2020-10-14: Not All Who Wander Are Lost, But...
- Log: Not All Who Wander Are Lost, But...
- Cast: Yuna, Lulu, Ida Everstead-Rey
- Where: Bevelle - Via Purifico
- Date: October 14, 2020
- Summary: Lulu and Yuna run across Ida beneath Bevelle. After an intense reunion, the three travel together for a time, until fiends drive them apart.
==========================<* Bevelle - Via Purifico *>========================== Via Purifico is the immense, ancient labyrinth built underneath Bevelle. It is attached the prisons in the temple complex. It is a place of death and despair, as those tried and found guilty are sentenced to it -- to escape and prove their innocence or (as happens far more likely) die within. The labyrinth has countless glyphs, which are warded and make navigating hard (and teleporting away impossible). There are many portions that are flooded, as well, and that adds an extra level of complexity. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtN36ITVrCo
DG: A party led by Yuna is now entering Via Purifico. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
===============================<* Via Purifico *>===============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Finding Your Friends *>=====================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
The tunnels of Via Purifico are damp. Ancient stone, colored green by moss
and other plant life, makes up the walls and floors. Here and there,
patterns of red stone from the original construction may be seen. Lamps on
the floor light it, here and there; machina lamps, ancient and still
functioning, give some hope of navigating.
People cast down here have landed in different places, after being dropped
down from Bevelle above. You have found yourself in one room. The only thing
to do is search -- and hope to find other members before long.
=Dungeon Conditions: Madness, Overwhelm, Tire=================================
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
The worst is already over.
Everything is still terrible -- it is dark, damp, dank. Everything is still horrible -- Yevon is corrupt to the core, and the fates of so many loved ones is still unknown.
But Yuna no longer searches for them alone.
She and Lulu wander quietly through the labyrinth. Hand-in-hand is impractical for more than one reason but they are essentially shoulder-to-shoulder; no light passes between them. But, perhaps, no darkness either; there's an intimacy to their silence, a fundamental closeness that goes beyond the physical.
They are not without urgency, but the summoner at least seems to favor picking her way down tunnels to charging along them. Yuna is forced to express her desperation in other ways. She worries her earring and picks at her obi... eventually retrieving a token of Rikku's, a fiend's Fire Gem. Keeping its light tightly clutched in her fingers, she uses it in an alternative way -- scraping little symbols behind them at each intersection, so that they don't get lost.
"I hope we find them soon," she whispers... often. Her eyes shimmer, though she does not cry and is not close to crying. It's just... a powerful emotion, when she thinks about everyone who crashed her wedding. "Everyone..."
DG: Yuna has used her Tool Pilgrim's Sash toward her party's challenge, Finding Your Friends.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Wandering down in the great halls of the Via Purifico is still not a comfortable experience, but it is better in its way since Lulu has come across Yuna down here. The worst is indeed over, whatever danger awaits.
But the black mage, too, favors a slower and more deliberate approach, and her calm is not a lack of caring, or a lack of concern. It's just her way, something Yuna knows better than perhaps anyone. The little things that suggest her concern are the way she makes sure to turn corners first, keeps watch as Yuna uses the gem to score symbols.
Follow the water away, in theory. There must be a point at which the tunnels open, some exit, an Lulu continues. ...Lulu, likewise, does feel that emotion. Ther wre many...
She would regret leaving them behind.
"All we can do is keep looking," Lulu answers. "...At least many of them are used to dank underground tunnels," she points out.
But maybe there is someone closer than they think...!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
ABOVE
Ida stands at the mouth of a yawning pit, with less than a foot of time-worn stone between her and the abyss. Behind her, on the execution platform, stand the Warrior-Monks--six in number, and all ones she's encountered before. Some time at least two days ago, they dragged Ida from her cell and questioned her, less to obtain information and more to intimidate and abuse her. At least two of them were there, with Kinoc, at the arrest, to beat her into unconsciousness.
Their motive is clear. Ida killed someone dear to them--a squadmate? a commander?--and they want revenge. Ida cannot help but feel as though they want to toss her in unarmed, even if it's against protocol.
The leader of the group tosses a canvas-wrapped bundle at Ida's feet. Ida is silent as she opens it, and finds her boots, her ARM belts, her jacket, and the rest of her missing gear.
"Put it on," the squad leader commands. "For all the good it'll do you."
Ida slips on her boots with all due haste, and dons the rest after, being careful to double-check everything. Once she's armed, she very pointedly turns back to face the woman who spoke.
"Hokka," Ida says. "Did he die at Home?"
The Warrior-Monk's face tightens in a rictus of pain and rage. "I don't know how you survived that grenade," she says, "but you won't survive this. Die in agony, Otherworld scum."
The woman charges, slams the butt of her rifle into Ida's gut. She staggers back, sickening vertigo overcoming her as she skids off the edge--
She falls.
