2021-10-24: Whatever May Lie Hidden
- Log: Whatever May Lie Hidden
- Cast: Citan Uzuki, Kaguya, Gwen Whitlock, Elhaym van Houten, Seraph Ragnell, Billy Lee Black, Ida Everstead-Rey
- Where: Sielje Icy Sea
- Date: October 24, 2021
- Summary: In the wake of certain revelations about Leon, Citan leads a small expedition into the depths of Shae Ving, borrowing the talents of a few select for his purposes.
DG: A party led by Citan Uzuki is now entering Shae Ving. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
================================<* Shae Ving *>================================= ================<* CHALLENGE - Shieldmaiden-class Automatons *>================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The path to Shae Ving is a hard one. A Gear is necessary to reach this high in the mountains. The cold winds of Sielje blow snow and ice in great swirls, and the slope is steep -- but Gears are powerful enough and have flight, letting them rise to the occasion. The entrance to Shae Ving is deceptively small, which explains why few have found it: a simple pair of blast doors, built into a metal bunker in the mountainside. When your Gears touch down and get close enough, you learn that this facility is online. A light flickers on the side; it first flashes red and then green. The huge double doors slide open, then, and reveal a dark interior: steel walls and a platform, leading to a trench... where a pair of railway tracks run. A huge flatbed train car, with railing around it, is there. Sized for Gears, it also has a Gear-sized set of buttons -- to send it hurtling into those depths. As you look around this room, you see signs of a battle fought here more recently. Slagged metal is on one wall, where something struck it; pock marks scar the floor where rounds struck it; there is broken husks of armor here and there. It seems, too, that the defense systems here were alerted. A quartet of floating automatons patrol the room. Each is tall as a Gear, but floats, with the legs replaced with a conical anti-gravity system. The arms are large, rectangular shields that house immense cannons. The automatons turn when your Gears enter -- and then begin peppering the entrance with coordinated autocannon fire from those shield-guns. There is business to attend to, before you send the train car hurtling into the depths of Shae Ving. =Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Fright, Suffer===================================
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
It hadn't been possible to head right out there, of course. Aside from settling the obvious matters before them, once the dust had settled in the aftermath of Weglaff's hijacking, there had been the matter of their Gears. Some had been damaged, and Citan's own had still been under repairs.
Still, eventually. Eventually.
It had been Elly and Billy he had asked to travel along with him; for the purposes of this particular trip, it would be ideal to have El-Regulus' abilities on hand, and the son of his old friend has proven himself accomplished in 'dungeon-delving' particularly when using a Gear.
There had been numerous reasons why he had thought it best not to ask any of the other Wolves along for this particular trip. Some of them are indeed the very reason he had decided to make this expedition. So he had called on a few favors, and wouldn't you know it...
"Here we are. Please prepare yourselves," warns the doctor, as they approach the site.
'Shae Ving', the site is called. It won't be his first attempt to descend to its depths -- he can only hope that they'll be able to seek at least some of what he's hoping to find.
"It is likely that the security system is still active."
The lights are still on. That's good news, in once sense.
There are more marks on the wall since last time, he notes. Who else has attempted to penetrate the facility since?
"We will need to activate this elevator to proceed below. Now, perhaps I should--"
Any quiet in this space is swiftly terminated with the sudden intrusion of the floating security automata. They're huge -- anyone who had managed the trip in here on foot would have have likely been outclassed from that factor alone.
"...I thought this might happen," Citan sighs. "Spread out! Their weapons are not to be trifled with!" Indeed, the cannonfire starts nearly in the same moment he announces this, ricocheting off of walls and armored plating alike.
"There is nothing else for it! I shall try to incapacitate one of them momentarily!" Heimdall stretches out a hand and from the forearm there leaps a harpoon and its trailing line for one of the automata. Devised as a rescue device for foundering ships or Gears at sea, the line has since been repurposed by the doctor as a weapon for his Gear -- after all, with the Heimdall on the other end as an anchor, means that at least for a short while, the other party isn't going anywhere.
The fact that it's also a piercing weapon with absolutely fiendish propellent behind it also doesn't hurt, as far as combat situations go.
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool ARJUNA-2X Line Thrower toward his party's challenge, Shieldmaiden-class Automatons.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
KAGUYA is here for her own mysterious reasons, one would imagine. Except... She actually did come here in particular when Citan asked. Why??? Well, she's not sharing. But apparently Citan had something that kaguya wanted at some point...
"Shae Ving," Kaguya repeats, maneuvering in the gray gunmetal Gear she refurbished from something found on the Thames so long ago now. This is not the Golem that terrorized Luca, the gigantic Cuchulainn in its gold and green and red. No, it's much more conventional, though loaded with advanced weaponry of her own design. Blockier, smaller, and... heavily modified.
"Well, it's more interesting if the security's active, right?" Kaguya answers over the radio, though indeed--when Citan directs, she spreads out from the others. The things are huge, and cannonfire follows Kaguya every step as she goes. "I'll blast the other one!" Kaguya declares, turning towards the great machine and letting two huge cannons unfold, appearing up and then forward on her Gear's shoulders. There's a whine of energy--
Great blasts of green power race towards the enemy, laser blasts slamming outward to make a great explosion.
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool VS-190 Twin Pulse Blasters toward her party's challenge, Shieldmaiden-class Automatons.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"Feels like decades since I was last here..." Gwen squints through the display of the cockpit. "I think I'd just gotten my heat system installed. Which is why I'm able to enjoy all this cold weather without havin' to freeze t'death." She slings one arm over her seat and looks behind her to the small cargo area, which, while not expansive, does allow for one or two people to join her, maybe even three if they don't mind being cramped. Seraphs, though, can flaunt their blatant disregard of 3D space, so Gwen estimates her space could fit a *lot* of Seraphs.
She's fine with it just being one Seraph.
"Hot 'nough for ya, Ragnell? Lemme know if you're gettin' chilly back there."
A carnival plushie sits in a cup holder situated on the dashboard, adding a small bit of cheer to the metal environments, but Ragnell's been here before. Even with the recent updates to Haylcone's chassis, it's still the same ol' cockpit of the chicken mech.
Citan remarks about the security system, and Gwen groans. "Those suckers managed to nick--"
If you have to remark on it happening, the universe will only see fit to allow it to happen again. The heat exhaust suddenly shuts off as the opening wave of cannonfire manages to nick just the right spot in Halcyone's scuffed up paint job.
Gwen lets loose with a light selection of curses, her left hand flipping through an array of buttons. "Hold on, gonna see if I can get a proper angle on that one!"
'That one', being the automaton that may or may not have temporarily damaged Gwen's heating system.
It probably doesn't matter, but it'll make Gwen feel better if her laser hits it.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Shieldmaiden-class Automatons.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
El-Regulus - the ancient Omnigear - stands, not in the lead, but near to it.
"Of course," Elly answers Citan.
Why is she here? Well, that's easy... Dr. Uzuki is her friend.
"Mm," Elly answers Kaguya. "I don't know about fun. But..." Her lips purse for a moment, even as blasters ripple out towards the approaching autocannon-equipped, heavily shielded units.
"... Ah! I understand," Elly says, before she calls out, "Wait! Be careful! Hold on--" And Regulus... just stands there and extends a hand outwards. Nothing seems to happen.
EXCEPT:
If you can look at a digital network map of the area...
All the Gears are, for the most part, autonomous other than various signal linkages. That's just how it goes these days. You may communicate with others but you don't *link* with them, not any more. Maybe Gebler does. Maybe the Veruni. But probably not one with the other. Instead...
There is a single different node in this network. A new link is created, towards the rearmost of the Valkyrie defense modules.
And...
"-- Go!" Elly declaims. At which point that rearmost Valkyrie surges forwards, twisting round into a roundhouse 'kick' of a maneuver to bowl over the backline. As if this wasn't enough, this suborned enemy drone is also shooting! Team killing!! A betrayal foretold in prophecy!?
DG: Elhaym van Houten has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Shieldmaiden-class Automatons.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell has a healthy appreciation of Gears and the like. It helps that she enjoys human constructs, even if she's less fond of humans themselves. Gwen used to be all about a horse and a cart; now she's got a Gear of her own, and Ragnell can hitch a ride in it whenever she feels like annoying the Super Courier.
Not that she does annoy her. It seems nigh impossible to actually get Gwen mad at her.
