2019-11-29: Seeking The Root Of The Problem
- Log: Seeking The Root Of The Problem
- Cast: Loren Voss, Hiro, Leah Sadalbari
- Where: Altair's Farmstead
- Date: November 29, 2019
- Summary: At Leah's behest, the small Solaris group ventures forth to investigate a disturbance at a farm near Meria Boule. What they find is unprecedented -- but not to worry, 'Pumpkin Knight Jack' is here to help!
DG: A party led by Loren Voss is now entering Altair's Farmstead. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
============================<* Altair's Farmstead *>============================ =======================<* CHALLENGE - Tactics O' Gourd *>======================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- This goes slightly above and beyond 'haunted pumpkin patch.' The town is nothing short of a warzone. Its residents have holed up behind locked doors and shuttered windows, clutching gunsmoke arms. Piles of pulverized produce and deflated flannel and denim clothes litter the streets. Some of them are even on fire! The damage only gets worse the closer you get to the fields on the far side of town. Surely whatever is responsible for this carnage can be found there. Of course, getting there will mean getting past warring patrols of... walking, pumpkin-headed farmhands? If you move quickly and stealthily enough, you might be able to take advantage of their skirmishes to make your way unscathed toward the farm at the far end of the road. It may be worthwhile to stop at some of the abandoned houses to whip up appropriate camouflage to confuse the sentries, too...! A sign dangles ominously from a busted-up gate that reads: 'Welcome to Mistress Altair's Happy Family Farmstead~<3' ((OOC Note: Feel free to use this card as an opportunity to get equipped with COSTUME DISGUISES to assist with your infiltration. You don't /have/ to, but this is Halloween and costumes are a thing!)) =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Hesitate=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
On one hand, being pulled aside from an enormous and seemingly endless pile of paperwork is itself a blessing.
On the other hand... he's being pulled aside for a mission of vague and seemingly urgently important intent, and Loren's been around the block more than enough times to know that this is most definitely not going to end 'well' for him.
Still, when Leah Sadalbari requests your presence, you do not tell her that you have paperwork to do.
So here he is now--
At a town that has most certainly seen better days. To the casual observer, he's just another one of those who wander, black pants and white shirt under a black jacket (he'd done his best with the repairs, he's not that bad with a needle and thread).
"What happened here?" he starts to ask his partner in this. "Was this Odessa's doing?"
He crouches then by the roadside, picking up a stray bit of... gourd.
This takes him out of immediate line-of-sight of the farmhands that tramp on by. The pumpkin-headed farmhands.
The heavily armed pumpkin-headed farmhands.
He sees them, though.
"..."
He fumbles with the wire looped around his wrist, winces when it draws out some of his Ether to resonate it into his immediate vicinity in a barely-there spray of mist. And he gestures for the nearest building, a farmhouse that has seen better days.
He intends to take the long way around but to do it quickly, and then?
Then it's time to do some intelligence-gathering and/or search for something that might help with camoflauge. He has no idea if those things are technically alive. Or even if they're people, for that matter.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Ether Tuner toward his party's challenge, Tactics O' Gourd.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
On the outskirts of town - there's a certain pair crouched on a ridge. Hiro finds himself looking through a spyglass, and every so often fighting with Ruby who takes a turn at it. Eventually he just lets Ruby take it, who holds it in her pawsies as she surveys the town.
"I don't know what to make of it Ruby. I can't tell if they're bad disguises or monsters - either way it's a real warzone out there." "Yeahhhh - and there's not time to go grab Jean or Lemina..." "Or Lucia." Ruby replies drily. "... yeah sure Hiro. Lucia would definitely improve our chances."
"Well - maybe there's some way we could sneak into town... I'm no good at disguises though..."
"Don't worry - I think I've got an idea."
-=-=-
Not long after.
"Put these on!" Ruby suddenly lets go of a pillow case allowing a bunch of assorted items she's plundered from the town to drop - complete with a bull's horn that was mounted over a mantle.
"What's this for?"
Hiro asks as he picks it up. "Okay so chop it in half - I need one more thing-!" "I don't really get it - but alright."
Eventually Ruby flies back with... "And the final touch!" Hiro double takes. "You can't be seri-"
-=-=-
"Fear not citizen." Someone tries to say evenly behind Loren - his voice having trouble remaining even. When Loren looks behind himself he'll see - a teenager wearing a white ruff, and a high collared outfit with a makeshift red cape. On his head however - is a pumpkin.
A carved hollow jack-o-lantern whose holes make it rather clear that he's human given that it has a face right behind it - and a bullhorn sticking out of it's forehead. "I - Pumpkin Knight Jack, the White Fright of Althena's Gourd - will escort you through this area that's been overtaken by malevolent fiends."
He indeed looks like a bad knock-off of White Knight Leo with a Pumpkin head.
A Ruby who is now entirely ghostly from chalk dust lands on his shoulder - covering her mouth with her pawsies and snickering. "See? You're definitely blending in!"
'Jack' of Althena's Gourd just looks like he hates everything as he murmurs back. "Ruby this feels really disrespectful." "Yeah? Well tell that to Corwynt and his doofy sombrero."
DG: Hiro has used his Tool Ruby Being Helpful toward his party's challenge, Tactics O' Gourd.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
Oh, it's quite important that they investigate this particular matter. Vital, really. And it could be quite the fruitful mission.
But walking slightly behind, her gait just slightly delayed, one leg significantly heavier than the other. She is dressed in clothes appropriate enough to Aquvy; she is no generic wanderer but a specific one, a well-known scholar of history and Drifter whose exploits in Elru are noted. ...Along with some here, naturally.
Long pants in brown, an indigo overlayer atop white dress shirt, thick gloves. And her spear. ...As well as a pistol at her hip, naturally.
