2021-06-18: Strength-Increasing Exercise
- Log: Strength-Increasing Exercise
- Cast: Seraph Harmaus, Yue Rohay, Ethius Hesiod
- Where: Rin's Travel Agency
- Date: June 18, 2021
- Summary: Harmaus, with much ahead of him, is eager to test the strength of this body. Ethius is here for his own reasons. And Yue is... just dropping in? However it happens, the three of them are pitted against the worst that the arena has to offer.
DG: A party led by Seraph Harmaus is now entering Calm Lands - Monster Arena. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
========================<* Calm Lands - Monster Arena *>======================== ===================<* CHALLENGE - Pre-Battle Preparations *>==================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You are hurried into the Monster Arena's ring. It is a dark setting, lit by torches. The floor is sand, and an audience can be heard; the dim lighting, though, makes it hard to see them. As you look ahead, you see a dark grate, which will unleash whatever your first opponent is. How will you prepare for the battle to come? =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Reckless==========================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
"Mm..."
In the darkness of the arena, it's difficult to see much of anything, particularly the further one might get from the torches lining the ring. One thing is for certain of this group: it's been assembled more or less randomly from the assortment of those who had signed up (unwittingly or otherwise) for this day's round of fights.
One figure is impossible to ascertain properly, being well-cloaked in threadbare brown robes. There had been a bit of a colorful fringe on the robes once, but they've become so chewed up by the road and travels that they're getting past 'worn' and into 'fit for the trash heap'. The only thing that's certain about the figure wearing them is that they're a he...
"Understanding by fighting... yes, we sees it."
...and that he has a particularly peculiar way of speaking.
Well, that, and the figure's body seems to move subtlely wrongly.
...And there are lights that flicker briefly in the air about his head, almost as if they were an aura, or a crown.
DG: Seraph Harmaus has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Pre-Battle Preparations. <Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Yue Rohay is here for a vacation.
As Kaguya once said, going to Spira for a vacation is like going to Ignas for the greenery. But desperation is what desperation does, and going one world away to foil her mother's surveillance for a short while so she can nap is Yue Rohay's reality.
Currently she is napping, on the sad facsimile of a stand that the Monster Arena owns. It's not even really meant to be a stadium, full of spectators - more an observation booth for... purposes.
Then
*creak*
"...mm--"
*CREAAAAAK*
FWHOOM.
Oh, there goes the booth, no doubt due to a total lack of maintenance. The Veruni grumblingly pulls out and blearily looks around the sand-arena she's been dragged down into.
DG: Yue Rohay has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Pre-Battle Preparations.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
In comparison to the arrival of the others, the third figure - the one already here and following the usual protocol for called entrants to come to the battle. They are dressed as something like a War Monk, with a few key things wrong (deliberately). They are also missing the standard machina rifle in favor of a local polearm that they show reasonable proficiency in. A faint blue glow escapes their hand as they hold something to their face, looking about as they once make a sideglance at the one in the rattiest threadbare brown robes.
Something creaks above. With a sudden alertness check, this semi-descript (rather than nondescript, that's now a word) individual deftly dives dramatically off to the side to avoid having a Veruni collapse upon them. They're on to the universe's running gag, they declare in silence.
A Sphere falls down and bonks him in the head, dunking him face-down into the arena dirt.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Spectral Lens toward his party's challenge, Pre-Battle Preparations.
========================<* Calm Lands - Monster Arena *>======================== ===================<* CHALLENGE - Pre-Battle Preparations *>==================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You are hurried into the Monster Arena's ring. It is a dark setting, lit by torches. The floor is sand, and an audience can be heard; the dim lighting, though, makes it hard to see them. As you look ahead, you see a dark grate, which will unleash whatever your first opponent is. How will you prepare for the battle to come? =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Reckless==========================================
===================<* Calm Lands - Monster Arena - Round 1 *>=================== =====================< Results - Pre-Battle Preparations >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Harmaus 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Spectral Lens 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yue Rohay 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Seraph Harmaus 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Reckless(2)|Wound(2) Effects: Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Seraph Harmaus 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> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
Harmaus, it should be noted, had signed up on purpose.
With what is coming, it is wise to properly test this body of his. So runs that thought, in any case.