"Don't really get bothered none by temperature, one way or another. S'how it is when you're a Seraph," she replies, feet kicked up in the cargo space behind Gwen's cockpit, a half-empty beer bottle in one hand as she gnaws on a strip of jerky in her right. She should try making some new snacks soon, but Gwen's such an enabler what with those spices of her Auntie Frea's, it's hard to motivate herself to pick something else.
But then things happen! The lights of Shae Ving reveal floating security bots coming in to beat them up for trespassing. Ragnell takes a sip of her beer as she watches them in interest. "Hmm, is that Elly out there? Is that *Kaguya*? Haven't seen her in an age, feels like!" she remarks. There's also other folks around, but those are the ones she recognizes as they shout over their Gear communication systems. "Don't like the odds o' them drones against this crowd."
...
Is Ragnell going to help with the fight?
Well, she doesn't *hurt* the fight, at least...
DG: Seraph Ragnell has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Shieldmaiden-class Automatons.
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.
BILLY LEE BLACK, STILL LEGALLY AN ETONE, was called upon by a boyhood family friend to dive into danger and do his job. Whatever strange burbling chaos is roiling Billy's troubled mind at the moment, that's not a call he will deny; Renmazuo is here. Just before the descent begins, the rotary cylinders of the machine's wrist blasters whirr, spinning a full rotation; one final readiness check. "It wouldn't be of much interest if the power had failed," Billy says, a little archly. As straight-laced as he plays himself, his father's anarchic sass has never been too far from the surface...
And then: "Reavers!" Billy belts out. Not quite, not really - but close enough to convey the meaning. He whips up the Renmazuo's wrist blaster, firing a few Ether-infused rounds at the assaulting automatons. "Flying, even still...not even Reaverbots do that lightly," he mutters. His eyes fall to the side, to where several of the systems adjusted by the children have been marked with gold stars. Just above the handgun controls, a little crochet doll has been pinned. He sucks in a breath.
Then he grabs those controls, Renmazuo pulling its hand-cannons free and firing loud bullets downrange, focusing fire on the attacker that Citan has pinned.
DG: Billy Lee Black has used his Tool Orphanage Reminder toward his party's challenge, Shieldmaiden-class Automatons.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The last time Ida came to Shae Ving, she walked away with a new weapons system, and ever since, she's wondered what else lay hidden inside. When Citan sent out his request, she was keen to answer.
The Dragoon follows in Heimdall's wake, the blue, gold, and black of its paint job standing out against the stark white all around it. In the cockpit, Ida wears the Metal Demon War-era flightsuit her father refurbished for her--though her helmet rests in netting mounted next to the seat. Waste heat from the Gear's reactor boils a pot of water in a specially-designed system at her right. Steam filters into the cockpit, slow and steady.
"I don't doubt it," Ida says. "It was active the last time, and if someone's found the means to deactivate it, we've got bigger problems on our hands." And not even a moment later, Elly and Citan sound the alarm. "Right on schedule. Deploying Three-Dragon Cannon." The Dragoon's arms reach up to pull the massive gun from its back-mounted holster; it braces the weapon against its right shoulder, holding it with both hands.
In the cockpit, Ida sucks in a breath, flips up a small opaque panel, and presses the button beneath. Part of her backrest slides away, and the living Hyadean tissue surges out. Her body jerks. Her vision goes hazy, and when it returns to normal she's also seeing the enemy drones from an impossible height. She's enormous. Using the Dragon-Spine is always disorienting at first, and she doesn't trust Kaguya not to pick up on the change in her machine's body language.
That change is there. The Dragoon holds the cannon like an experienced sharpshooter, and pulls the trigger. Rather than a torrent of plasma, a lance-like waveform of the stuff races out towards the nearest Shieldmaiden--the one being attacked by its subverted comrade.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Dragon-Spine Uplink toward her party's challenge, Shieldmaiden-class Automatons.
================================<* Shae Ving *>================================= ================<* CHALLENGE - Shieldmaiden-class Automatons *>================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The path to Shae Ving is a hard one. A Gear is necessary to reach this high in the mountains. The cold winds of Sielje blow snow and ice in great swirls, and the slope is steep -- but Gears are powerful enough and have flight, letting them rise to the occasion. The entrance to Shae Ving is deceptively small, which explains why few have found it: a simple pair of blast doors, built into a metal bunker in the mountainside. When your Gears touch down and get close enough, you learn that this facility is online. A light flickers on the side; it first flashes red and then green. The huge double doors slide open, then, and reveal a dark interior: steel walls and a platform, leading to a trench... where a pair of railway tracks run. A huge flatbed train car, with railing around it, is there. Sized for Gears, it also has a Gear-sized set of buttons -- to send it hurtling into those depths. As you look around this room, you see signs of a battle fought here more recently. Slagged metal is on one wall, where something struck it; pock marks scar the floor where rounds struck it; there is broken husks of armor here and there. It seems, too, that the defense systems here were alerted. A quartet of floating automatons patrol the room. Each is tall as a Gear, but floats, with the legs replaced with a conical anti-gravity system. The arms are large, rectangular shields that house immense cannons. The automatons turn when your Gears enter -- and then begin peppering the entrance with coordinated autocannon fire from those shield-guns. There is business to attend to, before you send the train car hurtling into the depths of Shae Ving. =Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Fright, Suffer===================================
===========================<* Shae Ving - Round 1 *>============================ ==================< Results - Shieldmaiden-class Automatons >=================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elhaym van Houten 0 --(17)--> 17 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Citan Uzuki 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass ARJUNA-2X Line Thrower 2 Combat Effects: Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Billy Lee Black 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Orphanage Reminder 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Dragon-Spine Uplink 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 0 --(17)--> 17 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass VS-190 Twin Pulse Blasters 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Citan Uzuki 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Injure(2)|Suffer(1) Effects: Cleanse|Embolden(1)|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Citan Uzuki has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Elhaym van Houten has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Shae Ving *>================================ ========================<* CHALLENGE - Route Split *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The train car's headlamps shine down the tunnel, until you see flashing aquamarine service lights split into a Y-shape ahead. One track curves to the left. The other curves to the right. The console on the train car flashes, and two options appear: arrows, one pointing to the left and one pointing to the right. You have only a moment to decide -- and hope that you pick one that leads to deeper into the ruin, rather than circling back to the exterior. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Slow, Exhaust===================================
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
It's certainly an open question -- how had Citan come to have a favor owed to him by a Veruni, and one with such a... history as Kaguya? It is a mystery.
"If it were inactive," he remarks in response to Billy, and not without some mild amusement, "then we would simply have to try another way. I am certain there must still be something to be found, down here."
"Hmm," Citan muses, on the matter of the security making things more interesting. "To be quite honest, I would not mind things being 'less interesting'..."
He's been in the company of quite a few 'interesting things' of late, after all.
Perhaps these security drones will be the last of it.
Though, that seems highly unlikely.
Billy takes the shot Citan urges him to; it hits the drone head-on and it explodes in a storm of sparks as Citan cuts the tether still joining him to it as it crashes to the floor.
The others fare no better: Gwen may take a few more (paint-chipping) blows than the rest, but between the volley of lasers from her and Kaguya's machine, the flame from Ida, and one subverted drone, well...
It's hardly a contest.
"There. That should be the last of them for now," the doctor remarks. Heimdall is already at the controls, preparing to launch the elevator. "Please climb aboard, if you would. We shall begin our descent shortly."
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
All aboard the train to Fun Town!
Note: it will not be fun.
Regulus moves onto the carrier train, glancing towards the others. This time, Elly does put the Gear in the vanguard, in part because it is less tall than the others.
She sends a private message - with that same eeriely-smooth, right-behind-you audio quality - to Billy. "That was precision shooting... I hope we've been keeping Renmazuo up to spec, when we haven't been able to return to your primary base!" It's a gentle, almost warm statement.
Soon enough, the descent begins.
"... I think I'm going to take control of the motor systems for this thing," Elly remarks after about a minute of descent, "Unless... anyone objects?" She can do this, which may be news to Kaguya and Ragnell, perhaps INTERESTING news. There is no visible evidence of this, though, even as the descent turns into a more vertical migration.
"... It's big... Do you think there were lights in here, back when it was built?" The headlamps cut through the darkness, UNTIL--
There are options!
A tense second!
Elly gibbers at the terrible possibility of choice--
-- but she hacked it!!
And so, instead of a tense second of high-speed anxiety of which choice is the RIGHT choice, there is an immense screech of ancient machinery and an enormous shower of sparks behind the transport cab as Elly slams on the brakes!
They immediately catch fire because they are ancient beyond reckoning, but it will, at least, buy time for people to figure out what to do.
