2021-11-16: Trick or Treat
- Log: Trick or Treat
- Cast: Loren Voss, Margaret, Ratatoskr, Kaguya, Lan Lilac
- Where: Goddodin Village
- Date: November 16, 2021
- Summary: It's Halloween, and that means candy! ...Which is entirely the reason why this particular gang of misfits ends up braving the streets of a particular Lunar town in search of the sweet stuff. Between a mimic and a very peculiar Golem, things get a little bit... tricky.
===============================<* Fright Night *>=============================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - Not Without My Bag! *>====================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- It's time. Time for the ritual to commence, time for you to claim the sacrifices that have been offered up to you -- or to put it another way, it's time to collect some free candy from people about town. There's just one problem. You've got your costume together and you're en route to the first home you'll be visiting, but what's this?! You've forgotten your bag! What are you going to put all your candy in?? ...Fortunately, the fates have provided: a large display of pumpkins rests atop a few folded bags. If you can move the pumpkins, the bags are yours for the taking. And then you can get on with your night! =Dungeon Conditions: Fright===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"I feel stupid."
This is Lan's fault. That's Loren's story and he's sticking to it -- the fact that he's let it happen nonetheless is rather besides the point.
It's strange, he had been given to reflect -- hadn't he investigated one situation or another when Leah and he had checked in on a farm on Filgaia where he'd similarly ended up having to dress up? And it had been during the autumn?
There hadn't been any candy involved, which as it happened, had been Lan's main selling point of it to him, courtesy of one chance meeting as his Lunar operations continued. Obviously, this was one he was not taking along anyone from his unit.
It's hard to believe, though. They just give it away? To anyone dressed up? As long as it's during the right time? You can just fill your bag to the brim and--
Loren -- or perhaps one should say, 'the young man dressed as a sheet with the eyes cut out of it in the attempt to look something like a ghost (it looks nothing like a ghost, thank the Emperor)' -- has stopped in his tracks.
"...I don't have a bag," he confesses. He turns towards Lan.
And in doing so, sights a stack of pumpkins. Underneath the pumpkins... underneath the pumpkins is...
Fidgeting with a particularly smooth stone in his right hand, he stalks towards the pumpkin pile, his intent clear. He just has to use a little bit of Ether -- focus, stop thinking about how you look -- and moving these should be a piece of cake. ...There's absolutely no way he can get enough candy tonight without a bag, that's for sure.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Worry Stone toward his party's challenge, Not Without My Bag!.
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
EARLIER
Some guys in cheap purple suits, probably from Filgaia, showed up in order to get hold of a pony keg of elixir. One might say, does it work that way? The answer is that it does not, exactly, but you can always hope. That was earlier in the day and it was something of a damn covert mission given that this is within Althena's Boundary, but the brilliant thing is:
If you dress like a cheap hoodlum... everyone just accepts that's what you are!
And it didn't take long for the Hounds to realize what time of year it was. Including a FEARLESS LEADER.
THAT'S WHY
A sudden burst of prismatic smoke erupts as the pumpkins are approached.
"DARE YOU CHALLENGE THIS MYSTICAL NIGHT? THIS DAY AND THIS EVEN WHEN THE FOUR DRAGON STARS RISE INTO THE CONJUNCTION OF THE HARVEST OF *SOULS*?" declaims a towering witch woman, flanked by two other witches and a guy with a gunsmoke revolver who is also wearing a pointy hat.
"Then if you be bold - and not SCARED TO DEATH - take thy satchel and glean thy fruits!"
-- the sacks are from a grain dealer in some place called Meria Boule!?
Margaret is pretty memorable, but she has done her eyemakeup *even heavier - somehow* and has put on a pointed hat, suitable for this sort of pop station.
DG: Margaret has used her Tool Field Grooming Kit toward her party's challenge, Not Without My Bag!.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
YEARS AGO ON THE PHOTOSPEHRE
"It is tearable, as if no fear of shred??" Speaks someone to a captive audience, who is themselves captive to medical facilities. Weakness and loss is always seen as shame, and yet, there is value in perserving the lives of Mother's soldiers. To a point. "The ^Tiny Warrior Caste^ is mobile but is not moved..."
One of them liked coming up with any number of falsehoods. If they cannot self-aggrandize, they overstated the nature of the threat. Something that he didn't recognize until later on... but at the time.
"Their greatest warriors are when they're neonates?" Ratatoskr exclaims. "Their greatest warriors are when they're neonates!"
AT LEAST MONTHS AFTER THAT
This turned out to be untrue, a waste of time, and a BETRAYAL OF HISTORY AND ALL IT STANDS FOR. Stood for? History is the past, so... never mind, semantics over past and present tense will not be entertained. Aren't? Wasn't?
(Ugh.)
503 POST-COLLAPSE
There are smaller native species dressed in... variably believable likenesses of creatures of myth, legend, and otherwise - frightful visages. Well, 'frightful.' For all the time he spent cursing that he ever listened to that... whatever their name was, it's not important... a part of Ratatoskr wonders if there was something to this after all.
In order to best understand this, he has managed to find himself the largest, most imposing costume he could get his hands on in short notice. It's a full-body suit with a giant Heal Berry and an attached sign in one hand for some brand of horse groomer. His tail and horn stick out, but, not much he can do about that.
"Hyahaha--! I'll figure out the secrets of this ceremonial practice..." And then he notices they're running around with bags full of candy. He can parse 'collecting candy has something to do with this.'
He can also parse that he's missing something to put it in.
He also parses that there are pumpkins here that have not been carved, and that somehow on his person he has decided to carry about that ancient gunblade ARM he keeps toting around.
...
Someone else is going to have to point out the bags, he's just going to carve pumpkin faces with a tool a little too good for the job.
DG: Ratatoskr has used his Tool Derelict Relic toward his party's challenge, Not Without My Bag!.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"So that's normal," Kaguya's voice informs Loren as he says he feels stupid. She walks up, prepared for the MIGHTY HUMAN RITUAL: HALLOWEEN with a costume of her own, which is... also... a sheet with holes in the eyes. She is 4'10" of GHOST and she looks skeptically at Loren as she regards him and confeses he lacks a bag. The matter of the bags...
