2020-06-14: The Vanguard of a New World
- Log: The Vanguard of a New World
- Cast: Erzebet Lefanu, Loren Voss
- Where: Honeysday
- Date: June 14, 2020
- Summary: Loren, posing as an Odessa grunt (Ben Lyon) is again unfortunately picked for duty. Still reeling from Leah's revelations, though, he may be in for more than he expected.
DC: Erzebet Lefanu switches forms to Revivified Gunner Erzebet!
DG: A party led by Erzebet Lefanu is now entering Jairon - The Lost Island. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
========================<* Jairon - The Lost Island *>======================== ===================<* CHALLENGE - Neither Here Nor There *>=================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The first challenge with exploring Jairon is finding it. The lower ground in Jairon have sunk beneath the waves, leaving only the hills and rises above water, shored up by drifts of sand and silt; it is hard to see at any real distance, and it is far enough off the beaten path that it doesn't appear on Guild Galad's maps (yet). While you know more or less where it is, there's not a lot to orient yourself with out here to actually find it; skill and a bit of luck might be required to find it without taking half the day! =Dungeon Conditions: Tire=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
So how does Odessa do so much weird stuff? How is it that they escape notice so much of the time?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JY89ZxVqEg
... But not just that; they are also simply able to do a lot of things because they are willing and able to take risks that many would consider foolish. And they are foolish! For instance, boating out at this hour, late at night.
"So tell me about yourself," says Erzebet, sitting in the stern of the open-deck cabin cruiser while the ship itself is helmed by an Odessa-jacket-wearing man and several shrouded electric searchlights are shined at low, oblique angles into the water. The vessel is powered by a benzine engine, putting a steady thrum thrum thrum underneath every seating place and releasing a steady but not particularly visible fume from a metal stack.
Erzebet seems perfectly at ease in the dark. She is slightly lit up by an orange gleam in her glasses - in this environment it is absolutely obvious to 'Ben' that they are part of an ARM - and the red cherry of a cigarette which is dangling from her fingers and occasionally dripping ash into the sinful waters of a dying planet.
"Have you ever gone on a Dig before? They're a lot of fun," Erzebet says cheerfully.
ODESSA SQUADRON CHECK!
EDWARD: You know this guy. He's in the front with a spear. He murdered a shark earlier that had ambitions to leap on deck.
THE BOAT GUY: He's probably got a name but he has kept fricking mum. He has spoken to Edward and Erzebet. He may well have a cover job as a fisherman or something.
5 OTHER GUYS IN ODESSA JACKETS (guys here is unisex): Eerily, these Odessa troopers seem to be infantry and have said absolutely no small talk at all, other than a cursory greeting to 'Ben' after being introduced and occasional minor updates on what they're doing. Discipline!
DG: Erzebet Lefanu has used her Tool Odessa Survival Manual toward her party's challenge, Neither Here Nor There.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"There's, uh, not a lot to say."
BEN LYON, or more accurately, Loren Voss of Solaris, currently deep undercover as a low-level Odessa new-recuit, is seated next to one Erzebet Lefanu. He's not looking at her -- rather, his attention is off into the darkness... not that he can see anything.
Every now and then he's chanced a glance her way -- by now he's made the fair assessment that her glasses aren't just pieces of colored glass, but some piece of an ARM. The precise function, though...
And it's not just that. If he's reading her attention right, Erzebet can see in the dark without the need for special equipment -- well, those tinted lenses aside. She can walk on walls, is supernally strong and...
Are there stories about the Crimson Nobles in Solaris? Maybe the question is irrelevant, because even if there are, Loren still hasn't read them.
"I was studying at university," shit what did he say he was studying, medicine? "and I guess... that was about it. Not much to say about my family. Same old, same old. Er, no, ma'am."
One of these days, he thinks, he's going to get to do one of these infiltration jobs and not have to be a complete idiot by technicality.
He fumbles a moment with his pack, pulling out a particularly non-descript energy bar. He rips open the packaging and tears a piece of it off, breaking it into a further three pieces with his left hand. He leans over the side to get a better look before tossing the each piece out at a distance.
