2020-10-09: Like Hell and High Lightning
- Log: Like Hell and High Lightning
- Cast: Loren Voss, Ratatoskr, Seraph Ragnell, Kaguya, Gwen Whitlock
- Where: Thunder Plains
- Date: October 09, 2020
- Summary: Loren is searching for Azoth. Gwen is conducting an emergency delivery. Ratatoskr seeks battle amidst the storm. Ragnell tends to her own aims. And Kaguya... is looking for Loren. Amidst the Thunder Plains, then, chaos ensues.
DG: A party led by Loren Voss is now entering Thunder Plains - Drums of War. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
======================<* Thunder Plains - Drums of War *>======================= =========================<* CHALLENGE - War Is Hell *>========================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The Thunder Plains have become a battlefield. With Guadosalam besieged and much of the southern landmass lost under the Guard's advance, the active fighting has moved to here, where, it could be argued, it is not precisely the most ideal of locations to have a battle. As if to underscore that sentiment, lightning cracks down, perhaps only a few yards off. But it's not the lightning you need to worry about. Immediately, anyway. Rather, it's the volley of missiles let fly from either side of the plains that proves perhaps the greatest threat to you at the moment. Now would be an excellent time to move from this place to another place! =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Injure=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
NOT ALL THAT LONG AGO, FRANKLY
"...Do you have any questions, captain?"
"None, ma'am."
Just like that, he'd been given his marching orders. Azoth never had returned from the engagement at the forest, and a sweep of the site had turned up no sign of him. Meanwhile, apparently command had some information (from Juno? from elsewhere?) that suggested that the machine had ended up on the other side of the gate. And since there hadn't been any response within Spira--
NOW
War. War is hell.
A hail of missile fire makes an already dicey situation within the plains -- the electromagnetism thrown out from the site made communications within impossible, which meant that if Azoth ended up here, well! -- even worse. Throwing himself behind a nearby rock as the missiles strike a nearby outcropping (ARMS! who gave all these bastards heavy ARMS, the medical officer cannot help but think), the resultant explosion kicks up a rain of rock shards and smoke, punctuated by shouts.
Shit. Were they struck? ...No, those hadn't been screams.
He hadn't come here alone. Rising to his feet, Loren makes to run towards where the billowing front of smoke still rises, only for the hairs on the back of his neck to stand on end. He turns his head just in time to see that there's another volley. "Spread out!" he shouts, before, bright blue light swirling around him in a sudden pulse (threaded through the device on his wrist), he legs it in a completely different direction.
Better the leader survive instead of... wait, who had said that again? ...Was that right?
He has no time to think about that now.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Ether Tuner toward his party's challenge, War Is Hell.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
The Thunder Plains may have to update its name among the locals, for it is not just lightning that thunders and roars across its expansive turf here. Other loud noises and flashing lights have entered its kingdom, each of equal character - a brief presence that is acknowledged in passing with thanks given for it happening anywhere away from someone's person, and then never individually heard from again.
Then there is a strange warping of light as a familiar silhouette reappears in mid-air thanks to some crystalline thing or another in one clawed hand as they snatch a missile and touch down on the ground.
"Hyahaha...!" That familiar cackle! "What's this? What's this!" He is holding up a miss--
IT IS A LIVE MISSILE WHY IS HE HOLDING IT IT COULD EXPLODE AT ANY TIME
"...I've never seen this here in Spira..." Ratatoskr hardly pays attention to who else is here. He's an Odessa agent. Him being here implies a lot of things and absolutely none of them good such as matters of HE IS HOLDING ONTO A LIVE MISSILE
DG: Ratatoskr has used his Tool Teleporter Fragment toward his party's challenge, War Is Hell.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Things Lightning Seraph Ragnell likes: lightning storms! :D
Things Lightning Seraph Ragnell does not like: war. :/
As such, the sight of battle across the Thunder Plains is *kind of a bummer*. Sure, fighting is fun, but out-and-out war is on too big a scale for her to enjoy--along with her many other reasons. Who the hell wages war in a perpetual rainstorm, anyway? What does anyone think they'll gain? Just looking at it irritates her.
As such, many of those lightning bolts cracking down on the forces waging battle below. Ragnell is herself positioned atop one of the many lightning towers in the Thunder Plains. If she gets struck herself, so much the better. She is literally in her element. The missiles flying to and fro? Not so much. They *do*, however, make for perfect target practice--at least until she happens to spot a few figures she knows and doesn't immediately want to kill below. And also Loren. But she has a question or two for him so he gets to live too for now, she *guesses*.
Sliding down the roof of the lightning tower, Ragnell flips in midair and sails down to the ground below, arms outstretched, landing light and nimble not far from the medical officer and anyone else who's happened to converge at his location--which so far includes Ratatoskr, the spastic Metal Demon.
"Boo," she drawls to people at large. She looks at Ratatoskr. "You want me to explode that for you? I can do that. Hell, I've *been* doin' it." She grins with dangerous brightness. "It's fun!"
DG: Seraph Ragnell has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, War Is Hell.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Who indeed gave these bastards heavy ARMs?
Kaguya's radio is just as out as Loren's from all the lightning here. Why had she chosen to come this way? Well, she had reasons, all right. She isn't sharing them with anyone else right now, though, because Kaguya, unlike Loren, did come alone.
She had reasons for that, too.
But here and now, missiles crash downward and Kaguya sees people ahead, hears a particular shout that she's pretty sure she knows. Good.
Bad: more missiles on the way here. "Tch, come on," Kaguya starts, and moves at a sprint forward, aiming to avoid lightning as best she can while avoiding missiles--
This is when she spots Ratatoskr with a missile. A live missile. She see Ragnell. And she doesn't just yet see her target.
"What the shit," Kaguya says eloquently.
"Maybe you should blow it up, but I'm kind of impressed he managed to get it." Kaguya's steps crunch on the broken earth. "Hey, you know what'd be really cool? Throwing that thing over there. Watch, something really cool will happen!"
She doesn't seem to care that much about the rain part, and her breathing mask is down around her collar.
DG: Kaguya has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, War Is Hell.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
The attempt to provide a distraction was a success. There was distractions! Gwen killed a summoner! She's not sure why this doesn't bug her as much as it should!
The rescue of Yuna from being married to that asshole Seymour? Not a success. In fact, it failed massively, and Gwen's not entirely sure just how they'll be able to rescue those who were captured.
Gwen won't sit idle. Oh no. They'll need supplies, after all. Food, medical supplies, medicine, whatever she could manage to get. Gwen doesn't have Gulliver or the Halcyon, but it's fine. It's just like old times, and she's plenty able to just grab a cart and wheel it across the plains. She's done it before, in fact!
.... oh, right, there's a war
But that's the least of her problems, suddenly, as something in her gut *heaves*.
Loren is nearby. He might be in danger. Dodging through the spray of rock from a missile, Gwen comes running by Loren, and gestures to him. "There's a tower this way! Haul your a---ahh?"
There is a Ratatoskr here. With a missile. There is also a Kaguya, and a Ragnell.
There is a Ratatoskr here with a missile, this is important
Gwen sees the missile, squints, and then, with the care of a parent who has just discovered that their child has lifted a live grenade, seconds Kaguya's helpful suggestion.
".... How 'bout you throw it back? I bet you can throw it further."
Her smile twitches as Ragnell suggests she explode it. ".... I guess that *would* be somethin' to try later, when they are not here."
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, War Is Hell.
