2021-06-03: Super Goods n' Ghosts
- Log: Super Goods n' Ghosts
- Cast: Cyre H. Lorentz, Ethius Hesiod, Jacqueline Barber
- Where: Buckeye Station - Market District
- Date: June 03, 2021
- Summary: Cyre, Ethius, and Jacqueline slip away from pursuers in Buckeye Station... and onto the Chibiki-Iwa Express, where they must fight their way to the front in order to return to the realm of the living... and in the process, a legend is realized.
===================<* Buckeye Station - Market District *>==================== Buckeye Station lies in the very heart of Zoara. During the war, it changed hands four times, and the constant conflict devastated its infrastructure. Guild Galad's Anaheim Rail and Freight Company poured millions of gella into the restoration of the city's railroads, and in doing so, it remade Buckeye Station into a company town. Buckeye Station's market district has seen the lion's share of Anaheim's "redevelopment" efforts. Brand-new hotels and restaurants line its cobblestone streets, while Anaheim's company stores provide general goods at a noticeable markup. The sounds of construction are ever-present, as Anaheim's workers struggle to keep up with the demand for storage and cheap labor. Most of the city's inhabitants have been pushed to the margins, and replaced by new arrivals from Guild Galad and Saint Heim. Many eke out a living as day laborers, and return to cold, dilapidated homes. It's no secret that Buckeye's citizens hate Anaheim with a passion, but as long as the Master's enforcers patrol the streets, there's only so much they can do.
DC: Cyre H. Lorentz switches forms to Wind Shaman Cyre!
DG: A party led by Cyre H. Lorentz is now entering Chibiki-Iwa Express. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
==========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>===========================
===============<* CHALLENGE - A Train You Ain't Gettin Offa *>================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 4 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
A mysterious train that departs from the Thirteenth Platform.
Perhaps you believe the rumours of people disappearing into the cloak of
midnight, or perhaps you're here to debunk the urban legend once and for
all. Perhaps you are here because destiny calls.
The only clue you have is a foreboding black ticket, marked for one Group,
departing from the station you're present at...
Hirasaka, Hirasaka... the one-way train bound for Hirasaka...
will be arriving shortly.
Please wait by the yellow line... until the doors...
Open.
An ominous, tinny voice echoes from public announcement speakers that
Filgaia stations are... not usually equipped with.
And then--
clack-clack
clack-clack
It appears.
A shooting star racing through the wilderness, drawing to an eerily silent
stop at the platform you're standing on. It is a train unlike any you've
seen - unlike the carriages and locomotives of Filgaia, the rumoured,
legendary Chibiki-Iwa Express has silver, rectangular cars, painted with a
black stripe.
The sliding doors open. The lights are on within, revealing surprisingly
mundane rows of seats flush against the walls. There is an almost
supernatural compulsion that draws you within. But just as soon as you start
inspecting--
The doors will... now close.
Please step away from the doors...
There is no opening the doors.
The doors hiss to a flush close. No! The train shifts... it might be too
late!
Is there truly... no gettin' offa this train you're on?
=Dungeon Conditions: Cripple, Secret==========================================
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Buckeye Station is as busy as ever. While extremely morally questionable, Anaheim's development in the area has turned Buckeye Station into a veritable boomtown. The massive gentrification in the area, however, has seen its original inhabitants pushed out to the fringes of society, unable to afford many of the basic day-to-day amenities that make life out in Zoara tolerable. In other words, there's a massive market here for a group of merchants with no relation to Anaheim and a moral compass that skews closer to Good than Law to ply their trade.
But it's not exactly easy, either. Maintaining a profitable monopoly on local trade is very lucrative to traders in Anaheim's good graces. The Caravan Kinship has had to bring in goods, sell them, and get out before anything or anyone catches wind of their work and sends in the mob to break up their business. Of course, this has mostly been a Cyre-y job, given his skill and experience in more covert operations, but today he has company! And now, they are on their way to...
Getting the heck out of dodge, as it happens.
"I've been taking the late trains," Cyre explains, "It's always a little easier when the customs guys are operating on their sixth cup of coffee." But today, something is... different. The platform they find is not only abandoned, it's... eerie. A strange quiet settles over platform number 13, and a rare fog has rolled in, shrouding the station in featureless grey. "Strange," Cyre murmurs, "These rides are always pretty bare, but never this empty..."
He almost jumps out of his skin as a tinny voice plays over the intercom...
The intercom that... doesn't actually exist on this station.
Clack-clack, clack-clack, a train rolls into the station, far longer and far more streamlined than any Galadian liner. Cyre stares as the doors slide open, revealing rows upon rows of apparently empty seats. "I don't--" Suddenly, there's another noise. This time, from the direction of town. It sounds vaguely like a bunch of jackbooted thugs racing to catch a notorious smuggler! "Welp," Cyre says, hurrying his friends off into the train. "Come on, come on. Whatever this is, it's not a prison cell. Hup--"
The doors remain open for a little longer, and Cyre takes the moment to cover their entrance with his customary parachute. But...
...Why did this train-- this train that both Ethius and Jacqueline are probably quite familiar with-- come to sweep them all away...!?
The secret might have something to do with the stiff black ticket still tucked safely away in one of Cyre's many pockets...
