2019-10-06: Closest Thing To A Miracle
- Log: Closest Thing To A Miracle
- Cast: Riesenlied, Noeline, Elhaym van Houten, Emeralda Kasim, Xantia, Fei Fong Wong, Citan Uzuki
- Where: Thunder Plains
- Date: October 06, 2019
- Summary: A few of the Black Wolves and adjacent members fall into the depths under Macalania Temple and discover in the depths of the lake a shrine. Several still reeling from the revelations and events from the temple above, they work their way through the temple and their thoughts and feelings alike.
===================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>==================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - Bubbled From Harm *>====================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- You fall. Fall, fall, fall... into the shadowy, sapphire depths of Macalania Lake. Perhaps it was the unending numbers of Odessa's rank and file, filtrating through portals in endless waves. Perhaps it was the tidal wave you scarce outran at the apex of the battle between Lombardia, Queen of the Metal Dragons, and Sin itself. Perhaps the fierce fighting in Macalania Temple has sent you plummeting down to the depths below. Whatever the case may be-- You do not meet a frigid, wet end in this abyss. (BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKOJbeymd4M ) There is a blue light from below. Slowly, but comfortably, a round sphere of water cloaks itself around you. You find yourself dry and with air to breathe, as you descend to the structure of an ancient shrine hidden underneath the frozen surface of Macalania Lake. The bubbles are pliant and sturdy, but impede your movements a little. Try to coax yourself to float down towards the shrine... and keep tabs of who you're with-- So that you do not risk losing each other again. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
The battle against Solaris has ended.
It ends as decisively as it started -- with the very ground that exists vanishing, under so much duress as the Gears of Solaris enter; as Grandgrowl makes its jubilant entrance, along with Commander Ramses; as Odessa and Solaris both ramp up its assault further, and further, and OS creates a nuclear furnace with the combined might of all the mediums--
The ground simply gives way.
Fall, and fall, and fall...
Riesenlied's last vestige of consciousness is being one with Noeline, almost literally -- they were still sharing their senses through their link, and it's only thanks to the cuccoon-like barrier that she's spared a dire hit against the water that would've fractured her.
But the cold is a problem, and exhaustion is another.
And sink, and sink...
"Hey..." grumbles a voice inside. "Hey! This isn't the time to be sleeping!"
The now-white haired Hyadean is encased in a bubble. But she is not conscious right now.
The dead girl from a tribe long forgotten within stirs and looks around the frozen room. "Grr... anyone..." She slumps her head. "Noeline? Id...! Anyone! ...fine time to be a voice in a conked-out head..."
A bubble has surrounded her, but she'll need help as she descends further and further down...
... to what everyone can see -- a glowing blue light; an ancient structure hidden underneath the frozen surface of Lake Malacania.
What is that place?
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline is not immune to the rush of water and the way her consciousness blurs. She's not sure she became fully unconscious - she's a bit hardier than that - but she is injured and hurt, and the sudden impact and rush of water is enough to deaden her senses enough that their shared link saps away the rest of it. A voice at the back of her mind tells her to move, that they're still in danger, but she can't manage to move her limbs.
For all her determination, her body doesn't want to listen to her.
Which is why, when she dimly senses a change in the way they're sinking, she initially chalks it up to a hallucination. The gasp she makes can't be of air, it must be of water, she thinks muzzily, not that either matter significantly to her physical makeup. Right? She thinks so. Hasn't ever really tested, honestly, because it seems like tempting fate.
Then Nasrin's voice cuts into her consciousness over their link, and she jolts as she registers the fact that they're not sinking but being guided instead. "I-- I hear you," she manages as she pushes herself upwards on aching arms, wincing. She reaches for Riesenlied first and foremost, making sure her partner is secure in her arms, then takes stock of where they are.
"... what are we seeing?" she mumbles uncertainly. Whatever it is, Strife is gently bonking against the side of the bubble, propelling them slowly towards the soft light below.
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Strife toward her party's challenge, Bubbled From Harm.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Falling.
Falling.
Falling like... well... like Rigdobrite; and what will it mean for that Guardian, that this has happened to his Shaman? Will the delicious shrimp of the stars feel a backwashed impact?
Elly holds tight to Emeralda. At least she can do that. She can keep the promise she made in that way even if that woman - Tabitha - had done. She holds her breath. She can hold it for a while...
Emeralda will be fine, Elly thinks. There is that.
If it comes to that, Elly thinks, she can probably walk out... the people of Yevon have no dispute with her. I wish I could do more, Elly thinks, eyes closed, before she suddenly enters a zone of air, sliding through the boundary of the doubtless-sorcerous inversion of the typical sphere. In surprise, Elly's embrace weakens -
which means Emeralda -
Elly opens her eyes to see Emeralda plop towards the far end of the bubble. And...
* Elly has gained the title 'MOTY '02'.
... through.
Elly looks to the side, and witnesses that Noeline and Riesenlied are --!! Alive, certainly. Moving. Riesenlied's pancaked but that's not new. Elly looks down and wishes for a moment she had a stick.
(Quietly, her three-section staff appears from hyperspace on the lake bed. Emeralda may be able to retrieve it. It's sparkling a little.)
DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Bubbled From Harm.
<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.
After the battle in Macalenia, Emeralda - clinging to Elly after her vanishment and return - finds herself falling into water - falling through the water, down and down and down.
Emeralda realizes about ten seconds into this that she is still hanging tightly onto Elly, and Elly needs to breathe more than she does, so Emeralda lets go, freeing Elly from a couple hundred pounds of metal hanging onto her leg. She doesn't get very far, though - she just wants a bit of room. She's already shaping her limbs as she frees herself, flattening her feet and hands into flippers so that she can actually push enough to start moving herself upwards. It's not something she really thinks about; Emeralda's manipulation sometimes happens beneath the level of conscious thought.
While Emeralda adjusts herself, she realizes that she (and Elly, if she didn't get far) are being surrounded by a bubble. The bubble is slowing them, guiding them toward the shrine, providing valuable life-giving air. Or at least it's doing that for Elly. Emeralda, heavier, falls right through the bottom of the bubble with a sound best written as
bloop
and simply plummets toward the shrine. Three more bubbles, one after another, try to form around her, but only succeed in adjusting Emeralda's descent path slightly; she falls through each of them in turn with fainter
bloop
bloop
bloop
sounds.
Emeralda isn't sure whether she should be enjoying this or not.
DG: Emeralda Kasim has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Bubbled From Harm.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
The fight in the temple took a lot out of Xantia, both physically and mentally. It wasn't just the fight with the entity that overtook Lydia, ultimately responsible for literally blasting the ground out from under her. She's also come to realize a few things that she can't completely make sense of. Memories you have no idea what to do with are the worst. Especially when you haven't yet had time to properly sort them out. One moment she's fighting, the next she's falling... and now here she is, suddenly bubbled. At least this serves as a pretty massive distraction from her more troubled thoughts, that's not unwelcome right now.
What's happening is certainly a wonder - for a time, Xantia does nothing except look about the underwater surroundings. But as always, she can't remain still for too long. She proceeds to cautiously test her footing, then places her hands on the bubble, careful not to exert too much pressure. Is it possible to guide her movement? What would happen if she pushes against the bubble a little bit more firmly? What if she moves her feet, can she walk to make it to make it move?
Xantia has to try out all these things, if nothing else because it's doing something, and she's a lot better at doing something than she is at doing nothing. It's a toss-up whether the novelty will wear off first, or they'll arrive at wherever they're going first, but one of these will have to happen before she fully takes stock of whole else is all down here with her.
DG: Xantia has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Bubbled From Harm.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Mornin' Nasrin.
Fei was outside stuck fighting Odessa agents. Man, isn't he supposed to be the protagonist of xenogears?? He's kind of doin' a bad job at it! Luckily being bad at being a xenogears protagonist is just canon.
And then of course there Solaris gears. And Fei's reaction was pretty twitchy. He swears to god if Grigori murdered someone else he knew, he'd be real cheesed off!
To compensate for the sudden change of temperature as he hits freezing ater, he shifts his ether patterning towards Sukei and becomes one with ice. He then promptly swims through the water, eyes widening as he sees his friends and starts swiwmming rapidly towards them.
I'd figure you'd be used to it by now but it sure gets old quick.
Regardless, Fei swims his way towards Elly and Emeralda. "Elly! Emeralda!" He calls out, uncertain if he can even communicate properly while stuck in a bubble. He is relatively dry now and uh, breathing, but he can try and do absurd bubble movement mechanics while hoping he doesn't hit a random encounter in the process.
"Are you okay?? I think Riesenlied's knocked out. Is everybody okay? The Wolves? That clerk Krelian who seemed nice??"
He looks around and sees emeralda fall through her bubble.%r"Oh no!" He says.
Fuuuck this is as adorable as it is worrying
That's very worrying. Fei swears under his breath and swoops to try and catch Emeralda which uh probably wouldn't help him any but he's not known for being smrt.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Bubbled From Harm.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
On the up side, Fei now has another part of Erzebet Lefanu's secret new novel in development, Fifty Shades of What The Hell Am I Hungry For (pt 7 of 13).
Elly looks up at the feeling, the sound, of Fei calling. "Fei - I have some bad news -" Elly says, even as she steers towards Fei's bubble. She watches Emeralda, but Emeralda too seems to be okay, if confounding the enchantment.
"... Do you remember how after we had dinner with him, and took the ferry back... I said how funny it was, that there was such a coincidence, that he had the same name as 'that man'?"
Elly looks towards Fei. For a moment her face is lined with horror, dismay, fatigue, and cosmic exposure.
"... It wasn't a coincidence."
"He did something to Lydia Seren - that nice woman with the Carakin, the Baskar with the green hair. She may be dead. I think I killed another of the Gebler officers," Elly continues. "... we probably shouldn't worry about it right now. There has to be a way back to the surface, if only for the Summoners, right?"
DG: Elhaym van Houten has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Bubbled From Harm.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
The wave of water had taken them -- Xantia and himself -- back to the temple.
Lily had been awaiting them there. And it had become immediately clear that something had been taking place within the temple.
Something that Fei should not be a part of, he had rapidly determined, and he had sought out Fei.
Perhaps he should have evacuated the area with him and anyone else he could have found. But even that became moot, when the Gears had arrived. They had been forced to lay low.
And then everything had fallen apart.
He falls, and not for the first time in his life, Citan Uzuki is left with the nagging sense of concern that this may be the end for him set alongside naked curiosity over just what will, precisely, happen next.
It seems that there is water below. Water below the ice -- ah, but that does make sense, he cannot help but mull as he continues to fall. When a pond freezes over, it does not do so entirely--
But he does not hit the water's surface. Not with his body, as such, that is. He's become encased in a bubble, somehow, which cushions the impact considerably when he touches down. Though not the chill as such. Particularly when they continue to sink.