======================<* Thunder Plains - Drums of War *>======================= =========================<* CHALLENGE - War Is Hell *>========================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The Thunder Plains have become a battlefield. With Guadosalam besieged and much of the southern landmass lost under the Guard's advance, the active fighting has moved to here, where, it could be argued, it is not precisely the most ideal of locations to have a battle. As if to underscore that sentiment, lightning cracks down, perhaps only a few yards off. But it's not the lightning you need to worry about. Immediately, anyway. Rather, it's the volley of missiles let fly from either side of the plains that proves perhaps the greatest threat to you at the moment. Now would be an excellent time to move from this place to another place! =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Injure=========================================
=================<* Thunder Plains - Drums of War - Round 1 *>================== ===========================< Results - War Is Hell >============================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail Ether Tuner 1 Agility Effects: Quicken and Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 0 --(4)--> 4 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 0 --(4)--> 4 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 0 --(4)--> 4 Pass Teleporter Fragment 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(2)|Injure(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
War is hell.
War is chaos!!
And thus it is that a great number of things happen at once:
Ratatoskr catches A MISSILE which Kaguya and Ragnell thus exhort him to, per the former, throw a missile in a particular location where the latter can blow it up.
It'll be cool. It'll be great.
Gwen, nearby, urges Loren over her way.
Loren spots Gwen, notes her position near to the towers (in the same heartbeat that there is that odd feeling of kinship) and at a loss in current conditions, hurries over towards her.
...the missile...
...the missile is launched.
...at the tower.
Which was 'over there', after all.
And then lightning, 'just by chance' (no) strikes the missile as it begins its descent. Loren turns in his approach to the tower just in time to see it. A muscle by one eye twitches.
And then he throws out a hand, pouring energy into the barrier that bursts into existence before him.
The usual fate of those hit by a missile doesn't happen. Instead the Solaris soldier sinks to a knee for a moment, breathing hard.
The tower meanwhile, up above where the barrier had shielded those below, smolders a bit.
DG: Ratatoskr has drawn a new Challenge.
======================<* Thunder Plains - Drums of War *>======================= =====================<* CHALLENGE - Falling Tower Debris *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- A bolt of lightning strikes a tower, as it should. Unfortunately, time has taken its toll on the tower, and a good section of it shatters, raining down debris on the lands below. Even more unfortunately: right beneath it, where the debris falling, is where you are currently standing. It's time to run for it, effective immediately. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Injure=============================================
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
Ratatoskr covets THE MISSILE THAT IS ABSOLUTELY GOING TO EXPLODE unreasonably! "Then it'll explode!"
...
The solid yellow eyes of the eternally grinning squirrel-like Hyadean may or may not have put two and two together at this point. "Oh. I don't think I've ever seen this kind explode before." He decides, voice a bit more sedate, as if somehow coming to the solution to 2+2 by counting to four via an esoteric and exotic mathematical proof. "I really should...! Then I'll keep the next one just like it--"
ONE DESPERATE SCRAMBLE TO GET HIM TO THROW THE DAMN THING LATER
They learn something useful about this kind of missile that Kaguya may or may not already know - it's not just one big boom, it's a whole chain of booms that snake out in the direction the missile was facing when it explodes, excellent for hunting out targets in trenches. This would be fun to watch from a distance and might even have been useful in chasing away an incoming hostile unit, which is to say all of them.
The missile head lands pointed back towards where they are presently sheltering near an older tower - one of the oldest ones still in service.
Until tonight.
Battered by one deflection, this follow-up decimates the tower, and Ratatoskr's eyes flash bright in... well, an urgent reaction. There's a screeching that sounds both furious and sad but that much is not important. What is, is that their cover is no longer cover. It is smother! (...this is not a rhyme that works at all)
(pls delete)
There isn't much time to suss out the fine nuances of their collective allegiances and conflicting goals because all of them are caught under a collapsing tower, debris of an ancient engineering and pioneering feat threatening to become unmarked grave markers for the collected.
As if in mourning, the local lightning up and strikes one of the bigger chunks for a worthy foe. This would be a sweet way to anthropomorphize the eternally hostile storm of the plains if it didn't just make it fragment into many more fragments that are just as deadly to have strike someone regardless of the difference in size!
Ratatoskr holds up the weird crystal thing in his hand, and light warps as he seems to vacate the immediate vicinity.
DG: Ratatoskr has used his Tool Teleporter Fragment toward his party's challenge, Falling Tower Debris.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Over there, over at the tower, it's all fine. Good enough, right? Kaguya seems not to want Ratatoskr to explode himself, or maybe it's just because he's close.
Kaguya doesn't bother with barriers or anything. Instead, she watches Loren approach with Gwen, and her eyes settle on him. As his barrier blocks the missile's explosion, she keeps watching him as he takes a knee. She starts walking forward, in fact, as she hears the explosions go. It would be fun to watch this from a distance, probably, especially with all the cool lightning effects. But this is not a distance. This is right up close, so Kaguya--
"Hey Voss,"
Reaches down and grips Loren by the arms. She picks him up outright, spins once and hurls him out of danger with excessive force, making a Loren Missile of her own whether she knows this set or not. She doesn't act surprised, anyway.
"Can't have you dying yet!"
She takes off after, already dangerously close to the debris. She calls it worth it, though.
DG: Kaguya has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Falling Tower Debris.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
'Then it'll explode!'
"Yeah, man, that's the point," Ragnell says, rolling her eyes. Her expression turns back to amused when she spots Kaguya and Gwen, who likewise urge Ratatoskr to throw that missile Hella Far. "Well hey, look who it is! Haven't seen *you* in an age, Kags," she says to the former. To the latter, she shakes her head. "Gwen, I just gotta ask: the hell are you doin' here? Thought you had better sense than to wander into a war zone." She pauses, then adds, "Wait, are you here for a delivery? You're on Spira! Why are you still doin' deliveries??"
Oh, the missile exploded over by the tower. Yeah that's fine. It looks like Loren didn't die, though. That ether barrier he conjured must have been pretty strong. Against her will, Ragnell is actually impressed.
Then Kaguya runs over to the Solarian medical officer. Loren Missile happens.
Ragnell starts laughing, and she doesn't stop for a while. What? The tower's collapsing because a missile got exploded into it? Cool cool cool cool, she's still laughing even as she runs after the scamps!
DG: Seraph Ragnell has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Falling Tower Debris.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Something overhead explodes. Loren glances up sharply.
oh it just keeps on getting better doesn't it
He lurches to his feet, exhaustion from previous exertations be damned. The thing at his wrist flashes with blue-white light as he forces Ether into and through it, spinning it outwards in a--
'Hey Voss'
He has just enough time to parse that and the speaker, exactly, when Kaguya grabs him and
why is she so strong she looks like she should snap into two pieces
And then he doesn't even have the time to think about that when Kaguya hurls him into the air as if he were a missile.
He screams. Maybe it's a little embarrassing, afterwards, but in the middle of it all, who can blame him?!
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Ether Tuner toward his party's challenge, Falling Tower Debris.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Lightning was the reason Gwen has been aiming for the tower, after all!
It just.... didn't work the way she thought it would.
Gwen gives Loren an apologetic smile. "... Um, thanks, Loren. I definitely owe you."
Ragnell's question draws that smile into something more rakish, if still bashful. "I was-"
Loren is from Solaris.
Ratatoskr is.... Ratatoskr. And maybe Odessa?
Kaguya is.... well, she'd technically be in the Guard now, wouldn't she?
Ragnell is in K.K.'s camp, which makes her a wild card, so it's okay there.
