2021-07-05: Trial of the Mountain
- Log: Trial of the Mountain
- Cast: Tidus, Rikku, Yuna, Lulu
- Where: Mount Gagazet
- Date: July 05, 2021
- Summary: Having defeated Seymour, the pilgrimage party ascends further up Mt. 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
DG: A party led by Tidus is now entering Mount Gagazet. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
==============================<* 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> Tidus has posed.
As satisfying as it was to beat Seymour up again, there were three sobering realities. One, that he was sure to show up again at some point... two, what he'd told us about slaughtering the Ronso... and three: the truth about Sin being... my dad... was out. But we couldn't head back. We still had a lot of ground to cover, and it was true that we couldn't waste what they'd done for us. So... we had to keep going forward, until we reached Zanarkand.
Though Mt. Gagazet may seem solid and impenetrable from the outside, reach high enough on its summit and one will find a system of caverns crawling through it. Some of them are flooded; some of them are clear. But one has to *reach* them first, and while Seymour might have jumped Tidus and his friends on a small plateau somewhat protected from the cold and frost, there's a long stretch between there and the caverns on ahead.
"This is ridiculous. It feels like it's even colder *now* than when we started," Tidus utters once the group steps out into the wind and technically the sun. He raises an arm to shield his eyes; the light reflects so brilliantly off the snow that it's literally glaring. Not a great juxtaposition against the utter cold of the wind, which makes the actual cold of the mountain feel-- "It's like it's a solid ten degrees colder!"
For all his complaining, though, Tidus doesn't stop trucking onwards. Even the complaints are more meant to give everyone something else to focus on, though how effective that'll be is yet to be seen. As one of the taller members of the group--well, okay, he's actually solidly in the middle--the best thing he can do for everyone else is give them a nice long shadow to hide their own eyes in.
...Probably Kimahri, Wakka, and Auron will be doing better jobs of that, though. At least it's something they can do--that Kimahri, specifically, can do--to keep from dwelling on the violence that took place at the foot of the mountain.
DG: Tidus has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Into the Cold.
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
For all that just happened... Gagazet is a daunting task... one that she has to focus on...
... she doesn't have time not to think about it anymore. Jecht is Sin. If Seymour becomes Sin - Jecht will be free. If Yuna keeps going onward to Zanarkand... if she obtains the final Aeon...
Rikku says to herself, as if a solution is in the midst of a Gordian Knot of threads and she has no idea how to untangle them all.
...especially since Mount Gagazet tries to put all of her focus on the cold. The best alchemy she had to take the edge off cold desert nights and it's STILL freezing.
"Y-You're telling me!" Rikku shivers, "It feels like the wind's gonna cut us to the bone out here!"
Rikku trudges through the snow though, as she heads up to Tidus... and...
There's things she wants to talk about. About what Tidus just revealed, but not right now. Instead... she just says quietly over the wind.
"I still haven't thought of anything... what are we gonna do?"
... and maybe it's kinder to just, talk about this. Like nothing has changed, because in her eyes...
... nothing has. They're still friends, and fellow Guardians who both have a single goal.
... preserving Yuna, no matter what happens next.
DG: Rikku has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Into the Cold.
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
Yuna is quiet. She's given Tidus absolution for his father, and recommitted to Jecht's defeat, but there's still a great deal for her to think about and despite Auron's attempts to divert her mind, she continues to chew over all of it in silence.
Before Seymour, she was often in the middle of the group, but now she's climbing like a woman possessed, and is the vanguard even though that makes no physical sense AT ALL. Being tiny and light doesn't seem to be slowing her down, though. She often stops and reaches back to give someone else a hand, especially Rikku (also small), Lulu (small relative to the boys), and Tidus (because she likes holding his hand).
But though she smiles encouragement at them with her comically mountain-chapped lips, something else is in her eyes. Something deeply, even profoundly, disturbed.
'He will become Sin... with my help.'
And something else is in her other hand.
She clutches a sphere like a talisman. Violet, violent; it isn't USED, right now, for destroying anything. But for some reason, she holds onto the memory of what transpired at Macalania very tightly indeed.
