2022-01-05: Apex Predator
- Log: Apex Predator
- Cast: Josephine Lovelace, Ratatoskr
- Where: Sluice Forest
- Date: January 05, 2022
- Summary: Josie and Ratatoskr explore Sluice Forest for Odessa's interests on Lunar. Josie has the occasion to attempt some slight of hand. Ratatoskr fights a giant. A secret is discovered after defeat.
DG: A party led by Josephine Lovelace is now entering Sluice Forest - Flooded. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
=========================<* Sluice Forest - Flooded *>========================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Powerful Currents *>======================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Upon your approach to Sluice Forest, you can see the problem. Nearly the entire area is partly flooded. The entrance to the forest currently seems to have waist-high water, flooding out both the pathways through the woods and the underbrush. The trees have withstood this, but lower-lying plants are often swept away. As you enter, though, you find you sink down to chest-high water. The depths can be deceptive. So can the currents. You find the current is much faster and stronger than it looked on the surface -- and it is threatening to sweep you away, deeper into the woods! =Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"So, what's the dirt 'bout this place?"
So Josie drawls as they approach the limits of Sluice Forest proper. She is, as always, loaded for bear: the shotgun is visibly slung across her back, and it's a sure bet she's hidden a good number of additional firearms on her person, for 'just in case'.
Odessa's purposes on this part of Lunar are -- as always -- their own, pursuing an angle rather catty-corner to their aims down on Filgaia, or even as they had been off in the far corners of the Blue Star's eternal companion. There are said to be certain locations on Lunar that are of interest -- locations that have a particular connection to the world's elemental ebb and flow. Perhaps it's of no concern to Ganondorf or to the Prophets, but for Cocytus and their underlings, well.
It's another story, in their struggle against the nations of Filgaia and those who would be 'heroes'. As below, so above, then, if in a rather more literal sense than normal.
Rumor -- and as Ratatoskr might know well already, experience -- had it that Sluice Forest had become heavily flooded, which would complicate any expedition-making.
"Huh," says Josie, once they've entered the forest proper and she's had a moment to regard the situation. "Don't that beat all. Well, c'mon, just a matter of fording the--"
One step, and she's sunk to about chest-height. Given she stands about a good even six feet tall, this is quite a good deal deeper than she expected.
"Okay," she says, fording ahead after the momentary shock of getting soaked has passed. "Could be better, sure enough, but okay. Where to--"
There's a bit of a current here. She has to struggle against it in her attempt to cross to (what might be) the other side.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Powerful Currents.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
For this mission, such as it is, all parties involved had the 'fortune' of Ratatoskr being in earshot. There is also the 'fortune' of Ratatoskr speaking at length about why this place is of interest and someone's about shy of shooting him (for the third time) when he gets to the good part.
"You know the weapons Althena's Guard used in Spira...?" Naturally he repeats this an exclamation. This will not be shared (this time). "I found evidence of a testing grounds there... there wasn't much left, but there's got to be so much more...!"
Sometimes, sending Ratatoskr to the moon is an excellent way to know that he currently does not exist on the same world as oneself, which is win-win for no small number of people.
He is prepared to talk Josie's ear off, and then the other, about any other thing when she starts to get soaked. He's a bit taller but also more prepared for the deeper dips. When it starts looking bad...
In one clawed hand, a crystalline teleportation device of dubious functionality. (Dubious beyond 'yes, it teleports,' which one would think is enough to give it full endorsement for this task, buuuuuuuut...)
If need be, he'll use it to try and rescue Josie from another dip in the strong currents.
DG: Ratatoskr has used his Tool Teleporter Fragment toward his party's challenge, Powerful Currents.
=========================<* Sluice Forest - Flooded *>========================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Powerful Currents *>======================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Upon your approach to Sluice Forest, you can see the problem. Nearly the entire area is partly flooded. The entrance to the forest currently seems to have waist-high water, flooding out both the pathways through the woods and the underbrush. The trees have withstood this, but lower-lying plants are often swept away. As you enter, though, you find you sink down to chest-high water. The depths can be deceptive. So can the currents. You find the current is much faster and stronger than it looked on the surface -- and it is threatening to sweep you away, deeper into the woods! =Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
====================<* Sluice Forest - Flooded - Round 1 *>===================== ========================< Results - Powerful Currents >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Teleporter Fragment 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Slow(2) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace 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.
"It was? Get out! Here?"
