2021-06-27: The Guado Children That Climbed Mount Gagazet
- Log: The Guado Children That Climbed Mount Gagazet
- Cast: Gon Guado (via his NPC children), Azoth, Seraph Boudicca, Ida Everstead-Rey
- Where: Mount Gagazet
- Date: June 27, 2021
- Summary: On the cusp of Spira's darkest hours, two young Guado find their resolve to push themselves further to right the wrongs of a people blindly obedient to a monster that only wishes to visit death upon all. To be specific, their father, who even now refuses to bend to the changing times and the clear warning signs in his mistaken grief. Resolve can only take two very young women so far. Assisting a kindly Seraph who has watched them, a sympathetic heiress of multiple legacies, and a mysterious young(?) man who joins under strange circumstances, they all push forward together towards what is traditionally the end of a Summoner's Pilgrimage - the frigid peaks of Mount Gagazet.
==============================<* Mount Gagazet *>=============================== This snow-covered series of peaks is the northernmost location on Spira... save one, whose name is not to be mentioned. It represents the last settled land on a Summoner's Pilgrimage... and, for many Summoners, its end as well. Mount Gagazet has been christened as a holy place by Yevon, and as a holy land it has guardians in the form of the Ronso - fierce fur-clas Beastmen with powerful bodies and a single, spikelike horn atop their head. Ronso are known for three things - their raw power; a deep, abiding faith in Yevon's teachings; and strange techniques which allow them to copy the fiends' way of fighting. They also like Blitzball. Because who doesn't. BGM: Final Fantasy X - Servants of the Mountain
==============================<* Mount Gagazet *>===============================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Into the Cold *>=========================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
You start up the slopes of Mount Gagazet. The first steps are the hardest,
too, as you come face-to-face with your constant companion for this trek:
the terrible, biting wind. A blast of cold air hits you, a steady wind that
sends flurries of snow and ice dust against you. It is unrelenting, chilling
you to the bone. Each step is like lifting a great boulder.
You must force your way through it, up the slopes, and protect yourself from
the elements as best you can. It will not be an easy thing.
=Dungeon Conditions: Collapse=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado and Pani Guado have posed.
Spira's time of upheaval never ceases. A tragedy that fell upon the Al Bhed by the hands of the Guado might have been met with little more than curious acknowledgement that such direct action was taken against heathens to Yevon, as the rest of Spira struggled with so much going on around at once it seemed difficult to muster up much additional care outside of their own miseries and beliefs - a shared failing of much of Spiran society.
Then it happened to people of good standing within the faith - the Ronso - by the same people who all but abandoned the rest of Spira to its fate when things started looking bad in Bevelle. One massacre alone should never have been tolerated, and if it weren't clear to the people of Spira now that Maester Seymour was a threat to the land and its people... eyes are wider-awake to this difficult truth now.
Few moreso than two young Guado women who bravely (and foolishly - no, foolishly, though bravely) made the trek to Bevelle with help of the Otherworlders to witness what was being abandoned first-hand. With the protection of Boudicca, they were able to save a handful of lives from the machinations of the Red Priestess.
Now, as the various Drifters are ready to trek up Mount Gagazet in support of helping Yuna forge a new path for Spira, one without Sin...
"We're not backing down," comes the words of Timu, the older of the two sisters, with a nervous and currently wordless, intimidated younger Pani hiding behind her as at least one of the surviving, hurt, furious Ronso bear down upon them. Said Ronso could snap both of them like a twig, at once, and not even use all the fingers in their hand. "I'm stopping father. Father... and someone not worthy to call themselves Maester."
(To both their credit, they are at least dressed properly for the weather, which is excellent foresight and planning on their part as Guado bodies are acclimated to far warmer climes than this.)
The matter sorts itself out however it will, with or without others' assistance - but the will to scale the slopes of Mount Gagazet is one thing. The strength...
The biting, blistering cold batters all of them with ice. Pani, the younger, shivers as she conjures and tries to redirect what of it she can. Some young magic users of Lunar are gifted enough to shape the elemental expressions of their birthright to great effect. Timu, meanwhile, has in her possession a machina claw gauntlet she... 'borrowed' from someone close to her, hurling it out every so often to grapple to key surfaces for grip in-between casting low-yield warmth-based Cure spells.
They are young - among the youngest ever to try and scale Mount Gagazet, but they are determined.
DG: Timu Guado and Pani Guado have used their Tool Pull Claw toward their party's challenge, Into the Cold.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
All that data gathering, all that calculating, all that searching, Azoth's brought back to Lunar -- to Spira. He had only been off and on Filgaia, and while they pursued leads asecending into the sky, Azoth knew it was best he avoid such adventures. It was fortunate he had the legitimate, programmed excuse to. There were some things more important in his overrides than spying, and that he predicted Lan would be there had tipped the scales. It was too dangerous for him to go, and no one gave him a direct order to risk it.
He was somewhere else, and now... he's here. Maybe because he's malfunctioning.
Azoth does not arrive with the others -- he's there on the steps already. He stares ahead, eyes glowing dimly, gaze blank, and his silhouette unmoving except for the violent whipping of winds that billow his short coat.
It's the sound of voices and a claw scaling up the mountains that seems to spark him back to motion. He turns to the two young Guado, giving a flinch of surprise. "This is pretty dangerous, you know...?!" He settles into a wane, warm smile. "...But... I don't get the feeling I can talk you out of your objectives. Let me come with you, at least."
The cold means nothing to him, but the wind pressure does. He's heavier than he looks, but he doesn't look particularly heavyset either, to put it mildly. He clutches a photon blades' hilt, siphoning some of its charge to mitigate his own power usage for the effort to push himself onward.