Once they get through this, he decides, he is without question going to find some way to obtain a hot tea.
"Fei? --Elly!" Xantia, too, he notes, gazing out through the faintly distorted membrane of the bubble. ...It's fairly resistant, he quickly determines.
But not enough to keep Emeralda from, well, phasing through hers. "--This is not good!" the doctor utters, and perhaps out of a need to do something here delivers a kick to the bubble membrane to attempt to get some application of physics working here.
It might be a good thing that he can't overhear Elly from here.
Then again it would only serve to confirm much of what he's already determined.
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Martial Arts Shoes toward his party's challenge, Bubbled From Harm.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Suddenly Xantia-bubble is right there near Elly-bubble and Fei-bubble. Seemingly purely out of the strong need to insist, "No, Lydia's fine! Well, not fine, but, she's there, we can get her back! Also if I see that guy again I'm going to punch him, just so you know." Only then does do other matters come to her attention. Such as, "...Where are we? How is this happening? Where'd Fei and Doc come from? What is going on!?"
===================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>==================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - Bubbled From Harm *>====================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- You fall. Fall, fall, fall... into the shadowy, sapphire depths of Macalania Lake. Perhaps it was the unending numbers of Odessa's rank and file, filtrating through portals in endless waves. Perhaps it was the tidal wave you scarce outran at the apex of the battle between Lombardia, Queen of the Metal Dragons, and Sin itself. Perhaps the fierce fighting in Macalania Temple has sent you plummeting down to the depths below. Whatever the case may be-- You do not meet a frigid, wet end in this abyss. (BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKOJbeymd4M ) There is a blue light from below. Slowly, but comfortably, a round sphere of water cloaks itself around you. You find yourself dry and with air to breathe, as you descend to the structure of an ancient shrine hidden underneath the frozen surface of Macalania Lake. The bubbles are pliant and sturdy, but impede your movements a little. Try to coax yourself to float down towards the shrine... and keep tabs of who you're with-- So that you do not risk losing each other again. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
==============<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial - Round 1 *>=============== =======================< Results - Bubbled From Harm >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Riesenlied 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Emeralda Kasim 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Xantia 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Citan Uzuki 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Martial Arts Shoes 2 Agility Effects: Resilient ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Noeline 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Strife 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elhaym van Houten 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fei Fong Wong 0 --(0)--> 0 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Riesenlied 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(2) Effects: Resilient(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Riesenlied has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Elly is falling, embracing Emeralda. She wishes she had a stick... but the three-sectioned staff chases after her, as if magic. Emeralda lets go so she's not potentially squeezing the air out of Elly, using her nanomachine body to transform into something wondrous and suited for water... but she's still falling.
Xantia tests her bubble out, but eventually finds that it's not too much of a problem; she pokes and prods at it and it guides her down, and close to the others.
Fei focuses on aligning his Ether with ice and water to protect himself; he swims towards his friends and reconnects with his family, but doesn't quite reach his robot daughter immediately!
Elly delivers some explanation about the nature of Krelian, and Citan arrives to call out to the others, kicking against the membrane and chasing down after her.
Emeralda lands down at the bottom first -- and everyone finds themselves mysteriously dry and able to breathe, around the equally enigmatic force surrounding the ancient Temple awaiting them.
Nasrin blinks a few times. "Y-you can...?" she asks of Noeline, and then Id speaks up as well. There is a moment of silence. "You... you made me wait. Hmph."
Noeline takes hold of Riesenlied, who is... very much out cold throughout all this -- but as Strife guides them down, she starts to stir as she lies against the ancient floor of the Temple.
"Mm..." she stirs very quietly, blinking once, twice. "Where...?"
It is, perhaps, the closest thing that can be called to a miracle -- that they are together still, safe and sound, after all that. But what lies ahead...?
DG: Emeralda Kasim has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>===================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Slopeway to Heaven *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- A free-flowing waterfall roars throughout this open cavern, leading to an enormous sprawl of... ramps. The classic mechanism of raising and lowering one's elevation, Stairs, is inconspiciously absent. One has to wonder whether the ancients ever discerned that Drifters challenging their locales have different needs and that it would be terribly ableist to assume that every hero is of able body. For all their lost technology and ancient wisdom, these advances in design space tend to be missing... As such, ramps! Wondrous slopes of accessible incline! Myriad planes that criss and cross, up and down, allowing even the disadvantaged to get around just fine. Just, uh... This astonishing tangle of different paths... is still incredibly confusing. But at least they're accessible. Because you /deserve/ this! =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.
*thomp*
Emeralda touches down, ahead of the others thanks to the wonders of relative density while passing through a fluid medium but having successfully slowed herself to a gentle landing with her flipper-limbs. She has stepped on the staff. (It's fine; it hit some mud and she didn't break it, just buried it.) She picks it up after a moment of turning her hands, turning it left and right. She knows this stick. But how did it get here...?
By the time the others land, she is waving brightly. "Hey! Heeeey!" she calls up, apparently none the worse for wear from the events a few minutes ago or just now. She's still worried about Lydia, but Lydia isn't here, and the Wolves are. "Fei! You came too! And everybody!"
Emeralda points with the staff inside, where she has already stuck her head in. "Look, there's slopes, you can skate!" Emeralda runs, not walks, toward the entrance, leading into the big room with a million maze-like slopes, some of which have water flowing down across or them.
Indeed, one of the ones near the entrance has a downward flow, and Emeralda is busily trying to skid down it like it was a hardwood floor and she had new socks to break in. It might be a good idea to follow (and probably point her the right direction) before she gets too far out of sight, because once she does hide...
Well, it's going to be a little harder to find her again.
DG: Emeralda Kasim has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Slopeway to Heaven.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
...
...
...
FEI PSYCHO 60
"Krelian but..." Fei stammers. "You're saying he's actually with them?" He is at a loss for words for a while in shock before, after several moments, he grumps, "We should've let Guba hit him with the ball. And Lydia's--" Oh dead? Oh not dead! Okay. Honestly Lydia was always kind of grouchy at Fei for some reason. Almost like Fei may have maybe blown up Wayside and she never really forgave him? Yeah it's a bit like that. But on the plus side, she's his alt so there's nothing she can do about it!! And apparently stuck with Solaris now? Maybe he'll worry about riesenlied's family later, he guiltily reflects, he has his own to worry about right now...not to mention the half of Riesenlied's family that is HERE.
"Careful Emeralda! There might be traps!" He looks to Elly and gives a small shrug to her. "One of these days it'd be nice to go into one of these horrifying ruins intentionally rather than because the floor exploded huh?"
Sorry. I had to think about stuff
Fei rubs at his forehead briefly, glancing over to Riesenlied a few times uncertainly before adding, "Hey...Riese? You okay to move?" He frowns faintly as he draws out his art supplies and starts working on a map.
"This could be a bit rough." He murmurs. "Do you need help moving?"
He looks to Citan, smiling faintly. "Heh, with Doc here, at least we probably won't have too much to worry about but lets be careful, alright?"
DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool Artist's Toolkit toward his party's challenge, Slopeway to Heaven.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"... somewhat," corrects Noeline, because the more she tries to think about it and the more she registers Riesenlied as actually being unconscious, the more Nasrin's voice slips away from her. She's kind of encountered this before when she was learning to control her own sorcery - likening it to water in her hands, and the tighter you grip onto it, the more it slips away. Besides, concern is overriding the rest of her senses right now, especially as she feels Riesenlied start to stir.
It's something of a rush, going from one set of senses to two, even if both are a little dulled; she gasps slightly, but is quick to kneel next to Riesenlied and help the other Hyadean up into her arms, all while staring around her at the miraculous underwater structure they seem to have alighted upon. "Emeralda, hello," she greets with a soft laugh, not really sure what else there is to even say-- and then the girl has fled off in excitement, leaving her to carefully and gingerly stand up.
She'd love to rely on her bravado, but now isn't the time, and she chuckles softly towards Fei. "... I may need some help later," she admits, because her arms are aching and she's terribly tired - but still, she seems resolute in carrying her beloved as long as she can, taking the opportunity to brush her hand through Riese's newly-white hair and stare at the carefully ordered structure. "... if we still had the wheelchair with us, it would be perfect," she notes with a faint chuckle.
DG: Noeline has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Slopeway to Heaven.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"... ... ... it's still nice to see you," answers the frozen girl quietly to Noeline. She pauses when Id apologises to her, and she shakes her head. "... and you." A beat. "I was lonely."
Riesenlied can vaguely hear Emeralda's exuberant cry; it's heartwarming and invigorating in a way, especially for her -- for a moment it makes her mistake that this was all a dream, and she's back in Djose and hearing the laughter and cry of children.
But this isn't. It's cold, and she hears the rush of water.
She's helped into Noeline's arms as Fei asks with concern. "I can't move right now..." she admits. "But I'll help find our way around."
Her partner moves her hair through her white one, and-- it's with a blink and a stammer of pure instinct: "I... I can dye it back, Noeline."
She notices that Elly and Citan have gathered too, giving them a quiet wave flushed with relief. "I'm so glad you're here too..."
Right now, though... she's not quite able to make heads or tails of the slope-like structure around them -- which she appreciates, quietly. And as Noeline says -- if only the wheelchair was here. So instead she closes her eyes and focuses on the Medium of Life...
"...oh border of life..."
So that she can at least heal the wounded amongst them -- herself and Noeline included.
DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool Heritor's Regalia toward her party's challenge, Slopeway to Heaven.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"He has to have been," Elly says to Fei, quietly. "I don't know what's going on. We got into the temple and he'd done that, they had some kind of a -dimensional anomaly- and they were able to bring other people in through it..."
She takes a deep breath. And then she laughs, though it's almost a sob. "Yeah," she says, "in... in hindsight... we should have." Her lips purse, as if she wants to smile a little but doesn't quite have it in her to do it.
As they emerge, Elly folds her arms, loosely. She looks at her feet, though she does look up to smile at Xantia and to greet Dr. Uzuki. "Doctor, there's something you should know -"
...
"... and then the Gebler gears attacked, which I suppose you observed," Elly says, having recounted the events of the previous scenario. "I don't understand all of this, but I know Krelian must have returned to Filgaia, or possibly to some kind of craft. For right now, I think we should focus on Macalania... If that was really Grandgrowl, then that means the other Elements could be here, too."
DG: Elhaym van Houten has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Slopeway to Heaven.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Somehow, they've found themselves at some sort of structure at the bottom of this body of water. This should probably alarm Xantia at least a little, but it doesn't at all. In fact, very little is currently bothering her at all. As much as she has on her mind right now, all those things can wait. Right now, in spite of everything, she feels happy. She's easily affected by Emeralda's cheerful attitude, and besides... whoever else she might be, right now she's just someone who wants to be with her friends.