"Well, I'm not changing," Kaguya says. "Ghosts are some of the scariest things in human lore, and you get them by keeping bodies around like a WEIRDO."
But as she also approaches the pumpkins--The towering witch woman is there, by the guy, and the witches, and the--
"Oh awesome," Kaguya says. "You look great! I super dare. I am gonna WIN Halloween, just you see. Heh heh heh heh heh..."
"Hey, Ratatoskr, don't forget to take a bag," Kaguya says as she takes one and notices him carving.
DG: Kaguya has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Not Without My Bag!.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Lan has already had a blast once this evening, but it was so much fun that when she ran into Loren later on, she just knew that he had to try it too. And she knew just what to say to motivate him.
"Yeah, they just give it to anybody who dresses up! It's a celebration of this holiday they have here where the veil between worlds is thinner than usual, and spirits sometimes come out to play tricks. ...I'm not really sure what it has to do with free candy." Although Lan has already participated in the ritual once tonight, she's pretty sure it'll be just fine to do it twice. It's not like she wants more candy for herself, anyway...
But in case there are unspoken rules she doesn't know about, Lan thought maybe she should put on a different costume. She doesn't have a lot of clothes to swap into, but maybe if she just rearranges some things, and does her hair differently it ought to work out.
Which is why accompanying the sad sheet ghost is a Fancy And Respectable Lady, if by those things you really mean 'Lan, draped artfully and mostly-tastefully in the other sheet, and with her hair in a fairly intricate and precarious updo'.
Hut he forgot his bag, and Lan stashed hers outside of town at her camp. "Well if we're where I think we are, there are-- oh good, there're still some left! But they stacked the pumpkins back on top, huh." She gets to work despite the colorful and mystic smoke, hairdo wobbling - actually moving a pumpkin while Ratatoskr is carving it at one point.
"--Oh hey! Is that you, Kaguya? Did you bring the witch and the, uh..."
DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Not Without My Bag!.
===============================<* Fright Night *>=============================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - Not Without My Bag! *>====================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- It's time. Time for the ritual to commence, time for you to claim the sacrifices that have been offered up to you -- or to put it another way, it's time to collect some free candy from people about town. There's just one problem. You've got your costume together and you're en route to the first home you'll be visiting, but what's this?! You've forgotten your bag! What are you going to put all your candy in?? ...Fortunately, the fates have provided: a large display of pumpkins rests atop a few folded bags. If you can move the pumpkins, the bags are yours for the taking. And then you can get on with your night! =Dungeon Conditions: Fright===================================================
==========================<* Fright Night - Round 1 *>========================== =======================< Results - Not Without My Bag! >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Worry Stone 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Derelict Relic 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Margaret 0 --(8)--> 8 Fail Field Grooming Kit 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Fright(2) Effects: Cleanse ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss 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> Loren Voss has posed.
"Wh," is the approximate noise Loren makes as Kaguya speaks, and he whirls about to face...
...to face another would-be sheet ghost! "Hey! Quit stealing my costume!" But there is a long pause as he takes in her size, relative to him. This is by no means a new or changed phenomenon -- she's always been little -- but there's something about them both wearing sheets that really drives it home.
"You're really short," he remarks.
Then: "We don't keep our bodies around either, you know," he tells her, and from the way the sheet bunches, he's probably folded his arms across his sheet. "It's only the, uh..."
The fact that he's trailed off has everything to do with Ratatoskr's arrival on the scene.
"Is that a Metal Demon," he says to Lan, sotto voce.
It should just be a manner, then of obtaining a bag! But things are rarely as easy as all that. Particularly not as after Loren shifts some squash, he is suddenly intruded upon by a gang of witches!
"Gah!" he utters, backing away. "What? Lan, you didn't say anything about this! I'm not--"
Wait a minute, is that Margaret?
Under the sheet, Loren has begun to frown. Then, ducking down, he picks up a back and, eyes still on the witchy trio, starts backing away. "We should probably run," he says to Lan.
"I think she'll try to arrest me."
It's possible, if he's recognized! Unless Margaret has a brief pumpkin induced problem, there.
(also a lot of them are now nicely carved. Isn't that nice :) )
DG: Ratatoskr has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Fright Night *>=============================== ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Mimic-Why *>=========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Ah, the unattended candy bowl. With no one here to supervise, it's an open invitation to help yourself to as much as you like-- Uh. Hmm. Do candy bowls usually have feet? Or for that matter, feet? You might be starting to guess this isn't a normal candy bowl. Especially since it's now trying to grab you, possibly to try and eat you! Who knew that mimics could imitate bowls of candy?? =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Treasure=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
The pumpkins do have - for a first timer - very good scary faces. But they lack that distinctive glow inside. (He'll recognize why as a reasonably educated young adult, but him being confused about this in the moment is funny enough to let stand at his expense.)
"It's not that big a surprise anyone is challenging this... mystical night!" Ratatoskr says as he grabs a bag with Kaguya's reminder that has some pumpkin goo on it. It's fine. Less fine is that the fine finger dexterity is a bit of an issue when one hand is permanently attached to an advertising sign.
So! They have bags. They are in costume. They are probably a train wreck waiting to happen, but there is something else more important waiting to happen.
A bowl of candy. Ratatoskr holds his hands out, accidentally spinning the sign in one hand a few times.
"I am here to observe the tribute rituals of this evening...!" It's not the first time a Metal Demon has misinterpreted an innocuous local holiday and it isn't going to be the last. (It will probably take three repetitions of this for Ratatoskr to 'get it.') "I know you all don't like doors very much... but they need to be struck..."
There are no doors. There is just an unattended candy bowl. This leaves him at an impasse, tail sticking at end. Some decorum seems to be missing! He circles around the bowl a few times, does not find a door (there isn't any), and is left to concede there is an abandoned bowl of candy.
The moment he thinks of sticking his hand in in resignation, the bowl sprouts teeth and chomps down on his wrist.
