2020-09-26: Works in Mysterious Ways
- Log: Works in Mysterious Ways
- Cast: Venetia Vuong, Cidney Laplace, Avril Vent Fleur
- Where: Main Gate
- Date: September 26, 2020
- Summary: Forced to flee through the only route possible, Venetia, Cidney, and Avril join forces in an attempt to best Megaman Juno's defenses. But... it seems that there are unexpected connections between the three women.
======================<* Flight Through the Main Gate *>====================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - Relentless Pursuit *>===================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Solaris has seized control of this facility. Or, more accurately, they've awakened something that has done so on their behalf. With the main gate blockaded, and a relentless robotic killer on your tail, you have one option left: Run. Megaman Juno's voice rings down the corridor, calm and composed as ever. It's coming from speakers on the walls, giving the illusion that he is everywhere, at once. Nevertheless, the low, steady hum of his systems points out his true location--he's nearby, and getting closer. "System diagnostics complete. All security measures remain operational. I am attempting to isolate and contain the invasive Biomass before further contamination occurs." With no warning whatsoever, a door to your left slams shut, sealing itself tightly. A door up ahead does the same. Fortunately, there are more doors to choose from, but Juno is doing a good job of locking down the area. The network of sterile corridors turns into a dynamic, reactive maze--a clear path could become a dead end at a moment's notice. It will take lightning speed to outpace him, but if you're lucky, you might be able to gain a lead on him. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Hesitate, Slow, Vault============================
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
THE MAIN GATE!
Venetia Vuong, who now has a grand total of TWO CREST GRAPHS firmly stuck down into a secure location, thanks to ENEMY ACTIVITY, approaches the one apparent exit in the face of this remorseless robotic killer.
> "System diagnostics complete. All security measures remain operational. I am
> attempting to isolate and contain the invasive Biomass before further
> contamination occurs."
"I'll contaminate you, you miserable automaton," says Venetia, slumping momentarily against a hallway wall as she ends up bouncing like a bagatelle ball slightly away from some of the other inrushing diggers. She has to breathe, she has to tie the ribbon of her backup mask tighter. There are others coming. That thing - if she's going to die she'll die with dignity!
"Did you hear that business about Valmar?" Venetia asks, perhaps diffidently, as other people come within her perception. "Funny, isn't it, how that keeps coming -"
But before Venetia can say more or give more elaborate greetings, the otherwise nondescript hallways start to shutter and flutter shut! There are even gaps appearing in the floor - fortunately into parallel tunnels. And are there a couple in the ceiling too? Venetia's official response:
"****!!!!"
Followed by a renewed run. "If this place is active we may be able to find something to make good our escape," she extemporizes, sweat running down the back of her neck. "Or a ray gun or something. I'm hoping for the ray gun. Or a Gear. A Gear would be wonderful."
DG: Venetia Vuong has used her Tool Yashichi Ring toward her party's challenge, Relentless Pursuit.
<Pose Tracker> Cidney Laplace has posed.
Venetia, slumped against a wall, struggles to draw in steadying breaths as the cruel, cold monotone of Megaman Juno drones throughout the facility's speakers as if he were thrumming through the very wall themselves. As if he simply were.
Everything.
Like a machine god.
Perhaps it's appropriate that Venetia, then, invokes the name of another.
"That's the thing about gods."
And that the one to answer her comes accompanied with the flight of a tempting green apple, tossed her way.
"They never quite live up to the hype."
And there stands Cidney Laplace just before Venetia, one, fingerless gloved hand fishing for another of those blessed, cleansing apples from god knows where and a smile that still somehow seems so calm and confident despite the harrowing tenuousness of their situation; a smile that says she might very well know the way to safety, if one was willing to follow.
It couples well with the way she outstretches her hand, and raises a brow behind her eyepatch.
"We seem only capable of meeting under unpleasant circumstances, Ms. Vuong."
It's only then that she produces another apple and -- before she can give proper greetings and introductions to their other arrival beyond 'a tossed apple of indisputable juiciness' -- pivots on her heel, facing the shuttering doors.
"Let's endeavor to live long enough to change that fact. This way!"
And with that, she peels off, rushing through the halls towards what she believes to be the likeliest door to not simply collapse upon them and crush them horribly with the scream of metal and also much less metal and much more fleshy things.
That would be bad.
DG: Cidney Laplace has used her Tool Agile Apple toward her party's challenge, Relentless Pursuit.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
In one moment, Avril is trading blades to an Odessa operative's bayonet.
In the next, fighting comes to an abrupt end as Megaman Juno is released.
And in the next yet--
A desperate dash sees her into the complex proper. But it's a funny thing, moments. In one, her friends were at her side. In the next, as she pushes ahead through the door in front of the three of them, there--
She turns and what was a doorway has become a wall, slammed shut by the same near-omnipotent force that controls the complex. Avril has time to touch her hand to the wall-that-was-a-door--
And then whirls back again to the room which she has arrived as if somehow impelled to do so. Her hand snakes out and snags that apple as it flies through the air--
Which she stares at, as if dumbfounded by its presence and the fact that she caught it. "Oh--"
And then she blinks, taking in her fellow occupants. "Was that... 'Valmar' that you said, just now? I--"
Doors begin to slam shut about them. Avril straightens, shoulders tensed. "...We must go, at once." Drawing forth the Sea Medium, she breaks into a hurried stride, pausing her pace only long enough to invoke thus:
"Lucadia, please help us!"
The Medium shimmers, its power -- the power of JUMP -- granting those here the ability to...
...well...
...leap great distances in a single bound. Which may be a desired ability here and now.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Sea Medium toward her party's challenge, Relentless Pursuit.