Hopefully there won't be another shark.
No, what he's trying to gauge is the way the water's moving. If they're getting close to an island, shouldn't the tides shift in accordance to an obstacle somewhere? And it's easier to tell that if he can watch the way an object moves in the water.
Of course if they're all still a ways away...
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Soylent Nutribar toward his party's challenge, Neither Here Nor There.
========================<* Jairon - The Lost Island *>======================== ===================<* CHALLENGE - Neither Here Nor There *>=================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The first challenge with exploring Jairon is finding it. The lower ground in Jairon have sunk beneath the waves, leaving only the hills and rises above water, shored up by drifts of sand and silt; it is hard to see at any real distance, and it is far enough off the beaten path that it doesn't appear on Guild Galad's maps (yet). While you know more or less where it is, there's not a lot to orient yourself with out here to actually find it; skill and a bit of luck might be required to find it without taking half the day! =Dungeon Conditions: Tire=====================================================
===================<* Jairon - The Lost Island - Round 1 *>=================== =====================< Results - Neither Here Nor There >===================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Erzebet Lefanu 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail Odessa Survival Manual 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Loren Voss 0 --(4)--> 4 Pass Soylent Nutribar 2 Wits Effects: Resilient ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Erzebet Lefanu 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Tire(2) Effects: Cleanse|Resilient(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Erzebet Lefanu has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Loren Voss has drawn a new Challenge.
=========================<* Jairon - The Lost Island *>========================= ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Coral Cage *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- While traveling along the beach, a sudden sinkhole opens up and pulls the person on top of it in! This isn't just a random event. There is a strange creature like a sandworm hiding at the bottom, crusted with barnacles, and it just pulled its prey into a pit trap lined with twisted branches of coral. The top is funnel-like, so it can drop people in but make it nearly impossible to climb out. To survive, you'll have to break out of the coral cage while the sandworm, burrowing around the bottom of the cage in erratic patterns, occasionally draws in more sand to try to fully bury the person trapped in the cage! =Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
"Oh I remember that," Erzebet says: "I understand even why you got motivated to action in the general sense. But you know, I was in a sense lucky - I'll completely own my fortune in that I was scouted. I was of course, you know, interested beforehand -"
A shark leaps out of the water to catch Ben's thrown bar.
There's a short staccato burst from one of the Odessa men's machina rifle. (How do they have so many Spiran-model gunsmoke ARMs?)
"Starboard," says one of the men. The ship begins to turn. Turn and - there's a couple of passing scrapes - a big one that makes the boat shake - and then...
The engine keeps whirring and the boat vibrates as the bow seems to have run partially aground! The pilot kills the engine as the men in front splash, wash around, turn the searchlights -
"We're here," Edward calls.
Erzebet rises up with a creak of leather (?) and proffers a hand to Ben: "Shall we? I'm going to need to be near the front; hope you don't mind."
The cave itself is very low to the ground -- it must be hidden at high tide (which, of course, comes twice a day) but right now it isn't. Yet what treasures can there be in somewhere so often drowned? What indeed.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
It's a fairly high-stakes plan he's got running. If he blows his cover, he's probably dead. But in all honesty, it's easier like this than turning back. He's got a goal in his sights, he has something to do, somewhere to be.
It's far better than the alternative, the reality that he's been grappling with for weeks now. His mind's going, and the Major thinks someone (something?) did it to him. Frankly, outside the immediacies of his role, he doesn't even know which end is up, or what is real, or really, anything.
As long as he stops thinking about it, it should be fine. For now. He just has to keep telling himself that.
Talking about immediacies though--
"...Guess there was another shark," he remarks, his shoulders slouching.
Then, shortly thereafter--
Apparently they've found the place after all.
Erzebet rises, offering him a hand. He stares at it for a good five seconds before accepting it and standing himself.
"Go right ahead, ma'am."
He's not sure what it says about him, though, that a role like this is easy to play.
Boots crunch onto the beach soon after. Even in the dark, it...
...looks like a beach.
"So what are you hoping to find here?" he asks. He was paying attention in briefing! But knowing what Odessa is looking for might help Solaris out, when this charade is done with and he can return.
