2019-03-21: To Save A World Only a Mother Could Have Loved (The Idea Of Eating)
- Log: 2019-03-21: To Save A World Only a Mother Could Have Loved (The Idea Of Eating)
- Cast: Seraph Lanval, Lydia Seren, Jean, Rebecca Streisand, Ida Everstead-Rey
- Where: Fallen Sanctuary - Love's Cradle
- Date: March 21st, 2019
- Summary: This world of rot, ruin, disappointments, and ceaseless violence offers little to cherish - but what's left is, for many of them, all that truly is left. This will not stop them from meeting K.K.'s and Ragnell's challenge to go stop the bullet that would slay a Guardian Lord, as they descend the depths of Love's Cradle. (Also, Lydia Seren shows her great understanding of what it truly means to love a thing.)
===========================================<* Northern Steppes *>===========================================
The northern regions of the Elru continent are composed of broken, barren hills, their soil frozen and crusted over with rime. Little grows there, and even less lives. The monsters and wildlife of the region are notoriously fierce; a monster seeing a traveller will chase that person down for weeks if necessary, as that may be the only protein it sees in that time.
The Steppes have been the dominion of the military Kingdom of Arctica since before the Day of Collapse, but in recent years their castle has been silent and unresponsive. The walls sit shattered and broken, the gate open and scored with long-dead flame.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfRBmqBlzzQ
DG: A party led by Seraph Lanval is now entering Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
=========================================<* Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle *>=========================================
==================================<* CHALLENGE - Anomalous ~ The Coming Distortion *>===================================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 1 |
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
The Fallen Sanctuary has many secret passageways. Wings that only the Baskar
could know -- perhaps even only the Elw before them. And yet...
Come...
A voice. A warmth. Beckons you. Guides you. Towards a secret entrance
leading into a foyer that looks notably more ostentatious than the simpler
trappings of the rest of the sanctuary. Bedecked in the regalia and symbols
of love, it is clear what this place is -- a wing dedicated to the Guardian
Lord, Raftina. There is warmth here. The power of the Ley thrums strong.
And something... else.
A crackle. A distortion of space. The feel of something pulling at your
thoughts, as if dredging something out from deep within. Reality seems to
flicker like the shutter of lights...
... and then there is the low growl.
Metal Beasts emerge from the shadows, one by one. They shouldn't be here, of
all places, especially now. With little crackles, their bodies seem to churn
and distort, warping like something malleable and insubstantial. They should
not be here. This is not right. The Anomalous products of an anomalous
pulse.
But it doesn't make it any less dangerous when they lunge for you.
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
In the wake of the battle against an Arctican blade possessed of despair and shame, Seraph Lanval almost doesn't make it in there. Still, some did say they were going to follow his lead. His 'lead' so far has been limply pointing an arm towards the way into the greater depths of the ziggurat as he occasionally downs drinks and finishes off the last of a swiped bottle of Brewte Force.
Come...
It's a warm, inviting voice that speaks above the haze of the Malevolence that now permeates and violates this sacred ground. It leads the party off the beaten path, towards a secret entrance that yet reveals a foyer full of beauty and wealth than the chamber they just stepped out of. The symbols, the imagery, the regalia... this place is dedicated to one of the Guardian Lords, the very highest of the Guardian pantheon.
The Guardian of Love... Raftina. The force of love itself still beats with the Ley, but as they go further in, this warmth is challenged by a crackling, a warping of all sensations physical and beyond. It seems sort of initimate, the way something pulls at...
Thoughts.
Each present will find their eyes drawn to any manner of Metal Beast that has imprinted deeply into their memories. A close brush with death, an overpowering one you had to run from but never were able to 'return the favor,' maybe even one that seemed for a moment to be capable of some emotion other than bloodlust and hunger.
Their bodies and forms crackle and warp as they circle around the gathered. They shouldn't be here. other has fallen, and has no further influence. No one else has taken the reins of the ones that do yet survive out in the Filgaian wilds.
Then, there is an enormous eruption of water that flows forth as the portly Water Seraph, Lanval, splashes out a greater quantity of shining pure water that does not seem possible to ever leave such a tiny vessel - some white-hued potion bottle.
"Shoo." He says to the Metal Beasts That Should Not Be. That won't be enough alone to dissuade them from trying to strike, but it underlines a truth all of them bear amongst one another:
They have bigger fish to fry.
DG: Seraph Lanval has used his Tool Holy Bottle toward his party's challenge, Anomalous ~ The Coming Distortion.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia Seren is following along behind. She is quiet and seems to be glancing around in search for something (probably Riesenlied whom she's trying to catch up with). She throws laserblasts periodically at the metal beasts but she seems to be intent on saving her strength--no doubt intent on helping purify the malevolence around the area.
"Lanval," She says. "Are you okay?"
She doesn't seem like she's gonna be particularly freaked out by METAL BEASTS by this point. She thinks she's got a good handle on things, and herself, but her thoughts are just elsewhere. She's thinking about the people ahead.
She didn't know them that well, but...
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
How long now has Jean been running off into dank old ruins in search of... well, whatever the needs of the time are? It's not exactly what she expected to define her time on the Blue Star, but it appears to have done a lot of it anyway. So, in an old temple...
...Jean, naturally, has been in the area. She steps inside with the others, looking around thoughtfully, carefully; she is dressed as an ordinary person, not as the martial artist that many now know she is, hands at her sides, no obvious weapons--though against the cold, she does wear gloves.
Maybe not just for the cold.
The Metal Beasts Jean remembers most are those from the invasion of Adlehyde. Those that struck out towards the innocent, those that shouldn't be here, and maybe aren't here, but--
The dancer sets her jaw, and shifts her stance; abrubtly, she moves into a set of steps that haze with shadowy trails, abrubtly becoming a dance that weakens and tires and confuses the enemy.
DG: Jean has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Anomalous ~ The Coming Distortion.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
When love beckons - Rebecca comes calling. Though she can't admit that she doesn't feel a bit frightened by the thought of what she'll find.
"So this is the shrine of the Guardian Lord devoted to love huh?" Rebecca's got this smile which is creased - subdued. After all - the warm beckoning is cut with spiritual poison. It feels like she could write a poem about that.
About a love tainted with toxicity.
"Even under the circumstances... being here just feels pretty romantic to me."
It's the kind of thing she can say only because Dean isn't in earshot...
"What!? Metal Beasts? This can't be real?" The girl draws out her ARM, and whips it up into a gunspinning easy motion of high then low behind her back. Only noticing the sickening pulse of malevolence as she girds herself for it. "Whatever though - here we go!" There's an acrobatic elegance to how she whips up her revolver each time, and sends a bullet hurtling towards the each beast - hopping back - or even doing a backwards somersault between each shot.
"You're taking them pretty lightly." Rebecca comments to the Water Seraph as he says 'Shoo' like they're simply stray puppies acting badly. "Must be pretty confident." She says as she gets a bead on another Metal Beast and pulls the trigger.
"What about you Lydie? You hanging in there?"
Rebecca says as a Metal Beast lunges, and Rebecca does a backwards somersault - just as Jean darts in beneath her with that shadowy dance to take it on mid-charge.
"Whoa Jean - you're even faster than you were in Meribia!" She says in admiration, as she lands in an upright position again.
DG: Rebecca Streisand has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Anomalous ~ The Coming Distortion. DG: Lydia Seren has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Anomalous ~ The Coming Distortion.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Come...
.Ida brings up the rear of the group, her gait unsteady and labored. Her right arm--the one melded with Hyadean flesh--hangs at her side, the gauntlet-like armor plating marred by scrapes. Quicksilver still stains her forearm, where the Sword Dancer's blade pierced the limb through before cutting into her chest.
"Lydia," Ida says, "can you sense anyth--"
An eerie, high-pitched howl tears through the air. Ida snaps bolt upright--in the blink of an eye, she's holding her Devil's Arm, training it on the horde ahead. "Romantic," she says, to Rebecca, her voice a pained deadpan. "These are--" Adlehyde. And there's a sense of wrongness about them that reminds her of those last, frenetic moments before she breached the Photosphere's hull and found Fei cradling Siegfried's body.
