2019-07-30: Panphobia
- Log: Panphobia
- Cast: Yue Rohay, Loren Voss, Marivel Armitage, Acacia Saitani, Seraph Clarine
- Where: Linaweyul, the First Ordeal
- Date: July 30, 2019
- Summary: By trickery, by chance, by fate, a group finds themselves in Linaweyul with no choice but to brave its terrors. What lies in the depths of the ordeal of cowardice?
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
A LONG TIME AGO
A red-haired woman vivaciously laughs as she grabs hold of a hapless brown-haired Veruni's arm. "Come. I know a place where we can have a lot of fun."
Said hapless Veruni flusteredly stares towards the glowing door in front of her.
"We might die, but it will be a lot of fun."
The Veruni scowls as she exclaims, "That's so irresponnnsnshhhhh--" as she vanishes into the light.
SLIGHTLY BEFORE NOW
"Come," said hapless Veruni-now-turned convict Yue Rohay speaks as she appears once more on Acacia's windowsill, seated perpendicular to the window and framed by the waning light of the Blue Star.
"I know a place where we can have a lot of fun," she smirks. "I asked Mari to come along too. You can bring your friends along."
And just like before, yoink! She grabs her by the wrist and whoop!
Mysteriously, Yue has brought Acacia (and any others that may be present)... to her cell, in the middle of the Mi'ihen Highroad. It's still a large gunmetal gray case of metal and mortar, still sideways and planted into the ground, though at this point she's rummaging through her stack of tomes and literature.
"It was... somewhere in here..."
A pause, as she lifts a giant binder aside and shoves the chair underneath it to one side.
"Aha!"
A door, of all things, is at the back of the disastrously messy closet. She reaches down and opens it; a shimmering outline erupts from the doorframe, eventually flooding the dark cell with a golden-white glow as the visage of crystals upon an endless void gleams from the beyond.
Isn't this some kind of giant breach of security for a prison cell?!
Yue lifts her head up to say, "We might die, but it'll be a lot of fun. Come!"
She jumps in and literally vanishes through the door-portal--
NOW
--and a brown-haired woman in a battered black ulster coat and massive handcuffs over her arms and elbows leaps on through onto the entrance platform on the other side.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
For Loren, it's a completely separate situation, away from the position that Yue and her companions of the hour have found themselves in.
He, freed from the duties impressed upon him by Yevon as a result of a certain scribe's workload, has been able to make a return to his true purpose here in Spira:
To find a way back to Filgaia. This has already taken him through more abandoned ruins than he'd care to mention, and other than encounters with too many slimes and insectoid things, other than collections of weird old junk and even some scattered coins, other than that...
He's found absolutely nothing.
It would just figure if that their only way back was to pick a fight with that insane monstrous whale-thing and get back across the sea to the ruins in Meribus.
And yet, because he's Loren, he keeps on trying.
"Wonder what grand new surprises are down here," he mutters, stalking down the sunken stone corridor of crumbling ruin tucked into the side of the Mi'ihen Highroad.
He finds a door.
He tilts his head, squinting at it.
This is not the sort of door that... they have around here. It's not the sort of door that even matches this place's general... who knows what.
But he has nothing to lose, so he opens the door.
The door opens inwards.
He goes with it, tripping into the light beyond it.
Wait this isn't a crumbling Spiran ruin anymore is it
"What the--"
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel was waiting for Yue in her cell because she's a monster, reading one of her books. No wonder it was so hard to ofind her.
"Well then," Marivel snaps the book closed. "I so happened to ALSO invite a friend along." She nods to her companion who she also had dragged inside the cell via a well aimed teleportation (it's so friggin' cheating). She snaps her book closed in a smooth motion (her book actually Yue's book).
"I too am curious about this timespace breach." She says. "But just so you know, areas that tend to draw out rips in space time are generally very dangerous and--ahh, she jumped through already."
She nods to Clarine. "Well! Shall we?"
She leaps in afterwards without much of a second thought because, again, monster.
<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.
AND SO
"What?" blurts Acacia, who's starting to have to once more get used to sleeping with all her clothes and jacket on just because people keep on waking her up in the middle of the night, as if she's back doing stakeouts in Guild Galad. She lifts her arm from her face and rubs a piece of unidentified gunk out of the corner of one eye, lifts her head up and tries to focus--
--and the sharpness of the sudden rush of night air draws a breath out of her and startles her awake, bodily pulled out of the window so fast she fears for her arm. "H-hey! What-- last time you nearly got us both murdered--!"
By the time her mind has caught up to her adrenaline, she's staring impassively at the Veruni jail-container, covering a yawn as she watches Yue rummage through it for something or other. She's not entirely sure why she's here, outside of an apparent inability to say 'no' to the Veruni convict, and maybe it's nothing more fanciful than her own sense of curiosity at work, but... there's a worldliness shared between Yue and Marivel, and she can feel the faint edge of secrets and past histories waiting to be dug through.
Better than literally digging through books and binders, she adds to herself as she catches a stack of books before it can topple over. "What are you looking for, exactly? You obviously don't need a key or an escape route to go wherever you like, so I'm not sure what you'd even need--"
The way she clamps her mouth shut at the first sight of the glowing door is practically audible. Without a word, she stalks back out of the jail cell, quickly swinging around to the back of it to stare accusingly at the corresponding wall of grey metal. When she comes back, it's with her mouth in a thin, glum line, deadpan as she huffs out: "... this might be the worst prison I've ever seen."
Her eyes widen as Yue's 'offer', and then further as the Veruni simply jumps through the light and vanishes. For a moment, Acacia's feet nearly take her back around the cell once more, but then she stops and chides herself, sighs, hesitates again, then wrestles her ponytail through her fingers for a moment. "This is seriously irresponsible," she mutters towards Clarine with a certain note of inevitable despair in her voice, and then her feet carry her through.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Clarine has spent a lot of time fussing over Marivel. She had tried not to worry too much about her since her return...but, she's kind of failed at that. So, she's kind of been staying close for a while, generally fretting over Marivel - which is why she ends up finding herself in a cell with Marivel, Acacia, Yue, and someone she doesn't know.
"A-ah, h-hello, I am-" Clarine starts...and then their host(or at least the person she assumes is their host, even though she looks very much like a convict) says something about danger and then jumps into a giant glowing door??
"A-ah, w-wait-!" Clarine starts...and then, Marivel jumps right in after her. Clarine lets out a dejected sigh. "...And...there she goes..."
"I-It certainly is..." Clarine murmurs with a nod of agreement toward Acacia, and then, out of worry, follows all of them through.
She had a feeling this was going to be a very long day...
DG: A party led by Yue Rohay is now entering Linaweyul, the First Ordeal. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================= ========================<* CHALLENGE - Atychiphobia *>======================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 4 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Fights are not always meant to be won, and the possibility of facing someone who is simply better than you, stronger than you, smarter than you, more talented than you, is oftentimes an inevitability if you throw yourself into conflict often enough. So what, then, do we do against insurmountable odds? The place you arrive at once the first flash of light envelopes you is full of the faint, phantasmal sounds of an unseen audience, cheering and booing in equal measure. This is an coliseum floating in the middle of nowhere, its columns sculpted magnificently, its sandpit arena composed of glowing gold grains -- and there at the center of it all, seethes a truly immense enemy, gray and pulsing with that selfsame golden life, its many arms equipped with a multitude of weapons. Its hide is practically impenetrable, its attacks like a force of nature with each swing. Its skills with its weapons seems almost custom-designed to be just slightly better than yours with your own methods of combat. It quickly becomes apparent that this is not a fight that you can win, as if no matter what you did, no matter how experienced you were, this creature would always just be slightly better. So how, than, do you succeed? Sometimes, victory is not a matter of how we win, but how we lose. Enemy: https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/faqs/57/72557-214.jpg =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Secret===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
The moment Yue lands -- after a cheerful wave with a finger towards Clarine and a wink, expressing, "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Milady."
The bow is a little swept as she looks to Marivel cheerfully to say, "Volume two should be somewhere around here, if you find it compelling. Though I believe I have annotations somewhere too, ah--"
She looks towards Loren as he arrives as well. She wasn't expecting someone here.
"Hello! What have we here, but--"
A flash of light erupts with the phantasmal sounds of an audience and... a very, very familiar place to Yue herself.
"A colosseum. How droll," she expresses as she stares towards the truly immense, golden enemy before them. A figure of such seemingly impeccable standard that it was truly better than anything they could truly muster, no matter whether it was spell, nor sword, nor ARM, nor anything immortal and unknowable alike.
"My name is Yue--" she speaks to Loren and Clarine alike, before she nearly gets bludgeoned into the ground by the creature's powerful heel; she's swept to one side and down to one knee with a slight 'hurf' of effort. "And it is a pleasure--"
She gets blown clear back by a blade of energy that comes within the creature's heel.
"--to meet--"
As she rolls along the ground, nearly falling off before the gleaming echo of a resplendent Golem of friendship stops her.
She looks up at the ephemeral image of Big Shal.
"--you."
She finally looks up to Acacia with a grin. "Now, I would like to see you tested to your current limits."
DG: Yue Rohay has used her Tool An Old Golem Core toward her party's challenge, Atychiphobia.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
He lands. There is, briefly, an impression of other people here.
"Who--"
Everything is, for a moment, a blur of yellow-gold.
It might as well be a parody of a coliseum. Or, perhaps, the Platonic equivalent, instead? Here is the dusty ground, reminiscent of the one he'd seen in Lacour. There, in the distance, is the crowd, roaring as if from a long ways away. When he looks, though...
None of them seem entirely real?
"...Where are..." he starts to utter, his gaze settling next on the figures he'd seen before, resolving more clearing under the eternal golden glow.
His gaze then lands on the creature in the ring.
Oh. The ones fighting in coliseum are... all of them.
"Let me guess. This is some fresh hell," he comments, flatly, "and not some way back to Filgaia."
With one smooth motion he draws the blade at his hip, taking hold of it in his left hand.
Because with his right he's pocketed a handful of potions.
"Guess we're in this together. The name's--"
wait, is that lady in shackles?
