2019-05-08: Reaching Out in Mi'ihen
- Log: Reaching Out in Mi'ihen
- Cast: Riesenlied, Talia, Dean Stark, Noeline, Lydia Seren, Avril Vent Fleur
- Where: Mushroom Rock Road
- Date: 8th May 2019
- Summary: The Fereshte arrives to provide aid, and its various members gather together to save the survivors of Operation Mi'ihen.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied has been struggling.
She struggles with her health day to day, she struggles with the sensation the Pyreflies echoes out around her, but most of all... she's struggling with the trauma and stress her first encounter with Sin has inflicted upon her. It is in part why she's hesitated ever since she heard about Operation Mi'ihen, but...
She is here now, as the Fereshte touches base upon the war-torn shores of Mushroom Rock Road. It's managed to draw up close to the shore thanks to its capability of actual flight -- she has made the call that some heresy is an acceptable risk in the face of rapid response to the needs of people.
The Wayside Outreach's responders are landing as the cargo bays open; the Azadians amongst them look particularly fired up. "Triage Unit, go go go!" one calls out as a large number of them start to prop up stations and assess the damage that has been done. There, indeed, are a great number of people who're in need of help.
Riesenlied rolls out of her wheelchair on the ramp and hits sand, which isn't terribly conductive to wheeling. Her breath hitches the moment--
The moment she sees the large carved-out landscape where the Giga-Graviton has hit--
It hitches further as several Pyreflies wander about her; the air is /thick/ with the light of the departed, and she grasps onto her head as she starts to tremble and desperately work through it.
Then the Dragon's Tear shines as she whispers;
"Left side-- a man and a woman with a crushed rib, bleeding out, code red; under the rock, a masked soldier having trouble with breathing, red. Please carry those that need magical healing and I'll use the Medium of Life--"
She lets out a cough in the middle of her instructions.
DG: You use your Tool Heritor's Regalia against your party's Challenge, Sudden Triage Unit!
DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool Heritor's Regalia toward her party's challenge, Sudden Triage Unit.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
Talia was not on the Fereshte, but she made her way to it, as soon as she saw it land. She had confirmed Ivan was alive, and in the aftermath of the operation, that was her highest priority. Now, the black-haired woman comes jogging up -- and she pauses as she spots Riesenlied. She pauses more as she gets closer, sees the way she grips her head.
"Left side," she repeats. "Woman with a crushed rib. I will handle this thing, no?"
She turns -- hurries off towards the left side. She slows as she spots a woman there, seeing the wounds on her; she sees the man too. She frowns, and then reaches down.
She snaps a golden hourgass between her fingers. Time forms a bubble around her, moving slower, as she begins to lift the woman. Carefully, of course. "Hold on. We'll be back for him."
DG: Talia has used her Tool Golden Hourglass toward her party's challenge, Sudden Triage Unit.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean was there for the actual battle of Operation Mi'ihen. Specifically, he'd been helping defend the mages who were working on that big magic that was supposed to take care of Sin once and for all. Things didn't work out like that. He managed to get in the barrier with his friends in time for their lives to get saved, but countless others died brutally... It was a small blessing that Dean had been knocked unconscious and so didn't see the worst of it. He's since awakened, though, and there's too many people hurt for him to just sit on the sidelines.
He doesn't know a lot about first aid, admittedly. But he *does* have a sphere that a nice Crusader gave him before the mission started, saying that it was the first draft sphere of a collaberation he'd worked on with an Al Bhed to compile the dangers of Spira--all the same basic information, just not as neatly or eloquently organized. Dean had gladly accepted it.
He looks out at the beaches and wonders if that Crusader managed to survive, or if he's...
He shakes his head forcefully and pulls said sphere out as he jogs over towards-- "Riese! Talia!" he calls, hope bubbling inside him as he spots his friends. "Boy, am I glad to see you!" He hurries on over to join them, looking down at the injured and departed, at Riese trying to wheel through sand that's clogged with... various things. Dean grits his teeth and holds up the sphere, which shines and displays information.
"'The average adult human body holds about 1.2 to 1.5 gallons of blood,'" he reads off of it, "'and if it loses more than 40%, approximately .53 gallons, that person will die...' Oh no!" As Talia handles the woman, Dean hurries over to the man, and reads off more about applying pressure to open wounds to stop and slow the bleeding as he does precisely that for the man. Harrowing *and* educational!
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Danger Sphere toward his party's challenge, Sudden Triage Unit.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline has done her best to be at Riesenlied's side here in Spira - and up until now, that has mostly meant goading her into as much rest as possible. Though the Fereshte has mostly been travelling between islands, it hasn't been doing a great deal more than that, and the chance to enjoy some tropical sea travel together has been a pleasant jolt of nostalgia, a new experience for her, and a useful chance to let Riesenlied try to unwind.
Much of that flees her mind as she stares at the absolutely ravaged landscape. For all that she likes to pretend she's seen it all, she can't help but draw up short, sucking in a shaky breath at the sight of it. There's a hovering presence at the back of her mind, the prickling feeling of the Guardians and their fear; unused to it, it's hard to prevent it bleeding through into her own emotions.
It's the call from the Azadians that jolts her out of it and gets her moving; she's down the ramp in a matter of seconds, a hand resting on Riesenlied's shoulder for long enough to squeeze it firmly, the light of the ring on her finger glinting as she offers a chance to share the sensations before they can become too much.
"We'll get them," she promises, quiet and private, and then sucks in a breath of quiet worry as she pushes her feet forward. Just in case, she's dressed for war - light but functional half-plate, black with silver trim and with Wayside's insignia at the shoulder, a Chevalier much more at ease with herself than 'Ebon Zero' ever was.
It isn't just for looks; it means she can dip low to ram a shoulder against the rock that's crushing one of the soldiers, gritting her teeth with the effort as she sets her feet and then pushes up against it. "Extraction!" she hisses through them as the rock lifts, already scanning for anywhere else that might need an application of raw brute strength.
DG: Noeline has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Sudden Triage Unit.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"Dean! It is good to see you, too, no? You are okay, after all of this?" Talia asks, though a lot of her usual cheer is gone. She actually eyes the time-bubble halfway while she listens to him talk. She knows, from practice, that it is centered around her person -- which means it should /stay/ around both the man and the woman, if she moves carefully enough.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
When Avril arrives, she comes racing into the field of ruin alongside Lydia. There hadn't been much in the way of specifics with the initial message, and she hadn't stopped for more information or indeed anything else at all. She stops here only to regain her breath and to seek the whereabouts of a particular person.
Her gaze flits across those who are wounded and those who are helping -- spotting in the process one or two people she recognizes -- before her attention settles on one particular blue-haired boy.
"Dean!"
She races over to where he's assisting the wounded man. "Thank goodness. I had heard something had happened--"
All she had known (courtesy of an innkeeper) is that Dean had been assisting with something out this way. So it seemed possible that he could have been caught up in whatever had happened.
"What happened," she starts to say, before shaking her head.
"...Allow me."
She draws out the mirror.
