2021-03-19: A Horse of a Different Color Entirely
- Log: A Horse of a Different Color Entirely
- Cast: Gwen Whitlock, Seraph Lanval, Citan Uzuki, Jacqueline Barber
- Where: Emulator Zone
- Date: March 20, 2021
- Summary: Lost in the Emulator Zone, a small group sets out to investigate. The going is not easy, though.
DG: A party led by Gwen Whitlock is now entering Emulator Zone. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
==============================<* Emulator Zone *>=============================== ===========================<* CHALLENGE - Redshift *>=========================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The train had come to a lurching stop somewhere -- this much, you already know. You also likely know that the 'somewhere' is best qualified as a 'somewhere /else/'. Still, the expanse before you -- pulsing magenta, swirling reds glittering with impossible stars, a sickly swirl of oranges and yellows -- once you make your exit through one of the train car doors is likely not quite what you expected. The appearance of this place isn't all you have to worry about. There are platforms, yes, and a suggestion of a path... ...but they have an orientation contrary to the one you currently face (or think you are facing?). Reaching one of the platform paths might be trickier than it looks -- which way is up? And, for that matter, can you cross the distance to them? But reaching stable ground (such that it is) might be your only chance of starting to make some sense of this dimensional space into which you've been flung. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfVh9Vshfbw =Dungeon Conditions: Madness, Maim, Hesitate, Secret==========================
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
It is the natural course for a courier to scout an unknown territory, in order to know the best way to make their way from Point A to Point B.
But this is a horse of a different color entirely. If the horse had several legs, a head with many eyes, and a neigh that sounded like the scream of a dying star. Also, their coat is a color from out of spaacceeee(TM).
"... Welll." There's a marked difference in how Gwen regards this territory versus how she used to handle just about any situation: namely, she looks hesitant. Not afraid, but definitely not thrilled at the prospect of navigating terrain that doesn't have the common courtesy of obeying the laws of physics. That is, outside of a dream.
Or inside one of the Stranger's heartbeat-spanned worlds.
So that's why she's grabbed whatever random lot of folk who were nearby.
"This looks, uh, tricky." She points to a nearby platform. "Assumin' gravity still works, anyway. But we can always try!"
With a rock. Which Gwen throws, then flails as it slows midair, and casually decides to float *up*.
"WELP, we'll just trust that things are gonna be messed up no matter what!"
And so, she makes her way forward, with a resolve that can only be gained through trying to navigate similar mazes.
And failing in the process.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Redshift.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval was on the train. How or why, let's just say there's no time to go over that, and there is technically no space to go over any of that. He has a sort of haunted look in his fully open eyes (usually a thing of awakened power, here a thing of full horror) when he's made to manifest outside of his bottle to take in what's going on around him. Sometimes, the Drifter community looks to him when they're caught in a spiritual place. He's a spiritual entity of sorts, his footing in places like that are a lot steadier.
THIS IS NOT ONE OF THOSE PLACES
AT ALL
"...'m gonna tell ya all shomethin'," Lanval decides as he stands upside down, because space here makes no sense and sometimes neither do the Seraphim, so this is twice the not making any physical sense, "I dunno what any of thish ish... 'n, that don't help any of ya," he says, "so 'm gonna tell ya what I do know."
He gets out that fancy kiseru-style smoking pipe. "The water."
He takes in a breath and enjoys a good... bubbling. Bubbles. Bubbles, everywhere. Something resembling normalcy (in that they are bubbles, for all the good and fickle they entail). Bubbles, that will carry them... somewhere. It's still chance, but it's a chance compared to... this scenery.
DG: Seraph Lanval has used his Tool Bubble Pipe toward his party's challenge, Redshift.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"Well now, Gwen Whitlock!"
Had Gwen been aware that Doctor Uzuki was even on the same train? That must have been the case, because he's here and hailing her now.
"Quite the mess we have gotten ourselves into here! I do not believe this is typical of travel aboard the Dianbai Guang..."
A fact that may be underscored as he gaze out into what could be called a 'riot of color' and shakes his head. "Ah, and Lanval, was it...? It seems we may be well and stuck in here," Citan says, gesturing towards the expanse of the Emulator Zone.
"What do you think? Shall we take a look around?"
He has produced a Spiran sphere from somewhere. It has the mark from within the Macalania temple upon it.
"Though, I do not think this will be very easy..."
It shimmers briefly, conjuring forth an expanse of ice. Perhaps, if just briefly, the point between where they stand and one of those platforms might be connected.
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Macalania Sphere toward his party's challenge, Redshift.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Today was supposed to be simple. A simple meeting with a prospective client aboard the Dianbai Guang by their request. Next thing Jacqueline knew, the train had ended up Somewhere Else entirely. Being here is like having needles poking at the back of her mind. It doesn't feel right. But she needs to find out what's going on and how to fix it and so, after reassuring her client, she moves to investigate...
