2021-07-16: Temporary Things Are Important Too
- Log: Temporary Things Are Important Too
- Cast: Emeralda Kasim, Elhaym van Houten, Citan Uzuki, Fei Fong Wong
- Where: Zanarkand Ruins
- Date: July 16, 2021
- Summary: One subsection of the Black Wolves make their way through Zanarkand. The situation within is not quite as it had seemed from the outset, however, and hazards from the ones who had come in through the city before are many.
DG: A party led by Emeralda Kasim is now entering Ruins of Zanarkand. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
============================<* Ruins of Zanarkand *>============================ ===============<* CHALLENGE - Gagazet Cave - Underwater Route *>================ |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The gateway to Zanarkand is Gagazet Cave, a cavern in the foothills just north of Mount Gagazet. This short cavern is a dangerous place, where cold and biting winds blow, and more than a few pilgrims have lost their lives. It serves as the first obstacle. The path you find drops down into water. It seems that, to get ahead, you will need to swim through a dangerous underwater corridor. Once you leap down, things grow even more complicated. A few distant monsters, elemental creatures known as Achelous, send forth a sonic attack -- that will hurl you forward. As you swim, they send blasts of sonic force at you, which move even faster underwater. Fortunately, on the other side, there is a cave entrance... and the towering ruins of Zanarkand await. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Exhaust============================================
<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.
Mount Gagazet was a frozen hellscape that was absolutely no fun to trek over!
That's Emeralda's estimation of it, at least. When she decided she wanted to come along to Zanarkand she was not expecting to have to slog over the tallest mountain she has ever personally climbed while freezing cold and otherwise Not Having A Good Day.
She perked up a bit when they got to the far side of it, down into the foothills; she had a bit more of her usual exciteable energy instead of feeling at least a little sorry for herself. The path to Gagazet Cave was easy enough to find, even with the wind and the cold, but...
"Why is it underwater?" Emeralda is slightly muffled because she has her scarf up over her nose and mouth. "Wouldn't it be frozen?" She crouches down and pokes at the water. "...oh! It's warmer in it than outside. I guess that means... there's somewhere better on the other side?"
She looks at the others for confirmation before she just kind of hops in with a huge splash. Emeralda doesn't swim so much as half-run, half-jump down the corridor; she is dense enough that she doesn't float and it's faster for her.
Emeralda gets about halfway down the corridor before the Achelous start their sonic blasts up. By that point she has no ability to signal to anyone else, and mostly just tries to book it, taking cover behind outcroppings and fallen stone.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly was glad to get over that damn mountain. None of them died, despite Father(?) Lee Black's rather casual attitude towards the use of explosive charges as personal propellants. She had been bruised. But a rest was enough to ease this, along with some trout fishing.
Elly is silently wondering what a Yeti is. Nobody explained this to her. She infers it's a mountain creature (or person?) and friendly.
But... now they are going into the cave proper. Elly, still in her Kislevi naval coat that began life as a cream-white and is... light colored even now, says, "I think that there's volcanic activity under Mt. Gagazet. I don't know if you saw, Emeralda, but there's a hot spring higher up the mountain, and that probably means..."
IS it a hot spring? Elly wonders.
But Emeralda has a question - and then she's moving forwards. Elly shifts back and forth for a moment, but the Achelous make any plan to dither and call across to Emeralda fade. With determination, she reaches into one pouch and brings out a strip of some kind of material, which she fiddles with and unwraps before giving it another of those Glares she gave the campfire earlier.
At which point a mouthvalve hums... and the emergency floater, large enough that a human could lay atop it very carefully and remain afloat, balloons upwards! Elly, at least, does not intend to carefully raft; she plops it on the water and marches forwards, one hand on the thing as she stalks ahead, secure against the risk of sinkholes.
After all, in Spira, a simple cavern of creatures with a shallow wade wouldn't deter anyone for long, Elly reasons.
DG: Emeralda Kasim has used her Tool H&S Badge toward her party's challenge, Gagazet Cave - Underwater Route.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
Eventually, even their rest had to come to an end. The Black Wolves had packed up their belongings and put out their fires, then set forth for Zanarkand.
'At the bottom of Mount Gagazet' is not precisely the most choice of locations to camp for a long period, anyway, unless ice and snow and a total lack of contact with most other people are your sort of things.
...It might be more accurate to say, though, that they didn't so much 'set for for Zanarkand' as they 'set forth for the caves linking the bottom of Gagazet to the ruins of Zanarkand'. This leads to its own set of complications--
"Oh my," remarks Doctor Uzuki, on seeing the water (without question icy (horribly horribly icy)) that stretches out before them in this stretch of the caverns here. "I wonder if there might be some tectonic activity somewhere in the area?" he muses, glancing Elly's way. "Oh, was there? Then, that would explain it. Still, this could be quite a problem. --Ah, Emeralda...!"
If his goal was to stop her, though, he's a few seconds too late. "Oh dear." He glances between Fei and Elly. "I hope that she will be alright if I make use of this?" Citan remarks, brandishing the Macalania Sphere. "I would prefer not to get wet if we can avoid it. Damp clothing in this sort of weather..." He shakes his head.
Emeralda will probably be alright regardless, though.
The Achelons might prove their own obstacle even with -- perhaps even particularly with -- the icing over of the water that follows, courtesty of the Sphere. But at least they might not all get soaked?
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Macalania Sphere toward his party's challenge, Gagazet Cave - Underwater Route. DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Climbing Pack toward her party's challenge, Gagazet Cave - Underwater Route.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei Fong Wong says, "I guess it makes sense. We're downhill from a lot of snow and there were avalanches. Eventually the snow would melt."
He takes in a deep breath and just tries to trudge it on his own. He gets hit by plenty of sonic blasts as he has trouble figuring out the timing when in conjunction with moving through water.
He grits his teeth and just tries to tough it out. "GLUB GLUB." He indicates, gesturing wildly with both hands. "GLUB!"
