2020-06-13: The New Guardian
- Log: The New Guardian
- Cast: Venetia Vuong, Citan Uzuki, Marivel Armitage
- Where: Sword Cathedral
- Date: June 13, 2020
- Summary: Following up on the rumors of a new Guardian, a trio sneaks into the Baskar Sacrificial Grounds, only to find that they have become completely contaminated. What beats at the heart of this place?
DG: A party led by Venetia Vuong is now entering Sacrificial Grounds ~ Desperation's Altar. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
===============<* Sacrificial Grounds ~ Desperation's Altar *>================ ====================<* CHALLENGE - The Strangling Knot *>===================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The off-kilter sense that pervades the entryway to the Sacrificial Grounds is all too familiar to those who are familiar with its sickening, inky touch of contradiction. Malevolence permeates this place, and here, it comes in shades that reek of panic and desperation, bubbling like an overstewed kettle in the heart. And it has settled deep into the bones of this place. Deep enough that, as you enter, the hanging vinework that has settled into the stonework seethes with a violet light before it literally whipsnaps downward, intent to loop and lash the nearest person it can find. Vines attempt to constrict and strangle and otherwise entrap -- unless the ensnared can be freed from this terrible trap. It's time for some brute force. Hurray! Brute force! =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Venetia Vuong had heard of rumors of some kind of a New Guardian -
"But that's ridiculous," Venetia says. "You can't just create a new Guardian by wishing for it very hard. Otherwise there'd be thousands of the damn things and they'd all be bare-faced attractive people who are very interested in hearing about your day and taking you to the formal."
- being raised in the depths of the Baskar villages of Kasutho Island -
"And frankly given that they shot at me, I'm not inclined to assume their motivations were good, even if I suppose that in a vacuum one should be respectful of tradition... sadly, things do not suck quite as much as that," Venetia continues.
- and the strange, creeping, purple mist floating round the high spaces of this ritual zone were enough to retroactively justify coming here with everyone.
Who in this case turned out to be a fellow academic and the incomparable Marivel Armitage.
Setting here, Venetia had used a pen knife to open up a can of something from Guild Galad. "Just pick out the mushrooms and enjoy the sauce," Venetia says, taking one out and putting it into her mouth. "ith better cold," she concludes, before a Malevolent vine tendril curls round to dive towards her from above.
QUICK:
CAN YOU PUT THE QT
IN Q T E ?
DG: Venetia Vuong has used her Tool Lion's Ear Brand Canned Salt Mushroom Chop toward her party's challenge, The Strangling Knot.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
Being a physician and occasional tinkerer, perhaps it would make sense that Citan Uzuki wouldn't know much about Guardians, the Baskar, their traditions, and the like. Still, that hadn't stopped him from sticking his nose into the situation that seemed to be brewing among the Kasutho...
Whatever it was, ultimately.
But even someone like Dr. Uzuki*--
(*especially someone like Dr. Uzuki)
--can smell a rat. For one thing, there was talk of a 'new Guardian'. Strange medicines. A meeting with a pair of strangers. A package guarded by someone with a crossbow and very good aim, even if they had ultimately missed.
And then he had caught wind of the anomalies in the ritual zone. They had sounded, in fact, somewhat similar to something that Fei had spoken of.
Something that had been encountered primarily on Lunar, but also in a few isolated spots in Filgaia.
And 'He' had been interested in it, as well.
"It is true, something fishy is happening here," replies the doctor, arms folded over his chest as he discusses events of late with Venetia. "Perhaps there may be more in the way of an answer within."
He may, perhaps, demonstrate fewer compunctions about sneaking in here than she does. But the situation is admittedly an unusual one.
"Furthermore, it seems that 'Stranger' spoken of by the Baskar has brought with them medicines unknown to these lands. That in itself is suspicious, is it not-- er, thank you, but I will pass," he interrupts himself with, shaking his head as she offers the contents of the can. Perhaps the doctor is a picky eater...?!
Something feels, in the moment after, off. He happens to glance upwards, searching for the source, of Venetia at just the right (?) moment.
"Look out!" he shouts, reaching for the first thing that comes to hand to throw it at the Malevolent tendril.
Which is a particularly well-used but completely ordinary hammer.
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Perfectly Normal Hammer toward his party's challenge, The Strangling Knot.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel is pretty quiet. Venetia can probably imagine why. She's been quieter and more contemplative as oflate. She's been a bit stuck in her reflections. It's not raelly strange, all considered.
"Any god born from the sacrifice of children is one whose soul ought never break free from its shell." Marivel says, looking over to... Dr. Uzuki! "I have some ... thoughts as to whom it may be, but baseless speculation won't do any good. Or I suppose, mildly baseful speculation."
She sniffs a bit. "Isn't that...?"
Citan throws Hammer (no wait it's a hammer) at a malevolent tendril. Marivel, who is an entity full of contradiction, hangs back rather than try to disrupt the malevolence too closely, gesturing with a hand as she sends bursts of electrical light crackling towards the vines.
DG: Marivel Armitage has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Strangling Knot.
===============<* Sacrificial Grounds ~ Desperation's Altar *>================ ====================<* CHALLENGE - The Strangling Knot *>===================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The off-kilter sense that pervades the entryway to the Sacrificial Grounds is all too familiar to those who are familiar with its sickening, inky touch of contradiction. Malevolence permeates this place, and here, it comes in shades that reek of panic and desperation, bubbling like an overstewed kettle in the heart. And it has settled deep into the bones of this place. Deep enough that, as you enter, the hanging vinework that has settled into the stonework seethes with a violet light before it literally whipsnaps downward, intent to loop and lash the nearest person it can find. Vines attempt to constrict and strangle and otherwise entrap -- unless the ensnared can be freed from this terrible trap. It's time for some brute force. Hurray! Brute force! =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken===================================================
==========<* Sacrificial Grounds ~ Desperation's Altar - Round 1 *>=========== ======================< Results - The Strangling Knot >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Venetia Vuong 0 --(15)--> 15 Fail Lion's Ear Brand Canned Salt Mushro 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Marivel Armitage 0 --(15)--> 15 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Citan Uzuki 0 --(10)--> 10 Pass Perfectly Normal Hammer 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Venetia Vuong 0 --(10)--> 10 Fail Conditions: Weaken(2) Effects: Cleanse ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Venetia Vuong has failed this challenge! The party gained 10 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
"Lion's mane? Yes," Venetia confirms to Marivel as she tilts the can back from Citan, taking out a second one and putting it in her mouth. The stuff in the can has one of those inexplicable smells that a gourmet can understand why people like, and which is otherwise just...
