2021-09-11: A Brave New World
- Log: A Brave New World
- Cast: Seraphita, Azoth, Leah Sadalbari, Lydia Seren, Loren Voss
- Where: Fila del Fia
- Date: September 11, 2021
- Summary: Solaris explores Fila del Fia. This is fine and good for all parties concerned (no really it actually goes pretty well for them).
DG: A party led by Seraphita is now entering Fila del Fia. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
===============================<* Fila del Fia *>=============================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Light Up My Life *>======================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- There are stories about Fila del Fia. The majority of them circulate thus: it was a city that fell from the sky. The site where it fell in the Damzena desert is filled with dangerous creatures. And no one has ever ventured inside and come out to tell about it. But there's a first time for everything. Once inside the door, you are met with an immediate problem: specifically, it's pitch black in here. Negotiating this place in the dark is likely to cause you no end of trouble -- you'll have to find some method of banishing the darkness. Whether that comes in the form of your own light, or -- quite possibly -- finding some means to turn on the lights in here. Like some very ancient ruins, there are no torch brackets to be felt on the wall... BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyalHwMVeyg =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Reckless, Overzealous===========================
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
The ruins of Fila del Fia are still somewhat of an enigma even to Solaris. Some things are known, but more things aren't; the ancient city that fell from the sky (or so the stories say) does not give up its secrets easily.
And if there's one thing the higher-ups in Solaris don't like, it's a secret they don't already know the answers to.
At least, that's always been Seraphita's read on it. The bosses like to know things. Which is fine, because she likes to explore things, and sometimes that means going to places like Fila del Fia with a team of handpicked professionals. More or less. She thinks of them that way, anyway.
Even if they say people who go in don't get out, Seraphita is pretty sure that's an exaggeration. Someone has to have done it. Otherwise how would they know what was in it, even in a vague and general sense?
Finding it isn't very hard. The big crater is still there, though these days it looks worn and beaten-down by the wind and weather. All you have to do is go deeper into it. And to Seraphita's surprise it wasn't even very hard to get into. She's been to stone ruins that weren't nearly as old that were harder to shift the doors or blow a hole into.
And Seraphita's first words in a brave new world?
"Wow, it's dark in here!"
Seraphita immediately makes it less so by producing a fireball the size of a softball, which she balances on one finger, the energies streaming up and around in a complex pattern that seems to keep it relatively stable. "Maybe we can find another light!" Seraphita looks around, shifting her outstretched hand. "Because if I *can* keep doing this, but if I have to fight at the same time or run it might not be very stable! Also, some of the caves have bad air in them, right? And it explodes... and sometimes, you can't smell it first."
"Though this doesn't look much like a cave..."
DG: Seraphita has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Light Up My Life.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Though Azoth currently looks the part of a Drifter, there is no one here with whom he must pretend. Human as his face may be in this facade, he makes no use of its features, blank faced and reverting to a robotic, monotone voice ill suited to emoting.
Even if you could call him 'unfriendly', his purpose is to assist Solaris however he can, to the full extent that he must. There's no risk of anything less. Or anything more -- he mercifully does not detect any of his own data lurking in Fila del Fia to activate his more aggressive code.
"Data scan in progress. Analyzing air quality for volatile gases."
Glowing as Azoth's gaze is, it's not enough to illuminate a large space. But glow all the same they do, working as headlights as he pushes forward into darkness and scans for more useful data to navigate by -- perhaps some still functional machinery to give some of his own charge to, if necessary, and activate. Or to keep Seraphita from detonating the rest of them.
"High concentration of metal detected..."
Azoth doesn't think it 'looks' like a cave, either.
DG: Azoth has used his Tool Oculus ex Machina toward his party's challenge, Light Up My Life.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
One of the things that happens when Solaris doesn't know something in a ruin is often that Leah Sadalbari happens to investigate it. Because indeed, the higher-ups like to know things. Leah likes to know things, as well. And so she steps in after Seraphita, looking around in the pitch black, noting with her other senses what she can.
"Your impulse is correct," Leah says to Seraphita. "Let's find something else.
"Hmm." A lot of metal; that make ssense, anyway. Leah for her part seems unbothered by going about in the dark for the moment, her steps uneven as ever. She continues until she hits a wall, and feels around for machinery of some kind as well. But mostly, it's a matter of patience.
DG: Leah Sadalbari has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Light Up My Life.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Hey nerd," Lydia tells Azoth and gives him a light punch in the arm that's meant to evoke comradery but the faint CLANG is probably louder than she anticipated as she jumps a bit.
"So uh. I think I tried this one a bit but...don't remember what we found. Think we got chased out." Lydia says. Hard to say if that's true or not but she does smile at Seraphita. "But hey, with a cool Element gal around we probably don't gottta worry!"
She pauses as Seraphita summons fire.
"Uh. Well. Maybe cool was the wrong word..."
She frowns faintly as she just sort of provides ambient glow.
DG: Lydia Seren has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Light Up My Life.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Loren had heard a few stories about the place from the surfacedwellers and other officers alike. It's funny, to think it was so close to his station once but something he hadn't been previously ordered to explore. But perhaps the stories about the place were the reason it was more or less unofficially off-limits.
Well, until now. Maybe something had changed upstairs. Maybe the site had become less immediately dangerous (doubtful). Maybe they'd even learned something about the site that made it more important than before.
Frankly, the reason doesn't matter as much as the fact that he's been tagged to assist the expedition team on account of his prodigious skills in recovery (mundane and Ether) and support (Ether, frankly).
Loren is pretty sure no one's asked him here for his sword skills.
"...Pretty dark," Loren says, though maybe Seraphita uhhh has this part covered. Temporarily, anyway.
"...It's a little too late to check for volatiles in here," Loren sighs, gazing at the burning ball of fire. "But I guess it'd be a good idea to know if they're elsewhere." If they're elsewhere, they might. Have a problem.
He glances between Leah and Seraphita in the moment that follows, then turns to investigate a nearby wall. Yeah. They need a longer-term solution for this. "If there's going to be a power running, it has to be in the walls," he says, pulling out a handheld medical computer. Technically this function is meant to trace electrical patterns in a body but it'll work just as well with the wall (probably) with some adjustments (probably).
"I don't know how how to rewire things, though," he adds, partway through the scan.