He then promptly takes in a deep breath and swims quickly--
--and then puts his hand on the raft as well.
His fingers touch Elly's in the process.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Gagazet Cave - Underwater Route.
============================<* Ruins of Zanarkand *>============================ ===============<* CHALLENGE - Gagazet Cave - Underwater Route *>================ |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The gateway to Zanarkand is Gagazet Cave, a cavern in the foothills just north of Mount Gagazet. This short cavern is a dangerous place, where cold and biting winds blow, and more than a few pilgrims have lost their lives. It serves as the first obstacle. The path you find drops down into water. It seems that, to get ahead, you will need to swim through a dangerous underwater corridor. Once you leap down, things grow even more complicated. A few distant monsters, elemental creatures known as Achelous, send forth a sonic attack -- that will hurl you forward. As you swim, they send blasts of sonic force at you, which move even faster underwater. Fortunately, on the other side, there is a cave entrance... and the towering ruins of Zanarkand await. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Exhaust============================================
=======================<* Ruins of Zanarkand - Round 1 *>======================= =================< Results - Gagazet Cave - Underwater Route >================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Emeralda Kasim 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail H&S Badge 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elhaym van Houten 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Climbing Pack 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Citan Uzuki 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Macalania Sphere 3 Agility Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fei Fong Wong 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Emeralda Kasim 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Slow(2) Effects: Cleanse ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Emeralda Kasim 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> Emeralda Kasim has posed.
Emeralda isn't bothered very much by water. She's going to be a little miserable when she gets *out* of it until she dries off, but it's less dangerous for her... it just sucks.
She is bothered by the sonic blasts. Being in the water as she is, and more fluid than most, she feels them rattle through her entire body. Her form is a little blurry every time a pulse goes past, and it's not entirely the water's fault. Only mostly.
Fei has to struggle through the blasts too until he catches up with Elly and hitches a ride, sort of; it's a little awkward but he can swim along with the raft, which moves smoothly. The Achelous don't seem to be able to catch it, mostly because of Citan's icing over the surface where they would ordinarily follow.
Eventually, the cave opens up to the far side - to Zanarkand. The raft arrives first, then Citan. It takes Emeralda a few moments longer to pull herself out of the water, sneeze mightily, and then shake, her hair fluffing everywhere like a dog's and spraying water everywhere. She is at least polite enough to not do it right next to anyone else. "Bleh," is her only comment. She's a little queasy from all the sonic vibrations.
DG: Elhaym van Houten has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Ruins of Zanarkand *>=========================== ===================<* CHALLENGE - Misplaced Demolitions *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The street you move down next is quiet. There are large buildings here, which have held up well against the weather. Once, they might have been storefronts or apartments, in the unique architectural style of the ancient city. There is little sound, save the wind and any conversations. As you move, though, you hear something. Click... Beep... Beep... Then, to your left, a massive fireball explodes. It blows through the inside of a store, exploding straight for you. Ducking or hiding will be necessary to survive. When the fire and smoke clears, there is another mystery: a crater, burnt into the city, and a few wires leading away from the explosion site to a detonator. The detonator and wires appear to be of Filgaian make. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly's hand touches Fei. She feels a little charge. She smiles, even as they hasten over, splashing, wading, waddling. "I don't blame you - in the slightest, doctor," Elly huffs, as they reach the far shore.
There is a momentary delay. Elly takes off her boots to pour out the water. (Once there was a fish in one of them. Not today, though.) The prospect of a chill crosses her mind.
How often have I really been chilled? Elly thinks, as she wrings out her socks and then...
... stares at her footwear. It steams gently.
I never thought of that, Elly thinks.
Weird.
Soon enough, she's back up, and she smiles at the others.
"... I suppose this is the threshold, isn't it?" Elly says, looking at the eroded if curiously regular entrance out into...
ZANARKAND
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q4w2QHL8oA
There is a great stillness on the other end of that space - perhaps once a pedestrian accessway. The buildings and the spires of Zanarkand loom, suddenly so close as to resolve into buildings, into places. Not distant signals or signs. It was so close, all this time. The cavern would have kept out casual wanderers, but...
The buildings are not quite as intact as they were in that nameless ruin beneath the sea, where once Emeralda slept.
"That dotted line..." Elly says, gazing on the roadbed. "I wonder what it means."
FORWARD.
Past some low buildings that might have once been an open air shopping arcade, concrete(?) tables looking like curious mushrooms in an open plaza. Seen from above it looks a bit like a cup before it becomes a narrow road proper. In this specific area, the majority of the buildings are three or four stories, the blank windows almost all intact but dark.
Elly doesn't speak up as they walk. She looks upwards. Around. She squeezes Fei's hand, and if Emeralda lingers, Emeralda's. To Citan, she has something else.
"It might be tectonic activity, but..."
Something in one of the ground level stores goes 'click', with a sound of a mechanical switch.
Elly blinks and looks downwards, over. There is something casting a faint, so faint red shadow inside of an empty space with strange glass cabinets on the walls and disarrayed A-framed shelves within.
The red shadow - the red light - comes with a faint whisper.
beep
beep
beep
Around beep #3 Elly finds that she is throwing herself forwards, directly at the back of Emeralda, already spreading her arms out to gather and twist around her. Why did I do that? Elly thinks.
After beep #4, as the peace of Zanarkand is rent asunder in an immense SLAM that first blows out the windows of the store front and immediately causes the upper stories to collapse (Thankfully, *away* from the roadbed) - ah, Elly thinks. That's why -
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Climbing Pack toward her party's challenge, Misplaced Demolitions.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
The ice fractures into sheets as soon as it's conjured up, unable to stay steady due to the heat of the water.
But it's alright. The doctor is fleet of foot. Dodging the sonic blasts, he makes his way across...
...without getting wet. "That was more difficult than I anticipated," he remarks, glancing back over his shoulder the once. "Fei, are you alright?" The young man is a little damp, after all. He looks Emeralda's way. "Do you need to dry off?" The temperature now that they're out of the water shouldn't harm her, but are there other risks it might pose her, now that he takes a moment to think about it further?