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has used his Tool Reverse Parachute toward his party's challenge, A Train You Ain't Gettin Offa.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius, strange man that he is, has been dutiful about smuggling the things he's been asked to help get past Anaheim's vice-grip on customs while occasionally taking the opportunity to scope out some of the more exotic goods that might pass through here. It's been said that Zoara was 'home' to a whole lot of Zeboim-era technology that was used - almost universally - by the belligerents of the Celesti Civil War to try and destroy one another.
Zoara itself is only about two steps removed from being Slayheim: a) it is not a giant land of salt (yet), and b) there are still people existing here, and a part of him grows ever more concerned that something he might be looking for is right under his nose. But that's enough of that.
The train has a schedule to run and will not suffer introspection or justification for why he's there, and neither should you. (...Who?)
"Mister Cyre, I would--" He is interrupted by parachute. Parachute buffs him in the face, which is much gentler than most anything else that gets there, but it's enough to both silence and comically disorient him as he finds himself being carried along towards the train. (Even after buffeting, he is still minding the gap. Always mind the gap.)
It is around this point that Ethius - in vain - gets out the gnarled-looking staff and slams the butt of it on the ground, to try and ground everything in the natural world to a halt with that echoing jingling of ethereal bells. The world is once again asked to stop and listen (and then Ethius, as always, crank calls it by not telling it much of anything).
"While I understand the need to find cover," Ethius says while remaining inside the train because he has already failed the Wits check, "I would advise against boarding this particular vehicle--"
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Staff of Audience toward his party's challenge, A Train You Ain't Gettin Offa.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline is usually mindful of local businesses, taking care to work with them rather than against them... but there are some times when she is rather less willing to cooperate, and Anaheim's practices in Buckeye Station push the limits of what she can tolerate.
Fortunately, she's pretty good at talking her way out of trouble, which helps when you're dealing with a group that has a vice grip(with emphasis on 'vice') on the land.
And important part of business, though, is knowing to get out when the getting is good... and the getting is particularly good at the moment, which sees Jacqueline alongside Cyre and Ethius on their war to the trains.
But the train that arrives... doesn't it look familiar? She realises it just as Cyre hurries inside.
"Wait-" She starts... and then with a look back at the approaching sounds, decides to hurry in after him. "This train, it's..."
The doors start to close.
"...The ghost train. But... why is it here?" Jacqueline says. She rummages through her things real quick. Her ticket had disappeared after her previous ride, right...? And... Lunata isn't here this time. As she searches through her things she finds a familiar pale-green potion, which she decides to apply to the party to help deal with the fatigue from their previous hurried flight.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Rapid Remedy toward her party's challenge, A Train You Ain't Gettin Offa.
==========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>===========================
===============<* CHALLENGE - A Train You Ain't Gettin Offa *>================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 4 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
A mysterious train that departs from the Thirteenth Platform.
Perhaps you believe the rumours of people disappearing into the cloak of
midnight, or perhaps you're here to debunk the urban legend once and for
all. Perhaps you are here because destiny calls.
The only clue you have is a foreboding black ticket, marked for one Group,
departing from the station you're present at...
Hirasaka, Hirasaka... the one-way train bound for Hirasaka...
will be arriving shortly.
Please wait by the yellow line... until the doors...
Open.
An ominous, tinny voice echoes from public announcement speakers that
Filgaia stations are... not usually equipped with.
And then--
clack-clack
clack-clack
It appears.
A shooting star racing through the wilderness, drawing to an eerily silent
stop at the platform you're standing on. It is a train unlike any you've
seen - unlike the carriages and locomotives of Filgaia, the rumoured,
legendary Chibiki-Iwa Express has silver, rectangular cars, painted with a
black stripe.
The sliding doors open. The lights are on within, revealing surprisingly
mundane rows of seats flush against the walls. There is an almost
supernatural compulsion that draws you within. But just as soon as you start
inspecting--
The doors will... now close.
Please step away from the doors...
There is no opening the doors.
The doors hiss to a flush close. No! The train shifts... it might be too
late!
Is there truly... no gettin' offa this train you're on?
=Dungeon Conditions: Cripple, Secret==========================================
=====================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express - Round 1 *>====================== =================< Results - A Train You Ain't Gettin Offa >================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyre H. Lorentz 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Reverse Parachute 1 Agility Effects: Rally and Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jacqueline Barber 0 --(13)--> 13 Fail Rapid Remedy 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ethius Hesiod 0 --(13)--> 13 Fail Staff of Audience 4 Agility Effects: nothing ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Cyre H. Lorentz 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Cripple|Secret(2) Effects: Cleanse|Quicken(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Cyre H. Lorentz 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> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
"Eh?" Cyre seems befuddled. And he should be! "Whatever this thing is, it's probably better than whatever those company boots want to do to us, right?" But no, Ethius has outright tried to STOP TIME (or nearly enough) to give them enough opportunity to get out. He's really adamant about this! They really shouldn't be here!!
Then Jay calls it a Ghost Train, and Cyre's ears twitch in sudden comprehension. "...Oh. That would explain the vibes, okay everyone, let's find another way bef--"
Oh, that's a small army of VERY heavily armed Anaheim personnel coming up the stairs. Cyre's expression turns sour as he yanks his partners in crime back onto the train. "I think," he says, "I'd rather take my chances with a ghost train than end up being turned into a ghost by a train."
Or something.
"...Though, why did a ghost train show up? I thought it was supposed to only be at Clairborne--"
Beat.
Cyre reaches into his pockets... and pulls out a folded up ticket.