Gwen lets out a sigh of defeat. "Gettin' supplies. A bunch of folk went in to rescue the summoner Yuna from gettin' hitched to that asshole Seymour, and they failed big time from what I heard. I ain't sure what's gonna happen, but if there's a way to get them out, I figured we'd need supplies. Didn't account for the war bein' as widespread as it is, so it looks like it might be a bust." She clears her throat. "I only say this because there's some people in there that are in danger. People you guys'd know n' might be lookin' for, right now."
Yes, she is looking directly at Loren as she says this. "Maybe more than one." She makes a show of shrugging. "Bbuuut, well, I guess it ain't much of a secret?"
Then Kaguya throws Loren, which might be a preferable fate to what Gwen was doing, right in that moment
".... whoah, Kaguya. Got your wind back already, huh."
also there is a tower falling, which Ratatoskr was the smart one to already have bliped away from
"... I didn't account for this happenin' either!!" runrunrunrun
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Falling Tower Debris.
======================<* Thunder Plains - Drums of War *>======================= =====================<* CHALLENGE - Falling Tower Debris *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- A bolt of lightning strikes a tower, as it should. Unfortunately, time has taken its toll on the tower, and a good section of it shatters, raining down debris on the lands below. Even more unfortunately: right beneath it, where the debris falling, is where you are currently standing. It's time to run for it, effective immediately. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Injure=============================================
=================<* Thunder Plains - Drums of War - Round 2 *>================== =======================< Results - Falling Tower Debris >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 5 --(20)--> 25 Fail Ether Tuner 1 Agility Effects: Quicken and Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 4 --(20)--> 24 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 4 --(10)--> 14 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 5 --(20)--> 25 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 4 --(10)--> 14 Pass Teleporter Fragment 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 20 --(10)--> 30 Fail Conditions: Hesitate(1)|Injure(2)|Slow(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss 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> Ratatoskr has posed.
Tower chunks fall. Lightning strikes at the ruined tower several more times, making that first display less a weird send-off for a worthy foe and more like the forces of nature itself (independent of Ragnell) really do not like that tower at all. They aren't large enough to turn anyone into pancakes on the spot... but...
...it's not great. (For some, it's just mildly inconvenient.)
Loren survives this would-be fate in... hotly debated theory, with the leading reasoning involving the LOREN MISSILE. In practice... that's going to wait for the camera to pan over that way in a few seconds.
Ragnell gets some good laughs. Gwen may have cause to ask Kaguya this question again once one or the other gets rocks off of them, but then...
The warped light deposits Ratatoskr where he removes at least one or two of the offending, pinning chunks of tower. His eyes dim.
"...This was... this was one of the first Lightning Towers the Al Bhed Bilghen built..." The former Metal Demon says in a quieter voice than usual, which still sounds sort of arrogant and annoying, as he holds one chunk up. For someone so young and more importantly not from here at all, he seems to hold this with some reverence.
Some? A lot.
"He fought the lightning..." His grin softens to a smile. "I wish I could've fought him too...!"
They don't have time to mourn. They are kind of in the middle of an active battle zone that is also in the middle of an active storm cell that doesn't ever go anywhere!!
Fortunately, wherever the LOREN MISSILE has landed, there's no hostiles between here and there. (...Yet?)
DG: Kaguya has drawn a new Challenge.
======================<* Thunder Plains - Drums of War *>======================= =======================<* CHALLENGE - Suddenly Qactuar *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- As a general rule, Fiends have by and large scattered from the battlefield. Even a Fiend has no wish to expire early. As... a general rule, that is. There are screams nearby. You at first only catch a blur of something green. Something green and spiny. A Qactuar -- the odd cousins of the more typical Cactuar -- has burst into the fray! Everything is needles. Everything is bad. =Dungeon Conditions: Overwhelm, Injure========================================
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"Ragnell!" Kaguya finally greets. "Just had to take care of a little something. Yeah, I was pretty busy with a bunch of shit back on Filgaia and now, well, we're back and I've got a war to look at." Beat, "But it's cool to see you."
Kaguya does not in fact entirely evade the debris, but her armor stops it being as bad as it could be. It mostly just hurts! But Kaguya is accustomed to pain.
"Yeah," Kaguya says, "Impressive dude..." Pause. "Well, that's fair. Maybe the guy could kick some ass."
The Loren Missile has gone on ahead. Kaguya digs herelf out and answers Gwen. "Yeah I'm doing pretty well on the super nice moon, actually," Kaguya answers Gwen. "It'd be nicer without all the smoke but there's a war on and all."
"War's pretty much everywhere, and that's exactly good and awesome and totally what I had in mind." Kaguya delivers that about as sarcastically as someone might expect.
"So Ragnell, what've you been doing lately?"
She finally makes it over to Loren, and puts hands on hips as she looks down at him.
"OK, asshole, now it's time to--"
Screams happen. Kaguya pauses. She turns. There is an adorable little green shape there. It shifts back and forth. Then, it turns, and... tilts to the side, and...
"Oh COME ON--"
Needles happen. To more than just Kaguya and maybe Loren if people aren't quick.
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Loot Abuse toward her party's challenge, Suddenly Qactuar.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
The LOREN MISSILE flies a good distance in fact -- Kaguya has quite a good arm! But as they say, what goes up must come down and even if that final sudden stop at the end is punctuated by a flare of white light--
Loren still lands in a sprawl of himself, for the moment dazed and staring up at the stormy skies overhead. Where is...
Kaguya appears overhead, and for the moment any other thoughts Loren might have fall by the wayside.
"Now what," he starts to say, before she in no uncertain way makes an indication of what is to come and--
Then there are screams. Slowly he turns his head.
"This is a joke, right," he says flatly, in those few seconds before there are NEEDLES. NEEDLES EVERYWHERE
There are times when being a medic helps. Even if it's just a little bit.
"Don't you-- have some sort of bomb or something?!"
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Solarian Medical Kit toward his party's challenge, Suddenly Qactuar.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
"Yeah..." Ratatoskr's voice trails as he and Kaguya find common ground briefly on the matter of how bad-ass that dude was. He decides once he has the time he's going to find some way to put it back together. The image of what it was is burned in his mind as much as it is in his anatomical equivalent of retinas! Much like the flashes of lightning! How does he see anything?!
"That's why I'm here too...!" Suddenly Ratatoskr has rejoined them and echoed his reason for being here from Kaguya's observation. Uh... should Ratatoskr be volunteering what he's doing or why? He's an Odessa operative, his presence here may be part of whatever it is they're up to. It might actually be his job on high to watch these skirmishes!
Then, there's screaming. Lots of screaming. Ratatoskr drops down to all fours to rapidly swerve wide around the source of it - the adjustment of his limb length is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it affair as he comes back up to a more bipedal stance in a low crouch.
"...Is this what I've seen on a--"
Needles. Needles, shot at a quantity in the universal language of 'shut up.' So, so many needles. Ratatoskr disappears in a cloud of them.
DG: Ratatoskr has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Suddenly Qactuar.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Towers can be rebuilt. And lightning towers are meant to be struck. It's not so bad, it's not so bad.
"Ahhh, so that's why. So you were one o' th' folks who were involved in all that, huh?" Ragnell says, tilting her head at Gwen. "Can't say as I'm surprised. You never could keep your nose out of other people's business." She smirks. "Not that that's a bad thing. Who's these other people you mean, though?"
As the group presses on, Ragnell glances over at Ratatoskr, waxing nostalgic about a piece of local history. "Fought the lightning and lost. He died when he got struck by a thunderbolt," Ragnell reminds him. She's spent enough time around this area to have learned that much, at least. "Score one for the storm!"
