2021-09-17: The Corrupting Tide

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  • Log: The Corrupting Tide
  • Cast: Avril Vent Fleur, Kaguya, Ratatoskr, Jacqueline Barber, Rebecca Streisand
  • Where: Falkewin Hillside
  • Date: September 17, 2021
  • Summary: Avril ventures into Emrys Mire with Rebecca on an errand and soon encounters others. While the ruins are (at first) stingy in matters of mushrooms, hints of the past can be found within the crumbling walls and residences within.


DG: A party led by Avril Vent Fleur is now entering Emrys Mire.
DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
================================<* Emrys Mire *>================================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Gate of the Mire *>=======================
|Type: Entry       |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Even at first glance, one thing is clear about Emrys Mire: this is not a
 pleasant place. A murky haze lingers in the air above the muck and slime of
 the swamp, punctuated by the looming form of countless giant fungi.
 Allegedly, other people venture the mire in search of its secrets, but save
 for the ramshackle road leading to it, there's little evidence of such.

 The remains of a stone gate and wall stand before you -- once, perhaps this
 welcomed people to what was here before the mire, but now it's little more
 than an enormous blockade in your path, stretching quite a distance. Over,
 around, or through are your options, and worse, the corruption of the swamp
 has infiltrated the stone.

 But the mire is relentless and draining. Whatever gains you make won't be
 easy... or without cost.
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    Though her trek across the sea had been made separated from Dean and Rebecca, suffice to say once the ships pulled in (and various parties made themselves scarce in short order to, well, avoid literally going to jail) there had been a reunion. Maybe there had even been a party!

    And then, with the three of them now present in this half of Lunar once again, there had been a mix of information gathering, exploring, and all around getting the lay of the land again. Dean's duties had meant that what happened in Lunar was just as much his responsibility as Filgaia, for one, and also...

    Also, Avril simply couldn't let go what the Guard had wrought in Spira. Her mission isn't one of revenge or justice, but a relatively simple one: she needs to understand what brought about that tragedy.

    ...The fact that she and Rebecca are currently in Emrys Mire is not related to any of that, though. Avril and Rebecca are here for an almost surprisingly mundane reason:

    ...A Malevolence-tainted place like this is the only spot where one can collect the proper sort of mushroom. And there was a bounty on the mushrooms.

    ... ...and they need some money.

    The road stumbles and slouches towards the muck of the mire. Divots in the trail are filled with bubbling slime; even the marsh grasses look decidedly ill.

    Once, probably before it became quite so infested, someone lived here. The presence of a stone gate and wall before them says as much -- and also forms the barrier in their path. Unless someone wants to walk a distance and slosh through the muck, they'll have to knock down the gate first.

    Avril, without so much as a murmur, produces Absolute Zero. She pulls the trigger and then, in a flurry, strikes at the gate again and again with the laser-beam whip.

DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Absolute Zero Beam toward her party's challenge, Gate of the Mire.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

As it happens, Kaguya is very good with mushrooms too. Just, for the record. That's a thing that is true. Even better than she is with horrifying Guard-manufactured robotic monstrosities!

...And she has her reasons to keep an eye on Rebecca and Avril in particular. Also Dean, but he's not here right now, so those reasons are less important.

Kaguya cannot solve Avril's mission on her own though; she's only one voice in the Guard, after all. She could solve Avril's money problems more easily. ...She's not going to. But she could.

"This place is pretty rough," Kaguya says. "Glad it's not on my lands." Which she has, now that she's back here. She has, of course, been back.

But right now she's here. "Yeah I'm not going through all that muck," she says, and steps up after Avril, hmm-ing a little at the gate. "Yeah that'll probably do. I'll punch whatever's left when you're done there."

DG: Kaguya has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Gate of the Mire.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.

    "Hyahaha--!" That voice. That laughter. That youthful, obnoxious voice. And youthful, obnoxious laughter. That youth. That obnoxiousness. Etc, etc, et.

     All coming from a lithe, squirrel-like Hyadean in blood-crimson armor, illuminating the gloom with the solid glow of their yellow eyes and a permanent sharp-toothed grin as though he were not stepping into a den of misery and malediction, a veritable Diabolos ex Machina on Avril and friends' foray into mushroom collecting.

     He's holding up an old gunblade ARM thing that he sometimes carries around, like one might admire a freshly drawn heroic sword. "So... is this where the so-called wizard, 'the Wyllt,' once was...?"

     He doesn't seem perturbed over much by the purple-ANSI substance surrounding him - but that's been almost universally true of those Hyadeans who still walk the mortal coil today (for better or for worse).

     Emotionally speaking, anyway. The stuff doesn't seem capable of finding purchase in them. He hears the distinctive sounds (and sees the distinctive glows) of Absolute Zero flaring to life and lashing at the collapsed gate again and again and again.

     So he happens upon there, as a guest of questionable welcomeness.

     "What are you doing? What are you doing!" Ratatoskr shouts. "This... this could be history. Where a once famous wizard - a sorcerer, in other words - once lived before meeting their end..."

     He rests a clawed hand against the toppled stone with reverence for a few moments, going over it here and there.

     ...

     "Oh... no, there was no battle here after all..."

     And just like that, he sticks the gunblade ARM-thing into the pile and ignites its barrier function to just shove some stuff out of the way.

DG: Ratatoskr has used his Tool Derelict Relic toward his party's challenge, Gate of the Mire.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Emrys Mire... it felt like quite some time since Jacqueline's last visit. And now, well... she can't tell if it looks better or worse, but it's a reminder that time has still been passing here while they've been gone. It's important that they do their best to find and secure what still remains here.

...And if some of that happens to be fungi, well, she won't complain. She's an alchemist, after all - she's always in need of fresh ingredients.

As it happens, though, she isn't the only one who has an interest here today. Another group has already gathered.

"Ah, hello, everyone... It looks like a picked a good day to drop by. Do you mind if I accompany you?" She asks, before rummaging through her bags. She draws out a bottle of red liquid and with a Mystic touch disperses it across the party in a glimmering cloud, to boost their strength and, hopefully, ward against the draining Malevolent aura infusing the mire.

DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Brewte Force toward her party's challenge, Gate of the Mire.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.


They always need money.

Rebecca had briefly looked into alternative methods of expediting this before bringing Avril into a mire.

"This here beauty is the champion of sniffing out truffles and shrooms. Only 100 silver per day-!"

There's the squeal of a particularly large hog.

"Pretty reasonable on our budget... alright"

"However due to the dangers of the Myre... I'll need a security deposit of 5000 silver, in advance. To be returned on bringing Petunia back safe and sound."

Rebecca... slowlllyyy looks up from her bag at the man.

"... That's... some price... for some pig."

Ultimately, the assistance of a pig to expedite the mushroom hunting expedition into the bog was not to be.

