2021-12-19: When Onions Rule the World
- Log: When Onions Rule the World
- Cast: Kaguya, Day Muirwall, Lydia Seren, Josephine Lovelace, White Knight Leo, Zed, Ratatoskr
- Where: The Cape of Breath
- Date: December 19, 2021
- Summary: The Feywilds have their own hazards, of which the Whorl is an exemplar. But is there aught to be found, in the coiling depths of this most ancient edifice?
DG: A party led by Kaguya is now entering The Lifeweaver's Whorl. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
==========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Overgrown Undergrowth *>===================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Folktales claim that the Feywilds are an enchanted place, somewhere that was once home to fairies who could bend the natural world to suit their whims. Whatever veracity may be to the claim, it's hard to deny that the forest seems to be fighting your advance in every possible way. If there's not a pile of rotten logs in your way, there's a tangle of vines or a knot of thorny brambles. Forcing your way through seems to be the only way to advance, and almost certainly results in suffering an overabundance of splinters. Past the obstacles in your way, though, is the facility you seek... The gate you discover sticks out like a sore thumb amidst all this greenery. It's a thing of weathered stone set into the side of a tower at the very edge of a ravine. Beyond, trees and other vegetation have breached much of the ruin, dividing the wheel-like structure into many individual sections. This door is of no exception-- the thing is sealed tight by a lattice of roots and vines. You'll need to clear out the overgrowth before you can pry open the gate. ((OOC Note: Welcome to the Lifeweaver's Whorl! The actual dungeon is split up into indoor and outdoor challenges, each of which will be noted in the card itself. Each card will also contain some commentary from someone who has clearly been here before you. Feel free to find his half-eaten journal notes lying nearby, or perhaps recorded on half-broken consoles...)) =Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous==============================================
DC: Lydia Seren switches forms to The Star That Fell Up!
DG: A party led by Kaguya is now entering The Lifeweaver's Whorl. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
==========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Overgrown Undergrowth *>===================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Folktales claim that the Feywilds are an enchanted place, somewhere that was once home to fairies who could bend the natural world to suit their whims. Whatever veracity may be to the claim, it's hard to deny that the forest seems to be fighting your advance in every possible way. If there's not a pile of rotten logs in your way, there's a tangle of vines or a knot of thorny brambles. Forcing your way through seems to be the only way to advance, and almost certainly results in suffering an overabundance of splinters. Past the obstacles in your way, though, is the facility you seek... The gate you discover sticks out like a sore thumb amidst all this greenery. It's a thing of weathered stone set into the side of a tower at the very edge of a ravine. Beyond, trees and other vegetation have breached much of the ruin, dividing the wheel-like structure into many individual sections. This door is of no exception-- the thing is sealed tight by a lattice of roots and vines. You'll need to clear out the overgrowth before you can pry open the gate. ((OOC Note: Welcome to the Lifeweaver's Whorl! The actual dungeon is split up into indoor and outdoor challenges, each of which will be noted in the card itself. Each card will also contain some commentary from someone who has clearly been here before you. Feel free to find his half-eaten journal notes lying nearby, or perhaps recorded on half-broken consoles...)) =Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous==============================================
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Kaguya, in some respects, is a fairy who can bend the natural world to her whims. Sort of. More or less. It's fine. The point is, after she made a certain trip recently, she now has some readings and data to get from a place deep in the Feywilds, where she's been before but not in a while: the Lifeweaver's Whorl. She has invited some others, though maybe some people ewwre just here, too. It's fine.
She uses a machete to cut a path instead of a more conventional weapon, because that's what it's for! But eventually, they come to a gate... and it'll take more than just a machete. Kaguya considers this.
"Well," she says. "Everything's normal so far. I've gotten a few good samples from the outside, but I really need to go deeper to get more than that."
"...Any ideas?" she says. "I'm hesitant to just blow the damn thing up, in case it starts a fire..."
She considers, and then starts icing over the gate, with a bit of magic.
<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.
This is not the utility Day Muirwall thought he would get out of full plate: Branches and thorns simply scrape across the metal as he pushes through the vines barring the way to the ruins ahead. "If I have to re-enamel this, I'm going to be cross," he mutters before pushing past a last stand of brambles before emerging ahead of the great stone gate beyond.
The gate ahead of them isn't so kind as to succumb to the breaching vegetation. Folding his arms across his surcoated chest, the young knight looks up at the entryway, then over to Kaguya with a cant of his head. "I think clearing out the brush should give us a better look. Maybe we can get through here without a fire, yes."
Digging his hands into the vines, Day plants a spurred heel and begins to pull. The roots stubbornly resist. He gives a couple more experimental tugs before grimacing.
Throwing his sword at the task occurs to him, but he falls back on a simple utility dagger. Gripping it underhand, he grunts as he saws at a particularly stubborn stand of vines and attempts to tear them away from the door, working one bunch of roots at a time.
From not far behind Kaguya, Seraph Vesna looks on with slightly widened eyes. "It's very impressive, isn't it...."
DG: Day Muirwall has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Overgrown Undergrowth. DG: Kaguya has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Overgrown Undergrowth.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"You are hesitant to blow something up? It must've really been ages." Lydia says.
She swings her own bat around to carve through some obstacles. The hammer twists its shape into the form of a blade to make things a bit more suitable for this sort of thing.
"So what're you doing here, sis?" Lydia asks, swinging her blade over her shoulder with a glance to her. She ... isn't really thinking about secret identities, it's been long enough she can't keep track... Sorry Kaguya...
Sorry...
DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Tiebreaker V 2.0 toward her party's challenge, Overgrown Undergrowth.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie is here on her own.
It's in stark contrast to the last time she graced these woods with her presence, when she had come here with the Black Wolves.
Or perhaps, it would be better to say that she had come here on her own.
"Well, looky here, a gal comes for a lil jaunt in the woods and finds she ain't alone," says Josie, her good hand planted on her hip, smoldering cigarette held between her fingers. There are places that are good for a smoke and places that are bad, and aren't forests grouped in the latter?
Perhaps this may become that much more alarming when she tosses the butt aside and, striding forward, pulls from her kit a simple mattock.
"Hey, kiddo. You gotta put the boot in if'n you wanna get somewhere in life, right?" She pauses, then flashes a grin that doesn't at all meet her dark eyes.
"Lemme show you."
An archaeologist's pride is in how they wield their mattock. Down it comes.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Well-Used Mattock toward her party's challenge, Overgrown Undergrowth.
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Was Dame Kaguya, noted mad scientist, truly responsible for a certain candy-corn fiend? Would she truly stoop so low as to steal precious treats from children? That is a question that may never be answered.
But dashing hero Mystere, who helped vanquish that fiend, is not here. Instead, White Knight Leo strides along beside Kaguya, his blade hacking through vines alongside her machete. "I don't recall it being quite so... overgrown last time," Leo says, his brow furrowing. "But the plants in here are anything but natural. Stay on your guard." As if to prove his point, the same thornbushes that scratch Day's plate ensnare Leo's cape, and force the White Knight to cut himself free with a few swift strokes.
"We're getting nowhere fast. Stand back, and allow me to unearth these obstacles." Leo clenches his fists. Golden energy flows through his gauntlets, studded with bits of amber-colored crystal. The earth before them starts to heave and buckle, disturbing roots and tearing up topsoil. Incidentally, the focus required for this means Leo can't pay too much attention to Lydia.
He hasn't really looked at her, except with guilt and sorrow. He knows some of what's befallen her, but not all, and rage wars with the feeling that this is somehow his fault. He doesn't know what to say.
DG: White Knight Leo has used his Tool Earthgrasp Gauntlets toward his party's challenge, Overgrown Undergrowth.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
ZED WAS JUST IN THE AREA, HE SWEARS. He certainly was not stalking members of the Guard to continue his never-ending quest of befriending people who are All Alone In The World or anything. But hey, he's here now, so he might as well be of some help!
For his part, the metal demon manages to avoid getting EATEN BY PLANT MONSTERS and/or monstrous plants mostly by staying off the forest floor entirely. This environment is /perfect/ for hopping around from tree branch to tree branch like the perfect ninja he is. Of course, the rest of the group knows he's there by now. Heck, he's probably announced his presence by now, because /not/ doing that in an adventure can be pretty rude! But then...
There is a door in their way.
Kaguya begins to freeze it solid, which is his cue... to act! "INCOMIIIIING--" Zed yells, grinning like a fiend. A certain spiked ball emerges from his scarf, whirled overhead like an out of control rotor. With a swing and a shout, he sends forth Berserk's famous hammer to do exactly what the ancient Metal Demon would have wanted it to do:
Smash down the door of some wuss nerd's garden lab...!!
DG: Zed has used his Tool Berserk Hammer toward his party's challenge, Overgrown Undergrowth.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
Meria Boule's territories tends to not be a great place to go play around as a member of Odessa. Until it is! Well, whatever the reason, and it is probably so-so as far as reasons go in a world where terrible things tend to happen for no reason whatsoever. The reason exists. That is the only assurance.
This moment is not about any such reason.
This moment is more that there is a Ratatoskr here, the glow of his solid eyes at least some form of illumination to work with through the brush. Even made of Living Metal, scuffs and indents mark where the brush and tangles put up a much fiercer resistance than usual. He would probably have many chipper things to say about it. (The narrative will not let him do so right now.)
"You ever notice... they make fortifications that can withstand all sorts of weapons... but then nature itself finds its way in anyway.."
He grins. He is going to challenge the brush to a fight. By pulling at it, in an enthusiastic but unremarkable way.
DG: Ratatoskr has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Overgrown Undergrowth.
