2018-10-12: Forest Of Blades
- Log: Forest Of Blades
- Cast: Loren Voss, Kahran Ramses, Lan Lilac, Leah Sadalbari, Tabitha deVriese
- Where: Gunsmoke Desert
- Date: October 12th 2018
- Summary: Gebler (and associates, Solarian and otherwise) venture out into Glint Valley under cover of night in search of the source of the shine. Loren gets a lesson in leadership. Leah experiments for science; Tabitha helps. Lan meets her nemesis once again. Kahran demonstrates why he's in charge.
DG: A party led by Loren Voss is now entering The Glint Mirage. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
=============================<* The Glint Mirage *>============================= ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Risky Ride *>========================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Approaching Glint Valley without the brilliant light of the mirage in your eyes makes it easier to get to, but night has fallen by the time you arrive. Starlight, however, makes it very clear what the source of the blinding light was: Glint Valley has become a metal jungle. Towering trees of all types stand tall in what should be a desolate, rock-walled basin, making a canopy of gleaming metal leaves that seems to cover the valley in an uneven dome. Starlight alone is enough to make the whole valley light up at night, set faintly aglow by the reflected luminescence. Occasionally, trees shake and sway without so much as a whisper of wind blowing through the valley. Getting down might have been easier if you'd arrived at the old town, dimly visible on the far side of the valley. As it stands, the drop is off a sheer cliff into the dark unknown... but it looks like vines, resembling nothing less than steel cables, have crept up the cliff and anchored to something below. Several of them are angled downward and taut, disappearing into the metallic foliage; maybe you could slide or swing right down? Just watch out for those trees! =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
In the end, the reason for the expedition is a relatively straightforward one: an anomaly in the desert that refused remote analysis by day (reason: too damn bright), far too narrow to field a team of Gears to investigate, and far too likely to draw the wrong kinds of attention with a larger squadron. So, a smaller team, under the cloak of night, and on foot.
Whether or not there are /other/ reasons/ -- particularly considering some of those now present -- is a factor far, far above Loren's paygrade.
The valley glitters under the starlight. It's a sight enough to distract even him from the knotted feeling in his stomach, the tension that has him strung on edge like an overtuned violin.
"...It's all metal."
He says it before even thinking about how blindingly, stupidly obvious it is. Hunching his shoulders, he keeps his attention forward, he stares down into the glittering metal jungle below.
Carefully, so as not to light up the entire metalwork forest with it, he shines the light in his hand over across the edge of the cliff. "Path ends here. I suppose we could climb down--"
The light catches, just enough to make the metal shine, the trailing ends of the metallic 'vines'.
Further inspection shows they lead in a downward fashion; if someone were to use them carefully, it might be possible to slide on down below without any of the vague dangers of climbing a cliff of unknown stability in the dark.
"...You've got to be kidding me," though is Loren's assessment of this obstacle, at least for now. This is all kinds of dangerous, he's not going to...
Probably not without a 'push' at least.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Risky Ride.
<Pose Tracker> Kahran Ramses has posed.
Kahran Ramses, coming up behind Loren, tugs idly on the glove of his left hand as he surveys the scene. With the exception of the single gesture - an otherwise astonished reaction, to those who know him well - the Gebler Commander carries himself with the same calm, relaxed aplomb he brings to any situation. (Or at least those not involving Fei Fong Wong.)
"Pretty," Myyah opines succinctly from behind him.
"And dangerous," Ramses adds, peering at the twisting vines. He sneaks a glance toward Voss from behind, gauging the young man; as he told Leah during their meeting, he's been impressed with the lieutenant's progress to date, finding it almost shocking that Jugend directed him into medical specialties rather than field command. Seeing him nervous like this... well, it provides something of an explanation as to why that could be the case. But does the silk hide steel, or no? Only one way to learn, and that's to give the man a little push.
Not quite literally.
"Very well," Ramses says, folding both arms behind his back, his bearing ramrod straight. "Lieutenant Voss - you have the command," he says, nodding crisply. "Lead us forward."
DG: Kahran Ramses has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Risky Ride.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
There are two very distinct reasons for the anxiety currently gripping the young man.
One of them is standing almost directly behind him now.
When Ramses speaks, Loren immediately pulls up into full attention. For a a few moments -- they feel far far too long -- he can't so much as breathe.
"...Yes, sir. Understood."
And then what choice does he have? Slipping off his glasses and tucking them into a pocket, there's but a momentary burst of water-tinted Ether about him as he grabs ahold of one of the vines and swings down.
It's some measure of self-control on display here that he doesn't scream as he descends downwards (for good or for ill).
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
She was just here yesterday. Lan looks down into the gulch with way more trepidation than she did just a few hours ago. The things she'd seen in there weren't super mindscarring or anything, aside from the village. "Remember, so... if something moves, don't touch it. If it doesn't move, you probably shouldn't touch it just to be on the safe side."
What Lan thinks are important points and the things Loren wants to hear don't always match up, but she's pretty sure she got across most of the useful bits. Like that tree that tried to eat her.
She'd also brought back some weird small round metal balls and said they were seeds, but not what kind.
It's nice to see Miss Myyah again, Lan thinks from just beside and a little ways behind Loren. "It's all metal, like it grew this way. It's... really, really unnatural, but it's still beautiful all the same." She's a bit conflicted. Even if it is beautiful, it's still too close to the Metal Demons' sensibilities for real comfort.
"I'll go down and make sure it's safe," she offers. "The vines should hold your weight - they work just enough like real plants to get really confusing when they sudden'y don't."
Reaching up perfunctorily to check her hair ribbon, Lan hops off the edge of the cliff... and floats toward the bottom of the ravine.
DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Butterfly Ribbon toward her party's challenge, Risky Ride.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
There are always other reasons.
Leah Sadalbari has come along with the group, as one of the 'authorized' contractors with Gebler. ...She's not in uniform. She rarely has been sighted in uniform after the first days she was at the palace. She is carrying a weapon, however, a great spear that functions well to lean on, too. And the path...
"Hmm," she remarks, glancing at Ramses, then ahead again. "It is that," the former Major replies to Myyah. "...And that I'll bet too," she remarks about the vines with a little laugh. She has been content thus far to travel along with the group, not to offer much more than the occasional opinion--
Another reason for Loren Voss's anxiety steps up and watches him move down. "Good advice," she reflects on Lan's words.
