2020-09-27: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

From Dream Chasers
Jump to navigation Jump to search
  • Log: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
  • Cast: Gwen Whitlock, Lan Lilac, Hiro, Josephine Lovelace, Kaguya
  • Where: Kattelox City - Downtown
  • Date: September 27, 2020
  • Summary: A rather unorthodox group bands together just within the Main Gate and pushes through it to what lies beyond. But, are they just trading one bad circumstance for another?


DG: A party led by Gwen Whitlock is now entering Flight Through the Main Gate.
DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
=======================<* 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> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    __LAST TIME ON SUPER OH NO THERE'S A LARGE ROBOT WITH GIANT HANDS AND HIS MINIONS COMING AFTER US__

    After attempting to encourage Ida to not give into her arm's sudden desire to punch Dash for things he may/may not have done in his distant past, Gwen comforted Lan as Loren retreated with the rest of the Solaris troops.

    Also, before that, Gwen misread the intentions of a large robot with giant hands and tried to welcome him to the fair planet of Filgaia. She had missed the whole part about the 'bio-mass infestation', you see. Especially the context about it referring to beings like her. And 'removing' meaning 'killing'.

    And maybe, if Gwen had taken initiative instead of waving to the damn robot, Brad wouldn't have had to sacrifice himself like a big damn hero.

    It's been a long day.

    So now, it's a matter of pullingleadingoutright hauling a possibly reluctant Lan further in. "If we scatter into smaller groups, it'll make it harder for these things to hit us all at once!"

    Suddenly the door slams shut ahead of them, as well as the door to the left, which leaves Gwen little to no time to stop her pace before she crumbles right into the door.

    At least this helps shave off the possibility of Gwen just making her own exit. "Ow...." She holds her head, gingerly touching the lump that begins to form there. "Door's like a solid block..." More doors shut to her right, and Gwen realizes the total scope of the situation.

    "We gotta get ahead of that guy!" She's already going through another door, either going after Lan, or pulling Lan through if necessary.

    If people join their crew of two, Gwen may not actually realize it until they get to the other side.

    IF they get to the other side.

DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Relentless Pursuit.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    She's tired, and Lan didn't even throw a single punch during the whole damn battle. But emotional tiredness is different than physical exhaustion. And even if she's still crying bitter tears, Lan isn't ready to give up and die.

    (It had taken a quick explanation to get her moving, but the GIANT FREAKING SOLARIS-ALIGNED ARMBOT is a good motivator. Especially once she realized it had deferred to Leah Sadalbari, the Watcher. Even at his worst, Lan would trust Loren (and indeed, much of the rank and file of Assyria Base) to hesitate before murdering her to tie up a loose end. Leah, however, has a reputation - and Lan has seen glimpses of her in action.)

    So, just like Gwen, Lan is running.

    Unlike Gwen, she's carrying someone else's sword.

    Doors begin to slam shut ahead of them, and Lan wouldn've crashed right into one if Gwen hadn't beaten her to it. "--Gwen! Are you okay?!" Lan swipes at her face again before trying to check the courier over for injuries. She doesn't have any medical supplies anymore, she doesn't have anything but what she always carries on her, if Gwen got a concussion or something--!!

    But they can't even stop for that, not really, because the doors are still moving. Lan sucks in a breath through her teeth and hurries after, gripping Gwen's hand tightly.

DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Relentless Pursuit.
DG: A party led by Gwen Whitlock is now entering Flight Through the Main Gate.
DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
=======================<* 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============================
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Relentless Pursuit.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.


So it has been a day.

"AAAAAAA - He's not stopping!"

We'll rate this one a nine out of ten on the Ruby Disaster Scale. A ten out of ten would be a world consuming apocalyptic event. A nine out of ten is apparently a smiling invincible bureaucratic death reploid coming at the tail end of spending one's day in a warzone.

As you can see, there is a degree of separation between a nine, and a ten. Decimal points may need to be involved for future classification.

"I know - I know - keep flying Ruby!"

Hiro still doesn't understand why Brad sacrificed himself out there. What was he trying to stop? However, this robot made it clear why he probably felt so strongly about doing that ... before realizing that running into the Main Gate was the best option.

As he starts taking off down the halls, he notices how the Reploid pursuer is closing the doors. "He's cutting us off!"

Hiro suddenly skids to a stop and scans ahead quickly, noting that so many doors are still open. "Not all them though! He must be doing it manual-"

Beat as Gwen beans herself on a closing door he's scanning, "-ly. Um - hey Gwen... you... alright?" As he joins the conjunction of people giving her a hand, the boy panting somewhat, "I guess - guess we're... all running the same way?"

"... Wait really!? Gwen - you okay! You know what!? Answer that later - I have an idea!" Ruby suddenly flies ahead as she starts using the acoustics of this place to shout backwards at Juno, "Ooooo - I'm a scary draconic biomass and I think I'll get my grubby little pawsies all over the place once I go this way!" As she baits him to close one door.

"Or maybe I'll head THIS way - you'll be cleaning my fur out of the ventilation shafts for weeks at this rate!"

And yet another, as she moves seemingly from one random door to the next. "Ohhhhh better watch out - because I feel like I've really gotta go! Say! Do you know where the bathroom is? No no it's fine - I'll just look for it... DOWN THIS WAY!" As she suddenly abruptly darts in one direction.

Thus, telegraphing him to open one door. Before she doubles back and flies after the party in a different direction.

"Nice thinking Ruby!" As he offers her a high five in mid-air. Ruby immediately taps a single paw to it. "Let's keep moving!"

"Do you actually have to go though?"

"Of course not...! ... ... ... Actually on second thought I wouldn't say no if we actually did find the bathroom."

DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Relentless Pursuit.
DG: Hiro has used his Tool Ruby Being Helpful toward his party's challenge, Relentless Pursuit.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    It had just been business as usual. Odessa business of course -- these days, Josie doesn't see much of anything else, and with good reason. One moment had her in a deadlocked heat with some Veruni rank-and-file. The next had seem the appearance of a giant robot that, if the archaeologist is catching the meaning of correctly, intends to kill everthing organic here. This, of course, is what is colloquially known as 'a problem', and with her opponent disengaging and her not particularly liking the odds of getting out of blast radius (whatever that is) she had opted -- once the way was clear -- to roll the dice a little bit.

    This leads her enter the Main Gate, followed by the door closing just after she throws herself through the entry. Landing in a crouch and rising to her feet, the archaeologist's first point of order is to tug down the orange face mask she wears and slip up the goggles. "Whew, that was nearly--"

    She tilts her head upwards as she were listening to Juno for a moment.

    "Talk about 'too soon'," she sighs, shaking her head. Then she glances sharply at the others. "--Guess I'm in this one with you lot. Alright, let's..."

    She watches as one door after another slams shut. Slightly, Josie frowns.

    "...let's run really fuckin' fast!"

    She then does so.

DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Relentless Pursuit.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

"I'll invasive your robot ass, you smiley bucket of bolts," Kaguya mutters as she runs into the facility from one entrance, breathing mask down around her collar and boots muddy. She is dressed in ordinary enough clothes, an ARM slung at her back and a pair of butterfly swords sheathed at her lift hip. Also...

"Stop closing the DOORS you--" Kaguya weaves around one closed door and slams back against another that's starting to close with an armored fist, partly crumpling the metal and affording her an extra moment. She hears people, though--

Ah. Yeah.

This time Kaguya jumps through another door and starts to catch up with Lan and Gwen, spotting them. "Oh hey--"

Another door slams, this one just about catching Kaguya's foot. "STOP THAT," she shouts at the door, and then looks to the two ahead as she hurries now with them.

Two, and quckly four-no, five? "Gwen, Lan," she comments, looking over them appraisingly--and catching the sword in Lan's hands. "Man your boyfriend is bad at holding onto his sword." Pause. "Oh, unless he died or something. Man I'd feel like an ass!"

She sounds almost--almost--apologetic.

Regardless she nods at Hiro and Josie too. "Oh, it's you. Nice mask."

"And we're not gonna find a bathroom!! It's for robots!"

DG: Kaguya has contributed a Agility Basic Action 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
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gwen Whitlock                       0 --(20)--> 20                 Fail
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kaguya                              0 --(20)--> 20                 Fail
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           0 --(20)--> 20                 Fail
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josephine Lovelace                  0 --(20)--> 20                 Fail
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hiro                                0 --(20)--> 20                 Fail
Ruby Being Helpful                  2   Agility Effects: Resilient
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Gwen Whitlock               0 --(10)--> 10                 Fail
Conditions: Fright(2)|Hesitate(2)|Slow(2)|Vault(1)
Effects: Resilient(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Gwen Whitlock has failed this challenge! The party gained 10 exploration! If anyone needs to use
party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    When Gwen's vision clears from that face-off with the door, she sees a Lan. And a Hiro. And a Ruby.

    "... Mmn? Lan? Hiro? Ruby?" And a Josie, muttering something about 'too soon'. "... Y-yeah, we did try to shoot each other recently--" Oh, she means Juno. And there's Kaguya.

    And Josie's going off. "W-whoah, whoah, yeah, let's stick together!"

    Yes Gwen knows she said earlier, but it's a rapidly changing situation!
    
    Ruby's bright idea buys them some time, and a method to get forward, but only just so. One dragon's ~pink pawsies~ is not enough to keep Juno's thorough work ethic completely at bay for very long.

    Which leads to now, where, in a desperate moment, Gwen manages to stick her arm in the last closing door.

    Thankfully it's her right ARM.

    It still hurts.

    ".... Goddamn--" Here is where a string of expletives, courtesy of half a childhood in Little Twister, is inserted. It is not a happy place.

    A few shocks and likely a lot more help from the others gathered later, they are free to exit the maze.

    "Guys, this is..." She waves with her left hand towards Ruby and Hiro, and then to Lan, and then to Kaguya and Josie. ".....everyone here is cool in my book, so y'all.... work it out... ow..."

DG: Lan Lilac has drawn a new Challenge.
=======================<* Flight Through the Main Gate *>=======================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Sharukurusu Squad *>=======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 3          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 A heavy /clang clang clang/ echoes down the corridor, like an entire
 mechanical regiment marching in unison. It is unquestionably a Reaverbot
 patrol, and there's nowhere to hide. The hideous shriek of an alert siren
 tears down the hall, and the enemy engages you.

 Sharukurusu are massive and broad-shouldered, with long arms ending in
 wicked claws. They're also a lot more flexible than their build would
 suggest, making the corridor less of an obstacle than it should be for them.
 You'll have to fight your way through if you're to have any hope of making
 it out alive.

 (OOC: http://legends-station.com/mml1/reaverbots/largesharukurusu1.jpg)
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Exhaust==========================================
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    If anybody breaks their nose running into a door, Lan's going to... ...well she isn't sure but she's going to be very upset. Especially if it's her or Gwen. Haven't they suffered enough this week?!

    At least they won't be alone, it seems. Lan vaguely remembers Josie from a trip out in the desert and the search for an oasis. Unlike a lot of folks, she even has no negative opinion of Josie whatsoever! Lan missed a lot while in Solaris custody.

    She's busy tucking Loren's sword into her belt when Kaguya arrives, and pipes up. "...He's not my boyfriend, you know," she manages. What is it with every single person on the face of the planet trying to hook her up with somebody!? Aren't they a little busy for this right now?! Lan sniffles a bit to clear her nose and tamps down her aggravation. She can drink her feelings away later.

    "Gwen! Hang on!" Lan rushes to the other girl's side to add her strength, bracing a leg against the doorframe and shoving with all her might to help keep it from closing for good. She doesn't think she can shatter a door like this without...

    But they all make it through (especially Ruby, who is tiny), and after checking to make sure Gwen's all right Lan takes the lead, running pell-mell down the corridor. "At least this should be too narrow for a big guy like that," she hopes out loud.

    A clang-clang-clang sort of noise up ahead (and getting closer) makes her echo one of the less-terrible curses she just heard from the courier. It's a group of three bright pinkish-red Reaverbots, and despite their size they don't seem to have much trouble at all navigating the narrow corridor. That's so not fair!!

    Lan grabs the bottle hanging at her waist and pops the cork with her teeth before... splashing a bunch of water over the one in the front, hoping that will be enough to mess with the electronics.

DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Clear Water toward her party's challenge, Sharukurusu Squad.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Thanks, kiddo, I think the color suits me-- oh, Fengalon's teeth, it's you," Josie remarks, to first Kaguya, then Gwen. While fortunately they have bigger fish to fry, well--

    It might be a little awkward.