She looks over at Kaguya next. "Likewise! You seem like you're doin' pretty good for yourself so far." She gives Kaguya's breathing mask a pointed look, though she doesn't otherwise remark upon it. She also doesn't get a chance to remark on Kaguya and her hand in the war, because Kaguya asks her about herself first. "Me?" she utters, blinking. "Oh, nothin' much. Got zapped over to Filgaia a while back, jus' came back here to Spira. Been doin' work for the Trial Knight. You know how it is." She may not know how it is.
Oh hey screaming. Ragnell pulls up short, drawing her pistols. Her gaze moves to a green cactus-like monster. "Oh. One o' *you*," she says flatly. She gestures at it and looks at Loren. "Does this *look* like a joke to you?"
STOP! NEEDLE TIME.
"I *do* have some sort o' bomb!" Ragnell calls back as she is in the middle of removing the pin from a lightning grenade she fashioned herself. "Just take a look!!"
And then she *chucks* it at the little green asshole.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Lightning Grenade toward her party's challenge, Suddenly Qactuar.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Looking at Ratatoskr and Ragnell, Gwen laughs. "I'd say he did pretty good, considerin' it takes one strike." Gwen holds up her index finger. "As for me, of course not. Yuna's been a big help." She grins. "Besides. I like a good lov-.... er. I mean, if there's any chance for peace in this region, it's with people like her."
look, a young man falling in love with the girl he is protecting is definite grounds for first class shipping!
When Ragnell nonchalantly reveals to Kaguya she's doing work for the Trial Knight, Gwen is...
"Tell 'em I said hi, then. In a firmly 'this is not an invitation, just a declaration of greetings' way, I mean."
well, it's what Gwen assumed, really, and what can you do?
Like a mighty lioness going after her kill, Kaguya looms over Loren. And close by is the annoying, forced tone of someone negotiating for his survival.
Or death, considering how Gwen's last attempt at 'helping' Loren went.
"Hey, hey, 'member what y'said about keepin' Loren alive n' all--"
what in the world is that, even
it's green
it's smol
it's adorable
"..... Guardians...." Gwen stares at the being, amazed.
Then, a crack in that awe reveals what lies underneath.
She snorts, then bursts out laughing. "Oh Guardians, this little guy is too much! LOOK AT THE STUBBY ARMS! N' the face, and owowowo ow oiw ow-"
Ragnell's lightning grenade is joined by Gwen's own charge of electricity, as Gwen tries to gingerly pluck a needle out. "-ow."
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Full Metal Courier toward her party's challenge, Suddenly Qactuar.
======================<* Thunder Plains - Drums of War *>======================= =======================<* CHALLENGE - Suddenly Qactuar *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- As a general rule, Fiends have by and large scattered from the battlefield. Even a Fiend has no wish to expire early. As... a general rule, that is. There are screams nearby. You at first only catch a blur of something green. Something green and spiny. A Qactuar -- the odd cousins of the more typical Cactuar -- has burst into the fray! Everything is needles. Everything is bad. =Dungeon Conditions: Overwhelm, Injure========================================
=================<* Thunder Plains - Drums of War - Round 3 *>================== =========================< Results - Suddenly Qactuar >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 25 --(8)--> 33 Pass Solarian Medical Kit 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 24 --(8)--> 32 Fail Loot Abuse 2 Combat Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 14 --(8)--> 22 Pass Lightning Grenade 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 25 --(8)--> 33 Pass Full Metal Courier 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 14 --(8)--> 22 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 30 --(20)--> 50 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Overwhelm|Slow(1) Effects: Cleanse|Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Gwen Whitlock has drawn a new Challenge.
======================<* Thunder Plains - Drums of War *>======================= =============<* CHALLENGE - Emergency Lightning Tower Patch Job *>============== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- One of the towers has taken damage from a recent strike to the extent that it doesn't seem to be even /working/ properly now: another bolt strikes the land nearby without so much as being drawn to the tower. This is more a problem than most as the battle draws near to this spot, a fact that has been noted by one of the side's commanders. Whether you like it or not, you've been 'volunteered' the job to see if you can fix the tower up a bit before the inevitable happens. Quickly. Please. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Fright==========================================
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"Yuna, Yuna," Kaguya says in a 'blah blah' kind of voice. "All nice and good and helpful."
"Anyway--That's true," Kaguya says to Ragnell in the tone of someon conceding a pretty good point. "Storm did win that round." She looks over Ratatoskr briefly, as he mentions why he's here though. "Hmm. OK," she answers him. She should be more bothered by him collecting intelligence or something, but he's kind of fun to watch run around. Besides, she's talking to Ragnell fine, "Oh, yeah. I should talk to them again sometime. I've seen a lot more about humans and Malevolence both." Pause. Needle interlude.
"Of COURSE I have some kind of bomb or something!" Kaguya speaks through unending needles. "What do you take me for!?"
Kaguya gets needle'd.
Loren gets needle'd.
Ratatoskr gets needle'd.
Gwen gets needle'd.
Ragnell is wise to this little green jerk's tricks, and has a bomb.
Ragnell throws a bomb, and Gwen throws a bolt of electricity. Kaguya was going to throw an Electro Marble, but instead she ends up tanking for most of the party by getting needled again. She's not thrilled about it. Even Ratatoskr avoids the second cloud of needles. But, the Qactuar squeaks and falls over. It is gone.
"...You know," Kaguya says, "Even with all that, this is still better than Filgaia."
Has she forgotten her grudge??? Probably not. But she's busy dealing with needles at the moment, so she'll get back to him. Or maybe it'll be like that lion who has the needle removed from its paw and shows mercy! ...Yeah. Probably not that, either.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Seeing Kaguya's reaction, Gwen shrugs. "Hey, it ain't like this area's got an excess of people like that who aso have the advantage of havin' the same amount of clout as she does."
Coming to the next tower, the motely group comes by a commander, who is less interested in their actual group affiliation and more interested in getting the lightning tower fixed.
Gwen looks over at the supply crate by the commander's feet, clearly marked 'BANDAGES'.
"I'll do it, in exchange for that crate."
She looks at Ragnell, and claps her hands together in front of her. ".... Hey, could I borrow you for a favor n' ask you t' explode some missiles? In the air. Not close by me. Ratatoskr? You can go n' throw missiles! Somethin' like that, since you're pretty hardy. Kaguya, I'll ask you to, uh.... not kill Loren. Loren, I want you to..."
She clears her throat. "Reflect on what I said. I saw that one guy in the party that went in. Azoth, I think his name was? And also..." She starts the slow climb up. "Lan was there, too."
Wait, how did she go from asking for favors to outright ordering people? Gwen can't be the boss of everyone!!
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Courier Kit toward her party's challenge, Emergency Lightning Tower Patch Job.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell raises an eyebrow at Kaguya. "Take it you're not a fan o' Miss Lady Summoner," she observes. It would figure; Yuna is nice, and Kaguya is very much not. People who aren't nice tend to not like people who are. Then again, Ragnell isn't nice and she *does* like Yuna, so maybe Yuna just isn't Kaguya's type. "Anyway, K.K.'s around too, so if you want a word, I can let 'em know you were lookin' for 'em. Though if you wanna share what you've seen o' humans an' Malevolence with me, I can make sure to pass it on for you instead."
