2020-06-11: Swirling Rumors, Dark Shadows
- Log: Swirling Rumors, Dark Shadows
- Cast: Ida Everstead-Rey, Seraph Boudicca, Eleanor Klein, Seraph Harmaus, Dean Stark, Rebecca Streisand
- Where: Baskar Village
- Date: June 11, 2020
- Summary: Ida and her allies venture to the Baskar Village in search of the source of the rumors that have begun to circulate about it. Unfortunately, they also encounter Harmaus, who is similarly intent on what may be affecting the village.
DG: A party led by Ida Everstead-Rey is now entering Mysteries in Baskar Village. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
=======================<* Mysteries in Baskar Village *>======================== ================<* CHALLENGE - Waiting Around til After Dark *>================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Every night, the Baskar Village closes its gates. Life in the wilds of Kasutho Island can be dangerous, with the beasts outside the village posing a threat to travelers... and whispers of Veruni are not so hushed. While the Aquvy Baskar do not tell visitors to leave, they do not welcome them -- and will not admit them after dark. Thus, to investigate the happenings in the village after dark, when the strangers are said to gather, one has to get here during the daylight. But, standing around waiting for it to get dark would be suspicious. You need to find some way to disappear into a not particularly crowded village until after sundown. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Tire, Exhaust===================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
There are rumors swirling around the Baskar settlements on Kasutho. Normally, this would not be worth notice--as a society that is marginalized in many ways, the Baskar people are all too often the subject of speculation that can rightfully be called 'pretty goddamn racist'. These most recent rumors, though, are more than just the fearful nonsense spouted by xenophobes. People could really be in danger here.
Ida and her colleagues made the difficult decision to investigate the matter themselves.
In Ida's case, the solution was pretty simple: look for someone who needs help, and provide it. As it so happens, one of the locals has had trouble with their water-wheel, and needed a repair person--Ida has spent the better part of the day repairing it for a fraction of what most repairfolk would charge. And, incidentally, it gives her (and potentially, her assistants) an excuse to hang around.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool ARMS Meister's Field Kit toward her party's challenge, Waiting Around til After Dark.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
The Beast of Lohgrin was terrible at disappearing. It was a fearsomely mobile statue; everyone saw it coming.
The Seraph Boudicca, who - spoiler alert - was inside that thing the whole time; well, she's still amazed at how good she is at it, these days.
Six feet tall and all clad in plate armour, anyone who can see Boudicca would not name her as the stealthiest person in this group. And yet, mysteriously, a surprising amount of eyes just glide... right over her.
Still, Baskar Village...
Well, it's fair to say not everyone passes her over.
And so we come to all six feet of Boudicca, who has sat herself down beside one of those stone cottages, with A LITTLE BOY giving her the strangest look.
"You're not from around here," he says, suspicious.
"I am not," Boudicca says, trying not to sound suspicious.
"Whatcha doin' here?" He demands.
"I am... ensuring I am well-equipped!" Boudicca declares, opening up her pack and passing over a bag of TRAIL MIX. "Do you think this is sufficient?"
Boudicca's crimes: petty theft, trespassing... bribery?
DG: Seraph Boudicca has used her Tool Emergency Supplies toward her party's challenge, Waiting Around til After Dark.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
In most circumstances, Eleanor would find the matters of the Baskar simply aren't her business, but these rumors have enough backing and enough 'monsters' in them to make it possible... and admittedly, she is very curious about them.
Unfortunately they've proven to be less than friendly, for potentially good reasons but even so.
On the other hand, Eleanor has a different approach to concealment. Indeed, she says cheerfully to Ida and Rebecca especially, "Oh, come now. I went to a boarding school--hiding out until I can sneak away is an important skill!"
...So where exactly did she go, anyway? She's been around and about, stopping in now and then to make use of her Crests to help keep Ida's energy up.
DG: Eleanor Klein has used her Tool Acuity Crest toward her party's challenge, Waiting Around til After Dark.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
Perhaps if Ragnell had not mentioned it to him, Harmaus would not be here. Or perhaps he would have -- rumors are flying thick, a currency in which the Seraph readily deals.
But directly asking the villagers has come to no good. If there are secrets -- particularly secrets of particular interest to the Seraph -- to uncover here, they will have to be sought by other means.
In a different form than this, the matter would have been easily settled. The Seraph's current body however has its costs as well as its benefits, however...
And now is not yet the time for the forceful approach.
So it goes. The Seraph -- for now in a different section of the village from the other Drifters and fellow Seraph Boudicca, regards a storage shed thoughtfully.
Now is the time to hide oneself away.
...But has Harmaus possible...
...made a few small errors about how much space he precisely occupies with this body?
DG: Seraph Harmaus has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Waiting Around til After Dark.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean and Rebecca had already gone through the Baskar Village and poked around for clues with their other friends, but they hadn't gotten any closer to figuring out the mystery. Dean thus decided to try going back, and Rebecca, being Rebecca, came with him. At least one thing makes this easier: having done it already means they already know what to do to sneak in. Therefore, the two of them are hiding in a little shrine hiding-place, the same one they used last time around.
It's cramped. To distract himself from this, Dean is messing with his Danger Sphere. "I know I can figure out how to update one of these things, it's just--!" he whispers to Rebecca as he works. (He absolutely has no idea how to update one of these things. Another visit to Spira might be in order, though that won't be for a good while yet.)
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Danger Sphere toward his party's challenge, Waiting Around til After Dark.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
~Earlier~
Rebecca spies a kid reading a book on the step of one of the Baskar homes, and saunters up to her. The little girl shuts her book, holding it up shyly and says.
"My mom told me not to talk to strangers."
"That's a good policy." She holds up a finger, "And I'll respect that. If you want to read something neat though I have a limited time offer for you..."
She holds up her travel diary.
-=-=-
"So you're saying the best hide and go seek spots are out that way?"
"Yep." Says the girl, who is now eagerly reading through a few pages of her book.
"I really like this one." She whispers, as if confiding a secret.
Rebecca looks over her shoulder, to look at which one and smiles fondly. "Yeah... me too."
She then cups a hand over his mouth and whispers, "Just keep it a secret between us okay?"
~Now~
Rebecca puts her fingers to her forehead, "I'm not even sure Old Man Tony could Dean - given where you got it." She sounds mildly exasperated, "You're not a pyrefly engineer."
Rebecca just shakes her head. "Well - nothing to do but pass the time."
In the meanwhile, Rebecca reviews her diary, as if trying to review what happened the last time they were here.