No mystic light shines from it today. Instead, she uses it to catch and reflect -- at an angle -- some sunlight, providing somewhat better illumination for the bandaging task at hand.
The healing itself is best left to the Life Medium. She can feel its presence.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Mirror of De Soto toward her party's challenge, Sudden Triage Unit.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Schrodinger the Cat arrives first, approaching the poor fellow who is having trouble breathing to paw his face and then lick his cheek in an attempt to chill out a dude who is probably panicking. Or maybe Schrodinger is a cat. At the very least, comfort cat is comfort.
Lydia arrives after Avril, having largely followed the other woman. She is not winded but she seems a little out of it all the same. She already had huge emotional catharsis today with Avril, and earlier she had huge emotional catharsis with Rebecca, and at another time she had, uh, talk with Talia about well let's talk about somethign else.
She says, "Oh hey it's Dean." Lydia says. "Cool. Cool cool." She looks around the battlefield. "Shiiiit. Sin don't play."
She spots Riesenlied and Noeline. "Oh! Moms! You're okay!" They didn't seem to be fighting Sin in the first place BUT YOU NEVER KNOW WITH RIESE OKAY. "That's good. That's great. Greaaat."
She pauses for a long moment. "I uh. I only know violence and explosion spells...." But at least Schrodinger is helping!
DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Schrodinger the Cat toward her party's challenge, Sudden Triage Unit.
=============================== <* Mushroom Rock Road *>===========================
========================= <* CHALLENGE - Sudden Triage Unit *>=====================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------==== < Challenge Information: >--------------------------
The wounded are in no small supply along Mushroom Rock Road. Be it at the
entrances to the winding mountain pathway or the beach where Sin was
battled, injured Crusaders are not uncommon. To make matters worse, the
fiends have grown far more common since Operation Mi'ihen, as the Crusaders
lack the numbers to clear fiends out regularly.
As you start your journey, you come across over a dozen people with various
types of wounds; some are severe, some are minor, and a couple are mere
scratches that still have the unfortunate in a lather. It will take some
work to decide who to treat first, and who has to wait until the truly dire
wounds are tended to.
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Tire============================================
========================== <* Mushroom Rock Road - Round 1 *>======================
=========================== < Results - Sudden Triage Unit >=======================
Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Riesenlied 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass
Heritor's Regalia 3 Wits Effects: Rally
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Noeline 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail
Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lydia Seren 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass
Schrodinger the Cat 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Talia 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass
Golden Hourglass 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Avril Vent Fleur 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass
Mirror of De Soto 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dean Stark 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail
Danger Sphere 2 Wits Effects: Resilient
----------------------------------==== < Party >-----------------------------------
Leader: Riesenlied 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass
Conditions: Stupify(2)|Tire(2)
Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1)|Resilient(1)
================================== < Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Riesenlied 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> Riesenlied has posed.
The woman gasps up to Talia to say, "Hel...l...p," as she feels time slow around her, which helps to stem the profuse bleeding as Talia carefully lifts the woman up and back towards the makeshift Triage Centre. There's a moment where as she lifts her, globules of blood just seem to suspend off the ground.
Riesenlied hears Dean call out to her, as well as seeing Talia. "Dean! Talia! I'm so glad..." Dean says much the same thing. "Y-yes, we need to prioritise those that are bleeding rapidly. There are Heal Berries back at the station if you need them." The Daring Boy applies pressure as he joins in with several responders that heed Talia's call, stemming the blood loss as Heal Berry mixtures get deployed; as Talia draws closer, he gets a bit more time with the Golden Hourglass warping time around them as well.
Noeline calls for extraction, and everyone's favourite Accordion Tubing Man easily steps over debris with how bouncy and springy his body moves as he lifts the fallen out from under the rock. "Yes, ma'am!" he calls out. He stops as he nods towards Avril as she comes in and spots Dean; the Mirror of De Soto, today, is used to provide illumination with the gleam of the sun coming through from the gloomy veils above.
Then Riesenlied spots Schrodinger, blinking with wide eyes as she realises Lydia must be near--
And Schrodinger paws at the man's face and posits that it's better for the man's nonbreathing eusophagus to become a Schrodinger's eusophagus where you can't tell if he can breathe or not until you observe and-- well look at you, he's feeling better now.
"Avril! Lydia...!" Riesenlied already feels incredibly relieved to see so many familiar people coming to their aid. She forcefully pushes herself out of her wheelchair and drops to her knees next to the people who've been brought at her side, the Life Medium next shimmering as she feels a faint burn course through her veins. "Please, stay with us..."
The Ley feels so distant. Her powers feel weak. But she has to try, no matter how much it hurts. Everyone is hurting too...
And, together, they at least manage to save who they can find and identify and bring the worst out of the immediate danger zone.
DG: Noeline has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================== <* Mushroom Rock Road *>=========================== ========================= <* CHALLENGE - A New Great Divide *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------==== < Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The next twist and turn leads you to a higher ledge. Unfortunately, it also leads you to a place that Sin's Giga-Graviton struck. A massive chasm that did not exist until very recently is carved through the pathway. It will be quite the jump across, though... perhaps possible, with some careful work and (ideally) ropes. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Weaken, Tire=======================================
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
It's a relief to have so many familiar voices around her as the Outreach pulls together. Noeline doesn't mention it often, but Riesenlied's continued degradation is definitely a source of deep worry for her - and at the same time, she's aware that a situation like this is something her partner cannot leave alone in good conscience. She can't just stay back and clamp an arm on Riesenlied's for the whole duration of their work... but if there's enough of a web of support around her, that's all the better.
She winces against the strain for just long enough for Accordian Tubing Man to carefully pull then man clear, then heaves the rock to one side with a grunt of effort that quickly becomes one of relief. "--good work," she says once she's caught her breath, letting out a quiet chuckle that's rather lacking in humour as she looks over the top of the rubble. "On to the next, then."
It's not hard to see where the Outreach needs to head next - the line of wounded Crusaders and Drifters stretches along the road as it winds back up towards the Highroad, split and scattered into smaller groups of two or three. Some of them are visibly doing what they can to provide first aid to carry their squadmates, others are huddled together protectively or hollering for assistance...
... but all of them are cut off from the Fereshte's position by an enormous gash in the earth, too wide to risk jumping and, cut into the cliffside as it is, with no way to maneuver around it.
"We're going to need a bridge!" she calls back over her shoulder as she pushes forwards towards it, trusting in the little spherical shape that suddenly wings its way from the deck of the Fereshte down to Noeline's side. She's been smart enough to have Strife and Trouble hide here on Spira - actually hide, not just the poor cucco impression that Trouble still maintains - but this isn't the time for such worries, and the Fereshte's already tipped their hand.
So she springs onto the little orb as it ferries her across the chasm, and no sooner has she touched down on the other side than the Hyadean turns to it. "Get Trouble. Help Riese and the others across," she orders, the little ARM giving a friendly beep as it shoots back the way it came.
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Strife toward her party's challenge, A New Great Divide.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
Talia takes one of the Heal Berries, and gives it to the bleeding woman. She frowns, making a face as she looks over her wounds; she has caused enough bleeding wounds to know how and why they must be treated. She stands up, then, and she rolls her shoulders, before she glances at Noeline.
