2019-01-05: Outfoxing the Apocalypse
- Log: Outfoxing the Apocalypse
- Cast: Ratatoskr, Talise Gianfair, Sephilia Lampbright, Layna Manydays(as Dahlia and the Ruby Empress Crew), Seraph Ceimglace
- Where: Photosphere - External Defenses
- Date: January 05, 2019 (ICly takes place on December 1st.)
- Summary: The Fox Company makes to escape the Photosphere as it crashes down, though some of their number have gone other ways... Their attempt, however, does not go quite as planned, and they find themselves assisted by an unexpected ally...and confronted by an unexpected enemy.
====================<* Photosphere - External Defenses *>===================== The Photosphere is not of this world. From a distance, it looks like a massive orb -- the size of a large city -- smashed down against a local mountain, and cracked open. The orb is made of interlocked hexagons of some translucent golden substance, and within, powerful technology can be seen. This place is not safe to approach. First, one without the proper mechanisms will encounter a shimmering barrier of light that repulses all but the strongest ARMs. Second, there are patrols of Metal Demons and their beasts, all keeping a close eye on the Photosphere.
DG: A party led by Ratatoskr is now entering Photosphere - Escape. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
===============================================<* Photosphere - Escape *>===============================================
=============================================<* CHALLENGE - No One Stops *>=============================================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
It starts with a sudden impact of mental anguish being pressed into your
neural receptors. It's terribly painful but brief, then a loudspeaker turns
on in the distance and you hear Id's voice.
"Did you think you could just leave...?" His voice is absent the usual rage
and fury. If anything, it's tired, but most of all it's empty. "You cut my
brother down like an animal... and you think you can just leave?"
"I'd want it to hurt. I'd want it to hurt and hurt and hurt and I wouldn't
want it to stop. I would never want to get used to it. Isn't that right,
Ruby...?"
"So I won't stop. I don't have the luxury to stop. I will kill you and kill
you and kill you and kill you. That boy you called Fei can't stop me
anymore..."
"After all..."
"He was never real..."
Rather than strike directly, a crimson blast suddenly blasts through several
walls and into the ceiling before your group, sending a hefty amount of
debris blocking your escape!
=Dungeon Conditions: Overwhelm================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
There are two very good pieces of news to be had, within an indeterminate but assuredly small-ish number of moments in which they occur. One, Riesenlied has been freed of Mother's control, and as such Mother cannot feed on the Ley. Two, Mother cannot feed on the Ley because she is dead. If these were the only two events to happen, this would be an ideal case scenario for all involved.
"Did you think you could just leave...?]" A voice sounds more clearly across a loudspeaker than loudspeakers should be able to convey. It's scary, almost like they were whispering in one's ear. They sound sick of it all, but... too exhausted to carry the usual anger and fury. "You cut my brother down like an animal... and you think you can just leave?]"
They're not there to be answered to. It'd be hard for them to hear under the sound of so much metal buckling, collapsing, squealing. There is destruction raining everywhere.
"I'd want it to hurt. I'd want it to hurt and hurt and hurt and I wouldn't want it to stop. I would never want to get used to it. Isn't that right, Ruby...?"
Can the Photosphere, as a structure, cry uncle? If you try really hard to imagine it, the sound of those support structures squealing do sound kind of like someone saying 'uncle.'
"So I won't stop. I don't have the luxury to stop. I will kill you and kill you and kill you and kill you. That boy you called Fei can't stop me anymore..."
A crimson blast streaks through the corridors. It's a narrow miss... as far as people are concerned. As for the structure itself, the turquoise-tinged metal halls disintegrate outright as the red blast disperses and flares out from a ceiling whose make barely withstands it. No, that's a lie. That ceiling did not withstand it. It's not a ceiling any more. It is rubble. Rubble that happens to fall in the way of... somewhere else. Maybe not safety, but somewhere else. Everyone involved wants to be somewhere else, and this is the purest available example of 'somewhere else' that is being denied.
"After all... he was never real..."
"Hyahaha---!!" Wait. That laughter. That crimson peeking through dried quicksilver... that segmented metallic tail... and, um, is that a corpse of someone in armor they have slung over their shoulder?
"So their name was Ruby all along... it was Ruby!" Um. That sounds suspiciously happy for being IN THE MIDDLE OF A PROBABLE APOCALYPSE. There's no real time to argue. Whoever's nearby, there is the unmistakable visage of a particular and peculiar Hyadean who carries this cargo of a corpse like it were the most precious thing ever. "They'll know where Ruby went...! When I--" With a free hand, the squirrel-like Hyadean tries to blast away the rubble with a compressed air blast from their palm. It hardly shifts. "--when I... argh!! Come ooooonnnnn!!"
Rather than do anything reasonable like 'set the dead body down,' they seem to withdraw some sort of weird blade thing with a gun trigger of some make. Was it the corpse's weapon? Who knows. What he hopes to achieve by sticking the blade inside the rubble and then try to pry out an opening, well, maybe that sentence answers it itself. The eccentric soldier's ceaseless grin seems to be rapidly crossing the threshold to a frustrated grimace. If the sound of Id's voice is just enough to take it to 'grimace...' then maybe he doesn't quite understand how much trouble he - or anyone else that might be nearby - is truly in.
You know, before factoring the violent rocking and unstable descent of the thing they're on. That's a factor too...
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
There are two very good pieces of news to be had, within an indeterminate but assuredly small-ish number of moments in which they occur. One, Riesenlied has been freed of Mother's control, and as such Mother cannot feed on the Ley. Two, Mother cannot feed on the Ley because she is dead. If these were the only two events to happen, this would be an ideal case scenario for all involved.
"Did you think you could just leave...?" A voice sounds more clearly across a loudspeaker than loudspeakers should be able to convey. It's scary, almost like they were whispering in one's ear. They sound sick of it all, but... too exhausted to carry the usual anger and fury. "You cut my brother down like an animal... and you think you can just leave?]"
They're not there to be answered to. It'd be hard for them to hear under the sound of so much metal buckling, collapsing, squealing. There is destruction raining everywhere.
"I'd want it to hurt. I'd want it to hurt and hurt and hurt and I wouldn't want it to stop. I would never want to get used to it. Isn't that right, Ruby...?"
Can the Photosphere, as a structure, cry uncle? If you try really hard to imagine it, the sound of those support structures squealing do sound kind of like someone saying 'uncle.'
"So I won't stop. I don't have the luxury to stop. I will kill you and kill you and kill you and kill you. That boy you called Fei can't stop me anymore..."