"...Oh." Ratatoskr smiles a bit more widely under there. "There always seemed like there were more treats than tricks..."
He shakes his wrist ineffectually. A few candies drop from the mimic. Maybe if they beat up the mimic, they can get a ton of candy, and/or accidentally(?) batter Ratatoskr in the process which is a win-win.
DG: Ratatoskr has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Mimic-Why.
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
Margaret looks to Ratatoskr.
Then to the ghosts of Loren and Lan.
Then to Kaguya. "No terror? Fair enough," she says. "I suppose you're all here to enjoy the festivities in their traditional, not to say quaint, format. Well, so are we."
The guy with the gun fires it once into the air. Everyone near him flinches, but to the locals, it's just fireworks, right?
"There's no point in arresting the dead, is there?" Margaret says to Loren, one long, curved, *sound-collecting* ear flicking a little.
"It's something of a celebration because this is when all the harvest seasons end," Margaret continues. "Now I know most of you are from Filgaia or some kind of made up alien planet in a science fiction novel, so perhaps this one's a little different to understand, but Glenwood and Meribia, by and large, have four seasons, not just variations in how blitteringly cold and/or dry it is."
"So this is the part where there's usually a bounty, which is stored up through the winter, which can be rather lean times, even if there's snowberries and hunting and ice fishing and so on," Margaret continues. "Therefore, if there's extra, enjoy it! Fatten yourself up, like you fatten up the hogs you'll - yes, exactly."
"Hey, it bit him," says one of the other witch-hounds.
"It's still biting him," says another.
"Should I plug 'im with my gat?" asks the guy with a gun.
"Should you what?" Margaret asks that guy.
"Waste him, with the heater," says the guy with a gun.
"Is this slang?"
DG: Margaret has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Mimic-Why.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"I could say the same to you--" Pause. 'You're really short.' Kaguya's green eye twitches. "I could break you, beanpole. With one hand." Twitch. Twitch. Then, cheerfully, "Hey Lan!" Kaguya greets. "Nah I didn't bring them." She turns to Margaret then. No terror! "Nah, but you do look great. A+ on the costuming and makeup." Kaguya doesn't flinch at the gunshot, but she does lift an eyebrow at him until there's that. She takes the fact that Solarians don't keep their dead around either in stride, though she doesn't feel like having solidarity with SHORT COMMENTS right now so she doesn't say anything other than, "Ratatoskr's fine. Don't worry about it. He's basically an academic."
Then she looks to Margaret, and tilts her head. "Huh." She doesn't contest being from some kind of made up alien planet, becausse frankly it's close enough, but she has seen the seasons in Lunar by now. "Yeah, seasons are weird. But I guess it makes sense that they'd have a whole...c ultural impact."
Then she pauses. It bites him. Kaguya tilts her head again, thoughtfully. "That's..."
Pause. "That's a crime against something, but I kinda like it. I wonder if I can keep it.." Kaguya steps forward, pulling a small bottle of ABSURDLY PRECIOUS LIQUID and handing it to Ratatoskr as she moves to grip the mimic and attempt to tear it off his hand. It might hurt. Him.
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Diluted Elixir toward her party's challenge, Mimic-Why.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
"I'm pretty sure we're supposed to say Hyadean now," Lan replies helpfully, also sotto voce. This is a thing that she inferred from hearing Elly say it; Elly is known to be polite and thoughtful about other people's feelings, whereas Lan is often just incorrect.
"Hi Kaguya! And it's usually only when the appropriate rituals weren't performed that you get ghosts, okay? It doesn't have anything to do with keeping the bodies, which is a really weird way of saying 'burying'. I mean, what do you--" She notices Ratatoskr circling around the candy bowl and is distracted from asking a really hairy question.
A door? "Oh, don't worry about it! I mean usually there is a door? But I guess this time they juUUUWAAAH!" She stumbles backwards, bag held up in front of her like a poorly-chosen shield.
The candy bowl isn't a candy bowl!! It's got TEETH! It's eating Ratatoskr!!! Sure, it doesn't really seem to be hurting him, but it's the principle of the thing, isn't it?!
Frowning mightily, Lan tries to find a place on the mimic to grab and pull.
DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Mimic-Why.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"Beanpole? What's that supposed to mean?" Did that one just fly over his head? Of course it could be argued that where 'shorty' comments are made he's one to talk, given that he's on the shorter end for his own people, too...
"Hyadean?" Loren whispers back to Lan, but at least it's just a question and not a rebuttal or something else offensive. Progress?!
"Eerk," is approximately the sound that Loren makes when he is overheard by the witchly Margaret! On the plus side, at least it means that they are not going to get carted away to (well, to be more accurate, at least he won't get carted away since it's him with the price tag and not Lan) some awful moon jail that Tabitha will have to bail him out of again. That would be awful (the bailed out by Tabitha part).
Still, if he keeps a wide berth that... might be understandable.
But unfortunately (for him), it seems they're all more or less going the same way.
"So now what?" he starts to ask, before Ratatoskr introduces their first stop of the evening with an explanation about what's going on. "'Tribute rituals'?" The ghost of Loren Voss might be looking towards Lan. "You didn't say anything--"
At least Margaret is ready with a more sensible explanation. "Changing of the seasons? I guess that makes sense," says Loren, ducking his head. "So, what's that to do with the-- right, right. And they're just handing it out when it comes door to..."
He slowly tilts his head towards the left as the bowl rises up and bites Ratatoskr.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Ether Tuner toward his party's challenge, Mimic-Why.
===============================<* Fright Night *>=============================== ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Mimic-Why *>=========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Ah, the unattended candy bowl. With no one here to supervise, it's an open invitation to help yourself to as much as you like-- Uh. Hmm. Do candy bowls usually have feet? Or for that matter, feet? You might be starting to guess this isn't a normal candy bowl. Especially since it's now trying to grab you, possibly to try and eat you! Who knew that mimics could imitate bowls of candy?? =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Treasure=========================================
==========================<* Fright Night - Round 2 *>========================== ============================< Results - Mimic-Why >============================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 0 --(13)--> 13 Fail Ether Tuner 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 0 --(13)--> 13 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 0 --(13)--> 13 Fail Diluted Elixir 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Margaret 8 --(13)--> 21 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 20 --(25)--> 45 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Treasure(1) Effects: Cleanse ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 25 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
'Basically an academic,' and a stunning and damning picture of how much of a leash Odessa can keep on their agents sometimes! Nonetheless, there is a chomping mimic on Ratatoskr's hand and he doesn't seem all that disturbed or inconvenienced by it.