But if he had anticipated running into someone like Ethius-- well, he at least can say that he has the advantage on being of a rather different form than when they had last crossed paths. Though other things might give him away.
"Jaeja..." murmurs the cloaked Seraph, watching as Yue extracts herself from the remnants of the booth. His gaze tilts towards Ethius, currently facedown in the sand, and he shakes his head and shrugs.
"It joins us?" he muses. "Eh. We accepts one more!" he calls, to whoever might be managing the entry of the opponent to come.
He is ready. As are they all (as Yue stands and perhaps Ethius as well)--
Well. One would hope, at least.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* Calm Lands - Monster Arena *>======================== =================<* CHALLENGE - A Little Help from the Crowd *>================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- There is a lull in the fighting. After the last monster is dispatched (or a terrible misunderstanding by the Arena's crew, should you have just arrived), there are cheers from the audience. A few throw out roses and some gil; a select few throw some potions. If you catch them, those could provide a welcome respite from all the fighting. =Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"And that wraps up our opening theater act!" Wait. What? There's cheers and applause over amusing injuries and happenstance happening to two of them, and then there's cheers and adulation. As it so happens, Spira's cultural worldview has started to broaden bit by bit with the coming and going of those from Gaia, and here underground - away from the prying eyes of the challenged grasp of the Yevon faith, they have begun to integrate into their lives a new pastime that moves beyond mere violence and Blitzball.
One speaks of... * * * S c h a d e n f r e u d e ! ! ! * * *
This is a profitable practice for all involved! Especially those there in the sandy arena, who are now being pelted with all sorts of shiny legal tender intermixed with garbage and what might be an important component for someone's Celestial Weapon! (Maybe? It's the Uranus Sigil. Who does that correspond to? Anyone at all?)
The currently unidentified Ethius remains face-down on the ground, being pelted with fortune.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, A Little Help from the Crowd.
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Yue stares flatly at a fallen individual in robes, beaned by Sphere, and the equally strange figure in the tattered robes speaking rather peculiarly. Well, she's also got her black coat on, so they're three on three on having rags for clothing, to be honest. Unless Ethius' getup is a little more respectable than that.
Then the crowd decides that they aren't interesting enough anymore, and decide to bean them with additional things: Gil!
Yue understands full well the dire threat of the Gil Toss ability and tries to find cover underneath her broken shack. "Maybe I should have gone back to the Thunder Plains..."
Sadly, the Uranus Sigil will go unnoticed, because... because... well, butts to that.
DG: Yue Rohay has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Little Help from the Crowd.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
Applause ecnoes out about them.
"Ah?"
Harmaus, let it be said, is old. Not as old as some of the people in this arena, to be sure! But pretty dang old. He's familiar with the performing arts, to an extent, but never has he found himself...
...in the thick of it.
"What is-- throwing coins?" the embodied Seraph shouts, first trying to dodge the thrown projectiles (likely much to the amusement of the crowd) before trying to catch it and throw it back.
Wait, is that the Uranus Sigil he's got in one (very green?) hand? Is he--
Oh no. He's throwing it back at the crowd.
DG: Seraph Harmaus has used his Tool Valerian Root toward his party's challenge, A Little Help from the Crowd.
========================<* Calm Lands - Monster Arena *>======================== =================<* CHALLENGE - A Little Help from the Crowd *>================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- There is a lull in the fighting. After the last monster is dispatched (or a terrible misunderstanding by the Arena's crew, should you have just arrived), there are cheers from the audience. A few throw out roses and some gil; a select few throw some potions. If you catch them, those could provide a welcome respite from all the fighting. =Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
===================<* Calm Lands - Monster Arena - Round 2 *>=================== ===================< Results - A Little Help from the Crowd >=================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Harmaus 5 --(5)--> 10 Pass Valerian Root 3 Agility Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 5 --(13)--> 18 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yue Rohay 5 --(5)--> 10 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Seraph Harmaus 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Reckless(1)|Save Point(1)|Wound(1) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Seraph Harmaus 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> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
A high number appears in white lettering above Ethius. This must be his profit from being pelted by tossed gil and not at all a hard mathematical measure of how close he is to being KO'd, for reals.