-splash-
The force of the impact stuns her. She feels her skin stiffen in response; feels her diaphraghm and ribs reinforce themselves. Instinctively, she swims upwards, kicking and clawing towards the distant light. Her head breaks the surface. She gasps for air.
Ida opens her eyes, and finds herself alone, floating in a pool of water that looks like it's never seen the sun.
BELOW
Ida traces her way along the walls, focusing on her breath in an attempt to keep herself under control.
You're going to die down here. You're going to die, and they'll never find your body. Your soul will break apart, and turn into something that will keep killing long after you are dead.
Ida's true steadying point rests in her hand--the multitool Kalve made for her when he first left to 'tend to his family'. It was the first thing he'd ever made for her, and it's a tangible symbol of their love. She has to make it. She has to. She has to.
This can't be where it ends...?
This is where it ends.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool ARMS Meister's Field Kit toward her party's challenge, Finding Your Friends. DG: Lulu has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Finding Your Friends.
===============================<* Via Purifico *>===============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Finding Your Friends *>=====================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
The tunnels of Via Purifico are damp. Ancient stone, colored green by moss
and other plant life, makes up the walls and floors. Here and there,
patterns of red stone from the original construction may be seen. Lamps on
the floor light it, here and there; machina lamps, ancient and still
functioning, give some hope of navigating.
People cast down here have landed in different places, after being dropped
down from Bevelle above. You have found yourself in one room. The only thing
to do is search -- and hope to find other members before long.
=Dungeon Conditions: Madness, Overwhelm, Tire=================================
==========================<* Via Purifico - Round 1 *>========================== =======================< Results - Finding Your Friends >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yuna 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Pilgrim's Sash 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lulu 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 0 --(15)--> 15 Pass ARMS Meister's Field Kit 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Yuna 0 --(10)--> 10 Fail Conditions: Madness|Overwhelm|Tire(2) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Yuna has failed this challenge! The party gained 10 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Lulu has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Via Purifico *>=============================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Collapsing Roof *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Portions of Via Purifico's ancient tunnels are in poor repair. At different points, some tunnels have been dry or flooded. When you enter this tunnel, you hear a rumble from above. Then some of the ancient tunnel's roof begins to crumble down, both dust and chunks of stone, and huge slabs of rock. It comes crashing down atop of you -- and forces you to move quickly, or else! =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Injure, Exhaust====================================
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
The Via Purifico is staggeringly large.
Even with perhaps two dozen friends and family optimistically released into it (optimistically, as opposed to having been executed in a more immediate way), it isn't terribly SURPRISING to not find anyone right away.
Or... after that.
Or... even later.
"...who do you mean?" Yuna asks, after a long silence. Tidus is from the big city, Rikku from the desert, Kimahri from the snow, and Wakka from the same paradise as the two of them. "I guess," she supposes, "Maybe Sir Auron..."
There is something... subterranean... about the Legendary Guardian.
Fatigue lines the summoner's face. Both because it is hard to walk so quietly for so long -- and, much moreso, because it is hard to walk so quietly for so long... and find no one else.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
For Ida, the tunnels bend away from the water quickly enough, into mazelike corridors that see her alone for a while yet. For Lulu.. Well. As with Yuna.
"Not us until recently," Lulu admits, "But the Otherworlders who helped at least make a habit of this sort of place. The others may have linked up with some of them."
Though... Probably Auron, too. Somehow.
But some of the tunnels are dry, and some are flooded. Ida turns down a corridor and will spot Lulu and Yuna first-
Just in time for the three of them to have to start running if they want to get past the space where the roof is starting to crack and dust raining down in preparation to become giant slabs of rock. There is not long.
Lulu hangs onto her Cactuar under one arm for the haste it affords her, and reaches out for Yuna.
"Ida?" Rumble rumble, keep going!
DG: Lulu has used her Tool Swift Cactuar toward her party's challenge, Collapsing Roof.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
It's a maze. Of course it's a maze. But this is not nearly the worst maze Ida has ever endured. She remembers the Decaying Labyrinth, and the harrowing run back to the light. In the end, she was the one to have broken its curse--one by one, the others of her party had fallen behind, leaving her to pray they still lived. They were all lucky, though. No one died in that rotting hell.
It's difficult for her to keep her wits about her after everything she's endured, but past experience serves her well nevertheless. She adds distinct etchings of her own to mark her way, making note of all the similar etchings others have made over the years. Decades. Centuries?
Movement, up ahead. Ida's hand gets halfway to Devil's Due before she recognizes a familiar pair of figures. Her eyes go wide with shock, even as they start to mist over with tears.
"YUNA!" Ida shouts. "LULU!" As if they'll vanish if she doesn't get their attention.
