2021-07-21: Void Drive

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  • Log: Void Drive
  • Cast: Azoth, Seraph Boudicca, Dash Caskett, Ida Everstead-Rey, Seraph Ragnell
  • Where: New Kasim City
  • Date: July 21, 2021
  • Summary: When Azoth detects one of his missing pieces under Zanarkand, the overrides force him into a strange and unsettling set of behaviors. Even his friends cannot deter him from his objective.

=============================<* New Kasim City *>=============================

New Kasim City is the ruin of an ancient Zeboim-era city on Spira. It is covered entirely by the city of Zanarkand, established atop its ruins centuries and centuries after it was abandoned. Now, the city sits in a cavern. Many of its skyscrapers are cut off -- and the city is a small, compact place, to boot. The city is surrounded by huge steel walls, forming a "donut" of steel around the whole thing. Catwalks make the city have multiple levels, with stairs leading upward.

Many parts of the city are powered still. Drones wander its streets; lights, including advertisements and other evidence of its inhabitants, can be seen. The buildings are in various states of disrepair, with the top floors having been destroyed. There are no residents here -- no Spirans ever made it down here, after the city was buried. Still, sometimes, fiends can be seen wandering... and the pyreflies, as ever, drift on by.

BGM: Xenoblade Chronicles X - New Los Angeles
==============================<* New Kasim City *>==============================
==================<* CHALLENGE - Highway to the Danger Zone *>==================
|Type: Entry       |Dungeon Ability: Agility   |Challenge Rating: 3          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The ground at the center of Zanarkand Dome is heavily damaged and weakened.   
 It begins giving away, with even the smallest movement, and the end result    
 is that the ground collapses right in front of the final temple -- right in   
 front of the end of the pilgrimage. In a way, it might seem like a cosmic     
 joke played on summoners and guardians.                                       
                                                                               
 It is a frenzied, panicked descent into the darkness. Falling pieces of       
 rock, chunks of concrete riddled with rebar, and the occasional pitted and    
 rusted steel beam fall with you. You fall and fall, and need to find some     
 way to arrest your descent -- or at least land without causing severe injury  
 to yourself.                                                                  
                                                                               
 When you land, it is dark at first. You are on a concrete surface -- and      
 then lights nearby flicker on, as if detecting your presence. The lights      
 catch reflective strips painted on the road -- and then signs appear.         
 Advertisements flash on digital billboards, in the old language of Zeboim,    
 Zanarkand, and the Ancient Tongue:                                            
                                                                               
 	AMADI HEAVY INDUSTRIES -- SOLVING YOUR CONSTRUCTION NEEDS                    
 	LIZNER ROBOTICS. GREAT GEARS. GREAT RATES.                                   
 	BUY THE NEW LONGOSSA CRUISER TODAY!                                          
                                                                               
 The lights also reflect a green sign, outlined in white, and with white       
 lettering that reflects:                                                      
                                                                               
 	New Kasim City                                                               
 	Population: 88,700                                                           
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Injure, Exhaust====================================
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.

BOOTING SYSTEM AZ-0012 . . .

ERROR: DATABASE CORRUPTED

ANALYZING FILES . . .
ATTEMPTING DATA RECOVERY . . .

CRITICAL SYSTEM ERROR

SYSTEM RESTORE IN PROGRESS . . .

It's like this every reboot.

It won't work. It never does. But Azoth tries. He has to try.

The world around them rumbled. Then the ground fell away. Everyone plunges into darkness toward a harsh, unwelcoming landing on unforgiving concrete. Azoth crashed before he could hear Ida cry his name. He only felt Boudicca's grip on him, and something inside him resonates with her wind's purification for sacred 'zero'.

As much as you are 'what', you are 'who'. So, then. What of the 'who', Azoth? This part of you, you have not spoken on.

Not the Azoth they think is he. Not the Azoth Solaris thinks he is. Not even the AZ-0012 he thinks he is.

But that's a question lost to him. There's no light in Azoth. Not in his eyes or his circuits. There's no motion to him at all, held in Boudicca's arms while her winds swirl around him and slow his descent -- possibly everyone else's with them, too.

For Azoth, it's the only hope of a safe landing he has.

Everyone else may have a little more agency in descending into the ancient city.

DG: Azoth has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Highway to the Danger Zone.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    Altitude variation in progress. Adjusting for pressure. Subduing gravitational acceleration...

    It's hard to describe the precise sense engaged by a Wind Seraph in free-fall. They are masters of the earth; they spite earthen gravity, even as it tries to grasp them and hold them tight. They are beings of the air, which move with no visual hint at all, and a cavalcade of information held in what looks to be nothing at all. This is Boudicca's understanding of the world, almost entirely divorced from the rushing abyss of the ground coming up to meet her.

    They're falling. At first they're falling fast, until they're falling quite more slowly.

    Boudicca can't reach everyone. She has exceptional magical talent, but spreading the reach of one's Artes is not always such a simple task; the effort of the magic compounds. But she reaches who she can; reaches so far, the magic might waver, at the edges. Someone might fall a little rougher than she'd like. They at least will not die.

    There's at least someone she can keep safe for certain.

    It's the robot in her arms, who cannot know, in this moment, how passingly similar the complex calculations between them might look.

    Boudicca encircles the poor, battered Azoth in her arms, and gently, gently, she falls. She falls with her back to the beleagured ground, such that Azoth is held safely above it. They might well call it a Float spell, here in Spira, the way she rejects the earth. There's a light 'thud', as the ideal of plate armour makes contact with concrete.

    "It's all right," she tells him, quietly. "It's all right."

    Boudicca lays him down so that he can recover, and pushes herself sitting, beside him. She looks up, to the billboards. Strange advertisements, but in that script...

    "'Amadi Heavy Industries'..? But, what is a Lizner Robotic, in any case..?" Boudicca frowns, peering at the sign. "What a strange advertisement... I scarcely know what the construction industry could do with a 'Longossa Cruiser'." Boudicca hasn't realised they're all separate advertisements. "What is this place..?"

DG: Seraph Boudicca has used her Tool Breezeruffle Leaves toward her party's challenge, Highway to the Danger Zone.
<Pose Tracker> Dash Caskett has posed.

In the midst of a grand melee above, the ground has given way, in no small part to Odessa drilling and disturbing grounds of a long ended city that rests at the edge of the world. There is little time to deal with the massive hole opening below everyone.

It isn't long before Dash is plunged into darkness. "Hey! Cany anyone hear me?" he calls as he falls. He hears people near him, but he cannot see them. It is hard to tell which way he is falling for a while, though gyro-stabilizers within are attempting to correct a certain way, which is enough of a tell.

The boy tries his best to right himself where he thinks he may fall, as lights come into view i nthe far distance. The shock absorbers in his feet can take extreme punishment and dispearse the momentum well..

As he nears landing, he sees Boudicca and Azoth being carried nearby in the dim lighting that now coat the area, with neon lights closeby, "Boudicca! Are you okay?" he calls as he tenses for impact.

DG: Dash Caskett has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Highway to the Danger Zone.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida falls.

    For a split-second, there is panic, and darkness, and the rush of wind--a sensation that brings back memories of the Warwing's destruction. Then something ignites in the darkness, and Ida realizes she has a longer way to fall than she thought. She's still armored from head to toe in Hyadean exoskeleton, but that alone won't protect her. Golden-bright Breath drifts from the vents on her back, sparkling motes that do absolutely nothing to keep her aloft.

    And then, she sees someone, silhouetted from below, and the wind catches her. Boudicca, Ida realizes. She grits her teeth, spreads her arms and legs, and twists her body so she's falling belly-first. Her focus goes first to her knees, then ankles, then toes--the ensorcelled boots she wears ignite with bright green radiance. Motes of light fly off, dancing like fireflies in Boudicca's wind. Ida can't see any others from her location, but she's feeling out where Boudicca's magic goes as best as she can. She doesn't have her friend's instinctive sense for the wind. She trusts in her.

    Quicksilver slicks down Ida's sides, spinning outward into a thin, sturdy patagium. Ratatoskr has used something very similar to glide, and Ida borrowed that trick when she escaped the Warwing. It not only arrests her fall, it jerks her upwards, leaving her to slowly glide down, down, down...

    To what is hopefully a soft landing. Either way, she lands near Boudicca, wounded and pale-faced but still very much alive. "...Where are we?" Ida's gaze follows the Seraph's, settling on the signs. Her heart leaps into her throat. "That's Zeboim writing," she breathes. "Here. On Spira." She'd feel elated if she weren't still terrified. She looks down at Azoth, then up at Boudicca. "He's... did he shut down? Oh God. Oh God, Azoth, can you--can you hear me?"

DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Zephyr Boots toward her party's challenge, Highway to the Danger Zone.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    Azoth, Boudicca, Ida, and Dash aren't the only ones down here. Well, there's quite a few people who've fallen down here, but not all of them are in the same basic area. There's one other who doesn't need to worry about fall damage, though, and that's one Seraph Ragnell, who opted to watch the three-way battle between Odessa, Solaris, and the Drifters without actually participating. Of keen interest to her were the Solarian agents.
    
    Seraphita was one she recognized--she hadn't seen her in quite some time, but it looks like she's still doing well. But there was the other one who seemed to be in charge... She had a certain gravitas to her, at least. Having come to the area with Odessa, Ragnell was already aware of what the troops were digging for, and knowing Odessa, she's not surprised they decided on the most hamfisted way to get what they wanted once the battle was lost. And since she saw Azoth on the battlefield too, on the side of the Drifters but definitely not acting like his usual Drifter facade...
    