...Fortunately, it looks like she isn't the only one who end up here. It's a relief knowing there's capable allies around.
"Gwen, Lanval, Doctor Uzuki." Jacqueline greets, emerging from the train. "You've found yourselves caught up in this mess, too?"
They way ahead is twisted every which way. Jacqueline frowns, taking a moment to think it over.
"...Here. This should help loosen us up. Let's get to the bottom of this, shall we?" Jacqueline says, drawing out a bottle of pale green liquid. With a mystic touch it spreads over the party in a glimmering cloud, helping them to loosen up. With that said she follows after the others. She elects to take it slowly and carefully - she doesn't want to know what happens to anyone who falls off.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Rapid Remedy toward her party's challenge, Redshift.
==============================<* Emulator Zone *>=============================== ===========================<* CHALLENGE - Redshift *>=========================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The train had come to a lurching stop somewhere -- this much, you already know. You also likely know that the 'somewhere' is best qualified as a 'somewhere /else/'. Still, the expanse before you -- pulsing magenta, swirling reds glittering with impossible stars, a sickly swirl of oranges and yellows -- once you make your exit through one of the train car doors is likely not quite what you expected. The appearance of this place isn't all you have to worry about. There are platforms, yes, and a suggestion of a path... ...but they have an orientation contrary to the one you currently face (or think you are facing?). Reaching one of the platform paths might be trickier than it looks -- which way is up? And, for that matter, can you cross the distance to them? But reaching stable ground (such that it is) might be your only chance of starting to make some sense of this dimensional space into which you've been flung. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfVh9Vshfbw =Dungeon Conditions: Madness, Maim, Hesitate, Secret==========================
=========================<* Emulator Zone - Round 1 *>========================== =============================< Results - Redshift >============================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 0 --(29)--> 29 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Lanval 0 --(17)--> 17 Pass Bubble Pipe 3 Agility Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jacqueline Barber 0 --(29)--> 29 Fail Rapid Remedy 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Citan Uzuki 0 --(17)--> 17 Pass Macalania Sphere 3 Agility Effects: Rally -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Gwen Whitlock 0 --(15)--> 15 Fail Conditions: Hesitate(2)|Madness|Maim|Secret(2) Effects: Cleanse ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Gwen Whitlock 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: Seraph Lanval has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Emulator Zone *>=============================== ===========================<* CHALLENGE - Albtraum *>=========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The light grows a sickly green in hue. The pressure of the air about you seems to shift; you can hear a ringing in your ears. Something is wrong here -- more wrong than the very nature of the Emulator Zone already entails. They come in swooping from 'above': a pair of them, winged purple creatures with long necks and toothed maws. Brilliant red antler-like protrusions erupt from their shoulders: these look quite sharp. They do not seem as if they are willing to just let you go on past them. Quickly -- strike them down! Image: https://monstersoffilgaia.tumblr.com/post/67557952158/alphabetized-bestiary =Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"Well, Lanval, sometimes it's good t'have a situation shake things up to keep ya on your toes, every once in a while!" Gwen grins wide, then blinks, curious as to what Lanval *does* know.
Oh yes, he knows water. Which is also useful!
"Doc! Jay!" Gwen looks up at the other familiar voices. "I'd say 'glad t'see you here', but really, I ain't sure I'm glad to see anyone deal with this. From what I know, this mighhttt be Odessa? But... who really knows, at this point." She shrugs. "Oh? Somethin' to loosen us up?" She thumbs up to Jay. "If you think it'll help, sure!"
The glimmering cloud is a nice blanket against the mind-rending hues beyond, but the color-noise-sound is too discordant to bat away entirely.
Bubbles, already surreal in nature, float in the air, somehow meshing well with the dimension's already 'liquid' environment. So does Citan's ice bridge, which catches Gwen as she stumbles across to another platform. It keeps them from falling to their deaths(?) below, but it's not exactly clear sailing.
Especially since it separates them from the train, with every step away into the unknown.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
And then, everything is green. Ish? That's the closest the strange color gets to the visible spectrum, and it is a green so sickly and awful that it just might be an inverted Malevolence Purple. (It is not that, have no fear.)
Ears pop, and there's an awful ringing for everyone. Lanval doesn't have ears, technically, instead he has an increasingly haunted look on his face as the colors filter through the bubbles and the water and the everything to refract into something worse. It's not a space anyone here is supposed to exist in, it assaults all the senses. If you have more than five senses, it's worse. If you're a Seraph... yeah.
Winged creatures appear from what can be charitably considered 'above' in orientation with the rest of the team, with long necks, toothed maws, and weird red antlers from their shoulders. They scream in the sound of tinnitus (that's where it's coming from! Mystery solved! No one wishes to have ever solved that!)
