2019-03-04: Remnants
- Log: Remnants
- Cast: Josephine Lovelace, Lunata Croze, Elhaym van Houten, Shalune Amira, Fei Fong Wong, Lily Keil, Ethius Hesiod
- Where: Krosse - Manor District
- Date: March 03, 2019
- Summary: The Black Wolves head to the Research Hall, in search of the other half of the lock preventing them from accessing the court. In the process, some hints of what has been wrought within are uncovered.
DG: A party led by Josephine Lovelace is now entering Krosse Castle - Research Hall. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
======================<* Krosse Castle - Research Hall *>======================= =======================<* CHALLENGE - In Want Of A Key *>======================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Krosse Castle has become consumed by the powers wrought by the Anomalous Orb over a year prior. This factor, along with the presence of the now hideously transmuted but still fervently loyal army, makes access to the castle difficult and the research hall moreso. Still, by force, trickery, or stealth, you have ascended to the hall where the Anomalous Orb was said to be studied. Shadows crawl the walls more thickly here; the torchlight has gained an uncanny cast. The pressure of the domain here is weighty, yet, you are strong enough to withstand it. But what stands in the way of your search for what might have become of the Orb is a single heavy oak door. It's locked, and you do not have the key. Time is of the essence. Perhaps now would be a good time to use direct measures. =Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous, Secret======================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
The military wing had revealed not only evidence of Symbological glyphs of a style familiar to Josie... but a part of the work keeping the way to the throneroom sealed.
But analysis of the door had made one thing clear -- there was more than one such lock in place. Another working needed to be shattered.
Where else but the research hall?
Particularly when the presence of Malevolence practically oozes along the walls, smearing its filth further throughout the castle. It's stronger here -- without question, the Orb empowering the Domain had been here recently. But it wouldn't have been left here, would it?
The stairs up were perilous, and Josie is down to one remaining core. She'd left the cannon, still draped in her tattered jacket, downstairs. Here and now, she's squaring off at a door that absolutely refused to budge, hands on her hips.
"I don't suppose anyone has the key...?" she wonders, before sighing, dropping her back, and crouching to rifle through its contents.
"Well, time for the direct approach, eh? Besides, it's not my castle," she comments with a rather brittle lopsided smile, before introducing the mattock to the door.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Well-Used Mattock toward her party's challenge, In Want Of A Key.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata and Shalune had a detour between the military wing and this one.
That is to say, Lunata went all the way back to the Aveh Desert to finally finish her, in Shalune's words, self-appointed crusade against a white automaton Gear that was guilty of the crime of putzing about an underground sand cavern.
It kinda sucked.
"Malevolent doors can still burn, right...?" Lunata shakes her head as she grabs hold of the Evil cord starter and revs;
I shall not be so debased as to enflame with crude -gasoline- you cretin--
"Just shut up and get lit already!" Lunata barks at her eyeball-possessing evil sword.
yes ma'am
Fire Sword -> Door
DG: Lunata Croze has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, In Want Of A Key.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly makes a low choking noise in the back of her throat as she walks with the others up towards this looming door, barred by Malevolence and by despair and by Symbology wrought from Josie's father. Her eyes are watering.
This is not because she is angry -- though she is displeased with Josie's father, if only by extension.
This is not because she is sad -- though she worries for the fate of Krosse.
This is not because she is anxious -- though she does have a concerned feeling in her heart for what it is that other people may suffer and endure. They are hardened veteran drifters now but the people of Krosse are not.
This is because...
Elly is coming down off the recovery period of an Omegasol. She coughs into a white cloth for the last time, sniffs deeply, and shakes her head. "Whew," she says.
"The key," Elly tells Josie, "is --" And as she says this she raises her right hand, fingers curling from pinky to ring to middle to pointer to thumb into a fist as the Etheric tension grows at one of the stone joints at the top of the door, gathered in potentia.
"MAGIC!!"
The potential bursts, the rock blooming like stone flowers!
"Was that too much?" she asks the others, over her shoulder. "I'm trying to stay lighthearted... It's emotionally important here."
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Inventory Clutter toward her party's challenge, In Want Of A Key.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune has been having a bit of a rough time of things. Already subdued by the sensation of the domain around her, she's trying to keep her spirits high - but at the same time she's kind of glancing at Lunata every so often out of a mixture of worry and concern and irritation, rather obviously not speaking to her but purely unable to keep away by sheer virtue of Being A Fussy Shalune Blob.
Around her feet gambols what can only be described as a Mini Big Shal, though one that looks decidedly less round and friendly and more round and mischievous, black and grinning and fitting in with the domain's presence far more well than it ought to. The-- robot? doll?-- appears to have a mind of its own, but at least it seems to be happy to escort Shalune rather than do anything untoward.
Shalune is trying her best not to think about that, or about how it works, or about what she's going to say to Lunata later. Instead she gives Josie a slight grin, scratching at her cheek. "W-well, um, I'm not sure I can get a full material summon off, but-- really, we shouldn't need it if we can just distort the wood and tear it apart..." she mumbles to herself as she fumbles in a pocket for her Medium, concentrating upon it.
Ultimately, the jolt of sorcery is simply building off of the work that Elly's Ether pulse has started, further growing and warping the stone around the door to pressure the wood right out of its joints with a pained squeal of twisting material.
DG: Shalune Amira has used her Tool Material - Dinowhatsit toward her party's challenge, In Want Of A Key.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei looks at the door.
The door looks at Fei. Look, it's locked and it's not actually looking at Fei but it's a door. And Fei can FEEL it looking at him. Already. At the beginning of this dungeon even!
Fei is quiet as Josie goes at it with the mattock.
He thinks back to the Berry Cave and that Duplicator Door that he spent hours trying to force open.
He thinks to Serpent Coils where he had to look all over the place for that skeleton key.
He thinks to all the times a door has been placed before him and his door and an intense rage bubble beneath the surface that can give Fei power if he chooses to but tap into it.
And he does.
"DOOR!" Fei shouts, suddenly firing a red chi blast at the thing.
He lowers his hands after. "...Right."
DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool Mother's Cross toward his party's challenge, In Want Of A Key.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
No, Lily Keil doesn't have the key. She's been wandering around the castle in stealth, and met up with the others, having missed the outing to the Military Wing for other purposes. And now--
"Anything can burn, if you apply enough fire," Lily tells Lunata, entirely deadpan.. though Elly's drama gets a lifted eyebrow. "...It's fine," she tells her, and walks up with the group, studying the door with her eyes--its composition, its size, the distance...
...The sheer power Fei lets loose at it on top of a Material summon partially manifesting.
She looks at the assembled destruction, and smiles for a moment.
The next moment she steps up, encases her fists in the power of the v o i d, and goes to shove whatever is left down.
DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, In Want Of A Key.