Heck, she doesn't even feel her injuries anymore! It's like magic! Which, you know, actually was exactly that, but she's not really focused on things like that right now.
Her attention is instead of what lies ahead. Since she's in a good mood again now, it doesn't take much coaxing to get her go along with a suggestion to do something fun. "Skate, you say?" Her grin widens when she sees the obstacle course ahead. Emeralda has a head start, and while this may not have been declared an official race, she decides to try and catch up. So down she goes, sliding down the first watery slope with a "Wheeeeeeeeee~"
Then she encounters the next one, sloping up, but with water flowing down. Xantia is surprised to find that running up something like that is next to impossible, moving her feet without getting anywhere for a while before she slips and falls on her face, slowly sliding down.
"Owww... the road to heroism is a slippery slope," she mutters, finally understanding one of those many phrases she read. Well, she feels like she understands it now, anyway.
Of course this is only a minor setback. She's up again in no time, ready to try... a different route, this time. Hopefully she'll figure out a path that works sooner rather than later.
DG: Xantia has used her Tool Hero's Phrasebook toward her party's challenge, Slopeway to Heaven.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
They reach the temple buried beneath the icy waters. Citan drops a short distance to land easily on the floor below, sparing a glance upwards to the waters now overhead. Thoughtfully, he rubs at his chin.
"Sorcery, is it...?" he muses, before turning his attention outwards, in search of Emeralda.
Who certainly seems lively enough. But--
"Emeralda, do be careful! We know not where we are, or what hazards there may be-- ah," says the man who is a father of a young child himself, and has just been reminded of what they can get up to.
Though, Midori always was a more quiet child, come to think of it...
He glances back at Fei, who is moving to help Riesenlied stand.
"Do you need assistance? Are you able to stand? It is a pity we do not have your wheelchair," remarks the doctor, who has been aware for some time of Riesenlied's... limitations.
It's a shame that he's essentially learning as he goes about Hyadaen physiology.
But Elly intercepts him first. There is much that he should know.
...
"I had feared as much," he says at length, once she has finished filling him in. "With the presence of a Gebler officer with Yevon, and the dead soldiers in the mines... and of course, that name. But I could not be certain without investigating further and in this... I was prevented." He bows his head, as if in contrition. "I am sorry. ...But I believe you are correct, Elly. It is likely that the other Elements are here. If they are, then 'he'... Ramses... will be here as well." His expression is a grim one. "It is best that we head onwards. I do not think they will seek us down here -- or that they know this place exists -- but it is best to put as much distance between them as possible. They have Gears," he says, as if that settles it, "and we do not."
He strides a distance from her, regarding the slopes. Of course the problem is now... 'which way do they go'.
"Perhaps..." he muses after a moment's reflecting, before retrieving from his pack his camera. It's as dry as a bone, despite an earlier soaking from Sin. "It is a fortunate thing it was not damaged," he remarks, then smiles wryly. "It was rather expensive to purchase," he says, of the camera. A simple country doctor does not make much in the way of wages, when compared to an urban practitioner.
He does not take a photograph, instead fiddling with the lens as if to use it to sight the various paths at a distance.
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Strauss Camera toward his party's challenge, Slopeway to Heaven.
====================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>===================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Slopeway to Heaven *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- A free-flowing waterfall roars throughout this open cavern, leading to an enormous sprawl of... ramps. The classic mechanism of raising and lowering one's elevation, Stairs, is inconspiciously absent. One has to wonder whether the ancients ever discerned that Drifters challenging their locales have different needs and that it would be terribly ableist to assume that every hero is of able body. For all their lost technology and ancient wisdom, these advances in design space tend to be missing... As such, ramps! Wondrous slopes of accessible incline! Myriad planes that criss and cross, up and down, allowing even the disadvantaged to get around just fine. Just, uh... This astonishing tangle of different paths... is still incredibly confusing. But at least they're accessible. Because you /deserve/ this! =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
===============<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial - Round 2 *>================ ========================< Results - Slopeway to Heaven >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riesenlied 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Heritor's Regalia 3 Wits Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Emeralda Kasim 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Xantia 0 --(0)--> 0 Fail Hero's Phrasebook 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Citan Uzuki 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Strauss Camera 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Noeline 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elhaym van Houten 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fei Fong Wong 0 --(0)--> 0 Fail Artist's Toolkit 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Riesenlied 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(2) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Riesenlied has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Fei Fong Wong has drawn a new Challenge.
===================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>==================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Hundredpede *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- (IMG: https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/faqs/57/72557-129.jpg ) The unpleasant noise of a hundred chitinous legs clicking against stone heralds the coming of this enormous centipede Fiend, the Hundredpede. Though as Armengard would be hasty to point out, centi- means hundred regardless, so it's essentially just a Centipede. Whichever pede it is, it's impeding your way. Unpede it. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.
Emeralda skids ahead a bit but actually waits for people to catch up, understanding that a) the adults aren't going to skate, because they are SQUARES, and more importantly b) many of them are hurt. Even Emeralda isn't in perfect shape; it's just harder to tell with her because she has a tendency to look fine right until she falls over and shuts down for a while for self-repair.
This also means she watches Xantia skid trying to run *up* a flowing slope. One way only, apparently! "Maybe if you climbed up the edge?" Emeralda says, thoughtfully, meaning the railing. But that definitely sounds like a bad idea, especially when she looks over the side and down. A long way.
Fei's map may not be the most extensive, since they haven't gotten far into the shrine yet, but it's definitely enough to keep them going for now. Of course filling it out involves some errors, but you want a complete map, don't you? DON'T YOU?
Noeline and Riesenlied make their way further in, Riesenlied in Noeline's arms. (This is a primary reason Emeralda slowed down.) Concern - for each other, for the group - is paramount, and Riesenlied's quiet blessing spreads health throughout the party, reinvigorating them.
Elly provides valuable exposition for Citan while Citan uses his camera to take sightings. The exposition is lost on Emeralda (probably useful for everyone else who wasn't at the last battle, though) but the sightings prove useful; Citan spots a way into the next area, and it's not that far a hike, even if it does involve some more slopes.
Dry ones, at least. No more slipping.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
I know what I gotta do now
"Oh geeze." Fei says. "The Elements. They're a bit much, huh?" He doesn't seem to have the same kind of rage for them that he has for other Solarians but that might be because usually he ends up getting stabbed by Ramses while they're around, well, they don't seem that bad. Well, Seraphita doesn't seem that bad. She's a rabbit piloting a lion ok.
Fei gives Elly a small squeeze on the shoulder.
He can't help but crack a smile as Citan also gets into dad mode. Sure, he knows Citan can be a bit brusque sometimes and maybe take too long to say some things, but his family seems pretty loving. Well cared for. It gnaws at him that he may be a large part of why Citan doesn't get to see them right now.
He hopes they're okay. But he imagines they wouldn't want to see him right now anyway.
"I wonder... if it's just going to end up like Kislev and Aveh at this rate. If it was just the Guard fighting Yevon I don't think they'd stand a chance but with their respective backers and Odessa just making a mess of everything in between... this war could just go on forever, couldn't it?" He looks to Elly. "But ... It's hard to imagine why they'd send someone like Krelian over for that. I wonder if there's something else they were after too."
Something that brought them... to this temple, perhaps?
Fei knows to do a proper map you have to fill in every square as you move and even fill in the lines on the side since it won't do that automatically and you have to put the doors too and everything.
And then Fei nearly walks into a centipede.
No, a centipede the size of a hundred centipedes! A Hundredpede!
"Uh..." Fei says, holding up his RPS Badge.
"R...Rock Paper Scissors?"
This could be a tough one, Fei thinks!
DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool RPS Badge toward his party's challenge, Hundredpede.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"Heroism is a slippery slope...?" Riesenlied muses aloud herself, closing her eyes as she looks towards some of the slopes that Xantia is trying to get up and over -- and then slipping down, with a quiet wince.
Maybe that really is the case...
She kind of knows what that's like, doesn't she?
She looks charmed at Emeralda and Xantia's play, though; she looks to Citan as she murmurs, "I don't feel steady enough to be on my feet right now. ... I misplaced Jay's potions..."
The Hyadean looks towards Strife, which may be an option once Noeline gets too tired to keep carrying her. "I won't be a burden," she reassures, for herself as much as others.
Elly explains some things to them. "... the one who manipulated Lydia. 'Krelian'. So that's his name. There was-- that young man too. Thomas. The young man I saw once with..." Riesenlied's brow creases. She feels a beat as a darker thought passes. She looks a bit timidly towards Fei.
"The masked one... who killed my father."
She tries to not sink into that anger too much. A love that won't get angry... But it's hard to be properly angry, she's finding.
She shies away from the thought, especially because--
"Wah!"
Riesenlied instinctually yelps about insects. It's a thing. "Umm--!!" she panickedly waves some barriers around random people, shoo, shoo!!
DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Hundredpede.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly, continuing her candidacy for Mom of the Year, steps forwards - staying near to Dr. Uzuki, for at least the moment, and looking rather harried. She has reason, at least. And what makes it all worse: The wine is probably wearing off at this point.
The ramps are convenient, and easy walking too. Elly doesn't remark on them - but she's thinking of something else entirely. Namely: Wouldn't it be absurd to imagine Lulu, who does not seem to have a remarkably variant form of dress for Spira, walking up a flight of stairs? Like a plebian?
"I don't even understand what they want here," Elly says, almost imploringly. She leans back against Fei for a moment. "Are they going to abandon Filgaia? Did they just not have any idea about life on Lunar? I find that hard to believe... it never came up in Jugend, but they have to have been aware of the situation up here, right?"
RIGHT?
RIGHT???
"..."
"'Thomas' is an alias," Elly says. "His real name is Loren Voss. We went to the same academy - that's the Jugend that I mentioned. He, um," Elly looks back down, "hates, me, I thought I'd killed him." (One day Elly will assume she didn't kill somebody and that will be the day on which she actually did.)
And then she looks up at the hyakucentipede. "..."
Elly takes a deep breath and lets her eyes flutter closed. She doesn't have her staff back, but she has something almost as good. A sense of renewal, of barriers broken, of a thing that she has reclaimed. However imperfect or clumsy, it was certainly enough a minute ago. And so she prays -
Unlimited Flame Works.
A gout of Etheric flame - smaller, sure, than the phoenix she'd composed, and certainly less than the screaming pieces of metal-vaporizing heat she'd thrown around, but ALSO definitely a good ol' standard Ether effect - erupts beneath the creature's hind thorax.
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Three-Section Staff toward her party's challenge, Hundredpede.
<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.