But it isn't much longer until they press on through the opposite end of the caves and reach Zanarkand proper.
"There is something..." Citan muses, only to shake his head and continue on across the cracked and broken roadway.
"No, we should move along." He'll have time to think about where he's seen something like this before later. Time might be of the essence, now.
He proceeds in silence as they press on into the ruins, glancing here and there as they walk.
Elly says something to him.
"Tectonic...?"
Something goes 'click' somewhere, not terribly far at hand. There is a red light. The beeps ring out tinnily, once, twice--
The sphere is still in hand. The roadway becomes slick with ice: a liability in any other circumstance but this one. He doesn't shout. He doesn't do anything but react, one action following the next in a perfect sequence.
There's time for a third beep.
He grabs for Fei and slides on the ice for the first solid-seeming piece of ruin he can reach in the next half-second.
And with the fourth, the world around them explodes.
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Macalania Sphere toward his party's challenge, Misplaced Demolitions.
<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.
"I'm fine!" Emeralda assures Citan, and she seems to be. More or less. Water beads on her body like sweat as she pushes it out; it's not cold enough to freeze anymore so it's mostly just awkward.
ZANARKAND
The buildings may not be as intact as where Emeralda slept, but these are above ground, exposed to wind and rain and everything else.
And Emeralda, herself, can't help but feel some kinship with the ancient ruin. More; there's a faint familiarity. Nothing she can put words to; only enough to make her unsettled. She has never been here before. She *knows* she has never been here before. She is not from Zanarkand. The configuration of the buildings doesn't match her memory. The architecture is wrong, the place is wrong, the very *planet* is wrong.
And yet, something about it *isn't* wrong. Maybe it is only that it is very old, and for a moment, so is she. If she could remember, would she remember a different city as old as Zanarkand?
One of her hands goes to her pocket, where an item stolen from a Zeboim city sits - nothing important, a little trinket from millenia ago. Another holds Elly's hand a little more tightly than she usually does - or Fei's if he gets close enough, she's not picky. "It's..." Emeralda trails off. "I think it is a sign? For... organizing the road?" But she doesn't know, and even that she remembers that much feels weird.
This means that, for a change, she does not rush ahead or around or in circles to explore. She stays with the group, and she is completely surprised by Elly when she's tackled to the ground; she does not resist and just takes the drop.
Something explodes. Emeralda freezes up (not literally thankfully) and then rolls with Elly, flattening herself down so she's less likely to make an awkward lump.
DG: Emeralda Kasim has used her Tool H&S Badge toward her party's challenge, Misplaced Demolitions.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Yeah Fei didn't think that was going to work out. He lights a small fire in his hand when he can to try and help Emeralda dry off.
There is a beep beep beep--
Fei instinctively throws himself forward as well, trying to protect BOTH Emeralda and Elly with his own body. Really, maybe they should've worked out a priority system here because that's probably a pretty inefficient way of trying to protect your loved ones--
--but luckily CITAN seems to anticipate Fei not being MR LOGICAL here and grabs him instead, pulling him along comically as Citan slides along the ice.
"Wah---Elly! Emmy!" He shouts with concern---
Hopefully misplaced concern but Fei's struggle to stay with his family, instinctive rather than intelligent--may make things a little HARDER instead.
Well, at least it's Fei who will be taking the brunt of the explosion rather than anybody important. Doc's a smart guy but Fei is dumb enough that another concussion can't make things THAT much worse.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Misplaced Demolitions.
===========================<* Ruins of Zanarkand *>=========================== ===================<* CHALLENGE - Misplaced Demolitions *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The street you move down next is quiet. There are large buildings here, which have held up well against the weather. Once, they might have been storefronts or apartments, in the unique architectural style of the ancient city. There is little sound, save the wind and any conversations. As you move, though, you hear something. Click... Beep... Beep... Then, to your left, a massive fireball explodes. It blows through the inside of a store, exploding straight for you. Ducking or hiding will be necessary to survive. When the fire and smoke clears, there is another mystery: a crater, burnt into the city, and a few wires leading away from the explosion site to a detonator. The detonator and wires appear to be of Filgaian make. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
======================<* Ruins of Zanarkand - Round 2 *>====================== =====================< Results - Misplaced Demolitions >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Emeralda Kasim 20 --(12)--> 32 Fail H&S Badge 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elhaym van Houten 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Climbing Pack 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Citan Uzuki 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Macalania Sphere 3 Agility Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fei Fong Wong 20 --(0)--> 20 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Emeralda Kasim 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(2) Effects: Cleanse ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Emeralda Kasim 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> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
The explosion hurts. It rips through the air. It is a demolition charge; they were too close for it to be safe. Ears ring. There is a rolling sound of nearby thunder; when the dust clears, having cast a grey pall of the ages over everyone present (though clinging poorly to the ice Citan conjured), the crater has ripped up half of the road before them.
Elly coughs, a few times, as she slowly releases her grip on Emeralda. She reaches down to brush dust off of Emeralda's face, looking down at her with sudden intensity that has not often crossed her face--
-- which softens, into a smile that has more effort behind it than before, but isn't too different, after all.
"... I don't think... that came from here," Elly says, as she gets herself upwards a little unsteadily. Thanks to the demolition, the best way forwards is through the turfed-up roadbed and Elly's pack of Shevat-make rope and cleverly minimalist grapple hooks help a great deal.
There is proof half a block down the road, away from the crater: melted detonators, a tangle of wire. It is blackened beyond the easy hope of recovery, but...
Well, you've probably seen those all the time! Smaller ones, anyway. Great for dealing with a Drifter's bane (a door).
It's a detonator, such as you might buy on the Thames, or in Guild Galad, or Meria Boule, or...