"I'm not doing anything at all but this still feels so tremendously tense," Elly gabbles into the general communications.
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Send Spike/Spike Sent toward her party's challenge, Route Split.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"True!" Kaguya says to Billy and Ida, before: "It's not often I run across an opponent worth breaking out the good guns," Kaguya replies brightly to Elly. But Regulus stands there--and her map... yes. Kaguya sees it. A new link on this network... It's very interesting. Kaguya looks at it thoughtfully. "So this is the power of an 'Omnigear'..."
Then she says more brightly to Billy, "Yeah, maybe we can salvage the anti-grav modules! At least some parts. There's something I'm working on that'd be do really well with one of those--"
Did she just hear Ragnell??
She's a little busy, so she can't fully see what's going on in Ida's Gear--but she indeed spots a difference in the way her machine moves as she comes back down. This Kaguya doesn't comment on immediately, instead tilting her head inside her cockpit and pondering it a little. Hmmm...
Well, it's probably fine.
As for being jostled around, Kaguya is in a Veruni containment suit more or less, so that's not a problem. She moves the Queklain onto the elevator. "So this is nice," she comments, and then "!" as Elly remarks about the hacking. "Coooool. Your machine can do that?" Kaguya wonders. "Is it linked up to this place, or is that a general ability? Could you do it to one of ours? That's so interesting! And dangerous!"
It's big... "Yeah there were definitely lights, human eyesight in the dark is the pits, so you'd have to have them unless you wanted to carry the lights yourselves..."
"Oh. Well. That could've been a problem," when the thing stops. Kaguya hmms. "I dunno the facility, but you guys have been here before. I'll have my drone put out the fire while you decide."
"Go... K-781 Mk. IV!!!"
A little mechanical drone steps out of the Gear's leg and skitters towards the fire, extinguishing it with white smoke. It'll take a minute though.
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool K-781 Mk. IV Drone toward her party's challenge, Route Split.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"That's a secret," Elly immediately and promptly answers Kaguya's questions.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"Awww nuts." Kaguya doesn't sound too broken up though.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"Please do," Citan says to Elly. Indeed, her ability to take control of devices like this was one more point in favor of him inviting her along on this particular expedition into Shae Ving.
It also suggests that this capability of hers is one of which he is aware, which may be news to certain parties (e.g. not the Black Wolves) on this particular freight elevator trip down.
External lights become a neccessity on the descent. Fortunately, the elevator is equipped -- as are the Gears, most likely -- even if the rest of this space is not.
"Are Veruni better equipped for vision in low-light conditions, then?" he asks Kaguya.
"Most likely," he says to Elly in regards to her remark. "It would have been a potential hazard otherwise. Perhaps those sections suffered more significant damage than the rest of these ruins?" He can only speculate without going up there himself to take a look which is... not happening, not in this Gear.
But their lights reveal a critical point fast approaching. If they don't make a choice, it'll be made for them!
Unless there's a way to buy some time which, of course, there is, with Elly and Kaguya on the case.
Which is to say, they're probably not on fire right now.
"Hmm..." muses the doctor, staring down into the void ahead of them. "The track to the left -- do you see it? It seems somewhat more worn there. Perhaps that was the usual track. Whether or not that is the track we would wish to take, however..."
All he can do is provide what insight he can glean from what can be seen before them all.
DG: Citan Uzuki has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Route Split.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
As the last automaton collapses in a heap, Ida forces herself to focus on her hand--her hand. It takes ten agonizing seconds for her to reach out, flip another panel, and hit a switch marked 'disengage'. An electrochemical signal races through the Spike, triggering apoptosis in the central nerve trunk. From the outside, the Dragoon's right hand twitches, and then the whole machine goes rigid for a moment before resuming more 'normal' movements. It stows its cannon, calm and automatic.
"I'm envious," Ida says, as the Dragoon takes its place on the trolley next to El-Regulus. "I'd have to send a drone out to try to manually connect, and that's assuming the software is even remotely intelligible." Her hands feel tiny and huge at the same time.
Elly activates the train controls, and sends all of them careening into the dark. "I think I have a few maps of this place," Ida murmurs, "but I'm sending out the drones just in case." As the train brakes and shudders, Ida sits bolt upright--but thankfully(?), Kaguya is on it. "All right. Deploying!"
The Dragoon's skirt armor slides open, revealing a brace of quadrotor drones, each about the size of a breadbox. One by one, they lift off, and streak out into the facility, mapping the tracks with visual, infrared, and electromagnetic sensors. Ida's Aunt Isabel made improvements to their range, speed, and battery life, and it's time to put those to the test.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Reconaissance Drone toward her party's challenge, Route Split.
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.
Billy hems at the sight as the drones fall. "Not invincible, at least," he muses, and tucks his guns in the holsters that sprout from Renmazuo's thighs. "That critical, is it?" he prompts to Citan. "I see. Well, fortunately it's not come to that."
He sets off with the rest. Elly speaks up from what sounds like literally behind him, prompting to jerk again. "...that Omnigear really is something, Miss Elly," he says, patting his chest. "Well, she's been holding up alright. Fewer surprises than when I let the kids have at her, but I'm told most people prefer that." He chuckles. "Reminds me, I should send your team another apology basket after that last stunt..."
And then: CALAMITY!!! Billy fumbles in his pockets for his old pocket gospel, but...it's tucked somewhere he can't get it in a Gear! No! Base treachery! Curse you, Tool Ability limitations!!
"Uh, Left?!" he offers. "More often used should mean it's got more ready access to other areas!"
DG: Billy Lee Black has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Route Split.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
If there's a question of how Citan knows Kaguya, it's not going to be asked by Gwen Whitlock, super courier, who is also known for just... deciding people are her friends.
Which likely answers how hard it's been for Ragnell to annoy Gwen. Get her mad? Yes. Tease her? Way too easy. Genuinely irritate Gwen? ... There's probably ways to do it.
Pointing out you're unaffected by the temperature could be one, but all it manages to do is issue a small lament of no consequence from Gwen as she pokes a finger at her heat vent, idly fiddling with the directing flaps that cover it.
"Haha, Doc, you sure know how to throw a party 'round these parts," is something Gwen *does* say, as her only acknowledgement of the varied peoples involved. "Er, uh, right. I ain't gonna stand in your way if you wanna take over that part, Elly." She climbs aboard the elevator, completely trusting of Elly.
Well, more like she's taking that time to turn around and ask Ragnell for some jerky. "... Hey, Ragnell, you tried any with the last batch of spices? Heard those are leanin' more sweet spicy than normal spicy, but they still pack a damn good puu--u--"
So that's the sound of ancient breaks grinding into rust and dust and broken dreams. "Eh, you good, Elly?"
Gwen whistles as Ida and Kaguya's drones deploy. "Nicceee. I'm gettin' a little jealous, y'know?" Which is contradicted by Gwen's next statement.
"Eh, go with your gut, Elly. Drones can't beat a gut reaction when it comes to reaction time, even Omnigear ones!" elly do not listen to gwen
"Though I'd go with Doc n' Mr. Black's assesments," Gwen quickly amends, as jamming her right hand into the access port on the dashboard. The lights on the Halcyone suddenly brighten, sending a bright beam down the left side.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Portable 'Battery' toward her party's challenge, Route Split.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"Nice work," Ragnell comments on the quite thorough termination of the defense bots. It doesn't sound especially complimentary, but it doesn't sound sarcastic either. Just a certain curious neutrality to her tone.
She glances over at the unit Ida's piloting, noticing the change in its movements after a certain point. Considering this, she polishes off her beer, then swings her legs up and around so she can sit up and lean forward to more properly peer over Gwen's shoulder.
The assembled Gears climb aboard the carrier train, which is honestly the only way to travel, literally. Down they go, and as Elly says she's going to take control of the motor systems, Ragnell glances her way in open curiosity, rubbing her chin in thought. Happily, Kaguya asks the relevant questions first; sadly, Elly immediately shuts them down. She thus doesn't make any remark of her own.
No, she saves that for when Elly slams the brakes.
"Elly, you gotta learn to make quick decisions, an' make 'em for *yourself*, rather'n hittin' the brakes, literally, so other people can decide for you," she chides, because everyone loves getting lectured during a high-pressure situation.
An 'Omnigear,' though. Huh.
Well, either way, the others seem to have this one handled, so Ragnell kicks back, hands Gwen the rest of her jerky, and pulls out her harmonica. "Not yet," she comments before she plays. "Sweet-spicy, huh? I'll have to experiment, see what works best. Might be better mixed into a marinade for a roast 'stead of a dry rub for jerky. C'n make better use o' fruity accents that way."