Emeralda Kasim heard that name this time, because she waited for the group to catch up, eventually. And maybe she still wants to be close to Elly. She *did* just disappear and reappear in front of her, after all. Emeralda deserves to be a little clingy.
"Krelian..."
Emeralda trails off, then: "I remember him. He came to see me, once, when I wasn't awake yet. He said... things to me." She does not say what those things were. She can't - many of them were in Solarian, and the few things she understood, she doesn't remember all of. He said that she was -
No. Not now.
She shakes her head. "Am sorry," she says, anxious enough that she's dropping words again. She sounds uncomfortable... and, moments later, when someone yelps about a bug, she's almost relieved for the distraction.
Emeralda's response is swift; she retrieves a crystalline lump, a fragment from Crescens' Ether amplifier, and presents it strongly. So strongly that a gout of fire blasts out from it, a sustained stream like a flamethrower. "Bugs are gross!!" she declares. Not that this stops her from poking at them regularly, but...
Well, it's different when it's bigger than she is.
DG: Emeralda Kasim has used her Tool Large Etherstone toward her party's challenge, Hundredpede.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
With a quiet chuckle to herself, Noeline nods gently. Even if her hold on Nasrin's voice is slippery, she whispers it regardless, hoping and knowing that the girl will be able to hear somehow. "... and you, as well. Thank you for everything - and in the times to come, too. It's good to know you're there."
hen she's blinked back to reality, such as it is, her eyebrows raised high as she suddenly huffs. "Surely you don't think I'm so vain as to make you do something like that?" she grumbles, and leans in to place a kiss at the hairline of white that Riesenlied now has. "You are you, and I accept all of you. Whatever colour your hair happens to be, or whatever you youself wish it to be."
There's a pause, and she can't help the faint grin to bolster Riese's spirits against her anger. "We just got done telling that to our daughter," she adds as a tease.
She positively nestles into Odoryuk's light; there's a slightly different feel to it now that Riesenlied's course is clearer, and she welcomes it as she feels it knit her resolve back together, lending an ear towards Elly's tale if she permits.
"'Inwards' would probably be the best, Doctor. Not even for shelter's sake - this is not the first turn we've fallen into an underwater ruin and found a way back home," says the Hyadean, with a look on her face that suggests a little in the way of distaste.
At least she's quick to turn upbeat again, snorting in amusement at the sight of Xantai braving the flowing slope and offering Emeralda a thankful smile as she waits for them. "You're not," she promises Riese softly, shortly before her eyes cloud at the talk of the Watcher; she lets out a breath as she gently feels for her partner's emotions. "And... I think it would be understandable to be angry at them."
"I'm sure they must be looking for something in specific," she adds towards Fei and Citan as she gently shifts Riese to one arm, making a noise of effort as her enormous sword appears in the other. For a moment, she draws strength from her link, concentrates on the ring on her finger. "The way that they have descended on Spira... it isn't like Solaris at all to show themselves, I feel. They'd much rather stoke the flames."
She lunges afterwards. The slab of metal is not great at cutting, but very good at ... squishing...
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Rings of Promise toward her party's challenge, Hundredpede.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia soon decides that this obstacle course wasn't as fun as it first appeared when it proves difficult to figure out how to get from one side to the other without slipping. After a few failures and serious thought about trying Emeralda's suggestion to get up to some crazy climbing stunts, the rest of the group has caught up. And they brought a hand-crafted map, which makes her decide it's okay to handle this one more carefully. As counter-intuitive as that is. She's not too happy about having to resort to that, but whatever works.
Though up until then seeming more interested in exploring, she looks over as the topic of conversation shifts to the Solarians involved in the fight. Krelian, she got a good look at, and is already first in line for a good punching. Thomas... is a name she knows, but she didn't actually see him, so her mind doesn't immediately go to 'that' Thomas as being this Loren that is spoken of. But she'll probably find out the hard way one day. The third, however...
"The masked one..." Though restraining her questions, she has plenty of reason to feel enmity towards whoever that might be. They hurt many people she cares about. Directly seeking revenge isn't on her mind, but, well, should she get the chance to make sure they won't hurt anyone else...
Never mind any of that right now though, there's a giant bug to fight! At least Xantia is happy to have a random encounter happening, her ARM activating instantly, the energy blade tinting the immediately surroundings red. And of course needing to correct a common misconception: "No, Emeralda, that's not true. Bugs are delicious."
Thankfully stabbing it over and over with an energy blade is likely to cause it to burst into pyreflies, so we won't run into a 'Xantia no' situation here.
DG: Xantia has used her Tool ARM Blade toward her party's challenge, Hundredpede.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"I see. I am sorry. I do not have anything on me that may help. If need be, I am not so old yet that I cannot assist," he offers, glancing her and Noeline's way. Though, perhaps with Trouble, she has the situation well enough in hand.
He sets himself to working out which way they should head instead. Citan lowers the camera after a moment, his expression a touch distance, as if he is in thought. "That one. We should head downwards along it," he says.
The masked one. His brow furrows; he says nothing.
He's still in the process of packing his camera up that he again offers his thoughts on the matter to Fei and the others:
"Whether or not they knew of life on Lunar, I cannot say. Spira at least was a surprise to me -- and I knew of Glenwood and Meribus thanks to Fei." He, after all, had not made that journey with them, the first time. Still, he inclines his head in a slow thoughtful nod. "It is possible. Without more information about their movements, I cannot say. What their intentions were... what they knew. ...It concerns me," he adds, standing once again, "that Elly or I were unable to note any presence of Solaris in Spira other than a few individuals until recently. Either they were hiding themselves very well, or..."
He shakes his head.
"In any case, we must not linger here. Even without the possibility of Gebler on our heels, there could be other hazards." He glances at Noeline. "Indeed. That also is a distinct possibility."
Speak of the devil.
"Oh dear."
He extends an arm, as if to take care of Riesenlied from her as the Hundredpede looms before them. It is distinctly likely that he will not get the opportunity, though.
And so it is entirely likely he watches on as the others engage the creature, readying Ether to mend wounds should the battle go poorly.
And watching, in interest, as Elly reignites her once-lost power.
DG: Citan Uzuki has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Hundredpede.
===================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>==================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Hundredpede *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- (IMG: https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/faqs/57/72557-129.jpg ) The unpleasant noise of a hundred chitinous legs clicking against stone heralds the coming of this enormous centipede Fiend, the Hundredpede. Though as Armengard would be hasty to point out, centi- means hundred regardless, so it's essentially just a Centipede. Whichever pede it is, it's impeding your way. Unpede it. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
==============<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial - Round 3 *>=============== ==========================< Results - Hundredpede >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Riesenlied 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Emeralda Kasim 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Large Etherstone 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Xantia 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass ARM Blade 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Citan Uzuki 0 --(0)--> 0 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Noeline 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rings of Promise 4 Combat Effects: Efficient and Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elhaym van Houten 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Three-Section Staff 1 Combat Effects: Stalwart and Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fei Fong Wong 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass RPS Badge 3 Combat Effects: Rally ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Riesenlied 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(1)|Wound(2) Effects: Embolden(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Riesenlied has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Well at the very least they must've figured it out when we first ended up there... but Krelian was working for a 'Maester', right? Even if he's a big shot in Solaris, it's not like he can just go to a religion out of the blue and get that job easily right? Maybe they've been planning to start trouble up here for a while now even if it hasn't been that long. Comparatively speaking.
He hears more about Krelian. He grabs at his arm. He is reminded of Siegfried's death.
And then Emeralda says she TOO knows of Krelian.
Which means...
"Krelian... he's the one who took you from that ruin...? Had them take you...had you..."
He trails off.
FEI PSYCHO 70
Fei shakes his head, slowly, and then punches the fiend in the schnoz. Like Goku!
If it troubles Citan it troubles Fei but he knows all too well that overthinking Solarian activity will just get him riled up.
Xantia gets severeal stabs in on the fiend which surely help in its ultimate decorporealization and Noeline lending a hand is certainly welcome. Especially since a bigger sword just means it's to scale in a situation like this.Emeralda's ether unleashes a wave of fire and then Elly joins in with her own.
"Oh wow!" Fei says."I'm guessing you're fully recovered!"
And sure enough the fiend is shortly eradicated.
Fei places a hand briefly on Riesenlied's shoulder.
"We'll just have to ask Krelian himself one day why he's doing all this," He says. "Possibly by writing it on a large rock we drop on him. I can't forgive him messing around with Emeralda like that."
DG: Elhaym van Houten has drawn a new Challenge.
===================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>==================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - Make Haste Slowly *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Right down this hallway, up the next, twist around towards this next room and... Ah. Back where you started. The Shrine of the Water Trial, for all its advanced and mystical origin, is quite the excruciating building to navigate. Perhaps it is the watery reflections that confound the senses. Perhaps the way the passages twist and turn and lead to one another, bereft of landmarks. You'd best act fast with your backtracking, while the temple's corridors are fresh in your mind. This is not just a physical trial, but one of mental acuity too. Make haste slowly. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"... Well, I don't know about that," Elly says, glancing down.
* Cast speed +300%
"But it's better than it was, at least."
The big Fiend - or whatever it is -- could it be a Fiend, here, in the temple of Yevon? -- goes down. As the Pyreflies rise, Elly watches them, wondering to herself. She breathes out, and looks around, and she says, "I'm sorry. All of you. We should have let Guba brain him."
"... But even in Solaris, he's just known as one of the advisors to the Ministry," Elly says. "I had never seen him before. And while he does look like most First Class citizens, well, so does Cecilia, so do a lot of people..." Weird, Elly thinks as they move on. I never saw that before. She files the thought away.
".. I...." Elly looks at the ground again.
She seems to lapse silent there, out of words, perhaps out of energy. She doesn't burst into tears again (and the passage through lake water did clean her face) but perhaps she's just running out of things to say, ways to apologize. Her arms fold, a little tightly.
She keeps walking ahead, as straight as she can.
...
Except that...
As the group moves through those halls, it's dashed peculiar indeed. There's this one particular space, where someone else must have encountered a similar creature. Yuna, perhaps? And dealt with it by flame.
By the second time it comes around it is pretty obvious that, no, that wasn't that "Yuna did the same general thing twenty minutes ago," that's absolutely the same dirty burn marks on the stonework that the gruesome twosome left behind while burninating it.
DG: Elhaym van Houten has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Make Haste Slowly.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Emeralda's exhultation that bugs are gross kind of gets a smile from Riesenlied, who indeed also thinks the same but also it's kind of mean to bugs, they can't help the way they look... ... it's complicated.
Noeline points out that they just got done telling OS that they accept all of her, no matter which identity, and which part of her and that she's being hypocritical; the reaction is an obviously flush colour on her cheeks as she stammers, "... maybe I just feel a bit bad about it." Grump.