==========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Overgrown Undergrowth *>===================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Folktales claim that the Feywilds are an enchanted place, somewhere that was once home to fairies who could bend the natural world to suit their whims. Whatever veracity may be to the claim, it's hard to deny that the forest seems to be fighting your advance in every possible way. If there's not a pile of rotten logs in your way, there's a tangle of vines or a knot of thorny brambles. Forcing your way through seems to be the only way to advance, and almost certainly results in suffering an overabundance of splinters. Past the obstacles in your way, though, is the facility you seek... The gate you discover sticks out like a sore thumb amidst all this greenery. It's a thing of weathered stone set into the side of a tower at the very edge of a ravine. Beyond, trees and other vegetation have breached much of the ruin, dividing the wheel-like structure into many individual sections. This door is of no exception-- the thing is sealed tight by a lattice of roots and vines. You'll need to clear out the overgrowth before you can pry open the gate. ((OOC Note: Welcome to the Lifeweaver's Whorl! The actual dungeon is split up into indoor and outdoor challenges, each of which will be noted in the card itself. Each card will also contain some commentary from someone who has clearly been here before you. Feel free to find his half-eaten journal notes lying nearby, or perhaps recorded on half-broken consoles...)) =Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous==============================================
=====================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl - Round 1 *>===================== ======================< Results - Overgrown Undergrowth >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 0 --(15)--> 15 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Muirwall 0 --(15)--> 15 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lydia Seren 0 --(15)--> 15 Pass Tiebreaker V 2.0 4 Brute Effects: Efficient and Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 0 --(15)--> 15 Pass Well-Used Mattock 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zed 0 --(15)--> 15 Pass Berserk Hammer 3 Brute Effects: Strengthen and Sacrif -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 0 --(15)--> 15 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- White Knight Leo 0 --(15)--> 15 Pass Earthgrasp Gauntlets 3 Brute Effects: Fanfare -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Kaguya 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Overzealous(2) Effects: Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Kaguya has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Kaguya will neither confirm nor deny theft of candy from children.
"Ahahah," Kaguya laughs back at Lydia. "Yeah, I guess so huh? I used to love blowing shit up!" She shakes her head. Life happens. But Lydia asks a good question, and Kaguya has no reason to particularly hide her relationship with her FAVORITE LYDIA, so she answers, "I'm looking for some environmental data on the way this place supports plantlife."
Then she peers over at Josie. Littering!!! If... she wre anyone but Kaguya, she might complain about that. "It is pretty overgrown, isn't it?"
"You're gonna put the boot in, huh?" Kaguya steps back to make way for Josie's mattock. And for Leo's unearthing. And for Zed's.... Zedding.
"That's deep," Kaguya answers Rataoskr's comment. "Really deep."
Between them, it works out well. Day and Ratatoskr and Josie just do it the old fashioned way, and pull at the plants and cut and tear, and Lydia comes in with a terrifying blade and power and chops up some more, and Vesna appreciates the plants and/or muscles, and Zed... Zed's hammer just smashes in at the same time as Leo's magic does.
Kaguya barely has to do anything. It's pretty great.
"Not bad."
DG: Ratatoskr has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================== ==================<* CHALLENGE - An Electrician's Nightmare *>================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- ...It was then that I discovered that certain species of flora would respond to induced electrical current with explosive growth. If this principle can be applied to neural impulses, then perhaps regeneration could be facilitated... INDOOR CHALLENGE: This corridor has seen better days. The overgrown vegetation has burst through the walls and ceiling. Exposed wiring, intertwined with thorny vines, weaves a deadly network through the passageway. Navigating the hallway will require sure-footing and preternatural spatial awareness if you don't want to end up suffering a nasty shock. =Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
It's quite the crowd who all let themselves into the facility as they brush off the brush in a brutish way, but to keep it brisk, it brings all of them funneled through a corridor as a recording speaks of how certain species of flora appear to react positively to electrical current stimuli. If 'explosive grwoth' is 'positive,' which it may have been depending on the goals of the research.
As for the goals of those looking to infiltrate the place many many years after the fact, less so. Exposed wiring from the compromised structural integrity of this part of the facility (if not everywhere) occasionally flares with bright, sparking showers that somehow have not set the place ablaze.
"Regeneration, huh..." Ratatoskr speaks to himself. It's easy to take the biological elasticity of Living Metal for granted, both as a means of reconfiguring one's anatomy (to an extent) for purpose, and as a means to recover from injury and trauma inflicted.
Which he does, right now, because he has that somehow-still-working crystalline teleportation device in hand which he activates, phases him out, and lets himself be wherever it is he's going to go with it, because youthful impatience is a thing.
What is also a thing, is the exposed electrical hazards. Mind the floor. The walls. The ceiling. It's like the floor is lava, but in reverse.
DG: Ratatoskr has used his Tool Teleporter Fragment toward his party's challenge, An Electrician's Nightmare.
<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.
"They're definitely not natural, Sir Leo. I'm not sure if this is magic at work or if it's something else." Vesna frowns as she lays a hand on one of the vines. "But there's a life here that seems... out of place, oddly."
Day recognizes the comment with a nod and keeps pulling weeds. What gives him pause is Someone Else arriving.
He gives Zed a long, slightly wary look.
Soon enough, they're continuing into the thick of the ruin. Vesna drifts a little closer to Day as the young knight moves forward, sword and shield in hand. He's positioned himself close to the front of the little column, all the better to bear the brunt of an attack.
What is coming is not an assault. The hanging wires present a particular challenge for a young man clad in highly conductive metal. Day winces and sheathes his blade before breathing out heavily through his teeth. "I can tell this is going to be miserable," he mutters.
As if enough lately hasn't been miserable.
...Lucilla....
All too aware Vess is looking at him sympathetically, Day squares his jaw and forces the recurring thoughts out of his mind. He knows what needs to be done there and knows what needs to be done now. His fingers brush the Shiro Tail tucked at his belt, and he launches into action, quicker than anyone in full-plate has a right to. Tumbling forward with a clatter, he tries to roll himself adeptly beneath the worst of the wiring before trying to dart past a few more snares of it.
DG: Day Muirwall has used his Tool Shiro's Tail toward his party's challenge, An Electrician's Nightmare.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"Hmhmhm, nature is indeed impressive. If this is what Filgaia could someday become again, then I can see why the Mother wanted to consume its life-force so badly...!" After all, this place is many things but it is absolutely, inarguably 'alive.'
Zed gives Day a little finger-wiggling wave, as if to say 'hiiiiii churro pal~' But! There is a challenge ahead of them, and what a challenge it is. Everyone knows that Metal Demons are, as the young-uns might say, 'conductive AF,' and with the way the path is laid out, there's unlikely to be any hope of avoiding a grounding contact. Zed rubs his chin thoughtfully. His scarf snakes out and slooowly weaves a path through the hazards. Zed navigates after it, trying to stick to (relatively) safe ground wherever possible. If he can't dodge or smash through it, then this is the next best thing!!
"Hmm, not natural....? So maybe if we can copy whatever whoever built this place did, we can... use it to grow Hyadean flora? That would be really neat...! I know some of us have been having trouble finding the right nutrients..." Zed has been getting by by, uh.
Literally eating mineral-rich ore and chugging Guild-Galadian tap water.
Somehow, he's not radioactive yet.
DG: Zed has used his Tool Grapple Scarf toward his party's challenge, An Electrician's Nightmare.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Alright! Then I'll lend you my aid! Haha!" Lydia says. "For I am...uh...Green...Knight..." She frowns. "Nah, that isn't really me. I guess I'm sticking with Lydie and/or Lydia or if you want to go old school Asteroid the Kid I mean it's been a while and that name was pretty cool..."
She glances to Josie who shot her in hte face.
Well that was a while ago, she reasons. She's probably done a lot of good stuff since then so don't worry about it.
ELSEWHERE
Fei sheds a singular tear.
HERE
Lydia doesn't really have a ... she can't fly through this and starting a fire by activating FLIGHT MODE is probably not going to help, so she just tries to be really careful since a nastyh shock won't be pleasant for her either.
"Ngghahhh..." LYdia complaints, stiff as a board.
DG: Lydia Seren has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, An Electrician's Nightmare.
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Leo might be focusing on the earth, but the approach of such a massive weapon is impossible to miss. The White Knight throws himself to the ground, flattening his body against the churned-up earth. When the ripping and shredding and breaking stops, he picks himself up, and looks back at the Hyadean. "At least that vile monster's weapon is doing good," he murmurs. "Come. Dame Kaguya has identified an entrance."
Unfortunately, this entrance has its own challenges in store. Leo isn't the most tech-savvy, but he knows that the metal braids and cables are built to channel electricity, and that "tamed lightning" can wound and kill as well as the real thing.
"I don't know," Leo says, as he makes a sacrifice--he rolls his cape up, securing it beneath his pack so it won't brush against anything. "Do your kind want for food, Zed? I--"
'Ngghahhh...'
Leo reaches out a hand to Lydia without hesitation. "Here," he says. "Hold on to me." With his other hand, Leo whips out his grapple, which flies true, and wraps around an exposed ceiling beam. He holds it still, and--if Lydia takes up his offer--he waits until she's settled before swinging out into the room. Some of the cables come close, but none (hopefully) come into direct contact. Once the rope's stabilized, Leo starts to climb, with visible difficulty. But the metal supports seem to have a lower density of wires in places. If they can get up there, they might be able to identify problem spots and direct the others around them.
DG: White Knight Leo has used his Tool Rope Ladder toward his party's challenge, An Electrician's Nightmare.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie glances sidelong at Lydia.
She raises a pale eyebrow. And then she grins, in a way that is practically jackolantern-like.
This is probably fine.
"Sure am," Josie tells Kaguya.
And then she does just that, if in the metephorical sense of the word, slamming the mattock into the obstacle in their path.
When all is said and done, she rubs the palm of her left hand against her pantleg. "Well, that's sorted. What do you think? You wanna all hang together?"
She gestures vaguely with her left hand as she continues along, without so much as pausing for a second. "Sure enough, if'n we don't, I figure we'll all hang separately. This ain't no cake walk."
She says, continuing towards the site and the ruins that rest within.
It's upon ducking into one building in particular that she espies something interesting. "Hmm... looks like the power's on."
It's really really on, given that it's even sparking, under the foliage. "Shame. I'd like to give it a closer look 'n all, but the way that's going, I'd just end up crispy if I tried. Well, let's see if we can find the generator, yeah? That'd be a right treat," Josie remarks, ducking under a sparking vine as she ventures inwards, undeterred by the chaotic mess this has shown itself to be.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, An Electrician's Nightmare.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"Regeneration through electrical impulses... that is an interesting idea," Kaguya comments thoughtfully. But then she looks back at Vesna, "Most crops people grow for food aren't entirely 'natural'," she suggests to her. "They're the result of long years of experimentation and cross-breeding by the peoples' ancestors who took wild plants and adapted them for farming."