At that, she lifts up her spear, and... uses it as some handles for ziplining ahead.
"Well, this is exciting. They'd pay for this sort of thing back home." And down she goes.
<Pose Tracker> Kahran Ramses has posed.
Satisfied, Ramses moves forward and halts at the precipice, holding out a hand to Myyah, who grasps it, then steps both feet daintily onto her commander's heavy boot. The big man steps forward and off the edge, ghosting down on a faint whisper of wind-tinged Ether.
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
Technically, Tabitha deVriese takes her orders from....maybe nobody? Bishop Stone, way out at the main headquarters? Anyway she's an Etone ordinand stationed out of the Bledavik church, where she has lately spent quite a few hours of her time performing remedial training like figuring out how the hell ARMs work. It turns out she's fairly well-trined in surface weaponry and peoples, but advanced weaponry mechanisms, well...she's working at it, anyway.
But now she wants some fun, like following Loren Voss and sort of by accident a bunch of other people out to a Dig. The blonde - she's in the Gebler uniform she keeps for purposes like this, leaving her back-length hair tumbling in glossy waves rather than bound - steps up to the edge of the ridge, squatting down with an excited expression. "Oooo," she says. "That's not natural at all, huh?" she prompts, lookinng up at Loren. 'It's all metal.' "Yuh-huh!" she chirps. "That's all kinds of wrong. Gonna need so many samples..."
She unshoulders a sample bag, clicking it open to filter through her gear for something like the fifth time. She looks up at Lan's warning, blinking owlishly. "But how can I cut off their precious body parts for later analysis by guys with big machines if I don't touch them?" she says, blankly. "It can't be all that bad! They're plants, they're probably friendly."
Oh, but people are jumping. Sigh! "Best get in there!" she chimes, clicks her bag shut, and just sort of throws herself over the edge, whirling about with the easy grace of someone entirely used to airtime. Though she doesn't really activate her bracer - this seems easy, in her eyes - so what ends up happening is she slams into a stel-taut vine and grinds down it like she were from a very different game.
DG: Tabitha deVriese has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Risky Ride.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
Also, there's a humming noise as Leah moves down and then she's basically just flying. Solarian engineering...
DG: Leah Sadalbari has used her Tool Gravity Module toward her party's challenge, Risky Ride.
=============================<* The Glint Mirage *>============================= ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Risky Ride *>========================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Approaching Glint Valley without the brilliant light of the mirage in your eyes makes it easier to get to, but night has fallen by the time you arrive. Starlight, however, makes it very clear what the source of the blinding light was: Glint Valley has become a metal jungle. Towering trees of all types stand tall in what should be a desolate, rock-walled basin, making a canopy of gleaming metal leaves that seems to cover the valley in an uneven dome. Starlight alone is enough to make the whole valley light up at night, set faintly aglow by the reflected luminescence. Occasionally, trees shake and sway without so much as a whisper of wind blowing through the valley. Getting down might have been easier if you'd arrived at the old town, dimly visible on the far side of the valley. As it stands, the drop is off a sheer cliff into the dark unknown... but it looks like vines, resembling nothing less than steel cables, have crept up the cliff and anchored to something below. Several of them are angled downward and taut, disappearing into the metallic foliage; maybe you could slide or swing right down? Just watch out for those trees! =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
========================<* The Glint Mirage - Round 1 *>======================== ============================< Results - Risky Ride >============================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kahran Ramses 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leah Sadalbari 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Gravity Module 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Butterfly Ribbon 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tabitha deVriese 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss 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> Loren Voss has posed.
And as for the other reason, well, 'big sis' is standing right over there.
(The presence of Myyah, also, is a matter that lends pressure upon the young medic's shoulders. Just somewhat behind the factors of the Commander and Leah.)
(Tabitha's presence also is... something of a stressor here but for entirely, absolutely different reasons.)
"Oh." This is at Lan's commentary, the rest of the comment clipped nearly off at the stem only because no less than three-four people who could end him are within immediate earshot.
Great. We're going to be torn to pieces aren't we.
He barely has time to even yell at Lan when she -- just ahead of him -- goes sailing on down courtesy of that ribbon of hers. Perhaps, given she's already gone and explored this place, she has an idea of where to go? In any case, he's got his own problems to worry about, including the part where he's now sailing down at very fast speeds into a forest full of sharp metal parts--
Is it good or bad that he can't see where he's going?
He hits the end of the line with a soft thump but -- thanks to a burst of Ether -- doesn't take anything he can't walk away from.
Other people -- using the vines as a guideline rather than as directly as Loren just have -- find the going much easier as they float, fly, or grind their way down into the ravine proper.
Above, starlight sets the whole forest aglitter with motes of light.
DG: Kahran Ramses has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* The Glint Mirage *>============================= ======================<* CHALLENGE - Lethani Lethality *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- This section of the metallic jungle seems to be deliberately arranged. Neat rows of unusual trees are perfectly spaced out ahead of you, a wide rectangular orchard that seems easy to pass through. Their low-hanging branches sway and jostle in a gentle breeze, dim light glinting off of sharp-edged leaves that resemble nothing less than blades of different shapes and sizes. The sound they make is vaguely musical, rising in volume and urgency as the wind picks up. Unfortunately, this also sets the tree branches into a whipping frenzy, whirling and sweeping past one another's outstretched branches, then swinging back again. They seem rigid enough that the wind makes them sweep in a somewhat predictable pattern, but you'd better watch out for those leaves! =Dungeon Conditions: Maim=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Kahran Ramses has posed.
Myyah steps off and courtesies with courtly grace and Kahran Ramses, a ghost of a smile haunting the corner of his lips, offers her a twitch of a bow in return. Thus amused, they each turn their eyes to the forward, observing the path ahead.
What can be seen is a towering orchard of steel ribbons, each swaying gently in the drifting breeze. Theirs is the beauty of the last glint of light off a razor's edge, before it slowly vanishes into the shadows.
What can be heard is the soft concerto of a thousand whispering filaments, each sharp enough to slice one note from the next. Theirs is the beauty of the the silken whisper of a blade leaving the sheath.
