2021-04-30: Siddim Canyon (Side D)
- Log: Siddim Canyon (Side D)
- Cast: Cyre H. Lorentz, Violet Salazar, Jacqueline Barber, Magilou, Ruth Pauling
- Where: Celesti Wastelands
- Date: April 30, 2021
- Summary: A Malevolent Domain that has formed from Siddim Canyon in Northern Zoara needs be addressed... and the story of the ill-fated village that fell in the late years of the Celesti Civil War is told. Several teams descend upon the location to deal with it - and its Domain Master, should they be present. This scene ICly takes place on May 1st, 503 PC. (Fourth of five runs.)
============================<* Celesti Wastelands *>============================ Decades ago, the nation of Celesti ripped itself apart in a vicious civil war. Outside of a handful of settlements, its former territories are lifeless. The remains of trenches, bunkers, and barbed wire lines serve as lingering reminders of the conflict--scars that have yet to heal. The earth is dry and barren, and much of the groundwater has been contaminated by biological or chemical weapons. Travel through the Wastelands is treacherous. The roads are pockmarked with shell craters, and Reapers have been known to haunt its blasted plains. A handful of functional rail lines cross the wastes, but these travel directly to their final destinations. The shattered remains of ghost towns dot the landscape. Some may yet hold things of value, but experienced travelers know better than to go treasure-hunting on a whim. The war-dead of Celesti do not rest. Ghosts aren't even the strangest things one can find here. As the war dragged on, both the Congressional Knights and Aquvy Union dug up ancient weapons to aid their efforts--including, it's rumored, ARMs from Zeboim. These rumors draw both the daring and desperate into the wastes, and more often than not, to their end. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92HwM11d2FQ
DC: Jacqueline Barber switches forms to Caravan Leader Jay! DC: Cyre H. Lorentz switches forms to Wind Shaman Cyre! DC: Magilou switches forms to Lil Miss Witch Who Smiles Around You But Stabs You In The Back When You Are Not Looking!
DG: A party led by Jacqueline Barber is now entering Siddim Canyon.
=============================<* Siddim Canyon *>==============================
================<* CHALLENGE - The Knocking on Death's Door *>================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
The trail you've followed takes you to Siddim Canyon - and sure enough,
there's that whiff of Malevolence within. A powerful Hellion is - or has -
been here, away from the remnants of society that dot the Celesti landscape.
The ambient Malevolence carries the distinct feelings of guilt and regret.
You don't get much time to appreciate it (...in a sense), as you are
interrupted by the sound of four cracks of a gunsmoke rifle. There are no
bullets whizzing by, no sound of something being impacted. There's enough
boulders and rocks along the way you can move to for cover, and you might
want to do so to be safe. By the time you figure out whether or not the
source of those four shots might be trying to shoot at you, it may be too
late.
(NOTE: Failure only indicates your team taking a long time to learn they are
in the clear.)
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Slow=============================================
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
May 1st, 503 PC. There's a suspected Malevolent Domain, and as the Drifter community as a whole has been converging about the Zoara landmass in the fallout of what happened at St. Heim, now's a great time as any to nip this in the bud before it gets worse. It's already bad when Port Rosalia came just shy of having a whole bunch of Hellionized animals overrun it.
The one lead they have: the wildlife comes from Siddim Canyon, up in Northern Zoara. This information comes courtesy of a known corporate enforcer who was just shy of becoming a sobbing wreck looking at them. He was able to mark where Siddim Canyon lies on a map, and decided that was as much help as he was going to give. He wanted nothing more with the subject.
Siddim Canyon sees more rainfall than most the rest of Northern Zoara, and it shows - there's still greenery, and the skies are overcast with the promise of more rain - it is humid in the air. Also, Siddim Canyon is now a Malevolent Domain, which checks out. The specific feelings of guilt, shame, despair, regret, for those able to fine tune those 'flavors' of Malevolence... even if it came in better flavors like lemon, or mango, or schadenfreude, Filgaia doesn't need this weight on its buckling shoulders.
You also happen to not need the sound of a gunsmoke ARM going off four times. No one sees any bullets flying by, nothing's impacted, no one's seen a sharpshooter - but there's the sound of live fire and that's as excellent a cue as any to go hurry into cover somewhere. Trees, boulders, tree large boulders.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
There are few duties associated with his position as a shaman that Cyre relishes quite as much as kicking the door down on a Malevolent domain and blasting the very corruption out of the landscape with as much power as he's able to bring to bear. He might have a little bit of a grudge against this particular stripe of spiritual corruption. It's almost like it nearly destroyed his home town, ate his brother, and tried to fire a bullet of tainted gunk straight into the heart of the world to jump-start the plot of history's weirdest unsavory doujinshi.
He has a grudge.
It's a perfectly reasonable one though.
Cyre had been quite insistent that the Caravan Kinship take some time out of their busy schedule, already occupied as they are with several recent world-shaking events, to come up to Siddim to nip what looked to be a nascent Malevolent domain in the bud before a certain white knight could capitalize on it. And so he is here, having come on ahead to scout for possible threats. The roar of gunfire in the valley below...
Is of no small concern, actually. He can deal with most Malevolent influences now, as fortified as his soul has become, but a bullet to the head is still a bit of a problem. Unfortunately, scouting ahead means that he's A) out in the open, riding his glider high overhead to give the best vantage of the area, and B) Kind of isolated, honestly!!
It also means he's in perfect position to land in a conveniently high-up outcropping of stone and hide amidst the mangled, blasted terrain in places that few would expect-- and fewer would think to hide from. He'll have a perfect position to make sure the others don't get shot full of holes! Provided he can land quickly and safely enough to make sure he doesn't meet a similar fate.
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has used his Tool Reverse Parachute toward his party's challenge, The Knocking on Death's Door.
<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.
Violet's ears flick up as she hears four rounds of gunfire. There are no signs of bullets whizzing by her, but the midwife-turned-Drifter wastes no time taking cover behind some boulders. The necessity -- or so she perceives -- of protecting herself temporarily distracts her from the eerie aura surrounding the canyon. Her Resonance is not very discerning, but she can clearly feel the negative emotions in the air. Their source remains to be seen. She stays alert for any more bullets, senses quivering. She hasn't survived this long to be shot now!! She takes note of what her companions are doing, and where they're hiding, if they're sensible.
DG: Violet Salazar has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Knocking on Death's Door.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Port Rosalia... to Jacqueline, what happened there was a worrying flashback to the events at Port Timney from what feels like an eternity ago. She had not fought the Hellions herself, having spent her time tending to the wounded, but thankfully this time people knew enough what was going on to stop it before it was too late. And if it's like Port Timney, there must be a Malevolent Domain building out there somewhere that needs to be dealt with... and so, Jacqueline readily agreed with Cyre's insistences that they look into it.
Siddim Canyon, at least, seems far more pleasant initially than the Otherworldly Hollow did... at least, until a series of four gunshots sends Jacqueline scrambling for cover behind a nearby tree.
"Everyone alright?" Jacqueline asks. She doesn't poke her head out to look just yet, instead taking a moment to breathe and calm herself down. "Hm... I didn't... hear any bullets landing anywhere near us. It's possible they may not have been firing at us - they might not have spotted us yet. If we move quickly and carefully, we might be able to avoid being found."
It's a reasonable assumption. And so Jacqueline reaches into one of her bags, drawing out a bottle of pale-green liquid. With a Mystic touch, the liquid within evaporates, settling over the party in a glimmering cloud. It promotes freedom of movement, allowing them to move more easily. This is key when you're trying to move quickly through someone's line of fire.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Rapid Remedy toward her party's challenge, The Knocking on Death's Door.
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
Press /\ to view skits!
"Don't you think we should get Hiro and the others here to go through this place...?"
"I just want to have a look around myself first. Don't worry about it."
"But this place is kinda..."
"... yeah, I get it. But what are they gonna do? Call an exorcist? HA!"
"Biennn, you don't need to get that look in your eyes..."
~*~*~
Anyway, Magilou's in Filgaia now.
So here's Zoara, which seems like a happening place, and that just happens to be on account of the Malevolence. It's not a secret, the way it used to be; the poor, sweet citizens at least don't have to worry about catching cooties.
Just the horrible death. Well, that happens.
"So go kick a puppy," Magilou told the poor, almost-sobbing enforcer when she heard about where the wildlife was coming from. "What's the big deal?" Magilou, who is the most sensitive and caring person in the universe, still somehow managed to learn the directions to Siddim Canyon from that interaction.
She scrunched the map up and tossed it over her shoulder on her way out.
Bienfu helpfully caught it and brought it back over to her.
To which -- direct quote -- Magilou said, "ugh, FINE."
