2021-05-13: To The City Above
- Log: To The City Above
- Cast: Riesenlied, Lily Keil, Noeline, Dean Stark, Avril Vent Fleur, Rebecca Streisand
- Where: Babel Tower
- Date: May 13, 2021
- Summary: The Outreach (and Lily) ascends Babel Tower, seeking contact with Shevat. Trials, tragedy, and triumph all await...!
DG: A party led by Riesenlied is now entering Babel Tower. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
==============================<* Babel Tower *>=============================== =================<* CHALLENGE - Why Don't We Fly Up There *>================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 4 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The daunting Tower of Babel, so fittingly named, stands as a reminder of the limits of human progress... and, perhaps, a teaser to urge one to surpass their limits in turn. An enormous cylindrical structure of rusted metal of a bygone era, it rises well past the atmosphere to bounds untold. Just peeking inside, the scene of utter carnage that visits the innards of the tower is clear. It would take remarkable feats of agility and balance to go through all of this. Then, perhaps, your first thought might be: "Why don't we just fly up there?" Perhaps your Gears can fly! Perhaps you've obtained some kind of lifter device! An ancient anti-gravity crystal! Or perhaps a good old fashioned winch and rope contraption! ... Should you succumb to this entirely understandable impulse, the inevitable conclusion eventually arrives minutes (or hours, depending on how foolhardy you are) later: It's far too high to fly up there. The Tower of Babel isn't one to give free passes, alas. =Dungeon Conditions: Madness, Madness, Madness, Madness, Secret===============
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Following the meeting with Mirah in the orphanage, the next steps for the Drifters become clear: climb Babel Tower, and find a way to contact the mysterious, floating city of Shevat.
It's... something of an extreme challenge for Riesenlied, and she knows it. The majority of the Wolves went on ahead, since the logistics of preparing for what's promising to be a primarily vertical climb of a Dig is something she isn't accustomed to.
As part of it, she's gotten in touch again with her closest friends in the Outreach -- Avril, Rebecca, Dean, who she knows are far more proficient and used to Gears than she is. And as it turns out, Lily's on hand to assist as well, and she's more accustomed to the Hellerune than other Gears if something happens...
But it isn't as if she's helpless on this matter, which is why--
"Muni," squeaks the roundest gumdrop Dragon.
The 12-something-odd feet Munitek Armour marches onto the entranceway to Babel Tower, now unsealed given the Ethos' locks have been undone following... the dissolution of that organisation.
Muni-Muni's also... curiously heavily loaded today, as evidenced by the large stores of Gear fuel, wrapped Dragon snacks and... a big picnic basket on her back! It somehow smells good, even from a far distance.
"I--I made sure to bring ample supplies, everyone! Whether it is for your Gears, or our stomachs...!" Riesenlied pumps her hands.
Well, preparing it in the most mom-like manner is extremely Riesenlied... but it's true that it's going to be a terribly long climb, isn't it?
The Hyadean tries to peek upwards and murmurs, "I wonder... has anyone flown to the top before...? Billy said that those who try never come back... I wonder if Shevat or Solaris shot them down."
"Muni muni mu," Muni grumbles. tn. Flying's not my forte, muni...
"... ... t-the idea of being that far up... already fills me with vertigo," Riesenlied admits. ... is it possible that she's not good with heights, somehow?
DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Why Don't We Fly Up There.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily Keil happened to stay behind in part for this purpose--to help Riesenlied up the tower. Her negotiation abilities might end up being very important if they do reach Shevat... and of course, that's only one reason. There are others. But here and now, the great form of the black stealth gear Hellerune turns upward to allow Lily a view up the tower, which extends out of her sensors' range. Which is fine. They knew it would be a journey.
Riesenlied's quiet words prompt Lily to reply over a familiar frequency, "We'll find out. If anyone tries to shoot us down I imagine we'll have something to say about it." Pause. "You all right so far? Remember, I'm here if it gets troublesome."
Nothing is on fire. Yet.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily Keil happened to stay behind in part for this purpose--to help Riesenlied up the tower. Her negotiation abilities might end up being very important if they do reach Shevat... and of course, that's only one reason. There are others. But here and now, the great form of the black stealth gear Hellerune turns upward to allow Lily a view up the tower, which extends out of her sensors' range. Which is fine. They knew it would be a journey.
Riesenlied's quiet words prompt Lily to reply over a familiar frequency, "We'll find out. If anyone tries to shoot us down I imagine we'll have something to say about it." Pause. "You all right so far? Remember, I'm here if it gets troublesome."
Nothing is on fire. Yet.
Lily does not in fact succumb to the temptation to fly straight up; there's a lot of Gear fuel that that would burn, and if she tried on her own, who know how much energy it would take. Instead, she considers the question of who might have shot the others down...
"But just in case," she says, "Let's jam anyone peeking in on us." She loads some rounds into her secondary armament, sending up flares that should make it mkore difficult to track them on the way up. Just in case.
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Starshel Rounds toward her party's challenge, Why Don't We Fly Up There.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
You might think that the idea of climbing Babel Tower would be an idea that Noeline would relish, and might even have tried in the past - but instead she looks up at the monolithic structure with a disappointed frown, having to lean further and further back to try to take it in before giving up as the sun gets into her eyes. "What a folly," she decides eventually with a puff of air. "It is a monument to human progress - but have you ever been anywhere that felt so empty and lonely?"
She sits back up, perched atop Muni's shoulder for the moment and helping keep some of Riesenlied's supplies steady so that the roll of the round dragon doesn't send anything flying. There's some trepidation in the angle of her shoulders as she frowns towards the entrance. Part of it is concern for Riesenlied, part of it is anger around Solaris, part of it is the immediacy of the daunting task ahead of them.
For both their sakes, she places a hand on Riesenlied's shoulder to squeeze it. "Let us just do what we can," she reminds quietly. "Close your eyes, if you need to at any point. Muni and I will help you forward if that should happen. And this is not a matter of life and death, not yet," she adds, as a traitorous little part of her considers going and curling up with Riese somewhere comfortable. "We have the time and space to be careful." Muni gets a pat as well; her hand kind of bounces off, but it's the thought that counts.
DG: Noeline has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Why Don't We Fly Up There.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
It would be kind of funny if Lily were in the Outreach. She would be very proficient at a certain type of reaching out. Maybe that's why she's here. Noeline always was the more realistic one.
Dean, who has never been realistic a day in his life and certainly isn't going to start now, cheerfully says from his Gear, "This is such a cool challenge! I've never climbed a tower in a Gear before! I bet it'll be a cinch!"
...It's that optimism that will help carry people forward even in the darkest of times. Such as what is to follow.
"Good thinking, Riese! I'm already looking forward to that picnic lunch!" he also enthuses. He looks up the tower and adds, "Flying *would* be faster..." (it would not) "But if you don't want to, Riese, we don't have to! There's probably a bunch of neat stuff inside that we'd miss out on if we did that, anyways."
As Dean uses the commands on his Gear to analyze a way through the rubble inside, he blinks over at Noeline. Empty and lonely? "It *does* seem sad that somebody built such a big tower and then... gave up," he admits. "I wonder what happened?"
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Analysis Scope toward his party's challenge, Why Don't We Fly Up There.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
So this is Babel Tower.
Within the Skadi, Avril regards its height, her hands flying across the console within the cockpit. "My scanning equipment is not quite equipped for this, I'm afraid," she remarks, after a moment's pause to regard the readout. "From what I can ascertain, however, this tower is..."