She sneaks a kiss in turn, because she's rather needy at present.
Thank you, Nasrin, she whispers to herself.
"... that's true. There was Azado," Riesenlied speaks. "B-but if we go inside... what--"
She swallows. "What will happen to the Fereshte? We can't just leave without Janey and Mikaia and--"
She yelps because Noeline's charged forward to squish the bug, it's too extreme! Help help help!!
...
One bug later...
She looks to Xantia's reaction of 'the masked one', but... then Elly explains that Thomas is just a psuedonym. "Loren..." she quietly murmurs. "So that is his name...?" A pause. "The one you said -- tried to kill you and Fei."
She clams up a little because her anger at Krelian is unsettling her a lot; Elly explains further, about how he's one of the advisors. She feels Fei's hand on her shoulder when he says one day they'll get a chance to ask, and Citan's reassurances. "... okay," she nods. A pause, as she tilts her head and watches him take pictures.
A pause, as she realises once they turn and move...
"Doctor, when I think about your last picture..."
Riesenlied tilts her head.
"I think we've come around in a circle. Maybe we can use them to stop us from going astray?"
DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Make Haste Slowly.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Darnit, Xantia forgot she was still in Spira for a second. Even things that look like they might taste good are often just completely pointless. Is it any wonder she wants to get out of this place?
But a fight is a fight, and a fight like this tends to improve her mood either way. Everyone helping, over in a flash... well okay, it would've been nice if it'd been a bit more challenging, but she'll take what she can get.
Energy blade dissolving afterwards, Xantia turns to Fei at his remark on Krelian, responding eagerly, "Oh, I can do the rock dropping thing if you do the writing on it thing!" Has she gotten better at humor, or is she still completely serious about everything she says? Sometimes it's hard to tell. Especially when she addresses Elly next: "Oh, you know Guba? He's great, isn't he? What a hero!"
But then, whoa, wait a minute, this Loren was trying to kill Elly and Fei? That draws Xantia's attention. She doesn't say anything about that, all she does is look, but it's not hard to tell from just that what she thinks about people who are trying to kill Elly and Fei.
Instead, what she says is, "We should... probably talk sometime, Elly. About Solaris." She doesn't elaborate further at this time. But chances are that Elly heard Xantia speaking in Solarian back there. That does seem like something that should be talked about.
For the time being, however... she looks surprised when Riesenlied points out they've been going in circles. Then she frowns, and sighs. "Do we have to make another map?" And by 'we', she means 'Fei'. Xantia doesn't do maps. But even if she didn't notice they went in a circle, she does remember which way they went last time, indicating that direction. "So it's not that way... so, maybe we should go right this time?"
DG: Xantia has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Make Haste Slowly.
<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.
Bugs are gross but they can still be cool. However, the ones attacking people lose that privilege, Emeralda thinks. Whether that puts her in opposition to Riesenlied - well, that's yet to be determined.
Does Emeralda know why Krelian wanted her? No. Not even what she was told - or what happened to her - can help her with that.
She knows that something she said made Fei unhappy, though, and so she stays quiet(er) for a few moments at least. Her Etherstone ends up in her pocket again; she ends up passing Elly's staff back and forth between her hands for something to do with them while they walk. She stays close to Elly. It's almost like something happened!
...wait, did she tell Fei that? Well, she's certainly not going to right now!
It actually only takes the first loop around for Emeralda to pause, looking long and thoughtfully at the burn marks. But she keeps going with the group. "Guba is pretty good," she agrees. "He isn't afraid of Sin or anything! Everyone else is - even I am a little - but not him! He threw the ball, like, pow!"
The party loops around again. This time Emeralda stops, hands on her hips. "I have seen this before," she declares, before looking straight at Fei. He did have the map, right? ...right? She starts walking in different directions, hesitating before continuing in case someone can tell her which way to go.
DG: Emeralda Kasim has used her Tool H&S Badge toward her party's challenge, Make Haste Slowly.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline accepts the doctor's comment with a nod of her head. "The best way I could put it is that... Odessa and Solaris both seem content to scorched-earth every notion Spira has about the world - its technology, the power of its Aeons, its connection to the outside world. That seems very much like an Odessa thing to do - but not so much Solaris. Which leads me to believe there is something here that they desperately want, and do not much care for the consequences."
She holds onto Riesenlied a little tighter afterwards, looking like she doesn't particularly enjoy coming to that conclusion; she puffs out a slight breath, then nods. "But Fei certainly has a point too, I suppose. There was certainly planning for something or other."
It's a gentle relief to accept that kiss, then, and hum softly against it. "Well... I won't pretend I'm not worried," she admits afterwards, searching her partner's eyes with an open concern. "Are you sure you're alright?" Riesenlied's point about the Fereshte is a fair one, and she grimaces up at the ceiling. "I don't think we have much of a way back up. Hopefully, it will get sent with us again..."
She furrows her brow a little as she considers the layout of the Temple; a wave of her hand sends Strife bobbling ahead of them, the little round pod shooting forwards thanks to its thrusters. "I'm not entirely sure a map would be that useful, if it's a matter of space being distorted..." That thought makes her pause a second time, and quietly access the Medium inside of her. It may not exactly be the Guardian's space, but deception is kind of Duras Drum's thing.
Her concentration is immediately broken when Strife, coming from the other direction, bonks into her back.
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Strife toward her party's challenge, Make Haste Slowly.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"Yes. That is my first guess. The second..." He tilts his head, as if thinking it over. "...That they were trapped here as well thanks to Odessa's device. Until recently, that is. Perhaps it was by that point that they discovered something of interest..." he responds to Noeline's line of speculations.
After that, they sort of run into a Hundredpede. Fortunately, there is no need for any healing; Citan merely watches as Elly -- and Emeralda -- use their power to obliterate the creature.
"The exercises have served you well," he comments as the last cinders of Hundredpede smolder. "I am glad. I had been quite concerned over the severity of your injury. It appears that you have made a full recovery."
Her secret, relayed to him back then, he does not speak of.
He falls silent after, perhaps contemplative, as the conversation continues to circulate on the matter of Krelian, of Solaris, of Elly's former classmate.
Silent enough that it gives him room to contemplate also on the matter of their surroundings, and of a familiar sight that passes by once...
...twice...
"Er, I believe," he says after a moment, ducking his head to fidget with his glasses, "that this is the creature that we slew." And not a separate, similarly destroyed one?
There is silence, perhaps palpably so.
"My photograph? Ah, yes, of course..."
He still has some film left. He takes a shot of the location they're in and hands it over to Riesenlied. "Perhaps this may help."
Which is the point when Xantia speaks up about Solaris.
"If I may intrude..." he starts, heading their way, "I would not mind joining such a discussion? There is, I admit, something I have been meaning to ask of you, Xantia." He glances back at the others. "Perhaps at a later date, of course."
Given the fact that they have been going in circles though perhaps the only option left now is for them to pick up the pace -- as much as is possible, given some of their number. Fortunately, it seems that the doctor has led an active lifestyle up until now...
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Martial Arts Shoes toward his party's challenge, Make Haste Slowly.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei glances to Xantia. "I'd uh. I'd like to talk about it too actually. I feel like I'm always learning something ne about it and I guess I figured before we could just avoid 'em but now..."
He pauses as Xantia asks if they need to make another map and Fei isn't really sure. "um.... I guess so. It seems like my first map isn't...doing so great, or maybe...hmm..." He studies it thoughtfully for a while and ultimately doesn't actually confirm anything about the map.
"Hope Lombardia's okay." Fei adds after a moment. "I still feel bad for snapping at her before." He tries real hard to not imagine the world in which everybody who is blonde is somehow related to Solarians that would be kind of too much for him right now.
"It's okay, Riese." He assures her. We're all a little strained right now."
Xantia makes him laugh and he grins, "Yeah, sure. That's a plan, alright Xantia?" That seems to cheer him up considerably.
And maybe Guba was a hero all along. Maybe he knew Krelian's dark secret all this time!!!! No Fei doesn't want to live in that world either.
Fei is unhappy because he's frustrated he treated a guy who ABUSED HIS DAUGHTER to dinner!
"Are you holding up okay, Emmy?" Fei asks of her. She seems to be staying close to Elly for the time being but well it's probably undderstandable even without the context.
"Geeze, when we get back to Filgaia... I wonder how it is. Last time we returned there, the Hyadeans were marching up to the front gate of Adlehyde."
He turns to Citan and then grins, "Oh yeah! Doc should be there too!"
DG: Fei Fong Wong has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Make Haste Slowly.
===================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>==================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - Make Haste Slowly *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Right down this hallway, up the next, twist around towards this next room and... Ah. Back where you started. The Shrine of the Water Trial, for all its advanced and mystical origin, is quite the excruciating building to navigate. Perhaps it is the watery reflections that confound the senses. Perhaps the way the passages twist and turn and lead to one another, bereft of landmarks. You'd best act fast with your backtracking, while the temple's corridors are fresh in your mind. This is not just a physical trial, but one of mental acuity too. Make haste slowly. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
==============<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial - Round 4 *>=============== =======================< Results - Make Haste Slowly >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Riesenlied 0 --(0)--> 0 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Emeralda Kasim 0 --(0)--> 0 Fail H&S Badge 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Xantia 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Citan Uzuki 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Martial Arts Shoes 2 Agility Effects: Resilient ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Noeline 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Strife 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elhaym van Houten 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fei Fong Wong 0 --(0)--> 0 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Riesenlied 60 --(20)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Slow(2)|Wound(1) Effects: Cleanse|Resilient(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Riesenlied has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly hasn't really looked up from where she was looking. She smiles faintly at Emeralda's words in favor of Guba, even if - well, she thinks, it didn't happen. It doesn't matter. She does look up without much energy when it turns out that they've been walking in circles. "What? But..."
She looks back over her shoulder. "That hallway was completely straight."
Wasn't it?
She stares down that hallway for a few long, lingering moments. She flinches, just a little, at the memory of what it was like when they returned to Filgaia the first time.
But be that as it may. A couple of photographs are taken.
Strife wanders forwards... and Emeralda watches the immediate area. Fei's map is perhaps not that helpful here, but when Strife keeps moving forwards - forwards - forwards - forwards - and then beeps, boops, and generally comes up from BEHIND the group...
The detail becomes clear.
It must be Pyreflies acting up, or some sorcery, but comparison with the photographic evidence will reveal that the walls have been subtly shaped to suggest a forward motion without actually being completely straight ahead. Some of the lights were positioned dubiously, and there were no sharp edges, so if you weren't paying much attention - such as, say, if you were Elly - it would be easy to not notice that it loops in a grand circle around...
What?