She looks over at Gwen. "I can tell 'em you said hi, but I don't guarantee they'll take it as 'just sayin' hi, please don't come harass me' even if I make that explicitly clear to them. You still want me to pass on the greetin's?" A beat. "Also be careful o' what you stop an' call cute 'round these parts." Getting needled a million times kind of serves her right in light of that. Eat grenade, fiend.
Then Gwen starts asking favors/making orders, and Ragnell's other eyebrow goes up. "Well, explodin' missiles is fun so I don't mind doing it, but..." She glances at Loren. Lan she understands why he might care about, but... Azoth, too, huh. Very interesting. "That Azoth guy a subordinate o' yours?" she wonders delicately. Though that also brings up the thing she wanted to ask Loren: "Speakin' of--just what is Lan to you, anyway?"
Exactly the question that Loren wanted to answer in the middle of a battlefield, or at all, ever, we're sure.
Regardless, Ragnell considers the tower that's in need of repairs. She hums for a moment; then she backs that hum up by taking out her harmonica, playing a jaunty staccato melody, and going for a walk. For a short time, the lightning seems more interested in her and her theme music rendition than in the tower, despite her being *way* closer to the ground than the tower is. Happy repairing, the rest of you guys.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Polished Harmonica toward her party's challenge, Emergency Lightning Tower Patch Job.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"I hate this place," Loren says, soon in the wake of Ragnell's statement on the Qactuar.
There are more needles to come before the thing's downed, but at the very least -- even if he gives Kaguya the dirtiest of looks and implies, with a jerk of his head, that he's got his eyes on her -- there's medicines and (some) (not enough before he straight-up runs out) bandages to be had in that kit of his. Whatever his feelings are on all of them, they've not managed to outstrip the basic duties of a medic that have been pounded into him.
"What do you mean by--" he starts to say to Gwen, before she says something of immediate highly-relevant use to him:
"...Azoth?" is the first word out of him. And then she mentions Lan and to say that Loren 'clams up' would be a disservice to the word.
Ragnell asks him what she is to him. He looks at her. He looks, actually, like he might throw up.
But instead he turns away from the both of them rather abruptly and without a response, gazing up at the tower and trying to draw a deep breath. He fumbles for and eventually draws out his medical computer, not really caring that any of them see it.
They've seen it before anyway. It doesn't matter.
Almost on autopilot, he makes unorthodox use of the device, using it to try to get a read on the electrical impulses running through the tower. It just means reading for interference instead of the usual waveform.
Which might be tricky because his hands are shaking again.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool MediScan v7 toward his party's challenge, Emergency Lightning Tower Patch Job.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
Ratatoskr picks out the needles, ends steeped in quicksilver... but he doesn't seem too keen on keeping them, which seems odd for someone who really likes catching bullets, missiles, and other oddball artifacts he can readily attribute to some obscure war hero trivia or something or another. Hyadean regeneration takes care of the rest, which is part of the reason why it's so difficult to teach him 'no, bad.'
(maybe even the entire one)
Then comes an opportunity - a commander for some side who only cares there's able pairs of hands to deal with patching up the lightning tower. Gwen tells him to go throw missiles, but... that's... not what he's doing.
Clutching the side of the damaged tower, the light in his eyes light up some more with a greater grin. "Go throw missiles? Go throw missiles!" He says as if mocking Gwen. "It's true... the thunder got him... but guess what?" He sees a few small pieces of maybe-part-of-tower on the ground, "Guess what!"
He just starts putting those pieces back. Sometimes it's just slapping it on there. Other times, a bit more delicate work even with clawed hands. He's read his Hyadean datapad on the subject several times obsessively. (Does he do anything outside of that descriptor?!) "Bilghen may not be here...!" As if conceding the talking mass of electricity (to his level of Resonance) that he is long gone. "But as long as these lightning towers are..."
What's going on here is far, far less the work of someone who truly knows what they're doing. In a vacuum, Ratatoskr couldn't carry the skills needed to try and fix this tower to any other problem of similar causes. His work here is that of someone who has a deep-seated respect for what it is he's touching, what it is he's putting back together.
...
"He's still swinging!! Hyahaha--!" Compared to the shaking Loren, he seems to be enjoying himself, trailing off into an equally chipper but sort of dark non-sequitur. "...I can't wait to get back to see the Farplane again..."
DG: Ratatoskr has used his Tool Corrupted Records toward his party's challenge, Emergency Lightning Tower Patch Job.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"I mean, it's not like I don't like her or something," Kaguya tsuns about Yuna, looking lightly uncomfortable about it. Gwen of course has a point there. "She's just a little pushy about being all 'understanding'. It's annoying!"
Kaguya doesn't hate this place. But she does accept a brief truce to get rid of more of the needles, anyway. For now. But to Ragnell, "Cool, I'd like one sometime. I can share with you too, but I've gotta... order some more of it in my head, I'm a little distracted right now with all the," she gestures.
Exploding missiles! Why not. "I'm not going to kill him," Kaguya answers Gwen blandly.
She watches Loren, as he looks... the way he looks, and walks up to him after, noticing the readings he's taking. "So you're uncomfortable about her," she notes, walking forward to the tower and pulling a set of tools from her bag. She fully intends to just recalibrate the thing so it works. But she can talk and work.
"Good. You should be uncomfortable." She considers Ratatoskr, and his talk of the Farplane. Maybe she should look, too. But she avoided it, before.
"I've done a lot of messed-up stuff," Kaguya says, briefly looking over her shoulder. "But even I wouldn't do what you guys do to people."
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Mad Science Case toward her party's challenge, Emergency Lightning Tower Patch Job.
======================<* Thunder Plains - Drums of War *>======================= =============<* CHALLENGE - Emergency Lightning Tower Patch Job *>============== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- One of the towers has taken damage from a recent strike to the extent that it doesn't seem to be even /working/ properly now: another bolt strikes the land nearby without so much as being drawn to the tower. This is more a problem than most as the battle draws near to this spot, a fact that has been noted by one of the side's commanders. Whether you like it or not, you've been 'volunteered' the job to see if you can fix the tower up a bit before the inevitable happens. Quickly. Please. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Fright==========================================
=================<* Thunder Plains - Drums of War - Round 4 *>================== ===============< Results - Emergency Lightning Tower Patch Job >================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 33 --(8)--> 41 Pass MediScan v7 3 Wits Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 32 --(8)--> 40 Pass Mad Science Case 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 22 --(8)--> 30 Pass Polished Harmonica 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 33 --(8)--> 41 Pass Courier Kit 1 Wits Effects: Resilient and Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 22 --(8)--> 30 Pass Corrupted Records 2 Wits Effects: Stalwart -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 50 --(20)--> 70 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Stupify(2) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1)|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Seraph Ragnell has drawn a new Challenge.
======================<* Thunder Plains - Drums of War *>======================= ======================<* CHALLENGE - Stuck War Machine *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The fact of the matter is that both sides -- Yevon and Althena's Guard -- have fielded war machines in this conflict. The other important fact of the matter is that the Thunder Plains are awash in near constant rain along with the ever-present lightning. And this means that one of those machines has become stuck. One of the beleaguered fighters calls out to you for help. They need to get this thing unstuck, and fast! Ideally before it becomes a target for a lightning strike. =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
'You still want me to pass on the greetin's?'
Gwen gulps, her raised finger lowering. "...... good point!" which clearly means yes, Ragnell, you should tell the Trial Knight that Gwen said hi, because this is the only way she'll learn
or maybe not
By the time Loren has to deal with the trauma of knowing that a friend is in trouble, and Gwen just unwittingly revealed her name to all these fine folk who will actually do nothing about this because that will mean he would get away with not dealing with the bittersweet feeling of strength and weakness that comes with a bond like that....