"Opening fire," Ida says. She pulls the trigger, sending rounds downrange at the Metal Beasts with... decent precision, given she's still regenerating.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Anomalous ~ The Coming Distortion.
====================================<* Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle - Round 1 *>==================================== ====================================< Results - Anomalous ~ The Coming Distortion >===================================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Lanval 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Holy Bottle 2 Combat Effects: Resilient ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lydia Seren 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rebecca Streisand 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jean 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ida Everstead-Rey 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------< Party >-------------------------------------------------------- Leader: Seraph Lanval 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Fright(2) Effects: Resilient(1) ===================================================< Dream Chasers >====================================================
DG: The party led by Seraph Lanval 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> Seraph Lanval has posed.
They are stronger than this. They cannot lose to these - and they do not.
The memories being turned against them are sore sports, attempting to cling onto instances where they didn't establish the dominance they are doing altogether. Even holding her strength, Lydia's power through her faith in the Guardians remains potent. Even through grievous injury and changes to herself as a person forevermore, Ida's shots hold true. Even as the confusion might shake a heart full of difficult feelings, Rebecca's aim and acrobatics rain true. Jean seems to have it 'better' only in that her success is much less contested by the phantoms that assault her, her movements disorienting and opening up the lot of them for another burst of their convictions and powers.
Lanval steps forward, his gait far steadier than he usually manages, able to walk to the other end of these twisted memories unscathed more thanks to the help of the rest.
He just puts on a stupid little smile in response to that question, and once the memories of these Metal Beasts are forced to conform to their present rather than their past - that they were beaten, or no longer of concern to them - they can continue on.
DG: Rebecca Streisand has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle *>====================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - The Weight of Love *>=====================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
There is a grand statue here, immense, dominating the southern wall of this
chamber just above the door leading beyond. It is of Raftina, Ley
perpetually thrumming through its body, creating a strange and ethereal
visage of the Guardian of Love carved in a beauty beyond description. She
holds her sword up high, her expression one of smiling warmth.
But as you walk past...
... there is a pulse.
Anomalous energies thrum through the Ley. The statue groans unnaturally as
blue bleeds to violet.
And then the sword comes crashing down, just as the doorway leading beyond
snaps SHUT.
It is only a last minute BURST of ley power that keeps you all from being
smote. A barrier of shining blue between you and that tremendous,
Malevolence-fueled sword is all that saves you from damnation.
r u n . . .
You can choose to try to bolster the shield to buy time, or work on the
door. But slowly, that shield begins to crack. And the way out must be found
before it shatters.
=Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous==============================================
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
The Beasts fall. Rebecca holds position for a moment, her revolver barrel still trailing some gunsmoke, before she spins her gun around one last time and stuffs it into her holster.
"Yeah romantic." Rebecca defends herself to Ida. Though she does so in a pretty good natured way. "Doesn't the thought of bringing someone special to you under different circumstances appeal at all?" There's an almost light tease in that.
Tossing her head back, and using an arm to flip her twintails - it looks like she's being a teensy bit theatrical as she walks down the corridor.
All the way to the hall with the statue. It is chipped and marred, but once this statue must have held an almost an angelic radiance. "... She's beautiful." The girl whispers to herself. Thinking perhaps this is a good artist's representation of an ideal.
Rebecca feels like she's going to write a poem about that later too.
However - as they all step too far - Rebecca catches the little blue ley pulse change to violet. Her Sky Medium attuning her to the whims of the leylines.
The fingers holding the giant stone sword crumble - and it - falls -
The girl feels a word, and echoes it herself.
"Run!"
However there's a burst of blue ley energy and-
The sword stops mid-fall. As a barrier of blue flares to life. And at the same moment - the door beyond the statue slams shut. And suddenly her efforts to run cause her to skid it shut.
Taking out her medium - Rebecca holds it up - as it pulses and she changes tack from running to the door to instead flooding the Leyline with aquatic energy. It's what she feels like she can do - being better at this than forcing her way through, "I'm gonna try to see if I can get that barrier to hold for longer! Someone get that door open!"
Before she then glances at Lanval, and says wryly, "You'd probably be way better at this than I am... mind lending a hand?"
DG: Rebecca Streisand has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Weight of Love.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Aside from the ley and the malevolence, uh, I mean, I'm trying not to sense it too bad if you get my meanin'."
She doesn't get an anwer from Lanval, which makes her give a faintly half pout half troubled half cheek puffy face. Lydia likes to give 150 percent.
"I guess it is the 'Love Cradle' after all." Lydia asides to Rebecca. "But to be honest...mmm... Love as a Guardian is a pretty vast entity compared to what us mortals think of love, I think." Why does Love have a sword? Well, why not? 'Actually I wanted to ask you something 'romance related' but uhhhhhh I can probably wait until...it's a private...place? Yeah?"
Her cheeks silver faintly as she considers Rebecca's question. Is she hanging in there?
"To be honest," Lydia says. "Well, I've got my mind goin' on some things."
She walks along.
"I used to work for them, y'know? Kind of? I mean I mostly worked with Ginny, but I'm the one who gave Ragnell the Ark Scepter t'begin with so I feel kind of responsible, not that I figured they'd do this."
She rubs at her neck, "And K.K totally saved mom when she needed help. Well, I mean, they helped...right?"
'Run'.
Her thoughts are interrupted as she charges the door swinging her bat at it as hard as she can and, no doubt, working off some aggression as she does so.
DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Good Luck Bat toward her party's challenge, The Weight of Love.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Once the last of the Beasts is down, Ida stops, closes her eyes, and breathes. Smoke trails from the barrel of her ARM in wisps. "I don't think my beloved would appreciate the scenery," she admits, to Rebecca. "I don't know where the Orb is," adds, after a moment, opening her eyes. "I'd thought--that I might be able to locate it, perhaps." Ida takes a moment to change out the ARM's clip, and then she holsters it again. The former Hellion sets off after the others, jogging until she catches up. Her arm hurts less, but her system is executing what amounts to a biological patch-job. Ida has no illusions that this will be over once they find the Orb.
"It's--it's almost like what we did to the Earthpulse, on a larger scale." Ida's voice is low, like she's confessing to a crime. The Fire Medium--its warmth a constant presence since she entered the Sanctuary--grows even warmer. She looks up at the statue, regret plain as day on her face.
And then, stone crumbles. Ida rushes forwards, slamming into the door with her left shoulder and bouncing off. The heavy crunch of the blade hitting something draws her attention, and she glances up, eyes wide. That voice. Is that a Guardian?!
"Thank you," Ida whispers. Nevertheless, the pulse of the Ley is everywhere, and if she does what she needs to, she might be defiling it. She draws back her right fist. Metal-laced flesh flows out from the 'gauntlet' encasing her arm, reinforcing her right hand. She draws it back and throws a wild haymaker, chi exploding off her knuckles.
She can think about what Lydia just confessed to when they're no longer in imminent danger.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Weight of Love.
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
Jean stops, rolls her shoulders, and laughs softly. "Romantic, huh?" Jean asks, tilting her head to Rebecca. "Maybe I can see it. That's not really my kind of thing, though. Give me somewhere out under the stars..."
Well, and skip the romance, usually. Though, "Hmmm," she indicates to Lydia.
Jean agrees of the statue, though--and suddenly--
Run. Jean starts moving immediately, trying to move as much, but she can see it--the others are going to be better off at smashing the door, but, what can she do?
Well... Smash the door.
She breathes in, carefully. "Nobody expected Ragnell to do this," Jean says, calmly. "Sure, she always did what she wanted... But nobody expects someone to want this. Don't blame yourself."
Then--bam!! Straight for the door.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval's among the gathered who can't help but take a moment to admire what he sees there. If he has it right, what he's looking at is what is considered to be as close to the truest manifestation of the Guardian of Love as the mortal mind could conceive, as the mortal hand could create. The warmth of the Ley is comfortable and reassuring that they haven't lost yet.
...Then the pulsing happens, and the blade she bears descends as sure as the colors twist to that hue. Lanval just so happens to be sitting dead center of where the blade looks to carve, and then...
...
