2019-03-28: The Meaning of Love
- Log: The Meaning of Love
- Cast: Loren Voss, Lan Lilac
- Where: Love's Cradle
- Date: March 28, 2019
- Summary: Takes place before the end of Chapter 1. Investigating Elru on a request from Leah, Loren trails after the signs of a Malevolence disturbance to a ruined temple with Lan.
DG: A party led by Loren Voss 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> Loren Voss has posed.
Once more unto the breach. On Elru, it seems, nothing ever seems still for long. Perhaps it would be better policy for them to bomb the entire continent at this rate, but Loren isn't in charge of policy. He's just a soldier.
A captain, now, as of his recent and quite unexpected promotion.
Leah had bid him venture east to investigate, though, and investigating he is -- once again solo.
Or nearly so. Lan is with him, and a fortunate thing too, since the trail has bent towards Baskar ruins.
Something isn't right. It isn't just the whispers about an army gathering to the north, but the presence of Malevolence and freshly brought into this land at that.
It's led him and the shaman here, to the ruins of this temple pockmarked with at least two dozen different apparent points of entry.
And he had felt something -- someone -- beckon him enter this one.
Here he stands now, alongside Lan as they take in this particular foyer of the temple. "What Guardian is this?" he asks, and he should know at this point, but...
But shrines to the Lords aren't common. Temples are nigh-unheard of. One does not casually worship a Lord.
"...Warm in here..." he murmurs, easing back the visor of his helmet, to apparently get a better look at the display of regalia atop stone shelves. The air tingles with the presence of the Ley, the spiritual power of the planet.
A woman. A woman with a sword. He thinks for a moment.
"This is... the..."
Love Guardian.
But he never finishes that sentence. He turns sharply at a sound, eyes open wide as he takes in the advance of the Metal Beasts stalking in from the shadows.
They growl in a low rumble. Something about them -- about their physicality -- just isn't right.
"What are they doing here? Weren't they-- isn't this--"
He shakes his head and draws the blade, holstered at his side. "Lan! Back me up!"
He proceeds to engage them. He is no master of the blade -- hardly -- but this may do, even from a novice. The point is to kill -- or perhaps, considering their insubstatial nature -- disperse them. Proper form can be developed at another time.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Anomalous ~ The Coming Distortion.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
She'd wondered once, why 'love'? It's not something you can see or touch - not even as tangible as starlight. When she asked her mother, Mana had patted her hair and told her that love is powerful. That it makes people do stupid things, or brave things, or even boring things. It's why a man in the city goes to the job he hates to help provide for his children, why a woman in a frontier settlement will stray far past the safety of pasturelands to hunt when her family is hungry, why someone might risk their life to protect their lover. It's very powerful, her mother had said.
'You already know all that, you just don't quite understand it yet.'
"Raftina, one of the four Guardian Lords," Lan explains to Loren in the here and now. "She rules over love." She's never seen a temple to Raftina. Would Loren really understand why if she tried to explain it? She doesn't think he'd really care, probably, and keeps quiet for now.
Besides, something's not quite right. Something stirs underneath the weirdly comfortable pulse of ley energy. It's warm, but that's not the real problem. There's a strange pressure against her senses, the taste of metal somewhere behind her brain. Like biting into chocolate and finding a piece of wire.
"Hey, they're not supposed to be here!" she complains at the Metal Beasts, as if Loren doesn't know. Lan actually remembered to bring her spear this time for practice, and it looks like now's a great time to warm up. Snapping it into one solid piece, the shaman jabs the business end at any Beast that strays too close. "Get lost!"
DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Anomalous ~ The Coming Distortion.
=====================<* 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===================================================
================<* Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle - Round 1 *>================ ================< Results - Anomalous ~ The Coming Distortion >================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Fright(2) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Raftina.
"...Yeah, that's the one."
Love and... Hope and Courage.
Wait, four?
He never gets the chance to answer that one, not when the disturbance of Metal Beasts stir in the shadows, and ultimately come loping for the both of them.
Something's wrong in here -- wrong beyond even their presence.
Malevolence, he thinks, fleetingly, as he charges to engage the get of the Metal Demons, but more than what had come before. More--
In the moment after that, there's no more room for thought. Just the blade. He swings, shifting his stance as Lan follows up with spear, complimenting her thrust with the weapon with a well-timed downward chop. With an actual Metal Beast there would have -- should have -- been more give.