    "O, thou lightning--"

    Luckily, Josie is eternally equipped for this sort of thing.

    It's time for a breather in her book once they're through, and the archaeologist stands propped against a wall and leaning forward, her hands on her knees. "Better than getting blasted to hell by the big out there," she remarks, once she's caught her breath, "but I can't say I like this none, neither."

    She gets maybe half a minute before Lan takes off running. "Where's the fire?" Shaking her head, she straightens back up and hauls off after her.
    Just as

    something clanging this way come.

    "...Fengalon's balls," the archaeologist utters, upping the ante this time around. "Okay, try and... huh, where is their weak spot? Is it the head?" She glancs over at Kaguya. "It's probably the head, don't you think?"

    She pats down her pockets and pulls out-- well it's definitely a flask. It probably has alcohol in it. Josie takes a hit from it. Okay, so it definitely has alcohol in it.

    "--That's better," she says, reaching for the shotgun she has strapped against her back and flips it about in her left hand. Sliding her finger over the trigger, she squints one eye shut and--

    BLAM. BLAM.

    Let's see if their armor can shrug that off!!

DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Liquid Courage toward her party's challenge, Sharukurusu Squad.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.


"Did you try to shoot each other recently?" Hiro asks Gwen with a tone of incredulity, until he sees Kaguya - and hears that comment from Josie. "... Nevermind, question answered."

Whereas Ruby snipes back at Kaguya, "Well it'd be very courteous of them to have one!" Before suddenly a comment from Lan catches her interest and she flies over without even actually caring who said it - just that someone said the magic word that begins with B and ends with Friend, "And just wwwhhoooo is not your boyfriend? If we're going to die here - you might as well spill on any gossip you've been holding back!"

Hiro is not too scandalized by Gwen cursing... he walked through the streets she grew up in. He probably heard ten times worse just crossing over to the saloon.

Fortunately working it out is covered by virtue of them having a mutual thing to hit. The clang-clang-clang as the Reaverbots come up. And Hiro just jumps in, aiming sword strikes at their joints, "Well - figure out if it's the head while I keep them distracted!"

The faint glow of something around his neck... suddenly mysteriously takes the edge off of the fact they all just ran out of a warzone.

Nice of it.

DG: Hiro has used his Tool White Dragon Wings toward his party's challenge, Sharukurusu Squad.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

"Oh, yeah?" Beat, "Well, at least I didn't get the living part wrong! Safe." She is absolutely unapologetic from that point onward. Much like all the time. But Ruby asks, "Oh, you know. Blonde guy, glasses, super grumpy. Oh oh let me try it," she says, and does her best Loren impression, working up her face in an exaggerated frown. "'Remember that we're enemies!'"

But for Gwen--"Ooh, brutal." Kaguya looks over Gwen's arm stuck in the door, and moves up to start helping get it open with the power of force. "Nice, you got some pipes in you." As Lan shoves, Kaguya just starts battering away at the door with her fist until it's too bent to stay closed.

"Heheh, yeah, it's me," Kaguya answers Josie. "Nice to be remembered."

But Lan moves up quickly, and Kaguya takes off after th others. She's in the back of the group, probably because her strides are the smallest, or maybe because someone has to take up the rear. Either way. Shortly there are more Reaverbots, and--

"Yeah," Kaguya says, "Probably the head if anywhere. It's got their sensors and stuff in it." Looking appraisingly at Josie, she seems approving after a moment, and also... unconcerned about the Reaverbots. She just starts walking towards them.

"Nice shot, old lady! Now, lt me try. HaaaAH--"

Kaguya jams her hands into the wall and rips off a piece of paneling, whirling around to start beating a Reaverbot with it until something breaks. As Hiro's pendant or whatever it is glows, she redoubles her efforts, swinging and swinging and swinging.

DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Loot Abuse toward her party's challenge, Sharukurusu Squad.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    Thankfully for Gwen's nose, it seems to have escaped the wrath of the Solid Door. The red spot on her noggin will serve as a handy reminder to check for a possible concussion later, if a possible headache doesn't.

    Add 'inserted ARM into door' on top the list of new injuries Gwen as suffered, along with the previous fight. Grinning at Hiro's question, Gwen manages a weak laugh. "Y-yeah, but nothin' personal. Just one of those things. You two okay?" She eyes the two of them over, then looking to Kaguya and Josie, looking for any obvious injuries. "... Don't worry about it," she manages, to Josie. "Dunno the entire story, but we're all in the bio-mass havin' club, eh?"

    She says nothing about Loren, preferring Lan take the wheel on that particular subject. Especially since she was completely unaware that their relationship was *not* romantic.

    Damn her and her eagerness to ship!

    That's some heavy-sounding footsteps coming their way. Lan throws a bottle of water, and Gwen, reenergized by Hiro's pendant, moves ahead, drawing up an electric current to try to fry the Reaverbots directly.

    "These must be those things Dash was takin' about, Riverboa- er, Reeferbot- hey Kaguya, that was rude!"

    what is a robot gwen does not know

DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Full Metal Courier toward her party's challenge, Sharukurusu Squad.
=======================<* Flight Through the Main Gate *>=======================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Sharukurusu Squad *>=======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 3          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 A heavy /clang clang clang/ echoes down the corridor, like an entire
 mechanical regiment marching in unison. It is unquestionably a Reaverbot
 patrol, and there's nowhere to hide. The hideous shriek of an alert siren
 tears down the hall, and the enemy engages you.

 Sharukurusu are massive and broad-shouldered, with long arms ending in
 wicked claws. They're also a lot more flexible than their build would
 suggest, making the corridor less of an obstacle than it should be for them.
 You'll have to fight your way through if you're to have any hope of making
 it out alive.

 (OOC: http://legends-station.com/mml1/reaverbots/largesharukurusu1.jpg)
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Exhaust==========================================
==================<* Flight Through the Main Gate - Round 2 *>==================
========================< Results - Sharukurusu Squad >=========================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gwen Whitlock                       20 --(12)--> 32                Pass
Full Metal Courier                  2   Combat  Effects: Embolden
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kaguya                              20 --(12)--> 32                Pass
Loot Abuse                          2   Combat  Effects: Stalwart
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           20 --(12)--> 32                Fail
Clear Water                         1   Combat  Effects: Cleanse
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josephine Lovelace                  20 --(12)--> 32                Pass
Liquid Courage                      3   Combat  Effects: Rally
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hiro                                20 --(12)--> 32                Pass
White Dragon Wings                  1   Combat  Effects: Cleanse
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Gwen Whitlock               10 --(20)--> 30                Pass
Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Fright(2)|Hesitate(1)|Slow(1)
Effects: Cleanse|Embolden(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Gwen Whitlock 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> Lan Lilac has posed.

    "He's not dead either!!" Now, if ony she could say Kaguya was wrong about her Loren Impression, as well...

    Unlike the last time Lan tried splashing water on something robotic, it doesn't seem to do much. She has to resort to the old-fashioned method of 'kicking it in what she thinks is the head', until their combined tactics finally manage to take all three of the Reaverbots down.

    "Ugh. I guess that's good eno--huh??" It's a... a flying pink kitty cat. Gods help her, it's adorable. "I- uh-- listen, it's not like that, I don't even feel like that--" Lan clams up before she can get too carried away, hurrying past Ruby because honestly, she isn't sure what to say and her feelings are still pretty raw. "I'm sorry! Just-- leave me alone!"

DG: Josephine Lovelace 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> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Long story, kid! Ain't your business or none!" Josie calls back to Hiro, already legging it down the hallway. "--And save it, Gwen! This sure ain't the time!"

    Particularly not when they're facing down a set of machines like that.

    "--Old lady?" Josie just pulls a face and glances over at Kaguya. "Geez, kids these days sure are lazy with their insults and such," she sighs, shaking her head. Then there's another shot at the machines, just for good measure. ...Just as Kaguya rips a piece of the wall right on out.
    Josie arches an eyebrow.

    But that's that, in the end. One obstacle down.

    ARM re-holstered, she saunters over to Lan and plants a hand on her shoulder. "Frankly, relationships are overrated," she says, patting the girl there the once before moving on.

    Though she doesn't get too far. There's a webwork of laserlight ahead, promising problems if one steps wrong. Apparently just to be sure about it, Josie palms something from a pocket, tossing the object up and down the once in her hand before... pausing. "Hmm. What do you think the odds are this one's an alarm instead? ...Guess I'd better not." She pockets the object and sighs, then turns back to the rest of them. "So, don't suppose you lot have any bright ideas? 'Cause all I got is my own two feet," she says, gesturing towards the trap. "...Wonder who this Trigger he's goin' off about is. An underling?"

    If no one has a better idea, she'll opt to run through -- evading the lasers if she can -- but...

DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Inconvenient Laser Grid.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

"Cool, I want to bug him again sometime. He makes the best faces."

"Whatever, I'm a little busy, if you want a better insult uh..." Pause. "I dunno I kind of respect that you're getting hammered before fights, so I can't really call that out."

But when Lan says it's not like that and runs aside... "Hmmm," she says, and leans over to Ruby. "I believe her, no blushing or anything, so it's not juicy. But let me tell you about him later, I have a hilarious story about him that I never get to share because the Guard are all stiff about it."

Oh yeah, she's part of the Guard and he's a Fiend. That's a thing that never stopped being true.

But laser-light ahead of them makes Kaguya slow to a stop and frown. "Aw, man... This'd be really cool, IF I'D BUILT IT." She siiighs openly. "Yeah no I got nothin'. If you die, I'll remember you. And ask someone your name, I guess." Because she doesn't remember.

But in the meantime, Kaguya starts rushing along after.

DG: Kaguya has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Inconvenient Laser Grid.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.


"I sorta feel like everything that happened out there is everyone's business though..." Hiro says of Josie's evaluation, but he doesn't protest it hard. While he may not agree with the first comment, he can at least agree that... now is not the time to press it any further.

"Kaguya! Be nice! She's in love!" Ruby says of her impression, and then Lan starts to run off, Hey! Wait - I'm sorry!" Flap. Flap. Flap. Ruby looks far too guilty but then... Kaguya indicates she believes her.

"Aw really? ... Gotta admit I'm a little disappointed as I'm kind of into the whole reluctant enemies angle..."

Hiro though admonishes, far too seriously mid-combat, "Kaguya - respect your elders." It has too much sincerity to be a joke. Guess that's the result of him being raised by his Grandpa - that anyone that uses the tone Josie just did must be classified as such.

"Reeferbot sounds right." Hiro says, knowing he wrote it down somewhere... but he's not about to fact check Gwen right now, especially since he trusts that she's right!

This may turn out to be an unfortunate assumption for him in the future.

Unfortunately, the laser webwork guards the path. And Hiro starts trying to figure out the timing...

Ruby however darts ahead, and starts trying to see if she can ruin some of the emitters by breathing flames on them from an angle.... or just to see if she can find a shut off.

Hiro tries to get the timing down, before rushing right in at what he hopes is the right moment.

"Do you still not remember people's names?!" He asks Kaguya, as he tries not to die from laser death.

DG: Hiro has used his Tool Ruby Being Helpful toward his party's challenge, Inconvenient Laser Grid.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    "I'm jus' sayin'." Gwen rubs her head as she follows Josie, careful to avoid that spot from earlier. Lan is also tense, but Gwen fully knows why.

    Or, at least, she thinks she does.

    Gwen offers a small grin to Hiro and Ruby, and murmurs below her breath as she passes by them. "Lan tried to get Loren, a person from Solaris, to come with her. He turned and ran. It's... god, there's more, but help me keep her movin' forward." Kaguya is at least here to keep Josie busy, though Gwen doesn't worry about either of them shooting her in the back, so to speak.

    Now, the lasers here, they will definitely shoot her in the back. And the front. And all over.

    Gwen ponders Josie's question. "If I'm thinkin' right, two Drifters turned out t'be... uh..." She motions to the intercom above. "They don't remember it, though. But that large robot definitely remembered them."

    now, lasers!!!