-=-=-

"What? You wouldn't see it as a challenge?" Rebecca says to Kaguya, before asiding mostly to herself, "Shame we couldn't have managed this the easy way..."

Rebecca has mostly tried to light foot her way out of stepping too deep into the mire, but it's been mostly unavoidable. She doesn't exactly mind getting her hands dirty, yet this isn't exactly what she had in mind.

Upon reaching the stone gate, Rebecca considers it too for a moment before Avril produces Absolute Zero. "Decisive." She says with a hint of mirth.

In the end, she produces a Medium, and a beam of light streaks across the ground in a Serpentine path before making contact with the gate. "Faster than going around!"

Before she then gives Ratatoskr an odd look at his ARM, as she wonders if it can even fire from a distance???

"J-Jay? What are you doing all the way out- Oh right." Rebecca says with a bit of a grin as she realizes, "Alchemy must take you pretty far afield - I don't mind. We're here for the mushrooms ourselves."

DG: Rebecca Streisand has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Gate of the Mire.
================================<* Emrys Mire *>================================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Gate of the Mire *>=======================
|Type: Entry       |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Even at first glance, one thing is clear about Emrys Mire: this is not a
 pleasant place. A murky haze lingers in the air above the muck and slime of
 the swamp, punctuated by the looming form of countless giant fungi.
 Allegedly, other people venture the mire in search of its secrets, but save
 for the ramshackle road leading to it, there's little evidence of such.

 The remains of a stone gate and wall stand before you -- once, perhaps this
 welcomed people to what was here before the mire, but now it's little more
 than an enormous blockade in your path, stretching quite a distance. Over,
 around, or through are your options, and worse, the corruption of the swamp
 has infiltrated the stone.

 But the mire is relentless and draining. Whatever gains you make won't be
 easy... or without cost.
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken===================================================
===========================<* Emrys Mire - Round 1 *>===========================
=========================< Results - Gate of the Mire >=========================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Avril Vent Fleur                    0 --(12)--> 12                 Pass
Absolute Zero Beam                  3   Brute   Effects: Fanfare
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ratatoskr                           0 --(12)--> 12                 Pass
Derelict Relic                      2   Brute   Effects: Stalwart
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rebecca Streisand                   0 --(24)--> 24                 Fail
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kaguya                              0 --(24)--> 24                 Fail
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jacqueline Barber                   0 --(24)--> 24                 Fail
Brewte Force                        1   Brute   Effects: Fanfare and Strengthe
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Avril Vent Fleur            0 --(15)--> 15                 Fail
Conditions: Weaken(2)
Effects: Strengthen(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Avril Vent Fleur 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> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    Unfortunately, there is no pig to be had. Avril had looked a little bit disappointed -- she's read about truffle-hunting hogs, but has never seen one at work herself.

    Still, given the dangers involved... perhaps it is just as well.

    But they're hardly going there on their own. It's a little strange to think, sometimes, given the way they had encountered one another once. But it's not as if they're precisely bitter enemies with Kaguya these days.

    If anything, their relationship with their once (?) enemy has more firmly entered into the category of 'it's complicated'.

    And neither are they alone once they arrive. "Ah? Is that you, Jay? Whatever brings you here?" It might just be the same thing as they, in a sense -- lands like these are dangerous, but there is gold in the mire so to speak, if you know where to look. But first, the gate.

    Avril advances, taking to the stone with lasers; they score the stone deeply. But they still stand.

    "...Oh?"

    Someone else has arrived, laughing heartily as they approache the stone gate.

    "But it is in our way. We do not have much choice otherwise--"

    And Avril's eyes widen quite suddenly. "Wait, you mustn't...!"

    Ratatoskr does. The gate had already been weakened before by Avril's attack upon it. But now, when Ratatoskr strikes at it, the whole edifice comes tumbling right on down around the two of them. Avril is already moving to push him out of the way before the first block hits the ground.

    "I am sorry," she tells him, once it's all over. The fog from Jay's potion helps smooth over any ills that might have been dealt due to the collapse of the gate and wall.

    "I ought to have warned you."

DG: Ratatoskr has drawn a new Challenge.
================================<* Emrys Mire *>================================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Desperate Escape *>=======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 3          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Not everything that once existed in the land that became Emrys Mire has been
 consumed by the muck quite yet. Here and there, stable buildings can be
 found if in varying degrees of degradation and ruin. For the quick and the
 fortunate, a few scattered objects might be gleaned from the wreckage, still
 unclaimed by the swamp.

 Sadly, 'fortunate' does not at this point describe you. While exploring the
 ruined foundation of a building, the crumbling structure reaches a tipping
 point and begins its final collapse. Escape by any means necessary -- before
 it buries you with it -- has become the highest priority.
=Dungeon Conditions: Exhaust==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.

    Ratatoskr, flat on his rear end (and tail) as he's pushed to safety when the whole thing collapses in a puff of age, mass, and purple-black, just stares with a grin that slowly fades to a smile. "Come onnnnnn," he whines.

     * * * sOmE tImE lAtEeEuUrRr... * * *

     Maybe there was once a community gated off to here, in the Emrys Mire - here and there, there are intact enough buildings that might have been aesthetically pleasing to look at prior. Some of them even still bear evidence of pigments that kind of go nice with the violet mucky haze that permeates the place now! But they are not aesthetically pleasing to look at now. They are also not all that structurally sound now. Stable enough to chance going inside...

     There's not a whole lot to look at. Definitely no truffles pulled above ground for the discerning eye. Definitely no truffles underneath. There's bits and bobs of life within this place before the present decided to gift itself to existence at this point in time, and the present did not come with a receipt for returns or exchanges.

     Ratatoskr is the most enthusiastic by at least a country mile and a half to go inside some of these buildings and go over even the most rotted, worthless shelf and other furniture for any signs of anything interesting as regards the search for lost history as regards that wizard he's heard so much about.

     A building gives them a hot tip!

     ...A hot, humid tip, to match the environs.

     This hot, humid tip is such: this structure is not safe and crumbling. It does not have a matching protip to tell them to get out of there, and this only comes into evidence once they're all deep enough in they have to navigate roughly two to three rooms' worth of ruin to escape burial from.

     "...Was the wizard an architect?" Ratatoskr's mind wanders in irreverent directions as he draws that ARM gunblade again, which - to appearances - does not go off at range but he does engage that barrier function again as he engages unconventional battle against structural collapse in a novel way he normally does not engage!

     If they can't get out in time - and they might not - they need to engage their most destructive, redirecting tools of the trade to stop a collapsing building from going for the three count.

DG: Ratatoskr has used his Tool Derelict Relic toward his party's challenge, Desperate Escape.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

"Challenges are fun! Malevolence-infested muck is just gross. No thanks!"

