2021-05-27: Mists of Mystery and Discord
- Log: Mists of Mystery and Discord
- Cast: Ruth Pauling, Seraph Clarine, Ashley Winchester, Ida Everstead-Rey
- Where: Sylvara Great Woods
- Date: May 27, 2021
- Summary: A missing child and a known Hellion go into the Sylvara Great Woods. ARMS is dispatched to resolve both of these issues before anything untoward can happen to the child /or/ the woods themselves. Or... if the woods themselves do something untoward, which then carries its own risks.
===========================<* Sylvara Great Woods *>============================ The central island of Sylvaland, Sylvara, is the heartland of the nation. That island is covered by the Great Woods: a massive expanse of woodlands that stretches out as far as the eye can see, and takes up nearly the entire island. While roads and railroads lead through the woods, these forests are renowned for mist that often hangs deep over there. It is well-known that mist can make these woods easy to get lost in. Traveling them on-foot is necessary, too: an ancient Elw Teleporter lay within the woods, and that is the surest way to travel to the Elw Teleporter network. The fact that these woods are so easy to become lost in has given them another name, handed down through the ages: "The Lost Woods." BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKnXURkR1ng
DC: Seraph Clarine switches forms to The Guiding Star! DC: Ida Everstead-Rey switches forms to Gentlewoman Adventurer Ida!
DG: The party hasn't entered the dungeon yet. Please use +dungeon/enter for your first draw. DG: A party led by Ruth Pauling is now entering The Lost Woods. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
==============================<* The Lost Woods *>==============================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - A Familiar Scene *>=======================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
At its edges, along roads and settlements, the Sylvara Great Woods seem
normal. But for those seeking treasure or secrets, there are a number of
small pathways that lead in further. As you follow one of these, the mists
grow thicker and light is sparing beneath the thick and high canopy.
You emerge from the path into a narrow clearing. A small pond can be seen,
and a few birds chirp by it. There are three small paths: one to the north,
another to the east, and a final to the west. You come from the southern
path.
Whichever one you take, after a few twists and turns, leads you back to
the... same clearing. Surely, there must be some way to continue, if you can
find the right path.
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Tire============================================
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
SYLVARA... RECENTLY
Aside from the usual looming threat of Odessa wanting to just make everyone's days worse, and the continued culture clashes involving strange travelers from afar (most of whom either speak the local language poorly, or not at all, and then occasionally try to claim a part of the harbors for themselves to throw a ball around underwater), Sylvaland's looking rosier than its neighbors by Filgaia standards. Lush vegetation surrounded by mist gives the nation the appearance that Filgaia is not a dying world. It bears not the scars, say, Zoara does.
To say it is a blissfully happy place... no.
A certain overdressed rifle-bearing elf has found herself brooding along the city, sitting about in a park and quietly letting difficult thoughts churn. She hasn't done so much to hide herself, being currently well removed from the place whose bloody history she helped write.
Whatever she's thinking, whatever she's doing, her head turns as she years yelling. Arguing. Bawling. A youngster runs off, but she stays seated where she is, her one good ear taking in so many words as if a pleasant ambience that dulls some edge off of her own thoughts.
Two hours later, the youngster doesn't come back. Their name's shouted a few times over, and there's more emotion there. More sadness, more anger, more despair. She's content to stay where she is, but... a part of her wonders, what does someone with a heart do?
NOW... THE SYLVARA GREAT ("LOST") WOODS, EARLY AFTERNOON
It's dark in here, the eerie mists seeming to disperse about what little light reaches through the canopy above. Aside from this, it's not been an unpleasant walk about nature. Her heart hangs a bit heavier thinking about the forests she knows got burned down during the war in Zoara, which keeps the buzzing in her mind from getting a bit too loud in her (current) isolation.
She's been calling a name out, every so often - it's not clear if it's a boy's or girl's name, it's one of those ones that can be either - but she gets no response. She feels like she's been going about in circles, to what seems like the seventh identical clearing. The small pond, the cute birds chirping along, the same three paths...
...
She kneels down by the pond. She's lost and there might be a child lost in here after a disagreement with her parents, and her head jerks up from looking upon the water because some feelings are getting to be a little much. Looking at her face is the last thing she wants to see right now.
For any ARMS-aligned watchdogs and spy types in Sylvara, they'd have conveyed that a person of interest has gone into the woods alone.
DG: Ruth Pauling has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Familiar Scene.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
The Lost Woods are called such for a reason. Many things have been lost here. It is easy to get lost... and easy to allow oneself to become lost. It is not a place one should enter idly.
Fortunately, finding those who have lost their way through labyrinthine terrain is a specialty of Clarine's... even if that someone happens to be a person of interest responsible for certain recent Incidents. It probably wouldn't be wise to just let her do as she pleased.
And so, Clarine can currently be found gliding through the woods. A sphere of pure, clear crystal shines on the path ahead of her, its light dispelling falsehoods and revealing hidden truths... as well as just acting as a convenient light source in general.
Usually, Clarine retains a perfect image of where she's been and her current direction... but in a place like this, even she has to be careful. A forest holding deep, ancient magic... it has its ways of obscuring even her Goddess-given sense of direction. It's important to be careful.
DG: Seraph Clarine has used her Tool Brilliant Sphere toward her party's challenge, A Familiar Scene.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
Children end up lost in the eponymous Lost Woods far too frequently for it to rouse anything but resigned sadness in the local sentries. Even those with an abundance of experience dealing with the woods know that finding a child who's meandered too far into the mists is a nearly impossible prospect. They make a cursory search, sure, but...
Everyone knows what happens to children who go too far into the woods.
That's no reason not to go after them, though, as Clarine can attest. But even a Seraphim might find themselves lost if they aren't careful, and if Ashley Winchester isn't about to allow Clarine to head into the fabled forest alone.
And, as it turns out, he's... incredibly well-equipped for this particular job.
He has a box in his hands. It's a brown, bakelite-encased device with a flashing panel on one side, next to a few dials and buttons, only some of which are still clearly labeled. Ashley knows them all intimately, though. He has plenty of experience making good use of his BOOTY CALL.