    Gwen just.... tries to follow everyone's lead. Badly. "... Kaguya you know my name at least righhhhttt oh guardians--"

DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Agility Basic Action 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=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    A pat on her shoulder has Lan ducking her head as Josie passes her. "It's not..." she tries to explain once they've all caught up with her. "It's just... it's complicated. I was... they did something to me, Solaris." That woman, Myyah Hawwa... she had to have been the one. It's the last clear memory Lan has of being herself for a very, very long time. "I was... they did something to my head. I really believed I was there because I wanted to be, even if I couldn't remember ever signing up. That I volunteered to help fight the Metal Demons at the Photosphere."

    She pulls the silvery ribbon out of her hair, drawing it through taut fingers with a tight 'vwip' sound. Shimmering motes of silver magic float around Lan and the others, relieving a little bit of the heaviness from their steps. "I thought I'd been assigned to Loren's squad, but he'd just been assigned to watch me. And then a few months later, I woke up." She grits her teeth and starts to weave her way through the laser grid.

DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Butterfly Ribbon 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 3 *>==================
=====================< Results - Inconvenient Laser Grid >======================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gwen Whitlock                       32 --(20)--> 52                Fail
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kaguya                              32 --(20)--> 52                Fail
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           32 --(15)--> 47                Pass
Butterfly Ribbon                    2   Agility Effects: Quicken
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josephine Lovelace                  32 --(20)--> 52                Fail
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hiro                                32 --(15)--> 47                Pass
Ruby Being Helpful                  2   Agility Effects: Resilient
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Gwen Whitlock               30 --(10)--> 40                Fail
Conditions: Fright(1)|Slow(2)
Effects: Quicken(1)|Resilient(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Gwen Whitlock has failed this challenge! The party gained 10 exploration! If anyone needs to use
party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    It's complicated relationships all around!! At least there's enough going on right now that none of them have to sit down and have an actual face-to-face chat about all this business. No -- time's a'wasting, and a robot wants them all dead.

    Josie has never been more grateful for imminent robot destruction.

    'Respect your elders' says Hiro, without so much of a hint that he's messing around. Josie just pulls a face that more or less reads 'seriously?' before exhaling out an overemphatic sigh and shaking her head.

    "That so," she muses, when Gwen answers her question. "I was a wee bit busy at the time, so I don't think I saw or none. Answers a few questions, sure enough."

    Their sole chance at survival here may just rest in the pretty pink pawsies of Ruby, who darts on ahead, while Lan explains a thing or two. "...Really," is the archaeologist's statement on that front, her expression rather poker-faced for a change. "Tch..." she ultimately utters, shaking her head.

    "Guess there's nothing for it but take our chances. Okay--" But she pauses a moment first. "It's Josie," Josie says to Kaguya. Then pauses again. "I forget your name, though."

    In the end, only three of them (Ruby counts!) make it through completely unscathed. Looks like it was the zappy kind of laser barrier after all!!

    At least it's not as bad as it might have been, thanks to Ruby.

    "Ow," Josie utters, smoldering in a few places as she reaches the other end.

DG: Kaguya 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============================================
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

"I never heard hers!!" Kaguya sounds almost offended to be called out on her old habits. ....Mostly because of the obvious. But... Things do get complicated.

"Eh?" Kaguya asks of Gwen. "Really?? Oh, that's... Yeah, that's not great."

"...I see," Kaguya says to Lan. She sounds more serious all of a sudden, certainly looks it. She nods, stepping forward again. "Then I take back some of the shit I gave you. That's..." She shakes her head. "I hate Solaris. I've got this friend, she's like a sister--they did something like that to her, too. You might've met Lydia."

"So two Drifters were part of this thing," Kaguya says once they're past, "But they don't remember it. Got it."

Then to Josie, "Oh, yeah. It's Kaguya. The Duchess Alathfar to the right people, but I don't care about ceremony here on Filgaia much."

She looks ahead and around, coming to slow down. "Looks like we can take a short break, anyway--I don't hear him." For a few moments they even can. But then...

Then, the capsules around them slide open, with talk of a purge. "Damn--"

She recognizes them, all right. She's spent enough time in Kattlelox to get familiar with the recorded Reavrbots, even if she's never seen these, and she doesn't joke this time, or just rip something off the wall. She pulls her butterfly swords, taking one in each hand. "Okay. Stay behind me if you're not confident. If we can take one down, I can use its shield to help take down the others."

She breathes in, quickly--and rushes forward, glowing with power. "DEMON FANG!"

DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Loot Abuse toward her party's challenge, Gorubesshu Squad.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    If nothing else, Lan still knows how to dance through danger. There are parts of her that nobody can take away. She won't let them.

    "It's not like anybody was cruel to me, other than... I just thought," she continues once everybody's more-or-less safely through, "That... if I could save someone else from that, it might've been worth it." She uncaps her bottle of water again, taking a long drink and offering it around in case anybody else is thirsty (or smoldering).

    But Kaguya mentions a familiar name. "Lydia... I met her there. She wasn't happy." Again, Lan's experience was different. "But... like me, there's a Gebler officer assigned to her, and Rachiel seems to actually care about her." At least, she'd acted like it. Even now, Lan wants to believe the best of people. "But it's not like they kept us locked up in cages or anything. I mean, we even went to the Starlight Festival." Lan's making excuses and she knows it, but she also doesn't want Lydia's friend to worry too much. Not knowing what else to say, she ties her hair back again, leaning against some kind of capsule-looking thingy that almost certainly doesn't have a bad surprise inside. The loudspeaker crackles to life again.

    Surprise!!

    "I hate bad surprises," Lan sighs, ducking out of Kaguya's way before throwing herself heel-first at that Gorubesshu's optic sensors.

DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Clear Water toward her party's challenge, Gorubesshu Squad.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.


"You could always ask her then!" Hiro counters on Kaguya's habits, as he tries to cool down from the run through the laser grid. Something about Josie's state makes him wince though, "You alright? I've... got some herbs. If you want to slap a quick poultice on the burns..."

He's sounds somewhat conflicted. He's worked with her doing some Drifter work but, not he's certainly not close enough to her to really know what spurred on some of the things he's heard lately.

...but then... Lan says something heartfelt and... Ruby feels bad. "Sorry for teasing you... that's... that's awful. I just didn't know..." Hiro just frowns, "I'm sorry - for all they put you through." He then looks Kaguya's way, "For all they did to your friend too." Pause, as Lan sounds like she's defending them, "... That's..." Yet he quiets down, like he's not sure it's his place. She feels how she feels about it.

Ruby however groans softly as Kaguya refers to herself as the Duchess Alathfar, as if getting second hand embarrassment for her being a Duchess on her world.

"A break sounds fantas-" Capsules shift open, "... I almost forgot this place was trying to kill us. My bad." "How did it slip your mind when we almost died to lasers like - what - a MINUTE AGO?!"

In this case, he flicks a boomerang, which tries to arc around and knock one of the Reaverbots into the others with a simple application of force. Again there's that faint glow, and it's like it's taking that edge off the fatigue from this long haul.

DG: Hiro has used his Tool White Dragon Wings toward his party's challenge, Gorubesshu Squad.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Kaguya, huh? I'll try'n remember that next time, even," she says to Kaguya.

    "Kiddo," Josie sighs, as Lan starts making excuses. "Give it a few months and all before you start tryin' to forgive them that locked you up." She scowls for the moment, before heading onwards. "More'n enough ways to be in a cage without the bars, sure enough," she remarks, glancing back at the blonde girl the once.

    It looks for a moment almost like they'll get a breather. Josie even produces her flask, looking for the moment as if she's about to offer it around.

    And then, quite suddenly, the speakers crackle to life again annnnnd they have a problem on their hands.

    "I'm gonna kick that guy's ass," she says, flatly, before finishing off the rest of the contents in one go and pocketing the thing. Then, she goes for the shotgun. "Well, c'mon then! Let's go!"

    The ARM lets out another cracking boom of a shot across the room.

DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Liquid Courage toward her party's challenge, Gorubesshu Squad.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    Lydia. The name makes Gwen wince and look away.

    Come to think of it, Loren was playing the role of OS's handler, back on the Warwing. But wouldn't that be expected of anyone in Solaris? Should they really blame Loren?

    As Lan tries to talk through her memories, Gwen's eyes widen, and she coughs, helpfully. "... Lan, maybe we'd better... uh." She looks to the others, helplessly.

    As for her earlier thoughts, Gwen keeps to herself for now, knowing a disaster when she sees one.

    Or not, seeing as how she just leans on what happens to be one of the capsule, resting her eyes for just a moment. Again, Hiro and Ruby's presence is like a balm, making her feel something close to her normal self again. Enough that she can take up the reins and keep moving at full speed.

    '--Biomass purge.'

    "Wait, wh--" Gwen falls forward and scrambles away as the smooth surface begins to slide, revealing one of the 'Reeferbots' within. "Right, confidence, yeah. I'm pretty confident. Electricity seems to work pretty well on these guys. Though, that's... kinda true for everything?"

    While her fist still sparks from its earlier misuse, she still uses it to try to pound in the Reaverbot that emerges, like a cat rapidly batting at a snake that has just poked its head out of a hole. "Go back to sleep!"

DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Full Metal Courier 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
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gwen Whitlock                       52 --(12)--> 64                Pass
Full Metal Courier                  2   Combat  Effects: Embolden
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kaguya                              52 --(12)--> 64                Pass
Loot Abuse                          2   Combat  Effects: Stalwart
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           47 --(12)--> 59                Pass
Clear Water                         1   Combat  Effects: Cleanse
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josephine Lovelace                  52 --(12)--> 64                Pass
Liquid Courage                      3   Combat  Effects: Rally
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hiro                                47 --(12)--> 59                Pass
White Dragon Wings                  1   Combat  Effects: Cleanse
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Gwen Whitlock               40 --(20)--> 60                Pass
Conditions: Slow(1)|Suffer(1)|Wound(2)
Effects: Cleanse|Embolden(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Gwen Whitlock 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> Kaguya has posed.

Kaguya accepts some water, and it helps. She won't get to take the booze a moment later but at her size that may be for the best. She just doesn't look that happy at the serious subject, nodding along and eventually saying, "That's good of you to think. Most people would just run and never look back."

As for Lydia, though... "Yeah, they don't need to use cages. It's very civilized." A shake of her head.

But fight happens. Lan takes the Reaverbot right in the optics, ruining its chance to bring its cannon to bear before Gwen slams it with electricity and Kaguya follows up with a shockwave of energy. The next to go after them is stopped for a moment by Josie's powerful slug, and this is about how the battle goes. The enemies are powerful, but the group gets the better of them, the final Reaverbot's sensor destroyed by Hiro's boomerang.

There is quiet again, though not for long; they can't linger. Kaguya, though, looks around and to Josie, "You and me both."

But she looks to Lan, and looks a little awkward before...

"...Thanks. I appreciate you trying to bullshit me to make me feel better when you're already feeling lousy." She offers a lopsided smile, and leads the group onward.

DG: Lan Lilac has drawn a new Challenge.
=======================<* Flight Through the Main Gate *>=======================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Foo-Roo Swarm *>=========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The Main Gate doesn't have much in the way of ornamentation. Its corridors
 are a cold, sterile white, broken only by seams in the metal. Panels on the
 walls and ceiling offer access to whatever mechanical guts lie behind them.
 The place feels like the most lifeless laboratory ever.

 And then one of those metal panels pops open. The telltale shrieks of
 alerted Reaverbots fill the air as head-sized automatons fly down into the
 corridor, rushing you head-on and bombarding you with laser fire. Diggers
 know these Reaverbots as Foo-Roo, and they're notorious for exploding once
 they suffer critical damage.

 And as if that weren't enough, Juno's voice echoes down the corridor.

 "Oh. Oh my. Trigger, sensors have isolated an anomalous Biomass variant
 within the infection. Identifying characteristics include a
 disproprotionately high rate of genetic divergence, and quasi-Etheric
 sorcerous resonance. A formal identifier is pending. Proceed with extreme
 caution."

 (OOC: https://www.legends-station.com/mml1/reaverbots/foo-roo2.jpg)
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    Wait a few months to forgive the people who who imprisoned her. Lan looks away.
    She may not have months to save Loren.

    "Don't worry about it," she sighs, though whether she's talking to Ruby or Kaguya is up for debate. Maybe both of them. It's not like she's even really had time to just sit and deal with everything. She only ran away from base three days ago!

    As they continue on, she takes another drink from her water bottle, just so she doesn't have to talk again yet. It's so stupid. She's so stupid. Everything is stupid! Especially all these extra-stupid robots!! Lan groans when another announcement rings out, quickly stowing her emergency water back in its place at her hip. "Why are they shaped like that?" she asks nobody in particular, staring at the Foo-Roos with something akin to derision.