What do they put in that? Salt? Some kind of... plant?
Venetia then looks towards Citan a moment before HER HEAD IS RIPPED OFF BY A VINE!
No.
She ducks low as if kneeling in sudden recognition of Citan's blinding glory or perhaps Marivel's. The vines crackle as Marivel's thunder strikes them; this is where Venetia looks over her shoulder with bugged-out eyes. Citan strikes with a hammer, and Venetia has time enough to get out a Graph and invoke
"ANCIENT PILLAR!"
a pillar of marble, which the vines, naturally, briefly prefer to living things. Venetia then looks at the others and says, "Perhaps this was a poor place to delay!"
She finishes off the can of mushroom while running. It's good that it is dark and mistsome, because it looks pretty absurd.
DG: Citan Uzuki has drawn a new Challenge.
================<* Sacrificial Grounds ~ Desperation's Altar *>================= =======================<* CHALLENGE - The Hidden Ways *>======================== |Type: exploration |Dungeon Ability: agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The Sacrificial Grounds, for all they are mostly straightforward, are tricky and frustratingly convoluted in some key ways that help locals in deterring people who are not really into tricky and frustratingly convoluted things. One of these rears its head when you find yourself at a dead end. This is clearly the way forward -- there's only so many straight pathways and stairs in this place, when they're not maddeningly duplicating themselves for no real reason -- but there seems to be no actual exit. And there, in the corner of your eye, you might see what looks like solid ground in the all-consuming darkness of the pits surrounding the stone walkways. A hidden underway lies beneath you. Maybe. It'll take a leap of faith to know for sure -- and then it'll take navigating those strange hidden walkways beneath walkways to be able to press forward. And they are so, so very dark. Who -doesn't- love jumping into dark pits hoping to hit solid ground and not blank, resetting nothingness?? =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
The hammer, effectively, stops the vine from snagging Venetia. But there are many of them, and ultimately, he only has one hammer. ...Which isn't even in his hands anymore. "Oh dear," the doctor reflects, moments before Venetia's pillar makes for a structure which the vines would very much prefer to cling.
"I agree," he says to her, before making a quick grab for his lost hammer and similarly fleeing the immediate premises.
Once they reach a place where the surroundings are not immediately attempting to kill them, he slows to a stop and regards the immediate area. "This seems safe enough. ...That was the phenomenon known was 'Malevolence', I believe. Someone I know spoke to me of such things. It appears to be, ah... I suppose you could say that it is 'not of this world'?" he settles for, shaking his head. "In any event, we will want to take care. ...I admit, I do not have much first-hand experience with it..."
The path forward appears straightforward. There is a staircase, which leads to a straight pathway, then to another staircase and straight-shot corridor and then...
And then, a room with no visible exits at all. Just stone walkways and deep gaps between then along the floor.
"...Strange." Citan rubs at his chin, frowning. "I wonder if perhaps there may be a hidden door?"
He spends a while doing it, but the walls are solid stonework. If there's a hidden passage in here, it's concealed extremely cleverly.
"Hmm... now, this is a conundrum," he muses, apparently pacing as he thinks this one through. "Could there have been a missed passageway? ...No, no, there was no alternate path. There must be some trick within--"
And then he sees it. Some patch of darkness in the pits below that are somewhat less dark than the rest. "...Aha! I see! The path isn't above, but below!"
Pausing a moment on the edge of the pit, he appears to consider this course of action and its hazards for a moment.
And then simply jumps down.
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Martial Arts Shoes toward his party's challenge, The Hidden Ways.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"What? no. I mean--" Marivel begins before nodding once to Venetia, engaging in her Looney Toons style run animation as the team beats feet.
...only to find a doom pit. Naturally, this is Marivel Armitage we're talking about here so she can a) turn into a bat and fly and b) see exceptionally well in the dark. She's unlikey to have too much trouble finding her way here.
"But it isn't of Spira either." Marivel mulls. "So how did it get here? I don't recall any major outbursts of malevolence in that territory... Perhaps this has been snuck in here long ago? No that seems too convenient..."
She quaffs some--well everybody here is an adult, it's blood. She drinks some blood, smacks her lips, and hops on down, turning into a bat partway down.
She'll even land on Citan's shoulder if he isn't careful.
DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool Tomato Juice For Grownups toward her party's challenge, The Hidden Ways.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
A doom pit? Or a mood pit?
"Malevolence?" Venetia says, in disbelief, as she rubs at her neck. "THAT shit? I thought it was some kind of myth, or some sort of... I don't know, Ley contaminant that the King of Krosse had screwed up. Reports were spotty, you understand, and of course the great majority of the Drifters of Ignas..."
Venetia gestures vaguely upwards with her empty can of mushroom(?)
Moving forwards, though, they are left with stone. Stone walkways. Venetia purses her lips.
"This stonework is unusual," she states. "I'm hesitant to simply grab it and rip it asunder with the Stygian arts, as long as we can see a way back." (The fact that they sort of can't is moot.) Venetia doesn't object to Marivel's dining habits, although she does pitch her empty mushroom can over the side...
...
.......
DG: Venetia Vuong has used her Tool Yashichi Ring toward her party's challenge, The Hidden Ways.