She looks around thoughtfully with her single visible eye. "...I couldn't say," Leah answers at the matter of Odessa. "But that's something we can determine."
She pauses, then. There are... the pumpkin-headed farmhands. "...On second thought," Leah says, "I highly doubt their involvement."
Loren handles the analysis for the moment--Leah moves into the farmhouse as well. She considers--camouflage, is it?
...In moments, Leah steps back out. She's... enwrapped, actually. Wide, wide bindings, like are used in some funerary rituals. She's... well, some might recognize a mummy, with the bandages moved for her good eye to be shown, a space made for her Ether gun's holster, a spear at her back.
"My," Leah comments. "The protection of a knight?" the woman in wrappings meant for a corpse that is entombed says as she steps out. "Then I, for one, feel much safer. Don't you?"
DG: Leah Sadalbari has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Tactics O' Gourd.
============================<* Altair's Farmstead *>============================ =======================<* CHALLENGE - Tactics O' Gourd *>======================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- This goes slightly above and beyond 'haunted pumpkin patch.' The town is nothing short of a warzone. Its residents have holed up behind locked doors and shuttered windows, clutching gunsmoke arms. Piles of pulverized produce and deflated flannel and denim clothes litter the streets. Some of them are even on fire! The damage only gets worse the closer you get to the fields on the far side of town. Surely whatever is responsible for this carnage can be found there. Of course, getting there will mean getting past warring patrols of... walking, pumpkin-headed farmhands? If you move quickly and stealthily enough, you might be able to take advantage of their skirmishes to make your way unscathed toward the farm at the far end of the road. It may be worthwhile to stop at some of the abandoned houses to whip up appropriate camouflage to confuse the sentries, too...! A sign dangles ominously from a busted-up gate that reads: 'Welcome to Mistress Altair's Happy Family Farmstead~<3' ((OOC Note: Feel free to use this card as an opportunity to get equipped with COSTUME DISGUISES to assist with your infiltration. You don't /have/ to, but this is Halloween and costumes are a thing!)) =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Hesitate=========================================
=======================<* Altair's Farmstead - Round 1 *>======================= =========================< Results - Tactics O' Gourd >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail Ether Tuner 1 Agility Effects: Quicken and Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leah Sadalbari 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hiro 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Ruby Being Helpful 2 Agility Effects: Resilient -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Hesitate(2) Effects: Quicken(1)|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"Yeah. I don't know much about them but they're not usually one for... pumpkins," he says, as he makes tracks for the house.
Loren similarly ducks in the house to rummage around for something that might be considered concealing. He emerges in the end as--
Well, it certainly is something. With the red-lined high-collar cape, the ornate be-gemmed piece keeping the thing clasped at his throat, the entirely out-of-this-time-period's fashion set of clothing (entirely too many buttons for a start) and, of course, the fangs.
He found something to gel his hair back with but he's still blond.
"You look like a corpse," he remarks to Leah, before thinking the better of that after that slipped his lips.
He exits the house in a hurry after that and very nearly encounters another patrol right off--
But a voice rings out behind him.
He turns, staring down...
Pumpkin Knight Jack, the White Fright of Althena's Gourd.
He stares at the pumpkin-headed figure for a good ten seconds, then shoots a glance over at Leah, then back to the figure.
The patrol meanwhile, continue on their way, either not noticing the trio or assuming their confederate (???) has the matter well in hand. ...In vine?
"Are you kidding me," he hisses against the teeth slurringly before grimacing a moment. Then he slips them out of his mouth, scowls at the teeth, then stuffs the things into a pocket. "Forget it," he summarizes, looking away from Leah and their savior (?) both as he smolders with brief embarrassment.
"...So you're here to investigate too." He looks again at Leah, as if to question what they should do here rather than offer his own advice.
DG: Hiro has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Altair's Farmstead *>=========================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - The Ivy League *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Weeds are just a part of life when you live on a farm. Weeds, and poison ivy. The path ahead is mercifully clear of walking pumpkins and clingy scarecrows. It is, unfortunately, rife with winding vines covered in poisonous, irritating foliage growing from what seem to be carefully cultivated plots of land. Why would someone grow this stuff intentionally? Does it really matter? Navigating the thicket without being covered in itchy, red rashes is going to take some very careful footwork. Or fire. Lots of fire. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Bad Luck=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
"I know I feel much safer under his protection." Ruby the ghostly white giggles as she nuzzles Hiro while looking at Leah. Jack just looks at Loren - staring in those long ten seconds. Then he sweatdrops - on the outside of his pumpkin somehow.
Jack then coughs through the pumpkin mouthhole into his hand, "Well ma'am."
He finally responds to Leah the Mummy - politely. "In times like this it only feels appropriate for ghoulish creatures such as ourselves to band together to face a common threat and..." Ruby whispers something into Hiro's ear, definitely feeding him a line. "... squash... them."
There is definitely an audible sigh.
The patrol walks past Jack and during that time he pretends to march like he's one of the pumpkin headed fiends escorting the other two.
He then drops that afterwards. "Indeed. I'd heard of trouble - but when I arrived to help evacuate I'd found it had already been taken over. Come on - let's see if we can slip past more of these... dastardly fiends."
A winding path through the Farmstead leads to a path through the field. It looks like it must have been the main thoroughfaire through the fields - but now it's clogged - not a speck of dirt is visible through a tangle of vines and briars. The fields on either side of it have become overgrown - not with crops but weeds as high as trees.
"Come on come on let's go!"
"Uh mayhaps we should proceed with more caution - it doesn't look safe."
"What's not safe about i-"
Hiro points a sword down at a dead field mouse on the ground that's tangled over by vines - it's fur falling out and its skin covered by a blotchy upraised rash.
"Oh."