    Well, Ragnell figured she'd head that way before the explosives went off.
    
    As she falls, she passes before a set of billboards. The messages are in a long-dead language (to most people, anyway) with a message so mundane that she has to bark out a short, sharp laugh. A moment later, she lands soundlessly, then turns towards the sound of voices. A few long strides later, and she'll appear before them.
    
    Unlike usual, Ragnell doesn't speak at first; she simply sizes the group up as they cluster together, worrying about one another, with a thoughtful stare, one hand on her hip. She turns her focus to Azoth; then, to Boudicca, his active rescuer. Boudicca is reliable in that regard; Ragnell knew she could leave it up to her.
    
    What is this place, though?
    
    "An underground lost city. What's it look like?" she snarks. ...She doesn't interrupt any answer Boudicca gives about Azoth's state of being, though.

DG: Seraph Ragnell has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Highway to the Danger Zone.
==============================<* New Kasim City *>==============================
==================<* CHALLENGE - Highway to the Danger Zone *>==================
|Type: Entry       |Dungeon Ability: Agility   |Challenge Rating: 3          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The ground at the center of Zanarkand Dome is heavily damaged and weakened.   
 It begins giving away, with even the smallest movement, and the end result    
 is that the ground collapses right in front of the final temple -- right in   
 front of the end of the pilgrimage. In a way, it might seem like a cosmic     
 joke played on summoners and guardians.                                       
                                                                               
 It is a frenzied, panicked descent into the darkness. Falling pieces of       
 rock, chunks of concrete riddled with rebar, and the occasional pitted and    
 rusted steel beam fall with you. You fall and fall, and need to find some     
 way to arrest your descent -- or at least land without causing severe injury  
 to yourself.                                                                  
                                                                               
 When you land, it is dark at first. You are on a concrete surface -- and      
 then lights nearby flicker on, as if detecting your presence. The lights      
 catch reflective strips painted on the road -- and then signs appear.         
 Advertisements flash on digital billboards, in the old language of Zeboim,    
 Zanarkand, and the Ancient Tongue:                                            
                                                                               
 	AMADI HEAVY INDUSTRIES -- SOLVING YOUR CONSTRUCTION NEEDS                    
 	LIZNER ROBOTICS. GREAT GEARS. GREAT RATES.                                   
 	BUY THE NEW LONGOSSA CRUISER TODAY!                                          
                                                                               
 The lights also reflect a green sign, outlined in white, and with white       
 lettering that reflects:                                                      
                                                                               
 	New Kasim City                                                               
 	Population: 88,700                                                           
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Injure, Exhaust====================================
=========================<* New Kasim City - Round 1 *>=========================
====================< Results - Highway to the Danger Zone >====================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Azoth                               0 --(37)--> 37                 Fail
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC                
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seraph Ragnell                      0 --(37)--> 37                 Fail
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC                
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ida Everstead-Rey                   0 --(37)--> 37                 Fail
Zephyr Boots                        2   Agility Effects: Quicken              
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seraph Boudicca                     0 --(12)--> 12                 Pass
Breezeruffle Leaves                 2   Agility Effects: Stalwart             
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dash Caskett                        0 --(37)--> 37                 Fail
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC                
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Azoth                       0 --(15)--> 15                 Fail
Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Injure(2)|Slow(2)
Effects: Quicken(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Azoth has failed this challenge! The party gained 15 exploration! If anyone needs to use party
management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
DG: Azoth has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* New Kasim City *>==============================
====================<* CHALLENGE - Burning Down the House *>====================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 2          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 You follow a concrete road until it ends in a large, two-story facility. The  
 glass doors are open, leading to a large atrium, with rows of chairs and      
 tables in a cafeteria. A sign on the wall blinks, periodically: FOOD          
 DISTRIBUTION CENTER                                                           
                                                                               
 You see a large number of robots inside. Some whirr to life, looking up at    
 you with dusted and cracked oculars. A machine inside a nearby kitchen also   
 spins up, with effort -- and loud, worrying clanking. A mechanical voice      
 says, in the Zeboim language, "Greetings! We will begin preparing food        
 and--FIRE CONTROL INITIATED."                                                 
                                                                               
 The doors you entered from are sealed shut, as steel blast doors come down.   
 Flame suddenly begins leaping up from a window into kitchen, and across the   
 countertops. There is a hiss -- and a spray of dust, but no water -- from     
 the sprinkler systems. It seems the automated kitchen has a maintenance       
 emergency -- and the fire control has sealed you inside a room that is soon   
 to burn down.                                                                 
=Dungeon Conditions: Tire, Exhaust, Weaken====================================
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.

It's all right.

It will be, thanks to Boudicca. However rough the landing, however much struggle there was in the fall, or whatever debris threaten... her winds see it through. It's still a harrowing fall, all the same, giving them all time to wonder if it'll ever end before it finally does.

And then, darkness. Until the billboards sputter to life and illuminate the area in too-bright bombardments trying to sell them goods they cannot buy. They're not the only technology that begins to flicker back into operation.

Azoth's eyes regain their light, mercifully blue instead of the red that beset him while he was trying to cleave Ratatoskr in half. He gazes up at Boudicca, not quite blank, but stilled to a peacefulness like one waking from a rest.

Until he grimaces, pushing away from her and out of her arms.

"Objective identified," he says.

Boudicca's soothing winds eased his core enough that he can use his face to say what words cannot. It might worry them less, he concludes, to show any scrap of data that suggests a self beyond his fixed pursuit, even if it's data of his pain.

"<VOID DRIVE> in range." Zeboim. "OVERRIDE: Translate and rename. VOID DRIVE. Confirmed."

It's another tiny way they chip away at who he is and remake his thoughts, bit by bit, byte by byte.

"Prioritizing retrieval. Error. Memory corrupted. Data match detected. Initiating remote download... Repairing data." He pinches his eyes shut in another grimace. "Error. Connection lost. Searching for signal..." Azoth drags himself further into the ruins without waiting to see if anyone will follow. Dash is here, and Azoth should be apologizing for not listening to him. Ida is here, and he should be telling her he's all right. Boudicca is here, and he should thank her for saving him. Ragnell is here, and he should be bright eyed with delight in his usual greeting.

He should be asking if all of them are all right, too.

But he doesn't. He can't. There is only forward.

Forward into New Kasim City.
Population: 88,700
...Not likely. There's nothing but pyreflies occasionally drifting through this ancient, lonely metropolis surrounded in its massive steel walls.

He continues into an old facility, reading FOOD DISTRIBUTION CENTER. He looks up, and light shines form his eyes, superimposing a projection upon them... with the translation of their common, familiar tongue. But when he turns his gaze away, the translation is gone -- the others who know this ancient language may still be necessary for informing the others, given Azoth's attention does not seem wont to linger today.

Even the robots (friends?!?) go ignored. "<Greetings!>" they say as Azoth walks past. "<We will begin preparing food and--FIRE CONTROL INITIATED.>"

The doors behind them seal shut. Steel blast doors slam down and seal the way ahead. The kitchens burst into flames, the sprinkler systems hissing and spraying dust uselessly onto the fire. Azoth offers no alarm of warning. No distressed beeping. He does not even pause his limped walk forward, gathering light at his palm and forming a massive blade of light to try and cleave his way through without a moment's pause.

DG: Azoth has used his Tool Falk's Photon Blade toward his party's challenge, Burning Down the House.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    "He... went through quite a lot, up there. His objective..." Boudicca trails off, frowning as she looks to Azoth. "... I... believe he will rouse again." She brushes some of the dust from his chassis, as if that could somehow make the difference. "I am whole and hale," she replies, to Dash. "Are you all whole, as well..?"

    It's Zeboim writing... according to Ida. And Ragnell is here, too. Well, why wouldn't she be? Before she can respond to the idea that they're in a lost city, though, Azoth's eyes glow blue again. "Ah -- Azoth!" Boudicca says, scrambling to stand on her own two feet after he struggles himself upright. He looked... unbothered, in that moment. Until...

    "W-- wait!" She stammers, as she hurries after him. Into the FOOD DISTRIBUTION CENTRE, and it's a good thing she doesn't have to rely on his projections. Into the centre, and she looks to the robots as they greet her, but --

    Before she can greet them back, (she would,) there's a much more pressing issue here, suddenly.

    "Ah--!" Boudicca exclaims, but the fire is, presently, the more concerning thing to her. Even if most of them will be fine, Ida needs oxygen to breathe, and unlike the earth, wind is much worse at pushing fire around. Instead: she fights fire with fire, holding her brazier aloft. The smoke which sparks from it is invigorating rather than choking, in the method of the Guardians; and it pushes back on the flames of that kitchen accident, as if to replace the fate of burning alive with the story of a gentle hearthfire. She's tried this in her dreams. Maybe it will work, here...

    Of course, to anyone not keen to the effects of Guardian assistance, it really just looks like she's added more heat to the equation.

DG: Seraph Boudicca has used her Tool Bestial Brazier toward her party's challenge, Burning Down the House.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida narrowly avoided broken ribs on that landing. It's a testament to how worried she is that she scrambles to Boudicca's side, orienting herself and checking on Azoth before doing anything else.

    Then her head jerks sharply in Ragnell's direction; the lighting reveals wide, wary eyes and a tight-lipped mouth. Ida lets out a breath, reminds herself why the Lightning Seraph is likely here. She's with Odessa, of course, and the fight was chaotic enough that there's simply the chance Ida didn't see her fighting for them. "Ragnell," she says. "Azoth's--" Ida trails off, lets Boudicca explain the rest. As Dash approaches, a glimmer of gratitude lights up Ida's eyes, but it's quickly stifled--and not by Fafnir. "Azoth?!" He says something. Spoken Zeboim? Void Drive. What the hell is that supposed to be?