"I think there might be something up ahead," he says to Clarine, unaware of who it is his device might be detecting. "Keep your eyes open!"
DG: Ashley Winchester has used his Tool Booty Call toward his party's challenge, A Familiar Scene.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida was in Sylvaland to gather supplies, but a task of some importance presented itself. She's not about to leave a child to their fate, nor is she about to let Ashley and Clarine go it alone, given the... rumors swirling through town of late. If they're true, her presence might make things worse, but she has to try.
Ida follows Ashley, her well-worn enchanted boots padding across the lush grass. "It's every bit as beautiful as last time," she says, "and undoubtedly every bit as maddeningly difficult to traverse." Luckily, Ida brought along a secret weapon: a black-and-white papillon, who weighs maybe twelve pounds soaking-wet but approaches the strange, wooded environs with curiosity that rivals her human's. "Lola," Ida says, "trace." At the command, Lola puts her nose to the ground, and starts searching for the child's scent--Ida asked for something from their parents that was sure to bear it. Lola needs to know what to look for, after all.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Lola toward her party's challenge, A Familiar Scene.
=========================<* The Lost Woods - Round 1 *>========================= =========================< Results - A Familiar Scene >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ruth Pauling 0 --(13)--> 13 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Clarine 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Brilliant Sphere 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ashley Winchester 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Booty Call 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Lola 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Ruth Pauling 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Stupify(2)|Tire(2) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Ruth Pauling 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> Ruth Pauling has posed.
There's a lost child, and also a loose Hellion in the same place - that's a recipe for disaster even when it's only one of the two, and a few of them have received fresh reminders about what can happen when a powerful Hellion is left to just roost somewhere on their own. Ancient magical ambience or no, concentrated Malevolence is not something this place needs.
For Clarine and Ida, they'll find it curious that there hasn't been a whiff of the stuff along their way through the woods. The common reason for that would be 'a Hellion hasn't been through here,' which is easier to say definitively on Filgaia... but someone matching Ruth's description was seen going in there, and that's not something anyone has a reason to lie about.
The other reason, one Ida would know much more intimately, is that they're concealing their presence... but this is not a place a Hellion benefits from keeping themselves concealed within. It's away from society and the main paths, and that practice - no matter how useful and valuable a skill - is not the sort one keeps up unless they feel there is a need to do so. It is an expressly uncomfortable practice to maintain.
Ashley picks something up first, several living creatures (and a centuries-missed treasure box containing... just a Heal Berry, meh. Free Heal Berry though) just ahead through the clearing. Clarine leads the way with a light, and Lola picks up the scent. The child they're looking for did go this way!
...When they get to the clearing, they see an elven woman with a distinctive rifle blanketed and holstered at her back, who cranes her neck their way with that sad look on her face. Sad, rather than mad or upset, given the circumstances in which they met. Both her hands are clasped around her chest, looking into that light... and down at the dog.
Beyond the necessary movements to look at them, she's deathly still - like a statue, before lidding her eyes. "...Are you here for the child, too?"
Between the methods of the ARMS members, getting through this maze-like clearing is easy enough from there, but... they have this woman here, too, who is here for the same reason.
DG: Seraph Clarine has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* The Lost Woods *>=============================
====================<* CHALLENGE - From Ruin to Rubble *>=====================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
Sometimes, the passage of time makes civilizations become ruins. And, with
more time, ruins become piles of stone that offer little except to the most
enterprising (or desperate) archaeologist. You find that your path through
the woods is blocked. On two sides, it is a very thick copse of trees with
heavy brush.
On the other, it is a pile of stone where the markings have worn away, and
only a few hints of eroded angle suggest this was worked stone. Making your
way through requires dismantling the ancient stone -- but be careful,
because time has also made it unstable and dangerous.
=Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous, Stupify=====================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Clarine is certainly glad for the company - she doesn't relish the thought of tailing a Hellion alone, given how Malevolence affects her kind. And it looks like Ida has brought a secret weapon... turns out to be a small dog!
"Ah!" Clarine gasps, pleasantly surprised. As a Seraph, Clarine is a being of nature... and as such, she has a fondness for animals of all kinds. Especially small, adorable ones. "How clever...!"
Together they follow a trail... which leads to the clearing, where at least one of their targets is. Clarine takes a moment to assess her. She can't detect any Malevolence... so, she must be hiding it, at the moment. And she isn't making any hostile movements, as well. Clarine looks toward the others, then back toward Ruth.
"...Yes, that is correct. Would you like to accompany us...?" She asks. That way, they can keep an eye on her while still working toward one of their other goals. Who knows what she'd do if they tried to chase her off.
Soon enough, the group, now with Ruth, heads off again. However, it isn't long before they find their pathway obstructed. What once must have been a ruin has now been reduced to a pile of rubble - dangerous and unstable in the way it has piled up, ready to fall over at any time. It is clearly worked stone, and bears faint signs of marking, but identification is practically impossible.
They could turn around and look for another way... but, there are small enough gaps that a child could crawl through that they can't. If there's a possibility that they went this way, can they ignore it? Clarine herself may not be of much help, but there's one thing she can do...
"I will gauge the situation from the other side... I will let you know if it is about to collapse..." Clarine says. And, as she says, she phases through the stone onto the other side, where she can keep an eye out from problems they may not be able to see from the front.
DG: Seraph Clarine has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, From Ruin to Rubble.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
Hey, you never know when you might need a spare Heal Berry! In fact, Ashley has been looking into how to turn Heal Berries into a tasty jam to stuff into a pastry. Can you imagine a delicious jelly donut that heals you even as it chokes your arteries!? It's the next level of confectionary technology...!
"...Ah," there's... that Hellion again. Ashley inclines his head politely, but otherwise seems to not... object to her presence. Or rather, she's one of the reasons they're even in here, other than the missing child. A Hellion shouldn't be allowed to be alone with any children, after all. They'd be at risk of being eaten at worst, and going on wacky world-saving, heresy-inciting adventures at best! "Yes... We're looking for a missing child. You are, too...?"