Eleanor distracts her, and with a small laugh, she replies back, "One of these days you're going to have to tell me all about what you were doing when you snuck out. Dean and me never had anything scandalous happen when we were back home."
Flipping a page, she remarks, "By the by - if we need to beat a hasty retreat... I may know a few good spots."
DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Rebecca's Travel Diary toward her party's challenge, Waiting Around til After Dark.
=======================<* Mysteries in Baskar Village *>======================== ================<* CHALLENGE - Waiting Around til After Dark *>================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Every night, the Baskar Village closes its gates. Life in the wilds of Kasutho Island can be dangerous, with the beasts outside the village posing a threat to travelers... and whispers of Veruni are not so hushed. While the Aquvy Baskar do not tell visitors to leave, they do not welcome them -- and will not admit them after dark. Thus, to investigate the happenings in the village after dark, when the strangers are said to gather, one has to get here during the daylight. But, standing around waiting for it to get dark would be suspicious. You need to find some way to disappear into a not particularly crowded village until after sundown. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Tire, Exhaust===================================
==================<* Mysteries in Baskar Village - Round 1 *>=================== ==================< Results - Waiting Around til After Dark >=================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 0 --(8)--> 8 Pass ARMS Meister's Field Kit 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 0 --(8)--> 8 Pass Danger Sphere 2 Wits Effects: Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eleanor Klein 0 --(8)--> 8 Pass Acuity Crest 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Harmaus 0 --(15)--> 15 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Boudicca 0 --(15)--> 15 Fail Emergency Supplies 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rebecca Streisand 0 --(8)--> 8 Pass Rebecca's Travel Diary 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Ida Everstead-Rey 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Stupify(2)|Tire(2) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1)|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey 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: Eleanor Klein has drawn a new Challenge.
=======================<* Mysteries in Baskar Village *>======================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Strange Signs *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- As you make your way through the village at night, you find something not heard of: graffiti. Marks on the wall that might seem like vandalism, at first. A closer look, however, reveals there might be something to them: a message encoded in the graffit. It suggests a direction to move in... which, perhaps, others have followed in the past. However, you need to determine /what/ direction it points in. =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Secret=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"Uh, uh, no thank you," says the small child. He hurries away from Boudicca, and the look on his face suggests he may be headed to Tell An Adult. Which, honestly, makes perfect sense. Vacating the area would definitely be wise. Harmaus, meanwhile, manages to hide by cramming himself into the space beneath a set of shelves--were he not in his vessel, it would be a simple matter. Unfortunately, his human body is both larger and less flexible, and after the first thirty minutes, parts start to ache, or lose feeling. It's not at all pleasant.
Meanwhile, having finished her work on the water-wheel, Ida gives the family a very honest, public thank-you... and then is simply Around, much like Eleanor. The two of them have a trained eye for hiding places, and Ida is creative and flexible enough to get into ones people might otherwise dismiss. Dean and Rebecca shelter within their little shrine, and likewise go unnoticed--nobody sees fit to pay it a visit today. Convenient!
It's dark now. The one thing left to do is link up. Simple, right?
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"Certainly," Eleanor answers Rebecca cheerfully. "Though at least some of it was perfectly innocent." She seems in a good mood, anyway, since having linked up with Rebecca and Dean. Knowing where Ida's been working makes it simple for her to offer to lead them to her so that they can work together. How exactly is this accomplished?
It's fine, that's how.
Eleanor, blissfully unaware so far of Seraph Harmaus's presence in town, smiles to the now-assembled group, though it's a little smaller than her usual because being quiet means limiting your facial expressions, too. That's just how it works.
"So here we can decide where to... Oh.." She turns, slightly, towards writing on the wall. No, not writing--marks. No, not marks--
"What a lucky find," she muses. "I wonder what this means... Hmm. Let's see, what do I remember of codes...?"
DG: Eleanor Klein has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Strange Signs.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean and Rebecca emerge from the shrine once dark has fallen and link up with Eleanor, Ida, Boudicca, and somehow, Harmaus! Possibly! "Oh hey guys!" Dean greets them all the same, keeping his voice down. "What're you all doing here? Investigating the same rumors?"
This is a good opportunity all the same. Dean turns to his childhood friend. "Rebecca, this is Boudicca! Boudicca, this is Rebecca. She wanted to meet you after I told her about the offer you made me! Sorry Avril's not here too, but maybe next time."
The group happens across a graffiti-strewn wall. This is a surprise to Dean, who wouldn't have figured there would be graffiti in a tiny place like this. He looks over it all thoughtfully, then fetches some leftover chalk abandoned at the base of the wall.
He writes: 'YOU LOOK NICE TODAY :)'
"This is gonna blow someone's *mind*," he asides to Rebecca, clearly pleased with himself. Codes? What codes?
DG: Dean Stark has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Strange Signs.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
If he had still been in his original shape, it would have been a cozy fit. Indeed, if he had been in his original shape, there might not have been any need to hide at all. However...
There have been many lessons that the Seraph has had to learn about the limitations of a body. Needing to eat was one. So was sleeping. He had understood them in the abstract before of course but it is a different matter to feel it for oneself.
Another still might be the aches and pains of a body forced into a space that doesn't quite suit its limitations.
When darkness finally comes, it is a much-welcomed relief.
Still rubbing at a stiff neck and shoulders (this helps, for some reason) the Seraph spies not just the figures out and about in the dark but...
"Jaeja," rumbles Harmaus, from just behind Eleanor.
"What finds it? ...Messages, yes?"
There is a long pause.
"...We meets again. Eleanor."
DG: Seraph Harmaus has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Strange Signs.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida has dressed the part for the infiltration. She's dressed in muted earth-tones--black would all but broadcast her intent--and she's hidden her little Lunarian light-crystal inside a small metal box. "What do you have there?" she whispers, opening one of the box's shutters. A beam of pale light falls on the graffiti. She glances at Eleanor, and is clearly already thinking the same thing. This is no ordinary vandalism. "It looks like there's a pattern to the bits that look like scuff-marks," Ida says, pointing at one. She nods as the others approach, but says nothing... until Harmaus arrives. "And you would be...?" she says, her expression growing a bit more controlled.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Strange Signs.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
The Seraph Boudicca, it turns out, is not very good at bribes. She is pretty good at scarpering quick before someone can come investigate the cottage wall, though.
... she'll just hang around beside Ida and let her explain her away to the people who can still see her it's fine.
This was so much easier as a statue, when everyone just assumed she was a golem or a metal demon or some other monstrous thing from the depths. Now she's person-shaped and people are suspicious.