    Lan doesn't yet know that they have a reputation for being... well, explodey. But hey, at least they're something better to focus on than what's been happening. "Let's just... let's not talk about it for a while, okay? Now that I explained a bit." She doesn't like that these things float, either. Metal stuff shouldn't float! Metal is supposed to be heavy!

    Standing back a ways, Lan forms a circle with her fingers and sights through them, murmuring something quietly to herself. A tiny star begins to glow between her fingers before blasts of starlight energy begin to streak toward the Foo-Roos, detonating on impact.

DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Clear Water toward her party's challenge, Foo-Roo Swarm.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    Just like that, here come more of the things. "I wonder if they're sent by that asshole specially, or they just happened to be here," Josie muses, only to shake her head. In the end, it's only semantic, and doesn't actually help them out any.

    A good blast from a shotgun, meanwhile, helps everyone out.

    She flips the shotgun about in her left hand, discharging the shells in a rain of metal on metal. Then--

    'Let's not talk about it for a while, okay?'

    Josie turns a long, hard glance towards Lan, as the younger woman makes that request. But she shrugs and she shakes her head. "Sure enough, if that's what you want, kiddo," she says, leveling the shotgun at one of those floating machines.

    "Think we've got trouble enough here, yeah?"

    She wastes little time shooting at them, dropping back as they advance but keeping up the heat.

DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Foo-Roo Swarm.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    "Yeah. I hear ya loud n' clear." Gwen gives Lan a thumbs up. "I think what we all need after all this is a nice giant meal n' a nap on a nice soft bed." They probably can't use the Chateau if Josie's along, and Kaguya's status is similarly dodgy, but they can certainly at least use an inn. "Oh, a place with a hot springs, maybe? I found this one place, where they pipe the water in from the springs n' warm it up! It smells a little sulfur-y, but after a minute they say you don't notice it at all."

    The thought of delicious food, soft beds, and warm baths is interrupted by a series of shrieks, courtesy of some head-sized automatons.

    "Those..." Gwen examines one as it comes close, and laughs. "Man, these things are adorable! Look at them!"

    Then they shoot lasers. "... Well, ow, that ain't much in the way of cute at all, owww," Gwen mutters rapidly patting out the residual charring on her sleeve. "Well, they shot first!" Grabbing the one bothering her with her ARM, she chucks it at some of its advancing kin.

    *KABOOM*

    Gwen's face is outlined in the light cast by the small explosion that results, her mouth agape.

    she hasn't been on any digs that involved reaverbots in a while, guys

DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Full Metal Courier toward her party's challenge, Foo-Roo Swarm.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.


Ruby finds herself watching Lan for a moment as she tells them not to worry, before her and Hiro share a look. The two are specialized in sticking their nose into business that isn't theirs, often with people they barely know, so it's not too surprising that they're both perhaps... considering where to go with this.

Though as Lan asks on the Foo Roos shape, he jolts and steps up to the front. "Hard to say without knowing... the culture that designed them..." He says absently, as if still lost on the prior thought before. Though as Gwen mentions they're adorable, Hiro's lips twitch, "I mean - I guess they kind of are." "I think you need to raise your cuteness standards you two..."

Seeing as they're floating, he opts for backpeddling a bit, and casting a spell which causes inky blades to form out of the shadows and attempt to skewer one of them - despite him invoking shadow magic though, the light from the pendant around his neck doesn't dim at all.

It's making the physical exhaustion a touch easier to deal with - but too bad it doesn't do a thing at all for emotional exhaustion eh?

Though as Lan mentions she'd prefer not to speak on it, he... just sorta nods absently, looking at her out of the corner of his eyes while Josie addresses the issue...

KABOOM!

"In fact - I think Gwen is reevaluating those standards right now." "Cuteness is... explosive I guess."

DG: Hiro has used his Tool White Dragon Wings toward his party's challenge, Foo-Roo Swarm.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

Kaguya lets the subject go. It could be because she's being considerate of Lan's feelings, or it could just be that she doesn't have anything else to say. Maybe a little bit of both, if mostly the latter. Because when Lan asks not to talk about it for a while Kaguya says, "Sure. We can talk about other stuff. Or nothing! Or impending doom. Or maybe the asshole robot will speak up again--"

He does.

"Huhhhhh," Kaguya says. "How old exactly is this place?" She doesn't know; she can't tell. But a panel pops open, and these Reaverbots... "These explode! Move away from them when you've damaged them!"

Still carrying one of the shields from the other Reaverbots, Kaguya interposes it between herself and a robot and charges, aiming to just crunch the damn thing into a wall outright.

"Man, you're totally right, Gwen. Adorable. I kinda wanna take one home. See how it works." Working or not, Kaguya pulls her shotgun and fires a pulse of light at the next enemy. "Oh hey, nice shot Gwen. That's how you fight these things!"

The springs sound nice though.

"Don't worry Ruby, you're cuter. Even if you don't explode."

DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Loot Abuse toward her party's challenge, Foo-Roo Swarm.
=======================<* Flight Through the Main Gate *>=======================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Foo-Roo Swarm *>=========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The Main Gate doesn't have much in the way of ornamentation. Its corridors
 are a cold, sterile white, broken only by seams in the metal. Panels on the
 walls and ceiling offer access to whatever mechanical guts lie behind them.
 The place feels like the most lifeless laboratory ever.

 And then one of those metal panels pops open. The telltale shrieks of
 alerted Reaverbots fill the air as head-sized automatons fly down into the
 corridor, rushing you head-on and bombarding you with laser fire. Diggers
 know these Reaverbots as Foo-Roo, and they're notorious for exploding once
 they suffer critical damage.

 And as if that weren't enough, Juno's voice echoes down the corridor.

 "Oh. Oh my. Trigger, sensors have isolated an anomalous Biomass variant
 within the infection. Identifying characteristics include a
 disproprotionately high rate of genetic divergence, and quasi-Etheric
 sorcerous resonance. A formal identifier is pending. Proceed with extreme
 caution."

 (OOC: https://www.legends-station.com/mml1/reaverbots/foo-roo2.jpg)
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
==================<* Flight Through the Main Gate - Round 5 *>==================
==========================< Results - Foo-Roo Swarm >===========================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gwen Whitlock                       64 --(8)--> 72                 Pass
Full Metal Courier                  2   Combat  Effects: Embolden
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kaguya                              64 --(8)--> 72                 Pass
Loot Abuse                          2   Combat  Effects: Stalwart
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           59 --(8)--> 67                 Fail
Clear Water                         1   Combat  Effects: Cleanse
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josephine Lovelace                  64 --(8)--> 72                 Fail
Fight                               0   Combat  Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hiro                                59 --(8)--> 67                 Pass
White Dragon Wings                  1   Combat  Effects: Cleanse
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Gwen Whitlock               60 --(20)--> 80                Pass
Conditions: Injure(2)|Wound(2)
Effects: Cleanse|Embolden(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Gwen Whitlock 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> Lan Lilac has posed.

    A hot spring sounds really nice. Usually she'd go for cooler waters (having grown up on the edge of a desert and all) but that actually sounds kind of luxurious for once. "Wait-- explode?!" She pauses in the middle of shooting starbolts at the floating robot heads to glance at Kaguya in dismay - and that's all the distraction needed for one of the Foo-Roos to drift dizzily closer to her and... well, do the thing. Josie isn't much luckier, being just a bit too close to the one that exploded - but the rest are taken care of in short order, even if Kaguya only escapes a similar fate by virtue of the shield she 'borrowed'.

    Lan shakes off a layer of dust, coughing a couple of times before pulling herself back to her feet next to Hiro and Ruby. "Well... that could have gone worse, right?" she tries diplomatically.

DG: Gwen Whitlock 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> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    "Yeahhh." Gwen nods in agreement. "Ruby is much, much cuter."

    Kaguya makes a good point, however: just how old is this place? Why did Solaris summon that robot?

    These are the questions that pop through Gwen's mind as she walks in.

    "Whoah..." Crystalline structures grow like greenery in a forest, making up the circuits that line the large chamber. Orbs open to reveal the structures like rods of quartz, but on a larger scale, large enough to dwarf any Gwen has seen in the markets. They shimmer which each thrum of power to the center, where a platform waits.

    A very familiar looking platform.

    "Wait, this is just like the Elw teleporter we saw..."

    Juno's voice activates over the intercom, rousing another round of reaverbots, from the sounds of whirring and sirens echoing in a distant hallway.

    Gwen looks at Hiro and Ruby. "... The rest of the Fiends... you think they'll find this too?" She clears her throat. "Though, I guess, I can't assume this is set for Lunar, really. Who knows where it'll take us, if anywhere at all. We'll need to be absolutely prepared for whatever we teleport into, on the other side."

    A loud percussive boom is hear, coming from a room not too far away, as well as sounds of conflict. The Reaverbots are definitely looking for people.

     "Well, okay, first we gotta see how this thing works. Can't be havin' our bodies flyin' into the middle of the sky, y'know?"

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

 Drawing out her kit, Gwen takes out a small pick, and embeds it into the panel on the side of the door coming in. "Lessee if I can buy us some time." A quick jolt from her ARM, and the sliding doors jerkily close shut. "Maybe this'll overload whatever's makin' the door close and shut."

DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Courier Kit toward her party's challenge, What Lies Beneath.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.


Ruby lands on Kaguya's shoulder and puffs up her chest. "I knew Gwen would come around! ... Also I'm quite good at making things explode, especially if they're flammable."

Hiro offers Lan a hand to try to help her up, "Oh yeah definitely. Any fight you can walk away from right? But hey, if you want to take it easy for a while."

He pats a hand against her shoudler in a gesture of comraderie, even if it's only in the temporary way of drifters, "Don't push yourself too hard alright? The rest of us can field some heavy lifting for a while." He tries to be casual about it, but it might not be that Lan just nearly got blown up that he's suggesting this.

And then they come to the room, and the beauty of the crystalline structures takes him a tad off-guard. Before his eyes dart to the platform. "It has to be..." Though Gwen raises a really good point, and Hiro considers the subject. "Jean, Lemina, and Lucia weren't far behind... we got separated once Juno started ah..."

He clears his throat, "And most of the rest of the fiends were on the island. If this teleporter is pointed back towards Lunar - then I feel like Lucia is going to make a beeline to it." "Pretty sure they're all gonna be right behind us since you know - all the imminent death in the other direction?"

He's trying not to be too worried about it, lest he lose his mind and try to go back for all of them...

... through Juno. That's not a hopeful prospect.

"Anyhow..."Hiro suddenly checks a leatherbound book, flipping towards the latter half of it, "I know I wrote something in here from Mariel about dealing with Elw technology on this level..." "Oh that's a genuine relief!"

Hiro turns to his Elw notes. Flips a few pages. Then stares. "Ooo - Ooo what's it say?"

Hiro reads the singular word answer aloud.

"Don't."

Ruby pauses, "Hiroooooooo-" Then shrieks in his face. "-WHY DID YOU COPY THAT DOWN!?" "Out of respect for her culture I guess!"

Hiro did at least copy down some common Elw symbols though... which he hurriedly spends time checking the crystalline geodes to see if there's any that point him in the right direction.

"Maybe that broken piece over here... should go here... to complete that symbol." He mumbles as he suddenly hefts up a shard and tries to put it into place.

DG: Hiro has used his Tool Grandpa Gwyn's Notebook toward his party's challenge, What Lies Beneath.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    She reaches out for Hiro's hand, letting him help her to her feet. It's nice, to just... not have to think about someone else's motivation. Sometimes people are just nice. She reddens a bit at the offer to just take it easy for a little bit. She isn't that delicate, is she? "--Don't worry. I'm fine. ...Thanks."

    "This... what is this place?" It's like nothing Lan has ever seen before, a room grown from crystals with not just beauty, but utility and purpose in mind. Nobody just finds a place like this and decides to build a... a whatever-this-is inside, right? People don't do that!

    Would robots...?

    Somehow she doesn't think she wants to ask the approaching Reaverbots for their opinions on ancient architecture.

    It's another gateway, too. They have no way of knowing where this will take them, if they can get it to work. But when the alternative is fighting their way back through a swarm of robots, Lan finds herself caring way less than she thought she would. She slips a hand into one of her pockets, drawing out a folded slip of paper, and begins folding it in familiar motions. Eenie, meenie...