But the dungeon has other plans, it seems. Pebbles rain from the roof, followed by larger chunks of debris. Instinct takes over. Ida grabs for Yuna's hand, bodily hauling the two women after her as she sprints for it. The wind picks up behind them, blowing in two separate directions--shielding them from the lighter debris, even as it provides a favorable tailwind.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Zephyr Boots toward her party's challenge, Collapsing Roof.
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
Yuna gasps in a sharp breath -- a convenient way to express shock at the ceiling, worry for Ida, AND get a bunch of oxygen, all in one expression.
And then she's seized, by friends who have acted before she even began. Lulu takes her right arm and Ida her left hand. Tension suddenly pours through her body, but the sound of her second gasp is drowned out by the thundrous rocks.
Hasted by a Cactuar, and gone with the wind, for a moment it's as though there's no need for her to do anything. It isn't the Tools that soothe her though, not really, and it isn't her body that is saved.
"Ida," she coughs through the dust, "Thank, thank goodness you're alive..."
But as they get to the edge of the collapse, and it seems like all is well, one last great stone falls silently towards them. Blue skirts and pink sleeves swirl as the girl spins, retrieving her arms -- whirls -- and catches it right out of the air with her Kilikan net before anyone can get hurt. She keeps spinning, far too weak to lift it without a little centrifugal aid, and instead deflects it to one side.
A bandage falls off her left hand, the hand that Ida had taken. It lands in a puddle, and pinkens it.
DG: Yuna has used her Tool Kilika Fishing Net toward her party's challenge, Collapsing Roof.
===============================<* Via Purifico *>=============================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Collapsing Roof *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Portions of Via Purifico's ancient tunnels are in poor repair. At different points, some tunnels have been dry or flooded. When you enter this tunnel, you hear a rumble from above. Then some of the ancient tunnel's roof begins to crumble down, both dust and chunks of stone, and huge slabs of rock. It comes crashing down atop of you -- and forces you to move quickly, or else! =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Injure, Exhaust====================================
==========================<* Via Purifico - Round 2 *>========================== =========================< Results - Collapsing Roof >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yuna 20 --(8)--> 28 Pass Kilika Fishing Net 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lulu 20 --(8)--> 28 Pass Swift Cactuar 3 Agility Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 15 --(8)--> 23 Pass Zephyr Boots 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Yuna 10 --(20)--> 30 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Injure(2)|Slow(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Yuna 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> Lulu has posed.
The Via Purifico is certainly the largest such ruin Lulu has seen. Though just this moment, as parts of it collapse, it doesn't feel so much large as entirely too small at exactly the wrong place. The centuries have been no kinder to any of the others who never made it out...
But they all move quickly--Ida confirms her identity to Lulu and her location, and they all rush off together just in time. Between Lulu and Ida, Yuna is well supported, and then thanks to Yuna, the final rock that could've landed on them is deflected. This gives them a moment of quiet, now that it's all gone.
The wind dies down again, and Lulu notices it then. "It's good to see you alive," Lulu agrees with Yuna, looking Ida over thoughtfully. Checking her condition, generally, is obviously what she's doing. But her eyes drift to Yuna, instead, and she starts to reach into her things for another bandage.
Hiro pages Lulu, Yuna, and Ida Everstead-Rey: Hey hey, mind an observer?
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Via Purifico *>===============================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Ancient Turbine Crossing *>===================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
Via Purifico's depths include some of the immense machina that keep the city
working. You find one such machina, in this cavernous chamber: a massive
turbine that powers some of the machina used by Bevelle. It fills the huge
gap before you, and falling into it would consign you to be -- for lack if a
better word -- blendered.
However, a huge bar across the top makes a bridge across the tunnel. The bar
could be crossed single-file, but it moves too quickly to be safe. If you
use some force, though, you might be able to stop it in the right place and
cross to the other side safely.
=Dungeon Conditions: Collapse, Injure, Exhaust================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
As Yuna hurls away the final stone, Ida allows herself to step away from the others, and slump against the wall. Part of her wants to stay here and sob for a while--to release some of the stress she's been under--but that can't happen. Instead, she nods once, answering Yuna's question. "I am," she whispers. "Despite the best efforts of our captors. But--" She looks the Summoner up and down, much like Lulu does, but she leaves more direct care to the Guardian. "I was starting to fear the worst," she says. She'd seen Lulu, knew she, at least, was alive. But Yuna...
"I don't know if any of the others are alive." Ida pauses a beat, and wipes sweat and grime from her brow. "But seeing the two of you..." Her jaw trembles. "Yuna, I--I'm sorry. This whole time I was... I was..."
Ida stumbles over her words for what feels like an eternity, before they finally start to cohere. "I wanted to protect you," she whispers. "For your sake, but also--for mine. Because the last time I encountered someone like you, I... I didn't understand her hope. I grew to hate her, and myself. I didn't realize it, but you were a second chance--a second chance I never needed."