"Right," she says. She turns to glance at Avril and Lydia, and then she waves. "Avril, Lydia! It is good to see you, too, no?"
She steps up to the chasm, then. Talia's expression shifts into a frown; she reaches down and draws Mirage out. The weapon spins up in her fingers, lighter than it looks, as she gets a good look at the gap. Talia has to weigh it for a second; if she misses her throw, she has to climb up the chasm wall to get back to everyone else.
"I'll get over there first," she says. "I can take someone across?"
DG: Talia has used her Tool Mirage toward her party's challenge, A New Great Divide.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied's working on self-care, she truly is; the sessions of physical training she's had with Elly and Fei and the others have been helping, with Lily being scarcer than she has been before when they were still back in Filgaia. Yet at the same time...
New lands tend to mean new challenges, and where Malevolence was more prevalent in Meribia, Pyreflies posit a new challenge for her in Spira.
She'll overcome it, eventually.
She must.
"Thank you..." Riesenlied whispers as she stares towards the divide and listlessly gawks for a moment too long.
"This is--" She cups her mouth and makes a sickly noise, but shakes her head as she watches Noeline leap across the chasm on Strife. She looks towards Strife, but as she's haphazardly trying to climb onto the small sphere--
Kweeh...
A little squad of chocobos, led by a particular white one, appears!
"Moccy...!" Riesenlied expresses, patting the white chocobo tenderly as she leans her neck down to nuzzle her softly. "Thank you. Are these your friends?"
"Kweh!" Moccy nods as she sits on the ground to let Riesenlied awkwardly climb over her -- then lifts her up to a mounted position. A Chocobo is going to be far better than a Wheelchair for this kind of terrain.
"Everyone, if you need a chocobo, these ones are very friendly...!" she calls out. Then Moccy, with Strife guiding her, starts scaling down the sides of the cliff and hopping up and down gently.
DG: You use your Tool All the Queen's Chocos against your party's Challenge, A New Great Divide!
DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool All the Queen's Chocos toward her party's challenge, A New Great Divide.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"I dunno if I can say I'm *okay*," Dean admits to Talia, smile fading as he continues applying pressure to the bleeding man's wound by way of wrapping a tight tourniquet-esque double knot around it, "but I'm alive and in one piece. That's worth a lot, right now." He manages a new smile for Riese when she calls to him, and gives her as hearty a thumb's-up as he has the heart to manage.
He lights up, though, when he hears a familiar voice, and leaving the man to the Accordion Tubing Man now that his wound's been dressed, he jumps to his feet and runs over to join her. "Avril!! You're okay, too! I'm so glad to see you!" He sobers soon after, though. "Is Rebecca doing all right? You know where she is? Oh hey, it's that mirror!"
Lydia speaks up, and he smiles her way too. "Good seeing you're okay too, Lydia. It's okay if you don't know any healing spells! You can still carry stuff and people!" He nods firmly. "We've all got ways we can help out!"
What happened?, Avril asks. Dean's expression clouds, and he looks down for a moment. Then he looks back up. "Sin happened," he replies. "I knew it was super-strong, but... it's even stronger than I thought. I'll have to tell you the details later..." A simple look around can easily tell one that it's not a happy story. For now, they have to focus on saving who they can save.
That focus bears out, too. Dean gives Noeline an encouraging smile and nod when she supervises the last of it, then leads the group on to the next area. Not that... there's a lot of next area to *get* to, what with that gash in the earth.
"A bridge, huh..." Dean echoes Noeline, staring at the crevasse, then around at the debris in the area. "Maybe if we find something long enough...!" Then Talia demonstrates a practical use of her shadow-teleportation, and Dean brightens again. "Hey Talia, if you can jump across, maybe we can get some ropes set up first that way!" They'll need something strong if it's going to support a Riese-bearing chocobo... though chocobos can maybe jump-fly across??
DG: Dean Stark has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, A New Great Divide.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Heh!! Does Lydia, cool gal with skate-feet, need a chocobo? Only to admire their cuteness and adorability, my friends!" Lydia crosses her arms as Schrodinger possibility-ports back onto her head. "Where I'm going, everywhere can be a road, nyeh heh heh!"
She seems to be doing better after the whole fiend attack, like, emotionally and such at least.
She tosses a wave over to Talia, smiling at her other friend she recently had a heart to heart with as she starts skating up like Lucio up the sides of the walls and using obscure wall jump techniques to get higher and higher up while still skating like a maniac woah woah woah!!
"Thanks Jellydean!" Lydia quips to her other (other) ((Other)) friend. "Uhh last I checked Rebecca's fine! Talia told me she rode the shoopuf with Rebecca! That's a good sign!"
DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Radical Skates toward her party's challenge, A New Great Divide.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"I did! It was before this, but Rebecca did not seem like she would go fight Sin, no?" Talia asks. She looks at Dean, then; her expression is briefly worried, before she nods. "I understand. Ah..."
She trails off, for a second, before considering: it is better to focus on what is at hand, than worrying over what had just happened.
"I teleport, actually," she says. "Ah, if I carry a rope, it will break the rope. But I can get across and start setting things up? And helping people, too! That is still new!"
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
She parts with Lydia almost immediately once she sees Dean, beelining towards him in much the same manner that Lydia beelines for her family. And then the both of them have the wounded to tend to.
"Yes, I came from Luca as soon as I heard," Avril explains, glancing up once in the direction of the overcast sun and catching what light there is to assist with the emergency treatment of the wounded man. Were things more dire than this injury, she would have put the mirror to a different use, or done without the mirror entirely. "...I didn't see her, but she said she was heading out to explore the city today. I do not think she is in danger." And without the ability to affect quick communications, so it might have to remain, for now -- tending to the injured is of more immediate concern.
Dean does explain what happened.
"..." Avril's gaze grows downcast; her gaze averts.
"Sin..."
She already knows how this story transpires. But when he explains later, she will listen nonetheless.
"He should be alright. We should see to the others," she says, rising to her feet. "Riesenlied, I'm glad you are well. ...I came as soon as I heard that something had happened." Her eyes hood. "This is..." She shakes her head. "I'll do what I can. Where are more of the wounded?"
A cry goes up from across the gash drawn into the earth. They need a bridge.
"Dean-- wait here a minute, please," she states, approaching Talia. Her head ducks a short sharp nod as she nears the young woman. "I'm glad you're alright, too. ...I want to try something. Perhaps if we could merge our powers, this might be enough," she says, drawing forth the Sea Medium.
Which begins to glow at the quiet invocation Avril utters. If it's possible to use Lucadia's blessing in the same instant that Talia's weapon pulls her along, then...?
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Sea Medium toward her party's challenge, A New Great Divide.
