2019-04-21: A Fiendish Final
- Log: 2019-04-21 A Fiendish Final
- Cast: Ines Colina, Seraph Amaranth, Maya Schrodinger, Lily Keil
- Where: Luca
- Date: 21/04/2019
- Summary: In the aftermath of the Blitzball finals, fiends attack the city. A motley crew of drifters and a dressmaker try to get through unscated.
DG: A party led by Ines Colina is now entering Fiend Assault on Luca. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
==========================<* Fiend Assault on Luca *>===========================
======================<* CHALLENGE - An Animated Scene *>=======================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
It begins suddenly. The air about the people here is energized and excited.
The match between the Besaid Aurochs (astoundingly) and the Luca Goers is
underway, in the huge sphere of water that acts as the court. Barkers in the
stands offered shrimp tempura on sticks, while people supporting both teams
cheer loudly.
At first, one might not notice when the fiends appear. The first shriek of a
bird blends into the crowds... until a swirl of pyreflies coalesces into a
huge, swooping fiend. A Garuda -- a bird with massive wings and a terrible
maw, rather than a beak -- swoops down from the sky. It crashes into the
crowd a distance away, and people fly: both literally, as some ejected into
the air come crashing down at you, and figuratively as they begin running
away. The bird-like fiend lifts off, before a gout of flame from the other
side of the stadium's stands blasts it apart. However, raining debris,
fleeing people, and a few unfortunate people falling down for the tops fo
your head makes it necessary to get out of the stadium's stands as quickly
as possible.
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Injure, Tire=======================================
<Pose Tracker> Ines Colina has posed.
The City of Luca is abuzz with activity, even moreso than usual. Today is one of the most important days in the Spiran calendar: The Blitzball League Grand Final. Absolute underdogs the Besaid Aurochs are locked in a surprisingly tight game against the Luca Goers. The Arena is packed to full, and the giant sphere screens on the outside are similarly surrounded, those who couldn't get tickets trying to be as close to the action as possible. Lucky and clever vendors have set up close to the arena, to sell whatever they can to the masive crowd.
Ines Colina is part of that massive crowd. Her horse is stabled safely in Luca, baffling poor chocobo stablehands. Instead, she is chowing down on some fish on a stick, and watching the game from the screens outside. What? It's something fun, and a big change from what you see on Filgaia. "Come on!" She yells, having gotten into the spirit of things as a desperate charge for the goal begins.
And then the roaring starts. One could confuse it for the audience, if it weren't for the screams the follow. Or the gouts of flame that follow those. Rubble from the edge of the arena starts falling towards the crowd, as a wall that the stands were connected to starts to collapse. The cause of the collapse- a massive bird like fiend- bursts over the edge of the wall, flying over the running crowd.
For her part, the crowd starts surging and Ines with it, the beastwoman trying her damnedest not to trample anyone as people get clear. But a sudden fallen rock and bad positioning force her hand, and she quickly looses her whip. She lashes out at a temporary archway, and launches herself into the air with a burst of wind magic, aiming to swing above the crowd and land clear of the rubble. She's probably not the only one making for the spot...
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
Amaranth had literally spent the first few days in Spira with her house, the Festina Lente, stuck up a tree in Mi'ihen Highway where she mostly spent her days being extremely depressed about her dead sister Ragnell such that all she wanted was to cuddle her girlfriend's bomb plant and throw shoes at prospective suitor Bomb fiends along the highway to shoo them away.
That's a mouthful, so she's unpacked--
And is now Katherine Weaver, her usual identity as cute! seamstress! here for all your fashion needs!
Being a Seraph of Darkness with her skillset of Illusion, she can just project a Being around herself so that she doesn't have to deal with Resonance or not, though Spira seems to be a highly attuned sort...
But the danger soon comes, and she looks left and right as she holds up a cute cutsew for a pair of young women to go, "Eh? Eh? What's going on--"
A bird-like fiend screeches and tears over the wedge of the wall and Katherine whines. "Eeeh? Whyyyy???"
She gulps and her first instinct is to run, but there's a powerful shark beastwoman on the go!! "Uh--" she ushers the citizenry to hurry along, before whimpering as she helps several others along. "Hurry hurry, this way!"
As if to accentuate her point, a cartoon THIS WAY ===> sign appears for the citizenry.
DG: Seraph Amaranth has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, An Animated Scene. DG: Ines Colina has used her Tool Runic Whip toward her party's challenge, An Animated Scene.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
As a plausibly deniable asset of an fantasy extralegal humanitarian organization, Maya is doing what she does best after the Outreach's hilarious mess of an attempt to buy basic articles of supply from the Luca markets: learning the local flavour. And no better place to do this than enmeshed in the local customs, culture, and rituals. And no ritual is more straight from the heart than sportsball.
But how to sportsball when the tickets have been sold out for months in advance?
***
A girl in a sporty yellow apron and wearing a visor strolls merrily down the stairs between hundreds of rows of seats, a box of refreshments at one side. The emblem and dress ID her as one of the staff for the Luca blitzball stadium, but people don't need to know that isn't quite true. It's not like she's pocketing the money from selling Flan-Dogs and Tonic Sodas, either. Maya's expression is chirpy, because however trite it might be to be skulking around taking people's orders for dirty coins, it beats getting spiked through stone columns by blasts of dark magic and that is some REAL CONTEXT that she is APPRECIATING as of late.
And then, there's an unearthly crack as a horrid winged beast ploughs into the crowd with a dizzying burst of human detritus. There's a lurid geyser of flame from a stone support, and the air is soon a blizzard of shorn stone and screams.
"Okay, O-KAY! Giant monster attack, please exit calm--" Maya immediately begins hollering with an authority she doesn't possess, stopping only to pick up an adorable tyke holding a blitzball stuffy and run him out of the way from a falling spike of stone. "--ly but not slowly, folks!"
And that's how what looks like a blonde stadium vendor, after quickly passing a squirming lad to his mother, throws down the lid of her refreshments case and surfs on it right down those stairs and towards the danger. Only for a sudden explosion to hurl her like a rag doll right past a glowing cartoon sign and a magic-slinging beastgirl in the direction of freedom. Unlike a rag doll, though, this figure tumbles expertly upon hitting the ground. Or at least tries to. "Woah! Woah, edge! Stop! Stooo~p!" she yells at herself.
Ah, Spira. It's just like home.
DG: Maya Schrodinger has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, An Animated Scene.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily Keil does not tend to spend her time on leisure pursuits when she has something more to do, as a rule--but while she's on her errands for the day, in a city largely focused on the big game in the Arena... she decides that she has just enough time to have a look. She's near the exit of the stadium, having taken a moment to glance up to the monitor--
The roraring starts abrubtly, and Lily stumbles on the steps, catching herself quickly--and only thanks to the sure-footed boots she's wearing, old and reliable for careful terrain. A collapse from above starts to crash down towards her--her, and an attendant at the counter blinking up in shock--and Lily throws out her hands and conjures a shield of glowing orange-gold light off which it crashes before she looks around quickly. "This way!" Lily says to her. ...But she has a staircase in front of her, so it remains to be seen if she'll get there without getting hurt first, as she spots the safest place here.
Or, more to the point--as she takes three stairs at once and bends at the knee, extending her arms in an effort to catch the flying Maya Schroedinger before she tumbles into hard, spiky rock debris behind her. "Hup--"
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Sneak's Boots toward her party's challenge, An Animated Scene.
==========================<* Fiend Assault on Luca *>===========================
======================<* CHALLENGE - An Animated Scene *>=======================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
It begins suddenly. The air about the people here is energized and excited.
The match between the Besaid Aurochs (astoundingly) and the Luca Goers is
underway, in the huge sphere of water that acts as the court. Barkers in the
stands offered shrimp tempura on sticks, while people supporting both teams
cheer loudly.