Pause. "There's some weird stuff though, yeah."
Then she looks over at Lydia and says, "I remember Astie," she says. "But you wanted me to use your real name and I respect that, you know? It was cool, but you're Lydia to me. I don't even call you Lyds!" But she totally would.
Then to Josi, "It's not," she agrees. "Sure, come on along. What I'm after doesn't care about a little loot splitting."
Power's on... hmm. "Yeah, the generator's a good idea," Kaguya agrees, and starts forward, jumping over cables to look for the source of the electricity. "If nothing else, it can tell us a little more..." She stops here and there for more samples, to be put away in little glass jars. If she gets shocked, oh well. She'll live.
DG: Kaguya has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, An Electrician's Nightmare.
==========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================== ==================<* CHALLENGE - An Electrician's Nightmare *>================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- ...It was then that I discovered that certain species of flora would respond to induced electrical current with explosive growth. If this principle can be applied to neural impulses, then perhaps regeneration could be facilitated... INDOOR CHALLENGE: This corridor has seen better days. The overgrown vegetation has burst through the walls and ceiling. Exposed wiring, intertwined with thorny vines, weaves a deadly network through the passageway. Navigating the hallway will require sure-footing and preternatural spatial awareness if you don't want to end up suffering a nasty shock. =Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
=====================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl - Round 2 *>===================== ====================< Results - An Electrician's Nightmare >==================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 15 --(17)--> 32 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Muirwall 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Shiro's Tail 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lydia Seren 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zed 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Grapple Scarf 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Teleporter Fragment 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- White Knight Leo 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Rope Ladder 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Kaguya 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Overzealous(1) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Kaguya has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
Filgaia, a land of war-torn scars and decay, having any sort of place with this much overgrowth must feel strange... but as it so happens, a Shiro Mongrel's tail puts enough pep in Day's step through his heavy armor that he deftly avoids making contact with the exposed wiring.
Zed deftly goes through while waxing poetic about nutrients and the difficulties inherent in a post-Mother world (which is, otherwise, a net gain). There is an exposed piece of shrapnel that might look tasty to lick (do not do this).
"I like names to be accurate...!" Calls Ratatoskr from inside some paneling which is, uh, not a great turn of events but he's not being elctrocuted, which is great(?), but Lydia takes it slow with trepidation.
Only to receive a helping hand from Leo to swing along and figure out how to get up there and figure out whether it's a thing they can shut down remotely here or have to go further in to deal with.
Josie might be able to point out where the source might be just from a good, educated guess as she helps her way through without much issue.
Kaguya doesn't get shocked when she walks. Instead, a vine tries to slap her wrist as if to discipline her for taking its kin in jars. How did the vine know? The grape vine told them. (ha ha ha)
Ratatoskr, who is on the other end once he can free himself from the wall, shakes his head. "...I don't see a generator here." They may have to leave another way lest they go back through here, but hey, they made it through here safely the once.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Lousy Leyabout *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- ...more dire than expected. Natural energies are stagnant or in decline and standard remediation is untenable. Over impractical time scales, certain methods may achieve limited efficacy. Perhaps accelerated biomass cycling... OUTDOOR CHALLENGE: An oasis like this should not normally be possible on a world like Filgaia. Any ecological symbologist worth their salt would be able to tell you that the world is in too poor a shape to support so much life in one place. But here in the undergrowth of the vast forest above, you may have found an answer. Hidden under layers of lichen and mulch is a distinct pattern of glimmering lapis lazuli crystals. Parts of the array have been disturbed over the years, but the tell-tale thrum of spiritual energies suggest that this might play a role in the lushness of the surrounding ecosystem. If you can repair the array, perhaps its full functionality might afford an opportunity to rest and recuperate...? =Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"'Loot', eh?" Josie's mouth has split wide in a grin. "Wouldn't mind that or none. But it ain't why I'm here, neither," she says, shaking her head.
This, before the investigation of a particular building uncovers the fact that it's had better days (and better wiring, perhaps) requiring a little bit of neat footwork and ducking under wires.
The usual, really.
"Sure's a shame about the wiring," she remarks. "Maybe if we power down the generator in here," she says, hand resting on the handle of the large ornate vine-encrusted door before her as she cranes her head back to look over her shoulder, "we can double back here, pick out the wires? If they're still working, I figure, they're good..."
She opens the door here. It squeals in protest.
"...for anything we... uh. Well."
There's not a working generator room beyond the door. The door leads right back out into the wild, as neat as can be -- look, and you can scarce tell the point where metal meets tree. Or perhaps they were always one to begin with. The wires lead elsewhere, or perhaps...
...perhaps the large lapis-lazuli-encrusted array set into the floor of the forest may tell a part of the story. It's glowing softly, but hardly from any electrical source -- if indeed it's not some part of that source to begin with.
Josie stands there for a moment more, staring at the array, wearing the sort of expression one might when grappling with something complicated in the world within.
"...Ley power, huh," she remarks after a moment. A small brown scrap, its text faded, catches her eye. She stoops, picking it up, skimming the text.
"Too late," she tells the author of that fragment, letting it fall as she steps closer to the array.
"Ain't much good with this," she tells the array. "But it'll have to do. You ain't right neither, are you?"
She kneels, almost as if in reverence.
And at a key point, she unceremoniously jams her screwdriver into the mix.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Lucky Screwdriver toward her party's challenge, Lousy Leyabout.
<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.
There are no churros and there is more behind-the-scenes frustration. Day's tolerance for Zedderly antics is not as high as it might otherwise be.
"Giving yourself a nickname usually doesn't work," he asides with a glance at Lydia. "Stick with who you are and someone else will find one for you eventually."
Then he rolls under an electrical wire, 'cause pep, step, et cetera.
The group pushes onward, Day giving a sidelong glance at Josephine and exhaling. The notion of loot hadn't even occurred to him. For a moment he looks up towards the open sky as they move into the open again.
Am I just a terrible Drifter?
"Sir Day, Ms. Lovelace is right. There's a current of ley power here," Vesna cuts into the young knight's thought, kneeling to brush her hand through the foliage. The glint of lapis lazuli winks back at them.
Startled out of his self-reproof, Day blinks and looks down at the exposed crystals, then winces at the sight of Josephine just jabbing at it. "...So I see," he murmurs before clearing his throat. "What can we do with this?"
Vesna pushes more of the lichen to one side to reveal yet more of the crystalline shapes, then lays her palms on them and closes her eyes. "I can feel the planet moving through here," she murmurs. "This entire facility must draw its power from the ley. If that's true, then this is probably more metaphysical than it is a machine. That means...."
She trails off. Day blinks at her and drops to a knee by her side. "...What does it mean?"
The only response he gets is the refreshing breath of a spring breeze. The gentle movement of air radiates out from the Wind Seraph, a pale green-white glow radiating through her fingers in subtle streamers. Surrounded by the feeling of a warm, sunlit day, Vesna closes her eyes and bows her head, focusing on weaving her own magicks down through the crystals to try and guide the currents of the Ley into alignment.
DG: Day Muirwall has used his Tool Vess's Guidance toward his party's challenge, Lousy Leyabout.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Zed shakes his head Leo-ward. He is briefly tempted to LICK A METAL but decides against it, ultimately, because he's pretty sure that the tastiest metal chunk in all the world is not worth letting this much magic smoke into his body. That would, as the scholars might say, 'suck eggs.' "Depends! I'm able to sustain myself on like... Rocks. And liquids that have the right minerals in them. But I think that might have something to do with my decanting date?? I'm pretty old, you know! Physically speaking!!"
"Not as old as whoever built this place, though," Zed murmurs a little more quietly as they find their way to... something that honestly makes his hair prickle up a little bit. "...This feeling... Mm, I thought I recognized it."
"If it's powered by the ley," Zed says, canting his head to one side, "And is like, some weird plant-metal hybrid... These are like, basically tell-tale signs that this place was probably made by the Elw. Or with their help, anyway."
He looks towards the lapis standing stones and frowns, "Hmmm. I think I should probably keep my hands off. We might not be super murdered by planet juice anymore, but I've never been good with... ley manipulation."
If Riese were here, that might be a different story.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
At least Zed isn't being super zedderly today. That's probably of small comfort to Day right now, though.
DG: Zed has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Lousy Leyabout.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Yeah! And that's awesome!" Lydia says in agreement. She frowns as she recognizes there's a contradiction between what she had said then and what she's saying now. "I guess, I trust you. Or maybe I trust myself more, so I know I'm still Lydia even if someone uses a nickname. But..." She smiles. "Yeah, Lydia. Thanks. "
Leo helps Lydia get across. Lydia takes the help without protess and once she's somewhere less rough she adds, "Leo," after a moment. "Are you doing okay?"
She's not the most empathic person in the world but she's not a rock. Eventually even she'll sense that something is off.
Josie grinned at her but that's pretty normal. Lydia doesn't pretend to understand if there's meaning behind it.
Lydia ... has no idea how any of this junk works but does, occassionally, try hitting a crystal to see if that changes things in the right way.
DG: Lydia Seren has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Lousy Leyabout.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
Ratatoskr drops down from some unspecified height and angle in which his teleportation device thing deposited him, landing down in a graceful three-point stance with way less of a weighty impact than his biomass may typically impart. (He is lightweight relative to other Hyadeans of his size, but he is still made of Living Metal.)
It's quite the sight to take in - it seems even further filled with plantlife than the likes of Spira did, as the experts in recognizing Ley and the stuff attached to it weigh in. His tail bunches up and flicks every so often with the subtle pulse of energies that once directly opposed and fought his existence.
Which is kind of too bad, and he may never quite appreciate how great a gesture it means that the planet itself isn't trying to expunge him.
His gaze falls upon Seraph Vesna - who looks to him as a people-shaped mass of wind - where he stands at the very baseline level of Resonance to hear and see her, if only just.
"...Some days I have to think about whether or not I need to chew a casing..." He muses about the realities of the struggle for foodstuffs. Casings come from bullets, fired from an ARM, likely as part of a battle, and there are some realities that're tough to deal with.
As Lydia starts hitting crystals, Ratatoskr gets out that rare Hyadean datapad thing and wonders if this is the sort of lapis lazuli device attached to things that attack those who draw near.