Someone else is going to have to figure out how to do the electrical work. Maybe one of their resident robots or robot-adjacents.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool MediScan v7 toward his party's challenge, Light Up My Life.
===============================<* Fila del Fia *>=============================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Light Up My Life *>======================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- There are stories about Fila del Fia. The majority of them circulate thus: it was a city that fell from the sky. The site where it fell in the Damzena desert is filled with dangerous creatures. And no one has ever ventured inside and come out to tell about it. But there's a first time for everything. Once inside the door, you are met with an immediate problem: specifically, it's pitch black in here. Negotiating this place in the dark is likely to cause you no end of trouble -- you'll have to find some method of banishing the darkness. Whether that comes in the form of your own light, or -- quite possibly -- finding some means to turn on the lights in here. Like some very ancient ruins, there are no torch brackets to be felt on the wall... BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyalHwMVeyg =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Reckless, Overzealous===========================
==========================<* Fila del Fia - Round 1 *>========================== =========================< Results - Light Up My Life >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraphita 0 --(38)--> 38 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 0 --(22)--> 22 Pass MediScan v7 3 Wits Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lydia Seren 0 --(38)--> 38 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leah Sadalbari 0 --(38)--> 38 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azoth 0 --(22)--> 22 Pass Oculus ex Machina 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Seraphita 0 --(15)--> 15 Fail Conditions: Overzealous(2)|Reckless(2)|Stupify(2) Effects: Cleanse ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Seraphita 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.
===============================<* Fila del Fia *>=============================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - Fierce Orange Enemy *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- There are a number of strange, twisted creatures making their nest in the ruins of Fila del Fia. Perhaps at this point you may be already prepared for the very worst of the worst. But the creature that crashes through the odd metal walls of the city and lunges at you now is... unusual by various definitions. It's coated from head to toe in a pelt of shaggy orange fur, and features an odd deformed face with large rolling eyes. Its violent intent is clear as it is upon you: it may be best to respond in kind before it tears you apart. But just where did it come from? Maybe if you can defeat it, you could investigate. =Dungeon Conditions: Maim, Secret=============================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
"I checked in here first," Seraphita assures Loren. (She did. A tiny flame, like a pilot light. If it went up in a flare, she could snuff it out before it did any more than that.)
It's weird for Seraphita to be around Azoth and Lydia in this situation.
Azoth, who she wants to tell that he's allowed to smile because she knows he can; she's seen him act like a normal human being (or whatever) before, but he's not doing it now, and she's not sure why. Was it something she did?
Lydia, who she considers a friend, and is *acting* like a friend, but is also not really free to *not* come if Solaris decides to send her; recently Seraphita has made a decision to do some things for her, but it involves something she's very bad at so it hasn't come to anything yet. At least she seems to be having fun.
Compared to those, the normal professionalism of Leah and Loren is positively normal.
"I can be cool!" Seraphita declares. "Tolone says that my head's real cool." ...what? Maybe it's better not to ask. "But this isn't. Don't stick your fingers in it." She wiggles her fingers, which makes the ball bounce up and down on her fingertips.
Seraphita cannot provide any useful rewiring skills, especially with a fire burning in her hand. Leah goes off to explore, and finds nothing but darkness and some doorways that lead into the further dark, but Loren can at least find the right place... eventually. The metal's weird here, and hard to scan through. No wonder they didn't see it before.
Azoth finds the air is fine. More or less. A little stale, especially as they go further on, but the odds of an explosive gas pocket seem very low. He can also help out with the wiring... as can Lydia, if she brought any tools.
Eventually, the lights flicker to life; long bars high up on the walls that don't really get terribly bright, but enough to see by. "Whew!" Seraphita closes her hand, and the fire goes out - they don't need it now. "That's probably a lot more useful. I hope they stay on the whole way though! Otherwise we're going to have to keep doing that."
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Lydia remains ever the exception to Azoth's standard mode of operation within Solaris, and he flashes her a brief, warm smile in the darkness with her greeting -- the acoustics of the area giving that CLANG well-traveled reverberation. Imagine the percussion one could perform with an Azoth! Or... perhaps don't.
But Azoth does note her approval of Seraphita. A data point. Whatever data Azoth gathers, however, the philosophical issues and implications in how he relates to most of them is the same. Silently and dutifully, he tends to the rewiring. Whatever manner of robot he is, he seems to have a strong understanding of mechanics. (You mean humans aren't born with full biological, anatomical knowledge? Weird.) Once he's done, he plays a useful(?) musical chime to signal success.
The halls of Fila del Fia are lit, metallic, cold, and unwelcoming.
Azoth's eyes flash. "Incoming organism. Unable to identify --"
It's a futile second's worth of warning before the adjacent wall breaks open in an explosion of shrapnel and orange fur. A bizarre creature, all orange, all furry (and fury). Despite its deformed, ungraceful appearance, it uses its fur to slide around the metal halls at disturbing speed. Its eyes roll with its motions more than any apparent intent to look.
Azoth thrusts out his palm, amber and all, immediately erecting a shield of light to try and give everyone some breathing room -- or a shield to attack through, if they're prefer to keep back. The image of a bug is projected, trying to distract their bizarre assailant.
DG: Azoth has used his Tool Bug in Amber toward his party's challenge, Fierce Orange Enemy.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"...Heh." Cool. Fire. Nice.
Leah does not comment much on anything else; she does not ask Loren to sword anything. She can mess with electricity if needed, but she doesn't volunteer that information for now. Instead...
She counts as a robot-adjacent, right?
But when Azoth's eyes flash, that is a warning of its own. Leah notes the shield of light, and she does not keep back, moving towards their bizarre assailant with spear in hand. She swings it down then up, ahead and toward their assailant, as her belt's effects continue to give her further energy.
"Move!" she says. "This..."
"This is no ordinary enemy!"
DG: Leah Sadalbari has used her Tool Yamato Belt toward her party's challenge, Fierce Orange Enemy.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Perhaps Leah has already noticed. The sword he carries should be a familiar one to her.
It is after all Engil's reforged sword, restored from its broken pieces and turned into a blade that Loren can wield.
"Is that it?"
Even once the wiring is located -- or rather, where there's still power in the wall and the connections joining it and the control panel -- it takes Azoth time to restore the connection.
"You could just say 'completed'," he grouses mildly, before they head along. There is silence in the halls of Fila del Fia; Loren cannot help but feel uneasy in a place like this.