Which is what Ruby says before a Vine suddenly shoots out of the tangle and tries to grab her. Ruby immediately shrieks. Jack draws his sword and moves forward to try to cut her loose.
And then come the flames, causing the vine to shrivel immediately.
A lot of flames. As she flails around spewing flames in all directions.
"AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAAAA WHO WANTS SOME!? WHO WANTS SOME!?"
It's not long before the fire is spreading... making this thicket dangerously clogged with smoke.
"... ... It's probably less dangerous this way." Jack notes to Leah and Loren - before noting again. "Probably."
Still - only the parts Ruby has touched are on fire - and they're going to have to keep moving through itchy grabby vines before this place becomes a nightmarish inferno.
DG: Hiro has used his Tool Ruby Being Helpful toward his party's challenge, The Ivy League.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"You noticed." Leah's voice is wry in response to Loren's corpse comment. But she looks over his costume, and looks amused in approval. "Appropriate," she declares. But--outside...
"So I see," Leah answers, her single blue eye regarding the young dragon for a few moments. Very interesting, this small being. But then--
Politely... "Yes," Leah agrees. "Banding together seems most advantageous." 'Forget it', perhaps. "Yes, do tell us what brings you here--is it investigation?" A beat, "...Ha! Well, we can hardly avoid a man with such wordplay, can we? Banding together seems ideal."
To help, and to evacuate those in trouble? "We seek the root of the problem," Leah says, and if she is aware that it is a pun, she doesn't betray even a flicker of amusement at it for the moment. She follows along, and here, the field...
Weeds; winding vines. A vine coils around Leah's leg and she doesn't even seem to notice it. This is because, in fact, she doesn't. She looks down--"That's interesting," she comments unconcerned, and pulls her sidearm to shoot the vine where it meets the ground; a blast of wind severs it like a bullet. She looks up, then. When it's just her and Loren--
"Isn't his companion interesting?" she indicates quietly, amidst... a lot of flames, and a lot of smoke. But then she progresses further, towards Jack.
"There are solutions to these problems," Leah says. "I will find the path out."
She extends her fingers, as if stretching her hand--and there's a click and a hum, suddenly, as a strange field surrounds her, clinging to her silhouette. She bends at the knee--and she rises. No--she falls upward, sailing into the sky--and turning as she does, to scan the environment, before falling forward, a blue light cascading downwards as a beacon from her Ether gun. "Here!"
DG: Leah Sadalbari has used her Tool Gravity Module toward her party's challenge, The Ivy League.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Appropriate? he wonders in silence as he steps out of the house.
And nearly immediately into danger.
Before they get rescued by a fellow traveler, of a sort. And his rather... interesting companion.
...band together to face a common threat and... squash... them.
Loren just manages to produce an expression that suggests he cannot believe his own ears.
He looks again at Leah.
Who laughs.
His shoulders slouch and he looks, distantly, as if an exit from this mortal coil might well be an improvement on matters. But still, his allergy to puns aside--
"There's more of a chance we'll run into more of them if we spread out, anyway," he points out. "Especially if you can keep that act of yours up."
Case in point, not soon after: they walk right on past another patrol, which seems to leave them be without even batting a... tendril.
Maybe, he can't help but think absently, he should have found a pumpkin to wear, too...
Their route takes them on a wider circuit, out towards the fields--
--and into the weeds.
He makes a face at the dead mouse, which rapidly turns into all-out alarm as the vines rise up as it to take them all down next. One rises up to try to wrap itself around him. He draws back, sliding the blade at his hip free and slashing at the offending vine. "Shit! Leah, look out--"
He turns in time to see her nonchalantly draw her ARM and shoot at it. "..."
He falls in soon after, back to back in formation with her.
"It's not the usual lighter," he remarks back to her on the subject of Ruby, regaining his poise, such that it is.
He takes another slash at an encrouching vine, trying to keep their immediate vicinity clear of trouble.
This is exactly the moment that Leah parts from him, leaving him on his own as she takes to the air to find the path.
As if this were the sort of thing she handled all the time.
Why is it that I'm always left feeling like the kid here, he considers, before tugging again at the device looped around his wrist, the thing that draws upon and stretches his Ether and sends it, resonant, out into the world.
There is fleetingly an impression of mist.
And then he's running, through the spaces that Ruby has cleared at an accelerated pace, slicing at whatever remains with the blade.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Ether Tuner toward his party's challenge, The Ivy League.
===========================<* Altair's Farmstead *>=========================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - The Ivy League *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Weeds are just a part of life when you live on a farm. Weeds, and poison ivy. The path ahead is mercifully clear of walking pumpkins and clingy scarecrows. It is, unfortunately, rife with winding vines covered in poisonous, irritating foliage growing from what seem to be carefully cultivated plots of land. Why would someone grow this stuff intentionally? Does it really matter? Navigating the thicket without being covered in itchy, red rashes is going to take some very careful footwork. Or fire. Lots of fire. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Bad Luck=========================================
======================<* Altair's Farmstead - Round 2 *>====================== =========================< Results - The Ivy League >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Loren Voss 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Ether Tuner 1 Agility Effects: Quicken and Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Leah Sadalbari 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Gravity Module 3 Agility Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hiro 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Ruby Being Helpful 2 Agility Effects: Resilient ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Loren Voss 20 --(15)--> 35 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(2)|Fright(2)|Hesitate(1) Effects: Quicken(1)|Resilient(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 15 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> Hiro has posed.
Jack's actual lip had twitched and pumpkinhead had quivered at Leah's pun. "Advantageous indeed. Well now that the trio of us are assembled I be-leaf in our ability to figure this out." As he immediately even uses an even worse pun.
That was then - before they started down that corridor of burning itchy grabby vines.
Leah begins falling upward, and Jack whistles as he slashes through the burning vines. "Some sort of wind magic?" He speculates to himself, "No I don't feel any currents..." He says, puzzled, still wondering if it's a wind trick with the heated air.