He follows after her as they angle towards the cave, still mostly-hidden by the tide.
The sand underfoot starts to slide oddly. He can feel a tremor somewhere. "Earthq--"
He drops with a rising shout into the sinkhole that has formed (opened?) suddenly in the sands. Grabbing for and clicking on a penlight, he can see that there are odd bits of coral in this hole with him. They're set at particular angles, making this essentially a cage!
Which is rapidly filling with sand. 'Ben' glances down and goes a shade paler than he'd been before.
"Why are there giant worms..."
Seriously, why do giant sandworms even exist! Rising to his feet, he grabs for one of those coral branches with a gloved hand, weaving a small bit of his will into it, bidding it to break under the altered stress and strain he's now introducing.
If he dies after all this because he gets eaten by a sandworm, he's going to... well, be pretty darn mad about it, at the least.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Coral Cage.
<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
"Ah shit," says Edward distantly as Ben falls down. "The frosh!"
Heads appear on the outside of the rim of the hole. The ground begins to rumble and Ben struggles, and Edward shouts down, "Hold on, frosh! We're gonna get a rope or some shit! Cap'n can you like, kill the worm?"
"What, with my bare hands?"
Erzebet frowns in thought.
But then she calls down, "Ben! I'm going to toss you this! Catch it CAREFULLY, and try to throw it into the worm's mouth!"
This?
Erzebet gets out a lighter and prepares a glass bottle - recycled from pop, apparently. The oil-soaked rag burns and Erzebet telegraphs several times before saying "Now!" and then hurling it down with a casual little flick -
Catching it HURTS, but the rag doesn't go out.
-=-=-=-
"To answer your question," Erzebet says later, "we don't know, that's what's exciting about this. Tedious too, sometimes. You'd be surprised how much of this is unglamourous tedium, but that's part of why we throw in all the little touches of drama, huh? Like that bottle - imagine someone who spends their life pouring benzine into glass bottles and adding carefully shaped rags. Awful! But that girl is as much a hero as you could be, Ben, or me, or Edward."
DG: Erzebet Lefanu has used her Tool Travel-Sized Vinsfeld Cocktail toward her party's challenge, Coral Cage.
=========================<* Jairon - The Lost Island *>========================= ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Coral Cage *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- While traveling along the beach, a sudden sinkhole opens up and pulls the person on top of it in! This isn't just a random event. There is a strange creature like a sandworm hiding at the bottom, crusted with barnacles, and it just pulled its prey into a pit trap lined with twisted branches of coral. The top is funnel-like, so it can drop people in but make it nearly impossible to climb out. To survive, you'll have to break out of the coral cage while the sandworm, burrowing around the bottom of the cage in erratic patterns, occasionally draws in more sand to try to fully bury the person trapped in the cage! =Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
====================<* Jairon - The Lost Island - Round 2 *>==================== ============================< Results - Coral Cage >============================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Erzebet Lefanu 5 --(8)--> 13 Pass Travel-Sized Vinsfeld Cocktail 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 4 --(8)--> 12 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Erzebet Lefanu 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Injure(2) Effects: Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Erzebet Lefanu has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
One of the coral pieces breaks off, seemingly to an outside observer, from him tugging on it alone.
He's become aware that he has many such outside observers. And even with one of the coral spines down, there's still the issue of the sandworm below, and the rising tide of sand.
But there is a solution from on high! 'Catch it CAREFULLY'--
"Shit! Is this on--"
Catching it hurts.
He doesn't argue the point overlong, juggling it a moment (fortunately a skillset of his) between hands before hurling it at the sandworm (small irregularly weighted thrown objects, also a skillset of his) just in that instant it opens its mouth.
...After all that, it's just a matter of getting 'Ben Lyon' out of the pit, which is fairly easily done.
"Huh," he says afterwards, because to say what's really on his mind would be suicidal.
"Guess so."