He makes it harder for the guy of the gun to clarify his stance as he waves the hand around excitedly like it's become more of a neat and novel thing instead. "So wait, wait, wait... does candy grow in the ground then?" Before he can repeat the question as an exclamation, Lan and Kaguya start trying to help pull it off. To both their horror... succeeds in doing so, and it wriggles and writhes in her grasp violently as Loren channels protective Etheric earthen energies as it looks ready to take a chunk out of someone else's flesh!
Ratatoskr receives an ABSURDLY PRECIOUS LIQUID. "Oh, what's this for? What's this for!"
...
The mimic's teeth are broken, turns out, because it couldn't break Living Metal flesh, and now they basically have a free bowl of candy. It moves and wiggles a lot but that's not any different from any other individual Loren has the indignity to exist alongside, honestly.
DG: Margaret has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Fright Night *>============================== ===============<* CHALLENGE - The Traveling Salesman Problem *>=============== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Regardless of whether you've just started out your night or if you're most of the way through it, surely at some point you've given some thought to the perennial problem of this holiday: Given the houses you want to hit (remaining or in total, depending how you've managed so far), what's the most efficient way of going about it? This one's a stumper, as you may be without a map, and with the clock ticking, at that. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
"Are you just saying that because you don't understand what he's saying?" Margaret complains at Kaguya, folding her arms.
"Hyadain? What? Is that the planet's name? Preposterous," Margaret says. "I barely believe Filgaia exists. How many planets could there even be, in that case, if I may ask my distinguished deceased fellow-- thirty?"
With broken teeth, there's no reason not to take the candy. While Margaret politely lets the others go first, they can see she and her minions just emptying out everything the others didn't take. Evil indeed!
Soon enough...
"This is quaint," Margaret muses, having come now with her companions to a space decorated by a statue of the Goddess Althena, as well as a temporary wicker statue of -- a spider!? Because...
There are EIGHT roads radiating out from here.
"Crowded, however." She approaches the wicker statue to collect a piece of dried fruit. "And I remember that at least some of these roads are either blocked or just sort of, END at the forest. We're going to have to figure something out if we want to make this an efficient haul."
In her case, this involves a dangling pendulum that, presumably, she pulled out of her sleeve. The fact that her arms are bare is irrelevant to this production.
DG: Margaret has used her Tool Pendulum of Mystery toward her party's challenge, The Traveling Salesman Problem.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"It means you're ugly and dumb," Kaguya says, and scowls at Loren. But that seems to be all she says for now. ANd the matter of deceased fellows, well. "He's gonna be..."
She pauses, tilts her head. "Oh, yeah. Rituals. You've got lots of those." She then, while the mimic continues to be a problem, explains, "We eject them into space!"
To Margaret, "No really, he studies war history and shit. He's also kinda crazy, but he really does know a lot."
Kaguya takes the candy, and then pulls a strange syringe and injects it into the candybowl/mimic in hopes that she can quiet it down a little. The sedative probably won't kill it. "I'm gonna do some /rad/ science with this little guy," she comments.
"Anyway you were actually kind of helpful," she says to Loren, "So that's fine."
Then she pauses. "You drink it!" she says to Ratatoskr. "It heals you. Or I guess you just hang onto it until the end of your adventure and never use it even though you can't sell it either, so it's fundamentally pointless."
Hyadain....
Kaguya says nothing at the matter of planets. Because she wants Loren to have to deal with it.
Instead, she focuses a little on the matter of their route. "Hmmm... I've got an idea." Kaguya takes some of her candy, and breaks off a piece, dusting the remnants into a specimen slide which she then inserts into a strange-looking device. "I call it the automatic candy locationator K-256!"
Pause. "I put sugar in it and it points the way to more candy."
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Loot Abuse toward her party's challenge, The Traveling Salesman Problem.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
"Hyadean," Lan confirms, and then doesn't elaborate. So helpful!
"Wait, you actually... into space???" Lan actually looks kind of affronted, which is an unusual expression to see on her. "But you..." They probably don't say the right prayers over them, Lan realizes with something that hovers between deep concern and dawning horror. How is Kaguya not, like, super haunted?!
Lan has forgotten to wonder why Kaguya in particular would be putting people's bodies into space. But if Kaguya turns out to be a space alien then oh well, it's not like she would be the only one Lan knows. There's already Loren. And technically the Hyadeans and Lunarians too!
But the more pressing matter of the day is... how to not get horribly lost or worse, waste time when they could be maximising their candy haul. And Lan didn't go this way last time. Did she? All the goddess statues on the moon look alike, how could she possibly remember them all?!
But Margaret and Kaguya have the right idea - and Lan has a familiar, well-worn piece of paper tucked away into her costume. She retrieves her oracle paper and works it meditatively in her fingers. "Huh, I wonder what would happen if they all say something different? Does it mean there's more than one 'best' route?"
DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Paku-Paku toward her party's challenge, The Traveling Salesman Problem.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
Ratatoskr considers his options with the diluted liquid. The end of his adventure? "Oh, wait... yeah, I've heard of that... that's a thing in many different places." He contemplates the liquid further, swishing the fully restorative preciousness that's only somewhat less useful for him because he lacks any MP gauge whatsoever. "Entire companies acquire such large mounds of supplies that they never use..."
He is formally introduced as a war history scholar, which is being a bit generous in terms of his acumen and full accuracy of his knowledge but the enthusiasm is there. He just needs a good six to ten years of not being nose deep into every brewing fight ever, and good luck with that.
