2021-03-06: Burning Condition
- Log: Burning Condition
- Cast: Loren Voss, Lydia Seren, Seraphita, Tolone
- Where: Deku Isles
- Date: March 06, 2021
- Summary: Team Solaris heads into the crater of Mont Maléfique to investigate the ruins; they find there are definitely ruins! They also find some other things. Seraphita makes a particular pledge.
DG: A party led by Loren Voss is now entering Mont Maléfique. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
==============================<* Mont Maléfique *>============================== ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Steam Heat *>========================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The only way into Mont Maléfique and the ruins hidden inside is via an approach from the top. Even at the best of times this would be a chancy operation -- it is a semi-active volcano, however you slice it. And no one had mentioned the /steam/. Steam shoots upwards from some vent near to where you've begun your downward descent into the crater. And then from another vent, close by! And from still others, soon after? No question: it's going to take some care to spot the vents and avoid them, lest you get your machine blasted by superheated steam. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St4FSI_JzoU =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Exhaust========================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
There are ruins in the volcano's crater.
This, at least, is what they were told by in the briefing: intel had collected some images via drones from the site, but the volcanic activity made further investigation difficult. Whether or not there's anything of value or import is an uncertainity.
Therefore, they'd opted to send in Gears! And Lydia.
And not just any Gears -- whatever intel had seen in the images had prompted them to request the intervention of the Elements in this matter.
It probably beats hanging out at the Spiran outpost with Dominia and Kelvena, honestly.
Still, it is an active volcano, which means that it... is an active volcano.
"Careful," Captain Voss speaks over the local range. "There seem to be some active vents here. I'm going to scan the area. Please hold a moment." Within the privacy of his cockpit though he scowls. At least the thermo-shielding is enough that he's not gonna feel a thing but... what are they thinking? What if this whole place goes up while they're here?
His hands fly across the keypads, though. "Initializing scan..."
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Tactical LiDAR toward his party's challenge, Steam Heat.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia is frankly shocked Loren wasn't murdered but is keeping quiet for now to see if his 'recovery' means that he's going to be more chill or whatever. She still thinks he'd be happier if he just left. She still doesn't know why he didn't. Maybe he figured he couldn't make it out on his own?
Regardless, aside from thinking about that, Lydia is making her way through.
"...Watch out for the heating vents, Lydia." Rachiel pipes in through her Rachiel Jr communicator.
"Why?" Lydia says. "I can probably just walk through them right?"
"Doesn't mean you need to test it."
Lydia exhales out a sigh and looks around to try and avoid the vents though she is, admittedly, kind of halfassing it.
But she is pretty excited to be on a mission with Seraphita, her new personal heroine. She has certainly taken a more assertive attitude as of late. Lydia hasn't just been enduring any taunting from other Gebler agents as of late, she's been violently encouraging them to show respect instead. So far it's working! Thanks Seraphita for the hot tip!
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
Surprise, it's Seraphita!
Seraphita, who has been assigned back on surface duties after an undisclosed time doing something else, has decided to attach herself to an exploration mission as soon as backup is requested. Especially if they're going into a volcano, but mostly just because Seraphita has to do something interesting once in a while or she'll die.
She could probably even have handled going in shallowly on foot, but the Gear is faster, especially given the team has to approach from the top. Grandgrowl - a white leonine Gear with a red mane, a striped tail, and red-framed mechanical wings - flew up to the top and then waited for everybody else to get up. Well, except Tolone, because Skyghene flies faster than Grandgrowl does.
"There's a lot of vents," she agrees with Loren. She, of course, is perfectly comfortable between Grandgrowl being fireproof and her own Ether talents, and isn't even terribly worried about the volcano erupting. "Don't worry, though! I can tell you if there's going to be a big eruption. Just don't walk into the steam because that's just everywhere and there's no point in me telling you which ones are hot. Everything is hot!"
Seraphita actually lands Grandgrowl to pick her way after Loren's Schiehallion on foot, because if they're going down it seems safer than just dropping straight in, even for her.
DG: Seraphita has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Steam Heat.
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
"Copy that," says
SKYGHENE
The flying chariot of
ULTIMATE CYBORG ELEMENT GIRL - TOLONE!
Who makes a V-sign for no reason while looking out of the cockpit windscreen!
Then a few more gestures as she finishes the quick shakedown for her replacement arm. "Seren," says Tolone as she steers up Skyghene into an abrupt windstorm of a landing, "don't underestimate the power of thermal exhaust. If you need to get past a space, there's some hold space on the neck of Skyghene. You won't have any trouble from there."
After all, Lydia has something in common with Tolone.
Skyghene has to waddle in a rather undignified way at this stage of things. Tolone becomes visibly pissed-off about this within about one minute. "Voss, my AC is already complaining at me. Is this site completely fresh, or do we have intel on the outer reaches?"
Flickering magenta lights start blinking on people's HUDs as Tolone peers past the heads of Grandgrowl and Schiehallion to try and spot out the path ahead, particularly areas with signs of structural degradation. It's very aesthetic - it may even be helpful.
DG: Tolone has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Steam Heat. DG: Lydia Seren has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Steam Heat.
