2020-03-06: Turn Your Head And Coffa
- Log: Turn Your Head and Coffa
- Cast: Loren Voss, Tolone, Leah Sadalbari, Lydia Seren
- Where: Klein Port Ward
- Date: March 06, 2020
- Summary: Solaris follows up on the mysterious location revealed to them atop Mount Colshrie and ventures into an Elw ruin.
DG: A party led by Loren Voss is now entering Capel Coffa. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
===============================<* Capel Coffa *>================================ =======================<* CHALLENGE - Into The Depths *>======================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- A few things can be gleaned about Capel Coffa from the outset: first of all, it's clearly an Elw ruin to judge by the flowing nearly-organic architecture visible from the outside, deep within the crevice in which it has been enclosed. The second thing that can be safely assumed is that this place was made to be protected from the outside world. For what reason is not immediately clear: if it was to protect the inhabitants, then the question arises of how they would ever leave the place easily on a regular basis. ...Because to get into the Elw ruin you first need to negotiate the drop down to the white-doored entranceway in the stone, far below. The tight walls of the rocky crevice make most forms of flight tricky business. This will be tiring -- and potentially painful if one slips -- going. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIgWiOju3P4 =Dungeon Conditions: Tire, Injure=============================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
In the depths of a windswept and crumbling tower atop a cold mountain, Solaris agents had uncovered a still-functioning machine, which had reported a location on a map and a name....
'Capel Coffa'.
An Elw ruin, if the contents of the mountain-top tower were to be judged -- at least, if one was of the Elw it was likely that the location to which its map had pinpointed would be the same.
Finding the correct island was easy.
Finding the location on the island was more difficult, even with Solaris' technology. Funding was tight, for one thing.
For another, the site proved particularly difficult to locate, perhaps due to the Elw -- if it was an Elw site -- method of construction or somesuch.
But eventually, the landscape had given up its secrets.
And eventually, a team was assembled -- Assyria Base, being the closer -- and sent out to investigate.
"...That's a long way down," Loren remarks, looking a little paler than usual as he regards the drop. Sure, they'd been sent with the basic climbing kits, but it doesn't make it any more palatable. After all, if the rope breaks--
He fishes out of one pocket a string and feather charm as he conducts, perhaps -- his lips are moving -- some assessment of the length of time it'll take to make the drop. His fingers tangle a moment in the cord, before he straightens and slips the thing away.
"Well, let's get this over with," he says to the gap, and after securing his cord--
Slips over the edge.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Pinion Charm toward his party's challenge, Into The Depths.
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
Tolone has come forth to join the investigation.
Is this just a cost-effective way to throw them a bone? Did Tolone kill everybody the commander needed dead right now? After a certain amount of purging, you have to take a break, or else the purge isn't any f-- rather-- is a waste of energy and resources.
Maybe she's just here to spy on everyone. But if that was the case, would she have come alone?
"Yeah," Tolone agrees with Loren as she looks down the hole.
In Tolone's vision, invisible and singing pulses interrogate the floor.
"It is."
"I'll go on ahead," Tolone says, stepping out into the void of space. Her hairstyle flutters merrily as she allows herself to be drawn towards the core of Filgaia.
She falls.
She falls.
She falls.
She falls...
There is a single enormous green-tinged upswelling burst as Tolone executes a Wind-Ether effect at the last moment, bouncing her up about two meters, leaving her in a dead halt, and then very gradually letting her down to the ground with the tiniest little 'tik!' of the treads of her shoes.
Hopefully, her deep-lidar scan didn't fail to find a rotten floorboard or its equivalent.
DG: Tolone has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Into The Depths.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
Leah, as always, was a presence of persistence. She still is. Walking as she does she comes to a stop peering down. Basic climbing kits are one thing, but Leah at least has some other options. She looks over Loren, using the charm. "May as well."
The Major (retired) has been pleasant with Tolone, though. So when she just steps out into space... There--the Wind Ether effect. Leah makes a point of watching the whole thing, interested by it. But then she slips over the edge--
Her powerful limbs make handholds a simple matter, at least. She doesn't just drop down, but instead takes the slow way, for the moment. Maybe she's conserving energy; maybe she finds that the cold harms the effect of her limbs.
Maybe she doesn't have a reason, or she figures the ground can't take her at high speed.
Either way, she won't be the first down. At least if she falls she can cushion herself fairly easy; 'controlled falling' is one of her combat styles in a nutshell.
DG: Leah Sadalbari has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Into The Depths.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia Seren thought about spilling the beans to Mariel but she figured it'd probably be better to check it out first for everybody's sake. What if it's a giant deathtrap? If Loren dies horribly, she'd be sad sure, but she'd be devastated if it happened to Mariel!
Lydia Seren has wings. She doesn't even say 'I'll go on ahead' she just jumps down and--
--lets out a wild yell of joy as she plummets, rainbow light bursting out from her thrusters.
Rachiel is here too and has been super cheery! but she is staying behind to, you know, make sure nobody throws the ropes over the side and traps the entire party here. What a team player!
DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Radical Skates toward her party's challenge, Into The Depths.