But soon, they come across a BLOCK PATH! Ashley frowns but nods as Clarine vanishes through the barricade. If she runs into trouble and can't get away, what will she do...? If Brad was here, this much wood in their way wouldn't be any trouble at all! But he's not, and so Ashley decides to do the best he can in Brad's stead!
(This is not going to go well for him, as he is not an eight foot tall wall of muscle.)
DG: Ashley Winchester has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, From Ruin to Rubble.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The last time Ida and Ruth encountered one another, Ruth tried to stab Ida through the heart. If she hadn't the training and foresight to harden her flesh--to reinforce her ribs, and wall her chest with Hyadean biometal--she might not be here today.
Ida is the very image of professionalism as Ruth turns to speak, straight-backed and calm. It helps that she can't smell the Malevolence, even though, intellectually, she knows it must be there. She smiles. At her feet, Lola takes a step towards the stranger, and then another--she pads to the very limit of her leash, and looks up at her. It's like she can sense the other woman's unease. She whines, softly, and looks back at Ida. "Hello, Ruth," Ida says. Clarine makes an offer. Ida nods. "The more pairs of eyes we have, the better." Guilt and anger prickle within her, and Ida simply... lets them stay. They flicker in her eyes as she turns to look at Ruth.
Lola's ears prick up. She turns, and makes for Ida, to snuggle against her ankles. Ida reaches down, picks her up, holds her in her arms.
The group continues.
When they get to the wall, Ida frowns, and finds a sturdy branch to leash Lola to, temporarily; it's out of the way of the wall, but not so out of the way that the two can't see each other. Then, Ida nods to Clarine, reaches for her prybar, and gets to work. She starts applying leverage to parts of the rubble that look like they won't collapse entirely.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, From Ruin to Rubble.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
There is plenty enough reason to have reservations. Who knows what's going through Ruth's own head, when her encounters with the two of them remain fresh as they are. The guilt and anger in Ida's being don't find themselves being tickled by what's inside Ruth coming out - in that it doesn't.
Clarine offers her to accompany them. Ashley and Ida maintain impeccable professionalism and politeness in having her come along, at which the elven woman speaks.
"They're in pain. So is the rest of their family. I was there when they argued... when the child left. When... their parents cried out for them." She doesn't look them in the eyes, but there's a soft smile there, and maybe some worry is warranted - what was she about to do on 'behalf' of Halim?
As they come across the obstruction, Ruth seems startled to watch Clarine just up and phase through (...did she not notice the way Clarine tends to float?), looking to the other two briefly as if to ask if they saw what she did but never quite mouthing it out.
She produces a Crest Graph - one of a style identical to the one the phantom of Siddim Canyon brandished against them during the re-enactment of something horrifying - bearing the Crests of Muse and Fray together. One incantation later, she sets it down and emits a... pleasant, calming mist to also try and help gently loosen some of the rubble for those who need to deal with it more hands-on.
The Crest Sorcery involved is 'clean,' in that she is drawing from previous sorcerous experience of her former self and not the gathered energies of contraditions and negative emotions.
Whether that helps with the prybar or the moving things around is yet to be seen, but she doesn't participate in moving things directly. The way she rubs at her left shoulder might be a clue as to why that is.
DG: Ruth Pauling has used her Tool Mistcrest toward her party's challenge, From Ruin to Rubble.
========================<* The Lost Woods - Round 2 *>======================== ======================< Results - From Ruin to Rubble >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ruth Pauling 13 --(12)--> 25 Pass Mistcrest 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Clarine 5 --(20)--> 25 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ashley Winchester 5 --(20)--> 25 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ida Everstead-Rey 5 --(20)--> 25 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Ruth Pauling 20 --(15)--> 35 Fail Conditions: Overzealous(2)|Stupify(2) Effects: Cleanse ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Ruth Pauling 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> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Clarine didn't visit Siddim Canyon. She wasn't there for Halim, either. That may be part of why she can so willingly extend that offer, even if it's for the purpose of keeping an eye on her while they have the same goals.
And so, together, they start to work on dismantling the rubble pile before them. But... it's difficult work. Ruth casts a spell to generate a calming mist, which certainly helps, but before long... it happens.
It's no one's fault in particular - this rubble pile was bound to collapse before long either way. And as careful as they are, soon enough, it collapses completely.
"Ah... my apologies..." Clarine murmurs from the other side. Fortunately, as a Seraph, she isn't trapped - she phases back through, rejoining the others. "We will have to find another way around..."
There are others that reconnect to the trail behind the rubble pile, but it's a much longer path than if they could have gone straight through.
DG: Ashley Winchester has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* The Lost Woods *>============================= ===============<* CHALLENGE - From Tree Trunk to Tree Trunk *>================ |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The Lost Woods are expansive and poorly mapped, in part because of properties that some might call mystical. As a result, great rivers run through them that have never been named. You come to the banks of one, though the waters have risen recently. They rush around the trunks of great trees. If you can leap from tree to tree, you could cross the river -- but it will require caution and precision. A fall into the river could be disastrous, as it might very well threaten to sweep you away. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Tire===============================================
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
"I'm just glad you didn't end up getting lost back there," Ashley tells Clarine amidst the soothing (but now even thicker) fog. "They say that these woods can change to confuse anyone who tries to navigate them. The moment you go down one path, you might never find the passage back to the place you were before. Let's try to stick together if we can, okay?"
They've already got a missing child to find, he doesn't want Clarine to get lost, too!
But now they have to find a way forward that bypasses the rubble. This is somewhat difficult, as there is inexplicably (or perhaps explicably, if one subscribes to the idea that this place is haunted as heck) no way to actually... do that. They could try to pass through the thicket off to the left, but that's a sure-fire way to get eaten by grue! To the right, there's a river that really should not be there. It rushes around the trunks of mighty and ancient trees, which is absolutely bizarre given that none of them are mangroves and this river doesn't appear on any maps. It's as if it just appeared here, an impassible obstacle just for them...!