~*~*~
Anyway, Magilou's in Siddim Canyon now.
"The pain~ the agony~" Here comes a lilting voice, all sing-songy, as someone traipses down between the rainfall puddles. "Oh, sweet regret! If only I'd known!"
NO ONE INVITED MAGILOU, and yet, somehow, here she is, prancing in like she's not entering a war zone. "Witness now my eternal sufferiIIEEEP"
That's the sound she makes, alongside the full-body contortion, turning on one leg, the other pulled up to her book-skirt waist, one jester's shoe dangling in the air as her magnificent jester's hat sweeps around to look for the bullets which she swears fired right over her head. (Magilou may be a little dramatic.) "Hey, hey, HEY! You can't fight here! This is the war room!"
Hurrying in no particular direction towards no particular cover, hands over her behatted head, she cries: "I'm too beautiful to find my end at a bullet bulletin!!"
DG: Magilou has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Knocking on Death's Door.
=============================<* Siddim Canyon *>==============================
================<* CHALLENGE - The Knocking on Death's Door *>================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
The trail you've followed takes you to Siddim Canyon - and sure enough,
there's that whiff of Malevolence within. A powerful Hellion is - or has -
been here, away from the remnants of society that dot the Celesti landscape.
The ambient Malevolence carries the distinct feelings of guilt and regret.
You don't get much time to appreciate it (...in a sense), as you are
interrupted by the sound of four cracks of a gunsmoke rifle. There are no
bullets whizzing by, no sound of something being impacted. There's enough
boulders and rocks along the way you can move to for cover, and you might
want to do so to be safe. By the time you figure out whether or not the
source of those four shots might be trying to shoot at you, it may be too
late.
(NOTE: Failure only indicates your team taking a long time to learn they are
in the clear.)
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Slow=============================================
========================<* Siddim Canyon - Round 1 *>========================= ==================< Results - The Knocking on Death's Door >================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jacqueline Barber 0 --(13)--> 13 Fail Rapid Remedy 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Violet Salazar 0 --(13)--> 13 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyre H. Lorentz 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Reverse Parachute 1 Agility Effects: Rally and Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Magilou 0 --(13)--> 13 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Jacqueline Barber 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Slow(2) Effects: Cleanse|Quicken(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Jacqueline Barber has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* Siddim Canyon *>==============================
===========<* CHALLENGE - Natural Enemies in Unnatural Ceasefire *>===========
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
The cobra and the mongoose are some of the most well-known mortal enemies in
all of nature. They will never relent in each other's presence. This is
magnified when they are both Hellionized - larger, more dangerous, further
instinct-driven. Either would cause problems for your party if they gave you
their full attention, as the wounds they have inflicted upon one another
would attest.
Then, abruptly... they stop. Their body language grows more passive, but it
does not appear to be from grievous injury. Against their better natures,
the two of them appear... apologetic? Guilty? They both look aghast and
ashamed about what they've done to one another, and their aggression starts
to fade. They remain in the way of progress. Could they be convinced to
leave the area peacefully, somehow? If they get riled up again, it could get
ugly (especially for you).
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Injure==========================================
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
A witch happens, which happens to be a terrible thing. Noisy, singing, drawing so much attention to their colorfully wicked selves. (Also it's Bienfu's fault.)
This would completely invalidate Jay's and Violet's work as regards finding appropriate cover, because if the shooter is about...
...Cyre will see, having risked everything to go out in the open and look, that there's no shooter in sight (and can safely signal everyone through). He can also see a distant fortification where the Malevolence is at its thickest. Now he has visual directions to give, instead of just having everyone have to go feel it out along whatever path they can find that gets them there, and this is valuable intel.
But they have to get there. So they still have to go along whatever path they can find that gets them there. With Magilou.
Cyre will be the first to feel the rain touch down on him - but it's the natural rain. The raindrops themselves are not rife with Malevolence. They don't take on any of the icky bad feels ambience until they hit the ground. Those on the ground will feel the Domain pressure lessening, which is... eerie? Not unwelcome, but weird.
Speaking of not unwelcome, but weird, those on the ground will find a cobra and a mongoose ahead - enlarged from the corruption they have taken unto themselves, but their base instincts jive completely with it. They still hate one another. They've already wounded one another to visible degrees, and they've got more Malevolence in them than most of the wildlife they've encountered. Dangerous...
...But then they stop fighting, as the rain washes over them. Is their wounds catching up to them at the same time? They start averting their gazes. Their body language, more... passive? Sad? Guilty? It's one thing for Hellionized wildlife to show anything more than base aggression.
It's another when they're also natural mortal enemies, and they're stopping - but they're still wounded, they're still Hellions, and it is a safe assumption at all common sense levels that they should not be approached directly. Provoking them back into a fight seems like a terrible idea.
How will they get around them, or get them to leave?
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
** EDITOR'S NOTE - Common sense levels are not rated for witches.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Cyre has three thoughts about this situation. First: Hey, he knows where he's going! That's good! Second: Someone is being shot at, but it's not them, and there's no sniper watching for their approach. Weird, but good! Third:
"Who the fuck ordered a clown?" He says it aloud, but also under his breath, because he's cursing like a sailor and that's rude. "Hey guys! It's fine! Nobody's trying to kill us! I mean, relatively speaking. There's still some kind of hellions up ahead--"
A raindrop falls upon his head. Cyre blinks as it's joined by a second, then a score more. But this rain is... distinctly normal. He remembers what Malevolent rain feels like. The stuff almost drowned Wehaca! This... is just rain. Plain, old, ordinary rain. It's actually quite soothing and reassuring, knowing that the sky is on his side. But more importantly, as the rain begins falling in earnest, he notices that the two Hellions he'd scouted...
Start to... chill out?
That's very strange, given that a mongoose and cobra would be trying to murder one another even without the influence of Malevolence tainting their everything. Was it the rain? If so, then Cyre actually has a halfway decent assembly of Mediums to take advantage of this if he needs to.
...After getting past the Hellions, of course.
"I don't suppose we can use the clown as a distraction?" Cyre thinks to himself, then sighs and shakes his head. "Nah, best to just try to sneak by, I think." What's a clown even doing out here, anyway? "Jay, you think you could, like... erect a couple walls between the two, and we can just go right down through the middle? Or make a tunnel, or something?"
<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.
Violet rounds a curve with the others only to find ...a giant mongoose and a cobra. They've been fighting, which is to be expected, but now they seem...abashed? Guilty? Rain washes over them, diluting the blood from their wounds. Could the rain be responsible for their lessened aggression?
Vi gives the cobra an especially wide berth -- she has nothing for venom, except perhaps her Medipak -- and she hasn't figured out exactly how it works, yet. The important thing is not to provoke them, but they're blocking the path. What to do, what to do? She pulls out her Merc Manual, hoping against hope there's an answer in there... If the water IS calming them, the obvious answer would be to give them a good bath. Not that she's brave enough to try it!
DG: Violet Salazar has used her Tool Merc Manual toward her party's challenge, Natural Enemies in Unnatural Ceasefire. DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Natural Enemies in Unnatural Ceasefire.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
There's no one there? Jacqueline frowns slightly, as Cyre gives the news. Well, that's good for them... but where did the sounds of gunfire come from, and who was it aimed at? A worrying thought, but for the time being it at least means they can move on with less concern. As she does, though, she turns her attention toward the one who pranced onto the scene out of nowhere.
"Ah... you're Miss Magilou, correct?" Jacqueline asks. She remembers her from the time the Yvain, as the Drake, attacked the Carakin. "Were you here to investigate the Canyon, as well?"
Soon, they begin to approach the Hellions Cyre had spotted, when it suddenly... begins to rain? It's cool, calming rain... and strangely enough, this effect extends to the Hellions, as well. Jacqueline blinks, surprised.
"...Did you all notice that, as well? The rain appears to be having a calming effect on them... The strength of the Malevolence appears to be abating somewhat, as well..." Jacqueline observes. The rain is natural, but this occurrence... isn't. Malevolence usually didn't act like this - it must be significant somehow.
Still, they may be calm, but they have a pair of Hellions to deal with.
"...Right - good idea, Cyre. Violet, can you watch my back?" Jacqueline replies. This kind of spell-casting can take some concentration.
Jacqueline draws a Crest Graph from her deck and sets it into the gauntlet on her left hand, and with a gesture she invokes it. At her command, the earth itself rises up, forming a pair of walls to separate the mongoose and cobra Hellions - and provide a convenient pathway for them to go down.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Natural Enemies in Unnatural Ceasefire.
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
No one ordered a clown, because Magilou is a WITCH. Obviously. Can't you tell?