"You'd seen so much suffering already," Ida whispers. She glances to Lulu, apologetic. "I didn't want you to suffer any more. But I was--I was denying what you could be, what you showed us all on that rooftop."
Ida rises, wipes her eyes. "God I'm sorry," she whispers. She pauses, takes a deep breath. It's now that she feels the rumble of something turning nearby. Machinery. It feels like home. "Let's... keep going."
Beyond is a familiar sight--to Ida, at least. Massive turbines rest within the guts of Guild Galad, circulating air and powering some of its utilities. "We have to stop it somehow," she says. "But I don't see any controls." She looks to the others.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Ancient Turbine Crossing.
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
It seems that Yuna's hand will need to go unbandanged for just... a little longer. She acknowledges Lulu's attempt with a tiny nod, one that moves her nose more than her chin with its smallness. It isn't a meek gesture, though. Just a minimal one, between two people for whom a little goes a long way. All the way.
Because she needs her hand. She needs to take Ida's in it, then cover it with the other, and squeeze. And when that isn't enough, to draw her even closer, into a soft embrace.
It isn't a warm one, in the literal sense. Yuna's temperature is low. She's been down here a long time. Perhaps she was even the first. But only after... bad things happened. It was obvious at the trial. It is more obvious, now. Evidently they felt no need to hide their marks, once Yuna had left the ranks of the holy and joined the ranks of the condemned.
But it is a warm one in the sense of being fierce. Yuna is beaten and battered and exhausted but not broken, not in the way that Yevon had hoped. And she holds Ida so, so close.
"Please don't apologize," she murmurs after the second one. Her voice is low but, incredibly, the tiniest spark of humor remains to her, all the brighter amid this desolate darkness. "If you do that... then I'll have nothing left to say."
She embraces her friend in silence for a time, and if again she does not cry, perhaps it's because she feels each of Ida's tears as strongly as though she's shed them herself. She collects her words slowly, thoughtfully, since Ida has, if inadvertantly, challenged her to say something else than what she might have said otherwise.
"When you came, to the rooftop... I was so frightened. And so frustrated. And so... happy. Because you were there. Because I wasn't alone anymore. And because... I had... so many friends. More than I ever imagined."
Her smile is complex; it is lovely in its happiness, and its sadness. All that, contained in a rosebud as small as her earlier gesture. "I know that right now... I should feel cursed... but you... make me feel blessed, instead. I'm so glad to know you. I'm so glad that you're my friend. So don't... please don't be sorry... for wanting to protect me."
She leans back, but not before shifting her hands to Ida's shoulders, just for a moment, and pressing firmly, supportively. "That's what friends do. Thank you, Ida. Thank you so much. For everything."
Then she steps back, to give her the space to collect herself that she's asked for -- and to give Lulu a crack at her hand. Ida gets a chance to see it clearly, the brutally red palm. Yevon has branded her with one of their runes, more likely with hot iron than with magic. No need to guess which, in context.
HERETIC
Afterwards, she produces her violet Destruction Sphere from her obi and sets it into a setting that, indeed, was obviously intended for such a device. Just not THIS one. Instead of sending power to the turbine, it drains it... then begins to pulse with an ominous light.
DG: Yuna has used her Tool Macalania Destruction Sphere toward her party's challenge, Ancient Turbine Crossing.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Lulu noices Ida's strain, but has a particular means of addressing it; for the moment, so long as Ida is willing to keep going, Lulu won't draw attention to her difficulty doing so. It's a small thing, but it's one she can do. But this, instead... This is something differnt, and that doesn't quite cut it there.
Lulu listens, to the parts that sound familiar, and to the parts that don't, as she stands with the bandage.
She knows the meaning of Yuna's nod; she knows that that's how it's going to be, for now. She stands, and is quit, through the apology. But there is nothing cruel in her expression when Ida glances to her, just a quiet watching. Ida, too, can see Lulu regard her as a person, just now, understand maybe the depth in that lok.
"...I'm not here," Lulu says eventually, as she gently takes Yuna's hand in hers, "to Guard her from having friends." There's a soft wryness in her tone there, and a gentle quality perhaps seemingly unusual for this terribly severe woman.
Carefully, Lulu wraps Yuna's hand again. "I was glad to be able to rely on your help, myself."
Lulu finishes the bandage, and then kneels down, setting down a Mog doll which toddles forward towards the device... and slams its tiny fists into the ground to start to try to bend its track outright to help stop it.
DG: Lulu has used her Tool Power Mog toward her party's challenge, Ancient Turbine Crossing.
===============================<* Via Purifico *>===============================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Ancient Turbine Crossing *>===================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
Via Purifico's depths include some of the immense machina that keep the city
working. You find one such machina, in this cavernous chamber: a massive
turbine that powers some of the machina used by Bevelle. It fills the huge
gap before you, and falling into it would consign you to be -- for lack if a
better word -- blendered.