    1, leaf, 4, skull. Lan frowns at the paku-paku before looking up. "Maybe... try twisting the shard a little bit to the left?"

DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Paku-Paku toward her party's challenge, What Lies Beneath.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    Josie, the archaeologist on deck, answers the matter of its age thusly:

    "Old enough."

    The Foo-Roos are faster and more dangerous than they look -- a surprise charge forces Josie back; fortunately the others seem to have it well enough in hand. "Well," Josie surmises, shaking her head. "Good enough." Back goes the shotgun into its sling, more to free up her sole good hand than for any intent of non-violence in here. This turns out to have been a good idea.

    "Wonder how far in this all goes," she muses, following Gwen into the next room, and leaving Lan to Hiro's tender care. "Wait, is that--" The report from the broadcast system settles the first question fast. "--Well, that's good timing," she remarks. "Imagine if he'd said that while were we still stuck with the lasers and all!"

    Optimism: why not?

    "...But it's not working, huh?"

    Optimism: flagging a little bit!

    Fishing her left hand into a pocket, Josie comes up with a screwdriver, which she brandishes with a flourish. "Here we go, now! Let's see-- this part looks like it'll come loose--"

    Oh no.

DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Lucky Screwdriver toward her party's challenge, What Lies Beneath.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

"Old enough. Ehhhh. I've got kind of a specific date in mind..."

"Totally," Kaguya agrees with Lan. "Somebody could've died, and you didn't!" Her shield ruined, Kaguya keeps walking along with the group--she looks kind of worse for wear despite not having been exploded herself, as the fatigue is starting to catch up with her some. There's a slightly manic look in her eyes though.

Especially once she sees the platform.

"That's right--Elw," she says, and the way she says 'Elw' sounds kind of like she's saying a word she doesn't like very much. "Eh, your friends will find it or they'll get super murdered, but you guys are used to running from danger, right? Didn't you get stared down by the whole Dragonship once?"

Kaguya steps forward, pulling a green case from her bag as she approaches one of the terminals. She pauses, though, to peer over at Lan. Peer. She's sort of curious about what it is.

Regardless, she pulls a screwdriver after that, and brightens as she sees Josie working with one too. "Awesome," she says. "Elw technology is super bullshit but we can definitely get this working." She starts working on a panel, too.

DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Mad Science Case toward her party's challenge, What Lies Beneath.
=======================<* 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
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gwen Whitlock                       72 --(12)--> 84                Fail
Courier Kit                         1   Wits    Effects: Resilient and Rally
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kaguya                              72 --(12)--> 84                Pass
Mad Science Case                    2   Wits    Effects: Enlighten
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           67 --(12)--> 79                Fail
Paku-Paku                           2   Wits    Effects: Enlighten
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josephine Lovelace                  72 --(12)--> 84                Fail
Lucky Screwdriver                   2   Wits    Effects: Enlighten
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hiro                                67 --(12)--> 79                Fail
Grandpa Gwyn's Notebook             2   Wits    Effects: Enlighten
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Gwen Whitlock               80 --(35)--> 115               Pass
Conditions: Stupify(2)
Effects: Enlighten(1)|Resilient(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success!
DG: The party led by Gwen Whitlock 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===============================================
DG: A party led by Gwen Whitlock is now entering The Battle of Home.
DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
============================<* The Battle of Home *>============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - ...and Into the Fire *>=====================
|Type: Entry       |Dungeon Ability: Agility   |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The air around you shimmers. The lingering visual after effects of
 teleportation by Elw technology lingers, though the light blue runes and
 circles are hard to see because of how bright it is. You have found yourself
 standing in the desert, with the sun beating down on you and an overpowering
 dry heat taking effect. There is a mirage-like effect, making a rusty metal
 structure in the distance a little hard to look at.

 Then, there are explosions. A series of gunshots hurtles in your direction.
 Some bullets strike into the sand, puffs of it rising, but others may be
 truer to their mark. Cresting the dune behind you, you see a squadron of
 Warrior Monks rushing ahead. They are shouting -- and taking aim for another
 volley -- and followed by more of them, joined by squadrons of Guado
 Guardians.

 It seems that you have found yourself in the middle of a battle. With the
 Yevonite army coming your way, the safest route seems to be running towards
 that structure under attack. The front door has been burst open, already,
 and you can hear fighting inside...
=Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Injure=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    Using notes to put shards in the right place (possibly)? Nope. Use the power of the trusty paku-paku to set yourself on the path to success? Still nope. Jam your screwdriver in and hope for the best? Nopenopenope.

    Ask the Veruni in the room to work on it? ~-SUCCESS-~

    "Alright, we got it!" Gwen's words are overlaid by Juno's passive aggressive statement to 'Trigger', as well as mentions of 'Mother'. Which.... mother is this?

    "I guess he sided with us. Good luck, Dash." Gwen sighs. "Good luck, to you, n' the Fiends, n' everyone else. Cause we--"

    are not there.
        are not here.
    are somewhere.

    And now in another place entirely. Senses are flooded with the smell of gunsmoke and screaming, the dry heat of sun on sand, and the piercing crack of explosions.

    "Ngh!' Gwen flinches and shields her eyes, then her body physically, as instincts react to the approach of bullets hitting the sand near them. "What the heck? We back in Ignas?!"

    No.

    No, it's not that, looking at the outfits of the Yevonite army. Gwen may not entirely know what's going on, but she knows uniforms. "... No, wait... Spira? We're back on Spira?!"

    A shot sings past her ear, nearly clipping it. "Run, runrunrun!" She points to a nearby structure. "We're sitting ducks out here!"

DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, ...and Into the Fire.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    Biomass, Biomass... Biomass this, Lamb that. Can't they catch a break?! Lan shields her eyes from the brightness of the ancient Elw mechanism. "At least this time I'm not drunk," she mumbles a bit petulantly. If she's going to get sent back to the moon (because the Elw sure seemed to love the place) at least this time she'll be sober.

    And then they're floating
    And then they're falling--

    She lands on her feet in the sand, stumbling briefly before catching her balance. She knows this isn't Ignas - at least, not a part of it that she's been to. Gwen would know better, of course, having traversed probably every inch of the continent in her job. Still, there's just... the sand smells different here. The sun hits different. This isn't home.

    The ribbon in her hair sparkles silver in the harsh light as she picks up her feet, running after everybody toward the dubious safety of some kind of outbuilding.

DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Butterfly Ribbon toward her party's challenge, ...and Into the Fire.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Seriously?" Josie remarks, as nothing much happens.

    And then, thanks to Kaguya's work, everything happens. "What'd he mean, 'Mother'--"

    For a moment she feels like she's floating. Or falling. Or both at once, perhaps.

    Which only makes the sudden reassertion of the ground beneath her feet that much more startling. "Whoa--" Josie stumbles a moment, sand shifting underfoot. "Where are we--"

    She pauses for just the moment.

    "Spira. And another one-way trip, sure enough! --Well, ain't this a right pickle," she adds, gaze taking in at last the advancing army. "Look's like Yevon's on their way! Which makes this, what, a Guard--"

    She ducks, right of the way of an errant shot.

    "--Not a good time to hang 'round here, yeah?" She's already off in the direction Gwen indicates, kicking up sand in her wake. "Time to go!"

DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, ...and Into the Fire.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.


"Alright. If you're sure I won't press." He says to Lan, without sounding too worried. Sometimes distraction works well right?

"We did." Hiro says quietly, maybe because Kaguya has got him thinking more about the 'friends being super murdered' part.

"Anyhow, let's just get this working... alright?" If he seems mildly snippy, well...

... the stress of being separated and Brad dying might have finally caught up to him at Kaguya's comment.

fortunately it works, and as the glow overtakes them all...

"See you soon." Hiro whispers with a sort of quiet emotion.

There's a certain bright vertigo to the transport. And then all of his senses are overwhelmed...

"I'm... not sure. Wish I knew." Mother is one of the few people that indicated she knew something about... Lucia.

By the heat. And the sounds of the carnage.

"What!? Ignas!? Don't tell me we're caught between Aveh and..." A shot whizzes by his head, "... Kislev..."

Gwen is the first to say it, that they're back on Spira, and Hiro's eyes widen in the realization that this desert environment is not Filgaia as he suddenly waves his arms, "Hey! Stop shooting! We're not with Althena's Guard!" "Well... most of us aren't."

As they run though, Ruby flies up to Hiro. "Hey Hiro! Your dagger! Gimme!"

Flicking it out of its sheath up at her, Ruby catches the hilt between her teeth. Before chatting, despite her mouth being full, "Be back!" And there's a certain Commando like atmosphere to it.

Suddenly a few warrior monks are blinded by the reflecting glint of the sun in their eye off the polished blade, and their aim distracted, they look up.

Suddenly a trio of the Warrior Monks call out.

"Fiend! Flyer!"

"Little small for one..."

"It's got a knife!"

Maybe a few less of them will be shooting at the group at large... maybe.

DG: Hiro has used his Tool Ruby Being Helpful toward his party's challenge, ...and Into the Fire.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

Kaguya may not like Elw technology much, but she can apparently make it work. For now, anyway--there's a lot there with th intrface that she just doesn't understand, not least because of language barriers and wholly different fundamentals. But they telport out regardless, and Kaguya, as they're fading, turns back towards where they'd run from and puts up both hands, flipping Juno double middle fingers. "Take THAT to your mother you clanky jacka--"

Sand, and heat. Kaguya coughs at the sudden change in air, despite it being less painful than it was a moment ago. A lot less musty. But she's going to end up with sand everywhere--

"It worked!" But then--bullets hit the sand. "What the shit--"

"Warrior Monks," Kaguya identifies, narrowing her eyes. "And using guns. Along with... Guado?" Gwen has suggested they get moving. Kaguya takes a hit after that and snarls, her sharp teeth briefly obvious. "Guess I might have soldiers on the line," she comments, and then laughs despite herself. "Nice, Ruby," she answers about having been super given up. Then, she turns, and starts taking off running after the others. She takes up the rear... which is just as well, because with her outfit she's a little more bulletproof than most of them.

DG: Kaguya has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, ...and Into the Fire.
============================<* The Battle of Home *>============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - ...and Into the Fire *>=====================
|Type: Entry       |Dungeon Ability: Agility   |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The air around you shimmers. The lingering visual after effects of
 teleportation by Elw technology lingers, though the light blue runes and
 circles are hard to see because of how bright it is. You have found yourself
 standing in the desert, with the sun beating down on you and an overpowering
 dry heat taking effect. There is a mirage-like effect, making a rusty metal
 structure in the distance a little hard to look at.

 Then, there are explosions. A series of gunshots hurtles in your direction.
 Some bullets strike into the sand, puffs of it rising, but others may be
 truer to their mark. Cresting the dune behind you, you see a squadron of
 Warrior Monks rushing ahead. They are shouting -- and taking aim for another
 volley -- and followed by more of them, joined by squadrons of Guado
 Guardians.

 It seems that you have found yourself in the middle of a battle. With the
 Yevonite army coming your way, the safest route seems to be running towards
 that structure under attack. The front door has been burst open, already,
 and you can hear fighting inside...
=Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Injure=========================================
=======================<* The Battle of Home - Round 1 *>=======================
=======================< Results - ...and Into the Fire >=======================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gwen Whitlock                       0 --(10)--> 10                 Fail
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kaguya                              0 --(8)--> 8                   Pass
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hiro                                0 --(8)--> 8                   Pass
Ruby Being Helpful                  2   Agility Effects: Resilient
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           0 --(8)--> 8                   Pass
Butterfly Ribbon                    2   Agility Effects: Quicken
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josephine Lovelace                  0 --(8)--> 8                   Pass
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Gwen Whitlock               0 --(20)--> 20                 Pass
Conditions: Hesitate(2)|Injure(2)
Effects: Quicken(1)|Resilient(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Gwen Whitlock 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> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    'Being caught between Aveh and Kislev' was one of the possibilities that definitely came to mind for Gwen, at least, momentairely. But that would mean that peace conference had completely flopped, and that there were troops ready for immediate deployment.

    Or something. Gwen's not a war person in general.

    Ruby is helpful, first at pointing out that not everyone here is non-Guard (no Ruby no) and then taking Hiro's dagger to blind various warriors with the power of sunlight and Ruby rage (go Ruby go).