"...and you know... I've heard it a lot," Ratatoskr stands upright as he contemplates the EIGHT ROADS and the best way to go, "'Hyadean' this, 'Hyadean' that... maybe that's what we were called before the Metal Demon days, but as far as I know..."
He grins within that face hole of his sign flipping costume. "I was born here on Filgaia!! So I'm Filgaian!" Even putting aside how he fought for a force that wanted to subdue it (and suck it dry of its ley lifeblood), and is also currently part of a force whose barely unified powers are doing a great job setting everything on fire and chaos, as he holds out a datapad thing. It's sort of clumsy how he has to tap it with the sign the other hand's holding (wait, where did the diluted elixir go)?
"...Who cares about the route? Who cares about the route! We're knocking on all the doors anyway!!"
DG: Ratatoskr has used his Tool Corrupted Records toward his party's challenge, The Traveling Salesman Problem.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"Uh huh," is his exasperated response to Kaguya. "Into space, huh. I guess that's one way to take care of a body." He seems less put off by this than some others present. What does Solaris do with its dead, though?
Is that the planet's name? Loren just shrugs, unhelpfully.
To Ratatoskr, he says, "No, it doesn't grow in ground! You have to make it from-- other stuff!" Sugar's a given, but it's not like he, personally, has any real comprehension on how the candy is made.
Regardless, there's a mimic gnawing on the Hyadean's arm, and Loren does his part to try to get it off--
It kind of just... slides off, though. It doesn't seem to have teeth anymore. "Uh," is his statement on the situation, looking between the mimic and Ratatoskr and back again. This is probably... fine? He does of course help himself to some candy, because why wouldn't he?
The one tragedy of Loren's costume is that it completely hides the expression he's pulling underneath the sheet as Kaguya TAKES THE MIMIC INTO CUSTODY HOLY SHIT.
He has a number of reasons to hurry on along, and the fact that the number of potential paths ahead are a convoluted problem if they want to MAXIMIZE THEIR GAINS doesn't make the comings and goings of the night much easier. As others take to mystic approaches or more technological ("That doesn't make any sense," he tells Kaguya), Loren squats down on the ground and breaks out one of those nasty energy bars. Fortunately, he's not eating it.
Instead, he's broken it into pieces and is using them to facilitate some sort of calculation or another.
"You're Filgaian? But you're not from Filgaia," he says, if he's trying to work out the sense on that one. "It's not just a matter of being born on the planet. That's not how it works."
...Come to think of it, neither was he. Wait, what does that make him...?
...And now he can't remember what part of the calculation he was at. Grumbling, Loren starts over, before remarking to Ratatoskr once again, "It's so we can cover the most ground in the least time. Try to pay attention."
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Soylent Nutribar toward his party's challenge, The Traveling Salesman Problem.
==============================<* Fright Night *>============================== ===============<* CHALLENGE - The Traveling Salesman Problem *>=============== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Regardless of whether you've just started out your night or if you're most of the way through it, surely at some point you've given some thought to the perennial problem of this holiday: Given the houses you want to hit (remaining or in total, depending how you've managed so far), what's the most efficient way of going about it? This one's a stumper, as you may be without a map, and with the clock ticking, at that. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
=========================<* Fright Night - Round 3 *>========================= =================< Results - The Traveling Salesman Problem >================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Loren Voss 13 --(0)--> 13 Pass Soylent Nutribar 2 Wits Effects: Resilient ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ratatoskr 5 --(8)--> 13 Fail Corrupted Records 2 Wits Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lan Lilac 13 --(8)--> 21 Fail Paku-Paku 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kaguya 13 --(0)--> 13 Pass Loot Abuse 2 Wits Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Margaret 21 --(8)--> 29 Fail Pendulum of Mystery 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Loren Voss 45 --(20)--> 65 Pass Conditions: Fright(1)|Stupify(2) Effects: Enlighten(1)|Resilient(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss 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> Margaret has posed.
"Hm," Margaret says, dubiously. Her eyes go around for a moment, and then she looks *double* dubious at Kaguya.
"But we're carrying candy," Margaret says. "It's like having a lodestone next to iron, isn't it?"
Margaret then gazes at the paku-paku with confusion that shades towards wonder then veers through anger before finally asking, with a sort of solemnity, "... What does it say?"
"I do," Margaret answers Ratatoskr. Then, "To repeat myself, I do." Now she says to Kaguya, "He's asking rhetorical questions with greater focus than addressing those actually present. You were right, he is a scholar."
"That bar smells rotten," Margaret tells Loren, "but - wait, are you gaming it out? Ahhaaaaa, Maxwell, huddle up here with the ghost."
SOON ENOUGH
Margaret and the other hounds zip around and seem to focus on the dead-ends first, perhaps due to the advantage of some mysterious art of sorcery. However, scuttling between houses x-tra fast has its limits when you have to actually solicit candy.
'Oh, how nice! But where are your grandchildren,' one house asks Margaret.
Margaret is morally destroyed. She loses her pendulum in the process, so great is her dismay.
DG: Kaguya has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Fright Night *>=============================== ==========<* CHALLENGE - But I Haven't Seen One of Those in Years! *>=========== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You have just been offered your pick of the bowl by the resident of this particular home. Wonderful! But there in the bowl you belatedly spy a particularly rare high-quality candy. Not so good! You still have a few seconds -- perhaps you could surreptitiously swap candies, or palm the second. Or, maybe one of you could create the distraction necessary for you or another to get away with a little light thievery. =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Treasure=======================================
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"Oh yeah," Kaguya says. "We don't do that anymore, of course. But it's how we used to do things. It was better then, I think." Kaguya didn't know any prayers until she got to Filgaia! On the other hand... By many standards, she is super, duper, extremely haunted. So there's that!
"It's a good way. Where I grew up, we didn't have a single undead monstrosity. Not even one! Here, we've got tons. I think that settles it nicely."
Kaguya takes the mimic into custody. It's fine.
But Mararet is dubious. She has good reason to be. "A lesser mind would have failed to accomodate that," Kaguya answers Margaret airily. "But I can just exempt the surrounding few meters from our position in the search!" Yes, she definitely thought of that in advance, and not post-pose, after Margaret pointed it out. That's definitely how this happened.
