
=Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
========================<* Bream Chasers - Round 5 *>========================= ============< Results - Have You Told Your Waitress 'SAYONARA?' >============= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Erzebet Lefanu 5 --(5)--> 10 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ree 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Sledgehammer 2 Brute Effects: Resilient ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Matilda Whitehead 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Erzebet Lefanu 75 --(35)--> 110 Pass Conditions: Fright(1)|Hesitate(1)|Overzealous(1)|Reckless(1)|Save Point(1) Effects: Resilient(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Erzebet Lefanu has successfully explored Bream Chasers!
=============================<* Bream Chasers *>==============================
=================<* CHALLENGE - The Recipe of your Breams *>==================
|Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
It's over.
It's finally... over.
The Bream lies defeated before you, merely a fish-head and tail and spine as
you finally carve through all layers of culinary oddities that have come
your way. Through hard work, camaraderie, and the spirit of kinship you've
gathered together and prevailed before evil itself. And your reward...
A detailed, beginner-friendly recipe of any of the foods you encountered
along the journey?! As well as tips on how to load it into a sealable
canister, in the case that you want to create a food-related Tool out of
it...
Beware, heroes, that evil does not perpetuate itself within your heart...
(NOTE: You may, optionally, choose to create a food-based Tool out of this
Dig! Treat this as a buffing-type Tool that empowers your team with the rich
calorie content within...?)
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
And so in the end...
The group is well fed. From a starter course of fish through a fruit salad, a side of monkfish sashimi lightly poached by ARM, and a strong carbohydrate closer, the meal - anointed by cheese - was definitely unconventional. But perhaps it can be the coming thing.
The fish becomes clearer now. A huge head, a long delicate spine. Erzebet shakes her head once, working her jaw and her tongue as she says, "Well... That wasn't so bad, was it?" She even looks down at the two neat brochures that lay on the ground. Two of them, she thinks.
"You take one," she tells Matilda. "I've already got plenty of family recipes."
Erzebet works her jaw again. Her tongue slides along the space between her cheek and gum, where it is said that princesses hold chewing tobacco. She doesn't have chewing tobacco there of course but she does find something else. Working it free, Erzebet turns and quietly spits a seed into her hand. Her brow knits.
What? Wait.
Her glasses seem to shine for a moment. She cradles the seed in the palm of her hand and raises it up to her ear.
Confusion rests on her face - until suddenly it doesn't. Her eyes widen and her lips quirk into a huge almost toothsome smile.
"Oh, my," she says, to apparently nobody in particular. "I think we are going to be excellent friends..."
ENJOY A BGM YOU WON'T GET AGAIN FOR THE REST OF THE ACT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4tVJASr_54
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
Picking up the brochure with a slightly strained smile, Matilda says, "Quite." She does not, in fact, give Erzebet five across the face, though she has to take a moment to think long and hard about it.
At long last, she digs into the fish proper, with a contented smile on her face. ... This is definitely a meal worth figuring out how to reduplicate later. And she *has* taken one of those peppers for herself to do just that...
<Pose Tracker> Ree has posed.
Now THAT, Ree reflected (or Reeflected) had been a meal! She sighs, fuller than full, and only then notices that nothing was left of the sea bream but its head, tail, and bones.
There was no WAY they'd eaten a twelve-foot fish! It must be part of the magic...