DG: Yuna has used her Tool Macalania Destruction Sphere toward her party's challenge, Into the Cold.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
"The higher up we go, the colder it's going to get." Lulu falls into the old habit of explaining things, even simple things that perhaps don't need it, as they walk. Her heavy clothing keeps snow and ice; she keeps walking, thinking of what they've learned, and what it means. She still doesn't know.
...But she can't keep her mind on just that; Gagazet itself keeps her attention, as well as Yuna herself. Every so often, she gets help from Yuna, but Yuna may not realize how much she's helping just by being there.
Her eyes linger on the occasional gravestones placed.
DG: Lulu has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Into the Cold.
==============================<* 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=================================================
=========================<* Mount Gagazet - Round 1 *>========================== ==========================< Results - Into the Cold >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tidus 0 --(17)--> 17 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rikku 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lulu 0 --(17)--> 17 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yuna 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Macalania Destruction Sphere 2 Brute Effects: Fanfare and Rally -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Tidus 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Collapse Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Tidus 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> Tidus has posed.
"Why, though?" Tidus presses when Lulu makes her explanation. "We're closer to the sun! Shouldn't it be, I dunno... at least not *as* cold?" Of course, it probably *is* 'not as cold' compared to how cold it would be if it were overcast... but Tidus isn't thinking of that.
And of course, they've only got Seymour's word that Jecht would be freed. And, frankly, given that Seymour believes *death* is freedom, Tidus is pretty sure that Seymour becoming Sin would just mean his old man's death. And... it's not like Tidus *likes* the old man any better. He still hates him. But... after everything he's experienced, after all he's seen and been through, that hatred is cut with something else now. What it is, even he isn't quite sure.
Either way they cut it, Tidus has no intention of letting Seymour get his way, no matter *what* happens to his old man.
"Good question," he mutters out of the corner of his mouth to Rikku. "I haven't come up with anything either." Thinking and waiting... two things he's bad at. He does have some comfort that there'll be other people joining up with them at Zanarkand, but they've got their own concerns. He can't rely on them to come up with a solution. *He* made this decision, so *he* has to see it through. He just... doesn't know how yet.
So at the very least, when Yuna takes lead, Tidus picks up his pace to at least be by her side. When it's his turn to get a hand from her, he accepts it gladly, squeezing her hand and giving her a smile. It's his own way of giving her encouragement in return for the encouragement she gave him.
He can complain about the temperature all he likes, but there's something much colder still weighing on all their hearts. The occasional gravestones of fallen Guardians and Summoners, with no one having been present to Send them, litter the pathways.
DG: Lulu has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Mount Gagazet *>=============================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - Mech Leaders *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You move up a narrow ledge, a switch back twisting around it. As you move, though, you hear a strange, metallic sound. Then, there is a flash of ozone odor, and a blast of lightning shoots out and slams into the mountainside near you. Then, you hear mechanical noises -- as a group of wide-bodied machina, vaguely H-shaped, stand up. They loose bolts of lightning, as they start to rush towards you. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Weaken============================================
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
"Thinner air." Pause. "...Though it would be colder still if the sun weren't out."
Seymour is many things--a liar among them--but Lulu does not think he lies in this case, at least, not entirely. But they will stop him, one way or another. Lulu is not privy to--or perhaps she does hear, and doesn't interfere in--the conversation between RIkku and Tidus for now. She just watches Yuna and Tidus walk together for a few moments, before...
Bzzt.
Lulu jumps out of the way of a lightning blast, the Cait Sith doll in her arm faintly luminous with magical power--which in this case helped her step out of the way. "Other there!" she says, as they loose more bolts of lightning, machina coming towards them. They are large, wide-side, with...
All sorts of interesting parts on display!
DG: Lulu has used her Tool Ominous Cait Sith toward her party's challenge, Mech Leaders.
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
Whether she's taking from or giving strength to her Guardians with her handholds -- definitely both -- Yuna speaks for the first time in a while after they're being attacked. The sphere vanishes back inside her raiment.
"As old as these cairns are," she says softly, low-voiced with sorrow but also with a certain wonder -- she occupies a complex intersection of emotions, as they surmount the holy mountain of summoning -- "These machina are even older."