DG: Erzebet Lefanu has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* Jairon - The Lost Island *>======================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Echoes of Etria *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Jairon is a largely unmapped island. There's not very many signs of where the ancient buildings used to be before; the whole shape of the island is different from when the Elw lived here, with parts of what used to be the village buried under feet of sand or sunken into the sea and other parts that used to be underwater having rose up on silt above the waves. So perhaps it's time to fix that! The 'unmapped' part, that is. Plotting out the shape of Jairon is likely to help you figure out where to dig and what to explore, after all! =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
The sandworm fucks off and/or dies; it isn't clear because either way once it has a mouthful of flammable and inflammed fluid, it leaves. It dives. Ben is left alone. He is easily pulled up once the rope is lowered, because his two colleagues are super strong.
"There you go," Erzebet says, brushing some dust and sand off of him. "Good as new."
"So much for this cave," Edward said. "Troop went into it, said it's a dead end."
"Hm," Erzebet says. "Well... shine the light out. Maybe this entire thing is like a - what would you call it, Ben? An atoll? A coral atoll. I've heard of such things."
The Odessa troops adjust the lamps on the boat's nose...
... and the good thing is that it's now very bright out, for almost a mile, low down. You can even see the rock so you can spot the places that are above water or are just below water and suitable for treading over, vs. the open spaces that lead into deeper water.
The bad thing is that everything casts an enormous shadow.
Erzebet makes a twisted motion with one hand, and her knuckles pop -- and for a fleeting moment it looks just like a Gear is landing -
But it's a shadow display.
"How's your wrist?"
DG: Erzebet Lefanu has used her Tool Odessa Survival Manual toward her party's challenge, Echoes of Etria.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Frankly, he can't even say he's remotely traumatized by this at this point, after everything that's happened -- or is still happening -- in his field experience since the day he was deployed. If he'd known it was going to be like this he would have...
Something in his mind sticks at this point, as Edward remarks the cave's a dead end. There was some reason why even this was better than staying...
It's not important right now, whatever it was.
"It's high tide," he says, probably the first thing he's said since he was had out of the pit. Well, other than, 'augh' or some wordless remark of the like, probably thanks to someone lightly manhandling him in some regard.
"If there's anything in there, it'll be below the water." And it's pitch black, and even with electric lights it's going to be a problem poking around beneath the surface. "We'll have better luck once the tide goes out." Which may be a while yet. But for right now--
Oh thank the Emperor, the place is lit up properly now. "Watch out for more sandworms," he adds, as if anyone else needs the reminder.
A shadow slides across the sands. Loren's attention jerks upwards for a moment before darting over at Erzebet, or more appropriately, at her hands. "I thought that was..." he says lamely, before glancing away.
Then: "My wrist?"
Map-making is no easy prospect, even when you have the proper tools for it. Under cover, 'Ben' just has another third of a nutritional bar. Breaking it into pieces, he uses them -- once he's able to move freely -- as markers to see if he can triangulate where they stand now versus the distance the shadows cover... and thus, how far the fragments of the ruins extend.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Soylent Nutribar toward his party's challenge, Echoes of Etria.
========================<* Jairon - The Lost Island *>======================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Echoes of Etria *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Jairon is a largely unmapped island. There's not very many signs of where the ancient buildings used to be before; the whole shape of the island is different from when the Elw lived here, with parts of what used to be the village buried under feet of sand or sunken into the sea and other parts that used to be underwater having rose up on silt above the waves. So perhaps it's time to fix that! The 'unmapped' part, that is. Plotting out the shape of Jairon is likely to help you figure out where to dig and what to explore, after all! =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless=================================================
===================<* Jairon - The Lost Island - Round 3 *>=================== ========================< Results - Echoes of Etria >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Erzebet Lefanu 13 --(5)--> 18 Fail Odessa Survival Manual 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Loren Voss 12 --(4)--> 16 Pass Soylent Nutribar 2 Wits Effects: Resilient ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Erzebet Lefanu 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Injure(1)|Reckless(2) Effects: Cleanse|Resilient(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Erzebet Lefanu 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> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
"Yes! You caught that bottle," Erzebet says, even as Ben enjoys his delicious nutrient bar and spreads crumbs.