...He unfolds it, and reads...
'BUCKEYE STATION - Admit One Group'
"...Ah."
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
"Eh?" Cyre seems befuddled. And he should be! "Whatever this thing is, it's probably better than whatever those company boots want to do to us, right?" But no, Ethius has outright tried to STOP TIME (or nearly enough) to give them enough opportunity to get out. He's really adamant about this! They really shouldn't be here!!
Then Jay calls it a Ghost Train, and Cyre's ears twitch in sudden comprehension. "...Oh. That would explain the vibes, okay everyone, let's find another way bef--"
Oh, that's a small army of VERY heavily armed Anaheim personnel coming up the stairs. Cyre's expression turns sour as he yanks his partners in crime back onto the train. "I think," he says, "I'd rather take my chances with a ghost train than end up being turned into a ghost by a train."
Or something.
"...Though, why did a ghost train show up? I thought it was supposed to only be at Clairborne--"
Beat.
Cyre reaches into his pockets... and pulls out a folded up ticket.
...He unfolds it, and reads...
'BUCKEYE STATION - Admit One Group'
"...Ah."
Just then, the doors hiss closed and the train begins chugging down the tracks, a small bunch of thugs racing up toward the windows before... disappearing into the fog...
...They're probably okay, right? They weren't just... taken by ghosts, right??
DG: Ethius Hesiod has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
======================<* CHALLENGE - To Go Up in Smoke *>=======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
A low, eerie chant fills the air of the cars as you come across a sliding
door marked 'SMOKING'. Ahead, there are ghosts taking a good long whiff from
a vape pen that will never run out.
You will need to gird yourself against the chill of death and the bizarre
stench of ghost e-juice as you proceed onward to the other end...
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Injure===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The door closes on them just as Ethius is trying to explain why it's a bad idea, and he stares blankly at, once again, a failure to explain important matters concisely (up to and including the part that got them chased to begin with, but, that's in the past and soon this will not be their problem).
A hand idly grabs at a hanging handle, as if he were aware it's not connected to some sort of trap. It'd be weird, even to Jay, because she'd know he didn't whip out the Spectral Lens to take a look at it. How does he know this specific part of this exotic otherworldly train is safe?
"...As I presume all of us are still among the living," he says as someone who is so good at suppressing much of his natural body nervous tics that this is debatable on his part, "we will... once again have to move to the front."
He doesn't bother to say to Cyre what they went through the last time. This is not only to respect spoilers, but because he's convinced it's not going to happen again. Somehow a mistake was made - again - involving at least two people involved in the previous mistake and... yes.
"This way," Ethius says as they are lead through a car whose door is foreboding... for it reads 'SMOKING.'
There might even be disgust on Ethius' face. At least a furrowed brow! As he pushes open the door, an eerie chant fills the air as smoke colored and flavored in death spills out, it's... you know? They're dead, they don't need to breathe. It's okay if the entire car is just filled with it. (death, by the way, is colored a light neon blue and it tastes like birthday cake which makes an odd sort of sense, maybe they serve deathday cake here, so they can have cake AND death at once)
(don't have deathday cake, by the way)
Ethius takes his time letting the smoke fill out of the car before holding his breath and getting low to the ground, like some sort of... snake. Or a worm?
Vapor Worm.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, To Go Up in Smoke.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Cyre reveals a ticket! Jacqueline leans in to steady it.
"...Huh. Honestly, I guess it's my fault for assuming a ghost train would follow natural laws..." She admits with a shrug and a shake of her head. It is, after all, a ghost train. They're already far beyond the point where skepticism makes sense.
"I'm pretty sure we are." Jacqueline says, looking toward Ethius. And she has a feeling she'd know if they weren't - the health of others is, after all, part of her job. They proceed forward, and she stops with a frown at the door ahead of them labeled... 'smoking'.
She shakes her head and reaches into her bags once more, drawing out a set of filtration cloths. They're usually used to protect from potion fumes, but may be applicable in this situation, as well. She secures one on her face before passing the other two to Cyre and Ethius.
She will also, while she's at it, produce some of her Brewte Force potion and apply it to the party in order to help them power through this.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Brewte Force toward her party's challenge, To Go Up in Smoke.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
"If we were dead, I wouldn't have tried to avoid getting killed!" Cyre declares, as if this were somehow an indisputable fact. Everyone knows, after all, that you don't try to stay alive if you're already dead!!
But by the same token, being dead means you have certain advantages over the living. For example, being able to smoke as much as you damn well please without having to worry about all the sundry diseases that usually come with that kind of thing. Finding ghostly leaves to smoke is another thing entirely, but still.
The trouble is, though, that they aren't dead. Not like the people on this next car, anyway. Smoke wafts out from the door and Cyre just... Recoils, visibly. "Althena's tits, what is that? Birthday cake flavor!? Who smokes birthday cake flavored smoke!?" Cyre... is a bit of a connoisseur. He's glad to affix Jacqueline's offered cloth over his face to spare himself the awful stank. "This is unacceptable. These ghosts need better quality goods," he says, pulling a GLASS BOTTLE from his hip.
It's not full of quality goods.
It's full of tornado.
"For now, we'll just clear the air," he says, before UNLEASHING A TORNADO ON SOME GHOSTS.
They'll be fine. Probably.
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has used his Tool Bottled Tornado toward his party's challenge, To Go Up in Smoke.
