2021-11-07: The Forest Temple of the Keqili
- Log: The Forest Temple of the Keqili
- Cast: Riesenlied, Eleanor Klein, Noeline, Dean Stark, Elhaym van Houten, Avril Vent Fleur, Yulie Ahtreide, Lydia Seren, Rebecca Streisand
- Where: Deku Isles
- Date: November 07, 2021
- Summary: As requested, the Outreach ventures into the desecrated Forest Temple, seeking whether they can set right what went wrong. And in the depths, they find... that they're not the only ones paying a visit.
DG: A party led by Noeline is now entering Keqili Forest Temple. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
==========================<* Keqili Forest Temple *>==========================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Find Your Way *>========================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
Poets and minstrels often paint the forests of the Deku Isles as a life in
another age, one spent amongst flora in splendour. They aren't necessarily
wrong, either: the path to the Forest Temple itself is one that no
trailblazer has carved, and the path quickly ends in favour of uneven roots
and foliage.
Through persistence, your team eventually arrives at the foyer of an
impressive Temple consumed by time itself; moss and overgrowth has swallowed
what little remains of its ancient masonry. An elevator rests in the middle,
surrounded by four flames. Just then...
The flow of time is always cruel...
Its speed seems different for each person...
An apparition gathers before you, garbed in translucent ragged robes and
carrying an empty torch in her pitch-black, phantasmal arms. Slowly, she
gathers the flames in the foyer to her torch--
... but ... no one can change it.
The only thing that does not change with time is...
--and disappears.
A memory of younger days...
Inspection soon indicates that the elevator is, somehow, powered by the
presence of those flames. You'll need to chase this ghostly apparition down
to activate this lift and reach the inner sanctum.
A nearby stone mural acts as a partial map of the Temple. You could use this
mural to plan your initial approach, charting the most likely of places and
crossing off dead-ends.
=Dungeon Conditions: Exhaust==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
The Drifters gather past Keqili Village, where the guards are more than happy enough to point them to the path leading up towards the Forest Temple. What proceeds is a particularly challenging one, as whatever path the Keqili used to use has been swallowed by the ancient forest itself.
For all of them, though, it's not terribly difficult -- they've encountered worse at this point. Before long, they're overlooking the Forest Temple itself; moss and overgrowth has consumed what little remains of this particularly impressive temple, which appears...
Perhaps unlike other Temples, this one actually looks like it was meant to house people at some point -- like a monastery.
Riesenlied looks on, in awe -- and a bit quiet, something evidently on her mind... perhaps the words Xingyao had for her?
But then:
The flow of time is always cruel...
Its speed seems different for each person...
(BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-ENTL8s3OE )
A soft melody, like a minuet of the forest, is heard through the air, as an apparition gathers before the Drifters. Garbed in translucent ragged robes, carrying an empty torch in her pitch-black, little phantasmal arms.
Eleanor and others may recognise this as a Poe.
... but ... no one can change it.
The only thing that does not change with time is...
It spins gently in the air, and disappears, gathering flames in the foyer to her torch.
A memory of younger days...
The haunting minuet drifts off with her; inspection soon indicates that the elevator in the center is powered by the presence of those flames. It looks like they'll need to get that 'flame' back somehow, in order to proceed...
Fortunately, also unlike other Temples, there's a mural that acts as a map... almost as if this was meant to be lived in by many people.
"... what is it like ... to be back here, Noeline?" Riesenlied whispers, tilting her head. She bites at her lip. "That Poe... I sensed a kind of forlorn sadness from her, but I do not think the distortion we felt from the Ley is coming from her, per se. Something... something further below the earth."
Indeed, those sensitive to the Ley can feel it underneath as well -- the elevator will prove pivotal, it seems.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
The Drifters gather past Keqili Village, where the guards are more than happy enough to point them to the path leading up towards the Forest Temple. What proceeds is a particularly challenging one, as whatever path the Keqili used to use has been swallowed by the ancient forest itself.
For all of them, though, it's not terribly difficult -- they've encountered worse at this point. Before long, they're overlooking the Forest Temple itself; moss and overgrowth has consumed what little remains of this particularly impressive temple, which appears...
Perhaps unlike other Temples, this one actually looks like it was meant to house people at some point -- like a monastery.
Riesenlied looks on, in awe -- and a bit quiet, something evidently on her mind... perhaps the words Xingyao had for her?
But then:
The flow of time is always cruel...
Its speed seems different for each person...
(BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-ENTL8s3OE )
A soft melody, like a minuet of the forest, is heard through the air, as an apparition gathers before the Drifters. Garbed in translucent ragged robes, carrying an empty torch in her pitch-black, little phantasmal arms.
Eleanor and others may recognise this as a Poe.
... but ... no one can change it.
The only thing that does not change with time is...
It spins gently in the air, and disappears, gathering flames in the foyer to her torch.
A memory of younger days...
The haunting minuet drifts off with her; inspection soon indicates that the elevator in the center is powered by the presence of those flames. It looks like they'll need to get that 'flame' back somehow, in order to proceed...
Fortunately, also unlike other Temples, there's a mural that acts as a map... almost as if this was meant to be lived in by many people.
"... what is it like ... to be back here, Noeline?" Riesenlied whispers, tilting her head. She bites at her lip. "That Poe... I sensed a kind of forlorn sadness from her, but I do not think the distortion we felt from the Ley is coming from her, per se. Something... something further below the earth."
Indeed, those sensitive to the Ley can feel it underneath as well -- the elevator will prove pivotal, it seems.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Eleanor walks through the forest path as needed, and then when they encounter the Poe--she does recognie it! "Oh," Eleanor says, and once the Poe disappears, Eleanor says, "...No, it wouldn't be the Poe. They're simple ghosts; they wouldn't distort the Ley this way." She seems confident of that. But the things the Poe says...
"Time..." Eleanor bites her lip, thoughtfully, and then looks around to the others. "This architecture... it reminds me of ruins along the Great Sea..."
Eleanor holds up her hand--there's a ring on it, not her old engagement ring but a gold band with a deep red stone. "...I can bring up more flames," she offers. "But I think we'll find the one we need is hers. ...Ah, this mural--"
Eleanor walks over to it, and begins thoughtfully charting a course in her mind.
DG: Eleanor Klein has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Find Your Way.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
No trailblazer has ever carved these paths - except one, it seems.
It's been too many years to count since Noeline was last here, long enough to shroud most of her memories in a blanket of fog - and yet there are faint glimmers of recognition and nostalgia as she follows the path. Whether it's maneuvering around the foliage and steering clear of something particularly thorny or turning a corner to suddenly come across a stunning view, she seems able to navigate the forest well enough.
She shares in Riesenlied's comparative quiet, most of her support silent as she helps her partner over roots and branches. There's a thoughtful air to her, but not a morose one. She'd expected a rebuke - both for her actions in the past, and for seeking to change the meaning of the title of Heritor to something more hopeful - but the tacit approval of both by the village matron leave her buoyed and feeling quietly confident.
Noeline doesn't seem terribly surprised when the Poe appears before them, but she does stop to mark its presence, watching as it spins a slow waltz and then drifts away. For all that she can tell they'll need to recover the flames, it doesn't feel right to simply rush things in the stillness of the shrine. "... knowing what I know now, it is nostalgic... and perhaps a little bittersweet. Really, to think I had quite _this_ many people watching out for me, from Hyadeans to Guardians and in-between."
She frowns slowly as Riese talks about something further below, and her brow furrows. "Something below... would be the focal point of the temple." She'd already entertained the thought before, but the possibility of Odoryuk still being afflicted by the wounds Alhazred rent upon Riesenlied and the Medium lingers in her mind stronger than ever.
Carefully, she starts to concentrate. In response to the power of Duras Drum, stronger here, the shadows of the temple shift as if breathing. The intangible form of the Poe follows suit - and then seems to draw a pivotal little amount into focus.
DG: Noeline has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Find Your Way.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"'A memory of younger days'?" Dean echoes, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. He turns to his companions, especially Avril. "What d'you think that means?"
He might not be an outright boy anymore, but Dean's still pretty young, and more importantly, he has a youthful spirit. It's hard to understand nostalgia when you're not yet old and tired.
But that's not important right now. What's important is that the temple elevator is apparently powered by ghostly flames, and that ghost is floating away with them! After all the traveling he's done over the last four years, Dean can't even be shocked by ghosts. "Hey! Wait! We need that!" he utters, just before he races after the spectre. "Come back here!!"
...Did he even notice the mural? Hahah what are you saying, of course he didn't. Well, maybe Dean can corral the Poe somehow? Unintentionally...?
DG: Dean Stark has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Find Your Way.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
This isn't completely new territory for Elly "Red Widow" or is it "Black Widow" van Houten, depopulator of the Skerrif Reef, enemy of the proud anchovy clans! But it is... distinct.
The soft melody ripples outwards. Elly shifts round the iron rod she carries with her as the music plays dreamily.
"Ah..."
Confronted with a MAP, Elly gazes up at it - and reaches into a hip pouch to bring out what is obviously a used sketchbook (which from the look of it was dropped in the water, which may be why it isn't 'someone else's' any more -- no good - but it's dried out by now!) At this point Elly gets out a charcoal and starts to make a loose sketch of the map, or at least, what Elly thinks is the most important set of stuff on the map. Will this be accurate? Hard to say!
"I don't know if we need literal flame," Elly tells Eleanor. "That might be a little too easy... -- ah! Dean! Are you alright?!" A moment later, her head tilts, perhaps finally percieving that shaded entity directly for the first time.
DG: Elhaym van Houten has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Find Your Way.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"That would be 'a memory from long ago'," Avril answers Dean, without so much as glancing his way. Her gaze lingers upon the spirit -- or rather the place it had been; her expression remains inscrutable. "I have heard it said 'when the world was young' to refer to long-ago days. Perhaps it is fitting. The Filgaia of 'today' is older..."
She had come, of course. She had promised that they would investigate this, promised they would restore the temple. And as her friends would know, there is nothing Avril regards as terrible as breaking a promise.
In her hands, the mirror glimmers. When did she bring it out? Has it been out for some time?
Its surface shimmers and glows. Slowly, she begins to walk, one step at a time, proceeding as if she were conducting a well-memorized ritual in her approach to the mural.
The mirror glows steadily, now, its light illuminating the mural with a soft ethereal glow.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Mirror of De Soto toward her party's challenge, Find Your Way.
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
It feels... strange, stepping into the Forest Temple. Yulie's breath hitches a little as she crosses the threshold. It feels like a sacred place, one that is as part of the forest as if it had grown there from a single seed.
Yulie pauses in her steps as she hears a melody through the air... and a spirit - a Poe, specifically - appears. Yulie watches the Poe carefully before looking Eleanor and Riesenlied's way as they offers their theory on the subject.
A forlorn sadness... Yulie nods quietly.
"...But she did prevent us from moving forward. Is she trying to hinder us... or protect us?" Yulie considers. She can't get a good enough feel for the spirit's intentions.