They were told the story by that lovely historian at Gagazet's base. How the hymn of the fayth was once Zanarkand's hymn, a symbol of defiance against Bevelle, later adopted and co-opted by the priesthood of Yevon.
Which means that the machina they see now... aren't Zanarkand's at all? They're from the Great War, but in that war, it was Zanarkand that fielded summoners, not Bevelle. And that puts an entirely new spin on her Al Bhed training -- on the knowledge of how to dismantle machina.
"They remind me of the ones in the Via Purifico," she murmurs, before cocking her head, ducking under Lulu's lightning, sharing a quick glance with Rikku--
--before pulling at half of one's mechanism like a wishbone, leaving the other half for her cuz to play with.
DG: Yuna has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Mech Leaders.
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
"Why's thinner air mean it's colder?" This time, Tidus is genuinely curious, rather than just making noise for the sake of a distraction. It doesn't make sense to him, but Lulu's smart and has never lied (not *overtly*) to him before, so she must be right. He just doesn't get how.
Machina rumble out to the sound of thunderbolts, and Tidus instinctively pushes himself between them and Yuna as he draws his sword. "Machina? Up here?" he utters, eyes widening in surprise. He shoots a glance Rikku's way. "Did the Al Bhed put them here, or...?" After all, this is the last stretch before Zanarkand. If someone wanted to keep a Summoner from completing their pilgrimage, it makes sense to set up sentinels here, too.
But Yuna explains what she'd heard from the historian at the foot of the mountain, that these were machina from that 1000-year-old war. He shoots them a look when she compares them to the ones in the Via Purifico. "Huh. They *do* look alike, now that you mention it," he says.
As Yuna and Rikku move to dismantle the machina, and Lulu calls down bolts of lightning, Tidus dashes forward, does a handstand-flip over one, and boots its behind when he lands. "Hey! Over here, you dumb buckets of bolts!" he jeers, then runs for it, attempting to serve as a distraction as the others take them out one by one. He tosses a hi-ether Lulu's way as he goes so she can keep the spells up.
DG: Tidus has used his Tool Baskar Hi-Ether toward his party's challenge, Mech Leaders.
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
The idea of 'What if we don't' looms large. The idea of there being no other way used to be so large that she resolved it by helping kidnap Yuna after all.
"Alright. I'll keep thinking. If you come up with anything - I'm always available for the pitch!"
She lets him go though. And they all might see Rikku struggling, at times taking out her shivering to wave her hands over her head. At times accepting help from Yuna because... well... she's quite small, and knows when she needs a hand.
The blast of lightning gets her attention though.
"AAAAAAH!"
The primal fear of Astraphobia is like a defibrillator towards her thought paralysis, the cyclical nature of going back and forth from one bad idea after another.
"Y-You're right, they seem real similar..." Beat as she adds, "...I don't like the Zappy ones."
As scared as she is in the moment, Rikku catches Yuna's look, and gets... this look of mischief.
Yuna grabs one end, she grabs the other, and yanks it out with practiced deftness.
And yet in the aftermath
"I wanna see!"
As she holds up her part to Yuna's, as if putting two halves back together. And nudges her in an act of familial camaraderie and says, proud, "You took that out so fast! You even beat me to it!"
DG: Rikku has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Mech Leaders.
==============================<* Mount Gagazet *>=============================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - Mech Leaders *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You move up a narrow ledge, a switch back twisting around it. As you move, though, you hear a strange, metallic sound. Then, there is a flash of ozone odor, and a blast of lightning shoots out and slams into the mountainside near you. Then, you hear mechanical noises -- as a group of wide-bodied machina, vaguely H-shaped, stand up. They loose bolts of lightning, as they start to rush towards you. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Weaken============================================
=========================<* Mount Gagazet - Round 2 *>========================== ===========================< Results - Mech Leaders >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tidus 17 --(0)--> 17 Pass Baskar Hi-Ether 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rikku 5 --(12)--> 17 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lulu 17 --(0)--> 17 Pass Ominous Cait Sith 2 Combat Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yuna 5 --(12)--> 17 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Tidus 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Collapse|Weaken(2)|Wound(2) Effects: Cleanse ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Tidus has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Yuna has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Mount Gagazet *>=============================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Narrow Ice Paths *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You come to a chasm. No switchbacks seem to lead down -- nor do you spot any on the other side leading up. There are, however, thick cones of ice that reach across the chasm. Some may be brittle, but some look sturdy enough to let you shimmy across. Nonetheless, they are very slippery -- and a fall could be very perilous indeed. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Wound==============================================
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Lulu might have really had an answer! But the attack comes, cutting off Tidus's lesson about air pressure for now.