Because that would be kind of rad.
DG: Ratatoskr has used his Tool Corrupted Records toward his party's challenge, Lousy Leyabout.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"There's always loot," Kaguya answers. "...And is that so?" she wonders. But she doesn't ask why Josie is here, because she isn't prepared to be asked why she is here. So she doesn't yet.
"Electricity sure seems to work to stimulate the plants, though."
She smiles at Lydia when she smiles at her. It's nice. "You trust yourself more... yeah, that makes sense! But still, you know?"
She gets slapped by a vine. Frowny!!! "Rude," Kaguya tells the vine.
She glances at Josie, and picks up the text, too, looking it over, and back to Josie. "...You uh..."
She watches her, and doesn't say anything. It's a far cry from how they first met.
So instead she says, "Machines can be plenty metaphysical!" Kaguya looks over Ratatoskr next. Chewing... castings. And Zed. Hmm. "Well..." Kaguya takes some more samples, and loads them up into a machine this time. "The closer it gets to the Ley..."
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Loot Abuse toward her party's challenge, Lousy Leyabout.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"If your dcanting date means you can just eat rocks, what do newer Hyadeans eat? Other than shell casings."
==========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Lousy Leyabout *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- ...more dire than expected. Natural energies are stagnant or in decline and standard remediation is untenable. Over impractical time scales, certain methods may achieve limited efficacy. Perhaps accelerated biomass cycling... OUTDOOR CHALLENGE: An oasis like this should not normally be possible on a world like Filgaia. Any ecological symbologist worth their salt would be able to tell you that the world is in too poor a shape to support so much life in one place. But here in the undergrowth of the vast forest above, you may have found an answer. Hidden under layers of lichen and mulch is a distinct pattern of glimmering lapis lazuli crystals. Parts of the array have been disturbed over the years, but the tell-tale thrum of spiritual energies suggest that this might play a role in the lushness of the surrounding ecosystem. If you can repair the array, perhaps its full functionality might afford an opportunity to rest and recuperate...? =Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Lydia asks Leo a difficult question. He looks away for a moment, considers telling her everything is fine. That would be a lie. "I heard what happened to you," he says, as the two move through the upper floor. "I wasn't expecting you to see here, alone, without them. I'm... sorry, for not doing more. There is rank corruption in the upper echelons of the Church. Perhaps the whole mission to Spira was compromised from the start--and finding the conspirators..." Leo clenches a fist.
"It gladdens me, though, to see that you're still Lydia." He manages a little half-smile.
Leo doesn't pretend to understand the needs of alien biology, or Zed's particular tolerance for things his compatriots might not even consider "food". "I see," he says. "If you seek crops, then..." A pause. "Wheat?" It's a wild guess. Leo is very much a farmer's boy but he didn't learn anything about nutrition beyond 'eat food, not too much, not too rich'. "If you wish to start farms, then... you could do far worse."
Other things Leo knows little about, despite having practical, hands-on experience in the tangentials: Ley energy. He nods to Vesna, content to let the Seraph take point and show her expertise. "If it draws upon the power of Earth, I could--" Leo winces as Josephine jabs the screwdriver in. "Assist?"
DG: White Knight Leo has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Lousy Leyabout.
==========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Lousy Leyabout *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- ...more dire than expected. Natural energies are stagnant or in decline and standard remediation is untenable. Over impractical time scales, certain methods may achieve limited efficacy. Perhaps accelerated biomass cycling... OUTDOOR CHALLENGE: An oasis like this should not normally be possible on a world like Filgaia. Any ecological symbologist worth their salt would be able to tell you that the world is in too poor a shape to support so much life in one place. But here in the undergrowth of the vast forest above, you may have found an answer. Hidden under layers of lichen and mulch is a distinct pattern of glimmering lapis lazuli crystals. Parts of the array have been disturbed over the years, but the tell-tale thrum of spiritual energies suggest that this might play a role in the lushness of the surrounding ecosystem. If you can repair the array, perhaps its full functionality might afford an opportunity to rest and recuperate...? =Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
=====================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl - Round 3 *>===================== ==========================< Results - Lousy Leyabout >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 32 --(0)--> 32 Pass Loot Abuse 2 Wits Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Muirwall 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Vess's Guidance 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lydia Seren 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Lucky Screwdriver 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zed 15 --(12)--> 27 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Corrupted Records 2 Wits Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- White Knight Leo 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Kaguya 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Injure(1)|Save Point(1) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Kaguya 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> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Hm?" Josie murmurs, glancing back at Kaguya, as if to ask by the eyes alone, 'she what'.
A far cry, indeed.
"Sure," she remarks to Leo. "See what you can do, right?"
Down comes the screwdriver in the next moment. Blue-green light floods into a part of the array, beginning to bleed outwards, spreading, reaching for the crystals which begin to glow as Lydia strikes at them, as Kaguya's machine thrums near the array. Light burns outwards from these stones, to meet the pulsing glow shedding through the system. They begin to ring out in a soft chime, as if seeking...
...seeking some point beneath the array, which had been blocked and is no longer, all thanks to the timely application of a choice bit of manipulation by the White Knight beneath the earth and guided in their route -- down to the earth, up to the forest around them -- by Vess' weft of wind.
Zed remarks that he's not particularly good with Ley manipulation. This is a true statement, as it happens. But perhaps he will have a bit of choice observation to grant to Ratatoskr, as that fragment of parchment Kaguya had taken -- the same that Josie had read -- is handed his way.
The whole array is aglow now as Josie stands, reclaiming her screwdriver.
"Good enough," she remarks, gazing down a touch pensively at the magic circle at her feet.
But is Ratatoskr's ponderings about the purpose of the array -- that it might be attached in some way to some nearby creature intent on an assault -- correct? Perhaps only time will bear this out.
DG: White Knight Leo has drawn a new Challenge.
=========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================= =================<* CHALLENGE - Snaking Through the Grass *>================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- ...sensory capabilities must be maintained. While there are advantages to eliminating unnecessary input to preserve mental integrity, too much necessary functionality would be lost if... INDOOR CHALLENGE: This facility must have been something amazing, once upon a time. So many of the laboratories and greenhouses have been taken over by runaway, unmitigated growth that several sections of the place are nothing more than complex mazes of interconnected corridors. This would not normally be a problem, but your party seems to have found itself in the middle of a pack of hungry, chimerical organisms. The strange hybrid of plant and animal stalk the hallways, seeking out the prey that they know are nearby. Sneaking past the hunting pack will take ingenuity and a healthy amount of stealth and misdirection. Use your head and you might just get to keep it. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
The Ley array ignites for what might be the first time in centuries, if not millennia. Blue light washes through the room, illuminating a door half-hidden by a curtain of climbing ivy. It creaks, shudders, and slides open. Something glimmers on the wall next to it, and Leo brushes the plants aside to reveal the source--another one of those logs, and a rather ominous warning:
"Caution," Leo reads aloud, his voice a whisper. "Failsafes in specimen containment chambers one through ten have reached critical failure state. 'Specimens?' That bodes ill."
Something rustles in the canopy above them. Leo's throat tightens. "If we can elude them," he breathes, "this would be much easier." He steps forward, into the maze beyond, but he does not take point. Instead, he stays towards the middle, so as not to let anyone out of his sight. There's something nearby. Something slithering through the vents as easily as it moves through the canopy. The only trace of its presence is a sickly-sweet smell mixed with rotting meat, the odd rustle or clang, and the persistent feeling the group is being watched.
What is it, though? Best not to find out.
DG: White Knight Leo has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Snaking Through the Grass.
<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.
The opportunity to rest is well-taken. Day sits off to one side, seemingly distracted by something.
...I know what I need to do, don't I? But....
5rSoon enough, they're moving on. The young knight pauses for a few beats, then scowls and pushes back towards the head of the adventuring column, there alongside the White Knight. Beyond, something rustles ominously.
Something hungry. Day presses his lips together and moves forward, shield raised, sword hand raised to quietly signal the group to keep their voices down.
He listens, head cocked. The sound of rustling and shuffling feels entirely too close. The scent of rot and cloying florals is impossible to miss, even in trace.
"Quietly," Vess whispers. She, at least, is invisible to most - and it helps that her grass-stained feet aren't touching the ground. She simply drifts along on a breath of spring air.
Quiet is harder for Day. He nods and shifts his position, moving slowly and deliberately, each step calculated to try and mitigate the creak of kasten-brust plate. Green eyes dart from one side to the other, guided by nose and ears, by the prickling feeling down the back of his neck that comes from the feeling of being watched by something he cannot put a name to.
The thoughts do not leave him. He bites down firmly to his lower lip.
I've failed too many people. I can't fail them here.
White Knight, Lady Alathfar... would you still trust me if you knew...?
...Am I still....
DG: Day Muirwall has used his Tool Vess's Guidance toward his party's challenge, Snaking Through the Grass.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"...I mean," Lydia says. "What could you do? The chains that bind me right now are stronger than steel and far more ephemeral." She shrugs both shoulders. "Anyway, you were in a tough position. I get that now. Important thing is, you're learning and becoming even cooler."
She smirks faintly and punches her fist into her palm. "You're still a great beastfolk hero you know? And that means a lot to me. More important than some job, you know? Don't got a lot of people to look up to like that. So don't you worry. In the end I know you'll do the right thing because you're too much of a goody two shoes to do otherwise."
She gives him a thumbsup. "Glad you're well too."
Ingenuity and stealth?
THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK.
Yeah Lydia is not the person to look to here.
DG: Lydia Seren has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Snaking Through the Grass.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Zed does in fact receive this note! He stares at it for a long moment, then... "Hm. Hmmmm. Yes, very interesting. These words this person is using... Either they are some kind of SUPER SCIENCE WIZARD, or... They are..." He pauses, looking meaningfully into the sky. He lets his words slowly trail off...
But not for long! Because there is more facility to explore. It is, however... Somewhat of a more... concerning challenge than the last. 'Specimens' is another word that Science Wizards like to use, but it's more than that which has Zed on edge. He is, at his core, a life-form created to fight and to seek out fights. That awful scent in the air, the strange sounds coming from nearby, they have his sword-arm twitching. There's a good fight to be had here, and it seems he's trying so very hard to restrain that urge to seek it out.