===============================<* Capel Coffa *>================================ =======================<* CHALLENGE - Into The Depths *>======================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- A few things can be gleaned about Capel Coffa from the outset: first of all, it's clearly an Elw ruin to judge by the flowing nearly-organic architecture visible from the outside, deep within the crevice in which it has been enclosed. The second thing that can be safely assumed is that this place was made to be protected from the outside world. For what reason is not immediately clear: if it was to protect the inhabitants, then the question arises of how they would ever leave the place easily on a regular basis. ...Because to get into the Elw ruin you first need to negotiate the drop down to the white-doored entranceway in the stone, far below. The tight walls of the rocky crevice make most forms of flight tricky business. This will be tiring -- and potentially painful if one slips -- going. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIgWiOju3P4 =Dungeon Conditions: Tire, Injure=============================================
==========================<* Capel Coffa - Round 1 *>=========================== =========================< Results - Into The Depths >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Pinion Charm 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leah Sadalbari 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lydia Seren 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Radical Skates 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tolone 0 --(8)--> 8 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Tire(2) Effects: Quicken(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.
The drop -- for those of them who do drop -- is a sudden one.
"Shit--" Loren can't help but bark, being after all Loren. But the rope is secure and he's able to find purchase on the side of the rock after a moment, levering himself down the rest of the way.
Needless to say, Tolone -- and Lyda -- beat him down here. One of them floats down on her wings. The other descends after a fantastic demonstration of Wind Ether mastery, landing just outside that white door.
One of the stones underfoot is a little loose. Tolone may stumble but is in no real harm to self.
Leah joins them when she makes her way down the cliff face, just as Loren has finished unfastening his harness and secures it in his bag.
"...They have no idea what's beyond this point," he remarks, fidgeting with his glasses. "Even deep scans failed. So... be prepared."
The door opens easily when touched. Almost like it wants to open.
DG: Tolone has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Capel Coffa *>=============================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Left in the Dark *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- It's a tribute to Elw design and engineering that you are able to explore this ruin buried in the rock despite its abandonment centuries, perhaps millennia ago. Aside from the thin veneer of time's caress, it is almost pristine, even, and even the lighting still functions-- Well, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it /did/ function. One moment you were exploring a largish and somewhat complicatedly-shaped room, and the next, you were plunged into pitch-blackness. You're going to have to negotiate your way out of here to start, and from there, work your way back to any lighted sections of the ruin, if they exist. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
The door opens gently, with nary a creak -- the doors slide open as neatly as a leaf might be folded back by a drop of rain.
If someone could grow a building -- hallways, doors, the occasional tasteful pillar, alcoves and all -- and not have it turn into some sort of Giger-esque nightmare, it would look something like this.
Capel Coffa is as still as the grave, but it bears the suggestion of something that only sleeps.
And it is full of still-green plants.
The hallways meander without any readily apparent rhyme or reason, a slow gentle and quiet curve deeper into the heart of the complex. The hallways are still lit somehow--
--Until, as the exploration team makes their way through a larger and complex chamber further in, suddenly it's not lit anymore. The room goes pitch black, dark enough that no one can even see their hand in front of their face.
"What-- is there something there? Is this...?" Loren utters, turning about and backing right into a wall, which evokes a solid 'oof'.
"Where are the rest of you?" he says after a moment, digging through his bag for something very important in the darkness.
"This place looked like a maze even with lights on. I think we'll want to backtrack--"
There is light, at his corner of the room at least.
"--Before we get more lost. Or find out firsthand that we're sharing this spot with some new friend."
The medical computer's glow is no caving torch but it's better than nothing.
"I'm not hanging around here when we have the rest of this place to explore."
But where was the door again? All he can see in his immediate vicinity are the too-close walls of the section he'd been exploring.
Loren starts by retracing his steps, with the light of the handheld computer's screen.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool MediScan v7 toward his party's challenge, Left in the Dark.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"Not knowing what's here just means it should be an adventure," Leah says amiably, and admittedly a little dry. Her amusement is more muted than Rachiel's cheer, but it's also pretty normal for her for now. And as the door opens silently...
"Hmmm," Leah reflects. Quiet. "Full of life..."
She walks carefully, spear at the ready, into the room that grows pitch black. She remains completely still at first, her single visible eye closing in the darkness. "Here," she says. Then, she reaches up to her temple, and focuses--she relies on another form of vision, looking around then toward the walls, and starts to make her way back with the others. "I'm sure there are plenty of good friends in here somewhere..."
DG: Leah Sadalbari has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Left in the Dark.
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
Tolone pulls herself out of the friable stone she just completely wrecked. A quick glance at the others as if to confirm that none of them saw anything, and a slight lean to kick the dust off of her boot. "Hm," she says. "Well, short range analysis may prevail. Seren, you're in contact with Medry, right? Report if you lose contact. Have some banter if you need to. It'll be diagnostic."
She keeps on trucking.
The lights go out.
Tolone says, in the dark, "Son of a bitch."
Another lidar pulse.
"No shadow stalkers, at least," she continues. "Hold on a moment."
Flick, flick, flicker -
An infernal glow shines from Tolone's throat. It feels like the Sun pointing at you. The light is dim. "Don't get too close," Tolone states, moving laterally and turning to cast a dim light in the cavernous space. "And get us a new bearing before this burns out."
"Do you like adventures?" Tolone asks Leah.
DG: Tolone has used her Tool Computer Brain toward her party's challenge, Left in the Dark.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia marvels at the plantlife. She grew up in a desert. That's pretty common. Tolone is also pretty cool, she reflects, but she's a little tough to get along with? Is she going to end up more like Tolone as time goes on?? But she's so easy to get along with now!!
Sometimes Lydia doesn't have the best self awareness. Still, the area goes dark quickly and naturally Lydia, who is not exactly the best trained soldier and has kind of been squeezed into the wrong box for her personality, ends up bumping into everything before remembering she has a lot of light powers and she activates one of her medium and starts glowing a faint turqoise.