=============================== <* Mushroom Rock Road *>=========================== ========================= <* CHALLENGE - A New Great Divide *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------==== < Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The next twist and turn leads you to a higher ledge. Unfortunately, it also leads you to a place that Sin's Giga-Graviton struck. A massive chasm that did not exist until very recently is carved through the pathway. It will be quite the jump across, though... perhaps possible, with some careful work and (ideally) ropes. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Weaken, Tire======================================= ========================== <* Mushroom Rock Road - Round 2 *>====================== =========================== < Results - A New Great Divide >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Riesenlied 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass All the Queen's Chocos 3 Agility Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Noeline 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Strife 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lydia Seren 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Radical Skates 3 Agility Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Talia 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Mirage 3 Agility Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Avril Vent Fleur 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Sea Medium 2 Agility Effects: Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dean Stark 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------==== < Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Riesenlied 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Slow(2)|Tire(2)|Weaken(2) Effects: Cleanse|Quicken(1) ================================== < Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Riesenlied 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> Noeline has posed.
Noeline huffs softly to herself as she looks over the first clump of Crusaders they've picked their way over towards; none of them seem in dire straits, though they're certainly in the midst of shocked confusion and panic, too inexperienced to know how to respond to destruction of this scale.
"Up on your feet!" she calls, jolting one of the poor recruits up to attention; the Hyadean hesitates for a moment when she realizes just how young the boy actually is, and softens her tone. "Right now, we need your help to get the others safe. We'll secure a path - you should start helping others in this direction. Understand?" she prompts, and only when she gets a nod does she give the soldier a light shove. "Good. You can do this. Go!" A little brusque of her, perhaps, but the sheer momentum of it works to propel the group forward as an advance party.
"--you sound like some of the Tainted when we started," she grins at Lydia when their shaman-daughter touches down, stepping back a little to give her space to land as she plants her hands on her hips. "You don't need to know anything special to help, just be willing. It's not like I'm any good with a bandage, but I can lift and yell with the best of them."
She glances across towards Riesenlied's position - and despite the tension of the situation, she can't help but bark a laugh out at the sight of a small mob of chocobos accompanying the other Hyadean, legs pinwheeling as they flap madly to hover their way across the gap. For a bemused moment, she has to wonder how these sorts of things always tend to happen around her partner - but she shakes it away and offers Dean a nod in return.
"It needn't be pretty, just functional," she adds as Strife twirls its way back to her arm, then bobs forwards to bonk against his chest. "We've spare planks on board - set up some anchoring points on this side, and the others can manage the rest--"
She stops when Talia blinks over, her eyebrows raising for a moment - and further when Avril manages to piggyback her way over on the back of the power, buoyed by Lucadia's blessing. Letting out a breath, she nods. "Believe me," she says to the former, "I think you'll have every possible chance to get used to the idea today."
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has drawn a new Challenge.
================================ <* Mushroom Rock Road *>============================
===================== <* CHALLENGE - Climbing to Greater Heights *>==================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------==== < Challenge Information: >---------------------------
Sometimes, the platforms on Mushroom Rock Road have some ancient magic to
assist one in getting higher. Little glowing circles, engraved with runes,
which may -- in fact -- be Symbological, provide a burst of air that one can
use to leap up twenty or thirty feet.
Except that controlling them is hard. Sometimes, when you step on them, they
can propel you up into the rock... or not quite at the right angle. But,
it's fun to get to jump like a dragoon, right?
...what's a dragoon, anyways?
=Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Injure=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
They cross the gap, as it were; collectively they are as a metaphorical bridge to reach those who have become stranded.
Understandably a flurry of activity soon follows -- triage, treatment, and flagging for assistance from the Fereshte and other allies (once the means has been made to allow passage of some form or another -- the chocobos are likely of valuable use here).
This is the point where a cry rings out from above.
From higher up alongside this fresh scar, that is. The towering stones of Mushroom Rock Road have seen some of those who participated in the operation stranded more remotely than those who have just been seen to. But even with the talents they had demonstrated previously, twenty or thirty feet up is a stretch to ascend.
Until, that is, the glowing marks on the rocks are sighted.
For some, the purpose of the marks is obvious -- they're close enough to Symbology to glean what they're meant for. For those of a more mystical bent, the 'inclination' of the markings can be sensed.
"I think these may help us ascend, somehow."
Avril is in the latter camp.
She tries one out.
It sends her airborne... and sailing at the wrong angle, away from the rock wall. In a flash -- figuratively and literally -- she produces the Medium. Will it be enough?
And will the other markings lend to the same problem?
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Sea Medium toward her party's challenge, Climbing to Greater Heights.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"I don't doubt it, no?" Talia says, with an easy smile.
In the triage that follows, though, it becomes clear that she has her limitations. The former assassin isn't /really/ a talented medic. She can do a bandage; she can hand a gel or a Heal Berry over. Talia, however, isn't really used to mending wounds.
She looks a little exhausted by the effort, though. She wipes at her brow, and she follows after Avril. She pauses, and then looks down at the marking. "You think so?"
Then she takes a step back, and watches Avril go up, which prompts--
"That looks /incredible/."
Talia literally runs onto it, leaps, and goes airborne. "WAAAAAAAHOO~"
DG: Talia has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Climbing to Greater Heights.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied hasn't ever seen Talia throw Mirage before, so it surprises her when she vanishes and reappears at the other side; she'll be much slower with Moccy having to take care of her and not jostle her too hard, but... "Is that a kind of magic weapon, Talia? I did not know you could do that..." Riesenlied sounds impressed. She has to sacrifice much to replicate the effect herself.
Avril asks what happened, and Dean answers. Riesenlied's expression clouds a little. "If only... I had worked up the courage to be here... we might have been--"
She pauses, and shakes her head. Now is not the time for 'what if's. "Avril... the way the earth had been moved, carved in one big blast. It is the blast that Sin carved a path through the ocean in Meribia too, in Azado." A pause. "I haven't seen Rebecca since Filgaia... I hope she's all right?" Lydia says that she is; her cheer helps propel her up as well, emotionally.
She watches Avril evoke the Sea Medium along with Talia's; she wonders if she could try that more with Noeline, though the way they've been practicing synchronicity with their Rings reminds her of that.
She smiles further when she hears Noeline being commanding towards one of the Crusaders. She's happy to see her really grow into that role, and perhaps it has a bit of reflection of how much she's changed as well... because she remembers more being like that. She wonders how much of it is Siegfried rubbing off on her, how much of it is trying to fulfill a role, and how much of it is earnest.
"We'll be right behind you," she adds to them. "You're not in this alone." She smiles just a bit more charmedly to Noeline as they gather, saying in a clearly smitten, "Good work. You really look the part of a leader, hehe..." Ugh, these two!
Once they're done with triage and treatment -- the Life Medium she tries to use sparingly with how hazardous it can be -- she hears Avril call for them that these can help them climb up.
"Truly...?" Riesenlied, for all her empathic nature, isn't a mage and thus the meaning of such markings is lost on her. And-- her eyes widen as Avril bounds up. "Okay. We can use the higher vantage point to locate more people in need. Moccy?"
Moccy tentatively steps onto the pad and--
"W-waaaaah!" Riesenlied clings on for dear life as Moccy tries to puff up and glide the rest of the way. K-kwehkly!
DG: Please provide a more specific Tool. [all]
DG: You use your Tool All the Queen's Chocos against your party's Challenge, Climbing to Greater Heights!
DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool All the Queen's Chocos toward her party's challenge, Climbing to Greater Heights.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia says, "Wh--!" to Noeline. "Really?" Her cheeks silver faintly. She has nothing but love for the Tainted. They are precisely HER kind of weird. "W..well, I'm here and willin'! Though I guess I'm honestly mostly just happy to see everybody's okay. Well not everybody everybody. But, like, everybody I know? It looks like?"
She looks towards Talia as she waddles into the air bursty glowing circles. She rubs at her neck thoughtfully and adds. "Mmm...."
She looks to Talia,again, then down towards the strange symbology.
"Heh...Ahah.... What does it think I am!"
She runs right into it recklessly, still sticking to skates and performing sick tricks in midair with each airbursty jump.
"Just pretend you're a dragoon instead of a dragon now Riese!" Lydia says, having learned about final fantasy character classes during her time here. "Wheeeee!"
DG: Lydia Seren has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Climbing to Greater Heights.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"W-wwwwhat's a dragooonnn...??" Riesenlied nearly bites her tongue in the middle of not tipping upside down.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline is quick to lay a hand on Riesenlied's arm, nudging herself in the way of the discouraging thought. "This was much bigger than the Fereshte alone could have helped with," she reminds Riesenlied, though with obvious sympathy. "I still feel you did the right thing in following your responsibility to the Azadians - in keeping them safe."
She's quick to stray from the topic as well, preferring to offer a lighter alternative; she draws in close to touch at Riesenlied's cheek as she grins warmly at the compliment. "Only because I'm following your example, hm?" she notes. Ugh!!
As the others get to work mending wounds and helping triage, she draws back a little, using Strife to help the rest of the Tainted build the first of what is likely to be several makeshift bridges. Her help consists mostly of ferrying things back and forth on Strife's back, but she still looks satisfied when she returns to the others, just before yells waft down from above.
She's obviously about to beckon Strife to rise upwards with her on board when Avril points out the first of the Symbological markings. "It does bear a similarity to Symbology marks for air, I suppose, but--" she starts to grumble, and then the girl in green is soaring through the air in completely the wrong direction.
"What." That's all she can think to say at first, because even she has moments where she has to stop and be bemused, and then again a second time when Talia goes on the joyride for good measure.
And then Riesenlied is on board, and Noeline's eyes are practically bugging out for once in a blue moon. "--honestly!" she blurts with a deep-set grump in her voice, and /that's/ a return to form that hasn't been heard in some significant amount of time. "Surely if they're going to do something like this they could at least provide some arrows, or perhaps a wall so you don't simply go sailing to a concussion! Exactly how many pilgrimages have been stymied because someone was facing ten degrees to the left?" she adds with her arms folded and her legs crossed, as Strife stoically raises her up after the rest of the group in a rather more sedate fashion.
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Strife toward her party's challenge, Climbing to Greater Heights.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean sighs a breath of relief at Avril's news. "That so, huh... As long as she's okay. I was worried you guys might've been caught up in things too. Guess it serves me right for running off without you two myself." He gives her a wan smile as he rubs the underside of his nose with one finger. Talia chimes in, and he laughs nervously. "Yeah, that's not Rebecca's style. She's no coward, but she'd think twice before taking on something like Sin. Anyway..."
Teamwork gets the bridge built, even if Talia can't bring the rope across the way Dean pictured. While Dean might not know what a shoopuff is, he takes Lydia's encouragement to heart anyway with a big smile and a laugh; when Riese laments, he comforts her. Soon they're all across, and working their way through the Mushroom Rock Road... except it's all broken up into columns, meaning they've got to climb. No big deal, though! There's these Symbological crests or whatever (Dean really doesn't know the difference) that let them jump *super high*. Dean sets foot on one and he's *up in the air* with a whoop and a holler and an excited "yeahhhh-hahahaha!!"
Then he starts coming down. Oops? Hopefully he's not going to crash into Riese and her cuccobo or anything!! Noeline's frustration is well-placed, because he really doesn't know what direction he's going to go off in when he lands!!
DG: Dean Stark has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Climbing to Greater Heights.
================================ <* Mushroom Rock Road *>============================
===================== <* CHALLENGE - Climbing to Greater Heights *>==================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------==== < Challenge Information: >---------------------------
Sometimes, the platforms on Mushroom Rock Road have some ancient magic to
assist one in getting higher. Little glowing circles, engraved with runes,
which may -- in fact -- be Symbological, provide a burst of air that one can
use to leap up twenty or thirty feet.
Except that controlling them is hard. Sometimes, when you step on them, they
can propel you up into the rock... or not quite at the right angle. But,
it's fun to get to jump like a dragoon, right?
...what's a dragoon, anyways?
=Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Injure=========================================
=========================== <* Mushroom Rock Road - Round 3 *>=======================
======================= < Results - Climbing to Greater Heights >====================
Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Riesenlied 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass
All the Queen's Chocos 3 Agility Effects: Fanfare
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Noeline 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass
Strife 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lydia Seren 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail
Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Talia 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass
Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Avril Vent Fleur 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass
Sea Medium 2 Agility Effects: Quicken
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dean Stark 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass
Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC
-----------------------------------==== < Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Riesenlied 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass
Conditions: Hesitate(2)|Injure(2)
Effects: Cleanse|Quicken(1)
=================================== < Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Riesenlied 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> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Or perhaps, to be somewhat /more/ accurate... apparently Rebecca left to go to the Moonflow with Talia? "Oh, I see," she comments to Lydia, in passing, relief plain on her face. For an instant, she admittedly had started to entertain the possibility that perhaps Rebecca had left the city and...
But worrying gets one nowhere.
Besides, before long, there is something a little more immediate to worry about:
The fact that she's currently being flung off in the wrong direction. Lucadia's power soon puts that to rights. Reaching out a hand, she attempts to snag Lydia as she ricochets back towards the wall (and upwards).
Everyone else has a somewhat more sedate approach -- or, well, no, that's a lie. Noeline does. It's a different story (at least fleetingly) for the rest, though the sudden excitement paired with the hearty helping of danger as they go flying is somewhat lessened. Chocobos, for example, can flutter (when they can't fly). Talia's natural athletics see her landing safely. For Dean it's a healthy pairing of youth and luck -- he lands without incident in spite of his velocity.
Those injured atop the rock are, suffice to say, /quite/ happy to see relief coming their way.
DG: Talia has drawn a new Challenge.
================================ <* Mushroom Rock Road *>============================ ============================== <* CHALLENGE - Dual Horn *>=========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------==== < Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Fiends are a constant danger on Mushroom Rock Road. One of the strongest is the Dual Horn: a massive, canine-like beast that has a pair of enormous, ridged horns that poke out of its back. With huge claws, snapping fangs, and a powerful fire breath, these fiends pose a serious danger... and one of them lunges at you now from the cliffside! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
They all touch down on the rock.