DG: Citan Uzuki has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Ruins of Zanarkand *>============================ =============<* CHALLENGE - Carving Through an Ancient Building *>============== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The road that you are taking, leading deeper into Zanarkand, is blocked. In the past, one of the huge stone towers fell -- proof this city may be dead but is not still. The tower is too large to easily climb over -- and shaped awkwardly, rounded and with few ledges. However, you see a window and some debris blocking it. The only way forward is through. This means smashing your way into the building. The furniture inside has mostly rotted away, but there are walls to smash through -- and floors, sometimes, as the building is on its side -- and some of the interiors are filled with decaying debris. =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Tire=============================================
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"Fei, no--" is perhaps as much as Citan manages to get out, struggling with the younger man, before the blast rips part of the ruined city apart. For a few heart-stopping seconds it feels like Zanarkand itself is falling down around them; the earth shudders and roils.
He doesn't let go of Fei until the resulting tremors cease and only rises to his feet slowly, as if anticipating another attack -- or another explosion. But there is a sort of peace in the aftermath of the explosion: the city is quiet but for the patter of fragments from ruined buildings giving in to natural forces in the wake of the detonation.
"Elly? Emeralda?"
The coughing is his first clue -- he's covered his own face with his sleeve, perhaps in anticipation of this very problem -- as are the figures visible through the settling dust. They all seem to be physically alright.
The ringing in their collective ears (minus Emeralda, maybe?) might take longer. Absently, Citan dusts off a shoulder and, after a glance and nod Elly's way, proceeds with caution about the site, as if searching for something.
"Aha... so we are not the first ones here," Citan remarks grimly, holding the ruined detonator in one hand as he kneels by the wreckage. "This wiring pattern... There is no question about it. This came from Filgaia. But it is not 'theirs'." He shakes his head and drops the melted detonator. "Still..." Which is to say it's merely not something made in Solaris. It could have easily been obtained from elsewhere on Filgaia. One detonator is as good as another.
Whoever set it has also likely succeeded in their goal: the road they would have followed through the city is now blocked by the wreckage wrought by the explosion. The tower that had stood here just moments before has fallen; such was its height that climbing over the wreckage would be a fool's errand. And without Gears, they cannot hope to move the whole of the tower complex in their path. Should they go around--
But there's a window, within reach. There is no glass or indeed, anything about it preventing access to the toppled building's interior.
"Do you think...? It might be faster than trying to find another route," Citan muses, gesturing towards the window. "It does not seem as if it will collapse further." He pauses, and in what is certainly a bit of unwelcome information, adds, "At least, not just yet."
MOMENTS LATER
The way through would have been clear, perhaps, if the tower were rightside up. As it stands, there is an entire heap of rotting furniture packing the doorway here (is that a piano? it looks like a piano) and out into some sort of sideways hall. After that, it'll be a matter of navigating the building the wrong way around, and probably putting some holes where there didn't use to be holes. The odds of it being a clear shot after this part are, after all, unlikely...
Citan pauses a moment before the wreckage in the doorway, paging through a book briefly as if to review this or that. "Hmm... perhaps, here?"
And he jabs a finger into the rotting furniture pile, seemingly at random (it's not random). Perhaps this might fall away, but what other obstacles await?
And how will they destroy them?
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Acupressure Guide toward his party's challenge, Carving Through an Ancient Building.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
The detonator is disquieting. It implies much, commits to little.
"If it stood for a thousand years, I doubt it can be that dangerous," says Elly to Citan, but she doesn't sound deeply convinced. She bites her lip for a moment, before grimacing as she tastes dust, wiping off her mouth.
She reaches into her coat as they advance. She draws out, not a bomb nor a snack nor even some sort of Nakatomi-space manipulating device, but a simple thing, also from the meager but subtly glorious manufactoriums of Shevat: A chemical light stick.
Elly snaps it and shakes it together. Chemicals mix and cast a gentle greenish glow as she holds it aloft, like a torch. Cool and soft. It's the right kind of light, perhaps, for Zanarkand, even as the furniture collapses with a noise of dryish rot.
Elly holds it in her teeth as they come to a door -- a sideways door in a wall so positioned where Elly has to reach up and all but dead-lift herself upright to get into the doorjamb proper. She sits there, as if in a picture frame, to get out one of the lengths of rope and drape it down with a firmly anchored hook, asking carefully around the plastic glowstick, "The last one over, please take it with you? We may need it." After this she falls downwards and says -
"I think I landed on a pillow."
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Inventory Clutter toward her party's challenge, Carving Through an Ancient Building.
<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.
Emeralda's ears aren't ringing. This is made up for by the rest of her doing so. It's a sensation that doesn't precisely have an analogue in a human body; Emeralda does a good job of pretending to be human at least some of the time, but she's not. She feels loud noises deep inside her, an uncomfortable quiver. It's one of the things she never brings up.
But she's not coughing, either, as she sits up. She steadies relatively quickly, everything sliding back into its accustomed places. "Why did anyone put that there!?" Emeralda seems... offended, somehow, by the presence of the detonator. It doesn't belong here. Somebody *came* here and *put* it here, to blow something (or someone) up, and something about that is just not right.
That's not memory. That's just morals.
"It will if there's another bomb in it," Emeralda points out, but this doesn't actually seem to bother her very much. Maybe they could take out the bomb, if there is one? She climbs in with the others - she's short, though, and accepts a boost from someone else if they are willing to assist. (this is your shot, Fei)
Once inside, Emeralda does not wait. This time she does walk ahead, squinting in the darkness; for all her strange abilities, Emeralda cannot really see in the dark very well and Elly's chemical torch is welcome. She likes the colour. It also feels right.
Emeralda hops down with Elly (she misses the pillow but that's all right) and pokes around the stuff more than starts to move it. Well, it's moving, but she's also rummaging, not that she knows what a lot of it is. Rotted wood that might have been part of a couch or a chair; some sort of table, falling apart; a large framework of springs that she isn't entirely sure what it is -
And a photograph in an inexplicably intact frame: metal and plastic lasted longer, and though the photo is faded and has had its colours run around the edges, it's still visible. A family, four people - two adults, one teenager, one a little younger than that, all together. Nobody she knows. Nobody anyone knows, now.