What can be smelled is the metallic tang of rust and old death, a coppery tang that sends the pulse racing, fueled by ancient, primal fear. Their is the beauty of the grave.
"Fascinating morphology," Myyah mutters, her fingers dancing along the surface of a handheld scanner. "Almost impossible to penetrate - the surface is refracting the scanning beam." She frowns, her mouth a faint moue of vexation that brings dimples to the surface of her cheeks. "Not quite sure what to make of it," she adds.
"That would be the field commander's decision, of course," Ramses says, his cultured baritone picking up seamlessly from Myyah's resonant alto, the song of scything ribbons echoing out as the wind begins to pick up. Ramses reaches into a pocket and removes what initially appears to be a small silver case, like men would use for cigarettes. When he opens it, however, Loren (and possibly Leah, who knows too much about many things) will recognize a selection of Gebler combat drugs... and one or two that he doesn't at all. The Gebler commander pulls one of the latter - a round blue pill - and then snaps the case closed. "But if you will permit me, I believe I can show you what we can make of it."
Myyah raises an eyebrow, her tone amused and curious. "And what would that be?" she asks.
Ramses cracks the pill beneath his teeth and swallows. "A test," he answers, as he vanishes from sight, a burst of displaced air announcing his departure. The big man blurs into sight again a foot in front of the first tree, then flickers and vanishes, appearing nine feet ahead and two the left, bending his body around a whipping blade. In and out he flashes, dancing around the whirling blades with every moment. At one point, about halfway through the grove, Ramses slide-steps past a slashing limb, slowing as he moves, his forward arc turned back toward the others.
It is at this point the observant will notice his eyes are closed.
Myyah snorts faintly and shakes her head the display; by now, the first part of the grove is settling back to its normal rhythm.
DG: Kahran Ramses has used his Tool Speed Star toward his party's challenge, Lethani Lethality.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
The problem, Lan thinks as she floats away from Tabitha's earnest questions, is that they aren't friendly. But she's too far away now (and Tabitha is jet grinding too fast anyway) to answer.
From the air, she can see way more of the jungle than she could yesterday. Ah, just ahead-- she's pretty sure she knows where she is now. The blade forest! Lan has never been so thankful for her antigravity ribbon in her life. "Hey!" she calls ahead to the others, "Be careful of the trees, they're sharp!"
The shaman watches as the deadly trees pass by beneath her sandals. ...Wait, what's that in the--
Lan stares, mute and absolutely flabbergasted at the sight of Ramses -- she thinks it's Loren's commander -- flash stepping between the blades.
Her own toes barely clear the very last tree's reach, even with Lan curled up as tight as possible. Letting her own gravity return to half strength, she drops to the ground to rejoin the others. "Is everybody okay?"
DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Butterfly Ribbon toward her party's challenge, Lethani Lethality.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"I... noticed," he mutters, as Lan -- above -- calls out that the trees are sharp.
They sing like a thousand blades loosed from their sheathes.
'That would be the field commander's decision', Ramses says, and it takes Loren a good second to realize with a start that, oh, shit, that's me.
He straightens, again at full attention. Myyah had said that the Commander ran things differently, that his brother's actions wouldn't carry as much weight here, but all interaction with the man has been fleeting at best, and more to the point--
Can he really assume anyone has his best interests at heart?
"Er," he starts, feeling about as idiotic as may be humanly possibly, "We should try to get past these first," he says, feeling the student put on the spot on the first day of class.
Again.
And so he starts to draw forth another pulse of water Ether -- enough to embed a small portion of the fleetness of a flowing stream into the others, only to bring such actions to a quick endpoint when Ramses pulls out a single pill from that case.
That one he knows, at least due to the side effects -- most people can't use Speed Star, certainly not without a cardiac stress test to rule out the ones likely to experience, well, a very particular sort of 'heart attack'.
It's the first time he's seen someone use it.
He stares after the older man for a long series of moments, watching on as he narrowly dodges past the bladed plants, movements timed so much that if Loren blinks, he'll miss it. His lips part slightly. In astonishment?
And in the end, he shakes his head. Counting the seconds, he watches the swinging of the blades. Timing it, before making an Ether-boosted dash across the gap.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Lethani Lethality.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
What Leah does and doesn't recognize she keeps to herself, for now. ...Her observations about the happy couple; her inclinations about Loren's 'command'... her opinions of Lan.
But one would hope Loren could think she might have his best interests at heart.
Leah spots the awkward feeling Loren gets just by looking at him, and her primary reaction to what's going on is blithe nonreaction. Until of course there's orders, being addressed...
Ah, no. That's it. Leah's single eye lingers on Loren's gaze while he's watching the Commander, a slight smile on her lips.
"I appreciate your warning," Leah says pleasantly to Lan. "It'd be convenient if my module let me fly instead of just changing gravitic orientation..."
She grins over to Myyah, "But some of us will have to do things the normal way, hm?"
She steps forward, "You could lose an eye in here!"
Leah closes her eye, and something on her forearm flickers again; there's a hum, and suddenly Leah is standing on the side of one of the trunks. She looks up--
In her passage, leaves hit her and crumple. She leaps through a tree, splintering it on a metal shoulder, coming to a stop with her spear in the ground. ...And there she goes.
DG: Leah Sadalbari has used her Tool Gravity Module toward her party's challenge, Lethani Lethality.
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
Tabitha, who is only half listening to Loren or Ramses for an actual reason this time, grinds her way down to the orchard of slicing steel, dismounts with a "Hup!" and executres a neat little dismount, because she is a somewhat ridiculous person. She immediatley hops over to the slicing fines, considering them curiously. She reaches for a sampling knife and tries to cut one, achieving nothing but setting a set of vines twanging.
Then she leaps past as the wind suddenly sets them ALL slashing, and her eyes bug out. "Yikes! Quit that!" she yells. "I'm trying to learn your terrible secrets you damn plant!"
Then she huffs a breath, seeing Ramses zip away at incredible speed. "Wow...Was that Accelerator? That was so fast!"