======================<* Krosse Castle - Research Hall *>======================= =======================<* CHALLENGE - In Want Of A Key *>======================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Krosse Castle has become consumed by the powers wrought by the Anomalous Orb over a year prior. This factor, along with the presence of the now hideously transmuted but still fervently loyal army, makes access to the castle difficult and the research hall moreso. Still, by force, trickery, or stealth, you have ascended to the hall where the Anomalous Orb was said to be studied. Shadows crawl the walls more thickly here; the torchlight has gained an uncanny cast. The pressure of the domain here is weighty, yet, you are strong enough to withstand it. But what stands in the way of your search for what might have become of the Orb is a single heavy oak door. It's locked, and you do not have the key. Time is of the essence. Perhaps now would be a good time to use direct measures. =Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous, Secret======================================
======================<* Krosse Castle - Research Hall *>======================= =======================<* CHALLENGE - In Want Of A Key *>======================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Krosse Castle has become consumed by the powers wrought by the Anomalous Orb over a year prior. This factor, along with the presence of the now hideously transmuted but still fervently loyal army, makes access to the castle difficult and the research hall moreso. Still, by force, trickery, or stealth, you have ascended to the hall where the Anomalous Orb was said to be studied. Shadows crawl the walls more thickly here; the torchlight has gained an uncanny cast. The pressure of the domain here is weighty, yet, you are strong enough to withstand it. But what stands in the way of your search for what might have become of the Orb is a single heavy oak door. It's locked, and you do not have the key. Time is of the essence. Perhaps now would be a good time to use direct measures. =Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous, Secret======================================
=================<* Krosse Castle - Research Hall - Round 1 *>================== =========================< Results - In Want Of A Key >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Well-Used Mattock 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fei Fong Wong 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Mother's Cross 4 Brute Effects: None -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elhaym van Houten 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Inventory Clutter 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lunata Croze 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shalune Amira 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Material - Dinowhatsit 2 Brute Effects: Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Overzealous(2)|Secret(2) Effects: Cleanse|Resilient(1)|Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Lunata Croze has drawn a new Challenge.
=====================<* Krosse Castle - Research Hall *>====================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Malfunctioning Lift *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The research hall takes up two levels of the castle total, largely as a result of the size of the main library. To access the upper level, a variety of measures are in place through the hall, including stairs, library-style ladders, and of course, lifts. This particular lift should provide you with access to the upper floor, save for the fact that it's clearly stuck -- pushing the button just makes the mechanism grind uselessly for a moment before it stops, as if it's jammed. Perhaps adding some force to the equation might help matters. =Dungeon Conditions: Exhaust==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
The mattock meets the door with a solid 'thunk'. There is now a good-sized divot in the door.
"Give it a shot. What's the worse that could happen?" Josie says to Shalune, waving her right hand stiffly towards the door as she backs away -- not the least because Lunata is brandishing a flaming devilblade at it -- mattock still slung over a shoulder.
Shalune does indeed draw upon the power of the Medium.
Just after Lunata introduces her sword to the door.
Before Fei vents a long-kindled burst of rage at the door.
Well before Elly -- and then Lily -- demonstrate the power of the Etheric arts at the door.
Josie lifts an eyebrow at the aftermath.
There is no door here anymore. Just a yawning portal, permitting access deeper into the research hall.
"I'd say that's overkill," she comments, stooping for her bag. "But I ain't complaining, either~"
A brief note of cheer against the pressure of the domain.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
There was once a door here. There isn't anymore,
"... no, I appreciate it. I've been real angry lately..." Lunata answers Elly as she mentions she's being light-hearted, rubbing at her face with frustration. "So angry." She glances towards Shalune, because she knows something's up when the mechanic isn't nattering at her 24/7. Maybe Devil Big Shal is the reason...!
It doesn't take them long before they approach a gorgeously large library of two floors, with a lift providing access to the upper floor. Lunata presses the button...
*whirr*
*BRMMM*
"... it's stuck," Lunata comments. "Think fire will work on it again, Lily?"
She spares the Devil's Arm more abuse, at least, and just kind of--
Percussively maintains it. Smack it twice, blow on the contacts, insert it, press the power and then reset twice.
DG: Lunata Croze has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Malfunctioning Lift.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
As might be expected of Shalune, her resolve to not talk to Lunata lasts all of a few minutes before something spurs her forwards anyway. "--Lunie!" she blurts all of a sudden, scurrying forwards to circle the control panel. "What have I told you about hitting things? You can't just start with that, jeez!" she pouts automatically before she can even remember she's mad at Lunata.
Though she catches herself, it's too late; she mumbles something under her breath, trying to recover the sensation of grumbly non-communication as she ducks her head and prises the back of the panel open with the edge of a chisel taken from one pocket of her coat.
"I mean, you've gotta at least check there's not something major that's really stuck in the gears, or something. It can suck to get stuff like that out." She studies the inside of the box for a moment, then looks up at the stuck lift, squinting at it uncertainly. "... or it's just regular stuck, I guess. Then it's a matter of where you hit it," she grumbles, and digs hard at the interior of the box with the tool in her hands, accompanied by a series of rather unpleasant grinding sounds.
Maybe she's blowing off a little steam herself.
DG: Shalune Amira has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Malfunctioning Lift.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly paps her fist into her palm. Take THAT, door.
She blushes slightly at what Josie says. In they go. Elly looks around, with wonder - unfeigned wonder; a library is a novelty to her too, at least a physical one - and she says to Lunata as she walks, "It's alright. I know it's difficult... anger is a complicated thing..."
She looks back to Shalune. Then to the lift. Then, "Well," and she reaches into her hip pocket to pull out -
"I bought this for Hammer but I never had the chance to give it to him. Maybe it could help?"
The jar says:
OLD POSSUM'S PATENTED JELLICLE OIL
"Dance With Your Darling By The Light of the JELLICLE Moon"
Suits Beard, Hair, And Body Grooming Needs For Persons of ALL Complexions and Auracular Types
"A Little Dab'll Do You Up"
Weirdly it smells exactly like train car oil.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata dabs.
Sadly she doesn't hold her arm out and bend into the other elbow, but she does dab into the jellicle oil and slicks her hair back in one fell swoop like she's gone full villain.
"How do I look," asks someone who's about to get first degree burns.
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Inventory Clutter toward her party's challenge, Malfunctioning Lift.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"Butch," Elly says. This is the first time she ever said this word
(this time around)
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily is not sure how she feels about the demon sword. But, the door is destroyed, and she takes a certain satisfaction in that level of overkill. With it gone, Lily rolls her shoulders, intending to stay limber... and moves forward.
It is strange to see Shalune quiet. But Lily puts most of her attention on keeping watch, on the conditions of others...
"Well... Yes," she answers at the next obstacle, the stuck lift. "Or specifically... the pressure that fire can generate." ...Shalune scolds Lunie, and Lily pauses, watching the two of them for a moment. "...But that's also true," Lily answers. "Especially if we want to keep it operational to use in the other direction, or for reinforcements."
"But anger," Lily begins, as she kneels down to continue following something she sees. "Is powerful and dangerous. It's important, not to--"
The oil comes out. Lunata slicks her hair back. Lily pauses. Lily stays paused, and imagines exactly what's going to happen. Then she remembers that Lunata is durable, and that Lily can probably heal whatever happens.
...She doesn't warn her.
Instead, Lily threads runed chains onto her hand, and then points it down, towards the floor.
There is a very loud explosion that will probably propel them upward.
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Rune Chain toward her party's challenge, Malfunctioning Lift.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
... agog for a moment, at the very least Shalune seems to be right back on board with not talking to Lunata again, though at least it's technically an improvement now that the look on her face is a solid :I expression rather than something more flat.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
As if completely unaware of the discomfort that she, personally, has caused Elly, Josie takes in the library.
"So this is where the old bastard wedged himself..." she comments, frowning. "Knew I should have written home more often, but what can you do," she sighs.
"...So, what did you find over there?" Josie asks, between those moments where Lunata takes a firesword to it, Shalune cautions her to wait a moment before applying concussive maintenance to the lift, where Elly hands over something she can't quite parse out and Lunata gives herself a little makeover... and Lily--
Josie very quickly at that point runs for the lift and hops aboard, gaze lingering a moment on the runes.