What group of weirdos is he stuck in here with now?
"Thomas," he says, as she's blown back by a blast of force from the creature. "...Listen, just take one of these before it kills you or something," Loren says, chucking the potion Yue's way.
There's something familiar about that phantasmal Golem, though...
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Clarine nods and offers Yue a polite bow, but it's not too long after that they all head into the portal...and find themselves in a strange golden coliseum, set before a strange golden foe. Voices, cheering and jeering, surround them.
"A-ah, wh-where are...!?" Clarine comments in a panic, looking around worryingly. Were they...being watched...? She panics a little, and then the creature begins to attack!
"I-I am Clarine, but - Ah!" With a yelp of surprise, Clarine floats back, raising her hands to send a beam of directly at it...but its shining body reflects her light back at her, forcing her to jump out of the way.
Several other spells are met in the same way, and each failed spell causes the booing of the 'crowd' to intensify.
"Ah...Ah, I...I-I cannot..." Clarine stammers. It doesn't even need to attack her - nothing she does has any effect, and the crowd just seems to continue to laugh.
"...I am sorry...!" Clarine says. And then she draws a length of silver cloth from her sleeve, throws it over herself...and disappears. Whether or not the creature before them can still see her, it no longer seems to be bothering with her.
DG: Seraph Clarine has used her Tool Lightbending Veil toward her party's challenge, Atychiphobia. DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Solarian Medical Kit toward his party's challenge, Atychiphobia.
<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.
Whatever Acacia might have been expecting, it isn't a dark void - and the redhaired reporter certainly wasn't expecting anyone else to be there. She's smart enough to instantly take Yue's warning at face value, automatically tensing as she brings her arms up to block her face. The assumption was that perhaps Loren might start attacking them - instead, it means that she's able to squint past most of the flash of light, wincing as the coliseum builds itself around her.
"She's-- a friend," she has time to note to Clarine before it comes; afterwards, she's too busy gaping at the sight that now surrounds them - and then at the gigantic creature that bears down upon them. She's only knocked out of it when her senses blare a warning at her, sending her ducking low and scrabbling to one side, briefly on her hands and knees as she feels a dull whoom of a gigantic blade carving through the air just above her.
Instinct pulls her from that position straight into a runner's start. "--oh, sure! Sounds great!" she yells breathlessly back to Yue, indignation warring with adrenaline as she fishes in a pocket for her gloves to tug them on. "Is this what you always do on a second date?!"
The coliseum wall looms in front of her and the golden shape behind her; she grits her teeth as she kicks upwards against the former for purchase, lifting herself above the impact of a giant fist and then crashing down onto it. As she does so, there's a sudden gout of flame that follows her fist - but Acacia can already tell it hasn't bit home, swearing under her breath. The hot air around her suddenly crackles with sudden tiny particles of ice as it rapidly cools, and she's lifted her fist once more--
--only for a mace-like haft attached to another arm to knock her away, leaving her gasping for breath at the sheer surprise of being flung into open air. Even then, before she really knows what she's doing, she's reached into her jacket to pull out her extremely ordinary pistol. The first and second shots are wide and extremely conventional - the third is a solid, thin line of crackling purple light with the unmistakable tinge of ether. It hangs briefly in place before rocketing forwards from where she was, leaving her rolling across the floor in something of a heap before she can manage to find her feet again.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel says, "You had something you wished to tell me something?" too Clarine in a kind of lazy tone. "You seem quite nervous. Please, speak freely. If we can't speak freely in this mysterious unknownw, then where can we speak freely?" She doesn't seem to have recognized just yet that Clarine is worrying over her versus just kind of being Clarine in general. They kind of seem pretty similar, unfortunately, and she hardly minds the company.
"A colliseum," Marivel murmurs. "I see." She taps her chin thoughtfully. "I see how it is... A series of tests is it? How droll."
???
"Sweet demon, do you love me?" Her mother asked her one day, peeking into her room. It wasn't an uncommon question even though Marivel always had the same answer.
"Of course I do, mom!" Marivel says, setting down her book--another fantasy of some far away place that didn't actually exist. Today, Marivel had long since forgotten the title but she hadn't forgotten her mother's face or her strangely sorrowful tone. "Do you love me?"
"Of course!" The strangely sad tone vanished from her mother's tone. "And you know what I love most about you, my little hope?"
"What??" Marivel asked, shifting her body so she was seated on the edge of her coffin.
Her mother reached forward and pinched her cheek, pulling on it. "How squishable your face is!"
Marivel flailed her arms, "Moooom!!"
Her mother let go. "Hehe, you're so easy to tease."
Marivel pouted a bit but then smiled. "...Well what I love most about you... is that you never lose."
Her mother laughed, then paused and frowned. She ruffled Marivel's hair and said, "Everybody loses, darling child. Even if we like to pretend otherwise."
The moment of seriousness took Marivel off guard and she shook her head stubbornly. "You've never lost." She huffs.
"No queen rules forever, my child." Her mother whispered. "Any fool can win, but only the wise know how to lose."
NOW
Marivel walks forward towards the nearly unstoppable creature before them. She looks back to Loren, for some reason, and smiles broadly. "Seems you are correct. Tis a fresh hell indeed. Though a test like this..."
She laughs faintly. "Come now, you think I haven't faced something like this before?"
She fans out her arms in welcoming--
--a welcome that Clarine will remember shortly before the apparition lashes out at her, cleaving repeatedly into a POWER SEAL that Marivel had summoned to protect her form with.
Marivel's grin is almost manic as she looks at the enemy before them.
DG: Acacia Saitani has used her Tool Trusty Friends toward her party's challenge, Atychiphobia. DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool My Mike toward her party's challenge, Atychiphobia.
======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================= ========================<* CHALLENGE - Atychiphobia *>======================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 4 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Fights are not always meant to be won, and the possibility of facing someone who is simply better than you, stronger than you, smarter than you, more talented than you, is oftentimes an inevitability if you throw yourself into conflict often enough. So what, then, do we do against insurmountable odds? The place you arrive at once the first flash of light envelopes you is full of the faint, phantasmal sounds of an unseen audience, cheering and booing in equal measure. This is an coliseum floating in the middle of nowhere, its columns sculpted magnificently, its sandpit arena composed of glowing gold grains -- and there at the center of it all, seethes a truly immense enemy, gray and pulsing with that selfsame golden life, its many arms equipped with a multitude of weapons. Its hide is practically impenetrable, its attacks like a force of nature with each swing. Its skills with its weapons seems almost custom-designed to be just slightly better than yours with your own methods of combat. It quickly becomes apparent that this is not a fight that you can win, as if no matter what you did, no matter how experienced you were, this creature would always just be slightly better. So how, than, do you succeed? Sometimes, victory is not a matter of how we win, but how we lose. Enemy: https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/faqs/57/72557-214.jpg =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Secret===========================================
=================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal - Round 1 *>================== ==========================< Results - Atychiphobia >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yue Rohay 0 --(10)--> 10 Pass An Old Golem Core 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Loren Voss 0 --(15)--> 15 Fail Solarian Medical Kit 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Clarine 0 --(15)--> 15 Fail Lightbending Veil 2 Combat Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Marivel Armitage 0 --(10)--> 10 Pass My Mike 4 Combat Effects: Efficient and Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Acacia Saitani 0 --(15)--> 15 Fail Trusty Friends 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Yue Rohay 0 --(10)--> 10 Fail Conditions: Fright(2)|Secret(2) Effects: Cleanse ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Yue Rohay 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> Yue Rohay has posed.
The question is posited thus: if it is not victory that is achieved, how is defeat gracefully achieved?
"Thomas... hmm? It--" Yue lets out another hurk as feels the ground trembling beneath her, but Thomas offers her a potion that she awkwardly fumbles with her hands and takes a sip from. "Much obliged."
She rises in time to sit on the phantasmal image of Big Shal -- who she would never endanger by bringing in here, unlike Acacia (wow). She glances to Clarine as she evades with a blanket of light, then shakes her head.
"Worry not. And I am afraid... you will not find a passage back to the Blue Star here, dear Thomas," Yue points out.
Is this always what you do on a second date?!
A LONG TIME AGO
"T-this-- this is a terrible idea of a 'date'!! I hate you!!" yells a whimpering, tear-stricken hapless Veruni that's getting yanked by one ankle off the ground by a gleaming golden creature.
The red-haired woman cackles before eating fist.
NOW
"... only to people I deem terribly special," Yue points out as she hurries close enough to brace her arms and cuffs against that mace-like haft to buy Acacia enough time to get her shots off.
She looks at Marivel as she throws her Power Seal, crackling loudly enough to keep the creature at bay to protect Clarine.
"Another charge of yours to protect, Mari...?"
Still... once it's delivered its due of beatings, the creature dissipates, leaving the group -- battered, but awoken.
"... it seems I am no less a coward than I was then," Yue huffs aloud. "Well! Shall we continue?"
DG: Seraph Clarine has drawn a new Challenge.
======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================= =========================<* CHALLENGE - Acrophobia *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The first thing you feel is the wind, gushing upon your face. And then, when you come to completely after the lights fade, you see why: you find yourself perched upon a dangerously small ledge on a tower possibly hundreds of feet up from the ground; the wind rushes around you, a thick mist obscuring anything and everything beneath you. All you can truly tell is that this tower stretches to dizzyingly tall heights... and that shining point at the very peak of it suggests the only way through is up. Scaling this tower, god knows how many feet above anything resembling terrain, is your task -- a task that you might slowly find harder and harder as oxygen gets thinner the higher you climb. Just don't look down! ... Maybe that warning came a little late. Whoops. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Injure=============================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Clarine hides beneath the Lightbending Veil, but the creature is not fooled. It descends upon her...but, its blows are stopped by Marivel's Power Seal. Clarine looks up in surprise.
That image certainly stands out to her, even as the coliseum fades and they find themselves in a realm of golden crystal.
"A-ah...yes. Well..." Clarine says, rising to her feet once they're finally not being menaced by a strong golden creature. She removes the Veil from her person but does not return it to her sleeves just yet, bunching it up fretfully as she thinks how to word her statement. She still seems a little shaken by it, but she steels her courage and continues.