At first, one might not notice when the fiends appear. The first shriek of a
bird blends into the crowds... until a swirl of pyreflies coalesces into a
huge, swooping fiend. A Garuda -- a bird with massive wings and a terrible
maw, rather than a beak -- swoops down from the sky. It crashes into the
crowd a distance away, and people fly: both literally, as some ejected into
the air come crashing down at you, and figuratively as they begin running
away. The bird-like fiend lifts off, before a gout of flame from the other
side of the stadium's stands blasts it apart. However, raining debris,
fleeing people, and a few unfortunate people falling down for the tops fo
your head makes it necessary to get out of the stadium's stands as quickly
as possible.
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Injure, Tire=======================================
=====================<* Fiend Assault on Luca - Round 1 *>====================== ========================< Results - An Animated Scene >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ines Colina 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Runic Whip 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Sneak's Boots 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Amaranth 0 --(8)--> 8 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Maya Schrodinger 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Ines Colina 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Slow(2)|Tire(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Ines Colina 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> Ines Colina has posed.
For better or worse, those getting the crowds moving are succesful. It makes for a slightly easier way out, which is always good in a terrible monster attack.
Maya's improvised surfboard serves it's purpose, as she makes her way out in a cool fashion, only to be sent flying. Fortunately, she's flying towards a safe landing, if due to someone moving to catch her.
Lily's trusty shoes serve their purpose, and she charges along the stair case and into the clearing, avoiding the jostling of the crowd, into a perfect position for a save.
Unfortunately for everyone's favourite seamstress, taking the time to direct the crowd costs her precious seconds, and rubble bears down towards her. Not enough to crush, by any means, but enough to hurt. On the upside, she then has an easy run to that clear spot that people seem to be gathering in.
Ines probably should have helped people get moving, in retrospect. But hindsight is 20/20 and all that. She swings above the crowd easily, landing clear of the rubble. The panic continues, and people still flow out of the arena, as fiends roar all over the town. Ines glances around the small, improvised group that has formed in the safe zone as she stands to her full height. "Damnit, where the hell did these come from?" It's not a surprise that monsters exist here, but the city itself had been safe. Until today, it seems. "Hey, are any of you up for a fight?" She asks, over her shoulder. She doesn't know any of the group- except maybe Maya, but the last time she saw her she was a knight and not a concessions salesperson- so it's better to just ask. "I get the feeling that's a long way from the last of those things."
DG: Maya Schrodinger has drawn a new Challenge.
=========================<* Fiend Assault on Luca *>==========================
==============<* CHALLENGE - Gates That Should Not Be Barred *>===============
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
Flood control in a city like Luca is a must. Even city streets can turn into
canals when floodwaters rise, and the city's ancient architects built
knowing this. It seems, however, that some overzealous city residents have
blocked the street ahead off by closing the floodgates... and the mechanism
to open them is on the other side.
The snarl of Sahuagin is not far behind -- which means the way forward is
barred, unless you wish to put brute force to it (or circle back to find
another way).
=Dungeon Conditions: Exhaust, Overzealous, Wound==============================
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
When motion is arrested suddenly, usually that's bad and results in injury unless assisted by safety equipment or devices. Or, in this case, someone else's arms. Before the blonde in the stadium getup can go flying away into a spike trap, someone handsomely flies into her path with the timely arrival of an artfully-tossed rose.
Sapphire eyes glisten in shock. Sunlight locks messily bounce in a frozen moment in time. A breath catches in Maya's throat.
Mostly 'cause nobody usually comes to -her- rescue at the last second, truth be told, but now she can appreciate why people do this all the time. The identity of her rescuer, too, is a shock. "Mz. Keil," the blonde burbles in surprise, kind of drawing out the '~izz' part of the noise. You'd be in shock too if a humanoid nuclear device plucked you out of the air, ok. "Fancy seein' you here. I'm practically a married woman these days, though thanks for the smooth pickup." and she waggles her empty ring finger, before the two get untangled with a moment's safety.
"Hey, are any of you up for a fight?" asks Ines, to which Maya reaches into her apron pocket and--frowns, before not producing a gun. "Oho, I'm ready. But I'd rather it didn't come to that, eh?" and she extends a hand to a certain Seraph Amaranth, in case she's tumbling somewhere towards the group in general.
***
So there's the main street out of Luca, which is packed by throngs of fleeing people. That's not where the gang stand, presently, they're on one of the arterial streets which forms a big channel In Case Of Flooding Events, and apparently a flood of fiends counts enough for the constabulatory (or a concerned citizen) to have thrown the lever to shut the floodgates. This means, roughly, a big stone wal has fallen out of an arch and occupied the big channelised street forward.
Not a problem, save for the slithering hiss of voices from a nearby sewer grate. The grate itself pops off suddenly, flung into the air by a scaled hand clasping a spear. An entire Sahuagin, what with their bodies all sinewy and elastic, is coiling out of the open manhole with practiced ease.
"Uh," quips Maya Schrodinger as she and her gang of gal-pals find themselves unable to go forward, and now with added company from behind. "If you spy any Yevon folks nearby in all this stupid panic, maybe, please give me a heads-up so I can hide this." and then she draws a scoped, wooden-stocked rifle from her apron. Just--it comes out of the pocket, and it's far too long to fit inside at all, but some of you are doubtless used to this by now. "Maybe I can just hit the dang lever and open the gate..."
DG: Maya Schrodinger has used her Tool Schrodinger Special toward her party's challenge, Gates That Should Not Be Barred.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
Hey, are any of you up for a fight?
Katherine Weaver sticks a sore thumbs up from where she's underneath a pile of rubble. A nearby set of people look on worriedly and roll it out of the way and she literally comes out as a 2D sheet of Katherine, but blinks as Maya extends a hand to her.
2D Katherine sticks her flappy thumb into her mouth and blows--
*POP*
And now she's 3D again.
"U-uuuh..." Katherine heaves aloud tiredly as she breathlessly paces up behind everyone, staring at the floodgate as she looks to Maya to express, "Don't worry, Miss! I, Katherine Weaver, will give your heretic firearm a happy boost and--"
She waggles her finger in a sparkle of magic and
*POOF*
Maya's rifle is now a fat pink dove with its mouth open from which you can maybe see a wee bit of barrel out of.
DG: Seraph Amaranth has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Gates That Should Not Be Barred.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily at first looks back at Maya with stoic scrutiny, glancing at her face, checking for any obvious distress or damage. ...But her golden eyes settle as Maya comments, and she laughs softly, nodding once. "Naturally," she answers wryly, and stands up, dusting herself off as she looks to the others. And there--there's Ines. Is she up for a fight?
"I'm always up for a fight," Lily says simply, in an absolutely understated fact. She nods, and her attire--thick red jacket, the sword belted at her side--suggest someone used to violence anyway. "...I'll watch our backs if you take point," she says to the tall woman ahead.
And--... She's pretty sure she just saw that from Katherine Weaver. Lily wonders, for a moment, if she's drunk. ...Pretty sure not.
So instead, Lily walks with the others, immediately taking up the rear to watch their backs, until they find themselves right there at the locked area, with the sahuagin ahead. ""You got it," Lily says to Maya. "Likewise..."
"Don't tell anybody I can do this."
She slides a set of strange silvery-blue chains over her hand, and kneels down, looking towards the gate where Maya's... Dove... is aiming. "...This level of force, expecting an impact..."
She murmurs, and extends her hand--and with a surge of dark power exuding from her, Lily casts. In moments, there's a black explosion at the floodgate as Lily's magic just starts to disintegrate rock on the spot.
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Rune Chain toward her party's challenge, Gates That Should Not Be Barred.
<Pose Tracker> Ines Colina has posed.