It turns out to not be unwarrented, not when something comes at them through the walls and is for them in a blur of orange. "Look out!" Loren shouts, threading Ether through the wires round around his right wrist; the Tuner pulses with an inner power as it sheds his Ether outwards in an intensified array.
Loren is a support specialist. Earth's stability and solidness. Water's speed and grace. And... of course, the fury that rests within the planet. They're all delivered to his allies in a glittering wash of Ether.
Something tells them they're going to need everything they have to fight this thing. ...Whatever it is.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Ether Tuner toward his party's challenge, Fierce Orange Enemy.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia is happy to be with Seraphita. She has no idea what Seraphita is planning. She feels she has some understanding of Seraphita. She seems to be badass! Perhaps one day SHE will be emperor. That's right, a BUNNY SHALL RULE SOLARIS. Well, probably not, but it's nice to have beastfolk company all the same. It puts her more at ease.
She waves a hand towards Loren. She also has a better understanding of Loren as of late but because of that is now feeling awkward about approaching him so she just sort of gives him a coolgirl nod.
Azoth, of course, is actually pretty confusing for someone she thinks is cool but there's one thing they've got in common for sure and it helps her feel like everything is mangable even if it really isn't. It keeps her from going absolutely ballistic which is helpful and a relief. "This is a pretty dangerous place, Azoth. Even for mech-folk so be careful." She tells him.
And Leah...
...Leah is someone she SHOULD understand especially since she's sort of explained the deal and she understood the deal but despite this Leah is still pretty inexplicable.
"Oh fuck yeah this shit. This shit you gotta worry about Azoth." She nods to the shaggy orange fur. "This is fuckin' wild. Don't underestimate it! Rachiel, give me some cool sword tips!"
Try the eyes?
"Okay!" Lydia says, darting forward to stab for the F O E's left eyeball. "HYaaah!!"
DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Rachiel Medry Is Doing Her Best toward her party's challenge, Fierce Orange Enemy.
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
Seraphita has enough anatomical knowledge to manage first aid, and that's all she's ever needed. But she certainly wasn't born with it. It would have been convenient if she was!
"You mean you don't know what it - aah! Giant bug!"
Seraphita's reaction to 'something attacking the party' is to attack back. It takes her a moment to realize that the image is part of the shield and not part of the attacking... thing, which she doesn't know what it is at all. Orange and fuzzy, she might have thought it cute if it wasn't for the face and, of course, the fact that it is trying to kill her and everyone else with her.
There is a dull *thump* as an explosion erupts, well outside the shield. It looks like it missed, except the explosion - a roiling cloud of flame - projects itself out with streamers of fire, lashing at the orange thing from behind while Seraphita dumps a packet of energized powder all over her hands. It dances around them, igniting and swirling like dancing sparks, helping her with the more complex channels of Ether.
"Nothing here is ordinary!" Seraphita: tactical genius. But just because she isn't good at explaining it doesn't mean she's not good at working with a team; those tendrils of flame reaching out from the explosion try to wrap around the being in a ring, condensing into something nearly solid and binding it in place for the rest of her fire (and everyone else's).
DG: Seraphita has used her Tool Pyro Element toward her party's challenge, Fierce Orange Enemy.
===============================<* Fila del Fia *>=============================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - Fierce Orange Enemy *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- There are a number of strange, twisted creatures making their nest in the ruins of Fila del Fia. Perhaps at this point you may be already prepared for the very worst of the worst. But the creature that crashes through the odd metal walls of the city and lunges at you now is... unusual by various definitions. It's coated from head to toe in a pelt of shaggy orange fur, and features an odd deformed face with large rolling eyes. Its violent intent is clear as it is upon you: it may be best to respond in kind before it tears you apart. But just where did it come from? Maybe if you can defeat it, you could investigate. =Dungeon Conditions: Maim, Secret=============================================
==========================<* Fila del Fia - Round 2 *>========================== =======================< Results - Fierce Orange Enemy >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraphita 38 --(5)--> 43 Pass Pyro Element 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 22 --(5)--> 27 Pass Ether Tuner 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lydia Seren 38 --(5)--> 43 Pass Rachiel Medry Is Doing Her Best 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leah Sadalbari 38 --(21)--> 59 Fail Yamato Belt 1 Combat Effects: Embolden and Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azoth 22 --(5)--> 27 Pass Bug in Amber 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Seraphita 15 --(20)--> 35 Pass Conditions: Maim|Overzealous(1)|Reckless(1)|Secret(2) Effects: Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Seraphita has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
You could just say 'completed', Loren says.
"Is that an order?" Azoth asks without looking at him. A simple, toneless question, but maybe one difficult to completely extract the implications from: they can give him orders, and he will follow them. That's what an automaton is for.
Lydia's warning gets a nod. "Acknowledged," he says. "Caution maximized."
But no amount of caution prepares one for ORANGE. This terrible orange foe is unrelenting. Leah's spear sinks into orange fur, ripping free, neither entry nor exit wound slowing its advance. Loren supplies Ether to those presence to steel and quicken them, helping them keep pace with the beast. Lydia stabs it in the eye, and it circles around in a funny trajectory, leaving it easier to trap in Seraphita's ring of flame, so she can everyone else can go in for the final strike.
Azoth remains a protective element, just in case, as he watches. But battle data isn't the data he hopes to gain from any of them.
The smell of burnt fur is their reward for finishing. Congratulations!(?)
...That and a new path where it had broken through the wall. There does not, thankfully, appear to be a nest of oranges on the other side.
Azoth lowers his shield. "No signs of life detected." he glances to Seraphita. "...Bug related distress acknowledged. Recalibrating."
DG: Leah Sadalbari has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Fila del Fia *>=============================== =================<* CHALLENGE - Diverting A Dangerous Device *>================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- There are many questions to be had about Fila del Fia. One of them might come in the form of the large, heavy, red-and-yellow-and-black-stickered object that slowly rolls towards you with purpose. Something about it just seems ominous. Maybe it's all the text on those stickers, suggesting that whoever created the thing wanted to be sure that whoever was handling it did so carefully. There's nothing about it that suggests any easy way to open or deactivate it. Probably, you don't /want/ to open it. Physically moving and trapping this elsewhere at the very least -- if not outright destroying it (carefully) -- may be advised. It would be bad if it followed after you and then... did whatever it's intended to do. =Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous, Injure======================================
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
As a rule, Leah is hard to explain. It's almost like she plans it that way.