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
======================<* CHALLENGE - To Go Up in Smoke *>=======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
A low, eerie chant fills the air of the cars as you come across a sliding
door marked 'SMOKING'. Ahead, there are ghosts taking a good long whiff from
a vape pen that will never run out.
You will need to gird yourself against the chill of death and the bizarre
stench of ghost e-juice as you proceed onward to the other end...
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Injure===========================================
======================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express - Round 2 *>======================= ========================< Results - To Go Up in Smoke >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cyre H. Lorentz 5 --(15)--> 20 Pass Bottled Tornado 3 Brute Effects: Sacrifice and Strengt -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jacqueline Barber 13 --(28)--> 41 Fail Brewte Force 1 Brute Effects: Fanfare and Strengthe -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 13 --(15)--> 28 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Cyre H. Lorentz 20 --(30)--> 50 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Injure(2)|Secret(1) Effects: Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Cyre H. Lorentz 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> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
A tornado is thrown into the car. What transpires is a lot of wailing, a lot of coughing, and then a lot more wailing in short order. The bright blue smoke dissipates and filters out the door, the windows, just about any other opening available (only Jay is forced to take in a whiff of it, and one hopes, she will not be eating the cake at her funeral down the line).
(don't point out what's wrong with this statement)
When it clears, it can be reiterated that, yes, the three of them are currently alive. Ethius freezes mid-crawl as he sees a whole number of angry, smoke-less ghosts bearing down upon him and the rest. The good news - the three of them can all breathe. The bad news... the death glares.
Death glares that may compel them to make sheepish apologies and/or hurry on towards the front that much faster. (the latter is a good thing)
DG: Jacqueline Barber has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>===========================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - The Chill of Death *>=====================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
A chant continues to echo and chill at your very spine as you explore the
train cars:
...A ki me shi ...
...sa HI yu SE mi ...
...WE mo SU...
As if drawn by the verses, several ghosts dressed in little more than white
rags rise from the very floor of the passenger car. Though they do not
possess faces, their intent is quite easy to understand as their ghastly
hands reach out.
A single touch freezes to the bone, and threatens to leech away what life
still exists in your body -- your absolute lifeline in this deathly express
line.
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Exhaust==========================================
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
A tornado clears out the car, and the only thing left is them and a group of ghosts... ghosts who are looking none-too-pleased about being interrupted.
"...Sorry, we'll just be-" Jacqueline starts, trying to apologize... but then, a chant begins to echo around them. As in response, the ghosts rise from their seats, and still more rise from the very floor.
"Please return to your seats!" Jacqueline demands, gesturing quickly with her right hand to invoke a Crest Graph, sending out a wave of force to push them back.
She retreats back, then, drawing out the Lifeweaver's Codex as she moves.
"I think we're all familiar with how to fight ghosts at this point, but... they tend to be quite resistant to physical attacks, so use sorcery or enchanted weapons! And don't let them touch you - their very touch can leave you weakened!" Jacqueline warns.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool The Lifeweaver's Codex toward her party's challenge, The Chill of Death.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius has to pull himself up off the ground and stop pretending he can stealthily crawl through it as angry ghosts start to rise from beneath and make their after-death grievances known, which is kind of a big deal among known ghost cultures (such as anyone has ever had a definitive idea of what death is like and what comes after - even Filgaia and Lunar seem to play with a handful of different 'absolutes' to it).
"Miss Jay, may I suggest a more diplomatic answer?" wait ethius just said that, hold up
(rewind button)
"Miss Jay, may I suggest a more diplomatic answer?" Yes Ethius just said that (the once, only the once), as he grabs a satchel at his belt, enchants it in the familiar way, and... doesn't throw it at the ghosts but at the ceiling, in order to replicate the 'unbreathable stuffy smoke-filled room' atmosphere to try and quell them.
So long as they like the flavor, anyway.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Powder Grenade toward his party's challenge, The Chill of Death.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
"There, that wasn't so bad!" Cyre says with no small amount of pride.
This, as it turns out, is woefully misplaced.
"What the--" In spite of his best efforts, the ghosts are stubbornly still very much present! Go home, ghosts! This is not a fight that you want to have!
Or maybe it is. Maybe, like the ghosts of Xibalba, these spirits are tougher than their wispy ectoplasm would suggest.
'Don't touch them,' Jay says. 'Maybe we can talk to them,' Ethius adds, and Cyre briefly wonders if they are in fact all dead before dismissing the idea with a shake of the head. "Right, I've got this. Come on, ghosts. This is your lucky day! It's not everyday you find yourself in a ring with a Nahual of Wehaca. Fighting ghosts is what we do!"
As well as fighting many other things.
...Though really that's just Cyre's thing, if we're being honest.
Regardless, he doesn't need to punch a ghost when his hands are wrapped in spiritually infused winds that are just as able to blast spirits around as they can everything else...!
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has used his Tool Gale Claw toward his party's challenge, The Chill of Death.
==========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>===========================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - The Chill of Death *>=====================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
A chant continues to echo and chill at your very spine as you explore the
train cars:
...A ki me shi ...
...sa HI yu SE mi ...
...WE mo SU...
As if drawn by the verses, several ghosts dressed in little more than white
rags rise from the very floor of the passenger car. Though they do not
possess faces, their intent is quite easy to understand as their ghastly
hands reach out.