"...I was...I was afraid, when we thought we lost you..." She murmurs. "And I felt even worse, that I let you go on your own... I thought...I thought it was my fault. For not being there with you..."
She hesitates a little.
"Next time...next time, I will support you. I will not let my fear and indecision rule me... I do not wish to lose you again like that - not without doing what I can to help..." She says. ...She says this after she just hid under her cloth, but to be fair to her there are few forces more frightening and more powerful than the jeers of a crowd.
She's a little embarrassed about this, partially because there are people here who she barely knows. Yue seems nice enough, but she can't get a proper grasp of this Thomas fellow. Her eyes linger on him for a moment, before she decides to elect to be the one to step forward into the next portal.
She is immediately met by the sensation of wind on her face, and finds herself - and the others, once they follow her - on a ledge on a tower impossibly high-up.
"Oh...oh dear..." Clarine murmurs, looking up. There's a shining point up above - presumably, the way forward. But getting there...well, that's the hard part.
"Be careful, everyone...if you are about to fall, let me know and I will catch you..." Clarine says. She draws out a few prisms and sets them floating. She does not activate them yet, but if anyone looks like they're about to fall she'll focus light into them, causing a shimmering rainbow platform to refract out from it.
Clarine herself doesn't need it, as someone who only tenuously followed normal laws of gravity. Another advantage she has - she doesn't need to breathe. This'll be good for her, since the air's only going to get thinner and thinner as they proceed.
DG: Seraph Clarine has used her Tool Prismatic Projector toward her party's challenge, Acrophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Yue looks quietly heartened for Marivel as Clarine makes her declaration. She doesn't know the Seraph, but hearing someone make such a firm statement about her old friend... she can't help but have a smile to it. Such that she looks to the jeering crowd and scowls as she raises a foot--
"-Silence-."
--and stamps her heel down towards them.
Despite well full knowing that they're ephemeral, phantasmal crowds... but here in Linaweyul, as she knows, intent is as much important as physical behaviour.
"My, I am too happy to hear that dear Marivel has such resplendent friends," Yue points out to Clarine as the scene shifts and ... they're high up on a tower.
She...
She looks kind of happy, actually?
"I have it!" Yue exclaims. "Acacia, I want to imitate this faerie tale I know. Here--"
She draws a cute scrunchie and starts to tie her hair back such that it sort of looks the part of... a rope?
She leaps up a ledge forward and leans her head down.
"Come, use my hair to climb up the tower!"
Famous last words of someone going 'OW OW OW NO STOP' a moment later........
DG: Yue Rohay has used her Tool Cute Scrunchie toward her party's challenge, Acrophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"I thought so," the wayward medic grouses, before his attention snaps back to the creature.
Just as it charges right for him.
A SHORT WHILE LATER
"What's wrong with this place," Loren mutters, a little while after peeling himself up off the sands of the coliseum. Or not a coliseum anymore, now, now that the creature they were sparring against has vanished. "Even by Spiran standards it's weird."
Fortunately, there are more potions.
And somewhat more subtlely -- and just for him alone -- Ether. Though he has to take care to conserve it. He hasn't been beaten so badly in... a while, honestly. Still, there's the portal and hopefully a way out of here. He never thought he'd be so glad to...
"..."
Loren stares balefully at the tower of gold that spirals upwards before them. Somewhere up there is a golden portal.
"Are you kidding me," he states more than asks. Irritation wafts off him like the sea breeze comes in off the shore; he approaches the tower with ill intent.
"Yes. I'll just make sure to shout extra loud before I plummet to my death," he replies to Clarine, unkindly.
...This is going to be a pain in the ass to climb, he can tell already. He fidgets with the length of 'wire' looped around his right wrist and winces; threading Ether through the tuner is always unpleasant.
But it gets results.
Mostly.
He starts to make his way up to the nearest platform, trying to work out the path that seems easiest. Then his gaze snaps upwards at Yue. Who is... letting down her hair...?
"Why would I climb your hair?!"
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Ether Tuner toward his party's challenge, Acrophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Of...course!" Marivel shouts over to Yue. "If I cannot protect those right in front of me, I don't deserve to call myself the Rightful Ruler of Filgaia!"
She looks winded from the effort, even though she doesn't get carved up herself by the beast because holding back a foe that feeds off her own strength to become even stronger isn't an easy feat for anyone by its very nature, but the last thing Marivel wished to do was enhance its power even more by using her more forbidden techniques against it.
(They aren't forbidden actually but they do take up a lot of power. Force power. Marivel figures she better hold onto that if this is the ENTRANCE of the dungeon.
She exhales and looks back to Clarine. She always is surprised by such kind words from those around her, especially when they happen to be the Immortal Seraphim that have lived long often pain-filled lives of their own. The fear of 'losing Marivel' has seemed like an alien concept to her but she knows very well that as difficult as she is to destroy, it isn't impossible, and if it's not impossible, and you live forever otherwise--it's sure to happen some day, no?
She is about to say one thing but catches Yue's little smile at her before she utters a word and she laughs to herself first before approaching Clarine.
"I am not so kind to deserve such a declaration of friendship. I will try my upmost to earn it someday, if you can be patient enough."
She gives Clarine's hand a small squeeze. "I have found myself surrounded by sentimental sweeties as of late..." She looks back to Yue. "When your duty is discharged, will you seek such?"
She straightens up and approaches Loren and adds, "I wonder if you too will find yourself in such a predicament someday, if you haven't already. You seem the sort."
And then...HIGH UP TOWER and...yeah Marivel turns into a bat.
Of course she does. She lands on Clarine's shoulder and just kind of hangs out there being a bat.
She ... she is not going to climb Yue's hair she would feel bad.
DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool Tomato Juice For Grownups toward her party's challenge, Acrophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"And what do you mean, 'find myself in a predicament'? I think I'm in one right now, thank you!" comes Loren's reply.
He seems a little bent out of shape already...
<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.
Acacia yells in pain as her stumbling run is interrupted by another golden fist swinging in her direction. Nearly flattened against the wall, she grinds her teeth together as she feels for the shape in her jacket, the air around her crackling with another sustained burst of electricity as she struggles for breath. Just as it seems too much--
--the creature fades away, leaving her gasping for breath as she slides down to the ground. "... glad to hear it," she mutters back to Yue before looking away, definitely not hiding a stab of colour in her cheeks as her goad is turned back on herself. Once she can trust her legs, she lifts back up, supporting herself with one hand on the wall. As grumpy as she's feeling right now, she doesn't dare chip in to Clarine's quiet conviction, but she can at least recognize it and look faintly satisfied by it.
And then she nearly pitches right off the tower, as the stone wall she's leant against gives way to open air. With a horrified yelp, she catches herself and clings to the stone like a cat, staring below her as she sets her feet. "It's just a bunch of weird magic bs, it's just magic bs--" she mumbles urgently under her breath; though she's not shaking, she does look stuck in place for a long moment.
If anything is guaranteed to bring her out of it, it's another round of grousing. Thomas' anger is practically a balm to her; she feeds off of it, huffing out a breath of her own as she risks a look up the tower, trying to pick out handholds she can use. She's nimble enough to take a few steps upwards, picking her way higher and allowing herself an unhappy sigh at the sight of Marivel just turning into a bat and taking the easy way up. She doesn't do the same for Clarine because she's biased, you see.
What she does do is stare at Yue for a long moment, then snort. It's probably not the best time to try to get a point on the Veruni prisoner, but-- well, Yue is asking for it. "Well-- okay, if you want," she says as she first makes sure her feet are secure, and then reaches up for the long ponytail. 3... 2... 1...
DG: Acacia Saitani has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Acrophobia.
======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================= =========================<* CHALLENGE - Acrophobia *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The first thing you feel is the wind, gushing upon your face. And then, when you come to completely after the lights fade, you see why: you find yourself perched upon a dangerously small ledge on a tower possibly hundreds of feet up from the ground; the wind rushes around you, a thick mist obscuring anything and everything beneath you. All you can truly tell is that this tower stretches to dizzyingly tall heights... and that shining point at the very peak of it suggests the only way through is up. Scaling this tower, god knows how many feet above anything resembling terrain, is your task -- a task that you might slowly find harder and harder as oxygen gets thinner the higher you climb. Just don't look down! ... Maybe that warning came a little late. Whoops. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Injure=============================================
=================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal - Round 2 *>================== ===========================< Results - Acrophobia >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yue Rohay 10 --(0)--> 10 Pass Cute Scrunchie 3 Agility Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Loren Voss 15 --(5)--> 20 Fail Ether Tuner 1 Agility Effects: Quicken and Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Clarine 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Prismatic Projector 1 Agility Effects: Fanfare and Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Marivel Armitage 10 --(0)--> 10 Pass Tomato Juice For Grownups 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Acacia Saitani 15 --(5)--> 20 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Yue Rohay 10 --(30)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Fright(1)|Injure(2)|Secret(1)|Slow(2) Effects: Cleanse|Quicken(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Yue Rohay has passed this challenge! The party gained 30 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
3... 2... 1...
SPIRA
Coccoro the cucco squawks.
The Minder flips through a story book as she sits alone in Yue's cell and looks towards the illustration of a princess lowering her hair down the tower she's trapped in.
"Wow, that's so unrealistic."
LINAWEYUL
Acacia climbs up and Yue is literally crying in silence. She nods as she tries to put a brave face to her and Marivel as she says, "... see? Just... just like... a faerie tale. Oh, how cruel the fae truly can be."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Yue silences the crowds, and Clarine finds herself thankful. She sends her a smile and bows her head gratefully. The support helps cheer her up a bit, too.
"She, Acacia, and some other friends helped me find my way in this world when I was lost...I owe them much." She explains.
She listens as Marivel gives her response, thinks on it for a moment, and then nods.
"...Very well. Then...I will look forward to that day." She says, accepting the gesture.
And now, the tower.
Loren shoots a response toward Clarine and she fidgets.