No pig! How sad. But Kaguya probably has some of those on her lands somewhere. Maybe. ...She hasn't really done a lot of investigation of her pig-related property.

"Hey Jay," Kaguya greets her, and lifts an eyebrow at Ratatoskr. "Eh? But the wizard probably didn't--" Pause. There we go.

Ratatoskr goes with it. But... things are pretty bad, it would seem. Kaguya does not give voice to how complicated things are at the moment.

"Awww, you should feel lucky, Ratatoskr. Avril's a pretty big deal, and she just risked herself to help you. You might say that's kind of historic..."

But some time later--well. Ratatoskr is happy to go ahead, and when he does--

"Aw, shit," Kaguya mutters about the falling building, and pulls a little bomb from her pack, dialing a few numbers on the side and hurling it straight into the center of the debris. "Get down!" she suggests, and moves to help Jay in particular to do just that first.

DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Magnetic Resonance Bomb toward her party's challenge, Desperate Escape.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.


"Avril!" It's not enough that Ratatoskr leapt right in, but that it endangered Avril to say it. Enough that Rebecca leaps into the action to try and tug them out of the way... even if she falls short.

But in the aftermath, she says a touch breathlessly to Avril... "Hey, no need to apologize so quickly! Just look at his face-" As she gestures at Ratatoskr, "-he sure doesn't look sorry about nearly burying the two of you!"

Before she gives Kaguya a dirty look, "It's got nothing to do with that! Or... it shouldn't!"

... Look maybe that exact idea hits upon a certain insecurity of hers. Maybe.

-=-=-

Inside the crumbling building, Rebecca actually finds herself peering into the mold patches to see if she can find any fungal decay.

But even after picking through the furniture.

"Not a single mushroom in sight... I'd even settle for finding one that's deadly poison at this point." She comments to Avril as they pick through the place, "Kaguya and Jay would probably be happy with that at least."

And then... there's that sudden alarming structural creak, as she looks over at Ratatoskr.

Because somehow... she wonders, if he's responsible for this.

When Kaguya yells to 'get down' she suddenly makes sure Avril is moving first before hitting the deck herself.

And invokes her Medium as she does so. A sudden swirling column of wind might just at least, shred anything coming down on them.

She hopes. Somehow she doubts it. Part of her wishes she'd left a Portal waiting for them outside this building.

DG: Rebecca Streisand has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Desperate Escape.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

"Rebecca! It's good to see you again." Jacqueline replies with a smile - and a nod, when she makes her observation. "It's true - I can source a lot of ingredients through my connections, but if I want some of the rarer stuff, I have to searching for them myselves..."

Sure, she could just go hire a group of Drifters to find them for her... but it could be a valuable experience in its own right! She nods toward Avril, then.

"The same thing you are, it seems! And anything else I might happen to uncover along the way. I hope you don't mind if I accompany? It'll go a lot smoother for everyone!"

At Kaguya's greeting, Jacqueline sends her a nod and a smile.

"Kaguya. How are you doing?" She asks.

An effort is made to break through the gate... but it goes a little too well, collapsing around them. Jacqueline recoils back, drawing her cloak around her protectively.

"Is everyone alright?" Jacqueline asks, once the dust settles a little. They're free to proceed forward, at least, at this point.

"Hm... if they were significantly powerful enough, it's possible they may have been able to construct this place due to sorcery. ...Or, make other people do it for him." Jacqueline says consideringly.

Speaking of construction, however, the structure they're currently searching through is starting to collapse around! With a gasp of surprise Jacqueline quickly slots a Crest Graph into her left gauntlet... right as Kaguya hurls an explosive at it. Jacqueline doesn't need to be told twice - she gratefully accepts the help, finding cover. She extends her left hand, then, and with a gesture she attempts to manipulate the earth around them, causing it to rise up from the mire and provide cover.

DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Landscaper Crest toward her party's challenge, Desperate Escape.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    Avril just shakes her head. "No, I should have realized that cutting it might have made it prone to collapse," she tells Rebecca. "I am just glad that everyone is alright."

    And indeed, they're unscathed! That's important.

    "Hmm, is that 'historic'?" Avril muses, once she's back on her feet. "Perhaps it might be 'historic' since it is happening in a place such as this," she continues, clasping her hands a moment behind her back as she gazes up at a hazy sky. "But I do not think that hunting for mushrooms is particularly 'historic'. At least, not just yet," Avril adds, smiling slightly in spite of her earlier serious affect.

    "Shall we? I would rather not stand around here."

    Before long, they come across some abandoned, crumbling buildings. Against all common sense...!

    Avril investigates inside. There are no mushrooms to be found in here.

    "I don't know," Avril admits, on the subject of the wizard. Her fingertips trace along a stone wall surface. "I do not think... we had ever met."

    Unfortunately, the inevitable happens, another fact that she realizes at the last possible second. "Rebecca! The building--" Fumbling for Absolute Zero, her goal apparently to cut them out of here, she instead pulls out a familiar remote.

    The ceiling's coming down. Rebecca and the others are here.

    Desperate times, desperate measures.

    She pushes the button and drops as Kaguya shouts for them to all get down.

    Somewhere below, something long-buried on the moon stirs and begins its speedy rise upwards. If anything can catch a falling ceiling, might it not be... a Golem's arm?!

DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Remote Golem Override toward her party's challenge, Desperate Escape.
================================<* Emrys Mire *>================================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Desperate Escape *>=======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 3          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Not everything that once existed in the land that became Emrys Mire has been
 consumed by the muck quite yet. Here and there, stable buildings can be
 found if in varying degrees of degradation and ruin. For the quick and the
 fortunate, a few scattered objects might be gleaned from the wreckage, still
 unclaimed by the swamp.

 Sadly, 'fortunate' does not at this point describe you. While exploring the
 ruined foundation of a building, the crumbling structure reaches a tipping
 point and begins its final collapse. Escape by any means necessary -- before
 it buries you with it -- has become the highest priority.
=Dungeon Conditions: Exhaust==================================================
===========================<* Emrys Mire - Round 2 *>===========================
=========================< Results - Desperate Escape >=========================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Avril Vent Fleur                    12 --(0)--> 12                 Pass
Remote Golem Override               4   Brute   Effects: None
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ratatoskr                           12 --(0)--> 12                 Pass
Derelict Relic                      2   Brute   Effects: Stalwart
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rebecca Streisand                   24 --(20)--> 44                Fail
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kaguya                              24 --(0)--> 24                 Pass
Magnetic Resonance Bomb             3   Brute   Effects: Rally
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jacqueline Barber                   24 --(0)--> 24                 Pass
Landscaper Crest                    3   Brute   Effects: Fanfare
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Avril Vent Fleur            15 --(20)--> 35                Pass
Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Weaken(1)
Effects:
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Avril Vent Fleur 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> Ratatoskr has posed.