Either way, Emeralda can spot a little nook that goes in the other direction of this subtle curve. It would be a great place to hide, and you might think 'that's where they'd store, like, temple stuff,' but approaching it reveals that-- no:
In the words of a wise man of Ivalice: This is the way!
(Elly doesn't have a good feeling.)
DG: Noeline has drawn a new Challenge.
===================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>==================== ================<* CHALLENGE - Your Very Own Tales of Skit *>================= |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Your party arrives at an antechamber anchored by a mystical point of power. It provides protection from nearby wandering Fiends. It is also mysteriously designed for camping equipment like Tents to be pitched and set up with ease, just as the light-warriors of old once did. ... So much has happened. Odessa. The last-minute miracle of the Guts-Dozer. Lombardia. Sin. Maester Seymour. Jyscal's sphere. And his once-assistant, Krelian. ... There is time. Time for you all to mentally digest everything that has happened. Time for you to start to pick yourselves up and rebuild what has been broken. Time to you to affirm what you must take back. What you can't lose again. There is time now. Take it. Because you are all /worth/ this time. =Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"That would still be very quick work, to climb so highly in an organized religion," Noeline points out to Citan, then furrows her brow. "... and I would expect a Solarian to almost panic in that situation, taken away from everything they know. That did at least appear to be the case to some extent the last time we appeared on Lunar."
"... I think Lombardia will be alright. Or rather, I choose to believe that. She has seen a great deal more than any of us ever have," she notes to Fei, then chuckles. "And I suspect she would not have moved were she not sure of what she was doing. Still, she makes a face at the martial artist. "Still, please try not to jinx us. On that topic, or on the state of Filgaia," she grumbles.
She pats Strife absently on the head as Emeralda and Elly lead them into what appears to be a large antechamber. The air feels significantly lighter here; Noeline finds herself letting out a quiet breath as they enter, and before she can even really register what she's doing she's found herself walking over to a low plinth to use it as a seat, cradling Riesenlied on her lap.
"Just a few seconds," she requests. She's aware she's been pushing herself, and the quiet need from her partner is reflected in her own expression as she touches their foreheads together, closes her eyes, and simply lets herself breathe for a while. "It's hard to say how long we might have to go."
DG: Noeline has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Your Very Own Tales of Skit.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied does accept the photograph from Citan and look towards it, but finds herself too dizzy. But Noeline brings up something that comes to mind...
"... is Solaris after the Aeon -- the Fayth?" Riesenlied ventures a quiet guess from Noeline. She leaps to that conclusion, perhaps biasedly... "He had an interest in manipulating the Mediums. ..." She pauses. Something horrible lights up in her.
She murmurs, "Alhazred, too. Maybe they shared that knowledge... were they in collaboration?"
... she seems to know now's not the time to go down sheer rabbit holes of conspiracy.
She does manage a fragile smile towards Elly as people mention her full recovery. "That's right... your magic is back -- your Ether. It's inspiring to see. Maybe someday I too..." she glances to her legs for a moment.
Fei asks how Lombardia is doing, which she coincidentally is thinking of because Emeralda and Xantia mention Guba. She's really glad he didn't brain her with that weird blitzball. "... Fei ... she deserves to know what happened," she murmurs. "What happened with father -- with Siegfried..."
They get... reprieve, in the end, when they find an area with lighter air and relief as Noeline urges her to her lap.
Which is really timely, since between having a little Merton (this is Spira) between mad scientists and sky-Nazis and also thinking about father and also potentially losing all their children she doesn't...
She's...
She's sobbing aloud into Noeline's lap. It's a bit much right now. So she's taking her time.
DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Your Very Own Tales of Skit.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia grins at Fei and makes a fist. "You got it!" She'll totally follow along with any 'drop a rock on Krelian' plan. Were you expecting any different?
She's not quite as enthused about the whole Solarian discussion. She's not actually surprised that Fei or anybody else would show interest in discussing Solaris, but she can't help but worry a little about what might come up. What other things she might remember. It's not always easy to remember previously unknown things about yourself, no matter how much you want to know all there is to know.
Still, she smiles faintly, assenting, "Sure... it's probably something we should all talk about." Citan does get a quizzical look, hearing he has something to ask of her. "Of me?" It sure never felt like she knew more Citan does about basically anything. But she nods readily enough. "Okay... but if it's about that, later's probably better, yes."
Xantia's not just blurting out everything that's on her mind. That's how you know it's serious.
But there are yet other things on her mind. A lot has happened, to be sure. But, she can't help it - what affects Xantia on a personal level is always at the forefront. Many of these things are already known, have come up in some capacity. But there is something else that her time on Spira has caused her to think a lot about. Something that means more to her than most others, perhaps, but still.
She doesn't do so immediately. On the request for a moment of rest, she simply hunkers down where she stands, quietly observing Riesenlied's sadness for a moment. Then she speaks her thoughts aloud, to no one in particular.
"I've been thinking about... what a hero is. And I think maybe I've been going about it all wrong. I thought it was something I could strive towards, something that would help give me direction. But maybe... maybe being a hero isn't something that can define who you are and what to do. Instead... who you are and what you do defines whether or not you're a hero."
Perhaps not the kind of thing you normally expect to hear from Xantia. But when you consider how preoccupied she's been with that as of late, it shouldn't be all that strange that she'd be having these thoughts, and that she would bring them up at a time like this. To her, this is a very important realization.
DG: Xantia has used her Tool Hero's Phrasebook toward her party's challenge, Your Very Own Tales of Skit.
<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.
"...yeah," is Emeralda's admittedly kind of short answer to Fei asking if she's holding up.
Honestly? She thought she was. But now she's not so sure. She's gotten quieter, and not just since she found the hidden or at least obscure corner the hallway was hiding around. Maybe she's finally running down. She must get tired *sometime*. Or maybe, like everyone else, things are finally starting to sink in.
Emeralda has been spending at least some of the time thinking about Lydia, now that Krelian has been brought up. She had, as she often does with difficult topics, put it aside for a while. (Or sometimes forever.) But now she can't. The idea has been put in her head. Could that happen to her? She's different, too. And Krelian had her, for a while. Fei said it himself. He's responsible.
Is he just waiting to do something with her, too?
These are very hard topics when you're ten, even if you are actually four thousand and ten. (Or something.) Emeralda hops up onto a plinth herself and swings her feet, surprisingly subdued. The sounds of Riese snap her out of it, though; she looks up, momentarily uncomfortable in a way she is unfamiliar with.
"It's... okay?" She doesn't sound like she's all that sure of it herself.
DG: Emeralda Kasim has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Your Very Own Tales of Skit.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"Of course." This is the simple response to Xantia's agreement.
"Yes, that is true," Citan agrees, at Noeline's statement. "For many, that would be the case on the surface -- or in another world. However, there are more dedicated field operatives among their number. Though these are, admittedly, far less common. Krelian... I do not know." He glances at Elly, then looks away, as if in thought.
...How does he know things like this? Is he really that well-informed?
Granted, Elly and Fei already know the reason why...
He comes to a stop along with the others in here, gazing up at the plinth. Folding his arms over his chest, he exhales a long sigh.
"We really have come a long way..." he speaks, his gaze for now distant, his thoughts his own.
"Of course," he says, to Noeline's request.
And after a few moments more, turns his gaze away as Riesenlied begins to sob. The most he can do, it seems, is to give her some semblence of privacy.
DG: Citan Uzuki has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Your Very Own Tales of Skit.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Yeah," Fei says, taking a moment to get a fire going. It could help lead others to this little safe haven, sure, but a fair chunk of those 'others' are likely to be friends of theirs so it's a worthwhile thing to take the time to do.
"...If we ever have the chance to talk to her again, Riesenlied. Take me with you. I'll tell her how it happened." He was the only person there for the WHOLE fight but the way he says it makes it sound like there's more to it than Siegfried simply being ambushed by Grigori and taken out.
There's more yet to share.
Frankly it's a hard topic even if you are four thousand and ten.
Nevertheless, Fei hears from Emeralda herself that she is doing okay. Fei watches her sit herself down and he cups his chin in thought ffor a moment as if he's not entirely sure what to do with it. He has this strange feeling inside of him that tells him he knows what it's like to be taken and changed and used to hurt otheres. In fact, he knows that it's true isn't it? Power like that which Id has doesn't come from doing pushups no matter what ONE has to say about it.
Fei approaches Emeralda. He doesn't respond to anything else, not evev Guba for the time being, not even the Sky Nazis. Instead he crouches near Emeralda and gives her one
GINORMOUS
hug.
He doesn't say anything for a few moments.
But then he does say something.
"That Guts-Dozer that came out of the sky..." He murmurs to her. "It sure had a really impressive BUTT right? It sure saved our behinds!"
This seems to be his attempt to cheer Emeralda up a bit.
<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.
Well, Fei's gambit worked. Between the hug and the jokes...
It made Emeralda laugh.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool Artist's Toolkit toward his party's challenge, Your Very Own Tales of Skit.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly moves to settle down as well, wanting, perhaps, to dry out a little. (At least she's wearing open shoes. Otherwise this could be a lot squishier.)
She breathes quietly for a few moments, and she says to Riesenlied, a little softly, "It's been coming back in dribs and drabs... I suppose I've healed, or maybe the injury was less severe than we feared. At least it was enough to..." She trails off again.
She answers Xantia.
"I imagine," Elly says, without looking up from the ground, "that if you could talk to them in the moment, every hero in history felt a little like we probably feel right now. Afraid... tired... full of doubts... uncertain about the future. Especially tired," Elly says. "I bet that one was very common..."
Elly tapers off. She does blink, and look over as Fei embraces Emeralda.
That's good, she thinks. It's good.
Good, she thinks.
She doesn't think of anything for a moment until - with a shock - she realizes -
She puts her wrist to her mouth to stifle another little squirt of a giggle.
DG: Elhaym van Houten has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Your Very Own Tales of Skit.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied starts to hear laughter amidst her own sobbing, and-- starts looking at Elly, at Xantia, at Emeralda and then to Fei. Then she turns back towards Noeline, looking confused for a moment.
She sucks in a breath and stammers out: "B-butt." A pause. "Butt." She giggles for a moment and remarks, through tears, "It's a funny word. Butt..."
Oh no.