"Hey he's Filgaian if he wants to be Filgaian," Kaguya says. "Guardians aren't fucking with him." Then she laughs at Margaret's statement. Later...
"That's not natural," Kaguya says of the bar. And when they ask after Margaret's grandchildren she winces. "You don't look that old," she supplies helpfully. "No more than like, 40, tops. And I don't have any grandkids either!"
However at the next house... Kaguya is offered her pick! Everyone is offered their pick! of those lovely, lovely bowl, except--
Ah, there. Spot it. The high-quality candy...
Kaguya says, "Aww thanks but oh look, a distraction!"
She causes the first piece of candy to explode in a shower of sugary dust, all withut seeming to do anything. It's fine.
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Loot Abuse toward her party's challenge, But I Haven't Seen One of Those in Years!.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"So what do you do with them now? Launch them into space?" He doesn't think that's the case, of course -- someone would have noticed however-many launches a year and it would have been mentioned in their briefings as something to ignore. As a rule, Solaris tries not to meddle very much with the Veruni for entirely practical reasons, in much the same way one avoids kicking a hornet's nest.
"Mmh," is the approximate sound Loren makes in response to the Filgaian 'citizenship' question, as he then begins to start his mathing over again.
"Yeah, well, it tastes like cardboard," Loren remarks, using the fragments of the bar to work calculations. "Anyway. I think if we head down that way first, the crowding on the street next to it should fix itself. We just have to remember to loop around like so, and then cross over to the next..."
He does indeed wargame it. He wargames the shit out of it.
And it's a very good thing -- for his continued membership in the living and breathing persons club -- that no one can see the look on his face when someone calls Margaret a grandmother. Extremely good.
And in time they come to another house altogether, one where they are then offered their single pick from the contents of a bowl. Too fast, Loren also selects a candy, but spots a better one!
AND THEN KAGUYA'S SELECTION JUST EXPLODES
Seeing an opportunity, Loren quickly makes the attempt to slip the remainder of that bar into the bowl and palm instead another prize choice from the bowl, making his earnings from this particular house effectively two! ...If he gets away with it, that is.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Soylent Nutribar toward his party's challenge, But I Haven't Seen One of Those in Years!.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
However he self-identifies, he should probably fill on the census 'Giant Pain In The Ass' because that might be a lot more accurate, but, moving on...
They come to a house. The resident is cheerful, contented to let everyone have a single pick of the candy. Ratatoskr, under the suit, is a 6'6" lean but limber genetically engineered killing machine. The resident offering candy is an older adult human who likely has never seen combat.
Ratatoskr spies the rare piece of candy bearing the name of a famous figure of Slayheim's ill-fated conflict well after he picks the traditional peace. He looks into the gentle smile of the patient, sharing, festive human being who betrays no hint of fear or trepidation, only festivity.
He withdraws and does not make any clever play.
DG: Ratatoskr has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, But I Haven't Seen One of Those in Years!.
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
Margaret stares at Kaguya with flinty-eyed response and is visibly weighing whether or not to tell Maxwell, the guy with a gun, to plug her like a leaky boat.
and...
... nope!
"Thanks," she answers Kaguya, her voice as sour as the lemon drops in her bag.
A moment later there is an explosion of candy. AND--
-- all the Hounds sort of seem to disappear, because they still had their speed buffs up.
"Foul!" shouts Margaret. "Don't bomb the damn treats!"
DG: Margaret has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, But I Haven't Seen One of Those in Years!.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Lan frowns sadly down at what the spirits have informed her, before wordlessly showing it to Margaret. In ghostly script, there on one 'petal' of the paper flower is written...
'greedy'
"I didn't even write that on there!" Lan laments, though she doesn't dare argue with this spiritual judgement.
But at least Loren knows how to strategize properly. She just hopes that the nutribar doesn't melt down and poison the ground or something. Those things are foul.
"I don't see why he's not Filgaian," she shrugs as they execute The Plan... that is, walk from house to house. "He was born there. If I'd been born in Solaris, I'd be Solarian." I-is it really that simple? Lamb or Elite, Lan is at least the same species as Loren.
But there, there in the candy bowl, is a total nostalgia bomb. A Chewy Chup, the kind Uncle Gil occasionally would bring home from trading trips to the Seed Cities. Everybody only got one (Gil's pockets are only so big and Little Firelight had a fair number of kids) but they were a special treat. And there in her hand is a normal, everyday starlight mint that she only chose because of the name!!
But... the guilt of being called greedy still weighs a bit on her. And Lan is absolutely guileless enough to say, "Oh, oops! Can I trade? I really love that kind!" instead of trying to grab another or go away chupless. So she does.
DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Paku-Paku toward her party's challenge, But I Haven't Seen One of Those in Years!.
===============================<* Fright Night *>=============================== ==========<* CHALLENGE - But I Haven't Seen One of Those in Years! *>=========== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You have just been offered your pick of the bowl by the resident of this particular home. Wonderful! But there in the bowl you belatedly spy a particularly rare high-quality candy. Not so good! You still have a few seconds -- perhaps you could surreptitiously swap candies, or palm the second. Or, maybe one of you could create the distraction necessary for you or another to get away with a little light thievery. =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Treasure=======================================
==========================<* Fright Night - Round 4 *>========================== ============< Results - But I Haven't Seen One of Those in Years! >============= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 13 --(8)--> 21 Fail Soylent Nutribar 2 Wits Effects: Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 13 --(8)--> 21 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 21 --(0)--> 21 Pass Paku-Paku 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 13 --(0)--> 13 Pass Loot Abuse 2 Wits Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Margaret 29 --(8)--> 37 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 65 --(25)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Reckless(2)|Stupify(1)|Treasure(1) Effects: Enlighten(1)|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 25 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Kaguya answers, "Anytime!" to Margaret, and seems not to recognize how close she just came to a Very Bad Time. It's fine. Just like it's fine that Ratatoskr can be a pain, because... The bowl happens.
Ratatoskr... doesn't press his luck. He knows better. He does not get the candy this time.