For now... for now he will continue to try. But for how much longer can the irrepressible be repressed...?
DG: Zed has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Snaking Through the Grass.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"Hm, what do we eat?" Zed glances Ratatoskr-ward with some concern tinging his expression. "...Well. I like to eat churros? Uh, probably not really nutritious for us. We need... metal. We're made of metal, so we need things that have a lot of metal. One of us, a friend of mine, he was trying to make plants that could, like... Take up the toxins in the land and water, you know, like the ones around Guild-Galad and Celesti? To take those and grow into living metal crops that we could eat. But when he asked the Guardians, when we met them after the war..."
He shakes his head slowly. That was the one allowance they were not permitted to have.
Zed does in fact receive this note! He stares at it for a long moment, then... "Hm. Hmmmm. Yes, very interesting. These words this person is using... Either they are some kind of SUPER SCIENCE WIZARD, or... They are..." He pauses, looking meaningfully into the sky. He lets his words slowly trail off...
But not for long! Because there is more facility to explore. It is, however... Somewhat of a more... concerning challenge than the last. 'Specimens' is another word that Science Wizards like to use, but it's more than that which has Zed on edge. He is, at his core, a life-form created to fight and to seek out fights. That awful scent in the air, the strange sounds coming from nearby, they have his sword-arm twitching. There's a good fight to be had here, and it seems he's trying so very hard to restrain that urge to seek it out.
For now... for now he will continue to try. But for how much longer can the irrepressible be repressed...?
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Huh," Josie half-replies, half-doesn't quite reply to Zed. "Wonder how she's keepin' on, then."
They approach another likely-looking building.
"Specimens?" Josie drawls, from just behind Leo. She elbows him out of the way, leaning in to take her own look at the screen.
Something rustles above.
"Hm," Josie murmurs, appreciatively. "Seems like."
This is the moment when she stops to pull out another cigarette and -- with a sparking snap and the scent of ozone -- lights it. She regards the lit cigarette in her fingers for a moment more before sighing, shrugging, then taking a couple steps forward to, as the others begin to advance in a particular direction, throw it in the opposite.
"Hope they've good noses," Josie murmurs. "Or that they're flammable." She wouldn't.
...She would.
She advances, with the others.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Pack of Cigarettes toward her party's challenge, Snaking Through the Grass.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
"Oh, I know what that means." Ratatoskr leans in over to read that ominous warning. "That means the things meant to hold experiments aren't working..." Ratatoskr lived in the Photosphere. Their laboratories are not usually the things of comedies of errors. There are - were - failsafes and reasonably responsible figures ('reasonably' is kind of loose here, 'responsible' might not be correct, but there was in equal parts oversight and culpability). That he, not a scientist of the Metal Demons, knows what that means...
Something moves, with all sorts of worrisome signs.
There's talk here and there about the morality of the campaign that failed, and some other stuff about figuring out what to eat... and the shared reflex with Zed to not hunt out and try to pick a fight with whatever it is.
Ratatoskr stops, stands up outright, crosses his arms, and says the following Hyadean wisdom.
"Why are we hiding?" He starts grinning. "Why are we hiding! Think of who you all are...!"
DG: Ratatoskr has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Snaking Through the Grass.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"Hmmm. That's actually a really good idea," Kaguya says, "And you could probably get the Guardians to go along if you cross-bred your ideas with some current plants--make sure it fits into the ecosystem. Leaching out the toxins and metals in the soil that way would help rejuvenate the life in those areas, too. So maybe even if it's not literally living metal..."
Kaguya's getting ideas. "You could still have something that works, even if it's not what you wanted, if..."
But--Josie. "...Nah," Kaguya says to Josie. "Don't worry about it." She notices the earth magic use, and stays a little away from it. Just in case. All the same, it's aglow, and...
"Caution?" Kaguya asks Leo, and tilts her head at him, considering what he says. "Specimens... That sounds promising!" she says brightly. "I wonder what they are? I wonder if I can get samples?"
Of course. She, too, is a SUPER SCIENCE WIZARD.
She does not know what Day is concealing. But she knows he's distracted. "Hey, you OK?" she asks him, tilting her head to look at him, and if she sees a reason to trust him less she doesn't say so.
Instead, she looks over Lydia, talking about beastfolk, and then Zed, and thinks. They aren't very stealthy...
So she pulls a black and white grenade out of her pack. "Yeah, we could avoid them, or we could do this," she says. When Josie drives them away or forward with a cigarette, Kaguya? She tosses the Sleep Grenade after pulling the pin at the nearest one that takes notice of Lydia's stomping.
This way she can collect samples anyway. "Because they're slimy and fighting them would be gross," Kaguya answers Ratatoskr helpfully.
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Loot Abuse toward her party's challenge, Snaking Through the Grass.
=========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================= =================<* CHALLENGE - Snaking Through the Grass *>================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- ...sensory capabilities must be maintained. While there are advantages to eliminating unnecessary input to preserve mental integrity, too much necessary functionality would be lost if... INDOOR CHALLENGE: This facility must have been something amazing, once upon a time. So many of the laboratories and greenhouses have been taken over by runaway, unmitigated growth that several sections of the place are nothing more than complex mazes of interconnected corridors. This would not normally be a problem, but your party seems to have found itself in the middle of a pack of hungry, chimerical organisms. The strange hybrid of plant and animal stalk the hallways, seeking out the prey that they know are nearby. Sneaking past the hunting pack will take ingenuity and a healthy amount of stealth and misdirection. Use your head and you might just get to keep it. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
====================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl - Round 4 *>==================== ===================< Results - Snaking Through the Grass >==================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kaguya 32 --(0)--> 32 Pass Loot Abuse 2 Wits Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Day Muirwall 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Vess's Guidance 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lydia Seren 15 --(12)--> 27 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Josephine Lovelace 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Pack of Cigarettes 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Zed 27 --(12)--> 39 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ratatoskr 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ White Knight Leo 15 --(12)--> 27 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Kaguya 60 --(20)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(2) Effects: Cleanse ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Kaguya 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: Day Muirwall has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================== ==================<* CHALLENGE - Benediction of Archgenesis *>================== |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- ...all that I can do. And yet, the truth I have been running from for so long is so painfully obvious. Even if I find my answer, someday, who will bring it to those who need it most? I will die here, so far from home... or else I will be bound to this place, never to see them again. When it is done, will I even remember what I did all this for? INDOOR CHALLENGE: You've finally drawn near to the heart of this place. The vines creeping across the facility walls pulse with light and energy, and grow so thick that it's impossible to tell that you're in an artificial structure at all. Whatever is going on in here, whatever treasures might be hidden here, they're very close by. The problem is, you're not the only ones who realize it. The corridor suddenly shudders as a cascade of roots and vines erupt from the walls to bar your path. Saplings shoot up from the floor, expand into fully grown tree trunks, and then rapidly die and petrify to bar your way. The life-force filling this place surges to keep you at bay. Whatever lies in wait knows that you are coming, and it's doing all that it can to stop you. =Dungeon Conditions: Overwhelm================================================
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"You know," Zed says, drawing Doom Bringer at Ratatoskr's inquiry, "That's a great question, Ratatoskr!"
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
The monster--monsters--are close. Vess catches sight of them a few times, as she drifts unseen through the air: a long, whip-like tail, reptilian scales threaded with roots, a cluster of leaves with the texture and stink of rotting flesh. Teeth glistening amid the cloying stink, waiting for scavengers to search out the "rotting carrion". Fortunately, no one here is interested in that, and Vess is able to quietly alert the others. Lydia's stomping--and the talking, gesticulating, and general chest-beating of the Hyadean contingent--earn a look of silent dismay from Leo, who very much realizes that this is terrible terrain to pick a fight in. The corridors are too tight. There are too many openings. The creatures undoubtedly know the place much better than they do. While they would probably win, Leo has seen too much horror to inflict it on his comrades, if he can avoid it.
Lydia was calling it as she saw it, after all. Leo doesn't respond with words, but he does allow himself to give her a smile. That won't alert the enemy.
Josie throws a cigarette. Something rustles in that direction--the pack has detected the odd smell. Moments later, the sleep grenade goes off, and something--multiple somethings--fall to the floor. One of them stumbles forwards, into the light, revealing its shape. At one point, it was almost certainly reptilian, perhaps a crocodile or a large monitor lizard. Now, its entire head has merged with a large rafflesia blossom, hinged at the petal bases and studded with teeth. The stench is horrible.
The chimera flops over and goes right to sleep. Leo tiptoes past, so as not to wake it.
<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.
As much as Day has a lot on his mind, it feeds his determination. There are people counting on him. No matter how much his faith in himself can wane, he won't put their faith in him in jeopardy.
Emerging from the corridor and through a door ahead, the young knight is first into the chamber beyond the maze of skulking horrors. His eyes widen, and it's not just the light of the place that takes him aback.
It's the greenery - a chamber alive with foliage. Literally. Vines snake so thickly along the walls and floor that the structure of the facility is all but unseen. With Vess floating up in awe behind him, Day takes a few slow steps forward, letting his sword fall from readiness. "It's amazing that a place like this could exist in Filgaia," he breathes. "And why only here? What could it-- huh?" Cutting off in mid-sentence, he looks down with a blink as he realizes he's caught one spur on a root.
He shakes it loose. It stubbornly clings to the boot. With a scowl, he jerks his leg free entirely -
And collides with a sapling that wasn't there a minute ago. One that's twining branches around him in an arc. "What in Althena's name," he exclaims as he snaps his sword at it, cleaving off a chunk of branch.
It's not enough. Vines come drooping down from the ceiling to bind his sword arm.
The chamber is filling up with them rapidly. Vines and branches emerge from the ground and twine down from above, snaking around limbs, around bodies. They form an ever-interlocking maze of verdance, a cage organically writhing out to constrict the entire group. Even Vess, incorporeal or not, finds herself squirming with a pained gasp as she's snared by a branch. "Gh, there's so much of it--"
Day growls and swings at the vines binding his arm, trying to hack through them. "There aren't enough," he grates, trying to free his arms enough to start cutting foliage down. "We can't get stopped here...!"