The Uranus Sigil is returned, and sucks for whoever character has a Celestial Weapon tied to it.
It continues to rain trash-tier goodies for a while, because Spira as a whole is very new to the idea of maximizing the concept of * * * S c h a d e n f r e u d e ! ! ! * * *
They may still be so blase about impending death that maybe they're just shedding what's left of their corporeal possessions before Sin comes by and sneezes on them all. It's a sad state of affairs, the sort of state of affairs that if personified would ask if it could huddle in Yue's ruined shack.
This is the part where they get on with the show, right...?
DG: Yue Rohay has drawn a new Challenge.
=======================<* Calm Lands - Monster Arena *>======================= ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Specters *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The large, iron-barred gate opens. At first, it seems that nothing comes through. However, you are quickly disabused of that notion. Blasts of magical flame start shooting down from the air, and hurtling towards you. When they hit the sand, they explode. The enemy, you realize, is a rare type of fiend: called a Specter, which is able to turn invisible. The specters have done just that; a trio fly above you, but cannot be seen. Though not hardy, finding a way to target them will be rather difficult. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Injure==========================================
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
A trio of Drifters whose motivations are at best questionable and at worst nonexistent; a crowd carelessly throwing away what little possessions they have in the embrace of the utter and stark reminder of how transient existence in Spira truly is. Wow, this is a real depressing day, huh? Even with all the butt joke.
Then, wow! Fire!
Yue escapes her burning lodging, and stares blearily at the ghost that's there -- then the ghost that isn't there. Three ghosts, each one going go, goer, goest, hover around the trio and do awful time-wasting gimmicks like turning invisible and undamageable and then pelting them with fire from a safe distance.
"How do they even corral ghosts in this arena?"
Yue applies the least amount of effort imaginable to the problem: Pressing (X) over and over again to launch Demon Fangs.
DG: Yue Rohay has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Specters.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
News! Probably a thinly-disguised Ethius is not dead! (This is neither good news or bad news. It's just news. The comment section, though. Don't read it.)
Groggily, the not-quite-War-Monk comes up, clutching his head and staggering around as though he has no idea, at all, what he's doing or where he's going as colors and sound swirl. A near hit from an exploding ball of fire sees him tumbling along, but this time he lands on his seat. More magical flame blasts here and there, and adrenaline takes over as he pulls up and runs about the perimeter to avoid... a foe that can't be seen?
There's that odd glow in their left hand, that blue light, once they make an arcane gesture and point towards said hand. (Why is he trying to hide he's holding the Spectral Lens? It's Ethius, why does he attempt to hide anything anymore when almost everyone has become wise to his common tricks is anyone's guess.)
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Spectral Lens toward his party's challenge, Specters.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
So much for that Sigil.
"Is usual for this?" Harmaus asks of his sidekicks (sidekicks?) in this tournament, looking between the both of them as if expecting them for an answer. "Ah... is, what is word, irritant, itchy... eh, no, no... ah! Annoying. Is annoying," he says to them, more satisfied now with his choice of words. "...Jaeja. Its head struck again?"
But alas, for Ethius, there may no time to take a load off and sit this latest insult off. Something has just been released into the arena.
"Is... spirits? No, ghosts. Not like Pyreflies? Different than Pyreflies? Ah, it wonders us," Harmaus rumbles, folding both arms across his chest as he considers the ghosts as they slowly drift on in...
"Ah. We understands it now!"
And light, without the robed man even moving a muscle (or should that be 'muscle'?) erupts suddenly from the ground about his feet, lurching upwards in a flare of plasma for the spirits. Is such a direct attack appropriate for this arena, though?
DG: Seraph Harmaus has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Specters.
=======================<* Calm Lands - Monster Arena *>======================= ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Specters *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The large, iron-barred gate opens. At first, it seems that nothing comes through. However, you are quickly disabused of that notion. Blasts of magical flame start shooting down from the air, and hurtling towards you. When they hit the sand, they explode. The enemy, you realize, is a rare type of fiend: called a Specter, which is able to turn invisible. The specters have done just that; a trio fly above you, but cannot be seen. Though not hardy, finding a way to target them will be rather difficult. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Injure==========================================
==================<* Calm Lands - Monster Arena - Round 3 *>================== ============================< Results - Specters >============================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Harmaus 10 --(5)--> 15 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ethius Hesiod 18 --(5)--> 23 Pass Spectral Lens 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yue Rohay 10 --(5)--> 15 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Seraph Harmaus 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Stupify(2) Effects: Enlighten(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Seraph Harmaus 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> Yue Rohay has posed.