    Kaguya and Josie make their observations, pointing out that things are likely going to become more complicated the further they go into that structure. "... Maybe we should've stayed with the robots," Gwen pants, running up the sandy hill to jump inside.

    SURELY THIS PLACE WILL BE SAFER

DG: Hiro has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* The Battle of Home *>===========================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Ancient Machina Locks *>====================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 3          |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 Some parts of Home have been a mystery to the Al Bhed. As Cid himself said:
 "We just use it, we dunno how it works!" This includes some of the doors
 inside Home. This one should lead away from the fighting -- and maybe to
 some escape -- but even the Al Bhed could not crack it. It has three
 mechanical locks, placed on the door, with a series of buttons. The
 characters are some ancient language that evolved -- and later died out,
 after Sin -- in Spira. If you can deactivate each, before Yevonite forces
 catch up, you may be able to continue.
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Exhaust, Tire===================================
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.


Given that they're running, it's hard to get perspective of this burning mechanical blossom that blooms in the desert. Several of its petals listing from Fiends climbing all over it - as blackened smoke lists sideways into the sky. It looms closer, and closer.

And as they reach one of the gaps between the metallic petals, they see one of the crumbled front lines.

There are bodies of the Al Bhed everywhere, most of them holding ARMs. Some of them died to bullets - others to more terrible gashes - and some are simply half buried in debris as this Machina structure falls down around them.

"This is..."

Hiro doesn't even finish the descriptor... he just feels sick. And it takes all that he has to just keep running.

"... ... ... Terrible. What... what did we stumble into here!?"

A door seems caught in a loop. It half slides up, before it slams down, and repeats itself. The timing is not harsh. It is easy to make it inside.

Inside, there is a flickering light, broken pipes wafting steam...

And another door with strange symbols covering it. One symbol to innumerable buttons. This used to be a walkway with a Y shape, but two platforms are entirely ruined and collapsed in debris. "Guess there's only one way to go where this isn't the end of the line...." "Hurry!"

Beside the door is a posting in Al Bhed runes.

Nafynt! Du fruajan ec dra vencd du lnylg drec luta - bmayca ehvuns Cid!
Ryja vih! Syga y kysa uid uv ed! Necg pek feh pek!

Hiro rushes up to the door, and hits a few buttons experimentally as they tap and characters glow, before it makes a noise universally understood as failure, "Kaguya?! Kaguya do you understand this language? Anyone?" Hiro says as he rapidly flips through his journal to try to do a quick check as he correlates between alphabets and characters. "Because... I've never seen anything like it and we're... pretty cornered in here!"

DG: Hiro has used his Tool Grandpa Gwyn's Notebook toward his party's challenge, Ancient Machina Locks.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    Lan gives Hiro a smile that, while small, is honest. She'll be all right! Things just take time to work themselves out, is all. It's okay if she's not one hundred percent right now - they've got to concentrate on getting someplace safe. "--Hey, is she gonna--" Lan trails off when she hears the sounds of Ruby Helping. "...Huh, I guess she is gonna be fine." Smart kitty!

    The idea that they're back in Spira... Lan stays quiet.

    At least Spira itself is beautiful. It'll be nice to explore it without someone else telling her what to do. She could ride a Shoopuf again.

    But for now, she runs.

    The Al Bhed lying massacred among the petals of the structure bring a wince and a mumbled prayer to the Guardians. Even if they aren't Guardianists, she just hopes it's not disrespectful to pray for them. Especially since Lan knows what pyreflies really are.

    The looping door makes her a bit queasy with rememberance but she presses on anyway, ducking underneath with the others. It's not Gethsemane. It's not underwater. There's no Drowned waiting for them. It's not Gethsemane. She can't keep letting the past overtake her. This will be different.

    They'll make it different.

    "I can't read it." Lan shakes her head at the scrawled note. It looks like it might be Al Bhed, but that doesn't seem like news. She withdraws the paper slip again, mumbling an incantation under her breath, and hopes for a sign.

DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Paku-Paku toward her party's challenge, Ancient Machina Locks.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Hmm," Josie muses, as if contemplating whether they should have stayed with the robots and Juno instead. "...Nah. I'll take my chances with the humans."

    Humans, at least, are easier to kill.

    Speaking of, though...

    "...Tch," Josie hisses, crouching by one of the dead and rolling him to one side. She pats down his pockets, as if she were going to go through them, but instead stands. "Al Bhed," she announces, before slipping inside the malfunctioning door. "Think of 'em like... heretics, I guess. They use technology where those lot ain't." She pauses, fishing out from her pocket a single cigarette, which she holds stiffly in her right hand. "At least, when they ain't using it anyway. Heh heh... Same old story, wherever you go."

    She snaps her fingers, summoning a short arc of electricity and uses it to light the cigarette. Smoking away merrily after, she continues:

    "Always wondered where those Al Bhed types came from. Guess now we know, eh?" she says, gesturing with her cigarette. "Now, let's see where we've ended ourselves in..."

    Her gaze skims over the warning. She goes a little crosseyed.

    And then she takes in the door.

    "Huh," says Josie, taking another drag. "Beats me. Try something at random, yeah?"

    yes josie they're doing that

DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Pack of Cigarettes toward her party's challenge, Ancient Machina Locks.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

Kaguya's a war person. Not that she /likes/ it, but it's true; she does wars. She's been in more than one, now, even excluding the general Veruni/human war that's kind of a thing but not the same kind of thing exactly. But...

"Nah, robots were jerks," Kaguya says, and they keep running. The Home in the desert comes into view, and then there are... bodies. So many bodies, even.

Kaguya is not nauseated. She is instead confused. "What? Where's all the Guard?" she wonders, looking around at them. She moves over, kneels down, and checks one. "...No," she says. "She's gone."

She looks around further, frowning, increasingly troubled. "...The Al Bhed aren't working with us," the Guardswoman puzzles out. "Why would they be...?"

She remembers, though. She remembers Operation Mi'ihen. "They--They didn't..."

Anger starts to flash in Kaguya's eyes, and ther is a moment when she looks at Hiro with something like hate--no, through Hiro. "Yeah. 'Heretics'. I need to find out how the war's going." She follows the group, but reluctantly. Once inside...

"Nope," Kaguya says, shaking her head, one hand still in a fist. "I don't. I never learned; me and the guys on the cannons at Operation Mi'ihen didn't need a shared language to communicate. We were able to puzzle it out without. ...Wish I'd learned. But looking at ths..."

Kaguya frowns. She tries to take a breath. "...Right. Calm, soothing. Don't go crazy here. Work on the lock."

Kaguya pulls out her science kit again, and pulls a small cutting tool that emits a laser, a few lockpicks, and a screwdriver. She gets to work.

There's something strange about her, though. Like the temperature around her has dropped, just a little bit. More strangely than that--she doesn't so much as cough at Josie's smoke. Not even a little.

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    "Oof!" That's the sound of Gwen tripping into the structure, between the cracks of the petals, and falling unceremoniously forward. "Ow..."

    She would make the joke about being clumsy, or things being safer in here, but then, she realizes just who she tripped over.

    ".... I'm sorry." She's saying that to the Al Bhed who passed away- at least, that's what Gwen herself is able to confirm when she checks for a pulse. Quickly, but with a gentle manner noting her concern, Gwen positions the body of the departed soul in a better space, one that wouldn't be disturbed so ungraciously.

    She bows her head. "May you rest in peace."

    Do they become pyreflies too? What is death, in a place like Spira?

     She hoists herself back onto her feet and rejoins the group, and clears her throat, looking at the symbols.

    "Looks like it's backwards, or a code."

    She begins reassembling letters in her head, and....

    "Or it's a completely different language. Or maybe still a code, but beyond my skill."

    She's not supposed to look at her mail. Why would she try to train herself too long on breaking codes?

    "I can buy you guys some more time. Just... gimme a sec." She leaves, drawing out her kit.

    Sitting just behind the edge of the structure, she draws out her pouch of chili powder, and chucks it, following it with a shot so that it spreads down on the advancing soldiers.

    "Kaguya, what the heck is goin' on here!"

DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Courier Kit toward her party's challenge, Ancient Machina Locks.
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Mad Science Case toward her party's challenge, Ancient Machina Locks.
===========================<* The Battle of Home *>===========================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Ancient Machina Locks *>====================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 3          |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 Some parts of Home have been a mystery to the Al Bhed. As Cid himself said:
 "We just use it, we dunno how it works!" This includes some of the doors
 inside Home. This one should lead away from the fighting -- and maybe to
 some escape -- but even the Al Bhed could not crack it. It has three
 mechanical locks, placed on the door, with a series of buttons. The
 characters are some ancient language that evolved -- and later died out,
 after Sin -- in Spira. If you can deactivate each, before Yevonite forces
 catch up, you may be able to continue.
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Exhaust, Tire===================================
======================<* The Battle of Home - Round 2 *>======================
=====================< Results - Ancient Machina Locks >======================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gwen Whitlock                       10 --(15)--> 25                Fail
Courier Kit                         1   Wits    Effects: Resilient and Rally
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kaguya                              8 --(12)--> 20                 Pass
Mad Science Case                    2   Wits    Effects: Enlighten
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hiro                                8 --(15)--> 23                 Fail
Grandpa Gwyn's Notebook             2   Wits    Effects: Enlighten
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           8 --(12)--> 20                 Pass
Paku-Paku                           2   Wits    Effects: Enlighten
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josephine Lovelace                  8 --(15)--> 23                 Fail
Pack of Cigarettes                  1   Wits    Effects: Cleanse
----------------------------------< Party >-----------------------------------
Leader: Gwen Whitlock               20 --(20)--> 40                Pass
Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Hesitate(1)|Injure(1)|Stupify(2)|Tire(2)
Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1)|Resilient(1)
==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Gwen Whitlock 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> Hiro has posed.


"They're a hundred years too early to hit Ruby when she's in the air." Hiro had said to Lan earlier... though it lacks the enthusiasm it normally would. It's like it's behind a smile that's not quite genuine right now.

Especially after he sees the others turning over the corpses.

Hiro's efforts to look up any correlating symbols or characters is fruitless. In the end he starts punching in things at random as per Josie's recommendation...

... leading to many many failure noises. Luckily the door doesn't lock them out.

Lan's mumbling of an incantation over the paper slip gets her a strange flash of intuition. As she pushes one button...

... Kaguya severs another lock with a laser.

The door... swings in.

And emits a failure noise.

Apparently each button corresponded to a locking mechanism, and after Kaguya cut through enough of them Lan just hitting the first part of the code opened it.

"Is that what this?" He says, in a low tone to Kaguya, "Some kind of Holy War Yevon is having on the side?"

He sounds aghast, apaprently having not caught Kaguya's tone before. And suddenly perhaps he's a bit angry too. He's sided with Yevon on the defensive against the Guard...

... this feels like it's anything but defensive.

DG: Lan Lilac has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* The Battle of Home *>============================
===================<* CHALLENGE - No Power Tools in Sight *>====================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Parts of Home have turned into a city, when the facility originally served
 some other use. This means that sometimes, when one might expect a straight
 path forward, you find something rather more complicated. A series of metal
 panels and pipes -- rusted through and nonfunctional -- make a rat's nest of
 metal that needs to be blasted through, before you can continue on through.
=Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous, Exhaust=====================================
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    Between a half dozen different methods of testing the entrance, they finally hear the gratifying sound of the door opening. Beyond it lies what ought to be a nice, orderly set of streets and alleys...

    But the order and gridlike setup were only good s long as nobody, y'know, let a bunch of garbage and old rusted pieces of Machina pile up in the corners.

    Lan comes to a stop before a stack of unidentifiable flotsam that's piled higher than her head. "Oh, come on!" Maybe it was just being stored here for later, but that doesn't change the fact that this alley is the way that seems like it would be most efficient, except that it's also completely blocked off.

    "Well... maybe if we try moving some of this junk?" Lan briefly considers trying to climb over it, but an empty can tumbles down the heap to land at her feet. "I don't think it's sturdy enough to try climbing. Maybe if we..."

    She gives it a long, uncertain appraisal before taking a deep breath, centering her breathing, and... uh, just trying to starblast a tunnel through the middle of it.

DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, No Power Tools in Sight.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "...Wouldn't put it past 'em, kid," Josie says to Hiro, just after the door opens. Letting her cigarette fall from her hand, she takes at least the moment to grind it under a heel before pressing on. "Let's see what's behind this door, shall we--"

    There is a long moment of silence on the archaeologist's end.