================<* Sacrificial Grounds ~ Desperation's Altar *>================= =======================<* CHALLENGE - The Hidden Ways *>======================== |Type: exploration |Dungeon Ability: agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The Sacrificial Grounds, for all they are mostly straightforward, are tricky and frustratingly convoluted in some key ways that help locals in deterring people who are not really into tricky and frustratingly convoluted things. One of these rears its head when you find yourself at a dead end. This is clearly the way forward -- there's only so many straight pathways and stairs in this place, when they're not maddeningly duplicating themselves for no real reason -- but there seems to be no actual exit. And there, in the corner of your eye, you might see what looks like solid ground in the all-consuming darkness of the pits surrounding the stone walkways. A hidden underway lies beneath you. Maybe. It'll take a leap of faith to know for sure -- and then it'll take navigating those strange hidden walkways beneath walkways to be able to press forward. And they are so, so very dark. Who -doesn't- love jumping into dark pits hoping to hit solid ground and not blank, resetting nothingness?? =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
===========<* Sacrificial Grounds ~ Desperation's Altar - Round 2 *>============ =========================< Results - The Hidden Ways >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Venetia Vuong 15 --(4)--> 19 Pass Yashichi Ring 3 Agility Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marivel Armitage 15 --(4)--> 19 Pass Tomato Juice For Grownups 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Citan Uzuki 10 --(4)--> 14 Pass Martial Arts Shoes 2 Agility Effects: Resilient -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Venetia Vuong 10 --(20)--> 30 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(2) Effects: Cleanse|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Venetia Vuong 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: Marivel Armitage has drawn a new Challenge.
===============<* Sacrificial Grounds ~ Desperation's Altar *>================ ======================<* CHALLENGE - The Caustic Clot *>====================== |Type: exploration |Dungeon Ability: brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- You might be walking across a stone walkway when it happens, or ascending a staircase. Or maybe you just finished a particularly frustratingly vague puzzle. Regardless, the second you begin to move on -- there is a hideous, horrifying shriek from the bowels of the shrine that rumbles across the entirety of the building. -Something- reacts to your presence, and from the ground liquid Malevolence -explodes- forth, spearing up through the ceiling in rapidly crystallizing tongues of rock-hard, Malevolent substance. It sizzles with its agitating presence -- and very decisively blocks your way in a frusstratingly desperate clot. It's okay. It's just like a door. And you know how to deal with doors by now, right? =Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous==============================================
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
He nods. "The same, I am afraid. I believe it originated on Lunar, from what I have learned, but fragments of it have appeared here and there on Filgaia."
Including, among other places, his former place of residence.
(How is the old Uzuki homestead these days?)
"Yes..." Citan muses, at Marivel's remark. "I understand that was, in itself, also atypical. More and more mysteries, I suppose." Though he regards the young woman for a moment more, as if studying her afresh.
"So you believe this situation here has something to do with Spira?"
Whatever he thinks might be the case, himself, he has not said.
And instead, he watches her a moment more before he hops down into the depths of the pit.
He lands on solid ground, not terribly far beneath. As he had thought, ultimately. "Marivel," he says, to the bat as she comes fluttering down, in the moments before Venetia similarly descends. "As a Crimson Noble, what do you sense about this place?"
Of course, when Venetia comes floating down he has perhaps another dilemma to consider.
"Your... leg?"
He may hesitate a touch too long to be of much use as she requests, instead reaching to take her hand once that is within his grasp. By which point, perhaps she's managed to right herself nonetheless. Whatever his other flaws, Citan Uzuki is perhaps a little too married to touch the leg of another woman.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Summoners on Spira use necromancy to summon spirits that are similar to but aren't Guardians." Marivel says to Citan in bat form so the exposition is pretty squeaky. "These are called 'Sacrificial Grounds' for a reason. If there is a new 'Guardian' in a place with a lot of dead souls lingering about... It stands to reason. But it isn't as if Filgaia is new to necromancy, so I cannot say it is absolutely for certain a Summoner's doing, but it'd be the simplest explanation."
He further asks what she senses.
"Plenty of spiritual poison." She murmurs. "And, of course, the restless dead." That's about what she had already said but she's being clear that she's not sensing much else just this moment. "And perhaps..."
She seems uncertain for a moment, squinting, but she floats down off of Citan and POUFS back into her normal humanoid form.
Onward there is a--
SHRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEK!!
"Well," Marivel begins before malevolence bursts in the way of their path and blocks off the path ahead.
"The malevolence is reacting with some intelligence...unless there's a guiding will... perhaps that Zophar nonsense isn't quite nonsense." She murmurs before adding, "Well, let's break this."
She swings a giant cartoon mallet at it.
DG: Marivel Armitage has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Caustic Clot.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Venetia says, "Yes!"
float
She is grasped by her forearm. "This works too," she states, before coming back to land. She takes a deep breath and lets it out, which may not be the best thing to do here, but she does, it seems, as she pleases. As she reorients herself, she frowns. Necromancy. Spiritual poison. "This Spira sounds like a horrible place," Venetia muses. "Though I did hear the weather's pleasant."
And that is the most shse will say. She adjusts her mask slightly as Marivel speaks, lips pursing in thought. "Then you think they may be imitating Spiran methods...? If the principles are universal, they should get similar results. If they are not..."
Venetia freezes in the face of that immense globule. She sucks in breath through her teeth. Her eyes widen.
"... I suppose that teaches me for playing around," Venetia mutters. "Alright, very well, if it's vulnerable to physical attack -"
twing! It's another Crest Graph!
"Faceter!"
It's a barrage of lapis and agate shards, Fei Fong Wong! The staccato ratatatatat of them provides pressure, possibly absent otherwise...
DG: Venetia Vuong has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Caustic Clot.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
He does not (openly) wear a ring or other indication that he's in fact married, so there might be understandable room for confusion on that part. Nonetheless, he helps Venetia over in a polite and appropriate manner.
"Spirits..." Citan echoes, listening to what the Crimson Noble has to say.
There is a long pause on his end.
"Yes... I do think that may be correct."
Much of his time in Spira had been spent learning the local customs and beliefs.
"Then, to 'summon' this spirit here..."