    Ratatoskr remains ignorant of his own brush with history, as youth often is at the time. Nineteen-to-twenty-five-year-old youth.

     As Rebecca surmises, he might not be all that sorry about the brush with death that has been caused, and is about to be caused again, because they are the hairstylists of death today. That's why all the brushing. (no)

     But there are no jokes to be had when the whole place is about to come down upon them - and Rebecca starts by creating a swirling column of wind to prevent most of the smaller debris from conking any of them (it succeeds here!), and the Landscraper Crest shoots up from the ground underneath and walls off some of the collapse while flipping more of it in the air - giving some of them more time but that ruin is going to come down one way or another. (the one way is on top of them)

     Kaguya, having asked for them to get down, throws the bomb into it to create a green explosion that shines through the purple miasma in an incredible (but sickly-looking) backlight, and the last, great piece that stands to fall on top of them...

     A rotted mechanical hand, missing two fingers but yet having all its heart, reaches up to catch and clench the last length of indeterminate structural placement or usage, and all of it grounds to a halt.

     Except for a few poisonous mushroom spores that stir in the air. (It's only nuisance-level poison, it causes sneezes.)

     Ratatoskr, awestruck... runs a hand up and down the Golem(?) hand, without regard for what Rebecca was talking about at the Gate That No Longer Is, because it looks neat and creates a whole lot of interesting questions!

     (maybe this is the chance to ditch him)

DG: Kaguya has drawn a new Challenge.
================================<* Emrys Mire *>================================
==================<* CHALLENGE - Unfortunate and Unpleasant *>==================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility   |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Once, possibly, this was a much more pleasant place to dwell. That would
 have been before the contamination of the Malevolent swamp began to spread,
 and before the fungus took root. Rotting material is omnipresent, drowned
 only by the waters and the continuous addition of mud and soil.

 Rotting material, that has itself been laced with Malevolence. It can't stay
 buried forever.

 There's a rumble, a roar. Too soon, an eruption of the stuff: an offventing
 of the mire's corruption far too close at hand. Evasive measures are
 strongly recommended.
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

"Heh heh heh," Kaguya answers Rebecca's protest. The dirty look means it was funny! Is that how it works? That sems to be how it works. But Avril makes what might be a joke and Kaguya grins at her. "It only counts if we actually find the cool mushrooms, I think." She would be fine with poisonous. That would be fun.

But to Jay she answers, "I'm doing... well, except for being in a gross muck full of gross spirit-poison, I'm doing pretty good today, I guess. How about you?"

"My money's on 'have someone else do it for him'," Kaguya says of the plac's formation. Avril... thinks they nver met. That's not the weirdest thing Avril has ever said in front of Kaguya though, so it's fine.

Kaguya averts her eyes from the cool explosion, but she does look over at the Golem and think it's pretty awesome. But Ratatoskr has that covered. Also, she's suddenly coughing a bunch because of the spores. "Ugh ugh ugh," Kaguya says, and lifts up ber breathing mask to secure it about her nose and mouth. "Forget that," she says, muffled. Then she pauses.

"Heheheheh," she says. "If you wanna ditch him he'll probably be at the Golem hand for a while. He's like that. Don't worry, he'll be fine."

Kaguya goes on without(?) Ratatoskr!!

And soon, the group finds themselves in the midst of swamp, with rotting materials all over. "I don't see any good mushrooms here," she starts, and then--rumble--roar.

"Waugh!" Kaguya jumps to the side to avoid the gross grossness.

DG: Kaguya has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Unfortunate and Unpleasant.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

"I'm doing pretty well, myself - except for that, yes." Jacqueline agrees with a chuckle.

Jacqueline watches as Avril calls a Golem arm forth, and Ratatoskr becomes immediately attached. ...She can understand why, but it's still probably not the best idea right now.

"Try not to linger too long, Ratatoskr, it isn't safe here." Jacqueline suggests.

They proceed forward, deeper into the swamp. Something was built here, once... but it has since decayed into miscellaneous material - which bursts out of the muck!

Jacqueline dodges to the side quickly, reaching into her bags to draw out another potion.

"Hold on... this should help." She says. This time the mist is a pleasant mint green, that promotes freedom of movement even in situations like this, where the swamp might try to impede them.

DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Rapid Remedy toward her party's challenge, Unfortunate and Unpleasant.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.


"Alchemy is a more dangerous profession than I thought..." Rebecca comments, amiably to Jay.

Rebecca doesn't press the issue as Avril takes the blame, but she definitely feels like someone's at fault more than Avril on account of recklessness.

SOMEONE!

However, Avril's questioning of historic - does soften her expression, especially when she stifles a laugh at her commenting that mushroom hunting isn't particularly historic, before. "Oh we'll find them alright..." She says to Kaguya.

She'll tell Avril later, once they're out of danger. It's not so much to spare Kaguya - as to spare Avril having to think about the idea that being saved by her is 'historic' purely because most see her as the Ice Queen right now.

Fortunately as the roof comes down, Avril presses the button. And a rotted Golem hand emerges.

"Good thinking Avril! That was a close call."

Rebecca walks past the rotted Golem Hand at first, before thinking... 'well, Dean will be sad to hear Avril used the button without him being here to witness it.' Not long after she tried to move on she doubles back and tries to pluck off a small portable piece to give him.

And puts the metallic nut in Avril's hand, "Here you go... just in case... someone's sad they weren't here for this..."

Because to give it to him herself would be acting like she actually cares about his love of Golems!

Unacceptable.

Once they've left though... and are back in the swamp.

The rotting mass of mire corruption roars and...

"Maybe that pig was a bargain after all..."

Drawing her Portal Guns, she fires a blue one at a nearby stout tree trunk, before sweeping arm to the side and firing to another in the distance which makes for an orange one in the distance.

"Portal!" She calls out, taking a deep breath of Jay's mist before she leaps in herself - half expecting Lucadia's power to propel them forward...

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    Avril smiles. "Yes, perhaps if we are the first to find a particular mushroom, it may become historic. We could name it after one of us," she adds, before they move along. Hopefully such a mushroom would be cool or interesting instead of weird and/or gross, though...

    Honestly, at this point, Avril just can't be entirely sure she's never met someone from Lunar before.
    And it's still not the weirdest thing anyone in this room has heard her say before.

    Within the crumbling building it's a tense, dire moment. But right into the heart of things, as there's an explosion, as the building quakes, as the roof begins to fall--

    Avril grabs for Rebecca in this moment, as if to shield her from whatever comes next.

    --the ground beneath them trembles and shudders, and from beneath erupts their savior.