... Gwen's getting up the tower, her tool kit in hand.
This is normal for her to not feel any fear about falling to her death, right? Right.
Also Ratatoskr's talking about the Farplane
With everyone taking on a call of their own in this side quest that Gwen just volunteered them all for, the job is successful, and Gwen comes back down. "Looks like the rod got knocked off, so I managed to solder it back on. It'll need a proper fixin' in time, but this'll buy you time until it's safe enough to send a proper team up there.
The commander thanks them all, and for their trouble, gives them an escort to the next tower, with Gwen carrying the crate over on a ramshackle cart she found.
As their escort leaves, Gwen looks to the group and says, "So. You all helped, which means, uh, you all get discounts! Just you guys, not your organizations, because that would be awkward."
this is still the person who delivered a letter to K.K., after all, she takes her job seriously
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"Is there any place, person, or thing you *don't* hate? Asking genuinely," Ragnell asks of Loren. "That especially includes Lan. Don't think I don't see you makin' that face at me! If you don't like her none either, jus' say so. Actually, I'm hopin' you don't, 'cuz if so, I won't have to revise my opinion of you." She makes a face of her own. "I really hate havin' to admit I was wrong about someone I thought was scum."
Incidentally, Ragnell has healing magic. But Loren seems so bent on using his good old-fashioned medic skills that it would be a shame for her to ruin his day by doing his work for him. Ragnell's so considerate like that.
Ratatoskr pitches the Qactuar needles he'd picked out of his body. "You're not keepin' those? I'm pretty sure they make good buildin' materials. You might be able to sell 'em--actually, you probably don't care about that, huh," Ragnell muses. "Well, you do you." Ratatoskr counters about the legacy of Bilghen's lightning towers; Ragnell listens, ponders, and then laughs. "You know what? You're right. Humans are short-lived anyway, but his legacy lives on." She winks at Ratatoskr. "Guess that means you better make sure those towers stay nice an' sturdy."
Kaguya huffs over Yuna. Ragnell snorts in amusement at her. "Oh, *I* see. Pushy about 'understanding,' huh? Mm, mm, mm. Ain't that the *worst*." She winks at Kaguya. "The absolute horror o' bein' *known*." All teasing aside, though, Kaguya points out that this is not the best of times to have a conversation about humans and Malevolence. Ragnell looks around at the missiles and the lightning and the warfare. "Yeah, okay, fair."
Gwen wilts at the offer to pass on greetings. Ragnell chuckles. "That's what I thought." At least she manages to fix the tower and return down in safety. She even offers everyone a discount on delivery! "Well, that's might kind o' you. I'll remember that for next time."
Kaguya proceeds to call Loren the *fuck* out. Ragnell goes back to her harmonica playing so she can sit back and enjoy the show. This continues after the tower has been repaired and the group moves onwards to... wherever it is they're going; Ragnell doesn't know what the intended destination is here and she doesn't care.
There is, however, a war machine that's stuck in the mud. One of the soldiers--it's impossible to tell if they're Yevonite or Althenan with how bedraggled and mud-slung they are--notices the group and, rather stupidly in Ragnell's opinion, waves an arm to them. "Hey!! Hey, you there! Perfect timing! This damn machine got stuck in this damn mud--can you help me push it out?"
"Nope," Ragnell replies, and keeps walking.
......She'll at least stick around to watch and pass out snacks if someone else decides to be merciful......?
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Spicy Jerky toward her party's challenge, Stuck War Machine.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
NOT WRITTEN FOR THE GOOD OF ALL
Along the way Ratatoskr geeks out about the commander and recognizes them from accounts regarding a minor skirmish that happened somewhere before everyone returned (or in some cases, got sent for the first time) to Filgaia. It's embarrassing and weird and when Ratatoskr grows up he might look back and realize how much cringe has happened.
This game will not be subject to this indignity beyond the acknowledgement that it happened. It totally did.
BACK TO A MORE DIGNIFIED POINT IN THE TIMELINE
"Is that a--" Ratatoskr's designation of what the machina/Gear is is lost to a lightning strike. The solid yellow of his eyes lights up. "Is that a--!"
NEVER MIND THIS PART IS JUST AS BAD
VERY SORRY ABOUT THIS -mgmt
...It is in good hands, if one considers 'fan hands' to be 'good hands.'
DG: Ratatoskr has used his Tool Derelict Relic toward his party's challenge, Stuck War Machine.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Technically speaking, Loren also has healing magic, but he's already driven himself close to the point of Ether exhaustion today keeping himself from being unduly ended by various twists of fate, and it would be a bad idea to dip into his limited Rosesol stock just to wear himself out again and really need it. There are times when he's glad he has his skills to fall back on--
Too bad he still doesn't know all that much about Seraphs.
Which, might be especially to his detriment as he tries his damndest to focus on the screen of the machine and block Ragnell out, but she's not about to let him off easy.
'Is there anything you don't hate'
'If you don't like her none either'
Loren takes a deep, ragged breath and then responds thus: "Shut up--!" He stares at her for a few moments more, his hand shaking, then turns as if he were going to try and break for it--
And nearly bumps right into Kaguya. What, did he not see she was there? "..." he exhales at first.
'What you guys do to people'. It would have been fine if she'd hated him. But instead--
He can't tell if he wants to laugh, or scream, or...
He doesn't have a response to Kaguya. He just stares at the screen of his device as if it had all the answers and not just a set of wavering lines.
It's easier to just shrink back afterwards, as if he weren't one of the... as if he were instead... but he's never been good at the former, has he? He can't remember much these days but he still remembers when Major Yugh struck him. Shaking his head, he's still in that fog of himself, still weighting where his people are likely to be and where he is and how he's going to get out of the Thunder Plains when someone calls out for--
As if waking from a fugue state, Loren glances over to see someone struggling with a machine. "What...?" For a moment, he hesitates.
And then he watches as Ragnell walks on by and perhaps it's pettiness that moves him, but it's enough: he breaks off and moves to try and assist the beleagured person for no better reason than Ragnell isn't.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Stuck War Machine.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"I'm definitely keeping some," Kaguya says of the needles. She keeps a lot of stuff, though. It's kind of a thing she does.
Leaving the matter of legacy aside, she grumps at Ragnell a little, "Ugh, exactly. She could at least pretend to be less insightful, it's rude." She knows when she's gotten, at least, and Ragnell's too smart to fool there. The conversation, though... Well. They can discuss those things later, too.
It is nice, at least, to fix something.
Kaguya is annoyed at nerly being bumped into, sure. And she sees Loren's hand shaking. A kinder person might take heed of that. A kinder person might do a lot of things. But Kaguya isn't.
And speaking of fixing things... Kaguya notices the waving, lifts an eyebrow. And then she has to listen to Ratatoskr geeking out about the commander they see. He's not one of Kaguya's subordinates regardless, and maybe sometimes she would enjoy hearing a story. But not this day. Not... this day.
"Dude, we could've been the enemy," Kaguya points out to him. "But yeah yeah sure I can help." She considers the mud. She considers what she'd have to do to physically push the machine. ...She immediately decides that that's some bullshit.
"Yeah so I'm just gonna blast this part here a little more so you can push it out straight, see ths ground here? Yeah, step back." Kaguya pulls out a bomb (yes) and cracks it open briefly, messing with something inside it and takes something out of it. "There. Much smaller blast, contained and directed." She sets it down, and walks off a little. "Don't look into the explosion." It'll be green!
Then she looks over, to where Loren is actually helping. ...