It is only a guess, she cautions. She cannot be sure. "Nevertheless, with the other evidence in play... I believe it may be more than merely an imitation, perhaps."
Not to mention the presence of the Malevolence. The dead that cling to this place.
"A hecatomb, in so many words. I wonder, sometimes, whether..." But he shakes his head. "Thank you, Marivel."
Before they traverse the underpassage. The going is steady, if dark. And then--
Something ahead screams at them.
Citan takes a step back, steadying himself as if in anticipation of a strike from the thing that seems nearly animate. Instead, what happens is that the way before them is blocked. "...I had heard that Malevolence could, ah, possess objects but I admit that I was not expecting anything quite like this," the doctor says, taking a moment to readjust his glasses.
Meanwhile Venetia and Marivel have at it, with spell and oversized hammer respectively.
"...I hope that this does not corrode this," he remarks, moving in to deliver a particularly pinpointed strike at the blockage with his own more mundane hammer.
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Perfectly Normal Hammer toward his party's challenge, The Caustic Clot.
===============<* Sacrificial Grounds ~ Desperation's Altar *>================ ======================<* CHALLENGE - The Caustic Clot *>====================== |Type: exploration |Dungeon Ability: brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- You might be walking across a stone walkway when it happens, or ascending a staircase. Or maybe you just finished a particularly frustratingly vague puzzle. Regardless, the second you begin to move on -- there is a hideous, horrifying shriek from the bowels of the shrine that rumbles across the entirety of the building. -Something- reacts to your presence, and from the ground liquid Malevolence -explodes- forth, spearing up through the ceiling in rapidly crystallizing tongues of rock-hard, Malevolent substance. It sizzles with its agitating presence -- and very decisively blocks your way in a frusstratingly desperate clot. It's okay. It's just like a door. And you know how to deal with doors by now, right? =Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous==============================================
==========<* Sacrificial Grounds ~ Desperation's Altar - Round 3 *>=========== ========================< Results - The Caustic Clot >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Venetia Vuong 19 --(4)--> 23 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Marivel Armitage 19 --(4)--> 23 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Citan Uzuki 14 --(4)--> 18 Pass Perfectly Normal Hammer 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Venetia Vuong 30 --(20)--> 50 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(1)|Overzealous(2) Effects: ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Venetia Vuong 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: Venetia Vuong has drawn a new Challenge.
===============<* Sacrificial Grounds ~ Desperation's Altar *>================ ====================<* CHALLENGE - The Desperate Weight *>==================== |Type: exploration |Dungeon Ability: agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- There are stairways, here and there, throughout the Sacrificial Grounds. Sometimes, however, there are no stairways, so much as crumbling ruins of stairways -- and the only way through is up. The walls seem to be scale-able, and the ruins of the stairs can provide solid grounding for your upward climb -- but the higher you get? The heavier you begin to feel. Heavier and heavier. Slower and slower. More and more slothful. Until it feels like all the world is bearing down around your shoulders with no clear way how you can shrug it off except to simply give up. Can you bear through it? =Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel's oversized cartoon mallet makes a *SQUEAK* noise as it collides against the door. She pulls it back, shrugs a bit, and tosses the mallet to the side.
Venetia and Citan have better luck. The lapis and agate shards do some serious damage to the... 'door' and it's enough to weaken it so that Citan's hammer, which does NOT go *squeak* and is completely normal, smashes the barrier to bits with a few sharp swings.
"I am not an expert in Malevolence, but I suspect if the Malevolence is enough to corrupt the spiritual essence of rocks, then it is deep corrution indeed."
She looks to Venetia. "It's just a hypothesis. Let's not get too married to one possible solution. It might be Neriah or K.K, after all."
She continues moving forward. "Doctor," She looks over to Citan as she walks. "Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?"
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Venetia mutters something about bismuth in response to what Marivel says, but this - well; surely they know what bismuth IS, it's a common chemical element, a minor component of mythril and everything. But why is bismuth corrupt?
A matter to be explained later, surely.
Marivel mentions a personal question, and as they move down the stairways, Venetia hipes up a little bit to give them a bit of privacy. Really? She's not listening in?
Well, she's not aggressively ignoring them, but as she circles round, she is keeping politeness. A full half-flight of stairs - enough for quiet voices.
As she keeps walking, though, the gap may narrow, because it's harder to keep going.
What's the point of this, Venetia thinks to herself.
Why are we going to interrupt them?
Let the Baskar summon their damn thing, Venetia thinks. We have problems enough, don't we? Why are we borrowing more?
Why am *I* here?
Why did I come to this place?
Why am I in here with Armitage? She'll still be some chubby-cheeked wistful solitaire when I'm dead in the ground, Venetia thinks.
And then Venetia stops. She stops for a long period of time, as if meditating on something. And then she steps forwards, placing her hand on the natural stone 'bannister'.
"... I understand," Venetia says.
Her head tilts back and she closes her eyes.
"We aren't going down at all, are we? We're going up. No wonder it feels so... miserable. Could it be something in this Malevolence business that's suppressing the natural reaction of the body to a particular initative, to exercise? Plodding onwards... the body's demands unmet by a natural system kept in line, as if by chemical means... heh heh..."
Venetia breathes in.
"Very clever of you, Johnny Spira," Venetia grunts, "But some of us didn't just fall off the slag wagon." Venetia keeps walking upwards - and now with more rhythmic, even determination. "I'm onto your bloody GAME..."
DG: Venetia Vuong has used her Tool Yashichi Ring toward her party's challenge, The Desperate Weight.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
His hammer does appear to look as if it's seen better days, though.
Maybe its life of being used to hit various objects (and parry an enormous sword) have also taken its toll. But, as he moves to put it away, Marivel asks him if she can ask a personal question. If there's a hesitation at Marivel's question, it's the matter of milliseconds. "Yes? Go on," he prompts her with, easily enough.
With the blockage cleared, it's -- to all appearances -- just a matter of heading down the staircase, which will hopefully bring them closer to the heart of this place.