(The thought of changing out of full plate to allay that suspicion doesn't cross her mind for an instant. That's part of who she is. She can't just - change clothes.)
But somehow, with Ida's help, she's fine. And the night falls --
"Greetings, Rebecca!" Boudicca says, before she remembers that she is Sneaking and People Can Hear Her Here and stops enunciating quite so firmly. "It is pleasant to make your acquaintance officially," she adds, which might be a little confusing, considering some of the times Boudicca ran into Rebecca before this she was still in her statue.
At least her voice sounds the same. And the horns on her helm look pretty similar.
"Oh," she adds, when Harmaus makes his appearance, "this is the Seraph, Harmaus." She sounds like she knows him, which might suggest that she's known him for a while and not that she just ran into him at a party and there was a vague implication that they'd met before at some point. At least she can offer some mollification to his status as a Stranger by greeting him warmly: "It is good to meet you once more."
See! He's one of them! Probably.
"These human codes..." Boudicca leans forward, and considers them, quizzically. "They must mean..."
She straightens, and says, with confidence: "... these messages were inscribed recently."
WHAT DOES RECENTLY MEAN HERE, BOUDICCA?!
DG: Seraph Boudicca has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Strange Signs.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
"What like, to sneak a midnight snack or something? Dean and I used to do that." Rebecca nudges Dean. As they emerge though, and link back up, "It's a relief that noone got caught." And then... Boudicca. Rebecca seems to be sizing her up some. She's not hostile exactly, but she may seem somewhat wary, guarded, "Pleased to meet you. Rebecca Streisand." She offers with a small wave to the Seraphim, "We'll have to do it more properly later."
Pause.
"Wait... you sound kinda familiar? Did you..." Suddenly she's framing her fingers together to encompass Boudicca, "... always look this way?"
Then... they come upon the graffiti... and Dean...
Rebecca puts two fingers to her forehead, and gives a faint headshake, "So you're willing to write that kind of thing on a wall then for random strangers?"
She sounds faintly exasperated, as she'd wished that Dean would say that kind of thing more often to her for years.
"Well - there's no harm in it."
Then she squints at Ida and Eleanor's evaluation...
"You know..." Opening her travel diary, to a list, beside the list are various short handed symbols the kids use in their play. "... I think the local kids did some of this... the rest though was someone else..."
As if she were discerning some artistic fingerprint in them, some small incongruity, she eventually slides her finger over to a certain symbol, "If we eliminate some of these, I think it'll make more sense - the meaning."
DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Rebecca's Travel Diary toward her party's challenge, Strange Signs.
=======================<* Mysteries in Baskar Village *>======================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Strange Signs *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- As you make your way through the village at night, you find something not heard of: graffiti. Marks on the wall that might seem like vandalism, at first. A closer look, however, reveals there might be something to them: a message encoded in the graffit. It suggests a direction to move in... which, perhaps, others have followed in the past. However, you need to determine /what/ direction it points in. =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Secret=========================================
==================<* Mysteries in Baskar Village - Round 2 *>=================== ==========================< Results - Strange Signs >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 8 --(4)--> 12 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 8 --(4)--> 12 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eleanor Klein 8 --(4)--> 12 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Harmaus 15 --(4)--> 19 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Boudicca 15 --(4)--> 19 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rebecca Streisand 8 --(4)--> 12 Pass Rebecca's Travel Diary 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Ida Everstead-Rey 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Reckless(2)|Secret(2) Effects: Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey 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> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"Often," Eleanor answers Rebecca. "Maybe more often than the scandalous parts. There's this lovely little cafe not far from the dormitories, you see..."
"Oh!" Eleanor jumps slightly in surprise, having not noticed Harmaus at first--and then she makes a grimacing almost-smile sort of expression when she does, like someone trying not to show their dismay and failing. "Oh, Harmaus. How... good, and not surprising, to see you." Okay this one didn't work out. She turns to glance at Ida instead, "He's..." She pauses. "Ida, this man is..." Boudicca helps. And she says it's good to meet him again, and so Eleanor quiets on what she was going to say about him and instead offers a small smile. This one is awkward but not disastrous.
"Ah, but yes, messages. I was thinking...--Yes, they do seem recent, don't they? They--"
She pauses, and laughs warmly if quietly. "What a nice idea, Dean." She laughs a little more cheerfully at Rebecca's reaction. "Hm, so it's like that?" But she then turns to Boudicca again, "Oh, excuse me--my name is Eleanor Klein. I'm a member of ARMS. We didn't get to talk, at the harbor--and I didn't get to admire your armor!"
Then she gets back to work. Boudicca is of course right--it's recent. Harmaus provides motivation to Eleanor for sure, who works more quickly so she doesn't have to keep her back to him.
But between Rebecca eliminating chaff and Ida and Eleanor and the others going through the wheat, soon they have a direction:
"That way," Eleanor says finally, "I'm sure now."
Onward!!
DG: Seraph Harmaus has drawn a new Challenge.
=======================<* Mysteries in Baskar Village *>======================== ==================<* CHALLENGE - Voices Carried on the Wind *>================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- As you walk towards the center of the village, several houses are grouped close together. You hear a few words then -- snippets of conversation, where the words are hard to make out. If you get closer, this might be easier. Closer, however, is a challenge: several buildings, with windows half-open but darkened, are nearby. You need to determine /which/ building has a hushed conversation to listen in. IF SUCCESSFUL: You overhear a brief conversation, drifting from a window, between two women. '...don't trust this Stranger. What he says about the Guardians is... it's wrong. We wouldn't just--' 'Then believe in what he's brought with him. Strange medicines. That elixir he sells... it could benefit your daughter.' 'I don't know... those potions, they're not from Berries...' =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Reckless========================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
"Was wondering," he remarks to Eleanor, "if we sees you again."
This might not be the most comforting string of words to hear from the Seraph!
He continues: "We finds it curious. We wonders, what does it see? Maybe it tells us nicely?"
This inquiry may be cut off by Ida, who wonders who in the world this stranger might be. Harmaus does not answer Ida's question.
Boudicca answers it for him, after all.
"We are a Seraph, yes," he echoes, when Boudicca names him thus. "Is good to sees it again," he says, baring his teeth in a particularly toothy grin. "We are," he rumbles, "investigating rumors. Many secrets, this place has. We seeks to bring them into the light. The only way to deal with secrets."
He listens keenly as Rebecca remarks that she thinks she's seen Boudicca somewhere before, though, turning an eye towards the taller wind Seraph. "Oh?"