A crimson blast streaks through the corridors. It's a narrow miss... as far as people are concerned. As for the structure itself, the turquoise-tinged metal halls disintegrate outright as the red blast disperses and flares out from a ceiling whose make barely withstands it. No, that's a lie. That ceiling did not withstand it. It's not a ceiling any more. It is rubble. Rubble that happens to fall in the way of... somewhere else. Maybe not safety, but somewhere else. Everyone involved wants to be somewhere else, and this is the purest available example of 'somewhere else' that is being denied.
"After all... he was never real..."
"Hyahaha---!!" Wait. That laughter. That crimson peeking through dried quicksilver... that segmented metallic tail... and, um, is that a corpse of someone in armor they have slung over their shoulder?
"So their name was Ruby all along... it was Ruby!" Um. That sounds suspiciously happy for being IN THE MIDDLE OF A PROBABLE APOCALYPSE. There's no real time to argue. Whoever's nearby, there is the unmistakable visage of a particular and peculiar Hyadean who carries this cargo of a corpse like it were the most precious thing ever. "They'll know where Ruby went...! When I--" With a free hand, the squirrel-like Hyadean tries to blast away the rubble with a compressed air blast from their palm. It hardly shifts. "--when I... argh!! Come ooooonnnnn!!"
Rather than do anything reasonable like 'set the dead body down,' they seem to withdraw some sort of weird blade thing with a gun trigger of some make. Was it the corpse's weapon? Who knows. What he hopes to achieve by sticking the blade inside the rubble and then try to pry out an opening, well, maybe that sentence answers it itself. The eccentric soldier's ceaseless grin seems to be rapidly crossing the threshold to a frustrated grimace. If the sound of Id's voice is just enough to take it to 'grimace...' then maybe he doesn't quite understand how much trouble he - or anyone else that might be nearby - is truly in.
You know, before factoring the violent rocking and unstable descent of the thing they're on. That's a factor too...
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
There are two very good pieces of news to be had, within an indeterminate but assuredly small-ish number of moments in which they occur. One, Riesenlied has been freed of Mother's control, and as such Mother cannot feed on the Ley. Two, Mother cannot feed on the Ley because she is dead. If these were the only two events to happen, this would be an ideal case scenario for all involved.
"Did you think you could just leave...?" A voice sounds more clearly across a loudspeaker than loudspeakers should be able to convey. It's scary, almost like they were whispering in one's ear. They sound sick of it all, but... too exhausted to carry the usual anger and fury. "You cut my brother down like an animal... and you think you can just leave?"
They're not there to be answered to. It'd be hard for them to hear under the sound of so much metal buckling, collapsing, squealing. There is destruction raining everywhere.
"I'd want it to hurt. I'd want it to hurt and hurt and hurt and I wouldn't want it to stop. I would never want to get used to it. Isn't that right, Ruby...?"
Can the Photosphere, as a structure, cry uncle? If you try really hard to imagine it, the sound of those support structures squealing do sound kind of like someone saying 'uncle.'
"So I won't stop. I don't have the luxury to stop. I will kill you and kill you and kill you and kill you. That boy you called Fei can't stop me anymore..."
A crimson blast streaks through the corridors. It's a narrow miss... as far as people are concerned. As for the structure itself, the turquoise-tinged metal halls disintegrate outright as the red blast disperses and flares out from a ceiling whose make barely withstands it. No, that's a lie. That ceiling did not withstand it. It's not a ceiling any more. It is rubble. Rubble that happens to fall in the way of... somewhere else. Maybe not safety, but somewhere else. Everyone involved wants to be somewhere else, and this is the purest available example of 'somewhere else' that is being denied.
"After all... he was never real..."
"Hyahaha---!!" Wait. That laughter. That crimson peeking through dried quicksilver... that segmented metallic tail... and, um, is that a corpse of someone in armor they have slung over their shoulder?
"So their name was Ruby all along... it was Ruby!" Um. That sounds suspiciously happy for being IN THE MIDDLE OF A PROBABLE APOCALYPSE. There's no real time to argue. Whoever's nearby, there is the unmistakable visage of a particular and peculiar Hyadean who carries this cargo of a corpse like it were the most precious thing ever. "They'll know where Ruby went...! When I--" With a free hand, the squirrel-like Hyadean tries to blast away the rubble with a compressed air blast from their palm. It hardly shifts. "--when I... argh!! Come ooooonnnnn!!"
Rather than do anything reasonable like 'set the dead body down,' they seem to withdraw some sort of weird blade thing with a gun trigger of some make. Was it the corpse's weapon? Who knows. What he hopes to achieve by sticking the blade inside the rubble and then try to pry out an opening, well, maybe that sentence answers it itself. The eccentric soldier's ceaseless grin seems to be rapidly crossing the threshold to a frustrated grimace. If the sound of Id's voice is just enough to take it to 'grimace...' then maybe he doesn't quite understand how much trouble he - or anyone else that might be nearby - is truly in.
You know, before factoring the violent rocking and unstable descent of the thing they're on. That's a factor too...
DG: Ratatoskr has used his Tool Derelict Relic toward his party's challenge, No One Stops.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
The Photosphere is falling apart. And Talise never got within eyesight of mother. The group was far too busy helping the Tainted escape the Gutter.
She didn't even get close enough to see who the hell's shouting through the loudspeaker. Rastaban in hand, the swordswoman frowns and looks up towards the nearest bulkhead, her teeth closing around her lower lip.
"Fei?" she murmurs as the name comes up, audible even over the groan of support structures. "I hope he's not gonna make me regret hauling his butt out of Filgaia Jail."
Then a blast of red energy shreds through the corridors. "Yeek!" Talise gasps, recoiling from it as it comes entirely close to her for comfort. Rubble showers down around her as she staggers through it, shoving aside chunks of debris.
"Come on!" she shouts back to the group that came with her. She'd lost track of Tethelle, Lanval, Rosaline and Layna in the fighting; she'll have to hope they made it to safety. All she can do is get the others out. Especially Sephilia.
And someone else. Talise blinks as she realize who's up ahead, lugging a dead body. With a huff, she sheathes her sword, then rolls her shoulders beneath her battered armour. As she moves towards Ratatoskr, she shakes her head. "Hey. Listen, okay? You can't fight your way through every problem that's in your way. I know it's heroic to best things in combat, but a debris pile can't fight you. Besides...."
Talise slams her palms together before grabbing ahold of a massive chunk of fallen ceiling. Beneath her armour, her muscles strain and bunch as she moves herself beneath it, pushing it up over her head and holding both it and the debris atop it up like an arch.
"...Sometimes you can win by benching things," she grates through the strain of shouldering that weight. "Quick, get through!"