She stares at it for about ten seconds with a feeling of - what? - before she sets it back down, very carefully placing it where moving the furniture will not drop something on it or otherwise damage it. "I have a bar," she says, helpfully starting to move what she now suspects is the remains of a boxspring mattress, wedged next to a dresser.
She shoots a glance at the photograph once when she thinks nobody is looking.
DG: Emeralda Kasim has used her Tool Reinforced Bar toward her party's challenge, Carving Through an Ancient Building.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei...somehow manages to avoid getting burnt too much! To his player's surprise honestly. Stop trying to guess the results, me!
But that might be more thanks to Citan than Fei. He exhales out a relieved sigh upon seeing that the two of them are okay. "Oh thank god," Fei says. "You're both okay." Well OK-ISH at least.
Emeralda asks why someone put that there. "I don't know--maybe it was meant for the Unsent? Or Fiends?" Fei isn't really sure. "But I don't think something like that would really slow them down too much. Maybe Odessa or Solaris left it there." He frowns. "I guess if we're lucky we won't run into them but we should be more careful from here on out."
There is a mostly destroyed home. fei can clobber away some of the gunk but notices Emeralda is looking at a photograph.
"..." He pauses a moment. "It's a sad thing, huh Emmy? It's okay to feel for them, and to feel bad."
He attempts to karate chop a bookshelf in half.
"Though--if it's made from Filgaia, it's probably more likely to be Odessa right?" He asks. "I mean sure it could be Solaris but---now that you mention it, it doesn't really feel like the sort of trap they'd leave."
A bit to lackadasical really.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Carving Through an Ancient Building.
============================<* Ruins of Zanarkand *>============================ =============<* CHALLENGE - Carving Through an Ancient Building *>============== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The road that you are taking, leading deeper into Zanarkand, is blocked. In the past, one of the huge stone towers fell -- proof this city may be dead but is not still. The tower is too large to easily climb over -- and shaped awkwardly, rounded and with few ledges. However, you see a window and some debris blocking it. The only way forward is through. This means smashing your way into the building. The furniture inside has mostly rotted away, but there are walls to smash through -- and floors, sometimes, as the building is on its side -- and some of the interiors are filled with decaying debris. =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Tire=============================================
=======================<* Ruins of Zanarkand - Round 3 *>======================= ===============< Results - Carving Through an Ancient Building >================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Emeralda Kasim 32 --(0)--> 32 Pass Reinforced Bar 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elhaym van Houten 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Inventory Clutter 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Citan Uzuki 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Acupressure Guide 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fei Fong Wong 20 --(0)--> 20 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Emeralda Kasim 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(1)|Tire(2)|Weaken(2) Effects: Cleanse|Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Emeralda Kasim 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: Emeralda Kasim has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Ruins of Zanarkand *>============================ ========================<* CHALLENGE - Ahriman Swarm *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The streets of Zanarkand are empty and often silent, which makes any sound carry... and makes any sound reason for alarm. The flap of leathery wings is sure to make you look up. When you do, you spot a quartet of huge eyeballs with leathery wings. Their leathery hide is a sickly yellow. They swoop down, screeching with fanged mouths. Their screeches sound down sonic blasts, which can break the already cracked flagstones under your feet. To make matters worse, sometimes their gaze knocks one unconscious with but a glance. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Stupify==========================================
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"Why? ...I suspect that the most likely reason was to slow or stop anyone else who came in after them. Whether that was meant to deter us, or another group," such as Yuna's, "I cannot say. ...It is likely they are still within the ruins. We should be careful."
It's also likely not the only 'surprise' that's been left in the city. This does not quite seem like Solaris' hand, though, Citan muses privately to himself.
For now they have other things to contend with, such as the fallen tower in their path. "Yes, though until recently it had still been..." he starts to remark to Elly, before shaking his head and letting that remark trail out into silence. Some things don't bear reflecting upon too much. Also, his ears are ringing. But it doesn't stop him from ascending the tower's exterior and slipping in through a window. It takes just one prodding finger in the right place and the piano and other assorted furniture blocking the way to the door are as so many flinders. They must have been close to collapse after all these years and that fall just now...
Citan is the last one down out over the 'ledge' of the doorframe. As requested, he frees the hook before plummeting over the edge himself. Fortunately, there's a pillow (or something soft and still reasonably intact) at the bottom. He hands it back to Elly wordlessly once he rises to his feet, taking only a moment to readjust his glasses.
He's bringing up the rear as Emeralda and Fei take up the vanguard of furniture and rubble-fracturing/shifting, taking a glance about himself as if to try to burn some of the interior into his memory.
"That may be the likelier of the two, Fei. Nevertheless, we cannot discount it just yet. Still, I suspect you are correct. That detonator... dropping a tower like that... it does not quite match 'their' methods. I cannot say what their interest in these ruins might be, precisely, but to think they would use such crass means..." Citan shakes his head.
Eventually, there is light on the other side -- a window! -- and with some more finagling, they're able to emerge into the rest of the ruined city without too much difficulty. The tower, promisingly, does not continue to collapse once they've exited it.
<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.
Emeralda doesn't know what to think about the photograph. It makes her melancholy, though she doesn't really know that word. It shows in her voice. "They're all gone," she says to Fei. "Nobody remembers them. We can look at their picture but nobody knows who they were. It's like... when I remember things in a dream..."
She trails off and attacks the furniture with vigor. At least they crack a path enough to clear the way to the window. "I'll go first!" Emeralda declares, with ... not precisely cheer, but with energy, at least. She clambers out the window, sliding down the side of the building to the street.
They actually get a few minutes' walk before anything happens; the sound of flapping, up above. Emeralda looks around for a bird first, but it's awfully big-sounding for a bird, and - "Eyes! Flying eyes with mouths!" She had a nightmare like that once.