"You're acting like one of the troops," Erzebet says with a laugh. "If you're one already, just tell me, alright?"
that's comforting.
The light and the shadows reveal depths and plateaus; there is a long stretch towards the northwest that seems to be fairly solid and would likely be a dense sand bar, perhaps with a stony portion - wouldn't stone suggest something buit? - in that way, without any real holes. Erzebet seems glad to head in that direction, and takes the lead.
Edward is behind Ben. He grumbles at something; it isn't clear. He's still carrying that shark-stabbing harpoon but he isn't inclining it towards Loren. He seems to anticipate more aquatic attack. (Could he swim? He's got tons of muscle and very little fat...)
DG: Loren Voss has drawn a new Challenge.
=========================<* Jairon - The Lost Island *>========================= ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Clay Birds *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Perched upon the roof of a battered building are a pair of sculpted bird-like grotesques overlooking the courtyard. They are somewhat stylized rather than realistic and carved to look impressive, wings spread open as they look down. And then they move. It's not clear whether these were originally of Elw construction or not, but they're here now and they have apparently decided this building is what they are here to protect, because they take off and immediately dive-bomb intruders with their heavy, ceramic bodies! Whatever they're made of - or the mystic-looking patterns carved on them - makes them resist magic, but fortunately they are vulnerable to a solid physical blow when not mid-ram. =Dungeon Conditions: Exhaust==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Loren pauses a moment at that.
"...Juggling's a hobby," he offers, as if it might suffice as an explanation.
Inwardly, he sweats.
"And, I guess so," he hazards, inwardly swearing at himself for the hesitancy and spinelessness on display here. He's been a captain for how long now and in Gebler for-- well, a while, and he's still acting like...!?
On the other hand, this plays right into the role he's chosen as 'Ben' anyway, so even if it kills him internally, he's adhering to the role...?
"I mean, after that engagement."
The one that saw him 'laid up' for a couple weeks after, thanks to the injuries sustained as a result of the mission Polynya had lead.
Faking injured had been its own sort of hell.
He's suddenly very, very aware that Edward is standing right behind him. The shadows highlight that harpoon very well.
That would be a lousy way to die, he thinks, absently. It's not a thought he likes very much.
"There's something off that way. See how the shadow breaks up?"
He moves his lips, as if muttering something.
"...I'd say about a ten minute walk."
Onwards!
"So," he remarks to Erzebet as they continue on, "Why the nighttime? I don't think anyone comes out here regularly anyway..."
Eventually, they reach a building. 'Ben' shines a penlight up at it. There are a number of small bird statues on the roof. "Birds? They kind of remind me of--"
'The statuary in Capel Coffa' is what he never says, partially because that would have been stupid to have voiced, and he would have filled in the blank separately had he even had a chance to finish the sentence.
No, the real reason he doesn't finish the sentence is because the 'birds' take flight and begin to divebomb the lot of them.
They're pretty heavy. Getting struck by one will be unpleasant.
Fortunately, BEN LYON is here with his satchel of... supplies?
He ducks out of the way of one bird, who fails to shatter into pieces when striking the plaza. "There's-- something written on them! Is that a Crest?"
His significant other does a good deal with Crests.
(How is Anaitis these days?)
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Solarian Medical Kit toward his party's challenge, Clay Birds.
<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
"Night works better for us," Erzebet says. "I mean once you get used to it, it's like you get to wander backstage of the world... do you understand what I mean? It's also got its own advantages," she continues, before she raises a hand to peer forwards. Her glasses flicker.
One of the 'birds' divebombs Erzebet and the entire scene is cast into sharp and bloody relief when it digs a hooked hand up into her midsection, twists, and raises her up in the air, spiking her down into the ground before she can even get a hand on the grip of her gun. Her body lands and sprawls.
She's still breathing, but in the sharp electric light (however distant) from the boat, Loren can make a quick assessment: Injuries incompatible with life.
The same creature approaches Edward, but it has lost momentum. The horseman shouts, stabs with his weapon - his shoulder is gashed. He staggers, but then the creature rises upwards, outside of the lights' reach. There is a distant pop-pop, no doubt from the riflemen, but it will do nothing.