A single touch freezes to the bone, and threatens to leech away what life
still exists in your body -- your absolute lifeline in this deathly express
line.
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Exhaust==========================================
=====================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express - Round 3 *>====================== =======================< Results - The Chill of Death >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyre H. Lorentz 20 --(15)--> 35 Pass Gale Claw 3 Combat Effects: Sacrifice and Embolde ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jacqueline Barber 41 --(15)--> 56 Pass The Lifeweaver's Codex 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ethius Hesiod 28 --(15)--> 43 Pass Powder Grenade 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Cyre H. Lorentz 50 --(20)--> 70 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Fright(2)|Injure(1) Effects: Embolden(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Cyre H. Lorentz has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Ethius Hesiod has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
==================<* CHALLENGE - The Guest that was a Ghost *>==================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
The eerie chill of death visits you once more, coalescing into several
enormous ghosts composed of little more than white rags formed into a
vaguely humanoid shape. Just as your team readies themselves for battle...
A cute white-hooded ghost takes arms beside you! It seems like they want to
come with!
?????? has joined the party! (Temporarily. :( )
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Treasure=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Ethius suggests a more diplomatic answer. Jacqueline pauses and blinks, briefly thrown off her game.
"...Uh..." She starts, but doesn't get an answer out before Ethius throws the the Powder Grenade at the ceiling, sending a familiar cloud wisping down toward the hostile ghosts. Meant as a peace offering it also, as it happens, makes a rather convenient distraction. The powder clouds surround the ghosts... and Cyre comes in, wreathed in spiritual winds that blow the ghosts clean through the wall.
...It's alright - they'll be able to find their way back to the train just fine once they've calmed down.
"...I hope we don't have to fight any more ghosts." Jacqueline comments with a sigh.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
They can't go another car without running into more angry ghosts. Maybe they just happened to come onto the train while it made the rounds with a number of people who died in especially touchy circumstances they have yet to accept though they are now on a train that is to lead to their final place of rest (where they can be as restless as they want within their rest).
Ethius has a palm pointed ahead at the approaching ghosts, prepping to flex his fingers when... there's another deathly chill that follows, as they are ambushed...
...?
There's another entity of white rags with two glowing eyes within its hood closing in from behind the three of them, but not aggressively so, exhaling some familiar dusty smoke as it takes a long drag off of something it has managed to roll said familiar dusty smoke into something... smokable. (wow, the dead work fast)
It appears a peace offering has been accepted! (Ethius-provided smoke flavor, it turns out, is not preferable over deathday cake flavor.)
Ethius has all of three seconds to stare blankly before he has to get back to casting heat-based Symbology spells, as their new smoking friend kind of just blows it in the faces of other ghosts, as if trying to say 'hey check this shit out, it's rad.'
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, The Guest that was a Ghost.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Well, in these ghosts' defense, the train DID roll through Buckeye Station just now. Chances are not insignificant that some of these belligerent boos were until very recently ordinary factory workers who lost their lives in a tragic and extremely avoidable workplace accident. Who wouldn't be angry after something like that? For this, Cyre is very understanding.
Even if, you know, he's still going to fight them for trying to get their ghostly goo all over him.
"I think being in a ghost train means we're going to run into more ghosts sooner rather than later," Cyre says to Jay with a resigned shrug. But then...
They are soon joined by a ghost... Who fights ALONGSIDE them rather than AGAINST them. And it's-- smoking some of Ethius' powder!? Cyre is honestly impressed that it managed to roll enough of it up so quickly. With a solemn nod, the shaman...
...Passes this ghost a caddy of some of his good stuff.
(What, of course he was carrying some with him!!)
"Alright, come on," he says, turning toward the larger spirits. His limbs still carry wisps of that emerald wind, but it's clear that he's either tiring, or trying to conserve his strength...
...Possibly because Cyre doesn't want to go so loud that he blasts their new friend out of the train by accident. Friendly fire is no good!
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, The Guest that was a Ghost.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"Well, I expect that... I'd be okay if they weren't angry with us, but..." Jacqueline replies with a sigh. But somehow, it looks like they chose a stop where the ghosts are particularly irritable.
...Though, maybe not all of them, as even as another group comes to bother them, a friendly ghost arrives on their side!
"Well, I won't say no to some assistance..." Jacqueline decides, even if the ghost apparently has... ulterior motives.
With the Codex's entry on ghosts still fresh in her mind, Jacqueline chooses her actions accordingly - creating walls is useless against ghost so she goes directly on offense, sending lightning crashing down toward the enemy ghosts with gestures of her right hand.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool The Lifeweaver's Codex toward her party's challenge, The Guest that was a Ghost.
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
==================<* CHALLENGE - The Guest that was a Ghost *>==================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
The eerie chill of death visits you once more, coalescing into several
enormous ghosts composed of little more than white rags formed into a
vaguely humanoid shape. Just as your team readies themselves for battle...
A cute white-hooded ghost takes arms beside you! It seems like they want to
come with!
?????? has joined the party! (Temporarily. :( )
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Treasure=========================================
======================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express - Round 4 *>======================= ====================< Results - The Guest that was a Ghost >==================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cyre H. Lorentz 35 --(12)--> 47 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jacqueline Barber 56 --(12)--> 68 Pass The Lifeweaver's Codex 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 43 --(20)--> 63 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Cyre H. Lorentz 70 --(15)--> 85 Fail Conditions: Fright(2)|Treasure(1) Effects: Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Cyre H. Lorentz 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> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
There is no collective fault in their offensive prowess. Cyre still has the ear of the wind of the world, even if it's to chew the fat about blowing incorporeal passengers about. Jay still has an intellectual and analytical, well-referenced approach under duress that sees lightning course through the passengers and quell some of their fury.