DG: Azoth has used his Tool Falk's Photon Blade toward his party's challenge, Into the Cold.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
The Seraph Boudicca, indeed, knows Timu and Pani; it is both little wonder and incredibly so, to her, to see them here today. Of course, she thinks, they would make this journey.
Gently she sets a hand on the shoulder of the Ronso; she has to reach up, but not terribly far, tall as she also is. "I have seen their hearts be true," she tells them, with an even, forthright tone. "These girls will do no harm, here."
It's a gutsy move, vouching for some Guado after the devastation which happened here; but Boudicca stayed here to care for the dead, and has enough goodwill, perhaps, to at least let them exist without violence.
No wonder, after stepping in, that Boudicca is here with them as they take their first steps. Well, she did promise, didn't she? And she has friends, too. Like Azoth! "We would be glad for your assistance," she says to him, too, with a warm smile.
It's about the only warm thing out here.
Boudicca holds aloft a brazier, coals burning bright with Moor Gault's fire, and the warmth of the hearth fights the biting wind of the cold; she, at least, is the wind, and can in at least a local sense make sure that warming smoke is blown in the direction of her allies. It has a tendency to strengthen. That's an Oracle's power!
"Please take heart," she says, through the cold. "We will surely reach a bluff to break the winds soon." It's commendable, really, that Gagazet's winds are SO strong, not even a Wind Seraph can completely redirect those gusts.
DG: Seraph Boudicca has used her Tool Bestial Brazier toward her party's challenge, Into the Cold.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida has had to deal with problems on multiple fronts. She knows Yuna is on her way to Zanarkand, and that can only mean one thing--her dear friend is approaching the end of her Pilgrimage, for good or ill. It took some doing to round up the necessary information, and make contact with Boudicca--but it's happened, and the Seraph has gained yet another mortal to watch over. Ida, at least, has much more experience climbing snowy mountains than the other two. She's come prepared.
The heiress sizes up the two young Guado, standing at Boudicca's flank. She's wearing Arctican cold-weather gear, including a long, warm cloak with a white lotus embroidered on the back: the symbol of the Rayes of Arctica, inherited by the Everstead-Reys of Guild Galad. The hood casts her face in shadow, and she folds her arms. She says nothing, realizing that these two young women have a very important task before them.
As the Ronso backs down, Ida nods, turns to the sisters. "You're both so brave," she whispers. "And we'll do everything we can to--"
A familiar, unexpected voice. Ida trails off, turns to face the newcomer with a bright smile. "Azoth," she says. "How...?" She shakes her head. "Never mind. It's so good to see you again." As they set off, Ida stays close to both Azoth and her Oracle, taking advantage of the warmth afforded by both.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Into the Cold.
=========================<* Mount Gagazet - Round 1 *>========================== ==========================< Results - Into the Cold >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Timu Guado and Pani Guado 0 --(17)--> 17 Fail Pull Claw 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Boudicca 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Bestial Brazier 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 0 --(17)--> 17 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azoth 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Falk's Photon Blade 3 Brute Effects: Fanfare -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Gon Guado 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Collapse Effects: Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Timu Guado and Pani Guado have 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> Timu Guado and Pani Guado have posed.
It is thanks to Boudicca that the Ronso accosting the Guado back off, albeit with a mean-spirited guffaw that the mountain will judge them unworthy. Timu breaks with her Guado-born arrogance with a dipped nod of thanks to the protective Boudicca, as Pani takes in Ida's pledge to help see them through with a much more overt and heartfelt 'thank you' and a resulting, precocious bow to remind that she is still a young child who has otherwise drank deep of strictly imposed formalities and manners.
The cold is harsh and unrelenting, and it will never get easier. Timu's claw loses grip and threatens to send herself further back in a freak gust of wind that seems to mock and belittle their presence, but it is Boudicca who provides warmth with the instruction that they take heart, that they'll surely reach a bluff to break the winds.
Ida, too, struggles with the mortal limitations of needing to keep body heat but sees through this problem by sticking close to two close friends they've come to respect and cherish, leveraging their unique strengths to help keep her strength as Azoth states the obvious.
"So is what our father's doing," Timu reasons to Azoth through clenched - not chattering - teeth as she casts her own spell of curing warmth to soothe already challenged pride.
Pani keeps close to Boudicca and Ida, as if interested in the colors and shapes and already feeling calm, inspired, and confident in Boudicca's kindness. (Timu is kind to her too, but Timu is an older sister, and as an older sister she has her moments of being a bit overbearing.)
Together, the quintet scale up the perilous slopes, but the ice and snow continue to fight their every step.
As it has for any who dare challenge Mount Gagazet, one of the final legs of the Summoner's Pilgrimage.
DG: Seraph Boudicca has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Mount Gagazet *>=============================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - Broken Lines *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The slope you find next is a steep rocky one, but it is easy enough to set a few lines. You get your climbing rope set and start up them. As you're partway up, though, the line suddenly slackens -- and the rope snaps. You will need to grab onto something -- and your friends -- before you take a very unfortunate spill. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Injure=============================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Just as Boudicca promised, here is the bluff.
A bluff which goes up... up... UUUP...
... and there's no other easy way forward.
On the bright side -- with a few little background adjustments on the part of the wind, who is on their side, which is cheating -- the howling Gagazet wind is blowing in such a direction that they're protected from it by the cliff-face. On the other hand,
Boudicca could probably cheat her way up there, but Ida and Pani and Timu have all those muscles and bones they need to respect, and Azoth... well, Azoth's solid, give him that much. With a look back to them, it's Ida, specifically, she's invoking.
"Have you the trick for climbing this stone? I fear 'tis too strenous a proposition for one's hands."