Lanval just pitches the Holy Bottle at one. He doesn't even bother undoing the seal on the top. He is just picking up and flinging the bottle, over and over, because he's not sure he likes what will happen if he spills any of that in this space. He knows the water and he knows how it's going to look and this gesture is for the protection of the mortals in this room!!!
"...Shome shtuff... ya really shouldn't," the Water Seraph tells Gwen, belatedly, to her grinning optimism, for it is he who is cursed with being the quasi-responsible adult this time.
DG: Seraph Lanval has used his Tool Holy Bottle toward his party's challenge, Albtraum.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"I can agree with that, at least. It'd be better if no one got stuck here... but, it's far better than being here alone." Jacqueline replies. Numbers make things easier... but as Citan says, it still won't be easy. They proceed forward and soon things begin to become green.
Jacqueline pauses, frowning. This feelings like a warning... and then the ringing comes, causing Jacqueline to wince.
"What in the world is-" She starts... and then the answer comes, in the form of a pair of swooping beasts she's never seen before. Jacqueline quickly reaches for the Lifeweaver's Codex, but soon discovers...
"...There doesn't seem to be an entry for these things here!" She comments with a gasp. "So, I'm just making things up as I go, but... they seem built like an ambush predator to me. They're fast, and bristling with natural weapons... try not to let both of them corner you at once! They don't look too durable outwardly, so a few good hits should do it... but actually landing them might be the main problem."
With that warning she shuts the book and begins to gesture with her left hand. Wind pressure begins to assault attack the beasts from all sides, hampering their movement and, hopefully, leaving them vulnerable for the others to deal with.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool The Lifeweaver's Codex toward her party's challenge, Albtraum.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"Miss Barber! It seems that I was not the only one to take advantage of those ticket prices," the doctor remarks, smiling sheepishly. "Indeed. There is little to be done now except to get to the bottom of this. It would be unfortunate if we were to be stuck in a place like this."
The ice bridge part of things goes... well enough. It's better than falling into some sort of tie-dye abyss, in any case, and no one gets hurt, either.
It's just... difficult.
"I feel as if I have had easier crossings," Citan admits, shaking his head. "Now, just where is the right way to go, here...?"
He won't have long to dwell on this: creatures emerge into the expanse of the Emulator Zone and they're not here to make friends.
"...Oh dear. Gwen, Miss Barber! Take care with those horns!" he calls, from the back. "They look to be quite swift!"
DG: Citan Uzuki has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Albtraum.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"Lanval... you okay?" Gwen slows down, offering a hand complusively to the Seraph, then seeming to remember. "I was about to offer a piggy-back ride, but then I remembered--"
Screams like the rings of a hellish bell stop Gwen's amusement in its tracks, the courier clapping her hands over her ears. "Gh...!"
Sacrificing her right ear's hearing ability in the next half hour or so, Gwen moves her right hand to over her mouth, where she roughly jerks the belt from over her palm with her teeth and attempts to aim through watery eyes. "Lightning's gotta work or I'm outta ideas!"
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Full Metal Courier toward her party's challenge, Albtraum.
==============================<* Emulator Zone *>=============================== ===========================<* CHALLENGE - Albtraum *>=========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The light grows a sickly green in hue. The pressure of the air about you seems to shift; you can hear a ringing in your ears. Something is wrong here -- more wrong than the very nature of the Emulator Zone already entails. They come in swooping from 'above': a pair of them, winged purple creatures with long necks and toothed maws. Brilliant red antler-like protrusions erupt from their shoulders: these look quite sharp. They do not seem as if they are willing to just let you go on past them. Quickly -- strike them down! Image: https://monstersoffilgaia.tumblr.com/post/67557952158/alphabetized-bestiary =Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
=========================<* Emulator Zone - Round 2 *>========================== =============================< Results - Albtraum >============================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 29 --(5)--> 34 Pass Full Metal Courier 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Lanval 17 --(5)--> 22 Pass Holy Bottle 2 Combat Effects: Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jacqueline Barber 29 --(5)--> 34 Pass The Lifeweaver's Codex 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Citan Uzuki 17 --(17)--> 34 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Gwen Whitlock 15 --(30)--> 45 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(1)|Secret(1)|Wound(2) Effects: Embolden(1)|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Gwen Whitlock has passed this challenge! The party gained 30 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lightning's gotta work! It has a family to feed! (Lightning will not go hungry tonight.)
Citan hangs back, which is probably a fine idea against something he may or may not have an answer for - he is assaulted by another weird tinnitus scream from the strange antler-bird-things.
"Ya paid fer a tick-- oh yeah I guessh ya would," Lanval gets a bit of humor out of that. Any reason to smile is a good one (also they're all not being torn to shreds, this is a good reason.)