"Oh, good, the potion vendor!" Magilou remarks, brightly, to Jacqueline, because naturally she fled in such a way as to encounter her. "Yup, that's me, the magnificent Magilou, here to save the day! I'll be needing potions in a place like this. Stay right there, okay?" She flashes Jay a winning smile, tapping a finger to her temple.
Of course, instead of that, they round a corner and find some cute fluffy animals. And as they do: "Rain, rain, go away," Magilou is still singing. Why is she still singing? "Bring back that meaning some other day..."
She hops forward a couple of steps, before she spies Violet pulling out a book. "Right!" Magilou explains. "Obviously I was just about to do that!" Magilou was just about to walk right past the very dangerous Hellions. Don't lie, Magilou.
Thus reminded, she reaches down to her skirt, and SCANDALOUSLY removes the book at her left hip, a hint of pink shorts underneath. Cracking it open - it's really an impressive tome - she flicks through pages whose ink seems to refuse the rain's efforts to blur it.
"Say," Magilou says, "it says right here that Hellionisation is more complicated than just making someone kill things all the time. There's all these types... hey, I wonder if these critters are full of despair? I mean, they're animals, so they're just gonna get bigger and meaner, buuut... hey, you know what they say! Malevolence comes from people, in the end! People say that all the time these days," Magilou marvels, as if Magilou had nothing to do with it. "So, sure - give them some time-out rooms, let 'em cry about it."
Magilou doesn't seem terribly ruffled by the idea of the animals being sad.
"Boy!" She exclaims, snapping the tome shut. "Whoever wrote this must have known what they were talking about!"
DG: Magilou has used her Tool Mayvin's Accounts toward her party's challenge, Natural Enemies in Unnatural Ceasefire.
=============================<* Siddim Canyon *>==============================
===========<* CHALLENGE - Natural Enemies in Unnatural Ceasefire *>===========
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
The cobra and the mongoose are some of the most well-known mortal enemies in
all of nature. They will never relent in each other's presence. This is
magnified when they are both Hellionized - larger, more dangerous, further
instinct-driven. Either would cause problems for your party if they gave you
their full attention, as the wounds they have inflicted upon one another
would attest.
Then, abruptly... they stop. Their body language grows more passive, but it
does not appear to be from grievous injury. Against their better natures,
the two of them appear... apologetic? Guilty? They both look aghast and
ashamed about what they've done to one another, and their aggression starts
to fade. They remain in the way of progress. Could they be convinced to
leave the area peacefully, somehow? If they get riled up again, it could get
ugly (especially for you).
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Injure==========================================
========================<* Siddim Canyon - Round 2 *>========================= =============< Results - Natural Enemies in Unnatural Ceasefire >============= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jacqueline Barber 13 --(5)--> 18 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Violet Salazar 13 --(18)--> 31 Fail Merc Manual 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyre H. Lorentz 5 --(5)--> 10 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Magilou 13 --(5)--> 18 Pass Mayvin's Accounts 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Jacqueline Barber 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Fright(1)|Injure(2)|Stupify(2) Effects: Enlighten(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Jacqueline Barber has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Jacqueline Barber has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* Siddim Canyon *>==============================
==============<* CHALLENGE - For Whatever Else The Bell Tolls *>==============
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
You hear the sounds of gathering wildlife, but the timing couldn't be any
better. You can make out an abandoned building that has all the hallmarks of
being a small church of Granas. No door bars your path. From inside, the
place looks... completely untouched at all, which is odd as it is the best
functional shelter from the elements here. A large bell is within reach just
up a staircase, and appears intact enough to be able to be rung.
There's a pressure - an urge - trying to convince you to leave. Like it'
doesn't want to set foot in there to begin with. You get a sense it fears
the bell most of all, and that idea may prove useful. If you can ring it, it
will repel any oncoming wildlife - as if this discomfort is shared by all
who have succumbed to the Domain. Such an act will prove an emotional drain
as much as it is a physical one.
=Dungeon Conditions: Suffer, Exhaust==========================================
<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.
Violet gladly watches Jacqueline's back -- and, gazing, at her eldritch earthworks, wishes, not for the first time, that she herself could get the hang of the magic thing. She also overhears her address the gaudily-dressed woman as "Magilou," someone Violet hasn't met before -- and one who also carries a book. She makes her way past the cobra and mongoose, sheltered by Jay's earthen walls. The rain increases, but the closest available shelter in the next area seems to be a, ugh, church. No help for it -- it's better than being outside in the rain -- AND among the dangerous Hellionized creatures! Violet urges her companions towards the dimunitive Granasite church, knowing, somehow, that the wildlife will detest the bell inside. She resolves to ring it if she can reach it...
But first she has to fight her way past the RESISTANCE she feels from the surrounding area. It doesn't want her and her companions anywhere near that church! Summoning her will and grimacing, Violet attempts to force her way through it and into the church proper.
DG: Violet Salazar has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, For Whatever Else The Bell Tolls.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
It's all a little too novel a situation for the Merc Manual. Malevolence does not naturally occur on Filgaia, beyond however much of it's spread and caught from those of Lunar. It does reiterate that these critters are natural enemies and one shouldn't get between them, so there's that. Except the way ahead is between them.
Jay more or less resolves the situation by putting up walls, a sensible situation and the much-vaunted 'time out rooms' from a noted expert question mark. (Not noted expoert. Noted expert question mark. Magilou is the best in the business at question marks.)
Save for the part where the cobra starts to scale this earthen wall, flick its giant jagged Malevolence tongue, and have a snoot that's boopable if someone stands on their tippiest of toes to do so*.
Basically if the walls weren't there, Cyre's idea would have plenty of merit. That might even have been the canon solution!
* DO NOT BOOP THE SNOOT (the Merc Manual says this in these exact words**)
** no it doesn't
The rain abates for the moment as they come across an abandoned building that has enough Granas markings (and even a bell) to say... this is a house of Granas. The Zoara landmass is almost predominantly Granasian in faith, so that's not weird. What is not weird (since this is a Malevolent Domain) is that there are numerous Hellionized creatures starting to gather. Two Shedus (bearded bulls), a Sphix, and a pair of Lion Dogs take up the forefront, and... they don't look quite as sad now, as they start to gather. The will to violence starts to build up again. So, cover seems good.
The door isn't locked. The moment anyone steps inside, though, they can see the place is all but untouched. Almost anything useful that could be scavenged is still there, and that's strange, because this is the best shelter one can ask for. It sort of has to be with Hellionized animals prowling closer.
There's also a powerful sensation - an urge, a pressure - trying to get you to leave. Like 'it' doesn't want to be in here. A growing fear, which seems concentrated on the way up to a giant bronze bell. It gets harder and harder to emotionally will oneself towards it, the closer they get.
As if the noise itself that it makes just... hurts. If the Hellionized animals so far seem attuned to the rain in a strange way, who's to say they won't react to this bell the same way? It's that, or get in a protracted running fight.
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
Magilou is, in fact, the best at question marks. They're like little cat tails! (Witches are very good at cats.) (Cyre doesn't count.)
She points finger-guns at the cobra sneaking up, and...
"Magikazam!"
... a dove flutters out to distract it while they scoot through.
(Magilou not only abandons her children, but also, her magical conjured doves. Magilou is a terrible mother. Let us pray Violet never learns the length of it.)
Her song actually seems to work, just in time for them to find shelter. Magilou doesn't look that bothered by the Malevolent wildlife, strangely enough, though she prances in through the church doors anyway. "Oh, lord!" She cries, throwing her hands up over her head. "I have a confession..!"
Here she turns back to the others, finger to her lips, and concedes: "Actually, I think we're up to, what, six hundred seventy confessions? Wait, no, seventy-one. The fire probably counts."
Striding off to the pews, she raises her hands up in a full-body shrug, and says: "But somehow, I don't think God's listening in here. It's all just memories... too bad. Anyway, have fun figuring it out. I'm gonna have a nap."
Regardless of the overwhelming pressure urging them to LEAVE, Magilou hops onto one of the church pews, streeeetches out, and puts her hands under her head as one leg bends up and the other dangles over the edge.
DG: Magilou has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, For Whatever Else The Bell Tolls.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"That's my job!" Jacqueline replies at Magilou's greeting, with a smile of her own. She also looks away politely when Magilou removes a book from her book-skirt. ...She probably cares about that more than Magilou does, though.
She also notes, with interest, the way Magilou reads from the book on Hellions and Malevolence.
"They seem pretty knowledgeable." Jacqueline observes, as the group moves through the stone walls.
As they proceed forward, the rain begins to let up. This would normally be a good thing for travelers, except here, where that means the wildlife begins to get riled up again. Fortunately, however, not far from where they are, there's an abandoned building.