"A-ah, n-no, I meant..." Clarine starts but then pauses, going quiet. ...Well, he'd find out what she meant, if the worst happened. Which, hopefully it wouldn't. So instead she just keeps climbing, giving Marivel a pleasant smile as she chooses to alight on her shoulder in the form of a bat. Clarine doesn't mind the passenger - she just continues going right on up.
The same can't be said for everyone, however.
As if reacting to concern, the ledges of the tower start to crumble out beneath one's feet. Loren will almost fall, but the prism tailing him will erupt with light, creating a shimmering rainbow platform to catch him.
"That is what I meant..." Clarine explains. Coming from anyone else, the comment might seem petulant...well, okay, even for her it might still be a little petulant.
The ledge will crumble out from beneath Acacia's feet as well, and...
...Well, we've already seen what has come of that.
But on the bright side, in the end, they do finally make it to that shining light, which leads them once more to that golden corridor, and one step closer to whatever lies at the end of it.
DG: Loren Voss has drawn a new Challenge.
=======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================== ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Basiphobia *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You find yourself upon a cliffside. Gentle and serene, overlooking a wide body of water that looks peaceful, if not a strange, golden hue. Behind you, the cliff terminates abruptly, and there is nothing but an endless, consuming white, like a piece of art the artist did not bother to finish painting. Trying to exit through the white just lands you back where you were. There is nothing else, but that steep cliff, perilously difficult if not impossible to climb down -- and the water below. One could swear they could see a faint glimmer of something beneath the sloshing, golden waves. Like a glow. Like an exit. But it'd likely take a leap of faith to see if that suspicion panned out to anything. Are you ready? =Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Loren, as if happens, does get to find out what Clarine means when his grip on a ledge he's attempting to haul himself up onto crumbles, even with the enhanced Ether woven out into his body.
If the Commander were watching this now, it's likely that he would slowly shake his head in mild dismay.
But at least it's not a long fall with a short stop at the end.
Thanks to Clarine.
"What is this-- what are you," he asks, possibly keying in that something is not quite 'normal' about the Seraph's artes.
"..." If she's petulant, he's the grand high king of petulant as he scowls back at her, before moving to continue his climb.
(But at least, probably, compared to Yue he's getting off lightly...)
And then they touch the light. And once more, they are in a shimmering hall of gold.
And then--
The first thing they smell is the scent of the sea.
It smells... yellow?
"This makes no sense," the grown man of twenty gripes, shaking his head as he gaze out at a golden sea, below the golden cliff upon which they stand. "How does this even fit inside that ruin? Or that door, for that matter? This has to be some kind of," and he stoops, picking up a stone (it's yellow). He pitches it over the edge.
There is a long moment of silence.
Then, at last, a distant but distinct 'sploosh'.
"...huh," Loren utters at great length. His face reads as a mix of shock and dismay. "Well. Uh."
He looks down the cliff.
"Guess.. that's it."
Another wince -- Ether threaded through the tuner again, as a safety measure this time and shed out in an invisible spiraling vapor about him -- and he hesitates at the edge.
"...gonna die like this..." he mutters, before at last slipping over the side and starting to inch his way down.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Ether Tuner toward his party's challenge, Basiphobia.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Aw Clarine." Marivel says. "You helped reunite me with my daughter and even offered your hand in arms. Have you not considered I might not owe you as well? Perhaps we can set aside debts and simply allow ourselves to enjoy friendship with one another." Though considering Yue is allowing someone to climb her hair maybe friendship has its share of tribulations if it leads you to making choices like that.
"You are no stranger to capricious behaviors, my old friend." Marivel tells Yue.
It turns out that riding Clarine is a perfectly viable method of transportation and so EVEN NOW elects to keep riding Clarine. It worked well the first time so why not twice? At least this isn't chasing a cucco that broke the chains of causality or anything.
"For a man of such resistance," Marivel murmurs to Clarine. "He sure does seem like he's in a hurry to go off a cliff."
"We shouldn't be outdone by him. Let us leap before we look!"
Is Clarine really going to follow the advice of someone who can just hop off Clarine's shoulder at the last minute?
DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool Tomato Juice For Grownups toward her party's challenge, Basiphobia.
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Take heed that the gag with the hair does not let Marivel's poignant question go astray, however! There is a quiet pause from Yue as she looks towards her seemingly eternal friend. Rival? Mortal enemy? Frenemy? Somewhere inbetween. It seems to just seem to shift day by day.
"... ... those are the words of someone who has found what they seek in existence," Yue comments. "Do you believe that there truly is an end to my duty...? Hmm... well, when that day comes--"
The light envelopes them once more, and then they are in a shimmering hall of gold.
"What you see before you," Yue comments, "is a space outside of space. An existence borne to eke out in illustration the great cowardice of the living mind."
A pause.
"Either that, or it is the cruel machinations of a fae king most mad. Either or," she chuckles to herself.
She looks towards Loren as he throws a rock and starts winding his way down...
A LONG TIME AGO
"...gonna die here... gonna die here..." whimpers a hapless brown-haired Veruni, now filled with tears as she tries in vain to climb down a sheer golden cliff while watching her red-haired friend freefall off the side with a 'woo-hoooo!!'
NOW
"... now, let us away!" Yue beams brightly as she just dives straight off the side.
<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.
Acacia is not unkind, per se. She doesn't go the whole way up on Yue's hair, just enough to make her point before heaving herself the rest of the way up with a combination of brute strength and more than a little puffing and panting and slipping of her feet. When all is said and done she looks fatigued but still standing, patting Yue on the shoulder in commisseration.
"That's nothing," she notes towards Loren. Though she's mostly trying to catch her breath, she does at least have the presence of mind to grin with relish. "When we stepped through, it was in the back of a jail cell." An open jail cell, of course, but she doesn't mind stretching the truth a little for the sake of a reaction.
They were already at a dizzying height, so the transition to a totally different dizzying height isn't actually that jarring this time around. It's actually kind of nice to have something that makes some kind of flow, even if she has absolutely no idea how to get down from where they are. Of course, she's the sort to check behind her - and instantly regrets it, the flat white colour somewhat dizzying in the way it stretches out to infinity.
"I'm really not made out for this stuff," she mutters as she starts to pick her way exceptionally slowly down the cliffside in that way people absolutely shouldn't - sitting down, shuffling up to the edge, turning to lower her body over the edge and feel for footholds. She almost expects Yue to simply grab her and leap downwards, and it might honestly even be a relief if she did, the reporter grumbles to herself.
Instead, she's nearly knocked off by the rush of air past her, and she stares openly for a moment before biting hard at her lip. "... screw it," she mutters, and pushes away from the side of the wall to do the same herself. Either it's a dream, or-- she'll deal with it at ground level one way or another. Right?
DG: Acacia Saitani has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Basiphobia.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Clarine pauses, as Marivel makes a very valid point. And then, she smiles, offering her a nod.
"...Yes, you are absolutely correct...!" She agrees.
She looks toward Loren then, blinking for a moment and tilting her head in confusion.
"...You...you do not know...?" She asks. But, then again, as far as she knew, he was Spiran(she does not know much about human civilizations), and they did not seem to know anything about Seraphim.
"I think...it would be easiest to say that I am one with the light..." She explains. She's trying to keep it simple, but that probably just makes it even more confusing.
It's a natural Seraphim trait.
And then, they find themselves on a sheer cliffside. Clarine pauses, staring over. Climbing up a high tower is one thing, but falling...? It gives her a pause. She looks toward Loren as he tries to make his way down, and then to Marivel...who suggests to just leap right off!
She looks toward Yue as she explains the situation.
"...Cowardice...?" Clarine murmurs. For some reason, her mind goes to the word's translation in the Ancient Tongue. Strange how that works!
And then Yue just dives right off the side, like how Marivel encouraged her. And Acacia follows suit, reluctantly.
"O-Oh dear...w-well, umm...I guess...!"
Clarine brings out her prisms again...but this time, she uses them to form a short stairway down so that she can better aim for that light at the bottom before shutting her eyes tightly and jumping in after them. She just hopes things work out...!
DG: Seraph Clarine has used her Tool Prismatic Projector toward her party's challenge, Basiphobia. DG: Yue Rohay has used her Tool Cute Scrunchie toward her party's challenge, Basiphobia.
=======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================== ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Basiphobia *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You find yourself upon a cliffside. Gentle and serene, overlooking a wide body of water that looks peaceful, if not a strange, golden hue. Behind you, the cliff terminates abruptly, and there is nothing but an endless, consuming white, like a piece of art the artist did not bother to finish painting. Trying to exit through the white just lands you back where you were. There is nothing else, but that steep cliff, perilously difficult if not impossible to climb down -- and the water below. One could swear they could see a faint glimmer of something beneath the sloshing, golden waves. Like a glow. Like an exit. But it'd likely take a leap of faith to see if that suspicion panned out to anything. Are you ready? =Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
=======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================== ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Basiphobia *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You find yourself upon a cliffside. Gentle and serene, overlooking a wide body of water that looks peaceful, if not a strange, golden hue. Behind you, the cliff terminates abruptly, and there is nothing but an endless, consuming white, like a piece of art the artist did not bother to finish painting. Trying to exit through the white just lands you back where you were. There is nothing else, but that steep cliff, perilously difficult if not impossible to climb down -- and the water below. One could swear they could see a faint glimmer of something beneath the sloshing, golden waves. Like a glow. Like an exit. But it'd likely take a leap of faith to see if that suspicion panned out to anything. Are you ready? =Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
==================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal - Round 3 *>=================== ============================< Results - Basiphobia >============================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yue Rohay 10 --(15)--> 25 Pass Cute Scrunchie 3 Agility Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 20 --(20)--> 40 Fail Ether Tuner 1 Agility Effects: Quicken and Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Clarine 15 --(20)--> 35 Fail Prismatic Projector 1 Agility Effects: Fanfare and Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marivel Armitage 10 --(20)--> 30 Fail Tomato Juice For Grownups 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Acacia Saitani 20 --(20)--> 40 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Yue Rohay 40 --(10)--> 50 Fail Conditions: Save Point(1) Effects: Cleanse|Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Yue Rohay 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> Loren Voss has posed.
He looks at Clarine for a moment. He looks at her for a long moment.
