2021-06-04: Into the Nightmare

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  • Log: Into the Nightmare
  • Cast: Josephine Lovelace, Ruth Pauling, Ambrosius
  • Where: Zoara Badlands
  • Date: June 04, 2021
  • Summary: Josie, quite by accident, discovers the Spitsbergen Nightmare. In so doing, she crosses paths with Ruth and Ambrosius. But the Nightmare lives up to its name: are they able to escape again, never mind explore the place?

DG: A party led by Josephine Lovelace is now entering The Spitsbergen Nightmare.
DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - How Inconvenient *>=======================
|Type: Entry       |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 3          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Finding where the Nightmare is supposed to be is the tricky part. Rumor has
 it that it wanders. Rumor has it that it is never in the precisely the same
 place twice. Are either of these statements even true? That, unfortunately,
 isn't something anyone who has heard of the Nightmare can tell you.

 But you find it, however you manage it -- a hole in the earth, streaming
 with strange mists in some odd and possibly unexpected corner of Southern
 Aquvy. Or perhaps the more accurate statement would be this: finding it is
 the tricky part. Removing the overly large boulder that is taking up most of
 the entrance to the nightmare is the /hard part/.

 But if you want to explore the Nightmare -- whatever it might be, beyond
 that inconvenient barrier -- you'll have to remove it in some fashion.

 BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1IAKyY4kl4
=Dungeon Conditions: Tire=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    This isn't where Josie was attempting to go.

    Recovery had taken its time, though not hardly as much as one might have expected, when all was said and done. Medicine's a marvel, magic moreso, and a good drink all the more.

    It'd all been a pity, honestly, she'd told herself; it would have been nice to have been able to see Shevat proper, but until/unless Odessa manages to take the nation under its control after all at some later date, she rather doubts that's going to happen just yet.

    But so be it. Once recovered and without any orders to which to attach herself at present, she'd set out again to rejoin her quest in the islands, seeking another site from that map of hers.

    She doesn't find it. Instead, she's found this: a hole, plugged with a rock, and steaming some very strange mists out from about it.

    "Hm," Josie muses, waving her hand through the shimmering fog. "That's magic, right? At least, it sure seems like it. ...Wonder if you're what I'm lookin' for?" she asks the turbulent air before her, before squatting down, dropping her pack, and rooting around in it for a particular piece of equipment.

    "Right. Only one way to find out!"

    And she wedges part of the pickaxe into the gap about the stone, attempting to lever it on out.

DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Well-Used Mattock toward her party's challenge, How Inconvenient.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.

    The Drifter community is on high alert for at least two different 'major' Hellions about the region. The self-identified Rose Queen that appeared while Seraph Yvain was on the verge of losing himself to Dragonification... and one whose Domain was found and cleansed, the Hellion in question identified as Ruth Pauling. That name has some connotations in Zoara, and none of them good.

     Incidentally, there is an overdressed elven woman who should be sweating bullets underneath the Zoara sun with the weight of what she's carrying on her back (a rifle-shaped blanketed lump), but seems... okay, aside from the sort of melancholy about her. The slouching, the lack of eye contact... and just kind of being there, like she might be an attached phantom to the shimmering fog coming from this hole.

     "I don't know what this is," comes a haggard voice with a tired smile. With a bit of spellcasting attached, she sets down a crest marked with Muse and Fray that emits a pleasant, cleansing mist that might also help loosen up the stone from the cracks already there.

     She keeps out of Josie's way without properly introducing herself, but no one would blame anyone who decides her name is 'Counterfeit Yue Rohay.'

DG: Ruth Pauling has used her Tool Mistcrest toward her party's challenge, How Inconvenient.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.

If there's one thing capable of drawing the reclusive Ambrosius out of hiding it's a good, strange mystery - and the Spitsbergen Nightmare is quite the strange mystery. He's come pursuing the rumors by choice. It isn't easy to track down the entrance, given its propensity for disappearing and reappearing wherever it pleases.

It takes some time, but eventually he manages to locate it... but as it happens, he isn't the first one. Ambrosius observes the others for a moment - Josie he knows, but having not exactly been keeping up with recent events he doesn't know Ruth as of yet. But it appears their goals are, at least on the outside, currently aligned.

"...Allow me to assist..." He offers, stepping forward and drawing out what appears to be the handle of a weapon. There's a hint of magic in the air - water-based Ether - and water condenses into the form of a swirling, high-pressure beam, which he swings like a blade to carve the rock down and, perhaps, make it easier to remove.

DG: Ambrosius has used his Tool Aqua Cutter toward his party's challenge, How Inconvenient.
========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - How Inconvenient *>=======================
|Type: Entry       |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 3          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Finding where the Nightmare is supposed to be is the tricky part. Rumor has
 it that it wanders. Rumor has it that it is never in the precisely the same
 place twice. Are either of these statements even true? That, unfortunately,
 isn't something anyone who has heard of the Nightmare can tell you.

 But you find it, however you manage it -- a hole in the earth, streaming
 with strange mists in some odd and possibly unexpected corner of Southern
 Aquvy. Or perhaps the more accurate statement would be this: finding it is
 the tricky part. Removing the overly large boulder that is taking up most of
 the entrance to the nightmare is the /hard part/.

 But if you want to explore the Nightmare -- whatever it might be, beyond
 that inconvenient barrier -- you'll have to remove it in some fashion.

 BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1IAKyY4kl4
=Dungeon Conditions: Tire=====================================================
===================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare - Round 1 *>====================
=========================< Results - How Inconvenient >=========================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josephine Lovelace                  0 --(5)--> 5                   Pass
Well-Used Mattock                   2   Brute   Effects: Strengthen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ruth Pauling                        0 --(17)--> 17                 Fail
Mistcrest                           1   Brute   Effects: Cleanse
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ambrosius                           0 --(5)--> 5                   Pass
Aqua Cutter                         3   Brute   Effects: Fanfare
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Josephine Lovelace          0 --(20)--> 20                 Pass
Conditions: Tire(2)
Effects: Cleanse|Strengthen(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace 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> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Join the club, then. Neither do I!" Josie says to the newcomer, not even blinking an eye as she applies leverage to the end of the mattock and it... starts to lift. Mist joins mist, easing the rock's adhesion to the stone in which it's become a plug, making it just that much easier to budge.