"That's... a Granasian church? It looks like no one's set foot in it for a while... Let's head inside so we can figure out our next move." Jacqueline suggests. As they enter, though, she notices two things - that the interior seems almost completely untouched, and the powerful pressure that does not want them to enter.
In the past it might have pushed her away, but her spiritual strength has increased enough that she recognize it from what it is - the feelings of an external presence.
"...I think the master of the Domain doesn't want us here." Jacqueline comments with a frown. She glances, briefly, toward Magilou, as she speaks of her confessions. Jacqueline blinks, surprised.
Just... just how many crimes does Magilou have to her name...!?
She coughs and looks away as Magilou decides to take a nap, instead looking toward Cyre and Violet.
"I'm hesitant to steal from a place of worship, but there might still be things here we can use... we should take a look before we leave to see if there's any supplies left behind. I have a feeling no one's been here for a long time." She suggests. She isn't Granasian, but she still has some respect for them.
For now, though, she turns her attention toward the bell.
"...The feeling is strongest over here. This bell... I think we should try ringing it." Jacqueline says, making her way up the stairs. The closer she gets, the stronger that feeling gets... Jacqueline takes a deep breath. It's like a heavy weight, trying to push her away.
"Sorry... I don't know who you are, but we have to keep moving. I hope this doesn't hurt too much..." Jacqueline murmurs to no one. No one here, at any rate - it may be intended for the Domain's absent master.
She draws another Crest Graph, setting it in her left gauntlet. She takes a moment to assess the situation - she needs enough power to ring the bell, but also low enough to avoid damaging it... With a gesture of her right hand she invokes it - this one bringing forth a hammer of stone to strike the bell and set it ringing.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Landscaper Crest toward her party's challenge, For Whatever Else The Bell Tolls.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Clowns are like witches in that they do magic but only the extremely sketchy kind that you don't want to bring home to your parents. Cyre, a cat, is hypothetically well-aligned with witchery of every variety. The trouble is that he's actually a tiger, not a housecat, and not even just in a mirror either. He's kind of cat-adjacent is the point, and that means he has some wiggle room with regards to witchery.
Also that snoot is extremely boopable, and Cyre has to restrain the urge to do so. Damn snakes being cute.
(He may boop the wyverns' snoots a little too frequently.)
But soon the two hellions are behind them, and a dozen more are in front of them. As is a Granasian church. Something deep in Cyre's soul recoils at the thought of taking shelter in such a thing, but the oppressive aura of Malevolence is only growing stronger... And, curiously, seems focused on the bell still hanging in the belfry. Almost like it... doesn't want to be rung.
"Man, six hundred seventy one? Those are rookie numbers," Cyre says, thoughtfully considering the bell hanging above them. "I can think of at least two confessions worth of sins I could commit in the next five seconds, in fact."
He waits for Magilou to lie down and begin snoozing before he makes his move. Intentional? Possibly. Maybe he just had to figure out how to best line up his shot. "Agreed. I think I can get it from here," he says to Jay with a nod. The Malevolence is an insidious force. The closer he draws to the bell, the worse it will make him feel about continuing his approach. The solution, then, is to give himself- and the Malevolence- absolutely no say in the matter.
Like, for instance, using his bottled tornado to launch his parachuted self directly at the bell from far below, leg extended to set it a-ringing.
...Incidentally, it would also produce enough wind to possibly knock Magilou right off her pew.
See? Two sins! At least! Disturbing a nap, AND property damage!! Three if blasphemy counts.
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, For Whatever Else The Bell Tolls.
=============================<* Siddim Canyon *>==============================
==============<* CHALLENGE - For Whatever Else The Bell Tolls *>==============
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
You hear the sounds of gathering wildlife, but the timing couldn't be any
better. You can make out an abandoned building that has all the hallmarks of
being a small church of Granas. No door bars your path. From inside, the
place looks... completely untouched at all, which is odd as it is the best
functional shelter from the elements here. A large bell is within reach just
up a staircase, and appears intact enough to be able to be rung.
There's a pressure - an urge - trying to convince you to leave. Like it'
doesn't want to set foot in there to begin with. You get a sense it fears
the bell most of all, and that idea may prove useful. If you can ring it, it
will repel any oncoming wildlife - as if this discomfort is shared by all
who have succumbed to the Domain. Such an act will prove an emotional drain
as much as it is a physical one.
=Dungeon Conditions: Suffer, Exhaust==========================================
========================<* Siddim Canyon - Round 3 *>========================= ================< Results - For Whatever Else The Bell Tolls >================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jacqueline Barber 18 --(20)--> 38 Pass Landscaper Crest 3 Brute Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Violet Salazar 31 --(41)--> 72 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyre H. Lorentz 10 --(41)--> 51 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Magilou 18 --(41)--> 59 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Jacqueline Barber 40 --(15)--> 55 Fail Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Injure(1)|Stupify(1)|Suffer(1) Effects: ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Jacqueline Barber 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: Jacqueline Barber has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* Siddim Canyon *>==============================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Earthbound Dead *>=======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
The lost nation of Celesti is swarmed by the restless dead like few other
places on Filgaia. Siddim is hardly any different in that regard, as spirits
and reanimated corpses turn the corner and aggress with the same antipathy
for the living as any other - so consumed by torment without discord in
their lingering feelings, they give no ear to the surrounding Malevolence.
Most of the corporeal ones appear to have met their end by ARMs fire, and
none of them are fresh. The most astute among your party may notice instead
that some of the wounds' inflicted are recent - bullets can be retrieved
from them once put down. All of them come from the same kind of gunsmoke
ARM: a sniper rifle.
It appears honest attempts were made by the perpetrator to see them on their
way to the Garden of Toldoka, the afterlife set aside for those who suffer
beyond death in the teachings of St. Calucion - but it will be by your
party's hands that they can find peace.
=Dungeon Conditions: Exhaust, Treasure========================================
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Something about this is just too much. There's a stinging here of some stripe, and as the rain's not currently happening, it's even worse. Not even noted atheist Violet can seem to will herself past it. Cyre and Jay have to throw everything they can to ring it, and when it does... that sound stings like a knife through one's everything, a bit louder through their right ears than their left for some reason.
It does avert the wildlife, in that they haven't all come in - but something about it just... weighs. Magilou, meanwhile, find the pew she is resting in is comfortable! It's like no one had the chance to sit in it before everything went awful. Which means it belongs to the witch, if she can carry it out. Or get Bienfu to, somehow. She sat there first, it's hers, and if the Domain doesn't want anyone in there, maybe it'll be happier if there's less things in there.
Whoever first has it in them to look outside will find there's another commotion building - the sounds of conflict. Is it the mongoose and the cobra going at one another again? ...No.
Shambling corpses hurl themselves at some of the gathered Hellions who have not fled with an unquenchable anger and fury. The vast majority of them here are not stained with Malevolence despite being in a Domain, which is... curious. More of the balls of disembodied spirits (Cyre and Jay would refer to them as 'Balloons,' as the Ignas region likes to call them) have caught it proportionately, but it ends the same - the presumed 'native' undead turning on them with unrelenting fury and sorrow.
Some of them have fresher-looking ARM shot wounds than others, for being not-fresh corpses, but all of them were shot. All of them are dead. All of them are still moving, and are ready to throw themselves into the church to deal with the Drifters if they don't come out there.
(Maybe if Magilou asks nicely, some will help her move the pew out if she wants it. Maybe not, because corpses smell bad, and who wants a pew that's pee-yew, anyway?)
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
Magilou snoozes, without a single care for what the blasphemous Cyre, the considerate Jacqueline, or the resolute Violet are up to.
It's not like those pointy little ears are LISTENING to them figure out what the puzzle is while she's out here taking a break. Why would anyone imply such a thing? Taking stock in the Carakin and the elderly woman who might have more in common with Magilou than first assumed sounds like a lot of effort. Magilou certainly isn't taking notes on how Jacqueline is apologising, or the way Cyre works with her like a charm.
Nope. Magilou doesn't give a --
"Banana split!" She swears, as the bell rings. "Can't a girl get some shut-eye around here?!" She tugs her hat more firmly over her ears, and huffs, settling back down.
In this inhospitable place which abjures them, Magilou has found a deeply comfortable seat, and it's not like she's about to just give it up. She does at least straighten up sitting, arms sprawled along the backrest, one leg folded over the other.
"Sounds like a pretty mean battle out there," she reflects, to herself. "Oh, well. Not my problem. Hey, forboding presence, wanna play cards?"
Here Magilou pulls out a deck of tarot, and on her very comfy pew, she lays out a celtic cross. It's a little haphazard. She clearly doesn't care that much.