"..."
A staircase that seems to become steeper.
A path that becomes narrower.
Everything seems as it it has no end. Everything begins to seem more and more impossible to complete. One might as well attempt to move a mountain.
Or shake the foundation of the sky.
"Good heavens," remarks the doctor after a time. He comes to a stop, not long after Venetia does similarly. "...My thoughts exactly. We have not traveled as far as that. There is no reason for a body to feel this exhausted." Citan raises a hand to his chin. "This, therefore, must the effect of 'Malevolence'. It is becoming stronger, perhaps, this close to the... heart?" He pauses, tilting his head to one side. "Hmm. Is that correct, I wonder? It has been growing in intensity. Well then! If that is the intent of this place, let us strive to counter it!"
And he sets forth again.
Once more, then, with feeling!
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Martial Arts Shoes toward his party's challenge, The Desperate Weight.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel walks along, glancing to Venetia for a moment who is muttering. She does think to add, "Oh by the way, Venetia. I forgot to mention but I'm not sure there's any benefit to keeping quiet on matters of The Federation anymore. If you wish to publish, don't let me stop you." There, she thinks, maybe that will make her feel better. Right Marivel? Of course. That's bound to be what would happen. It makes logical sense.
But after giving Venetia a long smile, she turns back to Citan. What kind of weird and troubling question is she going to ask Citan?!
"You seem well disciplined," She says. "How old are you? Tis hard for me to tell sometimes."
Oh or it could just bet hat. Regardless, she feels THE WEIGHT OF THE WORLD on her shoulders.
What else is new, Marivel thinks, taking another quaff of blood as she walks.
DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool Tomato Juice For Grownups toward her party's challenge, The Desperate Weight.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"Thirty-three," Citan replies, easily enough.
===============<* Sacrificial Grounds ~ Desperation's Altar *>================ ====================<* CHALLENGE - The Desperate Weight *>==================== |Type: exploration |Dungeon Ability: agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- There are stairways, here and there, throughout the Sacrificial Grounds. Sometimes, however, there are no stairways, so much as crumbling ruins of stairways -- and the only way through is up. The walls seem to be scale-able, and the ruins of the stairs can provide solid grounding for your upward climb -- but the higher you get? The heavier you begin to feel. Heavier and heavier. Slower and slower. More and more slothful. Until it feels like all the world is bearing down around your shoulders with no clear way how you can shrug it off except to simply give up. Can you bear through it? =Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
==========<* Sacrificial Grounds ~ Desperation's Altar - Round 4 *>=========== ======================< Results - The Desperate Weight >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Venetia Vuong 23 --(8)--> 31 Pass Yashichi Ring 3 Agility Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Marivel Armitage 23 --(8)--> 31 Pass Tomato Juice For Grownups 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Citan Uzuki 18 --(8)--> 26 Pass Martial Arts Shoes 2 Agility Effects: Resilient ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Venetia Vuong 50 --(20)--> 70 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Overzealous(1) Effects: Cleanse|Resilient(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Venetia Vuong 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> Venetia Vuong has posed.
In the end, stubbornness and a mission, however strange and however high, brings the group onwards.
This triumph is, perhaps, quiet; internal; lacking dramatic detonations, exciting explosions, flashing lights. The only treasure is the sense of mastery within, that subtle knowledge to pervade forwards that they overcame such a moment; to know that within them is the power to do so. Perhaps the body may fail; the soul is another story.
It is a pearl of great price.
RECEIVED:
0 Gella
1 XP
1 AP
"So do you think these stairs were always like this," Venetia speculates as they come back together: "Or is it the Malevolence gathering?"
DG: Citan Uzuki has drawn a new Challenge.
================<* Sacrificial Grounds ~ Desperation's Altar *>================= ===================<* CHALLENGE - The Illusion of Anxiety *>==================== |Type: exploration |Dungeon Ability: wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The pathways of the Sacrificial Grounds are grimly linear; after all, there is only one, inevitable endpoint to this place, and there is no escaping that simple fact of fate. However, as you walk across aging stoneways, there is a horrifying shriek from much deeper in the altar -- And suddenly, you find yourself facing two, branching paths of stone. Take the wrong one, and two paths become four. Four become eight. Eight become sixteen. Until you are surrounded by a dizzying, impossible degree of branching options, with no clear sign which is the right way -- and nothing but a growing panic of uncertainty that seeps into the soul deeper and deeper, the more those paths and choices open up. What is the right way, when there is no easy way forward? =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Venetia's eyes turn to Marivel.
She straightens up and her lips thin. "Hnf," she states. "What's wrong - are you giving up? The site would need development, excavation, to properly understand what's there. The implications are staggering. To simply say, lookie loo, there's a Galaxy Federation out there, and this particular site is theirs - pfeh. If I didn't know better, you're hoping I'll be discredited as a crank, so you can dangle the Full Carrot of a minor sinecure as your tame academic!"
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
A certain site?
The Galactic Federation?
"Excuse me," Citan interjects, into the discussion between the two women. "When you say 'the Galactic Federation', of what do you mean?"
Perhaps he'll get an answer.
Or perhaps he'll get rebuffed, as he's rather on the outskirts of this little topic under discussion.
Eventually, they reach the top of the stairs, though it might feel as if they have climbed up the steep side of a small-scale mountain by that point. "Whew," breathes the doctor, taking a moment as they reach the top. "Doctor Uzuki, you are not getting any younger!"
...Since when is thirty-three old, anyway?
Ahead of them lies a fork, the pathway splitting in twain. "Hmm... let us see what lies down the right pathway, shall we?"
What lies down the right pathway is four paths.
"Hmm. Perhaps we should try the left, then?" Citan suggests, perhaps a little bit sheepish.
They return to the fork from before--
--and find that is is now eight.
"Oh dear. I wonder, perhaps, if this is an effect of Malevolence? Hmm... now, the question is, are we becoming turned about, or this place performing some sort of spatial manipulation?"
A long pause follows.