There is none. They are slain, rendered to but mist on a cold morning once a killing blow is struck.
They're left standing in the tempered warmth of the foyer with no trace of what had struck at them moments prior. Nothing but the sense of a disturbance -- akin to a sour taste in a glass of milk -- an awareness of something not right remains.
"...Let's keep going. There's not enough for a report," he tells her, sheathing the blade and turning in towards the doors leading further into the temple.
DG: Lan Lilac has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle *>==================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Leap of Faith *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- You come to a great, vast, empty chasm. Darkness is there to greet you, stretching endlessly. follow A pulse of Ley. Shimmering tiles of reds and pinks flow in distinct, semi-transparent patterns across that great gaping hole, little platforms that can be traversed across the gulf. A pulse of Malevolence. Those tiles disappear from sight, still there but unseen. As the Ley and Malevolence struggle, those platforms waver between invisible and not; memorization might be necessary. Faith, even moreso. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Lan is extremely glad, as always, that she isn't the one who has to write the reports. She's a bit clumsier with her chosen weapon than Loren is with his sword - no longer his brother's weapon, not entirely - but even she manages to poke a Beast in its immaterial eye. They vanish like bad dreams at sunrise, and Lan heaves a quiet sigh when they dissipate. "Yuck. Of all places for Metal Beasts to be, even fake ones! Why here, you know?"
Once it's clear the illusions, or whatever they are, have really left she rests her spear on her shoulder and walks along beside him deeper into the temple. She's humming faintly, a little bit off-key, but her eyes betray her unhappiness and a bit of apprehension.
The room they find is one she ought to be suited to, and the warm, suffusing presence of a Guardian Lord is a bit cheering. "Oh look! We can just use... those tiles..." she trails off, pointing hand lowering slowly as Malevolence wipes the route from sight.
The look on her face might momentarily rival Loren's for sourness. Lan likes easy jumping puzzles! "I'm... really going to need to power up my ribbon," she muses. But they can do this - she can do this. Just... make a picture in your mind, and trust your own memory. Trust that the Guardian will protect her. The ribbon in her hair shines with a faint light, and Lan meets Loren's eyes before nodding to him - and still humming that tuneless song, begins the nerve-wracking trek across the gap.
DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Butterfly Ribbon toward her party's challenge, Leap of Faith.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
It's more his now than not -- all that remains of the blade that had been his brother is the metal itself. It has been transformed into something new.
Perhaps, if he can hope -- dare to hope -- the same may come true for him, as well. No longer his brother's reputation that he shoulders but...
"No idea," he says, with a shake of his head. "I'd normally think they were stragglers, but..." He gestures, with his free hand, at the total absence of a Metal Beast corpse. Or even blood.
"Something's wrong here. It reminds me of Krosse."
Funny he should say that, all considering.
They press on. If it had been warm in the foyer, in here it's resolved into a comforting atmosphere, perhaps -- though he would only begrudingly admit it -- like sitting around a campfire.
"Bit of a gap," he remarks, dryly. The tiles are given a dubious look...
Which turns outright put-upon when they choose to vanish from sight. Loren turns his head to look at Lan, almost judgementally.
At least he's not the only one with that sort of expression right now...
"Ugh. Of course it's not going to be straightforward," he gripes, fumbling with the device around his wrist. "Just... try to remember where things were. Otherwise..."
Otherwise, this is going to suck.
He draws in a sharp breath, and, with a pulse of amplified Water-tinged Ether--
He's ready when she is to jump.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Ether Tuner toward his party's challenge, Leap of Faith.
====================<* Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle *>==================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Leap of Faith *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- You come to a great, vast, empty chasm. Darkness is there to greet you, stretching endlessly. follow A pulse of Ley. Shimmering tiles of reds and pinks flow in distinct, semi-transparent patterns across that great gaping hole, little platforms that can be traversed across the gulf. A pulse of Malevolence. Those tiles disappear from sight, still there but unseen. As the Ley and Malevolence struggle, those platforms waver between invisible and not; memorization might be necessary. Faith, even moreso. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
===============<* Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle - Round 2 *>=============== =========================< Results - Leap of Faith >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Loren Voss 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Ether Tuner 1 Agility Effects: Quicken and Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lan Lilac 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Butterfly Ribbon 2 Agility Effects: Quicken ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Loren Voss 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Fright(1)|Hesitate(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Of course, he looks at her like it's her fault. She can't even blame him for being unhappy...!