DG: Day Muirwall has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Benediction of Archgenesis.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Does someone restrain Zed? Is Zed spared from doing that thing that would make everyone regret allowing Zed to come along? Truly, his low Generation number has its upsides and its downs, and the joy of battle truly runs deep in his blood. But-- no, it's not a physical restraint that stops him. Kaguya brings up a... very interesting and salient point.
"...That could work? I mean... That's what life does right? You are what you eat, so if we could like, concentrate the things we need to live into plants, even if they're not Living Metal, that'd be really good for us. Trouble is..." Zed's expression turns... not regretful, just maybe a little frustrated? "Like all of our bio-science-wizards are either dead, missing, working for Odessa, or Alhazred. Who is also dead."
For some reason, Zed decides to knock his knuckles against a nearby piece of wood a couple of times.
"...So none of us can really do anything like that," he says in the direction of one of those horrible Raflessia Dragons, "Or like..."
The passage stirs. Plants erupt from the walls, from the floors, from everywhere in a rampant frenzy of growth. Zed reaches for his enormous, stolen flail, but soon finds that the room he'd need to do anything meaningful with it is swiftly swallowed up. Clicking his teeth together in a snarl, Zed instead relies on his good old mancutter. Doom Bringer brings doom to flora and fauna alike, and its shape makes it a surprisingly effective machete, but...
"Guh, whatever this place is, it really doesn't want us getting through!"
DG: Zed has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Benediction of Archgenesis.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Don't worry about it, Kaguya says, and Josie's response is to smile lopsidedly her way and roll her shoulders in a lazy shrug.
It's not too long after that when Kaguya moves to follow her lead and throws a sleep grenade off in the direction she'd tossed her cigarette. Josie's sole response is a wordless one: a single sharp thumbs-up as if to say 'well played'.
It probably works out for the best as the two Hyadeans had started calling for a fight. Josie already is in the process of bidding a rather hasty retreat, perhaps noticing the same thing about this location that Leo had. This is a terrible place for a gunfight.
And so she emerges out into the green again.
"Ain't seen a place like this on Filgaia. Even the woods back home're a sorry sight, if you put 'em side by side. Wonder what it is that makes it all..."
The vines are moving. So are the roots, the branches, the twigs the leaves--
Josie slams against a coil of roots, one leg snarled by an unrelenting tendril. "Why you-- shit!" she barks out, eyes wide as she gazes at the cage that is warping around them. "I remember this--"
She has taken the mattock to the tendril. Any hope of an escape is quickly slipping away as the bars of the 'cage' tighten.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Well-Used Mattock toward her party's challenge, Benediction of Archgenesis.
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Leo's hackles rise at the mention of Alhazred. His ears twitch in anger. He grimaces, baring pointed canines. He only had a tiny handful of encounters with the Quarter Knight, and it's telling that they trigger that kind of anger and revulsion.
But now that he's free to speak, Leo can answer Day's question. "This place was once the laboratory of a great magus from the Silver Star. We don't know how, precisely, he ended up here--perhaps he stumbled across the Elw teleporters before they were active--but some of the plants here are native to our home. One, I recognized myself. It was why I thought there was a gate here that would lead us home again."
And now they're free to go back and forth as they see fit. A pity the Silver Star isn't the safe haven Leo once thought it was.
And then, the green itself rises against them. "This again!" Leo cries, his head whipping about as the vine-cage starts to tighten its grip. Leo casts his hands forward, but the only workable Ley in the area is in the plants--and unlike Kaguya, his talents don't lend themselves to work of that nature. "Damnation. Stand fast! Cut your way throught!" Leo's blade leaves its sheath with a SHING of ringing steel. "DEMON FANG!" The weapon sweeps through the air, letting loose a wave of pulverizing force. "DEMON FANG!" And another. And another. And another.
DG: White Knight Leo has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Benediction of Archgenesis.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Kaguya grins at Josie over the thumbs-up. "Eh? Eh?" she says, and laughs a little, though quietly, so as not to wake their specimens. It's good enough for her, and much preferable to discussing Feelings with Josie at this point, which seems like it would be... awkward.
Kaguya is very interested in this idea Zed has--and when he mentios the problem... Hmm. "Yeah," Kaguya says. "Well," she says. "No promises, but if I can get some samples of your Living Metal plants, I might be able to look at the mechanism by which they draw in their compounds. I've got a lot on my plate, but... Xenobotany is exactly my main field, so..." It would interest her to try it. But everything suddenly--
"Oh that' fascinating," Kaguya says, "How do they get such rapid growth? I wonder, how long would it--" The others start fighting. Kaguya pauses. "Yeah, I guess I should probably do something, huh?"
She pulls a small blinking box with green lights on it, flipping some switches on the side. "Don't inhale the gas from this if you ever want kids," she suggests to the human-ish party members at hand, and leaps forward, diving straight into the vines and throwing the bomb down into the core of what's here, conjuring up a shield of ice to protect herself from the blast.
It should work out fine.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
Ratatoskr drops into a combat stance in front of the sleeping rafflesia-lizard-thing. It does not acknowledge his existence, because it is now asleep, and he loses interest almost immediately. Given the difficulty of the footing and the environs, and that it probably could have bitten him in half if it craned its stem-neck like nine feet in the correct direction, this may be for the best.
There is a 'hyahaha--' laugh somewhere in the emergent waves of vines and tendrils, but somewherre in all of this tangle of violence, Ratatoskr at least has the semblance of common sense to retrieve a top-end Zeboim-era laser cutter to start using a loose piece of sheet plating to try and hold back/corral the thickening growth. It's easy to miss in the moment, more for the underlying fact that if the thickening brush is drowning out Ratatoskr, it's not just a serious situation.
It's loud!!!
DG: Ratatoskr has used his Tool Antique Laser Cutter toward his party's challenge, Benediction of Archgenesis.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
A smile! That's better than nothing.
Everyone's getting closer to the heart but suddenly there's a wall of vines! Lydia, naturally, is going to take Tiebreaker (she should rename it again, she thinks) and takes a big old swing at the vines! They're petrified so a heavy blunt instrument might actually be helpful this time!
"I hope you found something of what you're looking for, Kaguya." Lydia says.
DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Tiebreaker V 2.0 toward her party's challenge, Benediction of Archgenesis. DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Magnetic Resonance Bomb toward her party's challenge, Benediction of Archgenesis.
==========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================== ==================<* CHALLENGE - Benediction of Archgenesis *>================== |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- ...all that I can do. And yet, the truth I have been running from for so long is so painfully obvious. Even if I find my answer, someday, who will bring it to those who need it most? I will die here, so far from home... or else I will be bound to this place, never to see them again. When it is done, will I even remember what I did all this for? INDOOR CHALLENGE: You've finally drawn near to the heart of this place. The vines creeping across the facility walls pulse with light and energy, and grow so thick that it's impossible to tell that you're in an artificial structure at all. Whatever is going on in here, whatever treasures might be hidden here, they're very close by. The problem is, you're not the only ones who realize it. The corridor suddenly shudders as a cascade of roots and vines erupt from the walls to bar your path. Saplings shoot up from the floor, expand into fully grown tree trunks, and then rapidly die and petrify to bar your way. The life-force filling this place surges to keep you at bay. Whatever lies in wait knows that you are coming, and it's doing all that it can to stop you. =Dungeon Conditions: Overwhelm================================================
=====================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl - Round 5 *>===================== ====================< Results - Benediction of Archgenesis >==================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 32 --(10)--> 42 Pass Magnetic Resonance Bomb 3 Brute Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Muirwall 15 --(22)--> 37 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lydia Seren 27 --(10)--> 37 Pass Tiebreaker V 2.0 4 Brute Effects: Efficient and Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 15 --(22)--> 37 Fail Well-Used Mattock 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zed 39 --(22)--> 61 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 15 --(10)--> 25 Pass Antique Laser Cutter 4 Brute Effects: None -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- White Knight Leo 27 --(22)--> 49 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Kaguya 80 --(0)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(1)|Overwhelm Effects: Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Kaguya has passed this challenge! The party gained 0 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> Day Muirwall has posed.
"Geh-- I wish he'd thought to grow plants that are less grouchy about guests!" Day can only answer Leo, trying to hack at a stand of vines. His sword is meant for cutting people, not fibrous roots. It doesn't make a lot of headway.
Others are more fortunate, but they are not Leo, Zed and Josephine. The White Knight Demon Fangs his way through vines - but runs into the same problem as Day. Zed is in the same boat, too. The vines are simply too dense, too fibrous and sinewy. They don't cut cleanly or fully, and fibers that seem to hold on by mere thread simply bind back together with new vines and new twigs and branches. Josephine's mattock bites into a massive branch - and a vine quickly begins to snake around the handle, and then up her arms.
This is a job for firepower. Kaguya Alathfar delivers.
The bomb blasts away a substantial mass of foliage, flame ripping through a swath of it. The ashen remnants of vines fill the air, the ice shield at least preserving some of the party from the inferno. Ratatoskr's laser leaves no plant fibre untouched, scorching through them and cauterizing any that attempt to grow back. Before long, a slashing path has emerged between the pair of strangers - a path Lydia bulldozes into and begins to tear aside.
The tie is broken. Flame and pugilism clear out the worst of the vines, stiffening and drying enough more that even the sword and pick-wielders can wriggle free.
With a hiss, Day slashes through the last of the boughs constraining Vess, pulling the Wind Seraph out into a princess carry as she drops from the mess. "Is everyone alright?" he asks.
He's blushing and he is not sure why. His feelings for Vess are not *like* that.
DG: Zed has drawn a new Challenge.
=========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================= =====================<* CHALLENGE - Galem the Guardian *>===================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- ...Gazer and Project Mispolm in particular have been very useful references. The ancients of this land must have been scientists beyond compare. I can only hope that my own work can meet the standards they set... FINAL CHALLENGE: As you pull yourselves out of the tangle of obstacles, you find yourselves in a sunlit grove at the foot of a truly spectacular tree. Colorful flora blooms brilliantly, tended to by a small army of busily swarming insects. The air is fresh and crisp, full of the heady scent of aromatic nectar. Just as you think you have a moment to rest, something abruptly changes. A shadow grows across the ground as the pollinating swarms scatter. Something falls out of the sky! It looks like a massive bush with a single eye. The thing emits a noise that can only be described as an alarm siren as its leafy shell comes apart into a dozen smaller, floating eyeball-shrubs. The core, now revealed to be an enormous seed or nut, begins firing bolts of brilliant energy from its eye and commanding thorny growths to burst from the ground underneath your feet, even as its subordinate drones launch their own beam attacks and menace with stinging tendril-vines! Your goal is within sight, but you're going to have to overcome this final guardian to claim it! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
There's! A lot of nonsense to cut through. A lot. Zed might be a blender of hyperviolence when he really gets going, but the absolutely ludicrous speed at which these plants are growing makes progress... difficult.