"It'd be nice if it didn't," Ines responds to Maya's hope that a fight doesn't break out, "but I don't think we'll be that lucky." She nods to Lily, who suggests she takes point. "Works for me. Keep us covered." Her contributions to the conversation as Katherine appears to flatten, and unflatten, and the Beastwoman just stares. "Did you- Were you just- what the hell was that!?" Fortunately, there is the pressing need to move stops any further questions. Besides she is meant to be taking point. "Never mind, explain it when we're safe!"
Ines swears as the group meets the floodgate, blocking off those fleeing entirely. "I don't think I could even shift that a little." She mutters, looking back at the group and- okay, a magic shooting dove and cries of hiding heresy. This is even more that needs explanation. "If anbybody wants to make a big deal about it, we can deal with them." That's probably only just loud enough to be overheard. Ines stands back, letting Maya and Lily do their thing. She can't help much with the trickshot, but breaking things? That's a bit more in her wheelhouse.
Ines brings her own magic to bear, a barrage of metal and stone flying over the heads of the crowd and into the flood gate, aiming to damage to plow into the gate, and assist with trying to force it open. Or break it enough people can get through.
DG: Ines Colina has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Gates That Should Not Be Barred.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
Katherine whines, "I got squished! I unsquished myself! These things happen!" ... ... ... okay???
=========================<* Fiend Assault on Luca *>==========================
==============<* CHALLENGE - Gates That Should Not Be Barred *>===============
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
Flood control in a city like Luca is a must. Even city streets can turn into
canals when floodwaters rise, and the city's ancient architects built
knowing this. It seems, however, that some overzealous city residents have
blocked the street ahead off by closing the floodgates... and the mechanism
to open them is on the other side.
The snarl of Sahuagin is not far behind -- which means the way forward is
barred, unless you wish to put brute force to it (or circle back to find
another way).
=Dungeon Conditions: Exhaust, Overzealous, Wound==============================
====================<* Fiend Assault on Luca - Round 2 *>===================== ================< Results - Gates That Should Not Be Barred >================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ines Colina 0 --(3)--> 3 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lily Keil 0 --(3)--> 3 Pass Rune Chain 3 Brute Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Amaranth 8 --(23)--> 31 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Maya Schrodinger 0 --(3)--> 3 Pass Schrodinger Special 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Ines Colina 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Injure(1)|Overzealous(2)|Slow(1)|Tire(1)|Wound(2) Effects: Strengthen(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Ines Colina 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> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Maya is glad. Glad, for one, that Katherine (who she has only now just met, but it's not like not knowing someone means you can't have a moment of concern) is not permanently injured. Glad also that her heretical machina, which she has now produced twice in Spira without thinking, is masterfully and utterly hidden from view. Unfortunately, the pink feathers tickle her nose and the telescoping sight now being a pair of glasses with a fake moustache attached is what we in the biz call 'poor optics'. However, it's far less likely to make an old couple start yelling in fright about machina, and that's probably a net gain.
Lily requests that Maya not spill her secrets in return, as she summons darque powers after first equipping magical chains of fluid, magical silver in her accessory slot. "I ain't no snitch," scoffs Maya, as she squints through her fake moustache-scope. She nearly sneezes. "Hey, uh, how'd you do that? Is that permanent?" she asks Katherine, before getting back to business and taking the crucial shot!
Maya does, in fact, sneeze as she pulls the trigger. Her weapon barks once, a mighty QUAK befitting a duck more than a pigeon, and a glowing tracer-streak rockets from the barrel and...
--Ines hangs back for a moment, facing down the floodgate, and brings to bear on it a great avalanche of the earth's bounty! The sluice gate was never meant to hold back a tide of stone, certainly, and the ancient construction wheezes with a great sigh of dust at the first impact. Maya's bullet PINGS off of a boulder--
Lily finds her sorcery, calculating the necessary rearrangement of molecules to unmake the floodgate at the conceptual level, has a much easier time after it's already had the heck beat out of it. What's left of the barrier starts to shimmer and then is consumed by a yawning black void that moves and billows much as a normal explosion might -- but normal explosions make more noise, and don't voraciously consume the light like some kind of nightmare flower from the realm of shadow.
Maya's bullet flies over her own shoulder with a loud QUAK and domes a Sahuagin before it can spear her. Because this is not a war drama, though, the bullet just kind of headbutts the leathery reptilian without any kind of terrible gore, and cartwheels him into his friends back down into the sewer.
"Yes!" Maya crows, with no idea that she really didn't cause the gate to explode by firing a single rifle bullet at a lever that she missed. "Onwards, we're outta here!" and her voice takes on a singsong-y quality as she skips ahead, one hand out for anyone partakers in the skipping. "Hmm~, hmm~"
Some people deal with stress weirdly.
DG: Seraph Amaranth has drawn a new Challenge.
=========================<* Fiend Assault on Luca *>==========================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Sahuagin Swarm *>=======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
The fish-like, scaled humanoid fiends known as Sahuagin are not individually
dangerous. Their claws are sharp and fangs capable of biting; they can also
summon water spells at a whim, crashing down gouts of water on someone's
head. The danger, really, is in the numbers.
As you run through Luca's streets, whether to escape or help, there are
several gutteral screeches -- and then no less than a dozen Sahuagin leap
down into your midst, slashing with claws and screeching all the while!
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Fright, Tire=====================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
"H-hmm, I still haven't put my ducks in a row for that spell..." Katherine reports concernedly as Maya's bullet QUAKs out. A pause, as she yelps for a moment as Ines brings a powerful wave of stone and Lily does something even more terrifying and yet familiar to her because darkness is as darkness shall.
"H-haaah... you three really are something else..." Katherine sags as she twiddles her thumbs. She hurries along with Maya as she skip-and-hums and--
Uh oh, the one Sahuagin bonked gets back up and screeches as several more allies join in!
"U-um-- this isn't-- this isn't what it looks like... eek!" Katherine ducks a swipe from a Sahuagin and does the most brave and noble thing a seamstress can do:
"I'm scaaared...!!"
Jump into her grimoire, cower, and have that cowering grimoire jump into Maya's bag nearby.
DG: Seraph Amaranth has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Sahuagin Swarm.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily doubts their luck on that front, too. Instead, she just sort of looks to Ines after Katherine's explanation, "It apparently happens." ...She's seen enough weird things that at this point it doesn't even floor her all that often. However... She can appreciate Ines and Maya's both abilities to break shit. She likes breaking things, after all.
"Nice work," she says to the others when her spell finishes. "I wouldn't have been able to be nearly that effective without that additional force," she admits, rising again and turning around to see... battle. brief, brief battle.
She ends up next to Ines for a moment and says, "I know the blonde; she's reliable. ...But I think the two of us should stay the cooler heads, here. We'll all do fine. ...The other makes good clothes, but I have... no, explanations, at all."
See, she says that. She says that, and then Katherine sort of disappears, "Starting to come up with explanations." With katherine gone, and the Sahuagin advancing on the rest of them, Lily steps forward--and draws her sword. She wields it in one hand as she walks straight for the fiends--
The first swipes at her directly, and Lily doesn't so much as pretend to dodge when its claws bite into her arm. Instead, she takes the opportunity while it's close to slam her forehead straight into its face, thrusting her blade right towards the chest of the one on its heels in order to move to impale it outright. Even with that done, she ducks down next to extend a hand that's suddenly ablaze with golden flame in an effort to shove it straight through another--
...Honestly it's for the best that if Lily kills any of them they're going to burst into pyreflies instead of gore. This is getting unpleasant quickly.
<Pose Tracker> Ines Colina has posed.
"Nice shooting." Ines notes, perhaps not realising Maya did not intend to knock the fiends back into the sewer. "Eh, I think you pulled off the big trick." Ines says, in response to the compliment. "I can manage cool." She starts to move back into her place at the front of the group, but there's an interruption. The beastwoman, hearing Katherine's cry, moves to intercept the fiend even as Katherine retreats in a truly mind boggling manner. There's a potentially familiar feeling, compared to the Seraphs she has met so far. Again, though, bigger priorities than the strange seamstresses mystery powers.