He remains standing behind Eleanor the entire time she works on the mural. Maybe it's good motivation...
The message suggests one head towards the village proper in the end, so that is the way they head. It's dark and quiet here, a stillness settling across the village.
Or nearly so.
Distantly, as a cluster of homes is approached, a murmuring can be heard. Someone is having a quiet but heated conversation... but in which house?
Harmaus stands still, his head cocked as if he's listening for something.
"Here," he says, before breaking off the group in a certain direction.
But has he heard it rightly?
DG: Seraph Harmaus has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Voices Carried on the Wind.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"I was once known as the Beast of Lohgrin," Boudicca explains, to Rebecca, "and as a name it sufficed... but the name humanity gave me was not mine, in the end."
This might make a lot of sense in retrospect, given the horns on that helm and the claws around the brazier-lamp at her belt.
Somehow, she manages to completely miss Eleanor's discomfort with Harmaus, who is one of her people, and therefore must be fine. She does understand the compliment, though, with a little blush to match. "Oh! I am glad you like it!" See, Dean? Girls like it when people notice they're pretty.
(Boudicca is confident Dean does see this, because he wrote that message, so clearly he's good at this game. It is remotely possible that Boudicca is still not well-practiced in the art of subtle social cues.)
Sneak sneak sneak, Boudicca follows Harmaus to the whispering houses, and pulls her pack forward to grasp..!
An empty can, which was once full of food humans need to eat, and is now extremely useful as a method for cooking food or liquids on a fire (for humans to eat). She has learned a neat trick with this thing, and so she holds the can up to the side of the house, and puts her ear beside the can.
Just call her Boudicca, Super Spy.
DG: Seraph Boudicca has used her Tool Emergency Supplies toward her party's challenge, Voices Carried on the Wind.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean laughs when Rebecca reminds him about those times they snuck around her mom's house to find midnight snacks. "Yeah! That was fun." He pauses, blinking, when Rebecca complains about his own graffiti, though. "What's it matter who I write it to?" he wonders, baffled. "Besides, I'm not writing it to anyone in particular. It can be to you if you want! You can read it too, can't you?"
Probably not the romantic sentiment that Rebecca was hoping for.
He looks over at Harmaus when Boudicca introduces him. "He is?" A Seraph, that is. "Huh! ...He looks awful normal for a Seraph. No offense," he adds to Harmaus, "you're just really... plain?"
Meanwhile, Dean absolutely does not catch the social cue that is Boudicca being pleased by a compliment, or at least, does not in any way connect it to his own actions. Instead, he smiles at Eleanor and says, "Thanks!"
As everyone else talks to everyone else, the group moves on through the village and between the houses. Dean sneaks closer to them, trying to balance between gravitating towards those with light (and therefore have awake people inside) and staying hidden in the shadows. It's actually pretty tough...
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Maybe using the Danger Sphere will help reflect the light away from him so he doesn't get noticed? (It will probably not help like that.)
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Danger Sphere toward his party's challenge, Voices Carried on the Wind.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida, on the other hand, does not miss Eleanor's distress. Her poker face remains firmly affixed as the group moves on, and Harmaus explains his reasons for being here. For a brief moment, Ida wonders if she can convey to Eleanor, through body language alone alone, that she will try and deck this man the moment he crosses a line. A Seraph? Ida thinks, as Harmaus identifies himself as such. That makes a little more sense, but the way he's addressing Eleanor makes Ida's skin crawl. It's like he's a wicked witch from an old nursery-tale, planning on cooking and eating Eleanor once he's gained her trust.
Ida's imagination might be a touch overactive because come on, scary rumors in a darkened village.
"Well then, Mister Harmaus," Ida whispers. "Lead the way." She does not let the Seraph out of her sight, even as she scans the streets for the source of the muted conversation.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Voices Carried on the Wind.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
"You'll have to take me there some day. Right now we're frequenting this nice little place in Honeysday." Rebecca comments pleasantly to Eleanor.
"Sometimes it's nice to direct it to people in particular Dean." Rebecca complains to Dean anyway.
"Oh! Hey!" Rebecca jolts as Boudicca reveals that, "You really changed your whole image up... I rather like it." Back then Rebecca barely had enough resonance to hear Boudicca except from time to time but... she does remember her.
Rebecca pauses as Harmaus relays his purpose. It sounds... she gives Eleanor a look at her obvious distress, then Ida at her reaction as if double checking that she's not imagining things. Rebecca then claps her Travel Diary shut. Closes the clasp, puts it away in her pack, then closes the clasp of the pack.
"That's certainly a thing to do." Rebecca finally notes in response. Rebecca then keeps her hand on her pack as they sneak around after Harmaus. Motioning Ida in for a huddle, she whispers to Eleanor en route, "Do we need to be concerned about this guy? And if so... how concerned?"
Though as they hear a conversation, Rebecca sneaks nearby, then does a walkover stunt that deposits her silently beneath one of the windows as if to assess if this is the best listening spot.
This was probably unnecessary but part of having a dream of being a circus performer is being as extra as possible in how you move.
DG: Rebecca Streisand has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Voices Carried on the Wind.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"I would be glad to!" Eleanor is happy to talk to Rebecca anyway. As opposed to...
"I'm sure I don't know why you would find me curious," Eleanor replies almost primly to Harmaus, which somehow works but is a very strange word on her indeed. Dragging secrets to light... "Some secrets are best uncovered," she half-agrees guardedly.
But to Boudicca she's all sunshine. "I do!" she reiterates as to her armor, and smiles at Dean's thanks, too. The smile back from him and the little blush from Boudicca are their own reward, as far as the sorceress is concerned. ...Less so a certain other Seraph because she chimes in, "Oh, he isn't normal." Pause. "...Ah."
...Eleanor does walk faster than usual with Harmaus in the group, for some reason. But this means she has to take a moment to pause when he starts listening, and think about it. She also happens to be walking close to Ida for the moment, not quite putting Ida between herself and Harmaus but it seems that she has probably gotten the message. She murmurs back to Rebecca, "He's just...creepy, and..." She has trouble putting it into words, especially because she suspects, "He might be listening."
But here at the challenge... "...It's dark; we'll have to be extra alert. A moment..." Eleanor pulls a crest of Wing and Geo and channels magic into its golden lines and curves; the card glows, there is a rain of sparkling light, and the group as a whole (yes she gives all of them the benefit) feels more awake and alert.
DG: Eleanor Klein has used her Tool Acuity Crest toward her party's challenge, Voices Carried on the Wind.