As the battle goes on, Leah notes Lydia's warning of caution--and the way Azoth interacts differently with her, by comparison. It's hard not to notice, frankly. But she doesn't comment. Instead...
"'Try the eyes' is usually good advice," Leah says. And as they move on, there is burnt fur, and shortly thereafter, they continue along. "...Right. Moving further inward..."
There are many questions to be had. Many questions about the place as they go through twisting corridors. And soon... there is... an object.
A red-and-yellow-and-black stickered object, rolling towards them. There is text. It is to be handled with care.
"..."
Leah walks over to the object and tilts her head, and then... pushes it back.
She continues along. The object continues along after them.
...Leah pulls out her crowbar.
DG: Leah Sadalbari has used her Tool Crowbar toward her party's challenge, Diverting A Dangerous Device.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Is that an order?
Loren hesitates. "...If it means you'll sound more like a person, then sure," he settles for, sighing heavily. This, too, is merely an off-handed comment. He really ought to know better.
Not long after that, they run into a different sort of obstacle. But it doesn't remain one for long.
Burnt tufts of orange fur are all that remain once they're through.
"Hope there aren't any more like that," Loren comments, wincing faintly. Using the Tuner does sting a little bit; he shakes out his right arm. "...I'm pretty sure we can tell it's dead, Azoth."
Even the presence of Leah (and Seraphita?) aren't enough to keep him from mouthing off.
"I guess we should see where it came from." Loren's not alone in investigating the gap. But before long they're once again not alone.
"L-- Major, we're being followed."
A object is rolling after them. In fact, even when Leah pushes it back and continues along...
"...It's still following us." Is it haunted? He's... he's not sure he's ready for ancient city ghosts. Loren has retrieved from his pocket a perfectly smooth stone, suited for fidgeting with (especially when worried). "I don't like how it looks," he says, toying with the stone in his palm absently. "Maybe I should make a wall."
It'll take a little focusing to summon up the Ether to do it, especially in a place like this. But hopefully (hopefully) the haunted (it's not haunted) object won't just roll through a stone wall...?
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Worry Stone toward his party's challenge, Diverting A Dangerous Device.
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
Seraphita rubs her hands together to get the remnants of the Pyro Element to stop flaming. It leaves her with a gritty powder instead, which she wipes off on a handkerchief, after seriously considering using the lower hem of her jacket - except Leah and Loren were there.
"Nice! Good job everyone! And - aw, I was just surprised," Seraphita assures Azoth. "You can leave it! It's like they say... it wasn't really bugging me!"
...
"Anyway," Seraphita says, not really embarrassed (she does not seem to feel shame, even for the worst of her jokes) but just wanting to move on. "It's like Loren says. You can act any way you want, okay?" She shoots Leah a look as if checking if she's being overruled on that, but provided she's not... "I promise it's fine."
They get to walk on for a while. Walk on, with something following them.
"Oh, I'll help!" Seraphita's first instinct (blow it up) isn't going to work. It looks explosive, what with all those stickers on it. But what she does instead is pull out some explosive gel and place it in lines on the floor, starting at Loren's impending wall and moving away, back towards the way the thing came from.
Only when she's back does she detonate it, trying to dent, buckle, or otherwise put a groove in the floor. Why? So that when it hits the wall and bounces back, it rolls to one side of the hallway and, hopefully, stops there. Or just goes in a different direction, Seraphita isn't real picky about that. "Bam!"
DG: Seraphita has used her Tool Ether-Primed Explosive toward her party's challenge, Diverting A Dangerous Device.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Orange is pretty mighty.
"Yeah that's true." Lydia admits on the lack of ordinary things in this dungeon. Not even this group is particularly ordinary. Not even Loren, who might be the weirdest one of all. He doesn't even horns or giant rabbit ears or robot parts. What gives?
"What's 'like a person'?" Lydia can't help but ask Loren but it's pretty gentle 'messing around with Loren' compared to what she has done before.
Loren mentions they're being followed. Lydia turns to look.
It's... uh...
"...What's that?" She asks.
She ... kind of wants to open it.
But it's still following..?
Lydia says, "You know what, I have a STRATEGY."
She runs forward and tries to hit the device really hard with a giant hammer before throwing herself back in case it explodes.
Or in case Seraphita explodes it.
DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Tiebreaker V 2.0 toward her party's challenge, Diverting A Dangerous Device.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
"Order 'sound more like a person' received," Azoth says to Loren.
Now he's gone and done it.
And so it is that once they finish up with the orange beast, Azoth grins at Loren's second bit of grousing. "Sorry, sorry, I meant -- yay, we did it! Task completed!" His purposeful steps turn to skipping along at an upbeat tempo.
How do you get Azoth to act personable in Solaris? You order him to do it. He smiles brightly and betrays none of his bitterness below it.
"Well, if you're sure..." he says to Seraphita. "I don't want to bug you -- wait no, you just used that..." He puffs his cheeks and sulks. When she says he can act however he wants, he smiles at her sheepishly.
"That is... deeply incorrect." It's only Leah's presence that keeps him from pushing on that further. The sentiment he understands... a grossly misguided sentiment that does not understand what Azoth's position is.
But for now, he stays falsely cheerful while he pulls out his photon sword and tries to assist in dismantling the object with it, analyzing it to attempt more precise cuts if these more aggressive strategies don't pan out!