In theory, all she has to do is remember the locations of just enough tiles. And all Loren has to do is land on them with her. If she adjusts so that she's always on the right side, he should be safe to land just to her left. "Don't get too far behind," she cautions him, and then... they jump.
Between his Ether and her ribbon, they make it. Like... almost too perfectly. It's almost suspect!!!
DG: Loren Voss has drawn a new Challenge.
=====================<* Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle *>===================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Let Love Shine In *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- It is warm here, even past the nauseating, growing churn of the Anomalous Orb. Braziers are lit along either end of this long hall, leading towards a simple, circular platform on the ground, the flames of said braziers burning each with a different color to create a veritable rainbow of flame decorating the walls. It is warm. Comforting. But not all of them feel that way. Some of them burn bright, unreasonably, irrationally. Some of them are cool to the touch. Some of them carry with them an uncomfortable sensation that makes it hard to confront. An inscription next to the platform reads simply: LET ONLY THOSE WHO KNOW LOVE LIGHT THE PATH Dousing certain braziers leads towards the platform moving. Dousing or igniting others make it reassert its place. Finding what flames burn with love's presence is the key to solving this particular puzzle. Which ones /feel/ like they carry love's spark is key. Which leads to the important question: How do -you- define love? =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
They cross almost in tandem. Him, pointing out where to jump and providing assistance with Ether. Her, trusting in her intuition and the power of her ribbon. They come to the other side without incident. And they cross through, together, into the room beyond.
It is warm here as well, undercut only by the faintest twinge of the Malevolent heart that throbs somewhere deep within the depths of the temple. The thing, perhaps, that he is chasing.
What may lie behind the changes of late -- the disturbance, really -- in Elru.
The room beyond is lit by light. Countless braziers lead towards that single circular pathway... and that message on the floor.
It doesn't take a genius to understand what is meant. Less still when a moment's experimentation -- quenching this violet flame to send the platform sliding away, while relighting brings the platform back -- demonstrates base principles.
What is love?
"It should be the steady ones." Love is... something steady and stable.
Right? Isn't that what it was like with his parents? But when he thinks about other family members...
"...I think," is the ammendment he will have to settle for,
Loren draws out from his bag the medical computer, apparently intent on bringing a sort of logic into what knows no logic.
"..."
Maybe... maybe if he compares temperature...
"What the hell... what the hell is this..." he mutters irritatedly, moving from one brazier to the next.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool MediScan v7 toward his party's challenge, Let Love Shine In.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
"Those who know love...?" Lan reads quietly. What's that supposed to mean, really? Doesn't just about everybody know it, after all?
...Then again, she supposes, for some people it's probably a mystery. "What kind of love?" she realizes after another few moments' introspection. "There's family love, and romantic love, and friend love... Probably a bunch of different kinds than those too."
They'll just have to rely on their instincts.
After Loren tries purple, Lan wanders around the remaining braziers. Isn't there one that feels like home? When Lan thinks of love, she remembers being held when she was small. The golden morning light peeking in through the shutters of her house, threatening to spill the sun's rays across her bed in the loft.
Loren says love feels steady, and Lan has to wonder a bit. "But what if the words mean romantic love? Isn't that supposed to get kind of crazy sometimes? Otherwise why would people do all kinds of dramatic things in stories?" There's not a lot that's steady about daring rescues or impassioned last-second proposals. "And if you love someone, but they do something that makes you super angry. I guess that's not steady... ugh, I hate this puzzle. Why can't they all be tiles or jumping and stuff...?"
In the end, she follows along after him, wishing for a piece of paper and a pencil or something.
DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Let Love Shine In.