"I think we can get through over here," Ashley says, walking to the river bank in absolute defiance of the fate these woods have in store for him. He pulls a deep crimson boomerang from his pack and fastens a rope to a loop of metal designed to rotate freely around its middle. With a hup, he chucks it over the foggy river, where it begins to weave nimbly between several of those tree trunks, circling each one several times! Eventually there's a distant 'thok' of boomerang burying into riverbank, and Ashley pulls his rope taut to test its stability. "...I think if we're careful, we should be able to go from tree to tree and get to the other side of the river. From there, we might be able to find a way around. Everyone okay with that plan?"
Ida will have to carry her precious little pup, though. Papillons are not made to fjord rivers!
DG: Ashley Winchester has used his Tool Magic Boomerang toward his party's challenge, From Tree Trunk to Tree Trunk.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida steps back as the pile begins to shudder, raising her arm to shield her face from flying debris. Fortunately, the rubble doesn't take anyone else with it when it falls. Unfortunately, it's still very much blocking the path. Lola barks in alarm, and Ida hurries back to retrieve her. She returns carrying her beloved companion in her arms, leash tied securely to her belt loop. Lola shifts in her harness--are those Symbological runes on it?--and reaches up to nuzzle Ida's neck.
"Possibly," Ida says, to Ashley. "But the water's moving rather fast--has it rained, or...?" She trails off. These woods are thick with the pulse of the Ley; they are not obligated to obey mundane laws of nature. Nevertheless, she's confident at least in Ashley's proposed approach. "All right, one moment." Ida sets Lola down, crosses her pack straps, one over the other. She secures them with a few sturdy metal clips, and then picks Lola up again, clipping her harness to her. Lola kicks her feet for a moment, but settles in for the ride.
"Ready," she says. And as Ida sets out, green sparks trail behind her, offering a favorable, buoyant tailwind to those crossing the river.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Zephyr Boots toward her party's challenge, From Tree Trunk to Tree Trunk.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Ruth continues to stare dumbfounded as Clarine ppears right through the pile of rubble after it collapses. There's a twitching in her fingers as if some part of her were whispering some awful thoughts and ideas unprovoked, which is odd because the woman before her has been nothing but polite and accommodating to her. She follows along quietly, as if buoying herself emotionally with the idea that someone else is currently in pain and she's more interested in that person's suffering rather than Clarine's.
They come across a river in an improbable but inconvenient place, and Ashley comes up with his plan for getting through it. Ruth takes a look at the fog-filled river and the speed it's going, while her gloved hands thumb about her Crest Graphs for something appropriate.
"All right," she says to Ashley with her back turned, though she has to turn her head a bit to better hear them, "if it comes to it, I think I can slow the water." She's keeping a Graph that bears the marks of Muse and Wing close. Of all the Ley energies, given previous encounters with her she seems most comfortable comprehend and channeling the energies of Muse.
She's dressed as she is, carries a rifle as heavy as she does, has a slouch to her posture, a bad shoulder, and... her boots are terrible fits, but one way or another, she'll carry her weight as well as she can, even if it'll take her some time to prepare herself to physically make the climb and then go to the other tree.
DG: Ruth Pauling has used her Tool Rivercrest toward her party's challenge, From Tree Trunk to Tree Trunk.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
"I appreciate your concern..." Clarine replies, offering Ashley a smile. It's true - even she would be at risk of getting lost here. She doesn't respond much to Ruth's incredulous looks... nor does she seem about to explain, either.
They proceed forward, then, soon finding themselves up against an obstacle of a different kind. This time, it's a raging river. Anyone who fell in would undoubtedly get swept away...
...She briefly finds herself worrying that this may have happened to the child they're looking for, but she quickly scolds herself for thinking like that and pushes the thought away.
Right now, they'll have to think about how they'll cross. Ashley has provided a convenient rope, and Clarine has something she can contribute, as well.
"If you feel yourself about to fall, call out to me... I shall catch you." Clarine says, producing a series of prisms from her sleeves. She doesn't send them out yet, instead keeping them on hand and at the ready. ...She does note, briefly, the way Ida secures Lola into a little harness.
Ah, it is too adorable...
DG: Seraph Clarine has used her Tool Prismatic Projector toward her party's challenge, From Tree Trunk to Tree Trunk.
========================<* The Lost Woods - Round 3 *>======================== =================< Results - From Tree Trunk to Tree Trunk >================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ruth Pauling 25 --(13)--> 38 Fail Rivercrest 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Clarine 25 --(5)--> 30 Pass Prismatic Projector 1 Agility Effects: Fanfare and Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ashley Winchester 25 --(5)--> 30 Pass Magic Boomerang 2 Agility Effects: Resilient ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ida Everstead-Rey 25 --(13)--> 38 Fail Zephyr Boots 2 Agility Effects: Quicken ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Ruth Pauling 35 --(20)--> 55 Pass Conditions: Overzealous(1)|Slow(2)|Tire(2) Effects: Cleanse|Quicken(1)|Resilient(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Ruth Pauling 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> Ashley Winchester has posed.
With Ruth slowing the river's flow, the party is more or less able to get across the rushing water!
...More or less.
Ashley's rope holds, and the party is able to use it to navigate from tree trunk to tree trunk, but. The waters are unable to sweep anyone away, slowed as they are, but just when they think they're all in the clear...
Suddenly, a series of rocks are sent hurtling out of the mists, as if fired by a handful of very angry octopus-shaped monsters who are displeased that their aquatic environment isn't moving like it should! Ashley is able to get clear, and Clarine is easily able to evade the stones by dint of being some kind of spooky ghost and invisible to said octopus-shaped monsters, but Ida and Ruth are not so lucky. The former sees the rocks coming, and has to make a split-second decision to either let go of the ropes and protect her precious pup, or to leave Lola open to being struck by a stone!
It's obvious which choice she would make.
...Thankfully, Clarine is able to catch her with a buoyant wall of solid light, and Ashley leans out to try and pull her back to safety. As for Ruth...
Well, for various reasons, Ashley is less worried about her? He's pretty sure she wouldn't have any trouble dealing with a few rocks, at least. It might still hurt, though!
"Everyone alright...?" Ashley asks, by the time they all find their way to the far shore. He takes a moment to reel his rope back in and retrieve his boomerang while the others collect themselves. "That was a close one. This place is more dangerous than I thought it'd be..."