    It's at this moment, straining to keep it thus lifted, that she looks up. First her attention swings towards the newcomer and then over at a far more familiar face.

    "Well now... you gonna give a lady a hand, Ambrosius?"

    He does. The stone is cloven in two where it's been lifted. Josie draws back, both segments of stone falling away into the gap below, now far too small to remain as a barrier.

    There is strangely, after a moment, no sound of them to be found.

    "...Looks like this ain't so in the middle of nowhere afterall, eh?" she remarks, glancing up at her two companions.

    "Well, I don't know about you lot, but I'm going to take a look-see." And with that, collecting her things, Josie slips into the now open entrance.

DG: Ruth Pauling has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
===============<* CHALLENGE - In Case of Emergency Break Glass *>===============
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The Nightmare obeys neither rhyme nor reason as you progress through it, and
 never has a better statement of that been made by the display that unwinds
 before you now:

 Spinning itself outwards as if it were being woven from filaments at high
 speed, an enormous array apparently made of stained glass forms in your path
 as you progress through this tiled corridor, blocking all progress forward.

 With the current shape of the Nightmare about you, you have no options save
 to break through the supposed glass if you want to proceed. But will it be
 that easy to shatter?
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Overzealous======================================
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.

    They all take a look-see, and... it's nightmarish to anyone who values logic or reason to the way things are shaped, as surfaces twist and contort and reflect light and color in fascinatingly odd ways. Dream-like, but... it's not all that inviting, the way it all just tangles and turns about itself. Sometimes it moves about even while it is being observed, as though some quantum waveforms refuse to show shame and good manners before observation. The only real consistency is the sound their footfalls make on the ground (glassy, with a bit of an echo).

     Ruth ends up in front only by 'virtue' of the way the path foreshortens even though she was the last one in and somehow the path snapped back in a way she ended up further, so she gets to see - point-blank - how stained glass-esque patterns shoot out and weave together into an effective barrier to further progress.

     The elven woman sits down, eyes shut closed, as she re-draws that same crest again and sets it down - that same pleasing, clearing, easy-to-breathe mist which might be useful if there's any mounting stress or structural weak points. She seems to be applying it specifically for the former reason.

     "...There's someone close to me who was concerned about a place like this," she explains unprompted. "I'm... glad she's not the only one concerned." She tries to exhale peaceably, but doesn't quite make it despite the seeming words of relief.

     They can sort of see through the newly woven wall, so it may be thin enough to break. (It will have to break if they want to continue, lest they chance looking back and... maybe they may not want to look back, that shade of purple-to-yellow gradient lining the ground isn't looking trustworthy.)

DG: Ruth Pauling has used her Tool Mistcrest toward her party's challenge, In Case of Emergency Break Glass.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.

Ambrosius does, indeed, give a hand, and between the three of them the path forward is opened. The stone falls away into the hole... and no trace of it is heard or seen. Ambrosius lets out a 'hmm' of observation before glancing toward Josie as she slips in. It wouldn't do to wait out here, he supposes - he follows in afterward, and soon enough they find themselves in a place befitting of the name 'Nightmare'.

There is certainly a dreamlike quality to it, following no logic but its own, the way everything mixes and intermingles. And on the path ahead of them, an array of of a substance resembling stained glass appears to block their way.

"...Concerned. Perhaps." Ambrosius replies with a glance toward Ruth, as she speaks of someone close to her. It's perhaps closer to 'curiosity' for him... but whatever their individual goals here, it's best to work together.

Ambrosius approaches the wall before them, pressing a hand against it to appraise its durability. He can see through it, so it very well may be breakable... and so, he draws his hand back and tries to punch right through it.

DG: Ambrosius has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, In Case of Emergency Break Glass.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "So, I don't think I've seen you before," Josie remarks to Ruth, dark eyes in particular taking note of the shape against her back. Lifting a hand to the strap keeping her own weapon slung along her shoulders, Josie goes so far as to smile slightly, and lopsidedly at that. "What'd you say your name was again?"

    There is a long pause as they slip into the realm of below, into the Nightmare proper.

    "Just call me Josie."

    The Nightmare, so far, seems to sort of live up to its name. What's happening right now just doesn't seem to make a lick of sense, let alone--

    "Well, this here's a bother," Josie murmurs, eyeing the glass as it spins itself upwards from the ground. "Let's just see if this is even glass, yeah?"

    She has that mattock of hers out again, gripping it with both hands this time as she approaches the multi-colored sheet of glass that's barring the way and, after taking a breath and closing her eyes, swings for the fences.
    This time, she makes sure that her left hand's positioned to take the brunt of the impact, should there be any.

DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Well-Used Mattock toward her party's challenge, In Case of Emergency Break
Glass.
========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
===============<* CHALLENGE - In Case of Emergency Break Glass *>===============
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The Nightmare obeys neither rhyme nor reason as you progress through it, and
 never has a better statement of that been made by the display that unwinds
 before you now:

 Spinning itself outwards as if it were being woven from filaments at high
 speed, an enormous array apparently made of stained glass forms in your path
 as you progress through this tiled corridor, blocking all progress forward.

 With the current shape of the Nightmare about you, you have no options save
 to break through the supposed glass if you want to proceed. But will it be
 that easy to shatter?
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Overzealous======================================
===================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare - Round 2 *>====================
=================< Results - In Case of Emergency Break Glass >=================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josephine Lovelace                  5 --(5)--> 10                  Pass
Well-Used Mattock                   2   Brute   Effects: Strengthen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ruth Pauling                        17 --(5)--> 22                 Pass
Mistcrest                           1   Brute   Effects: Cleanse
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ambrosius                           5 --(17)--> 22                 Fail
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Josephine Lovelace          20 --(20)--> 40                Pass
Conditions: Overzealous(2)|Weaken(2)
Effects: Cleanse|Strengthen(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace 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.