Ines lets the Sahuagin lash out with it's fin hands, aiming to grab it and then punch it square in the face. She then reaches for the boleadoras on her belt, and flings them out. The wind symbol on the weights activate, and they fly through the air aiming to lash a group of aquatic fiends together and out of the way.
The sheer brutality that Lily brings to bear is impressive, if dangerous, and Ines makes a mental to stay out of the splash zone. Instead she moves to square up to the rest of the crowd, getting ready to brawl with however many come at her.
DG: Ines Colina has used her Tool Bewitched Boleadoras toward her party's challenge, Sahuagin Swarm.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Lily helpfully vouches to Ines regarding Maya: "I know the blonde; she's reliable." Ines, in turn, complements Maya's marksmanship and if there is one predictable way to get on the girl's good side it is to blow sunshine into her ego. She smiles a big, dorky smile. Satisfaction.
Maya, several steps ahead, tries her darndest to throttle the freewheeling impulses of the Gunslinging Heroine before she gets too carried away and dynamites someone, but you try equipping personas (non-capital P) and see how hard it is.
So, mid-skip, she looks over her shoulder. "It's a clear saunter on outta here to the--huh?" and the blonde nearly falters as a magical grimoire emitting sweatdrops of duress flies into her pocket like an expertly-flung ninja star. She didn't see Katherine vanish in there in the first place, which makes it even more confusing that the Schrodinger lady's frighteningly-tuned spiritual senses are reporting that the missing person is actually right there nearby.
"With, uh, magic like that," Maya points out after straightening out her golf-style visor, "I think you're both gonna be fine. We've dug our way outta worse scraps than this, anyway."
Maya thus stashes the Pink Dove Rifle back into her leather apron, where it presents no bulge or shape whatsoever and also vanishes completely from existence before it can even touch the Ammy Grimoire, so that's always spooky. "Who was the nice lady with us? Is she okay? Sorry if I'm a bit scatterbrained," Maya apologizes to both Ines and Lily as she snaps her fingers and her empty hands are suddenly occupied by forbidden machina once more. This time, big revolvers. "I'm still piecing myself back together after a bunch of dark magical nonsense got jelly all up in my jam, and this place ain't helping."
Goofiness gives way to guile at a moment's notice, and Maya pirouettes from a standing position into an overhead spinning flip. While upside-down, she unleashes a ricocheting barrage of gunfire while her head is also exactly positioned between Ines and Lily's.
DG: Maya Schrodinger has used her Tool Tankbuster Cartridge toward her party's challenge, Sahuagin Swarm. DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Sahuagin Swarm.
=========================<* Fiend Assault on Luca *>==========================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Sahuagin Swarm *>=======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
The fish-like, scaled humanoid fiends known as Sahuagin are not individually
dangerous. Their claws are sharp and fangs capable of biting; they can also
summon water spells at a whim, crashing down gouts of water on someone's
head. The danger, really, is in the numbers.
As you run through Luca's streets, whether to escape or help, there are
several gutteral screeches -- and then no less than a dozen Sahuagin leap
down into your midst, slashing with claws and screeching all the while!
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Fright, Tire=====================================
====================<* Fiend Assault on Luca - Round 3 *>===================== =========================< Results - Sahuagin Swarm >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ines Colina 3 --(15)--> 18 Pass Bewitched Boleadoras 3 Combat Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lily Keil 3 --(20)--> 23 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Amaranth 31 --(20)--> 51 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Maya Schrodinger 3 --(20)--> 23 Fail Tankbuster Cartridge 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Ines Colina 40 --(10)--> 50 Fail Conditions: Fright(2)|Overzealous(1)|Tire(2)|Weaken(2)|Wound(1) Effects: Cleanse ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Ines Colina has failed this challenge! The party gained 10 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
The combat is swift and brutal, but fortunately special effects in the form of Pyreflies preserves the PG-13 rating; Lily takes the chance to step in on the sahuagin's attack and headbutts one, before destroying several others with flame. Ines uses her boleadoras to snare several and bind them up, leaving only the truly crazy who're still willing to rock with her and get punched for their troubles. And Maya unleashes a barrage of gunfire which is only made more clumsy because the grimoire in her bag is quivering and making movement more difficult!
The Sahuagin keep on coming, though... and as much as the group might like to stand their ground and keep fighting, this happens next!
DG: Lily Keil has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* Fiend Assault on Luca *>===========================
====================<* CHALLENGE - To Quell the Panicked *>=====================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
The people of Luca are panicking in the streets. While the Warrior Monks and
Crusaders are helping where they can, they cannot be everywhere. As you run
into this next street, you find that people have amassed around a gate
ahead. It has been closed, and they shout and call out to each other -- and
generally look quite agitated.
"We're trapped in here!"
"We need to make for the port!"
"No, you fool! For the Highroad!"
Perhaps some diplomacy -- or maybe some quick thinking -- can either get you
around the crowd blocking the way, or get the crowd to move along.
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Tire, Weaken====================================
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Oh, that's an interruption, all right. Lily of course, operates under the assumption that if she dispatches the angry monsters quickly and harshly, that the others will see how pointless their struggle is and stop fighting. However...
That's kind of the opposite of what a bunch of monsters made up of the collective resentment the dead hold for the still living would do, isn't it?
"We've had worse," Lily agrees with Maya, and then... pauses. "I uh, think she's fine," she says. "Call it a... hunch." Then a shake of her head. "It's a battlefield. Being scatterbrained is normal."
Still, their cool moves aside... There are more, and more, and more of them, and there's also--
"We're trapped! Help!"
"HelP! We--the port!"
The closed gate ahead has a lot of agitated people... and they're right there in the way of the path forward. And the path behind--
CRUNCH. A statue falls on it! The crowd assembled jumps at taht--and if anything looks even more agitated. Lily pauses. She can feel the panic of the crowd, their irritation... and so, she pulls something from her jacket, a small bit of glass--a mirror, if one looks, and breathes.
Mikaia's mirror--brutal violence failed. So how would Riesenlied handle this...?
Lily considers, and then walks forward. "People!" Lily raises her voice. "You're afraid--I know." She stows away her weapon, "But..." She pauses.
She thinks. Some kind of great... leadership... speech. But then, that's Leon's cup of tea, isn't it?
"Eh, fuck it," she mutters to herself, "WOUNDED! Right here, I have healing! Intact--move to the left! We can get this gateway open but only if you QUIET DOWN!"
...It's... fine.
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Mikaia's Mirror toward her party's challenge, To Quell the Panicked.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
Amaranth is still quivering inside the book. She's scared... she wants to find Talia and get out of here... why did she have to get trapped in another violent assault on the city?
But she pauses, and listens to people arguing. They're trapped. They're afraid, too. They don't know what to do. They don't know where to go.
She huddles and whines quietly, closing her eyes and-- listening to Lily's speech.
She sucks in a deeper breath--
Then ~*sparkles!*~ fly out of Maya's bag.
Somehow, someway, somewhen, the area around the closed gate has darkened as if it were an unlit stage! Is it a Fiend attack? Is it a nebulous trap done by the deadly and dangerous Odessa? No, it's--
A spotlight!
Katherine has returned, in full form! Her resplendent two-tier gown rocks hints of gothic and western today, adorned with pleated silk ruffles with layers of leather with Baskarian tasseled knots!
"People of Luca!"
She twists and does a dramatic pose. It's unknown how she can arc her back that far and not fall over.
"I... am Katherine, and I am scared too. I was cowering. I was quivering..."
She pirouettes into a one-legged pose that shows off some platform heel, pointing towards members of the audience as she puts further spotlights on them.