Having said that, as long as Elly's slowing the train down, Ragnell may as well make good use of the added seconds. Hopefully a chill, jazzy sort of tune will help cut the tension and ensure the extra time is well spent.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Polished Harmonica toward her party's challenge, Route Split.
===============================<* Shae Ving *>================================ ========================<* CHALLENGE - Route Split *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The train car's headlamps shine down the tunnel, until you see flashing aquamarine service lights split into a Y-shape ahead. One track curves to the left. The other curves to the right. The console on the train car flashes, and two options appear: arrows, one pointing to the left and one pointing to the right. You have only a moment to decide -- and hope that you pick one that leads to deeper into the ruin, rather than circling back to the exterior. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Slow, Exhaust===================================
==========================<* Shae Ving - Round 2 *>=========================== ==========================< Results - Route Split >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elhaym van Houten 17 --(7)--> 24 Pass Send Spike/Spike Sent 4 Wits Effects: none ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Citan Uzuki 5 --(7)--> 12 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Billy Lee Black 5 --(27)--> 32 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ida Everstead-Rey 5 --(7)--> 12 Pass Reconaissance Drone 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Gwen Whitlock 17 --(27)--> 44 Fail Portable 'Battery' 2 Wits Effects: Cleanse and Sacrifice ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kaguya 5 --(7)--> 12 Pass K-781 Mk. IV Drone 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Ragnell 5 --(7)--> 12 Pass Polished Harmonica 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Citan Uzuki 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Fright(1)|Slow(2)|Stupify(2) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Citan Uzuki has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"It isn't -- perfect," Elly answers Ida even as the train car continues to brake - the brake pads are unfortunately now completely destroyed, probably having been eaten by Chu-Chus in time immemorial, but Kaguya's spot repairs at least make it so the mechanisms aren't on fire any more. Sparks keep flying.
Citan presents a good theory - a vote for going Left, *the direction Shakhan would never go*. Drones flit outwards and Ida gathers data-- and a network connection pops up in Ida's Gear console. It would fain connect, y/N? (If y, data is shared.)
Billy also votes for the Left, proving himself a progressive man of the cloth.
"It's just kind of a bear to control," Elly answers Gwen, perhaps to avoid telling Kaguya too much, because -- (She knows what an Omnigear is, Elly thinks. That's a little worrisome, isn't it? Then again, I suppose it's not exactly a secret, between myself and Jay and perhaps others, out there...)
Gwen votes for her gut! Elly's abdomen is not a direction.
And then Ragnell...
Tells her not to hesitate... no! Criticizes her!!
And for a fleeting moment (which Billy can see if he looks at his comms window, since Elly left that one open) Elly's face is a drawn out mask of disgust and tension, her lips drawn back into a grimace, her face sweaty from the effort of whatever she is doing to control the Omnigear. (This is, of course, not exactly clear-- though Citan surely knows.)
But then--
No, Elly thinks, her eyes cutting towards Ragnell.
Does she... understand? Does this make sense to a Seraph? Is she able to tell that I'm having to do this neurologically, and that I've got an injury as well as-- wait, why did I think I have fainting spells? I don't, Elly blinks to herself, before saying, "She's right. We can't hang around forever or we'll be left behind. We have to move right now! I mean, left!"
Elly just hits the button.
SHUNK!
The car rolls left.
Elly sags in the seat as glucose replenishes her cranial nerves gradually.
DG: Kaguya has drawn a new Challenge.
================================<* Shae Ving *>================================= ================<* CHALLENGE - Unexpected Railway Obstruction *>================ |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Although Shae Ving is in better condition than some Zeboim-era ruins, it is far from flawless. As the train car roars down the tracks, sending the occasional spray of sparks, the darkness hides much of what is ahead. This proves a problem, as the spotlights at the front of the car illuminate a space where huge steel beams, sheets from the walls, and some concrete have collapsed in a pile across the tracks. A pile that promises a head-on collision. The rubble needs to be removed, and quickly or this train ride could come to a sudden and likely disastrous end. =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Stupify, Injure==================================
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
'Are Veruni better equipped for vision in low-light conditions, then?'
"Pffft, no," Kaguya answers breezily. "We just know to bring flashlights."
"Oh hey that is Ragnell," Kaguya confirms. "Hanging out with Gwen, huh? That's nice."
"Yeah ditto, I don't have a wireless interface for most machines," she agrees with Ida. There is a SECRET REASON that Kaguya does not press too hard for info on the Omnigear, though. It is unknown, kept deep within Kaguya's mind... "If it were easy," Kaguya suggests, "We'd have invented it by now."
She snickers a little at the lecture. "Old woman yells at robot," she chimes in helpfully. "But there is soething to be said for going with your gut..."
They go left. Kaguya turns her Gear on the platform, getting a better view for her camreas, and they barrel on down the tracks a while longer... until those cameras pick up something ahead, a problem coming--
"We've got debris in the way," Kaguya says. "Piled on the tracks. And there's no way around."
Kaguya turns to face the debris, and launchers on her Gear begin to spin up, loaded with strange bombs that explode in green energy when they get there--and 'tehre' is the debris pile. "If anyone's got better ideas than blow it up, might wanna hurry up with it!"
DG: Kaguya has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Unexpected Railway Obstruction.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
Is it that critical? "Perhaps," is the only honest answer Citan can give to Billy there. "We will not know for certain until we look. Is that not so?"
He asks his question of Kaguya, and receives a very particular sort of response. "...I see," Citan muses. "But you say you bring your own lights... then, you could very well say that the Veruni are indeed 'equipped' for low-light conditions." The tone in his voice gives it away: he's way too pleased with his wordplay right now.
Honestly, fathers are the worst.
The brakes, as old as they are, won't hold forever. Though at least they're not on fire anymore. All he can do is provide his input, before they reach a consensus or the track picks a fate for them.
There is silence in the moment when Ragnell provides her critiques. Heimdall's attention -- minutely -- turns towards Regulus. Is he perhaps waiting to see what decision she will make now?
And in the end, Elly selects...
Left. They're going left. "Very well," Citan says, as neutral as ever.
The proceed down the track without further delay. Except, this side has a problem coming up ahead.
"Elly, are you able to slow the lift? I will need to get closer to it. I think if I were to remove a few sections much of the rest might follow suit -- see, there, how they're perched atop that framework? ...My goodness, was this another trolley?"
He'll hop off the lift once it's slowed enough that getting immediately run over won't be an issue and advance, with all swiftness, towards the obstruction. The device he's had built into his Gear is similarly meant for rescue operations... but the fact that the hydraulics work just as well to tear apart metal blockades as save lives from wrecked machines is yet another added bonus.
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Jaws of Life toward his party's challenge, Unexpected Railway Obstruction.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"Ahhh. Gotcha. I'll keep that in mind as we go on." This is said as Ragnell plays her harmonica in the background of the feed, which, for better or worse, Gwen lets play over the intercom.
Come to think of it, Jay's Gear had something similar happen to it, right? It wasn't just an upgrade like you'd get at the Thames, but something... mystical?
It's hard to think of Gears as being somehow mystical, having grown up with the mass-produced dusty metal carcasses leftover from a sandy, sandy mediocre man's quest for power.
Kaguya comments on Ragnell being there, and Gwen chuckles. "Yeah! Makes it a lot more fun when you got company, eh?" She munches on the offered jerky, thankfully mindful enough to *not* have her mouth sounds broadcasted for everyone to hear.
"Eh, don't be so hard on yourself, Kaguya. I think it's plenty interestin' to see these machines dressed down for what they are. Or dressed up." ... Elly's probably just got this really complicated rig that requires a lot more concentration than whatever Gwen's wrangled up.
Seeing the debris ahead, Gwen fires her jet boosters. "I'm gonna zip ahead n' knock what I can away. Got enough bulk on Halcyone to at least put a few dents in it. Hold on, Ragnell, we're goin' in!" The Halcyone certainly has recieved a boost in speed since some may have seen it last, zipping ahead in the air to puncture some holes in the pile. "Kaguya, gimme a heads up when you fire, I'll get out of the way." R
Ragnell has a front row seat to the sight of Gwen grinning as her left hand flies over the dash, looking much the same as she does when riding with Gulliver.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Hit the Lever toward her party's challenge, Unexpected Railway Obstruction.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Elly gets decisive! It works out.
"Nice," Ragnell says, and this time there *is* a faint hint of approval.