DG: Azoth has used his Tool Falk's Photon Blade toward his party's challenge, Diverting A Dangerous Device. Lan Lilac (Lan) pages Azoth, Lydia Seren, Leah Sadalbari, Seraphita, and Loren Voss: Heeeeey can I come watch? :D
===============================<* Fila del Fia *>=============================== =================<* CHALLENGE - Diverting A Dangerous Device *>================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- There are many questions to be had about Fila del Fia. One of them might come in the form of the large, heavy, red-and-yellow-and-black-stickered object that slowly rolls towards you with purpose. Something about it just seems ominous. Maybe it's all the text on those stickers, suggesting that whoever created the thing wanted to be sure that whoever was handling it did so carefully. There's nothing about it that suggests any easy way to open or deactivate it. Probably, you don't /want/ to open it. Physically moving and trapping this elsewhere at the very least -- if not outright destroying it (carefully) -- may be advised. It would be bad if it followed after you and then... did whatever it's intended to do. =Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous, Injure======================================
==========================<* Fila del Fia - Round 3 *>========================== ===================< Results - Diverting A Dangerous Device >=================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraphita 43 --(0)--> 43 Pass Ether-Primed Explosive 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 27 --(21)--> 48 Fail Worry Stone 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lydia Seren 43 --(0)--> 43 Pass Tiebreaker V 2.0 4 Brute Effects: Efficient and Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leah Sadalbari 59 --(0)--> 59 Pass Crowbar 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azoth 27 --(0)--> 27 Pass Falk's Photon Blade 3 Brute Effects: Fanfare -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Seraphita 35 --(30)--> 65 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Maim|Overzealous(2)|Secret(1) Effects: Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Seraphita has passed this challenge! The party gained 30 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
They sure are being followed. And when Seraphita shoots her a look, Leah looks back to her and nods. She does not overrule the instructions on Azoth; in fact, she hasn't really addressed him much directly at all. Neither does she counter Lydia's sass to Loren. A little sass builds character.
No, she doesn't address it until Azoth points out the incorrect statement. Then she answers, "That's true. You are permitted to exercise reasonable discretion as regards your own demeanor as you carry out your missions, Azoth. Putting on a 'personable' demeanor is optional."
Lydia's strategy intersects with Seraphita's and Loren's strategies. Seraphita's explosive gel detonates at about the same time that Lydia hits the object with a hammer, and at that point Loren throws up the wall. Thanks to Azoth's more precise cuts, they avoid the whole thing exploding at them.. though Loren has to quickly pour more magic into the barrier to avoid--
Wht's that noise?
...The barrier comes down. The object slowly floats away...
DG: Seraphita has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Fila del Fia *>=============================== ==================<* CHALLENGE - An Electrifying Experience *>================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Power still runs in Fila del Fia's halls. How? The city -- if the stories are true -- must have fallen from the skies long ago. Yet you can see here that somewhere in the heart of the complex, the generator (generators?) must still feed power into the place. Enough power in fact that this large room into which you step is absolutely alive with the stuff, seemingly filling the room with an impossible barrier of electrical fury. Reaching the door you see on the other side will be an impossible-- Wait, no. There are gaps pitted here and there between support pillars and the far walls, permitting passage where the electricity isn't. Until, as you watch, jolts of electricity fill those gaps while other gaps open. It's effectively a maze, a maze where the openings shift seemingly at random. Or is there some pattern to be had? =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Stupify========================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
That worked? Huh. "Well, at least it's gone now!" Seraphita isn't entirely sure it was the *optimal* way to do it, but it sure got the job done, so she's not going to complain. She'll leave the complaining to Tolone (or Loren).
"Well, I mean, we all have to do the mission. But besides that! I like it when people are honest," Seraphita says, encouragingly. "Let's keep exploring. This place is big! There's a lot of walking."
There is. It takes quite a few minutes at least of careful exploration to get to anything but hallways that mostly look the same, but seem to be generally working inside the center of this enormous city. Except most cities aren't just halls and tunnels and individual rooms...
...except in some places Solaris *is*, so maybe it doesn't feel too weird. It certainly doesn't seem to surprise Seraphita very much; a flying city must be very like a ship when you get into the underground and inside parts of it.
They already knew there was power inside, because the lights came on. So when Seraphita opens a faintly humming door and finds a room with heavy-duty cabling and electrical gadgetry in it, she's not *that* surprised... it looks like the room underneath a really big cannon, she thinks, except bigger. So there must be something that takes a lot of power around here.
But she's pretty sure it's not suppoed to be bolting around the room like this. Even opening the door has made Seraphita's hair frizz up, not that it's really noticeable given its normal shape. But her ears and tail look a little too puffy.
"That's so much!" Seraphita looks around, hastily. "Can you even go in there?" she asks Lydia, Azoth, and Leah, because the three people who are made of or contain large pieces of metal probably react worse to it than she does (and she doesn't exactly react well to catching a lightning bolt). "Can ANYONE even go in there? It's a solid wall, but... there's a door on the other side. Maybe we can turn some of it off?"
Some of the support pillars and structures are barely functioning. It's not, actually, a complete wall. But the arcing paths make a maze that Seraphita is personally not very qualified to figure out herself.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"Not talking like a machine out of a novel," Loren gripes in Lydia's direction.
But unfortunately for him--
Now he's gone and done it. Azoth is much more personable now! Loren may live to regret this. "Uh... huh," he utters, looking Azoth up and down. He's still not entirely sure if Azoth is fucking with him, or if Azoth is capable of fucking with him, or... frankly anything regarding their personal android. He feels like a mistake has been made but that there also hadn't been a right answer.
He hates it when that happens.
Still, they're able to deal with... that thing. That thing that... slowly floats away afterwards.
"Whew..." Loren exhales, fishing in his pack for one of his nutribars. He's worn out and hungry, frankly -- hungry enough to eat one of these. He bites off a piece. He grimaces, and swallows.
It tastes... like cardboard.
He still has the bar in hand when he follows after Seraphita, particularly when she opens up the door leading to...
"Uh," Loren says, gazing at the eye-seering array of electrical arcs. "That looks bad."
After a moment of considering this, he breaks off a piece of his nutribar and tosses it in the path of one of the beams. Now the room smells like burnt cardboard.
"That one's out. Wait, now it's back. And that one's out instead..." He's taken a few moments to watch the beams more carefully, taking his glasses off to do so (it's not as if he needs them to see, and the slight glare from the Ether filters in the lenses are giving him a mild headache).
He tries to mark them with some crumbs between arcs. Maybe there's some way to make a literal trail of crumbs through here, with some time and effort.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Soylent Nutribar toward his party's challenge, An Electrifying Experience. DG: Seraphita has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, An Electrifying Experience.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia watches Azoth, mouth hanging open as he goes 'yay, we did it!'. She can't quite close it. She just kind of... she can't stop watching. Listening.
Lydia looks to Seraphita eventually, tearing herself away. "Ah," She manages. "Well, he's not wrong, you know. Neither can I really, but--well--we'll make do. It's fine."
She glances to Azoth, then back to Leah as she gets very particular about what Azoth is allowed to do. She grimaces a bit and then adds, "Yeah, I mean. Sure. Sure."