...Well, the only thing left now is to chase her down and try to recapture the flame. Yulie fishes through her things, eventually drawing out a long, wooden staff with a curved head - a Wonder Staff, a fairly common magical tool.
"I... might be able to carry the flame with this, if necessary." Yulie says. And if not, it'll at least be a convenient way to help poke around for possible dangers.
DG: Yulie Ahtreide has used her Tool Wonder Staff toward her party's challenge, Find Your Way.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia is frankly relieved to be adventuring with friends. She also has a lot on her mind. She recently took a 'deal' offered to her by Seraphita and she's not really sure how that's going to go but it is probably the best option she has right now.
She is more happy to be with family, though, and is kind of smiling quietly as she trails behind the others. SHe doesn't say much for the time being...It's just a forest--but eventually she sees...
A GH GH GH GHOST
And she sort of cocks her head to the side. "Hum."
It ... then vanished?
"Well I guess...we need to set things on fire...?"
Her hand turns into a flamethrower.
"...Nah that's probably too much." Her hand turns back into a hand.
She looks to YUlie. "Hey who're you?"
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
Rebecca mulls over the words for a time, hanging around near Avril and Dean during the descent. "That sounds right Avril. Though... when I hear it, it's almost like it has several meanings. A poetic one. It makes me think of 'nostalgia' I suppose. Like a feeling that might not fade even as time passes..."
Listening even as Noeline relates her time before, here... a ghostly apparition appears, jolting her out of her reverie. She's not fond of ghosts but she's not about to let it show-!
"You go that way Dean-! I'll set an ambush on-!"
Rebecca's attention is caught at the illuminated mural that Avril's mirror brought up, making a quick mental picture, then running in a different way from where she originally had picked out.
Hunkering down in a hallway, she waits to see if the apparition will come their way...
And clips a badge onto her vest perhaps to give her some further forewarning.
Holding up her firearm-! She lays an ambush for a ghost!
DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Treasure Tone toward her party's challenge, Find Your Way.
==========================<* Keqili Forest Temple *>==========================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Find Your Way *>========================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
Poets and minstrels often paint the forests of the Deku Isles as a life in
another age, one spent amongst flora in splendour. They aren't necessarily
wrong, either: the path to the Forest Temple itself is one that no
trailblazer has carved, and the path quickly ends in favour of uneven roots
and foliage.
Through persistence, your team eventually arrives at the foyer of an
impressive Temple consumed by time itself; moss and overgrowth has swallowed
what little remains of its ancient masonry. An elevator rests in the middle,
surrounded by four flames. Just then...
The flow of time is always cruel...
Its speed seems different for each person...
An apparition gathers before you, garbed in translucent ragged robes and
carrying an empty torch in her pitch-black, phantasmal arms. Slowly, she
gathers the flames in the foyer to her torch--
... but ... no one can change it.
The only thing that does not change with time is...
--and disappears.
A memory of younger days...
Inspection soon indicates that the elevator is, somehow, powered by the
presence of those flames. You'll need to chase this ghostly apparition down
to activate this lift and reach the inner sanctum.
A nearby stone mural acts as a partial map of the Temple. You could use this
mural to plan your initial approach, charting the most likely of places and
crossing off dead-ends.
=Dungeon Conditions: Exhaust==================================================
=====================<* Keqili Forest Temple - Round 1 *>===================== =========================< Results - Find Your Way >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dean Stark 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Avril Vent Fleur 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Mirror of De Soto 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rebecca Streisand 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Treasure Tone 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Noeline 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Eleanor Klein 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yulie Ahtreide 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Wonder Staff 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elhaym van Houten 0 --(21)--> 21 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Noeline 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Noeline 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> Riesenlied has posed.
Indeed, this Temple seems to share many of the characteristics of Great Sea architecture, Eleanor -- some old-style Galadian, even, and others from overseas; if there's one conclusion she can reach, this is a Temple that was constructed by people who migrated over a great distance and learned a lot from their passage west, to the Deku Isles.
There's a little reverence and pride, perhaps, as Riesenlied sees Noeline retrace her steps from so long ago. She's keeping that story of the deceiver back in her mind. It doesn't look like the village seems terribly beholden to it, but... there's something, perhaps, about how a grudge lives over time that lingers in her mind.
"I am happy... that you are well-looked after and loved," Riesenlied expresses to her partner, reaching for her hand gently as the other Hyadean starts to focus and shift the shadows in turn. Something is in the air here... she can sense Odoryuk's presence as well.
Dean ponders on the meaning of younger days, being still young and full of energy himself -- and tries to chase after the Poe! Unfortunately, it is full of cheating powers and has just disappeared wholesale, necessitating chase throughout the Temple...
"Ah, Dean...!" Riesenlied calls, though Elly has it in turn, after she draws a chunk of the Temple map to get them started; Avril assists her in the task by shining the Mirror of De Soto upon it, and muses herself on the memory of long ago...
"The Filgaia of yesterday..." Riesenlied whispers to Avril, pausing. A quiet smile. "Much like the time Noeline first came to this Temple..."
Yulie doesn't feel outright malice or benevolence from the Poe spirit; if anything, the quiet laughter, the jovial waltz it does... it reminds her most of a child, perhaps perpetually bound to this place. She procures a vessel that's right for the job -- the Wonder Staff!
"Ah, thank you, Yulie... o-oh, no, not quite, Lydia," Riesenlied cautions with a smile to her daughter. She's also glad that Lydia is here! ... she asks who Yulie is, and admittedly, she's ended up fond of her in a similar way to Lydia. "The flame is likely only a symbol of the energy of the Temple..."
Rebecca sets up an ambush, leading her another way when...! It briefly flashes into existence, then seems to beckon her further in. It'd be dangerous to go alone...
You should take this with you. (What's 'this'? It's a mystery. Perhaps it's unending friendship.)
DG: Noeline has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* Keqili Forest Temple *>========================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Light the Flames *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- This hexagonal room is bereft of windows, and has four empty sconces mounted on the walls. The only way forward is barred behind iron gates. What makes this room truly unusual, however, is... 'LIGHT THE SCONCES WITH THESE TORCHES' For once, the instructions of how to proceed are very well-documented, engraved on a mural on the wall. Perhaps this was a training room for a younger audience? There's a child-sized box next to the mural, labelled 'Flint and Tinder', but... ... ah, it's really stuck. The latch won't budge at all... you're going to have to first pop this open. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Tire=============================================
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Dean and Rebecca are the first to give chase -- the apparition soon briefly appears at a hexagonal room, before disappearing through a door that's been conveniently barred by iron gates the moment the Drifters enter.
(The question of how such a conveniently annoying mechanism still works perfectly over time is one that's left to the mystery of the ages... perhaps it's part of the Ice Queen's ploy, like many other things.)
Still, the room is a relatively simple-looking puzzle, with unlit sconces on the walls, and...
'LIGHT THE SCONCES WITH THESE TORCHES'
Wait, that's literally an instruction guide on the wall there, and... the sconces seem kinda short on the wall too, as if not intended to be lit by adults. There's even a child-sized wooden box labelled 'Flint and Tinder', just to make sure there's tools available for children to use...
... hmm. It's kinda stuck. It's really stuck. The latch won't budge at all.
Honestly, with Lydia and Eleanor here, there's no end of ways for the group to use fire to solve this puzzle. But... the box does count as a treasure chest, right? That's leaving a chest unopened... there could be neat stuff in there...?
More to the point, this Temple's design... is it intended to teach children how to navigate Digs, perhaps? It certainly seems that way...
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"You're probably right," Eleanor answers Elly. "But it would be nice if it were that simple, wouldn't it?" A beat, as she looks to Dean and Avril thoughtfully. "Yes... I suppose the world certainly isn't 'young' now, is it? Not even as those things go..." She keeps her own memories of younger days to herself, for now.
"Good question," she answers Yulie. Protect, or hinder? She doesn't know. Maybe neither.
In the next room, though--Eleanor looks around thoughtfully. "It's like a teaching puzzle," she notes. "Instructions to be followed, and the tools to do so. ..I think we should use this, instead of our own fire. For the spirit of the thing." She nods to Lydia.
Then she steps forward. "I know you're probably stronger than me," she admits to much of the party, especially Lydia, "But..." Her Power Bracelet glints at her wrist.
"I love using this." Eleanor uses mighty strength to pull the latch open!!!!
DG: Eleanor Klein has used her Tool Power Bracelet toward her party's challenge, Light the Flames.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"In the end, we are here entirely because of memories from the past. Some of them have a hard time going away," Noeline quietly chuckles to Dean's question. "And the Filgaia of today... well, I could imagine it having a lot of old memories it cannot give up. And a lot of regrets, too." She pauses, and continues: "I promise that sounded much less maudlin in my head."
Noeline gives Lydia a pat on the shoulder for good measure, not exactly encouraging her after the ghost, but certainly propelling her towards a friendly greeting to Yulie. Over the top of her daughter's head, she raises her eyebrows. "I am not sure there is much there but instinct and the faint echo of a memory. It may not 'mean' to do anything - it just does this because this is what it is."
She softens as Riesenlied's words, of course, but there's a quiet chuckle there as well. "Well, I certainly know I am _now_," she lightly teases. "Back then, I don't know that I would have thought the same way. I remember positively skulking through here the first time."
Some memory flickers in the back of her mind about what awaits them next; she blinks at the memory, thinking that surely she must have misremembered. Then her expression falls at the actual sight of what awaits them, and she gives it a comically glum stare. "Ah. Yes. I'm sure I knew deep-down that our ideas to teach Janey and Mikaia how to dig properly weren't just pulled out of nowhere," she sighs, bringing a hand to her forehead.
"As you've already seen, the village likes-- to teach its children indepedence." And possibly overexuberance in one case. She's content to stay back, because she's not about to begrudge any set-upon noble the chance to hulk out occasionally. "But honestly, this is terribly maintained. Once we're done here I'm fetching a tinderbox that isn't warped with damp."
By her feet, a 'cucco' - never mind the silvery sheen of an ARM pod underneath the disguise - slowly rolls into place alongside the tinderbox. The next youth to take this pilgrimage might find a lot more support than normal.
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Trouble toward her party's challenge, Light the Flames.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Oh right." Lydia says. "I guess if Noeline's been here before she knows how to solve everything right?"
She sliiides on over to Rebecca. "Hey." She says. "Rebecca. Hi. What's up? Been a minute. Kinda. You know. Outside of arguing with a child about veggies."
Lydia is incapable of wasting a treasure chest. Even if it's not neccessary. "I've got an idea...!" She says.
She raises a bat and smacks the latch really hard with her Good Luck Bat!
"How's that?" She asks. She'll save Tiebreaker for something really stuck.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly blinks at the clear and unambiguous instructions.
She looks at Eleanor. "That can't be this simple," Elly says.
At the discovery that the latches are jammed, Elly fumbles in her hip back, replacing her map and smearing it into an unfortunate shape that will no doubt amuse people when consulted later.