"...Mmm." The Water Seraph is stunned by what he feels. The breadth of what the notion of 'Love' must mean, in one of the very strongest spiritual entities that dwell the Blue Star.
He hears the confessions of Lydia and Ida alike about how some of their actions may have led - or did lead - to disasters on a grand scale, as Lanval's head tilts up towards where the blade wants to carve through the barrier.
Even knowing that, even knowing what some members of the party are...
Rebecca calls for Lanval to help. He has a sip from his gourd. That's not helping and THE BARRIER COULD COLLAPSE.
"...Ya ain't here ta kill 'em," Lanval remarks without looking to Lydia. "Yer here ta help." He doesn't say 'here to help save Filgaia' or 'here to help save them,' he just leaves the sentence at that.
"...That power now... mmm. No matter what the Malevolence might be tryin' ta shay through shomethin' like that..."
Watery energies gather as he holds his drinking gourd up, trying to project more power into the barrier.
"Raftina... she shtill hash all the love of thish world ta sphare fer it." In a way, his faith might be a better reinforcing of the barrier than the actual magical attempt to do the same.
DG: Seraph Lanval has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, The Weight of Love.
DG: Jean has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Weight of Love.
===============<* Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle - Round 2 *>=============== =======================< Results - The Weight of Love >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Lanval 0 --(0)--> 0 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lydia Seren 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Good Luck Bat 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rebecca Streisand 5 --(0)--> 5 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jean 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ida Everstead-Rey 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Seraph Lanval 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Fright(1)|Overzealous(2) Effects: Strengthen(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Seraph Lanval 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> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
"Not the sentimental type huh?" Rebecca sympathizes, "I've met a lot of guys like that." However - Rebecca knows it's Kalve right? She's treating it pretty casually right now as just a 'guy' thing, rather than a 'Metal Demon' thing.
Before grinning at Jean, "Oho. So you're that kind of romantic." Rebecca seems to take it in stride - though Rebecca seems more restrained than an under the stars type. "I'm pretty jealous." ... Under the Stars says a lot for how vulnerable you mind everyone seeing you.
"Probably. I just like to think there's room in it for all sorts of love." She'd answered Lydie. Then gives her a speculative look, scratching a finger against her cheek. "Well sure - of course! I understand why you'd want to keep that kind of question private."
That was all then though.
Sweat beads on Rebecca's brow as she tries to hold up the barrier. "Now... please...!" The barrier is cracking harder and harder like mirror glass. It's not that she doesn't appreciate him answering Lydia's feelings. It's just the dire peril is what she's focused on.
The barrier is cracking like mirror glass - energy bleeding through every spidery webbed crack. And then Lanval adds his efforts - the watery out of his gourd causing the cracks to dim - almost like they're fading.
Meanwhile - Lydia takes a bat to the door. And the Blunt Force Trauma causes it to shudder on its ancient hinges. The one-two of Jean and Ida then blasts it right off. Those three make it through easily.
However - as Lanval and Rebecca start to back up - the energy they're flooding the barrier with in counterforce is suddenly inadequate.
One moment it's holding the sword back - the next moment the barrier is shattering into motes of energy. The sword falls.
The two are perhaps running when it hits the floor of the chamber, though the shockwave of stonework shattering sends the two hurtling through the door out the other side - dust and rubble replacing all vision within the room that formerly held the statue.
Rebecca picks herself up, and shakes dust out of her now 'greying' twintails.
"... we're alright... we're okay... we managed to scrape by that..."
She seems to be calming herself down, because her heart is beating so quickly, pushing her palms down.
"I'm glad you're taking responsibility Lydia for all that. Even being here right now - that's real mature of you."
Rebecca says as she takes a few steps backwards - in moving on. "...Just don't go blaming yourself too hard. Responsibility is one thing. You don't need to take a huge share of guilt and muck it up."
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has drawn a new Challenge.
=====================<* Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle *>=====================
================<* CHALLENGE - Anomalous ~ The Summer Palace *>=================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
You proceed further into the Fallen Sanctuary. With every step, a soft
thrum. Every step, a harsh crackle. The two meet --
The very next step you take is across marble flooring. You find yourself in
a great hall -- the personal chambers of the Kaiser of Kislev's summer
palace, Schonenberg. Light streams in through a shattered window. Wooden
frames of a grand door are split asunder. Dust chokes at your lungs. Grand
columns and gilded decorations lay in crumbling and sad debris at your feet.
There is a war here.
<<Sensor confirmation established. Eliminating objective.>>
And this is the source.
A blast rips through the dust. A large automaton carried on four mechanical
legs stomps into existence, its automated voice disrupted by hideous,
unright screeches that make it sound more animal than machine. It is missing
one arm.
That ceases to be a problem as wobbling Malevolence -bursts- from the open
joint, creating a cannon of bubbling contradiction that it thusly points
your way with exceedingly hostile intent.
Ancient
Containment
ARM
GRYNDILLE
One way forward:
Destroy the Gryndille.
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida stumbles through the doorframe, coughing violently as the dust of ages fills the air. The sounds of crumbling stone fade, and she glances back, counting heads. She offers Rebecca a hand up--the one that isn't covered in reinforced armor. "I didn't--know the Guardians could do that," she admits, "but if this is their sanctuary, the seat of their power, then..." Ida trails off, and looks back at Lydia. "She exploited your trust, and your good nature," she says. "She has much to answer for."
The group walks on. The tunnel narrows, then widens again. Malevolence surges through the air, forming eddies and knots--as if it were a negative-space image of the Ley currents flowing through this place. The air crackles with energy...
"What on earth," Ida whispers, her eyes widening in horror. Before her lies the summer palace of the Kaiser of Kislev, a place she's never been. Reality flickers again.
The crunch of metal legs punching through marble tile echoes through the ruined hall. Ida draws Devil's Due, her mouth falling open as the massive automaton simply fades into existence.
A single eye, covered with a film of Malevolence, stares back at her from the metal ruin that is Gryndille's head. "Unidentified Ley contamination detectectectect" Its voice rises in a howl, halfway between an electronic screech and a human scream.
This is not the real Gryndille. The real Gryndille was a pure vessel. This is a Malevolence-twisted memory of what was. That does not make it any less deadly.
"DOWN!" Ida screams. She dives behind the ruins of an elegant divan, covering her head and neck with her forearms. Malevolence tears through the air a moment later, the mockery of Gryndille twisting at the waist, its cannon-arm firing Malevolence everywhere. Its lone eye glimmers with a malice the actual Gryndille never had, as it seeks out Jean, then Rebecca, then Lydia, then Lanval.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Flare Grenade toward her party's challenge, Anomalous ~ The Summer Palace.
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
Not the sentimental type--well, not only guys, Jean could say, but hasn't just yet. But she looks at Rebecca with a sort of 'hmm how best to tell her this' sort of expression and shrugs lightly. "Well," she starts, "I'm not sure you have exactly the right idea..."
She considers a beat, though. All sorts of love. "But sure, I won't argue that. I don't begrudge anybody else finding what works for them."
It's not... the best place for a light conversation, but frankly, keeping things casual makes it easier, in some ways. It gives them a reminder of what else there is other than the coming battles, the risk to the world...
And Jean doesn't want to keep Lydia, in particular, too worried.
Past the danger? "...If we keep at it, and stick together," Jean says, "Then..." She pauses. Guilt, and responsibility. Is she the person to tell anyone about that kind of thing?
Besides; her view on Ragnell isn't exactly the majority, here. She doesn't speak of the Guardians--instead, the scene changes...
"Move!" Jean calls, and lunges, not at the great machine--but at Rebecca, grabbing her mid-motion and rolling along the ground to get both of the past the Malevolence cannon that approaches. "Come on," she says quietly. "You stay back here--I'll get up in its face."
Jean pulls something from her hip--a flask--and uncaps it, tipping it back in an instant. The burn is a reminder of its own, and her eyes snap down sharply--
Before, wreathed in shadow, Jean surges forward, springing up to bring hand and foot to bear against terrible steel.
DG: Jean has used her Tool Emergency Flask toward her party's challenge, Anomalous ~ The Summer Palace.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval is hurled almost cartoonishly across the stonework as he tumbles like a rolling raindrop, which he sort of is. His manifested form comes to the physical equivalent of rest up against the beginning of the tunnel. He follows along soon enough...