    Ida's body moves on autopilot, even as her mind reels. She dashes off to catch up with Azoth, the blues and golds of her exoskeleton almost a mirror of Dash's armor. She spares only a moment to glance at the writing before following Azoth into the building, motioning for the others to follow. It's obvious he's not going to slow down--he's dragging himself onwards, despite his injuries.

    Almost like...

    Deep, gnawing dread settles in the pit of Ida's stomach.

    Then things get even worse. "Shit," Ida spits, as the door slams down less than a foot from her face. Gauntlets extrude fresh armor, and she clenches her fists, breathing in Boudicca's smoke rather than the terrible, choking drafts from the kitchen. "Boudicca," she says, between breaths, between punches that go CLANG CLANG CLANG against the door. "What the bloody hell happened up there? Is this--this must be what he was looking for the entire time." But she's talking to Azoth like he's not even there, and after realizing it--after expressing frustration and desperation in a few Breath-fueled SLAM BANG CRUNCH strikes against the door--she turns to him. "We're here," she says, to Azoth. "Nothing's going to happen to you. Boudicca's here, and I'm here, and so are Dash and Ragnell. We'll make it through."

DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Burning Down the House.
<Pose Tracker> Dash Caskett has posed.

THe landing is rough, and there is the sound of something bending the way it shouldn't be Dash has falle nin one piece. folks nearby the fighting-- Ida and Ragnell, have joined the group it seems, having tumbled into the same area. Boudi and Azoth of course were dealing with a squirrely opponent. They are nowhere to be seen, having employed some sort of teleportation to escape.

"Guess we are going to find out," Dash comments toward Ragnell, before approaching where Azoth currently late.

The wording and language of the signs feel familiar somehow. And yet, it is others who mention what they say. "Sounds like old billboards, or something close." And then Azoth gets up and starts talking nonsense. Well, nonsense to most, the things he says he understands at least to a degree. "We uh, we should follow him!" Though, Dash does ponder what a Void Drive is.

Following is relatively simple-- Azoth doesn't seem to be running forward, thankfully.

The path leads to inside some sort of kitchen place. A restaurant? Some sort of service area. "Oh hey! Food! Maybe we can find something for--" He looks around the party. Do Seraphs eat? He can see Boudicca, and Ragnell gives off that same energy siganture. Ida is the only on here that is human.

Thankfully, embarassing himself isn't on the menu. As something starts a fire in the back prep room! "Uh!!! Must have not liked starting up after ages! That isn't great!"

Dash has this vague premonition that dealing with this problem could be an important life lesson for the future, should this ever happen again. Unfortunately, Dash has nothing but weapons. BUT weapons can be put to use!

Ida launches vicious attacks against the door, and Dash gets ready to follow up! "Dent it up nice and good! I'll blow it the rest of the way open!" He lacks his Drill Arm, but the Active buster has pleny of explosives to do the job just as well.

Maybe he can blow the door open to escape, or at least get a good source of air in here, as that fire is gonna start taking up the oxygen real quick.

DG: Dash Caskett has used his Tool Drill Arm toward his party's challenge, Burning Down the House.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    Azoth goes into motion... but doesn't regain his personality, or rather, his Drifter mask. He simply talks like a programmed entity, then beelines in a certain direction. Ragnell raises an eyebrow at the others, then--though she'd do so whether Dash had said anything or not--strolls on after him. Briskly, if need be, depending on how fast Azoth is going. "Guess so," she says amiably.
    
    What a Void Drive is, she doesn't know, and she doesn't bother to point out that <Void Drive> and Void Drive are the same thing. She doesn't need translations for things he shoots eyebeams at, but it's not lost on her that he *does* translate them for the others even if he doesn't linger overlong.
    
    It's also not lost on her that the power hasn't gone from this place. She looks up at the population billboard for the city, chuckles a little to herself, and moves on into the food distribution center after Azoth.
    
    "D'you know how to read Zeboim?" she wonders, genuinely curious, at Ida. She *has* met a few humans who can--though some of them referred to it as the Ancient Tongue. She gives a little side glance to Boudicca when she mentions Azoth's objective... but doesn't remark.
    
    "Yeah, kinda figures," she instead notes with inappropriate calm when the little robots' attempts to make delicious food rapidly devolves into a fire hazard. She of course doesn't remark on what happened, either up there or down here. "Is there even anything edible down here anymore?" Dash makes an observation of his own, and Ragnell laughs, even though it probably wasn't a joke.
    
    That's a serious question. There *is* still power, after all. There might not be anything other than robots, though. It looks like there's no water, though, given how the sprinkler system comes to life but only showers down dust. She shakes her head, chows down on a strip of spicy jerky, and fires a charged shot in the air. A torrential downpour rains down on the fire a moment later. Of course, so do some needle-thin lightning bolts, so it might actually make things worse in the end? But hey, at least the fire won't spread as easily, or maybe even get doused while the others bust down the door!

DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Spicy Jerky toward her party's challenge, Burning Down the House.
==============================<* New Kasim City *>==============================
====================<* CHALLENGE - Burning Down the House *>====================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 2          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 You follow a concrete road until it ends in a large, two-story facility. The  
 glass doors are open, leading to a large atrium, with rows of chairs and      
 tables in a cafeteria. A sign on the wall blinks, periodically: FOOD          
 DISTRIBUTION CENTER                                                           
                                                                               
 You see a large number of robots inside. Some whirr to life, looking up at    
 you with dusted and cracked oculars. A machine inside a nearby kitchen also   
 spins up, with effort -- and loud, worrying clanking. A mechanical voice      
 says, in the Zeboim language, "Greetings! We will begin preparing food        
 and--FIRE CONTROL INITIATED."                                                 
                                                                               
 The doors you entered from are sealed shut, as steel blast doors come down.   
 Flame suddenly begins leaping up from a window into kitchen, and across the   
 countertops. There is a hiss -- and a spray of dust, but no water -- from     
 the sprinkler systems. It seems the automated kitchen has a maintenance       
 emergency -- and the fire control has sealed you inside a room that is soon   
 to burn down.                                                                 
=Dungeon Conditions: Tire, Exhaust, Weaken====================================
=========================<* New Kasim City - Round 2 *>=========================
======================< Results - Burning Down the House >======================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Azoth                               37 --(8)--> 45                 Pass
Falk's Photon Blade                 3   Brute   Effects: Fanfare              
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seraph Ragnell                      37 --(8)--> 45                 Pass
Spicy Jerky                         2   Brute   Effects: Strengthen           
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ida Everstead-Rey                   37 --(33)--> 70                Fail
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC                
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seraph Boudicca                     12 --(8)--> 20                 Pass
Bestial Brazier                     2   Brute   Effects: Strengthen           
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dash Caskett                        37 --(8)--> 45                 Pass
Drill Arm                           2   Brute   Effects: Resilient            
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Azoth                       15 --(20)--> 35                Pass
Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Injure(1)|Slow(1)|Tire(2)|Weaken(2)
Effects: Resilient(1)|Strengthen(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Azoth 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: Azoth has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* New Kasim City *>==============================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Every Rose Has Its Thorn *>===================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 2          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 You make your way through the concrete and steel paths of New Kasim City to   
 the place that, once, was meant to feed it: the hydroponic gardens. They      
 never lost power, it seems, because the greenhouse panes are light up         
 brilliantly. When you enter, though, you find that it has not been            
 maintained well... or at all.                                                 
                                                                               
 The hydroponic bays are fixed into the walls, and water filtration systems    
 and the like have kept the plants growing. Nothing has pruned them, though.   
 The inside of the the garden is filled with overgrowth: thorny vines, huge    
 bushes, trees jutting out at odd angles, and other plants that are likely     
 supporting the building as much as being constrained by it. Getting through   
 here will require caution -- not brute force or speed, but carefully          
 deciding what to tear away and how to do so. Without some caution, you might  
 well cause the ecosystem to collapse... on top of you.                        
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Injure==========================================
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.

Azoth continues on in spite of their cries. Ida reassures him, and he has no glance to give her. Just his sword against that door. A door he's not going to open himself, but futilely he smashes his weaponry against it. Boudicca and Ragnell buy them important time to get through the thickness of it with their respective braizers and torrents. Ida pounds into it, though she may find the direct contact more exhausting than she envisioned. With it weakened, Dash is able to drill through to the end, and everyone escapes to safety.

The kitchens explode behind them. "<Greetings!>" calls a robot as it flies through the air.

Azoth staggers, barely catching himself on some city debris before pushing himself up. He couldn't have succeeded that alone. His calculations mercifully acknowledge that. It's enough to reclaim a fragment from the processing power his overrides are devouring.

"Social behaviors -- deprioritized," he manages to explain through a voice filled with static, though 'explain' might not mean much to those who find his chosen vocabulary difficult to follow. "Connection -- established -- downloading --"

His body sparks and he forces himself forward. "...Connection lost."

Azoth continues onward, talking with static as he stumbles through New Kasim. "There was -- something here after all... It's -- what was used to -- tear me apart -- scatter -- the pieces..."

Solaris can't program him to secrecy over brand new information they don't realize he has.

Not far from the restaurant are hydrophonic gardens. The food had to come from somewhere, after all. Azoth scans over the area, calculating the quickest route he can determine through it -- but super computer he is, it still doesn't seem he's paused to consider anything. He struggles ahead, arm twitching as he tries to cut his path forward. He might, might be able to listen to their suggestions at this point if they give them.