Elly gets out a tube of Gen-U-Wine Catfish Strike Paste, which, uncorked, seems to be some kind of silicon gel. (As she turns it over, the other side is revealed to be Gen-U-Wine Silicone Gel Lubricant - Guaranteed Chemical!) The smell is definitely artificial, and it may be faintly nostalgiac to Noeline and Riesenlied... because this is a product some enterprising Hyadaen is making on the Thames!!
Elly has no idea, because the Hyadaen person didn't do the marketing. As she smears the goo on the hinges, she tells Lydia, "I"m not sure about that. Memory can be a mutable thing... and it would have been a long time."
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Inventory Clutter toward her party's challenge, Light the Flames.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"Oh. That makes sense... I guess a ghost would have to be pretty old, huh," Dean muses. It's questionable if he *quite* gets it, but he does at least nod to Noeline and Avril both as though he does. He'd look much more confused if he *didn't* get it, so maybe it makes its own kind of sense to him. Meanwhile, as he runs off, he shouts over his shoulder at Elly, "The ghost's getting away!!"
Together, Rebecca and Dean manage to corral the spirit--thanks mostly to Rebecca's excellent follow-up, as Dean just sort of rushed off without thinking. But hey, it worked out in the end! When the apparition appears in a certain room and then vanishes through a door, Dean screeches to a halt. "Hey, floating through walls is cheating!" he calls. He turns to Rebecca. "Did you bring your portal guns? Maybe we can run through!"
That's not how this puzzle works, though. When he notices the instructions, he blinks. "Oh. Is that all? I can just...!" He pauses as he raises Twin Fenrir. "Um. I forgot to load the fire bullets... So I guess we can't use those..." He scrunches his face as he stares at the box marked Flint and Tinder. Then he brings out his Mountain Medium. "We'll just have to force the box open!!"
After casting a spell on himself to briefly invalidate damage, Dean goes to town trying to pry open the box. At least there's no need to worry about him hurting himself.
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Mountain Medium toward his party's challenge, Light the Flames.
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
A child-like spirit... bound here, but she doesn't seem tormented, at the least.
Yulie pauses for a moment as Lydia asks her who she is. She feels... just a little awkward, and shifts in place a little.
"...Um, I'm Yulie... Yulie Ahtreide." Yulie replies, then offers a smile.
A plan of action is secured! But they'll still have to track the Poe through the ruins, but they at least now have a good plan thanks to the mural up front. Yulie follows the others deeper in, where they find what appears to be... a puzzle! A simple one, one apparently designed for teaching.
"They have to have done a good job of it..." Yulie comments, thinking back to their welcoming as Noeline explains that the village likes to teach its children independence. ...Unfortunately, it looks like this one hasn't been maintained in a while. So, what to do...
"I... suppose you're right." Yulie admits as Eleanor points out that they should probably do things the way the creators of the temple intended, and sheepishly puts away the red gem she had been beginning to draw out. Of course, there are plenty strong people already working on prying the chest open, so her might just get in the way...
So instead she draws out a blue gem instead, for water. ...Just in case the fire they light ends up getting out of control.
DG: Yulie Ahtreide has used her Tool Magic Gem toward her party's challenge, Light the Flames.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"We think of it as antiquity, but in truth, it was the youth of the world," Avril says to Eleanor without looking her way. "How strange. As if it were in reverse..."
Rebecca speculates that rather than just the one meaning, it may have many. "Oh? So you think it might be 'nostalgia'... But is that not also a memory from 'younger times'? I suppose it is merely a matter of whether we should think they are referring to history or their own past..."
"Yes," Avril answers Dean, then. "Perhaps it is consumed by its memories. We can only hope that once we are finished here, it may again be able to rest."
Her gaze falls upon the map once she conclues her approach, and she studies it for what might seem an overly long moment.
"I wonder," Avril remarks to Riesenlied. "What had the Filgaia of yesterday been like? All we have to rely upon are those few things we have found. Was it truly so very different? Was it only the land, or were the people, too..."
All she has to go on is what she has found.
What she has heard.
But as they continue -- as they are lead on by the Poe -- they find themselves met with a puzzle with a seemingly easy solution. ...Except for one small problem. Avril watches a moment as the others make their attempts.
"Dean. Everyone. Please stand back," Avril says, and it's possible it is a warning well-worth taking. From seemingly nowhere, Avril produces Absolute Zero's hilt, and with a single tug of the finger, pulls the trigger. Light comes forth, so to speak, and with the plasma whip dancing in the air, she advances upon the box. She has a deft hand, for certain--
but one may still hope this is not 'too much'.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Absolute Zero Beam toward her party's challenge, Light the Flames.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
"It's because I think it's... a contradiction to say memories of younger days don't change. And that contradiction feels poetic. I don't remember everything from when I was a kid the older I get. But nostalgia... I look at it less as a memory and more feelings of yearning for those times..."
Rebecca allows herself this smile at Avril. "...I don't think that changes, no matter what fades, for anyone."
The beckoning ghost is something she doesn't appear to trust. Pointing her ARM at it as it beckons...
And then hesitating... "You must think I'm stupid."
Rebecca follows after it not too long after. Which leads her to join up with the other after Dean and her corral it, leading to a high five, before hesitating at the idea of using her portal guns. "I don't know... I get a bad feeling about the idea of trying to bypass the challenges by shooting a portal beyond those bars."
Lydia then sidles up - who was the original owner of those portal guns!
"Outside of that." She actually makes a small 'snerk' noise, and smiles. "It's good to see you with us Lydie."
The puzzle doesn't really seem like a puzzle compared to yanking the chest open. Rebecca just decides to sit back and let the others solve this.
Which causes her to tilt her head sidelong, and squint, "Dean what are you using to pry that open with!? You think those grow on trees?!"
Rebecca puts two fingers to her forehead and shakes her head, before then immediately watching as Avril takes the fore with absolute zero. Maybe she absolutely wants to see her precision cut open a box with her ARM.
DG: Rebecca Streisand has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Light the Flames.
==========================<* Keqili Forest Temple *>========================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Light the Flames *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- This hexagonal room is bereft of windows, and has four empty sconces mounted on the walls. The only way forward is barred behind iron gates. What makes this room truly unusual, however, is... 'LIGHT THE SCONCES WITH THESE TORCHES' For once, the instructions of how to proceed are very well-documented, engraved on a mural on the wall. Perhaps this was a training room for a younger audience? There's a child-sized box next to the mural, labelled 'Flint and Tinder', but... ... ah, it's really stuck. The latch won't budge at all... you're going to have to first pop this open. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Tire=============================================
=====================<* Keqili Forest Temple - Round 2 *>===================== ========================< Results - Light the Flames >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dean Stark 5 --(5)--> 10 Pass Mountain Medium 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Avril Vent Fleur 5 --(5)--> 10 Pass Absolute Zero Beam 3 Brute Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rebecca Streisand 5 --(5)--> 10 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Noeline 5 --(5)--> 10 Pass Trouble 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Eleanor Klein 5 --(5)--> 10 Pass Power Bracelet 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yulie Ahtreide 5 --(5)--> 10 Pass Magic Gem 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elhaym van Houten 21 --(5)--> 26 Pass Inventory Clutter 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Noeline 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Tire(2) Effects: Cleanse|Strengthen(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Noeline 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> Riesenlied has posed.
Rebecca explains about the poetic contradiction between the actual memory of younger days -- and how it's nostalgia that persists in one's mind, which is different from the actual memory...
It feels relevant, to their discussion about the Filgaia of yesterday.
"When the world was young..." Riesenlied whispers to herself, in thought of Eleanor and Avril's own musings. What would that have been like? asks Avril. She's heard much of the Zeboim, most recently from Leon's own ordeal in Wec Stann, and even then the world already seemed... jaded and old.
"... ... I have been feeling ... jaded about it, in truth," Riesenlied admits to Avril, "What we have seen in the last month or so has made the world feel... cynical and old. But... that is an unfair way to look at it. No doubt, there were many wonderful things in the past too."
Perhaps horrible echoes of the past have a way of being a less kind manner of nostalgia...
Noeline mentions it might not 'mean' to do much of anything, being only a figure of instinct and echoes... it does seem that way. Then, she teases, and Riesenlied can't help but giggle a little at the idea of a younger Noeline skulking through the ruins, dealing with ghosts...
"They once lived here, I imagine? I think Niaoguang said that. Before they were chased out..." Riesenlied remarks. "It looks like it may have been a lovely place, once."
Elly procures some kind of gel that smells... kinda familiar in a way that Riesenlied isn't expecting -- "Um... what is that paste, Elly? It reminds me of..." A pause. "Well, it reminds me of the halls of the Photosphere, and in our machinery, to be frank..."
Still, the gel does do its job, loosening it up for Lydia to CRACK the box even further loose with her Good Luck Bat. "Ah... I have not seen that bat in a while," Riesenlied muses with a quiet smile to her daughter.
Riesenlied looks to Yulie, then nods at Lydia again, perhaps noticing Yulie's slight discomfort. "Yulie is a trusted friend, Lydia, we met her not long ago..." The circumstances were a bit dire, but she's still glad to have met her.
Lydia can tell her Momming Instincts are on full blast already.
Avril takes to the box with Absolute Zero, and slices off a particularly obnoxious portion of it that's quite stuck. Dean protects himself using the Mountain Medium, (and maybe uses it as a coin to open the latch), and together with Eleanor useing the POWER BRACELET... they just tear the latch open. Hey, Find Tool Use Tool is like, the most fair game solution in Zelda games, so why not?
DG: Noeline has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* Keqili Forest Temple *>========================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Mini Master *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- You spot a sign just before the door to the next section of the Forest Temple: Get a good night's rest! Kids who're sneaking out will face... the Wall Master!! Before you can think on that point for too long, a Hand suddenly descends from above! ... unlike many other giant varieties for adults you may have encountered, this one seems ... kid-sized, and doesn't appear to have the grip strength to spirit you away. It's also notably more gentle with how it attempts to seize its captives. It seems like a bit of a shame to fight it, but... it's blocking the way forward. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Hesitate=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
The Poe flits just beyond, past a sign that's opportunistically stationed near some dormitories... or at least, what's left of them. It reads:
Get a good night's rest!
Kids who're sneaking out will face... the Wall Master!!
Riesenlied's face turns a little blue in horror, stammering, "O-oh dear, Wall Masters! We have faced them once, and it ended with all our progress wasted... is there one nearby--"
Oh no! Suddenly, a Hand descends from above! It grabs onto Riesenlied and threatens to take her back to the start of the dungeon!! "No!"
...
...
It lifts her and her wheelchair both up about... two feet off the ground, before struggling, and then dropping her with a discomfited 'oof!' from the Hyadean, a little groggy from the affair.
...
It seems a little upset that it can't do the job properly, and balls itself up into a fist at the group and starts bonking random people nearby!
"A-ah, um...."
Still, the Poe's getting away, so you have to deal with this one quick. Even if it feels a bit mean...?