=======================<* Mysteries in Baskar Village *>======================== ==================<* CHALLENGE - Voices Carried on the Wind *>================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- As you walk towards the center of the village, several houses are grouped close together. You hear a few words then -- snippets of conversation, where the words are hard to make out. If you get closer, this might be easier. Closer, however, is a challenge: several buildings, with windows half-open but darkened, are nearby. You need to determine /which/ building has a hushed conversation to listen in. IF SUCCESSFUL: You overhear a brief conversation, drifting from a window, between two women. '...don't trust this Stranger. What he says about the Guardians is... it's wrong. We wouldn't just--' 'Then believe in what he's brought with him. Strange medicines. That elixir he sells... it could benefit your daughter.' 'I don't know... those potions, they're not from Berries...' =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Reckless========================================
==================<* Mysteries in Baskar Village - Round 3 *>=================== ====================< Results - Voices Carried on the Wind >==================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 12 --(8)--> 20 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 12 --(8)--> 20 Fail Danger Sphere 2 Wits Effects: Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eleanor Klein 12 --(8)--> 20 Pass Acuity Crest 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Harmaus 19 --(8)--> 27 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Boudicca 19 --(8)--> 27 Fail Emergency Supplies 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rebecca Streisand 12 --(8)--> 20 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Ida Everstead-Rey 40 --(30)--> 70 Pass Conditions: Reckless(2)|Secret(1)|Stupify(2) Effects: Cleanse|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey 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> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
"Beast of Lohgrin. We remembers it well," Harmaus remarks, as Boudicca speaks of her past. "Yes, yes, of course," he says, looking her over as if for the first time. "We meets it a long time ago, when we had a different form. This form best for traveling here!" he says, thumping a fist against his chest. "But, see. Is no harm," he adds, glancing at Ida. It's hard to read what intent lurks behind those eyes.
Dean says that he's rather plain looking. Harmaus looks down at himself, at a body that seems perfectly nondescript, if your aim is to be a Drifter.
He smiles a tad bit toothily at Dean. "Yes. We are."
That is, as he might have said to anyone in on his plan if he had anyone in on his plan, the entire point.
He listens for a time, up against the building. Boudicca joins him -- though there's something about the construction of the building -- or her little trick? -- that makes what she catches that much more muffled. She can hear the important parts, but...
Dean finds that it's just hard to stay hidden and listen appropriately at the same time.
Rebecca, though, calls for a brief huddle, before they similarly approach the building where Harmaus was listening in; between Rebecca's well-placed positioning and Eleanor's spell, they're similarly able to pick up on the clues here.
Once away from the homes, Harmaus regards Ida, Rebecca, and Eleanor curiously for a moment. "It lingered behind. We wonders what it saw," he murmurs, his mouth turned in a smile that doesn't reach his eyes.
"But we," he says, after a moment's pause, "hears much by the house. Yes. It listens to us now..."
And he relays some of what he's heard. A Stranger. Strange medicine. Potions, instead of Berries.
DG: Seraph Boudicca has drawn a new Challenge.
=======================<* Mysteries in Baskar Village *>======================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - Climbing Down a Well *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- One rumor notes that the well in the northeastern part of the village, which dried up five years ago, is used by the village's youth to pass messages back and forth. Sneaking over there is not so difficult; it is in a part of the village that few travel to. When you arrive, you see a badly frayed rope that has been lowered down. Someone has been coming here, though their regard for their own safety is questionable. Climbing down the well to look will be dangerous. The insides are slippery, the walls of the well are smooth, and the rope is frayed and treacherous. The bottom is far, far below. IF SUCCESSFUL You find a message below. Paper that has been lacquered and then sealed in an envelope awaits. When you open, you see a note: "Friend: We've talked to him. He is interested in meeting you. The new Guardian offers us a hope the elders never allowed us. When you see me tomorrow, nod twice if you want to arrange a meeting." =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Injure, Exhaust====================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Their forms do tend to change, throughout the centuries, so it's a little mystifying that Boudicca has run into Harmaus before, but not so mystifying as to be alarming. She looks pleased, though, when Rebecca compliments her New Look.
"I rather like it as well," she replies to Rebecca, all sunshine and smiles, was she always like this under that ferocious dragon mask.
... of course, Boudicca, excited to employ her Human Trick, failed to notice that she had the can around the wrong way. Which would explain why it's so hard to hear.
Look, she... she's trying her best.
Ida's efforts come into play here: she spent so much time repairing the water-wheel, so she got to hear a lot of interesting things about the water of Baskar. Including this well, which might have some interesting things to add to these rumours of potions from strange sources.
Because, as Boudicca points out: "Children do tend to talk more freely than the adults. Perhaps they know something?"
Sneak sneak sneak, it's time to sneak to the north-east. It's a good time for circus manoeuvres, and a bad time to have a human vessel, but they get there, and the well...
Could probably use some repairs, too, judging by the rope.
She looks down at the dark murky depths of the well, and pulls out a handful of dry leaves. "I will investigate," she declares, crushing them and dropping them down...
Before she hops over the side of the well and just drops right down, down, down.
Of course, she sent wind magic down ahead of her, and she is the wind, but still...!
DG: Seraph Boudicca has used her Tool Breezeruffle Leaves toward her party's challenge, Climbing Down a Well.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
Boudicca, having lingered longer in the village (under more positive auspices than Harmaus enjoyed, perhaps) has a better idea of where they might search for clues next.
This would be the well, which the local children use to pass messages to one another.
"Is deep," the Seraph remarks, looking over the edge.
"Is dark," he adds, straightening, a motion which passes with a wince; he rolls a shoulder and winces again.
Which is the point where Boudicca leaps into the well.
"Ah," remarks Harmaus simply. He lingers for a moment at the well's lip. "Then it searches well, yes? Heh heh..."
He rummages in a pocket, pulling out a small sachet which he crushes in one hand, inhaling its contents deeply and exhaling a sigh.
Milky white light begins to trail from his fingertips, shimmering silver with the faintest hints of red and green at the edges. Slowly, it begins to spiral its way down into the well like an auroral smear, descending into the dark.
Eliminating the dark.
DG: Seraph Harmaus has used his Tool Valerian Root toward his party's challenge, Climbing Down a Well.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida glances over at Boudicca, searching for signs that she's as weirded out as her Seer is. There are none--and, knowing Boudicca, means she's probably totally okay with Harmaus being here. Well, Ida thinks. Perhaps it's simply a matter of isolation. Maybe he's rough around the edges, or maybe he's had even less human contact than Boudicca has. Nevertheless, everything about him puts Ida on edge.