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* The Lost Woods *>==============================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Misleading Signs *>=======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
The path ends in a small clearing. When you arrive, you find a wooden sign,
hammered into the ground. Age, wear, and moss have made it hard to read, but
a script carved into it provides some advice: "THE PATH IS NOT TO THE
NORTH."
The clearing only has one exit: the north. Yet, when you move through, you
find yourself in an identical clearing. The sign, this time, states: "THE
PATH IS NOT TO THE SOUTH."
And so it goes -- the signs tell you something, but whether they write lies
or truth is hard to tell. They are, nonetheless, your only clue.
=Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Slow===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida was not expecting octoroks. Her eyes snap open. She realizes that both she and Lola are right in their line of fire, and vulnerable. For a single, terrible moment, all she can do is let go, and hope her comrades catch her. Her faith is not in vain. She hits Clarine's plane with a sharp oof, and slides down it, to the other bank. Lola barks the entire time, loud and afraid, even as Ida holds her close. It takes a long moment for the two of them to recover--Ida cuddling Lola, then detaching her and setting her down. The papillon shakes off the stress, but stays close to Ida after that "We're all right," she says. "Uncomfortably close, though."
Thankfully, the octoroks don't give chase. The party picks its way through the underbrush, and as it thins out, Ida sees something. "Look. Is that a sign?" She points at it, and carefully crosses the path. Lola walks at her heel without even being prompted. "...Oh," she says. Her face twists like she'd just bitten into a lemon. "I see." They set forward. Beyond, in the next clearing, is another sign, and wouldn't you know it, any trace of the previous clearing has disappeared.
"Lola," Ida says, "scent." Lola barks, once, puts her nose to the ground, and gets to work.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Lola toward her party's challenge, Misleading Signs.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Ruth gets struck by a rock or two, and is pelted right the hey off the tree, but thankfully there's a platform to catch her. There's blood (the proper red blood, not the purplish seen in her true form, the latter of which is weird enough but that its color varies between forms is weird) trickling down her face... and a vacant look in Ruth's eyes, as if in the process of viewing a snapshot of something deeply alarming as she rolls off the wall of solid light and finds cover. She's crouching behind the nearest cover she can find (a large bush that looks uniform in size, shape, and leafiness compared to other bushes) and is breathing much more audibly.
The biggest surprise is that there isn't the expected 'leak' of Malevolence in a high stress situation. It takes her a whole minute of being sure they aren't about to be struck at by further evil rock-spitting octopi in order to ratchet the tension back down from 'reliving parts of 480's Zoara.'
She didn't reach for her rifle. That might've been the last step, but whatever has threatened or frightened her... isn't, now. The revolver is put back in its holster, and her gaze trends downwards to the rosary wrapped around her right forearm. The whole event was an emotional near-miss. Her right hand rises up to rest against the wound.
"I'm fine," she tells Ashley. "It's fine." Her hair gets over her eyes, as she follows the sign to the next clearing, looks up, does not think about how the sign contradicts the previous, and starts heading back that way.
She does stop as Lola puts her nose to work, and works up a quiet little smile. "She's cute," she says, on the path to a physical contradiction spiral she's bound to get trapped in without someone pointing it out.
DG: Ruth Pauling has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Misleading Signs.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
For a moment, there, Ida glances back at Ruth and sees something very familiar. The look in her eyes would be at home on her mother's face, or even her own. Ida remembers Dean, and how he held out a hand for her, time and time again. She gives Ruth a moment to try to ground herself, and then:
"Ruth," Ida says, her voice even and level. "Tell me five things you can see right now, and then four things you can feel." She's either going to calm down, Ida realizes, or choke it down, or explode. One of the three.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
"Are you all alright...?" Clarine asks, concerned for Ida, Lola, and Ruth. Fortunately, it looks like everyone's just fine, so she breathes a sigh of relief... in so much as she can breathe or sigh, anyway. She does not Ruth's wound, however.
"I can heal that wound, if you like..." Clarine offers. She doesn't do it right out, not wanting to invade her space - instead she just leaves the offer open as they proceed, eventually finding themselves in a small clearing. Clarine looks over the sign, and then the next as they proceed past it... and then, realising what's happened, Clarine huffs indignantly.
"Well...! If I had to guess, I would say the forest itself is taunting us..." She says, displeased. She once more produces that sphere of clear crystal, raising it into the air. It begins to shine brightly, and it may just uncover some hidden pathways if there are any nearby...
DG: Seraph Clarine has used her Tool Brilliant Sphere toward her party's challenge, Misleading Signs.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
Fortunately, Ashley's only experience with PTSD has been in the form of an emotionally solid wall of meat and firepower!!
Or, wait, no, that's 'unfortunately.' Ashley does not recognize the warning signs that Ruth is having an episode. He's... a little distracted by a poor puppy being all stressed out and anxious. Poor Lola, she gets a treat for being brave. A home-made shortbread biscuit, perfect for spoiling small doggos rotten!
Also he's a bit busy trying to deal with the whole misleading signs thing. "If the path is not to the north, and the path is not to the south, then... Do we have to make our own exit? I mean, I do have some incendiaries..."
Maybe don't set the forest on fire when you're traveling with someone with massive wartime-related stress triggers and a ticking timebomb of literally corrosive emotion.
The Lost Woods are bad enough without being The Malevolence-Tainted Lost Woods.
DG: Ashley Winchester has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Misleading Signs.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Ruth has the fortune of having the correct side of her head facing towards Ida, so she can pick up most of what she's saying when her own thoughts are yelling in a place that can't ever be quieted by covering one's ears. She's staring down at the ground. "...Your dog, my boots... the grass... the ground," that's four so far, two of them are technically the same thing. There's a break in her talking. "...A light," they still have her, at least, the part of her that's not being completely driven by her inner turmoil.
Four things she can feel, she's not sure where she can begin there. There's a bit of laughter and it trails off into a barely-held back choking sob. Her breathing gets a bit weird, in that she's taking in more than she releases...
But her inner demons aren't dancing on the outside - it's looking like she's choking it down.
That's always borrowed time.