"Right!" As he starts rushing towards that beacon in the distance. "Head for the mummy Ruby!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"That's probably agreement." Jack notes to Loren as Loren reaches out with his Ether - giving that strange impression of mist amidst the smoke - before he hightails it out - as if quickened or protected by it. Hiro notes it in wonder as if trying to figure out what magic he's using too.
They all make it out with nothing but minor scorches to their clothes and costumes. And no itchy rashes. Jack takes a moment to catch his breath.
Once out on the other side Ruby pants - the chalk dust having fallen off half of her to reveal the pink fur underneath. "O-Okay so. I thinkkkkk that maybe I ought to take five - not because I'm scared or anything. Nope. Just because I used up soooo much fire power burning that place down."
Ruby says as she lands on Jack crawls underneath Jack's cape so far that only the impression of glowy cat eyeshine are left of her - peeking out.
DG: Leah Sadalbari has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Altair's Farmstead *>============================ ========================<* CHALLENGE - Plumpkin Patch *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Sitting right there in the middle of what would otherwise be the fastest route forward is... A pumpkin. But not just any pumpkin. This pumpkin is big. Huge, even. A prized pumpkin that could probably feed a family of five by itself! Someone clearly put a lot of love and affection into growing this gourd into the absolute unit it is today. It's even got a bright, cheery face drawn on one side! Unfortunately, it's also in the way. At least if you blow it up, you can quench your guilt in piles and piles of pie-ready pumpkin puree. You monsters. (You could also just... move it.) =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Treasure=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
Puns are important.
Leah, of course, is not affected by skin irritatants where her limbs are completely artificial. Loren may realize this now. But still--"Thank you. Please warn me if that happens again; it was luck that I noticed, this time."
Leah, too, seems to be-leaf. She smiles at that pun, too. But Hiro's speculation--
The gun she uses is clearly magical; it gives the sensation of wind with some, once he can figure it out, since he's familiar with it--the green ones, the 'wind' style effects. But the strange way she jumps doesn't read as magical at all, the more he thinks about it. It could still be a wind trick--but it's not a magic he can recognize.
Ruby suggests a break... "Feel free. I assume Jack here can carry you." She seems to approve, somehow. Not the usual lighter, Loren had said... that is true.
"Good work, all. Now... This way." They continue towards a route that seems faster, but there is something Leah missed before in her snapshot view--
A Great Pumpkin. A plumpkin, perhaps. An absolute unit. And it's... in the way.
"Hmmm," Leah remarks. "This is a fine gourd. It must have taken a great deal of work to grow..."
She shrugs after a moment, and pulls--a crowbar. Nothing magical, nothing high-tech, just a crowbar of an admittedly light and strong metal. She approaches, bends at the knee, shoves the end under the pumpkin--
And starts just applying the lever as a lever. She must be terribly strong to even think of attempting it. The face is now facing her.
DG: Leah Sadalbari has used her Tool Crowbar toward her party's challenge, Plumpkin Patch.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"...Understood," he says to Leah, ducking his head in a single short nod.
Before she's off and away from him and he similarly takes steps to ensure that his passage is without further issue.
"Just move!" he shouts to Hiro, attempting to break on ahead past the grasping vines.
There could be an argument made for his magic there that it may be a sort of Symbology--
But without enough datapoints it's difficult to be certain about it (or much else, besides).
He sheathes the sword again once -- and only once -- they are free. "Some plants can induce a terrible rash," he remarks, more to Leah than their mysterious pumpkin-headded companion. "But it looks like we're in the clear. This way--"
Only to find the path before them blocked.
By a pumpkin.
A very plump pumpkin.
A plumpkin, if you will.
Loren just stares at it and hesitantly, approaches it to touch it. "Is this... real?"
As said by someone who grew up in a sky city and even on Filgaia -- and Lunar! -- has not yet encountered the wonder that is a truly enormous vegetable.
"How do they get this big? --Wait, what are you doing?"
Leah has begun to lever the plumpkin.
"I guess... going around would be risky, but..."
Another long pause.
"Can we... try to be careful? I mean, er, this... would be a waste of food..."
He tries to get under it. He's not likely to have the same results as Leah.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Plumpkin Patch.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
"Yes indeed. I'll protect you." As he echoes Leah - saying protect rather than carry. That at least elicits a little giggle from her resting place that's totally not a hiding place too. Ruby enjoys Hiro saying things like that.
Eventually they come upon the massive Pumpkin.
"It is very real... a true Marvel." Jack answers Loren, "A lot of love and care went into nurturing it to this state. I can't bring myself to destroy it." 'Jack' notes, before seeing Leah take out-
"Ah - a practical solution... I - the White Fright will assist you."
'Jack' puts his hands at the edge of the Plumpkin as Leah pries it up, intending to give it a little boost. As he does though...
Shadows solidify under the Plumpkin - seeming to help in the effort of boosting it. It's a subtle effect - and not particularly strong.
Jack's lips are moving underneath the Pumpkin head, sweat beading.
It's not going to be as effective as Leah's crowbar either - but still - he's trying to be helpful in moving it outside without damaging it.
"Wasting food would be... a terrible thing." He agrees with Loren, "It is the solemn duty of the Knights of Althena's Gourd to encourage all small children and grown adults alike to eat their vegetables."
Ruby who is still beneath 'Jack's' cape snorts suddenly, laughing, "He actually would!"
Apparently Ruby thinks that is something Leo would definitely consider to be his solemn duty...
DG: Hiro has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Plumpkin Patch.