    "Huh," she says at last. "Guess we just found the junk shed."

    She considers, seemingly, what Lan suggests for a moment before finally nodding. "Sure enough. Let's see what happens if we clean up around here, eh?"

    And she pulls from her pack a well-used mattock. Eyeing the tool's head for a moment, she approaches the worst of the mess and grants unto it a mighty swing--

    When in doubt, just start breaking things, perhaps.

DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Well-Used Mattock toward her party's challenge, No Power Tools in Sight.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

Kaguya can't say for sure what's going on here, aside from the fact that the door has opened. She's just guessing; for all she knows, Yevon managed to turn the war around in their absence and has the luxury of doing whatever they want now. "Yeah, it might be," Kaguya answers Hiro and Josie both. Her nose wrinkles a little this time at the cigarette, but she doesn't say anything about that.l Insted, faced with junk...

"Moving, schmoving," Kaguya answers Lan at the mater of the debris, but Lan seems to get the same idea Kaguya was thinking anyway. While Lan starblasts, Kaguya pulls a small metal box from her things, replete with strange green blinking lights; she cracks it open and makes some adjustments before closing it back up, carefully pointing one side towards the pipes. She proceeds to make a liar of the challenge name by setting it down and saying, "Might want to step back a pace, anybody who's getting close."

A directed charge should blast apart most of the pipes and get them a path through, Kaguya thinks.

DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Magnetic Resonance Bomb toward her party's challenge, No Power Tools in Sight.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    Whatever cheer Gwen may have put on since teleporting here has dulled after they came across the bodies of the dead Al Bhed. Any amazement at seeing a complete city of sorts full of technology that was unheard of in Spira (or even in Meribus) is subsequently blunted, her focus narrowed on everyone getting to safety from the very eager soldiers on their tail.

    Lan expresses her disbelief at the pile of rusted metal in their way. "Doesn't look like this is here for any intentional reason than trash, seein' how it's all rusted through," Gwen assesses. "Otherwise I'd advocate us goin' around. We got the firepower, might as well blast through instead of riskin' injury tryin' to climb over it."

    As Lan generates some star power to begin blasting through, Gwen takes out some bullets, hesitating as she realizes that 'stocking back up' wouldn't be for quite a while. "... I wish I had stocked up on more ammo before comin' here, but thankfully..." She stuffs her bullets back into their respective pouch, and extends her right ARM instead. Gritting her teeth as the ARM makes its protest known, the courier begins charging. "I think got it. I'll yell for everyone t'get back when I'm done chargin', okay?"

DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool ARM-ored Fist toward her party's challenge, No Power Tools in Sight.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.


Josie and Kaguya's comments cause several long moments of disquiet. He still doesn't think it's wrong, helping the people defend their homes from Althena's Guard. Surely if the Guard had been allowed to simply march through Luca unimpeded, straight to Bevelle...

... Yevon would have been too distracted to do this. And yet, how does one weigh the loss of life in a hypothetical... to cruel reality?

You can't.

Hiro points back towards the door - then forward... and...

... then tries to wedge the door shut behind them with some debris.
 "This probably would have been a nice shortcut for them to have..."

'Would have been' Hiro thinks, mournfully, as he looks at the piles of debris and juts out a hand. "Wind slice them to pieces - Wind Cutter!" Wind currents form around him and shift, as a trio of arcing blades of pressurized air try to slice cleanly through some of the larger piles of debris.

Then he simply gets down and starts to push... until Kaguya notes he should step back, and Gwen notes she's charging.

He's... really fast about getting back, having known the explosiveness of Kaguya's charge - and the explosive power of Gwen's charged up fist.

DG: Hiro has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, No Power Tools in Sight.
============================<* The Battle of Home *>============================
===================<* CHALLENGE - No Power Tools in Sight *>====================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Parts of Home have turned into a city, when the facility originally served
 some other use. This means that sometimes, when one might expect a straight
 path forward, you find something rather more complicated. A series of metal
 panels and pipes -- rusted through and nonfunctional -- make a rat's nest of
 metal that needs to be blasted through, before you can continue on through.
=Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous, Exhaust=====================================
=======================<* The Battle of Home - Round 3 *>=======================
=====================< Results - No Power Tools in Sight >======================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gwen Whitlock                       25 --(8)--> 33                 Pass
ARM-ored Fist                       2   Brute   Effects: Strengthen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kaguya                              20 --(8)--> 28                 Pass
Magnetic Resonance Bomb             3   Brute   Effects: Rally
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hiro                                23 --(8)--> 31                 Fail
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           20 --(8)--> 28                 Pass
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josephine Lovelace                  23 --(8)--> 31                 Fail
Well-Used Mattock                   2   Brute   Effects: Strengthen
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Gwen Whitlock               40 --(20)--> 60                Pass
Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Overzealous(2)
Effects: Strengthen(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Gwen Whitlock 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> Lan Lilac has posed.

    The junkpile is perhaps the second-worst kind: held together only by gravity and familiarity, its greatest virtue a lack of raccoons ready to defend their home. Between the five of them, by matters material or magical, they do manage to carve a hole through the worst of the blockage.

    "Phew. I was starting to think it was a dead end after all," Lan sighs, lowering her arms from their casting position. The piles of junk have been moved, blasted, and in a few cases more-or-less liquefied... but the important part is the nice, wide hole right through the middle of it.

    Lan carefully steps around the corpse of what might have once been a vending machine and ventures on. "...I never learned much the last time I was here. I didn't know there was an all-out war."

DG: Josephine Lovelace has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* The Battle of Home *>============================
==================<* CHALLENGE - Catch the Al Bhed Potion! *>===================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility   |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The Al Bhed Home is a labyrinthine structure and easy to get lost in. Narrow
 tunnels and pathways filled with pipes, cables, and other workings that help
 it run make for a maze. Many of the Yevonite forces are as lost as you might
 be. The Al Bhed are not, though, and they have noticed that you came to
 help. Above, on a high catwalk, a pair appear.

 One shouts: "Lydlr!"

 And then throws down a cluster of potions. If you don't catch them, they
 might well hurt more than help -- but they are rather potent healing
 potions.
=Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "See? Always worth a shot. And better in there than out there!" Josie says, grinning. Sure, maybe she didn't do much more than knock some it about a little but that's still helping. Tucking the mattock away, she starts forward only to pause, and glance back at Lan.

    "Those that had you sure kept you in the dark, huh. There's war between Althena's lot, and war between Yevon. ...And war between Yevon and these poor saps, looks like now, too."

    But she gestures broadly, dismissively, with her one good hand. "Listen -- you'll get up to snuff in good time," she continues, ducking out into the street beyond, "Don't worry about it. For now we gotta get on through--"

    "Lydlr!" someone yells from above.

    Josie glances up just in time to see some Al Bhed on the catwalk overhead. They've tossed a set of things that glitter--

    --slosh--

    "Oh hell," Josie utters, trying to catch one before it catches her in the head.

DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Catch the Al Bhed Potion!.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

"Nice blast," Kaguya compliments Gwen. "We can worry about more ammo later on--I bet there's enough around here to at least scrape something together, if we end up stuck here that long."

...She doubts tht, though.

"Yeah, it would've been a nice shortcut. And now it is. Don't let yourself get caught up in what ifs and worrying about everyone we pass--you'll never get anywhere."

She has to harden her voice a little though; if someone looks at Kaguya, she seems to get madder with each Al Bhed they pass on the ground. But, she also looks at Lan in a little surprise when she mentions what she didn't learn. "They really did keep you in the dark."

"Yeah, I dunno how the rest of the war is going at this point. I've got to check in on my soldiers when I get the chance... assuming they're still out there. But if Yevon can afford this assault..."

Kaguya sees Josie going for something and tries to catch, too!!

DG: Kaguya has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Catch the Al Bhed Potion!.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    Every little bit helps! Even the smallest actions can move mountains. That's something that Lan continues to believe, even now.

    "..." She keeps looking forward as they move along. "I don't know if it was them. I worked a lot to earn money for us." How much of her ignorance is Solarian influence... and how much was Lan not wanting to know about something so unhappy as a civil war? It's too late to find out now. She can only keep going forward.

    Voices up above, the glitter of glass and liquid. Lan's first instinct is to dodge out of the way, but nobody else seems to feel the same! So instead she leaps, the silver ribbon lending her a little extra time in the air to reach for the falling bottles.

    "Uh... thank you??" she calls after them.

DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Butterfly Ribbon toward her party's challenge, Catch the Al Bhed Potion!.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.


Hiro frowns broadly on the idea of not getting caught up on the what ifs. He can't precisely help it. Yet he can't refute it either. So instead she focuses on Kaguya's other comment.

"My guess is they're deadlocked... if they're able to do this then Yevon found an answer to the Golems you brought into the mix." Hiro notes, with a sort of neutrality. He's not actually certain Kaguya's responsible but...

... he's reasonably certain. "They must have rallied all the Summoners they had - seems like just about the only way they could have managed to keep up this kind of warfare for any length of time. Unless they have some ace in the hole that none of us know about."

A cluster of potions glitters in the air, and Ruby darts up - beating Hiro to the punch of trying to catch one. Trying to catch one of them between her pawsies and mouth as she cradles it against her chest to try and prevent it from crashing down.

"Hey what are you thinking! That could have been super dangerous if it crashed into someone! We're on your side...!" Sniff. "Oh hey! It's not acid? I kind of assumed it was given you know... the number of times... someone has thrown acid at us."

DG: Hiro has used his Tool Ruby Being Helpful toward his party's challenge, Catch the Al Bhed Potion!.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    "To be fair, it was hard for me to keep things straight, 'specially since a lot of Filgaia allegiances complicated things. I'm sure there's a share of people who're just wantin' things to go back to the way they were before in Spira, before everyone stumbled across them." And grins, nodding to Kaguya's suggestion. "Yeah. Maybe we can do that later on."

    Walking ahead, Gwen scratches her right gloved hand against the back of her head. "It's been 'bout a year since we all left. A lotta things can happen in a year. The golems certainly complicated things, but..." She frowns, staring ahead. "There were gunsmoke weapons bein' used too. I wonder if all of us Filgaians share some responsibility for screwing the balance of things all over on Lunar."

    'Lydir!'

    "Ly-wha?!" The courier turns, and looks up at the cluster of bottles. Like Lan, she flinches back, but when Hiro and Ruby run forward, she follows their lead.

    Probably badly, due to that moment of indecision.

DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Catch the Al Bhed Potion!.
============================<* The Battle of Home *>============================
==================<* CHALLENGE - Catch the Al Bhed Potion! *>===================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility   |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The Al Bhed Home is a labyrinthine structure and easy to get lost in. Narrow
 tunnels and pathways filled with pipes, cables, and other workings that help
 it run make for a maze. Many of the Yevonite forces are as lost as you might
 be. The Al Bhed are not, though, and they have noticed that you came to
 help. Above, on a high catwalk, a pair appear.

 One shouts: "Lydlr!"

 And then throws down a cluster of potions. If you don't catch them, they
 might well hurt more than help -- but they are rather potent healing
 potions.
=Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
=======================<* The Battle of Home - Round 4 *>=======================
====================< Results - Catch the Al Bhed Potion! >=====================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gwen Whitlock                       33 --(8)--> 41                 Fail
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kaguya                              28 --(8)--> 36                 Fail
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hiro                                31 --(8)--> 39                 Pass
Ruby Being Helpful                  2   Agility Effects: Resilient
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           28 --(8)--> 36                 Pass
Butterfly Ribbon                    2   Agility Effects: Quicken
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josephine Lovelace                  31 --(8)--> 39                 Pass
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Gwen Whitlock               60 --(20)--> 80                Pass
Conditions: Overzealous(1)|Save Point(1)
Effects: Quicken(1)|Resilient(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Gwen Whitlock 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> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Ammo's a right problem up here," Josie remarks, off-handedly. "Luckily, I've got it covered."

    Being in Odessa does... sort of settle that problem, yes.

    Amusingly enough, it's supplies that form their current trial--

    Against the odds, considering she spots it mere seconds before she moves to catch it, Josie snaps one of the potions out of the air.

    The luck for others is a little more varied. Some find that they, too, are quick enough on the draw to grab the bottles before they are hit themselves or the potions hit the floor...

    And others aren't.

    "Huh. That was friendly of them," she remarks, before popping the cork and downing a good half of the potion. "...Do people throw acid at you lot often?" she asks Ruby, after a moment's pause.