Jay puts forth a reasonably good assessment for how these... things work! They are ambush predtors, and her mastery of the wind does rob them of some of their movement options even if they fall in strange directions. One falls in Citan's direction (for him to deal with), while Lanval beans the other with the bottle again.
"Mmmm... shoooo... ya dishcovered shomethin', huh," Lanval remarks as they go away, "what do ya think yer gonna name 'em, Jay?"
THIS IS THE WEIRDEST THING TO BE FOCUSED ON WHEN THE TRAIN IS GETTING AWAY AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
DG: Jacqueline Barber has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* Emulator Zone *>============================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - Crumbling Heavens *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- It's almost pretty here. The 'sky' of the Emulator Zone is draped in delicate blues and silvers, a painter's interpretation of the heavens. But you would stop here to admire them at your peril. Behind you, the translucent path you follow through the alternate dimension has begun to fall away, vanishing into some deeper part of this place. Hurry! You can't stick around here! =Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"Hahah, well... someone else bought my ticket for me, admittedly. ...But, I'm glad to hear you got a great deal on yours." Jacqueline replies to Citan... and adds later, as he points out the horns, "Ah, good eye! Thanks for the warning!"
Together, they manage to fend off the beasts. Jacqueline chuckles sheepishly at Lanval's comment.
"W-well, we're likely not the first to see them... I'm terrible with names, anyway, s-so... I probably shouldn't..." Jacqueline replies. She starts to walk forward, at that, and as they move, the sickly green gives way to an array of blues and silvers. It gives Jacqueline pause.
"...This is... actually kind of pretty for once." She remarks, awed. "I guess even this place can create something nice every once in a while..."
This compliment is punctuated by the sound of the path behind them beginning to fall away into the depths. Jacqueline groans.
"Nevermind. Compliment rescinded. Let's skedaddle!" Jacqueline says turning and running in the other direction. There's no awkward platforms at strange angles(besides the one they're currently standing on) or obstacles in the way. It's just a race against time, as the path disappears behind them. Jacqueline brings out another bottle of that pale green liquid as she runs, imparting its effects to the party once more.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Rapid Remedy toward her party's challenge, Crumbling Heavens.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
"...Ya think sho...?" Lanval asks, his tone growing a little more haggard as the scenery changes. If one goes just by the mortal sight of color, sure, this is pretty... but everything about this place is such an assault to him, to say nothing of the abrupt cut-off of himself from Schturdark. It's rough enough every time he has to go to Lunar. It's worse when you are yanked abruptly from reality entirely.
Speaking of breaks from reality!!!
Lanval blows into his fingers to make a wet, 'plllllllllphy' sound like someone who can't whistle. Then, out of nowhere - for no reason whatsoever - comes that creepy flat-bodied rubber horse from... where? Where was it? How did it get here? IS it actually a living thing? What the hell?
Doesn't matter (...it kind of might though), it's here at the right time and it's going the right way to help scoop up anyone that falls behind. Or to just help scoop up Lanval and keep gliding along to a wave of water that he himself is unambiguously conjuring up. The downside is that it requires being on a creepy raf--
You know what, given the environs it's not even creepy at all in comparison.
DG: Seraph Lanval has used his Tool Bouyant Steed toward his party's challenge, Crumbling Heavens.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"It seemed the easiest way to reach Guild Galad," the doctor says, shaking his head. "Ah, if only I had known..."
The already complicated situation is made that much more complicated when the creatures arrive. Though he hangs to the back and offers his advice from there, Citan finds it isn't a place where he can remain unhampered by attacks on his person.
"Ah," he remarks simply, juking to the left as it takes a dive for him. The fact that his hand blurs in the next moment as he delivers for it a series of strikes is probably just a trick of the eye.
Can't trust your eyes, in a place like this.
"Name them, hm... Yes, Lanval is quite correct. You would have the right to give them a name if you wished, Miss Barber," he says, when the dust settles.
At least it's pretty around here? He pauses a moment, taking the time to reflect on the otherworldly sky.
And then the path starts going to pieces.
"This is not good--" Citan has the time to say, and by the time he's started to run, Lanval has produced...
Well, it's not the worst-looking thing they've encountered today. Probably. Citan vaults into the back of it, producing again that sphere. If the path ahead becomes slick with ice to speed them on their way, well...
Hopefully Lanval can steer.
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Macalania Sphere toward his party's challenge, Crumbling Heavens.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"Maybe the 'May-Jay'? Or OH! The 'Jay-ack of all Trades'! Or, hm." Jay may not have the confidence to name a monster, but Gwen shows no such restraint. "The..... uh...."
The beautiful sky. Not a monster name, but a beautiful sky, with blues so delicate they could break like fine porcelain, laid against a glittering silver.