They come to the well. It's in even worse shape than Ida imagined, and she pauses a moment, considering that this is just a fact of life for those who live on the fringes. "Keep in mind," Ida says, to Boudicca, "we also need to get back out." Boudicca leaps on in. Ida sighs, and snaps her heels together. Green sparks rise from her heels, floating on the breeze like fireflies. Boudicca's updraft grows that much stronger. Ida, meanwhile, starts uncoiling a secondary rope, and ties one end in a very sturdy sailor's knot. Only then does she follow her Oracle.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Zephyr Boots toward her party's challenge, Climbing Down a Well.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean throws his hands up in the air when Rebecca complains that it's nice to direct nice messages to particular people. "But that's got nothing to do with what we're doing now!! Geez, Rebecca!" He shakes his head. "What's so wrong about making a nice message for anyone who passes by, anyway? I don't get it..."
Sneaking around doesn't really work. Dean rejoins with the others in time to hear everyone else report in, and also note some strange tension between Eleanor and Harmaus (he's just *now* noticing??). He looks between the two in confusion, but not knowing either of them all that well, keeps his mouth shut. ...for now.
Besides, they've got other things to figure out for the time being. Apparently not everyone is gung-ho about this new Guardian, and there's new potions, but they're not made from Heal Berries... Dean doesn't see anything wrong with that, especially since Heal Berries are so hard to grow. Capo Bronco was lucky enough to have a small orchard of them just outside the town limits, but everywhere else he's gone, it's a devil of a time to find any. You can't even buy them in stores! What's up with *that*?
There is a well. Dean's been here before. "Hey, Boudicca, this place--" She's already down. Dean looks down, where Harmaus is providing light. "Oh," he concludes. "Um, I was gonna say, me and Rebecca already searched this place before. People trade messages down there." He pauses, considering this, and adds thoughtfully, "Maybe there's something new?"
DG: Dean Stark has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Climbing Down a Well.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
Rebecca squabbles back readily, "Geez yourself Dean. You just don't get it. Just because it's not something to do right now doesn't mean it's not something to consider later!" Before pointing out, "And I said there's no harm in you doing it right now already!"
Rebecca has a hard time parsing the habits of long lived semi-invisible beings. Yet she definitely approves of the change from lumbering dragon statue to her current far more human state.
Rebecca nodded at Eleanor, "Let's watch each other's backs then." She says something that can easily be interpreted as neutral. Yet she might as well be saying 'Let's keep an eye on him for each other.' before they part ways to investigate the conversations at hand.
Harmaus relays it, and Rebecca tries her hardest not to cringe at his wording. Trying to appear stoic when she's really quite uncomfortable. "It's gotta be some kind of movement by the youth. Dean and I caught wind of it last time we were here." She nods Dean's way. There's more, but she's hesitant to speak on it. She wants more facts.
Then there's the well. Rebecca grins as Boudicca says she's going to investigate, "Well - go check it out." Before noting to Eleanor. "The idea of leaving a message down a well is pretty romantic right? Like something you imagine kids engage in a forbidden romance doing to escape notice." She doesn't reveal that they found one there last time.
Dean does though. "I wouldn't worry about it - there's probably something new like you said. It's a useful drop point right?"
Maybe she's hoping there's something that validates her fantasies of forbidden romance down there...?
Though as Ida reveals that fact of the concern of needing to get back out, Rebecca says, "I've got that one covered." Rebecca then pulls out her Portal Guns, and fires a shot deep in the well on one of the side walls.
Then fires another at the ground. She then ducks down - and hesitating only for a moment because Harmaus is doing something to the well, she sticks her head through the portal, perhaps baffling Boudicca(but probably not Ida) at the sudden appearance of Rebecca's head(Sans tips of her twintails, which are still firmly on the ground on the other side of the portal) as she descends on down. With a friendly wave she calls out, "Shortcut back up right here you two!"
DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Portal Guns toward her party's challenge, Climbing Down a Well.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Eleanor is spared having to make an excuse this time because Harmaus continues into what he heard, and indeed, she does listen to him as he relays the information.
"...Strange medicines... talk of the Guardians that's unusual?" Eleanor is not an expert on Guardian traditions, unfortunately. She pointedly avoids answering what Harmaus has asked her for now.
"I didn't see anything," she finally tells him. "I don't know what you mean."
Bt there are apparently interesting things here, and... a well...
Eleanor pauses. She thinks about it. "I'm... not the one to bring down there," she says, reluctantly. She just doesn't have the athleticism. But Boudicca suddenly--"Oh--!"
"Oh, I hope she's all right," Eleanor says worriedly.
She meanwhile watches Harmaus's light. ...Instead of deploying her ice rod, she scoots a little further away. She was going to move behind Ida, but unfortunately, Ida goes down the well!!
"Oh--do they?" Eleanor asks Dean, scooting his direction. She looks to Rebecca, and tilts her head. "You know, as you mention it, it kind of does, doesn't it? We didn't have any wells in Sielje since digging deep into the void isn't very productive," she says amiably. "But ah...?"
"Oh that's interesting," Eleanor says, from the other side of Rebecca.
DG: Eleanor Klein has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Climbing Down a Well.
=======================<* Mysteries in Baskar Village *>======================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - Climbing Down a Well *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- One rumor notes that the well in the northeastern part of the village, which dried up five years ago, is used by the village's youth to pass messages back and forth. Sneaking over there is not so difficult; it is in a part of the village that few travel to. When you arrive, you see a badly frayed rope that has been lowered down. Someone has been coming here, though their regard for their own safety is questionable. Climbing down the well to look will be dangerous. The insides are slippery, the walls of the well are smooth, and the rope is frayed and treacherous. The bottom is far, far below. IF SUCCESSFUL You find a message below. Paper that has been lacquered and then sealed in an envelope awaits. When you open, you see a note: "Friend: We've talked to him. He is interested in meeting you. The new Guardian offers us a hope the elders never allowed us. When you see me tomorrow, nod twice if you want to arrange a meeting." =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Injure, Exhaust====================================
==================<* Mysteries in Baskar Village - Round 4 *>=================== =======================< Results - Climbing Down a Well >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 20 --(8)--> 28 Pass Zephyr Boots 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 20 --(8)--> 28 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eleanor Klein 20 --(8)--> 28 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Harmaus 27 --(8)--> 35 Pass Valerian Root 3 Agility Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Boudicca 27 --(8)--> 35 Pass Breezeruffle Leaves 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rebecca Streisand 20 --(8)--> 28 Pass Portal Guns 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Ida Everstead-Rey 70 --(20)--> 90 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Injure(2)|Reckless(1)|Slow(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey 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> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
It would be sensible for Boudicca to wait for important information, but no, she just jumps right down there.