When it comes to HUMAN PREPARATION, Boudicca always has one woman she can count on!!
And so: up they go. Boudicca has tied herself into the procession, too, just so everyone is included. It turns out that was an excellent precaution, because it means she can feel when the line suddenly goes just... a little... slack...
"Beware!" Boudicca calls, as she grabs a ledge with one hand, and the rope with another. Thud, her side slams into the cliff-face, but it's a blessing in disguise: crushing those leaves at her belt releases wind magic which she can direct down, in a hurry, to Float their party and try to make sure no one falls to an untimely... tumble.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
"Miss Boudicca! Miss Ida!" Azoth greets brightly, hiding all manner of unsettling calculations under that smile. "Of course," he says to Boudicca. "You can count on me!"
But Ida asks how he's here, and he grins more sheepishly, rubbing a finger under his nose. "Ah, well, my navigation systems got a little... erroneous. And here I am...!" The smile fades a little, the loneliness in him making the pitiful calculation to allow some of that uncertainty to show on the surface. "...Or... I think it's erroneous." He shakes his head, smiling again quickly enough. "But now I'm here to help. So I suppose it worked out!"
A new objective has formed, one much more certain in its execution: protect Timu and Pani. He looks to Timu. "So you want to stop him... and protect him from that." Another small smile. "Then we'll have to see you safely through." He tries to stand against the winds for the others, but again, well -- he's just not very big. There's only so much he could block.
Boudicca's promised bluff is their respite. Unsurprisingly, there is no wisp of breath from Azoth in the cold either, because he hasn't any breath at all. He does not shiver, and his lips have not a single tinge of blue. As energetic as when he started, he joins in the climb, a quick learner on how to calculate where to place all his limbs until -- Beware.
Azoth only has those rapid calculations to go on now as he tries to snatch out for a ledge to grab onto before he falls too far, and if he can save himself (a tall order), maybe he can grab onto someone else before they slip away. This all occurs with a panicked series of beeps.
DG: Azoth has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Broken Lines.
<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado and Pani Guado have posed.
Lines are set, and the two Guado children among them can follow the instructions and precautions clearly enough (what will not be admitted out loud - Pani 'gets' it faster than her older sister does).
This is a notable detail because Pani cries out in fright when the line starts slacking, as if picking up what this means - even for her gumption, she may be the youngest person to ever try to scale Mt. Gagazet, and she is staring at mortal terror as there is the threat of a terrible fall.
Timu picks up on Pani's distress just as fast, so it's a tie. (no not really)
With the extending machina gauntlet still equipped, Timu has a shout of exertion as she flicks it out to the nearest handhold she can hope to grab, mustering what of her strength she can to hold Pani before they fall. She might liken this to the time the two of them both climbed trees when they were very, very young indeed - far too young to climb as high as Timu did.
She can scarce imagine the father who shouted them down and scolded them with such fear and concern is the same man who would go forth and show zero empathy or warmth to the Ronso, and it is that anger and frustration underneath that pumps that adrenaline as she is staking so much on that machina claw keeping hold of something.
Azoth may pledge to see them through safely, but they have to pull their weight too.
DG: Timu Guado and Pani Guado have used their Tool Chain Claw toward their party's challenge, Broken Lines.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Azoth's been forthright about his mechanical troubles before--namely the loss of his memories--but some sort of failure in a "navigation system" is new, at least to Ida. She turns to look at him, frowning slightly beneath her hood, the very image of a concerned elder sister. "Are you all right?" she asks. "This is not a safe place to wander. Do you need someone to tend to you?" A pause. Ida steps closer, lowers her voice. "I don't--want what happened to your memories to happen to the rest of you."
They come to the bluff. Ida looks upwards, frowning at the sheer scale of it. It's ice-coated stone, meaning it's weakened, and parts could crumble away with no warning. Fortunately, Ida has insurance: a rope. Before long, everyone is lashed together, climbing. Ida has taken the lead, and reinforced her body to make the task easier: her customary exoskeletal gauntlets cover both arms, and high-tensile Hyadean muscle tissue threads through Ida's own muscle. Her fingers elongate into blade-like claws, perfect for cutting divots in the rock.
Ida is the first to feel the line grow tense. She stops where she is, hoping to take some of the pressure off, but it's too late--there'a s horrible snap, and suddenly everyone else's weight is on her.
Ida grits her teeth, sets her feet, digs in with both clawed hands. Breath flows through her, and a pulse of green-white ignites beneath her feet. Boudicca's wind grows stronger with Ida's help--Ida herself clings to the wall as if she were the piton holding everyone else in place. In effect, she is.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Zephyr Boots toward her party's challenge, Broken Lines. DG: Seraph Boudicca has used her Tool Breezeruffle Leaves toward her party's challenge, Broken Lines.
=========================<* Mount Gagazet - Round 2 *>========================== ===========================< Results - Broken Lines >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Timu Guado and Pani Guado 17 --(0)--> 17 Pass Chain Claw 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Boudicca 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Breezeruffle Leaves 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 17 --(0)--> 17 Pass Zephyr Boots 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azoth 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Gon Guado 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Collapse|Injure(2)|Slow(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Timu Guado and Pani Guado have 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 Boudicca has posed.
"If your navigation is failing you, you might stay with us a while," Boudicca offered Azoth, gently. All Azoth's friends are worried about him..!
Luckily, Ida has a rope, and knows how to climb. Equally luckily, when it comes to disaster, everyone has that moment of knowing to hold on. Timu grabs Pani, and the breeze bolsters them up to make sure that grip doesn't slip, on the cliff or a sister; it's even steady enough to support Azoth, in that moment, thanks to Ida's amplification. Azoth, of course, as a robot, can absolutely grab that ledge for dear life, and grab onto the dangling rope, to make sure it doesn't fall with the people strapped to it. He's very strong!