Wow! In the end, the three Drifters hurl the three ghosts out of business, sending them packing with a laughable 0 and 2 with no prize money.
Harmaus shoots plasma, which is like light, which is like holy, which we know ghosts are weak to. Ethius reveals the truth of ghosts through the Lens! And there's Demon Fangs too.
It turns out you can only get so far in a tournament with a gimmick, alas. I mean, what were they going to even do if they fought Bombs or something else fire-absorbent? "I don't even know, don't even begin," Yue grumbles at Harmaus.
DG: Seraph Harmaus has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* Calm Lands - Monster Arena *>======================== ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Sand Worm *>=========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The iron-barred gate opens up. You only get the briefest glimpse of a massive form within -- because shortly after, it burrows into the sand. Only a few seconds later, the sand in your midst explodes upward. This threatens to knock everyone to their feet, as a huge sand worm emerges. Its round, toothless maw opens... and then it starts trying to swallow members of your party whole! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
"Hm... is as always, yes?" Harmaus muses, as the ghosts evaporate away. "Was expecting, eh... trials? Is what this place promised," the Seraph rumbles, gesturing about himself with one green hand. "So far, we finds ghosts, thrown coins..."
The rumble that follows the gate opening again is one that causes even the embodied Seraph to stumble. "...Nothing there?" Harmaus muses, perhaps squinting into the gloom.
But it's the ground beneath them that trembles next!
And then the sand erupts upwards in a spray as the creature that had taken to the sands beneath bursts into the ring.
"Ah! More to our likings!" Harmaus declares, and in one green... tendril, because that's not really a hand, fingers don't work like that, a bell drops from a singular vine to dance on the end of the red cord.
'Still', sings the bell as it rings out once, in the same moment the sandworm lunges for them with a gaping maw.
'Be still. And stop.'
DG: Seraph Harmaus has used his Tool Amulet Bell toward his party's challenge, Sand Worm.
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
An intense wave of tiredness hits Yue again when the gate opens to reveal nothing. Fortunately, that tiredness gets shoved to the wayside when the ground starts rumbling--
"Well.... I suppose you're about to get your wish."
An enormous creature erupts from the sands! A pause, as she stares at Harmaus'... tendril. Wait, what?
A pause, as she shakes her head. She palms a small orb inside her pocket subconsciously, and--
Wait! Lo, look over yonder! Is that not a Friend-shaped Golem, emerging from within the belly of the beast, its rest so momentarily disturbed? 'Tis!
Big Shal hops off the sand worm's mouth, and gives a kinda slimy thumbs up to the three. Then reaches to give the worm a pat on the tummy, since it's too tall to give it a headpat.
DG: Yue Rohay has used her Tool An Old Golem Core toward her party's challenge, Sand Worm.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The strange Not-a-War-Monk stands alert and with increasing dramatic flair as their slightly incorrect uniform (form, fit, and a few pieces of miscellaneous accessories because Nomura sneezed and needed to wipe his nose on something) moves with their back to the wall to keep all in view as they grab a satchel, all dramatic-like to an empty open gate. A side-glance is given to the odd appendage of the one in rags, but then the ground trembles and rumbles, revealing a most threatening sand worm!
With an enchantment, they activate its contents, rearing back and preparing to throw into its open maw when...!
Big Shal.
The Not-War-Monk stares blankly, standing motionless for a few precious seconds before walking up to Big Shal, bowing politely, and handing the activated satchel to them so that they may handle the honors and the duty of feeding the Sand Worm treats*
* it's a trick
Spira does not know it's spooky month
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Powder Grenade toward his party's challenge, Sand Worm.