As Ratatoskr would have found, Josephine Lovelace -- archaeologist of ill repute -- was more than willing to listen to him talk on and on, and in fact, would even prompt him now and then. Particularly, as it happened, on the matter of the weapons the Guard had been testing out here, but also on minor matters of Filgaian history, and not even those elements that were primarily to do with his own people. Perhaps this may not be surprising, given her own field, save for one thing: Josie's primary area of study is the Zeboim period.
"Makes sense, though, right? A fool's trusting their weapon fires on the first go. Plenty's the time I..." She trails off then, moments before the extent of the flooding comes into view.
"So, any idea -- shit, of all the bad -- what all they were testing here? Specific-like, I mean."
She at least has a one track mind where the weaponry is concerned.
Still, hazardous currents or not, they both are able to get up onto shore. In Josie's case it's a bit of a slog but she doesn't go underwater, so it's a victory nonetheless! Ratatoskr, meanwhile, simply short-distance teleports himself onto the bank.
"Don't suppose you got any more of those," she remarks, eyeing him once on dry (comparatively) land.
DG: Ratatoskr has drawn a new Challenge.
=========================<* Sluice Forest - Flooded *>========================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Light the Way *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- In ages past, the Church of Althena created lamps to light up dark places. The forest canopy of Sluice Forest certainly qualifies -- and this part of the forest grows dark indeed, even in the day time. While the floodwaters are only knee-high at the moment, you know they could grow higher in a moment... or you might stumble into them in the dark. Fortunately, you see one of those lamps hung upon a tree branch. The lamp consists of worked iron, with a dead blue gem in the center -- a Star Light, often used to restore magical energy. The lamp is powered by magic, and figuring out how to imbue some of your own will give you a light for the paths ahead. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Treasure========================================
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
Ratatoskr also short-distance teleports himself partially into the bank. It's fine. He can pull himself out. "Hyahaha--! I might... but you know, as I was saying... the Golems! Like what they used to capture Luca! What they would have used to capture Bevelle..."
Their biggest aces in the hole, used to utterly terrifying effect. No one should speak enthusiastically about their presence and deployment, least of all one who was alive to witness some of it... but to him, the joy of his life is that he's here for some of the biggest military engagements of the present day.
"...So I don't know why they haven't been back here," he continues as they start into the darker, less flooded parts of Sluice Forest. After that close call, 'dark' is apparently less of an issue than 'flooded chest-high' for the time being, even if the excited glow of his solid yellow eyes aren't quite enough to dispel the limited visibility.
His horn nudges a lamp, which sees a short-lived fight-or-flight reflex kick into overdrive until he puts it in what should be a headlock but there's no neck. Holding it up with two hands in one of the few places where light peeks through, Ratatoskr looks it over - it's a Star Light, and it's much more likely Josie has already seen something like this for having a many months lead on seeing Lunar compared to him.
"What's this? What's this!" Ratatoskr holds it upright and starts to walk off, as if the forces of the universe were conspiring to make it as difficult as possible for Josie to take a look at it. "...It's made of worked iron, and what's with the blue gem..." It's powered by magic, which his kind of people cannot channel.
He says this while wandering off in some other direction in the dark, holding it up with one hand while getting the other free to look through one of the last surviving Hyadean datapads he carries around.
DG: Ratatoskr has used his Tool Corrupted Records toward his party's challenge, Light the Way.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Just the Golems themselves? What about the weaponry onboard? Payload-wise? Golems ain't my specialty any, right, but a shell's a shell, whether it's from a cannon or a Golem," Josie remarks.
What they would have used to take Bevelle. Except it hadn't worked that time. And she knew full the reason why it hadn't worked.
A weapon works best when your opponent doesn't know you've got it.
"The way I figure, if they'd pushed north sooner..."
She's no tactician, though. Military operations aren't her purview, merely the weapons and operation thereof. Those in command likely had their reasons -- whatever Josie might think -- for why they hadn't sought to take all of Spira in a fortnight or two. But they hadn't, and to her eyes, that had been an opportunity lost.
"Maybe 'cause it flooded," Josie suggests, as they tread along a path most soggy.
There's something here that glitters in the light. That is, in fact, as much as she's able to ascertain before Ratatoskr snatches it up. "What's what, hey--"
Try as she might, she can't seem to set her eyes on it, as he twists it hither and yon, turning it and himself at angles that prevent her from seeing it for more than an eyeblink at a time. It's...