DG: Talise Gianfair has used her Tool Ogre Power Gauntlets toward her party's challenge, No One Stops.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephy's easy enough to pick out, riding, pale, on Chauncey's back. "We gotta get out of here," she cries. Then there's red energy and...it's liftin' time.
Chauncey's good at liftin'! He helps out! It's good and pure that this giant stuffed doll is here today with his cute buddy Sephy!
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, No One Stops.
<Pose Tracker> Dahlia has posed.
This had been a pretty eventful day, certainly. Much of it had been filled with fighting, with only a small amount of rest between each interval. Everyone was tired, exhausted, and just when it seemed like the fighting would reach an end...
...Things got worse.
Layna and her crew had been guarding one of the pathways to Mother, preventing anyone from getting in to interfere with the Drifters who arrived to challenge her. But at the end, when the Photosphere began to rise, Layna left to investigate something that was bothering her, leaving Dahlia, her quartermaster, in charge of the crew.
There were many escape vessels throughout the Photosphere, but they hadn't found enough for the entire crew to escape with yet.
And so, Dahlia, Victoria, and the last remaining contingent of the crew can be found running through the halls when they're abruptly halted by a sudden impact of anguish, followed by a voice over the speakers.
"Who is..." She starts, but then, she suddenly feels an intense feeling of danger. "Everyone, get back!"
The crew leap backwards right as a crimson blast sears through the Photosphere like it was nothing, showering debris into the floors below.
Dahlia frowns and steps to the edge of the hole, looking over.
"...Damn, this pathway's been cut off. Come on, let's turn around and look for another exit." She turns and starts to walk away, when the voice from the floor below gives her pause. "Is that...?"
Dahlia peeks her head over the edge of the hole, and indeed - they've found Talise and the others.
"Talise! Thank goodness we found you! It's Dahlia - hold on, there are others here with me. We can give you a hand." She calls down. Soon enough a rope descends from the ceiling from which a bunch of pirates descend to help give a hand in shifting rubble aside!
Victoria's the last one down, tossing the rope down the hole before leaping down on her own to join them, without any apparent difficulty.
"How're you lot holding up? You seen the Captain?" Victoria asks, looking around to see who all is there.
DG: Dahlia has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, No One Stops.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ceimglace has posed.
"You know." Ceimglace says, to no one in particular, "I told myself finding myself near major centers of battle would be stupidity. I should have known better. I really, really should have known better. After all, the last one definitely dropped a bombshell on my head, so why not this one too? That's discounting Azado, that was just a major one-off, but still. Althena, for your own goddess sake, whyyyyyyy."
"Hey, what the heck-" Ceimglace dodges a blast of energy behind Talise, grumbling as she follows her new leader to a wall. Talise does get an appreciative hum from the girl, even as she starts pushing a couple of things out of the way. "Move it- Sephilia, get out! You too, mister newcomer! Welcome to shenanigans!"
Ceimglace isn't too worried about going last. Something something lived a good long immortal life something something.
DG: Seraph Ceimglace has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, No One Stops.
===============================================<* Photosphere - Escape *>===============================================
=============================================<* CHALLENGE - No One Stops *>=============================================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
It starts with a sudden impact of mental anguish being pressed into your
neural receptors. It's terribly painful but brief, then a loudspeaker turns
on in the distance and you hear Id's voice.
"Did you think you could just leave...?" His voice is absent the usual rage
and fury. If anything, it's tired, but most of all it's empty. "You cut my
brother down like an animal... and you think you can just leave?"
"I'd want it to hurt. I'd want it to hurt and hurt and hurt and I wouldn't
want it to stop. I would never want to get used to it. Isn't that right,
Ruby...?"
"So I won't stop. I don't have the luxury to stop. I will kill you and kill
you and kill you and kill you. That boy you called Fei can't stop me
anymore..."
"After all..."
"He was never real..."
Rather than strike directly, a crimson blast suddenly blasts through several
walls and into the ceiling before your group, sending a hefty amount of
debris blocking your escape!
=Dungeon Conditions: Overwhelm================================================
==========================================<* Photosphere - Escape - Round 1 *>========================================== ===============================================< Results - No One Stops >=============================================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ratatoskr 0 --(15)--> 15 Pass Derelict Relic 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Talise Gianfair 0 --(15)--> 15 Pass Ogre Power Gauntlets 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dahlia 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sephilia Lampbright 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Ceimglace 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------< Party >-------------------------------------------------------- Leader: Ratatoskr 0 --(10)--> 10 Fail Conditions: Overwhelm Effects: Strengthen(1) ===================================================< Dream Chasers >====================================================
DG: The party led by Ratatoskr has failed this challenge! The party gained 10 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
It's a lot of rubble. Even with so many hands and claws coming in to help, this might be too much for just people-sized hands. Some of it is so freakin' hot as to be fused together as one great big massive clump o' super-rubble, as if all the rubble here were huddling together both for warmth (technically true) and safety from the fury over yonder.
"Can't fight your way through every problem... can't fight your way through every problem?!" Ratatoskr asks, incredulously, as Talise spites the rubble's machinations by - truly! - lifting such a huge chunk of it that even an industrial Gear would be hard pressed to lift that much at once. It is an awe-inspiring sight.
The floor's knees buckle and gives out. (Floors don't have knees, you say? This one did, but they're gone, because they buckled and gave out.) Ratatoskr clutches the (actually still un)identified body tight as the floor collapses underneath, sending so many interesting people - like an entire pirate crew, a Chauncey, and some kind of floating free mass of ice, and also a famous explorer('s daughter) - as Ratatoskr goes into free-fall facing upwards.
"That debris pile is totally picking a fight!" He starts trying to blast compressed air at it in freefall. Talise will probably be able to catch and shoulder what of it is left, preventing it from squishing the lot of them wherever they land.
Another blast rings out just above them - it's going to be a nasty, nasty fall, but the important thing is that they aren't still there! The question really becomes whether this is taking them anywhere closer to safety.
That's indeterminate.
DG: Talise Gianfair has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Photosphere - Escape *>============================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Machine Lifeforms *>========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
----------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------
Your escape is cut off by a squad of Metal Demons.
"These are the humans that killed Lord Siegfried!" One shouts as they ready
their claws and draw their blades. "Don't let them escape at any cost!"
Another is barely holding together, "How dare you...how dare you kill our
hope...!"
They strike ferociously and with passionate vigor and considerable grief.
They'll throw themselves on your swords to halt your progress. You don't
have much time so whatever you're going to do better be done quick or Id
will reach you.
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Tire=============================================
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"Dahlia!" Talise shouts back as a wave of surprise and relief rolls through her. "C'mon, we're getting the hell out of here!"