Ethius, though.
The ghost friend who is helping them gestures to his other satchel, in a break in the action.
Ethius shakes his head.
The ghost makes a sad, disappointed noise, and floats off. The ghost's friendship is lost as soon as it is gained, and the victory that would be unambiguous turns pyrrhic. They lost a good friend. :(
...
They may catch a glimpse of a key at the side of the departing ghost, oh crap, they had the key for the car ahead (which is locked), now they can't reach the front the normal way...
However...!
DG: Ethius Hesiod has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Train on your Parade *>=====================
|Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
*SKREEEEEEE*
The train comes to an extremely sudden halt.
So... you are the ones who have been causing trouble...
I will not allow you...
...to disrupt my schedule...!!
A powerful shadowy force flings your group off their feet and YEETS your
team out the nearest window!!
... onto cold, metallic train tracks.
You see your shadow, cast by powerful ghostly headlights behind you. A
haunting steam whistle blows.
Uh oh.
(NB: This is an interim card meant to set the scene; resolve this card
without posing, and go straight to the Final card!)
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Save Point=======================================
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Spectral Lens toward his party's challenge, Train on your Parade. DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Train on your Parade. DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Train on your Parade.
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Train on your Parade *>=====================
|Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
*SKREEEEEEE*
The train comes to an extremely sudden halt.
So... you are the ones who have been causing trouble...
I will not allow you...
...to disrupt my schedule...!!
A powerful shadowy force flings your group off their feet and YEETS your
team out the nearest window!!
... onto cold, metallic train tracks.
You see your shadow, cast by powerful ghostly headlights behind you. A
haunting steam whistle blows.
Uh oh.
(NB: This is an interim card meant to set the scene; resolve this card
without posing, and go straight to the Final card!)
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Save Point=======================================
======================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express - Round 5 *>======================= =======================< Results - Train on your Parade >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cyre H. Lorentz 47 --(5)--> 52 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jacqueline Barber 68 --(5)--> 73 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 63 --(5)--> 68 Pass Spectral Lens 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Cyre H. Lorentz 85 --(0)--> 85 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Save Point(1) Effects: Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Cyre H. Lorentz has passed this challenge! The party gained 0 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>===========================
===============<* CHALLENGE - The Suplex of Everyone's Souls *>===============
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
So, um.
A rampaging ghost train is after you.
The doom train has a frightening face, and a headlight whose beam scorches
whoever is unfortunate to step into the light. It also has the horrible
habit of casting curses and other dark magic to whoever is out of reach of
its light.
It's extremely obvious what'll happen if you get run over by a train, too.
But hope isn't yet lost.
It's said that trains -- in particular, ghost trains -- have a long and
storied history with martial artists. There have been many tales, perhaps
all exaggerated, of a muscle-bound "bodybuilder" straying from his gym and
taking hold of a locomotive by its cowchaser and performing...
The legendary Train Suplex.
Is this the start of a new legend -- YOUR legend?
=Dungeon Conditions: Wonder===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
It's fine, while friendship has been ended with Ethius, Cyre nevertheless provides a ghostly GRAVE GOODS OFFERING at the very last moment and manages to secure the key they need for the locked door. FRIENDSHIP OF GHOST SECURED (for what it's worth, ghosts being the ephemeral, transient creatures that they are.) And good thing, too, everyone knows that the locked door is the most dangerous possible obstacle for any digger party, no matter how experienced or well-armed!
"Okay guys, this'll be fine," Cyre says, as he approaches the door. "We shouldn't be far from the engine room, from the sounds of things, and once we're there we might be able to figure out a way off--"
But JUST THEN, with a screech of ghostly wheels, the train slams on its brakes! Cyre is slammed face-first into the door for the hubris of daring to befriend the dead! The rest of the party almost follows suit, but a mysterious force reaches through the windows and plucks each of them out of the car...
...And hurls them all onto the tracks.
A beam of light lances through the darkness surrounding them on all sides. It's as if the world has all but been swallowed up by the hungry void, except for these ominous tracks and the cyclopean gaze of the Phantom Train behind them. "What..." Cyre asks, his eyes reflecting the overwhelming brilliance like tiny mirrors. "No... It can't be. The train...!?
So... you are the ones who have been causing trouble...
I will not allow you...
...to disrupt my schedule...!!
The train's lonesome whistle blows as its mighty engine begins to chug. Momentum builds, ghostly steam streams out from its smoke-stack and swirls into wrathful, phantom faces...!!
Cyre is just standing there. Is... is something wrong...?
Is there a reason... that he is vibrating the way that he seems to be...!? "I thought... It was only a story, but..."
Motes of emerald light have begun to swirl around the Nahual in vast plumes. Is he planning to attack the train head-on!?
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius finds himself hurled out the window, where his face... just misses the tracks and gets himself caught by the cold, unfeeling, musty ground that holds the tracks adjacent to him, but there's no running off the set path. There's nothing there but the tracks, and it takes him some critical time to recover and... figure out that his other satchel is missing anyway.
"..."