"Wow I'm pretty great." She says.
Even after this she bumps into a lot of stuff though.
DG: Lydia Seren has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Left in the Dark.
===============================<* Capel Coffa *>================================ =======================<* CHALLENGE - Left in the Dark *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- It's a tribute to Elw design and engineering that you are able to explore this ruin buried in the rock despite its abandonment centuries, perhaps millennia ago. Aside from the thin veneer of time's caress, it is almost pristine, even, and even the lighting still functions-- Well, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it /did/ function. One moment you were exploring a largish and somewhat complicatedly-shaped room, and the next, you were plunged into pitch-blackness. You're going to have to negotiate your way out of here to start, and from there, work your way back to any lighted sections of the ruin, if they exist. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
==========================<* Capel Coffa - Round 2 *>=========================== =========================< Results - Left in the Dark >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 0 --(3)--> 3 Pass MediScan v7 3 Wits Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leah Sadalbari 0 --(3)--> 3 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lydia Seren 0 --(3)--> 3 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tolone 8 --(3)--> 11 Pass Computer Brain 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 20 --(15)--> 35 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(2)|Injure(1)|Tire(1) Effects: Enlighten(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. DG: Tolone has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Capel Coffa *>=============================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Secondary Succession *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- This room, it seems, is some sort of vertical garden. From far below, plants stream upwards to the point where you stand, extending ever upwards to the lights that shine welcomingly above. Once there was a bridge that crossed the span, perhaps allowing the Elw to admire the interior forest from on high. Once there was a door on the other side. Both are gone now, swallowed up by the expanse of green. At first, this leaves you with no certain way forward and a drop of an unknown distance to whatever floor may lie below. But all, as they say, is not lost. Far above and just visible through the green is a sort of passage, perhaps leading through some sort of vent to elsewhere in the complex. It's just a matter of climbing up to it. =Dungeon Conditions: Secret, Injure===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Loren, it can be safely assumed, does not like adventures.
"Nothing's in here? You're sure?"
There's a pause, punctuated only by Loren's footsteps as he heads along, retracing in limited light the twists and turns of before. "And what about traps? Any pockets of gas? Spring-loaded walls?"
He's been around enough sites to guess that this room is probably -- probably -- some sort of trap.
Silence greats Leah's comment on the matter of 'good friends in here somewhere'.
"I think I can see you now, Tolone. Don't turn to your right."
A faint turquoise glow is visible a distance off, and close on its heels, Leah's tell-tale step pattern.
Soon they regroup. And then--
"The door should have been back here and to the... ah, here! And there are still lights on up that way."
A distance, sure -- but only a short distance away.
"Good. I was wondering if the entire ruin had gone dark suddenly."
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
"I wonder if that was some kind of a plant timer," Tolone speculates as they all come back together. The jewel at her throat is no longer glowing, though it radiates a lot of warmth, and what is more, it seems to be coated with a thin layer of soot now. Tolone scratches it. Maybe it hurts.
Move back a little ways. Imagine everyone in their tiniest form, walking down a hallway...
The alternate route at the last fork is a towering space. Tolone cranes her head to look upwards. Rows of vines, powerful woody stems, snaking around and upwards through an infinite trellis. Tolone turns her head to look downwards, where the green eventually ends in a mossy/leafy carpet, but one which...
"Damn," Tolone says. "This thing's been converting carbon dioxide into biomass for quite some time. I can pick up some kind of pump apparatus, but it's at least six meters underneath the visible canopy layer."
Tolone raises her head... and points.
Six meters up, about 150 degrees along the cylindrical room. A grate that, at some point, erupted in a fiery explosion. There is a new and verdant growth on the streaks of soot that this explosion left, but the growth is new enough that you can SEE the soot. A hopeful tendril is snaking into a ventilation duct, but it isn't, yet, overgrown.
The plants are also not growing visibly. That would be absurd.
"That's going to be a tricky one," Tolone comments, before stopping, expectantly.
DG: Tolone has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Secondary Succession.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"Yes," Leah answers Tolone. "But then, if I didn't enjoy a little adventure now and then, my fieldwork would be much more troublesome. Work for the Interior Ministry has led me to spend a great deal of time on the surface and in ruins."
As they walk, she considers. The carpet... and a grate, and a path towards it. Leah tilts her head, eyeing it and the intervening space with some consideration. "It might be," she admits, and there's a clicking noise as she hits some mechanism--
And then she falls horizontally through the air, shifting to stand on the wall with a crackle of gravitic energy, after rising from the crouch she lands in. She looks up, towards the others. "I'll lower a line when I get there."
Leah takes off, moving up the wall until she's close enough to 'fall' up onto the pipe itself.
DG: Leah Sadalbari has used her Tool Gravity Module toward her party's challenge, Secondary Succession.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"A plant timer?" Loren echoes.
Briefly, he thinks of a room in his home. Just about every flat surface in it -- and then some -- had been covered with plants, the fruits of a First Class citizen's privledge. What had Lan called it, a shrine to...
...to...
Something bad had happened there once, he's sure of it but he can't, he can't remember it, it slips from his grasp before he can even touch it, and ultimately the only thing he can recall is:
It was his brother's room.
He's staring at Leah. It takes him too long a moment to realize that he is staring at her.