That may explain why her first reaction is to pull out her shard of bluish crystal - a cast-off shard from one of the times Crescens had its Ether Amplifier modified - and channel Ether through it, sending a cascade of fireballs up at them.
DG: Emeralda Kasim has used her Tool Large Etherstone toward her party's challenge, Ahriman Swarm.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly gives Fei a smile and a tilt of her head, reaching up to brush more dust out of her hair. "I'm sorry to make you worry..."
"It could just be Drifters from Filgaia who found the bonanza," Elly says to Citan. "... But I doubt it. Not after seeing that. Something like that... scavengers wouldn't want to blow up a location like that."
Emeralda is holding an old photograph.
Elly thinks to herself: We should get one taken, before--
She answers Emeralda, quietly, "I suppose we remember them, now. One day..."
...
Anyway, they move forwards, and Elly follows after, breathing out with some relief as they get a period out in the open streets of Zanarkand without any bombs, assaults, destroyer waves, incoming macro-organisms, or any other problems. Elly is able to actually look around beyond glancing for a hidden bomb or something.
"It's strange, that these things always seem to be almost reassuring," Elly muses as the Ahrimans circle around. "I guess it's because... against something like this... it doesn't feel as... helpless, does it? Even if we did lose, we'd be able to 'fight'."
Elly swings round her iron staff and holds it before her protectively. Her eyes narrow and --
-- "Huh," Elly remarks, before she pushes again, and there's a heartbeat's delay before an Anemo Bolt arcs towards the Ahriman. "Emeralda, did you feel that? It feels like... it's not quite 'ice'. It's nothing too severe, but it really stood out to me."
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool One Woman's Stout Iron Rod toward her party's challenge, Ahriman Swarm.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei looks to Emeralda. He nods slowly, hesitating. "--Even if they're forgotten, that doesn't mean that their lives were meaningless. What we do for each other, the immaterial things and feelings we pass on to one another. Temporary things are important too. Even temporary memories."
He looks to Elly for a moment, smiling at her and says, "Even if we don't know a lot about them... We can at least remember..."
"Remember that they lived."
Fei gets a few extra achievement points for making that reference but he looks at the ahrimans. He exhales faintly as he grips his RPS Badge which he hefts up and--
--deflects the sonic blast with the power of saying, really loudly, "ROCK PAPER SCISSORS!"
And he tries to just like throw the RPS Badge into their eye. Because it's nice and big and an easy target. Oh no!
He'll follow it up with kung fu.
Citan's words get him thinking. If it's not Odessa, who else could it be? "Maybe the Guard...? They have some tech from Filgaia..."
DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool RPS Badge toward his party's challenge, Ahriman Swarm.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"It could," Citan agrees. "But for the same reasons as you, I do not think it likely. It takes a... particular sort of intent, to leave behind a trap such as this, without knowing who might stumble into it next. Even among the most, ah, 'morally questionable' of Drifters, I do not think that they would do... this," he continues, shaking his head.
It is, as it is sometimes said, beyond the pale.
They move out onto the streets then, and it's a brief moment of respite that awaits them as they venture into the streets before it's interrupted--
"Hmm... I think I see what you mean," Citan says, trying to keep his eyes on the things as they circle. "This is a problem with a far simpler solution than most. Is that right? The Guard? I had not heard about them 'slipping past us', but it cannot be discounted. Though, is this their way of operating, precisely...?"
He shakes his head and refocuses on the task at hand. "--Emeralda, wait for them to come to you before you attack! See how they dart down before they open their mouths to cry out? Oh, and whatever you do, do not meet their gaze!"
He's read about these creatures before, after all.
DG: Citan Uzuki has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Ahriman Swarm.
============================<* Ruins of Zanarkand *>============================ ========================<* CHALLENGE - Ahriman Swarm *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The streets of Zanarkand are empty and often silent, which makes any sound carry... and makes any sound reason for alarm. The flap of leathery wings is sure to make you look up. When you do, you spot a quartet of huge eyeballs with leathery wings. Their leathery hide is a sickly yellow. They swoop down, screeching with fanged mouths. Their screeches sound down sonic blasts, which can break the already cracked flagstones under your feet. To make matters worse, sometimes their gaze knocks one unconscious with but a glance. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Stupify==========================================
=======================<* Ruins of Zanarkand - Round 4 *>======================= ==========================< Results - Ahriman Swarm >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Emeralda Kasim 32 --(0)--> 32 Pass Large Etherstone 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elhaym van Houten 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass One Woman's Stout Iron Rod 2 Combat Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Citan Uzuki 0 --(12)--> 12 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fei Fong Wong 20 --(0)--> 20 Pass RPS Badge 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Emeralda Kasim 60 --(20)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Stupify(2) Effects: Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Emeralda Kasim 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: Elhaym van Houten has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Ruins of Zanarkand *>=========================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Ancient Elevator *>====================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The center of Zanarkand is a huge dome. Once, it was a blitzball stadium, but much of it has collapsed inward -- and it is within that the pilgrimage comes to an end. The way you have taken has led to an elevator. There is a large, metal freight elevator that leads up into the stadium. The elevator is unpowered. There are three receptacles for spheres -- but none in sight -- that should restore electricity to it. If you can either find spheres or find a way to power the elevator, you can make your way up to the dome. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.
"We remember the photograph," Emeralda says, sounding older than she looks for a moment, "but we don't remember *them*."
And that seems to be all she's going to say on the matter. She can remember them, as best she can; Fei's right about that. Seeing people - things that remind her that it's more than just a bunch of junk - seems to have touched Emeralda a little bit.
But that was then, and Ahrimans are now.
Emeralda follows advice; after her first barrage - not panicked but certainly aggressive - she holds her fire, switching to closer-range Ether and then the much simpler method of turning her head into what looks like a flat anvil and jumping up into them, like a flying hammer.