    Ambrosius, a man of reason and logic, takes a well-measured approach to sticking his fist through stained glass. He is foiled only because the place does not fully operate on that wavelength, and when he punches through it the stained glass distends around the force of the blow. The kaleidoscope of prismatic hues that follow as a new barrier forms around the length of his extended arm is eye-catching...

     It is the closest thing to a proper weak point they have to work with, as Josie steps up to bat and swings right for said fences. She misses the fences because there's no fences here, but as there's no fence in the way, that's not of anyone's concern.

     There is a wall with a gap in there, and she hits that gap like the wordplay above deserves to take one on the chin, shattering the lot of it into colorful pieces that embed themselves about the wall and floor as they progressively start to grow into new lengths of glassy wall-stuffs, but for the moment look more like a mish-mash of angular support beams.

     "Ruth," the woman who sat down and cast the Crest-empowered mist replies, still not looking either of them in the eyes. She's not even opening them, for now, as though she doesn't want to look upon all of it so much. She lifts her right hand up against the grooves of the strange wall and gets ready to follow after them. "It's nice to meet you."

     Further into the spiral of strange fog and glassy shapes they go...

DG: Ambrosius has drawn a new Challenge.
=======================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>========================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Story of Seasons *>======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 3          |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 By all appearances you are in a forest in spring, fresh with flowers. Moving
 through the forest you find that--

 By all appearances you are in a forest in summer, brilliantly green. Moving
 through the forest you find that--

 By all appearances you are in a forest in autumn, leaves red and falling.
 Moving through the forest you find that--

 By all appearances you are in a forest in winter, covered in snow and ice.
 And as you proceed you find again that it is spring.

 Clearly, there is some proper sequence of seasons you're meant to walk here
 to uncover some secret way forward -- as much as anything in the Nightmare
 has sense and logic to it -- but what in the world are they?
=Dungeon Conditions: Secret, Bad Luck=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.

"Hmm." Ambrosius mutters as the stained glass bends rather than breaks. He draws his arm back quickly, stepping aside to let the other two finish the job. He looks toward Ruth as she introduces herself, nodding politely in greeting.

"...I am Ambrosius." He adds, before turning to walk into the fog. For a time, fog surrounds them on all sides, until eventually shapes start to appear ahead of them. As the fog clears, they find themselves in a forest. Ambrosius pauses, looking around himself.

"...This place." He mutters. ...They haven't found themselves outside, have they? As they proceed through the forest, they find themselves passing through the different seasons in order, until eventually returning to spring.

It is hard to tell if they've simply gone in a circle - but then again, in this place a circle does not necessarily mean they've gone nowhere new.

With a frown Ambrosius reaches into his poncho and draws out a silvery device, pressing a few buttons on it. It whirs and emits a soft beam of light, which traces over the area, and then emits a beep. Ambrosius studies it for a moment... then frowns once more before stowing it away.

"...Inconclusive. This place confounds even technology." He observes.

DG: Ambrosius has used his Tool Advanced Multi-Tool toward his party's challenge, Story of Seasons.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    Glass shards tinkle as they clatter upon the floor here. Closing her eyes was probably a smart move.

    "Ruth, huh? Nice to meetcha," Josie remarks, glancing the once back over her shoulder. "Ain't everyday I meet another sharpshooter. So, I can't right see the make o' that one. What're you using?"

    She says, offhandedly, as she collects her belongings and continues along, following the path that had been until now barred to them by the sheets of colored glass.

    It grows foggy before long. A strange thing to experience, underground.

    And when the fog breaks...

    "Hm," Josie muses, looking this way and that. "Reminds me of home, sort of," is what she says, before they press on and find

    that the seasons change.

    And eventually they've made a full circuit of it and come back to spring once more. "Well, don't that beat all," Josie remarks, taking a moment to investigate a blooming tree. She's drawn out a packet of cigarettes and slips one between her teeth, lighting it then with a snap of her freed fingers.

    "Seems to me there's some order to all this," she says, gesturing vaguely with cigarette in hand. "Or some purpose. What'dya say? Wanna see what happens if we go it in reverse?"

    A little light ash might help see what happens when they venture from one season to another, anyway.

DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Pack of Cigarettes toward her party's challenge, Story of Seasons.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.

    Together, they journey along... outside?

     "It's..." There's a pause, as the look of spring hits her. For a moment, her head is raised and her gray eyes are looking ahead, but her facial expression is a guarded neutral. She looks up to the sky once, right hand clasped up around where her heart is - showing her Granasian rosary around her right forearm. "It's a Gae Buidhe/Dearg DC4."

     That one saw use during the Celesti Civil War. They're not popular to use for traveling now. Too heavy, too unwieldy - the Gungnir model lines are the gold standard for sharpshooter Drifters these days (as a certain bespectacled green-haired scholar can attest). There's a worried hum as she finishes identifying it, seemingly not wanting to look up at the sky.

     She doesn't look up as they journey through the fresh-flowered spring, coming to life and filled with flowers. She doesn't match the brilliant, vibrant joy of the hot summer. She keeps moving along through the cooling autumn as leaves follow around her. In winter... though it goes from hot summer to icy winter as quickly as it does, she does not show much discomfort with the temperature of her surroundings. (No sweating, no fanning, no shivering.)

     "It's all wrong," there's an edge to her voice as she doesn't dare look up at the sky, or at them. This irritation is at its greatest during the 'winter' part, but that may not be useful trivia compared to her ultimate contribution being complaining about it being wrong. "I don't like this place... the sky is wrong."

DG: Ruth Pauling has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Story of Seasons.
=======================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>========================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Story of Seasons *>======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 3          |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 By all appearances you are in a forest in spring, fresh with flowers. Moving
 through the forest you find that--

 By all appearances you are in a forest in summer, brilliantly green. Moving
 through the forest you find that--

 By all appearances you are in a forest in autumn, leaves red and falling.
 Moving through the forest you find that--

 By all appearances you are in a forest in winter, covered in snow and ice.
 And as you proceed you find again that it is spring.