It's the worst and best thing that can happen to someone like Gwen, who finds the sky so ingrained in her psyche. She slows and looks up, completely coming to a stop as she reaches the fingers of her right hand up, like she wanted to press her fingers against the sky.
She almost seems irritated when Jay's fizz of liquid dulls the experience, but it distracts her enough to make her easy pickings for Lanval's raft.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Crumbling Heavens.
=============================<* Emulator Zone *>============================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - Crumbling Heavens *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- It's almost pretty here. The 'sky' of the Emulator Zone is draped in delicate blues and silvers, a painter's interpretation of the heavens. But you would stop here to admire them at your peril. Behind you, the translucent path you follow through the alternate dimension has begun to fall away, vanishing into some deeper part of this place. Hurry! You can't stick around here! =Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
========================<* Emulator Zone - Round 3 *>========================= =======================< Results - Crumbling Heavens >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Gwen Whitlock 34 --(21)--> 55 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Lanval 22 --(9)--> 31 Pass Bouyant Steed 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jacqueline Barber 34 --(21)--> 55 Fail Rapid Remedy 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Citan Uzuki 34 --(9)--> 43 Pass Macalania Sphere 3 Agility Effects: Rally ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Gwen Whitlock 45 --(15)--> 60 Fail Conditions: Slow(2)|Wound(1) Effects: Cleanse ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Gwen Whitlock 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: Citan Uzuki has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Emulator Zone *>=============================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - Time and Time Again *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The path here seems straightforward, leading apparently directly inwards towards the heart of the Emulator Zone. The 'sky' however is anything but: it's a radiance of yellow-gold light, vanishing further and further into itself the more you advance.There is little to see about you but the apparent lightshow within this dimension-- Until it starts to wind itself backwards, repeating in reverse what has gone before. You, too, are flowing backwards in time, reversing your earlier steps. There must be some connection with the light and the direction of its flow you'd witnessed before -- is there some way you can affect the light and reverse this slip in time? Otherwise you risk losing the advantage that this section of path affords you altogether. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Treasure========================================
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"Yeah... but I guess it's a little late for that." Jacqueline sympathises with Citan. Citan agrees that'd she'd have the right to give them a name, and Jacqueline goes a little red and massages the back of her neck as Gwen offers some suggestions. "O-oh, naming them after myself... that'd be a little embarrassing, wouldn't it...?"
She pauses, though, looking toward Lanval... who doesn't quite seem to share her opinions on the aesthetics.
"Sorry... it's bad enough for me, this place must be awful for you, huh...?" Jacqueline murmurs. The way it tugs at her sorcerous senses...
But now it's time to run, but Jacqueline pauses partway through as she realises someone's been left behind.
"A-ah! Gwen! Hurry!" Jacqueline urges, running back toward her. "We have to keep moving, before-"
The floor crumbles beneath them. Lanval and Citan might be able to safely descend after them, being ferried by Lanval's terrible steed, but Gwen and Jacqueline have no such luck, and the four of them fall to...
...Where, exactly...?
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
It's also probably too late for a refund, but that's just how it is sometimes.
"On the contrary, naming discovered organisms after oneself is quite common," Citan remarks on the subject, unhelpfully (for Jacqueline).
But the situation soon takes a bit of a turn for the worse: between the path upon which they walk crumbling and their collective need for speed, well.
"Gwen? Have we left her behind?! --Oh no!"
The entire path crumbles, taking all of them down into the depths of the Emulator Zone!
They land on another path. The magnificent steed breaks their fall. Well. Breaks the fall of Lanval and Citan, who are atop it. Perhaps with her magic, Jay might be able to soften their landing, but here at least the pathway seems more stable.
Seems to lead also into the heart of the distortion. The doctor is uncharateristically quiet, taking in their surroundings as they advance across a phantasmagoric landscape.
And then everyone's advance slows. Stops.
Goes in reverse.
"...What is this?" Citan utters, realizing what is happening to them now. Attempting to advance only pushes them further back. And those lights are... He stops for a moment, as if in thought, and then produces his camera, snapping off a shot for one of the shimmering swirls of light. He doesn't explain what he's doing, or at least not just yet.
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Strauss Camera toward his party's challenge, Time and Time Again.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
"'ll tell ya," comes Lanval's voice as he seems to have moved non-linearly between being on the strange raft and being where Citan is trying to snap a photo of the strange light while nobody's looking, "'caushe thish one I got wordsh for!"
Useful ones?! Could the Seraph at last have some useful wisdom in a place beyond reach of natural law, far removed from anything resembling his spheres of knowledge?