Difficult, but not impossible.
The party finally manages to escape from the crush of vines, emerging in surprisingly decent shape, all things considered, at the foot of... Something that probably shouldn't be here.
It's not a cosmic horror or some kind of elemental disaster in physical form, or anything like that. If anything, it's the opposite of those things. This is a grove as unspoiled as the most pristine on Lunar, lush with plant life, replete with growth. It is, in other words, so utterly disconnected from the reality of life on Filgaia that its mere presence is jarring. But what is really, gobsmacking is the enormous tree that rises from the middle of the clearing.
For a moment, even Zed is silent.
...And then everything stops being quiet. It looks as though there's some kind of... floating eyeball-tree knot-thing hovering there, its eyeball flashing red and blue like some kind of klaxon.
It is, in fact, exactly some kind of klaxon.
Soon, nearly a dozen more, identical floating-eye-plant-things descend from the canopy, followed shortly thereafter by an extremely large specimen of the same species. The smaller creatures begin orbiting the larger one, which soon begins menacing the party...
WITH LASER EYE BEAMS!!??
"Oh wow, it's a laser bush!!" Zed calls with a beaming grin. He brings his fingers to his lips and blows, emitting a shrill whistle that... doesn't seem to do much.
...At first.
But then, something ELSE drops in from above! It's... It's dog-shaped but is absolutely nothing like a normal dog. It's covered in golden armor, has a tertiary set of limbs attached to its shoulders that terminate in wicked, metallic blades. Its tail has a triple-clawed grasper at the end, which gnashes and snaps and menaces the air. Its face...
...Is a trifurcated horror show with so many teeth and a long, lolling tongue and two rows of three eyes each on either side.
Bark, says Goldie the Metal Beast, who immediately drops from the branches onto one of the smaller laser eye-seeds. Zed grins and charges at another, his sword deflecting a deadly beam at the last moment before he strikes...!
But the Metal Demon is not alone. What does the rest of the team do, faced with this... unique specimen of floral security?
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
At some point, Zed also answers Kaguya: "Oh, I can ask Ida if she has a spare. I know Kalve gave her a flower, but... I dunno if there's more than just that one. Maybe I still have a pod in my scarf, though...?"
DG: Zed has used his Tool Goldie Whistle toward his party's challenge, Galem the Guardian.
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
With a mighty roar, Leo rips through the last cluster of clinging, half-petrified vines. He pulls himself through the opening with main strength alone, though his muscles ache in protest, and his exposed skin stings from the prickle of countless thorns. He pulls open a pouch at his belt, pulls out a sprig of Purity Herb, and chews it up--just in case those thorns were poisnous. Once he's seen to himself, Leo glances behind him, and sees a solid wall of petrified wood in place of the hole he carved less than a minute ago. "Is everyone--"
He doesn't finish the sentence. The guardian--which Leo has encountered in the past--shows itself immediately, raining death down on the party. "Get behind something!" Leo shouts. He stomps the earth, and a shield of rock erupts in front of him. The laser sears across it, leaving a long, black gouge in the stone.
Leo reaches for the pouch again, and pulls something out--something from Spira. It's a tiny hourglass with fine-grained golden sand inside. Leo turns it over, and a wave of localized distortion washes outwards, a ripple in reality. It passes by Leo's allies, but gives no such luxury to Galem and its sub-eyes. They start to slow as the time-bubble hits them, and while it might not slow the light meaningfully, everything else is going to get noticeably delayed.
With that done, Leo leaps towards one of the eyes and sweeps out his blade, aiming to hack it in half in a single strike.
DG: White Knight Leo has used his Tool The Goods toward his party's challenge, Galem the Guardian.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Trying to cut a vine with a mattock works about as well as expected: Josie ends up with a mashed-up foul-smelling mess of a plant that is still holding onto her leg. Only when others hack through the maze of vine and roots that have coiled about as if to cage them does the vine uncoil in spite of its terrible wounds and snake away into the underbrush. They're free to advance, and once she gets back on her feet, she does exactly that.
The fact that she's in the midst of downing the contents of a particular flask once they reach the clearing should not be unexpected from her.
The fact that she puts down the bottle for a moment and just stares at the creature might speak volumes about the impact such a sight has had on her. Josie has seen a lot of weird shit, to put it bluntly, in her career. But this...
"I'll be a monkey's auntie," she drawls.
Which is of course when the strange tree goes on high alert, its eyeball flashing red and blue as if it were an alarm. ...Which it is. "Whoops," Josie remarks, and just to be safe, consumes the rest of the contents of that flask, before ducking for cover nearby.
"My kind of bush," she remarks at Zed's comment, pulling from its holster that black shotgun. "Too bad they ain't friendly. Not the sort for plants, now, but..."
She takes a few potshots at the orbiting, laser-firing eyeball-plant creatures. Strange is as strange does, but as long as she's got bullets, they're a good first answer to the problem they pose.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Liquid Courage toward her party's challenge, Galem the Guardian.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
As it turns out, explosions sometimes are the solution, and Kaguya can indeed deliver. When Day asks if everyone's all right, Kaguya answers, "I'm fine. You?"
But then, she's alays fine. And Zed's answer about the plants... "Cool," the small Veruni says. "Just find me a sample whenever."
But here, there is... a grove. A beautiful grove that is not at all horrific. And then there is--
"Now I wanna know how they managed to breed that," Kaguya comments as the first laser comes.
She jumps back, and takes a trunk that fell to the lasers, which otherwise would be good for nothing but fertilizer. She picks it up and swings for the fences--wwell, for the eyes--and goes!
"Wow that is loud."
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Killer Tomatoes toward her party's challenge, Galem the Guardian.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
Ratatoskr manages to help weld the way to somewhere resembling 'progress,' just in time for it to go out again. He gives it a few violent shakes. It is peak Zeboim era laser cutter, but it is incredibly ancient. One doesn't know for sure if it's lasered its last. It was his favorite acquisition of the Odessa bone pile of 'The Quartermaster Is Not Paying Any Attention!' Still is, even if it's ever in past tense.
Has he ever been more right about nature winning against all fortifications, sometimes? Like the structure itself were something it decisively won a war against and will not allow this to be questioned or relitigated ever.
There may be an inquisitive moment thinking about how watching this many insects work about a singular large central thing might remind him of much different times. He doesn't get the chance to introspect or wax poetic, because that is not the charming life Ratatoskr leads - or chases - as all eyes (rather literally) are upon the lot of them.
The sound is loud enough that Ratatoskr's tail stands on such end that the segmented metal plates are more like a giant pinecone for several seconds as his blood starts rushing from some sort of primal call to fight or fight (it's not much of a choice).
Ratatoskr deftly runs across - and up - the surrounding grove structures as laser fire saturates the space, where at some point he leaps off and leads with a flying knee to whirl into a kick whose heel discharges a shotgun-like blast of compressed air.
DG: Ratatoskr has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Galem the Guardian.
<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.
Oh yes, now Day remembers. He'd almost forgotten the Guard's trip through here.
The trip had ended with them trying to convince Pearl not to murder an onion.
...and she turned out to be a traitor, didn't she....
Day has no more time to dwell on regrets because behind him, Vess is letting out a loud squeak at the sight of hovering plant-eyes. The young knight clicks his teeth together and raises his shield without thinking.
A laser blast rakes across his shield, throwing sparks and fire in all directions - but the blast doesn't reach Day, Vess or those in the knight's shadow. He clenches his teeth a moment and reaches to his side. "Alright. Alright, we can deal with this," he grates before coming up with a tool.
It isn't his sword. It's his coiled warhorn, and he raises it to his lips and resounds a loud, ear-shattering note. Loud enough that even the plants might flinch and recoil.
It buys him the time he needs. With a flash of steel, he's drawing his sword and barreling into the thick of the weeds, hoping the startling resound buys him a moment to avoid being shot on the way there. Covering his exposed flank with his shield, Day slices towards a few smaller eyes before closing ranks with the large one and lunging forward.
"FOR THE GODDESS!" he shouts, sword surging with kinetic energy as he attempts to just rip through the eye with a single titanic blow.
DG: Day Muirwall has used his Tool Warhorn toward his party's challenge, Galem the Guardian.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Perhaps you convinced her to not murder an onion... TOO MUCH.
Lydia for her part is kind of shaken by how much SHE almost murdered Pearl and is trying not to think about it and all the weird things Pearl said and how she's like 'kill me if it pleases you' because oh no OH NO.
But hey, at least the Shadow Dragon Master is no more. And that's the kind of encouragement Lydia needs in order to try and flying jump kick an evil plant. Right in the mouth! Even though there's so many sharp teeth! Maybe Lydia figures with broken teeth comes an inability to get chewed on?
"NYahh." She says, after.
DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Rachiel Medry Is Doing Her Best toward her party's challenge, Galem the Guardian.
=========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================= =====================<* CHALLENGE - Galem the Guardian *>===================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- ...Gazer and Project Mispolm in particular have been very useful references. The ancients of this land must have been scientists beyond compare. I can only hope that my own work can meet the standards they set... FINAL CHALLENGE: As you pull yourselves out of the tangle of obstacles, you find yourselves in a sunlit grove at the foot of a truly spectacular tree. Colorful flora blooms brilliantly, tended to by a small army of busily swarming insects. The air is fresh and crisp, full of the heady scent of aromatic nectar. Just as you think you have a moment to rest, something abruptly changes. A shadow grows across the ground as the pollinating swarms scatter. Something falls out of the sky! It looks like a massive bush with a single eye. The thing emits a noise that can only be described as an alarm siren as its leafy shell comes apart into a dozen smaller, floating eyeball-shrubs. The core, now revealed to be an enormous seed or nut, begins firing bolts of brilliant energy from its eye and commanding thorny growths to burst from the ground underneath your feet, even as its subordinate drones launch their own beam attacks and menace with stinging tendril-vines! Your goal is within sight, but you're going to have to overcome this final guardian to claim it! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
====================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl - Round 6 *>==================== =======================< Results - Galem the Guardian >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kaguya 42 --(5)--> 47 Pass Killer Tomatoes 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Day Muirwall 37 --(17)--> 54 Fail Warhorn 1 Combat Effects: Embolden and Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lydia Seren 37 --(5)--> 42 Pass Rachiel Medry Is Doing Her Best 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Josephine Lovelace 37 --(5)--> 42 Pass Liquid Courage 3 Combat Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Zed 61 --(5)--> 66 Pass Goldie Whistle 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ratatoskr 25 --(5)--> 30 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ White Knight Leo 49 --(5)--> 54 Pass The Goods 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Kaguya 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Overwhelm|Wound(2) Effects: Cleanse|Embolden(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Kaguya has successfully explored The Lifeweaver's Whorl!