==============================<* Mont Maléfique *>============================== ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Steam Heat *>========================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The only way into Mont Maléfique and the ruins hidden inside is via an approach from the top. Even at the best of times this would be a chancy operation -- it is a semi-active volcano, however you slice it. And no one had mentioned the /steam/. Steam shoots upwards from some vent near to where you've begun your downward descent into the crater. And then from another vent, close by! And from still others, soon after? No question: it's going to take some care to spot the vents and avoid them, lest you get your machine blasted by superheated steam. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St4FSI_JzoU =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Exhaust========================================
=========================<* Mont Maléfique - Round 1 *>========================= ============================< Results - Steam Heat >============================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Tactical LiDAR 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraphita 0 --(21)--> 21 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lydia Seren 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tolone 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Reckless(2) Effects: Enlighten(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.
"Seems to be fresh, ma'am," he answers Tolone. "The drones couldn't get far in the heat. They're hoping Gears do better." It might be the reason why they're sending in these particular Gears, really.
Schiehallion just had some additional plating put in, in fact.
Loren bites back a sigh. "Listen to Medry, Seren. I don't think you want to test the heat of a volcano," Loren says, surveying the incoming scan results. "Careful. Some of these vents look like they're ready to go," he warns, sending over a datapacket of the most likely troublemakers to the others. "I think the Gear shielding should be good enough but no sense in testing it."
Besides, it'd make engineering unhappy and he's already on the outs with them.
In that sense, everything's just like normal again, though, huh.
"Yeah, uh... sure, ma'am," he hazards, when Seraphita mentions she can let him know if the volcano will go off. "How much warning time would that be?"
Sometimes, he thinks about the fact that she outranks him. And then he promptly stops thinking about that, because that's not a great thought to have.
"It looks like this route should be viable. I'm updating your regional maps."
DG: Seraphita has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Mont Maléfique *>============================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Menacing Marauders *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Right out of seemingly nowhere, it's a bunch of enemy Gears! They don't get the drop on you (you can hear them coming) but it might not matter when they're packing /this/ much heat! Whether they're bandits, members of this or that mysterious antagonistic group, or just a bunch of ornery geologists, you're going to have to settle this one Gear to Gear! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
Seraphita outranks a lot of people, including Tolone, which means she may technically be in charge right now. Truly, this is one of the great mysteries of Gebler. Seraphita usually doesn't hear people guessing why. (Which doesn't mean it doesn't happen, only that most of the gossip happens behind her back.) Fortunately, she seems pretty easygoing about letting other people take charge.
"Oh, it depends! Sometimes they go fast, like pfoom. But usually that means something set it off. Normally they take longer and they get hotter on the inside first. Long enough that Grandgrowl and Skyghene could fly out, and I'm pretty sure we can carry you two if we have to!" Seraphita still sounds completely unconcerned about it.
Fortunately, there's a route that Loren and the rest of the crew can find. Seraphita guides Grandgrowl down the path. "Are you okay out there?" she asks Lydia, as they move. "Because they told *me* I had to come in Grandgrowl, and you're not in one. A Gear, I mean. Not in Grandgrowl. There's only one of those!"
The path meanders for a little bit, descending slightly as it loops around the outside of the caldera. There's a broader section ahead -
Which contains a trio of bandit Gears half-concealed in a cave-like indentation, battered and mismatched but still functional. The bandits were clearly not expecting people to show up - they appear to have been doing maintenance - but with a curse, one of them clambers up into their Gear cockpit to fire a cannon at Grandgrowl, and the others boot up shortly thereafter.
"Hey!" Seraphita flattens Grandgrowl's belly against the rough stone, causing the shot to go overhead - it's kind of an unusual shape for a Gear and that works to its advantage this time. "I didn't know there were people living in here! See, we've already learned something! I guess probably not something useful, but..."
While she speaks, Grandgrowl rises, opening its mouth and blowing flame at one of the bandit Gears. The flame comes out in a stream, and it wraps around the other Gear like a gelatinous mass, tangling it up in a loop of semisolid fire.
DG: Seraphita has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Menacing Marauders.
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
"She's rebuilt," Tolone explains to Seraphita. "Probably tougher than me if she doesn't fall in the lava." A few moments pass as they move forwards. "You'd get broiled if there's a steam eruption."
AND THEN - Inhabitants!
"Now we definitely know this route is secure if the lambs are shaking their little tails on the way down," Tolone observes. "These guys have to be the unluckiest bandits in the last ten years, though, aren't they?"
Externally, Skyghene continues to stay in ground mobility mode with a Wide Angle Dynamic Distribution of Linear Effect drive controlling maneuverability in confined spaces. This may make the aerial gear seem frail, fragile, certainly slower-moving than the others, but this may be partially remedied when the long nose-cone of a head opens and the birdlike tongue of the ETHERIC CANNON emerges!
Mouthbeams for everyone!
"Probably should check one of their Gears for intel, at least," Tolone muses.
DG: Tolone has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Menacing Marauders.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Loren is silent for a rather long moment at that answer from Seraphita.