"You know what," the archaeologist says, turning to the others.
Before the explosion goes off she just hits the mechanism, too. With the mattock. Why not.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Well-Used Mattock toward her party's challenge, Malfunctioning Lift.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"You can't overkill a door, Josie." Fei tells Josephine seriously.
He glances over to Lunata. He doesn't say anything. He smiles at the small exchange between Lunata and Elly quietly but doesn't speak up. He's getting a little better at learning to keep his trap shut sometimes. He covers his mouth after Lunata dabs that gunk into her hair but he seems...appreciative.
"Thanks," He tells Elly, quietly, when there is a moment.
Fei's mood is strangely still keeping up. Fei tries kicking the lift with a foot (he's kind of a little tired from blowing up door) but will leave more complex or aggressive methods to the others.
He looks to Shalune for a moment. Still no go? Oh well. He thinks it'll be ok by the end.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Malfunctioning Lift.
=====================<* Krosse Castle - Research Hall *>====================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Malfunctioning Lift *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The research hall takes up two levels of the castle total, largely as a result of the size of the main library. To access the upper level, a variety of measures are in place through the hall, including stairs, library-style ladders, and of course, lifts. This particular lift should provide you with access to the upper floor, save for the fact that it's clearly stuck -- pushing the button just makes the mechanism grind uselessly for a moment before it stops, as if it's jammed. Perhaps adding some force to the equation might help matters. =Dungeon Conditions: Exhaust==================================================
================<* Krosse Castle - Research Hall - Round 2 *>================= ======================< Results - Malfunctioning Lift >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Josephine Lovelace 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Well-Used Mattock 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fei Fong Wong 0 --(7)--> 7 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elhaym van Houten 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Inventory Clutter 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lunata Croze 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shalune Amira 0 --(7)--> 7 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lily Keil 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Rune Chain 3 Brute Effects: Rally ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Josephine Lovelace 20 --(30)--> 50 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Overzealous(1)|Secret(1) Effects: Cleanse|Strengthen(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has passed this challenge! The party gained 30 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Elhaym van Houten has drawn a new Challenge.
======================<* Krosse Castle - Research Hall *>======================= =====================<* CHALLENGE - Signs Of Destruction *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The quiet that sustains through most of the hall is unsettling. What must have once been filled with researchers and the low murmur of their advance towards the truths they sought has been silenced. Perhaps it might make the state of the room you enter now more unsettling. If ever a reading room could be converted into the exact antithesis thereof, here it is before you now. Shelves lie shattered. Tables pile here and there, some suggesting they may have been used as a sort of barricade, others simply discarded. Books litter the floor in various states of destroyed. Something happened in here, but what? And perhaps more pressingly, the sole exit from here, leading further into the research hall is blocked by a whole pile of the jagged debris. It'll need to be removed if you hope to advance. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Injure===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
The poor elevator, in no rough amount of chronological order, kind of goes as follows: Lunata smacks it. Josie smacks it. Fei smacks it. Shalune grumbles about how it needs care but decides that in the end-- it need smackin'. Elly offers hair (??) gel, and some goes on the elevator, which is entirely the substance that needs burning thanks to Lily--
And the elevator goes skyrocketing upwards like it were a Great Glass Elevator, and successfully gets everyone to the upper floor.
...
except Lunata's keeping on going--
ABOVE
A devilishly devious Werewolf Hellion perches atop a gargoyle, awaiting to ambush the group. It grins and snarls and--
Suddenly its face cartoonishly droops as a fire-haired missile strikes it from below.
"... my hair..." Lunata mumbles, wondering what the little glimmer in the sky past the shattered library skylight is.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
And you'll see
How to be
In a world
Of Lunata projection...
The bursting slam-crash-THOOM of the ascending stuck lift makes Elly cling to the side of the thing, instead of Fei, for once - but only because Fei took a moment to get on. As Elly slowly relaxes, breathing a little heavily, she offers meekly, "I thought you could have, um, used, the oil on the machine? I"m sorry I didn't... say..."
Dusting herself off, she straightens up and looks dead ahead.
At the reading room... which has been thoroughly demolished. "We didn't do this, did we?"
"No," Elly decides a moment later, "No, it's -- it would be more aflame if that had been caused by that. Ah. Hm."
Elly puts her hands on her hips. "Mm."
She looks back up. "I suppose someone's barricaded themselves in, down the hall." (She walks to Lunata, proffering a leftover and slightly dusty Gel: "your hair, ah... do you want me to try to smother it...?")
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Inventory Clutter toward her party's challenge, Signs Of Destruction.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata's hair is a comical pile of frizz that is halfway between being an afro and just a mess, which is probably appropriate people who bear the afro and practice iaijutsu always live in fear of the day their hair is set on fire.
>> Lunata's Social Link with Todd has increased by 1.
"It kind of feels like doubling down is..." Lunata pauses. "Oh, what the heck. All I do is double down."
She takes more of Hammer's train car oil gel and keeps slicking it over her hair. It looks kind of more like helmet hair at this point, and it's terrifying and she doesn't even give two hoots about it. Maybe she should be Owl, not Ethius.
"Anger is... powerful," Lunata agrees with an earlier point. "And difficult. But... I don't know. It just makes me real tired... I do crazy things," as she marches towards where the exit is blocked. She's not the reader of the group, so...
"Kinda jealous of Josie right now. That's an awful thing to say, but I could use a driving goal right now."
Speaking of driving goals, she's got the Devil's Arm out again as the evil sword whimpers about being reduced to menial tasks.
DG: Lunata Croze has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Signs Of Destruction.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
At that question, Josie simply tilts her head. Unlike Fei, she has not had quite as grim interactions with doors...
Maybe archaeologists have all the luck when it comes to the most dreaded enemy of enemies?
It's some small miracle, perhaps, that the poor little lift didn't just give up the ghost after all the abuse they go and give it. As it stands, it's also a miracle that no one falls off. Stepping off the lift, Josie brushes dust off herself, rolls her shoulders, and then flashes a grin.
"Best ride on a lift I've had in ages, kiddo. ...Think we could charge admission?"
This is when Elly asks aloud if they did 'this'.
Josie glances back over her shoulders.
Pauses.
"...No?" she hazards. "I think it'd have more holes in it."
Right now it looks sort of barricaded up for their usual.
"...Let's see what this is all about," she says, though she pauses a moment, glancing back over her shoulder.
A driving goal, huh?
"Sometimes you got one, sometimes you don't. But wait around and maybe the universe'll drop one right into your lap?"
She swings the mattock for one of the barricades.
"It's a thought."
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Well-Used Mattock toward her party's challenge, Signs Of Destruction.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"Your hair will recover," Lily says, but then she looks out towards the hall they have reached--the shattered shelves, discarded tables... She frowns, thoughtfully, as she looks to the exit--and to the debris that has been piled as a barrier that assuredly was not good enough.
"...Doubt we'd have enough customers," Lily answers Josie, considering. And then, "That's fair, Lunata. Anger needs controlling, for that reason--let it run wild, and you'll use up all your energy before you finish your task."
Lily steps forward, kneeling to check the covers of books, look briefly for anything of use, and shakes her head. "A goal can keep you going when you'd otherwise give up. Is there anything you want to accomplish?" Josie has a point, though. Wait around...