He shakes his head, then, and continues on, into a room that puts even his brother's to shame in scope:
"...Damn," he utters, first at the bridge and then as he takes in the spectacle fully. "The whole facility... is looking after the plants." He blinks, then nods, as if boldly approaching this claim. "I'm sure of it." But that begs the question:
Now, how do they proceed?
"Huh?" His gaze lifts to the spot Tolone pointed out.
"...I guess we could climb up. But it's not going to be easy," he says, fishing out the charm and toying with it almost anxiously.
The power of Wing wafts, fleetingly, from the pinion. It makes him feel, oddly, a little more comfortable about this course of action.
But he's not one to take chances. He adds a small measure of his own power, water's fluidity let to flow through his body, before he approaches the nearest bit of plant and makes to haul himself up -- after checking that it can (probably) support his weight, of course.
This is going to suck if I fall, he thinks absently, several feet up.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Pinion Charm toward his party's challenge, Secondary Succession.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia loves adventures Maybe they can find some middle ground and decide adventures are okay.
"Well, at least we can see that we have no idea where we are." Lydia says, ever the jokester slash optimist? She takes aother look around the forest for a time. She seems frankly in awe of the place. "Do you think maybe this was supposed to be, like, a repository for plantlife to keep safe plants that were endangered or something? Because of Filgaia dying all the time?"
She isn't exactly going to fly up a vent so she slides her wings back and climbs up the ladder the normal way--
--but she is still an agile lady and makes her way there through a combination of skating and personal maneuverability.
<I don't think I've seen this much plantlife in my life.> Rachiel transmits in quiet awe. Yeah well maybe she should've stayed awake for the LAST forest dungeon!!
DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Radical Skates toward her party's challenge, Secondary Succession.
==============================<* Capel Coffa *>=============================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Secondary Succession *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- This room, it seems, is some sort of vertical garden. From far below, plants stream upwards to the point where you stand, extending ever upwards to the lights that shine welcomingly above. Once there was a bridge that crossed the span, perhaps allowing the Elw to admire the interior forest from on high. Once there was a door on the other side. Both are gone now, swallowed up by the expanse of green. At first, this leaves you with no certain way forward and a drop of an unknown distance to whatever floor may lie below. But all, as they say, is not lost. Far above and just visible through the green is a sort of passage, perhaps leading through some sort of vent to elsewhere in the complex. It's just a matter of climbing up to it. =Dungeon Conditions: Secret, Injure===========================================
=========================<* Capel Coffa - Round 3 *>========================== ======================< Results - Secondary Succession >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Loren Voss 3 --(5)--> 8 Fail Pinion Charm 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Leah Sadalbari 3 --(0)--> 3 Pass Gravity Module 3 Agility Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lydia Seren 3 --(0)--> 3 Pass Radical Skates 2 Agility Effects: Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tolone 11 --(5)--> 16 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Loren Voss 35 --(15)--> 50 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(1)|Injure(2)|Secret(2) Effects: Quicken(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> Tolone has posed.
"Hm," Tolone answers Leah.
* Tolone will remember that.
"This should lead to something in atmosphere control..."
She watches Leah as she flips and jumps up. Loren is able to follow if with some difficulties, his grip revealing that this plant is in fact some kind of - grapevine? It's not exactly like one - it's got a sense of being something familiar, but either way the tiny blue flowers here and there suggest that it is not fixing to fruit right this moment.
He does not fall, though some vines, unused to a challenge, start to jerk and slip a little.
"It does remind me of an ag sector," Tolone answers Lydia. "The Elw might have had some kind of religious reason to leave these things growing instead of economizing on space. There could have been cropping of some kind..." That's about how much she knows about farming. When a line comes, she grips it, walks back, firmly attaches it to the remnants of the walkway, and then --
"Dropping weight," Tolone calls forwards. "Voss, catch."
ROCKET PUNCH!
SUPER LAUNCH LEG!
Having just thrown about 50kg of her body up ahead, Tolone follows the way of the sloth - if far, far faster - up the rope. Loren would get to discover that the leg, at least, just pops back on.
DG: Leah Sadalbari has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Capel Coffa *>================================ ======================<* CHALLENGE - Verdant Recursion *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- This room seems unusually small when you enter. It showcases an Elw garden in miniature: the plants resting in pots, a small bubbling spring, the mossy stone paths. And somewhat atypically, a choice of two glowing tiles set side by side in the middle of the mini garden. When one of the tiles is stepped on, you are taken to a room that seems unusually small when you enter. It showcases an Elw garden in miniature: the plants resting in pots, a small bubbling spring, the mossy stone paths. And somewhat atypically, a choice of two glowing tiles set side by side in the middle of the mini garden. ...It's a teleporter maze, and a fiendish one at that, with each room appearing just like the last. Is this what the Elw considered recreational...? But perhaps there is no way forward but through. =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Stupify========================================
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"How about you, Tolone? Do you like getting out of the office, deploying into the field for a while?" Leah is conversational. She indeed does drop the line--but once they're all accounted for, Leah looks back to Lydia. "I think it could've been both. Though we don't know exactly when this was built. This could've been more common at the time."
She does not comment on Loren staring at her at all. She to all accounts didn't even notice, except for one fact that contradicts this:
She knows exactly how long he was staring down to the second.
But forward, it's a small room. Plants in pots, a spring. ...And tiles. "...Hm," Leah remarks. "This should be interesting."
She steps forward onto a tile--and disappears. ...She waits for the others to catch up so they can resume. This will surely be fine.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
It's not easy going climbing, no. The worst part is the part when just as he reaches the vent, the vines start to slowly peel from where they've attached to the wall.