Margaret rightly calls a foul, and the person holding the bowl coughs a little in surprise at the candy dust. "Well! I guess that one was a little spicy!"
She smiles pleasantly at Lan and says, "Go on, dear. Take the one you like. You can have both, even."
Kaguya... gets both of what she wanted. because she's a woman on a mission. And Loren.... Well, Loren...
"Dear," she says, handing back his nutribar, "You dropped this."
It's fine. ...Except that part.
DG: Lan Lilac has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Fright Night *>=============================== ============<* CHALLENGE - Kaguya's Magnificent Candy Corn Golem *>============= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The ground trembles. An earthquake?! --No. No, it is not. Tromping towards you is a most singular animate construction. It would be a Golem by any other assessment: the shape! The size! The raw power! Except for the part where it's made out of waxy colored candy, in yellow, orange and white. Parts of its limbs evoke the shape of corn. Corn made out of candy. A candy corn, if you will. It continues towards a group nearby, swatting low a group of trick-or-treaters with a massive paw of a hand and then delicately plucking their candy bags from the ground. The other trick-or-treaters rise to their feet, dazed but unharmed... but without their hard-won prizes of the evening. A voice rings out into the night. "Candy's bad for you anyway, kids! Bwa ha ha, I will WIN HALLOWEEN!" And then the Golem sets off towards you. No! This evening can't end like this, after all you've done! =Dungeon Conditions: Fright===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
"Oh wow, really?! Thank you so much!!" Honesty really is the best policy! And also, that lady is just super nice. She pockets the starlight mint for later; her mouth is already watering at the thought of the caramelly goodness awaiting her. Should she share it? Lan knows that if you try hard enough you can bite the Chewy Chup in half. It requires great dental fortitude though...
Lan decides that she's already been called greedy by spirits once tonight. She'd better not hog the precious candy. Unwrapping it as they continue onward, Lan bites down on it, pushing through the initial layer of sticky surface caramel to the hardened inner layer. She's almost got it...!
rrrrrrrrumble
...Wait. It wouldn't happen twice, would it? Surely he'd gone home afterwards...?!
Lan looks up, staring wide-eyed as a candy corn golem plows through another group of 'ritual enthusiasts'. "Hmm--" She tries to warn/explain.
---NO HER TEETH ARE STUCK
"mMMMmmMMMM!!!" Lan points at the golem and tries making a gesture that looks kind of like a drunk crab walking on two legs. "HMMfa hhhaah!" In a race against time, Lan bites harder. She's almost there...!
In the meantime, though, the candy corn golem is fast approaching. But it's just candy, right? What's got Lan so upset?!
DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Kaguya's Magnificent Candy Corn Golem.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
It is not, actually, the case that Loren has a good grasp of what constitutes 'good candy', considering that what gets circulated on the surface is a bit different in some regards than what is sold up in Etrenank. At least, generally speaking, insofar as their packaging.
Loren, in the moment, makes a trade for what he thinks is probably something good. It's just tragic that what's returned to him is... the bar. He dropped this, she tells him. Did... did she notice him taking two? The question is not one that is answered.
Still, once he rounds the bend, he unwraps his ill-gained prize and pops one of the tablets into his mouth.
"...Why is there chalk candy," he laments in Lan's direction, though she likely can't answer him because she has a mouth stuck shut by a caramel.
"What? Did something happen?" he asks her, as she makes strange noises and points. He only actually turns around at a delay, in a demonstration of situational awareness that has got to have at least one of his instructors in Jugend dragging their hands down the sides of their face and moaning if they ever find out.
"What in the--"
Because it's a Golem. A candy Golem! A candy Golem headed straight for them all!
"I knew this was a bad idea!" he shouts, and it should be reiterated that he did not, at any point, think this was a bad idea, just a weird idea, and then a tempting idea.
Still, the earth is shaking as he pushes Ether through the Tuner at his wrist; it will become clear to everyone around him that the additional tremblor isn't just because of the pile of animated candy.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Ether Tuner toward his party's challenge, Kaguya's Magnificent Candy Corn Golem.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
Ratatoskr, now being nineteen-to-twenty-five, has learned only the surface of importance as regards the idea of self-preservation, which... given the handicaps there, is a marginal improvement as there is a deep rumble and then the aforementioned 'ritual enthusiasts' have their candy taken by a Golem made of... other... candy.
Ratatoskr stops and waits to see what the befuddled and besieged so-called ^Tiny Warrior Caste^ will do when met with this situation, and he finds...
There are tears. There are wails. There are screams, and then there is decidedly very little actual violence from them, and it is in this moment that he has to file away once and for all...
Yeah, that injured scout was talking nonsense.
...But it hasnt' completely disproven his notions of what this whole thing is, oh no, as he steps up towards the candy corn Golem.
"Hyahaha--!! So... if it doesn't come from the ground, it has to come from the likes of this..." Ratatoskr grins underneath that sign spinner suit. It doesn't change that the costumes oft invoke things intended to be scary or strange, and so, he will respond to it in kind...
As he steps forth, leaps up close...
And dramatically spins the sign, shy of actual violence, as though advertising for some quick horse grooming place or another were a legitimate art of warfare that he has enthusiastically embodied on majority-of-hallows' eve!
DG: Ratatoskr has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Kaguya's Magnificent Candy Corn Golem.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"It's the Goddess's punishment to you in particular," Kaguya assures Loren about chalk candy. And then soon, Lan is chewing. Whethr or not the nice lady noticed Loren taking two though is going to be a mystery for now. Instead, Lan points, and Kaguya is looking down into her bag. She's not really paying attention at all. Until suddenly--
"What the--"
Kaguya is knocked down!! "You--"
Her candy is on the ground!!! Still in a bag, to be fair, but on the ground! That is not where it goes!!
"you--" Pause. "...Hehehehehehh. Bwa, hahahaha!"
"It worked. IT WORKED!"
"Now, brave adventurers! Can you defend your CANDY from the EMBLEM OF HALLOWEEN ITSELF!?"