"I am just like you. But I say to you... there is strength in numbers. We have powerful and fine friends with us, these elegant ladies of the battlefield! Let us convert that fearful energy... as I--"
She spreads her arms out wide
"Boost!"
and
"Your!"
disco lights!
"Happy!"
strobe the area alight and ghostly saxophones and jazz guitars and snare drums add a touch of class!
One by one, each of the fearful citizenry get a dazzlingly instant makeover. A crimson velour three-piece for the handsome lady there; daring low-cuts and pumps for the man who wants the sun's attention! Hair flows freely and twist and curl into chic, playful ringlets; rings and chokers and twinned bracelets become the order of the day! The clothing is magical; it inspires the bystanders with confidence and courage!
The magic might even reach some of the three... if they choose. What fashion lingers in their souls?
Katherine does a full grand-jete that segues into a whirling spin ending in a vivant croise as she points down one way, finishing one child off with a coquettish tiny top hat to go with her rose corsage.
"And now that we are all stylish... we march as one! That way!"
DG: Seraph Amaranth has used her Tool Queer Eye for the Digger toward her party's challenge, To Quell the Panicked.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
With the pursuit of Fiends staved off, for the time being, Maya exhales tiredly and reaches into her pocket to examine the book that leaped in there. The road ahead is blocked, and not by things that can be blown up or shot. That's more troublesome! "This crowd ain't lookin' too good, but," she scans the assembled panicked onlookers quickly. "Nobody looks like they need to get carried outta here either..."
Lily banks on an authoritative tone getting people out of the way, and Maya looks like she plans to take advantage of that idea. "'scuse me," she murmurs to Ines, who is an entire league bigger than she is. Which is perfect for The Plan, "Just gotta..." and the blonde steps behind the living pillar of slate-coloured muscle as if she were a changing room. When she emerges on the other side, the hotdog-slinger's outfit is gone and instead Maya looks a lot more familiar to the aquatic beastgal: a knight in scarlet plate armour with gold finery. Instantaneous change.
"People!" cries Maya as she emerges, voice now an imperious commanding tone. A social flank, as it were. "We have come to aid this city, as Guardians, but first you must--" and before she can lie her ass off any harder, the satchel at her side flips open and a Rainbow Sparkle Stream flies out of it! This catches her off-guard, but it does not stop her.
"--must, uh, let us... past..."
A glittering ball of light bathes the area in discotecque radiance. A distressed onlooker is given an on-the-spot makeover, which probably beats being eaten by fiends.
"The... the gate..."
Maya is just kind of gesturing limply with her sword at the end. Completely outshone. A lonely saxophone note warbles over her head, as blue lines of pallid horror sketch across her face. Her armour is completely transmogrified to be twice as handsome, with windswept angles and a long cape that she didn't have before.
DG: Maya Schrodinger has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, To Quell the Panicked.
<Pose Tracker> Ines Colina has posed.
"I think you've got her covered!" Ines yells to Maya. holding ground as Maya fires into the oncoming swarm.Ines continues her fighting retreat as long as she can, but it becomes abundantly clear they are losing ground, and quickly. Cuts and bruises are forming quickly, as Ines narrowly avoids a claw taking out an eye, instead raking down her cheek. "Hate to say it, but I don't think we can hold this up." This... isn't good.
A break comes in the form of a collapsing statue, and Ines will take it, even if she is perhaps a bit closer to the collapse than she was hoping, using her arm to shield her eyes from kicked up rubble. She checks to make sure the Sahuagin are held back before she turns her back on them. But she goes from one threat to another: A crowd ready to riot.
She touches her hand to the locket round her neck, taking a moment to focus. She can't blame them. This is basically chaos, in a place that was supposed to be safe. Was this what it was like for St Centour? Monsters coming out of nowhere and wiping the protected city out? The similarities are... uncomfortable.
This time, she's there, she can do something about it. "You heard her! We don't have time to panic!" Ines yells over the crowd. "If you're strong enough, you can help me with the gate! Otherwise, stay out of the way and we'll get you through!"
And then Katherine comes out and Ines can't help but be a bit...transfixed. It's bizarre, powerful, fashionable magic. And when Ines looks down at herself, well. It's perhaps not the most stylish outfit, but it's more suited to Spira. Instead, she's wearing short, sleeveless dark blue top that covers up to the top of her neck, while simultaneously showing off her abs. Her right forearm is covered by a hybrid bracer and elbow gaurd, practical yet stylish. Her legs are covered by loose, three quarter length black pants, in a light fabric that's good for both the temperature and swimming. On her feet are sandals, revealing her webbed toes.
It may not be the most stylish, but it works. "...Huh." She's not even going to ask about this one. It's probably better to let the magic seamstress remain a mystery.
DG: Ines Colina has used her Tool Family Locket toward her party's challenge, To Quell the Panicked.
==========================<* Fiend Assault on Luca *>===========================
====================<* CHALLENGE - To Quell the Panicked *>=====================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
The people of Luca are panicking in the streets. While the Warrior Monks and
Crusaders are helping where they can, they cannot be everywhere. As you run
into this next street, you find that people have amassed around a gate
ahead. It has been closed, and they shout and call out to each other -- and
generally look quite agitated.
"We're trapped in here!"
"We need to make for the port!"
"No, you fool! For the Highroad!"
Perhaps some diplomacy -- or maybe some quick thinking -- can either get you
around the crowd blocking the way, or get the crowd to move along.
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Tire, Weaken====================================
=====================<* Fiend Assault on Luca - Round 4 *>====================== ======================< Results - To Quell the Panicked >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ines Colina 18 --(0)--> 18 Pass Family Locket 2 Wits Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 23 --(0)--> 23 Fail Mikaia's Mirror 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Amaranth 51 --(0)--> 51 Pass Queer Eye for the Digger 4 Wits Effects: Efficient and Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Maya Schrodinger 23 --(0)--> 23 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Ines Colina 50 --(20)--> 70 Pass Conditions: Fright(1)|Stupify(2)|Tire(2)|Weaken(2) Effects: Cleanse ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Ines Colina 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> Lily Keil has posed.
Elegant ladies of the battlefield, is it?
The chaos of the battlefield is prepared for any conventional approach; Lily's grim orders would see some of them through, but not make things any easier. ...The stylish, happy brilliance of Katherine Weaver, however, is both very gay and very gay.
Ines gets into it; her focus is good, and her fashion is impressive to Spirans, who see something familiar even in a stranger and become more comfortable; a child dances along with katherine, who leads the way, and there's a brilliant few moments of cheer and peace!
...While, instead, Lily Keil and Maya Schroedinger stay behind for a few moments, sort of staring at the progression. For her part, Lily has many fashions in her soul... but as she was channeling her old training, her attire now is an extremely sharp uniform, with fine, perfectly smooth jacket in deep red, black skirt, gray stockings, fur trim at her hat and cuffs, her hair suitably pinned and her broadsword replaced with something shining, something suited to a military officer in shining black boots.
"..."
She glances to Maya, beside her, the brilliant knight. Lily's gold buttons shine briefly in the light. She has braids on the uniform, medals even. "...I won't mention this to anyone if you don't," she assures Maya quietly, and marches right forward.
DG: Ines Colina has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* Fiend Assault on Luca *>===========================
================<* CHALLENGE - The Broken Spire Comes to You *>=================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
The same huge, bird-like fiends seen in the stadium are found occasionally
swooping through Luca's skies. One of them careens through the air, twisting
over itself after a line of Warrior Monks shoot into its flank with their
machina rifles. Trailing pyreflies, it slams into one of the tall towers of
Luca...
...and there is a deafening /crack/. The Garuda's body bursts into
pyreflies, before the tower it struck leans. Cracks run up through the
stone, and then it crumbles down -- a massive stone spire falling free and
hurtling straight for the top of your heads.