======================<* Flight Through the Main Gate *>====================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - Relentless Pursuit *>===================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Solaris has seized control of this facility. Or, more accurately, they've awakened something that has done so on their behalf. With the main gate blockaded, and a relentless robotic killer on your tail, you have one option left: Run. Megaman Juno's voice rings down the corridor, calm and composed as ever. It's coming from speakers on the walls, giving the illusion that he is everywhere, at once. Nevertheless, the low, steady hum of his systems points out his true location--he's nearby, and getting closer. "System diagnostics complete. All security measures remain operational. I am attempting to isolate and contain the invasive Biomass before further contamination occurs." With no warning whatsoever, a door to your left slams shut, sealing itself tightly. A door up ahead does the same. Fortunately, there are more doors to choose from, but Juno is doing a good job of locking down the area. The network of sterile corridors turns into a dynamic, reactive maze--a clear path could become a dead end at a moment's notice. It will take lightning speed to outpace him, but if you're lucky, you might be able to gain a lead on him. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Hesitate, Slow, Vault============================
=================<* Flight Through the Main Gate - Round 1 *>================= =======================< Results - Relentless Pursuit >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Venetia Vuong 0 --(8)--> 8 Pass Yashichi Ring 3 Agility Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Avril Vent Fleur 0 --(8)--> 8 Pass Sea Medium 2 Agility Effects: Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cidney Laplace 0 --(8)--> 8 Fail Agile Apple 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Venetia Vuong 0 --(30)--> 30 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Hesitate(2)|Slow(2)|Vault(1) Effects: Cleanse|Quicken(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Venetia Vuong has passed this challenge! The party gained 30 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Venetia smiles at Cidney and -
Sweeps her rod round, 'popping' the apple into the air and catching it after this cricketer's parry. She bites into it, and thankfully it is not the devil in disguise. After this, however, comes running. "It is AWFUL!" Venetia agrees with Cidney. "We should make an appointment and get coffee or something if the fucking planet stops exploding or Odessa stops doing whatever they're doing for ten damned minutes."
Gods come up. "I always thought everyone's idea of God was too distorted," Venetia continues, even as she answers Avril, "Yes - I overheard what Mr. Roboto here was saying while I was hiding behind a rock."
WATERCOLOR PAINTING STILL FRAME -- The battlefield facing against Juno and all the four powers brought together in chaos... and there is Venetia in the foreground, crouching behind a rock! There is a suggestion of an approaching meteor.
HERE AND NOW:
"I couldn't take it all in, but whoever this is, it's connected to the old machine people - the ones from before the Metal Demons - that's the best I can figure out because IT'S CHASING US TO DEAAAAAAAAAA
aaaaaaaaa
thhhhhh"
This interruption is from when Venetia gracefully begins to descend into a yawning gape that is not some hallway but is instead the abyss and/or a fast trail to a sewage reclamation place. Except she smashes something, metal against metal, and scrabbles by sheer bad temper OUT of another gap in the floor about fifteen yards further down, twitching slightly. She kips upwards, and finishes her thought: "They think of god as something that's going to save them."
"Even the Guardians help those who help themselves."
DG: Cidney Laplace has drawn a new Challenge.
=======================<* Flight Through the Main Gate *>======================= =================<* CHALLENGE - Distraction Urgently Needed *>================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Your path through the Gate has taken you to a large chamber lined with viewscreens and terminals. No sooner have you entered than the door slams shut, trapping you inside. Juno's smiling face appears on every screen, looking down at you from a dozen different angles. "This Biomass cluster has been successfully isolated. Now, for the next priority..." The terminals are all active, and those who can read Zeboim can identify a particular highlight on each of them--they're being accessed remotely by the Chief Administrator. Not all of the text is in that language, though--and either way, it's clear Juno's paying attention to what this system is doing. If you're clever, lucky, or well-equipped, it might be possible to feed Juno false information, or otherwise distract him. It might just save your comrades' lives. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Suffer==========================================
<Pose Tracker> Cidney Laplace has posed.
'Lucadia, please help us!'
A lone, chartreuse eye tilts towards its corner to peer as that distinctive Medium is invoked.
Curiosity flashes for a moment, before Cidney Laplace presses on.
It costs her, if only slightly. As Venetia falls, Cid stumbles soon after as the door behind them SHRIEKS closed on the woman's military cape. Fabric -tears- in a shred of black as the Galadan colonel falls perilously after. It's likely luck disguised as skill that keeps her from falling -all- the way, catching herself with the -slam- of her ARMs' blade into reinforced metal. With a grit of her teeth, she drags herself up out after Venetia with the mildest of stumbles, exhaling faintly as she recovers to a full stand.
She is dusting herself off as she looks aside towards the crest sorceress, approval laced in her smile and her tone. "We only advance when we take the steps to do so. Not gods or demons. Us.
"To pretend the gods can keep us standing is to invite a treacherous fall."
It's topical!
It's here, however, that Cidney steps forward. THe room they are in is spacious, and for now, far away from the ominous hum of Juno's powering systems. Consoles and monitors line the space, and Cidney sweeps it with a curious eye as she steps within.
"... Hm. Reminds me of ruins in Elru, but..." she begins to muse, before looking Avril's way. She offers a gloved hand.
"Cidney Laplace," she offers, head cant. "I think, for now, we have ourselves a bit of a reprieve--"
And this is when Juno appears on every single screen. Smiling.
"--ah. The damning words."
"This Biomass cluster has been successfully isolated. Now, for the next priority..."
Terminals activate. And a sharp, chartreuse stare sweeps across them, and the language being lit up upon each. Her gaze narrows. A frown settles in.
And Cidney immediately mans one of the terminals.
"Ms. Vuong, please take the one beside me," says Cid, with the immediate authority of one accustomed to command. It contrasts nicely with the grin she casts over her shoulder at the two of them, eye alight with a certain kind of mischief.
"We need to confuse the system. How are the two of you at sabotage?"
DG: Cidney Laplace has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Distraction Urgently Needed.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Venetia answers this by pulling out a gun, cocking the hammber with her thumb, and turning to face one of the screens dead-on.
A moment later she whirls round, drags the gun upwards so she can squint down the sights, and shoot once (DAMN!) at what looks like a camera. As the gunsmoke drifts, she twirls it round, grimacing at the pain in her wrist, and puts it back in the crest pouch, now emptied.
Venetia plops down. "This must be an ARM Brain," Venetia says. "The old control systems in some ruins that still have power... I don't know if I've ever seen one this sophisticated. Here, let me try some control overrides."
CTRL... + P
ALT... Q4.
Press the RWP button and hold it down for ten seconds.
Venetia speaks while doing the last one. "It keeps saying Biomass. Is that some sort of robot slang for people?" Venetia asks. After this she digs out a hefty book from that pouch of hers, the battered textbook on economic stone, which she just sort of lays on top of the keyboard to press almost every key, even the ANY key, at once.
As she does this she leans backwards and breathes a little heavily. Then less heavily.
"The theory is that when you hit too many of the keys at once, the ARM Brain gets confused," Venetia explains. "Like the hot and cold water thing. Do you know that one, Cidney? I'll show you sometime, it's a fun little cafe trick." A beat passes, before she says, "Well, a fun little cafe trick near a school."
Venetia rubs the bridge of her nose through the gauze of her mask. "I imagine in other places they have... board games, or something."
DG: Venetia Vuong has used her Tool Anterior Vuong's Guide to Economic Stone toward her party's challenge, Distraction Urgently Needed.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
The landing, at least as provided by Lucadia, is a gently one in spite of the apparent velocity. Other factors thereafter are simply not the Guardian's fault.