However, a huge bar across the top makes a bridge across the tunnel. The bar
could be crossed single-file, but it moves too quickly to be safe. If you
use some force, though, you might be able to stop it in the right place and
cross to the other side safely.
=Dungeon Conditions: Collapse, Injure, Exhaust================================
==========================<* Via Purifico - Round 3 *>========================== =====================< Results - Ancient Turbine Crossing >===================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yuna 28 --(35)--> 63 Fail Macalania Destruction Sphere 2 Brute Effects: Fanfare and Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lulu 28 --(15)--> 43 Pass Power Mog 3 Brute Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 23 --(35)--> 58 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Yuna 30 --(10)--> 40 Fail Conditions: Collapse|Exhaust(1)|Injure(2)|Slow(1) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Yuna 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> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida holds Yuna close, even as tears flow. She can feel the clamminess clinging to her friend's skin; if nothing else, she can provide literal warmth, as Azoth did for her. And she laughs, a little, at Yuna's self-deparacating humor. God, that feels so close to home.
"My one regret," Ida says, "is that I didn't get to punch that madman in the face. It's the least he deserves, for what he did to you." There's a wryness in her tone, but aside from that, she is deadly serious. Seymour has earned her rage. She swallows as Yuna grips her shoulsders. "But enough of that." A weak smile crosses her face, and flickers into something warmer. "I know you'll forgive me, should I come to you for it. But sometimes... I need to forgive myself."
Lulu's remark earns a look of surprise from Ida, but it quickly melts into warmth. And then comes the matter of Yuna's hand. Ida does not recognize the rune, but well, she has all the context she needs.
"That's one for the collection," she says. In the flickering light, the two can see the litany of scars on Ida's skin. The crescent-shaped bites the Wels took from her flesh. The wound Harken gave her across the collarbone at Adlehyde, and the long, long scar running across her torso and right arm--from when Harken nearly killed her. The ugly scar left by Glumzamber when Siegfried caught Ida in his lover's tomb.
She smiles.
The turbine, though, proves a problematic obstacle. Despite Yuna's attempt at a clever workaround, despite Lulu's doll attempting to brute-force a path through, and especially despite Ida trying to pry at the bar herself... it remains unmoved. "Damnation," Ida mutters. "I think I saw a safe path near the edge of the rockslide, though. Let's double back."
DG: Yuna has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Via Purifico *>===============================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Sahagin and Remora *>======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
This is an underwater challenge.
The next stretch of tunnel is underwater. As you swim through the water,
fiends swim towards you: a quartet of Sahagin, each carrying a wicked and
barbed spear in its hands, and then a pair of large, armored shark-like fish
called Remoras. They swim up hurriedly towards you, fangs bared and spears
raised, to bring battle to you!
=Dungeon Conditions: Collapse, Suffer=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
Yuna gives Lulu a tender look, when she comments about not Guarding her from having friends. That wasn't... ALWAYS true. Or at least, it wasn't always so unbegrudging. There was a time that her Guardian had been a lot more concerned about who hung around her. Towheaded disrespectful heretics, for example.
Perhaps... she isn't the only one who's changed, since they left Besaid Island.
"Just fiances," she replies to her Guardian, with perhaps a little more lightness than she feels on the topic of her traumatic wedding, then nods, acknowledging Ida's anger, and supporting her choice to forgive herself. "No more of those for me... but I hope very much that I can Send him to the Farplane, next time we meet." There's no doubt in her mind that they will, and her resolve to do so is a palpable thing, something that steals some of the limited air supply. "Before he can hurt anyone else."
She glances down at her well-bandaged palm, then at Ida's considerable number of scars. She's never thought of the marks of battle as a 'collection' before, but she nods thoughtfully at the idea as it's proposed to her. "I am not the only one who has bourne suffering," she observes softly. "Perhaps you might understand, then, why I too want to protect my friend."
They come to the other path. They hadn't taken it for a reason: it is underwater.
Yuna, who has not not been at least damp since she was thrust into the Via Purifico, gives the water a Big Mood Look. Her lips purse. And then, finally, she spins a second time... and steps out onto the surface of the water.
Snowflakes blossom beneath each of her paces. More snow falls from the broken ceiling, delicate and beautiful.
The silvery fayth of Macalania descends into the water in their path... and freezes it utterly. Then shatters it, upon her own formation.
The Remoras do not survive. But the Sahagin lower their spears and charge. Shiva stands to the fore -- she'll tank.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
It's true--not so long ago Lulu was much, much more selective in Yuna's company. She didn't really approve at first of most of these Otherworlders, either. But, in time...
Maybe Lulu has changed, too.
"Hmm. Yes." No more fiances. "Definitely Guarding from those. ...And I'll do what I can to give you that chance."