Is...?
"...Rather old and quite tall. I do not believe that ascending it from the outside would be easily done," she continues, as if to answer the question that might be (somewhat) on everyone's minds. "Perhaps we might try the entrance, instead? I know not what might await us inside, but I feel as if it may be our way forward. ...All the more so if you are feeling uncertain about it, Riesenlied."
Besides which, the Skadi... can't fly...
Her Gear turns its head, then, focusing on the other thing that has caught her attention here.
"Are these shrines? I wonder what might have been prayed for here." Now, perhaps, is not quite the right time to go prodding at them, though.
At which point the young woman also adds,
"Something smells delicious, Riesenlied. Have you made of that yourself?"
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Why Don't We Fly Up There.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
Rebecca acknowledges the ncessity of this endeavor. And thus she's come along for the trip to the mysterious floating city of Shevat.
The Eurydice makes one step after another towards the Tower. And Rebecca finds herself just staring at the looming tower, as it gets closer, and closer. The sensors on the Eurydice don't have the longest range, so she's mostly relying on her sight. "Any second now my perspective will shift and... this will turn out to be way less of a climb than it looks."
Closer.
"Anyyyyy second now..."
They reach the entranceway. "Oh."
Later, Rebecca makes an addendum to a diary entry.
Moments when I was really tempted to Curse:
A Wayside experiment goes really wrong.
Finding out Riesenlied and Noeline are together together.
Lily sees right through me in front of some red haired weirdo???
Avril finds out she's the Veruni Queen.
Learning Dean wants to befriend Lord Volsung.
Finding out the Tower of Babel actually is THAT tall.
Now, Rebecca isn't scared of heights, but she finds herself staring up, and up, and up on the inside in the twisted and shredded innards. Her acrobat's mind is already tracking the best way up and despite untold hours of climbing things she can't figure it out. Taking a moment to calm herself, she has the Eurydice turn to face the Skadi, "Agreed... I don't think we'd be going anywhere on the outside. Not enough handholds and footholds."
"Yeah... good thinking Riese." Rebecca comments after her stomach stops churning, "This may take a few days." As if she were the cynicism to temper Dean's optimism. Before Riese's comments draw her eye.
"Uh, are you going to be alright Riese? If you need to, you can always take a break and ride along with one of us. And Dean... come on, even if our gears could fly just think about how much fuel we'd burn trying to fly up this thing. We're not made of gella."
Avril comments on the shrines, and Rebecca thinks for a moment, then looks up, "Maybe everyone. It's hard not to look at a place like this and feel... something spiritual I think, with the way it reaches up into the heavens."
DG: Rebecca Streisand has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Why Don't We Fly Up There.
==============================<* Babel Tower *>=============================== =================<* CHALLENGE - Why Don't We Fly Up There *>================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 4 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The daunting Tower of Babel, so fittingly named, stands as a reminder of the limits of human progress... and, perhaps, a teaser to urge one to surpass their limits in turn. An enormous cylindrical structure of rusted metal of a bygone era, it rises well past the atmosphere to bounds untold. Just peeking inside, the scene of utter carnage that visits the innards of the tower is clear. It would take remarkable feats of agility and balance to go through all of this. Then, perhaps, your first thought might be: "Why don't we just fly up there?" Perhaps your Gears can fly! Perhaps you've obtained some kind of lifter device! An ancient anti-gravity crystal! Or perhaps a good old fashioned winch and rope contraption! ... Should you succumb to this entirely understandable impulse, the inevitable conclusion eventually arrives minutes (or hours, depending on how foolhardy you are) later: It's far too high to fly up there. The Tower of Babel isn't one to give free passes, alas. =Dungeon Conditions: Madness, Madness, Madness, Madness, Secret===============
=========================<* Babel Tower - Round 1 *>========================== ===================< Results - Why Don't We Fly Up There >==================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Riesenlied 0 --(29)--> 29 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rebecca Streisand 0 --(29)--> 29 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Avril Vent Fleur 0 --(29)--> 29 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Noeline 0 --(29)--> 29 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lily Keil 0 --(29)--> 29 Fail Starshel Rounds 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dean Stark 0 --(29)--> 29 Fail Analysis Scope 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Riesenlied 0 --(15)--> 15 Fail Conditions: Madness|Secret(2) Effects: Cleanse ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Riesenlied 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.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
It's a good move on the Wolves' part to split up a little -- Riesenlied really didn't feel confident, but she feels more confident with Lily here! It's not to discount the others, though; she does feel more at ease with her closest friends and partner here.
Lily fires a flare, and it bursts brightly and attracts Muni for a moment -- but as to whether or not it deters any would-be attackers is... at the moment... unknown.
Perhaps it's best that they're left unknown.
"Y-yes, I am fine so far," Riesenlied stammers quietly, with a smile. She nods as well at Noeline's shoulder-squeeze, blushing a bit; "Mmm. I did imagine this would be a test of endurance, not one of speed..."
Dean brightly says this is his first time climbing in a Gear -- that is true, it's her first time even with Muni... it's always been low-altitude flights with her. "Hehe," Riesenlied does smile when they both bring up the picnic, "Yes! Please look forward to it, I prepared all your favourites, and enough for seconds too."
The tower being empty and lonely catches her attention, though. What does she feel, as the empath? "... you two have a point... it somehow feels more-- forlorn, than other Ruins."
Avril has a similarly grounded perspective, and also the limitations of her own Gear come into play: she does wonder if there are shrines embedded into the Tower? Curious and curiouser yet...
Rebecca discovers that the height of Babel Tower deserves a curse. Which... no one could blame her for, honestly! As she observes -- this might be a Dig that could take days.
"Yes... ... I am a bit worried about how thin the air might be far up, given we are exposed, but-- we can worry about that when we get to it," Riesenlied admits.
The path is... arduous, to say the least -- but as more than one poet has said, oftentimes the most difficult step in any journey is the first one. Is the proverbial stairway to Heaven simply too much...?
"W-whew..." Riesenlied breathes out at the same time Muni does, when they get to a (relatively) safe ledge. But what awaits them next is none other than...
DG: Noeline has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Babel Tower *>=============================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - The Punishment *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- An alarm blares out in the midst of your exploration through a strange, sideways urban area. Several round machines with warning signs flank you! It seems like you've broken an arcane and unknowable traffic rule, such as "crossing the street at not a crossing," or perhaps "breaking a red light"! Unfortunately, the punishment for jaywalking in this ancient society is laser beams. Prepare yourself! =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Even Noeline has moments where she's quite surprised by how realistic she's become, but... well, she likes to chalk it up to having a family and a partner nowadays, and with it a sense of responsibility. At the same time, it's not like she's upset about the change. The distance between 'realistic' and 'pragmatic' is thin but significant - intent and tone and fear all wrapped up with it. At least that little voice in the back of her mind is more 'quiet reminders' than 'loud alarms' these days.
"That's it exactly," she nods to Dean's comment. "It might be metal rather than stone, but it is still more of a statue than a building. Though... I suppose I might be too harsh on it. For all I know, we might go inside and find a thriving colony." There is a glumly amused note in her voice that suggests she's smarter than that, but it's gone shortly afterwards as Avril points out the shrines.