=====================<* Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle *>===================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Let Love Shine In *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- It is warm here, even past the nauseating, growing churn of the Anomalous Orb. Braziers are lit along either end of this long hall, leading towards a simple, circular platform on the ground, the flames of said braziers burning each with a different color to create a veritable rainbow of flame decorating the walls. It is warm. Comforting. But not all of them feel that way. Some of them burn bright, unreasonably, irrationally. Some of them are cool to the touch. Some of them carry with them an uncomfortable sensation that makes it hard to confront. An inscription next to the platform reads simply: LET ONLY THOSE WHO KNOW LOVE LIGHT THE PATH Dousing certain braziers leads towards the platform moving. Dousing or igniting others make it reassert its place. Finding what flames burn with love's presence is the key to solving this particular puzzle. Which ones /feel/ like they carry love's spark is key. Which leads to the important question: How do -you- define love? =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
================<* Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle - Round 3 *>================ ========================< Results - Let Love Shine In >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass MediScan v7 3 Wits Effects: Enlighten and Efficie -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 40 --(25)--> 65 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(1)|Treasure(1) Effects: Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 25 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
His shoulders hunch as she speaks.
Because, yeah. He knows that. Even he knows it's not particularly sensible. The love between his parents is a steady thing, but...
When he thinks about what's driven him -- a reckless by turns but defiant thing. When he thinks about his own connections to his family -- chaotic, confused, but no less tethered thing. When he thinks about his affections for others -- hesitant, terrified, but still pesistant things.
Is there really any one form for 'love'?
Not even the temperature's consistant. Not even the color is the same -- a red different from another red, a purple more brilliant than the last but less than what came before. A gold like the dawn.
Everything is. Nothing is.
"There isn't really one answer, is there," he speaks at last, lowering the device he holds in hand. Grimacing, he turns his attention away from the fires, and looks again towards the platform.
He stares at it a moment.
"...Lan," he speaks after a moment, noticing that the platform is steady, bridging the gap between the braziers. It does not shift. It stays put. "Was it always stable?" he wonders, then frowns and shakes his head.
"...Come on."
Did something respond to them or was he just imagining that?
DG: Lan Lilac has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle *>====================
=============<* CHALLENGE - Anomalous ~ The Fall of Old Petra *>==============
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
"Hahaha....HAHAA!
BOOM
The first thing you see is a tower flung like a child might fling a doll
they are cross with.
It shatters across the the comparatively miniscule sight of the Quarter
Knight Siegfried, in an old town, steeped in violence and chaos. And then,
Malevolence churns.
And everything f r e e z e s.
It is a tableau in red. The sight of a tower, breaking apart into pieces. Of
Metal Demons, fleeing before something horrifying.
Of a man with wild red hair, paused mid-laughter, awash with unrestrained
and gleeful violence, perched atop the shoulder of a crimson Gear.
The Demon of Elru
Id
... But the Gear is not frozen.
Its head turns. Its eyes blaze burning red, illuminating wherever it stares
in baleful crimson light that washes away any and all color. Like it is
searching. Looking for something.
Looking for you.
There is a shining light towards the end of the town. An exit, back to the
real world. But to get there...
... you need to outmaneuver and outwit a walking armageddon. And if it sees
you...
... well. Don't let it see you.
=Dungeon Conditions: Madness, Vault===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
"Hmm?" she hums thoughtfully when he says her name. "What is it--"
Was it always steady, he asks. Lan stares long and hard at the platform, trying to recall just how it had been positioned when they first saw it, and finds... nothing. "...Maybe?" she tries, though it lacks conviction. She's just as clueless as he is.
And as much as Lan hates the weirder more philosophical puzzles, she hates this - what this is even more.
They're thrown into... a memory? A nightmare? Lan has never fought the Demon of Elru. She's never even really seen him. But she knows terror and the taste of malice, though it's a different flavor than that of the Stranger. There had been nothing laughing or mirthful about him.
"Wh, what is..." she trails off, eyes wide and white in her tawny face. Without thinking about it, she grabs for Loren's hand with a bloodless grip. "Come on!" Don't see them don't see them don't see them!
She tries to drag him behind the ruins of a wall, too scared to breathe. "We have to go, we have to go now," Lan babbles quietly, before managing to shut herself up through a supreme effort of will.
DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Anomalous ~ The Fall of Old Petra.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
The world about them shifts as they step over the platform, interrupting their path into the depths of the temple. "What--"
Is as much as Loren verbalizes, before time and seemingly space distort.