Luckily, Harmaus thinks ahead, and lights up the bottom of the well. Equally luckily, Ida has a plan to get them back out, as well as rope. With that strong sailor's knot, she's effectively solved the short-term safety issues of the well. She's helping!
Boudicca, of course, touches down on her Float-bubble without any bother, because she is obnoxiously magic.
"Oh, Ida! Good thinking!" Boudicca says, as she looks up to see her Seer coming down on that rope. (What was her plan to get out..? Probably more magic. Would the well have even withstood that? It seems like it's seen better days.)
She turns around and oh hi Rebecca. Boudicca staggers back a step in blatant surprise, a gauntlet-clad hand coming up to her chest. Her braids do a little polygon-protesting dance in the confined space, as those long ribbon-bound things try to figure out where to move in the well. "Goodness! What remarkable magic!" Everything is magic to a Seraph, don't worry about it.
"Message, message..." The bottom of the well is lit up, so Ida and Boudicca won't have much trouble searching for the drop point Dean and Rebecca talked about. Ida turns out to be better at finding secret hidden messages, though, because Boudicca never passed notes when she was a child. (Unless one counts evading terrible monsters and finding oneself in the same hiding spot as the prey they were chasing to be equivalent. ... yeah, it's probably not.)
The portal provides a convenient path back up, leaving the rope to make sure the children of Baskar don't suffer a horrific fate at the hands of a damaged well.
"It seems," Boudicca says, leaning over Ida's shoulder as they read that note, "this 'new Guardian' is going against tradition. No wonder the village is reluctant to speak so plainly on it." Villages, in Boudicca's experience, are slow to adopt new ideas.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has drawn a new Challenge.
=======================<* Mysteries in Baskar Village *>======================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - A Dangerous Package *>====================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Your investigation has led you to a small shed, which is used as a drop point for packages being given by the mysterious cult at the heart of this village's woes. You sneak towards the shed, but don't have a chance to really inspect it. However, you hear a noise behind you. A muffled cry of 'run!' and footsteps, taking off. And a package does, in fact, fly through the air. It comes down for you, the package beginning to strain. More than that, the prismatic and ember-like glow of pyreflies begins to emit from it. Then, the leather wrapping and cords break, as a massive red Bomb appears -- and not an explosive, but a leathery Fiend, with red flesh and a fiery mien. It already grows, mightily, in size. And opens its mouth and /snarls/ at you, before it soars in. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"'Guardian' as in the proper noun," Ida murmurs. "I'd thought there was simply a patent-medicine huckster at work, but this, right here--" She taps her finger against the note, frowning. "This is something else entirely."
At the very end of the trail stands the drop point. It looks like a perfectly ordinary shed, wooden and care-worn. Ida creeps forwards, reaches for the handle--
Then, that cry. Something flies through the air. Ida's head snaps up, and she slides instinctively into a fighting stance. The package bulges, strains, starts emitting telltale sparks of light. Pyreflies. Pyreflies, here?!
The Bomb bursts free from its flimsy cage, and roars in fury. Fire boils off its body, and it begins to swell.
"Shit," Ida breathes, her face going white. Reflex saves her. She whips a metal cylinder off her belt and throws it at the Bomb's mouth--the Fiend swallows it whole.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Flare Grenade toward her party's challenge, A Dangerous Package.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
"Or does it not see? Is it another sense?" wonders Harmaus, regarding Eleanor carefully. "It wonders us, yet. Why it regards us like a mouse does the cat."
The emphasis is struck on the last words, just enough weight to make the word linger.
"Ah," remarks Harmaus, when Dean says the village children trade messages down in the dry well. "Little secrets, in the dark. Little secrets is not weak, though, no. Sometimes the little breaks the great," he reflects, the light continuing to spill from his hands. His gaze only shifts when Rebecca makes use of portals.
"Stranger yet, artes of the Blue Star," he remarks after a time.
But eventually Boudicca returns with the contents of the message.
"What finds it?" he asks, of the message, and when Boudicca speaks...
"Hmmm. Maybe something. Maybe nothing. We looks further!"
For now, he seems willing to play nicely enough, trailing along with the lot of them as they advance along the path. There's a shed out here.
And then someone shouts.
The package that's flung doesn't last long.
"What is... it," he murmurs, gazing at the swarm of Pyreflies in those few seconds before it bursts open.
"Ah," he rumbles out, gazing at the Bomb. "We sees it not before. Interesting, interesting. We wonders on it. But!" he interjects, in the matter of a schoolmaster who has caught a student up to no good, "but, we sees it quiet first!"
He opens a hand; a small little bell dangles on a red cord. It sways once, ringing out a soft chime.
Shh, says the bell.
Be quiet and cease.
DG: Seraph Harmaus has used his Tool Amulet Bell toward his party's challenge, A Dangerous Package.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"I admit some concern," Boudicca replies, to Ida, "on the thought of a 'new Guardian'..." Still, maybe it's fine. Maybe.
Sneak, sneak, sneak.
And then suddenly they can't move quietly because they have to move quickly. Boudicca springs back in step with Ida; move first, clarify later. "Those are pyreflies - from Spira!" She explains, to Harmaus, all in a hurry. "Ask me not how they have come to this place!"
The problem with fire, of course - is how oxygen feeds it. If Boudicca uses her magic, she's just going to make a bigger bomb, with a louder explosion and even more collateral damage. ... but if Boudicca calls on her connection with Moor Gault, she'll just give the fire more fire, which will achieve much the same goal, really.
Fire didn't stop being difficult for the Wind Seraph to deal with just because she's best friends with fire now, basically. Fire is still the most difficult element. Take that one to the bank.
And so, Boudicca does the only thing she can sensibly do.
She jumps forward to bop the bomb across the noggin with her tonfa.
(In the process, hopefully she'll distract it from everyone else's plans.)
DG: Seraph Boudicca has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Dangerous Package.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"I dunno that I'd call 'em *secrets*. They're just messages," Dean says to Harmaus, scratching his head. "Though I guess since they're not for everybody, they are secrets...? Does everybody have to know everything?" He doesn't get creeped out by Harmaus the same way Eleanor and Rebecca too; he sees him as weird but harmless, but that still means he's weird.