============================<* Altair's Farmstead *>============================ ========================<* CHALLENGE - Plumpkin Patch *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Sitting right there in the middle of what would otherwise be the fastest route forward is... A pumpkin. But not just any pumpkin. This pumpkin is big. Huge, even. A prized pumpkin that could probably feed a family of five by itself! Someone clearly put a lot of love and affection into growing this gourd into the absolute unit it is today. It's even got a bright, cheery face drawn on one side! Unfortunately, it's also in the way. At least if you blow it up, you can quench your guilt in piles and piles of pie-ready pumpkin puree. You monsters. (You could also just... move it.) =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Treasure=========================================
=======================<* Altair's Farmstead - Round 3 *>======================= ==========================< Results - Plumpkin Patch >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leah Sadalbari 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Crowbar 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hiro 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 35 --(20)--> 55 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(1)|Fright(2)|Treasure(1) Effects: Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Loren Voss has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Altair's Farmstead *>============================ ========================<* CHALLENGE - Pumpkin Spies *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- This place is more of a military base than a farm. What used to be windmills have been converted into makeshift watchtowers. Jack o' lantern-patterned searchlights sweep through the fields, searching for anything that might pose a threat. Pumpkin-headed guards (gourds!?) stand ready with long-barreled gunsmoke arms for the slightest hint of trouble. Sneaking past these sentries won't be easy, but there are enough trenches, fences and cornstalks to use as cover if you're careful about it. The alternative is dancing through a hail of bullets. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Tire=============================================
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
Awww. It's a first!
"Quite rare, to see one this large. But it is indeed real." Leah can confirm it. But Loren asks her to be careful--displays emotion about a thing of the surface...
"Certainly," she answers him, though there's a little big sister in her tone. "I have no intention of harming it. ...I can tell that you're quite impressed, and so am I."
"Here we are, Jack--Ah, helpful," she says of the shadows. She is clearly of inhuman strength, but if Hiro listens closely, he can hear... whirring, in one of her arms, that a normal arm just doesn't do.
As it turns out--between Loren moving to help and the White Fright's shadows, the force is distributed cleanly enough that the pumpkin is unharmed as Leah lifts it from the path, and just--walks with it, rotating to set it down out of the way, still connected to its vine.
"Is it, now? Well, you must thank the other Gourd for me," she says solemnly. As if she can't hear Ruby's snorting.
Or comment.
"Now let's just ensure there are villagers left to sell or eat it, hm?"
Leah, the mummy, steps forward--and moves onward.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"You really have met that guy," he remarks, as Hiro puts on a good mockery of the White Knight himself. He actually cracks something approaching a smile. "Heh."
He glances away when she comments that she has no intent of seeing it harmed, either, suddenly feeling embarrassed for being concerned with unduly damaging the plumpkin. "I, I mean... it's just wasteful," he reiterates, looking to the Pumpkin Knight assisting them as if for some sort of a guidance and/or lifeline. "Growing something this big is difficult..."
It's not that he's in awe of how big and round it is or something, or that he's experiencing anything akin to childlike wonder! It's purely pragmatic!!
With effort -- and with the assistance of, huh, shadows, they're able to move it out of the way.
Without damaging it.
"Whew..." Loren sighs, swiping a hand across his forehead. "There. Okay, let's move," and here he takes point, perhaps as if to assert himself after the business with the plumpkin.
He absolutely doesn't give it one last look.
Honest.
Lights are his first sense that all is not well ahead.
"Get down," he hisses to the others, crouching in the grass just beyond the fields. He waves a hand as if to beckon them over.
"We'll want to find some way around them," he says, gesturing towards the furrows to the left. "There. That's where I'd start. Then we keep low and work our way around where they're sweeping the lights. But we'll need a distraction so we can get in without them seeing anything." He points, briefly, to the Gourdsmen (rifles and all).
He rummages in his bag (currently tucked beneath his smashing cape). He comes up with a single wrapped bar, which he unwraps hastily and--
Begins to mash up and work into a ball. Wrapper included. It's shiny on the opposite side...
Which he then hurls away from the point of entrance he indicated before, off into the fields.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Soylent Nutribar toward his party's challenge, Pumpkin Spies.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
"More than met him." 'Jack' mumbles, but then clears his throat and pretends like he didn't say anything, instead changing to answering Leah. "And I'll be sure send your regards Ma'am."
Thankfully the Plumpkin tips without damage and he notes, "All in a day's work."
However as they move along and Loren tells them to get down, 'Jack' hastily does so. Then crawls up in the grass commando style up to his position.
His nodding to Loren's statements is causing the Jack-o-lantern on his head to tip out of place, forcing him to adjust it. "Ahem. Your plan is sound. I'll follow up on your distraction."
'Jack' opens up his Grandfather's book even as Loren works on rummaging through his bag. Drawing something on the page that looks like two spooky eyes. Then he punctures his fingers through those spots.
He then rips the page out, and starts folding it. And folding it some more.
-=-=-
Once they're down in the trenches - he throws it out.
A paper airship sails across one of the spotlights - causing a strange shadow to appear over the overgrown field in the distance - complete with eerie glowing spots that look like strange eyes of the shadow - before it vanishes because it lost altitude by hitting the ground.
If it goes well - maybe the spotlights will fixate on that spot a little too long.
No he doesn't make little airship noises when he does it even though part of him kind of wants to...
DG: Hiro has used his Tool Grandpa Gwyn's Notebook toward his party's challenge, Pumpkin Spies.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
Leah isn't going to tease too hard. Not this time, not on this one. But at least a little is her prerogative. Besides--
"It is," she agrees as to being difficult, and that it would be wasteful to harm it. She declines to point out that wasting it might also mean this family doesn't eat enough.
"Good," Leah tells Jack, the White Fright. The plan seems good enough for now--Leah indeed gets down, and moves carefully along the way. "Yes," Leah says, "That should attract them."
She spots the airship, thoughtfully. The strange shadow with glowing spots....