He scrambles on up in a hurry, and has a moment after to steady himself.
'Voss, catch.'
"Wha--?"
Loren catches the leg.
With his entire torso, of course, but he does catch it.
And that's what counts.
A short time after that debacle, the path leads onwards into the dark corners of Capel Coffa, revealing at last at its terminus a--
A garden, actually.
"Huh," is Loren's remark, as he eyes his surroundings and the tiles. "Cute, I guess. So what's the point of-- Major?"
She vanishes.
He follows.
"...Did we just loop around to where we were-- wait, there's no door. What's up with this place?"
He glances about himself, then looks over at the tiles... to step one one.
Third verse, same as the first.
Now equal parts confounded and annoyed, Loren pulls out the medical computer. "It just isn't possible to have-- this many identical rooms. The temperature or humidity or something should be different," he mutters, putting the machine's vitals scanning function to an unorthodox use.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool MediScan v7 toward his party's challenge, Verdant Recursion.
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
"Hard to say," Tolone tells Leah. "I don't have an office, except on the Commander's ship. It's a pretty flexible existence. But sometimes you get a mission that's really routine, you know? And too much of that gets annoying," she says as she attaches her leg back onto - she has one thigh? It looks like real skin? But the attached prosthetic synchs into place and she walks comfortably.
"Hm," Tolone says as Leah disappears into the void.
Loren follows.
"I guess it's up to the Junior Girls Ministry to go the other way, huh," Tolone says as she looks at Lydia. Her mouth doesn't smile but there is perhaps a hint of a gleam of one in her eyes. "Follow me after five seconds. I'm going to wait for you. We'll probably have to split up..."
"... but I think I know what's going on here."
Tolone marches forwards, then. Bwip!
When Lydia joins her, Tolone is frowning. She turns her head and - skrewwww! She shoots a blur of eye laser onto the walkway, leaving a scorch mark!
"Tell Medry to load the mapper module if you have contact. Take left, I'll go right."
DG: Tolone has used her Tool Computer Brain toward her party's challenge, Verdant Recursion. DG: Leah Sadalbari has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Verdant Recursion.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia says, "Yeah I mean, I'm not sure what I, a Baskar, would know about Guardian worship but I think appreciating nature is part of it, yeah."
Guardians, she thinks a moment later, it would be so typical if it turned out most of what the Baskars did wasn't even tradition in the first place but she isn't going to admit this insecurity to Solaris.
Isn't going to stop her from being kind of a shit though.
She considers the teleporter maze and frowns, "Normally I'd just send a cat in first but..ngh.... Rachiel."
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"Go do your Rachiel Jr thing and scout ahead."
<Noooo! I'm not risking my beloved Rachiel J--I mean, our expensive technology, just to help you get around! Figure it out yourself with your cool robot brains!>
Lydia exhales out a sigh, gives Loren kind of a downer debbie look, and nods to Tolone. "Okay."
A minimap function is added to this dig but it's like Etrian Odyssey so you have to keep clicking back to it after everry step to fill in the walls and stuff.
DG: Lydia Seren has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Verdant Recursion.
===============================<* Capel Coffa *>================================ ======================<* CHALLENGE - Verdant Recursion *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- This room seems unusually small when you enter. It showcases an Elw garden in miniature: the plants resting in pots, a small bubbling spring, the mossy stone paths. And somewhat atypically, a choice of two glowing tiles set side by side in the middle of the mini garden. When one of the tiles is stepped on, you are taken to a room that seems unusually small when you enter. It showcases an Elw garden in miniature: the plants resting in pots, a small bubbling spring, the mossy stone paths. And somewhat atypically, a choice of two glowing tiles set side by side in the middle of the mini garden. ...It's a teleporter maze, and a fiendish one at that, with each room appearing just like the last. Is this what the Elw considered recreational...? But perhaps there is no way forward but through. =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Stupify========================================
==========================<* Capel Coffa - Round 4 *>=========================== ========================< Results - Verdant Recursion >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 8 --(0)--> 8 Pass MediScan v7 3 Wits Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leah Sadalbari 3 --(10)--> 13 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lydia Seren 3 --(0)--> 3 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tolone 16 --(0)--> 16 Pass Computer Brain 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 50 --(30)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Injure(1)|Reckless(2)|Secret(1)|Stupify(2) Effects: Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 30 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"Yes, I remember those from my Gebler days," Leah says of too routine missions. "Still, interesting to hear your perspective."
As it turns out, Leah's approach of just walk around and find it would take forever, and cause a little wear on her systems with all the moving around. "Seems to be a maze," she comments to Loren, who has kind of a good point about how something out to be different. And in fact: those are different! Minute differences in location mean minute differences in certain unbuilt characteristics, and so he can track where they are a little.
Tolone's eye lasers have a similarly helpful effect, and while a cat going first absolutely would help, Rachiel-cat is unwilling. Lydia gets kind of lucky though--her guesses as to which way to go send them out faster than they'd get otherwise.
In the end, they assemble outside the maze, but what is there???...