Then things happen. Things he does not understand. Well, the 'Malevolence doing things' part, yes. It's more what it is making with what it is doing that Ida's confusion sees him opening his eyes half-lidded.
A great metal construct. Filgaia has a number of them, sure, they aren't that novel at this point - but something about its appearance--
"...Huh? Ley contamination... heyyyyyy, ish that thing... Re--" Ida shouts over him and he follows suit as he tumbles behind and - somehow, despite his appearances - under one of the collapsed grand doors, it having just enough of a crack that he can flow himself through for cover.
He's a water elemental, he fits where water can, no matter how weird it is for the mortal eye and mind to comprehend for the projection of a shape he has.
The glimmering eye travels across, seeking all of them. From the little crack underneath the collapsed door...
It is looking at him. Then again, he thinks, this is a Malevolence-infused recreation of something or another, of course Malevolence can 'see' him. Those were some interesting words, though, he could recognize.
There is another spray of crystal-clear, shining water that races forth as if to provide something of a red line to stop the construct from approaching further.
DG: Seraph Lanval has used his Tool Holy Bottle toward his party's challenge, Anomalous ~ The Summer Palace.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Huh? Oh no, I don't really feel guilty or anything. The person who did that and the person I am now might as well be two different people, you know? Folks've made worse mistakes than I did, and it's not like I knew they'd go this far. I didn't even really know them, to be honest, except Ragnell let me kiss her once so she can't be that bad." She has yet to see evidence that this isn't the case. "Honestly, maybe I should feel guilty? But I don't, really. And I guess that's what I'm trying to get at. Not that I'm saying, uh, I think they're doing the right thing here. I mean, it feels so different from the people I know, that it's kind of hard to believe, haha..."
She nods once to Lanval before adding, "What the fuck is that?"
She promptly gets a claw arm through her chest and flops onto her back, spraying silver.
"ugghh." Lydia says, lying down on the floor there. "Some people have really fucked up memories..."
She presses her hand into her wound, seemingly more annoyed than dying. "Anyway... Um. When I joined the Crucible, uh... it was right after I was thrown off of Solaris. Not like right right after, but I found Ginny and Ginny was nice to me, you know? And I might not've even met Ginny if it wasn't for them. Honestly, even that person who had the Crucible was a better person than...what I was in that in between time."
She is quiet for a moment, no doubt due to all the fighting. She seems to be leading somewhere with this.
DG: Lydia Seren has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Anomalous ~ The Summer Palace.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
"Good!" Rebecca seems cheered up by Lydia's clarification. "Nah. You didn't do anything wrong when it comes to this." Whereas for Ida. "She doesn't seem like the type to answer for anything though..." Rebecca quips, wryly, from her few experiences with Ragnell.
As the landscape changes into the palace of the Kaiser, Rebecca rubs her forearm across her eyes rapidly, like she's trying to scrub cobwebs off from sleeping.
And then she hears that horrible crunching noise and-
"What even is that?" Gryndille's head stares, and Rebecca is momentarily frozen-
Even at the Command of 'Down'
-long enough for a red glowing cannon sight to focus in on her. Jean grabs her mid-motion - as cannon-fire shreds the position where they were. Rebecca improvises in helping Jean break the fall mid-roll. Like her mind is catching up to her.
Now in cover, she lets out a whoof of air. "Thanks-!" However upon relaying her plan, "You sure you'll be okay? With something like this?" Which is when she gets a sight of "Lydie!" She cries out in horror, paling at the damage, though there's a 'Not again' quality.
Gripping her Medium - she waits for Jean to go and then, slides out of cover with a dramatic flourish.
The Water Ley she stands upon causes a twisting spiral of aquatic fluid to rush it, blasting for the vulnerable joints just as the martial artist is about to make contact. Before the attack is even done, she's darting behind the cover they've made - looking up. Realizing it's a bust of Sigmund.
"If you need to fall back-" She spins out her revolver, sighting down two shots in an attempt to take out what looks like it's visual sensors. Then wincing when it's cannon shreds off Sigmund's head from the neck up. Squeaking as she gets back behind her now shortened cover. "-I've got you covered!"
And when it looks like she has another opening, twin splashing streams of water erupt outwards - attempting to blast the ancient representation of the ARM again.
"I'm glad you found someone like that Lydie and I'd like to hear more but-"
More cannon fire.
There's a high pitched squeal as it comes close, as the words spill out in a nervous rush, "Maybe tell us all about it after the firefight is over!"
DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Sky Medium toward her party's challenge, Anomalous ~ The Summer Palace.
================<* Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle - Round 3 *>================ ==================< Results - Anomalous ~ The Summer Palace >=================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Lanval 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Holy Bottle 2 Combat Effects: Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lydia Seren 5 --(10)--> 15 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rebecca Streisand 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Sky Medium 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jean 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Emergency Flask 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Flare Grenade 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Seraph Lanval 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Overzealous(1) Effects: Embolden(1)|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Seraph Lanval 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> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"LYDIA!" Ida's voice tears free from her throat in a shriek. More sensible thoughts--like ones that urge her to stay behind cover--get shoved aside. The martial artist plants a hand on the back of the divan and vaults over it, shooting a wide-eyed glance at Lydia as she keeps right on talking despite the sucking chest wound. As with Rebecca, there's a hint of 'Again!?' in her gaze, despite the urgency.
"Neutralizinginging." Lanval's water surges forth, slamming into Gryndille with staggering force. The machine rocks back, the pincer-feet on the ends of its four legs gripping the tile, bracing. The Malevolent glow emanating from the rents in the automaton's body begins to fade. Rebecca follows up with another blast of water, and this time Gryndille stumbles, shrieking in that awful electronic 'voice' as sparks fly from its plating. Bullets slam into its frame. Nevertheless, even this memory of Gryndille is persistent. Its cannon-eye flickers--
And then a small metallic capsule flies through the air and detonates in Gryndille's 'face'. A brilliant flash of light washes out, along with a thunderous bang. Grenade thrown, Ida opens fire with Devil's Due. The damaged automaton swings wildly in a way the actual Gryndille never did--but it's blinded, now, and Jean has the perfect opportunity to go to work. Fists and feet slam into Gryndille's chassis, staving it in, punching through the delicate machinery behind it.
Without another word, it collapses, its form dissipating into Malevolent smoke.
Ida holsters her ARM and kneels beside Lydia. "Can you still walk?" she asks the woman with the sucking chest wound.
DG: Lydia Seren has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle *>====================
===============<* CHALLENGE - Anomalous ~ Call Upon Its Name *>===============
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
This chamber is large. So much so one might feel insignificant in
comparison. Dome-like in structure, it carries carvings of bygone days when
the Guardian Lords were more a presence in the world -- art depicting
Raftina's interactions with shaman, and the Elw. There is a single path
forward. A door.
And then space l u r c h e s.
...Call upon my Name...
Where once was a door, something unnatural, anthropoidal, and bloated
occupies. Immense, with an octopus-like head and distending eye-studded
feelers writhing beneath it, its body seems to wobble and shift unnaturally
with every warping pulse of the Anomalous Orb beyond. A thing of bloated
corpulence. The sign of Muse shines upon its head.
...and walk beyond the Ley...
The Primarch of Muse
-Rahab-
A shell of pure Ley encapsulates this creature. Attacking it directly will
only cause a certain end. Something ill scratches at the back of the mind,
making it difficult to think. There is a small gap in its defenses, but wits
and planning must be used to overcome this foe, rather than brute force.
Can you find the way?
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Secret==========================================
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm used to it too okay." Lydia grumbles as she places a hand on Ida's shoulder and then pushes herself up. "It's okay. I can keep moving. Might be a little slower." She sighs, hobbling along once she's up to her feet. "Sorry... I know I'm not really... good at fighting in these scenarios. Most of my spells are, like, lasers from the sky and meteorites and uh, not very good for ruins you know? And I just don't really have the instinct for it, to be totally real."