She then looks to Ida, for a moment. "Forgiving yourself is much more difficult than forgiving others. That's... something I can understand."
And that's all the feels train Lulu plans to ride for the moment. She has shared more than enough for this trip, thank you. Instead she nods in approval at the matter of a 'collection', though she shows no such tapestry herself. "Hold the past, but don't let it keep you behind."
Lulu gets it. But here, as the other path comes up... She sighs, looking to the water, until Yuna handles it in a very cool way. Lulu atually almost laughs. It's a little sound, blink and you'll miss it.
With Shiva tanking, Lulu sets down a Cait Sith this time, drawing on its power as it menacingly lets off green and black clouds. She casts in time with its motions--or it moves in times with her casting--and starts calling down lightning.
DG: Lulu has used her Tool Ominous Cait Sith toward her party's challenge, Sahagin and Remora. DG: Yuna has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Sahagin and Remora.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Sending is something that only Yuna can do--and it's the only way to get rid of Seymour for good, most likely. Before he hurts somebody else. "I hope so, too," Ida says. Yuna's comment earns a faint blush, and a smile. "What is a scar but a wound that failed to kill you?"
They move on. Ida takes a deep breath, trying to still the memories of the last time she ended up in a narrow tunnel underwater. "Let me go f--" She doesn't finish the sentence.
Ida's mouth falls open as Shiva manifests. Despite the chill in the air, she can't help but watch in awe as the Aeon deals with the obstacle; she's positively beaming, even as she leaps in after. "Look away!" Ida shouts, as she pulls a flashbang, lights it, and throws it, fastball-style, past Shiva. It erupts in the middle of the Sahagin formation, a blinding flash and a thunderous BOOM. Ida draws both ARMs, and opens fire, taking what shots she can.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Flare Grenade toward her party's challenge, Sahagin and Remora.
===============================<* Via Purifico *>===============================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Sahagin and Remora *>======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
This is an underwater challenge.
The next stretch of tunnel is underwater. As you swim through the water,
fiends swim towards you: a quartet of Sahagin, each carrying a wicked and
barbed spear in its hands, and then a pair of large, armored shark-like fish
called Remoras. They swim up hurriedly towards you, fangs bared and spears
raised, to bring battle to you!
=Dungeon Conditions: Collapse, Suffer=========================================
==========================<* Via Purifico - Round 4 *>========================== ========================< Results - Sahagin and Remora >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yuna 63 --(22)--> 85 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lulu 43 --(22)--> 65 Pass Ominous Cait Sith 2 Combat Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 58 --(22)--> 80 Pass Flare Grenade 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Yuna 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Collapse|Injure(1)|Suffer(1) Effects: Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Yuna 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> Yuna has posed.
Yuna understands what Lulu's saying very keenly. She says nothing, however, as now they're now in MORTAL COMBAT.
Well, maybe not so much. Between Ida's grenade, Lulu's lightning, and Shiva's own support, they make awfully quick work of the Sahagin.
Then there's just the glittering tunnel for them to traverse, icy shards on every side. It isn't EXTREMELY safe -- it is not Shiva's way to GET RID OF ICE and accordingly the ground is most slippery -- but it is probably safer than Yuna and Lulu, at least, trying to hold their breath for long enough to get through the normal way. They are neither of them strong swimmers; or, well, Yuna's not, and whether Lulu is or not is somewhat irrelevant in her chosen armor.
Their path is lit by pyreflies, the remnants of the fiends whose souls they have just freed.
Now she has some time to think about what the others said.
'What is a scar but a wound that failed to kill you?'
HERETIC
"Your grenade," she murmurs, "It's very like one I've seen Rikku use."
She glances at Lulu again, wanting with all her heart for her other Guardians to be safe, well, and, most of all, together.
"I think that... the fiends we're fighting, the people they were..." Other condemned of an apparently thousand-year-corrupt institution, "...they would be happy, to have been released from the torment of their existence, by machina wielded by someone good."
Someone like Ida.
DG: Lulu has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Via Purifico *>===============================
==================<* CHALLENGE - Break Through the Ceiling *>===================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
This is an underwater challenge.
You find a path that leads underwater, with a long submerged hallway. It
ends in an octagonal room, with a large ceiling that has a sealed vault on
the top of it. The hinges and the handle are rusted, but this must lead to
the next chamber of Via Purifico. It will be necessary to blast through the
ceiling to get out of here -- with all of the complications and danger that
such a thing implies.
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Tire, Exhaust====================================
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Lulu comments no more on scars for the moment. She does, however, look away as directed from the blasting grenade, though it doesn't have to be that long. She knows grenades reasonably well by now, considering Rikku uses them so often. Water, well...
Slippery is better than submerged, for certain. The pyreflies are eerie as they rise up once again...