"Looks like your future is... very bad!" Magilou declares, turning over one of those cards. "You've got a shaman with way too much to prove biting at your heels, and you can't even get grandma to quit and go home. Oh, and watch that potion girl. Even odds she's a source of unbelievable power behind those mousey glasses."
On the battle rages. Magilou turns over another card.
"Wow," she exclaims, to the upright Hermit, "in unexpected places? You don't say!"
Finally, she straightens herself up, collecting her tarot cards again. She nudges the pew with a heel. "... yeah, as much as I love stealing from a church, that's not happening." Magilou and the Domain are united for a moment in DEEP REGRET.
She sighs, deeply, and loops her hands behind her head as she ambles out of the church which hates visitors so very, very much.
"You guys done yet?"
DG: Magilou has used her Tool Fortunetelling - Trickery toward her party's challenge, Earthbound Dead.
<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.
Violet watches in horror as the shambling undead work their way closer to the church. They'd attacked the wildlife, though -- did that mean they were the Drifters' allies? Or were they mindlessly trying to kill every creature they ran across?
Would the church offer any protection? Legends said that holy ground repelled undead.
Not that Violet had ever seen such a thing in action, mind.
She asks whether she and the others should pile pews up in front of the church's entrance, creating a barrier -- but not one too high to shoot over. She also looks for any other exits, prepared to block them, too -- and has a backup plan for taking refuge in the bell tower, if it will hold all of her friends.
Once the barriers are set up -- IF they are -- she loads a special cartridge into her ARM and fires at the leader of the corporeal undead, if they appear to have one. It should, at the least get their attention.
DG: Violet Salazar has used her Tool Sturdy Slug toward her party's challenge, Earthbound Dead. You aren't carrying anything. You have 1347 Pennies.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
How odd! You'd think that undead would be the kinds of things that would be particularly vulnerable to Malevolence, being disembodied spirits that are clinging to the unfinished, vengeful business they left behind in life. But maybe that's just the thing to keep their spirits and intentions too pure for the Malevolence to take hold. When all you've got left is the single-minded drive and impulse that can overcome death itself, it's pretty hard to have the kind of emotional conflict that allows Malevolence to fester.
...
Or maybe it's just that Ge Ramtos brooks no other force to influence those under its domain.
Well, whatever! This shaman with ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO PROVE THANK YOU VERY MUCH drops back down from his belfry bash to find the church positively surrounded by the living dead. "Balloons, huh?" Cyre says thoughtfully as an emerald glow begins to radiate from somewhere under his robes. He clutches the talisman of his faith, drawing upon the power of the winds...! "Man, you guys picked the wrong church to mess around in. Everyone knows balloons are prone to getting blown away!"
It might also strip some of that lingering Malevolence, too. That would be nice. Otherwise they might just go spreading that stuff far afield!
There's a beat. Cyre turns and peers directly at the Witch.
"I'm not done," he says, as he hurls a tornado at the unquiet dead. "I'm Cyre."
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
The spiritual backlash of ringing the bell is almost enough to drive Jacqueline through her knees, the sound stinging like a knife. It hurts, and she has to take a second to stand with a deep breath.
"...Everyone alright? Do you think that drove them off?" Jacqueline asks, recovering her composure. The sound lessens for a moment outside... but then, something more begins to build - the sound of violence.
The dead have risen, throwing themselves against the Hellions. Jacqueline grimaces. Was it because they rung the bell...? Maybe they really shouldn't have.
She'd heard the expression 'loud enough to wake the dead', but she didn't think it could actually happen.
Still, it's too late for that - now they'll have to deal with this problem.
"That'll take too much time. I've got something better." Jacqueline says in reply to Violet's suggestion, with a shake of her hand and a quick gesture. A pillar of earth rises up to provide convenient cover for Violet, and then Jacqueline draws out an ancient-looking tome - the Lifeweaver's Codex.
"It looks like we're dealing with the earthbound dead... They're sturdy and very strong, but not particularly fast. They appear... angry. Be careful - it might take a lot to force them back!" Jacqueline advises. "The clumps of souls, the Balloons, are more fragile, meanwhile... they generally tend to attack by ramming, or weaponizing their regrets. Don't underestimate them!"
With her advice given, Jacqueline stows away the Lifeweaver's Codex and steps into battle herself, gesturing with her right hand to send bolts of lightning crashing down into the undead.
"Let's try to finish this quickly and give them peace!" She says. Ideally, in her mind, before the undead forces take down too many of the Hellions. They might be enemies right now... but, it's not the fault of the local wildlife that this place is the way it is.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool The Lifeweaver's Codex toward her party's challenge, Earthbound Dead. DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has used his Tool Gale Claw toward his party's challenge, Earthbound Dead.
=============================<* Siddim Canyon *>==============================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Earthbound Dead *>=======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
The lost nation of Celesti is swarmed by the restless dead like few other
places on Filgaia. Siddim is hardly any different in that regard, as spirits
and reanimated corpses turn the corner and aggress with the same antipathy
for the living as any other - so consumed by torment without discord in
their lingering feelings, they give no ear to the surrounding Malevolence.
Most of the corporeal ones appear to have met their end by ARMs fire, and
none of them are fresh. The most astute among your party may notice instead
that some of the wounds' inflicted are recent - bullets can be retrieved
from them once put down. All of them come from the same kind of gunsmoke
ARM: a sniper rifle.
It appears honest attempts were made by the perpetrator to see them on their
way to the Garden of Toldoka, the afterlife set aside for those who suffer
beyond death in the teachings of St. Calucion - but it will be by your
party's hands that they can find peace.
=Dungeon Conditions: Exhaust, Treasure========================================
========================<* Siddim Canyon - Round 4 *>========================= ========================< Results - Earthbound Dead >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jacqueline Barber 38 --(10)--> 48 Pass The Lifeweaver's Codex 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Violet Salazar 72 --(10)--> 82 Pass Sturdy Slug 2 Combat Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyre H. Lorentz 51 --(10)--> 61 Pass Gale Claw 3 Combat Effects: Sacrifice and Embolde ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Magilou 59 --(10)--> 69 Pass Fortunetelling - Trickery 2 Combat Effects: Resilient ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Jacqueline Barber 55 --(25)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Treasure(1) Effects: Embolden(1)|Resilient(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Jacqueline Barber 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: Jacqueline Barber has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* Siddim Canyon *>==============================
=========<* CHALLENGE - Friendly Neighborhood Hellionized Wildlife *>=========
|Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
Ahead of you is a climb up a crumbling fortification from the Civil War,
itself behind a completely different climb of a steep hill. Fortunately, all
of you are secure about the path you are taking through this ruin without
fear of anything crumbling or going wrong. You just have to make the climb -
and it is arduous, stressful, and taxing.
It is made all the worse when more of the Hellionized wildlife appear.
Creatures of instinct without greater capacity for higher thought, slaves to
negative emotions. Nothing good can come from their involvement... until at
least one of them makes a gesture that seems kind. Maybe they move something
out of the way, or throw down a rope. It is as though they can sense the
mounting distress, and feel drawn to it in some form.
The question is whether or not your party notices this in time, as the
situation grows ever more tense with their presence. It is a novel
experience, but Hellions have always been creatures of contradiction.
Helping outsiders get to the heart of a Domain does seem against their best
interest, and yet, here they are doing just that anyway.
=Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous==============================================
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
It is a very curious sight. By all rights, from previous experiences, the undead should be ideal hosts for Malevolence to puppeteer. Is it because the Domain's pressure is lower for its amount of area? They have to deal with more immediate problems within their wheelhouse (not dying to undead), and they do so with aplomb.
As Jay lays down the basics of what they're fighting, Violet takes point and unloads her weapons. Cyre is able to cleanse the Malevolence of those (comparatively) few undead that did catch the Lunar-originated blight with the divine winds of a power that sustains the world, and some of them - no, most of the ones cleansed leave behind distinctive large caliber bullets with a distinctly yellowed coloration.
The ARMs Meisters of the region know that during the Civil War, there were a lot of similar caliber bullets being used. There were also a lot of misfires and jams from using incorrect ammunition, leading manufcaturers to start distinguishing bullets by colors. Almost all of them were shot at - and based on the age of some of these bullets, originally felled - with the same kind of ARM.
This trivia aside, everyone (which doesn't include witches) pulls their weight, and clears the way. It starts to rain again, and the pressure dampens anew. There's still a way to go, but the route that Cyre found in the sky is clear of obstructions. It's also muddy, slippery, steep, and trying - but it leads towards the fortification where the Malevolence is most built up. The Domain's heart, and where the Master should be... but they haven't made themselves known yet.
A white-bodied vulture - a pestilent Caladrius - flies above and past them, perching just out of reach but staring intently at Violet. It peers at her, turning its head... but doesn't attack.