"Cool. Sounds great," is what he says ultimately. For some reason he sounds less-than-enthusiastic. What's the worst that could happen, at this point, though?
At least it has the potential for being quick. ...On second thought, he decides, making a face in the privacy of his cockpit, he doesn't want to even think about this anymore...
And so it's into the crater with them, following the path that seems to at least be plausibly stable. "Readings seem stab--"
And then someone takes a shot at Grandgrowl.
"What was-- was that another Gear? What is--"
Loren's also fallen back, going for his Gear's twinguns as further shots go zinging past. "I don't think they live here, ma'am," he says, with perhaps considerable patience.
Settling back in his seat, he takes a breath and forces his Ether through the various circuitry and amplifiers wired into Schiehallion. The air about them all ripples, earth Ether drawn about them as mobile shields.
Thus protected, he moves out from behind his rocky cover and takes a shot at one of them.
"I guess that's true," he answers Tolone after a moment (and LASERS). "Try not to completely destroy their Gears, ma'am."
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Veil Doubler toward his party's challenge, Menacing Marauders.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia believes firmly that Seraphita should be in charge and has absolute faith in the rabbit girl. She makes SENSE to Lydia. Tolone too to an extent and maybe a bit of Leah but really most everybody else seems completely bonkers to Lydia. The new Loren? She's undecided.
"I don't have a Gear." Lydia says. "But if it comes to it I can probably duck into one. by turning myself into a cloud and phasing through the solid matter to recoalesce inside the Gear and I don't know what I just said means, so hopefully it'll work out."
So far she doesn't seem bothered by the heat though she is running hotter than normal.
But then ENEMY GEARS!?
Lydia's arm all the way up to the shoulder reconfigures itself into an oversized energy cannon and she sort of finds herself swinging it over to the gears and launching heavy Guardian-powered blasts towards the Gears in the distance.
"This used to horrify me," She mutters before adding, "Yeah it seems all good over--oh."
Pause. "I wish you said that before I started firing, Captain. Ahh but I'm sure it's okay. I don't think I can accidentally ruin 'em."
"Eheheh...."
DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Rachiel Medry Is Doing Her Best toward her party's challenge, Menacing Marauders.
==============================<* Mont Maléfique *>============================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Menacing Marauders *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Right out of seemingly nowhere, it's a bunch of enemy Gears! They don't get the drop on you (you can hear them coming) but it might not matter when they're packing /this/ much heat! Whether they're bandits, members of this or that mysterious antagonistic group, or just a bunch of ornery geologists, you're going to have to settle this one Gear to Gear! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
=========================<* Mont Maléfique - Round 2 *>========================= ========================< Results - Menacing Marauders >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 5 --(20)--> 25 Fail Veil Doubler 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraphita 21 --(20)--> 41 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lydia Seren 5 --(12)--> 17 Pass Rachiel Medry Is Doing Her Best 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tolone 5 --(20)--> 25 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 20 --(15)--> 35 Fail Conditions: Reckless(1)|Wound(2) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has failed this challenge! The party gained 15 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: Tolone has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* Mont Maléfique *>============================= ========================<* CHALLENGE - Dam Breaker *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- You've reached a bit of an impasse: you can see a section of the ruins that seems of interest, but it's blocked off from you by a large lake of lava. All is not lost, however: the lake rests near enough to a downward incline that if you were to break part of the surrounding rock -- such as this natural 'dam' that's formed to one side -- it would follow gravity and empty the lake, allowing you to proceed. =Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous==============================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
Seraphita does not deign to reply to Tolone believing she will be cooked by steam, if only because she's been distracted by another topic and she only has one mouth.
"They're living here right NOW," Seraphita objects, with at least some accuracy; it's not like you can day commute into a volcano that isn't otherwise inhabited nearby, so even if they don't live here all the time, they can clearly camp out.
Or so she thinks.
Grandgrowl yanks back on the 'cord' of semisolid flame, pulling the bandit Gear off-balance but taking fire while she does; because of Grandgrowl's shape she has to peek around the side of Loren's shield instead of going over it and one of the other Gears has a clear shot at her. Other gears fire wildly at the other Solarians, using a variety of guns and cannons that mostly work.
It becomes clear that the bandits aren't trying to fight the Solarian gears but merely to distract them while they escape. Tolone's beam nearly takes off one of the Gears' arms, but that one bounds away to safety up and over a cliff face that they clearly have mapped the safe zones of; another follows shortly thereafter.
Lydia manages to shoot one down, though (the one Seraphita had lassoed, slowing its ascent). So there's at least some intel... but mostly, it's just a short skirmish that the bandits escape from. THIS TIME. Seraphita isn't flying after them because one of the shots hit Grandgrowl in the wing and she's currently spreading and retracting it to make sure the joint isn't too damaged.
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
"Damn it --!! That one escaped," Tolone complains, with the air of someone getting into a distinct groove. "Command really ballsed it up here because this is almost legally the WORST possible environment for our conflict style! Back me up here, Seraphita: if Dominia was there, those guys would be scrap."
"Seren, do that cloud thing you just said and disable - ah, I'm getting out of my line. This new arm's really got something in it, with the endocrine tap... I just keep craving sweets, too. Nothing too bad..."