 Clearly, there is some proper sequence of seasons you're meant to walk here
 to uncover some secret way forward -- as much as anything in the Nightmare
 has sense and logic to it -- but what in the world are they?
=Dungeon Conditions: Secret, Bad Luck=========================================
==================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare - Round 3 *>===================
========================< Results - Story of Seasons >========================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josephine Lovelace                  10 --(17)--> 27                Pass
Pack of Cigarettes                  1   Wits    Effects: Cleanse
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ruth Pauling                        22 --(29)--> 51                Fail
Investigate                         0   Wits    Effects: BASIC
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ambrosius                           22 --(17)--> 39                Pass
Advanced Multi-Tool                 2   Wits    Effects: Enlighten
----------------------------------< Party >-----------------------------------
Leader: Josephine Lovelace          40 --(15)--> 55                Fail
Conditions: Bad Luck(2)|Overzealous(1)|Secret(2)
Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1)
==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace 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> Ambrosius has posed.

Ambrosius can't help but be a little curious as Josie observes that Ruth is a sharpshooter. He looks over toward her weapon as she tells them the make of it, giving it a brief look-over before nodding.

He might be more used to Veruni weaponry, but he still has an appreciation for ARMs of the rest of the world, too. There's a reason he still keeps Conversator with him, after all.

"...It is curious that there is a sky at all." Ambrosius comments, looking up. What was this place, exactly, to be able to create such a thoroughly convincing environment?

He looks toward Josie, then, as she makes a suggestion.

"...Very well. Moving forward has not proven fruitful." He decides.

And so, they start go in reverse. It seems... normal, at first. From winter, to autumn, to summer, and spring, with a trail of ash marking where they've been. ...But after the first cycle, things get a little strange. Aspects of the seasons start mixing together, in minor ways at first but it intensifies the further they go. They eventually find the start of the ash trail once more...

...But the forest looks nothing like it once did. It is difficult to tell where or what they've found themselves at.

DG: Josephine Lovelace has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
===========<* CHALLENGE - The Nightmare Swirls and Churns Unending *>===========
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 3          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Most of the Nightmare has substance -- at least a sense that you're walking
 /somewhere/ or that you've reached something you can interact with.

 Here, there is none of that. All around you is grey, illuminated as if at a
 distance by some bluish light. Fog churns about you, as if spun up from some
 internal mechanism. Your feet don't even touch the ground.

 Do you know from which direction you came? Do you know where you can go? Can
 you find either of those things out with the Nightmare in this state?
=Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Tire===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "A 'Celesti DC4', eh... Ain't seen one of 'em in a dog's year," Josie remarks. "Pretty heavy, ain't it? Me, I prefered a Gawain-series, back when I was usin' a rifle. Not much in the output, sure enough, and pretty plain if you look at it on the table, but easy to mod if you know what you're about," she continues, gesturing vaguely with her left hand. "Besides, I got it for free, and you can't beat that. DC4's were pretty good on the battlefield if you didn't need to move much, though, I hear."

    Josie's still (even in her mid-30s) just a little too young to have gotten caught up in that war. A little young, and a continent away, at the time.

    "It's gone all twisted," she agrees, reaching up to breach a branch from winter as she walks back from spring to winter, cigarette between her teeth.

    And casts it aside as they reach autumn. "Here's the thing, Ambrosius," Josie says, cigarette in hand again. "How d'you know that's the sky, even?

    Winding the clock back works to an extent, but the whole of it begins to smear, to merge together and blur in the same breath.

    There is ash between the fog that has come upon them.

    And then there's not even ash. There's not even anything, not even the ground under their feet as they wander a grey and endless expanse.

    "...hell's this," Josie utters, casting her cigarette to the 'ground'. The fallen end vanishes. Hovering there in amidst the grey, she pulls out another cigarette and lights it. Other than that distant twilight glow, the only light at all is the one tucked between her fingers, the dull crimson ember of the cigarette.

    "Any way's good as another, I reckon," Josie says, turning to head left. "C'mon. Leastways if we get separated, you'll see this," she says, gesturing with the cigarette in her hand.

DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Pack of Cigarettes toward her party's challenge, The Nightmare Swirls and
Churns Unending.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.

    Ruth cracks an uneasy-looking smile as Josephine describes the qualities and virtues of the weapon, followed by a low chuckle of indeterminate levels of menace as her right hand creeps up to her opposite shoulder, grasping at it through the layers of cloth between gloved hand and it. "As heavy as I can carry," she comments cryptically, a little bit more of a weight in her chest on saying it. Her hand doesn't leave that shoulder for the time they continue the rest of the journey into...

     Nothing. She can't feel anything. She can see, she can hear Josie talking, but this level of sensory deprivation unnerves her. She can't feel the ground, so she doesn't know if she's even walking - she stumbles a few times over nothing, maintains tenuous balance, and makes a hissing noise through clenched teeth as she bows her head and takes her hand from her shoulder to her chest.

     As if she wants to make sure she's feeling her own heart beating, as the sudden removal of the sensation of touch about this utter nothing has her... out of sorts, again, like the thing about the skies.

     She stands still. She may need coaxing to keep moving as she breathes in, waits, breathes in once more...

     She doesn't lose sight of the lit cigarette, at least.

DG: Ruth Pauling has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Nightmare Swirls and Churns
Unending.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.

Ambrosius listens with interest to the gun talk, but doesn't contribute much on his end, focusing instead on the area around them as they head backwards through the seasons. Josie makes a reply... and Ambrosius actually chuckles briefly, at that.

"A fine point." He concedes. The world starts to blur together until they find themselves in a foggy grey expanse. There's nothing anymore - around, above, or below. No ground, no trees, no sky. Ambrosius frowns, observing as Josie draws out another cigarette.

It's a good idea and so he follows her example, drawing out that multitool again. This time, rather than scanning the surroundings, he sets it simply to shine a light. Maybe it'll be able to pierce through the fog... but even if not, it still makes a convenient beacon.

He does pause as they move, glancing toward Ruth as she stands still.

"...We must keep moving forward, Miss Ruth." Ambrosius says, his tone urgent but polite.