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Hesitate, Overwhelm================================
<Pose Tracker> Ines Colina has posed.
With the crowd quelled, the focus moves to the gate. A trio of very stylish Ronso are directed lead the charge against the gate, managing to shift it a little, then some more, and finally it's forced open. Attention moves to the wounded and those whose movement is impaired, with some of the crowd helping to move them through. It's really quite controlled. Ines does a bit of a double take when she moves back to Lily and Maya. "Wait a second, weren't you there with that wizard thing on the boat?" ...She could probably be more specific.
As the crowd moves, sounds of a gunfight can be heard coming ever closer. Her attention brought to the warrior monks- a vital warning if people are meant to be stowing arms are to avoid attention- the thing they are fighting also becomes noticeable. "Incoming!" Ines yells, when she spies the Garuda careening towards the tower. There is a terrible CRACK as it collides. And then the tower starts to collapse, rubble raining down. Now getting people out in time is the important thing. "Move it!" Ines yells, as this time she moves to pick up one injured person, and gets another to clamber onto her back. She gives a nod to Lily and Maya, and lashes out with her whip to haul her over the gate, and hopefully to safety, provided the extra weight doesn't cause her too much trouble.
DG: Ines Colina has used her Tool Runic Whip toward her party's challenge, The Broken Spire Comes to You.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
Sha-sha-sha shuffle shuffle shuffle, Katherine seems to be having a really good time showing an enthusiastic child how to dance; it's by the time she stops and catches up (or rather, the group catches up with her) that she smiles bashfully despite being adorned in a metric load of fabric and fashion. "I hope that helped... I may not be able to visit violence on anything, but--"
Her eyes widen again as Ines yells out the Garuda, and there's a yelp as she shuffles forth and exclaims, "This way, people!"
I can't be afraid... I have to find Talia...
With those thoughts powering her, she plays with her finger again and sparkles out magic again, a rainbow bridge erupting out of nowhere to help the crowd get through the gate in time too.
"Don't be afraid! You're too wonderful and precious to waste your time being afraid!"
DG: Seraph Amaranth has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Broken Spire Comes to You.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Lily resolves that, should Maya not mention the outfit being dragged out of her soul again, then they can keep that secret between them. Maya, with her ponytail tied using a splended red and gold ribbon, has a comically tired look on her face that swiftly morphs into a (very slightly) sleazy grin. "Ho~h? Your secret's safe with me," she confirms, having taken note of the cut of that uniform. Maybe she'll be asking a certain seamstress to give her something that makes girls sweat and swoon just like that.
"But," she sheathes her sword which emits a fancy gleam just before it vanishes into the scabbard, and sakura petals tumble through the air for literally no reason. "You kinda rock that one too hard to forget."
Well, that was a good bit of non-violent resolution. Maya is clenching her fists and excitedly motioning at Katherine as they walk. "Wow, you know, I didn't know anyone else had similar powers to me. But you've got some kinda similar gift, huh. And you're trendy, too, in even shorter supply..." and then Ines calls for her attention. The ponytailed gal looks across her shoulder, eyebrow raised. "Oh~? Yes, that was me. When the Cascade boy, may his foolish soul rest in peace, toyed with something terrible and dark. I did not assist overly," a gauntleted fist is held aloft, pointer finger up. "Except for distracting that wretched thing long enough for us to flee."
These memories are given pause by the deafening crack of imploding stone from above. The knight glances up, swiftly, and her teeth grit. "Happy to answer anything you'd like to ask once we're safe, 'course." and she hefts a kite shield strapped to one arm to deflect a falling geoid of some kind. "Everyone, that way! Get onto the rainbow!" and then, Maya deftly springs into ... the air, straight up, to engage in multi-hit combos against the falling debris before it can actually hit anyone else. As if something were compelling her to protect with every action, huh...
DG: Maya Schrodinger has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Broken Spire Comes to You.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"...You know," Lily allows after a moment, with a shake of her head. "I'll take it. Though I think the dress uniform works better on men. ...Or maybe one in particular."
She trudges on forward, with no vanishing swords of sakura petals. Instead... she listens to Maya's approach to the matter, and lets herself at least drain some of the tension of the moment away.
"I don't believe so," Lily tells Ines. But Maya was the one--and Lily considers, that. "Sounds like it was a party, though. I don't know how much patience I have for the average wizard."
Katherine has taken charge, and indeed, as she's hoping it helped, as she starts her magic--Lily begins to sprint to the center, turning and taking up a protective position in front of Katherine. "You're helping," she says. "...People need someone like you to look to, in something like this, as much as they need someone to keep their blood inside them."
She glows an instant later with red light, suddenly faster than before, and relies on solid, reliable shoes to keep her footing as she uses that speed to catch the stragglers and ensure no one is left behind in the falling rubble.
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Sneak's Boots toward her party's challenge, The Broken Spire Comes to You.
==========================<* Fiend Assault on Luca *>===========================
================<* CHALLENGE - The Broken Spire Comes to You *>=================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
The same huge, bird-like fiends seen in the stadium are found occasionally
swooping through Luca's skies. One of them careens through the air, twisting
over itself after a line of Warrior Monks shoot into its flank with their
machina rifles. Trailing pyreflies, it slams into one of the tall towers of
Luca...
...and there is a deafening /crack/. The Garuda's body bursts into
pyreflies, before the tower it struck leans. Cracks run up through the
stone, and then it crumbles down -- a massive stone spire falling free and
hurtling straight for the top of your heads.
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Hesitate, Overwhelm================================
=====================<* Fiend Assault on Luca - Round 5 *>====================== ==================< Results - The Broken Spire Comes to You >=================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ines Colina 18 --(15)--> 33 Pass Runic Whip 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 23 --(15)--> 38 Pass Sneak's Boots 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Amaranth 51 --(15)--> 66 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Maya Schrodinger 23 --(20)--> 43 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Ines Colina 70 --(10)--> 80 Fail Conditions: Hesitate(2)|Overwhelm|Slow(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Ines Colina has failed this challenge! The party gained 10 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Seraph Amaranth has drawn a new Challenge.
=========================<* Fiend Assault on Luca *>==========================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Double Garuda Duty *>=====================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
Your rush through the city leads, finally, to where safety might be
promised: the Crusader chapterhouse. You spot a red-haired man waving people
owards the entrance. "Hurry! Gatta is not far ahead!" he calls to the people
there. "Past the statue of Lord Braska, and you'll be in safe walls!"
Except, as you run across the square towards that chapterhouse, a Garuda
swoops down. The huge, winged fiend /slams/ into the aforementioned statue
of Lord Braska, toppling it in the distance... and then crashes down before
you.
There is another shriek behind you -- and a second Garuda slams down to your
rear. Both screech -- and then dive, striking at your party with talon and
fang alike!
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Fright===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Ines Colina has posed.
Despite their best efforts, rubble falls upon the group as those they try to make sure everyone else gets clear. The major part of the tower is avoided, bits of masonry break off and fly further than the main structure.
As Ines pushes her passengers free of the collapse, she catches the debris of several shattered bricks on her back. Acting as a shield for the people she was trying to ferry, she is forced down to a knee by a large brick breaking on her.
Katherine tries to lead people out using the rainbow bridge, but she herself won't have time to cross it before a chunk of rubble heads towards her, threatening to flatten her a second time.
Maya's kite shield protects others, even as she launches herself into the air to deflect the onslaught. While she is succesful in cutting away the worst of it, it is rarely a good idea to pick a fight when your opponent has gravity on it's side. Smaller chunks slip past Maya's guard, and slam into her.
Lily's efforts to make sure others aren't left behind leaves her open when she funnels the last person clear of the collapse. The shattering masonry bombards her, when there is no time to defend herself fully.