"If they've left the crater we can pick them off later, anyway," Tolone concludes.
Moving forwards, there is a flowing lava fall, glowing a dull and curious orange-red that suggests instant obliteration for most forms of carbon-based life, blocking most of one side of a fork in the pathway deeper forwards. On the one hand, the other pathway leads upwards, probably towards the crater, and Tolone pauses to suddenly STAB the beak of Skyghene into that path and reach out with adorable tiny dinosaur manipulator-arms to put in a proximity sensor and/or mine.
And on the OTHER hand...
Through there is an irregular section of ground with curiously regularly-shaped structures. They are definitely structures - something like adobe buildings, maybe, if carved out of black volcanic stone. Are they recent crude creations with Gear equipment to add some comfort to what is probably a pretty rough campsite? Or something more?
Tolone doesn't know, but if you can just get past that pyroclastic flow that is exactly two and a half Grandgrowls long - perhaps to divert it, or to break the sill that's formed a little further on, to allow the surface flow to drain...
DG: Tolone has used her Tool Penetrator Beak toward her party's challenge, Dam Breaker.
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
"Well, she has a sword, which would probably help, BUT I thought we didn't want them to get all scrapped?" Seraphita pauses for a moment, then says, "Also I have sweets, but I can't get them to you until after we're done here. You should have said something! I always have them. ...well, almost always."
Apparently satisfied with Grandgrowl's wing situation, Seraphita begins to pick her way forward again. She feels the pyroclastics before she sees them, and she lets out a little 'hmm' when she does. "That stuff is really hot," she says. "But don't worry! I have an idea!"
And indeed she does, though for a moment it looks as if Grandgrowl is doing nothing at all. This is because Seraphita had to make some adjustments and flip an override switch. It's obvious after a few moments; she spreads Grandgrowl's wings wide as the dull rumble of the engine becomes louder, vents on Grandgrowl's side opening up with a ripple of heat that probably isn't ambient.
Grandgrowl has, for its size, a massively overpowered engine for reasons that are extremely classified unless you are an Element. The downside is that, in its normal configuration, Grandgrowl doesn't actually have the ability to run it at full power for very long; it needs exterior cooling. But Seraphita has just turned it on anyway.
And then Grandgrowl runs. One step, two, three - and it leaps over the pyroclastic flow, wings spread - there's not enough room to take off, really, but she can jump. Once she's done that, Seraphita slams the foreclaws of Grandgrowl down on the sill, using the extra force from the engine to embed them deeply and begin to dig, forming a channel for the lava to drain through.
Even Grandgrowl probably shouldn't keep its claws in lava for very long, but she doesn't appear to be afraid of briefly touching it when the channel finally gets to the larger pool - she's digging it backwards so she wouldn't have to touch it long. "Come on! Let's get it out of the way so we can explore!! Lydia, can you shoot the last bit? And Loren! Help channel rocks!" She knows Tolone has already added her addition.
DG: Seraphita has used her Tool GNRS-50 toward her party's challenge, Dam Breaker.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"Ugh," is Loren's reponse to Seraphita, mostly because she's technically right, but it's the sort of technicality that drives him up the wall. In fact, it reminds him of the way that...
"..."
He may be silent a bit after.
So Lydia can just... appear inside his Gear now? That means she can probably walk through walls, which... doesn't make Loren uncomfortable in the slightest, no sir! Privacy is already a premium commodity as it stands, and thinking that it could be taken from him outright...
His grip tightens on the controls for a moment, before taking another shot. "Forget it," he tells Lydia. "Just try not to obliterate them, Seren." They're just bandits. They shouldn't be here, anyway.
His shot doesn't hit. Indeed, in the end, only one of them is taken down, leaving the Captain to pull analytics before they move on ahead. "Assuming they haven't already left the volcano entirely, ma'am," he says to Tolone, before following along, data collection complete. Someone else can look at it later.
"Huh... I wonder if someone was living here," he muses, regarding the carved-out construction here. If he grimaces just as he says this, it's only because he's annoyed at the fact that it's seeming like he really was wrong about this, actually!
Jumping the lava river would be risky. He pauses a moment, as if considering their situation, before it occurs to him just what Tolone is doing over there--
Which... Seraphita has already beaten him to doing.
"..." There is a long moment of silence on his part. "...Yes, ma'am," he says at last at her request, closing his eyes as he does just as he was told: he threads Ether through the onboard amps and equipment and pools his awareness outwards and into the rock. It's not stable, here. It should be easy to shift it just enough.
"Come on..." he says, his voice just audible over the radio.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Ether Resonator toward his party's challenge, Dam Breaker.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Okay how do I do that." Lydia begins to say but Tolone seems to belay the order so she leaves it be for now. She isn't that bloodthirsty against volcano bandits. Like, she's just thinking of what sort of life makes you decide to become a bandit in the least hospitable place imaginable. People don't USUALLY climb this place.
Can Lydia do that? Well, CAN and ABLE TO are two different things. Lydia seems to have a hazy relationship with being able to use her abilities. But she has been getting better which may be worrying.