DG: Azoth has used his Tool Oculus ex Machina toward his party's challenge, Every Rose Has Its Thorn.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida slips through the hole alongside the others, coughing all the way. Boudicca put up a heroic effort, but in her exertion, her Seer managed to inhale smoke, regardless. She stands still for a moment, doubled over with her hands pressed tight against her stomach--to the line of fresh stem tissue holding a wound shut. The Watcher put that wound there, and as Ida rises, crimson and quicksilver drip between her gauntleted fingers. It's a good few seconds before she thinks to respond to Ragnell.

    "No," she says, looking up at the Lightning Seraph. Her hair is down, and tangled; her face is streaked with soot and sweat, between the emotional and physical stress of the situation, she's... clearly not having a good day. "Going to learn, though." She manages a weak little smile. It dies at that last, choked <Greetings!>, and the subsequent explosion. Azoth would have been heartbroken, she thinks, distantly.

    But Azoth's staticky voice gives her hope. "The Void Drive?" she asks, as they step through the door of the greenhouse. The sight of plants would be welcome, but it's clear Azoth intends to keep going, even if it means leaving everyone behind. Even if it means pushing a dear human friend to the limits of her endurance, and beyond.

    "I'm here," Ida says. "Was it the Void Drive that did that, or something else? Do you--" She trails off in a hacking cough, has to force herself to slow down. Her hand dips into a pocket, comes up with her multitool. Whereas Azoth uses his blades, Ida takes a slightly more nuanced approach. She studied botany, after all, knows what these plants should look like. She cuts and prunes like a gardener, rather than a chainsaw.

DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool ARMS Meister's Field Kit toward her party's challenge, Every Rose Has Its Thorn.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    "I have brought sustenance with me," Boudicca reassures Ragnell, and that is so, absolutely, TOTALLY not the point. Ragnell's rain is of course in direct competition with Moor Gault's fire, but... is anyone really surprised about that? Somehow, her smoke still manages to help.

    She wishes it had helped much more, though, seeing Ida cough in the exit. "Ida!" She calls to her, and hurries over to offer her a water-skein; of course, she looks particularly concerned by the advanced state of her exoskeleton, now. It keeps advancing... "Please be cautious with yourself as well," she says, worried.

    Speaking of people who really ought to engender more caution...

    "We understand," she assures Azoth, as he says his social programs aren't a concern right now. "Or... we understand enough." This she adds, a moment later, for clarity's sake.

    But, his pieces...

    "Are you... a piece of yourself, Azoth?" It dawns on Boudicca, too, too slowly. She attends to the vines like someone who lived in a swamp for a hundred years; she turns them aside, slips past them, creates openings for her fellows to step through before she lets the plants fall back into place. In particular, she makes sure Dash isn't left flailing in the overgrowth! Poor Dash doesn't seem like he's spent too much time in the wilderness, to Boudicca.

DG: Seraph Boudicca has used her Tool Emergency Supplies toward her party's challenge, Every Rose Has Its Thorn.
<Pose Tracker> Dash Caskett has posed.

Escape is nessecary and achieved through the door they came in. Thankfully Azoth got out as well. "Okay, okay-- You are clearly looking for something buddy, but might want to be a bit careful where you walk into next time, okay?" Dask asks nicely. A look toward Boudicca. "Is there anyhting we can do to help him? Hoping you might know something I dont." It was like if Kamui malfunctioned really, really badly.

As Ida and Boudi exchange comments, a thought comes to Dash as he listens intently. Meeting Juno, and recalling both of those forms he had. Maybe the same is with Azoth somehow? He appears to be some sort of construct that has a humanoid appearance. Not to lump everyone together, but robots, androids, reploids, whatever they are all called, have some defining traits that connect each other.

But there is too little info to go on. And besides, they have a bigger hurdle up ahead.

The garden path Azoth seems determined to go through is thick with foliage, some of which is dangerous and bulky. "Wasn't the plant person in the family."

A hand reaches up to his helmet to tap the radio.

<Pose Tracker> Dash Caskett has posed.

Escape is nessecary and achieved through the door they came in. Thankfully Azoth got out as well. "Okay, okay-- You are clearly looking for something buddy, but might want to be a bit careful where you walk into next time, okay?" Dask asks nicely. A look toward Boudicca. "Is there anyhting we can do to help him? Hoping you might know something I dont." It was like if Kamui malfunctioned really, really badly.

As Ida and Boudi exchange comments, a thought comes to Dash as he listens intently. Meeting Juno, and recalling both of those forms he had. Maybe the same is with Azoth somehow? He appears to be some sort of construct that has a humanoid appearance. Not to lump everyone together, but robots, androids, reploids, whatever they are all called, have some defining traits that connect each other.

But there is too little info to go on. And besides, they have a bigger hurdle up ahead.

The garden path Azoth seems determined to go through is thick with foliage, some of which is dangerous and bulky. "Wasn't the plant person in the family."

A hand reaches up to his helmet to tap the radio.

"--Static--"

"Bah. No signal this far down in... wherever we are. Was Zanarkand really built on this place? Reminds me of back home. Cities like Kattelox built on top of cities of the past."

Instead, he trots up to some of the gnarled vines, and thinks. "Roll is the one who has a small spice garden in the kitchen. She trims the side growths on the plant whe nthey get out of controll or we need some, and the plant keeps growing. Maybe we can do the same here."

He takes out the Blade Arm and switches it in, cutting it on. Meticulous motions to cut non-essential growths is attempted. "Anything you guys see we should take with us?"

DG: Dash Caskett has used his Tool Roll Call toward his party's challenge, Every Rose Has Its Thorn.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    The group peels through the wrecked door, and the kitchens explode behind them. Ragnell turns in time to see a robot fly through the air as it chirps its greetings in the Ancient Tongue. Then she looks at Boudicca and listens to her totally not get the point. She considers an answer for a second; she comes up with, "Cool."
    
    Then she leaves Boudicca to fuss over Ida and her red-and-silver blood (something that Ragnell does note but does not remark upon), instead considering Ida for a moment when she finally responds. "Hmmm... From who?" she wonders.
    
    Then she looks over at Azoth then as he seems to regain control over... *some* of his faculties. She is of course still following him, and anyone who might be looking her way might notice the flicker of concern in her red eyes as his body sparks and he pronounces his connection lost. Hmm..." As they all head into the hydroponic gardens, she wanders close to Azoth, then murmurs low enough for only him to hear, "Then it's unrelated to what *they* did to you?"
    
    Ah; so there *is* food here. She's actually impressed as she looks around to take it all in. Of course, it hasn't been maintained well at all, but that's of less concern to Ragnell than the fact that they've been able to grow so well deep down here in the earth at *all*. Of course, all the wild overgrowth means it might be tough to get past, but... That's someone else's problem! Ragnell does at least bring out her harmonica to play a soft, soothing melody that makes it easier to process, in all senses of the word.
    
    Before she starts, though, she remarks to Dash, "It sure was. You ought to know, seein' as you dropped down here with the rest of us. I get why you'd doubt it even so, though. It's wild t' think such a huge city was built on top of another city, huh?"

DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Polished Harmonica toward her party's challenge, Every Rose Has Its Thorn.
==============================<* New Kasim City *>==============================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Every Rose Has Its Thorn *>===================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 2          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 You make your way through the concrete and steel paths of New Kasim City to   
 the place that, once, was meant to feed it: the hydroponic gardens. They      
 never lost power, it seems, because the greenhouse panes are light up         
 brilliantly. When you enter, though, you find that it has not been            
 maintained well... or at all.                                                 
                                                                               
 The hydroponic bays are fixed into the walls, and water filtration systems    
 and the like have kept the plants growing. Nothing has pruned them, though.   
 The inside of the the garden is filled with overgrowth: thorny vines, huge    
 bushes, trees jutting out at odd angles, and other plants that are likely     
 supporting the building as much as being constrained by it. Getting through   
 here will require caution -- not brute force or speed, but carefully          
 deciding what to tear away and how to do so. Without some caution, you might  
 well cause the ecosystem to collapse... on top of you.                        
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Injure==========================================
=========================<* New Kasim City - Round 3 *>=========================
=====================< Results - Every Rose Has Its Thorn >=====================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Azoth                               45 --(9)--> 54                 Fail
Oculus ex Machina                   1   Wits    Effects: Cleanse              
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seraph Ragnell                      45 --(0)--> 45                 Pass
Polished Harmonica                  1   Wits    Effects: Cleanse              
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ida Everstead-Rey                   70 --(0)--> 70                 Pass
ARMS Meister's Field Kit            2   Wits    Effects: Enlighten            
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seraph Boudicca                     20 --(9)--> 29                 Fail
Emergency Supplies                  1   Wits    Effects: Cleanse              
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dash Caskett                        45 --(0)--> 45                 Pass
Roll Call                           3   Wits    Effects: Rally                
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Azoth                       35 --(20)--> 55                Pass
Conditions: Injure(2)|Stupify(2)|Tire(1)|Weaken(1)
Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Azoth 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: Azoth has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* New Kasim City *>==============================
===================<* CHALLENGE - All Along the Watchtower *>===================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 3          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Your brief exploration of New Kasim City shows that it is compact. It is no   
 metropolis, but a carefully built small city, meant to use a small amount of  
 space. You are near what you think must be the edge of it, for there is a     
 large metal wall that rises up to the bedrock of Zanarkand above. Stenciled   
 on the wall, in white text, reads: RAVINE REVOLUTIONARY FORCES -- KEEP OUT    
                                                                               
 There is a stairwell that winds up, to an elevated level on the wall. This    
 elevated level will let you keep walking. Nearby, built into it, is a guard   
 tower; once upon a time, this would have been staffed by the very soldiers    
 that would keep people out. Now, though, it has half-collapsed onto the       
 stairwell. You will need to break your way through concrete, steel beams,     
 and more, to get to the catwalk that leads onward.                            
=Dungeon Conditions: Collapse=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.