The machina are ancient, and yet somehow, still work. That story is one Lulu found surprising, but she listened attentively. And now, of course...
"They are like those, aren't they?" Lulu wonders between spellcastings, taking the hi-ether and downing it immediately. What happens is this:
Lulu pins down their lightning bolts with blasts of her own, allowing Rikku and Yuna to close. While the machina are distracted by Tidus shouting at them and being a big mobile target, Yuna steals (yes) close and pulls at a mechanism. Rikku grabs at the other--
Clunk clank. Clatter. Clatta-clatta.... boom, boom, boom.
The heat of the explosion might be a little uncomfortable for Rikku and Yuna, but they unmistakably won it. And now have some fun parts to play with!
"...Heh." Lulu actually smiles slightly as she looks at the two of them, despite everything.
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
It's a dark place indeed where a little light combat cheers Yuna up, but it seems to have penetrated her gloom a little all the same. It helps that they aren't people, or -- as far as she or anyone can tell -- particularly sentient. It would hurt her a lot more to kill a chocobo than these symbols of violence and Bevelle.
But her smile, at Tidus' insult, Rikku's working through her fear of lightning to become very enthusiastic indeed, and Lulu's own expression, is a real one this time.
She even blushes slightly when she nudges her cousin back.
After everyone's been healed up, they round a corner and... find an immense chasm and a dubious way across. Yuna deflates slightly (to no one's surprise; she's notoriously bad at these) but her resolve does not. Game, she unfurls her fishing net -- one of the oldest tools she still uses, a gift of Kilika -- and starts using it as a mesh ladder, from cone -- to cone -- to cone. It will be slow going for her, but not insurmountable going.
Nothing is insurmountable anymore.
DG: Yuna has used her Tool Kilika Fishing Net toward her party's challenge, Narrow Ice Paths.
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
"Sure thing. And right back at you," Tidus tells Rikku firmly. Two heads are better than one, right? But then it's time to battle--though it doesn't last long, between all of them. Tidus grins at Yuna when Rikku praises her speed, heartened by everyone's increased cheer. "Hey, at this rate, you'll put Rikku out of job! Maybe she can go on heal duty next!" he jokes.
That moment really gave me hope. There were a lot of times, earlier in our journey, where it seemed like we were all happy, but I'd realize later I was the only one really laughing. And it's not like we forgot our problems just then, either. Instead, it felt like... no matter how bad things got, we wouldn't let it weigh us down.
And then the ice spires happen. Tidus isn't as concerned by them as some of the others might be, being a particularly agile sort. All the same, he looks around at the others--Lulu and Yuna in particular. Yuna seems to have things in hand with that fishing net she got from Kilika, if slowly. Tidus keeps an eye on her back, then goes ahead of Lulu to help either and both of them along if their relatively less agile selves end up slipping on the ice.
For his part, he grabs a chocobo feather from his pocket and holds it aloft. The quickening magic contained within the down suffuses the group, so if any of those ice cones *do* end up crumbling into the chasm, they'll be quick enough to jump to the next one before going down with it.
DG: Tidus has used his Tool Chocobo Feather toward his party's challenge, Narrow Ice Paths.
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
The heat of the explosion is uncomfortable! But also worth it, when Yuna blushes and nudges her back. Rikku has the biggest grin afterwards... and for a moment it's like she can forget the upcoming destination.
"Healing duty huh? I think I can handle that - think fast!"
Rikku lobs an Al Bhed Potion Tidus' way. "You know maybe I could do it if I just invent a way that they break open on impact-! Then you don't even have to drink them! And hey, just think - it already fixes the problem of it hitting you!"