Ines lets out a pained grunt as she tries to pull herself to her feet, looking around frantically. "Is everyone still moving?" She yells, looking in the direction of the collapsed tower.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
Katherine doesn't have time to get flattened into another 2D shape; she's breathing harder as she sustains the bridge and winces as a chunk of rubble falters, and she heaves the bridge -UPWARDS-
And it becomes more of a slide as she propels the poor people they're in charge of forward and past falling debris at the last moment; she's looking back towards Lily with a wince and a look of gratitude, saying, "It's hard to keep that in mind--"
But the shriek that comes from another Garuda is ill comfort, as she kneels next to Ines and says, "You're wounded... try to not--"
And the -double- shriek just seems to make everything worse. High fashion or not, the people they're gathering are afraid, pincered between two Garudas. A child starts to wail. "Is-- is this it--?"
Hurry! Gatta's not far ahead!
The Crusader chapterhouse...! Past the statue of Lord Braska, and you'll be in safe walls!
"There! It's as he says--" Katherine frantically says, but her expression dies down as one of the Garudas SLAM onto that statue and topples it before them. Another man shrieks.
"I-- I--" Katherine stammers, looking at the group. She looks frozen, indecisive. "T-this is it, isn't it--"
<Pose Tracker> Ines Colina has posed.
So close to safety, but suddenly so far. There are still way too many people for this to be a fair fight. "Sorry," she says to Katherine, "but it doesn't look like we've got time to be hurt." Ines finishes standing up, even as she bleeds from the wounds inflicted by both the Sahuagins and the tower. "Try and keep the people together. If you can manage that bridge trick again, I think we can make an opening." That's perhaps a bit of bravado, given the situation. It took a lot of warrior monks to bring down one of these, let alone two. Three injured drifters are not great odds. Still, Ines reaches for the boleadoras at her belt again, starting to swing them in her hand.
"...If we can get everyone else clear, make for safety at the next opening. I can hold them off for long enough for that." Those odds are even worse. Ines is tough, but there's a clear limit to her strength. These aren't the decisions of someone who is... fully on board with surviving.
Then, Ines moves, flinging the magicked boleadoras at the Garuda sitting atop the tower, and running to draw it's attention. As she does so, symbological tattoos glow with an aqua light, and her skin takes on the appearance of stone, while her hands become metallic. And then she leaps up to punch a Garuda in the side of the head, and try and lure it away from the crowd. It's not going to be easy, but better it takes a bite out of her than someone who can't take it.
DG: Ines Colina has used her Tool Bewitched Boleadoras toward her party's challenge, Double Garuda Duty.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Ah, Maya, you forgot that falling rubble has 100% active hitframes and the hitbox covers its entirety. You can't air-combo a giant projectile! You fool!
The Shining Knight's shield and sword are of little use, and there's a comically loud CLANG as boulder collides with breastplate and hurls the shapeshifting girl into the ground like a human javelin, feet stuck in the ground. "Pah." she spits out a clod of dirt, looking more upset than injured. To Ines, she calls back, "I'm fine, but I cannot move! Get these people out of here!" and briefly fends off the talon of a horrendous flying fiend with a gauntleted swipe. Attempts to dislodge from the ground are not very successful.
Teeth grind. Fine grit cracks and rattles unpleasantly between her molars. Maya's armour glows sunlight yellow, and fades back into an orange dress--the merchant's getup is nowhere to be seen, perhaps she needs a focus on-hand to assume it again. "Okay. No problem," she pants aloud as she tries to free herself with both hands, but you can only propel yourself upwards so hard from such a position. "Everyone's gonna get outta here, and we'll be heroes, and everything'll be swell..."
The blonde flinches as Lord Braska's statue, which even a newbie like her has learned is a big and important Saintly figure who saved the dang world before, is heaved aside by one of those monstrous Garudas. Not to mention the panic setting in among the masses as figures of their savior are dashed, and a fiendly pincer manoeuver coming to bear. The happy-go-lucky Pretender curls her fingers into fists so hard that her palm bruises through those thick gloves, bowing her head at the very moment Ines soars fearlessly into the air with a flying haymaker at one of those birds. Perhaps with no intention of returning.
Something clicks.
HTS21 Self-Synchronization:
SENTINEL
"Gonna do it like that, are you?" Maya murmurs with a dangerous grin spreading across her face. As if the impending disaster has only bolstered the fire in her chest, a light reaching to her eyes. She extends both hands, fingers curled around nothing at all. Gripping some kind of imaginary ARM. A big one. "Maya Schrodinger doesn't turn and run, suckers, and if you back her into a corner, you're just making easier targets..."
A glimmering golden wireframe traces around her fingers, and shoulder. A tube, connected to two grips. The wireframe fills itself in a heartbeat's span, becoming a dark grey and green weapon of considerable size. Maya shoulders the rocket launcher easily, anchored to the ground by virtue of being stuck in it.
"I had my Happy Boosted, you dumb bird, and if you think you can take it away from me now..."
She sights the remaining Garuda, not the one under assault by fist and boleadora, and pulls the firing stud.
Click--
--FWOOOOSH
And that is how Maya Schrodinger came to be battling a Fiend in Spira using a guided missile launcher.
Forbidden Machina Count: 4.
DG: Maya Schrodinger has used her Tool Tankbuster Cartridge toward her party's challenge, Double Garuda Duty.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
For Lily, the masonry hitting her is an acceptable loss; she takes the bruises and welts and lacerations that come of it breaking, noticing the blood and the pain, and calls it something she can fix later; the bombardment hits her hard enough to send her flying backward to hit the ground, but she sets her hands on remaining stone to push herself back up when it's done, looking around in turn. "It looks like," she says to Ines, and keeps going.
...She doesn't seem to show much concern for her own injuries; instead, she looks up to Katherine then as she winces. "It's all right," she tells her, confident, sure, but a bit gentle. Her plan, though--that only sets when she looks to Ines, mentioning that she has a plan. Lily considers, looking her over, in the moment... and nods.
Maya approaches, happy boosted; Lily, for her part.... Well, the magic that Katherine put on her is still there, really--and it shifts, as she steps forward. No longer in a foreign military uniform, Lily Keil steps forward in a white cloak, lifting one hand as she looks to the Garudas ahead. "...If you draw its attention..."
...And Maya can blow the damn thing up...
"Then I'll make sure you live through it." She breathes in--and makes no attack. Instead, she focuses, and a golden shield of burning light appears before and around Ines. ...She has more than enough magic left to keep those two healed, though it might cost her.
DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Double Garuda Duty. DG: Seraph Amaranth has used her Tool Le Theatre du Grand-Guignol toward her party's challenge, Double Garuda Duty.
=========================<* Fiend Assault on Luca *>==========================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Double Garuda Duty *>=====================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
Your rush through the city leads, finally, to where safety might be
promised: the Crusader chapterhouse. You spot a red-haired man waving people
owards the entrance. "Hurry! Gatta is not far ahead!" he calls to the people
there. "Past the statue of Lord Braska, and you'll be in safe walls!"
Except, as you run across the square towards that chapterhouse, a Garuda
swoops down. The huge, winged fiend /slams/ into the aforementioned statue
of Lord Braska, toppling it in the distance... and then crashes down before
you.
There is another shriek behind you -- and a second Garuda slams down to your
rear. Both screech -- and then dive, striking at your party with talon and
fang alike!
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Fright===========================================
====================<* Fiend Assault on Luca - Round 6 *>===================== =======================< Results - Double Garuda Duty >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ines Colina 33 --(0)--> 33 Pass Bewitched Boleadoras 3 Combat Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lily Keil 38 --(5)--> 43 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Amaranth 66 --(5)--> 71 Fail Le Theatre du Grand-Guignol 4 Combat Effects: None ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Maya Schrodinger 43 --(0)--> 43 Pass Tankbuster Cartridge 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Ines Colina 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Hesitate(1)|Overwhelm|Slow(1)|Weaken(2) Effects: Cleanse ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Ines Colina has successfully explored Fiend Assault on Luca!