"This occurred before," Azoth says to Ragnell. He does not say how long before. He cannot say how long before, because he is not supposed to let anyone outside of Solaris know he's a piece of Zeboim technology. But he is desperately searching a Zeboim city for something he knows, speaking Zeboim, connecting to something that must be Zeboim related. Obscuring this nugget of truth would take more than choosing not to state it out loud.

"Subject Ida," Azoth says without looking back. "Your presence is not required."

He would have worded that so differently using his Drifter mask. But it is a mask, not a different Azoth, any less aware of himself than the one they think they know. The same calculations and sentiments. Is it more authentic to say it like this, than with a weak smile and gentle modifiers? Are each of his cheerful declarations painted over equally blunt statements?

Dash tells him to be more careful. "Input acknowledged, Target Dash." Well. Deprioritizing social functions has its consequences. What did his handlers think was going to happen? But without context, the prefix may not be conclusive. ... A pity.

"The void drive. A device installed into me -- designed for -- advanced maneuverability. It was -- weaponized against me." Why? That's the question. Why do it, and why that way? "The other programs -- were deleted when they proved -- sub-optimal. Why -- divide me instead of -- deleting me -- with them?"

No one here can answer that.

Azoth's miscalculated the cuts... or his calculations simply did not care for how the vegetation might come down, expecting he could dig himself out and go on without the help of the others with him. His eyes are flickering red all the while. Thankfully, to the tune of Ragnell's harmonica, Ida and Dash manage the careful cutting necessary to prevent that from going poorly, and though Boudicca's able to slip through, there may be more thorns than she expected.

Are you... a piece of yourself, Azoth?

Azoth uses the time needed to recover from a stumble to regard Boudicca in telling, but empty, silence. The overrides are not so elegant as to preventing meaningful stares, either.

He continues. "Searching... Searching..." Azoth's eyes set upon a sign: <RAVINE REVOLUTIONARY FORCES -- KEEP OUT>. A light projection goes over it again, translating it visibly for everyone. Predictably, it goes ignored. Up Azoth goes, into a stairwell that reaches up a large, metal wall at what might be the edge of the city.

A guard tower has collapsed into the stairwell, blocking off the path to the catwalk leading further outside. Azoth, again, deploys a massive blade of energy and begins to cleave his way through without discussion or pause, his body sparking all the while from the strain.

DG: Azoth has used his Tool Falk's Photon Blade toward his party's challenge, All Along the Watchtower.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida accepts the canteen gratefully, gulping down mouthfuls of water. Her blood is drying on her armor; the warmth blossoming in her belly is all the signal she needs to know her body is knitting the reopened wound. "I'm sorry," she says, to Boudicca, as she passes the canteen back. "That fall took more out of me than I thought." And everything since. Boudicca can see it in her eyes--the fear, the worry. But beneath it is a steely determination to find out what the hell is going on, and free Azoth from its grip.

    ...Is there an Azoth to rescue, she thinks, as he sets off again, single-minded. She shakes her head, trying to banish the thought.

    'Subject Ida. Your presence is not required.'

    "Then call me a soft-hearted idiot," Ida says, glancing at Azoth's back, and then Ragnell. "Because I'm not leaving you. Not here, not in this state. A pause. Ida's mouth forms a perfect little 'O' as Azoth says the word 'target'. Something--someone--stirs beneath her thoughts, but thankfully, he doesn't do more than that. Instead, she lets Azoth keep talking to the best of his ability. "This isn't your original body," she says. It's a statement, not a question. "You were very different, back then." Advanced maneuverability? That doesn't match with her previous, fragile hypothesis of 'bodyguard'.

    When they get to the watchtower, Ida... sits, takes a moment to rest. She breathes, slow and deep, tries to let her body recover. She tries not to listen to the sparking, or to think about how Azoth's body seems to be straining at the seams. "We're here with you," Ida says. She's including Ragnell in that statement. "I'm here. You... you've been through so much, haven't you?"

DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, All Along the Watchtower.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    "I... I know not," Boudicca confesses, to Dash, with concern. "Azoth has spoken little of these things. I did not need to know the truth to be his companion." That Azoth can hear her say it, just the same, may speak... something, to Boudicca's restrained questions, the way she has simply existed alongside him companionably so often.

    Still, if she knew... could she help him, now?

    "I am sorry I could not do more to assist you," Boudicca says, to Ida, when she speaks of the falling. She does look awfully guilty about that. But they need to keep going.

    "There are rather many layers to this place," Boudicca agrees with Dash, on the comparison with Kattelox. She hopes Azoth considering him a target isn't a bad thing.

    The Void Drive... programs, like Azoth, deleted. Boudicca is, at least, apt at managing thorns. And the thorn of his gaze --

    He looks to her, and she looks to him, and her pool of concern lies deep, deep, deep.

    She has the same opinion as Ida, evidently: she follows him. She says: "We will search with you."

    And when they come to the crumbling tower, she lifts her brazier aloft again, with that invigorating smoke to help bolster Azoth's blade. Perhaps she can ease some of his burden, make the carving a little easier. Or, perhaps...

DG: Seraph Boudicca has used her Tool Bestial Brazier toward her party's challenge, All Along the Watchtower.
<Pose Tracker> Dash Caskett has posed.

Pruning through the foliage takes work but is successful! "Okay! So enough of the green thumbing. Time to get moving!" Of course, Azoth is already moving. "Hey! Wait up! Don't just-- wait Subject?" Dash responds to him when Azoth speaks. "Wait, Target?!" he just grimmaces. "I don't like how that was worded, but uh, we can worry about that later, I guess! Ehehehehe...."

Dash makes sure to keep a small distance from Azoth now. "Alrighty. Maybe we can still help them." A small nod toward Boudicca.

The group arrives on what appears to be a path collapsed, either due to age, ground shifts, or unfortunate events of the past. "Gonna have to work our way through again." Dash will wait for the others to deal some damage or clear some area before speaking again. "Got some missiles left. Can try to blow some wreckage away."

He would use the missiles if truly needed, but otherwise spends his time looking around the place. "Does this architecture look familiar to any of you?"

DG: Dash Caskett has used his Tool Drill Arm toward his party's challenge, All Along the Watchtower.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    'This occurred before,' Azoth states. "Hmmm," Ragnell murmurs, and says nothing further. After all, whether he wants anyone else present to know he's a Zeboim machine is something for him to decide. It does make a lot of things make sense, though. Why Solaris was constantly hacking at his programming like toddlers throwing temper tantrums over who gets to play with the new toy, for one. It was always clear that they had to have excavated him, but... Well, there's a lot of history on this planet, and a *lot* of people who visited from beyond the stars.
    
    Instead, Ragnell remarks mildly of Ida and her unrequired presence, "Lots o' things that aren't strictly required make existence easier t' bear." A beat. "Jus' sayin'."
    
    Is that... Ragnell coming to Ida's defense?? Nah, surely not, since she then grimaces at Ida's passionate proclamations. "*Goddess*, Ida, could you say that *any soppier*? I'm embarrassed t' have t' listen to ya."
    
    When Azoth explains, at least somewhat, the point of the Void Drive, Ragnell listens thoughtfully. Boudicca asks an insightful question, Ida makes some conclusions, and Azoth's silence is even more telling than words. Ragnell makes note of Dash's designation as 'Target,' and laughs at Dash's alarmed reaction to it. There's a lot to potentially say, but... there are other things to deal with at the moment.
    
    "It's sweet o' you to accept someone without knowin' anything about them. But that'll get you in trouble--like it got you in trouble with me," Ragnell remarks to Boudicca as, this time, she offers spicy jerky to everyone present except Azoth, for whom she's still working on perfecting those electricity cookies. These snacks aren't just tasty; they're imbued with Snack Preparation magic, and will prevent those who eat it from getting exhausted for a short time. That'll make it easier for the others to deal with the wreckage, which is good, because Ragnell's not going to help. To Dash, she says, "Why? 'S'it look familiar to you?"

DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Spicy Jerky toward her party's challenge, All Along the Watchtower.