Yeah no she's going to go for it. Kaguya starts to pass by Loren on the way through, after the explosion, as he helps... and sticks out a foot in front of his shin, shoving with her hands to trip him over it and dunk him straight into the mud.
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Magnetic Resonance Bomb toward her party's challenge, Stuck War Machine.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
It's a war machine. Gwen frowns.
Then, she notices Ratatoskr's interest, and notes that she *did* mention how she was going to give them discounts. What would someone like
And Loren. Loren is helping. She smiles slightly. Yes, it's a war machine, but it's one that's not Solaris brand.
Taking a piece of jerky from Ragnell with a nod of appreciation, Gwen goes over by where the medic is.
"Here." Gwen motions to Loren. "I'll support you on this end. Will that make it easier?"
Whether he accepts her help or not, she's still helping, just in some other way, assisting his work.
"I'm sorry. I pushed too much." She grimaces just before she lifts, the muscles in her face contracting in a way that shows her own amount of concern. "... I'll be going in after them. I just... wanted you to know." She wanted to see if he'd care, and not avoid the subject.
It scares her too, in a way she seems to have lost, otherwise.
It's a beautiful sort of weakness, a crack inland with precious stone.
A weakness like how Kaguya goes over and trips Loren at the right moment. "...... Well, I'm glad you're still your regular ol' Kaguya self, at the very least."
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Stuck War Machine.
======================<* Thunder Plains - Drums of War *>======================= ======================<* CHALLENGE - Stuck War Machine *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The fact of the matter is that both sides -- Yevon and Althena's Guard -- have fielded war machines in this conflict. The other important fact of the matter is that the Thunder Plains are awash in near constant rain along with the ever-present lightning. And this means that one of those machines has become stuck. One of the beleaguered fighters calls out to you for help. They need to get this thing unstuck, and fast! Ideally before it becomes a target for a lightning strike. =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken===================================================
=================<* Thunder Plains - Drums of War - Round 5 *>================== ========================< Results - Stuck War Machine >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 41 --(4)--> 45 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 40 --(4)--> 44 Pass Magnetic Resonance Bomb 3 Brute Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 30 --(4)--> 34 Pass Spicy Jerky 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 41 --(4)--> 45 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 30 --(4)--> 34 Pass Derelict Relic 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 70 --(20)--> 90 Pass Conditions: Fright(1)|Weaken(2) Effects: Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"'Shut up'? Is that the best you got?" Ragnell sneers at Loren. He doesn't respond to Kaguya, either, as if running away into the refuge of silence. Yet it's little different from burying his head in the sand. She shakes her head. "You gutless coward."
Yes, she is *absolutely* happy to be given reason to continue to hold him in deep contempt. At first, it was a mere disdain, but after seeing the way he talked to and treated Elly... after learning more about Solaris... Well. Loren just makes himself the easiest scapegoat, doesn't he? It's almost like it's his fate.
Though if Ragnell knew that Loren were going over to that soldier to help out simply because she *isn't*, she might at least admire his sheer level of petty spite.
Instead, Ragnell just *smirks* at Kaguya. At least she doesn't call *her* out, possibly because for a while Ratatoskr geeking out drowns absolutely everything else out.
Sure enough, since the others decide to go over and help this dumb soldier guy, Ragnell stops and gets out some spicy jerky to gnaw on. She's willing to share with the others--even Loren, if he has the guts to indicate he wants anything from her--and nods to Gwen when she accepts a piece. She watches her go over and talk to Loren too, with significantly more kindness than any of the rest of them had. She shakes her head slightly, then snaps into another piece of dry-rubbed dehydrated meat.
Oh, the war machine? Yeah between Kaguya's explosives and Ratatoskr's fan hands and Gwen's pushing and Loren's getting tripped into the mud, they manage to move it along. "Thanks!" the soldier says to them, and shoots Ragnell a dirty look. Ragnell fails to give a fuck. The directions the soldier proceeds to give the others to get through the battlefield safely help her as much as it helps the others, after all.
DG: Loren Voss has drawn a new Challenge.
======================<* Thunder Plains - Drums of War *>======================= =========================<* CHALLENGE - No Fighting *>========================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Both sides are preparing now for the next clash to come, assembling on either side in this section of the Thunder Plains. This engagement could settle the fighting here, one way or another, but not without tremendous loss of life. And here you are, just watching on as you see both sides headed towards a terrible clash in a valley amidst the plains. Here in this forsaken place of all things! You become aware that you are standing near enough to a rain-soaked slope. It really would only take a little bit of a physical disturbance to see it come crashing down to the place where you know they'll end up fighting. It would be a sure way of putting an end to this battle, at least for today. But perhaps that might be enough. =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Tire=============================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
'You gutless coward'.
Hatred, at least, is something he's more accustomed to. People who hate him because of his nation. People who hate him because of what he's done. People who hate him because...
He used to remember why. There used to be something here. But now he's left with broken-off contextless half of it.
It's fine. It's...
At least focusing on helping the guy gives him something to do rather than endlessly circulate towards a destination that can't be reached. Even if, as Gwen steps in alongside him--
"Fine," he says, clipped, because it's just helplessly wrong and weird. Like she's filled in some gap -- one of those many many gaps -- just by being present.
She feels like family. That feels like being rubbed the wrong way. It's not-- right. Isn't it?
"..." he doesn't answer her at first. "Just-- just stop acting like that," he manages. "You've got it wrong. I don't c--"
And this is the point when Kaguya suddenly looms (yes even if she's shorter) behind him and shows him her sister's best moves when she flips him into the mud.
The good news is that the war machine's not stuck anymore! ...And that's about it.
Come to think of it, why was there a war machine up...
Interesting. They're on an elevated spot. Below, both sides are lining up to have a go at each other, and without question, this will be the outcome if they have it out below:
There is no way any of them are going to be able to get back out of the Thunder Plains in any timely fashion!!
Above, thunder rumbles ominously.
Well-caked with mud, Loren sits on the ground and considers these facts. And then he also considers the integrity of the slope, crumbling at the edges.
"...If this thing goes, it'll slide all the way down there," he says, stating the facts for everyone. He never says 'and therefore let's do it'.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, No Fighting.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
Ratatoskr helps dislodge the war machine with that weird gun blade ARM thing he carries around for the express purpose of meeting its original wielder. (They are long dead and he never will.) Independent of some of the boiling tensions and strange feelings of kinship that seem to be coming together, he seems especially chipper as he climbs atop the war machine (to probable protest of the people they've been helping) and grins as he looms over the brewing hostilities.
"...I really want to visit that Farplane again," Ratatoskr says. The place where the dead are only phantoms in shape. Phantoms that do not speak back. "Maybe this time they'll be there...? Maybe this time they'll be there!"
The war between Yevon and Althena has ensured that there would be no more casual visits of the place - Otherworlders have not been received with open arms as of late. And yet, the dream is there. So many names and faces, he's tried to get from the disaster of Operation Mi'ihen. It's been a personal mission to try and remember all those lost. Even with his obsession with keeping the memory of war heroes... he only knows a fraction.
He holds that fraction tightly, and yet...
His bright yellow eyes brighten ever more, that grin widening. His squirrel-like tail bristles as he leans on the machine.
"It'll slide all the way down there..." He repeats what Loren says. Could someone be on board with the poor Solarian's way of thinking, for once?
Considering their somewhat recent bout, Gwen probably knows better as to what's coming.