He's not convinced there's reasoning with the train a second time, after how it happened the first time. He limps a few steps, trying to cast the activation spell for the other satchel in hopes it landed close enough to be 'set,' and is going to have to rely on random chance that the train will run over it and cause it to run into... issues.
From there, he takes off running.
"Miss Jay, we must-- where's Mister Cyre," that's as much concern as he can give it because that scalding beam of light is not too far behind and he can only run so fast while doing anything other than running.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Powder Grenade toward his party's challenge, The Suplex of Everyone's Souls.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"Not again..." Jacqueline sighs, as once more she finds herself hurled from the train, landing unpleasantly on the tracks. At least this time she can anticipate that it's about to happen, at least, rolling with the fall to immediately stand to her feet.
Soon enough, that familiar beam of light shines down on them, as the train - or its conductor - roars at them for disrupting its schedule.
"...Sorry, you know how it is - we had to escape from an unfortunate situation..." Jacqueline says. She is, of course, running as she does this... but she stops, soon after, as she realises that Cyre isn't when Ethius asks about him.
"Cyre, it's catching up!" Jacqueline warns. But it looks like, he's preparing for an attack! Jacqueline groans.
"Well, listen... according to the Lifeweaver's Codex, it's pretty vulnerable to, ah... heavy drops..." Jacqueline suggests, hesitantly, as if she still can't believe it.
It sounds... suspiciously like she's suggesting the use of a certain move. But then again... she might nod need to tell him that.
Last time she tried to bring a pillar up beneath it and that didn't work well... so this time she takes a deep breath and draws out a Crest Graph, setting it into her gauntlet before invoking it.
This time, rather than a single pillar, the entire section of earth rises in front of the ghost train in the form of a ramp for it to fly off...
...and, potentially create an opening to take advantage of in the process!
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool The Lifeweaver's Codex toward her party's challenge, The Suplex of Everyone's Souls. DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has used his Tool Gale Claw toward his party's challenge, The Suplex of Everyone's Souls.
==========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>===========================
===============<* CHALLENGE - The Suplex of Everyone's Souls *>===============
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
So, um.
A rampaging ghost train is after you.
The doom train has a frightening face, and a headlight whose beam scorches
whoever is unfortunate to step into the light. It also has the horrible
habit of casting curses and other dark magic to whoever is out of reach of
its light.
It's extremely obvious what'll happen if you get run over by a train, too.
But hope isn't yet lost.
It's said that trains -- in particular, ghost trains -- have a long and
storied history with martial artists. There have been many tales, perhaps
all exaggerated, of a muscle-bound "bodybuilder" straying from his gym and
taking hold of a locomotive by its cowchaser and performing...
The legendary Train Suplex.
Is this the start of a new legend -- YOUR legend?
=Dungeon Conditions: Wonder===================================================
=====================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express - Round 6 *>====================== =================< Results - The Suplex of Everyone's Souls >================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyre H. Lorentz 52 --(15)--> 67 Pass Gale Claw 3 Combat Effects: Sacrifice and Embolde ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jacqueline Barber 73 --(15)--> 88 Pass The Lifeweaver's Codex 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ethius Hesiod 68 --(15)--> 83 Pass Powder Grenade 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Cyre H. Lorentz 85 --(35)--> 120 Pass Conditions: Fright(1)|Wonder Effects: Embolden(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Cyre H. Lorentz has successfully explored Chibiki-Iwa Express!
==========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>===========================
=================<* CHALLENGE - 9 millimeters of Impurity *>=================
|Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
Thoroughly defeated (and possibly suplexed), the deathly train takes a
moment, before re-railing itself.
I see...
So the will to live is that strong...
I will let you go... but however...
First I must perform my duty...
The train invites you back into its carriage, and proceeds swiftly towards
its intended destination:
An enormous, ruined Zeboim-era city lying deep underneath Filgaia. Shattered
skyscrapers peak its skyline, ringed with raised highways and offramps. A
nearby rusted road sign labels the city in Zeboim or the Ancient Tongue, if
you can decipher it:
[ HIRASAKA CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT 3km ]
The passengers depart for the fallen city, shrouded by glowing butterflies
that hover about the station, shedding a faint aura of death...
Then, the doors shut, and the train honours its promise as you are whisked
away to the very station you started this bizarre journey. As the carriage
pulls away, there is very little evidence that this mysterious incident ever
happened, save...
... a glowing little butterfly, and underneath it... a gun!! Specifically, a
modern-styled handgun that might run into copyright infringements if viewed
improperly, with an all-silver body with an eerie sculpture:
FOREVER DEDICATED TO THE IMPURE QUEEN
It's a remarkable piece, polished to a mirror sheen - and each of the
bullets fired from it carry with it the inevitable tinge of death.
What exactly was the train's intent to give this to you?
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
It was a long, long time ago. Cyre was still a boy then, training with his brother in the jagged mountains surrounding Wehaca. They were doing all kinds of things together then, inheriting the wisdom that had been passed down from generation to generation, each era's warriors handing their knowledge to the next. It was then that they learned of a story told only in hushed whispers, a tale spoken of only in the most secretive of tones. It was shortly after the first railways began to cris-cross the Ignasian badlands in the wake of the Great Collapse. A train, carrying the spirits of the dead, arrived to ferry away the storied ghosts of Xibalba to a far-off afterlife. To keep their honored ancestors, the greatest Nahual of the time rose to do battle with the tireless locomotive. But even infused with the might of the Guardian of Life, they could not overcome the inexorable, unstoppable march of Ge Ramtos' own steam engine. Inevitably, inch by inch, they were pushed back down the railroad tracks, and it seemed as though the Wehacans would lose the guidance their ancestors had provided for so long.