"Anyway," Lydia continues. "I think the thing is... I was kind of all of the place, basically barely able to function. I probably would've ended like some weird psycho hermit..."
"...But..." Lydia looks up. "Thanks to the Crucible..there was a place I could be that and still be with other people. I could deal with my bullshit, and be weird and psycho and... I don't know... work through it in a place like that. It gave me the chance to become like me again, you know? That's why..."
She lowers her head. "I don't think I could really fight K.K and Ragnell. I owe them too much... you understand right? It'd be one thing if I thought they didn't want to do this, but I know they do, so ... I'll help with the malevolence. That's probably what's best for me here anyway."
there is a door. And then it is gone.
Something reaches into your mind and speaks. It asks for you to call its name. It demands it.
The Orb pulses. Over and over. And then there's cthulhu.
Er. Rahab. And it's warbling closer and closer.
Lydia takes in a deep breath. "...I don't think we can ... fight this?"
She closes her eyes again and then says, "...Schrodinger..."
A cat appears on her head.
"...Fishies." She throws the cat at Rahab horribly.
DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Schrodinger the Cat toward her party's challenge, Anomalous ~ Call Upon Its Name.
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
"I'll be fine," Jean tells Rebecca. She is resolute; she is entirely confident. And, as it turns out, she is. The true Gryndille, certainly, would have given her a great deal more trouble--but for now she's more than ready to continue, despite impacting hard metal with her bare hands. But she looks to Lydia--"...You don't have to be too brave, okay?"
"It's not a bad thing, not to have an easy time fighting. It's not bad, to have trouble hurting people, animals, monsters... Don't ever feel like you have to apologize for that, all right?"
"...Ragnell's my friend, too. We were... Good friends," she says, and there's a hint of something more than that in the way she glances into the distance for a moment. "Nothing that would ever hold either of us down... But even so; I kind of appreciated her free spirit. I tend to have so much on my mind..." She gestures. "Believe it or not. So... I understand, that it's important to you--that they were."
A beat, "...Ginny's my friend, too."
But here--this thing. This... gigantic monster. "...Uh, yeah," Jean agrees, staring upward, feeling the assault on her mind beginning. She reaches up to her hair, where her pin gleams, a magical jewel exuding calm--
"...Like I was just saying..." Jean lowers her hand, looks thoughtful. "Fighting doesn't have to be the answer. See--I think there's a way... through. Can you see it? If we go here..."
DG: Jean has used her Tool Bejeweled Hairpin toward her party's challenge, Anomalous ~ Call Upon Its Name.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Did she let you kiss her too?" Lydia asks.
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
Jean laughs for about ten seconds straight.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
Rebecca had walked over to check on Lydia too - but stops short when she sees Ida helping her up. Walking past her she gives a friendly pat on the shoulder, as she listens.
"Hey we understand - if it's too personal for you to fight them. Just do what you feel you can handle. And if taking malevolence is it..." There's a faint pause, and she has a smile, "... well then you have our full support. I wouldn't want anyone to have to fight their friends - especially not friends who helped them when they were in a dark place."
However attuned Rebecca is becoming to the realities of the world - she misses the implications of 'good' in good friends. Until Lydia brings it up. Then her expression freezes in a fast forming blush.
"O-Oh... Oh wow..."
Perhaps the way the two can handle that so in stride is evidence of how adult they are. To be able to talk about such things without embarrassment or shame.
However then - there's that thing. Within the field of Ley barrier. And Rebecca - well she'd heard about what Wayside faced, but she never had really gotten a true sense of how horrifying it was.
Until now.
As she feels it crawling in her skull, she spins up her ARM warily - pointing at it. But she realizes in a second that's all wrong. Taking a deep - calming breath, she instead fumbles for her diary, and opens it to read one of her poems to herself.
Like she's reminding herself who she is.
"Got people counting on me to make it out of this." She whispers to herself, thinking of Dean and Avril. And then Lydia throws a cat at it.
Rebecca gawks for a moment.
"Well that settles it-" Rebecca nods quickly in agreement with Jean, "Let's just look for a way out! I mean - I think we can all agree - if throwing Lydie's cat is our strategy then the best way to win the fight - is not to fight it at all!"
DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Rebecca's Travel Diary toward her party's challenge, Anomalous ~ Call Upon Its Name.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval slips out from under the door he managed to hide under, stumbling along towards Lydia with great alacrity by his standards as she's helped up to their feet by Ida. He's not far off, starting to work on some healing Seraphic Artes to the extent such can apply to Lydia's unique physiology. There's a whole lot of Malevolence here, and he doesn't want it to be preying on her pain and her worries.
...
"I can undershtand shome of that," Lanval speaks. "Y'know, after the Guard deshtroyed the place I wash watchin' over... Ragnell wash one of the few of my own kind who'd ever give me the time of day any more." And yet, he says, he made his position clear when she accosted Talise while they were out scouting about Arctica in search for this place they're in now.
He was perfectly willing to try and fight her then.
The discussion segues towards matters of flirtation, and kissing, and-- Jean's laughter has Lanval bringing a hand up against his mouth.
"Mmmm, thought I shaw it all back there," he muses, "never even thought of that..."
Lanval has learned something!
Speaking of 'thoughts,' there is an awful thing arriving. For the corporeal among them, they might not be having a great time of it. Less than great, for the pressure it exudes. For an individual like Seraph Lanval, who doesn't really have a truly corporeal form and instead has to deal with the presence of Rahab with his everything, it is a form of psychic assault that is just too much. The Seraph's body starts to collapse into the flash of watery light to go hurl itself within his very vessel - a bottle, as always. He has never experienced anything like this.
He'll need the help getting through to the other side.
DG: Seraph Lanval has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Anomalous ~ Call Upon Its Name.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida falls silent. She remembers the train robbery, and how angry she was that the Scepter slipped from her grasp--but that anger is distant, now.
Something scratches at the back of Ida's mind. Fear washes up at the sensation--she knows it, even though it feels like an echo of what once was--
Ida lets out a wordless cry as the bloated form of Rahab materializes before them, blocking the path. The Ley around it is almost too bright to look at; Ida feels it on the flesh of her half-Hyadean arm, like she's standing too close to a bonfire. "Don't get close!" she cries. No one does. Ida breathes again. Before she realizes what she's doing, her hand darts into her pocket, and runs fingers along the smooth metal of her multitool.
The Orb pulses, like a heartbeat. Ida closes her eyes--Rahab's visage remains, like an afterimage seared into her mind--and focuses as best as she can. The memory's presence--and the Ley around it--seem to dim, in intervals--
"The Ley field... it's flickering, too. If we can strike in the moment it's--"
Lydia throws a cat. Ida blinks.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Multitool toward her party's challenge, Anomalous ~ Call Upon Its Name.
===============<* Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle - Round 4 *>=============== =================< Results - Anomalous ~ Call Upon Its Name >================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Lanval 0 --(0)--> 0 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lydia Seren 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Schrodinger the Cat 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rebecca Streisand 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Rebecca's Travel Diary 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jean 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Bejeweled Hairpin 2 Wits Effects: Cleanse and Efficient ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ida Everstead-Rey 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Multitool 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Seraph Lanval 60 --(20)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Injure(1)|Secret(2)|Stupify(2) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Seraph Lanval has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Rebecca Streisand has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle *>====================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Love's Pyre *>=========================
|Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
Before you, a pyre of pink and white flames burn. Past it, a door. The Ley
pulses here powerfully in this antechamber. The door leading beyond is
sealed, magically. An otherworldly sense pervades past that door.
At the altar, with its flames, there reads a single inscription, carved by
the tip of a blade into stone. Malevolence churns between each beat of Ley.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN
TO TRULY LOVE A THING?
This is an offering. Like in the Hollow before it, those wards will not give
without being given something in return. It does not ask for sacrifice. It
does not ask for pain.
It asks for your love.
And nothing but the truest will suffice.
=Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Fright, Reckless, Overzealous==================
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia smiles over at Rebecca. She didn't ask that question she wants to ask of Rebecca just yet but, well, it's possible that the reason why is because her face is now blushing over hearing about Jean's 'let each other kiss each other' life. At the very least, Schrodinger starts eating a tentacle and seems to have a mind too cat-astrophic to be affected by Rahab's fell magics/psionic effects. Or, you know, it is totally being mind controlled into trying to chew off one of the tentacles.