==============================<* New Kasim City *>==============================
===================<* CHALLENGE - All Along the Watchtower *>===================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 3          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Your brief exploration of New Kasim City shows that it is compact. It is no   
 metropolis, but a carefully built small city, meant to use a small amount of  
 space. You are near what you think must be the edge of it, for there is a     
 large metal wall that rises up to the bedrock of Zanarkand above. Stenciled   
 on the wall, in white text, reads: RAVINE REVOLUTIONARY FORCES -- KEEP OUT    
                                                                               
 There is a stairwell that winds up, to an elevated level on the wall. This    
 elevated level will let you keep walking. Nearby, built into it, is a guard   
 tower; once upon a time, this would have been staffed by the very soldiers    
 that would keep people out. Now, though, it has half-collapsed onto the       
 stairwell. You will need to break your way through concrete, steel beams,     
 and more, to get to the catwalk that leads onward.                            
=Dungeon Conditions: Collapse=================================================
=========================<* New Kasim City - Round 4 *>=========================
=====================< Results - All Along the Watchtower >=====================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Azoth                               54 --(5)--> 59                 Pass
Falk's Photon Blade                 3   Brute   Effects: Fanfare              
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seraph Ragnell                      45 --(5)--> 50                 Pass
Spicy Jerky                         2   Brute   Effects: Strengthen           
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ida Everstead-Rey                   70 --(17)--> 87                Fail
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC                
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seraph Boudicca                     29 --(5)--> 34                 Pass
Bestial Brazier                     2   Brute   Effects: Strengthen           
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dash Caskett                        45 --(5)--> 50                 Pass
Drill Arm                           2   Brute   Effects: Resilient            
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Azoth                       55 --(20)--> 75                Pass
Conditions: Collapse
Effects: Resilient(1)|Strengthen(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Azoth 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: Azoth has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* New Kasim City *>==============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Sweet Child o' Mine *>======================
|Type: Climax      |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 3          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 You come to the northernmost side of the city. Here, there is a large plaza,  
 built in front of a large cylindrical tower. The tower has a pair of hangar   
 doors on it, with the words ACCESS ELEVATOR stenciled upon them. This may     
 allow access to upper areas -- or even Zanarkand itself. However, your first  
 task will be to get the elevator open and functioning... and the doors are    
 closed. Blasting them open is likely to damage the elevator.                  
                                                                               
 Fortunately, there is a console -- and some other mechanical equipment --     
 that may help.                                                                
                                                                               
 Shortly after you start work on it, though, you are given a distraction.      
 There is a large holographic projector. It first shows an image of a woman    
 sitting at a desk, in a suit. She is already speaking in Zeboim. "--e have    
 breaking news. We now take you to a press conference by Governor Alfred Bedd  
 of New Kasim City, regarding the Risen Populations and the Ferocious          
 Incandescent Enigmatic Natural Disaster phenomena that have gripped our       
 colony since its establishment."                                              
                                                                               
 The feed changes -- showing this plaza, but some thousands of years before.   
 There are more towers, stretching high; there is the sun in the sky. There    
 are also pyreflies, both recorded and real, passing through. On a stage, a    
 balding man in a suit stands.                                                 
                                                                               
 "People of New Kasim City!" he declares. "I know these last ten years have    
 been hard. Torn from our home of Filgaia, forced to know it has burnt, we     
 chose to not follow Althena! We accept no gods but our own... and we will     
 not cast aside the technologies of our ancestors!"                            
                                                                               
 He throws his arms out. "We will not turn to Althena. We reject the gifts of  
 magic she has given us. Our scientists are at a loss to explain the power of  
 the Witchlights that cause the dead to rise -- and the rising tide of FIENDs  
 into our lands. It has become clear, that if we are to survive, we must       
 spread across these lands. New Kasim City can only be the start... and        
 cannot be the end! We must have more settlements."                            
                                                                               
 He clenches a fist. "We will use our machines to master this new land! We     
 will spread our people wide... and we will build strong communities across    
 the land! I dub our new nation Spira -- after my daughter, left behind on     
 Filgaia!"                                                                     
                                                                               
 The feed cuts. A few seconds later, it begins to replay. While interesting,   
 it is quite distracting.                                                      
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.

Ida declares her intentions to stay, with Ragnell's defense of it. Boudicca agreeing to help him search. Dash worrying about him later. For a brief moment, Azoth's eyes are red again. They can't help him. And none of them realize yet they're helping him do exactly as Solaris wants.

This isn't your original body.

More pointed silence.

Dash comments on the familiarity of the architecture. ...Dash can't remember either. But Azoth's still confused on Dash's nature himself. Could Dash have been here, once? But Dash remembers a childhood. Those, or these, or any such memories could have been tampered with, however.

"Yes," Azoth says, and that's all he can say. But if Dash can understand what Azoth is, even slightly, and why Azoth knows it... maybe that's something. However meager.

Cleaving and drilling, with a brazier and snacks to empower it. It's exhausting work, going through walls of concrete and beams until they finally break out onto the other side. Getting onto the catwalk, and outdoors again ("outdoors", underground), makes it easier to travel across the city. Along the way, Azoth passes the ACCESS ELEVATOR -- a way out. A way up, perhaps to Zanarkand and to where they can rest. The doors are shut, and there's a console beside it. Perhaps a way to get it open.

Whether they linger at the elevator or try to stop Azoth from continuing his unrelenting search, everyone is interrupted by a large, holographic projector bringing up the imagine of a woman sitting at a desk, in a suit.

"<--e have breaking news. We now take you to a press conference by Governor Alfred Bedd of New Kasim City, regarding the Risen Populations and the Ferocious Incandescent Enigmatic Natural Disaster phenomena that have gripped our colony since its establishment.>"

Azoth stops and looks back. His eyes whirr and flicker, and by holographic projection of his own, he, conveniently, provides subtitles in almost instant translation. The feed changes to display the plaza they stand in as it was a thousand years ago with towers stretching up into the sunny sky. Pyreflies, recorded and real, pass through. A balding man in a suit speaks on stage:

"<People of New Kasim City!>" he declares. "<I know these last ten years have been hard. Torn from our home of Filgaia, forced to know it has burnt, we chose to not follow Althena! We accept no gods but our own... and we will not cast aside the technologies of our ancestors!>"

He throws his arms out. "<We will not turn to Althena. We reject the gifts of magic she has given us. Our scientists are at a loss to explain the power of the Witchlights that cause the dead to rise -- and the rising tide of FIENDs into our lands. It has become clear, that if we are to survive, we must spread across these lands. New Kasim City can only be the start... and cannot be the end! We must have more settlements.>"

He clenches a fist. "<We will use our machines to master this new land! We will spread our people wide... and we will build strong communities across the land! I dub our new nation Spira -- after my daughter, left behind on Filgaia!>"

The feed cuts. A few seconds later, it begins to replay. Azoth stares at it for a second round -- another opportunity to read his subtitles in real time, for those who don't know Zeboim themselves.

DG: Azoth has used his Tool Oculus ex Machina toward his party's challenge, Sweet Child o' Mine.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida glances sidelong at Ragnell, flashing a wry smile in the face of the Seraph's disgust. The rest doesn't do much to settle her thoughts, but she does accept the snack, chewing on it thoughtfully--and without any regard as to whether or not it might be poisoned. Ida knows poison isn't really Ragnell's style, after all.

    Once the others have cleared the way, Ida rises, and brushes the dust of ages off her armor. As always, Azoth's eloquent silence is as revealing as it is unnerving. Other programs. An advanced maneuverability device. Was Azoth designed like the JOTUNN cores were? Was he a war machine? Was he built for espionage? Was he built for something else entirely?

    The heiress follows her friend in silence. She passes by the elevator--unable to read Zeboim, she doesn't recognize it as something they need to access... and then, the projection.

    Ida's mouth falls open. She watches the subtitles, and she seems, for a moment, to have forgotten where she is. As she watches, she thinks back to that night when Talise told her of an old Lunarian legend... and here, she has incontrovertible proof. "The first Spirans," Ida breathes. "There was a schism. More than one, if the legends about this place are true." But that still doesn't explain where Sin came from, or why Spira is so different from the rest of Lunar. If it was like this when they got here, well...

    Well, it gives Ida something to think on that isn't the gaping rifts opening up in what she thinks she knows of her dear friend.

    She'll need some prompting to start work on the elevator, of course, but once she does, Ida is all business. She unpacks the pack at her side, testing wires carefully with voltimeters before replacing ones that look too corroded to work. "Try pressing that panel, Dash," Ida says, pointing to something on the wall next to the elevator. "That should open, and reveal the manual emergency controls."

DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool ARMS Meister's Field Kit toward her party's challenge, Sweet Child o' Mine.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    Azoth's eyes flash red, and Ragnell gives him a steady look. There are things they could discuss if she were inhabiting the vessel of his body and thus could speak without anyone overhearing, but she understands that signal well enough. Those eyes are both a mark of distress and a symbol of the invasion Solaris has done to his systems. What he seeks down here is thus likely something Solaris wants him to seek. But who's to say if he doesn't want to seek it, too? It's definitely a discussion for later.
    
    Besides, even if Solaris is involved, there's no reason he can't turn these things on them later. At least, with her help, there isn't. Ragnell's determined to study the sparks of Azoth's circuits until she understands them well enough to give him at least some self-determination back.
    
    But that's all for later. For now, the group makes it through to the other side of the rubble until they reach an elevator. Ida indeed doesn't need to worry about poisoned snacks from Ragnell; she's likelier to withhold them altogether than poison them. When Ida only gives her a wry smile, Ragnell drops the topic. Azoth passes the elevator by, but Ragnell gives it a thoughtful glance. Before she can stop to inspect it or follow her vessel, though, a projector suddenly comes to life and projects a news reel.
    
    She watches in silence. *Fascinating*. No doubt K.K. will agree. She ignores the subtitles at first, then reads them on the second go. When Ida remarks, she rubs her chin. "Bou, you ever heard o' th' Vile Tribe?" she wonders. "Accordin' to legend, they were the evil folks that the Goddess banished from Her lands so the faithful could have all the good stuff to themselves. I wonder if these were the origins o' that so-called 'Vile Tribe.'"
    
    She leaves the others to mull over that thought. In the meantime, she'll check out that elevator, now that Azoth's not going to stalk off. ...right now.

DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Polished Harmonica toward her party's challenge, Sweet Child o' Mine.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    "Be that as it may," Boudicca says, to Ragnell, and let us take a moment here to remind the audience that there is a constant background level of alarm in her brain just being around her most Chaos friend, "I... remain concerned for him."