"Praise be to Yevon!" a Crusader calls out. "I thought--"
And then the /roar/ comes. The top of the rock platform shakes, a few pebbles skipping off, and then bouncing away as the enormous fiend drops down from above. The Dual Horn smashes down onto the plateau and makes the ground shake mightily. The creature opens a canine-like moouth, and spews fire -- not at the wounded Crusaders, but for the newcomers.
"Ah--break away from it!" Talia yells. She dives underneath the fire breath, before she comes up. Her hand comes into her cloak, and pulls out a smooth, black bomb... except for the green along the top, like a plant. Then, she reels back--
"Queen Anastasia's royal decree is that you should stop this /RIGHT NOW/!" she yells, before she throws the bomb. It flies up, and catches a ray of sunlight. It begins to glow, then falls down at the top of the Dual Horn's head. Just as it begins to charge, it explodes with a brilliant flash of sparkles, all colored like rainbows, and a single word appears:
KA-BOOM!
DG: Talia has used her Tool Royal Bomb toward her party's challenge, Dual Horn.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied looks extremely groggy by the time Moccy maanges to land up at the top, and both rider and chocobo have swirly eyes as they fall to a gentle crumple and need a moment to recover. Fortunately they missed Dean on their way up, though she's glad Avril reached to catch Lydia.
"A-aah..." she shakes her head, proving once and for all that she didn't inherit the high jumps and dragoon dives from her father as opposed to the white magic and hazardous penchant for covering people from spikes.
"M-maybe, but... to hear so many of the Azadians tell us -- 'we want to help!' when they heard of what'd happened and that the Guard would be there... I couldn't turn them them down either," Riesenlied smiles warmly, shakily. She looks to Lydia and smiles wider. "Absolutely. So many of them were so excited to be out in the sun, outside of the Gutter..."
But their work isn't done yet; there's still injured to treat, and to work she goes. Her role is as much to reassure as it is to actually heal, beckoning back towards the Outreach as they follow from where Talia, Dean and the others have successfully set up a bridge for them to shadow in their steps.
The Crusaders call out, and she expresses, "We're here to help. Please, bring us your most w--"
And then a /roar/ has her yelping as Moccy cowers with a little 'kweeeh'. She senses the aggression of the Dual Horn and the incoming fire before she sees it, and her instinct is to throw both her arms forward as she summons a familiar, old barrier of light to shelter herself and the Crusaders around her.
She watches the colourful 'KA-BOOM' fly into the light, blinking a few times. "Q-Queen Anastasia??" Which nation does she rule?
The Ring shimmers very softly as she looks to Noeline, murmuring as she channels her energy towards her much more combative partner, "I'm with you..."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Dragon cosplayers!" Lydia shouts. "I think they're fans of yous."
Lydia touches down thanks to Avril's help and she gives the mysterious queen/friend a pat on the arm. "Thanks! I guess I was having too much fun?"
She then looks towards Talia to say something but instead gets shot by fire again. As usual, she burns quickly and she yelps and rolls across the ground. "I hate fiiiire!" Lydia shouts as she smacks out what she can with her hands. "Why is it always fire? Why not ice? Or anything that isn't fire??"
She eventually manages to roll out the flames and lays on the ground for the moment. "Ugghghh.... It was going so well too..."
She lays there a little longer.
DG: Lydia Seren has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Dual Horn.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline is a lot more cautious for once in her life, and the look on her face suggests that as caution goes it's paid off in spades - but at the same time, she can't help the wry little grin at the sight of a swirly-eyed Riesenlied, and at the recognition that they've all gotten up safely one way or another.
"Of course," she responds to her partner, stepping up to help steady the other Hyadean and make sure she doesn't fall off in the midst ofher dizziness. "And, don't get me wrong. I am proud of you, and them, for helping as best they can."
She hesitates for a moment; there's a brief flash of instinct as something makes the hairs on her neck stand on end, and before she even really knows what she's doing she's summoned the slab of metal she likes to call a sword, planting it into the ground in front of the Crusaders just in time to add its bulk to Riesenlied's shield of light.
"... I'm honestly amazed the fiends haven't all fled the region," she notes with her eyebrows raised high - and then looks back to Riesenlied with a quiet smile and a nod, drawing a hand into a fist as she concentrates on the link they share between the shards of the Dragon's Tear. "And I'm with you," she returns quietly.
The moment is punctuated by the technicolour explosion and by Lydia's complains, which both leave her letting out a soft chuckle before she suddenly lunges forwards, drawing the immense sword around in a battering swing. Either someone's been reading their strategy guides or else she's just looking to dissuade the fiend - either way, she hammers it with the flat of the blade to simply try to blow it away.
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Rings of Promise toward her party's challenge, Dual Horn.
DG: You use your Tool Rings of Promise against your party's Challenge, Dual Horn!
DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool Rings of Promise toward her party's challenge, Dual Horn.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Everyone lands on the other side of the series of stone columns without in incidents. Dean cheerfully touches down, then jogs forward a few steps--only for a monster to roar forth and breathes fire!
"Uhhh I don't think they're gonna listen to Queen Anastasia," Dean points out to Talia, even as he whips out the prize of his successful plumbing of Linaweyul: a twitchy, creepy-looking demonic shovel that he and Ace nicknamed the Ace of Spades. Pretty cool, right?
With a roar of defiance, it swings round as he charges.
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Ace of Spades toward his party's challenge, Dual Horn.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"It's alright," Avril says with a shake of her head, unable to actually explain how she /knew/ Lydia was in a spot of trouble.
Everything, for a mere moment, seems like it'll just be a quick matter of further triage and the like, complicated only by the matter of getting back down the rock face.
And then, very quickly, it isn't that anymore.
"Spread out! With a fiery breath such as that, grouping together puts us at a disadvantage!" Avril calls out, hefting a sword that, to the view of the Crusaders here, hadn't been in her hand -- or at her side -- moments before. Maybe they just missed it.
"Talia! I'm going left!"
She'll take advantage of the explosion.
Her next move is to come in, as she said, to the left and towards the creature, hoping to find a sufficiently tender spot in which to press her blade.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Dual Horn.
================================ <* Mushroom Rock Road *>============================ ============================== <* CHALLENGE - Dual Horn *>=========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------==== < Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Fiends are a constant danger on Mushroom Rock Road. One of the strongest is the Dual Horn: a massive, canine-like beast that has a pair of enormous, ridged horns that poke out of its back. With huge claws, snapping fangs, and a powerful fire breath, these fiends pose a serious danger... and one of them lunges at you now from the cliffside! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================ =========================== <* Mushroom Rock Road - Round 4 *>======================= ================================ < Results - Dual Horn >============================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riesenlied 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rings of Promise 4 Combat Effects: Efficient and Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Noeline 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Rings of Promise 4 Combat Effects: Efficient and Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lydia Seren 5 --(10)--> 15 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Talia 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Royal Bomb 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 0 --(10)--> 10 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Ace of Spades 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -----------------------------------==== < Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Riesenlied 60 --(20)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(1)|Injure(2)|Wound(2) Effects: Embolden(1) =================================== < Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Riesenlied 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> Talia has posed.
"I am sorry, Lydia!" Talia cries out to her friend, as she looks at her. Then, she looks towards Riesenlied, and quickly says: "She is a bomb flower! She is at the house I share with someone special, no? But she is also definitely a queen!"