"You might not like the cost you pay for it, if you just wait," Lily says. She stands back up, and brings her hands together, passing fingers over the shining links of metal on her hand. There is time to feel the sudden heat building around her, the golden light.
Lily just straight-up nukes the entire pile. She doesn't like this very much, and she doesn't have anything nice to say.
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Rune Chain toward her party's challenge, Signs Of Destruction.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Not...Todd...!
Fei says, "It worked out." to Elly. He pauses for a moment. Lunata might be a little on fire but--"I think?"
He will use his MIGHTY ARMS to help move various bits of debris and barricade. He looks fairly winded at this point honestly. He thought he'd have to fight weird ass monsters not exert his core the whole day, but he does at least have the stamina to do the work.
"Anger is powerful, huh." Fei says wryly as he works, moving junk from side to side repeatedly until the cutscene ends.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Signs Of Destruction.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune yelps in sheer surprise as the lift jolts upwards, nearly sending them straight off of it once it reaches its zenith, and definitely propelling Lunata upwards to cause sudden and unexpected menace to a poor waiting monster. At least the mechanic manages to just about catch herself, though more out of luck rather than skill as she grabs for one of the supports, staggering for balance for a moment.
She chews at her lip when they reach the reading room, her curiosity naturally swinging her around to focus on the scattered furniture and assorted debris. She can just about chart the path of the fight that took place through her, or at least that's her assumption given the way that everything is scattered around.
It's easier to focus on that than on the talk of anger and its effects; it's slow and gradual, but she's looking a little stiffer and more uncertain by the time she steps forward, fingering the Medium in her hands more for something to fidget with than to use it as an actual focus.
It's Lily's talk of a cost that actually spurs her to movement - breaking out of her thoughts, she hides a wince under her hair as she searches for the spark of Guardian sorcery, and a spectral image of Dinoginos suddenly appears - twisting and fuzzing slightly as the domain shifts around them - to try to bat its way through the barricade. Even the poor Guardian doesn't seem to have its heart in it.
DG: Shalune Amira has used her Tool Material - Dinowhatsit toward her party's challenge, Signs Of Destruction.
======================<* Krosse Castle - Research Hall *>======================= =====================<* CHALLENGE - Signs Of Destruction *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The quiet that sustains through most of the hall is unsettling. What must have once been filled with researchers and the low murmur of their advance towards the truths they sought has been silenced. Perhaps it might make the state of the room you enter now more unsettling. If ever a reading room could be converted into the exact antithesis thereof, here it is before you now. Shelves lie shattered. Tables pile here and there, some suggesting they may have been used as a sort of barricade, others simply discarded. Books litter the floor in various states of destroyed. Something happened in here, but what? And perhaps more pressingly, the sole exit from here, leading further into the research hall is blocked by a whole pile of the jagged debris. It'll need to be removed if you hope to advance. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Injure===========================================
=================<* Krosse Castle - Research Hall - Round 3 *>================== =======================< Results - Signs Of Destruction >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Well-Used Mattock 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fei Fong Wong 7 --(5)--> 12 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elhaym van Houten 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Inventory Clutter 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lunata Croze 5 --(5)--> 10 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shalune Amira 7 --(5)--> 12 Fail Material - Dinowhatsit 2 Brute Effects: Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Rune Chain 3 Brute Effects: Rally -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 50 --(20)--> 70 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Injure(2) Effects: Cleanse|Resilient(1)|Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Fei Fong Wong has drawn a new Challenge.
=====================<* Krosse Castle - Research Hall *>====================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Impurity's Pulse *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- This place has become tainted by the presence of an object that should not exist. This was true -- and most likely understood -- before you entered the research wing. It was only made more apparent upon your entry. It's now become undeniable. Somewhere in the castle, the Orb thrums, and with it, this place where it had not-too-distantly rested, dirtied by its very presence. The force of the Domain now bears heavily upon you: while it cannot outright Hellionize you, the spiritual pressure that has built up can make present matters /very/ uncomfortable. Unless you stand up against it, and demonstrate your will. =Dungeon Conditions: Overwhelm================================================
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"It can be powerful, but it's also irrational... when you act in anger you aren't in full control," Elly says. "Or... something like that, anyway. Um."
She moves to help clear out wreckage but the actions of others are more emphatic. The mattock breaks up already-broken-up furnishings and even SPEARS a 30-years-out-of-date encyclopedia RIGHT IN THE INDEX, slaying it instantly. Oh, Josie! Actually it looks kind of cool. Elly pauses to reach up and help pull the book off for the second stroke.
Lily sets off a bomb. The blastwash and heat makes Elly's hair trail and makes her wince, even as she breathes heavily for a moment, working her jaw to pop her ears. Enough wreckage remains that the lesser, but now on fire wreckage must be moved. The Guardian helps, but everyone's kind of shuffling through it.
"... It's getting heavier, isn't it? I don't know if that omegasol was watered down or if I'm just getting sick," Elly remarks, approximately towards Josie and Shalune. (Or perhaps also Dinoginos...)
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei rubs at his arm with one hand as he is getting a bit sore from all this labor in quick succession. He is about to wonder existentially about any number of things and probably have a small cutscene with himself in the center of his mind but luckily they come onto a new hallway before that happens and it's full of malevolence! Sweet! That's much better than Fei going into his PAUSE SCREEN and wandering around like an FBI Agent.
"Well." Fei says, drawing a smiley face on a piece of paper and sticking it to his forehead with some tape.
"Onto the breach once more, friends, right? This is the time where the lightheartedness can really be used, right?"
He makes his way forward.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool Artist's Toolkit toward his party's challenge, Impurity's Pulse.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Is there anything you want to accomplish?
The stench of Malevolence is thick and cloying in their midst. It roils off in waves around her sleeves, around her fingers, around her thoroughly tortured hair which could be more described as some kind of setpiece right now.
She keeps marching onward.
But wait around and maybe the universe'll drop one right into your lap.
"I thought I was fighting for something, but... it was all just my fantasy. Something that'll never be again," Lunata mumbles, glancing towards Shalune for a longer moment.
She feels like an asshole 'cause she's goading her futher, but nothing's right between the two of them right now anyway.
"And I don't have the luxury of waiting... none of us do. But--"
She scowls deeper as she manifests the Orochi-Agito. There's a red flash in her eyes as she stares in the direction of the Orb, unseen in the far distance as if she can spot it.
"Hhhmp--"
A mandala erupts around her feet, as the power mandated upon her by the Wheel of Spirits manifests;
Skeletal arms start to flail like a curtain about her as she hisses aloud, "You're all just the same. The Wheel. This Devil's Arm," she knocks the sword on the side as it whimpers and skitters off to one side with a comical tear in her eye.
"You all just want to tempt people with their worst insecurities and fears. Too bad... because--"
She lets loose with that power as she pushes against the field. A field of death to repel the Malevolence. A repose from which no ailment of the soul can touch.
"I'm already playing the role of someone's fool..."
DG: Lunata Croze has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Impurity's Pulse.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"... Should I sing a song?" Elly asks Fei, or perhaps, the people in general - it's strange, Elly thinks to herself, but I'm more embarrassed at what Josie or Lily might think...
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie goes to town with the mattock and draws back a book. "Hey, Red, a little help?" she says, waving her bad hand stiffly as if to underscore the problem she's obtained here. Fortunately, it doesn't take much to pry the tome off, and less still to continue to slam the mattock into the barricades until they're busted.
"Don't see anything," Josie comments, holstering the mattock at her hip.