    (She eats the jerky, obviously. It's no apple, but it's still good.)

    Azoth's eyes flash red... and Boudicca doesn't say anything about it. She does remark, when they get there: "An access elevator..?" Which is a translation which may well assist Ida in realising it's a way up.

    Before then, though, she listens to the recording. She frowns, as they speak on their separatism. How does this line up with..? Ragnell's wondering only makes her more confused. "I... cannot say I have heard much spoken of them," she says. Given Boudicca was raised in the Seraphim equivalent of a barn, this may not be entirely surprising.

    She'll have to ask Marivel about it, she thinks. Given what she's learned from her... there are things Boudicca is worried about, entirely beyond concerning robot friends.

    "But, this schism... I wonder how many times it split into itself." Those robots...

    Boudicca considers the elevator panel, and digs around in her pack until she finds...

    ...

    ...

    There is nothing in Boudicca's pack of emergency supplies humans need to live to help with this situation.

    There is, however, a shiny rock which may be bartered for goods and services, which humans often require. It may, in fact, be a diamond. Boudicca is bad at figuring out the exact worth of shiny rocks. This is a shiny rock she hands to Azoth, who doesn't seem concerned with the elevator at all. "Where you must go," she says, "I fear you may benefit from some reminder of us."

    And so, someone else gifts unto Azoth a shiny rock.

DG: Seraph Boudicca has used her Tool Emergency Supplies toward her party's challenge, Sweet Child o' Mine.
<Pose Tracker> Dash Caskett has posed.

Have you ever had a vague, fleeting memory, the kind that makes you feel deju vu despite you being adamant on never having seen or experienced the passing thought? Perhaps it is something far-gone, lumped in with the myriad ACCESS DENIED system prompts that appear from time to time within Dash's mind.

Maybe it just reminds him of somewhere he has been a little too much. It is difficult to discern. Bypassing the difficult terrain and debris, his question garners a response. "Y... Yes?" Huh. Well that would prompt further questions but in Azoth's current state, well.

The group comes ot an elevator; a large one at that. But doesn't appear to be functioning at the moment. "Gonna have to get this working somehow." But a broadcast plays.

With someone like Dash, who names his attacks, weapons and styles dumb things in his head's registry (See: Charge Kick and Blue Blitz) he knows a silly acronym when he sees one. "That uh, thats... why they are called Fiends, huh?" A look to Ida. "Not going to lie, I expected something way more deep and complicated. Not gonna lie, feel a little vindicated knowing other people name stuff based on silly reasons."

"But if they ARE from Filgaia, then where exactly did this huge place originate? You'd think a place this huge would leave a gaping crater missing or something." Dash of course has not trekked all over Filgaia, so someone else may have that answer.

"More importantly, mechanical and/or electrical stuff. Yay." Dash has no idea what to do here, and Roll is so far away. There are so many wires to fix, and so many are damaged. Most are the same color! What to do?!

---

A memory. When fixing up an old beat-up van to serve the Caskett's purpose. A young Roll is hooking up the internal electronics. The cords are mostly the same color.

"How are you able to tell the wires apart? What if you mix them up?"
"Simple! Here, look."

Roll points to the edges of the wires she cut. Small bits of colored twine are tied to each part cut. There is a pair like this for each cut wire.

"I tie a different color on each cut wire while I splies others. I'll never be able to mix them up that way!"
"That seems really useful!"
"Absolutely. I would even say taking some different color twines with you in Digs could be handy one day! Just keep it with your small toolbox."

A reach to the side, and Dash produces a small set of tools with a single pouch attached. Inside, are several couls of different twine. Not much, but enough to serve a potential purpose. "I uh, I think I can help with wiring! I-If I remember what I have seen, anyway."

He reaches for the first tool, looks back to everyone else, and tries something he never thought would be attempted in this sort of situation. "I... Is what Azoth looking for close? Maybe it is inside this elevator shaft, if we can get it working..."

DG: Dash Caskett has used his Tool Roll Call toward his party's challenge, Sweet Child o' Mine.
==============================<* New Kasim City *>==============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Sweet Child o' Mine *>======================
|Type: Climax      |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 3          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 You come to the northernmost side of the city. Here, there is a large plaza,  
 built in front of a large cylindrical tower. The tower has a pair of hangar   
 doors on it, with the words ACCESS ELEVATOR stenciled upon them. This may     
 allow access to upper areas -- or even Zanarkand itself. However, your first  
 task will be to get the elevator open and functioning... and the doors are    
 closed. Blasting them open is likely to damage the elevator.                  
                                                                               
 Fortunately, there is a console -- and some other mechanical equipment --     
 that may help.                                                                
                                                                               
 Shortly after you start work on it, though, you are given a distraction.      
 There is a large holographic projector. It first shows an image of a woman    
 sitting at a desk, in a suit. She is already speaking in Zeboim. "--e have    
 breaking news. We now take you to a press conference by Governor Alfred Bedd  
 of New Kasim City, regarding the Risen Populations and the Ferocious          
 Incandescent Enigmatic Natural Disaster phenomena that have gripped our       
 colony since its establishment."                                              
                                                                               
 The feed changes -- showing this plaza, but some thousands of years before.   
 There are more towers, stretching high; there is the sun in the sky. There    
 are also pyreflies, both recorded and real, passing through. On a stage, a    
 balding man in a suit stands.                                                 
                                                                               
 "People of New Kasim City!" he declares. "I know these last ten years have    
 been hard. Torn from our home of Filgaia, forced to know it has burnt, we     
 chose to not follow Althena! We accept no gods but our own... and we will     
 not cast aside the technologies of our ancestors!"                            
                                                                               
 He throws his arms out. "We will not turn to Althena. We reject the gifts of  
 magic she has given us. Our scientists are at a loss to explain the power of  
 the Witchlights that cause the dead to rise -- and the rising tide of FIENDs  
 into our lands. It has become clear, that if we are to survive, we must       
 spread across these lands. New Kasim City can only be the start... and        
 cannot be the end! We must have more settlements."                            
                                                                               
 He clenches a fist. "We will use our machines to master this new land! We     
 will spread our people wide... and we will build strong communities across    
 the land! I dub our new nation Spira -- after my daughter, left behind on     
 Filgaia!"                                                                     
                                                                               
 The feed cuts. A few seconds later, it begins to replay. While interesting,   
 it is quite distracting.                                                      
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
=========================<* New Kasim City - Round 5 *>=========================
=======================< Results - Sweet Child o' Mine >========================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Azoth                               59 --(9)--> 68                 Fail
Oculus ex Machina                   1   Wits    Effects: Cleanse              
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seraph Ragnell                      50 --(0)--> 50                 Pass
Polished Harmonica                  1   Wits    Effects: Cleanse              
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ida Everstead-Rey                   87 --(0)--> 87                 Pass
ARMS Meister's Field Kit            2   Wits    Effects: Enlighten            
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seraph Boudicca                     34 --(9)--> 43                 Fail
Emergency Supplies                  1   Wits    Effects: Cleanse              
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dash Caskett                        50 --(9)--> 59                 Fail
Roll Call                           3   Wits    Effects: Rally                
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Azoth                       75 --(0)--> 75                 Pass
Conditions: Collapse|Stupify(2)
Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Azoth has passed this challenge! The party gained 0 exploration! If anyone needs to use party
management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
DG: Azoth has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* New Kasim City *>==============================
===============<* CHALLENGE - End of the World (As We Know It) *>===============
|Type: Final       |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 3          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 You finally get the elevator doors open. You find that the inside is a        
 massive hangar. It once fit dozens and dozens of Gears, but those are all     
 long gone. Most of the empty mechanic bays are dusty and haven't been         
 touched in centuries. There is an exception, though, on one wall: a large,    
 bay, with the Zeboim word "ISSACHAR" stenciled under it. Here, there are      
 spaces in the dust that suggest something was removed from it very recently.  
                                                                               
 Beyond that, there are glass panes overlooking an absolutely enormous room    
 -- cavernous, nearly the size of New Kasim City itself -- and filled with an  
 enormous, highly advanced battleship. The name is stenciled on the side:      
 HEIMDALL GAZZO                                                                
                                                                               
 The facility name is written above the ship: COFFIN OF 100 EYES               
                                                                               
 The doors there are sealed. However, there is a large doorway opened,         
 leading to an elevator that leads upward... and offers a promise of escape.   
                                                                               
 It seems that the removal of a Gear from that bay has disturbed a security    
 automaton. A six-legged walker enters, with two gatling cannons, and a large  
 crane arm ending in a claw. It turns, spotting you, and squawks in Zeboim:    
 "Intruders!" Then, it opens fire -- and punches that huge claw down for you.  
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.

Ida manages to get the panel open and Dash's memory eventually aids it. Ragnell's harmonica helps block out the distraction of the broadcast playing over and over while they do it. Boudicca... hands the currently completely useless Azoth... a shiny rock.

Azoth looks down at it. A quiet beep-string plays, but warps in sound, dying out prematurely. He squeezes his sparking fingers around the stone.

With the elevator doors open, Dash is proven correct: at the sight of a hanger of Gears, Azoth's eyes blaze alight, not blue, not red, but a mix of his blue with a vivid fuchsia.

"Optimal connection requirements met."

He drifts into the hanger. Glyphs appear in a line down his neck and spin, turning and shifting with audible whirs and clicks despite their noncorporeal nature.

A security automaon, six-legged with its two gattling cannons and a large, clawed crane-arm whirls around and opens fire.

Time to multitask.

"Begin installation."