"... not quite east enough," she decides after a moment, her voice laced with the tone of someone who just got shown an interesting puzzle. "My first thought was it would be the sun atop the Tower, but that would lead to a lot of shamans with cricks in their necks, and there's really too many of them. I suppose they may have just been worshipping the existence of the Tower itself, but something tells me it may have been to do with Shevat."
Which, speaking of that voice in the back of her mind, is something she's been thinking about as of late. If they contact Shevat only to find it is Solaris by any other name... she's not sure where they'll stand.
At least it can be suppressed once they're inside. The Hyadean leans forwards a little on Muni's back as they pass through a ruined urban area, and positively coos at the sight of several buildings that were seemingly purpose-built on their side. "I have never been happier to eat some of my words," she comments as she tilts her head sideways. "Did sections of this tower rotate, perhaps? That is the only way I can make sense of it, but... why on earth would you need that?"
Muni is a very well-behaved dragon who stops at every red light and knows to wait for the green man, the star of Wayside's 'be careful around traffic' teaching videos. The problem isn't really the little gumdrop so much as the rest of the Gears, where 'a foot in the middle of the street' apparently counts against the rules of the Tower. Noeline's fixation is broken by the sound of blaring alarms, and then she's made a noise of surprise as the instictive dodge of a laser bolt sends her tumbling off Muni's back. Rather than use the Gear-sized dragon, she instead opts to immediately slip in front, sword slamming into the ground as a... kind of small... protective wall.
DG: Noeline has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Punishment.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
If Lily notices anything strange here, she hasn't commented on it yet. However... It would be pretty funny for Lily to be in the Outreach, despite her medical expertise. After all:
"Hmm. What if we just knocked out the bottom of the tower and brought the top to us?" Lily wonders thoughtfully.
Neat stuff to miss. That's possible. She was probably kidding about knocking it over. But... "Shrines. Hmm. It does seem like... yes, a monument as much as a functional structure. Maybe there were more vehicles of this scale when it was built..."
As for where they'll stand if Shevat is like Solaris, Lily has some ideas on that front. One can guess what they are.
"If the structure itself channeled energy," Lily says, "Then rotating it could work like a musical instrument. It.."
Hm. Lasers. Lily moves into action immediately, responding to laser bolts with blasts of Etheric fire.
DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Punishment.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
*Boop boop.* "...Yeah, that's about what my scanner got back too," Dean admits to Avril of the oldness and tallness of the tower. "It really is big, huh?" He makes a face when Rebecca scolds him about flying up. "Yeah, yeah... We couldn't anyway! We can't just leave Riese behind." Or Avril, or anyone, but to be totally honest, Dean forgot that their Gears cannot actually fly.
Riese says she prepared their favorites, and enough for seconds. Dean brightens. "Yessss!! Let's get going, then! The further up we get, the sooner we can take a lunch break!"
...At least they'll definitely earn it. It's not a good start, but at least they manage to make it up to that first ledge eventually.
"It's sure big enough to hold a colony, huh," he remarks to Noeline. "What would you do if there really were people inside here?" People like, apparently, the ones who built the shrines--but then again, people built *all* of this, so of course there'd be signs of ancient life.
And the further in they go, they suddenly get jumped by robots who blast lasers at them. "Woah! I wasn't expecting that. I guess it figures, though," he says as lasers impact the side of his Gear, making it stumble to one side. Dean soon stabilizes the robot and opens fire in return, backing Lily up with good old-fashioned gun. He also tries to create a wall to defend Riese and Muni along with Noeline.
DG: Dean Stark has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, The Punishment.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"Hmm, that may be so," she remarks to Rebecca. "If I had known, perhaps I would have... Oh, but I believe I saw a few banners with the sign of the Granas Church, as well," Avril comments to Noeline. "However, I do not know what they would be worshipping here, either. Does the Church not worship Granas? Or, might this place be sacred to Granas? Perhaps he lives here." Religious practices are still something of a confusion, for Avril.
At the very least the tower was an imposing sight around this part of Aquvy; even the ships had kept their distance.
The climb within the tower goes steadily enough, if not particularly smoothly. There are gaps to jump, piles of debris to use as bridges and staircases. But eventually the tower's interior gives way to...
"A sideways city?" Avril utters, pausing a moment atop her current perch. Which is a sideways building, and low to the ground. "...It does not seem that anyone lives here," she remarks, taking in her surroundings in full. "There is something almost..." Familiar?
Familiar, if in a vague and distant sort of way, that is--
Oh, and there is a traffic control robot shooting lasers at her and everyone else. "Oh--"
Ice builds about her and those closest to her, planing out into a shimmering sheet to deflect away those lasers.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Punishment.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied would never fault Noeline for being realistic -- she's always been her grounding element, the one who she trusts to doublecheck her ideas and work if something's just too out there, or not practical enough, or what have you.
"A shrine..." the Hyadean finds herself following Avril's line of conversation. "I initially hoped it was a public corridor that connected Lunar and Filgaia together, but... Elly mentioned that would be infeasible, sadly."
She does share Noeline's quiet doubts about Shevat though... they haven't had the best track record with secretive societies, after all.
And a pause, as she blinks at the-- sideways? Wayside? buildings?
"I-- cannot tell what is written on some of these signs, but... does it not feel a bit... urban to you?" Riesenlied muses, looking to Lily. "It reminds me of some of the Zeboim sites we have visited, but... wholly different somehow."
Lily suggests just blowing up the bottom of the tower to bring the top to us. "A-ah, hmm, what if the rest of the Black Wolves were still inside..." she worriedly says. It's saying something she doesn't doubt Lily's ability to do this.
Avril posits some interesting questions. Is the place sacred to Granas? "... with what I now know about the Ethos, I... do wonder. I wonder if it was not for a more practical reason they sealed this site... to protect the technology within for themselves."
She feels bad, for a moment, to be so cynical when people usually expect her to be the optimistic one.
But then-- angry, round traffic cones!!
"A-are these ancient guards, or...?" Riesenlied does feel relieved that Dean and Noeline are there to protect her, since even a splash of laser beam is significantly more dangerous.
"Muni muni-ni!" Muni-Muni squeaks, as the golden Armour-shaped Dragon shimmers for a moment and a trio of Fire, Ice and Bolt Beams lance out from her mouth, aimed at different drones! tn. I won't let you hurt my friends!!
DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool Rings of Promise toward her party's challenge, The Punishment.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
Riese's comment on the thin air up top gives Rebecca a stab of concern, given Riese's state how would she even tolerate that? Which means Dean just triggers her ire on accident, "I'm not suggesting we would leave her behind Dean! Even if we could fly well... we'd just make room in the cockpit or something."
It's a tight fit, so she's not sure how she'd manage but... she'd figure out a way.
"I'm not... sure. I don't know enough about Church doctrine to speculate." Rebecca says to Avril as they climb, "I don't suppose the place triggers any... feelings about, having been here before?"
Rebecca isn't an archaeologist, but she at least figures this could be old enough to be ancient Veruni.
"Not sure." Rebecca comments to Noeline on the tower's rotation. "None of this makes sense from the perspective of wanting to climb up though. Why would they build it this way?"
Even the idea that it was some ancient self-contained city built vertically feels wrong.
On the roads though, a gear foot in the middle of the street causes alarms to blare. "Guess the climb isn't our only concern." She remarks, as she puts her gear in reverse and winds backwards to try and evade the initial brarrage.
Whatever the case might be, she activates her Gear's tracking system to guide her aim quickly enough to try to plug each of them with a gear sized hand cannon in their vital areas.
DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Orpheus System toward her party's challenge, The Punishment.
==============================<* Babel Tower *>=============================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - The Punishment *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- An alarm blares out in the midst of your exploration through a strange, sideways urban area. Several round machines with warning signs flank you! It seems like you've broken an arcane and unknowable traffic rule, such as "crossing the street at not a crossing," or perhaps "breaking a red light"! Unfortunately, the punishment for jaywalking in this ancient society is laser beams. Prepare yourself! =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless=================================================
=========================<* Babel Tower - Round 2 *>========================== =========================< Results - The Punishment >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Riesenlied 29 --(5)--> 34 Pass Rings of Promise 4 Combat Effects: Efficient and Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rebecca Streisand 29 --(5)--> 34 Pass Orpheus System 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Avril Vent Fleur 29 --(5)--> 34 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Noeline 29 --(5)--> 34 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lily Keil 29 --(5)--> 34 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dean Stark 29 --(5)--> 34 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Riesenlied 15 --(30)--> 45 Pass Conditions: Reckless(2)|Secret(1) Effects: Embolden(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Riesenlied 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> Noeline has posed.
"More to the point," puffs Noeline towards Lily as she braces against a volley of laser fire in an almost casual fashion, "I think that bringing the top of the tower down to us would be somewhat, ah, counter-productive for our objective. Not that it hadn't crossed my mind, mind you. Not to mention, a uniquely Black Wolves sort of idea."
Riesenlied raises a fair objection, but even if she takes that into account... "Even if the rest of the Black Wolves were still in the Tower, that only seems to make it an even more Black Wolvesy plan, don't you think?" she notes with a familiar huff of amused and put-upon air.
Whatever the urban defence droids were used for, they are clearly not used to fighting giant Gears, and the lasers have not exactly kept up to spec when it comes to Gear armor. To most of the group, the most threatening concern is the chance that a paint job will be scorched; Noeline and Muni work together around the feet of the other machines to help ensure that Riesenlied isn't targeted too badly by any stray shots, while a flurry of gunfire dispatch most of the forces before they can even get close.
With the robots soundly defeated, Noeline hops back onto Muni's shoulder. The first thing she does is to give Riesenlied another moment of physical contact, for the soothing effect it has on both of them - but the second thing she does is look sharply up to Dean, and then across to Avril. The Noeline of old is still in there, after all, and she flashes a cocksure, winning grin as she answers: "I would say 'hello', of course."
DG: Lily Keil has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Babel Tower *>================================ ========================<* CHALLENGE - Tram Po Lines *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You discover an ancient monorail track, and trace a station down with an intact tram large enough to house your Gears. Further inspection indicates that power still runs up the line, but there's an issue: It's all sideways. The tram was never designed to hurtle upwards; what's more, it has to be operated on-foot, in the control room it was designed for. Making sure your Gears don't end up crushing you should you come to a dead stop may be a logistics puzzle... and it may require some quick logistics as well. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"There's plenty of space in the Hellerune," Lily points out to Rebecca for Riesenlied, though that may be becaue she got rid of most of the safety equipment.
Lily considers. It's an interesting hope, the corridor. But that isn't what catches Lily most about what Riesenlied has to say about the language. "I can't read it," she says simply. "I guess it seems urban enough, but it's not the Zeboim language at all." Pause. Knocking the whole thing down...
"Oh, I was mostly kidding," Lily answers. Mostly. She laughs as Noeline comments how Black Wolvesy the plan is, though. "It does," she agrees.
"I suspect Riesenlied has the right of it. Nothing in here looks particularly similar to what I've seen in Granasian facilities."
Soon enough though, they meet not natives to whom to say hello Noeline, but a track. "Hm, this looks like..."
In short order they have tracked down a station and an intact car. Lily maneuvers Hellerune into it as she transmits to the others, "This should save us a lot of fuel." Pause. "If it doesn't break."
Conveniently there's at least one of them very good at handling small things so they shouldn't have to get out of the Gears.... Though--
"I can probably force at least Hellerune to stay in position by triggering the Ether booster," because gravity magic, "But we'll want to be careful."
DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Tram Po Lines.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"I'm not saying you would say that!" Dean counters just as heatedly. "But yeah, that'd be about what we'd have to do, right? Maybe Muni could ride on top of a Gear's head so she could still get a view. The cockpit seats aren't all that round, after all..."
Avril's speculation on the tower's relationship to Granas gets her a big old shrug. "I can't keep track of all these different gods and religions. I hope he doesn't live here, though. Seems like a sad place for a god to life," he remarks.
At least the robots are easily dispatched. Soon they're all crossing the road at the totally incorrect place or whatever it was that got them attacked in the first place. Dean will never know, because it never occurs to him that something so mundane would have triggered an attack in the first place. Lily soon leads them to a car and a station.
"Heyy, this *is* handy!" he declares. He assumes, anyway. "You're definitely right about the fuel, Lily. I wonder how many Gears it can carry? Maybe we should go up a couple at a time. Or, uh..." He pauses as he actually takes a good look at the station for the first time. "...Wait, is it going *sideways*? Why would they do that??"
He presses the analysis button. Hopefully the analysis scope that opens up on the side of his Gear's head will be able to get a bead on how to make the station car function.
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Analysis Scope toward his party's challenge, Tram Po Lines.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"Yes... worse comes to worse, I thought I would take refuge in one of the Gears," Riesenlied does admit to both Rebecca and Lily. She's hoping to be useful in the Hellerune, like last time! Even if-- it ended up being a bit scary, and possibly life-threatening. She does blush a bit at Dean, though. "I-- do not need a round seat..."
It's fine, it's the Hellerune.
Rebecca ponders why they'd build the tower with this orientation, and honestly, even as they discover a sideways tram, a normal person would probably come to the conclusion of:
... is the tower sideways?
But this is Riesenlied, and she instead cheerfully answers, "P-perhaps it is because they are... Wayside people!" and immediately giggles at her own joke. ... well, better that she's in good spirits than worried, at least.
Sadly, even as Noeline rejoins them, there aren't Wayside people to say 'hello' to, just... a tram? Lily mentions that even she can't read the language, which piques her attention. "Might it be even older than the Zeboim...? How curious."
But, regarding the tram...
"There was one such mode of transport in the Photosphere," Riesenlied recollects. ".... we -- the Tainted -- were not allowed to use it." Part of keeping the lowest class the lowest class, it seems, was to literally keep them at the bottom.
The Hyadean slowly coaxes Muni to hop in and perch herself on one of the... seats? She's honestly rather astonished that the tram is big enough to fit Gears. Which brings another truly brilliant idea to her head--
"These people... might they be... Wayside giants?"
Avril's not the only one to suddenly be gripped with fanciful ideas in the party...
DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Tram Po Lines.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"--assuming it even runs," notes Noeline as she stares up the shaft, her face set in a glum line. "This clearly didn't always run in this direction. It is going to come down to how much power it has available, and whether it can cope with our Gears." It is said with something of a sinking situation, as she's well aware she's the most nimble of them and the one who's going to have the easiest time returning to the group after the tram is activated.
In other words, she's probably the one who gets to proactively navigate through a sideways control room to reach a lever. With a sigh, she stands up on Muni's shoulders. "I shall be back in a moment," she promises, unable to resist giving Riesenlied a pat on the head for her flight of fancy before hopping off. It takes her a moment to adjust once again to the sideways vista, then she's picking her way over in that direction, hopping over toppled bits of ruined stone and metal.