"...Are they still there? What attacked us," she asks, unaware of the current developments of the signpost sitch.
=========================<* The Lost Woods - Round 4 *>========================= =========================< Results - Misleading Signs >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ruth Pauling 38 --(5)--> 43 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Clarine 30 --(0)--> 30 Pass Brilliant Sphere 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ashley Winchester 30 --(0)--> 30 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 38 --(0)--> 38 Pass Lola 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Ruth Pauling 55 --(20)--> 75 Pass Conditions: Reckless(2)|Slow(2) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Ruth Pauling 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> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Lola sniffs at the biscuit, then takes it in her mouth. It's a bit too big for her to eat in one bite, so she sets it down, bites it in half, and eats each half, daintily. Ida allows her ample time to eat, and self-calm. (Inwardly, she is grateful Lola hasn't decided to eat the grass, in her nervousness.)
"I don't hear them," Ida says, "and neither does Lola." If Lola did, she'd be barking in alarm, not eating a tasty treat. It's a much-needed break after a tense situation.
Ashley proposes incendiaries. "I wouldn't recommend that," she says, to her technically-superior-officer. "I wouldn't put it past the woods to put it out, but the alternative is a fire in a forest this dense." That would be capital-B Bad.
Clarine raises her sphere. As its rays shine across the clearing, something... changes. It's difficult to tell, since the woods can be very subtle about their nature when they want to be. But some of the foliage to the north looks less dense, and Lola's nose only confirms it. As they walk, Ida turns back to Ruth, eyes dark with concern. "I don't want you to hurt yourself," she says, which is a hell of a thing to say to someone who tried to murder her.
DG: Ruth Pauling has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* The Lost Woods *>==============================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Moblin Snipers *>========================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
Your destination is in sight. Only a final clearing lay between you and the
way out of the woods -- such as the ancient Live Reflector that works with
your Reflector Key.
Unfortunately, as you enter the clearing, arrows begin to rain down upon
you. High in the trees are clusters of moblins; dangerous beastfolk said to
be aligned with the King of Evil, Ganondorf Dragmire, though tribes are more
independent (but still often vicious). You will have to outrun a hail of
arrows to get to your location.
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
The injured and emotionally off-center elf turns her head further away from Ida when she gives her those kind words - she doesn't want her to hurt herself. It gets something stirring again that's difficult for her to reconcile with.
Something keeps her emotionally tethered enough... for now. By Ida's measure, if an episode like that alone didn't let her feelings out, she must have really buried them... a lot deeper than, say, Rosaline did. (Rosaline, in her day as a Hellion, emotionally likened the ability to compress and hide her Malevolence to being like holding one's breath.)
As they travel, an arrow buries itself in the dirt ahead of them. The sound, the sensation, the displacement as an arrow whizzes by - and several others. Moblins live here, and the woods have long since accepted their presence that the obscuring fog and mists are its allies. Cover, here... is scarce, for they have waited until all of them got into a clearing.
Ruth looks up, nearly dear-in-headlights as an arrow sinks into her side. Another, into her left shoulder...
She staggers forth in front of Ida (intentionally? Hard to say) and ends up taking another in the same place precariously close to somewhere fatal. Her left hand spasms, her right grasping at the reddening stain, head bowed... and there's laughter, and tears.
"Here, of all places...? By... your hands...?" Clarine can feel it moments before the rest - Malevolence, in no small concentration, from a Hellion who holds plenty... as the change in her dull copper hair's color resembles a patina being applied, to a mossy green.
Ashley can see a grin and it is not a reassuring one.
"...I can't... accept that. I can't," her shaking, grievously (additionally) wounded left hand goes for the rifle at her back, "I can't!"
And, she's off - her form distends, her inner despair taking shape with that same sort of demonic appearance - the four horns, the lengthy tail, the single bat-like wing coming out her back, her greater height and assumed bulk (that coat remains too big).
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. The way she draws and fires that rifle, four shots, with thelp of her tail to handle the duties her right hand normally wouldn't. Purple blood drips freely from her wounds, a maniacal look in her eyes.
...Whether they stop her here or keep moving, they will notice one thing - she uses her wing defensively to block arrow shots and is, at minimum, stopping them from reaching the others best she's able, as a Malevolence-laced rain starts to fall upon the clearing. (the use of the tool here can be considered a stand-in for the fact the moblins now have a very big, scary problem on their hands)
DG: Ruth Pauling has used her Tool Rivercrest toward her party's challenge, Moblin Snipers.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
Everything is going better than expected! And Ashley didn't even have to set anything on fire!!
(Lord Blazer is disappointed, but that's every day in the life of the destined end of all things trapped inside the world's most chipper baker.)
But then... An arrow sings through the air. He nearly shouts to run into cover, but...
There's no chance. They're in a clearing, and the moblins have them boxed in. Any cover they might be able to take would leave them open for attack from another direction. He turns and sees Ruth pincushioned--
And then, that grin, and the roiling wave of malevolence. He feels... He feels that churning hunger in the furthest depths of his soul. Ashley winces, and in that moment gets an arrow to the thigh. It misses vital arteries by a narrow margin, but it means he's in no position to charge off after Ruth.
Which... is probably good. Trying to stop her now would probably require... extreme measures.
But that doesn't mean he can just run off. Ida's right there, and so is Lola, and they're all under fire. ARMS' field captain furrows his brow and decides...
That it's time to try... something experimental.
He grabs hold of that boomerang again. Ever since that time at the Water Temple, he's managed to acquire a minor talent for water and ice magic. Nothing like what Ruth is capable of, but enough to make a difference. He's had Lilka inscribe a few symbols into his boomerang, ones that even a novice like him can invoke. Ashley runs his fingers across those symbols, each one lighting up with an icy blue glow. He hurls the magical boomerang towards the source of the arrows, and its surface begins to frost, hardening into a gelid razor with a mirror-like sheen.
And then he slaps a refractor-based BEAM MODULE into his ARM and takes aim. A column of crystal-blue energy scythes through the mist and crashes into the spinning, whirling arc, bursting into a nimbus of azure light. The boomerang's mirror-like face scatters the beam into a devastating, albeit almost utterly random rain of energy bolts...!