========================<* Calm Lands - Monster Arena *>======================== ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Sand Worm *>=========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The iron-barred gate opens up. You only get the briefest glimpse of a massive form within -- because shortly after, it burrows into the sand. Only a few seconds later, the sand in your midst explodes upward. This threatens to knock everyone to their feet, as a huge sand worm emerges. Its round, toothless maw opens... and then it starts trying to swallow members of your party whole! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
===================<* Calm Lands - Monster Arena - Round 4 *>=================== ============================< Results - Sand Worm >============================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Harmaus 15 --(5)--> 20 Pass Amulet Bell 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 23 --(5)--> 28 Pass Powder Grenade 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yue Rohay 15 --(5)--> 20 Pass An Old Golem Core 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Seraph Harmaus 60 --(20)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Stupify(1)|Wound(2) Effects: Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Seraph Harmaus 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> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
At a critical moment, the sandworm does indeed stop and hold its position. It just so happens that it does this also at a moment wherein something appears to disagree rather vehemently with its stomach.
The hooded (green-skinned, tendril-armed) man tilts his head to one side as out pops... a Golem.
"Ah... Kaguya's workings? Eh. Mm. Not its workings. Similar to, but not... ah," muses the Seraph cryptically. "Another starborne child? Or... older yet?"
Ethius is able to easily hand over the satchel to the Golem, which is then easily able to sneak the worm a 'treat' while it's still stunned.
Indeed, it's only beginning to emerge from its stupor when things go... badly for it.
"Useful trick," Harmaus remarks, in the aftermath. "We remembers this."
DG: Ethius Hesiod has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* Calm Lands - Monster Arena *>======================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Malboro Menace *>======================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The crowd is cheering loudly. Your progress through the Monster Arena has impressed them, and some flowers, gil, and scrips of paper fall down from the darkened stands. They hush, though, as the iron-barred gate is lifted one more time. What emerges is horrifying: a massive plant-like monster, with a dozen wriggling green and brown tendrils, and a huge, stinking toothed maw that is open. It spews out a cone of foul breath, which makes the sand begin to blacken -- and inflicts all manner of ailments. Then, tendrils lash out, grabbing at you, as it tries to draw you into that huge, fanged mouth! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Fright, Weaken, Slow, Stupify=====================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
It's a show-stopping fight, all right. Two rounds of spot-on combat, the three of them are given praise that is not based on... it won't be repeated... Schadenfreude. The War Monk passes the one with the greenish, strange limbs a look at mention of Kaguya's name, but tips little beyond it. There is cheering that roars out anything that can be said, and then there is something utterly foul in stench from beyond the gates as they rattle open.
A different plant monster oozes across the pyrefly-decorated sands as nearby Guado pyrefly manipulators coax them up and away from the battlefield to make way for this choice Fiend. Over a dozen wriggling tentacles across the gradient of green and brown (one of them is orange, and the less said about why the better). The stench alone is enough to make someone light-headed, silent, dizzy, mute, and maybe even turn to stone and that's before it breathes its awful breath. Also, Poison. Spiran Poison is serious business, possibly the worst of the two worlds, so if any of them get green bubbles over them...
It has good dental, though, props for that. It's great that it takes care of its huge fangy gnashing maw, and they can appreciate it for themselves when those tendrils lash out and try to drag them in there.
The War Monk (?), unfortunately, is one of the ones who got muted, and thus cannot cast the spell to activate the remaining satchel as they take their staff and try to strike with difficulty against the tendrils, with middling potential.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Malboro Menace.
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Something utterly foul slithers through the gates, and Yue's spirits take another hit. She just wanted a nap. Why does a Malboro have to come out now--
It exhales!
When the noxious fumes clear, Yue is no longer there.
Instead, there's a small frog with tiny shackles on its forearms sprawled on the ground, with an alternating display of:
three stars circling
a . o O ( . . . ) thought bubble
virulent purple bubbles
a shield with a down arrow on it
sick #MLG shades
a doofy zombie
meowsery
a fat stack of double dollars on wings flying away
And every other ill in the world you can think of. Someone in the crowd's probably got her credit card details now, too.
In exchange, Big Shal steps forward without a care in the world, because she is a Mec, and Mecs have IMMUNE: Status innate, amongst other things, and reaches to...
... also give this Malboro a vinepat. Because much like the sandworm, it is also too tall for her to headpat.