(Ida, up there, is also very strong, keeping everything secured in place.)
After those few tense seconds, Boudicca uses her variable weightiness to her advantage to venture down and tie the rope back together, with knots Ida surely showed her back when they were on the open ocean, and they're able to safely make it the rest of the way up the bluff.
... Boudicca keeps the float spell in place until they're on horizontal ground, though. Just in case.
DG: Azoth has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Mount Gagazet *>=============================== ===================<* CHALLENGE - Ever-Changing Landscape *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Before you set out, a Ronso provided some advice about an ice field on the slopes. The ice field has large pillars of ice that make a maze, which is dangerous to cross. It seems that your advice on how to move through it, though, is potentially obsolete. You see that an avalance has fallen through it, and spilled through the maze-like paths through the ice. You will need to navigate it, carefully, and not lose your way. The notes you were given might help. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Wound===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
When Boudicca and Ida express their worries, each in their own way, Azoth allows his expression to fall completely. "...Thank you. I'd appreciate that," he says to Boudicca, unsure how to fully convey how much such an offer eases his calculations. To Ida, Azoth hesitates with his words -- cycling through responses until he pieces together one he's permitted to say -- and finally speaking in a tone more hushed than before. "I'm more worried it isn't an error, if I'm being honest." He doesn't seem able or willing to elaborate further at this time, forcing a weak smile.
But there are CLIFFS and ALMOST FALLING, but almost doesn't count. At the top of it, once everyone solid ground again, Azoth looks them over in concern. "Is everyone all right?" he asks. They may need a moment to catch their breath, he thinks, and he is especially concerned for the two young Guado with them. He smiles at them. "You two are faster learners than I am...! Sorry, I need just a moment..."
He doesn't, but it seems easier for their pride, especially for the older one. It can't be too long. The cold is as much an enemy as anything else. Azoth overclocks himself, generating an aura of heat for the others to stave that off until they've calmed enough to safely set off again.
Where they find a field of ice, with pillars jutting from it to form a winding maze of a path. And with the footing as slick as it is, it won't be simple as a straightforward navigation through its paths, with backtracking dead ends turning to an even more precarious decision.
Azoth bounds up to it like a young puppy encountering its first snow. He knows nothing of Ronso notes, he only knows that this is... indeed...
A PUZZLE
He points to it, looking back at everyone else in unbridled excitement, as if to silently say do you see this?! Well, do you? Look at it, it's beautiful! He offer his hand to Timu and Pani in case they would like assistance in GLORIOUS PUZZLING, before hopping onto the ice and sliding along it with a joyful little hum as he immediately gets to work trying to calculate out a path through it.
If anyone does have those notes, they might have to call it out to him. But he'll pay attention...!
DG: Azoth has used his Tool Oculus ex Machina toward his party's challenge, Ever-Changing Landscape.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"It was quite a scare!" Boudicca agrees, and passes out some water and snacks once they're on solid ground again. Thankfully, Azoth is keeping them warm. (Boudicca does her best to make sure the wind won't blow away all that warmth.)
And so, they come to... the ice fields! Boudicca pulls out the Ronso's notes from her pack, puzzling over them. "Let us see... Yahra advised me of this," she explains, because Boudicca remembers NPC's names. "He said we ought to traverse widdershins through..."
Here Boudicca looks up -- she's floating an inch or so over the ground, so she's not slipping so much -- and sees the avalanche.
"Oh," Boudicca says. "Oh, dear. But how are we to go on when that entryway is barred?" Boudicca flips through her notes, with a frown of concern. "How troubling..! Timu, Pani, have you an idea?"
Boudicca, who is friend to all children, happens to know that the youth are ESPECIALLY good at finding ways through places they're not supposed to be in.
DG: Seraph Boudicca has used her Tool Emergency Supplies toward her party's challenge, Ever-Changing Landscape.
<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado and Pani Guado have posed.
Pani needs a little bit of time to be consoled, but there's only so much time. Both of them have been forced to grow up too soon, by their choice, when they both stayed in Bevelle. Timu, already, has seen ranges of injury and death she did not think possible, and she literally was born right next to the entry of what is believed to be Spira's afterlife. Eventually, she nods to Azoth, as Timu casts her birthright sorcery to keep their warmth.
They find the field of ice ahead, that dangerous winding maze. Among the Guado children, the Ronso (naturally) did not give them any sort of kind help or advice. The elder sister's tension mounts through the lens of Guado arrogance and the difficult-to-shed expectation of some things being Just So.
"I want to go on the Pilgrimage one day, too," says Pani, who does not yet grasp that such a thing will soon be at its end.
"I feel like I'm already your Guardian," Timu remarks. Pani is not a Summoner yet, for she is far, far, far too young.
"I wanted to meet Leviathan," Pani says with sadness in her voice, for she was turned away from them.
Still, such is their resolve - even without being Summoners, even without the protection of an Aeon or three, they are on technically the final leg of the Pilgrimage right then and there.
Boudicca inquires among the both of them. Timu has that Guado Scowl on her face (a perfect match for her father's), mounting frustration...
Pani taps her staff on the ground a few times. The first three, for balance. The next...
"I can cast Ice," Pani says. Adding more ice will not help. "Maybe I can find a way...!" Those with the gift of Althena's Blessing, and ample enough potential and proficiency aside, do tend to have a strong enough affinity within their element to sense fluctuations and weaknesses in its energies. Maybe, just maybe?
It could be little more than a child's fancies to cope with how difficult this all is.