"Thish ish shome shit." Lanval says as he looks back while wearing those strange novelty beer bottle lens glasses that ruin every possible dramatic cutscene they're in, while he moonwalks backwards into the raft and floats slightly up with it. (This helps catch Gwen if she hasn't been yet, somehow.)
They are now equipped with the knowledge that this is, effectively, Some Shit.
DG: Seraph Lanval has used his Tool Amber Tinted Glasses toward his party's challenge, Time and Time Again.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"W-well, yes, but..." Jacqueline protests, as Citan offers his own opinion on the naming of creatures. It's hard to argue with that logic...!
But soon enough, she's falling, and as she does blues and silvers give way into a brilliant yellow gold light. Jacqueline groans as she hauls herself to her feet and brushes herself off before taking a look around.
"...It's a good thing there's solid ground here, at least..." She says with a sigh and starts forward, following Citan. ...But soon enough, she finds herself walking backwards??
Jacqueline pauses, and a frown creeps across her face.
"...This seems like a problem." She notes, then looks toward Lanval as he begins to give an answer to Citan's question of what this is.
...The answer is rather sudden and forces her to look away, clearing her throat as she does. She has a reputation to uphold, she can't let people see her smile at something like that...!
But they still need to figure out a way out of this.
"It looks like... time is rolling back on itself over specific segments. If we can figure out the exact length of 'time' - um, for however much that word counts, considering - that is affected... we can try to limit our movements during that length of time so as to avoid losing too much ground..." She considers, looking around. "Is anyone carrying a watch?"
DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Time and Time Again.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Gwen falls into the sky, except she's falling away from it, or is it to the side? But their footsteps are coming from their left, and the sky is below, and the raft is going sideways, and they're back where they started, near the heart. Or were they always here? Or were they far away?
"OOF!" Gwen unceremoniously lands in the raft, a bundle of limbs and little sense of direction, where she lays for a good while, completely dazed.
"... What is what?" The courier rises, her black hat now fully missing to reveal the fine red down of new hair on her head, barely covering the age old scars they run up to.
Then, hearing Lanval's assessment, she begins to laugh. Thankfully, it's the sort that comes after a stressful event, a sort of stress valve that allows all that pressure to dissolve into harmless vapor.
Knocking off a tear from the corner of her eye, Gwen admits, "I think Lanval's got it in one, Doc."
Finally feeling the cooling air against the top of her head, the courier begins he journey once more into a land of anxiety. Her hat. She needs her hat. She doesn't care if she's among friends, she NEEDS HER HAT.
And it's there, for some reason, up the path. Or is it behind them?
"Damn it!"
Gwen's beyond caring, because she's wading out of Lanval's raft of safe-keeping and into the unknown, all for one stylish black cap.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Courier Kit toward her party's challenge, Time and Time Again.
==============================<* Emulator Zone *>=============================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - Time and Time Again *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The path here seems straightforward, leading apparently directly inwards towards the heart of the Emulator Zone. The 'sky' however is anything but: it's a radiance of yellow-gold light, vanishing further and further into itself the more you advance.There is little to see about you but the apparent lightshow within this dimension-- Until it starts to wind itself backwards, repeating in reverse what has gone before. You, too, are flowing backwards in time, reversing your earlier steps. There must be some connection with the light and the direction of its flow you'd witnessed before -- is there some way you can affect the light and reverse this slip in time? Otherwise you risk losing the advantage that this section of path affords you altogether. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Treasure========================================
=========================<* Emulator Zone - Round 4 *>========================== =======================< Results - Time and Time Again >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 55 --(17)--> 72 Fail Courier Kit 1 Wits Effects: Resilient and Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Lanval 31 --(5)--> 36 Pass Amber Tinted Glasses 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jacqueline Barber 55 --(17)--> 72 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Citan Uzuki 43 --(5)--> 48 Pass Strauss Camera 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Gwen Whitlock 60 --(25)--> 85 Pass Conditions: Stupify(2)|Treasure(1) Effects: Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Gwen Whitlock has passed this challenge! The party gained 25 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Gwen Whitlock has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Emulator Zone *>=============================== ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Blueshift *>=========================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Could this be, perhaps, the heart of this distortion? All the paths throughout the Emulator Zone seem to converge towards this point: if you look about, you may see the others who had been aboard the train when it was caught in this alternate dimension. Perhaps beyond here, you might be able to find some way to end the distortion and permit yourself -- and the train and its occupants -- to escape. However, before you can attempt to do that -- or deal with whatever it is in the heart of the Emulator Zone -- you must contend with a particular obstacle. To be specific, you must contend with the color blue. You've never seen a blue like this. It has a particular intensity and depth. It veils the way forward in a way that is impenetrable without being an actual physical object, or indeed with any substance whatsoever. It exists and it doesn't exist. It's in your way and it's not really there. And you'll have to find some way to break through or remove it anyway if you aim to progress any further. =Dungeon Conditions: Collapse, Madness, Injure================================
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"I see," responds Citan to Lanval's remark, and though he remains a sort of straight-faced, a keen eye will notice that the corner of his mouth threatens to twitch in amusement. Also helpful, the part where he (Lanval) catches the tumbling Gwen in the raft!