Lulu wants that for the other Guardians, too She remember when it was the three of them, but it seems long ago, too.
"...That's a nice thought," Lulu answers Yuna, but she as always when considering Fiends and the like in any detil as to the people they are, she has a distant and thoughtful look as she considers it. It is like Rikku's grenades, though.
The path ahead leads into more water, and has a door at the other end--rusted hinges and handle, a sealed vault ahead. "Seems you had the right idea," she says to Yuna, and sets down her Mog to direct once they have a clear path. Mog does not slide on ice.
DG: Lulu has used her Tool Power Mog toward her party's challenge, Break Through the Ceiling.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Spent brass litters the ground at Ida's feet. She doesn't bother to pick it up; the Fahrenheit has capable machinists, and if nothing else, she can politely ask Kalve to create more if she gets out of here.
When she gets out of here.
"Thank you," Ida says, her blush deepening. As they traverse the now-empty tunnel, she takes it slow and easy. It's as much to help her deal with her fatigue as it is to keep herself from falling.
As before, Ida hangs back and allows Shiva--who has firmly entrenched herself as Ida's favorite Aeon--to sally forth and clear the water. (That said, aside from a brief glimpse at Valefor, well, Shiva's the only Aeon Ida's seen working with Yuna.)
Ida carefully follows the doll, braces, and starts pulling on the vault door. She is acutely aware of her mounting exhaustion.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Break Through the Ceiling.
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
Yuna gives Lulu a sidelong glance, though she does not embellish on whatever she sees in her. Things are hard enough. Instead she smiles, very slightly, at the compliment, then watches the best Black Mage she's ever known -- by which she means so much more than just MAGIC -- do her work.
She too is tired. When she produces the Destruction Sphere this time, it is a slow process to set it into the ceiling in a way that it won't immediately fall right back out. She can't keep concern off her face entirely.
"If this doesn't work," she worries aloud. No need to finish the sentence. Backtracking AGAIN, to look for a third route, would be difficult, indeed. Then she shakes her head.
"If this doesn't work," she says, entirely differently, a steel in her spine leaked into her voice, "We will find a way."
She nods at her friends. "We. are. finding. the. others. and. getting. out. of. here."
Her conviction alone may be enough to take the roof off this place, in the end.
DG: Yuna has used her Tool Macalania Destruction Sphere toward her party's challenge, Break Through the Ceiling.
===============================<* Via Purifico *>===============================
==================<* CHALLENGE - Break Through the Ceiling *>===================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
This is an underwater challenge.
You find a path that leads underwater, with a long submerged hallway. It
ends in an octagonal room, with a large ceiling that has a sealed vault on
the top of it. The hinges and the handle are rusted, but this must lead to
the next chamber of Via Purifico. It will be necessary to blast through the
ceiling to get out of here -- with all of the complications and danger that
such a thing implies.
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Tire, Exhaust====================================
==========================<* Via Purifico - Round 5 *>========================== ====================< Results - Break Through the Ceiling >===================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yuna 85 --(18)--> 103 Pass Macalania Destruction Sphere 2 Brute Effects: Fanfare and Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lulu 65 --(18)--> 83 Pass Power Mog 3 Brute Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 80 --(33)--> 113 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Yuna 60 --(10)--> 70 Fail Conditions: Collapse|Exhaust(1)|Tire(2)|Weaken(2) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: Yuna is too exhausted to continue! DG: Ida Everstead-Rey is too exhausted to continue! DG: The party led by Yuna 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> Lulu has posed.
Perhaps others will one day find this brass, and think of what sort of person might have used it, as they've considered who might've left older etchings in the walls. Maybe
They're all tired; that much is true. However, they have to keep going, sooner or later, and it may as well be sooner. Yuna's concern is clear... Ida's strength is obvious. Mog's power is mighty.
It takes a while, but they get the vault open... in a manner of speaking. The vault shatters, and while the debris isn't enough to kill any of them, it's uncomfortable and more work getting through the then-ruined passageway. But they do get through, in part because Yuna keeps trying that sphere until it explodes.
The way on beckons...
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Via Purifico *>===============================
==================<* CHALLENGE - Malfunctioning Tunnel Door *>==================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
Some portions of Via Purifico have an ancient flood control system, powered
by machina. Although this particular hallway is not flooded, you find one
such control system here: a massive steel doorway that slams down, lifts up,
slams down, and repeats this continuously. Sparks fly from a couple of
places on where the controls had been.
The door slams down repeatedly and too quickly to have a chance to dart
through. However, you may be able to disable the door by jamming (or
destruction) with a little work.
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Overzealous, Exhaust=============================
DG: Lulu has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Malfunctioning Tunnel Door.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida's spirit is with Yuna. They'll get out of here, no matter what.