...Probably.
"..."
She's silent, as if ruminating on that very statement from the colonel -- or perhaps the shared sentiment from sorcerer and soldier alike. Religion is nothing she -- or her friends -- discuss in terms of their beliefs. It is something they have interacted with and been impacted by, without question, but there has been no point where any of them have thought that without even the Guardians they could not advance.
And yet, it prompts her to wonder. What is the meaning of existences like Guardians? Like Seraphim? Like...
She trails after the others, still thinking it over, when they enter into that chamber of monitors and screens. For a moment -- there is a flash of near recognition, like something here landed just close enough to familiarity that Avril could place it -- she widens her eyes.
Cidney offers her a hand, then, and Avril, after gazing her over the once, takes it. Once, things like this had confused her, but this tradition at least puzzles her no longer. "Avril Vent Fleur," she responds, then frowns, creasing her brow as if in thought. "You... possess a Medium as well, do you not?" she asks, quite directly. "I can sense it. You bear one of the Orginal Artificial Mediums--"
Is as far as she gets before Juno's face appears on the screens. If she tenses when Venetia shoots one of them out, perhaps it may be forgivable.
"'Biomass...'," Avril repeats, lowering her gaze to the screen she has aligned herself. "That would mean... anything living." She shakes her head and frowns, her gaze lingering on the array of keys before her as Venetia explains the peculiarities of systems like this. "'ARM Brain'," she says, echoing yet another term as if tasting it. "Is that what they call it? This system is... it was called... I..."
She trails out into a peculiar particular silence.
Almost, she can see it. Almost -- in between flashes of white. Circuitboards. That particular arrangement of zeroes and ones. A gap, a hole, a--
The mirror is in her hands. She doesn't remember pulling it out. Light streams out about her.
She touches one hand to the keyboard and presses a particular sequence of keys. Frost is left behind where her fingers brush.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Mirror of De Soto toward her party's challenge, Distraction Urgently Needed.
=======================<* Flight Through the Main Gate *>======================= =================<* CHALLENGE - Distraction Urgently Needed *>================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Your path through the Gate has taken you to a large chamber lined with viewscreens and terminals. No sooner have you entered than the door slams shut, trapping you inside. Juno's smiling face appears on every screen, looking down at you from a dozen different angles. "This Biomass cluster has been successfully isolated. Now, for the next priority..." The terminals are all active, and those who can read Zeboim can identify a particular highlight on each of them--they're being accessed remotely by the Chief Administrator. Not all of the text is in that language, though--and either way, it's clear Juno's paying attention to what this system is doing. If you're clever, lucky, or well-equipped, it might be possible to feed Juno false information, or otherwise distract him. It might just save your comrades' lives. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Suffer==========================================
==================<* Flight Through the Main Gate - Round 2 *>================== ===================< Results - Distraction Urgently Needed >==================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Venetia Vuong 8 --(15)--> 23 Pass Anterior Vuong's Guide to Economic 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 8 --(20)--> 28 Fail Mirror of De Soto 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cidney Laplace 8 --(20)--> 28 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Venetia Vuong 30 --(10)--> 40 Fail Conditions: Fright(1)|Hesitate(1)|Stupify(2)|Suffer(1) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ===============================< 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. DG: Avril Vent Fleur has drawn a new Challenge.
=======================<* Flight Through the Main Gate *>======================= ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Hotwiring *>=========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The path ahead ends in a slab of reinforced steel. It's a security door, and it's locked tight by some sort of electronic mechanism. Something stands out on the sterile white wall next to it--several sections of access paneling have been pulled away, revealing the wiring beneath. Was someone performing repairs, or maintainence? Juno's voice echoes over the intercom. He sounds almost surprised. "How odd. I've identified traces of Biomass Subtype M, despite the apparent success of Purifier units during the initial campaign. Megaman Trigger, you were involved in the counter-purge, weren't you?" The wiring connects directly to the door in multiple places. You'll have to figure out how to bypass the locking mechanism and open it. "...But then, you wouldn't remember. How inconvenient. I will devote more bandwidth to the backup download, once this matter is resolved." Was that the sound of a cutting laser, just now? =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Cidney Laplace has posed.
'You... possess a Medium as well, do you not?'
It's in that intervening space between then and now that Cidney Laplace's single eye shutters in a blink. She tilts her head, as if considering Avril in a new light.
But that was then. And as it abruptly passes into the now, Cid finds herself working on that console; the way she does it is like one familiar with such things. Perhaps, even, she knows what she's looking at. But wherever that familiarity comes from -- it's not from -this- particular system, and it shows, as their information dump starts to lag behind, slowly but surely, with every passing word.
"It means that it considers us things," she asides to Avril and Venetia both as they discuss nomenclature on 'biomass,' calmly, as her lips press into a thin line. "Consider it like... the more clinical version of calling a human being a meatsack."
A smile touches on her lips, however, as Venetia refers to the thing in that particular colloquialism, looking aside towards her fellow Galadian with an arched brow. "It's what we would call something like this in Guild Galad," she declares simply. "But there's never been anything quite like this that I've seen around our home."
They work more. Feverishly. They continue to fall behind. Her smile becomes a frown. That sharp eye falls upon Avril, as light filters, and frost dances at her fingertips. Curiosity dances in her gaze.
"... I've heard of it, but..." she begins, to Venetia --
--and the fruits of their labor, thanks in large part to Venetia's spearheading and the peculiar methods of Avril's magic touch, is an aggressive shriek of systems, and a door hissing open.
Partially.
Providing a gap exactly too small for any of them to fit through.
"... but maybe I don't have the experience with it that I should." Cidney considers.
"You'll have to acquaint me sometime soon."
They could keep working. They might get it, eventually. Every second, however, increases further risk, and Cidney...
Biomass contained.
Cidney...
Biomass contained.
Cidney...
a distant lullaby scratches at the back of her thoughts warbling and indistinct--
... Cidney abruptly abandons her terminal, to approach that door with an ineffable calm as she produces the Celestial Gardener from her coat. It shifts into its blade mode, and the eloquent edge begins to hum with accumulated, solar light.
And as if in a fit of very calm, very deliberate pique, it is a long, and painstaking, and exhausting thing that inspires the woman to spontaneously begin carving out a chunk of partially opened door.
She slumps against the door, just at its fringes where it glows molten hot, sucking in deep breaths.
She casts them both a simple smile.
"But we're... much more than things... aren't we? ... Let's keep moving."
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
It's but a single blink. Yet that, itself, is telling.