The feeling rolls over her, foul and redolent, mere moments later. "N..." she utters, squinting an eye halfway shut.
She reaches into a pocket, pulling out an unlit cigarette.
A spark, a light. Ozone scents the air.
Josie cups her hand around the tiny ember-lit end of the cigarette as if it were the only light left in the world.
You...
...I haven't stopped yet...
She takes a drag and exhales smoke into the grasping dark.
"A song... huh. Give it a shot." Josie's gaze is, for the moment, ceilingwards, her expression distant.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Pack of Cigarettes toward her party's challenge, Impurity's Pulse.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily says little else on anger for the moment; she remains quiet, after her note about cost, looking around, continuing to walk through the oppressive pressure of the Domain... until it begins getting worse. The labor of destruction does not bother her overmuch, though she can feel the sting in something that isn't quite muscle, and sets the small chains away, back into her things instead of preparing to use them again. Heavier...
"No," Lily answers Elly, "I feel it. It's worse, than it was."
'It was just her fantasy. Something that'll never be again.'
Lily is silent, for a while there. She watches Lunata, as she feels the weight descend upon her, the pressure all around her that seeks to box in her will, to force her to a strange half-existence as one who cannot change the world around her without touching it with base matter.
She feels it, lets that tension remain, for the moment.
The field of death makes Lily glance down, and it is a certain kind of sadness.
"...Go ahead," Lily tells Elly. And then, she pulls something from her bag, slides out a small object, gleaming--a mirror can find light so easily, and Lily looks down into it--at her own reflection, and how it has changed, with time.
"...You can never get the past back," Lily says then. "No matter how hard you want it. I'm sorry, that you learned that lesson." She thinks of the strange gimballed pendant she wears, inscribed with ancient script.
"...I'm working on learning what comes next, too. What we can have, now that what we had will never come back."
Lily looks into the mirror for a few moments longer--
She wonders--this, is her face? That other, her name...?
Lily looks into it, and as she smells the smoke of Josie's cigarette, she puts away her keepsake and pulls one of her own, lighting it in much the same way.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"I'd love to hear you sing," Fei says with a faint smile. "But I wouldn't want to pressure you." It'd be strange, in a way, in a place like this.
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Mikaia's Mirror toward her party's challenge, Impurity's Pulse.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly swallows.
She closes her eyes and tries to remember old words.
Of course, it isn't in a language that anyone present really speaks, although Lily may recognize the odd word here and there.
"-I do not know where I'll arrive at-
"-I believe I'll reach there, I'll let my thoughts run for now-
"-The form of the heart and this path changes-
"-But there is a wish that never disappears...-"
Elly keeps going. The tone, at least, is upbeat, even if she is of necessity doing it a-capella.
"-Seeing a different dream, looking at the same sky-
"-That day I swore "I will not lose"-
"-Our hands will always be joined-
"-As we search for the reason we exist-"
Abruptly Elly raises her arms above her head and gets into it!! This must be the chorus.
"-I do not know where I'll arrive at-
"-I believe I'll reach there, I'll let my thoughts run for now-
"-The time when I get over my mistakes and pain-
"-My wish would be embraced by light, calling out to the future!-"
DG: Elhaym van Houten has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Impurity's Pulse.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune doesn't return the other Lunie's glance - but it's easy to tell the way in which she worries at her lip, the way in which one hand slowly curls into a fist. Her shoulders tighten - but the mechanic is well aware that there's very little she can say to change any of it. Jay's made her decision; Lunata's made her decision off the back of it. All she can do is get pulled along in the wake of those two decisions.
She's not really very good at the whole Malevolence thing; she's not exactly a scholarly type, let alone particularly versed in this particular sort of mysticism. Still, she can at least recognize that she's not exactly in the greatest shape or state to challenge this castle, and it's with an effort that she pulls a slow breath in and out, counting to ten in the back of her mind as she pauses to do so.
"... I don't want to believe that," she says to Lily afterwards, her voice trembling just a little. "I'm not going to believe that. Maybe you're right, maybe things will never quite be the same - but they can be close enough. You can't just default to 'oh I've lost everything, I'll just jump right in', because then it's only ever gonna come true," she protests, holding her steady for a moment as she concentrates on that belief, uses it as her anchor.
Elly's song gives her the chance to break her gaze, huffing softly as she turns back to start taking the corridor step by step.
DG: Shalune Amira has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Impurity's Pulse.
=====================<* Krosse Castle - Research Hall *>====================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Impurity's Pulse *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- This place has become tainted by the presence of an object that should not exist. This was true -- and most likely understood -- before you entered the research wing. It was only made more apparent upon your entry. It's now become undeniable. Somewhere in the castle, the Orb thrums, and with it, this place where it had not-too-distantly rested, dirtied by its very presence. The force of the Domain now bears heavily upon you: while it cannot outright Hellionize you, the spiritual pressure that has built up can make present matters /very/ uncomfortable. Unless you stand up against it, and demonstrate your will. =Dungeon Conditions: Overwhelm================================================
================<* Krosse Castle - Research Hall - Round 4 *>================= ========================< Results - Impurity's Pulse >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Josephine Lovelace 0 --(7)--> 7 Pass Pack of Cigarettes 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fei Fong Wong 12 --(12)--> 24 Fail Artist's Toolkit 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elhaym van Houten 0 --(12)--> 12 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lunata Croze 10 --(12)--> 22 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shalune Amira 12 --(7)--> 19 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lily Keil 5 --(12)--> 17 Fail Mikaia's Mirror 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Josephine Lovelace 70 --(10)--> 80 Fail Conditions: Fright(1)|Overwhelm Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace 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. DG: Lunata Croze has drawn a new Challenge.
=====================<* Krosse Castle - Research Hall *>====================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - The Broken One *>======================= |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- This room is an antechamber of some sort -- or more accurately, perhaps a type of seclusion chamber, as if to split the space beyond it off from the rest of the research hall. The pressure A broken sob breaks the silence of the hall. "Master Lovelace..." To the eyes of the resonant, the thing that shambles into view was human, once. More than half its body has been twisted into something grotesque and overblown, feral and inhuman. The tattered remnants of a researcher's gown speak to the Hellion's former occupation. "Where are you?" It turns towards the lot of you, eyes blazing, seeing through you rather than at you. "What did I do wrong, Master Lovelace...?" it asks, as it lunges at you with startling speed for its bulk, turning an over-sized clawed arm upon the party. BGM: https://stuartchatwood.bandcamp.com/track/dark-mitochondria =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Madness==========================================
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
The smiley face does not help.
And honestly, little else does. Not even the singing. NICOTINE helps, but alas nobody asks Josie to share a cig.
Luckily folks are largely resilient to this level of malevolence so it doesn't cause any major freakouts, but it IS distinctly unpleasant. Simultaneously, a different kind of pressure mounts between Lunata and Shalune. Fei may not be able to analyze it in detail, but he can certainly feel it. He can see the glances and, more notably, the un-glances as time moves on.
When they finally push through enough to get into the next area Fei admits, faintly, "Whew. I don't know how much more I can take."
He might not be referring to the malevolence there :(.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
The anguish that can be felt between long-term gal friends who've separated over time. It's not Malevolence, but maybe in this case you could say it's Femalevolence.
that sounds kinda gross tbh
It doesn't take them long to proceed onward and push towards the antechamber, splitting the rest of the research hall off. There's a sob--
Master Lovelace...