It's improvised and imperfect, but it's his best option for dealing with these kinds of foes...!
DG: Ashley Winchester has used his Tool Magic Boomerang toward his party's challenge, Moblin Snipers.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Together they're able to proceed forward despite the forest's best attempts to stop them... but it's clear things are getting worse for Ruth. Clarine watches her carefuly.
And then, it happens.
Moblin snipers, by the look of them, firing arrows at the worst possible target. The pulse of Malevolence, Clarine flinches back. She can feel it, deep in her being.
"A-ah... you must... you must hold on...!" Clarine pleads, trying to get her to stop. But, it's too late. Ruth transforms, and the resulting wave of Malevolence hits her like a wall. Clarine gasps and shuts her eyes tight, body shuddering for a moment as she wraps her arms around herself. Her vessel - though not currently physically on her - protects her from the worst of it, but it's still deeply unpleasant, and not fool-proof.
"I...I-I'm sorry... I cannot remain here...!" Clarine murmurs... and then, she bolts. She's more concerned about putting distance between herself and Ruth than the Moblin Snipers. An arrow is a minor thing to her.
As she moves, she leaves behind walls of glimmering light. She still has enough presence of mind to not block Ida and Ashley's movements with them as she flees... but those walls aren't coming down until the Malevolence subsides and it's safe for her again.
DG: Seraph Clarine has used her Tool Prismatic Projector toward her party's challenge, Moblin Snipers.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
For a moment, Ida allows herself to breathe.
And then the arrow. Lola barks in alarm. Ida grabs her, shielding her with her body as more arrows rain down. Hyadean tissue sluices from every pore in her body, hardening into armor. The first arrow blunts itself against Ida's shoulder. The second digs into the back of her left knee, just deep enough to be painful. Ida grits her teeth, reaches down, and rips it out. "Move!" she roars. But--
It's already too late. She sees Ruth take arrow after arrow, reaches for her ARM as the sniper staggers in front of her.
"Ruth," Ida croaks. Lola presses close to her chest, whimpering and shivering. And then--
Malevolence washes through the clearing. Ida breathes it in, and lets it out. Lola cannot see it, but goes silent nevertheless. "There, girl," Ida whispers, reaching down to plant a kiss on Lola's head. Another arrow slams into the small of her back. She winces, but covers Lola's ears rather than trying to protect herself further.
Four shots. So they're not running, then. Fine. Ida sucks in a breath, plants her feet squarely on the ground, focuses. Air condenses in the tiny gap between her feet and the earth beneath them, compressing into a green-laced sorcerous disc about three feet across. Like Ashley, Ida's getting experimental--when the disc reaches critical mass, she springs into the air, and lands on it, hard.
BOOM
The disc ruptures, sending a wall of air screaming out every which way. At the very least, it should wreck the Moblins' aim.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Zephyr Boots toward her party's challenge, Moblin Snipers.
=========================<* The Lost Woods - Round 5 *>========================= ==========================< Results - Moblin Snipers >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ruth Pauling 43 --(13)--> 56 Fail Rivercrest 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Clarine 30 --(5)--> 35 Pass Prismatic Projector 1 Agility Effects: Fanfare and Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ashley Winchester 30 --(5)--> 35 Pass Magic Boomerang 2 Agility Effects: Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 38 --(5)--> 43 Pass Zephyr Boots 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Ruth Pauling 75 --(35)--> 110 Pass Conditions: Reckless(1)|Slow(2) Effects: Cleanse|Quicken(1)|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Ruth Pauling has successfully explored The Lost Woods!
==============================<* The Lost Woods *>==============================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Abandoned Sanctum *>=======================
|Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 4 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
You thought you were approaching the Live Reflector, and yet you think you
may be lost. Your path has led you deeper into the Lost Woods than you ever
have before. Almost no light comes from the treetops, while motes of strange
cyan and white light drift. And yet, it is quiet and peaceful here; there is
a sense that no danger lay ahead.
You forge ahead and come to a final clearing. This one is a great stone
altar. Unlike others, the pure white stone is untarnished by foliage.
However, it does have cracks in places -- and it seems that whatever magic
preserves it is lingering. On the sides of the altars are three triangles,
arranged with one atop two, and negative space for a fourth.
Then, at the center, is a sunbeam that falls upon a pedestal... and an
emptied slot. The motes of light and the animals here all seem to stay away
from the pedestal, though you see a few birds and squirrels watching
curiously from the woods.
This is a sacred place. No harm shall come to you while you are here, though
the Sword is gone. When you choose to leave the clearing, you step out to
precisely where you hoped to be.
=Dungeon Conditions: Secret===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
It's bad. For who? That doesn't matter - it's bad. There's an acting out Hellion. Despair fills the air - the melancholy of a soul who... did terrible things, which is a succinct summary.
Ruth has taken the brunt of the arrows, and is still going at it - using her wing as cover best she can, though it is still part of her body. It bleeds, but most arrows don't pierce. "I'm not going to... let you deny them," she bleats out her feelings between bullets, "the people I've hurt...!" She can feel the distress and panic in the air and it is intoxicating, a serpentine tongue flicking from a fang-filled mouth.
Clarine beats a hasty retreat for perfectly reasonable reasons... but Ida and Ashley aren't going to leave her to her devices and act out her feelings on her own, and they do so admirably.
A boomerang reflects energy bolts everywhere, scattering shots and taking out several screeching moblins.
Ida ruptures the disc of air underneath her boots and the wall of air throws off some arrows (and also lofty moblin perches... and branches).
The bedlam continues predictably, with one notable thing: not once, does she ever point her weapon back at Ashley or Ida even with their previous hostilities. The large-bodied Hellion may well owe her life to their intervention in thinning the numbers. Those that live turn tail and run, leaving the injured and the less fortunate strewn about.
The rains cease, and Ruth's aggressive posturing slows... and emotionally, the excitement gives way to sorrow. The rosary seems such an ill fit on... someone like that, doesn't it?