Iron, with a blue gem.
She's seen those before.
"Give it here," she says, likely to no effect. "I think it's a-- hey! I said give it!"
Josie, it should be said, is used to handling ornery creatures. Pigeons, to be clear, but there's a particular throughline with pigeons and squirrels that may extend to the merely squirrel-like.
"Oh wow!" Josie says suddenly as if sighting something astonishing, pointing in the distance with her screwdriver, held stiffly in her bad hand. "What's that?! It's amazing!"
And with her good hand, she tries to steal the Star Light from him while he's distracted and (with Symbology) attempt to induce it to light up. If nothing else, she might be able to drop the enchantment onto the thing for a bit, which should have much the same effect.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Lucky Screwdriver toward her party's challenge, Light the Way.
=========================<* Sluice Forest - Flooded *>========================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Light the Way *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- In ages past, the Church of Althena created lamps to light up dark places. The forest canopy of Sluice Forest certainly qualifies -- and this part of the forest grows dark indeed, even in the day time. While the floodwaters are only knee-high at the moment, you know they could grow higher in a moment... or you might stumble into them in the dark. Fortunately, you see one of those lamps hung upon a tree branch. The lamp consists of worked iron, with a dead blue gem in the center -- a Star Light, often used to restore magical energy. The lamp is powered by magic, and figuring out how to imbue some of your own will give you a light for the paths ahead. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Treasure========================================
====================<* Sluice Forest - Flooded - Round 2 *>===================== ==========================< Results - Light the Way >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Lucky Screwdriver 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Corrupted Records 2 Wits Effects: Stalwart -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 20 --(25)--> 45 Pass Conditions: Slow(1)|Stupify(2)|Treasure(1) Effects: Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has passed this challenge! The party gained 25 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
"Why do people call everything 'amazing'?!" Ratatoskr protests as he looks that way, and just like that, Josie works her Symbological skill to manage just that - she gets the blue gem to react, and does it! It reacts not with applause nor horror, it just glows... kind of bright. Maybe the creation of Star Light fixtures are a bit more delicate than first imagined, maybe it's not that great that it is glowing that bright... but it is.
In these environs, that's a boon, as the thicker canopies can no longer blind those beneath to the truth. (One such truth: still knee-high in water.)
"...Oh." Ratatoskr, just shy of another burst of brash nineteen-to-twnety-five-year-old bravado at the clever ploy, crosses his arms and looks directly into the light so he has the funny-looking color trails and spots in his vision for a bit.
"Yeah. I'd call that 'amazing' too, but... names should be done with care."
With the help of their new Star Li-- er, 'Amazing,' they can traverse deeper into the depths (and also cross fingers that it's not going to suddenly explode or shatter).
DG: Josephine Lovelace has drawn a new Challenge.
=========================<* Sluice Forest - Flooded *>========================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - Broken Mill *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The river that ran Sluice Forest once powered much of the industry of Azado, but the mills on the river have since shut down. They remain abandoned -- and unmaintained -- which poses a challenge today. The huge waterwheel of this mill is spinning wildly in a too-fast current, and sending up bits of stone, driftwood, and mud at high speed. Crossing the stream that flows here would be very dangerous. Fortunately, you can enter the mill house and try to find a way to shut off the water wheel -- or otherwise devise a way to stop it -- and make it less perilous. Be sure to dodge the rain of debris that the errant waterwheel is shooting in your direction! =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Injure=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie, for her part, has a brief moment of pride at not only getting the light away from him but getting it to light up properly. "There," she says, handing the now lit lamp back his way.
Still, that slightly sly smile on her lips or not, she at least doesn't rub it in.
Mostly.
"'Amazing' ain't a bad name for it," she remarks, by the by.
The water's height is a mild improvement on the situation. But only mild, in the way that a twisted ankle is better than a broken foot. "Could really do with a shower right now," she remarks, as they slog on through.
The current begins to pick up. There are fragments of stuff -- stone, splintered wood, other debris -- in the water. Presently, this is a minor nuisance, but the speed of the current is continuing to increase, prompting a bit of a turnaround in their path, up along a stretch of the forest that is merely half-calf in water height. The turnabout turns out to have been a bit of a coup, as the source of the turbulent disturbance makes itself quite clear.
There is a mill on the river that is still very much in action.