She smiles bigly when Loren has to tell Seraphita 'Yes Ma'am'.
Of course Seraphita also asks her to do something. She seems more cheery with her "Yes Ma'am...!" Life is wild, Loren. It's true.
She brings that arm cannon to bear however and fires another burst at that rock as Seraphita suggested.
"This area?" She asks of the Element. "Seems logical. Come on Captain, let's hop to it!"
She's so thrilled right now.
DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Tiebreaker V 2.0 toward her party's challenge, Dam Breaker.
=============================<* Mont Maléfique *>============================= ========================<* CHALLENGE - Dam Breaker *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- You've reached a bit of an impasse: you can see a section of the ruins that seems of interest, but it's blocked off from you by a large lake of lava. All is not lost, however: the lake rests near enough to a downward incline that if you were to break part of the surrounding rock -- such as this natural 'dam' that's formed to one side -- it would follow gravity and empty the lake, allowing you to proceed. =Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous==============================================
========================<* Mont Maléfique - Round 3 *>======================== ==========================< Results - Dam Breaker >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Loren Voss 25 --(8)--> 33 Fail Ether Resonator 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraphita 41 --(0)--> 41 Pass GNRS-50 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lydia Seren 17 --(0)--> 17 Pass Tiebreaker V 2.0 4 Brute Effects: Efficient and Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tolone 25 --(8)--> 33 Fail Penetrator Beak 3 Brute Effects: Rally ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Loren Voss 35 --(20)--> 55 Pass Conditions: Overzealous(2)|Wound(1) Effects: Cleanse ==============================< 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> Tolone has posed.
"I have to think of our honor, Seraphita," Tolone says. "If we get a reputation as not being able to kill everyone we meet within thirteen or fewer seconds, people will talk." A second passes. "After all, dead men tell no tales."
"I doubt those bandits learned anything actionable, anyway," Tolone continues. As she is not helping in any way, Skyghene does not contribute to the success of the endeavor.
Grandgrowl, on the other hand, backs up with the true heritage of its noble forbears, prepares, and then S U R G E S forwards into that rock, which, though hard, is less solid than it might be - there is a continuum in which an item is still 'solid' but has significantly lowered hardness, and between Seraphita's burning passion for victory and the volcano's burning passion for being full of superheated magma, the rock begins to deform!
"If people were residing here on any kind of basis, even short-term, that's telling," Tolone continues. "This place is beyond marginal; it would be suicidal to live here in these conditions, and even if there wasn't activity it would be almost the worst place possible. You would have to be a masochist to not at least live on the outer slopes. So..."
"They needed secrecy and something to keep them in here." The rock begins to yield... deform under the gentle pressure of Loren Voss's grudge and Etheric potential, deform and warp and twist outwards, the carved claw marks starting to expand outwards as pressure and time take their toll-- and then blam!! One shot.
Which seems to stop everything for a moment. One of the claw marks is even bigger, the others squished shut.
Tolone looks over. And that big old hole catches the oncoming lava just as a sail will catch the wind... and it shifts... and it falls... and...
The noises are amazing. GLURP and GLOPPP. But on a scale almost beyond human-audible comprehension.
"Awesome," Tolone says, before spreading Skyghene's wings and just sort of sail-hopping over the rapidly draining tube.
UNFORTUNATELY, the carved-out spaces, while they do show signs of habitation, were definitely more 'an improved natural campsite' rather than 'the secret base of Black X, the secret enemies of Solaris, and also where they kept all their stolen jewels.' Lydia may be able to secure a treasure box of reasonable quality while the brass is occupied.
"How have you been doing, Voss? It's been a while since we worked together," Tolone says while steering Skyghene nearer to the space that leads downwards, deeper, further.
DG: Seraphita has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Mont Maléfique *>============================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - So Long and Farewall *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You're not sure what whoever had lived down here built their buildings out of -- it's proven pretty durable, all told. Even in spite of the passage of years, a few volcanic eruptions, and so on they're still standing. Whoever they were, they built to last. It's a little too bad that this particular wall that has seen and endured so much is in your way, huh? Unless you really want to backtrack in the hopes of finding another stable path, though, there aren't a lot of options. This wall's gotta go. =Dungeon Conditions: Exhaust==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
After the first frenzy of digging, Grandgrowl's vents emit a blast of high-pressure, high-temperature air, and then begin to cool off as the engine resumes normal operation. Seraphita can't maintain that pace for long, but it certainly made their life easier at first. "Thank you~" Seraphita calls to the others, once things start to clear.
"I think there are some more buildings down here," Seraphita says, "because I saw them when I was gliding down." And indeed, though the first area may have been 'improved natural campsite', there really are sturdier buildings further on.
And in addition to buildings, walls. Well, this stone wall may have been part of one of the buildings that *didn't* survive the passage of years quite so well, but it is there and blocking one of the major routes downward, unless you want to knock down an entire building instead. (There used to be a way around it, but that part of the ledge has fallen down a level into the crater, leaving boulders there and no open space here.)