"It was terribly maintained, I remember," she puffs into her radio. "It was usually left up the neonates, who-- did not exactly put their hearts and souls into what they perceived as work that wouldn't further themselves." The rest of her is trying to picture what the Tower would be like on its side - and who would manage to stab it into the ground like this.
Ah well. At least, whatever happens, she and Riese have the advantage that their Gear is actively sentient, autonomous, and actively willing to protect its pilots. Most Drifters only get to two out of three tops, and no guessing which one gets left out most of the time.
DG: Noeline has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Tram Po Lines.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"A sad place... hmm, it might be," Avril remarks, on the subject of this being Granas' home. "Perhaps the top, at least, might be a more welcoming place? It would be closer to the sun..."
Climbing in the darker lower reaches had given her time to contemplate, again, her own anxieties.
"I... feel as if they may," Avril hedges, highly hesitant in this regard. "But I cannot be certain. Does it merely feel familiar? Or is this someplace in which I have been before?" is her answer to Rebecca; within her cockpit she can only shake her head.
Particularly when Lily says that the language on the signs doesn't even look like Zeboim script. "It does not... seem like something that I can read," she says, hesitating a moment.
Because there is again that vague twinge of familiarity, but can it be trusted?
Avril feels a little bad for handling the traffic control robots in such a way, but it just can't be helped, as it were. They must continue on and they can hardly permit them to keep attacking them.
"Yes, it does seem that Lily is correct," she agrees with Dean. "However... it seems that the controls are elsewhere." Her Gear gestures towards the station. "Perhaps within there? That means..."
She's silent a moment, as if considering the logistical puzzle they have before them. "Perhaps I might attempt to manage the controls?" Avril suggests. "I do not mind temporarily disembarking. In fact, hmm, I wonder if that might work..."
This might just be a case of the goat, the grain, and the fox.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Tram Po Lines.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
"Good because I wouldn't!" Rebecca replies back, before the dilemma takes the forefront, "That might work... though we'd have to be careful, I think some of our sensors are in our Gear's heads..." She isn't actually 100% sure though. She's not exactly a mechanic.
As Lily remarks on the Hellerune, Rebecca replies instantly, "Really? That's convenient." And a huge relief, "Was it built with room for a co-pilot?" Rebecca guesses, entirely incorrectly.
Whereas Avril... as she hedges, causes Rebecca to consider her words. One problem with a Gear is you don't have facial cues and other non-verbal communication to work with, so she's pausing extra long to try and process Avril's words, "That's... unusual for you." Avril may not remember remember these places she's been before, but the uncertainty on whether it's one way or another in how she feels... Rebecca's not sure what to make of it. "Well, maybe the further we'll go, you'll get a better read on things."
Though then Riesenlied gives a comment that causes her Gear's head to just... turn. "I... suppose that's one way to put it."
Lily fortunately spots the tram! And as Dean remarks on how much fuel it could save... "Hey yeah. This could be a real shortcut for us." So long as they don't get stranded, she doesn't say.
Riesenlied's comment on having not been able to in the photosphere gives her pause, "That's..." Pause, "Well.. on this tram at least, let's name you our conductor for the day. That way you get the full experience!"
Climbing onto the tram, Rebecca finds herself in an unusual position. Her Gear isn't the most suited for this, as she tries to call down to Avril, "Is that gonna be okay? ... Maybe there's some way to set it for a time delay..."
DG: Rebecca Streisand has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Tram Po Lines.
===============================<* Babel Tower *>================================ ========================<* CHALLENGE - Tram Po Lines *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You discover an ancient monorail track, and trace a station down with an intact tram large enough to house your Gears. Further inspection indicates that power still runs up the line, but there's an issue: It's all sideways. The tram was never designed to hurtle upwards; what's more, it has to be operated on-foot, in the control room it was designed for. Making sure your Gears don't end up crushing you should you come to a dead stop may be a logistics puzzle... and it may require some quick logistics as well. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
==========================<* Babel Tower - Round 3 *>=========================== ==========================< Results - Tram Po Lines >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riesenlied 34 --(17)--> 51 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rebecca Streisand 34 --(29)--> 63 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 34 --(29)--> 63 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Noeline 34 --(29)--> 63 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 34 --(29)--> 63 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 34 --(17)--> 51 Pass Analysis Scope 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Riesenlied 45 --(15)--> 60 Fail Conditions: Reckless(1)|Stupify(2) Effects: Cleanse ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Riesenlied 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.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Rebecca makes an assumption! Lily answers, "No, I just removed a lot of dead weight." Yes. Dead weight. That's all.
Lily finds Riesenlied to be generally rather helpful with Hellerune, though she has Concerns about her particular methods. But sideways, Wayside... At least good spirits are a factor. And memories! "It might be," Lily answers as to its age. "Which is... saying something." That's old even for old things.
"I can't say whether they're giants, but the fact that these are large enough for Gears suggests a design compatible with them."
Dean's analysis button indeed points out some important spots to secure the Gears as well as a place to make the Gear work; Noeline and Riesenlied, thanks to Muni, have an easy time getting towards the controls. Avril has a harder time, but does help. The problem is not that they don't succeed. In fact, the exercise does save quite a bit of fuel, in the end.
It's just that the stop-and-go nature of the as-it-turns-out sort of poorly-repaired track... doesn't save a lot of time. But eventually...
"...Right. Conductor Riesenlied. That's the only part we need to remember."
It's still better than the one in the Photosphere, and it....... more or less ran. More or less.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Babel Tower *>================================ ================<* CHALLENGE - Wading through Water... AGAIN *>================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- *SPLOOOOOSH* Sigh. No matter how skilled you are, the Tower of Babel is sometimes simply unfair. Perhaps it's a platform that looks solid but gives way the moment you step on it; perhaps it's a ridiculous combination of events involving swinging ropes and the crunch of the earth underneath you. Perhaps it's just pure misfortune. Whatever it is, you're back here in the drink! The sea has long breached the base of the tower, and at least a Gear's height of seawater serves as the floor. It's a struggle to push through such water, over and over again; you may have to pay attention to any leaking and adverse effects sea water has on your Gear, too. And of course... there is the doldrums of having to do this over and over again, every time you fail. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"Yes," she answers Rebecca, readily enough. "It is as if I have seen it before, but I cannot know if I have seen something akin to it... or I have truly seen this place. ...Perhaps so. We will only know in time."
"It should be fine. I have no intention of remaining behind. You will not need to worry, Rebecca."
They might be slightly famous last words, given that--
"..."
Not only is the machinery remarkably obtuse, all considering, but Avril can't read a single word on the console. It takes a lot of time and trial and error.
But eventually, eventually--
Lily has enough time to make that remark before steel sings omninously.
Perhaps... perhaps the train wasn't quite meant to carry that sort of weight. Actually, they need to update that from 'perhaps' to a simple #-1 INVALID ANSI DEFINITION: +goldenrond yes
There is a long, somewhat bumpy fall. It's cushioned by the water pool at the bottom of the tower, and also their Gears. Hopefully everyone wore their seatbelts!
"Is everyone alright...?" Avril hazards, once she's certain she's in one piece and so is the Gear.
The train car is toast, but perhaps that's as it should be.