"Look upon the Golem, masterpiece of--at least ten minutes' work, and DESPAIR!"
It has in fact tried to take her candy. So she pauses.
"No seriously it's not supposed to take my candy, let's smash it."
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Diluted Elixir toward her party's challenge, Kaguya's Magnificent Candy Corn Golem.
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
"Don't force it," Margaret the Venerable says to Lan. "You'll lose a tooth that way, and I don't think yours will grow --"
Margaret falls silent as she sees the Golem, oh so far away.
No, not that far at all.
It's... "It's made of candy," Margaret says, bleakly.
"Is it a Seraph or something?"
"No, it's - Oh goddess, it's here to avenge us! It's the spirit of sugar long eaten! Sweetness wasted in time and space and" *smak* "Thank you, I'm sorry, I was spinning."
Margaret is trying to figure out exactly how to approach this problem when Kaguya begins to laugh. Margaret's head turns slowly to look at the cackling short woman, the fear and terror of Lan and Loren invisible to her for a moment as her fingers curl into fists.
"You," she says.
Her eyes seem to burst into flames. "You did this!! You insolent little sawed-off twerp! You have the screaming, howling temerity to act as though this is some sort of a lark!? I won't make any claims for this fleabag village and its practices of candy manufacturer, but by the Goddess's great padded brasserie, this is the one place that makes high quality potion in the entirety of Glenwood or Meribia, whichever one we're in! Look what you're going to do to the place!! I don't need your permission to smash it - you're lucky I don't smash YOU!"
Which is when Margaret reaches into her gauzy mantle and draws out...
... a three foot long bastard sword, previously unwitnessed and held upwards. "FORWARDS!" she shouts.
INSERT BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu2VIHhUZNI
Margaret immediately advances 14 squares (note: Yell +1, Yell +2, Yell +3 buff all in effect) to get on the creature's flank, choosing 'Suspend Turn' immediately.
Unnamed Hound A moves forwards five spaces.
Unnamed Hound B moves forwards five spaces.
Maxwell the Plug-Ugly Former Wizard of Neo Vane advances five spaces, and then casts a great magic revealed to him on Filgaia: GUN.
BANG!
SIMULTANEOUS STAB! Are you supposed to stab things in the back with a broadsword? Well, if it's stupid, and it works, it's not stupid.
DG: Margaret has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Kaguya's Magnificent Candy Corn Golem.
===============================<* Fright Night *>=============================== ============<* CHALLENGE - Kaguya's Magnificent Candy Corn Golem *>============= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The ground trembles. An earthquake?! --No. No, it is not. Tromping towards you is a most singular animate construction. It would be a Golem by any other assessment: the shape! The size! The raw power! Except for the part where it's made out of waxy colored candy, in yellow, orange and white. Parts of its limbs evoke the shape of corn. Corn made out of candy. A candy corn, if you will. It continues towards a group nearby, swatting low a group of trick-or-treaters with a massive paw of a hand and then delicately plucking their candy bags from the ground. The other trick-or-treaters rise to their feet, dazed but unharmed... but without their hard-won prizes of the evening. A voice rings out into the night. "Candy's bad for you anyway, kids! Bwa ha ha, I will WIN HALLOWEEN!" And then the Golem sets off towards you. No! This evening can't end like this, after all you've done! =Dungeon Conditions: Fright===================================================
==========================<* Fright Night - Round 5 *>========================== ==============< Results - Kaguya's Magnificent Candy Corn Golem >=============== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 21 --(0)--> 21 Pass Ether Tuner 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 21 --(0)--> 21 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 21 --(5)--> 26 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 13 --(0)--> 13 Pass Diluted Elixir 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Margaret 37 --(0)--> 37 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Reckless(1) Effects: Cleanse ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Loren Voss has successfully explored Fright Night!
===============================<* Fright Night *>=============================== =================<* CHALLENGE - Rare Candy - Ariberry Drops *>================== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Whew. You've done it! You've triumphed over Kaguya's terrible candy Golem and you've saved Halloween! ...Well, what you've really done is save the candy of some kids and possibly stopped your own from also being swiped in the bargain. Still, though! You've saved some /quantity/ of Halloween. And that's the moral of the story. But more than that... the Golem had dropped something as it cracked into waxy candy pieces. Had it been some prize it had claimed earlier from some other hapless victim? Or had it come from some other place altogether? It's uncertain, but you're now in possession of a large bag of ariberry drops. Ariberry is a type of fruit native to the Aveh desert region -- they're small, tart red fruits that thrive in spite of the conditions there. Boil them down, add some sugar and roll them out and fold them, and once they're all done... you've got ariberry drops! =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
The candy golem, thankfully, is not very fast or deadly... it is, however, really enthusiastic. And probably attracting ants. Do you want ants? Because this is how you get ants.
Lan works faster, grabbing the protruding end of the candy with her fingertips and tugging in order to thin and weaken the caramel sticking her teeth shut. This is so much worse than when it happened back in the village! Mostly because there are no candy corn golems in Little Firelight.
The ground underfoot shakes even harder, actually causing the golem to stumble in its charge. Ratatoskr is next, leaping into glorious sugary battle with the power of an ancient martial race and a highly specialized form of sign-based combat.
As Kaguya revels in her creative genius -- and is immediately crushed by her own hubris -- it's up to Margaret and Maxwell to finish saving the day. Margaret casts ACCIO SWORD! Maxwell casts GUN! Lan howls in dismay as the candy golem shatters into a bunch of tiny waxy pieces in front of them. The tragedy gives her the strength she needs to finish biting through the Chewy Chup, half of the candy already stuck to her fingers instead. "NO! Va waffa---" She manages, with some difficulty, to unstick her teeth and tuck the other half into her cheek, like some kind of hamster. "NO! That was a guy--!"
There's a real lack of blood, or guts, or any kind of 'man in a costume' viscera that she was expecting. Lan hesitantly approaches the shattered bits and prods one with her toe. "...But the last time it was a guy in a costume, scaring kids for fun. ...Oh well. At least nobody committed a murder!" Cheerfully, and without thinking, she bites down into the candy again. "...." :(