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"Reverse, huh?" Eleanor looks to Avril, thoughtful. "You're right, though. We just see it the other way..." She considers that, and then the matter of history and memory versus nostalgia--she keeps some of that to herself. There is a lot she keeps to herself about that. But she listens. "...Poetic is right," she says to Rebecca.
But they do it as intended. And that's fine! And then there is--
"Wall Masters--here??" Riesenlied is grabbed and--And--.
"...Umm," Eleanor says, and pulls a Crest. She shines the light of buff on the others, to empower them to fight...!
"Try... not to be too hard on it," she suggests.
DG: Eleanor Klein has used her Tool Knightscrest toward her party's challenge, Mini Master.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"What? It's not gonna break from something like this, I cast a spell to make sure of that!" Dean protests to Rebecca. But then Avril asks that they stand clear, and he knows his best friend well enough that this is a warning well-heeded. He rolls out of the way, and Avril whips the box, and whips it good.
For a moment, he admires her handiwork; then he lets himself get distracted by Lydia and Rebecca's conversation to beam at the former. "Yeah, it's always great having you around, Lydie!" Does he know what they were talking about? Nope! That doesn't make his statement less true or heartfelt.
The Poe is just ahead. Dean perks when he spots it, then resumes the chase. But before he can reach it, Riese says something ominous. "What's a Wall Mast--"
HAND DESCENDS
GRABS RIESE
...DROPS RIESE
"...er."
Dean stares, somewhat dumbfounded, as the giant hand sulks. Then it starts bopping people on the head--starting with him?! "Ow!! Cut that out!!" Dean shouts, grabbing Ace of Spades from the back of his belt and swinging at the hand to try to ward it off.
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Ace of Spades toward his party's challenge, Mini Master.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"... you're not... exactly wrong. But I suppose the manner in which I would solve them has changed somewhat over time," Noeline admits towards Lydia. "Besides, I am much more aware of what the Temple - and rooms such as these - mean nowadays." Which is to say, she's not going to just take the tinder box as she might have considered in the past.
She looks back at the sign, sympathy flashing across her face together with a wry grin. It's one thing to call it a puzzle - it's another thing to consider that this too might just be the passage of time, the warping of the wood thanks to the damp. Maybe it's a Drifter thing to overthink things like this. Maybe that's part of the fun of it, she adds to herself thoughtfully.
With a glance to Avril, the other Hyadean chuckles. "I suppose we can't say. Or perhaps I should say that I'm not sure it is our place to say, and perhaps it is better that way. We have all done a lot of dwelling in the past as of late, and while we can learn from the past, I suspect it might be a little counterproductive to get stuck in it. A little looking forward instead never hurt anyone, I don't think."
She pairs that with a touch at Riesenlied's arm and a light smile. She can certainly understand where her partner is coming from, but the pragmatic part of her mind knows that there's nothing they can do about the actions of those in the past, however terrible they may have been. All they can do is try to ensure that the Fereshte and Wayside are better. "They were already outside by the time I came here - but there was definitely more traffic between village and temple. I suppose that's the fault of the distortion," she nods.
She stiffens in an instant at the sensation of air shifting, because she's dealt with these creatures before and found them deeply distasteful. In the blink of an eye, her sword flashes at the air above her - and completely whiffs, because the hand is much smaller than she expected and has completely failed to rise again. Lowering the slab of metal she's holding, she lets out a soft snort - even if her heart is still jolting a little in her chest.
"... it was a valiant attempt. Well done," she... tells it. Because if you look at it a certain oblique way, this is just another caretaker of the temple. "Though I think I got a lot more of a fright last time. Perhaps try and pick us off one by one next time, whenever there's stragglers."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"... you're not... exactly wrong. But I suppose the manner in which I would solve them has changed somewhat over time," Noeline admits towards Lydia. "Besides, I am much more aware of what the Temple - and rooms such as these - mean nowadays." Which is to say, she's not going to just take the tinder box as she might have considered in the past.
She looks back at the sign, sympathy flashing across her face together with a wry grin. It's one thing to call it a puzzle - it's another thing to consider that this too might just be the passage of time, the warping of the wood thanks to the damp. Maybe it's a Drifter thing to overthink things like this. Maybe that's part of the fun of it, she adds to herself thoughtfully.
With a glance to Avril, the other Hyadean chuckles. "I suppose we can't say. Or perhaps I should say that I'm not sure it is our place to say, and perhaps it is better that way. We have all done a lot of dwelling in the past as of late, and while we can learn from the past, I suspect it might be a little counterproductive to get stuck in it. A little looking forward instead never hurt anyone, I don't think."
She pairs that with a touch at Riesenlied's arm and a light smile. She can certainly understand where her partner is coming from, but the pragmatic part of her mind knows that there's nothing they can do about the actions of those in the past, however terrible they may have been. All they can do is try to ensure that the Fereshte and Wayside are better. "They were already outside by the time I came here - but there was definitely more traffic between village and temple. I suppose that's the fault of the distortion," she nods.
She stiffens in an instant at the sensation of air shifting, because she's dealt with these creatures before and found them deeply distasteful. In the blink of an eye, her sword flashes at the air above her - and completely whiffs, because the hand is much smaller than she expected and has completely failed to rise again. Lowering the slab of metal she's holding, she lets out a soft snort - even if her heart is still jolting a little in her chest.
"... it was a valiant attempt. Well done," she... tells it. Because if you look at it a certain oblique way, this is just another caretaker of the temple. "Though I think I got a lot more of a fright last time. Perhaps try and pick us off one by one next time, whenever there's stragglers."
DG: Noeline has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Mini Master.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly answers Avril, as they follow along with the Poe. "I think things were different back then... It's interesting to think about. The text in my Gear's systems is a lot more complex than what's typical in most, and it's got this sort of... archaic conversational style, even if I can still understand it perfectly well. I suppose it's an old dialect, something that's died out or evolved. People in five hundred years... They might find what we're saying now kind of funny, too!"
If...
"... Did people live down here?" Elly asks, as she sees the rooms that are very clearly actual spaces for living in, not simply areas to wander in. "I'm sorry if I completely missed that," she apologizes vaguely to Rieselied and Noeline, one hand going on her hip before
A HAND GRABS RIESENLIED AND HAULS HER UP!
Elly takes the opportunity to shriek! When the fist comes towards her, she has gotten her iron staff ready and parries, swinging round to smack against the fist with a loud KTANG of force. "You recognize them!?"
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool One Woman's Stout Iron Rod toward her party's challenge, Mini Master.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia says, "Hey, it's ok if you wnat to cheat I do it all the time." This might explain a lot about Lydia. She seems relieved to hear that from Rebecca. The smile seems real enough.
"I wanted to uh--see if you were ... okay? It's been nagging on me but I was too anxious last time and well--"
SUDDENLY.
You gotta HAND it to Riesenlied, this is a pretty HANDSY situation, and it looks like ALL HANDS may be required to handle it!
"Oh did you adopt Yulie too?" She asks Riesenlied but before Riesenlied even answers her she assumes this is the case and nods to Yulie. "Nice to meet you sis."
And then--
--RUFFLES HER HAIR with one hand while shooting Guardian powered lasers at the Hand. Carefully, because well. That's her mom that's being Handnapped!
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
"Yes. I... owe a lot to Miss Riesenlied and everyone of Wayside..." Yulie agrees with a nod as Riesenlied explains to Lydia that she's a friend.
Fortunately, her Water Gem doesn't need to be used, so it gets returned back to her coat. As they move forward, they find a sign warning of the 'Wall Master'. Before Yulie can even ask what that means... a hand descends to try to drag Riesenlied away! ...But it's rather small, so it can't.
"I feel like... we should probably be concerned about this, but..." Yulie considers. ...But, it's trying so hard, and seems relatively harmless...
"It feels a little, um, rude, but I think... this will be a good opportunity." Yulie says, drawing out a Crest Graph. She begins to cast some healing spells on the party to help deal with fatigue and any scratches or scrapes they might have gotten on the way in here, with a focus on Riesenlied due to her drop. It feels rude, because the Wallmaster is trying so hard and she's just using its presence as an opportunity to get some healing in while things are relatively safe...
In her other hand she holds a tight grip onto her holy symbol of Granas, which emits a faint, protective glow.
And then Lydia surprises her, by ruffling her hair!!
"O-oh, um, no... It's not quite like that..." Yulie replies with a shake of her head and a hint of red to her face. ...She has to admit, though, the affectionate gesture does feel kind of nice.
DG: Yulie Ahtreide has used her Tool Holy Symbol toward her party's challenge, Mini Master.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"A yearning..." Avril murmurs, glancing the once towards Rebecca.
"I see. But it is a longing one can only possess if they should remember the past to begin with. Is that not so?" She smiles even as she says that, not a single fragment of her expression giving over to anything less. "Then, I shall endeavor to either regain or possess enough memories to experience 'nostalgia'."
TWhen she speaks to Riesenlied, the latter admits to Avril that...
"...I see..."
Then: "I do not doubt it was so. Yet, it could not be simply so. I feel that..."
The darkness pooled in the corners of her heart shifts, as if speaking to her, as if she could almost understand. As if something could be inherited this way, from one Avril to the next Avril.
"...even then, there were things that I had wished to protect more than any other. They must have been beautiful, wonderful things or I would not have cherished them so." One hand lingers over her chest, as if it were a halfway attempt at prayer. "Even now," she says, her gaze moving from the map and off towards Dean and Rebecca, "there are such things in this world."
But speaking of Dean and Rebecca...
Is... Dean really using his Medium to...
Maybe there's more than one reason she explicitly told him to step aside.
Her control over such a dangerous weapon is as absolute as its name: she flicks off a piece that simply won't come free, removing it from the equation altogether. "There," she pronounces, before the whole thing is torn open.
"Dwelling in the past, is it. I wonder if that is what I am attempting to do, sometimes," she muses to Noeline, a slightly contrite smile on her lips. "But is that so?" she remarks to Elly, as they continue along. "I wonder whether I had once spoken so... or perhaps was it different among the Veruni? Oh, something is--"
And then a hand lunges down from above and grabs Riesenlied--!!
Avril advances upon it already, Absolute Zero transfigured back to its blade form. This may be just as well, considering it's having a go at Dean in its frustrated state.
"How dare you!" Avril pronounces, lunging for it with blade in hand.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Mini Master.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
Rebecca perhaps feels some momentary self doubt over Avril and Nostalgia. After all... she has no memories to begin with. And from what she knows of the Ice Queen... Yet... "I think you're right about that. There has to be some kind... of a memory of happiness or contentment to yearn for. Even if those memories... aren't perfect, there still must be one there." Yet still she finds herself smiling at her, "One day then. And when you know how it feels..."
She makes a gesture, a request perhaps, to share her feelings on it with Dean and her.
Right now however... she's scolding Dean mildly! "You think just because you put up a protective spell you can't still damage it Dean!? You've broken your way through plenty of protective spells-!"