"Yes," says Avril, her response here on the matter of the word a simple one. "It is inappropriate."
Biomass.
It brings to mind to her... things. Plants, animals, microbial life, entire ecosystems. Interconnection. Growth. Destruction. She has the impression of charts, of graphs, of things she must have once intuitively known -- the traces still remain in her mind -- of knowledge and information that can be only passingly understood as she is now. Of having the word -- words -- on the tip of her tongue but being unable to vocalize. Of understanding the nature of a thing and being unable to explain it or put it into words in any sort of way.
She knows what biomass means. It's technical. It's cold.
Clinical.
The wrong sort of word to apply to the smiling faces of her friends.
The old her only... thought of things in that clinical sense. She had known this and yet it's a shock anew.
The old her, whose power she borrows however distantly as she presses keys. When she emerges from that trance, she stirs as if awakening suddenly from an unexpected slumber, shaking her head as she turns towards the opening door which--
Opens not nearly enough.
But Cid makes short work of the problem.
"...Yes," Avril answers, hesitant in the wake of her trancelike state. She hesitates no longer when the time comes to head on through the door--
But what greets them is another security gate, locked tight. She approaches the door first of all things, pressing a gloved hand against it, then pulls away to regard the gap next to it.
Again -- there's that sense of nearly knowing.
"Please, allow me," she says, setting down the mirror at an angle near to the hole so that it reflects light into it. "If we can but transmit the power from one of these wires to the other, I believe that the door should open."
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Mirror of De Soto toward her party's challenge, Hotwiring.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Venetia's eyes cut towards Avril as she speaks to Cidney. It's just an interesting and relatively novel topic. Her frown returns to her as if an old friend returning as Biomass's truth is revealed to her.
"It's one term... I don't know if they use it everywhere." This about ARM Brain.
As the two of them speak, Venetia crosses her legs and turns to face towards what is hopefully the exit. She picks up her book because the computer is making a noise, a door opens and--
Venetia grimaces.
Fortunately Cidney is on the way and she expands the opening enough that Venetia is able to shimmy through despite being on the broader size. "We are," Venetia states. "If you don't mind me making a little conversation-- 'Original Artificial Medium' is something of a complex phrase. Do you think that you could explain that one to me a little if we should have a moment's peace as we try to get to wherever? I would hate to die with a mystery unresolved."
As they move along, Avril is distracted. And Venetia can tell that Cidney is weary (which she can't blame her for, that's for damn sure.) To the latter Venetia muses, quietly, "Do you want some chop roast? I have a can laying round, if we can find a stove or something. I don't suppose you'd want it cold unless we're put to that."
BUT
There is another gate.
"Oh for the love of Dinoginos," Venetia says, and she rolls her hips before reaching for a Crest-- right, she thinks, with the visible curdling of the lips that comes from someone who was about to explode but has been denied this power.
"Tell me where to touch," Venetia says, holding down her rod - "And I'll bridge the gap. The bronze should conduct a current." And it has an insulated grip! kind of
("M type? Reminds me of a magazine quiz.")
DG: Venetia Vuong has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Hotwiring.
<Pose Tracker> Cidney Laplace has posed.
She catches her breath with admirable aplomb; with the re-holstering of her strangely advanced ARM, all it takes is the straightening of that military jacket and the leisurely tug of her gloves, and Cidney Laplace is ready to move once more as if all that effort hadn't just been expended.
A military commander knows one thing, especially when traversing a blasted wasteland:
Appearances are everything.
And that is why Cid is a grateful smile and a companionable hand to rest on Venetia's shoulder as her offer is made. Why she lets her appreciation strain through -just- enough to be clearly present but not overbearing when she says, "I'd love some. It'll be a nice little taste of home. Thank you, Venetia."
Or how she takes a critical moment, just before they reach that door, to tuck a hand into her coat pocket as she catches up to Avril...
... and produce a device of silvery metal for the woman's consideration, resting against her gloved palm.
"It's Dan Dairam's."
In a show of good faith, and of course, most importantly...
... trust.
"I think Ms. Vent Fleur could explain what these are better than I ever could," she asides to Venetia, as the door starts to hiss open. "I stumbled across this while my squadron and I were shipped off to Elru. Near the Veruni Control Zones. I left it out of my reports; I was afraid of what the Master might get it in his head to attempt with something like this in his hands. I suppose that makes me a poor soldier--"
But her words come to an end as they find themselves locked off once more behind a gate. Her lips purse. Her head cants, as she listens to the voice crackle in overhead.
And as she watches Avril work with that strange, ephemeral sense of experience, she considers.
"Hmm. They seem to be keeping an eye on us -- all of us. But with Venetia's help, you might be able to short it out, if you try something like..."
And Cidney will stand at a distance for now, providing advice where needed -- but otherwise, observing the other two at work, while keeping a vigil over that gate.
And anything else that might try to rear its head.
DG: Cidney Laplace has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Hotwiring.
=======================<* Flight Through the Main Gate *>======================= ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Hotwiring *>=========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The path ahead ends in a slab of reinforced steel. It's a security door, and it's locked tight by some sort of electronic mechanism. Something stands out on the sterile white wall next to it--several sections of access paneling have been pulled away, revealing the wiring beneath. Was someone performing repairs, or maintainence? Juno's voice echoes over the intercom. He sounds almost surprised. "How odd. I've identified traces of Biomass Subtype M, despite the apparent success of Purifier units during the initial campaign. Megaman Trigger, you were involved in the counter-purge, weren't you?" The wiring connects directly to the door in multiple places. You'll have to figure out how to bypass the locking mechanism and open it. "...But then, you wouldn't remember. How inconvenient. I will devote more bandwidth to the backup download, once this matter is resolved." Was that the sound of a cutting laser, just now? =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
==================<* Flight Through the Main Gate - Round 3 *>================== ============================< Results - Hotwiring >============================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Venetia Vuong 23 --(8)--> 31 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 28 --(8)--> 36 Pass Mirror of De Soto 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cidney Laplace 28 --(8)--> 36 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Venetia Vuong 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Stupify(2) Effects: Cleanse ===============================< 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.