It flies up a few rocks and tugs at a tied rope, throwing it down. Is... is that safe? (It's not safe to touch where its beak did, at least.)
A Qilin, a deer-like creature, looms at the top to stare at the lot of them as it stands in the way of the falling rain that would pool and continue to muddy the slopes up - but it is an imposing beast, the strongest of the wildlife encountered.
Neither of them leap down to approach the gathered, but who could blame them, given the company. More importantly, with the climb ahead as difficult (but feasible) as it appears... is it worth kicking up a fuss?
You aren't carrying anything.
You have 1347 Pennies.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Cyre takes the time to recover several of those strange, spent cartriges. He's no ARMS-master, but he can certainly bring these to someone who is knowledgable enough to properly identify them. There's got to be some reason these ghosts were hanging onto them, after all. Maybe... something related to whatever force is keeping them all tethered to the land of the living...?
Well, whatever! It's fine~ They can bother Ida about that later~!
For now, they need to... do... a thing. The Malevolence is only growing denser- they're drawing close to the center of the domain, and whatever it is waits for them therein. And...
Uh.
These are all things... that Cyre has encountered before. The Qilin, particularly, gets a meaningful stare. "Why are they all... helping us? Do they want us to purify the domain or something? Is it a trap?"
Cyre frowns, scratching at his cheek.
"Jay, keep your magic ready. This situation is really, really weird. I've half the mind to just sail up toward the top on my own, but we'll keep the option in our back pocket in case we need to make a quick getaway."
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Friendly Neighborhood Hellionized Wildlife.
<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.
Violet stares back at the vulture, and is surprised when it drops the rope down. Why is it doing this? The rope seems safe enough to use, and would be a great help in the ascent. Violet nods her thanks to the great white bird and avails herself of its help -- without touching the part of the rope its beak had touched, just in case. She keeps a wary eye on the bird and the Qilin, just in case they turn out to be hostile after all. At last she reaches the spur where the rope is attached, and pauses for a rest and a sip of water from her canteen, looking through her Merc Manual again.
Unfortunately there's not much about Malevolence in there, other than her notes written in the margins (fortunately in waterproof ink). It's a Filgaian publication, after all. She waits, somewhat impatiently in the rain, for any of her companions using the rope to join her. It looks like a tough journey ahead!
DG: Violet Salazar has used her Tool Merc Manual toward her party's challenge, Friendly Neighborhood Hellionized Wildlife.
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
"Cyre, hire, flier, conspire, satire, emulsifier, purifier..."
Magilou ticks each word off her fingers, before she reaches the eighth, and cheerfully notes: "eventually you'll tire. Looks like it won't be for a while, though. Good job, team! We sure showed those ghoulies!"
MAGILOU, YOU DIDN'T HELP AT ALL.
So, off they trek. And Magilou, who has pulled that book out again, says: "Domains usually come from someone in particular, so it's pretty interesting how different things have felt here, don't you think? That church screamed, 'stay away!!', but coming in here just felt like a total downer..."
The bird is the word, and the word is rope. Magilou snaps her book shut, and says, "well, obviously the wildlife is helping. We're getting help from unexpected places, just as the cards fortold. Besides,"
here she clips her book back to her skirt, preserving modesty forever, which is all the better, because she proceeds to dramatically drape across Jacqueline's side.
"Hiking suuuucks! There's rocks where I never even knew rocks could go! Yeah, obviously Hellions can never be friendly or helpful and this is a total departure from all known science, but hey, don't look a gift Qilin in the mouth!"
DG: Magilou has used her Tool Mayvin's Accounts toward her party's challenge, Friendly Neighborhood Hellionized Wildlife.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Before long, the undead are put to rest. Jacqueline pauses, waiting to see if any rise again... but, thankfully, that doesn't seem to be happening. Jacqueline exhales.
"...Rest in piece, poor souls." Jacqueline says and then looks back to the others. "Everyone alright?"
Once she's certain that everyone's safe - even Magilou - Jacqueline takes a second to look at the cartridges Cyre collected.
"...Those look pretty old, though I'll admit I don't know much but bullets." Jacqueline says. ...Now she's curious, too. Just where did they come from?
Well, it's time to move on at any rate. This leads to more rain, and, strangely enough, unnexpected help as the local wildlife provides a way forward up a difficult cliff.
Jacqueline watches them carefully.
"...I'm... not sure." Jacqueline admits, as Cyre asks what they're all(well, with one exception) thinking - why are they helping? She glances toward Magilou, then, as she speaks of what the cards foretold.
"Ah, so that's what you were doing." She says, as the witch drapes across her side and complains. Jacqueline raises her eyebrow at her comment about Hellions. "...Hang in there. I get the feeling we're close."
But... Magilou is right, Jacqueline supposes - they really should make use of the help presented to them.
Jacqueline moves forward, carefully... and then, takes hold of the rope. She gives it a quick, testing tug to make sure it's secure.
"I think... I think we'll probably be fine. If they intended to lay a trap for us, then this would've been a fine spot for an ambush." She considers. "As long as we don't agitate them, we should be able to make it through safely..."
She's still a little concerned, of course, but still continues to climb up carefully.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Friendly Neighborhood Hellionized Wildlife.
=============================<* Siddim Canyon *>==============================
=========<* CHALLENGE - Friendly Neighborhood Hellionized Wildlife *>=========
|Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
Ahead of you is a climb up a crumbling fortification from the Civil War,
itself behind a completely different climb of a steep hill. Fortunately, all
of you are secure about the path you are taking through this ruin without
fear of anything crumbling or going wrong. You just have to make the climb -
and it is arduous, stressful, and taxing.
It is made all the worse when more of the Hellionized wildlife appear.
Creatures of instinct without greater capacity for higher thought, slaves to
negative emotions. Nothing good can come from their involvement... until at
least one of them makes a gesture that seems kind. Maybe they move something
out of the way, or throw down a rope. It is as though they can sense the
mounting distress, and feel drawn to it in some form.
The question is whether or not your party notices this in time, as the
situation grows ever more tense with their presence. It is a novel
experience, but Hellions have always been creatures of contradiction.
Helping outsiders get to the heart of a Domain does seem against their best
interest, and yet, here they are doing just that anyway.
=Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous==============================================
========================<* Siddim Canyon - Round 5 *>========================= ===========< Results - Friendly Neighborhood Hellionized Wildlife >=========== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jacqueline Barber 48 --(0)--> 48 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Violet Salazar 82 --(0)--> 82 Pass Merc Manual 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyre H. Lorentz 61 --(0)--> 61 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Magilou 69 --(0)--> 69 Pass Mayvin's Accounts 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Jacqueline Barber 80 --(0)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Overzealous(2) Effects: Enlighten(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Jacqueline Barber has passed this challenge! The party gained 0 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: Jacqueline Barber has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* Siddim Canyon *>==============================
===================<* CHALLENGE - The Tragedy of Siddim *>====================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
Your party comes out on top of a derelict fortification - and there are
screams underneath an overcast sky, as Malevolence shifts the world to
something else. There are people here, far below. Those knowledgeable of the
Celesti Civil War would know immediately: they are bearing witness to the
Tragedy of Siddim, early 490 PC, where an oligarchy-sympathetic village saw
to the health of several high-profile Congressional Knight soldiers wounded
in another battle. They were tracked down by the Aquvy Union, and...
The details are not important. The ambience of regret tells you all you need
to know: this was wrong. What happened here was wrong. In the past-present,
the memory's owner felt much differently: they did not relent. Four booming
shots of a gunsmoke rifle at a time, they kept shooting. They kept killing.
They kept going. You are bearing witness to the act of a heartless monster.
A heartless monster not far off to the group's right, in the form of a
cloaked woman wielding a bayonet-fitted sniper rifle that looks too large
and too heavy for her to bear. Exact features are hard to make out, but you
know more than enough that she's the one you need to stop.
Signs of weakness in her left shoulder does nothing to slow nor dissuade her
from turning that against people who can fight back. She wields that bayonet
with a skill rivaling that of any duelist, and wields capable Crest Sorcery
in the form of offensive water spells. All of it comes together with a
ferocity and skill that might have given a Quarter Knight pause (if they had
proper equipment to match them).
Stopping her is a token gesture at best - but one worth making, if it helps
bring anyone here any peace. (There is a faint sense it also includes who
you're fighting.)
=Dungeon Conditions: Vault====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
It is Violet that seems to get the most attention by the gathered Hellions, they watch her the most. She did kill a whole lot of them over at the roads leading to Port Rosalia, but... do Hellionized wildlife carry grudges? Do they communicate that with one another? They do not move to attack her, regardless, as all of them keep their cool. Hellions are creatures of contradiction, and this seems against 'their' best interests. Whoever 'they' are.