And then, the chasm and the spires. Rikku doesn't have much in the way of problem solving for this, so she simply clambers up Yuna's net as a mesh ladder from one checkpoint, to another like some enthusiastic monkey under the influence of Tidus' Chocobo Feather.
"Just another gap to cross right!"
Rikku is not afraid of heights... at all.
"Hey am I moving so fast because of that feather you held up Tidus?"
Rikku says as she seems to finally realize it, "Nice!"
Hanging off the nets, she gives him a thumbs up of approval.
DG: Rikku has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Narrow Ice Paths.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
"Hmmm, that'd be pretty hard on our potion budget..." Lulu quips about Rikku as a healer. "Not to mention all the glass shards..."
Lulu keeps a doll under her arm as she goes, working with Yuna's net and letting the Cactuar's magic help her stay steady and upright. Its agility infuses her, on top of the chocobo feather's power, and she finds herself moving a lot more easily than she otherwise would.
No, not insurmountable.
"Right... Just be careful."
DG: Lulu has used her Tool Swift Cactuar toward her party's challenge, Narrow Ice Paths.
==============================<* Mount Gagazet *>=============================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Narrow Ice Paths *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You come to a chasm. No switchbacks seem to lead down -- nor do you spot any on the other side leading up. There are, however, thick cones of ice that reach across the chasm. Some may be brittle, but some look sturdy enough to let you shimmy across. Nonetheless, they are very slippery -- and a fall could be very perilous indeed. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Wound==============================================
=========================<* Mount Gagazet - Round 3 *>========================== =========================< Results - Narrow Ice Paths >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tidus 17 --(5)--> 22 Pass Chocobo Feather 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rikku 17 --(17)--> 34 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lulu 17 --(5)--> 22 Pass Swift Cactuar 3 Agility Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yuna 17 --(5)--> 22 Pass Kilika Fishing Net 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Tidus 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Slow(2)|Wound(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Tidus has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Rikku has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* Mount Gagazet *>============================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - Bandersnatch Pack *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Your path leads you into a narrow valley, with high ridges on each side. As you walk, you hear baying -- and then black and red furred, hound-like monsters run through. They leap down, snarling. Sharp fangs bite at you, as fiends known as Bandersnatches leap down on you from above. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
Tidus' chocobo feather makes everything much easier on everyone -- AND draws a little smile out of Yuna because chocobos, bonus. There's a tight moment where Rikku slips and Lulu, of all people, is swift enough to catch her at the other end of her Cactuar -- good thing it's a plush!
But they all make it through all right, and Yuna packs her net back up, fingering it a little as she goes. Thinking, no doubt, of Kilika Island, and how incredibly different it is from this place. Lava instead of snow. Sea instead of sky.
All things considered, she knows which she prefers.
She resettles her gear.
"Right," she says, and moves out.
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
Rikku grips the Cactuar tighter after it catches hold of her... "T-Thanks Lulu!" Rikku grips with both hands, "I like these things so much better when they don't have needles...!"
Descending though into the valley after they all compose themselves... there are high ridges on both sides.
Wolf like creatures in black and red with vicious spiked tongues and toothy maws snarl before leaping down - one of them landing precariously close to Rikku.
"Hey no fair ambushing from above like that- unlesssssss-"
Rikku takes out what gil of hers that remains after the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth and...
... starts negotiating with one of them. "- you want to make a deal? Shinyyyyyy?"
Rikku somehow produces another bag of gil that she's pilfered on the way. "Even more shinies?"
The Bandersnatch seems... unmoved by the amount, as it snarls and snaps in her direction, "Uhhhh hey... I know I'm a bit short today... look this usually doesn't happen! Can I just offer you an IOU?"
She back peddles as she looks to the others in the name of a deal that's gone VERY wrong, "H-Help?"
DG: Rikku has used her Tool Bribe Budget toward her party's challenge, Bandersnatch Pack.
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
Tidus catches the Al Bhed Potion and drinks it down. While he'd taken a few hits earlier, since he'd been luring the machinas' attention away from the others, none of them are too bad, and the ABP fixes him right up. As he wipes his mouth with the back of his arm (manners, Tidus!), he wryly agrees with Lulu, "*Especially* the glass shards. Before you invented an easy-break bottle, you'd have to invent a bottle that wouldn't scratch us up just as soon as the potion heals us!"