The Dual Horn is stumbling from the stunning, multi-colored bomb (and also all of the explosive power). "He shou--"
- KA-BONG*
Dean's shovel slams into the Dual Horn's head, and it snaps to the side. And then, Noeline's sword chops down into its flank, cutting in deep. Fiends do not bleed; instead, stray pyreflies drift from where flesh was shorn away by the blow. The beast turns its head -- and then meets Avril's blade at the last moment, sparks flying as it strikes the horn...
But Noeline's sword digs the rest of the way through. The Dual Horn bursts apart into so many pyreflies. Talia sighs, then turns to Dean: "You see? He listened!"
DG: Lydia Seren has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================== <* Mushroom Rock Road *>===========================
==================== <* CHALLENGE - Electrified Machina Wreckage *>================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------==== < Challenge Information: >--------------------------
Finally, you start to see clearing skies -- and no more towering cliffsides
-- as you reenter the main part of Mi'ihen Highroad. Before you do, however,
you come across something: one of the Al Bhed cannons that was on the
hillside. Worryingly, sparks fly from inside, and occasionally, an arc of
electricity jumps down to the ground. It seems its engine is still working,
but the rest isn't.
You could walk past. Then, however, you hear something else:
"Ramb..."
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"You can just say your girlfriend the mysterious seamstress Katherine Weaver and honestly now that I say that out loud it kind of makes a lot of sense that she'd have super seamstress powers because her name is Katherine Weaver." Lydia says from her position on the floor. luckily it's not the BOMB FLOWER that set her on fire or Talia for that matter, it's just those fiends this time. When Lydia sits up half her skin on her face is gone which makes her kind of look like the Terminator. "Ugh, Well it could be worse." Lydia says as she pulls up to her feet. "Okay! Starting over. Good day today. Hup hup!"
She seems regretful that Riesenlid doesn't have secret dragoon powers. Maybe she just needs to get a rocket wheelchair sthat can launch itself into the air and then land on her enemies, wheels first! As Lydia is thinking about this nonsense, she raises a hand. "Hold on!"
She points towards the nearby wreckage of a cannon. "Holy shit, is that an Al Bhed cannon?" Lydia hops up and down. "I wanna check it out!"
She starts jogging in that direction when a voice calls out--
"Ramb..."
Lydia stops. "Did someone just call me a hate word?" She looks around a bit.
"Ramb...!"
"Oh...it's coming from the wreckage! Geeze, do you think they might be trapped inside?"
She pauses a moment then hops again and runs towards it, drawing out her bat as she tries to smash apart the door with her baseball bat, running right on through those electrical sparks on the way over. Her body crackles briefly but seems to manage it okay.
DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Good Luck Bat toward her party's challenge, Electrified Machina Wreckage.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"D-dragon... cosplayers? Why would anyone want to..." the joke, perhaps, is terribly lost on Riesenlied, though when Lydia catches fire she yelps hard and takes the opportunity Noeline gives her to give her the assurance that she has their daughter. She hurries towards her and focuses on the Life Medium, grimacing a little as she channels Odoryuk's healing energies towards her.
Dean produces a menacing-looking shovel. "D-Dean? That shovel looks much more--" Ace of Spades? "Not a Fenrir?"
Avril manages the rest of the way along with Noeline, leaving her the opportunity to focus on healing Lydia. She doesn't wince when Lydia stands up and shows her face is half melted off because she's her daughter and will be no matter how much skin she's lost.
"Ah, that sounds wonderful, Talia... I hope you two are enjoying your time with each other," Riesenlied smiles warmly, looking at Noeline, even though she knows she'll never meet this mysterious seamstress and get a Happy Boost. ~Unagi~
She lets Moccy pace her along as Lydia points a cannon, and-- she blinks--
Ramb...
"Ram...b-- Help?" Riesenlied gasps, looking around. The Dragon's Tear starts to shimmer again, and she coughs as she hurries by Lydia's side, but she doesn't really have much in the way of power to break through. "Moccy, do you...?"
Moccy looks back to Riesenlied, and indicates that she's a white chocobo without a Choco Meteor or anything.
She does, at least, waggle her wings to restore people's MP. Maybe that can facilitate the ruin of the wreckage of the tower.
"We're right here! Hold on!" she calls out to those inside.
DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Electrified Machina Wreckage.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"I know, right?" Talia answers Lydia. Then, she looks at Riesenlied and nods. "It is quite nice, no? She can make all sorts of clothing!"
She cracks a smile, then, and she slows to a stop. She doesn't know what the Al Bhed cannon is; she mostly recognizes it as shredded metal, and then realizes that it is sparking. Her lips purse for a moment, before she looks back at the cannon.
"It seems likely, no? We need to get them out!" she says. She starts forward, and contemplates how to possibly get through the electrified metal. Talia decides to grab a broken piece of wood, possibly from the cannon, and grabs it. Wood doesn't electrify, right?
She uses that to start trying to pry it open.
DG: Talia has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Electrified Machina Wreckage.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
At the last second, Avril's blade is deflected. For an instant, her eyes widen--
Before Noeline's blade digs deep into it and it blows up into the air in a cloud of Pyreflies.
"Thank goodness," the young woman breathes, before glancing over at Noeline. "You have my thanks, Noeline. For an instant, that may have become a difficult situation had you not struck well."
She smiles, a little ghost of a thing.
And it's into this post-battlefield mood that Lydia presses on towards the downed machine and weakly, a voice calls out.
It's only just audible in the silence that has swept across the rock top.
"Is... someone trapped inside?" Avril hazards, her free hand hovering at approximately chest height.
She doesn't linger long.
"...Here. Perhaps if I use this," Avril says. "Please, stand back. I'll attempt to destroy the engine."
With a twist of the wrist, the blade vanishes.
She comes in at a run. And she pulls the trigger.
Her target is for the engine and the engine alone. A lashing bolt of light snaps out at it, as if she could rend it asunder with that single strike.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Absolute Zero Beam toward her party's challenge, Electrified Machina Wreckage.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Honestly, the Crimson Notble had only really intended to baseball bat the poor armored fiend off into the horizon; she actually winces as how well she struck in the end, grimacing a little as she watches some of the pyreflies fly free in the wake of her roundhouse sweep. There's a rather unorthodox logic behind the pacifism that she keeps for Riesenlied's sake; the less pyreflies floating around her and disrupting her senses, the better.
Still, she meets Avril's quiet smile with a rather crooked one of her own. "Striking well is what I'm here for, I suppose... though you're hardly one to talk, I should think. Out of people who would come running in with a weapon in hand, I once thought you'd be the last--..." but she trails off, squinting hard at Dean's demonic shovel, and her eyebrows raise towards Avril in a silent question.
Lydia's pouting at Talia naturally gathers Noeline's attention; she is capable of being exactly the right sort of vain that means she's got an interest in super seamstresses, especially those she might be able to wheedle a discount out of, and she nods in return to Riesenlied as she chuckles. "She's welcome to say hello any time, you know. We have enough children and displaced people around Wayside and the Fereshte now that I'm starting to think we should keep some stocks of clothing on hand."