"Lovelace, huh..." Lunata mumbles, as she stares and... looks towards the enormous, grotesque Hellion that was once a human -- a researcher, to be precise, from the look of his clothes.
Where are you?
"... yeah ... can see why you're so driven, Josie," Lunata mumbles. The creature turns towards them, eyes blazing with a power as it looks -- beyond the group. Into its obsession.
What did I do wrong...?
It lunges, and Lunata is the first to throw herself at it to tank hits for the group; the arm impales through her shoulder in a big splurtch of black rather than blood, and she grapples it with freakish undead strength in return.
"I think about that a lot too..." Lunata reassures it. "But the thing is... we're not gonna get something that's 'kind of the same'."
A pause, as she pushes through the pain of being impaled on the shoulder to wrap her arms around its waist. "Now, while I've got it grappled!"
Then she bounds off her feet, arcs backwards and german suplexes the poor Hellion.
DG: Lunata Croze has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Broken One.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
A certain other sort of pressure is kindled. Something's happened, Josie notes, able to put the pin in what's been nagging at her since Shalune joined them.
Words are had between Shalune and Lily next which only takes the matter and underlines it. Josie's gaze turns between the both of them as she nurses her cigarette.
Then, in extremis, she drops it to the floor, grinding it away into nothing with the heel of her boot.
"Tiger, you and I usually see eye-to-eye on things. But I gotta go with the kiddo on this one."
She's turned, heading down the hallway ahead.
"I prefer not letting what's mine out of my grasp to start."
She stops just outside the antechamber. "Something's up," she cautions, taking a wary step into the room.
Something looms out of the shadows. Something terrible. Expression impassive, Josie takes in the form of the figure before them, all the hints that it had been once human, all the ways in which it is no longer...
For a moment, she goes rigid where she stands, a statue of a woman.
There are things that manifestly offend even someone like Josie. This is likely the worst of them.
It swings for them. Josie starts to move, too late--
But there's no need to evade, not when Lunata interposes herself. Black fluid spatters the ground; Josie's eyes narrow.
Drawing her flask from her pant pocket, she takes a nip of the fluid within, as if to stablize herself against the horrow. And then-- as Lunata grapples it--
"Incoming!" she shouts, drawing her sidearm and snapping a shot off at the monstrosity.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Liquid Courage toward her party's challenge, The Broken One.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily hears Shalune's rebuttal, and she knows full well that it isn't meant for her. She does not, thus, answer it immediately, doesn't refute or support it, because she is turning inward, under the sheer weight of the emotion around her and the power suffusing this room. Except...
"...That's not what I mean," she says when Josie chimes in, but dosen't explain--not at first. Talking about the past makes her dwell on it some, and she has to let that shake off, try to push it aside and move forward. So she focuses on the details around her--their positions, the shadows...
Throwing off the gloom is hard. But suddenly there's something else to look at, and Lily's eyes settle on it sharply. What did he do wrong? Lily looks over the creature quickly, judges its capabilities, and--
Lunata jumps in. What she says, though--
"And that's not what I mean either," Lily says, as she shifts towards the others, immediately extending her hands and then, with a sharp breath, calls upon a strange Light--and nuclear fire coalesces into a shield around Lunata that fades into her skin.
"The past is gone," Lily reasserts. "We'll never get it back. We may not get something like it. But," she says, and pulls her knife, surging up towards the enemy--towards its back. "...If you don't let yourself move past it, then you'll be buried along with it. That's the what comes next--that I don't know yet."
Lily moves to, ideally, stab the thing straight in the back. But, her knife is not her most powerful weapon.
DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Broken One.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
The revelation of the creature, who may have blocked itself in for the safety of others - for it was not always a creature - takes Elly's breath away for a moment.
The tension in the air. The lingering malevolence. The tension between Lunata and Shalune. Josie's tension. Lily -- well Lily is as normal, mostly. Even Fei's suffering, Elly thinks. She takes a deep breath and tells the great being, "You didn't do... anything wrong."
"No - I don't know your story... but whatever you may have done... You didn't deserve this. But we aren't the ones who can help you. The most we can do is make it so that the people who can will have a chance... and so will everyone else," Elly concludes.
(I feel like I'm quoting from that show... ugh... why do I remember it so well? It was so silly, Elly thinks, even as she raises a hand and takes another deep breath--)
What Elly does is a choice she makes. Others take a more aggressive stance. Elly, on the other hand, wreathes the Hellion in fire from the waist up - enough to immolate, if it is not careful, the remains of that researcher's coat -- but the fire does not touch its flesh directly. The air, though! The air is exhausted, superheated.
If nothing else, it will certainly be a distraction from the others.
DG: Elhaym van Houten has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Broken One.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"He seems somewhat cogent." Fei says. "I don't think we can purify him but maybe..."
The creature spears Lunata's shoulder which is bad enough.
Lunata leaks BLACK instead of red, that's a lot worse!
Fei's eyes are wide in this moment. Every time he thinks he's used to Lunata being more and more of a lich, she goes ... uh ... licher? lichier? Point is, Fei doesn't finish that thought for a while before turning to face the hellion.
"Geeze!!" He says, drawing something into his hand.
He approaches the beast and shows him the RPS Badge.
"I challenge you to a match!"
And then he tries to uppercut the guy in a move that looks--
no it is in fact a carbon copy of the SHORYUKEN. They didn't even modify it he spins like the exact number of times that Ryu does while he's shoryukening.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool RPS Badge toward his party's challenge, The Broken One.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Somehow, the pressure abates. Even if just a little, it's still much better than Shalune expected, and the moment of catharsis is ultimately both relieving and-- well, okay, a little embarrassing too. The mechanic had honestly wanted to keep her worries to herself, rather than voice them aloud, because-- well, because she's at least smart enough to know there's no easy answer. Perhaps no answer at all. But at least voicing it lets the Malevolence part a little around her, lets her next breath come a little easier.
Whatever other thoughts she's having melt away at the sight of the researcher, her mouth hanging open in surprise at the sight of the twisted Hellion. The name registers, but only barely; she's too busy taking an involuntary step backwards, wincing and letting out a shaky breath as Lunata springs forward to defend them all.
"... I'm sorry," she mumbles to the open air, suddenly right back to cowed. It's not clear whether she's saying it to Lunata, or to the creature Lunata is grappling, or to Josie or to Lily for bringing up the subject; she doesn't elucidate, choosing instead to just swallow as she reaches for her staff, extends it outwards from its telescoped state.
Shalune is not sure if you can knock a Hellion out, per se, but she's willing to try - in the most unceremonious of fashions, as Lunata suplexes the creature, Shalune is on hand to drive the staff downwards. There are no fancy bits of technology here, nor unusual golems to help her; just a simple application of force, helped by the lump in her throat she can't dispel.
DG: Shalune Amira has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Broken One.