===================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>==================== ================<* CHALLENGE - Your Very Own Tales of Skit *>================= |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Your party arrives at an antechamber anchored by a mystical point of power. It provides protection from nearby wandering Fiends. It is also mysteriously designed for camping equipment like Tents to be pitched and set up with ease, just as the light-warriors of old once did. ... So much has happened. Odessa. The last-minute miracle of the Guts-Dozer. Lombardia. Sin. Maester Seymour. Jyscal's sphere. And his once-assistant, Krelian. ... There is time. Time for you all to mentally digest everything that has happened. Time for you to start to pick yourselves up and rebuild what has been broken. Time to you to affirm what you must take back. What you can't lose again. There is time now. Take it. Because you are all /worth/ this time. =Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
==============<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial - Round 5 *>=============== ==================< Results - Your Very Own Tales of Skit >=================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Riesenlied 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Emeralda Kasim 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Xantia 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Hero's Phrasebook 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Citan Uzuki 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Noeline 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elhaym van Houten 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fei Fong Wong 0 --(0)--> 0 Fail Artist's Toolkit 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Riesenlied 80 --(0)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Save Point(1) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Riesenlied has passed this challenge! The party gained 0 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline's grip on Riesenlied shifts slightly at the mere mention of Alhazred's name; she sucks in a breath and holds onto the other Hyadean that little tighter, that little more protectively, as a fierce aura surrounds her. Still, there's gentleness there as well, and Noeline is quick to shift back to that side of her, mumbling something indistinct and private as she tucks Riesenlied in at her shoulder, rubbing at her back.
She lets out a slow breath, looking back up towards Xantia. "... in a general sense, I think you are right. Or perhaps I should say: it is fine to want to act like a hero. But I think it is more important to want to act like the best Xantia you can possibly be," she adds with a quiet chuckle. "If that leads to people calling you a hero, then so be it. If it doesn't, then that's alright as well."
Noeline hesitates again, this time in Emeralda's direction. "It will be okay," she amends for the girl. "No matter what, we'll be alright. No matter what, we'll see everyone again. That's a promise," she puffs out her chest a little in some kind of encouragement in the moments before Fei barrels in. "Alright?"
The look she gives the martial artist in the moments afterwards is a positively aghast one. "Surely you did not just--" she blurts, but she's stopped dead by the chorus of giggles around the room, and can't help but stifle an amused sigh as she places her head down on Riesenlied's shoulder. Whatever works, she thinks to herself with a quiet laugh.
And then Riesenlied turns to her. Noeline isn't sure if it's shock or if it's just the need for infectious laughter, but she's interrupted in wiping a tear from her partner's eye by her partner saying 'Butt' in her face and she's not really sure how to deal with any of this.
"... I'm not sure if Mikaia or Janey are going to kill me first," she laughs quietly, the corners of her mouth turning upwards.
DG: Citan Uzuki has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>===================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Asura's Wrath *>========================= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- An enormous Hellion awaits you at the end of Lefay, the Shrine of the Water Trial. This is Asura. (IMG: https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/faqs/57/72557-207.jpg ) Asura, shelled in armour and bearing three pairs of weapons -- paired battle forks, twinned gear-like warhammers, and matched glimmering greatswords of water. He wields each of these enormous weapons one-handed, seemingly unencumbered. His howl shatters the very chamber you engage him in, and combat soon follows-- --and after several rounds at it, it's clear his six-armed guard is impeccable. You'll need the brilliant in your team to stop his movements. You'll need the powerful in your team to breach his defence. You'll need the adroit in your team slip through and deal lasting damage. You'll need the soothing in your team to tie this plan together long enough to work. But that is why you are all here together now. Past all the horrifying hardships you've survived together. Overcome this Water Trial together. Because you all can /do/ this. =Dungeon Conditions: Suffer===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
Into the middle of this tense moment--
Into the middle of this despairing moment--
Fei makes a butt joke.
Citan turns his attention Fei's way and at a first glance, it might be thought he's the only one here not cracking up (perhaps from the sheer stress of what they've been through lately, if nothing else).
But look again. Citan Uzuki is doing his damnest to keep a straight face.
He is only mostly succeeding.
Eventually, they all move on, passing through this hall and beyond.
Into the chamber beyond.
Malevolence is redolent in here. For in here is a Hellion.
"What--"
The thing's howl echoes off the walls within.
Citan shakes his head, as if to stir himself from his own shock. "So this is what the temple was hiding!"
The doctor's gaze tracks the creature's movements, his brow creasing as it becomes plain--
That this will be no easy battle.
He claps a hand on Fei and Elly's shoulder, the two closest to him, the throughline for his more arcane workings. Only an expert would know it to be anything other than the chi he commonly claims it to be. For them, he gives a boost, a little energy for two people who have been through quite a lot in the last day. Because he can already see where this battle will take them all.
"Watch its movements carefully!" he calls to the rest. "The opening for attacks is slight. Do not let it strike you!"
DG: Citan Uzuki has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Asura's Wrath.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied does kind of-- start burning up afterwards as she settles down from what could only be described charitably as a butt fever, flushing as she mumbles, "T-that was so churlish. So rude of me. Wow."
She limpets to Noeline's side again, feeling everything her partner is feeling, taking it all in; her own feelings feel distinctive and different and it helps make her feel like she's alive.
Xantia speaks about the nature of being a hero. Elly gives her own advice. "... mm," she nods in turn. "The last time we spoke to Lombardia... she was so tired. Exhausted. She didn't want to have any contact with anything. Yet now..."
She would consider Lombardia her hero. What motivated her, she wonders?
Fei says he'll tell her how it happened, and she winces a little bit. "Okay... I believe you."
Citan is giving her some space, and she appreciates that... and Emeralda, when she says it'll be okay -- she nods as Noeline chimes in too. "... it will... be okay."
But she's alarmed as an enormous Hellion -- only eclipsed by the Amalgam from Krosse's borders, she thinks -- bears down upon them. She's trembling for a moment, from the sensation of Malevolence.
But Riesenlied closes her eyes as the creature starts to approach, and Citan issues advice. "I will help too." She looks to Noeline. "And I'm not going to overdo it."
It is understandable for her to fear, but there is likewise little sense in continuing to fear what she's become, because that is continuing to give a now-dead mad scientist power over her.
Much like she won't reject OS within Lydia...
"...Accession."
The predictable twist of power comes. A familiar bolt from the blue, as if reviewing the reaper itself. The lightning momentarily bubbles Riesenlied in darkness, and Noeline can feel those appendages shifting, face mutating-- and what comes out...
Well... it's not... quite a dragon. There is so little Ley left within her, so little energy. Fatigue has set in -- she can't pull off a full transformation twice in a day.
But the half-dragon, the little myrmidon, is still strong enough to stand. Two-legged, with greater semblance to Riesenlied than not in form, letting out an almost girlish screech as she heeds Citan's advice.
She doesn't wait; because she's chosen to juke forward and attract its attention. Draconic claws twister their way to the Hellion's space as she tries to smash a weapon away from it.
DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool Rings of Promise toward her party's challenge, Asura's Wrath.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia has no idea of how to respond to Elly or Noeline. They have good points, but it's distressing to look back on things and just... no longer be sure at all of what she was even trying to do all this time. It's not so much having an identity crisis, since, well, that's nothing new. It's just that her strongest coping mechanism for dealing with it has started to fail her.
However, it's Fei to the rescue. Thank god for butt humor. Xantia can only dream of understanding jokes enough to be able to use them to cheer people up like that. Even now, she has no idea why that worked. But she's glad that it managed to lighten the mood, which makes it a lot easier for her to smile again, and laugh along with everyone. Surely things can't be that bad as long as people are still laughing. Right?
What could make this moment better? Why, a good fight, of course! And wouldn't you know it, the chamber ahead has one of those ready and waiting. Everybody who knows Xantia even a little knows that she's not going to waste any time upon seeing a big obviously hostile target. A red blade flickers into existence once again, and she's quick to suggest, "I'll keep it busy!"
By which she means charge straight at it, and see how well it deals with an energy weapon. And failing that, elemental punches of lightning and fire. One of those things has got to work! But even if they're all ineffective, that just means others will have an easier time to find something that works better. No skin off Xantia's back, that just makes it a better fight!
DG: Xantia has used her Tool ARM Blade toward her party's challenge, Asura's Wrath.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei then gives Emeralda a kiss on the head. Chuu.
After rubbing Emeralda's back a bit, he gives Noeline a completely straightfaced look. He may not have signed up for the dad gig and he may not be completely certain he was 'Kim' or if Kim just sent forth future memories or something ridiculous but at this point Emeralda is simply family to him and his responsibilities in life have shifted accordingly.
It isn't enough anymore to simply survive. He has to give Emeralda the best life he can. Granted, that might not be much, but if he does his best that's all he can really do. But he'll go for that every time.
And sometimes being good family is taking a break from talking about politics and instead talking about one of your kid's favorite word.
Honestly considering how elusive Lombardia is, Fei can't really promise that he'll speak to her but he can promise to help if they do go see her someday. A discussion in the future about Solaris is planned and now they are battling...
"A hellion??"
He stays close to Emeralda, eyes wide. "But...there's no malevolence here! How'd it get here??"
Fei listens to Citan's advivce. He nods twice, "Thanks Doc. I'll give it a shot!" He studies the monster's movements for a bit but after he thinks he sees the opening, he charges quickly, aiming to piledrive his fists into the monster repeatedly before ultimately following through with an electrical spin kick supercharged from his own ether.
In a way, even Citan's advice is the essence... of RPS.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool RPS Badge toward his party's challenge, Asura's Wrath.
<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.
"It is a funny word!" Emeralda pauses. "But it's also a bad one so I try not to use it. Except to the Solarian. She was a butt."
Oh no. What has Fei done?
Feeling much better post-hug and post-reassurance (thanks Fei, thanks Noeline), Emeralda hops to her feet again. She might not be as full of energy as she is at her most energetic, but she's certainly doing a lot better than she was before - and sometimes all you need is a positive attitude and some work to get past any problem!
...
"THAT'S A BIG PROBLEM!!" Emeralda jabs one finger at the Malevolent six-armed being. But... she can do this. She's going to have to do this. Working together! "Hold this please? It's yours anyway!" Emeralda offers Elly her staff back before actually getting to work.
Emeralda runs in after Riesenlied. Riesenlied does... something with a bolt of lightning, and Emeralda is momentarily jealous - Emeralda doesn't have anything like that. But Riese did tell her she'd show her about dragons... just now isn't the time to ask! She merely appears to trip as she runs, curling up into a somersaulting position - no, a ball, her arms and legs tucked in and with her hair flowing overtop of it to make a mostly-green sphere, with occasional ripples of other colour. A bit of black from one of her boots, some brown that's probably her elbows.
The sphere hits the ground, half-bounces and half-rolls forward at Asura and repeats the process several times. Every time Emeralda-as-a-ball touches the ground, the entire ball squashes and springs, adding speed and power to her movement, and by the time she's actually at the Hellion...
Emeralda tries to slam into its middle. That might be enough to knock it down or force it a step back, but it certainly isn't enough to defeat it - but it doesn't need to be, as Emeralda redirects her bounce *upward*. She uncurls as she rises, and proves that she had curled around her Etherstone.
Which is how she showers lightning on it from the air, aiming where the others aren't. She doesn't want to zap a friend!