"It would seem... we are back at the bottom of the tower," she says, emerging from the drink with a splash; the Skadi hovers atop the unquiet waters via its jets. Slowly, the Gear cranes its head back, as if to regard again the distance they fell, and--
Avril reaches out to touch the socketed Ice Medium in the Gear's console, her eyes hooded.
"Material," she intones.
Perhaps there's one way to... shorten the climb back upwards (and blow off some stress). And that's by summoning the Ice Guardian to flash-freeze some of the water here.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Stone Ice Medium toward her party's challenge, Wading through Water... AGAIN.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"Hee hee, Conductor Riesenlied..." Riesenlied chimes brightly at Rebecca, clapping her hands. "Then, everyone, all aboard...! The tram will be departing soon. Doors will close on your right!"
Muni whistles out a, "Pin pon pin pon," for maximum effect.
Then-- in the midst of it-- there's an awful noise of steel and terror and...
Briefly, Noeline and Riesenlied are surrounded in yellow, since Muni-Muni is at least fast enough on the uptake to shield her passengers from being thoroughly waterlogged!!
The yellow orb floats along the water for a moment, before re-combobulating into the familiar Munitekal Armour wading through the drink. "M-Muniii..." Muni looks pretty dazed out. x_x
"T-that was terribly unpleasant-- a--a--achoo!"
Riesenlied shivers; they avoided the absolute worst case scenario, given that the seat isn't full of freezing sea-water, but the splash still caught her! She sniffles a few times.
Then, a realisation hits her, and Riesenlied gasps and looks around, checking her inventory. "Um, some of the extra fuel canisters fell out and..." The Hyadean looks around and gasps, pointing at the water.
"Oh no, the picnic basket...!!"
Severe Damage to Morale...!!
Muni pouts at the thought of losing food, so much that she trembles and-- PAFF
A missile fires, which... might just coincidentally cause a ledge to collapse and form a path?
DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool Munitek Missile toward her party's challenge, Wading through Water... AGAIN.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
Rebecca actually snerks, having to suppress herself from giggling at Riesenlied's announcement, and Muni's whistle.
Rebecca was about to say something to Lily, perhaps about how such a shortcut was too much to hope for... or how they should have expected saving fuel was too good to be true. When suddenly the steel sings, and...
Rebecca tries to have her Gear hold on as best as she can, trying her dangest not to scream over the comms even though she feels it in her soul. And then...
SPLASHHH!
Rebecca did not wear her seatbelt, because she had the hope of jumping off at the last moment, but that hope was misguided. "Not my best landing..." Rebecca says into the comms.
Rebecca's gear, the Eurydice does not have that kind of capability as to hover. And so instead Rebecca inserts her Original Medium in it's socketed amplifier. And suddenly invokes it while she's submerged. Water forms up, and erupts in a geyser, which she uses to launch herself out and onto Avril's frozen water.
"Good going Avril! You think... if I launch up more water for you to work with, you can keep it going?"
As such, Rebecca does causes more displacement of the water upward, and outward and around through her medium to try and give Avril more water to work with and freeze to make their way up to the ledge Riese blasted down.
"Don't worry about it!" She calls, of the picnic basket. "We've got enough rations to go for a while!"
Yes Dean... bland, tasteless, rations.
DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Medium Amplifier toward her party's challenge, Wading through Water... AGAIN.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Maybe Granas lives on the top of the tower, close to the sun. "That'd make sense! If I were a god, that's where I'd want to live," Dean declares. "Oh, but there probably wouldn't be any Golems to excavate at the top of a tower, would there? Oh, but it's not like every Golem's underground! Hmmm, now I don't know..."
To Rebecca, he says, "Well, yeah, that's the point! With our Gear's eyes and Muni's eyes, we'd have twice the eyes on the situation!" He guides his Gear onto the machinery with the others, and the metal creaks. Creeeaks. "But it looks like Riese's having plenty of fun just--" SNAP. And they all fall into a bunch of seawater. Good thing their gears are (presumably) airtight...
But then Riese calls their attention to the fallen picnic basket. Dean's expression twists with devastation. "Noooooo! Our lunch!!" he wails, falling to his knees. His mechanical, Gear knees. Rebecca 'kindly' says that they've got rations. Dean's Gear pounds a fist on the floor. It... might help break apart stones to create a path back up, especially with that drill bit on the knuckles?
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Drill Fist toward his party's challenge, Wading through Water... AGAIN.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"I'm fine," Lily says eventually. She is in one piece, more or less, as is her Gear for once. It was not a very pleasant drop, but Lily does in fact still have seatbelts in Hellerune. They don't take up a lot of space, after all. It's fine. She also doesn't so much as peep over the radio at the fall. Maybe this is because she chose not to engage the comms during the fall though.
"...Hm. Back at the bottom of the tower..." And without the picnic basket. Lily finds herself particularly hungry at that moment. And sort of annoyed. Perhaps there is a word for the combination of hunger and... another, related feeling. Perhaps...
"Well," Lily says. "I can get rid of this wreckage that stands in our way and provide us with a decent amount of lift to get us back moving again."
Lily loads a particular program into her Gear's databanks. The Ether booster begins to whirr up to life, a powerful magic starting to be channeled--
Seatbelts might be in order again.
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Devastation Program toward her party's challenge, Wading through Water... AGAIN.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline remains firmly on edge as the tram starts to move; she doesn't really trust it, and not just because it's old and creaking - just the thought of the tram being on its side compared to normal is concerning enough. Her caution pays off; at the first sound of tearing, shearing metal she's tensed and leaps into Muni's cockpit properly, an arm tight around her partner to ensure she isn't sent flying without support.
But support or no, there is nowhere to really escape to - and the next moment the world is dizzying in the way it sweeps past her, with a plane of water rushing up-- sideways??-- to meet them. She doesn't have time to register Muni's attempt to save them, trusting in herself first and foremost as she braces for impact - but it's a relief to hear the cry of concern and the sight of the gumdrop Dragon shifting around them.
"H-haaah..." she sighs as they surface again, looking rather bedraggled and taking a catlike moment to preen and fuss over herself as Riese counts their supplies. "Well. Our personal welfare is more important than a picnic, isn't it?" she sort-of-encourages with an attempt at a warm smile. "We are all safe and whole, at least by the look of things. Let's take heart in that much."
One of her pods sweeps down to meet them. Trouble spins around slowly, then unfolds a small barrel from its core. It is a little worrying seeing the pod get ready to fire almost straight at them, but then it fires and-- rather than any laser light or flame, there's just a repeated current of warm air in their direction as the pod tries its best to dry them off.
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Trouble toward her party's challenge, Wading through Water... AGAIN.
===============================<* Babel Tower *>================================ ================<* CHALLENGE - Wading through Water... AGAIN *>================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- *SPLOOOOOSH* Sigh. No matter how skilled you are, the Tower of Babel is sometimes simply unfair. Perhaps it's a platform that looks solid but gives way the moment you step on it; perhaps it's a ridiculous combination of events involving swinging ropes and the crunch of the earth underneath you. Perhaps it's just pure misfortune. Whatever it is, you're back here in the drink! The sea has long breached the base of the tower, and at least a Gear's height of seawater serves as the floor. It's a struggle to push through such water, over and over again; you may have to pay attention to any leaking and adverse effects sea water has on your Gear, too. And of course... there is the doldrums of having to do this over and over again, every time you fail. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
==========================<* Babel Tower - Round 4 *>=========================== ==================< Results - Wading through Water... AGAIN >=================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riesenlied 51 --(5)--> 56 Pass Munitek Missile 3 Brute Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rebecca Streisand 63 --(5)--> 68 Pass Medium Amplifier 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 63 --(5)--> 68 Pass Stone Ice Medium 3 Brute Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Noeline 63 --(5)--> 68 Pass Trouble 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 63 --(5)--> 68 Pass Devastation Program 3 Brute Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 51 --(5)--> 56 Pass Drill Fist 3 Brute Effects: Rally -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Riesenlied 60 --(20)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Stupify(2) Effects: Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Riesenlied has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Avril does not remark on the tragic state of affairs regarding their picnic lunch.