DG: Ambrosius has used his Tool Advanced Multi-Tool toward his party's challenge, The Nightmare Swirls and Churns
Unending.
========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
===========<* CHALLENGE - The Nightmare Swirls and Churns Unending *>===========
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 3          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Most of the Nightmare has substance -- at least a sense that you're walking
 /somewhere/ or that you've reached something you can interact with.

 Here, there is none of that. All around you is grey, illuminated as if at a
 distance by some bluish light. Fog churns about you, as if spun up from some
 internal mechanism. Your feet don't even touch the ground.

 Do you know from which direction you came? Do you know where you can go? Can
 you find either of those things out with the Nightmare in this state?
=Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Tire===========================================
===================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare - Round 4 *>====================
=============< Results - The Nightmare Swirls and Churns Unending >=============
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josephine Lovelace                  27 --(29)--> 56                Fail
Pack of Cigarettes                  1   Wits    Effects: Cleanse
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ruth Pauling                        51 --(29)--> 80                Fail
Investigate                         0   Wits    Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ambrosius                           39 --(17)--> 56                Pass
Advanced Multi-Tool                 2   Wits    Effects: Enlighten
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Josephine Lovelace          55 --(15)--> 70                Fail
Conditions: Hesitate(2)|Secret(1)|Tire(2)
Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace 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> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Heh," is Josie's remark to that cryptic comment of Ruth's. "Ain't it always."

    There's nothing in this space where they wander. Nothing, as far as the eye can see. Even every footfall doesn't make contact with a single thing as they turn about and wander this space, the only sign that they are even moving at all the fact that they're able to drift apart from each other.

    "Yeah. We can't stop here, right," Josie says without turning around. She just keeps walking ahead and into the distance, unwilling to turn back.

    This gets her nowhere. When the time finally comes that she does stop to look back, she's barely walked more than ten feet from the others.

    Ruth, perhaps, lingers where she had found herself, the choice between Josie's resolute wandering that sees her reach nowhere at all and Ambrosius' more measured approach laid out before her.

    Light streaks towards the horizon. Something, in the direction Ambrosius is facing, glitters distantly.

    It's better than nothing. Perhaps they should head that way, immediately.

DG: Ruth Pauling has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
==========================<* CHALLENGE - Slime Time *>==========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 At a glance, you've seemingly found yourself in someone's bedroom here in
 the Nightmare. Here is the bed, here is the dresser, here is the rug, here
 is the purple slime, here is the window--

 Wait a minute.

 Not only is there a slime in here, it's growing exponentially, threatening
 after even just a few seconds to fill the room with its largesse.

 Unless of course you, through a show of arms, resolve the issue here and
 now.
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Fright============================================
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.

    'We must keep moving forward,' Ruth is urged by the tall man of similar specialty in water. She doesn't have a 'yes' or 'no' answer to that other than to just stand there and hold onto her feelings, for something to feel. When a light presents itself, all head that way to find themselves in...

     Someone's bedroom. There's no one else here (...in terms of anyone who would be in here). An empty bed. An open dresser. An ajar, creased rug. A lump of purple slime. A window out into the darkened night sky...

     Purple slime? Uh.

     It's an akward and sudden introduction as the slime pulses and grows exponentially to fill and consume the room's contents (but only half the socks, for some reason... that's right, even an all-consuming blob is eating just half the socks).

     The elf among them takes a broad step back and bumps her back into a closed, locked door (which is where they 'entered' through), faced with a deadly purple blob. In this close a space, the rifle at her back... it's too unwieldy.

     A Crest of indistinct markings (and its spell name lost in the fracas) is brought forth, summoning aggressive rain to batter at it and try to wash it down into a more inert goo that will - at best case scenario - flood the floor of the room and get all over their shoes.

     There's a look in her eyes that seems to go just one step past 'surprised/frightened,' but that's less of an issue than GROWING PURPLE SLIME IN BEDROOM SPACE.

     (...why isn't it eating the other half the socks though, seriously)

DG: Ruth Pauling has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Slime Time.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.

There is a light in the distance. It's the only landmark they have here, and so that's the way they go which leads into...

...a bedroom? Ambrosius looks briefly puzzled, but soon enough a threat presents itself - rapidly growing purple slime.

"...Hm." He mutters, regarding it with a frown before looking briefly toward Ruth, only now taking note of her own talent with water.

Once more an item is drawn from his poncho. This time, it's a silver canister. A switch on the side is pressed and it begins to release a pleasant, cleansing mist that settles over the party to help alleviate some of the fatigue.

But, there is still the matter of the slime. Ambrosius extends a hand out and, rather than attacking it with spells of water... does much the opposite. He aims to draw water from the slime to dry it out - if not completely, then at least enough to stem its growth and make it easier to deal with.

That is, of course, assuming it is made of water - or a suitable substitute - and not some manner of nightmare substance. That may prove difficult otherwise.

DG: Ambrosius has used his Tool Mist Canister toward his party's challenge, Slime Time.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    It takes time for them to reach that point of light, that point that dissolves to reveal that they're in someone's bedroom.

    "I'd say this was real strange," Josie drawls, drawing out her flask and uncapping it, because she could really use a drink after all that, "but it seems normal, nearly, for this place. Either of you got any ideas about what's going on in..."

    She trails off, gazing at the purple slime that's just tripled itself in size and is currently eating the curtains.

    "...huh."

    Her next action is a reasonable one, perhaps. She sloshes half the contents of her flask at the slime, downs a mouthful herself for good measure, and then, pointing her right hand stiffly towards the thing, calls forth a sudden bolt of lightning for the slime as Ruth's rainstorm falls down upon it.

    Maybe it'll even ignite a bit if she can get the liquor to catch with a spark. That might be nice.

DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Liquid Courage toward her party's challenge, Slime Time.
========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
==========================<* CHALLENGE - Slime Time *>==========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 At a glance, you've seemingly found yourself in someone's bedroom here in
 the Nightmare. Here is the bed, here is the dresser, here is the rug, here
 is the purple slime, here is the window--

 Wait a minute.

 Not only is there a slime in here, it's growing exponentially, threatening
 after even just a few seconds to fill the room with its largesse.