Then she grins wide, grabs her bracer and tweaks a few settings, then also leaps into the fray. She whirls and sways, arcing as if Filgaia had no hold on her. She lashes out with a gloved hand, GRABBING one of the vines and using it to pivot herself around and pitch herself even further and faster. She tucks in, cannonballing through another set of them, then whirling out, long hair flying wide as she decides to return to Filgaia's embrace, touching down light as a feather and hopefully still attached to most of her limbs.
DG: Tabitha deVriese has used her Tool Graviton Shackle toward her party's challenge, Lethani Lethality.
=============================<* The Glint Mirage *>============================= ======================<* CHALLENGE - Lethani Lethality *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- This section of the metallic jungle seems to be deliberately arranged. Neat rows of unusual trees are perfectly spaced out ahead of you, a wide rectangular orchard that seems easy to pass through. Their low-hanging branches sway and jostle in a gentle breeze, dim light glinting off of sharp-edged leaves that resemble nothing less than blades of different shapes and sizes. The sound they make is vaguely musical, rising in volume and urgency as the wind picks up. Unfortunately, this also sets the tree branches into a whipping frenzy, whirling and sweeping past one another's outstretched branches, then swinging back again. They seem rigid enough that the wind makes them sweep in a somewhat predictable pattern, but you'd better watch out for those leaves! =Dungeon Conditions: Maim=====================================================
========================<* The Glint Mirage - Round 2 *>======================== ========================< Results - Lethani Lethality >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kahran Ramses 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Speed Star 3 Agility Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leah Sadalbari 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Gravity Module 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Butterfly Ribbon 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tabitha deVriese 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Graviton Shackle 3 Agility Effects: Rally -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(1)|Maim Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss 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> Kahran Ramses has posed.
Ramses finally emerges at the other end of the grove, breathing a little heavily, his heartbeat pounding up to... like, maybe 50 in his chest. After a few steadying breaths, he manages to retain his regal posture, such that he's fully recovered by the time the others make it thorugh unscathed... except for Loren, who's leaking a little. Myyah, coming up behind him, offers him a strip of cloth, folded into a triangle bandage.
"Excellently done," Ramses compliments everyone, with a particular nod for Loren. He hasn't killed everyone - or even anyone - yet! This is a good start to leadership.
DG: Lan Lilac has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* The Glint Mirage *>================================ ============================<* CHALLENGE - Taste Test *>============================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | -----------------------------< Challenge Information: >------------------------------ A path leading back towards one of the valley walls finds a shallow cave immediately off the trail. The cave itself is cut out of the cliffside, and full of... berry bushes? They sure look like the kind found in the Berry Cave, except in metallic shades instead of natural colors. They even have actual berries! Are they heal berries? Do you want to find out? Of course you do. =Dungeon Conditions: Exhaust, Treasure========================================
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
"Oh geez, are you okay?" she murmurs to Loren once he's close enough. Thank goodness he's a medic! She'd have taken passengers if she could, but she can't!
Still, any bladed forest you can walk away from is a good one, supposedly, so Lan is content enough for the moment. Let's see, if they've aimed correctly, the village should be to the left. So if they go a little bit to the right, maybe they can skirt around it to where the ground was weak.
"Over here," she tells the others, once they're gathered, and leads them closer to the right hand side of the gulch. "We should try to avoid the village if we can." That is, assuming she's correct in knowing where they are...
Well, so far, so good - she doesn't remember a cave being close to it. This seems like progress! Stepping away from the trail, Lan withdraws a folded piece of paper from her hip pocket and begins to manipulate it between her fingers. Loren has seen this trick before. "Hey, do you guys want to, uh... sample these?" she suggests, not actually knowing if the team is going to just stuff some in their faces for science or what. Tabitha seems like that kind of scientist.
Lan's going to stick to the tried and true method: fortunetelling.
DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Paku-Paku toward her party's challenge, Taste Test.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Timing is, as they say, everything.
Which is why a misstep on Loren's part is mildly unfortunate.
He can confirm: the leaves of the plant are sharp.
"...Thank you," comes the answer to the Lt. Commander, when she hands over a bandage. Hanging towards the back, he pauses long enough to press the cloth to his wound with one hand and fish out his glasses with the other (and slide those on).
(Fortunately, he doesn't need those to see.)
An Aquasol sees to the wound. Probably best not to walk around with an open wound--
"It's fine," he mutters to Lan, cloth still pressed against the injury as he paces up behind the others.
"Why? What's in the village?"
Pause.
"Sample... what?"
He glances down.
"...They don't look edible," says the young man known for putting just about anything in his mouth.
He crouches, though, drawing a piece of equipment from his pocket and -- it takes a moment for the medical computer to boot up -- run an analytical scan on the 'fruit'. Maybe he can work out whether or not these are even remotely organic.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool MediScan v7 toward his party's challenge, Taste Test.
<Pose Tracker> Kahran Ramses has posed.
Myyah gives Loren a smile and busies herself with her own scans, for posterity.
Ramses, on the other hand, stands straight and looks around for danger. He's sure as hell not eating strange things he finds on the ground. What is he, a -Lamb-?
DG: Kahran Ramses has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Taste Test.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"That was fun," Leah remarks, cracking her neck lightly as she stretches. "And you're very talented," she compliments Tabitha easily, breezily even. It's a good question whether Loren has even noticed the glassy look in her eye so far. But it's definitely there. Here, though...
"Mm, yes," Leah agrees with Lan about the village. "At least, I'd second that idea to our field commander. We don't need witnesses regardless."
Leah follows along with Lan, and there's... the fortune. She tilts her head, watching it thoughtfully. The berries...
Leah does not, for her part, appear to even notice that she's bleeding a little. Mostly, there are a ton of little cuts in her attire that reveal black and chrome beneath for her limbs, but a couple of actual bloody cuts.
Leah considers the berry. "I've got a faster way of doing this," she offers, picks it up--stares at it--and then pops it into her mouth. Why not? God will provide.
DG: Leah Sadalbari has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Taste Test.
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
Tabitha cranes around, considering the area as they go. She beams at the compliment. "Why thank you! Broke my leg three times figuring that one out."
Then, considering the surroundings: "What an amazing thing. This is probably super bad, but it's pretty neat!" she declares, squatting down to consider the bushes. She finds a berry and rolls it in her fingers, thoughtful. "Hey Loren!" she calls, holding one up. "Try this."