"edward," Erzebet gasps from the shallow water.
The horseman leaps over near her. "I'm here," he says.
"my neck," Erzebet says. "i think... it's..."
"Yeah," Edward says. "Looks like it."
"will you..."
Erzebet's right arm raises upwards, shaking with obvious signs of partial neural lesion.
"fix it for me"
"ugh," Edward says. "Yeah," he then says, moving to crouch down and hoist Erzebet upwards and grip her head in both hands... and PULL. There's a snap of bone.
Erzebet wails piteously.
Her eyes flick towards Ben. She struggles to smile.
The struggle eases... but not for the reasons Loren Voss has probably seen several times in his medical work. The injury in her abdomen is visibly smaller than it was at first. Erzebet reaches down to squeeze it shut with her right arm, which is much more confident, and sucks in a deep - deep breath. There's a whistling that abruptly stops - and then she rocks forwards and straightens upwards, clapping her hands together. "Ben, I owe you an apology," she says. "I ought to have been listening to you more sharply."
Her head tilts upwards then. There is now a space on her abdomen, which is rakishly bare and tattered thanks to the claw attack, which is completely smooth other than a whole bunch of blood on it. "Wow! Crests, you think?" And NOW she gets out her gun and pivots round, staring up into the darkness --
BLAM BlAM bLAM! The shots are staggered, visibly red in the gloom of the night - for those searchlights are hiding the stars and galaxies quite conclusively, as if the world has contracted.
"I'd never heard of Crests being used like THIS back in Linga," Erzebet muses. "You've seen this stuff before, huh??"
DG: Erzebet Lefanu has used her Tool Haborym toward her party's challenge, Clay Birds.
=========================<* Jairon - The Lost Island *>========================= ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Clay Birds *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Perched upon the roof of a battered building are a pair of sculpted bird-like grotesques overlooking the courtyard. They are somewhat stylized rather than realistic and carved to look impressive, wings spread open as they look down. And then they move. It's not clear whether these were originally of Elw construction or not, but they're here now and they have apparently decided this building is what they are here to protect, because they take off and immediately dive-bomb intruders with their heavy, ceramic bodies! Whatever they're made of - or the mystic-looking patterns carved on them - makes them resist magic, but fortunately they are vulnerable to a solid physical blow when not mid-ram. =Dungeon Conditions: Exhaust==================================================
====================<* Jairon - The Lost Island - Round 4 *>==================== ============================< Results - Clay Birds >============================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Erzebet Lefanu 18 --(8)--> 26 Pass Haborym 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 16 --(8)--> 24 Pass Solarian Medical Kit 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Erzebet Lefanu 60 --(20)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Reckless(1) Effects: Cleanse|Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Erzebet Lefanu 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: Erzebet Lefanu has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* Jairon - The Lost Island *>======================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - Strike the Earth! *>====================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Your investigation of Jairon has borne fruit! Once standing at the edge of town but now half-buried in silt and sand with water around its base is a four-foot obelisk, covered with carvings - some Elw writing, and patterns of lines and arcs etched deep into the stone. The obelisk drew power up from the ley line passing under Jairon to make it usable for the town. It's broken now, the stone structure covered in grit, barnacles, and coral. ...or is it? The bottom lines are still glowing. If you cleared more off it, you might be able to get it working again, but it would take quite a bit of work to get it completely clear - work made harder by the bottom foot of the obelisk being underwater - and there's no guarantee it would even work if you did. Still, having come this far, what do you have to lose? =Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous==============================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
One of them snatches up Erzebet before Loren -- that is, 'Ben' -- can so much as grab his rifle.
And then she drops. And then...
He becomes as still as a statue, wavering on the precipice. He can see her twitch thanks to the illumination.
He's seen this sort of injury before. Not on the front lines as such -- even when he's been tasked to actual combat medical support, wounds have typically fallen into 'recoverable' or 'recycling required'.