Old Petra, he realizes, glancing at the buildings. But he'd seen it last when it was...
...after...
He remembers him. His presence. Above Wayside.
The taste of that aura, as he lay dying atop the Photosphere.
He, himself. The Demon of Elru, scourge of Solaris.
The relatively-newly-minted Captain Voss stands there for a long moment, stock still.
Lan grabs his hand. He remembers, in an instant, where he is.
Catches sight of the Demon's attention. Scanning. Searching.
He hisses out an oath as he joins her behind the section of wall, and, glancing down at the medical computer -- still in hand -- mutters something inaudible as she continues to insist they have to go, and go quickly.
A few temperature analytics... measurement of distance and ratio...
There. "Use your Medium, but focus it to the far left." Behind them, effectively. "Follow it up with a shot across his nose."
So what's he going to do?
Ether in the air shifts. He draws in water, draws up earth.
"Don't let go. We're going to run as soon as you cast."
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool MediScan v7 toward his party's challenge, Anomalous ~ The Fall of Old Petra.
====================<* Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle *>====================
=============<* CHALLENGE - Anomalous ~ The Fall of Old Petra *>==============
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
"Hahaha....HAHAA!
BOOM
The first thing you see is a tower flung like a child might fling a doll
they are cross with.
It shatters across the the comparatively miniscule sight of the Quarter
Knight Siegfried, in an old town, steeped in violence and chaos. And then,
Malevolence churns.
And everything f r e e z e s.
It is a tableau in red. The sight of a tower, breaking apart into pieces. Of
Metal Demons, fleeing before something horrifying.
Of a man with wild red hair, paused mid-laughter, awash with unrestrained
and gleeful violence, perched atop the shoulder of a crimson Gear.
The Demon of Elru
Id
... But the Gear is not frozen.
Its head turns. Its eyes blaze burning red, illuminating wherever it stares
in baleful crimson light that washes away any and all color. Like it is
searching. Looking for something.
Looking for you.
There is a shining light towards the end of the town. An exit, back to the
real world. But to get there...
... you need to outmaneuver and outwit a walking armageddon. And if it sees
you...
... well. Don't let it see you.
=Dungeon Conditions: Madness, Vault===========================================
===============<* Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle - Round 4 *>=============== ===============< Results - Anomalous ~ The Fall of Old Petra >================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Loren Voss 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass MediScan v7 3 Wits Effects: Enlighten and Efficie ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lan Lilac 5 --(5)--> 10 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Loren Voss 65 --(30)--> 95 Pass Conditions: Madness|Vault(1) Effects: Enlighten(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss 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.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Why is this here, why is it here, this is supposed to be a temple to the Guardian of Love, not some-- some violent nightmare from the past! Lan would be affronted if she weren't mostly trying not to curl into a ball and hyperventilate. Thank goodness for her more levelheaded companion.
Thank goodness she wasn't on the ground when this happened in real life.
"O-okay," she nods, and edges past Loren to peek a single eye out around the corner. She has to see to aim, and if she can just do this right... Lan swallows hard and focuses her will. Silver lances down from the sky, Rigdobrite itself colliding with the ruined land behind the Gear's line of sight. It warbles a short, cautioning cry before spitting starlight at the Gear's face.
It's not quite the distraction she wanted to make, but it's been harder to control her summons lately. She must be out of practice. She'll work on it more if they get out of here alive!!
And as soon as the Gear turns its Malevolent gaze away from them, Lan lets her long legs eat up the ground beneath her feet - she runs, and runs, and holds onto Loren's hand, and doesn't dare look back.
DG: Loren Voss 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> Loren Voss has posed.
Ether speeding their departure, they both flee, out and towards the light. New Petra continues to detonate about them, but for a fraction of a second -- a mere sliver of time presented to them -- they're able to escape for the light, to seize it.
And cut loose from the past.
The illusion resolves, fading out until all that stands before them is the small room they've found themselves in. Wards stand between them and the way forward. Save for the altar here -- eternal flame continuously burning -- there is nothing else here.
He lets go of her hand. Sliding back the faceplate of his helmet, Loren stoops to read the engraving, reaching out a hand to touch the inscription briefly.
It's twin to the one in the Hollow. Except...