Perhaps a little too much in action, which is the heart of the problem.
"Hm," muses Josie, as she makes her approach towards the mill's waterwheel. "Seems to me we could cut it off at the source! What d'you say?"
She's already got her screwdriver in hand. Somewhere in the wheel, there's got to be a critical screw ripe for the unscrewing.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Lucky Screwdriver toward her party's challenge, Broken Mill.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
"Wait!!" Ratatoskr exclaims as he stands with arms crossed, with a sense of urgency that is doubtless completely unwarranted, but yet, this is someone who has been here before and thus bears the unfortunate but earned mantle of being 'an authority,' for a short amount of time.
"I've heard the legends... of those who tower over others on the plains, and of a hero who would charge them head on." There's a glint in those eyes. This means this is going nowhere good, and that he should see his peoples' equivalent of an eye doctor. "These aren't the plains... but the description matches...!"
He rears back, preparing to leap as his segmented metal plates upon his tail flare out. He's grinning the biggest grin he's had in a long time. "Cut it off at the source...? Hyahaha--! I'll take the fight to them directly...!" Wait what
"Fight me!! Submerged giant!!" Ratatoskr announces as he hurls himself at the water wheel spinning far too fast, spewing far too much, in a leaping knee.
This can only go so well.
DG: Ratatoskr has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Broken Mill.
=========================<* Sluice Forest - Flooded *>========================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - Broken Mill *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The river that ran Sluice Forest once powered much of the industry of Azado, but the mills on the river have since shut down. They remain abandoned -- and unmaintained -- which poses a challenge today. The huge waterwheel of this mill is spinning wildly in a too-fast current, and sending up bits of stone, driftwood, and mud at high speed. Crossing the stream that flows here would be very dangerous. Fortunately, you can enter the mill house and try to find a way to shut off the water wheel -- or otherwise devise a way to stop it -- and make it less perilous. Be sure to dodge the rain of debris that the errant waterwheel is shooting in your direction! =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Injure=========================================
====================<* Sluice Forest - Flooded - Round 3 *>===================== ===========================< Results - Broken Mill >============================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Lucky Screwdriver 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 0 --(18)--> 18 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 45 --(20)--> 65 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Reckless(2)|Stupify(1) Effects: Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace 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.
'Wait!' calls out Ratatoskr, and Josie, for the moment, does exactly that. She turns to look back at him fleetingly before craning her neck as if in search of a hostile party. There isn't one. Instead, Ratatoskr explains.
Giants on the plains... giant wheels? Giant wheels on the plains?
It takes her a moment more to piece the puzzle together, but piece it together she does.
"Wait, you're talking about--"
She watches him as he lunges at the wheel.
"...windmills." She pauses, then shakes her head. "Right."
And with that, she proceeds on her mission as before: find screws connecting the wheel to the mill and unscrew them.
"Fire in the hole!" she shouts, somewhat unhelpfully, as the last screw comes loose.
On the bright side, Ratatoskr might be able to say he definitely... triumphed when the wheel comes away from the ruins of the mill?
He's definitely done something.
DG: Ratatoskr has drawn a new Challenge.
=========================<* Sluice Forest - Flooded *>========================== ===============<* CHALLENGE - Hop-Skotch Across the Driftwood *>================ |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Your path leads you up a bank, only to find a place where the water currents are moving fast -- and look deep, judging by the height that river reaches on some of the trees. You don't see any bridges for crossing, but nature has a way of providing. A number of logs and dislodged tree trunks are floating by -- and some debris from cabins swept away by the flooding. You should be able to leap from debris to debris to reach the embankment on the other side. Of course, much of these items are slippery and treacherous, and likely to spin or flip if you land on them incorrectly... =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Tire===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
The wheel comes loose, and splashes into the current that is still going. Some ways ahead, a bludgeoned and beaten Ratatoskr is lying sprawled out on a piece of driftwood. A quick makeshift raft (or two) to take them to the nearest bank in which to disengage from the current, to hike up a dryer hill and get their feet out of the water for a bit. Maybe a moment is taken to chart a course, but it won't be much of a moment to do that before planning (or even casual observation) hits a snag.
Water currents are moving fast and look far too deep to safely swim for most, going by the river's height compared to some upright trees in the way. No bridges, or anything...
But there are occasional large pieces of debris going down river, that might be good for use as temporary footholds in which to cross on the other side. Might. They're slippery and it is a fast current that could sweep them up.