Wait isn't that kind of a compliment in a way? Like she's saying Dean is strong enough that he could do it on accident? Either way though it's likely she's missing... that Avril is looking at her and Dean... or if she does, she doesn't know what she's saying to Riese.
On the hunt for the Poe-!
She turns to Lydia as she starts, and instead tries to say her own thoughts, "Hey I've been more worried about whether you've been okay or not Lydie-"
Rebecca hadn't taken the sign too seriously until Riese's explanation, it felt too much like a boogeyman story.
When... it reaches out and grabs her...
"Hey wait! Let her go!"
Taking out her Medium, she mentally considers what Ley Line she's on when...
"Wait what-!?"
Rebecca holds her Medium out, beginning to invoke it to take the shot and...
Then the energy dies away.
"Would this be bullying?" She actually considers to herself.
Until it starts bonking Dean on the head, then her! "Hey!"
She has decided that it is not. Despite Eleanor's request. She invokes the Ley, causing earth spikes to jut out of the wall.
... until she realizes that the Wall Master definitely appeared out of the wall. Will it even work!?
DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Sky Medium toward her party's challenge, Mini Master.
==========================<* Keqili Forest Temple *>========================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Mini Master *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- You spot a sign just before the door to the next section of the Forest Temple: Get a good night's rest! Kids who're sneaking out will face... the Wall Master!! Before you can think on that point for too long, a Hand suddenly descends from above! ... unlike many other giant varieties for adults you may have encountered, this one seems ... kid-sized, and doesn't appear to have the grip strength to spirit you away. It's also notably more gentle with how it attempts to seize its captives. It seems like a bit of a shame to fight it, but... it's blocking the way forward. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Hesitate=========================================
=====================<* Keqili Forest Temple - Round 3 *>===================== ==========================< Results - Mini Master >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dean Stark 10 --(0)--> 10 Pass Ace of Spades 3 Combat Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Avril Vent Fleur 10 --(8)--> 18 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rebecca Streisand 10 --(0)--> 10 Pass Sky Medium 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Noeline 10 --(0)--> 10 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Eleanor Klein 10 --(0)--> 10 Pass Knightscrest 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yulie Ahtreide 10 --(0)--> 10 Pass Holy Symbol 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elhaym van Houten 26 --(0)--> 26 Pass One Woman's Stout Iron Rod 2 Combat Effects: Stalwart ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Noeline 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Hesitate(2) Effects: Cleanse|Embolden(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Noeline 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. Rebecca Streisand (Rebecca) pages Avril Vent Fleur and Dean Stark: I was about to reference a thought from the game that Avril must feel /some/ kind of nostalgia... but I didn't remember whether Dean shared in the end or not... because he was specifically anxious about telling Rebecca that he couldn't turn down a girl's tears. Rebecca Streisand (Rebecca) pages Avril Vent Fleur and Dean Stark: So I dialed it back for now...
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Eleanor empowers the Drifter party with her Crest Sorcery -- and Dean doesn't take very kindly to getting bonked, hitting it back with... the Ace of Spades! The hand gets batted and kind of-- wiggles it around in the way one would if one just got swatted on the wrist. Ow, ow!
BAMF
Elly whacks it with her staff, and it definitely flops on the ground for a moment before rolling over, its knuckles bruised and sore! Ow, ow!
Yulie takes advantage of the relative difference in their power to do some spot healing on the group. ... the Mini Wall Master appears to notice that it's doing basically 1 damage compared to her powerful healing, and gets demoralised...
Then Avril takes to the task to attack the hand! Eeek! It manages to narrowly get its fingers cut off by Absolute Zero, but ow! That still stung! And yow! Those are earth spikes, from the wall it came out of! Isn't that just... cheating at this point?! That's like being attacked by its own home...
Noeline finds her swing whiffing, but perhaps it's... good? Well, it doesn't seem to be the most dire of threats. She tells it it's doing a good job and gives it some tips for next time!
... it gives Noeline a thumbs up, before vanishing. ... is that really okay?
Still, on the topic of looking at it from the reverse angle... it certainly is true. Isn't that one way in which the passage of time is quite funny? She listens to Elly talk about her Omnigear, and how there was a kind of archaic casualness to their conversational style. Perhaps in five hundred years, things will be different again...
Avril speaks of how there are things she wished to protect, more than any other. That they must have been beautiful and wonderful...
There's a quiet smile from Riesenlied, as she nods to Avril. "I... am sure you will protect them. I know that feeling well."
"Ah, yes..." Riesenlied answers Elly, in accompaniment to Noeline's explanation. "The Keqili Tribe used to dwell here, before they were chased out by monsters and other forces, it seems. I suppose they had a whole obstacle course to teach their children..."
A pause.
"The Fereshte were much the same way, and that is something they inherited, I suppose. They focused on the education of their young, because they would take the reins some day."
Another pause, at Rebecca's words. "... it is a powerful thing, I find... though sometimes--" she glances away. "Someone can find themselves protecting themselves with nothing but nostalgia..."
Then Lydia interrupts her out of her thoughts by asking if she's adopted Yulie. Riesenlied's cheeks steam red as she stammers, "I--I did not! T-that would be rude..." The way her horns waggle rapidly is very telling, though.
DG: Noeline has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* Keqili Forest Temple *>========================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Under Block and Key *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Even in the midst of the Forest Temple, shrouded from public view and separated from the mainland by myriad barriers, Drifters can find their immortal nemesis (no, not doors; the OTHER immortal nemesis): Block Puzzles! Oh boy, this is the extra-large version too, with blocks about two by two meters in size. They have various engravings on them, representing the stars, the sun and the moon and seem to be associated with some kind of... really easy puzzle, actually? Though the amount of effort doesn't change regardless. You can see some faded scribbles on some of the blocks too. One block has an umbrella with two obscured names under it, another has what looks like a sword-wielding hero and a monster... Perhaps some kids who had to do these puzzles as part of their training instead loitered and scribbled around instead, a long time ago... =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
The Poe drifts away, towards a larger portion of the Temple that definitely looks to be used as a training area. It's a very familiar setup, with a lowered portion of the floor intended for pushing two-by-two meter-tall stone blocks carved with symbols of the Moon, the Stars, and the Sun. There's some kind of... very simple puzzle here, since the symbols themselves are also on the ground.
Solving it isn't the challenge. It's just the hard work. Maybe it's for strength training?
... the blocks look well used, and they have... scribbles on them. One block has a little umbrella with two names on it, like someone's wishing their crush would notice them... another has what appears to be a sword-wielding hero and a monster...
...
It's kind of easy to imagine kids being too bored and lazy to do a heavy block pushing puzzle, and instead just messing around in here.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"...I admit," Eleanor says, "While I have so much to learn from the past in my research--in my personal life, it's the future that most appeals now. I feel like so much is ahead of us..."
She pauses, then, to listen to the matter of the archaic style. "They probably will!" she says to Elly. "it's fascinating how that changs over time..." Then, "...I hope that you can have that 'nostalgia', Avril. It is... a good feeling."
Something she wished to protect--beautiful, wonderful things. "Yes, the past certainly held those as much as the future does--surely, the people of the past had their own joys and convictions, some of which we now carry with us today."
Hmm. Is Avril dwelling in the past? Eleanor can't say. She's not likely to say. "The past is our foundation; it's not unreasonable to want to know it."
"The Keqili tribe... that name seems familiar," leanor reflects to Riesenlied. The matter of nostalgia being all one's shield, though--she looks sympathetic at Riesenlied. And rather than talk of adoption, she moevs forward with the challenge. And it's... simple. But the names...
"...Hmm," Eleanor says. "This drawing... this particular rendition of a hero..."
She looks at it very thoughtfully before she hefts her Power Bracelet and gets to work on one of the huge blocks. "Let me handle this one!!"
...but she's just one woman, and there are many blocks!
DG: Eleanor Klein has used her Tool Power Bracelet toward her party's challenge, Under Block and Key.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"Well yeah, but I was using ARMS! This time I'm just hitting it on a lock! It's not gonna chip from something like that!" Dean argues back at Rebecca. But he's moved aside for Avril, and the box has been busted open, so it's all good now. He puts the Artificial Mountain Medium back in his pocket, where it will safely stay until the next time Dean needs to knock something open.
The Wall Master Fist thing is vanquished! Dean pumps a fist as he puts Ace of Spades away, then looks around at the others. "Everyone okay?" he asks. He pauses when Riesenlied explains the forest temple to Elly, though--specifically at the part that this is apparently a dungeon for kids. "Wait, is *that* why everything keeps kind of weird and... not very dangerous?" he wonders. "Educating the kids, huh... That's actually really neat!"
Nostalgia for Avril... Dean gives her a worried little look, remembering all the issues she has with her memory loss, but--he's not going to be such a downer that he brings that up here and now.
Good thing there's a block-moving puzzle up ahead! No need to even use a Medium for this one; Dean can just plain use his muscles!
Assuming of course Eleanor doesn't Power Bracelet them all out of the way first.
DG: Dean Stark has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Under Block and Key.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
With a chuckle, Noeline nods to Elly's comment, confirming it along with Riese. "Once upon a time, yes. The people of the village outside used to shelter and live within these walls, I gather. I don't actually know why they stopped," she admits after a faint frown crosses her face. "It may have just been simply a matter of space, I suppose. It doesn't look like a bad place to bring up a tribe, but some outdoors is always necessary. But I really never thought about asking before, and it feels like it might be rude to do so now."
Looking back, she has to wonder about that part of her. That devil-may-care curiosity is something that's been tempered over time; not lost, but not quite as completely fearless as it was in the past.
Her eyebrows raise at the common thread of discussion around Yulie's parenthood, and Riesenlied's bashful panic in response. She has long-since become used to the idea of steadily growing into Mom-hood, which is her own brand of parenting that is ever so slightly different to motherhood; amongst other things, it involves knowing when to studiously avoid opening her mouth, the better to not give anyone any ammunition for teasing.
With a soft snort at the creature's gesture to her, she can't help but feel a little proud as it vanishes away. Maybe they've helped one tradition carry on a little longer than it otherwise would have, and maybe she can feel a little satisfaction in that. Small steps, perhaps, but it's a step nonetheless.
Still unhurried, she helps wheel her partner along after the Poe. There's very little concern to her as far as running the spirit down is concerned. Rather, she can feel a certain sense of weight behind the Poe's course, as if its goal is to show them the temple and its history rather than elude their grasp. That perhaps what would satisfy it the most is to ensure that they take it all in along the way.
Perhaps it's a little hypocritical to think that way right after talking so much about looking forwards instead, but at least that lets her consider it with a fond smile. It only fades a little as Eleanor once against bolts forwards to start manhandling giant blocks. "Have you... considered a vacation, perhaps?" she ventures. "It feels like you may be in need of one."
DG: Noeline has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Under Block and Key.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Oh! Uh." Lydia says, glancing to Riesenlied's horns. "How is...adopting someone rude?"