Loren is, by certain definitions, an idiot. But he is not stupid (there is a difference). When she says she is 'one with the light' several pieces of the puzzle snap into place.
"...So you're one of those. 'An elemental spirit'." He pauses, blue eyes flitting over here. "A Seraphim. Isn't that what you call yourselves?"
He's met her sort before. Time and time again, even before he could see them.
But out on the cliffs above the sea--
ust after he hurls that rock into the waves below, he turns to regard Acacia. "A... jail cell?" He pauses, scrunching up his brow. "What was that saying... 'out of the fire and into the fry--' ugh, no, it was the other way around. ...It doesn't matter. So you're telling me it's not even connected to anywhere in particular? This is just some random door leading us into this..." He gestures, emphatically, towards the yellow shoreline. "...This!?"
Where in the Emperor's-damned hell are we?
He gets an answer, as it were, from Yue.
"...You're serious." His shoulders slouch. "Right. Fine. Then I guess we really are doing this."
It's not a great situation. A long way down, and not an easy climb. But with no way back and the glint of light below, he supposes they don't have a choice.
It's to some credit on everyone's part that they get about halfway down, collectively, before someone slips (Loren) or loses their grip attempting similar to Yue's stunt (Acacia), makes an error of timing (Clarine) or just goes along for the ride downwards (Marivel).
Perhaps experience is the true teacher, for Yue descends without serious incident...
DG: Acacia Saitani has drawn a new Challenge.
======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================= ========================<* CHALLENGE - Nyctophobia *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 4 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- This area dank and dark, though not pitch black -- a long series of corridors, each one blocked off by a sealed door that requires defeating the Hellions assembled to progress further. Unfortunately, these Hellions seem to be impervious to harm... at least, until you exposed them to literally any form of light you can find, from shafts of it piercing through the ceiling, to any you may generate on your own. Light that, sadly, does not last long here when exposed to these Hellions until it is completely snuffed out and unable to be used again; to defeat your enemies and open the way forward, you're going to have to be conservative with whatever sources of light you might have on hand... and eliminate your enemies very, very quickly. Hellion Types: https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/faqs/57/72557-205.jpg / https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/faqs/57/72557-177.jpg / https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/faqs/57/72557-186.jpg / https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/faqs/57/72557-851.jpg =Dungeon Conditions: Suffer, Secret===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.
There isn't any kind of impact at the bottom, which Acacia firmly believes is a plus. But that has to be balanced out against the way the ground suddenly drops away before they can reach it, and the feeling of space wrenching sideways around them in a bout of dizzying vertigo, culminating in an abrupt stop in the midst of a labyrinth of dark doors and corridors.
From behind Acacia there's a snarl, and she instantly reacts on instinct, a whirling punch to make space as her hand dives for the inside pocket of her jacket. She'd meant to grab for her pistol, but sometimes old habits get in the way - rather than a trigger, she's squeezing a shutter instead, her camera clicking in the darkness as she snaps a shot.
But maybe that's for the best, because while the roundhouse doesn't stop the wolflike Hellion from tearing at her the sudden bright flash from her camera does, sending the creature skittering back with a pained yelp and distracted enough for her to drive a knee into it.
It's still a Hellion and as such recovers quickly - but by the time its back on its feet Acacia's gotten herself a prideful, overeager grin and her hands on the Seraph's shoulders.
"You've got batteries, right?" she asks innocently of Clarine, before patting her on the shoulder as if she had a button there, turning her smirk on the Hellion. "Say cheese."
DG: Acacia Saitani has used her Tool Trusty Friends toward her party's challenge, Nyctophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Yue is not seen when the group re-emerges into the bottom, into the abyss of darkness and doors and corridors.
A LONG TIME AGO
"... w-where'd you go? Where'd you go?" begs a whimpering, hapless Veruni as she grips the handle of her blade and looks about a seemingly endless corridor of doors. "Don't leave me alone... don't--"
oooo
"W-what was that--AAAAAAAA--"
NOW
The wolf-like Hellion erupts out of the darkness, but as Acacia delivers a roundhouse kick and moves to Clarine, another figure appears in the darkness...!!
It's the ghastly figure of a woman whose hair has draped over her face in a haunting manner... a deathly pallor has stricken over her face!
"... you shaLLll... be cuuuuursedDDDdd..."
... having the shackles on her and her ratty ulster coat means that she can't really look the part of any spoopy ghost all that well, though. And as if that's not enough, there's a *BONK* as the ephemeral Shal of Big appears behind her, wagging its chauffeur-mitted hand like it's telling her, 'don't joke around!'
"You're so wise, Big Shal," Yue whimpers.
DG: Yue Rohay has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Nyctophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
"Ah! So you are aware...I am sorry, I would have been more direct if I knew." Clarine replies to Loren. But, then she makes a slight error, and she doesn't quite make it...
...and she falls.
There's no solid impact - instead she finds herself landing amidst complete darkness. Nothing but darkness and doors, surrounding her - and it feels like something's pulling at the light within her, trying to extinguish it.
She lets out something akin to a struggling gasp and falls to her knees, wrapping her arms around her and shutting her eyes tight.
It's a feeling all too similar to the Shadow Vault - and the darkness she had been trapped in even before that. She's unresponsive, her form shuddering...and then, she goes rigid as she feels a pair of hands on her shoulders.
Acacia's voice cuts through the darkness, and then she feels that pat on her shoulder.
...That's right.
She's not alone here.
Clarine holds her arms out toward the Hellion...and suddenly, she emits a bright, blinding flash in its direction. That should give it more than a little pause.
"...I-It...would appear that I do..." Clarine replies quietly, managing a weak smile.
DG: Seraph Clarine has used her Tool Lightbending Veil toward her party's challenge, Nyctophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
SUDDENLY... DARKNESS.
Marivel Armitage actually proves to be particularly unhelpful during this battle because, guess what--Marivel is similarly ill inclined to get in the light and as such luring invulnerable monsters into the light, well, that's never going to be her style.
But that being said, it's also pretty hard for Marivel to suffer all that much in this dark dungeon and certainly CERTAINLY she is not nyctophobic. That would be ridiculous.
Normally Marivel would be inclined to use this opportunity to spook someone but there is ONE thing that changes her plans here--well, two really--and that's the presence of Clarine and Yue respectively. Yue is already being a spook so it's kind of covered and Marivel knows Clarine's feelings on THE DARK quite well.
It's hard to see Marivel in this darkness, the night seeming to be as much a part of her as it is filling the room. Her face, part of her cape, the rest is wholly subsumed by inky blackness. She lurks near Clarine and leans in towards her face, whispering in her ear.
"Don't forget, I'm with you in the dark."
She does not fight the hellions. All she does is reach out and hold Clarine's hand and give a soft approving smile to Acacia, whose kindness outpaced her own.
It seems that Clarine is well loved, Marivel reflects.
DG: Marivel Armitage has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Nyctophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Loren doesn't so much land with a splash into the sea but -- with a flash of gold -- lands on solid ground, quite softly.
It's dark. He can see just forms, darker still against the grey. Somewhere -- distantly -- there's light, a pale yellow shimmering from above. It's not enough to light the way. And perhaps more pressingly...
Not all of them are the people he ended up in this place alongside.
"You've... got to be kidding..." he mutters, in the dark. "There's a whole lot of them--"
There is the sound of something sliding free from a sheath, then the sound of something hitting flesh, followed in turn by a clipped grunt of shock from the young man's direction. It's true, he can't see his hand unless he holds it right in front of his face, but that Hellion hadn't so much as faltered when he'd struck it. What's up with these thin--
He quickly has more to worry about as it returns the favor. He ducks, falls back after delivering a nearly-blind parry. And his gaze flits up at the ceiling again.
"Come on--"
And he hurls an entire roll of bandages upwards, in the hope of breaking a hole to shed a little more light on this.
If nothing else so they can see where to run.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Solarian Medical Kit toward his party's challenge, Nyctophobia.
======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================= ========================<* CHALLENGE - Nyctophobia *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 4 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- This area dank and dark, though not pitch black -- a long series of corridors, each one blocked off by a sealed door that requires defeating the Hellions assembled to progress further. Unfortunately, these Hellions seem to be impervious to harm... at least, until you exposed them to literally any form of light you can find, from shafts of it piercing through the ceiling, to any you may generate on your own. Light that, sadly, does not last long here when exposed to these Hellions until it is completely snuffed out and unable to be used again; to defeat your enemies and open the way forward, you're going to have to be conservative with whatever sources of light you might have on hand... and eliminate your enemies very, very quickly. Hellion Types: https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/faqs/57/72557-205.jpg / https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/faqs/57/72557-177.jpg / https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/faqs/57/72557-186.jpg / https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/faqs/57/72557-851.jpg =Dungeon Conditions: Suffer, Secret===========================================
=================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal - Round 4 *>================== ==========================< Results - Nyctophobia >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yue Rohay 25 --(15)--> 40 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Loren Voss 40 --(15)--> 55 Fail Solarian Medical Kit 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Clarine 35 --(10)--> 45 Pass Lightbending Veil 2 Combat Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Marivel Armitage 30 --(15)--> 45 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Acacia Saitani 40 --(10)--> 50 Pass Trusty Friends 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Yue Rohay 50 --(10)--> 60 Fail Conditions: Secret(2)|Suffer(1) Effects: Cleanse ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Yue Rohay 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: Marivel Armitage has drawn a new Challenge.
======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================= ========================<* CHALLENGE - Astraphobia *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Ever heard of the Thunderdome? No? That doesn't exist here? Well, whatever, because that's where you find yourself now, except taken much more literally. Landing in an arena, literally encased in a cage of crackling lightning, you find yourself facing down some manner of Hellion -- the type and variety is always random (ie, you get to decide! hurray you!) but almost always tough to kill, which would be bad enough on its own... if not for the bolt of lightning that cracks into the ground not seconds after you alive. Lightning discharges across the arena that grow more and more frequent and more prone towards being located by you and yours the longer the battle is drawn out. So -- maybe try to end this quickly. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.