Hmm. Maybe that's a thought. Maybe to keep Yuna from dying to the Final Aeon, they need to change the nature of the Final Aeon or something...? Why *do* Summoners die when they call up the Final Aeon? What's so special about it that only that can kill Sin? If they knew that, maybe they could figure something out...
He's summarily distracted when Rikku nearly slips and is saved just in time by Lulu's Cactuar, then lets out a sigh of relief when all is well. "You bet!" he says, giving her a thumbs-up at her thanks.
They're not out of the woods--or the mountain range--once they're on the other side. Tidus gets up to follow Yuna once she's got her gear re-situated. Not long after, they happen to enter the territory of some Bandersnatches... and it looks like they're not interested in Rikku's shinies. If they *were* going to get moved by shinies, it's probably not enough after all they had to spend on Yojimbo. They don't even have time for a flashback about it!
And so, when Rikku looks to them for help, Tidus tosses the remainder of that hi-ether he threw to Lulu earlier to the others, then springs in to action, sword-first. These agile wolf-types are his specialty, after all.
"Hyaah! You like that?!" he calls as he twists around and slashes towards a second Bandersnatch. "Well, there's plenty more where it came from!"
DG: Tidus has used his Tool Baskar Hi-Ether toward his party's challenge, Bandersnatch Pack.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
"You're welcome," Lulu answers, happy to help. She is amused by the needles comment, but that's about that for the moment. Glass shards are left behind for the moment, and instead--
Ah. Fiends. "Rikku--" Of course their budget isn't enough after that. Lulu, as Rikku 'negotiates', kneels down and sends in her Cait Sith again, and it approaches trailing black and green smoke towards the Fiends in question. She at least isn't using lightning this time?
Cait Sith jumps up and claws (it doesn't have real claws) at the first Bandersnatch right after Tidus!!
She's been practicing with the dolls, apparently.
DG: Lulu has used her Tool Ominous Cait Sith toward her party's challenge, Bandersnatch Pack.
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
Yuna is back to brooding, and the fiends don't cheer her as the machina sort of did. She sucks in a hard breath and steels herself. When she was a five-year-old and even now, she sometimes has to be reminded, internally, that this is a kindness, that she is freeing them from a horrible fate. And these fiends -- these summoners and their Guardians -- deserve to be freed.
But in the immediate aftermath of Seymour's manifesto on freedom, it doesn't feel quite as simple or good as it used to.
She hastens with the others to support Rikku when her cousin's Plan A has an unusual flaw.
Throwing healing around MUCH faster than the bandersnatches can hope to hurt anyone, she's almost like the mountain herself for a moment; shrouded in white (radiance), vast, and powerful.
Yojimbo does not make an appearance at this time.
DG: Yuna has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Bandersnatch Pack.
=============================<* Mount Gagazet *>============================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - Bandersnatch Pack *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Your path leads you into a narrow valley, with high ridges on each side. As you walk, you hear baying -- and then black and red furred, hound-like monsters run through. They leap down, snarling. Sharp fangs bite at you, as fiends known as Bandersnatches leap down on you from above. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
========================<* Mount Gagazet - Round 4 *>========================= =======================< Results - Bandersnatch Pack >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tidus 22 --(0)--> 22 Pass Baskar Hi-Ether 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rikku 34 --(0)--> 34 Pass Bribe Budget 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lulu 22 --(0)--> 22 Pass Ominous Cait Sith 2 Combat Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yuna 22 --(12)--> 34 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Tidus 60 --(20)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Slow(1)|Wound(2) Effects: Cleanse|Embolden(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Tidus has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Yuna 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> Rikku has posed.
Tidus' sword sinks in deep, Pyreflies seeping from the wound, the Bandersnatches immediately turn their attention on a more pressing threat.
... which distracts the one he slashed admirably as Cait Sith leaps and claws at a Bandersnatch, there's no real claws, but jamming its pawsie into its eye results in its eye being put out by sheer bludgeoning force. One of the Bandersnatches yelps into a frenzy. Runs around in a circle as Wakka's ball makes contact, ending it.