 Unless of course you, through a show of arms, resolve the issue here and
 now.
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Fright============================================
===================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare - Round 5 *>====================
============================< Results - Slime Time >============================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josephine Lovelace                  56 --(5)--> 61                 Pass
Liquid Courage                      3   Combat  Effects: Rally
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ruth Pauling                        80 --(5)--> 85                 Pass
Fight                               0   Combat  Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ambrosius                           56 --(17)--> 73                Fail
Mist Canister                       1   Combat  Effects: Cleanse
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Josephine Lovelace          70 --(20)--> 90                Pass
Conditions: Fright(2)|Hesitate(1)|Wound(2)
Effects: Cleanse
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace 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.

    Ambrosius discovers, to his nightmare... this slime is made of something else, in this nightmare world. Something churns, but doesn't pierce the membrane - but it does pick up some of the unpleasant humidity of this chamber, making it much easier to breathe. It's a net gain, tactically, coupled with the cleansing mist to freshen the air some.

     As Josie and Ruth combine their talents, the blast of lightning strikes the soaked membrane and the slime...

     It expels everything (mostly purple yuck) all over the room, all over the place, as it ceases growing and starts instead pooling as an inert mass on the ground, but there is one lingering mystery to be left to them as the befouled bedroom is spared of full consumption.

     It ate half the socks. Where did that half go? It's like it disappeared entirely, leaving the owner of this nightmarish (and purple-stained) bedroom... bereft of half their socks, as per some sort of natural order.

     Ruth, meanwhile, winces in pain as she draws her revolver and points it at the ground, shooting a few times for ill measure. She hammers it rapidly enough that a grunt of pain shoots through her left arm. It's not a gesture that accomplishes much. Some tense seconds pass before her wild gaze points downward, parting her right hand from the revolver and holding it over her heart.

     The door behind her creaks open, ominously, startling her to look over her shoulder. At last, a belated answer for Josie.

     "...No, I don't... know." Her words are strained, but not from panic so much as... sadness? Is she sad she just killed a horrible purple blob thing? (maybe!)

DG: Ambrosius has drawn a new Challenge.
=======================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>========================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Me's A Crowd *>========================
|Type: Climax      |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 3          |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 As you make your way to the apparent heart of the Nightmare, you find
 yourself in a space glittering with apparent treasures. What wonders there
 are here in its heart, even if you only 'know' this and cannot discern a
 single detail about what you've found!

 But the moment you pick one of the indistinct yet surely wondrous objects up
 you realize you're not alone here.

 Because you're already here. Why, here you are and here you are and here you
 are!

 These other yous don't look quite right, though.

 On top of that, they're actually pretty hostile!

 BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJvuJvT4OhA
=Dungeon Conditions: Madness, Cripple, Maim, Treasure=========================
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.

"...Indeed." Ambrosius mutters in agreement. This place, a bedroom, is much more mundane than what they've encountered so far... but as for if he has any ideas, he's forced to shake his head and admit, "None whatsoever."

The growth of the slime is stopped, and where it once was, nothing remains. Only by passing through that nothing are they able to perceive further, and here they find themselves at the Nightmare's heart, with treasures littered about.

...Are they treasures? Ambrosius frowns. The thought came to his mind unbidden, but he can't actually determine anything about them.

"...Do not touch anything. Not yet." Ambrosis warns. He reaches into his ponch to draw out the multitool to study their findings... but before he gets close enough, a gunshot impacts the ground near his feet. A slow frown crosses his face as he scans the horizon...

...only to be met with the sight of a figure clad in the armor of a Veruni soldier, with a red poncho about his form and a smoking revolver held in one hand.

In one swift motion Ambrosius turns, drawing Conversator. The two Veruni aim at each other, but neither fires - sizing each other up carefully, waiting for the other to make a mistake.

Simultaneously, one from each Ambrosius, a pair of Mist Canisters drop. Not just for the sake of Ambrosius himself, of course...

...Because after all, he didn't come here alone, did he?

DG: Ambrosius has used his Tool Mist Canister toward his party's challenge, Me's A Crowd.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Ugh," is Josie's remark, as she wipes goo off of her face. "Well, that was right disgusting. Good thing Tiger ain't about, or..." She purses her lips and glances away. "...Hm."

    As an afterthought, the archaeologist takes another swig from her flask.

    "Yeah. This place is a mess. Hang in there, Ruth. We'll get out again, some way or another," Josie says, striding towards the door.

    That opens upon a pile of treasures. "Uh," Josie starts to say, because while she is struck by the all-encompasing knowledge that these are treasures, it's... not like she can make a thing out about them when she looks. However she looks at them.

    "With you on that, Ambro," she says, angling for that odd shortening of his name. "Something ain't right about this here."

    Slightly, one dark eye widens, and Josie twists out of the way. It turns out to be a good instinct, since a shotgun cracks out with a *bang*, the missile zinging right past her head.

    "Well I'll be a monkey's auntie," she says, narrowing her eyes. There's a good two more of her there, one filing in alongside the other. They'd be a good mirror of her as she stands, except the patterns on her clothing are off. The colors are off.

    Josie, her flask still in hand, downs the rest of its contents and goes for her shotgun.

    "Sorry, girls," she says, as they wordlessly draw. "Only room for one of me in this world, now."

    Funny thing. This not only isn't the first time she's fought herself, but she gets the feeling it won't be the last.

DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Liquid Courage toward her party's challenge, Me's A Crowd.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.

    Ruth listens to Ambrosius' advice when they come into the strange treasure vault full of indistinct but appealing things, but this is more the 'virtue' of her trying to calm herself after the nightmare with the purple slime. She bows her head once in quietly mouthed prayer as a foot nudges a cyllindrical something-or-another.

     She sees the too-large overcoat in a somewhat different, slightly pinkish color ahead of her to another nudged round treasure-thing, worn by an overdressed elf with redder hair than hers. The smile on their face is eerie, as they draw their rifle. As does another, and another, each with different imperfections. That rifle seems too large and too heavy for copies of her.