======================<* Flight Through the Main Gate *>====================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Gorubesshu Squad *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- You've been running for what feels like forever, but somehow, you've gotten a moment to catch your breath. You've come to a stop in what might be some sort of storage facility--the walls are lined with capsules, though the dark glass covering them keeps you from seeing inside. "Deploying countermeasures," says Juno's disembodied voice. "Gorubesshu Unit 31-C, engage Biomass purge." As one, the capsules slide open, revealing the Reaverbots within. These are Gorubesshu, heavily-armored units equipped with durable shields and buster cannons. They move as one, falling effortlessly into formation and adapting their tactics to counter those used by their foes. These are among the most dangerous Reaverbots Diggers have recorded, and for good reason. Can you defeat them? (OOC: https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/megaman/images/b/bd/Gorbesh.jpg/revision /latest?cb=20090807045024) =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Suffer============================================ <DICE ROLLER> Venetia Vuong rolled 1d7 <6> + 0 = 6 <DICE ROLLER> Venetia Vuong rolled 1d7 <1> + 0 = 1
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Venetia's question is not answered immediately.
"Dan Dairam," Avril repeats, first and not without feeling as if the string of herself has been plucked by some unseen hand, she follows it with, "...The Time Guardian."
Silence, for a moment after, ensues; her gaze rests on the Medium. Yes, without question -- this is the Time Medium. She...
"...I have seen this one before, though I recall not where," she says, only to shake her head.
"The Original Artificial Mediums are... a mystery, one to which I am intimately connected," she says at last. It's rather a bit of a non-answer, but that is the situation which which she is faced. "I apologize. I am learning still their nature myself. However... are you aware of the Mediums used by the Baskar? They are kin to those, save that they are ancient, crafted by a long-lost civilization... and thus more technological than spiritual in origin. Many are merely copies, storing duplicated data from the originals. ...The only thing I can determine that distinguishes the originals from the copies is that any may use the originals, even if they hail from another world."
Even if the planet rejects them.
She's silent when Cidney explains where hers came from, save to voice--
"Another... from Elru."
Another?
But the issue of the door raises its ugly head. Using the light shed by the mirror, Avril indicates two wires -- the purple and the white -- and explains thus:
"Carefully connect the current from white to purple. The white must be carrying power, while the purple must be connected to the door. One jolt should suffice--"
And it is thus -- once the gap is bridged, the door opens...!
Fortunately nothing else arrives. Yet.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Venetia gazes upon the metal. Then up at Cidney.
Dan Dairam, she thinks. The Guardian of...
"Yes," she answers Cidney quietly, looking up at her. "Wise decision, I'd say."
But then they move along. "No, I follow you," Venetia says. "It's not my field but I've read along. It's verification, I suppose... we have so few direct records of the past beyond a few hundred years... One of the theories," Venetia says as they move into the hallway with the sealed tombs of ancient lords, no doubt, "is that the reason we have so few books is that they put everything into ARM Brains... and when things collapsed... well: That was that."
"Deploying countermeasures," Megaman Juno agrees.
Venetia's face tightens into a slab of disapproval.
> "Gorubesshu Unit 31-C, engage Biomass purge."
"Ms. Vent Fleur, did the evil robot just say Gorbesh," Venetia says, without looking. The capsules slide open - it takes a few moments, moments that no doubt are what give them all a chance, anything like one. Venetia turns round and she brings out her paltry Graphs.
She glances at them, resting in her palm.
The GOOD news is that there are ONLY eight Gorbeshes!
The BAD news is that ONE Gorbesh is a BIG FRIGGING PROBLEM, and Venetia is looking at a PRETTY BAD PAIR OF CREST GRAPHS.
She glances up as the Gorbeshes prepare their formation. Two by four. A stockade of death.
"I'm going to do this as often as I can," Venetia says, before holding up the Graph and her rod in the other hand. There is a ripple of the air, an orange-red glow, not quite fiery but not, NOT fiery. The air gains a damp scent, like the surface. Like the desert rising up to meet the rain. "It might not be many."
Venetia pivots round like she's doing the set up for a cartwheel, but it is in fact a prelude TO:
Mud Flower
a ripple of surging and liquified earth travelling STRAIGHT down the hallway they'd just traversed, the Gorbesheseses rippling backwards, overbalancing, shoved back by sheer sorcerous force! Venetia ends up with the tip of the rod in the ground and straightens back up with a grunt of effort and some sweat on her forehead. The Gorbeshes circle round (though, since nothing is easy, the two in the rear just start shooting) to form up for a second charge in time for
Mud Flower!
to repeat itself.
<Pose Tracker> Cidney Laplace has posed.
Wise decision, I'd say.
Cidney favors Venetia with a little look of camaraderie seconds before she slips in past the freshly-opened gate.
It is past there, however, that the colonel mulls over Avril's words. A hand lifted to her chin, she considers her Medium with a critical eye even as she walks. "I've no talent for magic myself," she confesses to Avril. "And yet when I use this, it's as though I can feel the energy of the planet channeling through it, and me. To be able to accomplish something like this -- molding magic and technology in perfect harmony. It's remarkable, isn't it?" Because, after all -- Cidney isn't the only one with experience in these Mediums to tell.
"You say you've seen this one before, but don't know where. If it's not prying, could I ask--"
Deploying countermeasures.
Cidney pauses, right where she is, to watch on with an almost fascinated, if ever-so-slightly exhausted, stare as those mechanical monstrosities roll outward. She casts a rueful glance askance towards Avril.
"Let's put a pin in that talk, shall we?"
Celestial Gardener in one hand, Cidney slots that Original Artificial Medium into an inset clearly retrofitted into the ARM for that Medium's existence. The whole weapon thrums with the power of the Ley, even as she brings its barrel to point towards the Gorbeshesesi.
"Fine form, Venetia," she asides to her fellow Galadian. "I have an idea. Wait for my mark."
And here, she waits. She waits. And just as the automatons round about for another, powerful charge --
Cid squeezes the trigger, and time comes to a sudden stall around them. It warbles palpably.
And then, if seized upon within time's inky tendrils, the Gorubesshu begin to reverse back from whence they came.
Leaving them utterly exposed.
"Now!"
DG: Cidney Laplace has used her Tool Time Medium toward her party's challenge, Gorubesshu Squad.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"Yes," Avril agrees, to Venetia's explanation. "There is much that has been lost."
Particularly so, in her own specific case.
To Cidney, she says, "That is... their power. Without being one of the Baskar, it is impossible to use a stone Medium as well as their shamans can muster. With even a copy Medium, however... it is not the same power but it runs very much alongside it. If I could only understand more of the ones who created these--"
'You say you've seen this one before, but don't know where.'
'When they collapsed, that was that.'
t'Deploying countermeasures.'
"...Agreed," says Avril, drawing an object that looks for all the world like a rather stylized hilt. With a twist of the wrist, the hilt soon bears a blade.
She glances over the once, struck by the sight of Cidney slotting the Medium into her weapon, for reasons she cannot verbalize.
"I shall--"
It only intensifies as Cidney pulls the trigger.