=====================<* Krosse Castle - Research Hall *>====================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - The Broken One *>======================= |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- This room is an antechamber of some sort -- or more accurately, perhaps a type of seclusion chamber, as if to split the space beyond it off from the rest of the research hall. The pressure A broken sob breaks the silence of the hall. "Master Lovelace..." To the eyes of the resonant, the thing that shambles into view was human, once. More than half its body has been twisted into something grotesque and overblown, feral and inhuman. The tattered remnants of a researcher's gown speak to the Hellion's former occupation. "Where are you?" It turns towards the lot of you, eyes blazing, seeing through you rather than at you. "What did I do wrong, Master Lovelace...?" it asks, as it lunges at you with startling speed for its bulk, turning an over-sized clawed arm upon the party. BGM: https://stuartchatwood.bandcamp.com/track/dark-mitochondria =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Madness==========================================
================<* Krosse Castle - Research Hall - Round 5 *>================= =========================< Results - The Broken One >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Josephine Lovelace 7 --(15)--> 22 Pass Liquid Courage 3 Combat Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fei Fong Wong 24 --(15)--> 39 Pass RPS Badge 3 Combat Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elhaym van Houten 12 --(20)--> 32 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lunata Croze 22 --(20)--> 42 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shalune Amira 19 --(20)--> 39 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lily Keil 17 --(20)--> 37 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Josephine Lovelace 80 --(0)--> 80 Fail Conditions: Fright(2)|Madness Effects: ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has failed this challenge! The party gained 0 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Josephine Lovelace has drawn a new Challenge.
======================<* Krosse Castle - Research Hall *>======================= =======================<* CHALLENGE - The Magic Circle *>======================= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Until fairly recently, the Anomalous Orb had been here in this innermost workshop. Its presence has been burned indelibly into the room, a sucking void that aches like a rotten tooth. Where it has gone and to what use it has been since put, one can only guess. But besides the spiritual mark left on this room, there on the floor are a series of Symbology glyphs arranged in a circle, resonant with the barrier that keeps you from the king's court. If they can be disrupted, perhaps this may play into providing you passage inwards. Though, what might happen when the circle is broken is another matter. Is it possible that it could unleash some dark force? Care is needed, here in this room that throbs with the Anomalous Orb's absence. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Reckless=======================================
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
As it turns out, the Difficulty setting when the Drifters walked into this room got set to LUNATA MUST DIE!!. Things go well enough when Josephine fires off a powerful shot that gouges through the creature's abdomen; she grimaces as she says, "The past..."
Her thought's interrupted there when the creature displays more power than she expects, and twists mid-suplex and reversals her into a spinning piledriver that sinks her into the ground.
"All that I ever wanted..."
Lily's attack comes flying straight in as she shanks the creature in the back, prompting a high-pitched scream as it screeches, "Why?! What did I do wrong!? Master Lovelace, I..."
Elly captures the monster in a ring of fire, stopping its movements as Shalune drives her staff downwards at the same time Fei shoryukens it upwards.
The creature stops moving.
Lunata stares up at the ceiling as she mumbles, "... it's not possible... because she's too brave and too honest. Because she's found her calling. As a hero."
She quietly rises to the ground where flecks of her skin have started falling off from the impact of the violence. The necromantic magic holding her together oozes abound in bands.
"... she'll work her hardest until her body, mind and soul gives up, because she won't let anyone else down."
She continues to stumble onto the door, taking a look at the creature. "And that I can't feel okay with that... 's what makes me something that's a ghost of the past. More than any death magic or undead pact."
She slumps as she sits down quietly and pours one out of her soup thermos for herself. The blackboard reads:
TODAY'S SOUP
Zuppa toscana, with pork and fennel sausage, kale and caramelised onion
Served with a garnish of gremolata and garlic courtons
"... I'm sorry too, Lunie."
DG: Lunata Croze has used her Tool Soup of the Day toward her party's challenge, The Magic Circle.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
A glance passes Lily's way, as she speaks on the past and its permanent departure.
Josie says nothing.
Her gaze speaks volumes of its own.
Gritting her teeth, she discharges round after round from her handgun into the twisted form of her father's former assistant. Is this what he left them -- was this just to slow them down --
She doesn't know, anymore.
In the end, it stops moving, slumping to the floor after their great struggle with it. Josie gazes at it a moment, then over at Lunata, then shakes her head. "Come on. We're not finished," she says, stepping into the workshop beyond.
What greets them in the room littered with burnt papers and the remnants of research equipment is but a single large magic circle. All of the Symbols are done in white ink.
They glow, in counterpoint to the darkness.
"...That's his," Josie remarks, drawing out another cigarette and lighting it with a sparking snap of her fingers. "No question. Anyway, to break it, you've got to break the key Symbols."
She's silent, letting the smoke waft up into the air.
"...But I can't help you with that. This is way beyond me. Maybe with another twenty years or so..."
She begins to pace the circle slowly, gazing at the major and minor marks as if in search of a hint.
"Maybe... if you erase the pre-terminal mark from this one -- that would break it without any issues..."
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Pack of Cigarettes toward her party's challenge, The Magic Circle.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Shalune apologizes, and Lily wonders if she should have said anything at all. Lunata explains, and Lily understands what she means, though it was never the same for her. A ghost of the past--No, Lily has training in counseling others... But this isn't something she has words to soothe. It's not something that a soldier can speak to, at least not this soldier.
Lily, when the monster stops moving, takes back her knife, cleans the blade, and sheathes it once again. She is silent for a time.
She does not answer the clear message in Josie's eyes. But looking at it that way--Lily has to remind herself of it. It's necessary. What else can she do?
...Except... There is a past that she wants to know. A past she could try to understand.
"That's right. We aren't finished," Lily agrees, and walks with the others. She looks down, as they arrive, towards the circle of glowing runes--Symbols that are far, far beyond Lily's understanding of that Art. Her own cigarette is gone, by now, long forgotten, turned to ash. And this circle...
"Maybe..."
Lily looks thoughtfully to the circle. "...I have an idea." She lets that slip, and then, "Imagine--an acid, and a base. Simple scientific concept--if you can equal out their intensities, you neutralize both. So if we don't understand how to undo it on its own terms... Then we can apply an equal and opposite magical force." She looks to Elly, then. "If we can match power, I think we can do it. I'll need a stabilizing influence--But I think, if we can place objects down to channel the Ether as we cast, then we can keep the opposition... even."
It's intuitive, naturally--it is not much like a structured study. But...
"...Trust me," Lily says. "I'm apparently a Doctor."
She will get to work--pulling Mikaia's mirror, she uses it, to begin, to check the symbols, and to gain a sense for where the magic flows--how it cycles, in what direction it bends, if any.
She imagines it won't be pretty.
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Mikaia's Mirror toward her party's challenge, The Magic Circle.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
The creature lies still - and Shalune lets out a slow breath as she gathers herself, watching Josie lead the way forwards into the laboratory in her single-minded charge, watching Lunata deflate and quietly resign herself. Slowly, she pulls a breath in and out, forces herself to calm down and earnestly think for a moment.
The answer she comes up with is to suddenly crash down on Lunata's shoulders in a hug, nearly spilling the girl's cup of soup; she grimaces at the flecks of ex-waitress that the motion throws up, but holds on resolutely. "You're-- a really big idiot," she grumbles after a moment as she dumps her chin on top of Lunata's head, heedless of the mess of oil and hair it's become. "I'm pissed at Jay too. That's not the part I'm worried about."
She pauses, and slowly shakes her head, struggling for the rest of the words. "... I'm okay with who you are now," she admits for perhaps the first time, before letting out a breath. "Just--... just remember you still mean something. To me, and a whole lot of people." Whatever else is on her lips, she pauses before setting the words aside, glancing at the rest of the group as if realizing it might not exactly be the time.
Instead, she stays where she is, tightening the hug for a moment before she reaches her arms over Lunata's shoulders, waggling them in the direction of the canister of soup. Perhaps it's for the best that the extremely un-sorcerous member of the group doesn't start messing with Symbological Theory on top of all the other things she's been messing with.