To Kaguya, as she puts her harmonica away, she adds, "Yup, it's me. An' yup, I am. Gwen hooks me up with some *fan-fuckin'-tastic* spice mixes for cookin'." Because obviously Ragnell would never hang out with her otherwise, right? At Kaguya's remark that Veruni know to bring flashlights, Ragnell snorts in apparent amusement.
The tracks stretch onwards, though, and while the railings might have been correct at first, there is a pile of debris on them further down the line that needs to be cleared, while they're all still in motion, before they have a horrible crash and all die. Well, Ragnell won't die. Surely that is of some comfort to everyone else.
This time, it *is* appropriate to slow down, as Citan makes that request of Elly. Ragnell doesn't say anything, because Elly can decide things for herself, but she does watch as Citan hurries over to the obstruction and attempts to have his Gear's hydraulics make short work of the obstruction, hopefully before those bombs explode.
Ragnell looks around at the other Gears.
"So who wants a snack?" she asks, not mentioning that the only snacks she has on hand are EXTREMELY spicy. Maybe it's for the best that Gwen rushes on ahead.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Spicy Jerky toward her party's challenge, Unexpected Railway Obstruction.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"I... I need a minute, but I think I can reapply the braking system..."
Elly answers Citan thus, and this seems to be the limit of what she can do right now. The snack sounds good, but, Elly thinks, if I'm not leaning on this intrusion program, will Regulus just turn it off? (Her mouth waters nonetheless.)
DG: Elhaym van Houten has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Unexpected Railway Obstruction.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
>y
The drones double back, the hum of their rotors filling the air as they match course and speed with the tram. One by one, they tuck themselves into their charging nooks, and once the last one is docked, the Dragoon's armor slides shut. "We've got ourself a map," Ida says, "now we just--"
The heiress trails off in mid-sentence as Ragnell needles Elly. On its face, it sounds reasonable, but this is not the time.
Elly makes the call. The car turns left, mechanisms shifting as it roars down the track. "Breathe," Ida reminds Elly, over that tightbeam datalink. "We have your back."
Debris, Kaguya announces.
Magnetic locks slide open. The Dragoon slips a hand into the shielded compartment beneath, pulling out a foil-wrapped packet the size of a desk. Ida taps in a few commands over the wireless link, setting a timer. "Throwing a bomb!" And the Dragoon steps forwards, pitching the demolition charge like a softball. It erupts in a bloom of fire and a wave of force that could take out the central support columns of a skyscraper.
And then, back to the link with Elly. "...Have you interacted much with Billy?" Guilt churns in her stomach. He's right there and she's talking about him behind his back. "I'm worried."
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Structural Demolition Charge toward her party's challenge, Unexpected Railway Obstruction.
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.
Billy - ever a man who places others above himself - controls himself best in the face of Elly's visible worry and fear. "We're in as much danger either way, I think," he says. "In the end...I have faith in you."
Words he hopes are a comfort as she makes her decision, and the car moves on. Billy taps at his controls, watching the sensors for Action.
This he soon receives, as Kaguya, the Weird Alien(?), announces they have a Problem, and announces her solution.
Billy raises his wrist blasters and calls, "Not really!" as they go KACHUNK and then fire a massive explosive shell.
DG: Billy Lee Black has used his Tool Blast Shell toward his party's challenge, Unexpected Railway Obstruction.
================================<* Shae Ving *>================================= ================<* CHALLENGE - Unexpected Railway Obstruction *>================ |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Although Shae Ving is in better condition than some Zeboim-era ruins, it is far from flawless. As the train car roars down the tracks, sending the occasional spray of sparks, the darkness hides much of what is ahead. This proves a problem, as the spotlights at the front of the car illuminate a space where huge steel beams, sheets from the walls, and some concrete have collapsed in a pile across the tracks. A pile that promises a head-on collision. The rubble needs to be removed, and quickly or this train ride could come to a sudden and likely disastrous end. =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Stupify, Injure==================================
===========================<* Shae Ving - Round 3 *>============================ ==================< Results - Unexpected Railway Obstruction >================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elhaym van Houten 24 --(17)--> 41 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Citan Uzuki 12 --(0)--> 12 Pass Jaws of Life 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Billy Lee Black 32 --(0)--> 32 Pass Blast Shell 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 12 --(0)--> 12 Pass Structural Demolition Charge 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 44 --(0)--> 44 Pass Hit the Lever 3 Brute Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 12 --(17)--> 29 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 12 --(17)--> 29 Fail Spicy Jerky 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Citan Uzuki 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Stupify(2)|Weaken(2) Effects: Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Citan Uzuki 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: Gwen Whitlock has drawn a new Challenge.
================================<* Shae Ving *>================================= =================<* CHALLENGE - Anti-Intruder Scorpion Drone *>================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The service tunnel lights rushing towards you catch a glint of something on the ceiling. Steel shines against them, and then the headlamps of the train car catch it. A Gear-sized, six-legged drone is on the ceiling. It has a low-lying, almost flat body, and a large tail. The shape resembles a scorpion's, and the front has two huge claws. The tail, though, ends with an enormous cannon -- which shoots an immense laser down, slashing across your Gears -- before the thing leaps, rights itself mid-air, and lands on the train car with a terrific clatter of steel! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure, Slow======================================
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"Niiice," Kaguya says of the spices to Ragnell. "I might have to have a look at those myself sometime." Then, "Ahahah," Kaguya laughs at Citan's musing. "Good point!"
"True though, a little company's more fun."
Citan's equipment may be meant for rescue operations, but indeed--it works just as well to tear apart the blockades. Between Ida, Billy, and Kaguya's explosions the debris is pretty well broken-up in order to affect movement, and Gwen is on the job of getting the most stubborn pieces that can't be exploded. Kaguya does give Gwen a warning, because she's nice like that. And Gwen asked.
But the jerky can be given out to those who want it; Elly indeed gets her moment to collect herself.
"Not bad, guys. I see why the Wolves get paid so much." She finds she used up more propellant than she'd have liked in that encounter, though--not that she says as much. It's fine.
ANd to Gwen, "Also awww. Don't worry, I'm not being hard on myself! I'm a super-genius and incredibly talented. But thanks anyway."
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"Woohoo! That was a rush!" Gwen takes a celebratory piece of jerky and chomps on it. "..... Ragnell," she continues, after finishing her bite because she may be a Badlands native but she isn't a *savage*, "update me when you get ready." Thinking better of it, she flips the intercoms off. "I have a butcher who owes me for the last delivery I made. Might be able t'score you a nice ham when it comes time."
Probably better to not broadcast your Meat Hoard. "I'll require a cut of the bounty, of course."
After Ragnell responds (or doesn't), Gwen flips the intercoms back on. "Ain't nothin' wrong with knowin' your talents, Kaguya."
The train continues on as they all continue their mundane (or not so much, in the case of Ida and Elly) chats. Gwen settles back into her seat, about to grab another bite, but something snags her attention.
A good courier knows better than to let a glint of something metal go unnoticed. Or is it 'don't worry and cross that bridge when you get to it?'
Curiosity wins out. "Huh, what was that..." Gwen leans forward and engages the spotlight, turning it around to better observe the ceiling.
Gleaming back is the alarming silhouette of a drone, far larger than Kaguya or Elly's own, attached to the ceiling.
Gwen laughs nervously. "Well, that's a nasty piece of work, right there. Maybe it'll--"
*Nope*.
A laser beam fires from the tail, drawing a trail of painfully bright light across the collected Gears like the swipe of a scythe. "Shit, it's comin' down, get ready!"
The scorpion gear falls, skillfully flipping in midair to crash loudly against the top of the train. "We're lucky that shot didn't damage our ride. Better not let it try that stunt again!" Gwen says as Halcyone draws the metal spear from its back. "But I've dealt with plenty of scorpions t'know what t'do here!"
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Anti-Intruder Scorpion Drone.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
The rest of them have explosives. There may be more than one reason for Citan to keep his contributions to destabilizing the debris on the track short, beyond the slowed but unrelenting approach of the lift behind him. Heimdall is already in the process of climbing aboard once again when the detonations begin.
"That was... a rather more narrow window than I had hoped," he remarks, watching on. "Nevertheless, hopefully the track is clear beyond this point."
Or intact, for that matter, which is not a remark he speaks aloud.
Things proceed without incident; there is for a time only the creak of the rain and the clack of the wheels.
Gwen spots something above. "What is it? What do you see?" asks the doctor, similarly trying to focus his lights on what she's seeking on the ceiling.