Leah's contribution here is to use the extra time to move herself stealthily; the distractions are good enough for the moment. But she's ready with her gun, to silently put down any pumpkinhead that seems them.
DG: Leah Sadalbari has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Pumpkin Spies.
============================<* Altair's Farmstead *>============================ ========================<* CHALLENGE - Pumpkin Spies *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- This place is more of a military base than a farm. What used to be windmills have been converted into makeshift watchtowers. Jack o' lantern-patterned searchlights sweep through the fields, searching for anything that might pose a threat. Pumpkin-headed guards (gourds!?) stand ready with long-barreled gunsmoke arms for the slightest hint of trouble. Sneaking past these sentries won't be easy, but there are enough trenches, fences and cornstalks to use as cover if you're careful about it. The alternative is dancing through a hail of bullets. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Tire=============================================
=======================<* Altair's Farmstead - Round 4 *>======================= ==========================< Results - Pumpkin Spies >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 5 --(3)--> 8 Pass Soylent Nutribar 2 Wits Effects: Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leah Sadalbari 5 --(3)--> 8 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hiro 0 --(3)--> 3 Pass Grandpa Gwyn's Notebook 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 55 --(20)--> 75 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Tire(2) Effects: Enlighten(1)|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Hiro has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Altair's Farmstead *>===========================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Teleporter Maize *>======================
|Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
You've been wandering the fields and farmland for long enough now that you
almost feel like you've got a hang of how to navigate through it all. You
take a step, turn a corner and--
*blip*
Suddenly you're... somewhere else entirely. Vanished in a flash of orange
light. There's a symbological sign underfoot that seems to be responsible,
and several more up ahead. Reality dawns on you in all its horrible glory.
Yes, indeed, this is no mere corn maze...
It's... a teleporter maize.
And whatever you're after is /probably/ at the end of it all. Now all you
have to do is figure out how to navigate it...
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Madness==========================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Loren glances over at Hiro -- or rather, the White Fright -- and appears to run some sort of silent assessment of the other man.
Ever so slightly, Loren nods.
(For once, someone on his side knows what things like 'take cover' or 'assess from a distance' actually entails.)
(He may be specifically thinking about Fire Element Seraphita here, though.)
Out in the trenches meanwhile--
A group of rifle-pumpkins (riflekins?) beat a hasty path over towards where the foil-and-questionable-protein-bar has landed, eager to sniff out the intruder.
Above, a small object goes sailing through the skies, catching the immediate attention of the spotlights, which pivot towards it.
"Go," Loren hisses, unlike Leah apparently not one for giving praise for good thinking.
Then they're off, into the trenches and fields, unhindered by patrols and lights alike. Leah's stealth serves her well.
Though they encounter not a single pumpkinhead.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
Once past the spotlights, the sneaking mission seems like it's over after Loren tells them to go-
"Nice work - your plan got us through that - Fangy One." Jack tells Loren in lieu of knowing his actual name. Besides he's fairly sure it's something Leo would actually say if he encountered someone helpful that looked like...
:E
... ... Perhaps he needs to ask Marivel if Leo's actually said that.
"Now that we're through - we can finally tear up this foul corruption by it's ro-"
*blip*
Symbological symbols briefly flashed. And suddenly they're in a corn field.
"What the devil...!? ... fruit. Devilfruit." Jack recovers on the themes of vegetable and fruit punning.
Narrow corridors have been carved out all over, but the stalks are still thick and leaning into their path. It makes for a confusing way forward, and every so often the path splits.
Brushing the corn aside - he takes one of the turns.
*blip*
And they're back to a corridor of vegetation which looks AWFULLY familiar.
"There's no need to play these fiends' treacherous game." Jack says as he draws his blade, and slashs it at the corn-
*blip*
Jack got transported back just far enough that he cannot slice the corn.
"... I suppose there's some need to play these fiends' tracherous game." Jack grumbles, as he sheathes his sword back, and opens his book, fishing out a compass and gruffly putting it down on top of it.
He then eyes straight forward and takes out a Filgaian fountain pen that he's attached a feather to with a bit of string so that it reminds him more of the pens back home. "Since we've ended up at this point so far... we'll conquer this place through trial and error. I'll write down the cardinal direction of any path that transports us back."
DG: Hiro has used his Tool Grandpa Gwyn's Notebook toward his party's challenge, Teleporter Maize.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
Leah is content to conserve energy instea dof shooting someone. Somethign? Either way. She watches the other two, and rises once they're solid again.
"Hmm. Those were Symbological runes, weren't they?" Leah asks. Or observes. Either way. The way forward is confusing, certainly, and Leah continues to track their passage through means unseen as she goes. At least--to track something that may track their passage.
"I don't know," she says. "How often do you go through a corn maze?" she asks. "These are considered the height of fun in some villages, at certain festivals. There are stories about them, as well. Horror stories, of those who wander into the corn, and are carried off within by the things that lurk there outside human vision, never to be seen again--or, worse..."
"...Themselves become the very scarecrows they ignored in the fields, in mute observation of their new home... forever."
She could be helping. She really could. Maybe she will point out a place they've already been here or there. But mostly?
Scary stories.
DG: Leah Sadalbari has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Teleporter Maize.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
'Fangy One'.
"I took them out," Loren says, in much the mode of one personally offended. "If you really need something to call me, you can--"
*blip*
They're in a cornfield.
"Great." Thus runs his initial assessment of their situation. A glance, then, at Leah. "You're kidding, right? Even a L--er, what kind of person would find getting lost in a maze fun?" To say nothing of a maze of plants...
Then he glances over at Sir Jack and huffs out a modestly annoyed breath. "...There's no such thing as Devilfruit," Loren says, scowling. Though he does look over at Leah. Right??
He cannot suppress a shudder when she goes on to speak of the grim fate that awaits those who fail... the corn maze, and starts ahead, as if to thereby avert such a grim happening.