That can instead be left to her Miniature Big Shal, the black-and-purple version of the archetypal golem that stands about a foot high. Having followed the rest of the group into the workshop, it stares at the circle for a long moment-- and is suddenly scuffing out part of the circle with a gleeful cackle! Oh no!
DG: Shalune Amira has used her Tool Bag of Tricks toward her party's challenge, The Magic Circle.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
LUNATA MUST DIE can't be a difficult difficult setting! She's already dead! It can't be that bad!! Can...it?!
Fei stares at the creature and says, "Okay." after a moment. "We saved the day. Sure. That's fine."
He does look to Josie with some concern but, well, Josie is someone he's never felt the need to overly pat and comf too much but he does draw out a paintbrush and ducks down towards the circle. He tries to follow his intuition and Josie's suggestions to muck up the circle a bit.
"You still want to say what you want to say?" Fei asks. "I figure once we break this seal we might not have a lot of time to think it over."
Oh no is this one of those prompts where the moment this challenge is over you dive right into the finale cutscene and battles???
Fei breathes a sigh of relief when it seems Shalune and Lunata are making ammends.
Though...didn't he feel this feeling last time they were side-eyeing each other??
Maybe this is the true time. "It's true." Fei says. "You do. All of you do."
DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool Artist's Toolkit toward his party's challenge, The Magic Circle.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
SHO
RYU
KEN
Elly looks at Lunata as she mumbles, then towards Shalune, and then they have to move forwards, despite her anxiety.
Despite the tension. Despite the Malevolence.
Elly wonders sometimes given the nature of Malevolence whether or not it means that many negative emotions, things taken as part of nature, the order of things, AREN'T that way. How many things that she, that everyone, takes for granted are not the only way to do things? Not even, necessarily, the best? It's a strange thing and the entertaining of the idea, on some deep and cthonic level, disquiets her... as if it is something she's reached after immemorial lengths of
Elly blinks once.
She looks towards Lily as she gives her instructions. "Right," she says. Her hands come together. "I think... since we're indoors... the best would be..." Her hands spread slowly apart, creating a shining sphere of ice, even pre-fractured to be broken in half. Which she does, repeating the process and setting them on the ground (with slightly undue haste, because she's not wearing gloves).
She hears Fei speak. She focuses on what she does, but silently, she feels pride in him, and joy.
DG: Elhaym van Houten has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Magic Circle.
======================<* Krosse Castle - Research Hall *>======================= =======================<* CHALLENGE - The Magic Circle *>======================= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Until fairly recently, the Anomalous Orb had been here in this innermost workshop. Its presence has been burned indelibly into the room, a sucking void that aches like a rotten tooth. Where it has gone and to what use it has been since put, one can only guess. But besides the spiritual mark left on this room, there on the floor are a series of Symbology glyphs arranged in a circle, resonant with the barrier that keeps you from the king's court. If they can be disrupted, perhaps this may play into providing you passage inwards. Though, what might happen when the circle is broken is another matter. Is it possible that it could unleash some dark force? Care is needed, here in this room that throbs with the Anomalous Orb's absence. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Reckless=======================================
=================<* Krosse Castle - Research Hall - Round 6 *>================== =========================< Results - The Magic Circle >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 22 --(0)--> 22 Fail Pack of Cigarettes 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fei Fong Wong 39 --(0)--> 39 Pass Artist's Toolkit 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elhaym van Houten 32 --(0)--> 32 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lunata Croze 42 --(0)--> 42 Pass Soup of the Day 4 Wits Effects: Liability, Efficient, -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shalune Amira 39 --(0)--> 39 Pass Bag of Tricks 2 Wits Effects: Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 37 --(0)--> 37 Pass Mikaia's Mirror 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Fright(1)|Hesitate(2)|Madness|Reckless(2) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1)|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has successfully explored Krosse Castle - Research Hall!
======================<* Krosse Castle - Research Hall *>======================= =================<* CHALLENGE - The Circle's Fragments - Orb *>================= |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- One by one, key glyphs are inactivated -- removed, altered, or however they may be changed -- and the white-light glow of the circle fades into nothing. Its strength has been sundered, and with it, the enchantment lending strength to the seal into the court proper. Even those less sensitive may notice a shift in the air, and for the truly resonant there passes an alteration that seems to ring out like a clear-voiced chime. When the other half of the barrier is broken, the way into the court will be open. Which leaves the matter of this workroom once the necessary task is complete: whoever used this had taken care to burn most of their notes, but one scrap among the wreckage can be found: "'The Anomalous Orb'. A strange creation, not of this world, and presented unto the king by the one called the Trial Knight. At the king's behest, I was tasked soon after to investigate the Orb and how else it might be used to defend this kingdom against all that might harm it." "A great power rests within the Orb. Equal to -- no. No, I have reason to believe it would surpass that of anything sorcery has yet been capable in this world. The one to tease out its full power might earn a form of immortality. Or, perhaps, the very thing itself? We shall see." (OOC: Access to Ballad of the Fisher King is now possible -- please feel free to explore the other wing of the castle as well if desired. Please contact Josie or K.K. with any questions.) =Dungeon Conditions: Secret===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
At the edge of the circle, Shalune and Lunata have a heart-to-heart; this Josie does not intrude in, leaving it to them to sort out.
Josie, for all her upbringing in the house of an archmagus...
Is unable to provide much assistance here. She finishes her circuit of the circle, without much else to provide for means of undoing the seal and stands there a moment or two, still smoking her cigarette. Her gaze instead falls on the tatters of paper...
Behind her back (literally, not figuratively) Lily makes a suggestion based on her Symbological research.
And her understanding of what drives malevolent effects.
Yes. Like an acid and a base.
And like ice and fire. Bring the two together, and--
"Yeah." Josie has picked up a particular piece of paper, her gaze skimming the neatly-written text upon it. She hands it to Fei. "I do. I made up my mind days ago."
--And with a resounding flash as the antipodes are brought together, the symbols -- all of them -- are erased; the floor is swept clean.
Somewhere, a weight is lifted from a portal. Something in the castle has changed.
And on the paper Josie has handed to Fei, there is written this:
"'The Anomalous Orb'. A strange creation, not of this world, and presented unto the king by the one called the Trial Knight. At the king's behest, I was tasked soon after to investigate the Orb and how else it might be used to defend this kingdom against all that might harm it."
"A great power rests within the Orb. Equal to -- no. No, I have reason to believe it would surpass that of anything sorcery has yet been capable in this world. The one to tease out its full power might earn a form of immortality. Or, perhaps, the very thing itself? We shall see."
"His handwriting," Josie says, gaze hooded as she exhales smoke.
She says little more, her expression as sharp and silent as a loaded steel trap.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
And then, unsolicited, uninvited, and maybe even unexpected, there is a particular white-haired Symbologist who likes to hide the lower half of his face present. He has that unnerving level of reservation in his bodily movements and tone of voice - so this isn't some sort of bizarre Malevolent illusion. There's no way it could ever capture that stare of his.
"This part of the castle appears to have lacked anything resembling a coherent security detail," Ethius remarks, hand to his forehead, "and there has already been an active attempt to dispose of sensitive materials within our presence." There may or may not have been a distant violent explosion heard during their time through here, but, Malevolent Domains and how sound travels through them is not exactly a well-tested scientific concept.
"It would appear all necessary business within this part of the castle has since concluded." That's kind of obvious, looking at all the ashes and signs of things being burned as of late. Nonetheless, Ethius removes the hand from his forehead and folds his arms behind his back.
"Time grows short."