They come to the battlements of that dilapidated fortification, and then... the Malevolence pulses. Everything is far more lively. The overcast sky is brighter, there are screams in the air of living people.
* * BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. * *
The exact same sound heard leading to the canyon, like someone pounding a door - it comes to everyone's immediate right. A cloaked woman of some sort, taking cover and firing off a sniper rifle with attached bayonet that looks far too large for her. Each shot gives it a hell of a kick that looks ready to fly out of her hands, but she manages - putting more of her left arm into holding it as her right hand moves deftly to chamber the next round and otherwise try to stabilize it between shots.
This mastery is not being used for anything good. Malevolent Phantoms, much less discordant in their appearance and movements than one may expect, are running in terror for their lives. One looks exactly like a younger 'Uncle Abe,' trying to flee with someone who isn't seen before they are shot dead. The man in question has some weight above his cover shot in an attempt to crush him.
It's the act of a heartless monster - one who notices she has company next to her, the bright colors of the collected washed within the gloom of watching one of countless tragedies during the Celesti Civil War. She brings that rifle's bayonet swinging at them, even with weakness in her left shoulder with a ferocity that Mother might have accidentally mistaken her for one of their own.
Somewhere in the sequence she even draws a Crest Graph and unleashes a wave of watery magic to try and sweep them off in an attempt to kill them with a fall. She's relentless. She's merciless. She's a monster.
And it's well over a decade too late to stop her from doing this, but in this many years later encore... the guilt, the shame, the regret, the despair... someone feels that way about this, and now, that memory brought to life seems ready to retroactively add more bodies to that toll.
<Pose Tracker> Violet Salazar has posed.
Violet is uncomfortable about the wildlife staring at her, but she does her best to shrug it off as she clambers up the slope, only to be confronted with decades-old, externalized memories.
Horrible memories, ones of slaughter. All perpetrated by a mysterious cloaked woman who is obviously (to Violet) favoring her left shoulder. She wields a sniper rifle and bayonet, as well as water magic -- and she's very good with all of them. The memory-villagers flee for their lives -- to little avail, as they are mown down, or drowned.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
And the aura of Malevolence is everywhere, inescapable.
Is the woman real, or is she a ghost, too? Only one way to find out. Violet fires her ARM right at the woman's weak shoulder. Maybe it will injure her enough to get her to relent. But maybe not...
DG: Violet Salazar has used her Tool Sturdy Slug toward her party's challenge, The Tragedy of Siddim.
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
"Play it again, Johnny," Magilou sighs, as the Malevolence pulses. It sounds like a joke, but for the way all the light drains from her eyes.
It's not real, and that's what makes it really hurt.
Everyone saw the way she reacted to the first round of bullets, so perhaps it's more notable, now, the way she doesn't even FLINCH, standing right by a sniper. There is another heartless monster on the field. Magilou looks at her, firing shot after shot, and shrugs, turning in the opposite direction.
"Whatever."
It's a dismissal entirely disconnected from the horror, as she makes her way down into the village of Siddim. She doesn't bother trying to stop the sniper. She doesn't bother trying to stop her from shooting her, either.
As if she weren't picking her way through a war crime, she makes her way to the wreckage, the place a man is being crushed this very instant. "Hey," Magilou says, to the wreckage, sitting down on a nonoffensive slab. She's not talking to the wreckage. Lips a thin line, she pulls out her tarot deck, and shuffles, laying three cards face-down on the shattered concrete.
A hand grasps weakly from where it was buried; Magilou reaches out, to hold it. "Don't worry about it," she says, a measure of distance to the words even as her fingers squeeze in a supportive gesture. "... if it's happening, it's happening."
One-handed, she returns her attention to the three-card spread. Her fingers move to the leftmost card. "... the Ten of Swords. Why stop at one? Just keep jamming them in there." The corner of her mouth jags up, in something which could be technically called a smile. "Who cares, right?"
And then she goes to the second. "The High Priestess," she reflects, of the middle card. "That's the 'Present'... unconscious and intuitive. See how it's turned around..? Well, maybe not." It's hard to understand reversal when you're in the middle of it.
She hesitates, for a moment, on the last card. A puff though her lips, and she flips it over. "... the Hanged Man. Heh," Magilou shrugs. "That sounds about right. But can you really pull it off?"
She feels the hand in the rubble squeeze back; her eyes drift closed, for a moment. She doesn't let go. "Yeah... over and over and over..."
DG: Magilou has used her Tool Fortunetelling - Trickery toward her party's challenge, The Tragedy of Siddim.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
This witch is a fan of rhymes. Prime with rhymes, in fact. Well! "As long as I don't get stuck in a mire, I doubt I'll too quickly tire. You see, in my soul I've got fire."
It's awful.
The worst.
Also the worst: This.
You know what the worst thing about Malevolence is? It remembers a person's worst day. The awful thing that has become the focus-- the rotten core-- of the domain has been drilled into until the foul pus of heartache and suffering erupts into the world, bereft of any small kindness that the world might have offered, erasing context and meaning until all that's left is pain and sorrow.
War is painful on the best of days. But this? This is... This is something truly awful. What is this? A massacre. It can only be called a massacre.
The one responsible... This is her domain, isn't it? This...
"The reason the hellions wanted us here-- this is guilt. Does she want to be punished for what she did? Well, if this is a confession..." The wind rises again. Emerald light glimmers around the shaman, assembling piece by piece the raw elemental power that is the Wind Tiger Shintai. "This frustration you feel, the anger and angst, let it all out," Cyre roars, meeting swung gunblade with flesh-flensing claw and stone-shattering wind, "Shout it all into the wind, and let your pain be swept away to the four corners of the world!"
This is just a memory. A sliver split from the self and driven like a nail into Filgaia's scar-encrusted flesh. This... is not the whole of the person it belongs to.
This is just one bad day, stretched into a lifetime.
...And for once, he might be able to do something about it before it ruins too many other peoples' lives.
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has used his Tool Gale Claw toward his party's challenge, The Tragedy of Siddim.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
On their way up, they aren't attacked - the Hellions allow them to ascend, and soon they find themselves on the battlements of the fortification. From there... Malevolence pulses, and they bear witness to a tragedy from the past. The screams are enough to make Jacqueline go pale and freeze in place - but only for a moment. Intuitively, she knows that what she's seeing isn't real, just a vision of a terrible past... but even so, she can't simply stand there. She barely notices Magilou electing to descend, though she hears her comment... but before long, her attention turns back to the sniper.
"Stop this! Put down your ARM!" Jacqueline calls out. And Cyre makes an observation. Jacqueline pauses. Guilt... if it's guilt enough to seek punishment, then...
"...Alright. We'll stop you, then." Jacqueline decides.
...Easier said then done, of course.
Jacqueline whips out the Lifeweaver's Codex now to take some notes.
"This sniper... even in close-quarters, that ARM of hers is dangerous. She's swinging it around pretty easily for its size, and her skill is impressive - be careful! And if that's bad enough, her Crest Sorcery is nothing to underestimate, either. Try to avoid getting knocked over the side!" Jacqueline advises. She shuts the book, then. With Cyre engaging the sniper from melee range and Violet offering him covering fire, Jacqueline elects to try and subvert her Sorcery.
As spells of water go out, Jacqueline gestures with her left hand to counter with walls of earth to block and catch anyone who might be washed over.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool The Lifeweaver's Codex toward her party's challenge, The Tragedy of Siddim.
=============================<* Siddim Canyon *>==============================
===================<* CHALLENGE - The Tragedy of Siddim *>====================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
Your party comes out on top of a derelict fortification - and there are
screams underneath an overcast sky, as Malevolence shifts the world to
something else. There are people here, far below. Those knowledgeable of the
Celesti Civil War would know immediately: they are bearing witness to the
Tragedy of Siddim, early 490 PC, where an oligarchy-sympathetic village saw
to the health of several high-profile Congressional Knight soldiers wounded
in another battle. They were tracked down by the Aquvy Union, and...
The details are not important. The ambience of regret tells you all you need
to know: this was wrong. What happened here was wrong. In the past-present,
the memory's owner felt much differently: they did not relent. Four booming
shots of a gunsmoke rifle at a time, they kept shooting. They kept killing.
They kept going. You are bearing witness to the act of a heartless monster.
A heartless monster not far off to the group's right, in the form of a
cloaked woman wielding a bayonet-fitted sniper rifle that looks too large
and too heavy for her to bear. Exact features are hard to make out, but you
know more than enough that she's the one you need to stop.