There's...now some kind of horrifying electricity maze.
"Oh fuck." Lydia says. "This is gonna be bad. Electricity and robots suck."
She does her best. She does her best.
DG: Lydia Seren has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, An Electrifying Experience.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Leah helpfully provides what Azoth can do within his limitations -- more for the class than for Azoth himself. He brings a palm to his cheek in (mock?) distress. "The users are giving conflicting commands. So many errors..."
Seraphita goes and uses a real interesting word herself and Azoth scratches his cheek. "Sorry, you'll have to define what it means to be 'honest'." Azoth: complicating everything, forever.
Poor Loren. Azoth smiles innocently at him. "Better?" he asks. "I could operate under a different personality if you prefer. At least until we get this honesty thing sorted out."
Lydia gets a more uneasy smile. An apology?
Azoth peers into the electrical labyrinth with a terrified stare. "This is making my thoughts itch, but it does look like there's a path. Sorry if my calculations are off, but if you give me a second..." His eyes give a small glow which is probably invisible in the brightness of the electric walls as he tries to calculate out the best path forward. "Ah... nobody touch me until we're done with this. For your own safety. I might attract some stray voltage."
DG: Azoth has used his Tool Oculus ex Machina toward his party's challenge, An Electrifying Experience.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
It's gone now, and that's what counts. Leah continues exploring. She also... Well. Azoth mentions his many errors, and Leah actually looks at him for a moment, as if curious about something. Particularly when he mentions defining 'honesty' and how he could operate on different personality qualities... until they get honesty sorted out.
She doesn't help.
But here, in this space...There's too much electrical power for Leah to easily just direct it away--too much, and too actively flooding. And going straight into it with her mechanical limbs would be less than advisable.
"I think we'd best all avoid touching each other," shenotes, because a majority of them have at least some mechanical bits. A trail of crumbs... that's an approach. For her part...
Leah just tries to use her Etheric abilities to block the electricity from hitting her too hard if she's not fast enough, which will take a lot of energy succeed or fail, but should prevent her limbs from overloading.
"Loren," she says eventually. "We can make it, but..."
"Don't antagonize the asset."
DG: Leah Sadalbari has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, An Electrifying Experience.
===============================<* Fila del Fia *>=============================== ==================<* CHALLENGE - An Electrifying Experience *>================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Power still runs in Fila del Fia's halls. How? The city -- if the stories are true -- must have fallen from the skies long ago. Yet you can see here that somewhere in the heart of the complex, the generator (generators?) must still feed power into the place. Enough power in fact that this large room into which you step is absolutely alive with the stuff, seemingly filling the room with an impossible barrier of electrical fury. Reaching the door you see on the other side will be an impossible-- Wait, no. There are gaps pitted here and there between support pillars and the far walls, permitting passage where the electricity isn't. Until, as you watch, jolts of electricity fill those gaps while other gaps open. It's effectively a maze, a maze where the openings shift seemingly at random. Or is there some pattern to be had? =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Stupify========================================
==========================<* Fila del Fia - Round 4 *>========================== ====================< Results - An Electrifying Experience >==================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraphita 43 --(38)--> 81 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 48 --(38)--> 86 Fail Soylent Nutribar 2 Wits Effects: Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lydia Seren 43 --(22)--> 65 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leah Sadalbari 59 --(38)--> 97 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azoth 27 --(38)--> 65 Fail Oculus ex Machina 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Seraphita 65 --(15)--> 80 Fail Conditions: Injure(1)|Maim|Overzealous(1)|Reckless(2)|Stupify(2) Effects: Cleanse|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Seraphita 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.
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
...
"I know," Seraphita says to Lydia. She resolves to do what she was going to do anyway, but faster. Just because it's hard doesn't mean she shouldn't do it. Rather the opposite, actually.
She makes a face at Azoth. It's an exaggerated face but it is at least not a cruel one. Just vaguely comedic. "You know what I mean! I think! Act from your heart!" She reaches up and thumps her own chest, once. "That's what I meant, anyway. It's important to be you, instead of trying to be someone else. My grandma told me, if I tried to be someone else I'd always come up short, but if I just tried to be me I couldn't fail at it. Because I'm me."
"It's pretty zappy, isn't it?" Seraphita asks Loren, as he tosses his nutribar chunk in. "If you weren't going to eat that you could have at least given it to me..."
Oh, no. He's using it to mark a path. That's clever! She didn't even think about that. It's going to take a while, but if it works... Especially with Azoth helping him chart. Leah puts up a shield, which might be enough for her, but certainly won't help anyone else.
It takes a long time. (Except for Lydia, who by a combination of speed, agility, and bullheadedness gets through the maze faster than anyone else.) "Can you turn it off from there!" Seraphita yells back, while the rest of them are still caught in there. Nobody's gotten hit directly (Leah's shield not necessarily included), but there's been a few close calls, Azoth is indeed collecting that stray voltage, and Seraphita's hair is looking like she grabbed one of those Van de Graaff generators. All of it. Including her tail and ears.
"This stinks," she whines. But eventually they'll get there. Hopefully.
DG: Loren Voss has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Fila del Fia *>=============================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Unlimited Drone Works *>===================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You find, after considerable time, the heart of the city, the part of Fila del Fia that still feeds it with power even after so long. In other words, you've found the generator room. Still live and providing energy to certain parts of the city, it thrums ominously in the center of the room. Its presence becomes immediately important for two reasons. First of all, the generator seems to be powering a lock on the door beyond this place. The klaxons and flashing lights within the room rather make the status of the generator and what it may be doing take a brief back seat-- --as do the emergence of armed security drones that drop into the chamber from various ports in the ceiling. They're like nothing you've ever seen before, equipped with powerful weaponry and enhanced targeting. They come at you with dogged persistence -- and when one is felled, it seems two more take its place. You're going to have to fight them all the same. And the generator as well. Until it stops, /neither will the security system/. =Dungeon Conditions: Maim, Cripple, Suffer====================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Loren sputters. "A different-- don't just say that! It's weird!"
Which probably is the reason why Leah is prompted to remind him of his station, so to speak. He's a captain, not a child.
"I'm not," Loren says to Leah, which might be one of the more petulant things he's said tonight. His shoulders hunch, though, and he puts a little distance between himself and Azoth. ...And possibly Lydia, too, for good measure.