DG: Timu Guado and Pani Guado have contributed a Wits Basic Action toward their party's challenge, Ever-Changing Landscape.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Azoth's admission earns a small, gentle smile, and a pat on the shoulder. "We'll take care of you," she whispers. "No matter what happens." If only she knew.
Once she's got solid ground beneath her feet, Ida sinks to her knees, breathing slowly as she rolls her shoulders. She didn't pull anything, thankfully, but she came awfully close--and it's best to let her body rest a moment before continuing. But she doesn't linger long--she knows that if she loses sight of the others, she could lose them altogether. As soon as she's recovered, Ida rises, and follows after the rest.
"Did he?" Ida says, frowning thoughtfully as she surveys the maze before them. "He didn't seem like--"
And then Azoth is off, a cheerful hum dopplering out behind him. Ida hangs back, keeping an eye on the two children as they start to pick their way through the maze. She pulls out a small chisel-like tool from a belt pouch, holding it in a gauntleted hand. She no longer has her talons, making it easier to gouge out careful little markings in the ice.
Ida doesn't speak, for a long moment. She lets the girls voice their thoughts; it wasn't that long ago she was listening to her mother's stories, and hoping she could someday be a Drifter, too.
"It's good to have dreams," she says, looking down at them with a gentle, sisterly smile. "But remember--the future isn't set in stone. Whatever awaits you, remember that." A pause, as she makes another marking. "Check forty-five degrees northwest," she says, to Azoth. And then it's back to talking to Timu and Pani. "And remember that you have each other."
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Ever-Changing Landscape.
=========================<* Mount Gagazet - Round 3 *>========================== =====================< Results - Ever-Changing Landscape >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Timu Guado and Pani Guado 17 --(29)--> 46 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Boudicca 5 --(29)--> 34 Fail Emergency Supplies 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 17 --(29)--> 46 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azoth 5 --(29)--> 34 Fail Oculus ex Machina 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Gon Guado 40 --(15)--> 55 Fail Conditions: Collapse|Injure(1)|Slow(1)|Stupify(2)|Wound(2) Effects: Cleanse ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Timu Guado and Pani Guado have 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> Azoth has posed.
In a terribly unfortunate turn of events, it turns out the notes Boudicca has with her does, in fact, contain obsolete advice. And in beseeching the children, well... adding more ice could only add more puzzle! Azoth would enjoy this -- everyone else may not.
But the ice is thick and opaque, and everything looks very much the same. Have they gone the wrong way? Did they turn back to the same spot? It's difficult to tell, and the footing slides them in circles they do not realize immediately they're going in.
It takes considerable time to get through the maze, is what we're saying. Enough that frustration and exhaustion may begin to sink in. The cold that surrounds them is relentless. And yet, all the same, when they finally find the exit...
Azoth cheerfully speaks out a: "Ba da da ba!" of success. Because despite the horribly increasing frustrations, the difficulty only seemed to make him happier.
He turns to the other, bright eyed and chipper. "Adventuring has its challenges... but every now and then, something like this makes it totally worth it!"
...
Whether this is encouraging or discouraging for would-be adventurers is their question to answer.
DG: Timu Guado and Pani Guado have drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Mount Gagazet *>=============================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Falling Serac *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You hear a terrible whistling from above. Then, several small chunks of ice fall down -- shattering with violent, icy explosions -- amidst you. Then, up above, you see it: a house-sized chunk of ice, called a serac, that comes crashing down down towards you. You will need to run to dodge it. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Exhaust========================================
<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado and Pani Guado have posed.
Timu's frustration starts to get the better of her through that maze, pushing her MP reserves close to the limit in keeping them warm as Pani just doesn't quite have the mastery of her element to see them through clearly - but Azoth's cheer is infectious enough that Pani joins with a little smile.
To Ida's advice, Pani nods along as someone eager and obedient enough to Adult Figures(tm) she'll listen even if she doesn't grasp. She's a few years out from really exploring independence like Timu herself has. Pani does get closer to her sister at mention of the two having one another - it feels like they might be the only two Guado left in the world between them, at least among ones who haven't tried to abandon or subjugate the rest of Spira to Seymour's wishes out of blind loyalty.
As they break out, there's a horrible whistling noise above. Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad.
Timu is the one who gasps in fear as a non-injurious chunk of snow strikes her, as icy explosions rain around and among them. Just in time to see a huge honkin' hunk of ice (house-sized) starting to collapse towards them.
(it's called a serac! s-e-r-a-c! educational!!)
Timu lashes out the machina claw at anything she can in order to pull themselves to safety, as the skies darken underneath the slipping, squashing serac.
Pani refuses to be a mere bystander, trying to siphon off some of the ice into an aimed Blizzard spell before it can crush any of the others - but her powers, advanced as they are for her age, have a limit.
DG: Timu Guado and Pani Guado have used their Tool Chain Claw toward their party's challenge, Falling Serac.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"Leviathan is a great and wending figure, who brings the force of ocean to the sky," Boudicca relates her own experience with the Aeon, to Pani, gently. "Perhaps one day, you will truly see it for yourself."
Sadly, Boudicca's attempts to apply advice which isn't applicable any more only serves to make the situation worse. Plus, she keeps encouraging the ice mage! At least she doesn't have to slip around like everyone else. Why do Seraphim cheat so much, all the time? No one knows that.
"It is all right," Boudicca assures them, after a particularly frustrating turn-around. "Right now, we may rely on each other!"
Boudicca can possibly be that encouraging because she finds the cold more novel than life-threatening. At least she's still trying to keep the worst of the wind off of them.