But it is not for no reason that she immediately goes to invoke the power of the Medium slotted into her Gear.
This was... this was unforgivable...!
Somewhere overhead, missiles strike handily at the rubble and debris scattered in this stratum of the Tower; altered in their orientation considerably, they join with the rising pillars (organized, so as to form a series of steps) that the Guardian conjures out of ever more water flash-frozen into ice. The stones that Dean piles at the bottom further assist in building their 'tower in a tower'.
This is not a way up that will last for whoever ventures up the tower after them... but that is, quite simply, 'not their problem right now'.
"Yes," Avril answers Rebecca after a delay, continuing to focus on the Medium. She needs to sustain the Guardian's presence just a little bit longer...
Until she sighs out a breath. "There. We should hurry up," she tells the others. Trouble, at this point, will have finished drying off anyone who needs it, and then--
It's a bit of a race to make up for lost ground (and then some) but they make their way back up.
Quite far up, actually.
DG: Rebecca Streisand has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Babel Tower *>=============================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Don't Get Spacy Now *>===================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- They say the weather enjoyed after an effortful hike is all the more precious to savour; the moment of triumph in overcoming obstacles and one's own limits. The bright blue sky shines before you as you make one final ascent. The sun's rays gleam warmly, bathing the crumbling top of the Tower of Babel with a calming warmth. Everything is pleasant and quiet, allowing you a moment of peace... Then... it happens-- The powerful rumble of an ancient Gear in red and grayish white rising from some strange-marked hangar bay. It doesn't look like any Gear that's excavated from Ignas, nor does it bear the semblance of Galadian or Odessan Gears. It doesn't even look manned, though there is a mysterious faded insignia on its shoulder that reads: -= GREATER UNITED NATIONS =- (NB: For Outer Space folk, the make of this Gear is definitely offworld, yet is so odd that it seems to predate even the Federation!) What it /is/, however, is hostile -- it pulls out a long rifle and fires a /beam/ out of it, as a warning shot. You're in for quite the fight! =Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
A tower climbing montage happens, with inspirational music.
To all imply an epic marathon.
Even without picnic basket food in stomach. They push. And push. And push. Climbing higher and higher until...
There's a glint of sunlight. And the bright blue sky. The top of the tower appears incomplete, crumbling... and not a single god in sight. How disappointing! Yet at the same time the relief of having made it at least dominates the moment.
"We made it! We actually made it!"
Unfortunately as these things are wont to happen, the moment she says that, there's the rumble of an ancient Gear, which rises out of an eleevator.
It... doesn't look like any kind of gear they've seen before. An insignia on its shoulder that says...
-= GREATER UNITED NATIONS =-
Perhaps more importantly perhaps... it's already knelt down and pointed a long rifle. And a BEAM erupts out of it in a column of light towards them.
"What the heck!?" Rebecca says as she dives out of the way and starts returning fire, using her Gear's systems to try and guide her shots quickly. "Could this be from Shevat?"
DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Orpheus System toward her party's challenge, Don't Get Spacy Now.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied has that moment that one has when they're standing in front of a really, really good hand dryer in cold weather, shivering again to say, "Troubleee, y-you are a lifesaveeer..."
There's a moment where she does fuss over Noeline in turn, knowing that her partner likes to keep herself immaculate; then, she sucks in a breath and tries to psyche herself. "Well! That, that just means I have to make an even tastier lunch when we are at the top."
It's a kinda false bravado, since her energy's taken a hit, but... it's better than nothing.
But eventually, they've come to the top of the tower, where... sunlight awaits them. Riesenlied squints, gasping -- the air's not as thin as she was fearing it might be, miraculously enough -- and looking about. "We-- we made it...!" she echoes Rebecca.
There's silence, as if she's expecting Shevat to just hover up to them and go, 'WELCOME!', but.... instead.
An ancient Gear emerges, looking like nothing they've ever seen, with an insignia that says...
"Greater... United... Nations?" Riesenlied reads out, before a giant lightbulb seems to glimmer over her head. She looks around, left, right, then exclaim:
"Elly! What if this Greater United Nations did keep this escalator between Lunar and Filgaia alive??" Even when poor Elly isn't around?! Wow, she really wants that theory to work, huh. Like she's been teased by the Guardians themselves about headcanon theories before or something.....
Her excitement is kind of blown up -- literally -- as it pulls a rifle out and fires a column of light at them. "Aaah!" she ducks underneath Muni again, who digs her heels down--
"Muni... munimunimunimuniiii... MUNIIII!!" tn. Muni's not just for show, you know!
A veritable cavalcade of lights erupt from Muni's hardpoints, a salvo of light-missiles aimed towards the Gear's very own weapon to try to knock it out of commission.
DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool Rings of Promise toward her party's challenge, Don't Get Spacy Now.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Bright blue sky, warm sunlight, and no gods visible. Lily is fine with this. At first. She is also fine with a rumbling, because it implies something is happening, and something can be interesting! But what it actually is...
"What is--"
Lily looks to her systems, which pronounce the Gear belonging to the 'Greater United Nations', whatever that is. But it's already moving, already in action. The beam that erupts from its rifle goes riht over Hellerune's shoulder, blasting apart a fragment of armor.
"This is pretty interesting," Lily comments about their new opponent, and engages her Gear's systems, pulling the great spear from Hellerune's back and diving close to get up and prevent the use of that rifle.
"Two can play like that." Now the spear's on fire! The Ether Booster roars to life...
She... does not burst Riese's bubble. Not this time.
"I don't think it's from Shevat!"
DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Don't Get Spacy Now.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"Oh, at last..."
Avril stops for a moment, the Skadi facing the expanse that can be seen stretching out before them. From here, it almost looks like they can see to the ends of the world. "I am so glad. I knew we would succeed, but I had begun to wonder if we should ever see the sunlight again... There is nothing quite so like the sun, don't you agree?" she asks of them all--
In those moments as something nearby rumbles. It's not the tower.
It's an elevator, not far away.
"...A Gear? Is it..."
It's quite old, whatever it is. And it doesn't seem to be friendly.
"Hold! We are not your enemies!" Avril tries to say to its pilot--
It, of course, doesn't have one, so this isn't likely to get her much of anywhere. No, here she'll have to try something different.
Something a little more aggressive.
Icicles coalesce in the air about her, hovering behind the Skadi as if in a sort of tilted halo. They shimmer briefly under the brilliance of the sunlight above.
Then stream across the air for the Gear as if they were missiles.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Don't Get Spacy Now.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Though the loss of their picnic lunch is deep and cutting, Noeline is right: the important thing is that all of them are safe. At least, Dean comforts himself with that fact and eventually peels himself off the ground, Gear and all. His morale has definitely taken a blow, though, even as everyone makes it back up, and then up further and further from there.