But Avril is at heart a pragmatic creature and she rushes them the moment Cidney says 'go'. Even against things of that nature, she shows no sign of hesitation: the blade flashes in the light as she dances with them, cutting into those exposed places.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Gorubesshu Squad. DG: Venetia Vuong has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Gorubesshu Squad.
======================<* Flight Through the Main Gate *>====================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Gorubesshu Squad *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- You've been running for what feels like forever, but somehow, you've gotten a moment to catch your breath. You've come to a stop in what might be some sort of storage facility--the walls are lined with capsules, though the dark glass covering them keeps you from seeing inside. "Deploying countermeasures," says Juno's disembodied voice. "Gorubesshu Unit 31-C, engage Biomass purge." As one, the capsules slide open, revealing the Reaverbots within. These are Gorubesshu, heavily-armored units equipped with durable shields and buster cannons. They move as one, falling effortlessly into formation and adapting their tactics to counter those used by their foes. These are among the most dangerous Reaverbots Diggers have recorded, and for good reason. Can you defeat them? (OOC: https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/megaman/images/b/bd/Gorbesh.jpg/revision /latest?cb=20090807045024) =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Suffer============================================
=================<* Flight Through the Main Gate - Round 4 *>================= ========================< Results - Gorubesshu Squad >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Venetia Vuong 31 --(30)--> 61 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Avril Vent Fleur 36 --(30)--> 66 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cidney Laplace 36 --(30)--> 66 Fail Time Medium 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Venetia Vuong 60 --(10)--> 70 Fail Conditions: Suffer(1)|Wound(2) Effects: Embolden(1) ==============================< 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. DG: Cidney Laplace has drawn a new Challenge.
=======================<* Flight Through the Main Gate *>======================= ===================<* CHALLENGE - Inconvenient Laser Grid *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The Main Gate seems to have fewer traps than the Sub-Gates, but its army of Reaverbots more than makes up the difference. Still, there are a few such obstacles in evidence, and you've run across one now. Bright red lasers illuminate the corridor ahead, stretching from wall to wall in a complex spiderweb of crimson light. Will they slice you to ribbons if you touch them, or just set off every alarm in the facility? Either way, it's best not to touch them. At all. Juno's voice crackles over the intercom. "Megaman Trigger, this is a reminder that Unit Kamui presents an existential threat to both the Objective and yourself. I apologize for whatever distress this may cause you, but she must be subdued and retrieved as soon as possible. Failure to do so will result in a permanent demerit." =Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
The thing about battle tactics is that when you look at them from an external perspective, they are so rarely graceful things.
Knock them down.
Slow the flow of time. (This one's a little unusual.)
Strike with your sword.
Cut.
Burn.
Throw.
Stop. (OK, the 'Stop' part is a little peculiar, yet it is easily brought in line with the routines of battle.)
It is like a great engine. What is it good for? In the long run, perhaps, nothing.
Blasts come, and the line does not quite hold - it is hard to hold a line of any kind with three people - but there is always a MUD FLOWER and, eventually, an ANCIENT PILLAR to at least buy time. The pillars start coming more, because they actually leave chunks of REAL marble laying around. Handy.
And -
- the Gorbesh fall. Cut up. A strike through the eye. A perfectly aimed Ancient Pillar rising beneath it and putting the thing in a backflip that leaves it landing on its head. In the end, purging is prevented.
From these, at least.
Venetia stands in the silence for a moment, before sitting down involuntarily in the silence, and rising, with a struggle. "Right," she says, and THIS time she gets out the canned ration to share out. Morale, what.
It is heavily salted chunks of lion's ear mushroom and celery in... aspic? It's like an aspic that doesn't stick to the fingers. These are definitely items that a person could eat.
<Pose Tracker> Cidney Laplace has posed.
Maintaining a stop on the flow of time is a difficult thing, even when one's ARM and Medium are doing the lion's share of the work.
Trying to actively manipulate it?
The degree of concentration necessary is slightly staggering.
The end result is, as the last of the automatons fall and time shunts back to normalcy, Cidney Laplace, slumped against a wall, sucking in breath, a cold sweat permeating her pale forehead as she pushes damp ashen hair from her field of vision. She has been struck: blood drains down the corner of her lip, her free hand pawing at her side where one of the machines has battered her ribs.
And yet...
"... Right. Let's... carry on, shall we?"
... Cidney presses on, with strong will, and singleminded focus.
Their path ultimately takes them to a sprawling web of red light, promising nothing good within its field of ominous security. A chartreuse eye sweeps them with a sharp, considerate stare. And as she does -- the good colonel produces a few more apples from her pouch, one in each hand offered to both companions besides her.
"I'd recommend eating up," she suggests. "We are certainly going to need the energy. How do you both feel about your flexibility?"
It's fairly impressive, how she can offer them both that level little smirk of hers, before she takes an apple for herself, indulges, and, well -- begins to slowly weave and bend her way through a field of shining red with an experienced touch.
DG: Cidney Laplace has used her Tool Agile Apple toward her party's challenge, Inconvenient Laser Grid.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
In the end, it is finished.
Avril breathes hard, blood flecking her gown. Taking one step forward, she nearly stumbles -- and only reaching out for the wall in those moments after saves her a more awkward fate than that. Absolute Zero's blade simply vanishes afterwards and she lingers like that for a good long moment.
Before pressing on, as Cidney urges. They've gone this far. The others wouldn't have given up--
So she will keep going. Once she is able.
Eventually they make their way into the chamber beyond, in which there is--
"Oh," Avril remarks, her voice strained, and here finds a green apple pressed into her hand. "...This is...?" she asks, gazing first at it and then at Cidney.
Of all things, she thinks of apple wine, and a man who planted an apple tree unknown millenia ago. She doesn't need much in the way of encouraging to do exactly as Cidney exhorts.
There's nothing to do except toss the core aside. Biomass, she thinks, glancing at it.
Then she brings the Medium to bear.
"Lucadia," she invokes, and rather than the sudden lurching force from before -- which would be a poor option all considering -- there is instead the scent of the sea, the sensation of a washing tide.
Followed by the union and healing of recent wounds.
"...I will not give up," is Avril's answer to Cidney's question, before she chances the beams.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Sea Medium toward her party's challenge, Inconvenient Laser Grid.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
"You must be fond of these," Venetia says as she accepts an apple from Cidney's hand.
*cronch*
With this she takes a deep breath and lets it out. Balanced breakfast. And in a sense, plant based, although if you're honest about it, mushrooms aren't plants. Venetia then steps to either side of the network beams, and glances up at the ceiling as the intercom echos.