Acacia isn't just leaving it all to Clarine, thankfully - after all, she has a weapon of her own with which to fight back, and her shutter clicks rapidly in time to the Seraph's bursts of light. She's a little more able to react, twisting and covering the side passages as the group collectively retreats - or maybe pushes forwards? It's not like she knows which way they're supposed to be heading.
She stops dead with her camera raised as a zombie lurches out of the darkness, then grimaces at the sight of it. "... you're a terrible actress," she grumps, which is a little bit uncharitable of her, but then her nerves are a little shot right now - as shown by the way she wastes a shot at the spectral form of Big Shal, perhaps not seeing it directly but having the feeling of there being something there.
In comparison, she can't exactly bring herself to be that upset at Marivel's behaviour - as far as she's concerned, bolstering Clarine's confidence right now is probably one of the best options on the table - but she does have to huff a little to herself and wonder if perhaps an extra set of fists would help out right about now.
She has found her pistol in the meantime, at least, dual wielding it and her camera. Wincing is the next best thing to covering her ears as she fires two shots off down a side passageway, grimacing a little at the way the sound echoes. "There's got to be an edge to this place! A wall we can stick our backs against or something!" she calls to the other person who seems to have some measure of common sense around - even if his roll of bandages sails upwards and then falls again with absolutely no effect. However high the ceiling in this place is, it's certainly unnaturally so.
She swears when that same instinct makes her block a Hellion's attack-- with her camera, and there's a nasty little tinkling sound of broken glass or components. Pressed back, she grits her teeth, pushes Clarine in front of her to give her a headstart, then nods. "--time to run!"
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel is generally gentle with Clarine so it's not too unusual right now but Marivel does seem to believe in the combat prowess of her team.
And uh. Loren? Well, she doesn't really know Loren. She might not even know Loren's NAME and just knows him as the guy who was looking for his brother's sword, but this didn't stop her from dragging him onto some dumb adventure he didn'tw ant to go onn which is pretty much her normal operating procedure.
After pressing on, it turns out that there's EVEN MORE VIOLENCE available for our friends. Marivel steps on in, looking none the worse for wear as our heroes (and Loren) find themselvesstepping inside an electriffied cage which closes shut shortly after their arrival.
And inside these cages? There's Hellions! At least one for everyone here ranging from the total vammpire ripoff types to the lizardmen sorts. Lightning lashes out rapidly out Marivel and she starts bouncing away from it since this is kind of actually the near exact opposite of the previous situation and she really doesn't want to be struck by LIGHTning. LIGHTning contains LIGHT which contains UV which is the secret ingredient for making Marivel suffer.
"Well this is nicer, isn't it, Clarine?" Marivel quips, nearly pressed up against the back age even as she draws out her microphone, eyes flashing red.
"This is a cage match." She tells the creature before her. "There are no allies for you."
The lizardman howls briefly before stepping backward and then turning towards his friend and leaping at it, turning on its...friend?... unnaturally.
The glow fades from Marivel's eyes. "There's still plenty more! Watch out!"
DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool My Mike toward her party's challenge, Astraphobia.
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Yue has a smirk to Acacia as she remarks, "They don't keep pulling me back for my acting skills. On that, I concede the point to you," as they flee.
"... it may only be repeated rhetoric at this point, but tis nice to see you entrust your hope in a new generation of heroes," Yue winds up remarking to Marivel in the midst of their retreat from the wolflike Hellion's attack, now that she's shifted her hair back to its rightful place once more, with a 'sproig' of her enormously powerful ahoge that doesn't seem to want to be put down.
Also is Yue more of a hero than Loren? She pauses and stares towards the electrified cage with a quiet hum.
"A cage match, huh..."
She smirks quietly.
"I lose count of many I have had to do now."
She sucks in a breath as the ephemeral Shal of Big pats her on the head again. Hmmm. Big Shal, you truly are so wise...
"Very well. I shall show you what truly draws in the ratings, back home."
And with that she's whipped herself into a whirl as she kicks the ground into a torrent of force--
"<Demon Fang!>"
"<Double Demon Fang!>"
"<Fierce Demon Fang!>"
"<Infernal Demon Fang!>"
"<Dimmin' Fang!>"
... what was that last one
DG: Yue Rohay has used her Tool An Old Golem Core toward her party's challenge, Astraphobia.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
It was perhaps not the best thing to hurl at a ceiling, no, but given the state of his kit in his bag -- and the fact that the only other things he has available either really wouldn't get the job done or would be a waste of his remaining supplies -- perhaps you make the best of what you have available...
In any case, he can see the form of the bandage roll soar up overhead and... hit the top of its arc.
And vanish into the grey-black shadows of the space they're in.
The Hellions close in, even amidst flashes of light.
Before those are swallowed.
"This isn't working!" he shouts, narrowly evading a charge from another one of the Hellions. "Come on--"
'There's got to be an edge to this place', that woman with the camera shouts.
"Hang right and find the wall! Follow it and don't stop!"
He's sweaty by the time they emerge into the golden light of the...
"Uh..." he utters, glancing this way and that at the cage they're in. "This seems excessive. What's the point of something like--"
oh hell
He backpedals in a hurry, narrowing his profile as a Hellion lunges for him. He gets a good old look in the process of the electrical wall behind; the creature itself stops well short of the barrier. One wrong move, and...
That gives him an idea.
He reaches into his bag again. Bone cutter... scalpels... hypodermics... a few remaining potions... Drive... water purification tablets... anti-infectives... ah, there.
He pulls a single glass container from the depths of his bag.
Isopropyl alcohol.
Which he hurls right at the Hellion as if it were a grenade.
He's aiming for its eyes.
And then: to see if he can goad it into a charge and send it into the wall.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Solarian Medical Kit toward his party's challenge, Astraphobia.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
"...Thank you. I...I know that now." Clarine murmurs in reply to Marivel, nodding quietly. The support in this dark place is what carries her through, even though the fear is still very much alive.
It's exhausting, though - the darkness is still sapping at her strength and she can't keep it up for long. Her flashes of light start to become dimmer and dimmer, and then Acacia and Loren make the call to run, the former giving her a push to start her forward.
Going through another barrier, they find themselves in an arena encased in a cage of lightning, from which bolts strike down at them occasionally. And what's more, there are Hellions for them to fight.
Clarine is still looking exhausted, but the brighter atmosphere is definitely a welcome sight. She looks a little relieved.
"Yes..." Clarine replies with a nod of agreement. "This lightning...it is nothing compared to Ragnell's."
This wasn't her first time trapped in a cage of electricity, with bolts of lightning being dropped down toward her. She could handle this - if she thought about it as training for her next encounter with Ragnell, that made her that much more determined to see this through.
Quickly, she draws out that length of silvery cloth once more, draping it over herself to disappear from the eyes of the Hellions surrounding them. She uses the space provided by this act to recite some presumably much-needed healing spells - and also to take some time to study Yue's combat style.
...She's a little surprised that she knows the ancient tongue, though.
"...You know the ancient techniques...?" Clarine murmurs in surprise from underneath the veil - and then pauses at the last one, tilting her head.
"...That one is new..."
DG: Seraph Clarine has used her Tool Lightbending Veil toward her party's challenge, Astraphobia.
<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.
The hairs on the back of Acacia's neck stand up the moment that lightning first crackles around them. For once, that's not just a figure of speech; her red hair is light and fine enough that it's already starting to frizz, while the rest of her tenses up in an uncertain wariness.
She swears under her breath as the extent of their problems are laid bare, jolting herself away from the wall she'd naturally nearly pressed herself up against to stare down a gigantic lizard that nearly takes up all of the space around her. There's barely time to realize everyone else is on the attack, and she spares a astonished look towards Yue - who most of the time exists in a sleepy, laid-back sort of space as far as Acacia is concerned - as she explodes into motion.
"O-okay, well," she mutters to herself, sizing up her opponent as she warily slides backwards, overly aware of the crackling at her back. As the creature roars and lumbers towards her, she pulls in a quick, panicked breath, then steals her hand inside her vest, feeling for a hard, crystalline ball tucked away inside it. "Really, really hope this works."
She lifts her other fist into a stance - then suddenly drags it against the wall, gritting her teeth as she runs her wrist along the bars of the cage. Around it, the lightning twists and quivers, and then is dragged forwards with her motion as if a liquid, pooling around her fist as she steps forwards into a thrusting punch right at the lizard's snout.
DG: Acacia Saitani has used her Tool Trusty Friends toward her party's challenge, Astraphobia.
======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================= ========================<* CHALLENGE - Astraphobia *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Ever heard of the Thunderdome? No? That doesn't exist here? Well, whatever, because that's where you find yourself now, except taken much more literally. Landing in an arena, literally encased in a cage of crackling lightning, you find yourself facing down some manner of Hellion -- the type and variety is always random (ie, you get to decide! hurray you!) but almost always tough to kill, which would be bad enough on its own... if not for the bolt of lightning that cracks into the ground not seconds after you alive. Lightning discharges across the arena that grow more and more frequent and more prone towards being located by you and yours the longer the battle is drawn out. So -- maybe try to end this quickly. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
=================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal - Round 5 *>================== ==========================< Results - Astraphobia >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yue Rohay 40 --(0)--> 40 Pass An Old Golem Core 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Loren Voss 55 --(0)--> 55 Fail Solarian Medical Kit 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Clarine 45 --(0)--> 45 Pass Lightbending Veil 2 Combat Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Marivel Armitage 45 --(0)--> 45 Pass My Mike 4 Combat Effects: Efficient and Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Acacia Saitani 50 --(0)--> 50 Fail Trusty Friends 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Yue Rohay 60 --(30)--> 90 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Secret(1)|Wound(2) Effects: Cleanse ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Yue Rohay has passed this challenge! The party gained 30 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Yue Rohay has drawn a new Challenge.