"I am inclined to believe the former, of course. Now, let us see if a photograph might do better. As they say, the camera never lies."
The bulb briefly illuminates the eight-fold pathway ahead.
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Strauss Camera toward his party's challenge, The Illusion of Anxiety.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Oh, the calenders changed, but I'm around five." Marivel tells Citan. "Thousand. You look young for thirty three." And yet, somehow, to Marivel he feels older. Even though he isn't. Well, she supposes that's what maturity can do to a young man.
Venetia asks her if she's giving up. Marivel clearly wasn't expecting that response judging from the way both her eyebrows shoot up, but then she cracks a grin and says, "Well, I mean--perhaps this is all true. I would certainly love to show you off sometime." Her fangs glisten briefly and her eyes sparkle with genuine amusement. "Do as you'd like, I suppose!"
She looks to Citan. "Oh, yes, a galactic federation of humans crashed a ship nearby but they weren't the first ones to visit our world. You see, aliens have actually been acting behind the scenes to mold our society for thousands of years!"
The paths become dizzying, more horrified shrieking to punctuate this dramatic statement!
"Sometimes they even kidnap people from the surface to run experiments on them. But what is their true purpose? We may never understand their plans for an alien nation. Soon they will conquer this world for their alien overlords."
R
She pauses for a bit and then laughs again, "Just kidding, Doctor."
She draws out a book and starts reaading it.
"Filgaia is actually secretly run by a cabal of vampires like me. But I am the last, so the secret behind the scenes masters of all is just me."
A brief flicker of pain her eyes passes--but just for a moment. "but yeah, the spaceship's real. All sorts of nanotech on the loose. I imagine an academic such as yourself would find interest in it, Dr. Uzuki."
DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool Wisdom of the Crimson Nobles by M. Armitage toward her party's challenge, The Illusion of Anxiety.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
"We investigated a wrecked site referred to in local lore as Fila del Fia," Venetia tells Citan. "We were able to reconnoiter the depths. I had thought it was some sort of a Zeboim-era building or installation, but based upon its records, it came from something called the Galactic Federation. It was some sort of aerial craft - sealed against the void of space, I assume with all sorts of mechanisms within it to allow it to travel between stars."
"Normally I would say, this is preposterous," Venetia states. "However, in a sense it has been independently confirmed. Armitage here encouraged me not to go preach it from the rooftops, and in hindsight I believe this was likely wise, though it rankled."
"After all," Venetia says, "Revealing something like that - the suggestion that alien intelligent life could have come here - would be a challenge, it would rock the foundations of society. People would turn their focus to wanting to escape Filgaia, knowing it was possible."
A second passes.
"Nannytech?" Venetia asks.
Then the doorways are revealed before them. Venetia pinches her nose - grimacing inwardly at the reminder of Marivel. The last, perhaps. No other such creatures left.
And then Venetia, after the flashbulb, turns to walk down one of the pathways, with abrupt decision.
She explains as she walks, while drawing out her battered guide to stone. "This Malevolence may be clever," Venetia says, "but there are certain patterns it cannot claim to know." She taps the side of the passageway she's entering with the spine of the book. "And once you know where to look, then it's all too easy to tell which one's the real way."
DG: Venetia Vuong has used her Tool Anterior Vuong's Guide to Economic Stone toward her party's challenge, The Illusion of Anxiety.
================<* Sacrificial Grounds ~ Desperation's Altar *>================= ===================<* CHALLENGE - The Illusion of Anxiety *>==================== |Type: exploration |Dungeon Ability: wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The pathways of the Sacrificial Grounds are grimly linear; after all, there is only one, inevitable endpoint to this place, and there is no escaping that simple fact of fate. However, as you walk across aging stoneways, there is a horrifying shriek from much deeper in the altar -- And suddenly, you find yourself facing two, branching paths of stone. Take the wrong one, and two paths become four. Four become eight. Eight become sixteen. Until you are surrounded by a dizzying, impossible degree of branching options, with no clear sign which is the right way -- and nothing but a growing panic of uncertainty that seeps into the soul deeper and deeper, the more those paths and choices open up. What is the right way, when there is no easy way forward? =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless=================================================
===========<* Sacrificial Grounds ~ Desperation's Altar - Round 5 *>============ =====================< Results - The Illusion of Anxiety >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Venetia Vuong 31 --(4)--> 35 Pass Anterior Vuong's Guide to Economic 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marivel Armitage 31 --(4)--> 35 Pass Wisdom of the Crimson Nobles by M. 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Citan Uzuki 26 --(4)--> 30 Pass Strauss Camera 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Venetia Vuong 70 --(20)--> 90 Pass Conditions: Reckless(2) Effects: Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Venetia Vuong 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> Citan Uzuki has posed.
It's testament to... something about Citan Uzuki that as Marivel waxes on a crashed ship and a secret cabal of aliens molding the course of Filgaia's history that his reaction is a mild and perhaps note particularly sincere,
"Oh, is that so?"
As if he were simply humoring her.
But then she says that she was just kidding, that vampires rule the world, whereupon the doctor smiles slightly, as if he hadn't been playing along--
Only for her to then say that, actually, the spaceship is real.
"I see. And this spaceship of yours would be at...?"
Fila del Fia, answers Venetia.
"Ah. I am... passing familiar with that site," the doctor responds after a moment's thought. "So you believe it to be a spaceship..."
He pauses a moment, glancing at his photo, then passing to Marivel. "See if you can see what stands out in this photo," he says.
In the photo, there is one pathway.
The same one that Venetia already heads towards.
A camera's eye cannot be lied to, perhaps --
Not by Malevolence, at least.
"I believe you are correct. Even the revelation of Lunar would undoubtedly come as a shock to many. I am uncertain what might come of the knowledge that we may not be alone in the universe," he remarks to Venetia.
"My advice is this: research it further, and then decide."
Bit by bit, they work their way through the passages inward, passing through the maze with the tools and knowledge they have on hand.
DG: Venetia Vuong has drawn a new Challenge.