Things have actually been dicier back on base. Once, it was some idiot who had slipped in Bledavik and given himself one hell of a skull fracture, then upon receiving had one hell of a seizure because of the fracture and that was that. Once, it was someone in engineering (thinking about it now makes his chest hurt) when a Gear part slipped and fell on them. There hadn't been anything they could do but the merciful thing.
The merciful thing. His hand grabs at the strap of his pack; he thinks again about the 'merciful option' in his bag. He could probably make up some story for why, he thinks, taking a step forward. It's probably better than lingering like--
Edward reaches her first. Fix it? Ben's eyes widen. "Wait--"
There's a sickening snap. He flinches, looking away.
The sounds that follow after it are... odd. Slowly, he looks back. At her...
...whole...
...unwounded...
...self.
"Gh," is the approximate noise he makes, as he tries to parse what just happened and fails miserably.
He doesn't move as shots ring out, as ceramic shards plink upon the stone. He just sort of stares into the middle distance for a moment more.
"Looks like... crests," he finally says, trying to land feet first upon something vaguely resembling sanity. "I think. Maybe."
Silence ensues.
Well, between the gunshots.
"Not this, uh..."
More silence. One final gunshot punctuates the night, followed by a rain of ceramic.
"...At university?"
<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
"Well, let's keep moving," Erzebet says as she strides into the increasing gloom.
Edward lingers, gazing at Ben. His ears flick back several times.
He seems to be waiting.
When Erzebet is clear, or at least out of earshot, he speaks to the smaller man. "I see what you were doing," he says. "It's a good instinct. You got like medicine in there or something, right? Like you were gonna get out a vial of morphia or something, right? Yeah, that's a good thought."
Edward looks back towards the boat. "Here's the thing, Frosh," he says. "This is the vanguard of a new world. This new world, it isn't the old world. Our ways in the new world, they're not the same as the old ways; and you're gonna see many strange things."
"You can't go back," Edward tells Ben. "So we gotta go forwards. Okay!? Let's hustle." He then shouts over the sea bed, "GET SOME PICKS OR SOMETHING!"
As they get past that low building, the obelisk is visible - the faint glowing as well - and so is Erzebet, leaning against the wall of that structure. "Hell-loooo," she says in a low voice. "Look at this, Ben! I think it's still functioning on some level. What do you say we pry it loose, eh? Might be Elw or some kind of Zeboim thing. It's not glowing that brightly, so nobody would have seen it - I bet it was what was attracting some of the sharks, though!"
"Yeah, sure," says Edward. "We'll get the tools out." To Ben, he says, "You can take it easy, but we may need you to help with rope or something."
DG: Erzebet Lefanu has used her Tool Travel-Sized Vinsfeld Cocktail toward her party's challenge, Strike the Earth!.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
It's not that he's unfamiliar with death, particularly death occuring right in front of him. It's not that he's particularly squeamish (well, at least about bodies and the ways they can suddenly stop working properly). There's just something about seeing someone get their neck yanked back into place after a particularly gruesome injury that makes the mind kind of give up and want to avoid any contact with anything related to reality for a moment, if this is the way reality is going to behave.
There's something that just shouldn't be about Erzebet Lefanu--
Which he is out of time to consider at the moment, when Edward approaches him.
There's no sense lying about this: "Yeah."
It's morphine. It would have been quick with an overdose. Painless. Assuming Lefanu is a normal human being.
Which is looking increasingly unlikely.
'You're gonna see many strange things'.
No kidding, Loren thinks privately, still reeling mentally.
"Got it," is what he says.
What is Odessa, really? He's heard they count mutants (beastfolk) and monsters in their ranks. Is... Erzebet...
Well, I can't go back because I can barely remember what was 'back', apparently, he thinks, then shakes his head as if to rattle some sense back into himself. He picks up the pace, racing up behind the building to see the obelisk.
His gaze catches on the writing on the stones. If he hadn't been back there with Anaitis, he never would have recognized them. "Those are Elw--"
And he falls silent, his gaze snapping over to Erzebet to see what her reaction might be.
"Especially sheltered from the sea like this. Er..."
He looks at the obelisk. He looks at the ropes. And then sighs.