DG: Emeralda Kasim has used her Tool Large Etherstone toward her party's challenge, Asura's Wrath.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
The hairs go up on Noeline's neck before she even sights the creature, swivelling towards it just in time to juke backwards from its initial attack. For all her wariness, there's a rueful moment where she compares this chamber to the last. "A 'Trial', indeed - nothing else would be so set up in so deliberate a fashion," she grumbles towards Fei. "One day I will learn the trick of just smashing straight through these, or at least getting to one when I'm not already tired out."
"... alright," she says as she looks to Riesenlied, trust and understanding radiating from her for a moment. There's fear there of her own, certainly, of what might further happen to Riesenlied if she continues - but she firms up her expression the next moment, sure about one thing if nothing else: that she'll stay at Riesenlied's side no matter what.
She can at least find it in her to tease a little more, knowing the air will be lighter for it: "You don't have to reassure me of that every time," she chuckles, and then turns more sombre as she concentrates again on their link. Whether her partner will need it in this form, she's not sure, but practice makes perfect. "I will be your eyes - and we'll fight together."
Following Xantia, she sweeps up her blade as it appears out of nowhere, planting its end in the ground and bracing herself against its bulk as she catches the first hammer swing on the flat of the blade. She can't help but grunt in effort, especially at the way her entire frame seems to vibrate, but she doesn't have a Hyadean's strength for nothing. The next moment she's swung around her sword and then left it behind, making an attempt to rip the weapon from the Hellion's hands - then spin with the momentum, heaving it right back at the creature.
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Rings of Promise toward her party's challenge, Asura's Wrath.
====================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>===================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Asura's Wrath *>========================= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- An enormous Hellion awaits you at the end of Lefay, the Shrine of the Water Trial. This is Asura. (IMG: https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/faqs/57/72557-207.jpg ) Asura, shelled in armour and bearing three pairs of weapons -- paired battle forks, twinned gear-like warhammers, and matched glimmering greatswords of water. He wields each of these enormous weapons one-handed, seemingly unencumbered. His howl shatters the very chamber you engage him in, and combat soon follows-- --and after several rounds at it, it's clear his six-armed guard is impeccable. You'll need the brilliant in your team to stop his movements. You'll need the powerful in your team to breach his defence. You'll need the adroit in your team slip through and deal lasting damage. You'll need the soothing in your team to tie this plan together long enough to work. But that is why you are all here together now. Past all the horrifying hardships you've survived together. Overcome this Water Trial together. Because you all can /do/ this. =Dungeon Conditions: Suffer===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly giggles horribly at the word 'butt' again. She tilts her head forwards. "For letting her learn a curse word?" Elly asks Noeline, and when Citan clasps her shoulder...
It feels like a real, a genuine, connection.
She gets up then, and looks towards Xantia. There is apology there still, but not quite guilt. She sweeps her hair back, as it's gotten a little dryer (not completely dry, of course, that requires time, hot air, or Ether - often all three)
And then they encounter --
Elly blinks once, very slowly. It isn't a Fiend of similar form - Elly has seen one or two of those out there, and wrote them off, perhaps, as parallel para-evolution. But this... she remembers the first time she encountered Malevolence. It was the kind of moment that sticks.
"Okay," she says, finally, "this is too much."
The Asura howls, and so Elly can't call bullshit too directly. Even so, she takes a deep breath even as Emeralda passes her her staff. She fastens the three parts into place, wondering for a moment at the miracle that it had been found at all, but she has little time to focus on this. Her attention returns to the Fiend - no, the Hellion.
"... Fei, what do you think," Elly says, as she, notably - and perhaps here, arrogantly, given that she has just a mere few minutes or half an hour at most ago thrown all her force behind an immense, Tabitha-destroying spell, after months of recovery.
"Do you think that this is a coincidence? Or do you think perhaps... this is why..."
Elly doesn't finish the thought, but not out of sorrow or fatigue. The Doctor's touch was enough to encourage her. She raises her staff... and there are a few stray pyreflies that seem to sparkle, somewhere in a corner, before the ground erupts in a sudden SPIKE of ice from beneath the Asura, as if to rip it open from behind!
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Three-Section Staff toward her party's challenge, Asura's Wrath.
====================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>===================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Asura's Wrath *>========================= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- An enormous Hellion awaits you at the end of Lefay, the Shrine of the Water Trial. This is Asura. (IMG: https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/faqs/57/72557-207.jpg ) Asura, shelled in armour and bearing three pairs of weapons -- paired battle forks, twinned gear-like warhammers, and matched glimmering greatswords of water. He wields each of these enormous weapons one-handed, seemingly unencumbered. His howl shatters the very chamber you engage him in, and combat soon follows-- --and after several rounds at it, it's clear his six-armed guard is impeccable. You'll need the brilliant in your team to stop his movements. You'll need the powerful in your team to breach his defence. You'll need the adroit in your team slip through and deal lasting damage. You'll need the soothing in your team to tie this plan together long enough to work. But that is why you are all here together now. Past all the horrifying hardships you've survived together. Overcome this Water Trial together. Because you all can /do/ this. =Dungeon Conditions: Suffer===================================================
===============<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial - Round 6 *>================ ==========================< Results - Asura's Wrath >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riesenlied 0 --(10)--> 10 Pass Rings of Promise 4 Combat Effects: Efficient and Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Emeralda Kasim 0 --(10)--> 10 Pass Large Etherstone 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Xantia 0 --(10)--> 10 Pass ARM Blade 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Citan Uzuki 0 --(10)--> 10 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Noeline 0 --(10)--> 10 Pass Rings of Promise 4 Combat Effects: Efficient and Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elhaym van Houten 0 --(10)--> 10 Pass Three-Section Staff 1 Combat Effects: Stalwart and Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fei Fong Wong 0 --(10)--> 10 Pass RPS Badge 3 Combat Effects: Rally -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Riesenlied 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Suffer(1) Effects: Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Riesenlied has successfully explored Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial!
====================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>=====================
=============<* CHALLENGE - The Proof of Spiritual Power - Lefay *>=============
|Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
It is a long and hard-fought battle, but in the end, your team has managed
to overcome Asura.
Dissipating into motes, the Hellion gives you an approving expression, as if
it has been lifted from a great burden. At long last, you can feel, a great
and ancient anger has finally found peace at your hands.
A great, bright blue light erupts from a nearby altar and suffuses the
entire room with a feeling of power -- a feeling not dissimilar from another
trial of spiritual power you may have visited before in your travels, Uzda
il-Jam. It envelops your person for but a brief moment, but you feel your
spiritual presence strengthening further...
Acquired
Proof of Spiritual Power -- Lefay!
When the light subsides, you discover that great stone tablets have taken
their place. Engraved upon them are the secrets of powerful water and ice
magics only known to some of the most powerful mages in Lunar. If you are so
inclined, reach out and absorb the knowledge the ancients in your travels...
or if you do not possess the Gift, reach out with an object or weapon -- and
suffuse it with the power of water!
(OOC: You have discovered the spells of Waterga and Blizzaga! A character
with the Gift of Althena's Black Magic may apply for these in their next
character advancement! Alternately, if you lack the Gift, you can opt for a
water or ice enchantment on your weapon or tool.)
---
A shimmering portal erupts from the ground once you've finished your
business with the tablet. It expands further and further, until it
overwhelms your senses...
And before you know it, the scent of salt and the noise of gentle waves has
replaced the ancient ambience of the Shrine. You and your companions are
standing on a large, rusted aircraft carrier inhabited by varied folk -- the
Thames.
You have arrived in Filgaia!
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
The fight is -- well, by any measure of time, most fights are -- short, but it is fierce.
The enormously muscled Hellion raises its weapons, but with a heft of power and effort, Noeline catches the right while Riesenlied catches the left and several of its weapons are entrapped.
Xantia charges straight at it and gives it a taste of energy blade, drawing an ardent roar as she scores; she finds elemental punches to find function, which may be a mystery as to why this is specifically the Trial of Water.
And Fei charges and slams his fists to the monster, where Xantia's already given it a smashing; a spin-kick later just shows how effective electricity is, allowing Emeralda to
*whirrr*
*boing*
Fortunately she evades the swings coming from what weapons aren't impeded by the Hyadeans, so we don't have to hear *ringringringring*.
Elly, meanwhile, draws her staff and spikes it with ice, and--
You can see some ice from the front too.
Everyone comes in under Citan's advice with their best and final strike... and...
...
It is done.
A feeling of power -- not dissimilar to Uzda il-Jam -- gathers over each of the Wolves, suffusing them with a spiritual strengthening; instinctively, it is the sensation of the Shrine itself telling them of the job well done.
When the light subsides, they find too a tablet with the powers of water and ice hidden within their powers, with the power to enchant an item of their own choosing with such a power.
Riesenlied has returned to pancake again after her exceptionally brief transformation, breathing laboriously. The tablet doesn't have too much of her attention, thoroughly overwhelmed by the sensation of spirit. None of her items... really would suit, now would they? It's a shame. ... Perhaps she will find a subtle enchantment on her capelet in the future, though.
... but perhaps, answering both fears and hopes alike--
After they've spent time with the tablet, the light washes over them and...
The sound of seagulls.
The scent of salt in the air.
The crash and rumble and thrum of machinery. A crane.
It's a place some of them may find very familiar. The Thames.
They're here...
They're back in Filgaia.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline is stock-still as light filters back in; she doesn't need her sight to catch the sea air, to hear the familiar thrum of machinery. There's a suspicion and then a hope, confirmed as her vision returns to her. A place she'd always wanted to take her family. The first place on Filgaia that she'd ever think of when it came to asking for sanctuary for her people. A leader she'd trust implicitly. And--
"--this is the absolute least spiritual place that a spiritual Trial could ever have possibly taken us," she blusters as she plants a hand on one hip, clings Riesenlied to her with the other, and does her best not to look overjoyed.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
And that's one more down! Xantia, of course, isn't concerned with what it means to find a Hellion here. Isn't worrying about how she somehow feels fantastic after that - that's just because she's happy they did such a good job, clearly. What does draw her attention are the tablets that appear afterwards. Hmmm, tablets with strange symbols, that seems familiar. Xantia quickly draws her conclusions.
"Oh, I know what these are. They're seals, right? Let me handle this."
There's only one thing that could mean. Seals are meant to be broken. Before anybody can manage to speak the full 'Xantia no', she's already slipped the Buster Claw on over her hand, and punched the Blizzaga tablet.
The results are... unexpected. The tablet doesn't break. And the claw weapon now looks frozen over. "Wh-- ahhh, it's stuck, and it's COLD, get it off, get it off!"
Xantia spends the rest of the time flailing her arm in a panic, until the transfer to Filgaia occurs...