She kind of lets that hang for a moment because she sees wiggling horns and well Lydia, who also has horns, has a PRETTY GOOD ability to read horn language even if her own horns don't waggle. She probably COULD get them to waggle if she wanted but maybe she's still a little shy about waggling her horns after her FAMILY TRAUMA.
But she does crouch down to examine the blocks for a moment and will push them as directed but her focus is on Yulie and Rebecca for the moment.
"Oh um. I'm ... I'm doing alright. Seraphita basically recruited me so I'm hoping that results in me having to deal with less racism. The fact I can kick most of their butts doesn't hurt but it's just rough knowing that at any moment Krelian can just be like YOINK. But he hasn't yet and probably lost interest in me which is kinda even more frustrating in a way but--"
She glances to Yulie. "Well--you sure about that?"
She lets that hang too but she's smiling. Anybody Riesenlied wants to mother is probably someone who needs one, honestly.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Block puzzles -- but they're not disappearing blocks. Elly exhales.
She glances for a moment over at the talk of adoption, thinking for a moment of Emeralda. But it didn't feel quite like that, did it? Elly thinks, as she regards the drawings. "They're charming...and, mm. If we can reclaim this place, do you think it might be useful for them? A place to come live, to use for other purposes..."
"Building it must have been quite a project..."
Lydia then says something.
Elly struggles with herself, then yields to temptation. "Recruited you?" she asks Lydia. "... Do you mean, as an Element?" She sounds anxious about this, if anything. "Sorry to butt in."
elly help solve the puzzle
(no)
Elly does produce a wrapped-up cloth sheet containing slivers of smoked salmon jerky, which she carefully unfolds and then proffers to others. It has a light honey glaze!
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Inventory Clutter toward her party's challenge, Under Block and Key.
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
"Yes, I'm alright." Yulie replies with a nod toward Dean as he asks after their condition. She stows away her Crest Graph, and pauses at Riesenlied's response. The waggling horns...
The Wall Master vanishes and they can proceed further into the ruins, where they can find... a simple block puzzle! The answer is on the floor itself, so it's just a matter of pushing. But... Yulie studies it with a frown, nothing the various scribbles and drawings this place has accumulated.
"...I'd hate to ruin them..." Yulie murmurs with a frown. Those drawings are something someone left here, a sign of their existence... she could use an earth gem to push the blocks, but that runs the risk of damaging the scribbles on the ground. So instead she uses a wind gem, to aid those pushing the blocks with a buoying breeze that might help them move faster.
She looks toward Lydia, then, listening as she answers Rebecca's question... and then as Lydia responds to her.
...Is she sure?
"...I don't know... It's just..." Yulie admits after a moment, trailing off. It's not like she really knows what it feels like, she can't really remember ever having a caring guardian...
...Which, if anything, probably proves Lydia's point.
DG: Yulie Ahtreide has used her Tool Magic Gem toward her party's challenge, Under Block and Key.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"I will," she promises Rebecca. "Whether it is memories from the day that we met or from even longer ago than that." Someday, she will have nostalgia, that tender pain of reminiscence.
It's the future that appeals, but the past that is the foundation. "I wonder..." Avril remarks, silent this past few otherwise. "If that is so, then what is 'now'? It seems at times that 'now' barely exists as it transforms into the past. But neither does it cease to exist or there would be no way to discern past from future," she continues, likely treading into the avenues of thought more commonly frequented by philosophers or others of less repute. Of course, there is currently -- to speak of the 'now' -- an enemy hand with which to attend.
It is, all things considered, a little bit hard to hit a hand. ...Even one the size of a (small) Wall Master.
"Is everyone alright?" Avril asks, giving the lot of them the once-over. No one seems much the worse for wear for... that.
"I am glad to know that you think so," she tells Riesenlied. "There are times when... but there is still more that I must understand. I am still learning."
The things that she must protect are still wonderful and beautiful. And painful, and exhausting. In a way, those things hardly feel as if they deter her.
They move onwards in their hunt of the Poe, but what faces them here is...
...an ancient block puzzle. An ancient, oversized block puzzle. Approaching one of the blocks, Avril pauses a moment, one hand reaching out as if to trace a drawing with a gloved finger. Her lips move. Almost. Almost, something...
Perhaps it might be Rebecca who will realize that Avril has something in her other hand. A familiar something, its covering already flipped back, her thumb easing stiffly as if it were threaded by some distant cord, over an equally-familiar cherry-red button.
Avril presses it. The room trembles.
She blinks, as if coming back to herself. "Oh? --Oh!"
The trembling hasn't stopped.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Remote Golem Override toward her party's challenge, Under Block and Key.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
Rebecca gives Riese a look, then just sorta, closes her eyes and nods after a moment, "Yeah. That might be so."
Rebecca may feel herself in a rush to... grow up so to speak, but even she finds she's not immune to yearning for simpler times when she sees how complicated, and how big their world has become since setting out from Capo Bronco.
Avril's words bring a smile to her face, which seems merely to say it all, even before she speaks the words, "Well... whichever it might be. I'll looking forward to what you find at the end of the road... and what you look back to find."
Perhaps for just a moment, those words that the day that they met, that Dean, Avril and her began travelling together might become her feelings of anxiety... it staves off any anxiety she might feel.
"That's pretty deep." Rebecca says, not thinking of herself as much of a philosopher as Avril, "I suppose I just see now as our current marker in the road. Keep pushing forward... and you've passed it... it's no longer beside you. But... that doesn't mean it was never there."
Rebecca is perhaps skeptical but still she doesn't argue the point further. It may be a bit of projecting... she always has worried if some stray carelessness could damage their mediums.
Whereas Lydia's evaluation DOESN'T make her any less anxious. "Look if..." She starts, then sighs, and stops, "We'll figure out something. Just hold on."
She vows again. As despite Lydia saying she's alright and things are possibly better - she does not sound alright.
With the Wallmaster gone, Rebecca waves Avril's way at her question, before they get to the room with the oversized block puzzles, while chasing that Poe.
Rebecca may be stretching out her limbs and cracking her knuckles. When she sees Avril handling the control, and calls out.
"Everyone get back-!"
Avril looks like she's not... quite here. And so... her action is simply to try to yank Avril back a safe distance.
She has a feeling that trembling is about to lead to something...
Big.
DG: Rebecca Streisand has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Under Block and Key.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"Is it?" Riesenlied muses to Eleanor. "I confess, I am not certain about where the name came from... I know they were the Fereshte once before, or an offshoot, but as to where they adopted the names... it perhaps came from a nearby land or another." Perhaps what was once Guild Galad, in the past? It's hard to tell... but the naming has one such similarity.
Noeline says she isn't sure why they stopped using the Temple; it could be a matter of size, and they outgrew it; Riesenlied suspects they were chased out by danger, of some regard... but it's not terribly easy to guess at the why and how, at this point.
She does kinda puff at her, though, since Noeline's silence is usually accompanied by a teasing smirk. "Still... I... discovering that your Medium is also one of the two the Fereshte had... it really does feel beyond a coincidence, does it not?"
Can they reclaim it, though, asks Elly? "That might be an idea for another time, for them... if they are interested, I would certainly be eager to assist them."
Dean mentions about how it's a dungeon for kids -- and how that's neat. There's a quiet smile from Riesenlied in turn. "I think it is a fond idea, is it not? People letting their children grow however they may..."
A pause, and a bit of a guilty look at Yulie, for a moment.
That's when Lydia asks how adopting someone is rude, and Riesenlied gets a bit cutely tongue-tied. "W-well... just, um..." Oh no! Owned by simple logic! She flits her glance aside once more, before smiling a bit more bashfully. "Still, I am happy to help Yulie in any way I can."
Maybe she's just proven Lydia's point but EEEEEEH
She's distracted by the more sobering talk about how Seraphita's recruited her, and... Elly mentions 'as an Element?' She pauses to think about that for a moment. Seraphita really impressed her last time, and they had that honest talk about the third class block... ... hopefully she's someone who can look after Lydia when she can't. Mom Calculus operating, beep beep. See? Mom Mode 24/7.
Avril mentions she's glad she thinks so; there's a tender little smile as she says, "Let us learn together, then. It is not as if I understand or know everything myself, after all." She smiles at Rebecca in turn as she says that now is just a current marker in the road. "That is good thinking, Rebecca."
Dean's ready to use Muscles, the Muscles of Youth! Doesn't even need a Medium for this one, it's all Easy. Or is it all Large? Yulie utilises a wind gem out of deference for the scribbles on it, which helps shift it around easier for Dean.
Still, Eleanor is on hand with POWER BRACELET, which means the blocks are about as light as feathers for her. She snickers along with Noeline, as if to say, "It almost seems like it is therapeutic to her...?"
Riesenlied sneaks some salmon as she watches, since she really has no torque by which she can push blocks with on her chair. She feels a bit guilty, though...
But then, the room trembles, trembles, and... and...
BOOM
A Friend-shaped Golem, Ally to all Children everywhere, emerges. It's... Big Shal! Who appears a little bit more... Poe-shaped, her body coloured as if it were a pumpkin with a Jack-o style decoration on her belly. She's got spooooooooooky halloween rags taped around her sides, and has fake Dracula teeth glued onto her mouth.
A certain Veruni child in an environmental suit currently dressed like a witch surfaces out in a daze. "W-where the heck are we, Big Shal?? W-what happened to Trick or Treating??" The Minder's eyes are a-swirling. @_@
Big Shal pushes a block a single direction, which just so happens to be enough to solve the puzzle, before giving a Thumbs Up to Avril and hopping back down the hole she came from, taking Minder with her.
...
- -1 FILLER MUST BE ONE CHARACTER
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"Is it?" Riesenlied muses to Eleanor. "I confess, I am not certain about where the name came from... I know they were the Fereshte once before, or an offshoot, but as to where they adopted the names... it perhaps came from a nearby land or another." Perhaps what was once Guild Galad, in the past? It's hard to tell... but the naming has one such similarity.
Noeline says she isn't sure why they stopped using the Temple; it could be a matter of size, and they outgrew it; Riesenlied suspects they were chased out by danger, of some regard... but it's not terribly easy to guess at the why and how, at this point.
She does kinda puff at her, though, since Noeline's silence is usually accompanied by a teasing smirk. "Still... I... discovering that your Medium is also one of the two the Fereshte had... it really does feel beyond a coincidence, does it not?"
Can they reclaim it, though, asks Elly? "That might be an idea for another time, for them... if they are interested, I would certainly be eager to assist them."
Dean mentions about how it's a dungeon for kids -- and how that's neat. There's a quiet smile from Riesenlied in turn. "I think it is a fond idea, is it not? People letting their children grow however they may..."
A pause, and a bit of a guilty look at Yulie, for a moment.
That's when Lydia asks how adopting someone is rude, and Riesenlied gets a bit cutely tongue-tied. "W-well... just, um..." Oh no! Owned by simple logic! She flits her glance aside once more, before smiling a bit more bashfully. "Still, I am happy to help Yulie in any way I can."