"Shouldn't be far from here!" Ratatoskr calls, the young man of a dwindling race of Living Metal super soldiers soldiers on without the existential angst involved, handling that device again as he seems ready to opt to try and skip the issue outright.
DG: Ratatoskr has used his Tool Teleporter Fragment toward his party's challenge, Hop-Skotch Across the Driftwood.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie, being a reasonable person, eventually treks over to fish him out of the stream. The water is still too deep to be worth fording, and Josie is in no mind herself to swim, so instead they put their heads together and make the best of the debris the water wheel had sought to provide them with before its untimely demise and
build a raft.
It's not exactly smooth sailing. But it's better than trying to find a bridge (good luck) or attempting to ford the river (never a good choice), so Josie will take a somewhat bumpy ride over those other potential options.
Not that it lasts too long: before too much time has passed, they're off onto a relatively dry shorebank, up onto an overlook that (mostly) gives them some vantage of the routes ahead.
And they are... not very promising ones.
"Think we should get the raft?" she asks, squinting into the far distance.
No, she decides. The currents would eat it (and then them) alive. There's not a bridge. No way she's fording it.
And so she shrugs expansively. "This's a pretty mess," she remarks, before racing down to the riverbank and leaping for one of the larger pieces of flotsam as it comes sailing past. She doesn't stay there, jumping to a floating log that has remained seaworthy and from there, hops onto a slippery rock standing proud above the waters. And from there, another piece of floating debris!
The key, as with many things in life, is to just not stop moving.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Hop-Skotch Across the Driftwood.
=========================<* Sluice Forest - Flooded *>========================== ===============<* CHALLENGE - Hop-Skotch Across the Driftwood *>================ |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Your path leads you up a bank, only to find a place where the water currents are moving fast -- and look deep, judging by the height that river reaches on some of the trees. You don't see any bridges for crossing, but nature has a way of providing. A number of logs and dislodged tree trunks are floating by -- and some debris from cabins swept away by the flooding. You should be able to leap from debris to debris to reach the embankment on the other side. Of course, much of these items are slippery and treacherous, and likely to spin or flip if you land on them incorrectly... =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Tire===========================================
====================<* Sluice Forest - Flooded - Round 4 *>===================== =================< Results - Hop-Skotch Across the Driftwood >================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 5 --(3)--> 8 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 18 --(3)--> 21 Pass Teleporter Fragment 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 65 --(20)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(2)|Injure(1)|Reckless(1)|Tire(2) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace 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.
The mess appreciates Josie's consideration for its appearance. It works real hard and runs a lot in order to maintain its disastrous proportions. (...what)
She has an exciting adventure over the rapids. A large wooden plank, a floating log, a rock that has still kept its head over the water for as long as it has... and it sure beats having to shepherd a group of like six or seven people across, and anything more than seven at a time is just a no-go.
On the other side, Josie makes it over there without an issue, except for one glaring one - Ratatoskr isn't there. Did he run on ahead in his excitement? Is there a horrible monster in the wings? (There isn't a big uptick in Malevolence, so no.)
It's Ratatoskr himself coming in from behind. Wait, didn't he--
"Oh... I should've told you I was heading back to cross like that too," Ratatoskr says, in a rare moment of contrition. "It looked fun!" He grins.
...They're on the other side, and that's that.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has drawn a new Challenge.
=========================<* Sluice Forest - Flooded *>========================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - River Dragon *>========================= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You come near one of the old main floodgates to Sluice Forest. It is closed, but the flooding has backed up to create a deep pool in front of it. Maybe, one day, the water will clear out -- but it will need considerable architectural work, and may not happen as long as Azado is abandoned. Unfortunately, this newly-made pond is inhabited by a new arrival. You see its shadow in the water, first. Then, a twenty foot-long crocodile swims up -- and rushes with an incredible speed. Its tail lashes and its jaws /CRASH/ when it bites, posing a dire threat to you! Driving it off will be necessary, before you can continue on. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Hup," Josie vocalizes approximately, as her crossing grows more perious by the second. Log, to log, to part of a broken boat, to...
Land.
She of course stretches both arms wide upon her landing. Old habits die hard.
"Whew. How much further did you say--"
She turns, aware perhaps of a certain absence. A glance about herself confirms it: Ratatoskr isn't here. Hadn't she seen him appear on the other side...
Oh. There he is.