"'What does it mean to truly love a thing?'" he reads aloud, then, a moment later, he gets to his feet.
Love is a complicated thing. Love is everything good. Love is everything terrible.
He thinks about his parents. He thinks about Leah, and, indeed, even his brother, as he gazes into the flickering flame.
"..."
Is that all there is?
Does he need more than that?
"Love is sacrifice," he says, lowering his gaze. "...If you're not willing to die for someone, then it isn't love. That's all."
He waits, as if anticipating an answer from the flame, one way or another.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Love's Pyre.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
They get a few moments to catch their breath, and Lan is sorely grateful for them. "I thought we were gonna die for real," she huffs, wiping sweat from her face with the back of her hand. She'll take a plain old altar any day. "I'm super sorry that I said I hated puzzles, I won't complain about them anymore...!"
She watches him read and think, and come to what seems to be some kind of decision. What does it mean to truly love...?
He says it's sacrifice. To be willing to die.
But something just doesn't sit quite right with her. "Maybe," she frowns, coming up behind him. "But... what about living for someone?"
"Isn't it kind of selfish to die and leave your loved ones behind...? Who's going to take care of them? What about living for them, even if you don't want to?"
To stay with someone, till death do you part - to care for the sick, the old, the dead. To perform your duty to them even at the cost of your own freedom.
Maybe that's another side of love.
DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Love's Pyre.
=====================<* 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==================
================<* Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle - Round 5 *>================ ===========================< Results - Love's Pyre >============================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 10 --(5)--> 15 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 95 --(0)--> 95 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Hesitate(2)|Madness|Overzealous(2)|Reckless(2) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss 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.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he asks, glancing back over at her. 'Living' for someone? As in, making them your entire...
Oh.
He looks away.
"If it's them or you," he says quietly as the fires burn brighter in that instant.
"If it'll save them..."
The wards slowly, gently, begin to fade away.
"If those are the stakes, then I'm fine with being selfish."
He's silent a few moments more before sliding the faceplate back into place and moving over towards the pathway ahead.
"Come on."
DG: Lan Lilac has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle *>==================== ============<* CHALLENGE - Anomalous ~ The Weight of Obsession *>============= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The wards break. The door opens. Light shines. You step through... And somewhere -- "It is supposed to be dead!-" The Anomalous Orb twists. Azado is burning. A once great city is in ruins. The Guardians tremble. People flee. There are no gods to save them. There are no gods, save the one blotting out the sun in the sky. Larger than a town. Larger than anything conceived. A force of nature with a will of its own. No. Not nature. S I N Clysmian of Obsession There is nothing natural about this. You find yourself stranded in the streets of Azado. A tremendous beam of raw gravitation energy wells within the whale-like maw of the Clysmian. There is no fighting this thing directly. No reasoning. No out-thinking it. Even its smallest scales are fiends of terrifying magnitude. There is a path leading below, that will activate a teleporter that can carry you to safety. But it is choked with debris. Waylaid by Sinscales. A tsunami wells up from Sin's power, casting a shadow over you, growing ever-closer. Can you clear the way in time--? =Dungeon Conditions: Suffer===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
They step out into hell.
Lan's free hand goes immediately for the side of her head as the shrill, screaming wails of her gods pierce through her skull. Another memory. Another piece that doesn't belong here.
Are they even 'here' anymore?!
It's Sin, she doesn't say, because Loren knows what Sin is. Everybody who ever saw it or heard it or felt it knows what Sin is. Her gods continue to scream, whether from affront or fear, and Lan bites the inside of her mouth to keep from screaming too.
She grabs Loren's hand again and doesn't let go, running like a panicked horse for the possibility of safety. There's a teleporter somewhere, they just have to find it, they just have to get to it, they just have to-- have to--
"Who the HELL put rocks here?!" she wails, voice pitched high and tight with the pain throbbing in her skull. They're running out of time-- the light--
She grits her teeth and starts levering wreckage out of the wy. "We just have to make enough room to get on, right?!"
DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Anomalous ~ The Weight of Obsession.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
The last time Loren was in the presence of the Clysmian, he had at least had the comfort of being behind the heavy shielding and systems of Schiehallion.