They do, at least, eventually break out. "What a relie--"
She doesn't even get three words in before there's a crinkle-crash of ice, and Timu gasping. "-- ah!!" Boudicca cries, as she looks up to see that, perhaps, the avalanche wasn't all done yet. "Run!"
A hand slipping into the pocket at her belt, and Boudicca crushes a handful of leaves to give them the fleetness of air in the running, wind magic at their heels to get them out from under the s-e-r-a-c.
DG: Seraph Boudicca has used her Tool Breezeruffle Leaves toward her party's challenge, Falling Serac.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida keeps chipping those markings into the walls--S-shapes that cannot easily be mistaken for natural formations. At the very least, they'll come in handy if they have to turn around and go back--but fortunately, while the navigation is long and grueling, it doesn't come to that. Ida emerges on the other side, huddled in her cloak for warmth. After a moment, she pulls the scarf up over her face. The cold is getting even worse. Pani's magic is doing much of the heavy lifting, but it's obvious the young Guado is growing more drained. Any little thing Ida can do to keep the frostbite away will also make her life easier.
"Hah," Ida says, exhaling a plume of white mist through her thick scarf. "We--"
Something whistles from high above. Ida's head whips up, and her senses kick into overdrive. She sees the falling ice shelf, and breaks into a dead sprint. "MOVE!" she screams, and motes of green-white light erupt from below and behind. The wind picks up, propelling Ida forwards; she grabs for Pani, just in case, as she surges ahead.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Zephyr Boots toward her party's challenge, Falling Serac.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth smiles back at Pani, because even if their objective is one of gravity, they still deserve some joy within their trial. It warms a little as he sees them move closer in response to Ida's remark. "...Your father is lucky to have you, too." He hopes that, for both their sake and the sake of their father, they can reach him -- and he doesn't mean by crossing the physical distance between them.
Families shouldn't be torn apart.
There's little time to reflect on that before the ice crashes toward them. A serac, if you want to get technical! Azoth gives another frightened, high pitched beep sequence of warning as he makes his own dive to escape.
The most important thing is making sure Timu and Pani are well clear of the way. If Azoth ends up lagging behind... at least he's likely to survive the impact of a serac.
DG: Azoth has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Falling Serac.
=========================<* Mount Gagazet - Round 4 *>========================== ==========================< Results - Falling Serac >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Timu Guado and Pani Guado 46 --(0)--> 46 Pass Chain Claw 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Boudicca 34 --(0)--> 34 Pass Breezeruffle Leaves 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 46 --(0)--> 46 Pass Zephyr Boots 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azoth 34 --(0)--> 34 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Gon Guado 55 --(20)--> 75 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Hesitate(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Timu Guado and Pani Guado have 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> Timu Guado and Pani Guado have posed.
The explosion of ice, water, and snow that cannot decide where its loyalties lie between the factions of 'solid' and 'liquid' as they carve their own separate states within the nation of Matter in a cold war (what) leaves a catastrophic, earth-shattering impact in its wake. Deafening, blinding, frightening. The Drifter occupation is fraught with peril, and any given obstacle in an expedition can mark the early grave of the unwary or even the unlucky through no fault of their own.
Silence passes in its wake for a time, where no one would be faulted for assuming the worst of their friends and allies, scattered for the moment as they are - they may call out to one another, and find them called back to. It won't take long for them to acknowledge that a miracle unto itself happened, understated but very real. That sreac (no, dammit, s-e-r-a-c) was poised to leave more pyreflies in its wake from the fallen.
Pani holds up a leaf like it's her lifeline, as Timu holds her close in a sisterly hug - but they're all right. They're colder, but they're all right.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Mount Gagazet *>===============================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Into Thin Air *>=========================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
You come to a mountain ledge on the other side of Mount Gagazet. From here,
it is a simple climb downward -- there are even stairs carved into the
stone, to help -- and you have sight of the end of the summoner's journey:
Zanarkand. Its ruined spires tower in the distance, though a smaller peak is
between you and the bulk of the ruined city. That one, at least, has a cave.
But then you hear it: a massive, terrible rumble. Then, you look up to see a
huge wall of snow, ice, and boulders pouring down. An avalanche is falling
straight for you.
=Dungeon Conditions: Cripple==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
That was entirely too close.
The group huddles together, Pani and Timu holding each other for warmth and comfort and reassurance. It's a damn good idea. If he'll allow it, Ida wraps an arm around Azoth's shoulders and pulls him close. He can feel the tension in her body--she's trembling, slightly, as her body recovers from the fear and exertion. If she's so inclined, Boudicca can join in too.
A group hug, on the side of a hellish mountain? Sure, why not. There are enough corpses here that the locals sometimes use them for mile-markers when they can't be easily retrieved. No one joined them today. That's worth celebrating. "We're almost there," she says, letting go and turning to the sisters. "The air's growing thinner. Can you feel it? Just a little further."
Ida takes the lead again. The trail curves, and starts a lengthy descent. "...Stairs?" Ida says, as she notices that there's carved stone beneath the snow. "Who could've made them?" And then, after a few more minutes, she sees light gleaming on ancient, pitted metal. Ida stops in her tracks, staring at the ancient city with wonder in her eyes. "Come along," she says, gesturing to the others. "Just a few miles left."
But Ida hasn't let down her guard. Something destabilized that ice shelf, and she's been on enough mountains to know that an avalanche is a distinct possibility. As something rumbles up above, she reacts suddenly, instinctively. "Run, run!" she shouts. She gestures furiously towards the city, and takes off with another of those jetting, wind-assisted leaps. The breeze lingers in her wake, providing a boost to anyone following her--whether running or leaping, the wind has their back. Ida isn't leaving the others behind so much as braving the icy ground, moving as fast as she dares, leaving a trail for them to follow.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Zephyr Boots toward her party's challenge, Into Thin Air.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Hugs... are nice! Boudicca is still an awkward hugger, but she participates nonetheless. She hopes Azoth's systems are dealing all right with this chill. Do robots freeze?