Josie tilts her head to one side as she regards him for a long moment. Then, she shrugs.
"Ah, to be young again," she drawls, rolling her shoulders in a lazy sigh.
She's not even mad.
"So. How close d'you say we were?" She indicates a floodgate, not far off. "'Cause that nearly looks like the end of this business. Been a bit of a slog, sure enough," she says, fishing for her flask and upcapping it, "but ain't hardly as bad as some. A walk in the woods, nearly--"
And it's into this moment that the shadow that had been darkening the water erupts with a terrible roar. It's a twenty-foot freshwater forest gator, and it's been waiting for a long time for something to come by!
Something like them, in fact.
Josie's immediate reaction is to get it in the face with a flaskful of the worst rot-gut in the history of rot-gut.
The electrical jolt of Symbological magic comes second.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Liquid Courage toward her party's challenge, River Dragon.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
"Past here...!" Ratatoskr says with building excitement, as if there were a thing he wanted to say, for so long, 'this is a cool thing to someone other than me' and that he is about to get to say that, wearing his youth on his everything. As Josie's about to give a comparison of how nice this has been in comparison - what with not having awkward, clenched-teeth teamwork with former colleagues or what have you - and then there's a twenty-foot freshwater forest gator that rears up as though it had a very strong opinion about these events as they've transpired, or are confusing them for house-call dentists!
Ratatoskr, for his part - just thrusts a shoving palm as if to thrust it over on its back - an oddly muted combat response in comparison. "She was talking!"
DG: Ratatoskr has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, River Dragon.
=========================<* Sluice Forest - Flooded *>========================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - River Dragon *>========================= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You come near one of the old main floodgates to Sluice Forest. It is closed, but the flooding has backed up to create a deep pool in front of it. Maybe, one day, the water will clear out -- but it will need considerable architectural work, and may not happen as long as Azado is abandoned. Unfortunately, this newly-made pond is inhabited by a new arrival. You see its shadow in the water, first. Then, a twenty foot-long crocodile swims up -- and rushes with an incredible speed. Its tail lashes and its jaws /CRASH/ when it bites, posing a dire threat to you! Driving it off will be necessary, before you can continue on. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
====================<* Sluice Forest - Flooded - Round 5 *>===================== ===========================< Results - River Dragon >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 8 --(101)--> 109 Pass Liquid Courage 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 21 --(101)--> 122 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 80 --(15)--> 95 Fail Conditions: Hesitate(1)|Tire(1)|Wound(2) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: Josephine Lovelace is too exhausted to continue! DG: Ratatoskr is too exhausted to continue! DG: The party has failed this challenge! All party members are now Exhausted. This attempt is over. DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has been fully Exhausted by Sluice Forest - Flooded! DG: The party will now draw a conclusion.
=========================<* Sluice Forest - Flooded *>========================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Traveler's Diary *>======================= |Type: Landmark |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- When you get on the other side of the floodgates, you find the area where the lake was. Once upon a time, it had recreation areas and bathhouses, but now the water level is nearly thirty feet lower. While some water is there, it is more of a muddy pool, and piers reach out into dry land. You do manage to find something in one of the cabins. There is a journal from a traveler; it talks about nicer days, detailing some time on Sluice Forest's lake before everything seemed to go awry. It has no monetary or real informational value, but it could prove interesting. If you wish, the journal could have been left by an alt. =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
The crocodile, stunned by the blast of magic, doesn't so much as twitch when Ratatoskr slams it in the face.
What happens after that is more unhappy accident than anything. Josie goes for the shotgun in the same moment that the limp crocodile is batted aside. The shell never hits it.
And instead hits the sluice gate which, as it happens, had become quite rotted. It breaks.
It had been holding back a lot of water on this side, which now surges ahead for lower ground.
Josie and Ratatoskr are along for the ride.
They pull themselves ashore, eventually, on the side of the lake. There are remnants of cottages here, some newer (and partially flooded) while others older and barely more than crumbling stone foundation.
In one of the older ruins, as a little poking about will show, they find a small and ancient book. It's thin, protected against the ages -- though not the elements -- magic most ancient. Some of the pages are smeared by water, but on a few some painstakingly written (almost as if the author were trying to write with difficulty) words can be deciphered.
'Anitia's words still ring. Can it be?'
'Pain and sickness in Pohjola. Was for aught?'
'I must find truth.'
The author remains a mystery.