=========================<* Fiend Assault on Luca *>==========================
=============<* CHALLENGE - O'aka Donation - War Profiteering! *>=============
|Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
With the Garudas and the shattered statue of Lord Braska cleared, you are
ushered into the Crusaders' chapterhouse. There, you find a red-haired
merchant. He looks at you for a moment. "Need a potion? It's--" He starts to
say the standard price of 75 gil. And then, O'aka has a dawning realization,
and a slow, capitalistic smile spreads across his face. "...200 gil."
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Hj3U18FHgQ
Please visit the following wiki page and update the current... er...
donation...?
https://dreamchasers.space/O7aka_Support_Fund
=Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
Katherine continues to hesitate; Ines tells her there's no time to be injured, and Maya-- Maya transforms back towards another form as she tells her she has a similar power. She does? Does she have illusions? Something feels a bit different, though. She can't perceive anything faked, the way Katherine herself does it. Something that's simultaneously a facade and yet true...
Well, that is the essence of Katherine Weaver, to Amaranth, isn't it?
But she looks in awe as Maya synchroniss with something mysterious and unknowable to Katherine, as she holds the manifestation-- illusion? she can't tell --of a giant ARM she can't even start to imagine as a Lunarian. "W-what--"
FWOOOOSH
*Down* goes one Garuda, a smouldering mess that careens off towards the distance and splashes against the ocean. But the one Ines is challenging...
It's all right.
Lily speaks true to her, as she steps ahead and protects her with a golden shield of light. They need a bit more push, with Lily taking the role of protection.
"I--I'm not sure I have enough power for another..."
A pause. No. Coward talk. Through gritted teeth, Katherine now makes the call. It doesn't matter that the Guard is here and word might get out. It doesn't matter if the Shadow Dragon Clan might hear of her whereabouts and take hold of news that might be pertinent to them.
What matters here is that there is a brave soul who's risking her life on the line--
I'm not going to sit by and be afraid...
--and Katherine wipes her palm over her eyes now; where they were pretty and violet and sparkling with the joy of life and fashion and cheer, they are now dull, filmy gray.
Lily's seen it enough through battlefield triage to know; heavy, milky cataracts, undoubtedly enough to impair vision. Blindness.
Ines' symbology transforms her arm into stone and metal, but the way she challenges the Garuda is clear; to distract and harm her rather than others. She's injured, and is going to need help to overpower the thing, having fought multiple off before on her own.
Her illusion dispelled, her form is now entirely that of a Seraph's; she reaches down and pats the same child she was dancing with before, whimpering onto her leg; she ushers her to head to her parents as she grabs onto...
.... a rough-hewn chunk of rock, not so much a knife as it is an ugly, improvised weapon from the stone age ...
But it is knife in concept enough.
And then she darts forward, seeing the only things she can truly see. The technique imparted upon her by brutal masters long forgotten by history. The technique that has ironically, to her utmost disgust, survived to this day.
The thread
weaving in and out through the Garuda
criss cross criss cross
the thread of its life
each thread so full of energy
woven upon pyreflies bright and angry
criss cross criss cross
ohhh now if only she will
reach out with her shadowy palm
to those
threads
and
What was once a Garuda suddenly limps as Katherine's shadowy form passes through in the blink of an eye. The body remains deeply still for a moment longer--
-cut-
--before it CONVULSES, the sensation of something vicious, wrong and dark imploding within the creature; it's as if everything that were made to be a Garuda ceased to be. What's left is enough for Ines to finish off with her stone and iron-made hands, not so much an enemy as it is putty in her palms.
<Pose Tracker> Ines Colina has posed.
It's a violent few moments. It was, in many ways, a stupid plan. And would have been worse not for the intervention of others. "Heh. Much obliged!" Ines shouts back to Lily, as the details of her plan are clearly rejected. Three drifters against two Garudas were long odds.
Three drifters and a surprise Seraph? Not so much. As one Garuda is reduced to pyreflies by superior firepower, Ines can but watch as the Seraph that was Katherine Weaver passes through the Garuda, and it drops in front of her. Ines doesn't waste time finishing the job, a decisive blow letting the fiend dissolve into pyreflies.
After that, Ines drops to a knee. Bravado aside, that did take it out of her. But people are safe. She looks at the shadowy form of the Seraph ahead of her, and nods. "I guess... that explains some of it." She may not have her heard around what Seraphs actually are, but she knew they could do weird stuff.
She looks over at Maya. "Pretty impressive technique. Don't think I've seen someone do that before." The more you know. Ines looks down. "Guess it wasn't a great plan, huh?" She says quietly.
With effort, she stands back up, and moves towards the chapterhouse as the crowd moves in. It is then she is introduced to the smiling face of someone who has realised he can make a mint off of people in a dire situation. She looks down and narrows her eyes. "...I swear to Granas, I will punch you in the mouth."
Heresy Count: 1
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
There's a quiet look from Katherine -- still gray, filmy-eyed -- towards Ines as she makes a conclusion; she looks towards Maya, but more importantly at the crowd. She senses some hesitation from a small number of them, still in awe at the improbable odds of their survival...
"I-- I shouldn't... stay... sorry..." Katherine sounds like she's panicking, despite the gratitude she feels to Ines, Maya and Lily; she abruptly turns as she just lets disguises be and shadow-leaps up towards a nearby wall of Luca's as she seeks to just get the heck out of the city at as high a speed as she can.
She might need a long Talia recharge to boost her happy...
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Maya waves a gloved hand in front of her nose, fanning away the arcid smoke of a spent rocket motor with a satisfied smirk. The weapon's impact on the distant Garuda is less pyrotechnic than 10-gella paperbacks would have you expect, it's more of a sudden and large puff of smoke accompanied by a sharp *CRACK* before the Fiend is instantly knocked into a storm of scattering pyreflies. Maya looks over her shoulder at Ines with a lopsided grin, as her hands move through impossibly practiced motions and pop open the launcher's tube, discarding the spent casing.
"Oh, you know," the highly suspicious Drifter doesn't sound too stressed anymore. Electric green lights her eyes as she watches the distance, still half-stuck in the ground. The discarded missile tube casing also makes like a defeated fiend, dissolving into fading lights. "Country girl's gotta learn a trick or two to help out around the place." spoken with a casual not-even-pretending song to her tone. There's a moment's grunt, and then Maya fishes herself from her anchored spot in the ground with surprising ease, for all the struggle she endured earlier.
Before the towering, muscular and pointedly brave lady can take her leave to check out the chapterhouse, Maya extends a gloved finger again and hefts the launcher on one shoulder as if it were made of paper. "Actually, it was a great plan. And Maya Schrodinger's not one to praise any glib fool, so you'll have to take me at my word." and after that haughty addition, her tone softens. "Go look at all those children's faces and see if you still think it wasn't a good one."
The blonde turns her head, surveying the rest of her impromptu team, and hesitates as she feels a chill tiredness ripple through her limbs.
HTS21 Self-Synchronization: Complete.
The launcher boils away to glowing dust, drifting away on the breeze. Maya doesn't think much of it, glancing this way and that. Whether Ines stalks off soon after to give O'aka a proper staredown, or lingers for a bit longer, the blonde's gaze sweeps left and right. Something's missing...
A pallid sense of malaise lingers, a spiritual scent on the breeze that catches the young Schrodinger lady's attention. Where once there was jubilation and glee, there seems to be the very inversion now, instead. Of the seamstress, whose true form lingered at the very edges of Maya's vision at the crucial height of this conflict, there now is no sign.
Her brow furrows. Perhaps Maya can detect nothing of Katherine's presence save for the fading hint of Sad and Gay.