Pause, for that response. "Oh, you think?" she says, pulling out a small flashlight to see it in better light. "They do have a certain....that stuff Mom buys for Emperor's Day, quality to them, huh?"
She pulls out her knife, putting some back into it this time so she can cut a sprig off. Hopefully. Is a bush tougher than GLORIOUS SOLARIAN KNIFES?
If it's not easy she might give up on it because the second Leah pops the berry in Tabitha zips over and has her field journal in hand, watching for signs that she's about to combust/detonate/flash freeze/shed her body and turn to vapor. "Oh, oh, can you describe the flavor?" she prompts. "Annnnnnd anything obvious you notice! You don't seem to be dying so this is a promising beginning!"
DG: Tabitha deVriese has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Taste Test.
=============================<* The Glint Mirage *>============================= ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Taste Test *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- A path leading back towards one of the valley walls finds a shallow cave immediately off the trail. The cave itself is cut out of the cliffside, and full of... berry bushes? They sure look like the kind found in the Berry Cave, except in metallic shades instead of natural colors. They even have actual berries! Are they heal berries? Do you want to find out? Of course you do. =Dungeon Conditions: Exhaust, Treasure========================================
========================<* The Glint Mirage - Round 3 *>======================== ============================< Results - Taste Test >============================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass MediScan v7 3 Wits Effects: Enlighten and Efficie -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kahran Ramses 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leah Sadalbari 0 --(15)--> 15 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Paku-Paku 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tabitha deVriese 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 40 --(25)--> 65 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Maim|Treasure(1) Effects: Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss 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> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"Sweet taste, slightly sour on the tongue afterward," Leah answers immediately to Tabitha. She can appreciate science, or maybe she's just automatically trained for experiments given her boss. She lets that sit for a moment, closing her eye and considering the effects on her body.
"I taste blood," she comments, and indeed when she opens her mouth to talk her teeth are... quite red. Now it's on her lip. "Sharp pain in the abdomen," she says calmly, "Even right after ingestion. Lingering pain in the throat."
Politely, Leah wipes her bloody mouth on her glove so she doesn't drool it, and abrubtly the feeling of Ether channeling fills the air, Water in its brilliance suffusing her.
"Who knew that eating a tiny piece of soft metal would be bad for you? Excuse me for a moment."
Leah steps to the side of the group and, politely, throws up everything she's eaten in the last few hours.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"Leah--?"
At least there's the closest equivalent to a doctor in the house.
DG: Leah Sadalbari has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* The Glint Mirage *>============================= ========================<* CHALLENGE - Warning Willow *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The trees down in the valley are shaped like other Filgaian specimens, but placed with no regard for what species should be where. The biggest you've encounter thus far looms ahead of you: a weeping willow, draped over the depression in the dry riverbed where it should almost reasonably exist. Glinting branches sway gently, and, despite the danger of the rest of this place, it seems peaceful and beautiful in the reflected starlight. Until someone angers it. Whether by accident or not, disturbing the tree results in the hanging branches and vines suddenly retracting, pulling in on itself -- and dragging in anyone unfortunate enough to be underneath it, pinning them to its trunk with crushing strength. Get them out! =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Slow=============================================
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
"Uh-huh. Uh-huh," Tabitha mutters, jotting the notes down in quick, efficient shorthand. The attitude may seem flighty but she works with a seriousness. Then...
Her reaction to Leah reporting she's basically now dying is a rather excited, "Ah! Yeah, that makes sense. Do you need a--"
She looks up as Leah casts a spell and then proceeds to release the contents of her stomach. "Oh, good, you've got it covered."
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
White to black to black to white to flower to white to black to void. Lan frowns at her very important shamaning tool and looks up just in time to see Leah down a very dangerous berry. "--WAIT!!"
Lan goes a little pale under her tan, though in her favor she doesn't panic. Loren's a medic. She has a little of her own she can use. If Leah doesn't bleed to de--
Oh, or she can have her own science magic. That works too.
In the end, they're mostly victorious...
Lan politely looks away as Leah throws up, only to spot...
"YOU!!!" rings a cry of righteous anger through the ravine. Lan stands there, back straight as a rod, pointing at... the lone tree up ahead?
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"I'll be fine," Leah says to Loren as she pulls a handkerchief from her things and wipes her mouth again. "DeVriese, we can record that these are not fit for human consumption. My guess is both toxic and with a microtexture that shreds organic tissue. Potentially useful."
Leah reaches out and gets a whole little bag full of those exact berries--or gets started, and pauses as Lan spots--
The righteous anger is indeed right. An awful, ugly metal tree looms ahead, and if it had a face it would surely be weeping in rage that living things still exist. ...That's the sort of feeling one gets however, as vines retract to reach out to snag Lan all at once, snapping her up quickly and dragging her to its trunk with crushing power.
Leah looks over, at first gamely, and then... frowning.
"I thought you were watching her," she notes with a hint of reproach, and pulls not her spear but... an actual crowbar as she starts just walking straight towards the trunk.
DG: Leah Sadalbari has used her Tool Crowbar toward her party's challenge, Warning Willow.
<Pose Tracker> Kahran Ramses has posed.
"Is... is she yelling at the tree?" Ramses asks, sotto voce.
"I believe so, Commander," Myyah answers.
"Did..." Ramses pauses, frowning. "Did she imbibe one of the berries when we weren't looking?"
"It's... possible the tree owes her money, Commander," Myyah suggests.
"Ah," Ramses says, nodding crisply. "Well, then that cannot be allowed to stand," he says, taking to steps forward and pulling the glove off his left hand, revealing a set of rings set around each finger, each linked through thin wires to a silvery bracelet wrapped tight around his wrist, carved with fine lines. The Gebler commander draws in a breath, raises his hand, and then begins to focus.
Almost immediately, anyone sensitive to Ether forces will begin to feel a sudden surge of it, as Kahran Ramses begins gathering power. It starts as a low sound ringing along the senses; the distant, plaintive note of an approaching steam train. As Ramses continues to focus, the energy surges higher, bringing with it a sensation that's almost a physical thing, like the feel of the weight of that same train as it comes to within a hundred yards, then fifty, an overpowering sense of raw, unstoppable power. It reaches a crescendo, as red light dances around the Gebler commander's fingertips.