It had not been enough, even then, but it had been more than he has now: at best an inch of armoring and the awareness -- the real, full awareness, this time -- of just how huge Sin is.
How large the city is.
And how small a human is, by comparison.
The Guardians scream. Even the tablet in his bag -- that joke of slab, that insult -- resonates with the Mountain Guardian's shriek. Is it terror...?
Whatever the cause it rattles deep in the marrow of his bones all the same, sents every part of his being alight with the urge to run, flee, scream as he escapes the monstrosity and all it brings with it.
It's only natural. It's only how living things are made -- to run lest one be killed.
Lan grabs his hand. He realizes, in the midst of the chaos, that he's running with her. When did he start running? Was it reflex, too--
In the distance something shines.
But there is no easy path through the ruins of the city.
He contemplates for the moment the contents of his bag.
Pushes that thought aside.
And instead shouts, wordlessly, as he sinks his will down, outwards, upwards again--
The earth pitches beneath them. He doesn't stop running, even when the ground itself unfolds in a ripple, the wave rolling ahead of them in a localized contained quake.
Maybe it'll be enough to shatter the debris in their path.
Maybe.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Anomalous ~ The Weight of Obsession.
====================<* Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle *>==================== ============<* CHALLENGE - Anomalous ~ The Weight of Obsession *>============= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The wards break. The door opens. Light shines. You step through... And somewhere -- "It is supposed to be dead!-" The Anomalous Orb twists. Azado is burning. A once great city is in ruins. The Guardians tremble. People flee. There are no gods to save them. There are no gods, save the one blotting out the sun in the sky. Larger than a town. Larger than anything conceived. A force of nature with a will of its own. No. Not nature. S I N Clysmian of Obsession There is nothing natural about this. You find yourself stranded in the streets of Azado. A tremendous beam of raw gravitation energy wells within the whale-like maw of the Clysmian. There is no fighting this thing directly. No reasoning. No out-thinking it. Even its smallest scales are fiends of terrifying magnitude. There is a path leading below, that will activate a teleporter that can carry you to safety. But it is choked with debris. Waylaid by Sinscales. A tsunami wells up from Sin's power, casting a shadow over you, growing ever-closer. Can you clear the way in time--? =Dungeon Conditions: Suffer===================================================
===============<* Fallen Sanctuary ~ Love's Cradle - Round 6 *>=============== ==============< Results - Anomalous ~ The Weight of Obsession >=============== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Loren Voss 0 --(100)--> 100 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lan Lilac 15 --(100)--> 115 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Loren Voss 95 --(10)--> 105 Fail Conditions: Fright(1)|Hesitate(1)|Madness|Overzealous(1)|Reckless(1)|Suffer(1) Effects: ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: Lan Lilac is too exhausted to continue! DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Loren Voss 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> Loren Voss has posed.
It is not an easy race to the teleporter in the distance. While earth may be the element to which Loren is attuned, his control of it is by no means absolute -- particularly when it comes to pin-point destructive displays.
Unlike van Houten.
His focus was always perhaps is always healing-oriented first. That takes a different approach than the localized quake he attempts to create and fails to properly control. Even with his glasses he can't keep a lid on what he uncorks, particularly with the city in such a state. The street trembles. Buildings collapse--
Were he not of his blood, perhaps here it might have ended. Or perhaps not -- is this now real?
Brilliant white light cracks into place about the both of them. It's answered a heartbeat later by a pulse of blue. They run.
Through the storm of debris. Through the breaking city.
And at last reach the teleporter.
For an instant he has a glimpse of something other. For an instant, he can see the Ley.
For an instant the whole world goes blue.
He makes a sound that is almost a drawn in breath, almost one choking. Here on the edge between reality and something more...
Still holding Lan's hand, he takes a step back. Away from the world within and the blue.
"We were to investigate," he says, sounding as if he's speaking to a point a million miles from here. "Not..."
The world unresolves.
Reality reasserts.
The place they stand is here within the depths of the temple to Raftina, Guardian of Love. A single glowing teleporter stands before them. Malevolence thrums in the walls, echoing from a deeper place.
He shakes his head. "We'll pull back and report. There's no reason to chance ourselves in there," is what he says.
What he doesn't say: Something's wrong.
I'm... definitely seeing things. I need to talk to Leah, and soon...