Lydia seems to be ok too. She's been through enough shit and come out tougher to more or less push through pallette swapped Rahab's mental effects. Jean mentions a secret exit and Lydia starts following in that direction.
She wonders, upon hearing Lanval's own story, if maybe that's why they've been pushed to this point. Maybe they've helped other people only for them to leave them behind when they no longer needed them? Thinking about what she did like that DOES make her feel guilty but... Not too guilty. After all, murdering Guardians and poisoning the ley is a bridge too far for her.
"Yeah..." Lydia says, to Lanval. "It's like that."
She picks up Lanval's bottle and starts making her way along. The group eventually manages to break through the SECRET EXIT. When that is done, Schrodinger reappears on Lydia's head.
...
...
...with a particularly long tentacle in their mouth.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
And then there is a pyre of pink and white flames. It feels warm certainly - but unlike typical fire it does not seem like it will consume. It feels giving, more than anything.
Beyond the fire is a door though, which is quite sealed. Pulsing with wards that seem intrinsically tied to the flame.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN
TO TRULY LOVE A THING?
Rebecca's heart sinks. For someone who thinks about love all the time, she feels inadequate to the challenge. What offering can her maiden's heart make?
"Romantic." The girl's word is wry, like she's rethinking her earlier comment. "This seems more like a thing for couples to do together."
Like a test of love, even as anxiety inducing as it might seem. Sighing almost wistfully, the girl opens up her travel diary that is poetry journal again, flipping towards the back.
A smile touches her lips as she looks at one of her last entries.
And like an epiphany - the girl steps forward to the fire. And she says it quietly aloud-
"What does it mean? It's being with someone you can let your guard down around. Someone that allows you to completely open yourself to the impossible. In those moments - anything can happen. Magic - miracles. Everything you thought you knew before - just changes."
...
...
...
"Forever."
The girl adds finally, and there's not the slightest hint of embarrassment on her face. It's just this little quirk of a smile, that feels almost knowing.
DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Rebecca's Travel Diary toward her party's challenge, Love's Pyre.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
It takes some time for Lanval to sort out whatever the hell just happened. Something like that appearing where the Ley isn't directly underneath, projecting that kind of force... lots of it makes no sense, it's like touching fire that's instead freezing and then it's not emitting smoke but fresh pollen while said flame is underneath water and the water isn't even in a container, it's just floating.
...The encounter is a whole lot like that, and he is appreciative of Lydia helping carry him out of there.
From within the bottle, he overhears Rebecca start talking about romance, and he is overtaken by waves of nostalgia. He's sure watched a lot of mortals come together over the years. The era where he watched a family-owned brewery come out of the monastery the place began as. He watched a number of generations of them grow up, live, love, and pass on while those left behind would repeat the process. A lot of the words said among the younger, like those Rebecca's age, were awkward and silly! But that was still fun to overhear.
Once more, Lanval comes back out of the bottle to contemplate the nature of it. Sure, he loves drinking, but that's probably not the correct way to use that word - the idea of being into something other than yourself so much that you would give almost anything to it...
The watery wastrel just has a stupid cat-like smile on his face, and also ruins the dramatic shot while wearing swirly glasses with lens made out of the bottoms of beer bottles. Sigh.
"Mmm... don't think I can put shomethin' on there proper," he murmurs aloud as he looks ahead to the door, "could pro'lly show ya shoon enough..."
DG: Seraph Lanval has used his Tool Amber Tinted Glasses toward his party's challenge, Love's Pyre.
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
"Hmmm," Jean answers Lanval, and actually smiles. "It seems like her, doesn't it? Even with what she's doing now."
Despite all of it, Jean is fond. How is she going to hate Ragnell, even in the fact of all of this? Though... she doesn't press Rebecca's embarrassment, for the moment. Not this time.
"Thanks for looking out for us," Jean tells Ida on the way through. "But we can both make it. All of us can."
She thinks Lydia will be all right, and.... She knows better than to ask questions about that cat. But here--here in the strange fire... Jean looks up at it, and she feels it. But she isn't the first to speak. Couples, hm?
Rebecca speaks, and Jean can feel the sincerity of her feelings, and she smiles. ...Before she steps forward, too.
"Romance... isn't the only love."
"...Love... Is when you take someone in, as one of your own. When you see her, obviously trouble, obviously nothing good and up to nothing good--and bring her back anyway. Give her a place to stay... someone to be, who isn't just running away, but maybe... Maybe finding something, too."
"Love, is being able to tell her how you feel--and being willing to let her go. Love means... Having a place to go home to. Even if that place is moving all the time. And it means being willing to tell someone what they don't want to hear, because what's good for them is more important than staying quiet."
"Love is home," Jean says, simply, thinking back, back, to nights under the stars. "...I've never felt the kind of romance you're talking about," she tells Rebecca. "But I've had family that showed me how, over time. ...I have friends, even now, like that. They might be in here now, in another part of this place."
...She looks over to Lanval, then. She sees him come out of the bottle...
She pulls a different item--a bottle--and then a few few glasses, as her pin gleams again, giving a feeling of peace. They're rough-made cups, barely big enough even for shots, and she pours a little of the amber liquid into one for everyone here. ...Except the cat.
"Hey, we might not get the chance after. How about we toast? We can give this place that much--let it have something better, for a minute, than ruin and dark plans. What do you say?"
DG: Jean has used her Tool Bejeweled Hairpin toward her party's challenge, Love's Pyre.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida stares into the flames, a rueful smile forming at the corners of her mouth. "Poetic," she says--and she's talking about more than just the words etched in stone. "I remember the other fire." She'd fed it a calling card--a little slip of paper with her identity on it, something symbolic of her, and everything she was. At the time, she'd rationalized it away, because whomever set up the Hallow hadn't set aside a space for receiving such cards, and surely a little wry humor would boost her spirits.
The Trial Knight read the truth of it.
Ida reaches into her pocket, and pulls out the multitool--the parting gift Kalve gave her before he left Adlehyde for "Arctica". It's been a constant companion since, a constant reminder of what the two of them have gone through together. Rebecca speaks, and Ida listens. It's certainly a romantic take on the question, and she finds herself smiling, remembering quiet, tender moments. Once she's done, Ida steps forwards. Her heart tightens within her chest.
"It means letting it be," Ida whispers. "Love is knowing that whatever image you have of someone is nothing--and that even if they were to change to match it, it would only destroy everything you truly loved in them. Love is walking through hell because your beloved is there, and the only alternative is leaving them to wander, alone. Love is telling them hard truths, when they need it, and having faith in them when they have no faith in themselves."
Ida swallows. Tears mist up her eyes, and she trails off. She looks at Jean, smiles through her tears, and picks up a shot with a nod of thanks. "To the world." Her voice is soft. "Because as broken as it is, it is no less worthy of love."
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Multitool toward her party's challenge, Love's Pyre.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
"Mmm." Lanval's dumb smile is dumber. Also bigger, but size and stupidity quotient of smiles are not always interconnected. This is stupid smile science.
He rummages around on his person, somehow, and holds up a bottle of something from the 3900s (in Goddess Years). Something that was imported from further up northern Meribus - from when the Copper Rapier proprieters had since given up on brewing and just imported.
"Okay...! Cheersh...!"
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Now it's Lydia's turn to blush slightly. Her cheeks silver faintly.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO TRULY LOVE A THING?
"W.w..w.w.w.w.well..." Lydia says, holding up Schrodinger for a moment as if intent on using the kitty with a tentacle in its mouth as an example.
"...W..well..."
She looks at Schrodinger.
She....lowers the cat onto the ground. "Well..." Yeah she's not going to use a Schrodinger visual aide for this.
"First you kind of date around for a while but then she like looks into your eyes and it kind of sparkles like just so and you kind of get a little bashful there because you're like 'well did she mean it or did I just imagine it?' but she meant it, okay, she meant it so you sort of talk the business for a while and if you're good at it you can get to the makeout stage really quickly but if you're not that good maybe it takes you a really long time to get to making out?? But that's okay??? Because you still have value????"