    The Golem hand has had better days. But for now, it holds, a mighty pillar of metal and long-gone craftsmanship shielding them from an unfortunate end. Quickly rising to her feet, Avril moves to pull Rebecca up after her and hurries from the ruin.

    "...Oh, is he still back there?"

    She... doesn't immediately realize that Ratatoskr isn't here.

    However, they are in the swamp, and nearby, there is an eruption of gas and swamp goo. "Oh--!"

    Fortunately, Jay is there in the clutch, the potion dealing with the worst of the poisonous fumes. Avril herself takes the opportunity to bring the Medium to hand, the item shimmering as she draws upon its power. They should move from here, quickly.

DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Sea Medium toward her party's challenge, Unfortunate and Unpleasant.
DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Portal Guns toward her party's challenge, Unfortunate and Unpleasant.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.

    Ratatoskr, indeed, seems to stay behind. (He forgot to leave the party, that's rude.)

     The swamp is full of unpleasant feelings, odors, colors... and not enough in the way of cool mushrooms. Or warm ones. It does seem like that something even more offensive than Ratatoskr's voice and presence is about to find itself taking a turn in taking some weeks off of everyone's collective lifespans of frights, chills, poisons, and who knows what else, and then, all of a sudden...

     An odd light, a strange scent, and Ratatoskr suddenly appearing while clutching that weird crystalline teleport device in his grasp. He just wades along without much of a care for the way the swamp is trying to make life miserable for them.

     "What are you all doing out here? What are you all doing out here! You should come see this big hand... it's of a Golem... it's great..."

     If he has to he's helping physically pull them along because it is that nifty to him.

DG: Ratatoskr has used his Tool Teleporter Fragment toward his party's challenge, Unfortunate and Unpleasant.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.


"We ALL saw it!"

Rebecca shouts at Ratatoskr, as they face mortal peril.

================================<* Emrys Mire *>================================
==================<* CHALLENGE - Unfortunate and Unpleasant *>==================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility   |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Once, possibly, this was a much more pleasant place to dwell. That would
 have been before the contamination of the Malevolent swamp began to spread,
 and before the fungus took root. Rotting material is omnipresent, drowned
 only by the waters and the continuous addition of mud and soil.

 Rotting material, that has itself been laced with Malevolence. It can't stay
 buried forever.

 There's a rumble, a roar. Too soon, an eruption of the stuff: an offventing
 of the mire's corruption far too close at hand. Evasive measures are
 strongly recommended.
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
===========================<* Emrys Mire - Round 3 *>===========================
====================< Results - Unfortunate and Unpleasant >====================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Avril Vent Fleur                    12 --(0)--> 12                 Pass
Sea Medium                          2   Agility Effects: Quicken
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ratatoskr                           12 --(0)--> 12                 Pass
Teleporter Fragment                 2   Agility Effects: Stalwart
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rebecca Streisand                   44 --(0)--> 44                 Pass
Portal Guns                         2   Agility Effects: Stalwart
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kaguya                              24 --(12)--> 36                Fail
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jacqueline Barber                   24 --(12)--> 36                Fail
Rapid Remedy                        1   Agility Effects: Cleanse
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Avril Vent Fleur            35 --(20)--> 55                Pass
Conditions: Slow(2)
Effects: Cleanse|Quicken(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Avril Vent Fleur 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> Kaguya has posed.

Kaguya awwws when Jay warns Ratatoskr. Just "Awww." But that's all. As they go on ahead, there is suddenly... the problem. Rebecca's thought about Kaguya is probably for the best. But Kaguya does chime in, "I mean, one of is is a botanist. I could totally identify a new mushroom. How'd you like the Streisand Fungus, Rebecca?" :D?

But as the ground shifts... Jay's potion helps, but it takes a bit more of it than she might've liked to overcome the sheer quantity of Gross here. On the other hand, Rebecca's portal is very useful too, as Avril propels them straight through it and well away somewhere else. Somewhere else that...

That happens to already include Ratatoskr. Who has a thought about where they should go.

"Yeah it's real cool buddy," Kaguya says, slowly shaking her head.

DG: Jacqueline Barber has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Emrys Mire *>===============================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Revenant Horde *>=======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 2          |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 They're heard before they're seen, as it happens. Stumbling across the
 squelching soil, the horde of revenants, bodies redolent with Malevolence,
 lumber towards you mindlessly.

 Evading them may prove difficult -- they're nothing if not relentless. A
 direct assault is recommended to put them down for good.
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

"It certainly can be! At least, if you want to make the really good stuff." Jacqueline replies with a nod to Rebecca.

And then, Ratatoskr is there! He tells them they should all come see the big Golem hand.

"It is pretty great... but there's still a lot left to see here. You want to see what the sorcerer left behind, don't you?" Jacqueline replies. ...Maybe that'll help adjust his priorities.

...Jacqueline does not comment on the Streisand Fungus. She may just be internally glad it isn't her.

Thankfully, they all manage to escape in one piece... even if Jacqueline's bags are a little lighter after the fact than she would've liked. They can move on from there... but it isn't long before Jacqueline quickly raises a hand as a sign to stop.

"Wait. Do you hear that?" Jacqueline asks. "...It sounds like... footsteps. A lot of them."

Her theory - or perhaps her fear - is proven correct when the first revenant emerges from the darkness. It is soon joined by many others. There's a lot of them, and they seem single-mindedly fixated on the party.

Jacqueline backpedals quickly, rummaging through her bags and drawing out the Codex.

"Revenants...! They're bodies reanimated by Malevolence. If it were just one or two we might be able to evade them, but we aren't going to be able to get by that many..." Jacqueline warns. "They're weak individually and move purely on instinct so one or two is easy enough, but in large numbers like this they don't really need to form a complicated plan to be a problem. Just do what you can to take as many down at once!"

For her part, Jacqueline makes a few quick gestures with her left hand. Earthen structures rise up from the soil, looking to bunch as much of the revenant horde as she can into one place for the others to deal with.

DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool The Lifeweaver's Codex toward her party's challenge, Revenant Horde.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.

    "..."

     Jay, somehow, sticks the landing on the convince roll, and Ratatoskr doesn't just stop trying to pull people back towards the hand, he trudges through the killer swamp like the emotional weight of said swamp just doesn't bring him down physically or emotionally. He seems about as eager to keep going as he was at the very beginning.

     "...Maybe they're coming to see the cool Golem hand." Ratatoskr offers, not at all helpfully, standing upright with crossed arms as he waits to see where the revanants come and go. They do not go past them. They do not go in the direction of the cool hand.

     They go in their direction, their Malevolence-filled eyes of the expected range of negative emotions as Jay goes over the Codex and the relevant entry. Ratatoskr, for dwarfing over Jay's height naturally when he stands straight up, is leaning and peeking over her shoulder to have a read at that entry.