     "...Heartless monster," her breathing quickens, as she bends her left arm back as far as she needs to in order to draw her rifle. It's too far, a cry of pain as... something else joins the ambience. Something purple, dark, and it feels... no.

     That's, without a doubt, Malevolence. Ruth's outline warps and contorts within the misty cloud - like humid fog. Taller, bulkier. Hair a mossy green like overgrowth on a statue, which the gray of her skin tone becomes. A single, over-large bat-like wing, joined by an extraordinarily lengthy tail. Four horns come from her head. A snake-like tongue flicks between fangs, glowing purple eyes with tears streaming.

     "You'll hurt them too, won't you? Won't you!" She screams, wielding a rifle that has distended itself to something longer, its bayonet blade more like a twisted, serrated naginata blade as she goes in there swinging and shooting. Malevolent raindrops descend upon them.

     The language that follows is colorful. The violence, visceral. The booming, deafening. Lots of hissing... and no small number of tears.

     That's a Hellion. Somehow, her copies don't take the same form - but through the maelstrom, another truth - odd as it may sound - may be a silver lining in this upsetting, strange development.

     She hasn't turned any of that on her traveling companions even though her Malevolence-fueled bender appears as indiscriminate as any other.

DG: Ruth Pauling has used her Tool Gae Buidhe/Dearg DC4 toward her party's challenge, Me's A Crowd.
=======================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>========================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Me's A Crowd *>========================
|Type: Climax      |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 3          |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 As you make your way to the apparent heart of the Nightmare, you find
 yourself in a space glittering with apparent treasures. What wonders there
 are here in its heart, even if you only 'know' this and cannot discern a
 single detail about what you've found!

 But the moment you pick one of the indistinct yet surely wondrous objects up
 you realize you're not alone here.

 Because you're already here. Why, here you are and here you are and here you
 are!

 These other yous don't look quite right, though.

 On top of that, they're actually pretty hostile!

 BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJvuJvT4OhA
=Dungeon Conditions: Madness, Cripple, Maim, Treasure=========================
==================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare - Round 6 *>===================
==========================< Results - Me's A Crowd >==========================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josephine Lovelace                  61 --(29)--> 90                Fail
Liquid Courage                      3   Combat  Effects: Rally
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ruth Pauling                        85 --(17)--> 102               Pass
Gae Buidhe/Dearg DC4                4   Combat  Effects: None
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ambrosius                           73 --(29)--> 102               Fail
Mist Canister                       1   Combat  Effects: Cleanse
----------------------------------< Party >-----------------------------------
Leader: Josephine Lovelace          90 --(0)--> 90                 Fail
Conditions: Cripple|Fright(1)|Madness|Maim|Treasure(1)
Effects: Cleanse
==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: Ruth Pauling is too exhausted to continue!
DG: Ambrosius is too exhausted to continue!
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has failed 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: Josephine Lovelace has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
====================<* CHALLENGE - Tracing the Path Home *>=====================
|Type: Final       |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 3          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 However you deal with your strange doubled (tripled, quadrupled) selves may
 be the easy part in the end.

 But the Nightmare, as difficult as finding your way inwards had been, has
 seemingly opted to make it no easier for you to follow your way back out. Is
 it possible that what you claimed in its heart agitated it in some way? But
 no matter -- gains are not made by giving up in the home stretch.

 Escaping the Nightmare won't be easy: whatever logic it had presented
 before, whatever oddities you may have seen, you don't see them again now as
 you backtrack. Indeed, it's almost a simple proposition it seems to set
 before you:

 Your path has become a maze of stone walls and identical-seeming corridors.
 It will take all your wits to find the way out again and emerge in the light
 of the outside world.
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Exhaust=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.

Both Ambrosius' spare a glance at Ruth as she transforms. He's surprised by this... but, they both know that there's no time to consider the ramifications for this.

It is only time to fight, and the ensuing firefight is swift and brutal. In the end, only three forms remain in that expanse at the heart of the Nightmare - the original three who entered.

With a grunt of pain, Ambrosius lowers his revolver. The main problem with fighting yourself is that you know where to hit, and the other Ambrosius had found all the weakpoints in his armor.

"...That was... a trial." He mutters. He's looking pretty hurt - he probably won't be too much help with whatever comes next.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    Ambrosius has the right of it -- it's one thing to fight yourself. It's another thing to fight yourself and discover that both of you (all three of you) know where your weakpoints are at. Josie's bloodied when the dust settles, breathing hard.

    "So, guess that's done with. Looks like this all's up for grabs."

    And indeed, grab she does.

    The walls spasm. The Nightmare did not seem to like like that very much.

    "...So," she says, grinning manically at the other. "How're you lot at running?"

    She turns and demonstrates her own skills at it, as the whole of this space begins to convulse, and dashes back out into--

    Well, it's not the room they'd been in before. In fact, it looks like a grey featureless labyrinth, the stone walls seemingly endless and identical as they trace off into eternity. Some path has to be right. This place can't be cheating.

    Stuffing her ill-gotten goods into her bag, Josie pulls out from a pocket instead a single screwdriver. It glints briefly in an improbable light.

    And she scores an X on a nearby stone with it before hurrying along. "Come on! 'Least this way we'll know if we've been!" she shouts to the others, picking a path and sticking with it.

DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Lucky Screwdriver toward her party's challenge, Tracing the Path Home.
========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
====================<* CHALLENGE - Tracing the Path Home *>=====================
|Type: Final       |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 3          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 However you deal with your strange doubled (tripled, quadrupled) selves may
 be the easy part in the end.

 But the Nightmare, as difficult as finding your way inwards had been, has
 seemingly opted to make it no easier for you to follow your way back out. Is
 it possible that what you claimed in its heart agitated it in some way? But
 no matter -- gains are not made by giving up in the home stretch.