The air, she thinks, is doing her best; nature is not made for space, and they are closer to it than they ought to be, this far up. "Just a little further," she encourages, instead of quibbling.
"'Tis a holy mountain, after all," Boudicca supposes, when they come to the mystery of the stairs. "Perhaps the Ronso came here... long ago." They are the stewards of Gagazet; it's only natural, to Boudicca, that they would gentle it.
Companionably, she supposes, to Timu and Pani: "Stairs are much nicer to climb than cliff-faces, are they not? I am much relieved!" Maybe it's also a little permission for those two to be tired, if even the spirit is happy for the help.
Unfortunately, it's not that easy. And with a rumble and a 'run!', suddenly, all those good feelings are gone. "Ah--!" Boudicca exclaims, as she crunches the remainder of her leaves, to give them a tailwind to get ahead of the crushing ice.
But if anyone falls behind, they may find that Boudicca...
... is absolutely not adverse to just picking them up and running off with them.
DG: Seraph Boudicca has used her Tool Breezeruffle Leaves toward her party's challenge, Into Thin Air.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth does call out, the panic synthesized in his voice a perfect imitation of the real thing. Once they're all finally back together, he heats himself back up again to provide some warmth to everyone. Ida hugs onto him, and he makes sure the temperature isn't so hot it would burn the touch -- she should be able to find some respite. Boudicca is welcome. So are Pani and Timu, if they find themselves drawn to the heat.
They continue onward. Azoth runs his navigational data again. It just doesn't make any sense. Then, there it is: the ruins of Zanarkand. Azoth stares blankly at the city. He does not seem to hear Ida bidding them all to continue, hand over his chest, where his core sits.
Even with the first of the rumbling, he does not react with animated shock, but a dull look back. There is a terrible moment his programming calculates a possible solution to his problems.
His eyes flash red. It's the overrides that demand he make his best effort to flee from the incoming avalanche.
DG: Azoth has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Into Thin Air.
<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado and Pani Guado have posed.
It wasn't so long ago, when the Drifter community among the Otherworlders would go to Guadosalam and find the Guado were just... distant. They acted aloof, were interested only in performing the duties asked of them, and seemed to prefer that the non-Guado just do what they're there for and continue along their way. To watch the sisters act and be so vulnerable and open to one another, with three others who are decidedly non-Guado and each strange in their own ways...
Some cultural behaviors themselves may, indeed, not be set in stone. The two sisters may be the stepping stone to a better, kinder people should they survive Seymour's fell aims... or the legitimate grievances of those who were besieged upon by their Guardian soldiers.
"...I can feel it," Pani says with no uncertain amount of awe, having a greater heightened spiritual sensitivity than her older sister (who is no slouch there herself). Tears are starting to well in her eyes. In a way, she's getting to live a childhood dream right here and now, in a context removed from why. "We're almost there... we're almost there," her voice is tired. This is an arduous journey for anyone - but here she is, barely older than ten years, having somehow kept up.
"There's rumbling," Timu says, with much less cheer in her voice, "there's rumbling!" She should not be shouting beforehand, but here it comes - another wave of crushing, freezing ice. This is not the best environ for fast movements, because a slip on a staircase and there will be more Fiends poised to take out their feelings of envy and hatred for the living.
Timu takes hold and aim of a certain someone's machina gauntlet, and hurls it one last time for something, anything, to grab onto and pull up if they can't outrun it. The Guado boast the best foot speed of the intelligent races of Spira, owing to their long legs - and Timu's athleticisim, so far, has been of benefit to her ability to traverse an environ her kind typically do not do well in.
(she does cheat with the White aspect of Fire there, in fairness)
They did not come this far to be stopped from stopping their father, who may well already be dead - but they have to make a principled stand for what they believe. (also, a principled sprint, but... semantics)
DG: Timu Guado and Pani Guado have used their Tool Chain Claw toward their party's challenge, Into Thin Air.
=========================<* Mount Gagazet - Round 5 *>========================== ==========================< Results - Into Thin Air >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Timu Guado and Pani Guado 46 --(12)--> 58 Fail Chain Claw 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Boudicca 34 --(0)--> 34 Pass Breezeruffle Leaves 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 46 --(0)--> 46 Pass Zephyr Boots 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azoth 34 --(12)--> 46 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Gon Guado 75 --(35)--> 110 Pass Conditions: Cripple|Hesitate(1) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Timu Guado and Pani Guado have successfully explored Mount Gagazet!
==============================<* Mount Gagazet *>=============================== ==========================<* CHALLENGE - 20,000 Gil *>========================== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- As you make your way towards the cave leading to Zanarkand, you see something in the snow: a still sealed treasure chest, covered in ice. With a little work, you manage to open it... and find it has thousands of gil inside. It seems this was the personal funds of some now-dead traveler, in ages past, and had likely been buried under the snow until freed by an avalance. =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Four tons of snow and rock surge down the mountainside, a billowing curtain of white. This is the sort of avalanche that sweeps people away, and if they're lucky, simply crushes them to death. The unlucky ones get buried alive. Ida sprints as though Valmar himself were clawing at her heels, leaving sharp, buoyant gusts in her wake. Boudicca, being of the wind herself, is the best-equipped to find and follow them. Even then, each one is visible as a cloud of bright green motes, swirling in the direction Ida leapt. Azoth, Pani, and Timu can follow them, too.