DG: Kaguya has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* The Battle of Home *>============================
==================<* CHALLENGE - Opening the Airship Hangar *>==================
|Type: Final       |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 3          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Your flight through Home has led to a large room, built in the lower levels
 of the structure. Before you can get through, though, you find a group of Al
 Bhed civilians and a few of their unlikely protectors gathered (for one, you
 spy Rin and... Guba?). They have gathered about a large set of doors, which
 have been closed automatically -- blast doors, to protect whatever is
 through.

 Yevonite forces are on the way, but you see Brother and other armed Al Bhed
 taking stock. Rin is the one who approaches you; the middle-aged Al Bhed
 jogs up, and then claps his hand. "Ah! My friends!" he calls out. "You have
 impeccable timing! You see, we have two airships through these doors--and we
 are ready to leave. But, these doors are too smart, and have closed on their
 own!"

 He smiles. "I trust you know what to do?"
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Overzealous======================================
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

"Hmmm," Kaguya says, rather than pressing Lan to find out if she just missed it or what. She doesn't guess that Lan particularly knows herself, from the fact that she outright says she doesn't. Better not to focus on it. Besides... Hiro has war talk for her.

"Yeah," Kaguya says. "The Golems were supposed to end the war quickly, but it seems like they didn't. ...Might be because we lost some of the pilots, but..." She shakes her head. "Yeah, I bet there's a lot of those, Gwen." A year... and gunsmoke weapons too. Hmm. Kaguya looks over to Gwen for a moment, shakes her head.

On the bright side, she's learned what 'Lydlr' means. She's pretty sure. But it seems that that was about the end of things, because as they catch or don't catch potions (Kaguya catches one.... after it bounces off her face), they end up in a large room in the lower levels. There's a whole group of Al Bhed here, civilians and otherwise.

There is not a chance in hell that Rin doesn't recognize Kaguya, probably, not to mention that some of the others might. Or is there? He's all smiles to everyone, even Josie who has ammo covered for the moment, as he talks about their impeccable timing...

"Guess I see why they were friendly," Kaguya says, as she approaches the doors. She pulls another bomb--but she rips out the gunk within it and relies on the magnetic mechanism, planning to overwhelm the door's systems into forcing themselves partway open. The others can handle the rest of the way, probably.

"Acid. Huh. That'd be handy..."

DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Magnetic Resonance Bomb toward her party's challenge, Opening the Airship Hangar.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    If nothing else, Lan is confident in her ability to float like a butterfly. If the best result of that is catching a falling bottle... well, she won't complain. Especially when the bottle turns out to be Not Acid. Kaguya downs hers, and that's enough to convince Lan to pop the top on the one she caught. Sniff, sniff...

    It's been a long run since they were on Kattelox Island. Perhaps despite her better instincts, Lan takes a sip.

    While she wasn't exactly sure what to expect at the bottom of... wherever this 'Home' place is, it wasn't a pair of giant blast doors. Nor was it a crowd of proto-refugees attempting to get through them.

    "Uh... if it's okay..." Lan isn't sure what to do. She can't exactly hope to just... kick the doors down! But if Kaguya and the others have a plan, then what can she do but try to help? "Don't stand too close to the doors, okay?" she tries to caution anybody close enough to listen, before taking a deep breath and aiming high. Starstuff gathers inside the circle of Lan's fingers before she releases it like cannonfire.

    Thoom. Thoom. Thoom.

    It's so close down here. Please don't let her miss and hit somebody...!

DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Opening the Airship Hangar.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    "I really *hope* Ruby doesn't have t'deal with that because then all hope is lost for the world," Gwen quips, finally beginning to revive her spirits. "Who could look at that face and those ~*pink pawsies*~ and think of somethin' like that?"

    Kaguya continues the topic of war, and Gwen winces. "W-well, you had your heart in the right place, at least? But if somethin' wasn't bound to work on Filgaia, it wouldn't work here." At least, from the perspective she's at. Maybe, if Gwen were to think of it as a matter of one side snuffing out the means to fight of another, it'd seem logical. "In the end, we're people from another place, actin' like we know better because our planet went another direction. But in the end, we're all the same people."

    Hiro taught her that much. How different were they really, aside from him being able to do magic?

    One thing Gwen doesn't catch is that, by being here, Kaguya not only is at risk of friendly fire, she's at risk of non-friendly fire by those she helped battle when she was here.

    Nah, she's busy cheering Lan on, by this point. "Wooo! Go Lan!" Gwen raises her hand in a fist.

    Of course, Gwen isn't about to stand idle, though she's not about to risk having her right hand stuck in a door *again*. It's only after others have had their try that she comes in and adds her own attempt, slamming her right fist against the doors with a mighty rumble on impact.

<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.


Ruby enthusiastically hands over the potion, "Here you go Hiro!" "Fast paws." He says, trying to put on the best smile he can manage, before tapping a fist bump to her pawsies.

Ruby in turn answers Josie's question, "Oh yeah! You'd be surprised what people do when they see you've got a price on your head... but like, they can't shoot? And because they're desperate they just think anyone can drop some acid on someone. Sometimes you just step outdoors and bam - acidic death from above! Oh! And not me Gwen - like the bounty on my head isn't big enough - but Hiro there? They see him and are like... that's the guy who's with the eighteen billion bounty girl!"

Hiro holds up three fingers mid-Rubyspeech as if to indicate how many times that has happened to Gwen. "... And two of those times we never even caught who did it! Sometimes though it's just a trap in some ancient ruins - though embarrassingly sometimes the traps are so old that the acid just like... stings a little?}"

Kaguya explains it, and Hiro looks Gwen's way, then back... "I think it was inevitable that this would happen. The Al Bhed are salvaging ARMs right? I've seen Golems burst out of the ground on this world before from just some... Blue Star remote. And Althena's Guard made it to Filgaia to chase after Lucia..."

He makes just this faint gesture with one of his hands as if he were like leading them to an inevitable conclusion, "... so it's not like they wouldn't have picked up some things on the way. It's not like they didn't already have some of those things, like the Destiny - and Borgan said he studies these kind of things. We've found Zeboim script on old... fantastic beasts, and up one mountain on the other side of the world we found a facility as advanced as anything we'd ever seen up on the Blue Star. All of this stuff was sitting around, waiting to be found here. Even if they'd never gone up there to begin with. So I don't think it's fair to blame Filgaia... just... people... for choosing to use war machines to escalate things so quickly."

And then they enter the room... and Rin mentions...

...airships.

"... Well that's very convenient and I am all for using technology this world has never seen if it means getting out of this mess!"

Beat.

"Well actually guess they have seen it - after how the Fereshte crashed and all... good times... good times."

Hiro for what it's worth simply takes another tact, by trying to summon inky shadowy energy in the cracks between the doors and trying to shove them apart enough for someone to blow them open wider.

DG: Hiro has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Opening the Airship Hangar.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Really," Josie remarks, considering that information handed down from Ruby. "Now you got me thinking... I wonder what acid rounds'd be like."

    IS THAT HONESTLY HER TAKEAWAY??

    She grins, at least, which might... mean she's not entirely serious? ...Maybe?

    "Mm," Josie muses, giving Lan a sideways glance. Perhaps given what had been said before about them messing with her mind--
    Well, she's never been the forgiving type, precisely. Still, she doesn't press the issue, more keen on moving onward than not.

    "So those were yours?" she asks instead of Kaguya, canting her head to one side. "...Don't suppose a girl'd be able to see the guts of 'em? Just asking," she says, in a tone that suggests that she's only half asking as a joke.
    A woman has needs and they include machinery.

    But it seems that their sighting of the Al Bhed wasn't just chance. They've close to where they've retreated to--

    Josie sees you, Guba. SHE SEES YOU.
    Not that it will do much good. Guba cannot be intimidated by man or god.

    "If it's just a door, mind," she says, pulling out her mattock once again.

    "Then I think I've got what you need."

    It's no bomb, no, but once applied to the wanton destruction wielded by the others--

    Well. Sometimes you just have to hit something with a mattock to really make sure it's busted through.

DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Well-Used Mattock toward her party's challenge, Opening the Airship Hangar.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool ARM-ored Fist toward her party's challenge, Opening the Airship Hangar.
============================<* The Battle of Home *>============================
==================<* CHALLENGE - Opening the Airship Hangar *>==================
|Type: Final       |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 3          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Your flight through Home has led to a large room, built in the lower levels
 of the structure. Before you can get through, though, you find a group of Al
 Bhed civilians and a few of their unlikely protectors gathered (for one, you
 spy Rin and... Guba?). They have gathered about a large set of doors, which
 have been closed automatically -- blast doors, to protect whatever is
 through.

 Yevonite forces are on the way, but you see Brother and other armed Al Bhed
 taking stock. Rin is the one who approaches you; the middle-aged Al Bhed
 jogs up, and then claps his hand. "Ah! My friends!" he calls out. "You have
 impeccable timing! You see, we have two airships through these doors--and we
 are ready to leave. But, these doors are too smart, and have closed on their
 own!"

 He smiles. "I trust you know what to do?"
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Overzealous======================================
=======================<* The Battle of Home - Round 5 *>=======================
====================< Results - Opening the Airship Hangar >====================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gwen Whitlock                       41 --(101)--> 142              Pass
ARM-ored Fist                       2   Brute   Effects: Strengthen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kaguya                              36 --(101)--> 137              Pass
Magnetic Resonance Bomb             3   Brute   Effects: Rally
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hiro                                39 --(101)--> 140              Fail
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           36 --(101)--> 137              Fail
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josephine Lovelace                  39 --(101)--> 140              Fail
Well-Used Mattock                   2   Brute   Effects: Strengthen
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Gwen Whitlock               80 --(10)--> 90                Fail
Conditions: Overzealous(2)|Weaken(2)
Effects: Strengthen(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: Gwen Whitlock is too exhausted to continue!
DG: Kaguya is too exhausted to continue!
DG: Hiro is too exhausted to continue!
DG: Lan Lilac is too exhausted to continue!
DG: Josephine Lovelace is too exhausted to continue!
DG: The party has failed this challenge! All party members are now Exhausted. This attempt is over.
DG: The party led by Gwen Whitlock has been fully Exhausted by The Battle of Home!
DG: The party will now draw a conclusion.
============================<* The Battle of Home *>============================
====================<* CHALLENGE - Rescued by the Al Bhed *>====================
|Type: Landmark    |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 While you manage to blast open your door, you are one of the latter teams to
 do so. The rushing Yevonite forces manage to close in. Gunshots ring out,
 one whizzing dangerously by your head. Then, a grenade flies down. You get a
 glance as Rin is pushed away, two Al Bhed carrying him away, before the
 explosion /echoes/ out around you.

 You get hurled into the wall. Unconsciousness follows. But when you wake up,
 eyes blinking slowly, you find yourself in the medical room of that strange
 patchwork airship that hasn't been seen in nearly a year...

 ...the Fereshte.
=Dungeon Conditions: Overwhelm================================================
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

Kaguya doesn't even touch the bounty stuff. After all, now KAGUYA is the one who sets the bounties!

...But there's also a serious topic at hand beyond acid. So serious that Kaguya doesn't even veer off to talk about acid ronds which would be awesome.

"I wouldn't give us a pass that quick," Kaguya says. "I mean, it's true that some of this stuff might've come out anyway, and I dunno who gave the Warrior Monks guns to begin with, but..." Kaguya shakes her head. "But yeah, we still brought this stuff out. We--" Josie asks about t. And the way she asks that--

Kaguya actually laughs, feeling a little better to hear a fellow ARMs enthusiast's take on it. "Sure, just as soon as you join up with us I'll give you the tour," she jokes back.

Indeed, Kaguya's mad science does loosen the doors some, but they're stuck really well, and that doesn't get them open enough on its own. Next up comes blsts of star power! Boom, boom, boom!

Gwen cheers Lan on, and slams her right fist against the doors, too. Hiro's shadows meanwhile force more and more space between the doors. Then, the mattock. The mattock strikes with explosive force, terrifying power erupting from the doors--

Oh wait that's not just the mattock, that's a sneak attack via the route of explosions.

Kaguya coughs a lot from the smoke, managing, "Oh, son of a--"

The group won't make it through it conscious. But when they wake up...

Somehow, the Fereshte is still in the air.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    At least, most of the group is on board the Fereshte when they wake up. Josie, mysteriously, is not at all present...