And then the bracelet shimmers with circuit-lines of light, and that peak suddenly doubles in strength. Triples.
"Neither a borrower nor a lender be," Ramses advises, as he fires a man-sized ball of fire at the trunk of the tree. He aims high, so he doesn't barbecue Leah.
Although.
DG: Kahran Ramses has used his Tool Ether Booster toward his party's challenge, Warning Willow.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"I'm sure. Let's take a look at it first, deVriese," he says, before Leah eats a 'berry'.
"Leah... did you have to..." Uncharacteristically -- at least when it comes to griping about someone putting themselves into harm's way, he soon trails off, apparently relenting. "You're sure you're fine?"
His eyebrows do lift at the report, though -- a microtexture that chews up organic material?
That could be useful.
He glances down at the screen of the reporting, then taps a button to save the scan data. "...Just as you said. It's not organic in the least."
So fixated on this is he that he only belatedly notices that Lan has--
Engaged the tree.
"Shit," he mutters as she's snagged and pulled in, making a face as Leah reminds him that she was his responsibility. "...I know. I know."
And then he's off running, with a burst of Ether urging a wrenching tear of rock up and out of the ground to slam into the tree as a battering ram. He'll try his best not to hit anything but the tree. Though--
He can, all the while, just about feel the full force of the boosted Ether bundling about the Commander.
And, almost instinctively, steps to one side as the fireball roars in.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Warning Willow.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
"We b-" Lan begins to yell, before she thinks better of it. "We blew you up," she whispers furiously, uncaring of how she... probably looks like a crazy person.
She's staying out of the way this time, Lan's not going to be caught unawares by--
oh shit
There's a lump in the surface of the fronds and leaves. The lump is yelling, and can be assumed to be very upset.
DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Warning Willow.
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
"Oh boy, I met a guy in November I should gift a few of those to," Tabitha says, offhandedly, jotting a few more notes down. "I got a sprig off the bush. That metal's tough, but I have my methods." The methods probably involved creative abuses of impact physics. "I'll pass it to the usu--"
Lan ran off screaming. Tabitha blinks a little. Ramses and Myyah consider the situation about as well as Tabitha does. "I haven't owed money to a tree in a while," she says, and produces from...somewhere.... (how does anything that taut have anywhere to hide much of anything, come to think of it) a standard Solarian combat baton!
Then she extends the other half of her telescoping lever, which is somewhat less standard but still sort of average!!
Then she suddenly just falls to the right, accelerating directly toward the tree at an approximate rate of 9.8 meters per second per second.
Her heels slam into the tree above Lan, and she smiles down at her with a big grin. "Sit still a moment, dear," she says, then leaps into the air, away from assaulting vines, only to somersault, and reorient herself down, at which point she soars down at the outward-facing portion of the staff like a stone, hopefully applying such tremendous force that the tree shreds away from the impact!
DG: Tabitha deVriese has used her Tool Telescoping Lever toward her party's challenge, Warning Willow.
=============================<* The Glint Mirage *>============================= ========================<* CHALLENGE - Warning Willow *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The trees down in the valley are shaped like other Filgaian specimens, but placed with no regard for what species should be where. The biggest you've encounter thus far looms ahead of you: a weeping willow, draped over the depression in the dry riverbed where it should almost reasonably exist. Glinting branches sway gently, and, despite the danger of the rest of this place, it seems peaceful and beautiful in the reflected starlight. Until someone angers it. Whether by accident or not, disturbing the tree results in the hanging branches and vines suddenly retracting, pulling in on itself -- and dragging in anyone unfortunate enough to be underneath it, pinning them to its trunk with crushing strength. Get them out! =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Slow=============================================
========================<* The Glint Mirage - Round 4 *>======================== ==========================< Results - Warning Willow >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 5 --(0)--> 5 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kahran Ramses 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Ether Booster 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leah Sadalbari 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Crowbar 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 0 --(0)--> 0 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tabitha deVriese 0 --(0)--> 0 Fail Telescoping Lever 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 65 --(20)--> 85 Pass Conditions: Maim|Slow(2)|Weaken(2) Effects: Cleanse|Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss 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> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
Maybe it's different when it's her. Maybe it's her manner. Regardless, "I might want to up my iron supplement for the next few days, but that's all. I was the ideal candidate for a direct test."
But then there is the matter of the tree... and the shouting ends the same way it has ended many times before: a lump within the tree's grasp. ...But that is not the end of things, thanks to the power of Solaris.
Here's what happens: Lan is caught up by the tree. The Commander begins to channel his powerful magic, already potent before the booster comes into play. ...Tabitha goes for the tree, focusing near lan, and indeed force begins to tug it down. But the tree is superior metal, not common wood, so it stretches... and doesn't break.
Loren's Ether wrenches rock towards the tree, and against a normal tree, it would shatter part of the trunk, easily freeing Lan. ...But it is not a normal tree, and it does not.
Kahran Ramses lets loose raw, unstoppable red light, and a great ball of flame hurtles towards the trunk of the tree. Leah simply drops down to the ground without so much as a word, falling into a crouch.
...She feels a pang of something to have fire Ether backing her up again, but shakes her head, throws it off, and rises again. But that leaves out an important fact:
As the fireball impacts the tree, three of its great branches begin melting outright and are pushed away from it, becoming so much slag immediately, metal leaves no longer anything important. And Leah...
Leah simply steps towards the now-still tree and pries Lan loose with her crowbar and her absurd physical strength. No problem.