"Oh, no," Venetia says. "Not a permanent ****ing demerit. Next thing you know it's going to tell this Trigger fellow that he is in Trouble."
With this, Venetia begins to move.
It is a slow and leisurely thing and it involves a lot of double checking, but this is a place where core strength can prevail. At one point her skirt sits weird for like two entire evolutions. At ONE point her fluttery pinwheel ring spins violently for no clear reason.
(Secretly, she almost fell the f over at that point. But never let them see you sweat.)
DG: Venetia Vuong has used her Tool Yashichi Ring toward her party's challenge, Inconvenient Laser Grid.
=======================<* Flight Through the Main Gate *>======================= ===================<* CHALLENGE - Inconvenient Laser Grid *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The Main Gate seems to have fewer traps than the Sub-Gates, but its army of Reaverbots more than makes up the difference. Still, there are a few such obstacles in evidence, and you've run across one now. Bright red lasers illuminate the corridor ahead, stretching from wall to wall in a complex spiderweb of crimson light. Will they slice you to ribbons if you touch them, or just set off every alarm in the facility? Either way, it's best not to touch them. At all. Juno's voice crackles over the intercom. "Megaman Trigger, this is a reminder that Unit Kamui presents an existential threat to both the Objective and yourself. I apologize for whatever distress this may cause you, but she must be subdued and retrieved as soon as possible. Failure to do so will result in a permanent demerit." =Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
==================<* Flight Through the Main Gate - Round 5 *>================== =====================< Results - Inconvenient Laser Grid >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Venetia Vuong 61 --(12)--> 73 Pass Yashichi Ring 3 Agility Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 66 --(12)--> 78 Pass Sea Medium 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cidney Laplace 66 --(12)--> 78 Fail Agile Apple 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Venetia Vuong 70 --(20)--> 90 Pass Conditions: Slow(2)|Wound(1) Effects: Cleanse|Quicken(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: Venetia Vuong has drawn a new Challenge.
======================<* Flight Through the Main Gate *>====================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - What Lies Beneath *>====================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- One of the Main Gate's great secrets lies bare before you--it was built atop something much, much older, something repurposed by whomever constructed the Gate facilities. This chamber is massive, and lined with crystalline circuits that look like they were grown, rather than built. Structures that look like cracked-open geodes sit in front of banks of ancient machinery, which still thrums with power. At the very center of the room is a great gyroscope made of crystal, a gimballed mechanism that presently sits idle. It's slightly different from the ones you've seen before, but this is clearly an Elw teleporter. Activating it is your only chance to escape Juno and his hordes. "The Biomass infection has penetrated the deployment level. Megaman Trigger, I order you to divert there and purge them at once. Additional units are en route to assist." Get it working again, and hurry! =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Cidney Laplace has posed.
"I found these in Elru. I brought seeds with me back to Guild Galad; it took a while to find soil suitable to them in a city of steel, but it was worth it. You learn to recognize the value in things like an apple when you're living a thin line between life and death," Cid asides, quite conversationally.
"And they taste rather nice too, don't they?"
With her injuries, the next stretch is something of a difficult, painful struggle. Red laser light cuts past her sleeve on one occasion; another slices perilously close to her knee. But Cidney hardly even shows the pain as she feels her ribs strain through each movement.
Her chartreuse eye remains sharp and focused, like someone with all the world's experience in enduring unpleasantries.
It is only thanks to Avril's healing tide, however, that she manages to truly make a smooth transition past the rest of those lasers cutting through the air. Between this - and the mysterious efforts of Venetia's pinwheel - they eventually, inevitably, make it to the other side.
"My thanks, Ms. Vent Fleur," Cid says, as she recovers herself. She looks aside, to Venetia.
"You're quite good on your feet. Consider me duly impressed."
Venetia, who did not secretly almost fall the f over, absolutely.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Venetia slowly levers herself back to a fully upright position, which takes a few moments. She has to stop, and breathe, and then she looks at Cidney and says, "Oh stop, you're making me blush." (Possibly even true? Unclear.)
A pause to regard Avril, to make sure she is there with them. Abandoning her to get diced up would be not polite at all. "You grow them underground entirely?" she murmurs to Cidney. "It must not be easy. Lamps or Symbology?"
Forwards, through that final door, and everything changes abruptly, a vast and yawning space. So yawning you can see some other people in the distance coming out of other, semi-irregular apertures.
Venetia stares, agog.
"... was all of this the bloody GATE? Is that why they call it the GATE? Because it keeps people AWAY from this?? Look at it! This is almost completely different - where there was definitely some parallels, it's like an utterly different design that's been just... slapped atop of, like when we put the cover frame on Ametrine, but with an ancient -"
"... Is this all - this is all quartz," Venetia says.
She blinks slowly, behind her mask, even as Juno makes another statement about biomass and deployment. "All of this is quartz, isn't it? It's just got different impurities, that's what caused the color," Venetia continues.
She clenches the air with one fist. "Juno you jumped up automatic bread slicer I've got your number! All of this is energetic technology using crystal resonance! I'll take your Megaman and show you a Megawoman!"
"That was me getting past my skis," Venetia then admits.
Out comes the textbook with a snap. Venetia flips through pages. "I don't know anything about these underlying structures but I do know a few things about the ley and I know even more about quartz. This is going to come down to COLOR MATCHING, my dear ladies. We need to find where connections are broken and to replace them. If the quartz is in physical contact with each other then it should be able to activate whatever THAT thing in the center is, and let it summon God, or whatever."
too soon venetia
"And if we can't find a perfect color match, THIS PLATE HERE -"
In full glossy color!
"Will show you a full range of what types of colored quartz can match! If it comes to it, I've got amethyst on me - iron oxidates - should be able to conduct for a few minutes, at least, before it fuses. Ms. Vent Fleur, you don't... happen to have the blessing of Grudiev too, do you? By any chance?"
DG: Venetia Vuong has used her Tool Anterior Vuong's Guide to Economic Stone toward her party's challenge, What Lies Beneath. DG: Cidney Laplace has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, What Lies Beneath.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"In Elru..."
Even now, everything keeps leading back to Elru, over and over again.
She follows them both not far behind, slipping through the laserbeam web with but inches to spare on either side. It's still an exertion that stretches what she has further towards the edges, but as long as she can still breathe--
Well. She can't give up.
That's all.
An array like that almost speaks to protecting some further secret, though, and that impulse within her is not wrong--
Not wrong at all as they reach what rests on the other side. "This is... an Elw teleporter?" utters Avril, touching a hand to her mouth, because this is not by any means her first time with one. "Then -- it must connect to Lunar," she says, turning towards the others as Venetia--
has a more specific revelation.