So it's almost a blessing that a giant robot rises from a hangar bay and opens fire on them. "Is that--a Golem!?" he gasps, blue eyes lighting up with sparkles. "No, wait, that's the wrong build for a Golem--but it doesn't look like any Gear I've ever seen either--could this be... an entirely new type of giant robot?! I've gotta taken a closer look!! PLEASE STOP SHOOTING AT US, ROBOT FRIEND!"
Well, that first beam was only a warning shot, right? Maybe asking nicely *will* work out, especially since he and Avril are of one mind. Dean definitely sets up his Gear's defensive gear to absorb any further blows, and of course to keep the smaller members of their group from getting struck.
"What's the Greater United Nations, anyway?" he adds to Riesen--actually, she doesn't seem like she knows, so he actually asks Lily and Noeline.
DG: Dean Stark has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Don't Get Spacy Now.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline accepts the fussing-over from Riesenlied, but not in this case because she likes to be immaculate. She'd just prefer to be fussed over a little right now, and she'd like to steal a little of that blast of hot air for herself for good measure while she's at it. She does at least answer Riesenlied's attempt with a smile and a nod. "Of course. I'm sure we'll find a way to get something together."
She's doing better by the time they get to the top, somehow managing to break through the Tower and emerge into a shocking blast of cool, remarkably fresh air. She squints against it, her answer to Rebecca's shout a quiet and thoughtful hum. The Noeline of old might have immediately strutted up to go look over the side; the Noeline of today decides against that plan.
Especially because the Noeline of today has gotten used to the idea of spaces like this being defended. Her sword is already in her hands as the Gear emerges, though she doesn't move to attack it head on as she has other Gears in the past. Something tells her to play it safe instead, and besides-- maybe this close to the Moon, she can tap into a little more of Duras Drum's power than she otherwise could.
Dean covering them is a relief, if she's honest. It isn't often that she feels intimidated, but something about being at the top of the Tower in an exposed state like this is making her hesitant enough that she's recognizing the difference, and she's grateful for the defence. "To be honest, I have no idea," she notes with quiet surprise. "Not in any history books I know of, and I have read a lot of them. Aquvy's nations have come together in the past, but not-- under a name."
She takes a deep breath. "I will do my best to pin it down!" she calls, her voice somewhat lost over the sudden din of its rifle shot and Muni's volley of missiles and Avril's icicles and the Hellerune's assault. Feeling for Riesenlied's presence over their link, she focuses as she clasps one hand around the ring on the other - and then, much more obvious than her voice, a series of sorcerous chains erupt around the Gear, only half-there but with enough presence to slow its movements down.
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Rings of Promise toward her party's challenge, Don't Get Spacy Now.
==============================<* Babel Tower *>=============================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Don't Get Spacy Now *>===================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- They say the weather enjoyed after an effortful hike is all the more precious to savour; the moment of triumph in overcoming obstacles and one's own limits. The bright blue sky shines before you as you make one final ascent. The sun's rays gleam warmly, bathing the crumbling top of the Tower of Babel with a calming warmth. Everything is pleasant and quiet, allowing you a moment of peace... Then... it happens-- The powerful rumble of an ancient Gear in red and grayish white rising from some strange-marked hangar bay. It doesn't look like any Gear that's excavated from Ignas, nor does it bear the semblance of Galadian or Odessan Gears. It doesn't even look manned, though there is a mysterious faded insignia on its shoulder that reads: -= GREATER UNITED NATIONS =- (NB: For Outer Space folk, the make of this Gear is definitely offworld, yet is so odd that it seems to predate even the Federation!) What it /is/, however, is hostile -- it pulls out a long rifle and fires a /beam/ out of it, as a warning shot. You're in for quite the fight! =Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
=========================<* Babel Tower - Round 5 *>========================== ======================< Results - Don't Get Spacy Now >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Riesenlied 56 --(5)--> 61 Pass Rings of Promise 4 Combat Effects: Efficient and Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rebecca Streisand 68 --(5)--> 73 Pass Orpheus System 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Avril Vent Fleur 68 --(5)--> 73 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Noeline 68 --(5)--> 73 Pass Rings of Promise 4 Combat Effects: Efficient and Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lily Keil 68 --(17)--> 85 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dean Stark 56 --(5)--> 61 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Riesenlied 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Save Point(1)|Stupify(1) Effects: Embolden(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Riesenlied has successfully explored Babel Tower!
==============================<* Babel Tower *>=============================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Large-scale Wizardry *>==================== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Your team lands the final blow, which significantly tears through the ancient Gear's internals; looks like it only had enough integrity for a brief battle, and was going to fall apart at any given moment. Unfortunately, that also means that it effectively is unsalvageable - most of the parts have turned to slag. When you investigate further, however, you discover a most curious Gear-sized wizard's rod, lightly crackling with electricity! You've acquired a Thunder Rod G! The G is what makes you know it's fitted for a Gear. If your Gear didn't have any Sorcery capability before, this would be a pretty good start to translate any of your own magical talents. --- Just as you're about to leave, another powerful force rattles the top of the tower -- this time from above. A mysterious, enormous disc-shaped city descends nearby, shrouded in an orange force field. There is a most palpable silence for a moment, and then... "... can you hear me? This is the City of Shevat. The Queen Zephyr has granted permission for you to board. We will launch a craft shortly for your Gears..." It looks like your efforts to get up here weren't all in vain after all! You've discovered the floating City of Shevat! =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
Riesenlied calls upon Elly to answer!
There is no Elly. There is only Beam Rifle.
Muni fires out a salvo of light missiles. And for a moment the Gear disappears in a cloud of dust. And then there's a single spot of light from the beam rifle charging before it fires again.
Lily's attempt to charge at it with a spear is cut off by it's second shot. Which the Gear sweeps to cut off her advance brutally.
However, it's obviously taken some damage from Muni nevertheless. Because... part of a leg is twisted sideways, rattling from its joint, multiple armor plates have been knocked off.
Avril's ice missiles launch towards it, and embed into its armor, causing it to momentarily look like an icy porcupine.
It fires again, this time at Avril, and Dean interrupts the blow by intercepting it. It's impact scores a bit deeper in his armor than is comfortable, but thankfully his gear is quiteeee tanky.
And then Noeline chains it down. The Gear rattles. And rattles as it tries to break the binds and then...
... the sheer effort of trying to break it's bonds causes the ancient gear, to seemingly fall apart at the seams as it drives the icicles further within. Armor disintegrating, joints disintegrating, ancient components falling apart. And then as it all lands in a pile. There's a sudden detonation from within and all of those ancient components are so much as melted and smoking slag in the aftermath.
Save for a Gear Sized Rod!
You've acquired a Thunder Rod G!
"... I don't think there was a pilot." Rebecca says after the fact, which is impossible to confirm now but is perhaps a source of relief for her. "Everyone alright? Any major damage to you or your Gears? Since we're not gonna get any answers from that... does anyone see a way to contact Shevat?"
Rebecca doesn't have to wait long for an answer, as the tower starts to rattle, and a shape in the sky descends. A disc shape city surrounded in an orange force field, dotted with revolving lines. There's a long moment of silence, and Rebecca says with a sense of disquiet and awe, "It's... like seeing someone's tall tale with my eyes..."
... can you hear me? This is the City of Shevat.
The Queen Zephyr has granted permission for you to board.
We will launch a craft shortly for your Gears...