"Eh," Seraphita says, before reversing Grandgrowl and kicking at it with rear legs, mule kick style. This is less effective than its digging previously was, but it beats nothing. "I want to see what else is here! I hope it didn't burn up in one of those tire clam sick flows. That sounds gross."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Loren is silent as Tolone explains her reasoning.
"So... you don't think they've left," he says at last. "Because whatever they've done out there is worse than risking an active volcano." It stands to reason, perhaps.
How has Loren been doing? Well, aside from spending a couple years increasingly mentally screwed, eventually losing all his memories and vanishing, getting that fixed in a rather traumatic fashion and then having to say goodbye to what might have been his only friend and his significant other in about a span of a few weeks, he's been--
"...More or less fine. Why?" There is a moment's pause. "Ma'am."
At any rate, they're able to drain this section, providing a more accessible path forward, at which point Seraphita notes--
"...Huh. There are," Loren remarks, making his way over. "...Why didn't you mention that earlier? There's been rumors in about ruins in here but the drones couldn't confirm it." Still, this isn't a matter he's willing to linger about on regarding, though, and so!
"That wall's in the way."
And in this heat, and with its apparent stability, trying to go over it will be more trouble than it's worth -- either they'll suffer some damage, lose some time, or it'll collapse anyway. "Hold on, let me run an..." There is a long long pause. "That's... pyroclastic."
She really is eerily like Lan...
"Ma'am, Seraphita, if you could clear out of the way," he says, glancing over a few surface scans. Pausing a moment, the Schiehallion extends its left hand towards the wall and a cluster of short-range missiles erupt from its arm!
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool PGM-786 'Ephemeris' toward his party's challenge, So Long and Farewall. DG: Seraphita has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, So Long and Farewall. DG: Lydia Seren has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, So Long and Farewall.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia Seren looks to Tolone. "Well if everybody dies, then they won't know to be scared, but I'm not sure if that's what we're going for anyway."
There is more ... buildings? In a friggin' volcano? Well, maybe it wasn't always a volcano but...
It's just a wall so, Lydia tries to smash IT to bits too, this time turning her arm into a giant hammer. She's not sure how she feels about getting better at this sort of thing or how it coincided with...
It is kind of creepy at how OKAY Loren is right now. She sort of figured it'd be a more natural sort of...return to ... whatever he was? Does she even KNOW normal Loren?
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
"Tire clam...? It's not some kind of dockside seafood cookout," Tolone says to Seraphita. "It's a high-speed destructive flow of volcanic material. It instantly kills most things it touches, even if the mineral materials are really good for plants a few years later. That's probably why whoever built these places were here in the first place!"
"What Voss said," Tolone continues as her Gear stomps forwards, lowering its head to grip some wall material in its terrible beak and begin wiggling back and forth. Tolone is frowning audibly, no doubt due to things like having to do this with her Gear instead of soaring through the mostly empty skies of Filgaia and kicking ass.
"To answer your question, I'm curious," Tolone tells Voss. "I also need to update my model of your current state. People can change a lot in a period of time, and the longer you go without an update, the more inaccurate the results become. This is especially true with specialists."
"That's true," Tolone muses at Lydia's words. "But if you leave wreckage, that's even better -- no risk of people getting a second try, with the advantage of experience."
DG: Tolone has used her Tool Penetrator Beak toward her party's challenge, So Long and Farewall.
==============================<* Mont Maléfique *>============================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - So Long and Farewall *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You're not sure what whoever had lived down here built their buildings out of -- it's proven pretty durable, all told. Even in spite of the passage of years, a few volcanic eruptions, and so on they're still standing. Whoever they were, they built to last. It's a little too bad that this particular wall that has seen and endured so much is in your way, huh? Unless you really want to backtrack in the hopes of finding another stable path, though, there aren't a lot of options. This wall's gotta go. =Dungeon Conditions: Exhaust==================================================
=========================<* Mont Maléfique - Round 4 *>========================= =======================< Results - So Long and Farewall >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 33 --(5)--> 38 Pass PGM-786 'Ephemeris' 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraphita 41 --(21)--> 62 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lydia Seren 17 --(5)--> 22 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tolone 33 --(21)--> 54 Fail Penetrator Beak 3 Brute Effects: Rally -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 55 --(20)--> 75 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Overzealous(1) 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> Seraphita has posed.
You would think Seraphita would be the expert at naming things that happen around a volcano.
You would be wrong! Volcanoes are as much earth as they are fire! And in any case she never studied geology, or indeed any hard science (note: all science is hard). But she has now learned something, and will remember it for at least a few minutes, even if having both Tolone and Loren explain it to her makes her brow furrow. The comparison to Lan is regrettably lost on her.
Seraphita lets Grandgrowl give the wall another kick before, as Loren has requested, hopping out of the way. "I did! I said there were people living here. I figured the bandits had moved in - I mean, I only saw them as lumpy boxes. I wasn't this close before. I guess we haven't been on many operations together - well, I have with Tolone - so we're not used to each other yet. That's okay! We'll all learn together. You too, Lydia! It'll be fun."