     "...So no entries on individuals? No entries on individuals!!" Now he's yelling unpleasantly. "What a worthless record of them...!"

     He vaults himself right over the earthen structures (another chance to ditch him to his fate, if one is so inclined) as he engages them all. "Show me... show me you aren't just large numbers...!" They are all approaching with the same gait, the same look, and the same goal - but he's not going to have that, as he goes in there with swinging elbows, knees, and the occasional discharge of compressed air from said limbs at shotgun-like force.

     These might be the foot soldiers of 'the Wyllt' and he's going to give them due respect! In his own way!

DG: Ratatoskr has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Revenant Horde.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    "Hmm..." Avril appears to consider the matter of the Streisand Fungus a little too seriously. This might make Rebecca worry. "But is it not traditional for the discoverer to name it after themselves? Why not name it the Kaguya Fungus?"

    It's hard to tell if Avril is being Avril or... not, honestly.

    But they don't leave the remains of the stone structure before Rebecca plucks a small non-essential component from the Golem Hand and hands it over to Avril. "Oh... I see. Yes, I will make certain that he receives this," Avril says.

    Maybe... she should try to take a part of them with her? It might be the best way to honor their collective sacrifices.

    All of these Golem parts, scattered far and wide across two worlds. How strange and mysterious.

    Speaking of the Golem, she does remark, "I did. It is time for it to rest, I think..." before -- yes, even in the middle of summoning forth a Guardian's favor -- bowing her head as if she were paying her respects.

    Fortunately, they're not stuck in the muck and goop and ick for long -- with Rebecca's portal guns and Lucadia's blessing, they're quickly able to leave this place and flee for (somewhat) dryer ground.

    Though, it would seem that they aren't alone here.

    "Do you hear that?" Avril says, straightening where she stands. "Jay... I do not believe those are other people."

    Not technically, that is.

    Her gaze narrows as she regards the lot of them once they make their appearance here. "No, we cannot escape them easily. Let us stand and fight!" Waves of ice follow, rippling their way across the muddy ground and bubbling goo. Perhaps an area attack might help at least stagger them, if not take a few of them out immediately.

DG: Avril Vent Fleur has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Revenant Horde.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.


As Avril mulls over the idea that it should be the Kaguya fungus. Rebecca responds promptly, and maturely to Kaguya's exercise in scientific discovery and nomenclature.

"Honestly?"

By switching the location of the second portal up high into the treetops, before relocating the first to under the Veruni's feet with a second shot.

"Needs some work!"

She calls up. Way up.

She knows Kaguya will be fine... but it feels good.

"I like your suggestion way better."

She doesn't know if Avril is being Avril or not either, but either way, she's blown off some steam and finds herself amused.

-=-=-

Avril's assistance helped her get out of the structure in time, so it might seem a bit counterintuitive that she doubled back.

But...

She can't know that Avril was considering something for herself. Otherwise... the ultimate recipient might have changed. "Thanks! ... I appreciate it."

As Avril points out that she's hearing something though, Rebecca cocks her head and...

Revenants?

"... Feels way too similar to Wels."

She mutters to herself, before firing off a few shots from her ARM.

When she has an opening, she invokes her Sky Medium, shifting the Ley of the battlefield to...

... put many, many of the Revenants on a red Hex.

Thus, when Avril's waves of ice envelop them...

... Well super effective might be putting it mildly.

DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Sky Medium toward her party's challenge, Revenant Horde.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

Jay's pretty good at handling Ratatoskr, apparently. Kaguya looks kind of imprssed. But she also grins at Avril and Rebecca over the Streisand Fungus. "Well, I could also do that," she starts to answer Avril, because it's not as if she's shy about naming things after herself, but--

"Oop--"

Kaguya blips up into the tree, where she... promptly starts laughing. "Ahahahahaahah," Kaguya says, from way, way up. "You don't like it!" she crows back. Kaguya then has to take the next little while jumping down, so that's fine.

"Worth it," she says eventually.

But there are... creatures. Ratatoskr's yelling unpleassantly, and indeed they could just ditch him. But instead...

"Yeah," Kaguya says. "I see them. Like Wels, sure." Take out as many as she can...

Kaguya shrugs, and pulls a little canister from behind her back, shaking it up and hurling it towards the mass of Revenants that is quickly gathering up. "Looks like it's time to re-introduce a predator to the ecosystem."

From the canister suddenly there is a burst of green smoke... and suddenly there are three gigantic carnivorous tomatoes bouncing towards the Revenants, with their toothy maws open.

DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Killer Tomatoes toward her party's challenge, Revenant Horde.
===============================<* Emrys Mire *>===============================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Revenant Horde *>=======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 2          |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 They're heard before they're seen, as it happens. Stumbling across the
 squelching soil, the horde of revenants, bodies redolent with Malevolence,
 lumber towards you mindlessly.

 Evading them may prove difficult -- they're nothing if not relentless. A
 direct assault is recommended to put them down for good.
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
==========================<* Emrys Mire - Round 4 *>==========================
=========================< Results - Revenant Horde >=========================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Avril Vent Fleur                    12 --(17)--> 29                Fail
Fight                               0   Combat  Effects: BASIC
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ratatoskr                           12 --(5)--> 17                 Pass
Fight                               0   Combat  Effects: BASIC
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rebecca Streisand                   44 --(5)--> 49                 Pass
Sky Medium                          2   Combat  Effects: Embolden
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kaguya                              36 --(5)--> 41                 Pass
Killer Tomatoes                     3   Combat  Effects: Rally
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jacqueline Barber                   36 --(5)--> 41                 Pass
The Lifeweaver's Codex              2   Combat  Effects: Embolden
----------------------------------< Party >-----------------------------------
Leader: Avril Vent Fleur            55 --(20)--> 75                Pass
Conditions: Wound(2)
Effects: Embolden(1)
==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Avril Vent Fleur 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: Rebecca Streisand has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Emrys Mire *>===============================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Only Unpleasant Things *>===================
|Type: Final       |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 3          |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 Here ahead of you and tilted in a perilous direction in the muck stand the
 remains of a large complex, still largely intact. To judge by what
 structures yet remain -- pillars, spires -- this must have been the focal
 point of the settlement, possibly serving some religious or sacred purpose
 of some sort. Though it would be hard to tell much about it now, with the
 facade so eroded. Time and the elements have done great damage to the past
 here.

 The morass stirs at your approach -- something unwelcome awaits you here.

 The crablike creatures lurch from the waters of the mire. Once they were
 freely living things -- now only the term 'living' applies. Moving jerkily
 as they are impelled by the purple fungal threads woven thick through flesh
 and bone, they advance towards you.