DG: Tabitha deVriese has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* The Glint Mirage *>============================ ====================<* CHALLENGE - Caught In The Press *>===================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- It's all led here. The center of the valley contains a building: a low-roofed cylindrical structure made of stone carved from local rock, sealed with a metal door of alien construction that resembles a ship's bulkhead. The plants grow up and over it but not through it, ignoring whatever it may have inside in favor of draping it in steel-colored ivy and moss. Approaching it reveals how weak the ground here is in the worst way. Any weight makes it crumble to dust, opening a hole into a cavernous subterranean chamber just beneath the surface. A scattering of flickering artificial lights come on as soon as something falls in, revealing a lowered level big enough to house a Gear and a mass of mechanical arms curled up to the walls and ceiling clearly meant to use whatever devices they have attached to them on something of the same size. Unfortunately, you're seeing it through the grating in the floor. This hole leads down into a cramped space in the ceiling, with metallic floral growths creeping in through the plant-eaten roof. Massive collections of gearworks fill most of this space, primarily concentrated above the hanging arms over the lower chamber, and move across it as they hum to life... and start to roll towards you. Stop them and get out before you get crushed! =Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous, Bad Luck====================================
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
Tabitha vaults away from the tree before Loren and Ramses annihilate the thing, clicking down to the metal earth, regarding the tableau with a cock of her hip and head. "Wow," she says idly. "We blew it up! I guess your pet won't owe you any money now, at least," she says. "Though also she totally died so I guess you need a new one?"
Oh, she didn't. "Wow, tough. You found a fun one!" she beams at Loren, brightly, and then flips the telescoping lever's center point around her fingertips, the object shrinking back away before she tucks it into, an, location it's fine it's fine
Sauntering forward with her swaying gait, she keeps a curious look on her face as she regards the metal, the way the 'life' here shifts and changes as they approach the center of it. And then... "Ooo, mysterious hole," Tabitha says, with offhanded amusement, and dives in without a second thought.
It's cramped, she notices immediately because the full-figured woman barely fits. "ah nuts," she mutters, dropping some of the cheerful act. "Gonna be fun getting out of here," she adds, wiggling forward slowly in an attempt to work her way out of this particular lane, hopefully toward an exit.
And then the arms start crackling to live, as Tabitha realizes their passage has fallen with just enough force to trigger the motion sensors. The gearwork up here jerks and sputters. "ah NUTS!" She yelps, produces her lever again, and then just starts hitting shit with it.
DG: Tabitha deVriese has used her Tool Telescoping Lever toward her party's challenge, Caught In The Press.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
The fronds are, thankfully, not able to close hard enough to actually crush Lan, but she can't dig her way out... not without help. But even with Loren and Myyah here, she hadn't expected quite this much help.
She's sure not complaining, though...!
"It stretched," she complains to Leah as she's pried out, as if she can't think of anything else to say. Her tone of voice implies that the tree is clearly cheating, and this is not fair.
"Uh, I mean, thanks everybody," Lan finishes once she's back on her feet. "I wasn't even approaching it...!"
She's not going to smash the stupid remains of the tree into slag with a meteor, she's not going to... b-besides, everybody else pretty much obliterated it... Perhaps fortunately, she doesn't hear Tabitha call her a pet.
Even in the worst case scenario, Myyah would just have to brainwash Lan all over again.
One more time she uses her ribbon to float down into the hidden underground chamber. "Oh no, they got the machines working again... You have to jam the gears up!" she calls up to the others, as Tabitha seems to have found her own means of stopping the machines. For her own part, Lan finds the largest rock she can lift and staggers toward the works to heave it between the gearteeth.
DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Caught In The Press.
<Pose Tracker> Kahran Ramses has posed.
If Tabitha finds the path cramped, then Ramses - a full head over six feet and built like a recruiting poster - would find it claustrophobic in the extreme. Even with his sword belt held in front of him, he doubts he could make it through. And so he stays out of the passage, allowing Myyah to move forward in his stead.
The Lieutenant Commander finds the going as pleasant as Tabitha, which is to say not very.
As the ground crumbles away, Ramses steps back quickly, hopping up away from the drumbling floor and landing atop a twisted metal outcropping. The Gebler commander's eyes sweep the vista as the ground crumbles away into dust, revealing the underground hangar. Then the twisted arms, which come to life. From his vantage point, he can spot them moving quickly. He can see the danger the others - including his adjutant - are in. And so once more, Kahran Ramses calls upon the power of Ether, channeling it through the Booster on his left hand to amplify its power.
With his right, however, he draws his sword.
Left hand joins right upon the hilt of the hand-and-a-half blade - the bastard sword, he thinks wryly - a weapon which is seemingly at odds with the urbane air of civilization and chivalry the Gebler commander likes to project. A rapier or a sabre would be more fitting an image, to be sure. But as Ramses channels power through the length of the blade, two thirds of a yard of gleaming steel surrounded by crackling green power that grows stronger by the moment, the image seems entirely appropriate,,, as Kahran Ramses goes to war.
Muscles and sinews straining under his skin, Ramses shifts his stance and brings the blade down in a powerful vertical swing. And as he does, a half-moon arc of wind Ether, thirty feet long and sharpened to a razor's edge, extends out from the length of his blade and slashes at the twisting arms.
DG: Kahran Ramses has used his Tool Ether Booster toward his party's challenge, Caught In The Press.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
That... sure didn't work. As it happens, hitting a solid metal tree with a rock pillar just ends in a cracked pillar.
Fortunately, between Leah and the Commander, the foul tree is felled.
"...What money," he says sidelong to Tabitha, without taking his eyes off the tree where Leah is busily pulling a certain young lady's form free from the half-melted tree's embrace. He sighs out a breath, closing his eyes as if irritated. "She's not dead," he points out.
Indeed, Lan is about... as fine as can be, after being snagged by a metal tree and then having said tree half-melted, among other varied insults. "There's a reason they chose her," he adds, gaze for the moment towards the middle distance.
That's right. She survived Azazel. She won't die until it's time.
Or, should she survive that, when she's no longer needed.
Absently, the fingers of his left hand curl inwards. Looking away as Tabitha makes the approach for the strange hole, he pulls out the medical computer, as if to just scan the device's readings from earlier. He is in fact doing nothing of the sort, staring blankly at the screen right up until the point Tabitha calls out.
The ground rumbles; he takes a step back, quickly finding a (temporary?) piece of steady ground.
The arms rise.
"DeVriese! Pull back!"
He wastes no further time on words, instead sinking a hand into his bag, drawing out a vial (Rosesol), downing that, and then proceeding to shunt his will into the rock, into those arms themselves.
Metal's not terribly dissimilar from earth, if you think about it. Where earth has its stresses and breaking points, so does metal. Just readjust matters on a finer line, recalibrate the structure just so and...