The group stumbles across a bunch of guys who bolt at the sight of them. "AH! It's those guys again!!" Dean yells, thrusting a finger at them. "Get back here!!" But unfortunately, even though he knows what's coming next, he can't get past the Bomb that the fleeing whoever-they-are hurl at him and his friends. "Dang it! Fine! I'll just put out this flame!"
He pulls out Ace of Spades then, and chunks its blade deep into the ground, which he shoves up with ferocity. "Take THIS!" he shouts, then hurling a big ol' wad of flame-dousing dirt into the Bomb. Hopefully that helps rather than... not... helps.
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Ace of Spades toward his party's challenge, A Dangerous Package.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
"You'd have had to grow up in a small town." Rebecca says back to Eleanor. "Didn't feature too much in ours though. Because we were a small small town."
The message speaks of a Guardian. And Rebecca listens to Boudicca. There's more to it. As Ida talks about the town and the 'Guardian'. Rebecca even meets Dean's eyes. Yet she doesn't want to bring it up aloud. What she's hoping to find is something Riesenlied speculated on last time. A singular word... which might be what these youth are rebelling against.
"Not as strange as you." Rebecca mumbles when Harmaus comments on her portal gun.
Then comes, the Pyreflies. "Again!?" Rebecca says as echo to Dean, "Stay calm! Just take it down quick!" Rebecca suddenly quick draws her ARM, spinning it into her hand, sending a spray of three shots at it. Before she then takes out her strange geometric Medium. With a simple invocation, azure hexagonal energy rises up around her.
Water then geysers under the Bomb Fiend in a pressurized blast of elemental power. Before what comes up, must come down.
The water falls back down upon it like rain. Though it's also rain that'll turn Dean's bomb-quenching dirt into bomb-quenching mud. So in a strange way... it is a combination attack?
DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Sky Medium toward her party's challenge, A Dangerous Package.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"..." Eleanor regards Harmaus warily, without the more energetic avoidance of thus far. But she doesn't really have a comeback--she realizes, after all, what he means, and that he knows enough to mean it.
At least the talk of the message is something new to talk about. "A new Guardian..." It still seems strange to Eleanor. "Yes, it's very unusual."
She adds to Rebecca, "That I definitely didn't--none of my early homes, really." But soon there is a Bomb, and Eleanor jumps back from the flames as it immediately starts to swell. She thinks quickly--and pulls not a weapon, but a different kind of implement entirely. The strange, coppery-toned flute has an unusual sound to it, and she plays a haunting melody. The song inhibits, weakens, confuses, generally hampers a foe, and that is the plan she has for this primarily, to prevent damage as she's able.
DG: Eleanor Klein has used her Tool Eerie Flute toward her party's challenge, A Dangerous Package.
=======================<* Mysteries in Baskar Village *>======================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - A Dangerous Package *>====================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Your investigation has led you to a small shed, which is used as a drop point for packages being given by the mysterious cult at the heart of this village's woes. You sneak towards the shed, but don't have a chance to really inspect it. However, you hear a noise behind you. A muffled cry of 'run!' and footsteps, taking off. And a package does, in fact, fly through the air. It comes down for you, the package beginning to strain. More than that, the prismatic and ember-like glow of pyreflies begins to emit from it. Then, the leather wrapping and cords break, as a massive red Bomb appears -- and not an explosive, but a leathery Fiend, with red flesh and a fiery mien. It already grows, mightily, in size. And opens its mouth and /snarls/ at you, before it soars in. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
==================<* Mysteries in Baskar Village - Round 5 *>=================== =======================< Results - A Dangerous Package >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 28 --(12)--> 40 Pass Flare Grenade 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 28 --(12)--> 40 Pass Ace of Spades 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eleanor Klein 28 --(12)--> 40 Pass Eerie Flute 2 Combat Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Harmaus 35 --(12)--> 47 Pass Amulet Bell 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Boudicca 35 --(12)--> 47 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rebecca Streisand 28 --(12)--> 40 Pass Sky Medium 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Ida Everstead-Rey 90 --(30)--> 120 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Slow(1)|Wound(2) Effects: Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey has successfully explored Mysteries in Baskar Village!
=======================<* Mysteries in Baskar Village *>======================== ===================<* CHALLENGE - Message from the Leader *>==================== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Inside of the shed, you find a few emptied crates. The supplies in them have been emptied out, but you do find a letter within. The letter appears to be a tract, written by the mysterious masked individual who has been seen. That masked individual is, apparently, providing some form of religious literature: 'Our world is a spiral. An endless spiral of death, which we try to escape through penance and ceremony. It obscures truth from us, but I have come to these lands to offer you truth. I offer you knowledge of sin. Of how to shape sin. Of how to shape the instrument of your own liberation... by breaking the spiral.' =Dungeon Conditions: Secret===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida glances, wide-eyed, at Boudica--that thing she just said was completely true, but now is not the time to be having that conversation. Having swallowed Ida's can, the Bomb turns next to Boudicca. The Fiend's flesh gives beneath her tonfa, but this only seems to anger it; bellowing, it lunges forwards, snapping at the Seraph with blazing teeth.
Quiet, says Harmaus' bell. An eerie silence falls over the battle, broken only by the tones of Eleanor's flute. An unnatural languor seems to sink into the Bomb's limbs. It snaps at Eleanor, but only succeeds in getting a mouthful of dirt thanks to Dean's intervention. Rebecca's torrent of water hits it a moment later, and the Fiend reels back, shrieking soundlessly. And then--
The flare grenade the Bomb swallowed at the start of the fight finally cooks off. The weakened, confused Fiend shudders, bulges, and rips apart into its component Pyreflies--all in complete silence.
Ida steps back, pressing herself against the shed wall. A moment passes, and then another--no one comes out to challenge them. Ida lets out a breath, turns to the others, and nods. She pushes open the shed door, knowing they only have a small window to get this done.
Inside? Crates. Most of them are empty, but then there's the odd letter...
Ida picks it up, and begins to read--she holds it so that the others can see.
An endless spiral of death. Sin. Liberation. Ida's lips thin into a tight, angry line.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYfPACiJ6ew
==TO=BE=CONTINUED===>
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
"Jaeja," remarks Harmaus, when Rebecca says he's the strange one.
Perhaps such considerations fall by the wayside, though -- with the strange Fiend (a being with which the Seraph is unfamiliar) that is suddenly thrust into their midst.
The thing that, once it is felled, leaves only the shed.
And the note within.
Harmaus' gaze hoods.
"Obscures the truth. Yes, yes it does..." he murmurs.