...And then the Nahual thought, if it could not stop death, then it would simply have to divert death.
Lifting the train from the rails, the Nahual roared with the defiant rage of the living and lept into the sky. Slamming the train into the wastelands, the Nahual saved the ancestors, and bid them return once more to the depths of Xibalba before the evil sleeping there could break free.
That was the story.
Was it true? Cyre didn't think so. It was only a story after all.
But now he's here, standing in front of a ghost train bent on taking his life and the lives of his friends, and he can't help but think.
"...A heavy drop," Cyre answers as the train drives closer, his words disappearing into the shriek of the engine. "...Yeah. Okay."
Ethius' powder grenade explodes in front of the train. The coarse grain dust inexplicably makes the phantom train wince and blink its gleaming lamp as if it were a single terrible eye. Disoriented, it cannot stop itself from being flung into the air by a sudden surge of earth from down below. Metal screams and shears apart, wood snaps and splinters. The train is sent flying just as a brilliant emerald star ignites in its shadow.
The Wind Tiger grasps it from below.
Cyre, embodying the might of Fengalon, grips the train with both claws. Bracing against the earth, the viridian gale builds and builds like a pressure wave behind a valve being pushed to its limits. Finally, there's a rush of air as Cyre leaps into a void-filled sky, spiralling currents of wind trailing in his wake as he drags the train up, up, up...
Until he can go no further... And gravity takes hold.
Down, down, down, surrounded by a velocity-cone of emerald light, Cyre drives the train into the nonexistent ground with a sound of crunching steel and popping rivets. A blast of wind scatters the lingering powdery dust...
And reveals Cyre and Train, positioned in a crater, the former having landed a flawless suplex on the latter.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
...Slowly the train teeters over and re-seats itself on the rails. It seems to shake itself to dispel the after-effects of being straight-up wrassled before finally admitting defeat.
I see...
So the will to live is that strong...
I will let you go... but however...
First I must perform my duty...
"Is... is everyone alright?" Cyre asks as the train rolls forward and opens its doors. "I think it's safe to go back inside..." And it is, in fact, just that. The train's carriage is full of spirits, but they leave just enough room in one of the cabins for the party to sit down-- perhaps, even, right alongside a particular Vaping Ghost. The train picks up speed again, rolling into...
A sight that few in Filgaia have ever had the fortune to see. A Zeboim-era city, a relic of a time when the people of Filgaia lived lives that were not merely eked out of the dust of their ruined world. 'Hirasaka Central Business District,' a sign reads in the Ancient Tongue. Cyre's gaze follows a flock of spectral butterflies flutter underneath a mighty overpass. "Wow," he says with quiet awe, as the train rolls into station. The doors open and the ghosts rise, moving to disembark. Leaving now would be foolish-- and might trap you forever between life and death...
But the doors soon close, and it seems that the train is intent on honoring its promise. Again it picks up speed, the ancient city disappearing into a haze of deathly fog. A ghost at the platform pauses to wave goodbye- a familiar face, perhaps- before disappearing into the mists. The party is left alone to contemplate what they'd just witnessed, but not for too long. The train soon pulls into station again, this time...
...Not on Platform 13 of Buckeye Station, in fact, but in Guild Galad proper, far away from the jackbooted thugs who would see the Carakin crushed. The lonesome whistle blows as the party disembarks and, as the train disappears into the distance one last time and the (relatively calm) hustle and bustle of Guild Galad in the pre-sunrise hours rises out of the dispersing fog, Cyre looks to his Black Ticket...
...Only to find it fading away in the light of the station. A butterfly flutters in the corner of his eye, though, underneath...
A GUN.
...Apparently, as a reward for SHOWING HIS GUNS!?!?
Or maybe this magnificent ARM has another purpose...
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
The smoke clears, and in the crater... is Cyre, and a thoroughly suplexed train. Jacqueline stares, dumbfounded, and shakes her head in disbelief.
"...I can't believe that just happened." She says.
It looks like being suplexed is just enough to make the train decide it doesn't want anything to do with them. Soon enough, they're delivered to a familiar location.
"This place... this is the city at the bottom of Rujm el-Hiri." Jacqueline explains. "...I guess it makes sense that a place so closely tied to the Guardian of Death with have a phantom train station..."
They're sent onward, then... not back to where they were, but to somewhere else entirely, and left behind...
"...That weapon... can I take a look at it real quick?" Jacqueline asks. "There's an ominous feeling to it, but... it's hard to describe, but... it isn't unpleasant, exactly...?"
...Well, her girlfriend is a lich, maybe it makes sense that she isn't too unsettled by the tinge of death.
"'Forever dedicated to the Impure Queen'... I wonder who she was...?" Jacqueline murmurs. This weapon... it's certainly very mysterious.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius, somehow having been quiet and not much of an entity during the impressive display in which a LEGEND is REBORN (...and also BORN FOR THE FIRST TIME), suddenly places a hand down atop the strange-looking handgun, with a look on his face.
"Please be careful," he says, "you... will want to not observe it from that angle," he says looking his shoulder at absolutely nothing in particular. HE can't explain why that is.
(lawsuit averted)