She can't answer Victoria. She just doesn't know. "Last we saw her, we were bringing the Tainted back to the Fereshte when we got separated by the whole place coming down."
Then the floor collapses. Talise's eyes go wide.
Ratatoskr is being no help at all. Or maybe more help than he appears. Talise manages to shoulder the worst of the debris, but soon enough, she's falling through the floor to join everyone else on the level below.
Grunting heavily, Talise throws away a huge chunk of metal. It hits a wall and bounces off. "Everyone alright?" she asks, then looks back towards the flirtatious frost Seraph. "Ceimglace, you're not hurt, are you--"
"HEY!" a loud, slightly filtered voice screams.
Talise's expression tightens. She turns towards the other side of the chamber they've fallen into.
There's little time to take stock of things. A group of Metal Demons suddenly come flying at them. A few of them are badly wounded and barely holding together, but they shriek and hurl themselves at the group of diggers anyway, all whirling claws and fangs. "How dare you... HOW DARE YOU KILL LORD SIEGFRIED!!" one of them screams. Talise sucks in a breath as she parries one attack, another, but a demon suddenly looms over her, shrieking violently and brandishing a pair of huge fangs --
There is a sudden *KCHUNG!* of sound, and the Demon suddenly gurgles as he's punched through by something and flung away into a wall.
"I'm sorry, but you're under a misunderstanding!" growls Benedict Greygust, ace courier, as he feeds another bolt into his crossbow. "Talise, Dahlia! The Demon of Elru's going to tear this place apart around us if we don't hurry!"
DG: Talise Gianfair has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Machine Lifeforms.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ceimglace has posed.
The floor gives out, and down everyone goes to the next part(...?) of the Photosphere. Ceimglace takes a nasty hit and roll, going 'gah!' When she stops, she's facedown on the floor, dress on her upper thighs, and one poor knobbly knee all scraped up and bleeding.
In her bag, something goes 'twang' sadly as a piece of string breaks.
She then stops to stare at the Metal Demons, pinching the bridge of her nose with a sigh, before she shifts her weight, and starts going through the bag on her hip. She pulls out a bit of paper before answering Talise. "Just a bit of my pride and dignity, my dear."
Then, she clears her throat, and starts singing, from a bit of scrap of paper that perhaps is nearly as old is she.
"Ever just wanted to stop- do you want to surrender? Or will we have to fight, and prove our vic-tor-y?"
DG: Seraph Ceimglace has used her Tool Song Lyrics toward her party's challenge, Machine Lifeforms.
<Pose Tracker> Dahlia has posed.
"Typical." Dahlia replies with a sigh, shaking her head. "No doubt she's run off to do something foolish and reckless, and will show up at some point completely unharmed."
They get to work trying to remove the debris, but there's a problem...it turns out that the floor can no longer support this many people, and it collapses beneath them. It sends them falling painfully to the floor below, sprawled out. Even Victoria ends up on the floor, having readied herself for the first drop but not the second.
"I-I'm fine. No significant damage here..." Dahlia says with a grunt. The rest of her crew pipes up to the same effect as they all pick themselves up off the floor. But before they can regain their bearings, they have company - and they're not happy.
"We haven't even seen Siegfried - we had nothing to do with his death!" Dahlia urges.
Victoria, meanwhile, sighs and shoulders her spear.
"Screw it, we don't have time for this! If you want to confront us, do it while we're not all trying to escape from this deathtrap!" Victoria says, bringing her hands together. "This place is going down anyway, so-!!"
And then she recites an incantation, sending out a burst of explosive flame toward the floor beneath the Metal Demons, aiming to drop them through it rather than attacking them directly. Some of them will undoubtedly be out of the way, but the others can help deal with those.
Dahlia, meanwhile, just sighs and shakes her head.
DG: Dahlia has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Machine Lifeforms.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
"Oh no, why are these guys--don't they understand that--ugh!" Sephy explains eloquently. Chauncey is passed the folding chair for tutelary smashing. Sephy is not as cheerful and shouty as she usually is--she wants this war to end!
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has used her Tool Folding Chair toward her party's challenge, Machine Lifeforms.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
Ratatoskr lands smoothly, almost cat-like, and that's maybe more thanks to Talise being there to catch the giant smoldering metal chunk that almost turns them into a swirly super-pancake, before reasserting both hands on the armored human corpse. He casts a glance towards the discarded chunk like he really might still try to pick a fight with it. He separates from the group for a moment as if prepped to do just that...
Then there's a group of Metal Demons - his own kind - coming at them, with screams of anguish and fury.
"Huh?" Ratatoskr straightens out. "Lord Siegfried is..."
Over half a year ago...
"He has fallen." Comes the report from an immediate superior. An older, hawk-faced sort.
"He has fallen...? He has fallen..." Ratatoskr, not yet in the blood-hued armor he now wears, but still the trainee armor the younger among their number are assigned. His grin fades, his mouth just a thin line. "The Quarter Knight Berserk..."
"It is so. Word has come from the Quarter Knight Alhazred."
Ratatoskr is stunned into silence. For all of two seconds. "How did..."
"That is all." They cut him off. "Return to your assigned arena."
Ratatoskr thinks to ask again. His superior thinks of a more suitable response with something other than words.
Right now...
"Lord Siegfried is fallen...? Lord Siegfried is fallen..." Ratatoskr repeats those words in a sullen tone, as he watches his own kin try to tear into the lot of them. A stout fellow stops one from sinking their fangs into Talise, claiming a misunderstanding and discussing a most dreaded name. A sing-song voice fills the air. An entire pirate crew moves to try to reassert the same story as they stand and fight. Sephy and Chauncey step up to fight, a folding chair in hand...
"How?!" Ratatoskr yells, incredulously. His fingers twitch around the corpse he holds, shaking... and steady.
His grin widens.
"You gotta tell me how!!" Ratatoskr leaps into the fray, another unwelcome addition - another hurdle towards survival. These Hyadeans, duped by Mother, now entirely hopeless - first for a lost cause, now for a lost commanding figure...
...as he jump-kicks a burly one right in the face with a blast of compressed air to send one launching back. Wait, what?!
"What're you standing around here for?! I'm in the company of those who felled Lord Siegfried..." He's almost choking with... joy?! "This is...!! This is..."
...
"Out of my way!! They're gonna tell me how they did it? They're gonna tell me how they did it!!" Um. This might be the best possible time for there to be a misunderstanding, actually? Ratatoskr fights with a passion and force that seems ENTIRELY UNWARRANTED because... wasn't Siegfried his commander? Why is he so excited?!