There, see, ulterior motive established.
Coming across the Al Bhed war machine, she slows down to give it a cautious frown. She's learnt some Al Bhed - enough to take a good guess at what that word actually means, and she lets out a breath as she starts to glance over the wreckage. "... you know, I'm not honestly sure how much a Hyadean conducts. I can't say I'm eager to find out, though."
When she's answered it's by a warbling noise behind her. Trouble's cucco disguise has seen better days, but has actually been upgraded recently with the inclusion of several big floppy chocobo feathers stuck to its side. Gleefully spinning in place, the little ARM does a twirl - and then bobs in close enough for electricity to begin arcing to its form, and from there ground itself.
If it's hurt by this, it doesn't seem to show it, instead turning terribly round as each of the feathers immediately frizz outwards.
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Trouble toward her party's challenge, Electrified Machina Wreckage.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"Well, sure! They're not *all* Fenrirs," Dean 'explains' to Riese as he wields Ace of Spaces. The moster goes down. Beyond it is an Al Bhed cannon that sparks and shoots a beam of electricity that explodes on the cliffside, prompting a cry for help. Not cool, Al Bhed! Not cool!!
Swapping Demon Shovel for a dusty, salty chalk, Dean dusts up his hands, then darts in to the cannon's side opening, where the trapped Al Bhed must be. "Don't worry, I gotcha!" he reassures them, and gets to work on yanking open the door to allow them to escape, that salty chalk strengthening his grip as he goes.
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Purifying Chalk toward his party's challenge, Electrified Machina Wreckage.
=============================== <* Mushroom Rock Road *>===========================
==================== <* CHALLENGE - Electrified Machina Wreckage *>================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------==== < Challenge Information: >--------------------------
Finally, you start to see clearing skies -- and no more towering cliffsides
-- as you reenter the main part of Mi'ihen Highroad. Before you do, however,
you come across something: one of the Al Bhed cannons that was on the
hillside. Worryingly, sparks fly from inside, and occasionally, an arc of
electricity jumps down to the ground. It seems its engine is still working,
but the rest isn't.
You could walk past. Then, however, you hear something else:
"Ramb..."
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken===================================================
========================== <* Mushroom Rock Road - Round 5 *>======================
====================== < Results - Electrified Machina Wreckage >==================
Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Riesenlied 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail
Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Noeline 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass
Trouble 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lydia Seren 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass
Good Luck Bat 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Talia 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail
Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Avril Vent Fleur 10 --(0)--> 10 Pass
Absolute Zero Beam 3 Brute Effects: Fanfare
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dean Stark 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass
Purifying Chalk 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse
----------------------------------==== < Party >-----------------------------------
Leader: Riesenlied 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass
Conditions: Injure(1)|Weaken(2)|Wound(1)
Effects: Cleanse|Strengthen(1)
================================== < Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success!
DG: The party led by Riesenlied has successfully explored Mushroom Rock Road!
=============================== <* Mushroom Rock Road *>===========================
======================== <* CHALLENGE - Letter from Burwich *>=====================
|Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 3 |
--------------------------==== < Challenge Information: >--------------------------
As you walk to the path leading away from Mushroom Rock Road, you see the
form of a figure that may be familiar: the tall, stately form of Silas Dee,
the mayor of Burwich Village. His long, dark hair is bedraggled; he wears
armor that is battered. He walks tall, and yet, with great sadness. He
pauses, looking down.
A letter is dropped from his hand. Before you can call out, he steps away --
and vanishes into a fog that begins to roll in.
The letter is a simple thing:
My dearest Leina,
I had hoped that in this land, we might find the answer to what John saw
here. I have seen it and yet questions remain. The answer I have found
troubles me. I am reminded of what I am.
Of what I must remain. If I should return, then know that I will not be the
man I was. But a sinful creature like me can only play at being a good man.
Thank you for allowing me to play at that for so long.
Yours forever,
Silas D.
Please send a +request to pull this card from the deck.
=Dungeon Conditions: Secret===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Dragons are cool," Lydia tells Riesenlied. "Very popular. Especially the coolest dragon around, Riesenlied, Dracolord, Queen of Dragons and such."
Luckily between everybody's efforts, they're able to smash apart the door and then pry the door free, Dean's shovel being excellent for ... shoveling people out o f danger.
Avril slices the engine in half which startles Lydia back because holy shit. The engine slides into two seperate pieces, pixellated explosions rippling across its from before it flickers and vanishes into scrap.
Luckily that's not where the Al Bhed were. A pair of them are dragged out of the cannon and seem wounded but they'll likely(!) live if given treatment. Trouble helpfully absorbs electricity so nobody gets electrocuted and dies while doing all this. Not even Lydia!
Later...
The group leads the wounded away from the battlefield. A familiar (to Lydia at least) figure in battered armor, with long dark hair approaches.
Lydia blinks. "Silas? What the hell--what the hell are you doing here??"
The man walks forward and looks towards Lydia. He extends a hand and drops a letter to the ground and he steps wordlessly into the fog and vanishes.
"That..that was the mayor of Burwich... What was he doing here? Was he picked up by the Guard?"
She walks over to the letter and picks it up.
She blinks a few times.
She then shows it to the rest of the group.
"I have no idea what's going on." She says. "But I guess we're supposed to deliver this?"
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied has Moccy scooch over as Talia comes in with the plank of wood; she's careful to not approach too close lest she get fried, because neither she nor Moccy deal well with thunder- or lightning-related magics. Fire Emblem rules, you know.
... the Thunder Plains is going to be fun for her.
Avril calls for her to stand back as well, and for a moment she wonders if Avril was going to summon the hand of another Golem-- but instead she strikes out with Absolute Zero. "Avril..." she whispers.
Riesenlied carefully doesn't speak too much more about meeting said seamstresses, as she looks towards Noeline as she asks how much a Hyadean conducts.
"Very well," she grimly responds to her, as if by experience.
She winces quietly at Trouble as she bobbles on in and starts channeling electricity away. "H-hang in there, Trouble... and come to me if you're hurt, okay?" Riese are you starting to become a Machina Whisperer?
Her cheeks flush deeper as Lydia tells her that dragons are cool. "Q-Queen of Dragons? Ruby's not going to be pleased..." but she winces very softly and trots in as she scoops one of the Al Bhed up to rest on Moccy as she reaches to bestow healing upon him with the Medium. Today's a particularly rough day for him.
But...
Then they arrive at the road, with a figure in armour approaching. "M-Mayor Sil--" Lydia has the right of it too. She, too, is wondering, before yelping in surprise as he disappears into the fog and stares towards the letter and gazes upon it.
She clutches at her chest as she breathes harder. "Oh no..." she whispers. "Mayor Silas..." she glances up towards the air with an expression of worry. She furrows her brow.
"Biroclef is a long way from here. I don't think we have a lot of ways to offer this letter to her..." She nods, though. "We absolutely should, Lydia." She remembers all the silver necklaces. Did that have something to do with 'what he saw', what he will be? She doesn't know...