 It doesn't seem as if there is any easy way past them. To proceed, you must
 put them down.
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Suffer===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

"No, I don't think so either." Jacqueline agrees with a nod toward Avril. They learn the truth all too soon, and it's time to fight.

Jacqueline frowns, looking back over her shoulder at Ratatoskr as he reads the entry for the Revenants.

"...As much as I don't like saying things like this... I don't think there's a book in the world that would be able to record an entry for every single one. It's sad, but... they aren't there anymore. These aren't people - they're Revenants." Jacqueline replies with a shake of her head. "Wels are... a good comparison, yes."

With Jacqueline keeping them bunched up Ratatoskr engages the crowd of Revenants directly, fighting them with everything he has, in a show of respect in his own way. He soon finds himself joined by a trio of tomatoes, which go lunging for the Revenants. Each one of them proves more than a match for the Revenants, aiding in keeping them bunched up.

From there, Avril and Rebecca's team work comes into play. The ground beneath the Revenants turns red, enfused with the power of Fray thanks to Rebecca's Medium invocation, greatly intensifying the effects of Avril's wave of ice. It crashes over the Revenants, easily taking out those not already dealt with by Ratatoskr or Kaguya's tomatoes.

"...Good work, everyone. Is everyone unhurt?" Jacqueline asks, shutting the Codex and returning it to her bags.

<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.


"Shut up!" Rebecca blurts out at Kaguya's comment.

After enough time and travel through the muck and misery of the mire, they reach a structure that surprisingly seems intact. Oh certainly the mire has tried to claim it, but despite it's best efforts... it stands...

... it feels like a place of some spiritual importance.

"Feels like this place was for some... kind of religious ceremony? Doesn't feel like any shrine to Althena I've ever seen though..."

And they're a long way from Spira.

It's a genuine head scratcher.

"Avril - what do you think?"

Rebecca tends to trust Avril's intuition about places like this, ever since she had the feeling a certain temple was rejecting her.

And then...

A purple mushroom pops up on the surface of the muddy water.

"Oh hey! Look over there - a mushro..."

Pause. As she notices it drifting along the water towards them.

"... is that mushroom moving?"

And that's the moment that crablike creatures break the surface, their shells laden by purple fungus and mushrooms. "Hellion attack!"

They move like horrible clacking swamp creatures that seek only to harm those that invaded their territory.

Rebecca promptly responds by invoking her Medium to cause a small explosion of flame, and try to boil the surface of the water that they're trying to come at before they even reach them.

As well - they look like they might cause some significant problems once they do.

DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Sky Medium toward her party's challenge, Only Unpleasant Things.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.

    Ratatoskr stands before the fallen Revenants, remembering the dismissive language all around them as he takes in the sight of each individual and does his level best to commit to memory - even pulling out that datapad and trying to key in a few important descriptors, something, anything. They're long gone and have almost no identifying marks to go by, and he's so unfamiliar with Glenwood that he has nearly nothing to attach them to - but it means everything to him that they're remembered in some form. They fought them! They must be warriors.

     This time, he keeps pace. (This is not an improvement. This is the opposite.)

     The glow of his eyes trail upward to the tilting structure, just defying gravity only by this much to stay... tilted. A tilted tower, just waiting for a hundred eager young guns to drop together and destroy everything around them until one remains. (Or not, that hasn't been a thing for far longer than a fortnight.)

     Ratatoskr turns his head towards Kaguya, over there. "Would you know about any of this?" She's been the most cooperative with him about anything involving the region, and he really wants to know, tail flicking with anticipation and excitement rather than the pervasive dread and dreariness of the spiritual poison that permeates the swamps.

     Then suddenly, a crab battle.

     Ratatoskr evidently isn't as into ecosystems beyond his ability to personify the elements as something they can punch, as he goes in there swinging with his limbs and shooting with said limbs (more bursts of air, of course).

DG: Ratatoskr has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Only Unpleasant Things.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    "Then perhaps you should," Avril says, still polite and pleasant for her... but also still woefully direct. This may be a warning, as such, that Kaguya ought to leave well enough alone. ...Before it gets any worse.

    Avril is not as unobservant as she sometimes might seem. And while she may be on good terms with Kaguya, there are some things she will not abide.

    The ice comes rolling for the Revenants in a crackling rush; it finishes off the stragglers thanks to Rebecca's preparations. Just briefly, she smiles her way, and, should she get the chance, even more fleetingly touch the tips of her fingers to the back of one Rebecca's hands.

    'Thank you', in her own, more intimate way.

    "I am alright, thank you," she says to Jacqueline, before they proceed through the muck.

    "A shrine... no, I have not had that feeling, either. It almost feels as if this was some sort of fortification once. Or, a tower...?" Avril says, before she goes seemingly stock-still.

    "Wait. Something is..."

    Rebecca has found a mushroom. Slowly Avril turns, her gaze growing ever more wide-eyed. "Rebecca! Don't--"

    A dart of hardened ice flies for the creature as it sloshes itself upright out of the muck. It's studded with purple mushrooms. Drawing her blade, Avril rushes for it even as it's joined by another.

    --To think they would find their mushrooms like this...!

DG: Avril Vent Fleur has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Only Unpleasant Things.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

Kaguya grins at Rebecca--but when Avril gets direct, she looks to her with something a little distinct from that. It's direct--it's still polite and pleasant. For Avril. "Totally," she says, with a mysterious smile and a lifting of her hands as if to say 'no argument really.'

Getting that kind of reaction out of Avril is... interesting, to her. But she's really just playing with Rebecca anyway.

Kaguya doesn't say anythying else about the Revenants--but notably, she doesn't make fun of Ratatoskr for focusing so hard on the individuals when there is little to distinguish them. She just kind of goes with it. They aren't people, but...

"I'm fine," Kaguya says to Jay, through the muffling of her mask. She is much improved for having it. But as they advance...

"Hmm," Kaguya says. "Yeah, some kind of religious structure. But what was it for? I dunno," she admits. "I can only speculate. I assume that if it wasn't a shrine to Althena directly, maybe there was a Seraph enshrined here? That's the kind of thing they do."

Mushrooms... moving...

Crab battle!

Kaguya throws more tomatoes. This time there's six of them, and they're even bigger than the last ones, apparently feeding on the material here to grow further and very healthy*!

*Luckily these don't have enough of a lifespan for that to matter.

DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Killer Tomatoes toward her party's challenge, Only Unpleasant Things.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

They proceed forward to a place that is, remarkably, still largely intact. Pillars and spires still stands, but any sort of significant markings have since been eroded away.

"...Hm..." Jacqueline murmurs to herself, looking them over. ...She doesn't get much time to look into it, though, as soon enough something bursts forth from the mire! A series of crablike creatures, shells covered in fungus. Jacqueline grimaces.

"...Nature is... quite horrific sometimes..." She says with a shudder before once more drawing out the Codex, flipping through the pages.