DG: Ratatoskr has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Machine Lifeforms. DG: You've already acted for this round. Please wait for the round GM to push +act/complete.
============================<* Photosphere - Escape *>============================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Machine Lifeforms *>========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
----------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------
Your escape is cut off by a squad of Metal Demons.
"These are the humans that killed Lord Siegfried!" One shouts as they ready
their claws and draw their blades. "Don't let them escape at any cost!"
Another is barely holding together, "How dare you...how dare you kill our
hope...!"
They strike ferociously and with passionate vigor and considerable grief.
They'll throw themselves on your swords to halt your progress. You don't
have much time so whatever you're going to do better be done quick or Id
will reach you.
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Tire=============================================
=======================<* Photosphere - Escape - Round 2 *>======================= =========================< Results - Machine Lifeforms >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 15 --(3)--> 18 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Talise Gianfair 15 --(3)--> 18 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dahlia 20 --(3)--> 23 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sephilia Lampbright 20 --(3)--> 23 Pass Folding Chair 2 Combat Effects: Stalwart ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ceimglace 20 --(13)--> 33 Fail Song Lyrics 1 Combat Effects: Embolden and Rally ------------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------- Leader: Ratatoskr 10 --(20)--> 30 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Overwhelm|Tire(2) Effects: Embolden(1) ================================< Dream Chasers >=================================
DG: The party led by Ratatoskr 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> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"WHO SAID THAT," one of the Metal Demons shouts as Ceimglace starts talking. A couple of them start looking around for the source of the voice - and the song.
Sephilia deals with this problem in the simplest way possible: Chauncey just clocks a couple of Demons with his folding chair, then grabs one and gives him a textbook powerbomb. Victoria follows up with a fire burst that torches one of the demons. Drawing Rastaban again, Talise moves to grapple one of them, then pushes them back--
It's Ratatoskr who surprises her most of all. Talise's eyebrows go up as the news of Siegfried's demise seems to energize him - in their favour.
Talise looks at Dahlia and silently mouths 'what the hell.'
"WHAT," one of the Metal Demons shouts at Ratatoskr before staggering back with his face thoroughly kicked. "How can you LIKE that!!" another one shouts before getting clobbered and sailing through a wall.
Talise finally snaps out of her surprise. "COME ON!" she shouts, gesturing and beginning to rush down a side hallway. "We can't afford to dally around!!"
She scoops up Ceimglace with her free arm as she goes, pulling her into her side to usher her off...!
DG: Dahlia has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* Photosphere - Escape *>==========================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Tzadkiel La Kill *>======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
On the plus side, you are able to escape the Bart Missiles. On the negative
side, it seems the Bart Missiles knocked your ledge loose and you're now
tumbling towards Filgaia. To make matters worse, the half-a-Tzadkiel slowly
rises up in view, being lifted up by Weltall-Id.
"Interesting ... but hitting me with a battleship is cheating. Take it
back!"
The Gear then flings the battleship in your direction. There is no escape!
At least, there is no escape unless you can very quickly figure out what
these 'parachutes' the fallen Gebler troopers are wearing are for.
What in the Guardians is a parachute? Good question. It looks like a
tablecloth tied by string that you wear for some reason?
Well here's your chance to experiment! Which may be a wise idea, as the
Photosphere's remains are falling towards the ocean...
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
You finally manage to find yourself out on a ledge on the side of the Photosphere along what seems to be the remains of an observation deck. Up above you and across the way is another observation deck where half of the Tzadkiel lays dormant after being cleaved in twain by Siegfried. Nearby, several fallen Gebler agents lay dead.
Suddenly Weltall-Id swoops around the side of the Photosphere, and hovers in the air before you. Its weapon systems charge as it points a hand in your direction.
Suddenly....!
A slew of Bart Missiles are launched from the Yggdrasill towards the upper platform. The Tzadkiel tilts downward before collapsing towards Weltall-Id. The battleship crashes into Weltall-Id and sends it tumbling downward towards Filgaia.
Unfortunately, several Bart Missiles are were launched in the direction Weltall-Id was moments before and are are now in its path! GET OUT OF THE WAY!!
<Pose Tracker> Dahlia has posed.
There's only one way for them to go after chasing off the anguish-driven Metal Demons. The pathway leads out onto observation deck on the side of the Photosphere - or, at least, what was once an observation deck. Above them, half of a battleship, the once great Tzadkiel, lies dormant. Nearby, the corpses in the gear of Gebler agents can be found. Dahlia, Victoria, and the rest of the pirates don't recognize this, but soon enough something else attracts their attention -
A crimson Gear appears before them, a hand pointed toward them and a feeling of power radiating through the air as its weapon systems charge.
With a curse, Dahlia prepares a spell, but she doesn't know if she'll be quick enough...
Thankfully, there's interference - a hail of missiles slam into the Photosphere, causing the battleship above them to tilt and fall towards the red Gear, sending both of them down toward Filgaia.
Unfortunately, several of the missiles impact their platform as well, and they all begin to fall. There's a cry of panic, but Dahlia tries to stay calm.
"Everyone, look for...something!" She shouts. "Something to stall our descent!"
The only thing on this platform, though, are the dead Gebler soldiers...those packs they're wearing look removable, and like they might be aerodynamic...
"...Uh, Dahlia, don't look now, but..." Victoria points. Rising up below them is the red Gear - Weltall-Id - and its holding the battleship like its nothing.
"Interesting ... but hitting me with a battleship is cheating. Take it back!" A voice - a familiar voice - from the Gear calls out, and the battleship is sent flying...right towards them.
Well then. That certainly adds some extra urgency to the situation.
"ON THE DOUBLE!" Dahlia shouts. "Victoria, get ready to cushion our fall - just in case!"
DG: Dahlia has used her Tool Captain's Telescope toward her party's challenge, Tzadkiel La Kill.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
"My Dad had some interesting observations in his journal that--" Sephy begins, then pauses. "Are going to be very helpful but the top suggestion boils down to 'try to avoid this situation' and we didn't do that, so..." The girl is clinging tightly to Chauncey and trying not to panic about familiar voices and red Gears and missiles and everything else.
She's panicking badly, mind you, but she's trying not to.
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has used her Tool Dad's Journal toward her party's challenge, Tzadkiel La Kill.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
They press on. It's all they can do.
At least, until the crimson Gear appears with seemingly every intent to annihilate them and everyone else on the Photosphere. Behind her gauntlets, Talise's knuckles go white around the hilt of her sword, and she stares into the face of Weltall-Id with eyes slightly wide.