In the meanwhile, the other Guardians dispatch the rest of them. Kimahri's spear driving into one. Auron's sword cleaving another. And Tidus managing to finish another off.
Yuna unfortunately as a result of needing to throw around so much healing so rapidly uses up probably way more MP than she intended, but worth it right? That's what Hi-Ethers are for!
And as a result they're all looking pretty good afterwards.
"Aha... sorry everyone... I'm not used to being this low on funds! The last time I was this low was...-"
Rikku... actually slowly lowers a hand as if judging how old she was when she was this broke by the metric of height...
"... wow that was a long time ago."
She marvels.
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
Yuna imagines a Rikku sufficiently tiny to be broke, and fails.
Thanks to Tidus' Hi-Ethers, her moody, perhaps somewhat wasteful use of her own magical reserves is mitigated somewhat. And in the aftermath, she glances around at all of them, checking for the thousandth time that they're all right, even though she checked right before the victory music started to play.
Her shoulders relax slightly.
"Please don't say sorry," she tells Rikku. "It's my fault, really. And... I am glad we did it."
With all the souls traveling inside of her, the party has pretty much doubled in size.
After some more grittily difficult icecapades, they come to The First View. It is too far away to be completely spectacular; there is much adventure yet to come between here and there.
And also it is interrupted... by a terrible avalanche.
Yuna...
Yuna does something wrong. Suicidal, even -- moreso than planned.
She sprints TOWARDS the danger, her gaze having settled not on Zanarkand but on something much nearer, a glint in the snow that apparently drove her instincts to such lengths to retrieve it. She slides across an icy patch on her knees to scoop whatever it is straight into her sleeve, which is pretty smooth. Unfortunately no amount of grace can alter the fact that she just went the wrong way.
Now there are only seconds for THEM to retrieve HER!
DG: Yuna has used her Tool Kilika Fishing Net toward her party's challenge, Into Thin Air.
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
"Hey, it's not your fault either. It's not anyone's fault," Tidus tells Yuna firmly. His eyes soften, and he reaches a hand out for Yuna's. "...I get it, though. It's easy to blame yourself, huh...?"
No need to guess what he's talking about. Yuna had been absolving him of blame only a short while ago. It really is easy to dismiss blame when it's definitely not *your* fault.
(Really if there's anyone to blame here it's Yojimbo for insisting on literally MILLIONS of gil for his service despite being DEAD, like seriously where is that jerk even going to spend that kind of money or really any money at *all*--)
Ahem. Moving on.
There's still a significant trek left between now and the avalanche, when it comes all of a sudden. Tidus hears it before he sees it and whirls around. "AVALANCHE!" he shouts to his friends, already hurling a chocobo feather up into the air to let it work its speed-up magic on everyone. "C'mon, let's move it!! Over there--" And he's pointing towards a cave, except Yuna's moving *away* from there.
Tidus trusts Yuna has good reason for doing this, but it doesn't make him feel any less like he's about to have a heart attack. "YUNA!!" he bellows, and dashes at *ridiculous* speed, thanks to that chocobo feather, to grab Yuna--in that net of hers, if need be--and swing both of them back to safety. Whether they make it or not may depend on the support of the others, such as...!
DG: Tidus has used his Tool Chocobo Feather toward his party's challenge, Into Thin Air.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Lulu sees that moment where Yuna is so radiant, and it is not so different from many other moments. Yuna remains amazing to Lulu, when she is casting and otherwise. But the battle ends soon enough, and Rikku apologizes... "It must have been a long time ago," Lulu arees, saying without saying that she doesn't blame her either. She is also glad of what they did there. A quest so many years old, not so ancient as the quest to stop Sin, but even so.
Lulu walks ahead, and as she starts to see Zanarkand she looks--before the rumbling happens. And Yuna--
"Yuna!"
She must have a reason, but whatever that reason is, Lulu isn't going to let Yuna be captured in the avalanche. She rushes, the Cactuar under her arm glowing as she draws on its power to act faster than she would otherwise be able. Tidus is first on the draw, and as he's working to swing them both back to safety, Lulu starts towards a cavern that would shield them from the avalanche, calling out to both, "This way!"