Elly smashes one with a lightning bolt that sends it falling to the street, breaking into pyreflies almost immediately, though others continue to attack; the group is shelled by sonic blasts, some of them dangerously close to Citan as he moves. Fei takes those out, the ones that come down too low; martial arts help, and so does the badge, because they have a really big eye to poke.
Eventually, the Ahriman are pyreflies (except for one that ran away). "Ice? Um..." Emeralda didn't feel it, but she wasn't looking for it. She felt something else, but - that could have been anything.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"The Guard aren't subtle," Elly says to Fei, worried. Thoughtful. "They'd have had a guard - little gim guard - at the entranceway there, probably. I don't know if they would have attacked us, but..."
And after that lingering 'but' comes to pass...
The city itself is reached. Wrecked, of course, but there are few obstacles other than some rubble on the streets. A long highway curves gently towards the sea, before the pathway becomes more organic, curving upon curving. Dome and spire loom around, rising upwards, intact hulks in the ruin; the skeleton of a great city.
And it's *empty*. Maybe that was a bird over there?
There are small traces here and there. Rubble that seems to have been... neatened; or a space where some rubble in a field was removed. Windows that are broken but not in a neglectful way.
There is time enough to talk, and to observe.
And indeed, Elly says--
"I wonder where Tidus lived."
She looks at the others. "He would know the place, wouldn't he? For all I know, that's where we were, though I don't think anyone in that picture looked like him, particularly. And he said it was a 'house,' but sometimes people say that when they mean an apartment or other rooms..."
The road widens.
Another plaza - this one choked with rubble. There is some sort of great entrance, flanked on either side by the perceptible feet and lower legs of some sort of great stone statues, but something went into there, and it does not seem to have been picked over by-- anyone, really.
So, it's around another path, this one marked only by some leavening of soil from where decades and perhaps centuries of neglected decorative plants grew, thrived, shed their leaves, grew new, and in time died without further issues. And there's even-- "Ah! Lights!"
The lapping of the sea is audible here.
Elly gets out her light stick, which still seems to have plenty of glow in it, allowing the space - large enough that an Aveh military truck could have backed into here, even if it would have been a tight fit (and of course, Zanarkand may have had better trucks), with a freight elevator in the back.
With...
Elly's cheeks puff out in annoyance at the sight of the adjacent sphere pedestal with its three nooks. "This is ridiculous... did everyone just walk around with bags full of Spheres?"
Her attention turns to Emeralda, now. "I think this is the center of the place. Are you doing alright...?"
DG: Elhaym van Houten has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Ancient Elevator.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"I don't know." Fei says. "Some of them turned on each other, I heard." He is thinking of Heldalf there. "So one group may have gotten ahead."
HE hates having to say 'I don't know' so much but, well, that's the challenge.
Now that the group reaches an elevator, Fei takes a moment himself to try and treat his wounds with the medical tricorder that he somehow knows how to use. As he runs it over his body, his wounds slowly fade or, at least, grow smaller. He will offer to do the same for Elly and the others if they'd like. It's probably not going to replace intensive care but for scrapes and bruises it's an easy enough tool to make use of, apparently. At least for Fei.
"Maybe you normally just left them in but someone removed them for some reason?" He asks.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool Medical Tricorder Fei Somehow Knows How To Use toward his party's challenge, Ancient Elevator.
============================<* Ruins of Zanarkand *>============================ =======================<* CHALLENGE - Ancient Elevator *>======================= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The center of Zanarkand is a huge dome. Once, it was a blitzball stadium, but much of it has collapsed inward -- and it is within that the pilgrimage comes to an end. The way you have taken has led to an elevator. There is a large, metal freight elevator that leads up into the stadium. The elevator is unpowered. There are three receptacles for spheres -- but none in sight -- that should restore electricity to it. If you can either find spheres or find a way to power the elevator, you can make your way up to the dome. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.
Would the Guard have set a bomb? Emeralda doesn't know enough to say either. She doesn't know who could have done it, but someone clearly did - and she doesn't think it was that long ago, if only because -
Well, if there was even a sort of old bomb here, it would have gone off already. The monsters would have set it off if nothing else did. Which means it's brand new. Which is kind of worrying.
Emeralda is lost in thought, a little, but the sight of the end of Zanarkand brings her back to alertness. "I don't know," Emeralda says. It's an old, old city, and a big one. He could have lived anywhere. He could have lived somewhere that they tore down and built a new house over *before* Zanarkand was ruined. Sin attacked, he said - but Sin attacked Azado and people still live there. (As far as she knows, anyway.)
She seems surprised to be asked. "I'm okay!" Emeralda says, and for a moment she sounds it - though she lets Fei wave the tricorder over her anyway. (It doesn't do much. Emeralda rarely shows open wounds for very long even if she's damaged.) She walks over to poke at the sphere pedestal, and though she does not have one, she attempts to insert her Etherstone into one of the slots.
It doesn't really fit. The shard isn't round, really, and though she can wedge it in there pretty well she'd have to hold it in place. "...maybe we could power it this way! And then we could go in." She looks at Elly, here, not Fei or Citan - Elly knows the Ether for lightning, after all, the same as Emeralda. But Emeralda does not really have all that much skill with the finer uses of Ether.
DG: Emeralda Kasim has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Ancient Elevator.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
It is not, in fact, as Elly reflects on more clearly, the way of the Guard to be less than absolutely overt about their present. Not that they can discount it entirely -- it's worth considering as a possibility -- but of the major parties of which they are aware, it's quite possibly the least likely outside any of the more antagonistic Hyadean remnants or the thought of Yevon itself (damaging their own holy city? it's less likely than you think). Even a Veruni presence here would be more explicable, if not as likely as the current leader on the proverbial charts.
"Hmm," Citan muses, as the conversation between her and Fei goes on around him. "I suppose we will discover who is responsible soon enough."
They advance once the Ahrimans are defeared, slowly approaching a large plaza that lies ahead.
"Where...?" Citan pauses, looking about himself, only to shake his head. "It is a large city. He could have lived anywhere. Perhaps we might ask him, should we catch up?" The chances of them having stumbled into Tidus' own home were vanishingly small, but stranger things had happened.