Well, it was a fun life while it lasted, she reflects quietly. And there are a few things I won't have done. And a few people I wouldn't have done, to be honest. But all told--
Bart missiles deprive Talise of the opportunity to have her entire life flash before her eyes and deprive the censors of the opportunity to prune her interpersonal conquests from the playback. The missiles erupt - and when the explosions pass, they're still alive, but beginning to fall.
"I'm less dead than I thought, anyway!" Talise huffs, before the platform gives way and they're all plummeting through the air like dead weights.
Talise falls a little faster than the others because she's in heavy armour. As the ground below grows ever nearer, she does the only thing she can think of in these circumstances.
She pulls out a bottle of something. It has some elegant writing on the label above a picture of a grinning old man.
Old Man Ettlesbury's Olde-Fashioned Heal Berry Schnapps
In midair, Talise takes a long, deep drink.
Then she grabs a Gebler soldier out of the air beside her and smashes the bottle of Old Man Ettlesbury's over the poor dead man's back. Shards of glass trail through the air behind her - but she's left with a smaller, more manageable cutting tool in the form of a broken beer bottle. Gripping the dead soldier, she vigorously hacks the parachute off his back, ending up with a backpack in her hands.
The ground is getting closer. G-forces are building up. Talise is vaguely aware of others in her peripheral vision. But fumbling with the parachute is taking precedence right now. She claws at it a couple of times.
What IS a parachute, anyway, she suddenly asks herself.
And then she yanks on a string, and she yelps in surprise as the entire thing pops open in her face.
The parachute blooms free of its backpack - but Talise unstrapped it to cut it off the guard. She clutches the backpack for dear life, dangling off the parachute as it descends.
Towards Weltall-Id throwing a chunk of the Tzadkiel at them.
"OH FOR THE LOVE OF ALTHENA," Talise shouts as she tries really, really hard to swing herself crazily from side to side in the hopes of somehow swinging herself away from an entire battleship. She ends up spinning through the air like a maniac while dangling by her gloves from a backpack she cut off a dude with her drink.
This must be payback for all those jokes I made about Althena's thong, she manages to grouse internally amidst dizziness and the urge to puke.
DG: Talise Gianfair has used her Tool Old Man Ettlesbury's Olde-Fashioned Schnapps toward her party's challenge, Tzadkiel La Kill.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
There is no confusion nor uncertainty in Ratatoskr's actions. Well, maybe there's confusion, he seems convinced they're the ones that defeated (...killed) Siegfried, and he seems not just 'okay' with it - he seems way, way, way too thrilled about the idea that he's in the company of people who managed it, no matter the number of protests otherwise. There might be a story there. Were there truly Metal Demons disloyal enough to Siegfried that any would celebrate his passing?! That's... a question that they aren't in a position to get answers to.
Ratatoskr, outright, seems entirely willing to help the lot of them out of there! He just fought off his own kind! That bears repeating like he himself does, he just fought off his own kind... for their sake. He's strangers to almost all of them except for Talise!
Talise might have been right back in the Domicile Level - there is something about this one that might make even less sense than what's-their-name, the slug-turned-vampire, what was their name? Actually hold that thought because... they are there.
Ratatoskr's gaze falls upon the fell form of Weltall-Id. He doesn't quite understand what he's feeling inside of him, looking upon such... that. He can't call that 'power.' There's something more. A hand twitches. He can't form words. The solid yellow of his eyes brighten. He doesn't have a word for what this is, whatever it is! He raises his far smaller hand towards that hand, as if to give a high five from countless metres away. The weapons within his limbs are not rated for this level of distance.
"Hyaaaa..." He can't tell if he should laugh or scream.
Then missiles slam into the observation deck, and the corpse he's holding in the other arm flops out, gets itself tangled in one of the strappy bags that are strewn about, and suddenly blossoms in a big dome of fabric. Ratatoskr would be distraught at losing sight of 'Ruby,' but it seems the deceased 'Ruby' will be just... fine? Can corpses ever be 'fine'? Whatever sort of story that will follow the cadaver, that is for another time.
Ratatoskr slams his freed hand against the rattling deck, digging claws as deep as can be. There's a horrid screech before another impact fractions of a second later jar him loose, and he goes into freefall along with the rest. The squirrely horned squirrel-like soldier enters free-fall, watching as so many others now struggle to figure out a way to deal with their falling situation.
He still has no idea how to take seeing something like that big red Gear. What does he call it? The sense to fight but then also not, at the same time? Still, this sort of situation doesn't put him in as great risk of bodily harm as the others. All thanks to the help of a liquid metal patagium (a natural parachute) that extends between his limbs as he starts to drift down at a severe angle. There's so many of them falling, so many of them messing around with the strappy packs... he flexes his tail for balance as he descends at a sharper angle towards the lot of them.
"I won't let it end this way!!" Ratatoskr yells above the rush of air. "No! I won't let it end everrrrrrrr!" Whatever 'it' is, he tries to swoop in towards any number of them to try and grab hands.
He might fly head-long into an emerging parachute, though, which may... complicate some matters.
DG: Ratatoskr has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Tzadkiel La Kill.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ceimglace has posed.
"My notes agree with Sephys'!" Ceimglace adds on from the back. The lithe Seraph looks very annoyed at the thought of this all going even farther south than what it has at the moment, although she sighs as she rips even more off of her dress with a sigh - to use to tie up her long, long hair.
Ceimglace adds on, "If these things are fabric in the packs they've got then it should work like how skirts do... get enough air and they'll billow up." Speaking of skirts, Ceimglace is scrunched up into a bit of a ball to keep herself from going wind-over-ice as she pops whatever is in the pack.
'aaaaaaaa'
DG: Seraph Ceimglace has used her Tool Life's Notes toward her party's challenge, Tzadkiel La Kill.
==========================<* Photosphere - Escape *>==========================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Tzadkiel La Kill *>======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
On the plus side, you are able to escape the Bart Missiles. On the negative
side, it seems the Bart Missiles knocked your ledge loose and you're now
tumbling towards Filgaia. To make matters worse, the half-a-Tzadkiel slowly
rises up in view, being lifted up by Weltall-Id.
"Interesting ... but hitting me with a battleship is cheating. Take it
back!"
The Gear then flings the battleship in your direction. There is no escape!
At least, there is no escape unless you can very quickly figure out what
these 'parachutes' the fallen Gebler troopers are wearing are for.
What in the Guardians is a parachute? Good question. It looks like a
tablecloth tied by string that you wear for some reason?
Well here's your chance to experiment! Which may be a wise idea, as the
Photosphere's remains are falling towards the ocean...