===============<* Sacrificial Grounds ~ Desperation's Altar *>================ =======<* CHALLENGE - Desperation's Chains ~ The Drowning Necessity *>======== |Type: final |Dungeon Ability: wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- There is a crystal here, pulsing between shades of purer red, and polluted violet. Touching it transports you all in a seething flash of ley's light and Malevolent contradiction, deeper in to the heart of the grounds, where the Malevolence thrives thickest. And it is here, in a large, circular chamber, that you find it. An egg. A tremendous, black egg, hanging in the center of a large altar. The eggs surface bubbles like boiling liquid, rippling now and then in rhythmic patterns like the thing was breathing. Every 'breath' makes the very earth tremble, sending liquid fissures of Malevolence gouting like a volcanic eruption from the egg's oval surface. And attached to this egg? A multitude of Malevolent chains, running from somewhere else in the grounds into the egg to hold and support its weight. No -- more than that. They are feeding it Malevolence, like an incubating egg thrives and is nurtured on heat. The platform you arrive on contains one such chain leading towards this egg; surrounding this platform are statues carved in prayer, eyes aglow with bruise-hued light. A chorus emanates from them, their panicked, desperate refrain filling the air with discordant notes that seem to harmonize and strengthen the shriek of the thing within the egg. They drown out everything -- all sense, all reason, all rationality, until only their anxious, wild madness dominates. Whenever a statue is somehow disabled, though? The chain begins to shake and weaken. If you can find a way to shut down these statues, then just maybe... =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
"The day may come when there is no more time to study, Doctor," Venetia says.
The crystal appears.
Touched, there is a transportation -
- and before them, there it is. The chain extends from them before and ahead into the Egg ahead of them.
INSERT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fC74WD0E_M
Ah! An egg - how could an egg be ominous? But an egg promises a world entire, something new, something growing. Something that develops. To reach a potential is to destroy that potential; a new life must consume energy. The power of the stars of the sky are themselves finite, though to a plant they might as well not be.
So it is here. The EGG looms before them, the lingering song that comes out, discordant and grating. Chains affixed to the ground, pumping blood out of the ground like the angiogenic roots of a tumor. Venetia Vuong stares at it all and for a moment in her guts she quails, the bravado and certainty that had buoyed her...
Fading.
What she does next may seem peculiar. She reaches into her hip back and pulls out a bronze object, but it is not a Crest Graph. It is a pocket watch, although instead of consulting it, she opens it, twists the cover a hundred and eighty degrees, and sets it down. There is a lump of glass there with a shard of empathite wired to two tiny Nixie lights. Venetia begins to pump the object - the Nixie lights begin to glow as she raises it above her head.
Glow - and then flick to amber, where they had been green.
They stay that way despite Venetia shaking the thing above her head, as if it would dispel evil.
Perhaps, in a sense, it would have.
She gives up and folds it back up. "Well," Venetia says, "WELL-- WELL --"
"Let me find Compaction."
DG: Venetia Vuong has used her Tool Anterior Vuong's Guide to Economic Stone toward her party's challenge, Desperation's Chains ~ The Drowning Necessity.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
Citan is silent for a moment.
He nods, then, just the once.
"Yes... eventually, that day may come."
He approaches the crystal.
Only to stop in his tracks once they reach what rests on the other side. "This is..."
This site marks the first time that Citan has come face to face with Malevolence at all.
It also marks the first time that he has come into contact with Malevolence quite like this. He hesitates; anyone watching him closely will see that he has tensed, that his stance has undergone a slight shift.
Just enough to angle into something more apparently ready.
And slowly, he takes a deep breath, as if to steady himself. Center himself.
Surely, someone like the doctor would not have as many latent doubts and contradictions on which Malevolence could prey, of course.
"...This is the nature of Malevolence. Yes, I see what I was told was all unfortunately correct," he says, talking into the silence -- amidst the screams, the low thump-thump of the 'veins' feeding the 'egg', amidst the song -- as if it were the most natural thing in the world to do at this juncture.
Perhaps this is his own way of coping with the tide of misery and discord and madness that drowns this room.
"This preys on our weaknesses, our insecurities and divisions, particularly within. I do not know what that thing is," and it's a sure bet that he's talking about the egg, "but it is clear that it is the source of the Malevolence here. Now, then, if I am not mistaken--"
He pulls out his camera again.
"--if we are able to overcome these statues in some form... ah, excellent plan, Miss Vuong."
He raises the camera.
"Precisely what I was thinking."
The flash, when it goes off, illuminates the chamber in white.
For just a moment.
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Strauss Camera toward his party's challenge, Desperation's Chains ~ The Drowning Necessity.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel Armitage looks at the photo. "...Interesting." She murmurs. "I'll have to start bringing a camera to locations like this."
She hands the photograph back. She says, "It's--mmm..." She thinks for a moment, doing some mental math but gets stymimed by her inexperience with the SD dating system. "Well it's not Zeboim."
Venetia also speaks further of her decision to not blab about it. "Oh!! So you admit my decision was wise, then?" Marivel beams with a BIG ANNOYING SMILE on her face.
She can't help it. She adores Venetia in all sorts of annoying ways.
"There are the Metal Demons." Marivel adds. "And it's 'nanotech'. There were a bunch of folks working on it during the end of the zeboim era--but it was largely medical in nature, back then. an entire ship powered by a nanotech-generator frankly makes the majority of Zeboim era tech feel quaint in comparision." She glances back to Venetia. "But then again, it explains a few things."
She does not say what it explains because she's a jerk like that.
They find themselves at the egg. MArivel grimaces, looking at the statue, listening to a discordhant chaos. She swallows faintly and looks at this...nonsense.
"Whomever is doing this." Marivel murmurs. "They are a threat to the world. Which meeans--"
She takes a step forward and her foot bumps into something. She blinks once and crouches down to pick it up.
...It's a long metal spike, rusted at the end. And attached to it is a note.
Marivel slides it open and reads it aloud--though if one were to take a peak, the note itself is written in an unknown language.