"All... quartz?" Avril looks again. "...You are correct. This is indeed quartz," she says, touching a gloved finger to part of the array. "..."
She pulls her hand away. "But... it is not functional. I fell no power flowing through this one," she says, before Venetia goes on.
Of all things, Avril is reminded of the array in that underground pathway in the Whorl, a similarly ancient piece of techology that rested on that thin wall between science and magic. Which needed a similar enough sort of repair done.
"...I see. Then, if this is correct, we need only determine where the flow of the Lay is imperiled. Is that correct?"
Because, here, she produces the mirror, and here, she takes a breath, and here, the mirror begins to shimmer with a strange light that flows off it it and off of Avril and
Remember how Venetia had connected the current before, with the door with the exposed wires? This the same thing, except with the Ley.
In theory.
Avril reaches for one of the crystals.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Mirror of De Soto toward her party's challenge, What Lies Beneath.
<Pose Tracker> Cidney Laplace has posed.
"A little of both. While I don't have any magical talent to save my life, I have more than a few very talented people I'm honored to have as part of my team. They enjoyed the challenge."
In those intervening moments before technology of steel peels away to technology of crystal, Colonel Cidney Laplace offers to Venetia Vuong,
"I should introduce you sometime. I think you'd find yourself in like-minded company."
But it is here, that the world gives way from cold metal and logic towards a warmer feeling of the planetary ebb. Cidney blinks, her chartreuse eye widening in a faint sense of wonder as she takes in what are almost alien surroundings to her. This?
For all her experiences, this at least seems new to her.
"Lunar?" is her first thought. Her gaze turns towards Avril. "So this is how they've managed to come to Filgaia, and vice versa, then?" If nothing else -- Cid remains shockingly well informed.
"Interesting."
It is with a keen stare that Cid watches Venetia speak. She snorts once, in amusement, at her bold declaration to the distant form of Juno not -quite- distant enough...
"Well, we certainly can't let ourselves fail now after such a bold declaration, can we?"
... and quietly tucks away the rest of Venetia's words into the back of her thoughts, for later.
"... We should move quickly, though. I think our time's starting to run out."
And with that? With that, Cid sets about tracing the flow of crystalwork; for someone who has no obvious experience with this kind of technology, she is a shockingly quick learner at least, and it doesn't take her long to start putting together the basics -- and offering suggestions, on where they should focus their attentions to get the nexus operational anew, as time and Juno become an ever-pressing concern...
... which hardly means she doesn't take the time to memorize a few key things about this fascinating place, as she goes.
======================<* Flight Through the Main Gate *>====================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - What Lies Beneath *>====================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- One of the Main Gate's great secrets lies bare before you--it was built atop something much, much older, something repurposed by whomever constructed the Gate facilities. This chamber is massive, and lined with crystalline circuits that look like they were grown, rather than built. Structures that look like cracked-open geodes sit in front of banks of ancient machinery, which still thrums with power. At the very center of the room is a great gyroscope made of crystal, a gimballed mechanism that presently sits idle. It's slightly different from the ones you've seen before, but this is clearly an Elw teleporter. Activating it is your only chance to escape Juno and his hordes. "The Biomass infection has penetrated the deployment level. Megaman Trigger, I order you to divert there and purge them at once. Additional units are en route to assist." Get it working again, and hurry! =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
=================<* Flight Through the Main Gate - Round 6 *>================= =======================< Results - What Lies Beneath >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Venetia Vuong 73 --(12)--> 85 Pass Anterior Vuong's Guide to Economic 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Avril Vent Fleur 78 --(12)--> 90 Fail Mirror of De Soto 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cidney Laplace 78 --(12)--> 90 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Venetia Vuong 90 --(30)--> 120 Pass Conditions: Stupify(2) Effects: Cleanse|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 Flight Through the Main Gate!
======================<* Flight Through the Main Gate *>====================== ==================<* CHALLENGE - Out Of The Frying Pan... *>================== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- With a few last adjustments, the ancient mechanisms whirr to life. Blue ley-light arcs through the crystalline wiring, collecting in the gimballed mechanism in the room's center. In the space of a few seconds, the device is too bright to look at directly. You've done your part--all you need to do is wait for the others to do the same. As you wait, Juno speaks over the intercom. "The Biomass infection has activated the deployment mechanism." Is it just your imagination, or is there a faint hint of anger in his voice? "Megaman Trigger, I order you to purge every last one of them. Whether or not you remember your duty is irrelevant--there is far too much at stake for you to do otherwise. Please, Trigger. I'm sorry for any distress this causes you, but it is misplaced. If Mother becomes aware--" The light erupts in a brilliant flash. Concentric rings of Elw glyphs encircle each of you, and the world around you vanishes. To some, the sensation of long-distance teleportation may be familiar, but to others, it may be strange and frightening--a sense of aimless vertigo, and a lack of other sensory input. Then, another flash, and reality comes pouring back. There's sand beneath your feet, and smoke hangs thick in the air. Screams and gunfire echo in the distance. Where are you, and what the hell is happening? =Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Elru is important, it seems, Venetia gathers to listen between the lines. Elw and Elru - is this just a ghost, like the connection between... She can't tell, no time to speculate. There are secrets in Elru. Cidney's likely had first pick, but that doesn't mean...
Venetia hears where they're going. "Oh, DOES it. Well, that's just ducky," Venetia says. "I hear the weather's lovely on Lunar. Shame I didn't have the chance to pack. This is sarcasm, because I prefer nudity to death."
She grins at what Avril says. "Yes. Exactly! It's like the flow of current in a light system or to a machine, something's shorting it. Of course the analogy's imperfect, like the analogy of the eye to the camera, but it works, more or less."
The mirror comes out. HIGH SPEED CRYSTAL SORTING ENSUES!!
"Oh is that so! I'd be honored," Venetia tells Cidney. "You know, I hope they won't assume the worst. I'm told that Lunar may be something of a one way journey, but I've also heard of people making the full circuit at least once, and so, who knows? Maybe we'll put out a rail service or run a bus through one of these. Twice daily service to Lunar beaches. Wouldn't that be pleasant?"
tnk
plink
shink
whommmm
Venetia makes a note in her textbook in greasepencil as the voice begins to speak up. The gyroscope begins to spin up and Venetia wheels around to say to the bellowing darkness, "So long, Juno! One-egg for the Ammonites!" The light begins to rise -
- and then -
someone screams and shoots a gun! And it's bright! Venetia reels like a vampire at noon! "I can't SEE anything! Shit! Agh!"
=TO BE CONTINUED?==========>