It's a drone. A large one. "Oh my. And it appears to be operational, as well! I wonder what other constructs are still--"
It doesn't remain on the ceiling.
There are only moments to react, to get out of the way of the light that scores across the car.
"Look out!" Not for the laser does the doctor shout this, but for the fact that it is proceeding downwards now, crashing across the lift car. "Indeed! We must take care of it at once!" Without delay, Heimdall again raises a hand and a large tethered javelin launches across the distance for the machine.
"Now! I do not think this will hold long should it move again!" They might have seconds before either the tether will snap or Citan will be forced to break the line himself. But seconds might be enough even if it decides to move--!
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool ARJUNA-2X Line Thrower toward his party's challenge, Anti-Intruder Scorpion Drone.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Regulus looks upwards when Gwen seems to call attention to something. (It did this perhaps by picking up on Ida's own subtle martial reflexes guiding *HER* gear.)
Elly looks up --
There's a twinkle of light.
A sudden ripple of electromagnetic force washes out from Regulus, a huge silent motion which is faintly visible in the gloom of the area. In its aftermath there are sudden little bubbles of - electromagnetic force? Yes: sort of a lingering mostly-spherical charge, enough to distort incoming energies or repel falling girders. The field even intercepts Ragnell, leaving her with a surprisingly dense little nugget of protective power.
(The reason, of course, is that Elly can't think of a reason why that shouldn't work that way.)
"It's like 'that creature', Doctor," Elly says to Citan, but she does not clarified the shared allusion: instead, and more simply and clasically, Regulus's Ether amplifier shoots a burst of flame up at the crawling terror-beast!
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Electromagnetic Barrier Projector toward her party's challenge, Anti-Intruder Scorpion Drone.
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.
Billy's wrist blasters smoke as he lowers them, heated wisps trailing up to the sky. "It's a living," Billy says, idly, and sets himself back to scanning. TRULY relaxing on a train hurtling into the depths of a dungeon populated by unimagined technologies is not a mistake a man like Billy makes, of course, but he is idly stroking the head of the crochet doll he's been left when Gwen yelps and a huge laser goes off. "Ah!" he barks, and produces one of his handguns. He brings up both that and a wrist blaster, the wrist blaser firing a series of shells that explode into arcane light.
Then the handgun goes off, a shell splitting the air as it drills toward armor weakened by magic and force.
DG: Billy Lee Black has used his Tool Orphanage Reminder toward his party's challenge, Anti-Intruder Scorpion Drone.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
The debris turned out to be no problem whatsoever. Ragnell chuckles as the load of it goes flying before the train, allowing the group to pass by unhindered.
"You like spicy food?" Ragnell says wonderingly to Kaguya. "Nice. Some other time, though." To Gwen, she nods. "Hmmm~... Well, I s'pose a cut's fair. But I'll need t' see the meat for m'self first. Make sure it's as good as you say."
At first, it seems like it'll be smooth sailing. Then Gwen turns a spotlight onto a massive drone on the ceiling, which in return fires a laser beam across the assembled Gears. Good thing Elly sends out that protective force across everyone--and honestly, Ragnell would be difficult to *not* include considering she's a passenger in Gwen's Gear. One would think this would merit thanks! Ragnell does so by not criticizing her. You're welcome, Elly. (What? She already said a nice thing to follow up her critique.)
"Open th' cockpit for a sec an' I'll blow it a li'l kiss," she tells Gwen, reaching into her poncho for a grenade. If Gwen does so, Ragnell will pull the pin and hurl the grenade, which actually contains a concentrated amount of lightning magic and will explode with it upon impact with the scorpion drone.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Lightning Grenade toward her party's challenge, Anti-Intruder Scorpion Drone.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida isn't given time to elaborate, or to dwell on the matter. Citan and Gwen call her attention upwards, and several of the Dragoon's cameras tilt in their mountings, fixing on a glint in the darkness above. "Damnation," Ida growls. Her hand reaches for a touchpad, for a segment marked 'Shield Control'--
And El-Regulus does something breathtaking, once again. Ida watches as the air distorts, subtly, sending small bits of metal skittering about, or clinging to the edges of the barrier like the thin film of a soap bubble. The thing's laser fires, hits the barrier. The Dust Dragoon steps back, gait compensators keeping it from losing its balance as it gets close to the edge of the tram.
Ida reaches out, and hits the button again. The Spine's initialization sequence repeats itself: the seat slides open, the tissue surges out, seeping through the seams of her flightsuit and merging with her. Once again, she's looking at the world through two sets of eyes, and drawing the Dragoon's shock pike from its mount. The weapon telescopes outwards, and the Gear swings the blade with practiced, organic-looking skill, trying to chop off the drone's tail in a single blow.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Dragon-Spine Uplink toward her party's challenge, Anti-Intruder Scorpion Drone.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"It'd really suck if the tracks were just like, wrecked ahead, right Doc?" Kaguya voices cheerfully when Citan doesn't. She can't read minds, she's just good at being unsettling. But it's fine. Ragnell wonders at Kaguya though, and the small Veruni replies, "Oh yeah, love it. Digestive system hates it though so I only do it sometimes." The perils of being ill. She may look--well no, she looks kind of terrible, she's just managed to stay alive despite the Factor for some time now.
"Oh that's nice," Kaguya notes of the electromagnetic barrier, noting its effects on her system and frankly finding herself a little annoyed that she can't study that instead of this monster thing.
Which she'll handle. She doesn't bring out the big guns, as it were--instead, there's a pulse of something like Ether, as Kaguya's Gear hands move together and apart, a core of solid ice forming amidst mist. The sphere of power expands, and suddenly rockets out, becoming a great blast of pure wintry cold to freeze the enemy in place.
It's... not Ether. But it's close. There's a strange feeling with it though, something odd and alien.
DG: Kaguya has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Anti-Intruder Scorpion Drone.
================================<* Shae Ving *>================================= =================<* CHALLENGE - Anti-Intruder Scorpion Drone *>================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The service tunnel lights rushing towards you catch a glint of something on the ceiling. Steel shines against them, and then the headlamps of the train car catch it. A Gear-sized, six-legged drone is on the ceiling. It has a low-lying, almost flat body, and a large tail. The shape resembles a scorpion's, and the front has two huge claws. The tail, though, ends with an enormous cannon -- which shoots an immense laser down, slashing across your Gears -- before the thing leaps, rights itself mid-air, and lands on the train car with a terrific clatter of steel! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure, Slow======================================
===========================<* Shae Ving - Round 4 *>============================ ===================< Results - Anti-Intruder Scorpion Drone >=================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elhaym van Houten 41 --(5)--> 46 Pass Electromagnetic Barrier Projector 2 Combat Effects: Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Citan Uzuki 12 --(5)--> 17 Pass ARJUNA-2X Line Thrower 2 Combat Effects: Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Billy Lee Black 32 --(5)--> 37 Pass Orphanage Reminder 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 12 --(5)--> 17 Pass Dragon-Spine Uplink 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 44 --(17)--> 61 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 29 --(5)--> 34 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 29 --(5)--> 34 Pass Lightning Grenade 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Citan Uzuki 60 --(20)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Slow(2)|Stupify(1)|Weaken(1)|Wound(2) Effects: Cleanse|Embolden(1)|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Citan Uzuki has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Elhaym van Houten has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Shae Ving *>================================ =========<* CHALLENGE - There's No Getting Off This Train We're On *>========= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The flatbed train car that you have boarded rushes along into an open area, with a bridge over a reservoir. Huge chunks of steel have landed below, where a battle has left chunks of metal in the water -- sticking out like grave markers, and fresh. The bridge continues until a docking station, which reaches out like a port in the storm. The tracks end here. Concerningly, however, your train car is not slowing -- and looks read to impact head-on with the large steel barrier at the end of the tracks. You will need to get your Gear off, and /quickly/, or you will likely be reduced to scrap metal. Your train car certainly will be. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Suffer=============================================
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"Well yeah! Only natural." Gwen chuckles. "Maybe I'll have you come with me. We'll make a proper day of it."
But first, they'll need to survive this. But, with the sudden formation of the Shae Ving Spear Battalion, who could withstand them? Especially augmented by Elly's electromagnetic shields, forming a sphere around each Gear. "... Huh... wonder if I could do somethin' similar if I get that amp t'work right..." Gwen comments, thoughtfully.