Maybe she's just proven Lydia's point but EEEEEEH
She's distracted by the more sobering talk about how Seraphita's recruited her, and... Elly mentions 'as an Element?' She pauses to think about that for a moment. Seraphita really impressed her last time, and they had that honest talk about the third class block... ... hopefully she's someone who can look after Lydia when she can't. Mom Calculus operating, beep beep. See? Mom Mode 24/7.
Avril mentions she's glad she thinks so; there's a tender little smile as she says, "Let us learn together, then. It is not as if I understand or know everything myself, after all." She smiles at Rebecca in turn as she says that now is just a current marker in the road. "That is good thinking, Rebecca."
Dean's ready to use Muscles, the Muscles of Youth! Doesn't even need a Medium for this one, it's all Easy. Or is it all Large? Yulie utilises a wind gem out of deference for the scribbles on it, which helps shift it around easier for Dean.
Still, Eleanor is on hand with POWER BRACELET, which means the blocks are about as light as feathers for her. She snickers along with Noeline, as if to say, "It almost seems like it is therapeutic to her...?"
Riesenlied sneaks some salmon as she watches, since she really has no torque by which she can push blocks with on her chair. She feels a bit guilty, though...
But then, the room trembles, trembles, and... and...
BOOM
A Friend-shaped Golem, Ally to all Children everywhere, emerges. It's... Big Shal! Who appears a little bit more... Poe-shaped, her body coloured as if it were a pumpkin with a Jack-o style decoration on her belly. She's got spooooooooooky halloween rags taped around her sides, and has fake Dracula teeth glued onto her mouth.
A certain Veruni child in an environmental suit currently dressed like a witch surfaces out in a daze. "W-where the heck are we, Big Shal?? W-what happened to Trick or Treating??" The Minder's eyes are a-swirling. @_@
Big Shal pushes a block a single direction, which just so happens to be enough to solve the puzzle, before giving a Thumbs Up to Avril and hopping back down the hole she came from, taking Minder with her.
...
~Happy Halloween~
from Big Shal and Minder, oooooooo~...
==========================<* Keqili Forest Temple *>========================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Under Block and Key *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Even in the midst of the Forest Temple, shrouded from public view and separated from the mainland by myriad barriers, Drifters can find their immortal nemesis (no, not doors; the OTHER immortal nemesis): Block Puzzles! Oh boy, this is the extra-large version too, with blocks about two by two meters in size. They have various engravings on them, representing the stars, the sun and the moon and seem to be associated with some kind of... really easy puzzle, actually? Though the amount of effort doesn't change regardless. You can see some faded scribbles on some of the blocks too. One block has an umbrella with two obscured names under it, another has what looks like a sword-wielding hero and a monster... Perhaps some kids who had to do these puzzles as part of their training instead loitered and scribbled around instead, a long time ago... =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken===================================================
=====================<* Keqili Forest Temple - Round 4 *>===================== ======================< Results - Under Block and Key >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dean Stark 10 --(5)--> 15 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Avril Vent Fleur 18 --(5)--> 23 Pass Remote Golem Override 4 Brute Effects: None ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rebecca Streisand 10 --(13)--> 23 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Noeline 10 --(5)--> 15 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Eleanor Klein 10 --(5)--> 15 Pass Power Bracelet 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yulie Ahtreide 10 --(5)--> 15 Pass Magic Gem 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elhaym van Houten 26 --(5)--> 31 Pass Inventory Clutter 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Noeline 60 --(20)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Fright(1)|Hesitate(1)|Weaken(2) Effects: Cleanse|Strengthen(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Noeline 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: Noeline has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* Keqili Forest Temple *>==========================
==============<* CHALLENGE - My Guardian Is Bigger Than Yours *>==============
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
You finally discover a passage to the very sanctum of the Forest Temple,
using an elevator that takes you deep underneath Filgaia to the very roots
of the forest.
The final chamber is a twinned altar to two Guardians:
One depicts the Guardian of Illusion, Duras Drum, as a powerful, possibly
demonic, bipedal beetle. The other altar depicts a butterfly-winged unicorn,
the Guardian of Life, Odoryuk.
5rBoth altars have an octagonal slot where something akin to an Artificial
Medium may once have rested, but... both are empty now, their respective
relics in the possessions of another.
Life... is full of illusions.
No matter how hard we tried to hold on...
To the sincerity of our childhood...
Eventually... as we all grew up... ...
The voices echo in unison, gathering around as four Poe sisters emerge into
sight.
But just once more...
Before we go...
Let's play honestly, truthfully, without illusion...
Just like we did in simpler times!
The Poes raise their arms, and gather into one impressive spectral entity --
not unlike that of Duras Drum... with... two giant swords, riding a white
unicorn flying on SIX butterfly wings.
It might not carry the actual power of the Guardians, but it instead carries
the power of something precious:
The power of a child's imagination.
Ready yourself!
=Dungeon Conditions: Wonder, Wound============================================
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Huh? Oh no, all the Elements are accounted for plus I don't use Ether so." Lydia says. This is true as far as she knows at least. She thinks if she COULD that would be pretty troubling as it'd be another template to stack and she's got more than she wants of that as it is. "I'm going to stand on puzzle switches with her when it needs to be two people instead of just like one person. She does too many pullups. Hanging off her giant robot. Did you know that?"
Lydia has shut off the part of her psyche that expresses how fucked up her situation is--not like all the way off but it doesn't get anywhere near her FEELINGS barring some kind of intense push about it. She is very 'this is fine dog' these days which, welll, is pretty typical for Lydia. But she's pretty grateful Rebecca can tell she's not ACTUALLY doing fine.
Maybe Rebecca is very good at sensing when people are bottling feelings up inside? Or maybe she's just very experienced at it? OR BOTH?
SUDDENLY HAPPY HALLOWEEN??
"Aww....! That's cute!"
She looks back to Yulie. "Yeah don't worry about it. We can try out 'sis' and if you don't like it I can drop it. And mom can try out mom stuff."
She nods firmly. "It's like a Trial Family period."
SHe's doing her best.
DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Sky Medium toward her party's challenge, My Guardian Is Bigger Than Yours.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Finally, at long last, the Poe is captured! It agrees to readily relinquish the flame it's holding onto, and with some careful storage, the flame is deposited into Yulie's Wonder Staff for safekeeping.
It's not a long trek back towards the elevator, which readily activates once the flame is deposited. It descends, into the earth, a very familiar trip for Noeline at this point...
And...
There it is.
A very familiar room for her, with twinned altars to two Guardians. The other altar might have not made much sense to her then, but it is clear: it is an altar to the Guardian of Life, Odoryuk.
And the other... the Guardian of Illusions, Duras Drum.
Both altars have an octagonal slot where something akin to the Original Artificial Mediums may once have rested, but they are... empty now.
For very obvious reasons.
Then, suddenly:
Life... is full of illusions.
No matter how hard we tried to hold on...
To the sincerity of our childhood...
Eventually... as we all grew up... ...
The voices echo in unison, gathering around as four Poe sisters emerge into sight.
But just once more...
Before we go...
Let's play honestly, truthfully, without illusion...
Just like we did in simpler times!
The Poes raise their arms, and gather into one impressive spectral entity -- not unlike that of Duras Drum... with... two giant swords, riding a white unicorn flying on SIX butterfly wings.
It might not carry the actual power of the Guardians, but it instead carries the power of something precious:
The power of a child's imagination.
Riesenlied hesitates for a moment, looking up at the awe-inspiring sight of... well, both their patron Guardians, reimagined rather fancifully. She looks towards Noeline, biting her lip... then nods.
"... it feels as if a very strange and winding path has taken us here, but it does feel as if we have been called here for a very important reason. Then, to let the children rest peacefully ..."
Riesenlied breathes, as the very thrum of the Ley reverbs around her -- and she raises her hand to focus her energies upon the Medium of Life, the echo of Odoryuk emanating around her, empowering the Drifters with shields and healing energy.
"Let us go...!"
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"I just had one!" Eleanor reports cheerfully to Noeline. "And it's been wonderful." Elly hands out snacks. Eleanor is very fond of Elly in this moment. But also Dean, who asks if they're okay, and Eleanor replies, "I'm fine!" Riesenlied muses on the origin of a name, and Eleanor can't say for sure. "I just think I've read about it before--it may be some other precursor of the same group..."
She is very cheerful about using her Power Bracelet. Despite Lydia's difficulties. In fact, she looks at Lydia and Yulie for a moment, and finds she may not hav anything to say, but she can give them a supportive look!!
While Avril... "That's a thorny question," Eleanor admits. "I confess, sometimes I lose track of now and then..." But then, she sees the future. She would have a unique problem with that. But Rebecca has a nice iea on it.
And there's--Big Shal!?
"Hi, Minder," Eleanor greets cheerfully, admiring Big SHal's costume. And that is that.
Down the elevator... And there, to the four Poe sisters. Eleanor watches them, solemn, and remembers that sincerity. It makes her smile, to see that innocence--that innocence made manifest, in this... entity.
"...Yes," Eleanor agrees with Riesenlied. "It's something we can do..."
To engage with them openly, honestly. Eleanor pulls a Crest, and gives the power of Wing and Fray to empower their weapons and perhaps their hearts, and pulls not her gun--but a rod of ice.
"Onward!" It will make lovely paterns through their battle.
DG: Eleanor Klein has used her Tool Knightscrest toward her party's challenge, My Guardian Is Bigger Than Yours.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"... I wonder if they would wish to reclaim it, to be honest - but ultimately, that is up to them and the tribe as a whole," Noeline notes to Elly's thought process. "I am sure they would want to keep access to the place for worship, but it may just be that the tribe has found itself happier with more space. Still, we can at least try to ensure they have the option."
"'Now' is where we live," Riesenlied hums back to Avril. As someone who used to live purely for the sake of it, she'd like to think she's a bit of an expert. "It barely exists, but we can never get rid of it either. It's something important to keep in mind; forgetting about it tends to be very unpleasant in the long run," she notes, only slightly tongue-in-cheek. "Ah, but try not to over-indulge too much."
She gives a lazy shrug with a lopsided grin. "I am not exactly a philosopher, unfortunately."
"Normally I would say something like 'it really does'," she adds to Riesenlied as that wry grin redoubles its strength. "But after all of our dealings with Duras Drum, I think I am at the point where I cannot believe in any sort of coincidence. Two Hyadeans, two linked Guardians. One pair stays with a Baskar tribe in Elru, the other Hyadean finds the other Guardian in Aquvy-- and that Guardian decides to 'make a change'. I doubt they would ever admit to it, but I think the tinkering had a distinct end in mind beyond trying to explode my face off."
"That is why I am worrying," she adds back to Riese as far as the topic of Eleanor is concerned - before the ground suddenly ruptures under Avril's command. "Er--" is as far as she can get throughout the entire interaction, partially because she's speechless and partially because she is not entirely sure if she imagined it. Even the floor has been carefully put back in place afterwards.