Not that his real rank would matter a lick here but... he never can get away from the grunt work jobs, can he. Inhaling, he pulls up the smallest, subtlest thread of earth-aligned Ether into his frame, and hopes he won't be dealing with a pulled muscle tomorrow.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Strike the Earth!.
========================<* Jairon - The Lost Island *>======================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - Strike the Earth! *>====================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Your investigation of Jairon has borne fruit! Once standing at the edge of town but now half-buried in silt and sand with water around its base is a four-foot obelisk, covered with carvings - some Elw writing, and patterns of lines and arcs etched deep into the stone. The obelisk drew power up from the ley line passing under Jairon to make it usable for the town. It's broken now, the stone structure covered in grit, barnacles, and coral. ...or is it? The bottom lines are still glowing. If you cleared more off it, you might be able to get it working again, but it would take quite a bit of work to get it completely clear - work made harder by the bottom foot of the obelisk being underwater - and there's no guarantee it would even work if you did. Still, having come this far, what do you have to lose? =Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous==============================================
===================<* Jairon - The Lost Island - Round 5 *>=================== =======================< Results - Strike the Earth! >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Erzebet Lefanu 26 --(12)--> 38 Pass Travel-Sized Vinsfeld Cocktail 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Loren Voss 24 --(12)--> 36 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Erzebet Lefanu 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Overzealous(2) Effects: Strengthen(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Erzebet Lefanu has successfully explored Jairon - The Lost Island!
========================<* Jairon - The Lost Island *>======================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Ancient Library *>======================= |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Clearing the obelisk was a lot of work, but once you got the ley line font clean, the etchings on the obelisk slowly lit up from base to tip - and the whole thing rises up out of the sand and water on a two-foot pedestal, along with a stone slab with a brightly glowing pattern that you could step on. Stepping on the slab sends you somewhere else... The room you are in was once a library. When the Elw of Jairon left, they took their books with them, leaving only empty shelves behind - shelves that appear to have been grown out of single pieces of wood, though on very close examination are actually driftwood that has been molded and shifted into shape somehow. But they did leave behind some supplies. Searching a cupboard turns up a small bundle of ARMs; a handful of small styluses constructed of a lightweight brushed silvery metal - far lighter than steel. They are all topped at one end with a small cap; when removed it reveals a metallic tip that leaves a line of purest black behind when it's pressed on something. The black line wipes off of hard things like metal, glass, or stone with a bit of water but marks up wood, cloth, and paper indelibly. Though perhaps unsuited for a martially inclined Drifter, these apparently endlessly usable pens are a valuable curiosity and convenient for travelling scholars. When you're done in the library, a panel in here sends you back where you came from. When you return, it appears that's all the charge the font had right now, because it has sunk back into the sand and remains inactive until it recharges. =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Erzebet Lefanu has posed.
"Ohhh," Erzebet says. "Elw? i hope so. Wouldn't that be great? Wouldn't it be amazing, if we found one of those teleporter things I heard they found here and there?"
The obelisk is HEAVY... it's probably some kind of metal inside. Lead, very likely. Erzebet and Edward take one end of the thing after some initial excavations, with "Ben" and the goons - who really are increasingly eerie in their silence - helping to rock it back and forth, back and forth, like a tooth in Filgaia's rotting jaw. Then -
Pop!
Blood doesn't well out. Nor Ley.
Erzebet takes the first step inwards.
Inside it is absolutely dark.
Until Erzebet lights one of the inflammable weapons and sets it carefully on the ground. The fuel is wicked up into the rag... ah! Brilliance! maybe.
... not much is there to find. But cabinets can be opened. A handful of silver styli, laying in the fragments of - what - something ancient and dust? Paper, cardboard?
Erzebet, having found one of those mysterious styluses, writes 'LOOK BEHIND YOU' in between several shelves as she observes, "Do you know what I noticed about all of these shelves, and about that cabinet?"
The troops say nothing, having done an organized examination of the nooks and crannies and turned nothing up beyond one ancient 5-gella coin probably worth about 5 gella to a collector.
"I think that they left this place," Erzebet muses. "I think that they left it on purpose. But perhaps they expected to come back?"