"If you want one, I've got a spare," he says to Seraphita off-handedly as he stares down the maze of shocks and sparks. "I don't know why you'd want to eat it, though."
Maybe it just tastes different to her. Who knows?
The trek through the maze is not the best. In fact, it becomes downright hairy a few times and Loren runs out of another nutribar in the process! He might have to renege on that offer to Seraphita if they don't get through here before he's forced to part with a third.
But with time and effort they reach the distant door, opening it to reveal...
...that the reason behind that hellhole of an electrical maze is because the reactor is most certainly live. Loren takes one step into the room before the whole space around him screams with sirens. He doesn't even need to say it -- his whole expression says it for him as defense drones start dropping out of the ceiling:
'oh shit'
He manages to damage one that streaks right for him with a swing of his sword, but the only thing it gets him is enough space to start drawing Ether through the Tuner. It's the same trick as before: he sheds his Ether through it and outwards, imbuing his allies with the essence of earth and water. Defense, speed, vigor... they might all be things they need, right now.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Ether Tuner toward his party's challenge, Unlimited Drone Works.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia has no idea what Seraphita is up to. That 'I know' makes her hesitate, feeling like maybe she's being unreasonable to the Element--she knows by now that Solaris is so regimented that taking it out on people like Loren, Leah, or even Seraphita is a bit like gteting mad at a cog in a giant disaster robot. Besides, she actually rather likes Seraphita.
"Ah, yeah, sorry. Don't mean nothing by it, but m'mouth runs faster than the brain sometimes."
She does feel a little bad when Seraphita tells Azoth to act from the heart because she knows Seraphita is being well meaning but for Azoth--well, that might be akin to twisting the knife further. There's no solution that she can think of. Not now, at least.
Lydia is able to get thoruhg the maze--honestly, Lydia isn't entirely sure how she did it either. She is so stunned she doesn't even brag about it.
Lydia glances to Loren but is quite willing to give the man space. She's got a bit of a better idea of the man and is actually trying to be friendly with the man. He's just another prisoner, really, even if he might get the nicer bunks.
"Oh geeze." Lydia says, instead, as mechs start dropping down from above. "Rachiel, gonna just... this is bad. So it's fine. You can guide me directly."
Well...okay if you're sure....
Lydia takes in a deep breath and then rapidly darts between drones, sword flashing quickly and smoothly as Guardian-enthused light energy crackles across her blade, moving between each enemy to deliver quick strikes before darting away in a flash.
"Just things tryin' to kill us." Lydia murmurs even if Rachiel is more or less signaling directly what to do.
DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Rachiel Medry Is Doing Her Best toward her party's challenge, Unlimited Drone Works.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth winces, hands pressed together as he points them at Seraphita. "Oh, no, I assure you, I'm not trying to be uncooperative here." All right, maybe a little -- but only at Loren. "I don't know what you mean. A lot of people mean very different things when they say that." He closes his eye, pinching it shut for a super wince. "But given your clarification... I think you should settle for not liking me."
Because as Lydia knows all too well, acting 'from the heart' -- and Azoth does think he knows what she means by that, at least -- simply isn't possible.
"But this fake personality isn't weird for you?" he asks Loren, sticking his tongue out playfully. He knows it absolutely is! Especially now that he's pointed out it's fake. Azoth smiles at Leah. "Aw, he's not."
Electricity maze is, as predicted, terrible! Azoth does not enjoy it. He gets zapped and frazzled, blue lights turning red with warning and error until the generators finally get turned off. "Thanks, Lydia!" he chimes.
But there is little respite once it's over. Enter the defense drones.
"Hello friends!" Azoth shouts cheerfully, greeting the drones as they attacked. He gives a panicked beep and guards himself from fire with a shield. Not friends. :(
Azoth tosses his amber stone to himself, but with the sheer amount of drones and Solaris' fighting force, it seems defensive is not needed here... but offense. Azoth tosses the stone at a drone, ricocheting it off one to the next and diving into the fray. Energy blades form, launched at as many as he can hope to take down.
DG: Azoth has used his Tool Bug in Amber toward his party's challenge, Unlimited Drone Works.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
Leah does not enjoy the electricity room. It's not great. She lifts an eyebrow when Loren answers her, and shrugs visibly as Azoth smiles at her in turn. She does not argue the point. Instead, she is busy focusing on the electricity until Lydia turns it off....
Drones. Lydia asks for Rachiel to take over, and Leah moves into the room, cla-CLUNKing a step and a half at a time, heedless of the drones coming towards her. Her armor takes blasts, but she grabs one of the drones out of the air and slams it into the ground, relying on her armor until she gets in a position where she's completely surrounded. It doesn't take long--three replace the one she slams down, and then there are more still. There are too many to ignore.
"Hmn."
Lifting both hands, the Watcher channels Water Ether, a sudden wave of blue energy crashing all around her and becoming a whirlpool of destruction.
Loren's Ether goes a long way towards letting her charge into the mass of them. But she does not give them comments.
DG: Leah Sadalbari has used her Tool Yamato Belt toward her party's challenge, Unlimited Drone Works.
===============================<* Fila del Fia *>=============================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Unlimited Drone Works *>===================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You find, after considerable time, the heart of the city, the part of Fila del Fia that still feeds it with power even after so long. In other words, you've found the generator room. Still live and providing energy to certain parts of the city, it thrums ominously in the center of the room. Its presence becomes immediately important for two reasons. First of all, the generator seems to be powering a lock on the door beyond this place. The klaxons and flashing lights within the room rather make the status of the generator and what it may be doing take a brief back seat-- --as do the emergence of armed security drones that drop into the chamber from various ports in the ceiling. They're like nothing you've ever seen before, equipped with powerful weaponry and enhanced targeting. They come at you with dogged persistence -- and when one is felled, it seems two more take its place. You're going to have to fight them all the same. And the generator as well. Until it stops, /neither will the security system/. =Dungeon Conditions: Maim, Cripple, Suffer====================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
Seraphita isn't trying to hurt Azoth. She may not entirely understand - did she just not get the memo? Does she think he's more like Tolone than anything else? "No," she says, firmly. "But that's okay. We can figure it out later."
She has her eye on you, Azoth. There is no escape. Maybe she'll have to talk to his bosses too? (Whoever that may be. Seraphita isn't even sure. She spends a moment thinking about it and then files it with the 'Things To Do When Back In Solaris' list.)