While Grandgrowl's kick doesn't do a lot besides leave deep scores in the wall without knocking it over, a hammer and a missile spray do a great job at blasting, and bashing, a hole. Part of the wall falls out; some of the rest just collapses. It's a rough passage but a usable one now.
"Well, that works!" Seraphita straightens Grandgrowl back up again before walking forward, carefully. She's not at the front of the group anymore, though, having cleared out to allow missiles and hammers to go past her.
DG: Loren Voss has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Mont Maléfique *>============================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - Magma Kraken *>========================= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- At long last, you reach what looks like it might be some sort of still-intact vault; the only thing that remains is for you to breach it and see what -- if anything -- remains within. Unfortunately, all hope of an easy salvage soon vanishes: the lava pool between you and it begins to ripple. First one blazing tentacle rises from the pool, then two more. Soon these harbingers are joined by the bulk of the beast that emerges from the steaming pool. No! It's a magma kraken! It's all or nothing now -- you'll need to defeat it to stand a chance of claiming whatever might be in that vault! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"...Oh," Loren says, because honestly, he's not sure what to make of that. "Well... I'm still me."
He's... pretty sure of that, anyway. Finding his emotional equilibrium -- to the extent that he's got one anyway -- has been weird. Or maybe the more accurate statement is that he's been weird. Or maybe that's always been true--
Perhaps 'in the crater of an active volcano' isn't the best time to have a mild existential crisis, though. Shaking his head, Loren refocuses on the task at hand.
Which is blowing up a wall! Which blows up pretty damn well.
"That's not... fine," he sighs. "I should have asked," he allows, closing his eyes a moment. "It's been a while, anyway, ma'am." Years, frankly, and never in Gear operations of this sort.
It does take him a moment to catch on to what she means though--
"Wait, do you mean... we'll, er, I'll be..." A long pause follows. "It, it'll be an honor. Ma'am."
They get maybe a few dozen yards from the fallen wall when they reach a larger lava pool.
A large cephalopod-like monster arises from it, tentacles aflame!
"What," is Loren's reaction. "What is-- oh, damn!" It's begun to lash out with those same burning tentacles! Forcing his awareness out and through his Gear's Ether amplifiers, the air shimmers around the lot of them in a manifestation of earth Ether. It's a shield, just as before! Can it help against the onslaught to come?
And more importantly, can the rest of them lay some hurt on this thing?!
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Veil Doubler toward his party's challenge, Magma Kraken.
<Pose Tracker> Tolone has posed.
Tolone drives her Gear further downwards. "Don't apologize," she answers Loren. "Honesty's more important. Saves time. Life keeps on keeping on, and the future is something we all have to think about, as it's where we're going to spend the rest of our lives."
And as they reach down further, towards what might have been an excavation beginning...
They are faced with a looming creature, like a tentacular monster -- but one that--
"Living and dwelling within magma?! A creature like that... This thing's going to mess up the entire regional time table if it gets loose!" Tolone says, her eyes widening in her conference-share pane. "It's probably what's caused all this stuff lately... Seraphita, I think we have to purge it."
INSERT THEME, ON REPEAT FOREVER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N2IQ7_sSAw
"Skyghene drive! Full power!"
Skyghene's wings, having been held close to its body throughout this entire period, finally spread out to their full extension with a sudden sparkle of suppressed energy! They crackle with lightning as Skyghene begins to float in the air -- not due to winged flight, nor jet thruster, but through the sheer power of magnetic levitation.
> Booster: ON
"Formation WF-19 - Burning Condition! -- Hold on," Tolone says, "I have to tell them about it or they could be destroyed by the power!!"
"So here's what's gonna happen," says Tolone, whose eyes are now visibly glowing in the screen-share pane. "I'm going to command the wind here to concentrate the volcanic exhaust gasses around that damn thing, and once we have a vortex set up, we're going to ignite it! Now, I know what you're thinking -- won't it just get hotter? But the high speed movement of air, thickened by the ambient amounts of particulate matter, will conduct heat away from it with shocking speed -- like a deep freeze dessert droplet machine, which works on the same principles!! Flame and wind combined... You guys are going to have your opening!"
--
Well, there's some kind of whirlwind thing going on. The magma kraken doesn't seem to give a shit, probably because it's a lava squid.
"OK from the top - FORMATION WF-19! BURNING CONDITION! GO"
DG: Tolone has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Magma Kraken.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia Seren cracks her knuckles, and punches her palm in her fist once her fist becomes a fist again instead of an oversized weapon.
"This doesn't seem like it'll be too...uh..."
She looks up up up. Those tentacles are pretty big. And she is pretty tiny. But luckily, she hasn't seen much that her blades can't cut through but even so--if they grab hold of her, that could be bad or very bad. She hasn't seen anything that could keep her down forever but by the time she finds out, it'd be way too late.
She swings her hand to the side, forming a large energy blade, channeling Solais Emsu's power into it as she hovers off the ground, propelling herself from jets from her feet. She curls her knees in, repositions herself, and flings herself at high speeds for those tentacles, trying to cut them to shreds so the rest of the group can more readily pummel the kraken.
"I hope this is WF-19 and not WF-18..." Lydia murmurs to herself.
DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Rachiel Medry Is Doing Her Best toward her party's challenge, Magma Kraken.
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
"Well, I'll be spending more time on the surface," Seraphita says. "So I think we'll be working together more! It will be great, I want to do more anyway!"
Seraphita can really feel the heat even before the magma comes in view. In one sense that's not very hard - anyone could feel the heat because it's damned hot out there - but she feels it a little more clearly, because she's been keeping an eye (or whatever does Ether work) out for the possibility of the volcano erupting. Which it isn't, so far.
But she didn't spot *that*.
"We definitely have to get rid of it! It's dangerous, it's blocking the path to - um, whatever is in that," she means the vault, "and most of all, it's *creepy*. I don't even like eating calamari! It's all rubbery and weird! And how do you cook it if it's already in the magma? Grills don't go hotter than a volcano! And if you tried to use butter on it it would melt before you got it there!"
Skyghene's wings spread. A moment later, so do Grandgrowl's, though Seraphita has to force it slightly because of the previous damage to the wing. "Formation WF-19! - Oh, okay, I'll wait."
...
"And when she's done the vortex," Seraphita says, excitedly, "I'll charge it! Just watch! Okay, now for real - FORMATION WF-19!" She managed that part in sync with Tolone's (second) declaration.
The whirlwind is already formed. Seraphita guns Grandgrowl's engine again, the vents flaring as she takes off and flies - directly at the magma kraken! Maintenance systems kick into gear - Grandgrowl is fireproof but it's not really meant to be dunked in magma, and while she's not dunked yet, there is a squid lashing out with burning, magma-dripping tentacles. (And, of course, being fireproof does nothing to save her from impact damage.)
But as she goes, Grandgrowl builds up flame in front of it from its mane, trailing backwards and outwards in a comet-tail corona. She follows the spin of the whirlwind to pick up speed, Grandgrowl caught in the turbulence enough that her flight is a little erratic - but that only makes it harder to hit!
And then she dives *into* the kraken's face, lashing out with all four claws and a blade-tipped tail before shoving Grandgrowl upwards through the eye of the storm with a beat of its great wings. The force of her dive dragged the tornado with her, blasting the kraken with the cutting winds before the normal spin reasserts itself. Which is now on fire. Because of course it is.
DG: Seraphita has used her Tool Cleaner FX toward her party's challenge, Magma Kraken.
==============================<* Mont Maléfique *>============================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - Magma Kraken *>========================= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- At long last, you reach what looks like it might be some sort of still-intact vault; the only thing that remains is for you to breach it and see what -- if anything -- remains within. Unfortunately, all hope of an easy salvage soon vanishes: the lava pool between you and it begins to ripple. First one blazing tentacle rises from the pool, then two more. Soon these harbingers are joined by the bulk of the beast that emerges from the steaming pool. No! It's a magma kraken! It's all or nothing now -- you'll need to defeat it to stand a chance of claiming whatever might be in that vault! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
=========================<* Mont Maléfique - Round 5 *>========================= ===========================< Results - Magma Kraken >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 38 --(5)--> 43 Pass Veil Doubler 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraphita 62 --(5)--> 67 Pass Cleaner FX 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lydia Seren 22 --(5)--> 27 Pass Rachiel Medry Is Doing Her Best 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tolone 54 --(13)--> 67 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 75 --(35)--> 110 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Wound(2) Effects: Cleanse ===============================< 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 Mont Maléfique!
==============================<* Mont Maléfique *>============================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - From Beneath the Land *>===================== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The vault was well-made, and has stood firm even against the wrath of Mont Maléfique several times over. Once you manage to get the door open, what remains inside is yours! Among the treasures of the vault, you find one thing of particular note: various non-magical ores, all of high grade. While it will take the use of a forge to refine them, there are many things that you could do with these components, such as make a new weapon, armor, machine components, or even use them as one of the many building blocks for a magical item. The sky's the limit! =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"I wasn't apologizing," Loren says to Tolone, though it might be a matter that falls to the wayside--
"Oh..." Much as his response to Seraphita also might!
Because there's a larger problem here before them!
He holds the line as the magma kraken lashes at them, trailing flame, pouring more of his focus and will outwards into those barriers he manifests with Ether. Sweat, unrelated to the heat, begins to trickle down the side of his face. A part of him's glad he'd given up, that he'd opted to get a new pair of glasses. This would be a bad time to lose control and have everything burst into flames.
Lydia's small size gives her the advantage: she's able to close on the creature, severing a few of its limbs (or at least severely foreshortening them). Meanwhile, Seraphita and Tolone demonstrate just why they are the Elements--!
"I don't think... we'd want to eat this..." Loren grits out nonetheless, because he's Loren.
But a great storm is upon the kraken of flame and in the heart of that storm is...
Grandgrowl.
What's left of the kraken bloops sadly into the lava pool when the dust and whirling winds settle. The lava doesn't so much as bubble afterwards.
"...Is that a vault?"
It is!
And inside are some remarkably well-kept high-quality ores. They look like they've been preserved in here for a few centuries, at least. "Huh," is Loren's summation of one sample. "I guess the people who used to live here were into metallurgy."