She's silent for a long moment, and then decides to simply make a conscious effort to not think about it any further. The sanctum awaits them ahead, and she can feel a tightening in her chest as she slows down, purposefully retracing her steps. "When I was here last, the air positively thrummed. I was completely drawn in," she mutters in a tone of voice that suggests she's feeling the same thing now.
She lifts her head to the gaggle of spirits, looking at them - but also through them, lost in memories. "I am sorry for not playing with you last time I was here," she murmurs under her voice. "... I was someone just a little different then."
There's a shift in the air, and the spectral combination of two Guardians is facing them down, as the cheer of play rises around her. She can't help but meet the sight of it with a fierce grin, a ripple of Duras Drum's power around her. When she draws her sword-- well, perhaps it's a bit childish of her to tap into her Medium enough to make it shimmer and spark with a deep violet light, or form the metal into a shape that is a whole lot more ornamental and carved than the flat slab it usually is.
But that's the whole point.
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Rings of Promise toward her party's challenge, My Guardian Is Bigger Than Yours.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Yulie, Eleanor, and the others confirm they're fine. Dean gives them a thumbs-up and a wide smile. "Great! Let's get going, then!"
A block puzzle ensues. Not just any battle, either. Avril brings out the Golem Button, and Dean pivots with sparkling eyes to see... BIG SHAL! "WOOHOO! BIG SHAL!! HI!! GREAT TO SEE YA!!!" he shouts with pure, unadulterated enthusiasm, waving his arms at the Friend to All Children as she sets that last big block into place.
Beyond there... a room, with two altars. They're empty, but voices within chime out as the Poe sisters fade into view. "Oh!" he utters, blinking. "You wanna play?" He looks around, then smiles as he gets out his trusty shovel once again. "Okay! Let's have as much fun as we can, then, until you're ready to rest for good!"
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Ace of Spades toward his party's challenge, My Guardian Is Bigger Than Yours.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
One day, she'll have enough to look back on and reflect. One day, one way or another.
"'Now is where we live'," she echoes Noeline. "Yes. That, I know. But it is so strange. Something that barely exists can change our future, or even how we reflect upon our past."
Blue eyes turn towards the one who has become quite dear to her. "'Now is a road marker'... that is a good way of thinking of it," Avril tells Rebecca. "It is not gone, after all, even if I can no longer walk back to again pass it by. But I can turn back and see what was 'now' standing behind me. ...It is not that I do not have a 'past'," she concludes, "rather, that my past 'now' is not terribly long. In time it is certain that I will have more of 'now' behind me."
"I merely do not know what it might appear as, someday."
They're the sort of conversational topics that give junior philosophers ulcers, honestly. Perhaps the Ice Queen had once been given to expounding on the nature of time and reality in such a way...
Rebecca notices it first and hauls Avril back as she returns to the here and 'now'. "Rebecca, I-- it was as if I were some sort of trance and-- oh,"
The wall breaks open. Avril draws back even while in Rebecca's arms, as if preparing herself for the worst, but,
but it's not some mindless, fractured, uncontrolled save by the whim impressed upon it by the device Avril bears. It's Big Shal!
"Big Shal!" Avril cries out, right on cue as the Golem trundles over and pushes a particular block and... solves the puzzle.
"Was that Minder?" Avril wonders, once she's gone on her way.
With the last flame in their grasp, they return to the beginning, to the elevator that had beckoned back at the start of all of this. And they descend into the depths.
Avril hardly dares to speak in a place like this, as if uneasy about what might come forth as she takes in first the murals...
"Ah...!"
And then the empty altars, both featuring an empty slot in a familiar shape, which tears any hope of remaining quiet away from her. Starting forth a couple of steps, Avril gets only about that far before voices speak up about them all. Before the Poes manifest, and bring about...
"...I see. Then, if it is a fight you wish," Avril says as they summon forth their own 'Guardian'. Avril has brought Absolute Zero up before her in a salute.
And then races to meet the Guardian's charge without fear or hesitation.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, My Guardian Is Bigger Than Yours.
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
"U-umm... okay." Yulie replies as Lydia makes a suggestion, perhaps buoyed a little by that supportive look from Eleanor. A trial family period... It's worth a try at least, isn't it? ...She wonders what her brother would think about it - wonders where he is now.
Finally, they manage to close in on the Poe. Yulie holds out her Wonder Staff to accept the flame, using it to light the torches once they return. And then... they descend, to a room with an altar and two octagonal slots. She looks, briefly, between Riesenlied and Noeline.
And then... there's a voice - four voices, in fact, as four Poe sisters emerge into view.
"You want to... play?" Yulie repeats. "...Okay. Then, we can play with you."
She nods, then, toward Riesenlied. ...It's true. And isn't this her own duty, to let the earthbound spirits find peace? In that way... it was important that she came here.
This is a place of Odoryuk(and Duras Drum, but she does not have that particular Code)... Would it be blasphemous to call upon Code O here, in this place? But... it feels like the appropriate thing to do, perhaps. The device on Yulie's wrist unfolds into its true form.
"Let's activate... Code O!" Yulie calls out.
There is a surge of light as something begins to take form around the perimeter of the room. The presence of nanomachines is unmistakable as, piece by piece, a massive finned serpent bearing a horn glowing with purple light is built, coiled around the room. Not to constrict, but to protect. It feels like Odoryuk... but not, at the same time. Like there's something different, missing, about it.
...But then again, much like spectral entity before them, created from the imagination of the ghostly children, that doesn't make it not special or important.
The Guardian Program raises its head and the light of Life emits from its horn, washing over the room - Code O's power joining with Odoryuk's to fortify the protections Riesenlied has placed over everyone - and, hopefully, to fortify Riesenlied herself, too.
DG: Yulie Ahtreide has used her Tool Marduk Gaze toward her party's challenge, My Guardian Is Bigger Than Yours.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"Oh," Elly answers Lydia. "-- Alright. I hope that it, um, that it goes well with you, with Seraphita." This sounds faltering, and it is, because the truth is that for a moment Elly thought: Who died? (It could have been any of them, other than Seraphita, presumably. And they would surely need a replacement, before long...)
"Ah! Big Shal!!" Elly declaims, at the dramatic entrance of the hero of justice!
Elly has no strong opinions about Minder as of yet.
As they move along, though-- they reach the end, perhaps.
Voices speaking of childhood's end.
Something about it is sad. It is hard for Elly to tell how but it is touching something deep rooted, something that is making her tear up even if it doesn't reach the space of weeping. The Poes gather together. They make their shapes known, and combine them together into a great being astride a glorious, glamorous steed.
Imagination...
... and for a moment Elly is shamed; because though her childhood had many material comforts, it lacked unguided, uninstrumental imagination. The term itself is one that she has to understand with a mote of effort; in the subtle nuances of interior reasoning (for having learned Solarian as her native language, that is on some level the bedrock of her thought), it is a compound phrase, not a single word.
It comes so naturally to them. Elly tries to remember schoolroom socialization-- all it reminds her of is pain, stinging, yanking, cold eyes.
She shifts herself back. I could ask them for help, Elly thinks, but --
Have I ever really 'played'?
Elly's eyes close for a moment. It's not about me, is it? It's about them. And--
-- it comes to her; the movements on the beach in Spira, when Fei helped her, taught her his techniques in their gentler forms. Slow and with patience and with love. Helping her even through the pain and the fog in her head. So...
Elly brings her staff round slowly, sweeping it up... then grasping it in the middle... twisting it round with sudden speed, fast enough to seem like a disk! A pause, then the same passes, in the other direction! Then she slides it up, with an unnecessary flourish she saw in a street play once to rest the long end over her opposite shoulder from behind. She slides her weight, along the center of gravity, moving her legs and twisting to face the great rider. Her free arm sweeps out...
And a ring of fire blooms around her as she extends her hand towards the dream! Her fingers splay, twist, her palm turns upwards. The fire dies down to a dramatic little space and she curls her fingers inwards, beckoning in invitation.
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool One Woman's Stout Iron Rod toward her party's challenge, My Guardian Is Bigger Than Yours.
==========================<* Keqili Forest Temple *>==========================
==============<* CHALLENGE - My Guardian Is Bigger Than Yours *>==============
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
You finally discover a passage to the very sanctum of the Forest Temple,
using an elevator that takes you deep underneath Filgaia to the very roots
of the forest.
The final chamber is a twinned altar to two Guardians:
One depicts the Guardian of Illusion, Duras Drum, as a powerful, possibly
demonic, bipedal beetle. The other altar depicts a butterfly-winged unicorn,
the Guardian of Life, Odoryuk.
5rBoth altars have an octagonal slot where something akin to an Artificial
Medium may once have rested, but... both are empty now, their respective
relics in the possessions of another.
Life... is full of illusions.
No matter how hard we tried to hold on...
To the sincerity of our childhood...
Eventually... as we all grew up... ...
The voices echo in unison, gathering around as four Poe sisters emerge into
sight.
But just once more...
Before we go...
Let's play honestly, truthfully, without illusion...
Just like we did in simpler times!
The Poes raise their arms, and gather into one impressive spectral entity --
not unlike that of Duras Drum... with... two giant swords, riding a white
unicorn flying on SIX butterfly wings.
It might not carry the actual power of the Guardians, but it instead carries
the power of something precious:
The power of a child's imagination.
Ready yourself!
=Dungeon Conditions: Wonder, Wound============================================
=====================<* Keqili Forest Temple - Round 5 *>===================== ================< Results - My Guardian Is Bigger Than Yours >================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dean Stark 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Ace of Spades 3 Combat Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Avril Vent Fleur 23 --(0)--> 23 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rebecca Streisand 23 --(0)--> 23 Pass Sky Medium 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Noeline 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Rings of Promise 4 Combat Effects: Efficient and Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Eleanor Klein 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Knightscrest 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yulie Ahtreide 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Marduk Gaze 4 Combat Effects: None ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elhaym van Houten 31 --(0)--> 31 Pass One Woman's Stout Iron Rod 2 Combat Effects: Stalwart ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Noeline 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Wonder|Wound(2) Effects: Embolden(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Noeline has successfully explored Keqili Forest Temple!
==========================<* Keqili Forest Temple *>========================== ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Prophecy *>========================== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- In an impressive clash of colours, the Poe-manifestation of the Guardians erupts into little more than sparkles and confetti. The distinct laughter of children can be heard in the air, and then disappears, as if carried upon the winds of a distant memory... There is silence and a sense of peace, for a moment. But then-- Aah!! A violent spark, followed by the sound of footsteps... one of which is noticeably heavier than the other. Two figures appear at the exit to the inner chamber. A robed man with dark hair and a taller Golem accompanying him, garbed in a trenchcoat. "Come, Asgard." to be continued . . . ! =Dungeon Conditions: Bad Luck=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia says, "Great!!" and smiles big at YUlie.
TRIAL FAMILY PERIOD IS GO. Lydia gives Riesenleid a thumbs up like MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
For a trial period anyway.
Lydia looks to Elly and says, "Uhhh..hhhhhhhh...."
She uhhhhs for the rest of the adventure.