Citan's large javelin sails over the Halcyone's head with plenty of room to breathe, hitting its mark. If Gwen moves in her Gear like a member of a drunk cavalry member charging in at full speed, Ida is the reflection of a proper dragoon, the latter's spear carving into what Gwen's spear doesn't. "... Goes to show y'can't properly send a courier t'do a martial artist's job, eh?" Gwen's smile can be felt in her voice.
Rebounding back, Gwen whistles as Billy's gear deftly shoots the Scorpion like a proper slingshooter, but with GEAR-SIZED SHELLS. "Mmn?" She glances back towards Ragnell, and gives the Seraph a rare devilish smirk. "Y'got it!" A few button presses and the cockpit screen promptly opens, giving Ragnell a clear shot, assisted by Gwen's piloting, at the automaton.
Lightning is followed by ice, courtesy of Kaguya, which freezes the thoroughly stunned automaton as it falls off the train, shattering to pieces.
When the cockpit screen closes shut and the adrenaline fades, Gwen has a chill pass through her body.
Ah, right. The warm air escaped. "... Let's keep going," she says, through chittering teeth.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"I think that this facility can't have a lot further on this track, or else we're going to need to go downhill a great deal more than we have been," reports Elly, who sounds more or less recovered.
"... That's a good point about the tracks. Hold on... everyone, you may see something on your screens, just accept."
would fain connect, y/n?
And the connection provides a radar-scope view of the space around them. This is for the most part just an integrated model of low-resolution built in systems that people may not even really be aware of, but then there is a sudden bright PULSING from Regulus - PULSE - PULSE - PULSE -
-- and it's like night became day on your screens. Past the space of actual light there is this shimmering blue-and-gray perfect world as if the entire trainway was cast in simulated light.
There are a few long moments where people can compose themselves, before -- one of the returns, up ahead...
"Ah! That must be the end of the track. Well, I suppose this is going to be simple... What a relief," Elly says, as she exerts silent will upon the automatic systems of the train car. The brakes come down -- throw some sparks --
ting!
ting!
The braking system, having been abused, spot-repaired, and abused several more times by the power of hacking, falls directly off the train car. You can see it on the Regulus-provided radar view disappearing in the distance. Yup: left one went a little before the right one, but they're both gone.
"Well, that's fine," Elly says, "I'll just pull the backup lever."
The backup lever actuates easily... ...because it was a manual override connected to... oh, no, there it goes: that was the connecting rod that linked the override lever to the braking systems. You can see that one disappear into the distance too.
In fact, Regulus lifts up the lever, which is now connected to... absolutely nothing.
* Got Weapon "Runaway TrainHandle"
"..."
"....."
"........."
".............."
"THE BRAKES ARE GONE!!!" Elly squeals. "Everyone, get off the car now!! We're only accelerating faster, and we're already going fast enough to destroy us all!!"
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Thrust-Vector Suite toward her party's challenge, There's No Getting Off This Train We're On.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Kaguya admits that while *she* likes spicy things, her digestive system does not. Ragnell nods. "Yeah, that tracks," she remarks. Her red eyes widen when she sees that Ether-like move Kaguya uses against the enemy drone, though. It's not quite Ether, but... "What exactly was *that*?"
But this is followed up by Gwen's smirk, so Ragnell returns it as she takes a moment to hurl that grenade and enjoy the fireworks. She's thoroughly unaffected by the sudden temperature change, and even has the nerve to look at Gwen and her clattering teeth and ask, "What's up with you?"
Elly tells everyone to accept what she sends them. Ragnell watches the connection--sets her hand on the controls to feel it for herself. After all, Elly said it was a secret, so she can't just *ask*. It's...
...
...what is this? She blinks rapidly at the sudden brightness, and senses in real time as the brakes and the backup lever fall off. She watches it too, turning her head to see them all clatter into the fathomless dark. Elly screams about the brakes and warns everyone to get off the car.
"Oops," Ragnell says, and then dematerializes into an orb of golden light and zig-zags up out of Gwen's Gear.
...As hilarious as it would be to leave it at that, she doesn't actually simply ditch the party. Rather, she reappears atop the train car, looking out thoughtfully at the terminus with one hand atop her hat. Then she presses a hand on the car and sends magnetizing lightning down through it onto the rails. It's not going to be enough to stop it. But it will help slow things down so the others have time to react.
*Then* she'll bail. But at that point, so will everyone else, so it won't be nearly as funny.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, There's No Getting Off This Train We're On.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
>y
Once again, Ida forces her consciousness back into herself, and hits the button. Once again, the neurochemical signal severs the tissue linking her to her machine. Once again, the Dragoon twitches and slips back into a more mechanical posture. Ida lets out a breath. In the silence of her own cockpit, she murmurs: "God, I need to refine that system." Keeping it active can be taxing and disorienting. Switching it on and off is taxing and disorienting in different ways. Thankfully, Elly provides a distraction.
Data pours across the Dragoon's screens. Ida's used to making maps in the cockpit through the magic of computers--the data Elly gives her floods in, filling out bits and pieces she gleaned from her last trip here. She reaches into a supply tin for a tea bag, and puts it in the hot water, which has kept steaming merrily this whole time. As she seals the improvised kettle, light fills every screen, and she blinks, jaw falling open.
'What a relief.'
"--Elly, the brakes!" Horror dawns on Ida's face. In slow-motion, she watches Regulus reach for the manual control, only for that to snap loose.
There's no time. Ida hits the jumpjet pedal, resisting the urge to floor it so as not to embed her Gear in the tunnel ceiling. The Dragoon reaches out with both hands to grab the nearest gear--Halcyone--and try to haul it to safety.
This may be a mistake.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, There's No Getting Off This Train We're On.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"It would be... very unfortunate," the doctor says to Kaguya, with only a moment's hesitation in the middle, almost as if he were thinking upon rather similar lines.
But there are concerns coming up above and beyond what might be waiting (or outright missing) on the track ahead.
Elly is reminded of 'that creature', which she remarks upon to Citan. "Indeed!" is his prompt response; the fact that it's followed by a mild grunt has everything to do with the fact that the drone is struggling on its end of the tether, forcing him to fight in turn in the cockpit to keep Heimdall balanced for a few seconds more--
And a few seconds are all he needs. As the others throw shells and spells alike at the automaton, it soon succumbs; Citan cuts the cord as it begins to tumble and there is nothing else at all holding it up atop the train car.
Elly in that moment brings up the situation with the track again. "Yes, good thinking, Elly," he says, synchronizing with her Gear. The Heimdall may be a lesser creation than the majesty she pilots, but, all the same...
"...Good heavens."
All the same, it works. A miracle, some might way.
They would be more right than they knew.
"I see! So this is the entire track layout, modeled in... ah, and the end of the track is approaching. Elly, if you would--"
There are two small metallic noises. They prompt Citan to sit up straight in his seat. "Was that--?!"
It was. And it's followed by another noise an engineer doesn't want to hear.
"I, I see..." he utters, gazing over at the detatched lever. The end of the line is approaching steadily.
His hands fly across a few keys; within his Gear, coolant begins to shunt towards the core and lower sections. The last thing he needs now is for anything to overheat.
"Evacuate, now!" He's hitting the thrusters himself to give a bit of lift as he urges his machine from the lift. Briefly, he'll be airborne.
The landing will be the interesting part.
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Dual-Phase Coolant toward his party's challenge, There's No Getting Off This Train We're On.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"Kinda hilarious though," Kaguya points out to Citan. Because it would be funny. Then, Kaguya nods along despite that not going over the radio at Ragnell. Her question? "Heh heh. Trick I picked up watching someone. Veruni magic. It aligns with your winter 'season'." Because 'seasons' are still a weird-ass concept for a space girl like Kaguya. "I can show you more sometime, maybe same day we do that spice thing."
Gwen wonders... "You want me to look at it for you sometime?" Kaguya offers Gwen. "No guarantees, but if it's an easy fix..." She is more cautious about handing out technology than she once was--but this is Gwen. It might be OK. And it's tech she already has.
But along the way... Elly has an idea, it would seem. Kaguya allows the connection. She hasn't known Elly that long, but it's a reasonable gamble--if she gets access to what's in Kaguya's systems it's not more tech than she already has anyway. And... as it turns out, this was a good thing, because--
"Wow. That's really impressive," Kaguya admits. "I wonder who built your Gear?"
But things get... scary after a moment. "..Ha ha ha.. backup... Well, that's a problem."
It would've been hilarious if Ragnell had ditched them--and for a moment, Kaguya assumes she did. Until Ragnell uses her lightning to slow their car. "Huh. Nice trick. Thanks."