There are birds in the plaza. Spiran pigeons, by the look of them, and a long way from where they normally gather, but there, on the back of a crumpled and rotting bench, sits a black and white pigeon with a familiar appearance. It eyes the lot of them as they pass, cannily.
"Is that... a blitzball stadium?"
Citan cranes his head and squints, trying to sight the structure. "I suppose we must find some way to ascend. Ah! There, that must be the elevator." But there's a problem.
Namely, the abscence of the proper spheres in the mechanism. "Hmm..." Hands on his hips, the doctor examines the empty sockets. "When we were last in Spira, I had been wondering how, precisely, the power from the spheres is transferred from them and into the device they are meant to empower. This was not a particularly easy matter to untangle, of course. Most Spirans do not, ah... care to consider mechanical matters in great detail," he continues, gesturing generally with his left hand. "Now, a sphere makes use of Pyrefly-infused water; I suspect the energy, by which I mean their light, of a Pyrefly is then conducted through the sphere and into whatever mechanism it is meant to charge. This suggests what is actually necessary is the correct frequency of light. Thus, if we were to..." He glances over at Emeralda as she tries to insert her Etherstone into one of the slots. "Fei, if you could help her with that? It is not a bad idea, actually. Elly, if you would help me here?" He's going to hand her the Macalania sphere. That means they have two out of three sorted! But what about the third?
Citan crouches a moment, having produced a screwdriver from somewhere and -- with reluctance -- toying with some of the tiny screws on his camera.
"I hope I am able to undo this, or it will never take a picture properly again..." he sighs, as if in lament.
He rises to his feet after a moment more, though.
"Well, let me test my hypothesis!"
And he aims his camera directly at the empty socket and snaps a 'shot'.
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Strauss Camera toward his party's challenge, Ancient Elevator.
===========================<* Ruins of Zanarkand *>=========================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Ancient Elevator *>====================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The center of Zanarkand is a huge dome. Once, it was a blitzball stadium, but much of it has collapsed inward -- and it is within that the pilgrimage comes to an end. The way you have taken has led to an elevator. There is a large, metal freight elevator that leads up into the stadium. The elevator is unpowered. There are three receptacles for spheres -- but none in sight -- that should restore electricity to it. If you can either find spheres or find a way to power the elevator, you can make your way up to the dome. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
======================<* Ruins of Zanarkand - Round 5 *>====================== ========================< Results - Ancient Elevator >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Emeralda Kasim 32 --(101)--> 133 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elhaym van Houten 0 --(101)--> 101 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Citan Uzuki 12 --(101)--> 113 Pass Strauss Camera 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fei Fong Wong 20 --(101)--> 121 Fail Medical Tricorder Fei Somehow Knows 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Emeralda Kasim 80 --(15)--> 95 Fail Conditions: Fright(1)|Stupify(2) Effects: Cleanse ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: Emeralda Kasim is too exhausted to continue! DG: Elhaym van Houten is too exhausted to continue! DG: Citan Uzuki is too exhausted to continue! DG: Fei Fong Wong is too exhausted to continue! DG: The party has failed this challenge! All party members are now Exhausted. This attempt is over. DG: The party led by Emeralda Kasim has been fully Exhausted by Ruins of Zanarkand! DG: The party will now draw a conclusion.
===========================<* Ruins of Zanarkand *>=========================== ===============<* CHALLENGE - Arrival at the Zanarkand Dome *>================ |Type: Landmark |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- After a long trek through Zanarkand, you have arrived at the Dome at the center of the city. You make your way inside... but you don't find the solemn scene you expected. Instead, there are a pair of smaller working Gears outfitted for construction -- and excavation. They make loud, roaring noises as they tear up concrete and drill their way underground. And, worse than that, there is a large number of Odessa forces present. Armed soldiers, Moblins, and more are watching over. When they spot you, one of them calls out. At least it looks that other Drifters are arriving, too. =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Fei attends to her. Elly spreads her arms a little, so she can be examined and have her vital signs and so on inspected. She even raises one leg so the tricorder can invisibly soothe sore points inside of her boots.
"That would make sense, I suppose. Or if someone wanted to salvage power sources, this would have been a way to do it."
Citan moots a question: Was this a Blitzball stadium? Elly blinks slowly, like a sleepy cat, and her eyes widen afterwards. "... COULD it be? But this is so central to the city! ... Then again, I suppose that was true in Luca as well. I think it might be, though it seems so much bigger. Maybe there's other things in here as well."
"That's right. I don't know if they'd have taken the same path we did, but we haven't seen any signs of them, have we? It's a little strange. I wonder if we're ahead of them... I suppose that does mean we," a brief pause for a cough, "that we might have defused a trap for them..."
But then a plan develops. Elly takes the proffered sphere, glancing at Fei hopefully as it seems that the Dr. Has A Plan, and he has rarely steered them far wrong.
Emeralda's stone...
The Macalania Sphere...
and...
"The camera? Oh, Doctor, are you sure--"
FLASH
The lights in the elevator come on, and the door gently swings open.
"... well, then, that's how it goes!"
Just barely in sight of the bottom - with a thin trickle of light coming in from some lower level - the power goes out. Fei gets a chance to see Elly pull another face. This could be an entire sketch series: the faces of Elly van Houten when she thinks nobody's looking.
Fortunately, it is not THAT far. Force the door open - wiggle forwards, perhaps with Emeralda forging the path and bringing her pry bar - step down carefully - and enter another dark room, with several forlorn-looking empty cargo pallets in a corner. Head out through another arched doorway, leading out towards...
It IS a stadium...
And it's occupied. But hardly with fans...
Even as another person or two emerges from a similar nook elsewhere in the space, Elly stares outwards, absolutely dumbfounded. To Fei, she says, "Maybe we should have flown, after all."
A Moblin points; barks; hurls a crude spear!
TO BE CONTINUED...