She looks away, cheeks flushed. "A-anyway, then from making out you have to like figure out if you eally liked the making out? Or if you just kind of liked the idea of making out and if it's just liking the idea of making out, then that's not love obviously, but it's still not love just because you like the making out because maybe someone here is ace and they don't really like making out but they still like really like you but I mean talking about myself it's more like then you sort of figure out what you think of their personality."
Lydia breathes for .5 seconds.
"And like if you like the personality then that's pretty cool, still maybe not love though maybe you just want to be friends that sometimes make out that's its own thing though it's a pretty great thing I think and maybe we could be a little less prudish about it maybe just a little?"
She breathes for .25 seconds.
"Anyway, at that point it's like 'well you like them but do you LIKE them like them and at that point it's like 'how do you feel about them when you aren't just making out with them or just being a friend, like what do you think about them when they are fighting with you or when they're just doing their own thing and if you look at them while they're, I don't know, reading a book you don't really care about do you think 'hey pay attention to me' or do you think 'wow she's super hot even now and not just like appearance hot but like hot in my head and in my chest I can't stop thinking and feeling about her."
She breathes for .10 seconds.
"AND THEN YOU GET MARRIED OR DON'T BECAUSE MAYBE YOU'RE NOT INTO THAT BUT WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT WHEN YOU ARE OLD AND WRINKLY IT BRINGS A SMILE TO YOUR FACE THAT'S LOVE FINAL ANSWER."
DG: Lydia Seren has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Love's Pyre.
===============<* Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle - Round 5 *>=============== ==========================< Results - Love's Pyre >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Lanval 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Amber Tinted Glasses 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lydia Seren 15 --(5)--> 20 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rebecca Streisand 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Rebecca's Travel Diary 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jean 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Bejeweled Hairpin 2 Wits Effects: Cleanse and Efficient ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ida Everstead-Rey 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Multitool 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Seraph Lanval 80 --(0)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Hesitate(2)|Overzealous(2)|Reckless(2)|Secret(1) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Seraph Lanval has passed 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: Seraph Lanval has drawn a new Challenge.
=========================================<* Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle *>=========================================
=====================================<* CHALLENGE - Anomalous ~ The World Eater *>======================================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 |
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
The wards break. The door opens. Light shines. You step through...
And somewhere --
"To be a mother is to crush. To be a mother is to ruin. To be a mother is to
DOMINATE."
The Anomalous Orb twists.
The innermost sanctum of the Photosphere opens up to you. The staging ground
of the last great defiance, and all the tragedy that would unfurl after its
end. And there she is, as if she was never vanquished: a nightmare frozen in
the planet's memory. Beautiful and hideous, matronly and insectoid, all in
one, the shining figure of motherly love and diabolical nihilism shimmers as
she is freed from frozen memory. To her flock creatures made out of cloth,
once red, now stained and twisting with bizarre, blooming hues of inky
Malevolence. They feed not Ley, but that discordant Malevolent will to her,
changing her, warping her further.
"Witness as I command THE <STATIC>!"
The World Eater
M O T H E R
The Amadeus' colors change as Mother's Malevolent rays spill through the
air. One of them immune to physical assault, the other to magic. As the
colors change, so too do their resistances. Direct confrontation with Mother
herself will spell doom. To defeat her, the key lies through puzzling out
her minions. Destroy them. Destroy her.
Vanquish the nightmare.
=Dungeon Conditions: Suffer===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
The fire accepts each answer in turn - flickering with bright warmth at Rebecca's definition... at Lanval's coyness as he thinks back on nostalgic bygone days... of Jean's believe in Love of Home... and Ida's freeing idea of letting go of the images that one might have in their head.
Rebecca has this warm fuzzy feeling as she listens to each of them.
And then there's Lydie.
The fire flickers as her answer starts. Then it begins to still.
And dim a little. Everyone in the room gets this feeling of concern.
As Lydia takes a breath.
The fire seems to gently radiate this emotion of 'Sweetie - sweetie take a breath. It's okay I can... wait...'
Then as she continues.
The it just becomes more concern - a warm sort of love that's becoming a lot more concerned with a 'Honey are you okay?' quality to it.
As the words start to ramble together the fire suddenly just quickly undoes the wards and the door pops open.
Perhaps it was her way of making certain Lydia doesn't pass out.
Raftina makes allowances for anxiety. Love ought to after all.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Some present will remember what it was like, stepping into that great circular chamber full of alien architecture, devices with lights and sounds unfathomable to the imaginations of the majority of Filgaia and its neighboring satellite.
"To be a mother is to crush. To be a mother is to ruin. To be a mother is to DOMINATE."
The Malevolence plays with the strange sing-song of Mother's words. One used to be able to split them into 'red of anger' and 'yellow of tranquility.' Now...
She returns, a nightmare that plagued Filgaia's waking existence for over a thousand years. Some insect-like thing with the mask of a serene motherly figure, as her alien bulk seems to pump and breathe more of the... no, not the Ley. Not the Ley that they tried to feed in order to consume Filgaia from the inside out.
But the Malevolence.
They scream about witnessing... something, but it trails off into indecipherable noise, as creatures dressed in cloth flit about. The two Amadeus units - her personal attendants, whom offer more and more of the discordant spiritual venom to her.
"...That'sh Mother?" Lanval says, asking among the gathered. He looks to Ida, who he remembers went that way as he descended down into the depths after the opening was made. He's wearing those novelty glasses again. Her exerted pressure should strike mortal terror - they had only just managed to overcome her.
He's smiling. Maybe he had too much to drink in that moment of toasting. Nonetheless, the Amadeus' units change colors rapidly as they swirl about, seeing to Mother's protection.
"Mmm... hey, that one kinda looksh like wind," he remarks as one Amadeus flits by colored green. He wonders about it, and waits to see if any of them turn red - into fire.
DG: Seraph Lanval has used his Tool Amber Tinted Glasses toward his party's challenge, Anomalous ~ The World Eater.
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
Jean, before they move on, steps up beside Lydia and rests a hand on her back, smiling at her once. "Being able to get all your feelings out like that--it's impressive!" She beams, even. But after that, she looks forward, and moves forward. ...She doesn't draw too much attention to Lydia's anxiety after that, but...
But this strange nightmare, this awful thing of which Jean heard, that had infected Lucia's world--
Jean breathes in quickly, and the fortification of the drink seems to have helped her, too--Lanval still has points for her. But they start to change...
"It's just a memory," Jean says. She never had a mother--not that she remembers, anyway. This is more what she expects from a parent.
"...You girls'll never get the chance to tell the people you're thinking about how you feel if we don't get through this!" Jean winks to their younger group members, looks to Ida--and nods, firmly, before she surges forward. More than once, she calls on the soothing magic of her pin--
Their targets are small. Jean understands smaller targets.
DG: Jean has used her Tool Bejeweled Hairpin toward her party's challenge, Anomalous ~ The World Eater.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida breathes, and allows the feeling of love to wash over her. It's a brief moment of respite in a ruin choked with Malevolence, and drowning in tides of Ley energy. She takes one last glance into the flames, makes a gesture of benediction, and steps through the door--
--Into a place that still appears, now and then, in her nightmares.
Ida's head snaps up. Her face twists into a look of terror. Her heart leaps against her ribs. "That was Mother," she says, to Lanval. The reflection's voice echoes in her ears, even as the memory of the real Mother rises in her mind, fresh and raw as an open wound. "The real Mother is dead."
The Amadei. Lanval notes something about how they change color, and Ida studies them a moment, even as she addresses Mother proper. "I hadn't gotten the chance in person," she says, "but I might as well get it off my chest." Maybe it's the drink, but there is suddenly anger in Ida's voice. "You know nothing of what it means to be a mother!" One of the Amadei flickers white, and in that moment, Ida lunges, driving her right hand straight for its 'throat'. The edge sharpens, hardens; Ida grits her teeth, and doesn't stop cutting until the Amadeus is either dead or shifted to another color. Her hand flows back into a more humanoid shape. She waits until the other Amadeus is dealt with. She remembers how the real Mother nearly killed every last one of them. This simulacrum is a pale imitation at best.