DG: Loren Voss has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Capel Coffa *>================================ ========================<* CHALLENGE - Access Denied *>========================= |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Ahead of you is a delicately-spun bridge, seated across a span; water improbably flows in the depths of the complex below. Across the bridge stands a single white door, giving the (likely incorrect) impression that it is made of porcelain. Tall in comparison to the rest of the doors in the complex, it is a certain thing that whatever is most important to the Elw lies beyond. The moment you step onto the bridge a blue light washes over you. That's when the alarm starts. When the door to the back shimmers over with a pearly-blue light. [NON-ELW ENTITIES DETECTED. INITIATE DEFENSE PROTOCOL.] The sentinel automaton that descends from the compartment on the ceiling above you manages to be both incredibly hostile and vaguely insectoid in its appearance and form. Great translucent wings spread from its back as it takes you in its sights and engages. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1usoOVrybQ =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Weaken=============================================
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
"Cat?" Tolone says in the interstitial space.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"It is a maze," Loren growses, taking a recording of measurements in here. "This, and that other room. Did the Elw have a thing for mazes or something?"
He pauses a moment, lowering the device as he approaches the panel, dutifully.
"...Actually, I don't know anything about the Elw."
It's a little bit of trial and error, but with measurements and mapping he's able to work out where they've been and which paths they can rule out and--
In the end, they're able to reassemble outside the maze, out in yet another sprawling span of corridor.
Which leads them to a bridge.
"Guess this is the heart of this place," he remarks, pointing at the door across the distance. "Come on. Let's--"
He gets no further than the middle of the bridge before there is a wash of blue. An announcement.
And the chiming of an alarm.
"Great," is Loren's assessment as the machine descends, its single (visible) ARM glowing with a blue-green light as it swivels towards them. "Get clear! And--"
He has enough time to grab a handful of sols, reassess the situation and palm them instead, before then pulling with his left a single wrapped scalpel. He rips open the bottom of the sterile pack with his teeth and extracts the tool, throwing it like a dart for the machine. Distraction, perhaps? Or, is his aim truer?
He clutches the sols still as he makes tracks, after.
It occurs to him that most of the rest of the entities -- people and security machine all -- in the room here are at least partially machine...
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Solarian Medical Kit toward his party's challenge, Access Denied.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"They did, indeed, appear to have a thing for mazes," Leah can confirm, with her antagonist powers of knowing entirely too much.
But she steps to the bridge as well, a little slower, until abrubtly there is a machine descending. The Major shifts to the side, back out of the way to avoid just being landed on, but then levels her spear.
"This should be interesting."
She is in quite good condition, despite the exhausting maze; as it turns out, the Yamato Belt she wore into the dungeon today has the magical ability to restore her energy over time, rendering her fresher for this battle than she might otherwise be.
She steps forward, moves down--and then leaps into the air, her jump assisted by a powerful cybernetic leg and a flash of Wind Ether, sending her sailing upward above the great machine.
She whirls mid-air, pointing speartip down, and with another jet of Ether slams back downward, aiming to jump straight into their foe.
DG: Leah Sadalbari has used her Tool Yamato Belt toward her party's challenge, Access Denied.
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
Tolone accepts the words of Lydia without comment. Is she thinking better of Lydia? Did she miss the nuance, being a sky-born robot? It's not clear. She speaks with her in passing, purely for the sake of navigation.
They reconvene. "So it seems," Tolone says. Her eyes turn behind her for Lydia's arrival, before there is a great creature before them. Tolone is startled - she slow-blinks, and says, wonderingly, "It's moving so easily after all this time? It must've gone hundreds of years without maintanence, and the Elw didn't have 'That' technology... maybe it's alive. There's trees that can live that long..."
She takes a deep breath and lets it out.
She raises one hand as she shifts into a defensive posture. "Get under cover," Tolone states. "Seren, you're the harrier. Box 'im in."
Her upraised hand becomes a fist.
INSERT THEME OF TOLONE SOLO CONFLICT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FntrAIq23SQ
"Creature of the Elw! Your time's over!" Tolone stamps the ground hard enough to RATTLE the entire bridge - hurling herself up into the air (could she do that all this time? why didn't she make a leap to cover the space up to that vent? is she... an asshole?) and twisting around.
Her arms cross before her. Her mechanical eyes widen. "Perish!" Tolone commands.
She hangs still for a moment.
THOOM! The wind-ether erupts and she is thrown forwards, head-- wait, is she using her entire bodyweight as a giant projectile?!
DG: Tolone has used her Tool Invincible Alloy Solarium-T toward her party's challenge, Access Denied.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia says, "Are you..." to Tolone for a long moment before saying, "A cat is a small four legged creature with claws that is cute but doesn't do what you want it to do, and is needy but only when you're busy" Like Seraphita, really. "But sometimes this cat I know just, like, knows where to go so I usually throw them around and follow the cat(s). Hasn't steered me wrong yet."
Rachiel Jr isn't a cat it's a tiny Rachiel. That said Rachiel is pretty catlike so there you go.
There is now a killer robot added to the mix. It is true that everybody here except for Loren is partially machine but if Loren gets maimed enough today, maybe he can be just like his party members!
Though Lydia, even if Loren is kind of a dick, doesn't really want to see him murdered by robots either. Being a dick isn't something that means you should get murdered by robots. Necessarily.
She fans out her wings only to get orders woops she forgot Tolone actually tells her to do things sometimes. Okay. That's fine. It's kind of what she was going to do anyway.
She darts forward, swiping rapidly at the sentinel automaton with her sword. Her technique is getting better and she is getting some quiet suggestions from Rachiel even as she fights. Rachiel knows her way around the blade and with a brilliant enough teacher even an idiot is bound to learn enough to be dangerous. Once the mech is pushed back as much as she can get it, her mediums glow brightl as she unleashes a wave of prismatic light at it.
DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Rachiel Medry Is Doing Her Best toward her party's challenge, Access Denied.
===============================<* Capel Coffa *>================================ ========================<* CHALLENGE - Access Denied *>========================= |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Ahead of you is a delicately-spun bridge, seated across a span; water improbably flows in the depths of the complex below. Across the bridge stands a single white door, giving the (likely incorrect) impression that it is made of porcelain. Tall in comparison to the rest of the doors in the complex, it is a certain thing that whatever is most important to the Elw lies beyond. The moment you step onto the bridge a blue light washes over you. That's when the alarm starts. When the door to the back shimmers over with a pearly-blue light. [NON-ELW ENTITIES DETECTED. INITIATE DEFENSE PROTOCOL.] The sentinel automaton that descends from the compartment on the ceiling above you manages to be both incredibly hostile and vaguely insectoid in its appearance and form. Great translucent wings spread from its back as it takes you in its sights and engages. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1usoOVrybQ =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Weaken=============================================
==========================<* Capel Coffa - Round 5 *>=========================== ==========================< Results - Access Denied >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 8 --(5)--> 13 Fail Solarian Medical Kit 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leah Sadalbari 13 --(0)--> 13 Pass Yamato Belt 1 Combat Effects: Embolden and Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lydia Seren 3 --(0)--> 3 Pass Rachiel Medry Is Doing Her Best 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tolone 16 --(0)--> 16 Pass Invincible Alloy Solarium-T 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 80 --(0)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Reckless(1)|Slow(2)|Stupify(1)|Weaken(2) Effects: Cleanse|Embolden(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> Loren Voss has posed.
The security bot moves, at just the last moment; Loren's thrown scalpel pings off a nearby wall without so much as a hint that it had even noticed the projectile.
In fact, if it notices anything, it notices him, the business end of that weaponry of it ratcheting towards his section of the room. Loren takes all of one step back, bumps into the railing, glances down below, and then grits his teeth and summons a shimmering wall of Etheric force before him.
But it never becomes necessary to test it against the beam.
First of all, there is light, from Lydia; it washes across the machine and it staggers, struggling to keep aloft in the air.
Followed by a rush of Wind Ether courtesy of Leah's dive.
And the coup de grace--
TOLONE MISSILE.
Fragments of ancient machinery litter the bridge and rain down onto the distant plantscape below.
Loren lets the barrier fade.
"Well, uh... that worked," he remarks.
DG: Leah Sadalbari has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Capel Coffa *>================================ ========================<* CHALLENGE - Break Through *>========================= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- However you dealt with the sentinel automaton (or didn't), a more pressing matter presents itself when it comes to piercing the heart of the ruins of Capel Coffa to begin with: The pearly-blue light still cloaks the far door. Whatever security alert was triggered, it's still in effect and preventing you passage beyond its doors. You'll have to work out some way of breaking through if you want to get any further (and not to mention, potentially escape the sentinel if it's still about). But how do you break through a barrier of light itself? BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGHKV12USHo =Dungeon Conditions: Collapse, Exhaust========================================
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"Hopefully for their security they made more than one," Leah comments about the robot that could've been alive. She also looks to Tolone for a moment. 'That' technology...
"We should keep moving," the Major suggests, and steps forward again. "Though I admit this might be more pleasant with a few cats around."
They don't have far to go though bceause that pearly-blue light is still cloaking the far door. There's still an alert, apparently.
"Hmmm," she remarks, raising a hand to her temple and examining the door and its barrier thoughtfully. She lowers the hand, and pulls from her things a perfectly ordinary crowbar.
Breathing in, Leah channels a very large amount of Water Ether around it, wrapping layers of blue aquatic energy around the point of the crowbar, and shoves it into the point where wall and barrier meet. There is a whirring as her servos work overtime. "If anyone has any other ideas, you're welcome to try them," she remarks.
She proceeds to attempt to brute force the challenge completely.
DG: Leah Sadalbari has used her Tool Crowbar toward her party's challenge, Break Through.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"I have enough problem without worrying about animals underfoot," Loren grouses, but follow's Leah's lead and approaches the far door. He gazes at it, swathed in a blue light, and pushes his glasses up his nose with his index finger. Yep. That's a security system in action.
He regards the barrier for a good long moment, then touches a hand to it, gingerly at first. He then settles his entire palm across it.
"Just a barrier. Doesn't look like there's a shock or any other nasty tricks." He raps his hand against it. "Solid as rock, though." Blue eyes flit sidelong for Leah as she brings out the crowbar.
"...Good idea. This is being projected from somewhere. Break the projectors or--"
He has a sudden thought and shifts his attention to the nearby wall, planting his free hand there instead.
"...Or interrupt them. Tolone. Can you direct a current through here? I'm going to see if I can feel where the wiring is."
Part of the aspect of Earth is vibration -- the land is not still. So if he can harness a little bit here and figure out what's hooked up here...
Or maybe just rattle something loose. He'll settle for that, too, sure.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Break Through.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia admires TOLONE MISSILE. She isn't sure she can agree that their time is over when there's Elws hanging about apparently. Or an Elw anyway. Well, maybe close enough.She doesn't really tend to think in those terms so it's weird to hear Tolone say it.
But as for a barrier of light? what is the Star Shaman with all these fancy LIGHT powers going to do about this barrier of LIGHT. Surely she would be able to contribute someth--
--oh she's just going to charge her warhammer with energy and then swing it real hard for the door?
Yup. That's the plan. She doesn't do a teamwork either, she just starts doing it. And if at first you don't succeed...