Signs of weakness in her left shoulder does nothing to slow nor dissuade her
from turning that against people who can fight back. She wields that bayonet
with a skill rivaling that of any duelist, and wields capable Crest Sorcery
in the form of offensive water spells. All of it comes together with a
ferocity and skill that might have given a Quarter Knight pause (if they had
proper equipment to match them).
Stopping her is a token gesture at best - but one worth making, if it helps
bring anyone here any peace. (There is a faint sense it also includes who
you're fighting.)
=Dungeon Conditions: Vault====================================================
========================<* Siddim Canyon - Round 6 *>========================= =====================< Results - The Tragedy of Siddim >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jacqueline Barber 48 --(10)--> 58 Pass The Lifeweaver's Codex 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Violet Salazar 82 --(10)--> 92 Pass Sturdy Slug 2 Combat Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyre H. Lorentz 61 --(10)--> 71 Pass Gale Claw 3 Combat Effects: Sacrifice and Embolde ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Magilou 69 --(10)--> 79 Pass Fortunetelling - Trickery 2 Combat Effects: Resilient ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Jacqueline Barber 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Overzealous(1)|Vault(1) Effects: Embolden(1)|Resilient(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Jacqueline Barber has successfully explored Siddim Canyon!
=============================<* Siddim Canyon *>==============================
=================<* CHALLENGE - Then I'll Be A Curse (1/4) *>=================
|Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
Your team manages to overturn the perpetrator of one of far too many
tragedies during the Celesti Civil War. You see gray eyes under their hood,
filled with tears. They whisper as they fade: "Whose memory did I honor?
Whose did I taint?"
A melancholy fills the air as the scenery changes... as does the roaring
sounds of a heavy downpour of rain battering a great dome overhead. A metal
dome that hung a heavy shadow over all beneath it, illuminated by painted
'stars' made of a glowing light - a recent addition. 'You' look upon this
and see it for what it is: the last, dying message of hope in the form of
something the people around 'you' would no longer see by living here. Anyone
who has been here can recognize this place as Guara Bobelo, albeit without
the urban sprawl it would be known for. 'You' look upon your right arm, to
the patch of the Aquvy Union. A choice recognized as having brought pain...
but a resolve, with it. "If I was no blessing," 'you' say in a low voice,
"then I'll be a curse." Something began there... but the vision ends here.
As the memory fades, you return to where you fought the ghastly memory: the
top of a rotted fortification in the present. The same as where you fought
them... and the heart of this Domain. Its Master appears to not even be
here, so you have time to spare in exploring and preparing for the
opportunity to purify the Domain.
While preparations are being made, a cursory examination reveals nearby
farmland tended to by - presumably - the Domain Master. There's no
Malevolence cheating at play: the work is sound, and the field has a decent
harvest of fast-growing vegetable crops that are edible (though you should
purify them first, to be safe). They've even managed to grow Kuko Berries
here, non-native to the region but famed for helping 'make the corners more
round' when chewed. There is also a pen full of chickens that have
Hellionized into Cockatrices, but they are well cared for. (They are docile
so long as it is raining, lest one suffer a case of temporary
petrification.)
You can tell that the place is lived in, but devoid of much in the way of
creature comforts. You don't see a bed, a blanket, or a proper tent - as if
the tenant would rather sleep in the elements. The fortification does have a
few rooms that are protected from said elements, and upon closer inspection
you can see they save that space specifically for things that should. Things
such as maps of the area around Halim, and all sorts of scribbled notes
about its local mines.
You see this level of organization and planning with would-be bandits.
There's no sign there's more than one person who lives here, but it's sign
enough that the settlement of Halim is in danger of a Hellion attack of
unknown scale.
Your team gets ready to coordinate with the others.
=Dungeon Conditions: Vault====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Does the Domain Master want to be punished? This is as sound a theory as any provided to them, but with all their lives on the line, they act accordingly. Jay moves to subvert the waves of water with breaking earth, subverting its flow and preventing it from knocking any of them over... wait. One of them's missing, but it's too intense to check and see what's going on with them.
From there, Cyre and Violet team up to take care of this. To Cyre, who is blessed so directly with the wind that sustains the world, meeting those claws to the blade is one hell of a clash - as if the Domain Master's memory feels they were, indeed, strong enough to have stood against this, or it's just the Malevolence talking. But it is a clash that he wins, disarming the cloaked figure.
Violet puts some shots in their left shoulder, forcing them to clutch it as stone-shattering wind blows through and makes the figure look far less dominant than they might have in the moments they were clashing with those claws, pushing back enough of a hood to see tear-stained gray eyes.
Meanwhile, someone attends to someone in their dying throes with a patient, distant, but kindly gesture. To the recollection of the Domain Master's memories, this is where that person met their end. They have to have, right? Their guilt seems to give texture to that thought - that even so far removed, at least one individual blink-and-it's-already-dead victim stuck into memory enough that they may have ruminated over that. The way the fingers of the crushed man flinch are too... detailed. From this unique perspective, Magilou sees beyond just the heartless monster and where she fought.
The memories encompass so much detail in who she hurt.
"Whose memory did I honor? Whose did I taint?" The hooded woman whispers as she fades, into a scene... a loud, thundering scene of the heaviest rain battering itself against Zeboim-era structures.
Those who have been there will recognize it as the roof of Guara Bobelo, where the painted-on stars and lights were at their brightest. As if it were the very moment they were painted in the early 480s, so many years ago - the moment where the city's soul had its last dying gasp before it rapidly degenerated into what it is today. They would never see the sky from within this city ever again. That dome has never come down since it went up.
'You' look over your arm to see the patch of the Aquvy Union. A faint reflection shows a part of 'you' - an elf's pointed ear. 'Your' sadness is heavy. Everything up to this point has brought pain in places 'you' did not foresee. 'Your' chest feels like it's about to burst from how heavy that heart feels, looking towards the reflection. It doesn't reflect it back so well, but the gray eyes, the elven ears...
"If I was no blessing," 'you' say in a low voice, left hand scraping at where their heart is, "then I'll be a curse." Words that started something. A promise, a resolve... born of shame, regret, guilt... anger. Elves are considered a blessing when they're born on Filgaia, aren't they?
...
...
...
When everyone comes to... no one's home to scream at them to leave. No one accosts them. A search will reveal that the Domain Master, or at least a Hellion of a strength that would match that... is simply not here. That they've projected enough to leave this much behind in their absence, though...
THE SHORT OF IT: The fortification seems lived in but without creature comforts. There's no bed! It's like they want to sleep outside - and there are also detailed plans regarding Halim and the area around it, like bandits preparing to attack. There's no sign any other intelligent Hellion lives there, but... how big an attack might this be?
ALSO: There's farmland nearby! It's fairly well tended to. Plenty of vegetables, and... a not small amount of Kuko Berries, which are not native to the region. Perfect for making the corners round. (once, uh, it's all purified - the farmwork is honest but this is still a Domain.) Also, a well-maintained chicken... no, cockatrice pen. As long as they're raining, they're chill. (But they're also cockatrice Hellions, and even non-Hellion cockatrices are jerks.)
If the Domain Master isn't going to challenge anyone's presence here... it's time to get everyone together and purify the heart of this Domain here, now. This fortification seems to be where they imparted most of their Malevolence, and the farmland indicates they've lived here for some time. Could something this bad have been budding under everyone's noses?
...It ends today, no matter what. This Domain needs cleansing, and this land needs laid to rest.
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
The fidelity of the illusion doesn't shock her, but then, Magilou learned from the best.
She knows whose hand she's holding, even if she doesn't know her name. She knows exactly where she is, even if she's never been here before.
But Magilou still isn't here, because 'here' doesn't exist. Her eyes are empty windows; her hands are empty, too.
Of course it's an elven ear.
'If I was no blessing, then I'll be a curse.'
Oh, baby, it's cold outside. It's cold because of the rain; it's cold because of the snow. It's cold because they're outside. It's cold because their shelter's so broad. Oh, baby, it's cold inside.
'I'm not her anymore. I'm the evil witch Magilou who fights alongside the Lord of Calamity!'
She's cold inside.
The feelings don't fit any more. It's a square peg in a round hole, this heavy sadness, a blanket which makes it so hard to move. Distantly she reflects how astounding it is that you're upright at all.
When it's so sick it shatters, it breaks.
And when it happens to you...
What a cacophony of feelings.
How does it feel to feel so MUCH?
Magilou thinks this without irony.
...
"Well," Magilou remarks, pushing herself up, "this was no fun at all."
She brushes off her book-skirt, and takes off her hat, shaking it out and upending several rocks which must have gotten in there during her nap. "You can fix this place if you want. I don't really care either way."
Lifting a hand in a casual wave, she begins ambling off. "... call me when you find the owner."