He lets it bloom outwards like water, after one flings a stone into its depths.
On its own it won't be enough. But weakening it might perhaps allow for others to finish the job.
And shatter it to pieces.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Caught In The Press.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"It wasn't fair," Leah agrees with Lan, looking over the girl to assess her condition. "But you did very well."
Leah regards Tabitha's comments about Loren's pet with the air of an indulgent sister, sighing lightly and shaking her head in reply but not actually saying anything. Not until Loren does. "We all have our purposes and value, deVriese," the blue-eyed woman says cryptically.
...She certainly does not go following into this mysterious hole. As Tabitha and Myyah go on ahead, Leah stands back with the Commander, watching them ahead. ...And that--jam the gears up. Leah takes a moment to stare a little longer than she might need to at the whole facility; it would be forgivable if absolutely everyone missed the faint clicking noises that issue from her general vicinity but are certainly not her voice, not made with anything organic. A look; a turn, a click, a look.
Leah at that draws in a breath, and wind Ether adds in the air to Ramses's; crackling power gathers about her as Leah bends at the knee, and then abrubtly leaps taller than a human has a right, pulling tool rather than weapon in the space it takes for her to begin to move down. There is not a natural fall here, no mere touch of gravity; already in the air Wind has transmuted to Water, and Leah is suffused with blue Ether, rocketing downward as inevitably as the rain itself. Just as Ramses makes his swing, just as there is space where Loren is channeling his power--
So the Watcher slams down after to jam her crowbar straight into the mechanism with force enough to shatter gears outright, watery power crashing in either direction of her as if her meteoric fall was into the ocean itself, with the salt scent of the sea.
DG: Leah Sadalbari has used her Tool Crowbar toward her party's challenge, Caught In The Press.
=============================<* The Glint Mirage *>============================= =====================<* CHALLENGE - Caught In The Press *>====================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- It's all led here. The center of the valley contains a building: a low-roofed cylindrical structure made of stone carved from local rock, sealed with a metal door of alien construction that resembles a ship's bulkhead. The plants grow up and over it but not through it, ignoring whatever it may have inside in favor of draping it in steel-colored ivy and moss. Approaching it reveals how weak the ground here is in the worst way. Any weight makes it crumble to dust, opening a hole into a cavernous subterranean chamber just beneath the surface. A scattering of flickering artificial lights come on as soon as something falls in, revealing a lowered level big enough to house a Gear and a mass of mechanical arms curled up to the walls and ceiling clearly meant to use whatever devices they have attached to them on something of the same size. Unfortunately, you're seeing it through the grating in the floor. This hole leads down into a cramped space in the ceiling, with metallic floral growths creeping in through the plant-eaten roof. Massive collections of gearworks fill most of this space, primarily concentrated above the hanging arms over the lower chamber, and move across it as they hum to life... and start to roll towards you. Stop them and get out before you get crushed! =Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous, Bad Luck====================================
========================<* The Glint Mirage - Round 5 *>======================== =======================< Results - Caught In The Press >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kahran Ramses 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Ether Booster 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leah Sadalbari 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Crowbar 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 0 --(0)--> 0 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tabitha deVriese 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Telescoping Lever 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 85 --(35)--> 120 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(2)|Overzealous(2) Effects: Cleanse|Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Loren Voss has successfully explored The Glint Mirage!
=============================<* The Glint Mirage *>============================= ===================<* CHALLENGE - Prototyping Prototyping *>==================== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The machinery is stopped. The underground facility goes still. The sense of danger gradually lessens, until all you are left with is the quiet and calm. After that... well, there's not much left to do but search the place! A lift leads up to the building above. The inside is a mass of metallic vines and roots, having overtaken a circular workspace completely. They have torn apart and consumed anything metallic in the room, which is most of it, leaving bare stone and dust. Several clear specimen containers holding fist-sized spheres marked 'ferroflora generis' are left intact; the rest are broken open and empty. The only interior door you can get open leads to a smaller storage room, this one bare except for a cluster of basketball-sized metallic spheres resting in indents on a lab bench. They look like larger versions of the ones found in the main chamber, bearing a more intricate pattern of filigree and subtle changes in coloration on their surface. They're faintly warm to the touch, but seem inactive. Notes scattered across the table refer to them as "echo seeds," capable of replicating objects touched to them by growing them like the metallic oddities out in the valley. It notes that while they can repeatedly replicate even complex objects, the output is always made up of the same metal as the ferroflora. Particularly huge things (such as large vehicles or buildings, for instance) may require more than one seed to build it in tandem, as the current iteration of the prototypes burn out after extended use. So, they've got some flaws... but they're probably good for something, right? (OOC Note: There are enough seeds for everyone of both the generic and echo varieties! Generic seeds may be planted in metal-rich places to create small garden plots of harmless, aesthetically-pleasing ferroflora, but do not produce further seeds. Please feel free to ask Kalve if you have any questions!) =Dungeon Conditions: Vault====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
Tabitha is just sort of wildly bashing at gears because she isn't in a great position to use her strength or Gravity powers to affect this situation. Fortunately others are! Tabitha does use her gravity then; she falls backwards, lashing out to grab Myyah on the way back so that when the two tumble to the far wall and land as if they'd fallen the whole distance, Tabitha, who is used to these impacts, can cushion the certainly at least somewhat more frail Lieutenant Commander.
This will probably result in her being turned into some manner of flying monkey later but, one problem at a time.
Ramses and Leah slam into the problem with abominable force, aided some by Loren's own power. It rips the crawlspace entirely out of the ceiling, letting it tumble down below to the abyss where it rips clear through the floor. Tabitha is....still just standing on the wall, huh. She pats Myyah's shoulder a bit harder, trying to force her to stick, then walks down the wall to take stock.
Four minutes later: "Hey, an elevator!"
What they find at the top of THAT is...heresy.
Tabitha pulls her book out, scribbling furiously inside it in what someone reading over her shoulder might barely recognize as a peculiar shorthand version of Solarian. "Ferroflora generis," she mutters. "Ferroflora....I mean I guess that explains it as well as anything," she says, scribbling away. "Someone did this on purpose, I guess? I mean, obviously, but wow, right?"