"I wished--I prayed--that you were half the goddess Kalve thought you were, that his faith in you would be rewarded." She steps closer. Her voice trembles and wavers with rage. She never put the multitool away, and a flick of her thumb pulls out a long, sturdy knife from within. Ida clicks it into place.
"This is for everyone you've used, you craven parasite." Ida rushes forwards, and the knife flashes, a silvery gleam. The red of Mother's blood stains the floor.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Multitool toward her party's challenge, Anomalous ~ The World Eater.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
Rebecca had been beet red when hearing certain parts of Lydia's answer. Even covering her face in her hands when Lydia mentions 'making out'.
Oh yes, she certainly thinks about these kind of things. And she can empathize with Lydia's nervous anxiety. You see - if she had to actually confess her feelings, she'd be in a similar state.
Talking about love to a fire isn't difficult. Confessing feelings to someone you feel for - that turns your mind into kaleidoscopic chaos.
"It was." Rebecca admits quietly, agreeing with Jean. "Real brave too." She tries to smile at Lydia once she thinks she can look at her without being totally crimson.
However - as they move on - the malevolence gathers thick - and there is Mother.
Rebecca had not had to fight her - or even see her. Though she'd felt her before.
"Don't remind me!"
Rebecca calls out to Jean, embarrassed of the thought of it. Though at the same time it does kick her rear into gear. The thought of never being able to do it spurs her into a state of focused calm. Deciding to follow everyone's lead.
Lanval points it out - and suddenly she has her Medium in her hand as she dashes for the Earth Ley Line - testing it, as a rumbling quake erupts in a line - trying to blast it with rocks.
Rebecca's mind wanders way back - to the first poems she wrote when she was a child, and innocent enough that she wasn't ashamed to show them openly.
a mommie is love
a mommie is tucking me in
a mommie is a kiss good night
i share my mommie with dean
because he doesn have one
shes that amazing
because i don't like to share if it means I get less
but i never feel like that sharing her
"... you have no concept of what a mother is." Rebecca says grimly, as she uses her Medium, the Ley energy just shifting from Earth to Water - and another spiral twin streams of powerful aquatic force hurtle towards another Amadeus.
DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Rebecca's Travel Diary toward her party's challenge, Anomalous ~ The World Eater.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia Seren is not having steam blowing out of her ears but she might as well be. "R..really? I mean...yeah...! I'm pretty cool." Her shoulders shoot up a bit because she largely looks up to Jean. It was Jean, after all, who was there when she was taken by Professor Castle and she helped save her from him. She hasn't forgotten. "One day I'll be as cool as you, Jean, not that I'm in any rush...because the journey...is the important part! Heh hehhhn...."
Yeah that helped. Honestly it's surprising she can even talk after saying all that. She only looks somewhat blue in the face.
She catches Rebecca's smile and she silvers again, tremendously. Don't worry Rebecca, this is probalby just because she's shy and doesn't mean anything right? Right.
And then there's Mother. The blush fades from Lydia's face. Her sheepish smile goes away. Her gaze grows cold.
"Material Rigdobrite." She says.
The lobster-meteor appears into the 'air' and holds in place for a moment before launching down heavy lasers down upon everything. This is one way to handle this challenge one supposes.
"Mateiral Rigdobrite." Lydia says again as another hefty laser crashes down upon everything. all the Amadeuses. EVERYTHING that is an enemy.
"Material Rigdobrite," Lydia says, silver dripping from her nose as she stares ahead at the simulacram.
This time Rigdobrite decides to throw itself down at Mother and send a wave of fire and ash detonating around him.
"Material Rigdobrite." Lydia says, though this time nothing happens as she sinks to one knee, panting for breath.
DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Schrodinger the Cat toward her party's challenge, Anomalous ~ The World Eater.
====================================<* Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle - Round 6 *>==================================== =======================================< Results - Anomalous ~ The World Eater >======================================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Lanval 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Amber Tinted Glasses 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lydia Seren 20 --(0)--> 20 Pass Schrodinger the Cat 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rebecca Streisand 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Rebecca's Travel Diary 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jean 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Bejeweled Hairpin 2 Wits Effects: Cleanse and Efficient ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ida Everstead-Rey 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Multitool 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------< Party >-------------------------------------------------------- Leader: Seraph Lanval 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Fright(1)|Hesitate(1)|Overzealous(1)|Reckless(1)|Suffer(1) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ===================================================< Dream Chasers >====================================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Seraph Lanval has successfully explored Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle!
=========================================<* Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle *>=========================================
=============================================<* CHALLENGE - A Better End *>=============================================
|Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 |
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
The final intercession of memories shakes, crumbling apart. All of it gives
way to a warm light. The feeling of a quiet embrace. Words, whispered into
the heart.
i am so proud of you
...
When the light fades, a world of blue is there to greet you. Here, Ley
crystalizes and melds into stonework -- everything here seems transient and
yet solid. A point between the physical world and...
... somewhere else.
Power of the Ley thrums through you. Reinvigorates. Reenergizes.
But the pulse of Malevolence is stronger than ever.
Just beyond that threshold before you...
The final fight waits.
(OOC: This leads directly into the events of the scene Birth of a Wish on
Friday, March 22nd! These events all take place before Odessa's attack on
the Sorcery Globe and the beginning of Chapter 2.
Please report the results of this dig to K.K. in an @mail!)
=Dungeon Conditions: Vault====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
While Lanval's glasses undercut the intensity of the encounter, it does provide one unique bonus in accordance to his nature and how he perceives his surroundings - he can see the Amadeus attendants for the elements they are presently made of - and thus help provide context as to what comes next.
...But no, the true guiding light among them is their love.
Jean, with a love and zest for a life worth loving, that she wants others to be able to live freely and happily, pinpoints the Amadeus that appears to be able to be defeated with physical blows almost immediately, and has them 'solved' with only occasional elemental support.
Ida takes upon the opportunity to call upon more measured words she'd have loved to say in hindsight, slamming her misuse of the very concept of a mother verbally as much as she does physically as she assists Jean on the one that is vulnerable to physical attack.
Rebecca thinks upon her most innocent thoughts on what it is to be a mommie without shame or fear, channeling loose Ley energy like a pro with expert timing to catch the more magically-vulnerable Amadeus as it takes the aspect of fire. It goes to--
--it doesn't matter what it goes to, as Lydia steps up with Rigdobrite's help. Lasers crash everywhere, helping clear the way as that Amadeus dies with it.
An opening is presented for all of them to throw in their final strikes to Mother as she writhes. Her words are static now, meaningless, warped by the spiritual contradictions that have taken all meaning and coherence from what she represents, or what she could do.
She can only be cast back into memory, where she belongs... and the world crumbles apart. For a moment, there is nothing but a whisper into the heart.
i am so proud of you
...Soon, there is a world of blue. Ley has crystallized into stonework. They can feel it course with every footfall. It feels like it shouldn't be there, in the sense that it can't be, but it is - not because of the Malevolence, but because this seems to exist in a place between the world they know, and... elsewhere.
Their fatigue, their wounds, they all clear under the Ley's cleansing energies... but the Malevolence's presence, too, swirls around.
Lanval has himself another drink at the tail end of that. He closes his eyes. He knows the moment he sees Ragnell as she is, her mind will not change. After all, his hasn't.
That's why he's not on the route to become a Fell Dragon where he stands, after all, as he walks upright and with care.
"I can feel it," he says to the lot of them, "it'sh... right there."
"'n sho are we!" He adds, throwing an arm up with a pumped fist. He's already decided on this.
...It's not the first thing he's already decided on.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
When all is said and done, Lydia rubs some of that silver away from her nose and shakes it off of her. She takes out a long breath and adds, "I'm gonna go find mom and help her out. I don't want her to be fightin' on her own."
She straightens up and looks towards...
...Lanval, apparently.
"Lanval, can you tell them something for me? K.K and Ragnell, I mean."
She rubs at her neck briefly and adds, "Can you tell them Lydia said 'Thank you, I hope you're happy together.'?"
And then she smiles and says, "Good luck okay!" And then she runs off in search of Riesenlied.