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
=====================<* Photosphere - Escape - Round 3 *>===================== ========================< Results - Tzadkiel La Kill >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ratatoskr 18 --(20)--> 38 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Talise Gianfair 18 --(15)--> 33 Pass Old Man Ettlesbury's Olde-Fashioned 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dahlia 23 --(20)--> 43 Fail Captain's Telescope 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sephilia Lampbright 23 --(15)--> 38 Pass Dad's Journal 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Ceimglace 33 --(20)--> 53 Fail Life's Notes 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Ratatoskr 30 --(10)--> 40 Fail Conditions: Injure(1)|Overwhelm|Stupify(2)|Tire(1) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Ratatoskr has failed this challenge! The party gained 10 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Dahlia has posed.
It turns out, Gebler tech is pretty weird, especially for people from the moon who have only finally managed to acclimate themselves with ordinary Filgaian technology. Maybe if they had a chance to sit down and look over it a bit, but as they're currently plummeting to Filgaia on a slab of Photosphere with a giant (half of a) battleship flying toward them, well...
It complicates things.
It'll be a rough time, but on the plus side, no one's dead yet!
DG: Talise Gianfair has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Photosphere - Escape *>============================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - The Fifth Horseman *>=======================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 |
----------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------
You're in luck! Up ahead is a large hole in the outside wall of the
Photosphere - you just need to make it there, and jump free to freedom!
Unfortunately, creatures are moving to block your path: Five monstrous
figures in cloaks begin stepping out from the shadows, astride Metal Beasts
shaped like angry, carnivorous horses. As they draw forth weapons, a booming
voice echoes out over hidden speakers:
"I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one
of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, "Come!" 2 I
looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he
was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.
When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature
say, "Come!" Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was
given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other.
To him was given a large sword.
When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say,
"Come!" I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was
holding a pair of scales in his hand. 6 Then I heard what sounded like a
voice among the four living creatures, saying, "Two pounds of wheat for a
day's wages, and six pounds of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage
the oil and the wine!"
When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living
creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its
rider was named Death, and Hell followed close behind him. They were given
power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by
the wild beasts of the earth.
And then when he opened the fifth seal, the fifth living creature cried, "Oh
shit, it's Larry! You're /REALLY FUCKED/ now!"
=Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
It complicates things because they land in the back of the Tzadkiel. The huge chunk of battleship hits the ground and slides for awhile. Is this canon?
Fuck if I know if it's canon.
Either way. Talise flies into the back wall of what is presumably a cargo hold of some sort. She bounces off of it and groans, pushing her way back to her feet. Benedict's not far behind her. "Everyone okay?" the swordswoman asks.
The good news is that the hold gapes wide open to the Arctican winter. Shaking off pain and disorientation, Talise begins to move towards that opening.
Before she can get there, there is a grim clatter of hooves. Five Metal Beasts appear, climbing above the edge of the opening. Astride each, a cloaked figure sits, well-armed. The Metal Beasts rumble with menace and hatred.
"Oh, what now," Talize grumbles before a loud voice bursts over the intercom.
"I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, 'Come!' I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest," the voice booms.
"Are you monologuing," Talise shouts as she draws her sword and steps forward and walks -- and then goes still.
"DO NOT INTERRUPT THE ANIMATION BUDGET," the loudspeaker screams at her.
"What the hell is the animation budget!" Talise splutters. It's lost in the voice bellowing, "When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, 'Come!' Then another horse came out, a fiery red one...."
It goes on like this. Talise keeps punching the open air but we don't care about her because she's not on screen right now. Thousands upon thousands of dollars are spent lovingly animating the five riders.
Wait, five? " And then when he opened the fifth seal, the fifth living creature cried, "Oh shit, it's Larry! You're REALLY FUCKED now!"
Talise pauses for a moment.
"You know what? This man makes perfect sense," says Talise Gianfair from a world where there are heroes named Jessica and Kyle and who got her sword from a man named Fredo who used to travel with a man named Louie.
Then it turns into a fight. Talise ends up knocking the helmet off the second horseman in the course of a duel.
The distinctively redheaded and freckle-faced horsemen of the lambocalypse behind it splutters at her before stuffing his helmet back on.
DG: Talise Gianfair has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Fifth Horseman.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia Lampbright gapes in awe. "This feels historic," she says, jotting down notes in her journal, for the horsemen's introduction. She pauses for a moment, checking her work, then slams the journal shut and sticks it in her satchel.
"Okay. Now we know who these guys are...and for posterity, how bad they're gonna get their BUTTS KICKED by us! Come on, Chauncey, let's enter into legend!"
Chauncey is passed the folding chair, in accordance with the prophecy, and as was foretold, slams it into faces, up to and including Larry's.
DG: Sephilia Lampbright has used her Tool Folding Chair toward her party's challenge, The Fifth Horseman.
<Pose Tracker> Dahlia has posed.
With a grunt, Dahlia forces herself to her feet, using her axe to support her. She's looking a little beaten up, but overall alright. The rest of the crew is in a similar condition.
"Nothing Lysander won't be able to fix, once we reunite with him." She replies, pushing herself to her feet and shouldering her axe.
"Really making me reconsider this damn 'goody-two-shoes' business...try to save the world and you get blown up by some asshole you weren't even fighting..." Victoria mutters standing up. She freezes at the sound of hooves, however, as five riders appear at the entrance of the ship. She sighs, massaging her forehead.
"And then there's these assholes with their damn flowery speech, giving me a headache!" She pauses, as the introduction of Larry clarifies their situation. "...Okay, that one I didn't expect."
Victoria rolls her neck and cracks her knuckles before readying her spear.
"Fine. I really feel like blowing something up right now, anyway. Thanks for volunteering!" With an incantation Victoria sends out a fireball toward the horsemen which explodes violently. Dahlia pursues it, whipping out her large boarding axe and looking to cause some damage.
DG: Dahlia has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Fifth Horseman.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
Somewhere in the free-fall, Ratatoskr gets bludgeoned by someone's parachute opening in his face. As far as he kmows, that's the last he's going to see of them! So much about them he hasn't seen before. So much about them he hasn't heard before. So much about them...
That he hasn't fought before.
There's a thunderous impact of a nature he can't describe but there's a hole in the Photosphere and some means underfoot to convey them towards it - some stable means of being in which to witness five figures in cloaks arising alongside their Metal Beast steeds.
"Conquest... War... Famine... Pestilence..." Ratatoskr speaks these names with reverence as he beholds them. "It is true? It is true!" The squirrel-like soldier's stance lowers to something more fight-ready, arms lifted upwards in a defensive posture. His solid yellow eyes light up more. His grin widens. "So before us, the ultimate harbingers of--"
Then there's Larry.