"I am afraid I do not have a timepiece on me, Miss Barber," he says, lowering his camera and retrieving the photograph from it. Tentatively, his gaze fixed on the photograph that he holds in hand, he takes a step forward. This time, he does not find himself routed backwards again, and briefly smiles as if in self-satisfaction.
"'Observation' is the key, it seems. What we see as its state is more important than how it may behave. ...Odd rules, but then this is a very odd place. As long as we regard this fixed image instead of the 'real thing'... ah, Lanval, if you do not mind?"
He'll give the photo to Lanval. Aboard the inflatable raft, perhaps he's best equipped to keep it in their view until they all are able to escape this strange trap.
Gwen, fortunately, is able to thus also retrieve her hat.
If after a little bit of hardship.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Indeed, Gwen gets her hat, overtaking the obstacle with stubbornness, rather than logic. But in this space, both might as well share the same amount of power.
Gwen clutches the black beret in her hands and presses it on her head, adjusting it as best she can before--
"... blue..."
She, and everyone else with her, must contend with a field of blue.
Like the Stranger's eyes, a fugitive color, like a stand of cornflowers, unapologetic in how vivid they stand against a sky a softer, more manageable hue.
At least, this is what it connotes in the courier's mind; it may equal something just as impossible for everyone else, a logical error where the colors of the world have warped thin, the anti-matter of this verse threatening to bow out through this stress fracture into their bubble of necessary mundanity.
"... I've got nothing left to give, don't take what little I got back..."
With the fear of a cornered animal, Gwen begins to punch her right fist into the air, and--
Is that a crack, in the air? Or is it just a bad idea?
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool ARM-ored Fist toward her party's challenge, Blueshift.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"Ah... so it's a matter of perception..." Jacqueline murmurs, as Citan sums up his findings. "Good eye, Doctor Uzuki, I don't think I would have thought of that."
Thanks to that, they're able to make it through until, eventually...
Blue.
A wall of blue - not be confused with a blue wall - stretches on as far as the eye can see. There's nothing visible beyond but blue. With a frown Jacqueline reaches out. Her fingertips brush up against it. ...Somehow, it's like a physical object, and yet not, at the same time.
"It's a... curious sensation, touching a color." Jacqueline murmurs. She looks toward Gwen, then, who begins punching the wall. Jacqueline frowns, with a hint of concern, but...
Maybe the best thing to do right now would be to just help out.
"Alright... let's try this!" Jacqueline says, swapping around a couple of Crest Graphs from her left gauntlet. And then, with a gesture of her hand, earth begins to rise. Though there is no normal earth here it arises from nothing, pushing up against the blue in an arch - an arch that, at Jacqueline's command, attempts to shape itself into a gateway they can pass through.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Landscaper Crest toward her party's challenge, Blueshift.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval cannot explain the exact method to what's going on or how, but his assessment that this is 'shome shit' is juuuuuust going to have to do, as he guides them into... blue, where he freezes up. The raft bumps into it, and stops, even though by his measure there is nothing there but blue.
The Seraph rises, slowly, with purpose, eyes opening as he regards this blue before him.
"Thou art blue." He speaks to the blue like it's a person, as an aura of water washes over the location - of all things grand and... not, about it and what happens with it, to it. Water comes in many forms! IT gets turned into many forms. This is all of them, at once. "Thou art of the belief that thy deep hue shalt outwit all who hath come before thee."
Seraph Lanval, awakened, is now picking an intellectual fight with a shade of deep blue, as he steps forward to meet it head on and--
Bumps his head and falls over, as if outwitted as to where the blue begins and ends.
"....mmmmph," Lanval grunts, humbled.
DG: Seraph Lanval has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Blueshift.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"Yes... Sometimes I find that it helps to think 'outside the box', as it were," he replies to Jay.
But ahead... that is quite a lot of blue.
"Ah, Gwen, if you would hold a moment," Citan says. He's pulled out a manual and is hurriedly paging through it, referring briefly to the swathe of color in their path and then taking into account Gwen, herself. "This will not be an easy task even for you, I fear. Please allow me one moment," he tells her.
Before touching, briefly, the point where her prosthesis meets the rest of her body.
"There-- perhaps that will do it! Gwen, Jaqueline, Lanval... I feel the rest of this is up to you!"
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Acupressure Guide toward his party's challenge, Blueshift.