"These creatures... they're essentially being puppeteered by the fungi on their back. By this point, they've likely taken them over completely. As such, they won't respond to pain - they won't stop moving until they're physically incapable of doing so. Unfortunately, with such a thick carapace, that's easier said than done... and those claws are a danger worth respecting, too. Be careful, but hit it hard and quick if you can!" Jacqueline advises.

She shuts the Codex and stows it away before moving to follow her own advice - gesturing with her left hand to send a pillar of earth crashing upward toward one of the foes.

DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool The Lifeweaver's Codex toward her party's challenge, Only Unpleasant Things.
===============================<* Emrys Mire *>===============================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Only Unpleasant Things *>===================
|Type: Final       |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 3          |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 Here ahead of you and tilted in a perilous direction in the muck stand the
 remains of a large complex, still largely intact. To judge by what
 structures yet remain -- pillars, spires -- this must have been the focal
 point of the settlement, possibly serving some religious or sacred purpose
 of some sort. Though it would be hard to tell much about it now, with the
 facade so eroded. Time and the elements have done great damage to the past
 here.

 The morass stirs at your approach -- something unwelcome awaits you here.

 The crablike creatures lurch from the waters of the mire. Once they were
 freely living things -- now only the term 'living' applies. Moving jerkily
 as they are impelled by the purple fungal threads woven thick through flesh
 and bone, they advance towards you.

 It doesn't seem as if there is any easy way past them. To proceed, you must
 put them down.
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Suffer===========================================
==========================<* Emrys Mire - Round 5 *>==========================
=====================< Results - Only Unpleasant Things >=====================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Avril Vent Fleur                    29 --(25)--> 54                Fail
Fight                               0   Combat  Effects: BASIC
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ratatoskr                           17 --(13)--> 30                Pass
Fight                               0   Combat  Effects: BASIC
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rebecca Streisand                   49 --(13)--> 62                Pass
Sky Medium                          2   Combat  Effects: Embolden
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kaguya                              41 --(13)--> 54                Pass
Killer Tomatoes                     3   Combat  Effects: Rally
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jacqueline Barber                   41 --(25)--> 66                Fail
The Lifeweaver's Codex              2   Combat  Effects: Embolden
----------------------------------< Party >-----------------------------------
Leader: Avril Vent Fleur            75 --(35)--> 110               Pass
Conditions: Fright(2)|Suffer(1)|Wound(1)
Effects: Embolden(1)
==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success!
DG: The party led by Avril Vent Fleur has successfully explored Emrys Mire!
===============================<* Emrys Mire *>===============================
==============<* CHALLENGE - Though the Struggle Was in Vain *>===============
|Type: Discovery   |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1          |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 Within the still-standing remnants of the complex, the air is cool amidst
 the stonework, a contrast to the stifling breath of the mire. Here and there
 moisture beads the walls, glittering faintly in any light brought to it.

 An exploration up through the higher reaches of the building eventually
 turns upon a smallish room that may have been a workroom of some sort.
 Corroded tools and shards of broken glass are scattered across the rotten
 wooden tables and the flooring. Vellum scraps -- most eaten by time and
 elements -- lie here and there, detailing if incompletely certain known
 alchemic processes.

 But the actual prize comes in the form of a small box, still largely intact.
 When opened, it reveals a number of crystal vials, each aglow with a shining
 liquid inside. Potions, all of them -- the healing magic in them preserving
 the liquid even after so many years. A few scraps of vellum can be found
 inside, upon which can be read:

 "Alle mine research, 'twas in vaine, I fear; nothing works 'gainst the
 corrupting tyde. The lande ys lost.

 Onley one option nau remains me. The people muste leave but they will not
 goe willingly.

 I have noe choice but to force them."

 As if to underscore this ominous message, you notice that the walls of this
 complex about you are fresh with Malevolence. It won't harm you any as long
 as you don't stay here overlong, but the mire's corruption seems to be
 burning afresh in this place...
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.


It's not as if Rebecca is immune to the imperiousness of Avril's quite polite and pleasant command to Kaguya to 'Leave this well enough alone.'

Yet thankfully, her anger is hot, but short-lived - she's used to the small Veruni pressing her buttons.

The tip of her fingers against her hand though, earns a smile out of the side of her expression as her fingers briefly curl just slightly around hers in the momentary gesture.

'Anytime. Every time.'

She seems to say back... as if it were meant to communicate her desire to support her.

Thankfully, upon examining the mushrooms, Avril warns her.

The crabs come, as a dart of hardened ice splinters against the hardened shells, before one finally finds purchase, causing a horrible burbling sound.

And that's when the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes happen! Some of them grasp with vines and chew with mouths.

A few get squelched and pulped!

They do not like the fruits of science though very much at all.

Jay points out their origins, and that causes Rebecca to give a grimace, "You're kidding me! Mushrooms can do that?" Given that it's the shrooms fault, Rebecca feels a certain resolve to the idea of picking them and selling them for money. A Pillar of Earth suddenly smashes down and cracks a shell like a giant crab-cracker with an enormous splash.

Eventually, it's done.

And Rebecca carefully plucks some mushrooms from the crab carapaces to put in a sack. "Probably best if we... don't touch them with our bare skin." She says, while looking to Kaguya and Jay for confirmation... perhaps belated in that realization. "Right?"

-=-=-

Inside the structure's upper reaches is a ruined lab, with broken and molded over alchemy equipment. "The malevolence here..." Rebecca's face scrunches up in discomfort. "... it's intense."

What they find is a box full of vials of intact healing potion - a lot of vials. And...

... some scraps of vellum inside of it.

After all of them read them...

"Right. Let's... head back and sell some mushrooms." Rebecca says, thoroughly disturbed but trying not to show it.

She intends to tell Dean about this place but... maybe suggest they don't come back just yet. His purification powers... well... she's not sure what his limit is.

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

"Not all of them, of course... but some of them." Jacqueline confirms with a nod. "And... yes, it would probably be for the best to handle them carefully."

With the foes defeated, they're able to make it into what appears to have been an alchemist's workshop of some kind. The malevolence only intensifies as they go further in.

Soon enough, they find a lab. Jacqueline frowns as she looks over the alchemy equipment, though her focus is on the vellum scraps with details, though incomplete, on alchemy. She draws out her notebook, doing her best to record the findings there. It's showing her respect in her own way, for an alchemist of the past.

And then, the final note. This one, however, isn't about alchemy. It's about something else. Jacqueline reads it... and a grim expression crosses her face.

The corrupting tide... if it's Malevolence as she assumes, then... it's a little sad that they know what the answer to that is now, but far too late to do anything to help these people.

"...Right." Jacqueline agrees quietly with a nod, a little distracted herself.