"Anyway, let's stop messing around and--"
*blip*
So it goes, until they're back around where they started again. "If it were that easy, there'd be no need to..."
Loren palms his face in some show of eternal dismay when Jack vanishes and reappears.
"Anyway, just stop and think," he says, as if to explain the matter to one younger than he. "Not all these twists are going to have these... whatever this is," he adds, waving a hand dismissively through the air. "So we need to mark the ones we've tried. ...In addition to your mapping, anyway," he appends.
And here he produces another bar from his pack and unwraps it.
He starts breaking off pieces from it and tosses them on the ground, as if to mark where they've tred.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Soylent Nutribar toward his party's challenge, Teleporter Maize.
===========================<* Altair's Farmstead *>===========================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Teleporter Maize *>======================
|Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
You've been wandering the fields and farmland for long enough now that you
almost feel like you've got a hang of how to navigate through it all. You
take a step, turn a corner and--
*blip*
Suddenly you're... somewhere else entirely. Vanished in a flash of orange
light. There's a symbological sign underfoot that seems to be responsible,
and several more up ahead. Reality dawns on you in all its horrible glory.
Yes, indeed, this is no mere corn maze...
It's... a teleporter maize.
And whatever you're after is /probably/ at the end of it all. Now all you
have to do is figure out how to navigate it...
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Madness==========================================
======================<* Altair's Farmstead - Round 5 *>====================== ========================< Results - Teleporter Maize >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Loren Voss 8 --(3)--> 11 Pass Soylent Nutribar 2 Wits Effects: Resilient ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Leah Sadalbari 8 --(8)--> 16 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hiro 3 --(3)--> 6 Pass Grandpa Gwyn's Notebook 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Loren Voss 75 --(0)--> 75 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Madness|Tire(1) Effects: Enlighten(1)|Resilient(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 0 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
For a moment there 'Jack' thought that Fangy One was offended, but he takes Loren being cut off mid-sentence as permission that he can call him that.
"Are you so certain?" Jack says, quick on the recovery as Loren states there's no such thing as a devilfruit, "Given how many pumpkin headed devils are about?"
... Noone tell him that he looks like one of them.
"Hey cut it out..." Ruby says as Leah talks about horror stories. "...Jack is scared enough...!"
Jack chuckles, "No way. You know how I loved it when we told scary stories after bedtime growing up. Growing up... in the garden. If she's got some more I'd love to hear them from our Mummy." "Don't encourage h-IEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
That's Ruby screaming at a scarecrow like shadow that appeared around the bend, ghastly lit by the dim light of the Silver Star through the clouds.
Ruby may be digging her claws into Hiro's back really hard ever since that moment.
Jack unfortunately misses Loren's warning before he tried to cut it.
He does however give Loren a thumbs up while still propping open his book. "Good idea Fangy One. Just like something out of one of the old stories..."
Eventually after much trial and error and Leah doing nothing but amping them all up - they emerge from the field-
DG: Leah Sadalbari has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Altair's Farmstead *>============================ =======================<* CHALLENGE - Of Gourd Battles *>======================= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- With a final *blip*, you emerge at the very heart of this unnaturally large cornfield/pumpkin patch/crime against all good sense and find yourself... In the middle of a battle to the death between the two forces vying for control over the fields. On the one hand, a considerably more well-put-together (and more recently assembled) host of heavily armed vegetable golems. They even have a few pumpkin tanks! On the other... More vegetable golems, except there are very obviously far more of them and they're also very clearly nowhere near as well equipped-- though they easily make up for the difference with raw numbers. Mysteriously, the first group appears vaguely red to your eyes, the second seems to ping as yellow, and you are distinctly blue. Weird, that. To bring peace to this little corner of Filgaia- and to escape from this agrarian fever dream- you'll need to defeat one or both of these belligerents. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Suffer===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"Don't worry. Surely none of those things could happen here," Leah offers Ruby--but she grins at Hiro." She also looks to Loren, and considers. "I've never seen a devilfruit. But then, the word of one of the loyal Gourd... Hmm."
Not messing around. It's fine. Leah watches the bar--
...Just before the last teleporter--juuust before. They spot one the Pumpkinheads in the field nearby, picking up a fragment of nutribar, as if not the first. ...And eating it. Delicious.
But then:
One last *blip* and the heart of the maze is before them--and the sounds, smells, and pressures of battle around them. To their left, vegetable tanks, well-armed soldiers, the surely superior side... but to the right, many many more. Red... yellow... and blue....
Soothing light washes from Leah after a moment, her belt underneath all the wrappings restoring her stamina--and her spear rising like a standard. "Now, for the easy part. If we can destroy one of their tanks outright, then they'll lose morale--then we find the commander, and finish it. Move out!"
Leah bends at the knee--and leaps up into the air, soaring upward, before with a slight tinge of wind, changing direction down to charge spear-first from the air straight at a giant gourd.
DG: Leah Sadalbari has used her Tool Yamato Belt toward her party's challenge, Of Gourd Battles.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
He just stares at Leah, as if to seek out whether or not she's messing with him or not.
(Most likely, he finds not the answer he seeks...)
"If there was a thing such as a devilfruit, then what-- would it be doing here?"
He's... not as quick on the rebound, verbally.
"Hey, I thought I told you that I'm not--"
Unfortunately for Loren, their new surroundings -- and the boom of the vegetable cannons -- silence whatever else he had to say.
And leave little room for much in the way of argument further.
"They're... fighting each other? But they're all plants! What's going on here?"
He shakes his head as if at the madness of it all.
But Leah takes the lead.
And where she leads, he has little choice but to follow. Digging into his pack, he brings out a trio of sols, one of which he tosses (expertly) to 'Jack'.