Her flesh, however, is feeling the strain of a solid week of torment, injury, and deprivation. She drags herself through the opening where the vault door used to be, and tries to rise to her feet--
And fails. Everything aches. She's exhausted her reserves. She used the last of her curatives in the approach to the Cloister of Trials. The woman stays there, propped up on hands and knees, breathing heavily. Ahead, a malfunctioning door--seemingly set to rise and fall with a distinct, destructive rhythm. "I can," Ida gets out. "Just give me... a few minutes..."
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
Yuna sways on her feet.
The Destruction Sphere, which absorbed all that energy from the turbine earlier, had a MUCH larger blast radius than usual, and she was much closer to it than usual when it went off.
One thing that's nice about being The Summoner, though, is that you're allowed to set the pace. For a moment she misses Auron terribly. Then it passes.
She sets down next to Ida in a more deliberate seiza -- which is to say, in a position that can wait for quite a long while, and encourages her friend to do the same.
"I need a break," she says matter-of-factly. "Sorry, Lulu... to make you wait."
One can only imagine what uses her white magic went to before it was gone.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Lulu stands, as she sees Ida fall. She doesn't begrudge this--not with Yuna swaying on her feet. She looks at both of them with some concern, but when Yuna asks for a break...
Well, Lulu could move ahead and try to blast through the door, but she imagines there's something to taking a break, anyway. She nods, after a moment, and comes to sit with the others. If nothing else, she's still alert enough to be on the lookout for trouble...
But ironically, with all the noise from the clanking door, if anything were likely to investigate this room Fiendwise it probably already left.
===============================<* Via Purifico *>===============================
==================<* CHALLENGE - Malfunctioning Tunnel Door *>==================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
Some portions of Via Purifico have an ancient flood control system, powered
by machina. Although this particular hallway is not flooded, you find one
such control system here: a massive steel doorway that slams down, lifts up,
slams down, and repeats this continuously. Sparks fly from a couple of
places on where the controls had been.
The door slams down repeatedly and too quickly to have a chance to dart
through. However, you may be able to disable the door by jamming (or
destruction) with a little work.
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Overzealous, Exhaust=============================
==========================<* Via Purifico - Round 6 *>==========================
====================< Results - Malfunctioning Tunnel Door >====================
Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yuna 103 --(X)--> X
Effects:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lulu 83 --(33)--> 116 Fail
Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ida Everstead-Rey 113 --(X)--> X
Effects:
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Yuna 70 --(10)--> 80 Fail
Conditions: Collapse|Exhaust(1)|Overzealous(2)|Tire(1)|Weaken(2)
Effects:
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: Lulu 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 Yuna has been fully Exhausted by Via Purifico! DG: The party will now draw a conclusion.
===============================<* Via Purifico *>===============================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Rescued by Ghaleon *>======================
|Type: Escape |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 4 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
The dangers of Via Purifico threaten to overwhelm you. Pyreflies are thick
around you, to the point of nearly blinding you. Snapping fans and terrible
claws reach for you -- and the barbed spears of Sahagin poke at you. The
situation seems to be dire indeed, as the fiends infesting Via Purifico
close in. But, then, you hear a shout:
"INFERNO!"
A massive set of explosions /rips/ across the collected fiends. They are
scattered in but a moment. A bedraggled figure looks around the corner: the
Dragonmaster, Ghaleon, in battered armor and torn clothing. He looks worn
and tired, but he gives you a cocky smile.
"Well, well, well. Getting sloppy, aren't we? You better hurry on." He
points down a tunnel. "The exit is that way."
He hurries down another way. But, indeed, you can see some light ahead...
=Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Seconds tick by, turning into minutes. The three of them sit on the cold stone floor, the clanking door their only company--at least at first. Lulu's hunch was initially correct, but there is only so long one can spend in Fiend-infested territory before one is inevitably noticed.
Pyreflies start to drift in through the air. The sounds of Sahagin filter down the tunnel.
"Damnation," Ida hisses. She forces herself to her feet, wobbling. "They're--"
There is a hideous laugh--the telltale shrieking cackle of a Bomb--and the door explodes. Pyreflies rush in, quickly taking the forms of Fiends. "RUN!"
Ida's body moves on autopilot, striking with all the force of raw desperation. Her initial surge catches some of the Fiends off-guard, and momentum carries her through the door and down the corridor. She pauses for just a moment, desperately trying to summon up more reserves...
And then she realizes she's lost track of the others. Her heart sinks.
She hears footsteps on the cobblestones behind her, and whirls around...
"Well, well, well. Getting sloppy, aren't we? You better hurry on. The exit is that way."
Ida has no idea who Dragonmaster Ghaleon is. She stares at him for a long moment, tension boiling off her. She can escape, but she'd be leaving Yuna and Lulu behind. But on the other hand, she's running on empty, and she's useless dead. "Thank you," Ida says, to the man she does not know. She limps off, towards the light.