======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================= ========================<* CHALLENGE - Phasmophobia *>======================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The final boundary is touched. And in a flash of light... you find yourself in a wide, white arena, glowing with faint ephemeral golden motes. The door leading to the very end of this place remains tightly sealed by a glowing, violet light -- a light that is matched by the glow of the skeletal wraith of a Hellion standing at the center of this room. Bedecked by a host of phantasmal minions, this ghostly sorcerer seems to be your way out of here -- but trying to attack it will simply lead your attacks to harmlessly run through the specter, as if it were truly a disembodied spirit. Conventional attacks will not work -- but at the opposite end of this room? Sits a lone, pulsing violet orb. And the second one touches it... they will find their soul, for lack of a better term, forcibly and temporarily ejected from their body, shoved into the spiritual plane where the demonic spirit and its entourage can be harmed... and it, in turn, can harm you. Ever wanted to ghostfight? No? Well. Too bad. Enemy: https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/faqs/57/72557-257.jpg =Dungeon Conditions: Maim, Wound==============================================
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Heroes." Marivel says, looking to Yue with a serious glance and OH NO YOU FORGOT SHE'S FROM WILD ARMS 2. "My hope... is not that they'll become heroes. Instead, I hope..." She trails off and then laughs a bit. "Perhaps now is not the time, but I hear what you mean."
Loren successfully blinds one of the pointy eared hellions but it STILL seems able to spot him or, maybe judging from the way its sniffing, smell him out! Luckily Clarine, who just went invisible, IS A SPIRIT AND HAS NO SMELL(???) and ends up tripping the Hellion up and sending it right into the cage. Basically a double tech! It's anybody's guess whether or not that was intentional on Clarine's part or if simply by being invisible just sort of... woops!
Meanwhile Yue just gets into the thick of it, unleashing combos and juggling lizardmen into the air and then into the back of the cage, electrifying them and also disrupting their own attempts to attackk. They can't even get a cast bar moving! Yeah she's going to be fine.
Acacia accidentally SHOCKS HERSELF while dragging that ball along the cage from flickering electrical tendrils but for the most part is at least able to knock out the last remaining lizardmen with a well timed strike.
After that, the cage tumbles down and it seems the group is free to proceed forward.
"Mm. So long as there aren't any more battles before us, I think we are making excellent progress."
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Yue's combat style definitely is one that isn't exactly -- unknown, given the likes of White Knight Leo and the Heldalf school and other Lunarian swordsmen adhering to its tradition...
But her calls are definitely in the Ancient Tongue as she pauses in the midst of one of her salvos to look at Clarine and go, "<...ah, you know? But, let it be known, the Ancients are not above Punning either. Ancient Puns are the best.>"
She looks a bit exhausted... but moves on.
It isn't until they approach the end where they enter a chamber with a purple orb... and a Hellion in the appearance of a skeletal wraith -- one that doesn't seem to bear any corporeal body.
"Mari... do you believe I am foolish enough to mean that banal kind of hero?" Yue asks as she glares up towards the Hellion.
"No... I mean the kind of hero who will help find some comfort in your heart. Much like--"
She kicks her leg up and fires off another Demon Fang, and it passes through the spirit.
"--this creature, so lacking in grounding, let lingering on here. Yes, it does not fit the common definition of death..."
She steps closer towards the orb in the middle--
And a wave of energy engulfs her. She spasms, and her body collapses to the ground, dead, as her spirit rises into the aetherial realm.
"... much like how one does not truly have to be dead to die."
She throws herself at the spirit, enshackled still even outside her corporeal form. Is the sensation of imprisonment that strong?
DG: Yue Rohay has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Phasmophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Clarine glances over toward Marivel, quiet as Marivel comments on 'heroes'. ...Clarine did not envy those who had achieved the title of 'hero', but she doesn't comment on this - instead she focuses on the battle, and in the process...ends up tripping a Hellion??
Whoops.
If anyone asks...well, she'd admit that it was a complete accident, she's not the type to lie. After all, if she did, you'd be able to see right through her.
"<Ah... It has been so long since I have heard puns in the Ancient Tongue...it is a little nostalgic.>" Clarine replies to Yue. Far, far too long.
The foes are defeated and they are able to progress - but unfortunately, there is still one more foe left before them.
This one appears to be a ghostly, skeletal wraith. Clarine fires off a quick beam of light at it...which impacts it solidly. She is, after all, a spiritual body herself. Formed primarily of mana and light, she doesn't need the orb to be able to inflict meaningful damage on it.
Unfortunately, that does mean she attracts its attention, and may need to be bailed out by the others once they've taken on a spiritual form.
Clarine, meanwhile, lets out a gasp of surprise as Yue touches the orb and collapses.
"A-ah...! A-are you okay!?" She asks, deeply concerned. She has no idea what's going on, or what that orb is, so she doesn't touch it.
It's for the best. Who knows what would happen if she did.
DG: Seraph Clarine has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Phasmophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
GOOD NEWS: Loren gets a direct hit.
BAD NEWS: It can still see him and works out what he's trying to do.
WORSE NEWS: It gets in a good hit before he puts some distance between it and him.
BUT GOOD NEWS: Clarine, briefly invisible, ends up tripping it before it goes stumbling away from her and into the cage wall.
FATALITY...?
"Huh." This might have to serve for his comment in the end.
He didn't think something like that was even remotely possible. Dragging his forearm across his forehead, he pauses a moment to touch fingers to where it had raked him. Blood stains his shirt. "What a pain..." he mutters, tightening his grasp over the ends of his shirt.
He lingers a moment before the others venture to touch the shining stone that beckons them forward. Green light fleetingly flickers at his fingertips, then is gone.
There is light--
And then there is none.
"What is this?" he asks, looking to Clarine of all people as if she could answer the question of the Hellion and its retinue, shimmering a dull purple in the light. "Don't you spirits have some way to deal with these?" He gestures vaguely, and in the process his hand goes right through one of them. It's not a pleasant feeling, sort of like suddenly sticking your hand in an ice box. He rips his hand away and takes a good few steps back, his posture suddenly defensive. "What is... all this..."
His blade slides from its sheathe.
....Hasn't he heard that language somewhere....
But he has other things to consider, as he takes a swing at the spirits, and he might as well have attacked empty air. Another strike follows. The agitation that grips him is almost palpable, as he swings again and again for the ghosts...
And turns his head towards Yue's slumped body at the base.
The sword returns to its sheath. He drops down alongside her. "Hey-- did you pass out--"
Already, her skin is cold. When he searchers for a pulse, there is none...
"She's dead. What happened? Did she keel over?"
He rises to his feet slowly, and in doing so, gazes at the orb. As if possessed, he reaches for it. His bare fingers make contact.
He feels suddenly as if he had been stuck, only for someone to pull him free. He feels light. As if he's adrift.
And then he glances downwards. "--Shit! Did I die?! It's too early-- gah, what's wrong with these things-- don't tell me--"
Any complaining about his suddenly-dead status will have to wait. He finds himself beset on all sides. Reaching into his bag, he pulls something at random -- his last potion (or, perhaps, the spectre thereof?) -- and hurls it for one of the undead Hellions.
If he can delay them for a moment--
Then he draws his sword and moves in.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Solarian Medical Kit toward his party's challenge, Phasmophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.
As Yue's body crumples to the ground, so too does the expression on Acacia's face. "Ohhh no, no no no, no way. Why does Spira have to have so many weird edge cases around death and sticking around!?" she blurts. She might not be the most spiritual person ever, but at least she isn't Shalune, and so she's aware enough to somewhat intuit what's happened to the Veruni convict who she may actually like being around in such eternally put-upon fashion.
Maybe we've done the impossible and found someone who can get on well with Loren.
Sucking in a breath, she sticks a determined look on her face, concentrating for a moment as she gathers ether around her. It's kind of wild and short-lived - she might not know exactly what she's doing when it comes to this stuff - but the blaze of flame she creates still scorches the air around the spirit.
So it's kind of a shame that it doesn't do a damn thing to the spirit itself.
For a moment, the redhead hesitates, worrying at her lip as her brow furrows. She doesn't really like leaving the work to everyone else when she ought to be helping; as much as she might complain at times, Acacia is ultimately the sort to do what she can, even if it's for as simple a reason as keeping herself busy. Sitting back and letting the others fight just because she's scared... she knows she's going to feel guilty later.
"There'd better be a way to reverse this! Or at least my gun better be able to have its own ghost too!" she yells towards Yue, and then plants her hands on the orb in a sudden lunge before she can second-guess herself any further.
Forcing herself to act so she doesn't get stuck thinking about the implications any further, her own spirit lunges forwards towards those of the sorcerer's minions. Luckily, it appears that pistols can die, as she fires a volley of shots to force some of them back, then piles into the front line with a spinning kick that lowers into a wide sweep.
DG: Acacia Saitani has used her Tool Trusty Friends toward her party's challenge, Phasmophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel says, "No, but I have to get my mysterious mentor dialogue in somehow." to Yue with a small wink and a smile.
Then Yue says the wraith l urks in her heart. "Well, maybe n ot that one." Marivel says to Yue intentionally misunderstanding who Yue was talking about there.
Marivel watches nonchalantly as Yue collapses to the ground, seemingly untroubled She then approaches the orb and says, "I'll go fetch her." And she approaches the orb with a, <"Anime is real."> in the ancient tongue of Zeboim , with a dire expression on her face to make it seem like she's saying something important.
She studies the orb for a moment and then pokes it.
Marivel collapses to the ground.
And thick black smoke appears in the spectal space with flashes of red serving as the creature's eyes. The creature mills about, floating mildly in the space. Such a battle as this could actually be fairly dangerous to Marivel if it weren't largely a series of tests--but Marivel isn't taking chances.
It throws itself at the wraith, lashig out with those tendrils, seeknig to drain the wraith dry of its spiritual energy, The black mist grows more and more emboldened with the lack of a sun.
The creature doesn't seem particularly vocal right now and thus is unable or unwilling to really reassure anybody for the moment.
Meanwhile Marivel's body stares at Clarine.
DG: Marivel Armitage has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Phasmophobia.