The other for Leah. And the last, he downs himself. "If we're about to engage them--"
He draws his sword.
"--Better make sure you're ready!"
And he charges, following after to join the field, almost certainly at a distance behind Leah.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Solarian Medical Kit toward his party's challenge, Of Gourd Battles.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
"Now this is more like it." 'Jack' notes as they emerge from the field - to see themselves surrounded by well armed vegetable soldiers.
And as Leah notes their strategy, 'Jack' puts a hand to his blade's hilt, catching the sol from Loren with another hand and making quick use of it. "Understood - it is time to show you why I am called the White Fright."
Okay maybe he's not so secretly getting a little into this now.
He gives a thumbs up to Loren - his manner of quickly thanking him for the Medical Sol before... "Witness the blinding power of the ultimate succession technique of Althena's Gourd."
And draws it, suddenly charging one of the tanks head on, there's a faint glimmer of power from a medallion hanging around his neck. The others might feel it without knowing precisely what it is, however it flows through them and wipes away fatigue.
"JULIENNE BLADE!"
... wait what?
'Jack's' sword systematically attempts in a series of rapid strokes to... yes... Julienne the tank into thinner strips in a series of slicing cuts.
Ruby is momentarily stunned... before asking. "... ... ... Did Jean teach you to cut vegetables like that?"
DG: Hiro has used his Tool White Dragon Wings toward his party's challenge, Of Gourd Battles.
============================<* Altair's Farmstead *>============================ =======================<* CHALLENGE - Of Gourd Battles *>======================= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- With a final *blip*, you emerge at the very heart of this unnaturally large cornfield/pumpkin patch/crime against all good sense and find yourself... In the middle of a battle to the death between the two forces vying for control over the fields. On the one hand, a considerably more well-put-together (and more recently assembled) host of heavily armed vegetable golems. They even have a few pumpkin tanks! On the other... More vegetable golems, except there are very obviously far more of them and they're also very clearly nowhere near as well equipped-- though they easily make up for the difference with raw numbers. Mysteriously, the first group appears vaguely red to your eyes, the second seems to ping as yellow, and you are distinctly blue. Weird, that. To bring peace to this little corner of Filgaia- and to escape from this agrarian fever dream- you'll need to defeat one or both of these belligerents. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Suffer===========================================
=======================<* Altair's Farmstead - Round 6 *>======================= =========================< Results - Of Gourd Battles >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 11 --(0)--> 11 Pass Solarian Medical Kit 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leah Sadalbari 16 --(0)--> 16 Pass Yamato Belt 1 Combat Effects: Embolden and Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hiro 6 --(0)--> 6 Pass White Dragon Wings 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 75 --(35)--> 110 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Madness|Suffer(1) Effects: Cleanse|Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Loren Voss has successfully explored Altair's Farmstead!
============================<* Altair's Farmstead *>============================ ================<* CHALLENGE - A Witch's (Culinary) Spellbook *>================ |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- With one or both corners of the battlefield thoroughly rooted, the remaining survinevors flee into the reeds to fight another day, leafing you to lay claim to the spoils of victory. At first it seems like your prize is going to be a whole bunch of fresh, nutritious vegetables, but this is simply not the right holiday for that at all. A short walk from the battlefield is a two-story plantation home decorated in the cheerfully mischievous style of the season. The lights are all on, but the gauzy curtains have all been drawn shut over the windows, making it impossible to see much of what's inside. The door is locked, but all come undone when you go to knock. It swings open and a rather dapper-looking pumpkinhead butler with a curly black mustache and a monocle fitted onto his grinning, orange face. He dips into a sweeping bow before shoving a thick tome into your hands and shutting the door before you can protest. There's a brief buzz of magic as the locks clicker-clack shut and what can only be a barrier manifests over the manse, preventing unwanted guests from barging in... But then, you already have a reward, don't you? The tome in your hands is a weathered, leatherbound thing with a variety of bookmarks sticking out of its dogeared pages. It's... Some kind of spellbook...!? Well. Almost. The only spells this book contains are culinary ones. You've been gifted with a copy of some kind of arcane cookbook specializing in autumn-themed dishes! Is this... a bribe...!? =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
Sometimes, it's time to go simple, and simple is a plan on the battlefield. ...Or 'not telling Loren whether she's messing with him', in Leah's case. But whatever Loren would have said...
"It would seem that factions have emerged from the local vegetation," Leah answers simply.
Then, she takes the sol, applies it with practiced ease, and indeed ensures she is ready as she charges forward. She can hear, even from above, the call and feeling of... Julienne Blade...
And in fact she just sthunks straight into the top of the gourd, implaing the pumpkinhead who was running it. Then the tank begins to be chopped to bits. Ruby raises a valid question...
But indeed, when they then take on the Commander, a Pumpkin with a particularly glossy badge--the others scatter. The larger group raises their hands as if in cheering, soundless, their pumpkin expressions unmoving.
After some wandering... They find the home, and it is definitely.. .a special place.
Until a book is thrust into Leah's hands, and she eyes it, thoughtfully. Opening the book, the woman who is the Watcher flips through its pages thoughtfully, noting its spells, the dishes in question...
"Well," she says, closing the book to punctuate her words. "I think that's a very reasonable answer, considering that this expedition has raised more questions than the answers it has given."
"Remember--sometimes tribute is a perfectly reasonable spoil of war. Let's go, then."
She starts off. ...She wasn't the only one given a copy, of course...
But after a beat, she says, "And, incidentally. It's a satisfactory trade, considering the needs of our mission. After all..."
"This is the best place to get pumpkins for my cooking in the region. I couldn't simply let it go without a look."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Loren stops right in his tracks when Leah finally divulges the reason for this mission.
He, in silence, bears an expression that is halfway struck between purest disbelief and anger.
And there in silence it will remain.