Loren asks her a question. "...because I'm hungry?"
They don't taste any different to Seraphita, at least not in any way that matters. She just doesn't complain about her food, usually, because she never had the opportunity growing up.
It's not that she was ever in danger of starving. Even the lowest tiers of Solarian society don't usually go hungry as a matter of course; it's one of the things that she considers a plus about Solaris. It's just that you don't really get to pick what you eat that that point. Also, she's used to those nutribars. Even if they're not good, at least they're reliably bad.
But whether or not she gets it, Seraphita moves into the new, generator room. Anything she says is drowned out with sirens, which gets a remarkably fast response from Seraphita, in three parts.
Step one: Dive to the ground and make a smaller target for being shot at. That's easy. She tumbles to behind an assortment of supply gear and what might have been a desk before several thousand years hit it and is now a metal sheet.
Step two: Gather Ether. This involves the Pyro Element coming out again; she's going to need all the available power she can get, and with the energized powder in the air, she can reach through it and affect the area where it scatters as easily as her hands.
Step three: Attack!
She doesn't want to use explosions in here, because it's too wild. Seraphita uses almost painfully bright but narrow beams of heat and light instead - if Loren wanted to see her focus when he asked her for Ether tips the other day, well, he's seeing it now. Fire does *not* want to do that, and yet Seraphita can keep the lance-like bolts of Ether power compressed and focused across the entire room.
"There's a lot of them!" Maybe she should shoot the generator? Seraphita is a little hesitant to do that, but: "We can turn it off if the power's out!"
DG: Seraphita has used her Tool Pyro Element toward her party's challenge, Unlimited Drone Works.
===============================<* Fila del Fia *>=============================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Unlimited Drone Works *>===================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You find, after considerable time, the heart of the city, the part of Fila del Fia that still feeds it with power even after so long. In other words, you've found the generator room. Still live and providing energy to certain parts of the city, it thrums ominously in the center of the room. Its presence becomes immediately important for two reasons. First of all, the generator seems to be powering a lock on the door beyond this place. The klaxons and flashing lights within the room rather make the status of the generator and what it may be doing take a brief back seat-- --as do the emergence of armed security drones that drop into the chamber from various ports in the ceiling. They're like nothing you've ever seen before, equipped with powerful weaponry and enhanced targeting. They come at you with dogged persistence -- and when one is felled, it seems two more take its place. You're going to have to fight them all the same. And the generator as well. Until it stops, /neither will the security system/. =Dungeon Conditions: Maim, Cripple, Suffer====================================
==========================<* Fila del Fia - Round 5 *>========================== ======================< Results - Unlimited Drone Works >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraphita 81 --(10)--> 91 Pass Pyro Element 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 86 --(21)--> 107 Fail Ether Tuner 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lydia Seren 65 --(10)--> 75 Pass Rachiel Medry Is Doing Her Best 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leah Sadalbari 97 --(10)--> 107 Pass Yamato Belt 1 Combat Effects: Embolden and Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azoth 65 --(10)--> 75 Pass Bug in Amber 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Seraphita 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Cripple|Maim|Reckless(1)|Suffer(1) Effects: Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: Loren Voss is too exhausted to continue! DG: Leah Sadalbari is too exhausted to continue! DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Seraphita has successfully explored Fila del Fia!
===============================<* Fila del Fia *>=============================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - A Sword Of Light *>======================= |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The door beyond the generator opens with a hiss, revealing the room beyond. Though the generator appears damaged, it still shows signs of life; given the nature of this place it may not remain inactive forever. So be it. Was this a storage area? At a glance, it looks the part: shelving units, locking safes, and all the rest of it, bundled into this tight place. Most of the units turn out to be in fact fairly empty and the terminals seemingly dead to the world. Until you find in one small black metal locker a strange vaguely gun-shaped device. If you /do/ take the moment to experiment with it, you find that it is 1) a weapon and 2) capable of putting a hole through the nearest wall with a brilliant beam of light. Suffice to say, don't point it at any of your comrades here. More circumspect investigations will find a tag on the bottom of it that says that this weapon is the property of the Pangalactic Federation and that unauthorized possession and use will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of pangalactic law. Interesting. (OOC: This is a power ARM-type weapon, but it has limited shots before a recharge. Suggestions for how to use it include: as high-powered Brute or Combat tool or as a Signature-class ARM attack in the Gunslinger system.) =Dungeon Conditions: Vault====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"But it doesn't taste good. If you wait, there's better snacks back on base." Loren seems to have taken Seraphita's insistance to heart and really is treating her like anyone else -- or maybe it's just because it's that easy for him to, after everything is said and done.
'But this fake personality isn't weird for you?' and yes, Loren might have known that technically he shouldn't be reading too much at ALL into Azoth's persona right now. But it's still the sort of thing that makes him stand up that much straighter and eye Azoth in a way that is both suspicious and alarmed. "What," he says to Azoth rather flatly.
'Of course it's weird', Loren's expression more or less says for him, especially since Leah has just given him the Eyebrow. But pretty much everything Azoth does -- robot, fake personality, whatever -- is going to be weird and at least mildly alarming to him.
...Maybe make that extremely alarming right this moment.
Though it is certainly less alarming than the literal alarm and swarm of security drones giving them all hell but a few moments later.
It's a messy, tense, and violent moment. The enhancements -- especially drawn through the Tuner -- take a lot out of Loren, earlier mouthful of bar or not. He drops to one knee, perhaps giving another the opportunity to intervene should more of the drones head in his direction.
It's a combination of factors from the rest of them that helps push back the swarm. A wave of water Ether from Leah as she delivers violence to the rest of them one by one. A pinpoint array of laser beams from Seraphita, burning what Leah doesn't simply push aside. Loren, even in his current condition, is able to get a good look at -- and appreciate, particularly given their more recent discussion with one another -- Seraphita's skills in action. What remains are picked off as fast as they can be produced by the fallen city by Azoth and Lydia, and together the two of them deliver a strike to the generator that provokes it to shut itself down.
The door to the chamber beyond the generator opens afterwards.
Inside, they find a gun. It has a strange placard on it.
Even more strange is the power it possesses: this is a rare, mysterious ARM with the ability to apparently take out a good part of a wall when used.
Which it will, if someone pulls the trigger. Maybe this is not the best place to test these things out...