"Wow that's really smart thinking!" Lydia shouts to Loren and Leah though this doesn't really stop her contribution.
DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Tiebreaker V 2.0 toward her party's challenge, Break Through.
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
"Hm... I think you're making that up," Tolone says to Lydia after she explains the concept of a cat.
SOON
Tolone lands in a perfect kneeling stance. She briefly, yet emphatically, dabs; and then she rises to her feet. "I'll try, sure," Tolone then says, sliding one foot to the side and producing, with a small flow of current. She then shuffle-slides forwards - the current remaining to emanate out from her foot, even as she draws nearer to Leah.
"Major." she says. "I think I know what we can do to get through this."
"But you're going to have to work with me."
Tolone's left hand comes up. She reaches for Leah. Her fingers splay. "Take my hand," she says, "and together, we'll make something happen."
Sparkle sparkle.
And when her hand is taken...
Tolone's left arm falls off to reveal the positronic ray emitter up around where the bicep should be. Tolone turns to lead with that arm and looks away as there is a brief horrible humming noise and then an unearthly, hellishly coruscant eruption of raw positrons, annihilating in hideous fury against the ancient barrier!
DG: Tolone has used her Tool Ultra Positron Beam toward her party's challenge, Break Through.
===============================<* Capel Coffa *>================================ ========================<* CHALLENGE - Break Through *>========================= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- However you dealt with the sentinel automaton (or didn't), a more pressing matter presents itself when it comes to piercing the heart of the ruins of Capel Coffa to begin with: The pearly-blue light still cloaks the far door. Whatever security alert was triggered, it's still in effect and preventing you passage beyond its doors. You'll have to work out some way of breaking through if you want to get any further (and not to mention, potentially escape the sentinel if it's still about). But how do you break through a barrier of light itself? BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGHKV12USHo =Dungeon Conditions: Collapse, Exhaust========================================
==========================<* Capel Coffa - Round 6 *>=========================== ==========================< Results - Break Through >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 13 --(0)--> 13 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leah Sadalbari 13 --(0)--> 13 Pass Crowbar 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lydia Seren 3 --(0)--> 3 Pass Tiebreaker V 2.0 4 Brute Effects: Efficient and Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tolone 16 --(0)--> 16 Pass Ultra Positron Beam 4 Brute Effects: something -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Collapse|Exhaust(1) Effects: Strengthen(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 Capel Coffa!
===============================<* Capel Coffa *>================================
==================<* CHALLENGE - Mural of the Promised Land *>==================
|Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
Disabling the light shielding and passing through the barrier, you soon find
yourselves in a chamber still lit by soft lights and accented by small pots
of dirt -- perhaps these had once held plants, ages ago.
There are a series of murals throughout the room depicting the Elw and
scenes the Elw found important or pleasing, but the one that grabs your
attention is an enormous one of an apparently verdant land; the artist has
depicted this pleasing garden in only shades of green and gold.
But the thing that draws the eye more than the artistry on display is the
vandalism to the mural. Splashed across the mural in a bold hand are the
words:
I WILL OPEN THE DOOR
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNoc74bP2bc
=Dungeon Conditions: Secret===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"Smart thinking," Leah tells Loren, approving of his Earth trick, though she turns to see Lydia approaching with her huge friggin' hammer and take an even more direct approach. However, Tolone indeed approaches her, and so Leah looks to her, lifts an eyebrow, and then reaches out.
Sparkle sparkle.
Leah is holding an arm by the hand when it pops off, before the horrible noise, but if Tolone looks in that very moment, as she turns--Leah looks actually surprised for once--
And then is laughing through the awful noises that follow.
So here is what happens. Loren identifies where the wiring is, enabling him to ensure that the barrier doesn't just regenerate once it's broken. Then, a combination of hammerblows that shake the entire wall and a positronic blast and erupts against the entire barrier bore a hole in it (and blow the door off its hinges) revealing the next room easily.
When the dust clears and they step inside, Leah looks around, curious. The small pots seem not to have plants in them. But there are many murals...
And the words: I WILL OPEN THE DOOR.
"...Take images," Leah directs those in her command. "We'll analyze all of it."
She walks up to the mural, getting closer, until she is close enough to be near it. She may in fact still be holding an arm.
"...The door," she murmurs, thoughtfully, and stares into the letters in their bold hand.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia steps through after Leah and stares at what she sees, particularly the vandalized handwriding in BLOOD RED INK.
"Motherfucking..." Lydia says before blinking once and recording the footage with her eyes. "Hey Rachiel, take a look at this."
<................. You're so mean... I just got back to having a normal sleep schedule and now I'm going to have nightmares about doors....>
"Welcome to the surface." Lydia is incorrigible but when she takes one last look at what she sees, she understands what she has to do.
She has to tell Mariel and the Kinship about this. Even if it risks herself, whatever is going on here has to be seen before whatever is behind this 'door' shows up.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"That's..."
There are other art pieces in here, once the way to the Elw vault is opened.
They pale in comparison to the defaced piece -- at least in terms of attention-grabbing 'detail'.
"I am," he starts to say, squinting at the writing, "one hundred percent positive that was not an original part of the art. Someone else has been in here before us. But who? And when?"
If this was done a hundred or more years ago, it's not their problem even remotely.
But if it was done more recently than that...
"...Understood, Major."
Leave it to the labs to work out, he decides, pulling out his actual tablet to begin to take images and local environment data.
The door.
What door? To where?