DG: Yue Rohay has used her Tool An Old Golem Core toward her party's challenge, Malboro Menace.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
First there is the cheering, which Harmaus appears to delight in by all appearances (...such that it's possible, with those hooded robes).
And then an ill wind blows. It blows with force, in fact, throwing back the hood of the tendriled robed man to reveal...
...
...
...that he's essentially a walking tomato plant. There's even a big red ripe tomato there serving as a head! It has facial features.
They probably aren't helping.
Staggering, the tomatoman appears to be similarly afflicted... before his body shimmers with milky green-purple light, the color of the edge of the heavens. Righting himself but a moment later, he seems to be completely unaffected by anything, which is a benefit he seems to be unwilling to share with his temporary 'comrades' and stares up at the thrashing monstrosity that is the Malboro.
"Is noisy," he tells it. "It quiets, now."
And maybe it just might help all of them out somewhat when he again rings that bell, its single chime urging that the Fiend cease and desist what it's doing now.
He'll follow it up with a gleaming plasmic bolt, just to be sure.
DG: Seraph Harmaus has used his Tool Amulet Bell toward his party's challenge, Malboro Menace.
========================<* Calm Lands - Monster Arena *>======================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Malboro Menace *>======================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The crowd is cheering loudly. Your progress through the Monster Arena has impressed them, and some flowers, gil, and scrips of paper fall down from the darkened stands. They hush, though, as the iron-barred gate is lifted one more time. What emerges is horrifying: a massive plant-like monster, with a dozen wriggling green and brown tendrils, and a huge, stinking toothed maw that is open. It spews out a cone of foul breath, which makes the sand begin to blacken -- and inflicts all manner of ailments. Then, tendrils lash out, grabbing at you, as it tries to draw you into that huge, fanged mouth! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Fright, Weaken, Slow, Stupify=====================
===================<* Calm Lands - Monster Arena - Round 5 *>=================== ==========================< Results - Malboro Menace >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Harmaus 20 --(5)--> 25 Pass Amulet Bell 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 28 --(18)--> 46 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yue Rohay 20 --(5)--> 25 Pass An Old Golem Core 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Seraph Harmaus 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Injure(1)|Slow(2)|Stupify(2)|Weaken(2)|Wound(2) Effects: Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Seraph Harmaus has successfully explored Calm Lands - Monster Arena!
========================<* Calm Lands - Monster Arena *>======================== ==================<* CHALLENGE - Enchanted Chocobo Feather *>=================== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You have carried the day at the Monster Arena. The crowd showers you with cries of victory and cheers -- and some gil, to boot. You are ushered through a small door to the side, where you stand before a Guado woman who helps run this place. She smiles at you. "Well done! Please, enjoy," she says. She hands each of you a yellow chocobo feather -- with a faint glow to it. It has some magic in it, and, if used, can make a person much faster for a time. "We hope to see you return, and try your luck again!" =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Thanks to the power of a Mec that is immune to status effects, and the faint but real possibility that Seraph Harmaus' current vessel may be so foul that the Malboro might have to choke on its own bile in revulsion, but maybe also the bell gets it to slow its roll of unceasing hatred for the living and whatever the hell the tomato-man is - but Fiends rarely stop of their own volition (unless bribed), and a single plasma bolt and accidentally potent pat sees the Malboro stagger backwards, swaggering all the while...
And collapses against the Al Bhed announcers' table before it explodes into a cloud of pyreflies that are similarly recalled by those skilled Guado who can shape them into Fiends.
The War Monk Parenthesis Question Mark Parenthesis sharply turns their head at the appearance of the tomato-man proper, but he is shoved aside by promoters and handlers who want to try and sign Big Shal into a show-business deal (why?) and are happy enough to take the status-suffering frog and the tomato-man (double why??), to where a Guado woman congratulates them thusly.
Evidently, they don't pay peanuts here. They pay feathers from a chocobo here. They... smell marginally better than a Malboro. It's an acquired taste, chocobo scent. Sure, they're enchanted to enhance speed and reflex and movement and all that! But, the smell.
Everything smells except for their performance today.
"Do be sure to come back some time," the Guado says with an unusual amount of cheer, as though circumstances as of late have forced them to do away with their culturally ingrained haughtiness in favor of pleasant conversation. (it's a good change to make)