"...I hurt them too," she says, soberly. "Let me... let me pray for them." Whether they take her up on it or not, she does have something else as she flicks out her tongue. "...There's someone else ahead. They're... they're frightened." The Malevolence output has lessened, but her form has yet to try and hide itself.
Up ahead, there should be the Live Reflector, but the path's changed again... but it grows dark ahead. Motes of strange cyan and white lift drift about, and while it should seem dreary... it's not. It's peaceful, it's quiet, it's free of danger.
There is a scared child - a boy - sitting a fair ways off from a distinctive stone altar in a clearing. The stone of it, a pure white, is untouched by foliage but not by time. Three triangles arranged in a pyramid formation with a negative space for a fourth make up its design, a sunbeam falling upon the pedestal... to an empty slot.
The child's face is wet with tears, but they seem... relaxed, at peace, feeling safe. Just waiting for... someone, or something, to come see they're all right, to take them back.
Ruth never follows them here.
Given the feel of this place, something sacred... is it possible the woods themselves would not let her here?
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Clarine glides away as quickly as she can, and soon, she finds herself in a sacred place. It's quiet, and peaceful... she feels at ease. Any Malevolence that had been clinging to her from the falling rain is simply no more. She can feel it, deeply within her being - there is something special about this place. The way the sun shines down on that pedestal...
Clarine feels drawn to it, somehow. This is a place she wishes to preserve. And so, she reaches into her sleeves, and draws an antique camera - the Picto Obscura, gifted to her by Kamui. She takes a moment to line up the shot and captures it on film.
Only now does she look back, concerned for Ida and Ashley... but there is also a crying child here. Clarine stows the camera away, back into her sleeve, and approaches the child. Her form condenses into a single ball of light - visible even to those who lack Resonance. She flies in a gentle circle around the child, shining with a warm, comforting light.
There are fairies living in this forest, it is said. Perhaps she could be mistaken for one now, as she is.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The surviving Moblins retreat. Ida sucks in a breath, holds it to the count of four, and releases it. Still cradling Lola in an armored arm--still shielding her with her body--she looks around at the aftermath. She smiles a grim little smile. Ida starts plucking the arrows out of her armor; none of them did more than break the skin beneath, thankfully, and that's already patching itself up. She glances at Ashley, and nods once, managing a grateful smile. Then she turns to Ruth...
"Here," Ida says. Tension lines her face as she walks into the fading maelstrom of Ruth's Domain. None of it sinks in. It simply flows over her, like water across a lotus leaf. Lola, likewise, is frightened, but unaffected--it doesn't touch her, much less turn her into a slavering hellhound. She holds out a hand. Inside is a tiny little flask of Heal Berry cordial. "Drink this. And she will sit there until Ruth drinks it.
Someone nearby...? "That must be them," Ida whispers. "Thank you--" She trails off, trying to find more words, but they stick in her throat. Is Ruth even in the right headspace to talk right now? Instead, she bows once, and hurries off in the indicated direction.
The worry falls away the moment Ida steps into the glade. Lola stops trembling, and sniffs at one of the floating motes. Within seconds, she's letting out tiny little barks--she wants down, wants to explore. Ida sets her on the ground, but keeps her leash secured.
She steps forwards, whispers the child's name. "...It's all right," she says. "You're safe now."
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
The moblins are scattered, and yet the Malevolent rain still falls in a tainted drizzle. Ashley looks towards the source, the Hellion that unfolded out of Ruth Pauling, and... sees that Ida is already heading off to help her. That's good enough for him. With a spare Heal Berry of his own, Ashley tends to his wounded leg. "I'm going to go check up on Clarine," he says, before turning to follow the trail of light walls. Ida can probably handle herself!
And... honestly, he wants to be nowhere near anything to do with that much negative energy. Lord Blazer does not need to be fed any more than he already has.
Speaking of which-- the moment Ashley enters that strange clearing, he feels the ancient evil inside him recoil and shrink away. There's a blessed energy in this place, a sacred warmth that settles in his heart and soothes the ache that he didn't even realize he'd been enduring.
Just a little bit, the cracks in his soul mend, and Lord Blazer ebbs into a deeper darkness.
"This place... It reminds me of the Sword Cathedral, a little bit," Ashley says with quiet awe. The sword that lies within him seems to find it similar as well. But...
There's a quiet sobbing nearby. A child! "Hey there," Ashley says, offering the boy a hand. "You were pretty brave, finding your way out here all by yourself. Come on, it's time to go home. Your parents are waiting for you."
There's a Clarine here, too! Ashley gives the totally-not-fairy a smile. They're all going to be okay.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Ruth doesn't look Ida in the eyes - she can be coaxed to eventually take and drink the cordial, but she is quiet aside from what she's said. She's staving off the emotional crash that comes with episodes like that with this due respect for those she's hurt today. It was life and death, and situations like that are not rare on Filgaia - but keeping that weight on her heart is what keeps her emotionally anchored enough to not lash out anew. The 'thanks' goes unanswered. Putting the elf skin back on does not come easy for her, but the fell emanations of her Malevolence are about as stemmed as they can be in the moment.
More importantly... the child. He follows the swirling, guiding light of Clarine with some interest, getting up and walking up towards... two adults. Ida, and Ashley.
When Ruth said someone ahead was frightened, they're not wrong. He seems hesitant to step back out... but takes Ashley's hand. This place does not reject Ashley's presence - it is safe here, and for the time being, he is keeping the world safe from Lord Blazer within.
"I feel like I keep letting my parents down," he says, having found the courage to say that, "so much so... they didn't want to be together any more, because of me." He finds the wisdom to accept the help of Ida and Ashley together, and with Clarine lighting the way, the power to walk.
Ruth isn't there when they come back, but in her own way - witting or not - Ida can sense the Malevolence trail that leads to the way out (if the Lost Woods themselves do not just go 'you all have caused enough trouble, out with you'). She doesn't come out of nowhere to bother them.
She can be seen, distantly, roosting from a high place just outside of the woods proper, staring down from afar with the glow of those purple eyes of hers - but she does not speak or aggress.
The boy will be able to make it home just fine, with everyone else's help - and maybe the family will be able to reconcile after talking over their feelings.