Pani and Timu try their best, but the avalanche had a head-start on them. The chain claw flies, burying itself in a rock shelf fifty feet ahead--giving the two of them a lifeline in the face of certain death. Even then, clinging to it may prove futile. The first wave of snow reaches them, and it's like being shoved by an enraged Ronso. But Boudicca...
Ida didn't shout for Boudicca to help the sisters, because she knows, in her heart of hearts, that her attentiveness was never in question. Neither was her selflessness. Boudicca sweeps the two Guado up, tucking one under each arm, and sprints for it. The sisters are in for quite a ride as Boudicca leaps from one gust to another.
Azoth, likewise, runs into difficulties. Despite his initial, alarming reluctance, he makes some headway before the avalanche catches up with him. He, at least, is heavier than the two sisters, but there's more than enough mass to sweep him away. From the cave's mouth, Ida turns back and sees the snow rushing up around his ankles. "AZOTH!" she screams, eyes wide with panic.
Ida steps forward, plants a foot onto the cave floor with a solid CRUNCH. Biometal spikes dig into the earth. She sweeps her arms forward, and twin tendrils snap loose from her wrists, flying through the air. The tendons wrap around the android's shoulders, and start pulling tight. For the second time today, Ida makes an anchor of herself as she reels the android in, pulling with all the strength her augmented body can muster.
It feels like it takes forever, but the avalanche subsides, leaving the party safe and sound inside the cave entrance.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Boudicca doesn't have a saddle to scoop people up into, these days, but she has two big, broad arms, and a personal self-conception who lifts. (How important this is, for Seraphs, is left up to question, but regardless she's able to scoop the sisters up from their own efforts to get away, just before some ice crashes in.)
It turns out Wind Seraphs can go very, VERY fast. She manages to outrun the very mountain itself -- into that welcome cave.
Once they're safe inside, she puts Timu and Pani back down; she's relieved to see Ida helped Azoth, too. "Is... is everyone all right?" She ventures, in the silence after the snow.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Calculations play out rapidly, pitting Azoth's own speed against that of the avalanche and wildly plugging in possibilities and numbers to see if there is any way to make the former value higher than the latter.
There isn't. But worse than that is neither can Pani or Timu, but then Boudicca's there, and that's what matters, and Azoth realizes it'd be more pragmatic to save his charge for digging himself out of this knowing he can't outrun it, and he slows --
--- and then Ida has him, pushing herself into her transformation to seize hold and he's pulled into the cave, just in time for the snow to devour the space where he used to be and any other space he could have gotten himself to. His eyes are pinched shut, hand over his face so they won't see that blue's turned red as he shakes his head. "...I'm sorry... Thank you..."
<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado and Pani Guado have posed.
The sisters are taken into Boudicca's loving, careful, strong embrace. The level of movement through the skies is strange and foreign to them - Pani's gasping in understandable child-like fear and fright, where Timu manages to compartmentalize the idea to being similar to swimming through water very, very quickly without the weight and pressure of the water itself on her - she's a Blitzballer, and in a time of emotional need she's going to hold onto ideas and thoughts that are familiar.
When they make it to the cave, they're able to stand on their own two feet (but Pani, exhausted a child as she is, is left kneeling and breathless - her sister lays hands and channels what strength she has through more Fire-aspected Cure magic).
"...Thank you," Pani gasps out, holding onto her staff for support. The staff is a bit large for her to hold.
"Thank you," Timu is thus shamed by her little sister to say this before she forgets, drawing back her hands and doing a proper bow like said younger sister did when they first met, letting the arrogant resting face melt to something filled with more gratitude.
Pani lets loose a breath. "If... if I feel a Fiend is about to form," she states to the gathered, "I can shape the pyreflies into weaker ones."
They may have a moment to rest, based on that.
Timu sizes up her saviors, Blitzball now in her oversized hands as if in anticipation for something worse than weak, barely there Fiends. She has a lot of questions - the way Ida changes form, the way Boudicca's arms are a match for almost any Ronso she's ever seen (and the flying), almost everything about Azoth. Everyone's tired, frightened... but Timu comes forth to an Azoth who was shy of letting something happen, extending a free hand to work up at least one more Cure spell for him.
For all the ways the Guado visually dress down everyone from under their noses, Timu is not about to look a gift chocobo in the beak - they're all in this together.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The tendril-tendons pull free of Azoth's shoulders, snaking back into Ida's arms. The first thing she does is pull him into another hug, close and tight; she buries her face in his neck for a moment, and lets out tension in a low, choking sob. Only then does she let go. Only then does she see the glimmer of red peeking out from beneath his eyelids, and his hands.
What happened back there? Why had he hesitated? Was it another problem with his navigational system?
Or was it something she dare not consider?
Pani and Timu aren't in very good shape, either. "It was nothing," Ida says. It wasn't nothing, but she and Boudicca certainly weren't going to leave them. "Please, rest." A moment passes. Ida nods when Pani makes her offer. "Thank you. But pace yourselves. We made it through this stretch, but we've still got the city ahead of us." She takes a flask of water off her belt, pulls down her scarf, and drinks. "And a father to find, for that matter."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Azoth's hint of red is concerning, of course, and so are Timu and Pani's weariness, and so is Ida's continuing transformation. But they can stop here, and rest, and in sitting down one might say --
"Oh!"
Because one has just sat atop a half-buried treasure chest.
"I think," Boudicca says, to Timu and Pani, "it would be a fine idea for us to return this to the Ronso when we return... and," she assures her, in the memory of their snarling, "we can do it together."
Returning the riches which were lost on the Ronso's holy mountain...
... it's a small act of reconciliation, but it's one Timu and Pani can proudly step into, having found this all on their own, with just a little help.