But for some reason she doesn't sound all that worried for herself. Maybe because she casually moves the glass over a particular green button marked 'TURBO BOOST' on her dashboard. The button glows with power. Kaguya brings down her hand--
As she presses the button, her maneuvering thrusters suddenly rocket upward, green flame pouring out from behind her Gear as she leaps the Queklain up, up, up--
She is apparently prepared for something like this.
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool YBCO Charge toward her party's challenge, There's No Getting Off This Train We're On.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
It's these moments Ragnell will get that blessed moment of adorable sort of annoyance from Gwen, if she's in the mood to properly appreciate it. "H-heater's broken..."
However, a few pieces of jerky later and Gwen's appreciating the bite of the cold against the burn of the spices in the meat. As Ragnell comments on Kaguya's powers, Gwen makes sure the intercoms are off.
"... Didn't feel like Ether," Gwen comments idly, pulling on the coat draped over the back of her seat. How does Gwen know this?
.... She's not entirely sure why, but her ARM did. "Veruni tech, I guess."
Kaguya admits as such. Gwen flips the channel back on. "Really? Sure. Can't hurt." It's Veruni tech, but it's also Kaguya. And... Auntie admitted some tech used in her ARM is Veruni in origin, so...
Elly's voice comes on the intercom next. "Gotcha, acceptin' it now... Guardians, Elly, this is damn impressive." As Ragnell touches the dash, Gwen follows her example, pressing her right ARM into the accesss panel. ".... ?!"
She pulls her hand back, shaking it mutely, looking towards Ragnell. "Curisoity killed the cat..." She laughs once, shaking her head.
This is in stark contrast to moments later, when the capable and currently calm Elly, pilot of the mysterious Omnigear El-Regulus(? Gwen wonders if the 'El' means 'the' or if it's part of the name, such mystery), gains a new weapon to add to her impressive assortment of weaponry.
A stunned Gwen utters one elongated response. "...... shiiiiiiiiiit..."
BRAK GONE, TRAIN BAD, BYEBYE NOW
Before the Halcyone can react, Ida's Gear helpfully lifts it in much the same way Ida's had to rescue Gwen from her ARM-laden slow-ass self.
Ida's decision may work, but in a way she may not have recongized. "Okay, Ida, hold on!" A grappling hook shoots from a point in the armor at the top of Halcyone's 'head', firing with a cable meant for hauling wreckage from the depths of the Aquvy seas, snagging on something promising nearby. "Time for me t'pay you back!!" Boosters fire, and the Halcyone shoots towards the point where the hook was snagged, hopefully with Ida's Gear in tow.
"Ragnell, y'okay back the--" Gwen glances towards an outline of where a Ragnell was supposed to be.
Ah. Right, Seraph.
"Goddamn it, Ragnell." A second passes, and instead of the gritting of teeth, or the grimace of hurt emotions, there's another, much more decipherable sound, as the pulse of Ragnell's shows up on one of the Halcyone's status screens.
Gwen is laughing. "Holy cow, Ragnell!"
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool By Hook or by Crook toward her party's challenge, There's No Getting Off This Train We're On.
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.
Billy watches the beast; Citan has it well in hand, and he does trust Hyuuga, fully, implicitly, and possibly not entirely wisely. Still....you don't take your eyes off an enemy.
Eventually thouggh the damage is done, and Billy can return to watching the tracks. Elly connects them again, letting his screens see far more. "So this is an Omnigear's sight," he breathes. "Amazing."
"Hm, but it seems we're coming up," he murmurs. He positions himself, like a man on a commuter train, expecting to simply hop off at his destination. Then his system releases a ping! of warning, and he sees....two things dropping away. Hm. Huh. Oh, that was the brakes. Uh. Ah, but Elly has the emergency brakes in hand.
...
Ah, that's too literal, Billy thinks, with the emotional distance of a thought that is too horrible to process.
Elly's scream gets him back in realtime, and his hand flashes down to one side of the console. Today there is no teddy bear. There is instead a wide handlebar - his subconscious immediately provides that this is in fact the handle for the shovel from the garden - which is hooked into a thing that has been very helpfully labeled with an icon of a dotted outline of a person next to some motion lines.
Billy reaches into the pocket mounted next to it, riveted to the panel, and produces a bite guard, which he puts in with practiced ease. Then he yanks the handle.
Then, Renmazuo's engine makes a horrible noise.
Then, there is a shockwave as Renmazuo immediately accelerates to Mach 3 and possibly gets to the platform by means of punching a hole in the wall.
DG: Billy Lee Black has used his Tool Overclocked System toward his party's challenge, There's No Getting Off This Train We're On.
===============================<* Shae Ving *>================================ =========<* CHALLENGE - There's No Getting Off This Train We're On *>========= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The flatbed train car that you have boarded rushes along into an open area, with a bridge over a reservoir. Huge chunks of steel have landed below, where a battle has left chunks of metal in the water -- sticking out like grave markers, and fresh. The bridge continues until a docking station, which reaches out like a port in the storm. The tracks end here. Concerningly, however, your train car is not slowing -- and looks read to impact head-on with the large steel barrier at the end of the tracks. You will need to get your Gear off, and /quickly/, or you will likely be reduced to scrap metal. Your train car certainly will be. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Suffer=============================================
==========================<* Shae Ving - Round 5 *>=========================== ===========< Results - There's No Getting Off This Train We're On >=========== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elhaym van Houten 46 --(10)--> 56 Pass Thrust-Vector Suite 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Citan Uzuki 17 --(10)--> 27 Pass Dual-Phase Coolant 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Billy Lee Black 37 --(10)--> 47 Pass Overclocked System 3 Agility Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ida Everstead-Rey 17 --(12)--> 29 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Gwen Whitlock 61 --(12)--> 73 Fail By Hook or by Crook 2 Agility Effects: Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kaguya 34 --(10)--> 44 Pass YBCO Charge 3 Agility Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Ragnell 34 --(10)--> 44 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Citan Uzuki 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Slow(2)|Suffer(1) Effects: Quicken(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Citan Uzuki has successfully explored Shae Ving!
===============================<* Shae Ving *>================================ ===================<* CHALLENGE - Gear-Scale Autocannon *>==================== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The docking station at the end of the train tracks have numerous doors and tunnels to investigate. Looking through all of them is impossible, though you do find one with an elevator that -- if the little map by it is accurate -- should lead outside. You pick one, and the door slides up to provide access to your Gears. The room inside reveals that Shae Ving served as an armory during the Zeboim era. It seems that weapons were manufactured and stored here, and this included Gear-sized ones. Many of these are in poor shape from time, but you are able to salvage a few. This includes a set of massive, two-barreled Gear-sized rifles. This powerful autocannon would make a fine weapon for a Gear. This weapon would be suitable for +attacks on your Gear form. =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Ragnell is able to get the heck out of the way. BETRAYED IMMEDIATELY BY PERFIDIOUS SER-- oh; the lightning arcs downwards; the wheels skitter, fluttering as the magnetic lock doesn't really STOP it but it does stop the wheels from spinning. Sparks fly!
The metal is surprisingly smooth, which is unfortunate, because that would probably have worked fine on modern-era rail. But it does reduce the force.
Regulus sort of just stands there for a moment - a moment further - even as Queklain ascends towards Necron 7, safety, and freedom. Watch your head in the tunnel, Kaguya!
Gwen grapnels off. Renmazuo immediately activates its 'wave motion drive', reaching Iscandar -- er- the far platform -- almost immediately.
And then...
Possibly long enough to make Citan worry if Elly froze up...
The thrusters fire and Regulus rises upwards JUST before the train car hits the platform and explosively disintegrates!!
This puts a few neat new holes in Renmazuo's cape and the mass of the rest of the train car goes flying into...
There is a complex, expensive-sounding detonation of SOMETHING.
"... I suppose, at least, some of this could be, um, salvaged for parts," Elly says meekly, as the Gear Armory is assessed. Fortunately, several large cannons are still in a smeared omniline coating, as if they were delivered and never put into service. Lucky!
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
There is indeed one long moment in which Citan wonders if Elly has frozen up, or if somehow, inexplicably, something has become of Regulus--
But she leaps.
And then there's an explosion. Several explosions.
"Oh dear," remarks the doctor, in which may be the understatement of the moment.
SOON
"These Gear ARMs appear to be unscathed," he says as they assess the damages to the armory. "Perhaps we may be able to make use of these. ...But, Elly. Billy. While we are here..."
He had wanted to come down here for a reason, after all.
"Let us see if we can find any trace of 'that'."
What is 'that'? He does not clarify presently, of course.