"Hyahaha--! I can't wait to watch them fight...!" oh no
Ratatoskr stabs the weird ARM blade thing into the ground and discharges its barrier ability to further carve out the loosening stone so that it can start rushing down the hill and causing all sorts of problems.
This is going to end terribly!!!
DG: Ratatoskr has used his Tool Derelict Relic toward his party's challenge, No Fighting.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Kaguya doesn't get called out! Maybe the other reason is she's willing to admit being got. Regardless, she takes a definite satisfaction in the moment when Loren eats the dirt. She actually smiles. It won't fix anything, of course. It won't solve any problems. But it does feel better.
She has no idea of what's going on with Gwen and Loren, of course. Not really, except for Gwen totally hitting him in the feelings. But she can see Ratatoskr's cheerfulness, comparitively, hear him talking about the Farplane...
"Yeah, maybe they will," she answers, thinking about who 'thy' might be. How many dead in Spira? That's who would be there, right?
Would any of her soldirs nd up there?
"Okay," Kaguya says first to Ragnell, "You just stonewalling him was hilarious." But then she looks to the spot below. She sees the soldiers preparing, sees what it means for their travel times, but also sees what it means for other purposes. If she judges right, the Althenans look a little haggard... does she recognize Hyland colors down there? Maybe she does. Maybe it's too muddy to be sure. Maybe...
Loren goes for it. The stone starts to shake, and Kaguya considers it. She notices Ratatoskr stab his weird blade into the ground. "...Yeah, that's definitely what's going to happen," she says, and pulls another bomb. Flicking a couple of switches, she actually uses it as-designed for once, just throwing it out into the air where it'll explode when it reaches the loose dirt.
She is LYING.
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Magnetic Resonance Bomb toward her party's challenge, No Fighting.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell grins at Kaguya when the Veruni tells her stonewalling that soldier was hilarious. She's glad *someone* appreciates her, even if the others ended up helping him anyway.
They're uphill of a battle that's about to take place, though, and that war machine is on its way to join it...
She shakes her head, then gives Gwen and Loren a sidelong glance. Huh. He's actually opening up to her a little. Is it because she's being nicer to him than she or Kaguya had been? But he'd clammed up at first to him before... Hm.
The better question might be, how much does she actually care...?
Regardless. There is a battle to interfere with below. Loren lays out the facts, then sends his power through the earth and down the hill. Ratatoskr, who is literally never on anyone else's wavelength, proclaims excitement about the oncoming battle but sends a landslide down towards them anyway, possibly because Ratatoskr is incapable of connecting cause to effect. Ragnell shakes her head again, this time with a slight half-smile as she bites into another piece of spicy jerky, and calls down some lightning bolts to help that landslide down and help detonate Kaguya's bombs at just the right time.
Seriously. This is a *stupid* place to hold a war. It's those armies' own faults if they don't retreat to safer ground.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Spicy Jerky toward her party's challenge, No Fighting.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Loren's words are blunt, but it's Loren! He's always like that, and-
... It's much easier for Gwen to go along with the feeling of recognition, more out of ignorance of what it's like to have biological kin that she knows of.
.... or the space where their memories used to be, in Loren's case.
Gwen opens her mouth to speak, but reconsiders, closing it to give Loren a firm nod. "... Right." This is Loren, a man who had what little anchors she'd seen him with jostled, his allegiances tested. A man who ran, because the decision of what he would his back to was too great. A man who has had people like her dance the line between ally and enemy, failing to respect either side because she didn't want the burden of choosing.
And she is a Drifter, among people who she's had to fight at least once or twice.
Which is why the prospect of keeping two sides from fighting isn't as stomach churning as it could be.
At least, not to the point that Gwen doesn't ask to have another piece of spicy jerky from Ragnell. Chewing it quietly while deep in her thoughts she casts out a hand, doing her best at her angle to mimic Ragnell's lightning with her own.
It's not quite as convincing, but a light show is a light show. "Hopefully we'll get to the other end soon."
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool ARM-ored Fist toward her party's challenge, No Fighting.
======================<* Thunder Plains - Drums of War *>======================= =========================<* CHALLENGE - No Fighting *>========================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Both sides are preparing now for the next clash to come, assembling on either side in this section of the Thunder Plains. This engagement could settle the fighting here, one way or another, but not without tremendous loss of life. And here you are, just watching on as you see both sides headed towards a terrible clash in a valley amidst the plains. Here in this forsaken place of all things! You become aware that you are standing near enough to a rain-soaked slope. It really would only take a little bit of a physical disturbance to see it come crashing down to the place where you know they'll end up fighting. It would be a sure way of putting an end to this battle, at least for today. But perhaps that might be enough. =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Tire=============================================
=================<* Thunder Plains - Drums of War - Round 6 *>================== ===========================< Results - No Fighting >============================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 45 --(8)--> 53 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 44 --(8)--> 52 Pass Magnetic Resonance Bomb 3 Brute Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 34 --(8)--> 42 Pass Spicy Jerky 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 45 --(8)--> 53 Pass ARM-ored Fist 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 34 --(8)--> 42 Pass Derelict Relic 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 90 --(30)--> 120 Pass Conditions: Tire(2)|Weaken(2) Effects: Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Loren Voss has successfully explored Thunder Plains - Drums of War!
======================<* Thunder Plains - Drums of War *>======================= ===============<* CHALLENGE - Finders Keepers - Cold Hard Cash *>=============== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Whether you've escaped the fray or outright put an end to the fighting for today, you find yourself at last free of both the battle and the storm. This close to the edge of the Thunder Plains, the sky is clearing. You happen upon the tattered remains of a Warrior Monk encampment. Perhaps they fled in a hurry -- you find, all told, a cool 10,000 gil among the remnants. Lucky! =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
His heart, perhaps, remembers what his mind has lost.
As complicated as it all is.
But again, in this moment there's something upon which he can focus. Right now he's pushing everything -- well, nearly everything -- he has left, short of the Rosesol in his kit, into this cliffside.
There is no dancing about the truth here: if he were here on his own, he wouldn't have succeeded. He knows this is the case. The sort of power he ought to have by birth... isn't present. Not in the capacity -- the form -- he would prefer. He rises suddenly as Ratatoskr declares he can't wait to see the fighting that will happen. As Kaguya tosses out out a bomb. As lightning strikes earth all about him, and as Gwen does similarly--
He stares into the distance as the cliff gives and collapses in a terrible slide for the spread of land below. The armies scatter, effective immediately. Maybe no one gets hurt. Maybe lives are spared, just for one day.
All Loren thinks about is the report he has to write.
And if anyone believes that one, there's a really nice bridge for sale...
He turns finally, as the shaking of the collapsing ledge comes to an end, and regards each of them in turn. Then, he walks past them all, as if they were some sort of gauntlet.
"...You're pretty weird," he says to Ratatoskr, which may be the first time he's actually acknowledged the Hyadean's existence. ...Things are looking up?
"Just... just stay out of my way," he mutters to Gwen, who keeps on being... herself at him, constantly. Who feels like kin.
"I'm going to get you for this," he promises Kaguya, and there's an actual flush of vehemence in that gaze.
Which may be nothing yet compared to the look he gives Ragnell as he passes her. He doesn't say anything to her. Maybe there's nothing worth saying.
The rest of them will find in the plains below the remains of the Warrior Monk's side -- what they left when they fled the landslide. Most of it's junk, but there is some...
Huh. There's a lot of it actually. There's 10,000 gil total in fact!
Lucky!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
When Loren passes by her with that ugliest of glares and no words worth sharing, Ragnell just smiles nastily and says, "Say hi to Lan for me."