==============================<* Emulator Zone *>=============================== ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Blueshift *>=========================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Could this be, perhaps, the heart of this distortion? All the paths throughout the Emulator Zone seem to converge towards this point: if you look about, you may see the others who had been aboard the train when it was caught in this alternate dimension. Perhaps beyond here, you might be able to find some way to end the distortion and permit yourself -- and the train and its occupants -- to escape. However, before you can attempt to do that -- or deal with whatever it is in the heart of the Emulator Zone -- you must contend with a particular obstacle. To be specific, you must contend with the color blue. You've never seen a blue like this. It has a particular intensity and depth. It veils the way forward in a way that is impenetrable without being an actual physical object, or indeed with any substance whatsoever. It exists and it doesn't exist. It's in your way and it's not really there. And you'll have to find some way to break through or remove it anyway if you aim to progress any further. =Dungeon Conditions: Collapse, Madness, Injure================================
=========================<* Emulator Zone - Round 5 *>========================== ============================< Results - Blueshift >============================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 72 --(101)--> 173 Pass ARM-ored Fist 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Lanval 36 --(101)--> 137 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jacqueline Barber 72 --(101)--> 173 Fail Landscaper Crest 3 Brute Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Citan Uzuki 48 --(101)--> 149 Fail Acupressure Guide 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Gwen Whitlock 85 --(15)--> 100 Fail Conditions: Collapse|Injure(2)|Madness|Stupify(1) Effects: Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: Gwen Whitlock is too exhausted to continue! DG: Seraph Lanval is too exhausted to continue! DG: Jacqueline Barber is too exhausted to continue! DG: Citan Uzuki is too exhausted to continue! DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Gwen Whitlock has successfully explored Emulator Zone!
==============================<* Emulator Zone *>=============================== =================<* CHALLENGE - Through the Angles of Space *>================== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Through your combined efforts, the unnatural color is removed! You have accomplished something impossible here today! The air about you twists to a pale teal light as you stride into the heart of the Emulator Zone. It is rather akin to being at the heart of a hurricane: all about you unnatural colors dance and glimmer, and matter is created and destroyed. Here, fully, you can appreciate the chaos of the dimension in which you are trapped. And here alone there is a bubble of order. A pair of figures stand here. TO BE CONTINUED...... OOC: You have an advantage entering into the combat scene At the Mountains of Madness! You have gained 30 FP and Lock State -- let staff know that you are eligible for this bonus when the scene starts! =Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Gwen's punching is panicked, born from emotions still raw and unresolved despite their healed surface. Gwen's body looks the same, feels the same, is for all intents and purposes the same as the morning of that terrible day, but she knows that _it is not_. It is new, as new as the hair follicles on her head, even younger than when she first recieved her ARM, and yet, the same.
But she is the same Gwen. Jay is the same Jay, beside her, trying to push ahead as well, performing the impossible task of conjuring earth from nothing.
Lanval is the same Lanval, faced with a blue he, with all his years of existence, cannot pierce with his head.
And Citan is still the same Citan, logical to a fault, which is priceless in places like these.
Gwen's punching slows when she feels Citan briefly touch, with a precision borne from a doctor's previous examinations, a specific area between prosthesis and body. She straightens, becoming aware of herself.
She becomes aware of Jay beside her, and Lanval on the other side, and feels... at peace.
Nothing the group does helps make the crack spread further.
Everything the group does helps Gwen make the crack collapse in.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
The color, ultimately, finally, is torn away. The path before them is clear.
"...I shall remain back here. Whatever lies ahead, I believe we will need to secure an escape route." Citan glances upwards, perhaps pointedly: they can't go the way they came in, either.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Slowly but surely, they all work together... and soon, something becomes visible within. Jacqueline though, collapses into a sitting position with a sigh. This has all been rather exhausting...
"I... think I ought to remain behind, too. I need to catch my breath, for starters..." Jacqueline agrees. "As I am right now, I'm not sure I'd be much help with... whatever's going on in there."
She might not have the energy to fight, but she can help out in other ways from out here, at least.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval watches the colors of the crack collapse inward, into... whole new, deeper shades of blue, and he feels the limitations of his ability of comprehension. It may be that this matter, and this matter alone, is within the dominion of the corporeal.
"...'m not gonna make excushesh," he totally is, "but I ain't convinced it'll be shafe fer all of ush ta go in one place... after the thing with the yellow light, 'n goin' backwardsh in time... they might be pullin' shtuff like that. Ya get too many people in one place... ain't never gonna dishentangle what we did. Do? Are gonna do?"
Beat. A smile creeps on his face.
"...but if a lot of ush jusht hang 'round 'n do nothin', thaaaaat'll be eashier ta track... I think."
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Gwen looks at Jay, Citan and Lanval, and nods. "I'll scout ahead, then. I think I can take it from here. If it gets too rough, I'll have a place to fall back on."