======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================= ========================<* CHALLENGE - Phasmophobia *>======================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The final boundary is touched. And in a flash of light... you find yourself in a wide, white arena, glowing with faint ephemeral golden motes. The door leading to the very end of this place remains tightly sealed by a glowing, violet light -- a light that is matched by the glow of the skeletal wraith of a Hellion standing at the center of this room. Bedecked by a host of phantasmal minions, this ghostly sorcerer seems to be your way out of here -- but trying to attack it will simply lead your attacks to harmlessly run through the specter, as if it were truly a disembodied spirit. Conventional attacks will not work -- but at the opposite end of this room? Sits a lone, pulsing violet orb. And the second one touches it... they will find their soul, for lack of a better term, forcibly and temporarily ejected from their body, shoved into the spiritual plane where the demonic spirit and its entourage can be harmed... and it, in turn, can harm you. Ever wanted to ghostfight? No? Well. Too bad. Enemy: https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/faqs/57/72557-257.jpg =Dungeon Conditions: Maim, Wound==============================================
=================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal - Round 6 *>================== ==========================< Results - Phasmophobia >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yue Rohay 40 --(100)--> 140 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Loren Voss 55 --(100)--> 155 Pass Solarian Medical Kit 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Clarine 45 --(100)--> 145 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Marivel Armitage 45 --(100)--> 145 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Acacia Saitani 50 --(100)--> 150 Fail Trusty Friends 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Yue Rohay 90 --(10)--> 100 Fail Conditions: Maim|Wound(2) Effects: Cleanse ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: Yue Rohay is too exhausted to continue! DG: Loren Voss is too exhausted to continue! DG: Seraph Clarine is too exhausted to continue! DG: Marivel Armitage is too exhausted to continue! DG: Acacia Saitani is too exhausted to continue! DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Yue Rohay has successfully explored Linaweyul, the First Ordeal!
======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>=======================
==========<* CHALLENGE - The Devil's Arms ~ Fragment of Cowardice *>==========
|Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
What you come upon is a vault. Surrounded by soft streaming veins of pulsing
blue light like within Uzda Il-jam, only somehow more pure, more
concentrated, this place feels like it has been etched into the earth
itself. Rock and stone flow naturally as if nature made this architecture,
natural pillars of minerals and glowing blue crystals surrounding a strange
armory at the very center of this strange place. And it is here that you
find them: an assortment of weapons of dull black, with crystalline violet
substance woven through their workings like a natural part of the weapon
itself -- with eight, strange insets placed on each of the weapons. From
swords, to bows and arrows, to even ARMs -- one can find practically
anything here. All of them seem almost inert, lifeless -- but exuding a soft
sensation of something strangely amiss with them, like they were infused
with something... off.
Behind these weapons is a furnace, burning with a cold, violet light. The
second any of these weapons are taken, the flames bubble forth, and rush
out, surging across the weapon in one's grip to seemingly temper it within
flames that do not burn flesh. When the flame fades, one of those eight
insets has been filled with a softly glowing, violet gem -- one that makes
the off feeling of that weapon abate, just slightly. There is something
unusual about these weapons -- but perhaps it would be best if they were
looked after, at least, until their mystery is solved -- lest they fall into
the wrong hands...
(OOC: Congratulations, you have a Devil's Arm! If you get the reference to
Tales games, good for you, if not -- this will be a sub-plot running through
Uzda Il-jam's challenges, with the chance to get a ~strong lore weapon~ at
the end of it. To those with refined senses, they'd be able to tell there is
a slight presence of Malevolence clinging to the weapon, but it is sealed
and cannot spread. You can feel free to use the weapons right now, too --
they all function as they should. Pick whatever weapon you'd like and
describe them however you want -- the only thing consistent amongst them are
the eight empty insets. Any questions, feel free to ping Dispellado!)
---
In addition, you receive:
Proof of Spiritual Power: Cowardice!
Spiritual power, earned from braving the trial of crippling cowardice!
You can now resist powerful domains!
(OOC: This is a bonus achievement and represents a spiritual empowerment
rather than a concrete reward! If you've already cleared Linaweyul, this
does not apply to you!)
=Dungeon Conditions: Vault====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
"... there are plenty who wish their lot in life could be reversed," Yue remarks to Acacia as she sees her join her with a volley of her pistols, striking the wraith with a kick so as to be open to Loren's potion as he charges in with a blade; she grabs hold of it using one of her heels and forcefully snaps at its wrist as if it were a swordbreaker--
In turn for Marivel to drain its life and for Clarine to assist all of them when they eventually return...
... towards a vault.
Yue groggily shakes her head and rises quietly... and her expression is stern as she looks towards their surrounds, enveloped in streaming veins of blue light. Pure, concentrated, etched from the earth itself...
And with an arsenal of weapons before them.
She's staring at one particular weapon resting upon an old stand that looks as if it's been disturbed before.
A LONG TIME AGO
A hapless Veruni is alone as she cowers on her knees, clutching a dull black blade veined with crystalline violet as she sobs, snot and tears both escaping from her nose and eyes.
"Why... why did you have to leave me alone...?"
NOW
"... you mock me, even now," Yue looks up to the air as she looks towards the sword disturbed from its rest.
Unlike what one might expect of Yue, it doesn't seem to be a pair of heels much like what she uses... but rather a massive two-handed sword with a significant curve on it, with a not-insignificant hook notched upon its blade. Eight slots are drilled upon its blade.
She tilts her head towards the group. Her cucco feather wags up and down gently.
"... within this vault, you might just find what you are looking for... but be careful it does not define you."
A pause to Marivel.
"<This isn't anime. It's real life.>"
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel returns to her form eventually and covers her mouth for a moment with her hand.
Then onward she goes towards the arsenal.
She examines the various weapons upon reaching the vault. She doesn't actually pick up another microphone, instead picking up a thin blade not unlike the one Alucard from the Castlevania Netflix Series uses to throw at people.
And then, Marivel, the singing time traveling vampire, fixes the immortal prisoner who is willingly in jail so she can look after a prepubescant warden.
<"Of course. It's real life. Real life is anime.">
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
"It...i-it is a Hellion in Spirit form... One that can only be interacted with by other spirits." Clarine explains to Loren. She does have a way, but so far it isn't proving to be particularly effective.
And all the while, Marivel's body stares at her. Clarine manages an awkward smile and a wave. ...Is Marivel's body capable of acting independently of her spirit...? Clarine isn't sure, but she didn't want to be rude.
Eventually, the battle is won...but it's draining. And so, they find themselves within a vault.
"This place...it is not what I expected..." Clarine murmurs. "There is...a powerful sense of Malevolence coming from those weapons before us, but...it does not feel as if it is...alive...?"
It's a strange sensation. One in particular seems to call out to her - a mirror. The exterior seems to be formed of black glass, and the interior has a strange pattern etched into it - and on the back, spaced evenly across its perimeter, are a series of insets. The moment she touches it, violet flames consume it - and once they clear, one of those insets is filled with a violet gem.
Clarine lets out a shriek and drops the mirror, scrambling away from it as quickly as possible. ...But not to the flames.
No.
The moment she looks into it, a dragon with opalescent scales and gleaming, golden eyes stares back at her - for this mirror does not reflect reality as it is now, but one's worst possible future, if things in the past had gone differently.
If she had succumbed to the Malevolence at the Fallen Sanctuary, or at some point before...would that be her current state?
It takes a second for her to recover, creeping back toward it and taking it up into her hand.
"These items...have a...s-strange power... I th-think it would be be best...if we held onto them..." Clarine murmurs. "I do not feel comfortable leaving it be."
And, somewhere deep in a part of her, she feels stronger, like she's managed to face a trial and come out victorious...
Does that mean she's conquered her fear of darkness? No - after all, overcoming cowardice was not completely lacking in fear - it was learning how to face those fears head on, even if it seemed like too much to bear.
That was still something she needed to learn...but she was getting there.
<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.
There's a sensation something like a rush of air, and Acacia staggers forwards a couple of steps as she gulps in a few confused breaths, doing her best to recover her bearings and slow the heartbeat she can feel back in her chest, more notable than the absence of it ever was.
A treacherous little part of her is already wondering if she should report on what it's like to be temporarily dead, but that voice gets drowned out by the rest of her as she clutches at her shirt and the skin underneath before her shoulders finally manage to relax.
"--hah... hah... let's not do that again any time soon," she mumbles, but even before she's finished the line the bite has gone entirely from her voice. It's slow, but she's learning to read Marivel and Yue, and the expressions that pass between them are more serious than she'd have expected and more serious than she likes. She almost, almost finds herself asking Yue 'are you alright', but it dies in her throat as the Veruni steps forward, facing down a gigantic blade - one imposing air against another.
Instead, she swallows, and the joke naturally bubbles up before she can stop it. "--last I heard, the only thing we were looking for was 'a bunch of fun that might kill us'," she shoots back, before immediately regretting it. Rather than take it back, she just shakes her head to herself as she steps forwards herself.
Waiting for her is a pen.
It looks as ridiculous as it sounds - black and purple, a fountain pen in style but with a nib much too long for the rest of its form with a series of spherical slots dotted up its length. It positively bristles with spikiness - even the cap looks sharp, the clip jagged and misshapen.
But the reporter can't bring herself to laugh. The moral is all too clear to her even before Yue's warning rings in her ears. She's watched other newspapers twist the truth around to suit them; she's been caught out by her own writing often enough, from upset restaurant owners to angry councilmen--
--to the sight of a trio of Congressional Knights manhandling a young child back into a cell, only for one of them to turn and spot her.
Biting down the wave of nausea, she reaches out, carefully taking the pen into her hand and letting it nestle against her thumb and third finger.
"... you don't have to tell me twice," she mutters. To Yue, to Clarine, and maybe to the thing in her hands.
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Yue pauses once more as Acacia makes that quip, smirking a bit wider as she looks to Clarine's confrontation of a black mirror. She quietly kicks at the blade with a scowl--
And the blade shines with an unearthly unlight as it starts to transform, enveloping itself around her own, current pair of bright steel heels such that she looks like she's wearing...
A Devilish pair of Pradas. The Devil's Legs...?
"... was that not to your liking, perhaps, Milady?" she remarks to Acacia with a quiet and effacing little chuckle. "I shall have to find more lethal venues for us to sport in."
She winks quietly as she looks to Clarine and says, "... well done on a trial bested. You will get there, I am sure of it."
Acacia suggests leaving, to which Yue nods with a chuckle to Marivel. Real life indeed.