Azoth convulses, then with a digital grimace, pixelated streams of energy attach to those ports, flowing into him. Lines of light, blue mingling with fuchsia, appear over his body -- his circuitry, blazing under his synthetic skin and shining through his clothing. Or maybe that black 'bodysuit' of his is as much his flesh as anything else, with only his extremities given the effort for the full human effect.

Several blades form around him, blue and pink and a gradient between, connected by streams of glitched energy. Error. Hardware -- incompatible. Abort. Error. Un -- able to termin -- ate pro -- cess." Azoth rattles and sputters with sparks and clicks. A broken beep strangles out of him, but charges the machine, swords following him before they each raise up, then dive into the machine one explosive hit after the other.

Azoth's joints seem to be exploding, too.

All the while, he refuses to let go of Boudicca's rock, which may be, in the moment, just as precious as another he usually kept near and dear in a fight.

DG: Azoth has used his Tool Bug in Amber toward his party's challenge, End of the World (As We Know It).
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Lightning Grenade toward her party's challenge, End of the World (As We Know It).
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    Blue and fuschia... again.

    "Azoth..."

    But he can't back down now. That's what he just said, more or less, isn't it..? Boudicca looks to Ida, with clear concern. She doesn't have to say they have to help him, to communicate they have to help him.

    She takes a warding position; she'll use the breeze to bolster them, and confound the robot's clawed grip. Her magic is best-suited to active support, after all. And at a time like this... she'll serve better, supporting the people who rush into battle.

    Perhaps she'll hang back with Ragnell, who knows what amount of grenades are correct for her. Boudicca still has to figure that out. She's not as experienced as her older Seraphim are!

DG: Seraph Boudicca has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, End of the World (As We Know
It).

</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida packs up her tools, and turns to Azoth. With the way he's sparking, even touching him might be hazardous--but she does so anyway, gripping his shoulder and squeezing. Static electricity raises the hairs on the back of her neck, but she holds that touch for as long as she can.

    "Azoth," Ida says, as the elevator doors slide open. "Your eyes." Not that he needs her to point that out. The heiress' mouth falls open as Azoth's body comes alive with ancient glyphs, but the automaton doesn't give her time to fully appreciate the wonder and terror befor her. Reflex takes over.

    Ida hits the deck, tucking and rolling as cannon fire rips through the floor. She shoves herself up with a hand, breathing hard; with one hand, she pulls, ignites, and throws a flare grenade. "Flare out!" she shouts--and she hopes Azoth and the others heed the warning.

    Ida leaps again, trying to block out the burn of lactic acid buildup in fatigued muscles. She presses her back to a support column, draws her ARMs, and steps out in a single, smooth motion. Ida aims for the machine's center mass, and lets loose with a withering barrage of gunfire. She doesn't stop until she's emptied both clips, and once she has, she holsters her Devil Arm. Gripping Devil's Due with both hands, she braces herself, takes a breath, and ignites the Dragon Filament within. A blinding eruption of flame streaks across the hangar, hot and fierce enough to melt even Zeboim armor into slag.

DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Flare Grenade toward her party's challenge, End of the World (As We Know It).
<Pose Tracker> Dash Caskett has posed.

Knowledge of the past pays off, and Dash can successfully say that he did in fact learn something from Roll. "We did it! it is working! We can --uh, Azoth?" He is already off. "Oh boy. hopefully what we are looking for will be in there for him." A look to Boudicca. "Maybe it will be in here..." A small frown plays on his face.

Within, a massive hangar. Space for numerous large vehicles, possibly even small, Flutter-sized airships or Gears. Storage and maintenance on a grand scale. "Imagine being able to repurpose this all! There is so much opportunity below here-- if only it wasn't below sacred ground. This would have made a horrific base of operations for Odessa OR Solaris. Imagine it. Would just hole up down here, while being unknowingly protected by Spirans disallowing operations in sacred land."

However, something is moving in the distance. It looms closer, closer...

"Mega Man!"

A tiny form stumbles out of the darkness. It was a small robot monkey, that some would know as Data. An individual that is seen around Dash, and has the almost uncanny ability to appear in places he should not, in fact be. Case in point: Here.

The monkey continues to speak in eeks and ooks, though to Dash, and by extension Azoth, can tell it is a veiled form of machine language, and can understand him. Speaking of Azoth, Data stops right near them as their eyes glow a mix of colors. "Mega Man, you should be careful of this one, he is--" Data abruptly stops. "You should stay away." probably the most abrupt and serious thing Data has ever said.

"Data!" Dash exclaims, though his joyous attitude turns angry. "Boy, I have some words for you! And stop with the 'Mega Man' sctick! I thought you made that cool nickname up! I have some major questions for you, mister!" Data in turn, looks shocked momentarily, almost seeming to consider some options. But, before anything more can come of it, the group has company!

A giant Gear of some sort, a walker, arrives on scene, guarding the only way forward. "Mega Man," Data calls back again, after looking at the walker for a few moments. "It has weak-armored energy converters near the crane arm's base! You can disable it there!" Dash readies his Mega Buster.

"We got words to have buddy, but for now, we all gotta fight!" He points hsi weapon forward, and readies for combat.

DG: Dash Caskett has used his Tool Helpful Bit of Data toward his party's challenge, End of the World (As We Know It).
==============================<* New Kasim City *>==============================
===============<* CHALLENGE - End of the World (As We Know It) *>===============
|Type: Final       |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 3          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 You finally get the elevator doors open. You find that the inside is a        
 massive hangar. It once fit dozens and dozens of Gears, but those are all     
 long gone. Most of the empty mechanic bays are dusty and haven't been         
 touched in centuries. There is an exception, though, on one wall: a large,    
 bay, with the Zeboim word "ISSACHAR" stenciled under it. Here, there are      
 spaces in the dust that suggest something was removed from it very recently.  
                                                                               
 Beyond that, there are glass panes overlooking an absolutely enormous room    
 -- cavernous, nearly the size of New Kasim City itself -- and filled with an  
 enormous, highly advanced battleship. The name is stenciled on the side:      
 HEIMDALL GAZZO                                                                
                                                                               
 The facility name is written above the ship: COFFIN OF 100 EYES               
                                                                               
 The doors there are sealed. However, there is a large doorway opened,         
 leading to an elevator that leads upward... and offers a promise of escape.   
                                                                               
 It seems that the removal of a Gear from that bay has disturbed a security    
 automaton. A six-legged walker enters, with two gatling cannons, and a large  
 crane arm ending in a claw. It turns, spotting you, and squawks in Zeboim:    
 "Intruders!" Then, it opens fire -- and punches that huge claw down for you.  
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
=========================<* New Kasim City - Round 6 *>=========================
=================< Results - End of the World (As We Know It) >=================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Azoth                               68 --(17)--> 85                Fail
Bug in Amber                        2   Combat  Effects: Embolden             
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seraph Ragnell                      50 --(5)--> 55                 Pass
Lightning Grenade                   3   Combat  Effects: Fanfare              
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ida Everstead-Rey                   87 --(5)--> 92                 Pass
Flare Grenade                       2   Combat  Effects: Embolden             
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seraph Boudicca                     43 --(5)--> 48                 Pass
Fight                               0   Combat  Effects: BASIC                
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dash Caskett                        59 --(5)--> 64                 Pass
Helpful Bit of Data                 2   Combat  Effects: Cleanse and Liability
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Azoth                       75 --(35)--> 110               Pass
Conditions: Wound(2)
Effects: Cleanse|Embolden(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success!
DG: The party led by Azoth has successfully explored New Kasim City!
==============================<* New Kasim City *>==============================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Bohemian Rhapsody *>=======================
|Type: Discovery   |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 You find the elevator leading upward. It rushes you up to the surface; it     
 seems that it luckily connects to it, from whenever New Kasim City was        
 buried and Zanarkand later built atop it. It rises up, to near the Zanarkand  
 Dome. The sun is bright -- almost too bright, after so long below -- but you  
 are out.                                                                      
                                                                               
 But then the nearby buildings shake, as something flies overhead. Something   
 buzzes nearby... and you see the distant form of a Gear, having already       
 taken flight.                                                                 
=Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================


<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.

Azoth trying to install whatever he's doing and fight at once may not be working. That, or it's his own broken body. His swords take out a leg, but then he's knocked to the ground with violent force. Boudicca's winds swing the crane claw away from piercing him straight through. Ragnell's grenade flies, stunning the machine temporarily in lightning while Ida melts through the armor. With Data's advice, Dash's Mega Buster deals considerable damage.

The walker collapses onto the ground in a pile of scrap and smoke.

Then it begins to tick.

"<SELF DESTRUCT SEQUENCE ACTIVATED.>"

Its body brightens, heating rapidly as it prepares to detonate in what's undoubtedly going to be a massive explosion. But through the flaring lights:

"Everyone, hold on...! I've got you...!"

Azoth's voice rings out, so human from what it was, and then they find their own bodies flickering with that same blue-fuchsia light, like so many pixels, and the world drops out. It's only a breath of time. A blink. An explosion rattles somewhere, but when they open their eyes as the blinding lights clear, they stare up at the sky -- outside.

Nearby buildings shake and a shadow passes overhead. A Gear in the distance has already taken flight, too late to catch up to now.

Azoth stands a few feet away, clutching his chest and still shimmering with blue-fuchsia light. He looks over his shoulder at the rest of them, then gives them a pained smile.

"...Sorry. I... caused a lot of trouble today..."

His smile softens. "Oh, Ragnell, you're here, too... I..." He begins a cheerful beep sequence to greet her, but it tapers away, just like the light in his eyes.

Azoth collapses, body burning to the touch.