DG: Lulu has used her Tool Swift Cactuar toward her party's challenge, Into Thin Air.
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
Rikku actually manages a small, sheepish smile Lulu's way, "Yeah. A real long time."
"Huh?"
Rikku blinks those green eyes of her as Yunie says it's her fault instead, a bit dumbstruck, before...
"I was happy to do that for you."
She doesn't tell Yuna not to say sorry though, Tidus already did just that.
And then... the first View.
Rikku tries to shield her eyes and get a better look in the distance, as she can't quite see it well here.
And then a rumble, and at Tidus call... "REALLY?" Beat, "Hey Yunie where are you-"
Rikku proceeds to freak out when she sees what's going on.
And starts to dash one way after that. And then backpeddles when Tidus acts first.
Before she immediately starts running towards the cavern Lulu points out, arms pumping, feet digging into the snow...
To try and dive into that cavern that Lulu pointed out-! But... can she make it? Can any of them make it!
... will she actually become a Rikkusicle?
DG: Rikku has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Into Thin Air.
==============================<* 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==================================================
=========================<* Mount Gagazet - Round 5 *>========================== ==========================< Results - Into Thin Air >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tidus 22 --(5)--> 27 Pass Chocobo Feather 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rikku 34 --(17)--> 51 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lulu 22 --(5)--> 27 Pass Swift Cactuar 3 Agility Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yuna 34 --(5)--> 39 Pass Kilika Fishing Net 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Tidus 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Cripple Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Tidus has successfully explored Mount Gagazet!
==============================<* Mount Gagazet *>=============================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Lv. 4 Key Sphere *>======================= |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 dark grey sphere, with a faint light inside. You dig it out of the snow, and can then recognize it as a Key Sphere. These can be used to enhance one's abilities or sell for a pretty gella. =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
"Tidus!" Yuna cries back, reaching out so he can clasp her arm -- and, as he pulls her in, so she can clasp his. He swings her in a broad, fabric-flapping arc, and then they're off to the races, hand in hand, dashing through the snow.
Lulu finds the path, and Rikku plunges down it, clearing them some crucially packed-down snow to accelerate even further. The thief is the one to spot the treasure at the edge of the cave, of course, and hesitate to grab it; that's Lulu 2, Rikku 0, as regards last-second rescues today.
But Yuna and Tidus half run, half fall into the cavern in the nick of time. And there, as Rikku inspects her find and discovers a precious Lv. 4 Key Sphere -- much too precious to sell, no matter how dire the straits of her bribe budget -- Yuna opens her palm to reveal a second one.
A second sphere, that is. But it isn't a Key.
It's a record.
A voice rarely heard -- even more rarely than Jecht, who tends to dominate his own footage -- speaks quietly into the snow-muted cave.
"Hello, Yuna. I hope you are well. I wonder how old you are, now that you're watching this sphere. You must be very beautiful, like your mother. I wish I could see you. Oh, by the way... Jecht and Auron send their regards. So far, our journey has been very entertaining. Of course, it is a hard journey, but I have no regrets. It is the path I have chosen. Yuna, when you have grown, you will have to find your own path. Do what you must do, the way you want to do it. Doors will always open themselves to those who do. Listen close, Yuna. Your future is yours to make. Live the way you want to. Whatever way that may be, you have your father's full support. Yuna, I will always be with you."
How did she know? Maybe she didn't. Or maybe there are some bonds that, like the one between Jecht and his son, can sometimes transcend even death.
Yuna is hard to guard, but easy to read. As Braska addresses her -- addresses her from high on Mt. Gagazet, with Auron and Jecht stomping around behind him in the snow -- addresses her, therefore, with the ASSUMPTION that she will follow him here -- something tightly wound and deep inside unclenches and rises to the surface.
Love and loss, again. Like with Kimahri and the Ronso. But much as he found peace and pain reuniting with Kelk and Biran and Yenke, this is her own oldest wound. And, as healing as it may be, it is a painful one.
Lifting her gaze from the sphere, she looks at Auron with gentleness in her expression for the first time since their argument on the ledge.