 Escaping the Nightmare won't be easy: whatever logic it had presented
 before, whatever oddities you may have seen, you don't see them again now as
 you backtrack. Indeed, it's almost a simple proposition it seems to set
 before you:

 Your path has become a maze of stone walls and identical-seeming corridors.
 It will take all your wits to find the way out again and emerge in the light
 of the outside world.
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Exhaust=========================================
===================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare - Round 7 *>====================
======================< Results - Tracing the Path Home >=======================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josephine Lovelace                  90 --(101)--> 191              Fail
Lucky Screwdriver                   2   Wits    Effects: Enlighten
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ruth Pauling                        102 --(X)--> X
                                                Effects:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ambrosius                           102 --(X)--> X
                                                Effects:
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Josephine Lovelace          90 --(15)--> 105               Fail
Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Stupify(2)
Effects: Enlighten(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: Josephine Lovelace is too exhausted to continue!
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success!
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has successfully explored The Spitsbergen Nightmare!
========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
==================<* CHALLENGE - Ultimate Immovable Object *>===================
|Type: Discovery   |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 You emerge, at last, into daylight: you have escaped the Spitsbergen
 Nightmare whole and with your prize in hand. That was... almost certainly a
 very strange experience for you.

 Now safe, you take a look at what you have prised from the depths of that
 place, and find that you have retrieved a crystal stone: flattish,
 dully-glittering and about the size of someone's head.

 At first blush you might take it to be a cruel joke, but once you toss it
 into the air, you find that it stays put. In fact it does so regardless of
 what is inflicted upon it, in defiance of several laws of physics. But when
 you grab it with the intent to take it, you're able to do so.

 Strange, very unexpected, but potentially useful.

 (OOC: This would make a good Agility or possibly even Brute tool
 (particularly if combined with something like a rope, say); recommended tags
 include Stalwart and Resilient.)
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    Josie dashes rather blindly through the maze they've found themselves in, marking a wall here and there. Whether or not it would have helped them is proved somewhat moot, though--

    Since she erupts suddenly into daylight, catapulting out of the hole through which they'd entered and sprawling on the ground. "Whuh," she utters approximately, staring up at the sky overhead.

    Then she lurches to a seated position, patting herself down. "I didn't drop it or none, did I... Aha!" She produces something from a pocket after a moment. It's a rock. Well, to be fair, a rather unimpressive crystal stone.

    "Are you kidding me," she says, frowning at it. "That ain't even good quality." She tosses it over her shoulder.

    It hangs there in the air, a capacity that she notices after a moment or two.

    And then pokes it with a finger. It doesn't budge.

    "Well, that's weird. It ain't floating, exactly." It's not floating. It just refuses to obey physics.

    At least, until she tries grabbing it at which point it comes away.

    "Huh. Neat." Josie waves the rock at the two of them. "Either've you want a weird rock?"

<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.

    As Josie looks out in the open air to offer the prize, she can see - they both can - a large, hunched-over single-winged creature wearing the same clothes as that elven woman just sitting there (though the clothes have gone from a color theme of 'overcast day' to 'rainy and muddy', motionless like a... grotesque, that one might put on a rooftop somewhere that looks neat and cool and intimidating as decor. She's hugging what was once a non-Malevolence-infused DC4 like it's the closest thing she has to a security blanket.

     "Am I the only one that... lived?"

     She can just make out Josie's voice, if only just so, through the haze of her negative emotions that she's currently wearing. Josie's voice alone is proof that she isn't, and the casual way she speaks about offering a weird rock a sign that maybe the other one's OK too.

     A prolonged sigh follows, her emotions spent.

     It might be best to leave her alone while she sorts that out, but... if Ambrosius or Josie were keeping their ear to the ground at any point for any of the loose major Hellions that are known, there's one right there.

<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.

The answer to how Ambrosius is at running is... 'not great', as it happens - he can move incredibly quickly over short distances if he needs to, but that doesn't truly equate to long-distance running ability.

But eventually they see daylight - true daylight, as they emerge from the hole they'd entered.

"Is this..." Ambrosius starts with a frown... and then once more draws out his multi-tool, pressing a few buttons and looking it over. "...Hm. I can confirm that we have returned."

And with the addition of a... strange crystal? Ambrosius watches as Josie tries to throw it, and it remains floating in mid-air.

"...Fascinating." He remarks, and considers for a moment.

"I could find a use for it." He decides - though he won't object if Josie wishes to keep it for herself, or if Ruth wants it.

He looks toward the Hellion, then, before looking back toward Josie, as if gauging her opinion.

He certainly doesn't want to pick a fight with a Hellion in his current condition - maybe it would be best to leave her be.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    There had been Malevolence flooding in that room. But faced with her own malformed doppelgangers and the sudden near-collapse of the space they were in (or at least, it had given that impression), Josie had attributed it to the place, not...

    But that sense is still lingering as she turns towards the others, rock in hand, and she's given to stare at Ruth for a moment.

    Yeah. That's definitely Ruth.

    "You okay there, Ruth? We got back out," she says, with a glance back towards Ambrosius. For him, she shakes her head and shrugs. Ruth... technically isn't her problem. A bad situation to have around, sure enough. But not her problem.
    Josie's got more than enough problems of her own right now, anyway.

    "You want it? Here," she says, handing it over, knowing better now than to try tossing it to him. "It ain't what I was here for or none, this kinda thing. Don't even think that place was what I was lookin' for but..."

    And she cracks a grin his way. "Weren't a bad way to spend some time, even if it was a headache, right? ...By the way, say hi to Yue for me, Ambro, if I don't see her first."

<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.

    Ruth goes silent as Josie reinforces that they both got back out, but there is a bit more stirring movement. Her tail drags across the sandy ground closer to herself, her one wing (on the right) wraps itself around her closer. There's still some response to outside stimuli, this is... a sign? Of something or another.

     As close to 'fine' as it gets in her emotional state, even if it's looking more 'coarse.' (sorry)

<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.

Ambrosius accepts the stone, stowing it away safely into his poncho before looking in Ruth's directly as Josie calls out to her.

"...Indeed. We are unharmed." He adds. But, she draws in on herself. Ambrosius decides, then, that it may be best to leave her alone for the timing being. He pauses, though, as Josie makes a request of him... and then, actually smiles slightly.

"...Ah, I was not aware you were acquainted. I shall be sure to pass along your greeting, then." He replies.