"Larry? Larry's here? Larry's here." Ratatoskr's excitement gives way to a more measured tone of speaking, unlike himself when the whole event has been nothing but excitement and history and now, here they all stand, against the Five Horsemen. "You brought out all the stops..."
He is truly bowed, humbled, and impressed. He might now comprehend the full severity of what is before th--
"Dibs on all five!!" Ratatoskr cackles as he hurls himself into the fray.
DG: Ratatoskr has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, The Fifth Horseman.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ceimglace has posed.
Ceimglace lands a bit away from everyone else as a nasty gust of wind sends her head over heels into the ground. She sort of just sits there, face-first into the dirt, pondering life, love, and her long existance. Meanwhine, in her bag, something jangles sadly. With that sound, it probably should be a jingle rather than a jangle.
Eventually she rolls over to her behind, looking up at the Fourt Horsemen and Larry. "Okay. That's fine." But she points at Ratatoskr. "But we picked up our Larry on the way down, too."
That and Famine (Of Alcohol only), is Ser-aph Not Appearing In This Dig.
"This is a call to arms, gather soldiers - it's not time to let go, of our dreams...!" It's in tune to what she was using earlier.
DG: Seraph Ceimglace has used her Tool Song Lyrics toward her party's challenge, The Fifth Horseman.
============================<* Photosphere - Escape *>============================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - The Fifth Horseman *>=======================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 |
----------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------
You're in luck! Up ahead is a large hole in the outside wall of the
Photosphere - you just need to make it there, and jump free to freedom!
Unfortunately, creatures are moving to block your path: Five monstrous
figures in cloaks begin stepping out from the shadows, astride Metal Beasts
shaped like angry, carnivorous horses. As they draw forth weapons, a booming
voice echoes out over hidden speakers:
"I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one
of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, "Come!" 2 I
looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he
was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.
When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature
say, "Come!" Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was
given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other.
To him was given a large sword.
When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say,
"Come!" I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was
holding a pair of scales in his hand. 6 Then I heard what sounded like a
voice among the four living creatures, saying, "Two pounds of wheat for a
day's wages, and six pounds of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage
the oil and the wine!"
When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living
creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its
rider was named Death, and Hell followed close behind him. They were given
power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by
the wild beasts of the earth.
And then when he opened the fifth seal, the fifth living creature cried, "Oh
shit, it's Larry! You're /REALLY FUCKED/ now!"
=Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
=======================<* Photosphere - Escape - Round 4 *>======================= =========================< Results - The Fifth Horseman >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 38 --(0)--> 38 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Talise Gianfair 33 --(0)--> 33 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dahlia 43 --(0)--> 43 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sephilia Lampbright 38 --(0)--> 38 Pass Folding Chair 2 Combat Effects: Stalwart ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ceimglace 53 --(0)--> 53 Pass Song Lyrics 1 Combat Effects: Embolden and Rally ------------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------- Leader: Ratatoskr 75 --(35)--> 110 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(2) Effects: Embolden(1) ================================< Dream Chasers >=================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Ratatoskr has successfully explored Photosphere - Escape!
============================<* Photosphere - Escape *>============================
========================<* CHALLENGE - 10 Point Landing *>========================
|Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 4 |
----------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------
Easy peasy!
You jump and a perfectly timed explosion erupts behind you, framing your
body exquisitely against the wreckage behind you. You float down at a
comfortable pace towards the ground but are in luck. A small herd of fleeing
horses are passing by and you happen to land right on top of one, facing the
correct direction and everything.
The horses seem to appreciate your landing and instantly obey your requests
to get the heck out of here. Or maybe they just want to get the heck out of
here anyway. But they do seem very impressed.
You know. For horses.
=Dungeon Conditions: Vault====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Everyone gets out their weapons. Chauncey arms his folding chair. Talise whirls the great sword of 4,500 long-gone years. Victoria and Dahlia ready their arms and bring their skills as hardy pirates to bear. Ratatoskr hurls himself forward. Seraph Ceimglace puts out a call to arms to muster high spirits. Ahead of them, five great horsemen - four and Larry - gallop in slow motion to meet them.
The two sides crash into each other, and--
"Yeah, not gonna lie," says a weedy animator, looking up from his table. "You guys spent the animation budget on that horsemen speech."
On the other side of the fourth wall, the screen hiccups and stutters. When it comes back, there are soda cups with legs prancing through a corridor as someone sings.
"Let's all go to the lo~bby~"
"Let's all go to the lo~bby~"
"Let's all go to the lo~bby~"
"And buy ourselves a treat!"
*bip*
The screen comes back in with a slightly off-model Talise kicking Horseman #1 off his horse and tossing him out an airlock. "Let's saddle these ponies up and ride!" she shouts before jumping on the horse and leaping dramatically off the edge of the Tzadkiel chunk and into tomorrow. Sephy, Benedict, the Empress crew and Ceimglace follow.
So does Ratatoskr, but the animators forgot to put pants on him.
<Pose Tracker> Dahlia has posed.
It truly was an epic battle. A battle so great and fierce it can't be portrayed on screen. It's hard to tell exactly what happened, but at the end of it Dahlia and Victoria have claimed one of the horses and the rest of the crew are nowhere to be seen.
(It's fine, they're around, just off-screen to save budget.)
"Agreed. I think I need to return to the Empress and have a good, long drink after all this." Dahlia replies with a sigh. Victoria nods grimly.
"Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good right about now."
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephy is already bustling to perform healing magic where needed.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
Larry and Ratatoskr, in one brief shot, seem to be giving one another mutual noogies. That is how it appears on the surface. Deep down, it is perhaps one of the most initimate, delicate exchanges that teeter on the precipice of oblivion for either, or... no they're kind of giving one another noogies with an increasingly intense look on Ratatoskr's grinning face.
...ONE INTERMISSION LATER...
A horse is riding on top of Ratatoskr. How can this be? It is completely nonsensical, all the way down.
BACK TO OUR HEROES...
As Fox Company escapes on horseback, the wintry winds of Elru whip about them. Elru is inhospitable even on the best of days, but there is something of a refreshing chill about it. A sense that Filgaia, in part, is breathing a sigh of relief as the forces of nature (the Guardians) all start to realign themselves to a new era where a World Eater isn't bearing down on their backs.
Somewhere in the distance, Ratatoskr starts making aggressive gestures against a brewing blizzard. Nothing profane, nothing untoward, just trying to strike his fists into the snow. He seems very into this, for some reason.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ceimglace has posed.
Ceimglace rides side-saddle.
She watches Ratatoskr shake his fist at a brewing blizzard, and the Ice Seraph is amused, munching on ice of her own creation with a thoughtful humming noise.