"'This, Marivel.'" She murmurs. "'Is what you protect.'"
She frowns, burns the letter into ash and then flat out THROWS the spike for one of the statues.
"Tch... he must have sensed me coming. Don't speak to me of what I protect, Vasil..."
DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool Wisdom of the Crimson Nobles by M. Armitage toward her party's challenge, Desperation's Chains ~ The Drowning Necessity.
===============<* Sacrificial Grounds ~ Desperation's Altar *>================ =======<* CHALLENGE - Desperation's Chains ~ The Drowning Necessity *>======== |Type: final |Dungeon Ability: wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- There is a crystal here, pulsing between shades of purer red, and polluted violet. Touching it transports you all in a seething flash of ley's light and Malevolent contradiction, deeper in to the heart of the grounds, where the Malevolence thrives thickest. And it is here, in a large, circular chamber, that you find it. An egg. A tremendous, black egg, hanging in the center of a large altar. The eggs surface bubbles like boiling liquid, rippling now and then in rhythmic patterns like the thing was breathing. Every 'breath' makes the very earth tremble, sending liquid fissures of Malevolence gouting like a volcanic eruption from the egg's oval surface. And attached to this egg? A multitude of Malevolent chains, running from somewhere else in the grounds into the egg to hold and support its weight. No -- more than that. They are feeding it Malevolence, like an incubating egg thrives and is nurtured on heat. The platform you arrive on contains one such chain leading towards this egg; surrounding this platform are statues carved in prayer, eyes aglow with bruise-hued light. A chorus emanates from them, their panicked, desperate refrain filling the air with discordant notes that seem to harmonize and strengthen the shriek of the thing within the egg. They drown out everything -- all sense, all reason, all rationality, until only their anxious, wild madness dominates. Whenever a statue is somehow disabled, though? The chain begins to shake and weaken. If you can find a way to shut down these statues, then just maybe... =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
==========<* Sacrificial Grounds ~ Desperation's Altar - Round 6 *>=========== =========< Results - Desperation's Chains ~ The Drowning Necessity >========== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Venetia Vuong 35 --(8)--> 43 Pass Anterior Vuong's Guide to Economic 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Marivel Armitage 35 --(8)--> 43 Pass Wisdom of the Crimson Nobles by M. 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Citan Uzuki 30 --(8)--> 38 Pass Strauss Camera 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Venetia Vuong 90 --(30)--> 120 Pass Conditions: Reckless(1)|Stupify(2) Effects: Enlighten(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Venetia Vuong has successfully explored Sacrificial Grounds ~ Desperation's Altar!
===============<* Sacrificial Grounds ~ Desperation's Altar *>================ ===============<* CHALLENGE - The Altar's Chains ~ Shattered *>=============== |Type: discovery |Dungeon Ability: conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- As the last of the obstacles fueling the chain are taken care of, the Malevolence-wrought tether begins to tremble. Cracklines form throughout its gleaming, glowing metallic-purple surface, before the contradictory links of it snap, one by one, and the entire thing breaks apart, swinging dangerously low and wild as it disconnects from the egg it had been so chillingly supporting. It shatters into a thousand little motes of Malevolent light before it can swing into -you-, leaving nothing but the chamber, the remaining chains, and the egg. The egg-like structure sags slightly, and small, glowing fissures run through its surface as the thing rumbles. One chain down. With any luck, others will be taking care of the rest. =Dungeon Conditions: =========================================================
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Is that man, Vasil, behind this?
Who knows.
The camera immortalizes the strange light. Venetia gets out her Crest Graph.
"What I wonder," she says, "is -"
The graph glows, the bronze tile reliable and sure in this place. It does not care about Malevolence (or does it?) and as the spell gathers, Venetia says, "You had said that this reminded you of Spira, didn't you?"
THOOM! goes the spell - a tube of force, intersecting the statue, compacting everything from the center outwards. It would shore up a passageway. It may yet, if things are truly dire here. In this case, it blasts a statue's torso off, leading it to look momentarily and subtly surprised before the chain swings forwards and --
--
-- dissipate...
"Dinoginos," Venetia says, not even swearing further.
Then she asks: "Do the ones in Spira have such.... eggs?"
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
He's silent as Marivel goes on, as if he were listening carefully.
Zeboim... Nanotech.
It all comes back around.
"There was nothing of this sort in Spira," Citan replies, after a moment of watching Venetia as she works her spell. "Rather, it was its absence that was apparently noteworthy. No, what reminded me of Spira was..."
He is silent, for a long moment.
"...The art of summoning practiced there."
In a sense, similar to calling a Guardian. And yet, the two paths couldn't be different.
Necromancy, Marivel had called it.
From what he had understood of the craft, that is at once correct and incorrect.
There is silence afterwards, of a sort.
"No, not precisely. ...I fear... we may be facing one who may draw upon both faces of Lunar," Citan says at last.
Somewhere, there's a thread here. Guardians, Baskar, Pillars, the dead, summoning, Malevolence.
But where, precisely, does it lead?
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"It wasn't like this, no." Marivel murmurs. "But I haven't seen a ... 'Summon' born. For all I know, malevolence is a key component to creating a Summon, but once completed they no longer carry it--The Guard was using some kind of rod to fuck with the fayths but--they are holy places y ou understand." She smiles faintly. "They aren't about to allow someone like me to just waltz up and do a scientific investigation."
But maybe when she's up there again, she should just not ask.
"Yuna, at least, does not court malevolence. So while this may be connected to Summoning...but how would they know of the malevolence? I don't recall any major outbreaks."
She sighs faintly. "Well, I suppose we'll find out when I stick my blade in their throat."
She looks to Venetia. "Vasil seems to be intent on focusing his gaze on moments like this. May I ask you humans to #notallmortals by saving this foolish town? Perhaps he'll learn a thing or two."
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
"I don't know what that sound means, but I'll do what I can, even if we're too far underground for Ametrine to get my signals," Venetia mutters.