=========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>=========================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - A Mutant Onion...? *>=====================
|Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
Life is a fickle thing. So easily do benign lines give rise to malign
offspring. But perhaps some good can come of it. Perhaps the wilds yet have
need of a warden...
Galem flees, retreating back into the canopy, leaving you to your own
devices. At first glance, it seems as though the grove is nothing more than
a tranquil oasis in a sea of horrible man-eating plant-monsters. But soon,
you find something of... interest?
There's what seems to be an onion bulb growing here. It's... kind of huge,
for an onion bulb. It's at least the size of a man's torso. Its size makes
it an object of interest, but perhaps not necessarily something worthy of
being called a treasure--
"peffuuuuuu~"
Did that onion just snore?
Yes, in fact. There's even a sleepy little nose bubble growing there. Before
you can approach or sneak away, it abruptly *pops!* The onion bulb stirs,
pushing itself up on a pair of tiny red feet. "Pechuu~?" The creature asks
up at you before hopping cheerfully in your direction. It looks as this
little abomination of horticultural science has taken an interest in you.
Perhaps you should take him home with you...?
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Sadly for poor ol' Galem, these drifters are maybe just a bit too much high power, man. Or at least, they've picked up ranks of resistance against the elements of both light and wood.
Day's sudden blaring blast of his horn briefly seems to stun and surprise the floating laser-eye-plants, buying him and the rest of the team ample time to move into position. He follows up, cleaving a mighty blow into-- one of the smaller drones, which sacrifices itself to save its apparent leader. Sadly, this leaves Galem exposed when Lydia smashes a great big kick right into its teeth!!
It does not actually have teeth, being a plant, but she still kicks it pretty good. Then again, plants don't have eyes, or lasers! So maybe this one does have teeth!?!?
Not far away, Josephine deals with a mild existential(??) crisis, or is at the minimum gobsmacked by the biological weirdness of this entire experience. She's not stunned so badly as to not blast a couple of drones out of the air, though. Kaguya makes good use of damaged terrain, picking up a fallen tree and using it to ABSOLUTELY BODY several of the beam drones, knocking them back into the canopy and out of the fight. How DID they breed this thing? That's an excellent question!
Just when it seems like Galem might be able to prepare a counter-attack, its remaining eyes glowing with tremendous, blinding light, time itself seems to take on a quality not dissimilar to molasses. Leo cleaves another sub-eye in twain, just as Ratatoskr's knee drops into the main body. Its eyelid blinks in slow motion, gathered energy dispersing a moment before the Hyadean finishes with a pressurized air kick...!
...Which, incidentally, sends the Galem core spiralling off into the treetops as well, retreating with a great big teardrop welling up in its big ol' eyeball.
Poor security eye...
Regardless, this leaves the party alone and safe in the grove. Or perhaps... Not... entirely?
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
It's not even that there are monsters still lurking in the wings, nor does that suspiciously human-shaped lump of bark subsumed almost entirely into the boughs of the nearby great tree have anything meaningful to say (it is, after all, a tree). No, there's a... soft sound. A gentle, almost sleepy-sounding...
pefuuuuu~
It's... It's an onion bulb. A very large onion bulb is just... sitting here, in the middle of the grove. When did it get here? How did it come to be here? Was it always here? Was it always... snoring?
This... this onion would be immediately familiar to both Leo and Day. They've seen its like before, after all. Quite often, at that.
Goldie, that strange Metal Beast, pads up to the bulb and sniffs cautiously at its leaves. She paws at its side, rocking it back and forth and back and forth before the thing finally teeters over, rolls about, and plops upright on a couple of tiny, leafy feet. "Pechuu...?" The onion asks, opening wide, bright eyes up at its visitors. Unlike That Other Onion, this one... Is red? Pink? If Leo Junior is a Yellow Onion, this one is apparently a Red Onion. Or maybe their kind just have different colors? Whatever the case, it looks... Inquisitive? Curious? Friendly, at least...!
There's a little scrap of paper where the onion had been snoozing. Perhaps another note left by whoever had traversed this place before...?
<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.
Day snaps his sword out to one side, flicking a few streams of plant sap off the blade. He looks back with a toss of his hair. "Is everyone alright?"
pefuuuuuu~
Day's mouth opens slightly and then snaps closed. Oh yeah, he remembers that sound perfectly fine.
"Awww, it's Leo Junior Junior!" Vess delights, darting in to give the onion a big hug and a pat on the head. "How cute! I love Leo Junior Junior so much already."
"Vess, you never change." Day smiles lopsidedly, cheeks colouring as he moves up to give the reddish onion a light pat on the tuft. He does not notice the scrap of paper just yet.
"I wonder how they survive in a place like this," the young knight muses with a look upward.
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Leo lands on the leafy ground, and wipes sap off his blade. Behind him, the two halves of the bisected security eye roll apart, and come to a stop. The White Knight watches as the main body flies off, only allowing himself to relax once it's out of sight. "Well done," he says, turning to the others. "Now, let's--"
'pefuuuuu~'
"Leo Jr.?!" Leo cries, whirling to face the sound. No, he realizes. It's similar, but that's not him. Leo's mouth opens, closes. He sheathes his sword, and walks up to the onion creature, a broad smile on his face. "Are you all right?" he asks, as he kneels before the precious bulb.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"It ran away," Josie observes. Then self-corrects this to, "Well, I suppose flew away. Something like that. Now, let's see what's all about in here..."
pefuuuu~
Josie pauses for a moment, tilting her head to one side as if puzzled about something. Then, she spots it. It's an onion bulb. A very large, red onion bulb.
It's... sleeping.
"Huh," she says, because what else can you say to that? "Guess it was that... thing's kid, or summat?" She folds her arms over her chest, watching it for a moment more. "Cute lil bugger, though. Don't suppose we should leave it here, right?" She looks around at the others, as if seeing if someone else would be willing to parent an onion, because...
...Because she's not really living the sort of lifestyle that would suit a young, enterprising onion child. That, and the rest of the matter (it being an onion, child) if she's being honest.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"Chuuuu?" The onion... is being hugged!? It seems to be very much okay with this, and inexplicably has a distinctly huggable consistency. Like a particularly pampered pet, it basks in all these headpats, wiggling its little leaf-feet happily. "--fuu!" It answers Leo, chirping merrily. It does in fact seem to be perfectly A-OK!!
But... that is a good question. How do these little friends survive in a place like this?
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
Ratatoskr comes down from this feat of agility and martial prowess like he kind of wants to keep going, keep fighting - but then, there's a gentle snoring, and his eyes dim like some other primal reflex is being tickled, as the onion bulb snores. Ratatoskr approaches it like it might be something that turns into a buff dude that could punch him many times in sequence and not being the cute little sleeping onion it is, as Vesna goes for the hug for Leo Junior Junior...!
"Leo Junior Junior...?" Ratatoskr straightens out. "Leo Junior Junior!! Is that what you call it... not Leo III?"
He comes to a stop near the White Knight Leo. "Where's Leo Senior...?"
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"Aaand that's that," Kaguya says, peering out to where their enemy sailed. "Flew, fell. Ran. Whatever. It's no longer a problem, and that's what counts."
"...Aww, it is pretty cute," Kaguya says. "Red instead of yellow like Leo Jr...."
Pause. "what, you want me to take him? I dunno, I have a lot on my plate already, but..." Hm. "i could use a research assistant. How'd you like to learn science, little guy?" Pause.
"It wwould usually be Leo III wouldn't it?"
<Pose Tracker> Day Muirwall has posed.
"The White Knight is Leo Senior, of course," Vesna asserts as she gives the chubby onion another hug. "He's the original Leo, after all!"
"We're starting to accumulate Leos," Day murmurs, scratching the back of his neck and smiling bashfully towards the lion-man in question.
Kaguya makes an offer. Day blinks twice and opens his mouth slightly.
He closes it. As much as Kaguya seems like a bit of a murderball sometimes, she's also been nice to him, and she at least hasn't knifed the Guard so far. There are worse destinations for Leo the Third.
"I don't know if taking him is a good idea for me," he says a bit evasively. "I'm going to have a lot on my plate soon."
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
"Good," Leo says. He reaches out and gives the onion an affectionate frondpat.
Then Ratatoskr asks who Leo Sr. is, and Leo clears his throat, Loudly.
"...A research assistant?" Leo says, turning to Kaguya. "Of all here, you're the most well-attuned to such a child's needs..." Pause. "Are you certain they're not siblings?"
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
Ratatoskr looks over to the White Knight Leo, than to Leo Junior Junior, then to White Knight Leo, then to Leo Junior Junior. There are gears turning in his head. He looks to the person-shaped mass of wind (to him) that is Vesna, then to some of the others.
There are important questions for historical curiosity in play that he suddenly has the rare thought that maybe he does not want to specifically know this detail!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
'How'd you like to learn science, little guy?'
"Pe-chuuu~" The little onion wiggles happily at this potential prospect. Science onion? SCIENCE ONION!? It does seem to be a thing that this particular onion is interested in becoming, someday. But... Are the two onions siblings?
Perhaps... Perhaps they are... Or maybe they just happen to be of the same (adorably mutated) species of onion?
Perhaps these onions are a look into Filgaia's future. A future where onions rule...?
But for now, this one seems far too cute and huggable to be a proper globe-dominating tyrant.