2022-01-17: The Booty Call and Other Travails
- Log: The Booty Call and Other Travails
- Cast: Elhaym van Houten, Ashley Winchester, Citan Uzuki, Marivel Armitage
- Where: Guadosalam
- Date: January 17, 2022
- Summary: The Black Wolves join forces with ARMS, venturing beyond the Gate in search of whatever it might be that Seymour is scheming in Guadosalam's depths. But, the trek takes a turn for the strange. (everyone keeps talking about butts, for example) (also there's a worm)
DG: A party led by Elhaym van Houten is now entering The Hidden Gate. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
============================<* The Hidden Gate *>============================= ===================<* CHALLENGE - Changing of the Guard *>==================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Your group approaches the gate. You can see it from a distance: a large stone gateway built into the natural cavern wall of Guadosalam. The stone doors have carvings in them -- traditional Guado carvings, with various faces of fiends engraved into the stone. The doors are closed, though they seem to be able to be pushed open. There are pyreflies drifting out from the crack between the two doors. The plaza between your vantage point and the gate is an open space. Fortunately, you have a chance to move in -- the changing of the guard. Several guards are walking towards another tunnel leading to the plaza and talking with their relief. If you move quietly, carefully, and perhaps with a well-placed distraction, you can get through the stone doors and into the caverns beyond. =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Tire===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly van Houten had answered the call of Guadosalam, despite a brief detour in order to replenish the stocks of the beleaguered town with salted river fishing... and a heartfelt moment. But the heartfelt moment has passed, and now it is time to venture in deep.
Towards...
"Well," Elly says to her colleagues from the position of cover looking towards the gate, "this is kind of... um... tricky. I suppose this is the only entry into the area, so we're going to have to see -- oh!"
Because in the distance - here, let the camera swing in and focus -
The Guado Guardians are speaking one to another. Discussing, no doubt, important things like who's got the biggest hands, sightings of enemy forces, and whether or not they're going to have to do more pushups later, or if they've all reached their pushup limit for the day.
This would be a lot funnier if they didn't all have machina rifles.
Elly glances towards the others. "That plaza's wide open. I think this is our best chance to get through. But I think this is a territory I don't have much room to understand; do you think we should run fast, or do something else?"
'Run across the plaza while they're chatting' is a solid CORE of a plan but has a lot of room to improve it.
DG: Elhaym van Houten has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Changing of the Guard.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
There are many, MANY, many, MAAAAANY reasons that Ashley Winchester should not be allowed anywhere in the vicinity of Lunar. But the fact is that there are times where one needs to do an unwise thing in order to do the right thing. Ashley Winchester, host of the Blaze of Disaster, is perhaps doomed to someday become naught but cinder for the thing that is destined to consume Filgaia entire... But if he is doomed simply by carrying that power, then he might as well put it to good use. If there is a scrap of hope of ever finding salvation, then it is surely beyond... All of the other sundry calamities that might destroy Filgaia and Lunar before Lord Blazer even gets loose.
And so he is here, staring at... a STEALTH MISSION.
"Well," Ashley says with a huff, "I think I have something that might help. Miss Elly, have you ever had a chance to see my Booty Call?"
...
It's a cool little bakelite box that has a radar screen and goes BING when the button on the front is pushed. It also happens to display the location of any nearby treasures (somehow), and more relevantly... It also has a handy minimap function!! "Hold on, let's see if there's a route we can take that's less... likely to have people shoot at us?"
Though he'll absolutely run if he has to!!
DG: Ashley Winchester has used his Tool Booty Call toward his party's challenge, Changing of the Guard.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
As some of the Black Wolves had traveled to Guadosalam to lend what aid they could, so had Citan gone with them, perhaps more than a little bit aware of the situation the Guado would be in after all that had come and gone within Spira's borders. The precise situation had, however, proven to be more than a little bit complicated.
Particularly when it came to pressing on beyond the gate.
"Hmm," Citan muses, watching from the same vantage point. "Yes, but let us wait and see what we are able to discover. Surely this cannot be as tightly secured as it appears?"
Among the Black Wolves, at least, he's become accustomed to a little 'illicit entry'. More than usual as a country doctor, that is.
But something is happening over there.
"Aha, so they have become complacent. This may permit us to..." He trails off, glancing over at Elly. Poker-faced, it's hard perhaps to tell precisely what Citan is thinking at this moment.
Which is also when Ashley pipes up with his own plan, one that might involve a little less 'getting shot at, potentially'. "I believe this may be a wise course of action, Mister Winchester," Citan says, before producing his own particular technological gadget--
It's a camera. An older model at that.
"Perhaps a little misdirection may help? I promise that I will stay out of trouble!"
After all, if the guards were to spot a particularly bright flash coming in from an unexpected location, would they not investigate? ...Thus leaving an alternate route particularly unguarded?
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Strauss Camera toward his party's challenge, Changing of the Guard.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"You're really making full use of the booty call aren't you, Ash?" Marivel asks. "We really should talk. It has been too long. And you've got some schmutz on your face." She wipes at Ashley's face wtih a kerchief.
She glances towards Elly, giving her a nod. "Oh hey again." She then looks towards Citan and says, "And hey to you too." He promises to stay out of trouble! "Oh clever...! We have a smart one with us this time. Ho ho... Well it's smarter to let other people handle the heavy lifting so--"
SHE TURNS INTO A BAT and flies up to try and avoid trouble thataway while making the others deal with all the hard stuff.
So that's what it feels like?!
Nevertheless, worst case scenario they'll have more to worry about than a bat. And best case scenario...they'll just miss everybody and be utterly baffled! Yes! Win win!
Well actually the worst case scenario is if they catch everybody but --- that probably won't happen!
DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool Wisdom of the Crimson Nobles by M. Armitage toward her party's challenge, Changing of the Guard.
============================<* The Hidden Gate *>============================= ===================<* CHALLENGE - Changing of the Guard *>==================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Your group approaches the gate. You can see it from a distance: a large stone gateway built into the natural cavern wall of Guadosalam. The stone doors have carvings in them -- traditional Guado carvings, with various faces of fiends engraved into the stone. The doors are closed, though they seem to be able to be pushed open. There are pyreflies drifting out from the crack between the two doors. The plaza between your vantage point and the gate is an open space. Fortunately, you have a chance to move in -- the changing of the guard. Several guards are walking towards another tunnel leading to the plaza and talking with their relief. If you move quietly, carefully, and perhaps with a well-placed distraction, you can get through the stone doors and into the caverns beyond. =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Tire===========================================
=======================<* The Hidden Gate - Round 1 *>======================== =====================< Results - Changing of the Guard >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elhaym van Houten 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Citan Uzuki 0 --(8)--> 8 Pass Strauss Camera 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ashley Winchester 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Booty Call 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Marivel Armitage 0 --(8)--> 8 Pass Wisdom of the Crimson Nobles by M. 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Elhaym van Houten 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Reckless(2)|Tire(2) Effects: ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Elhaym van Houten has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly doesn't know this slang term, but surely Janey and Mikaia would snicker. Hammer would probably say 'nice, bro.' But Elly just blinks. "Oh! Oh, it's a mapper! That's handy," she says, craning her head to check out Ashley's Booty Call.
Her eyes flick towards Citan as he volunteers. And holds up a camera. "... Alright, Doctor, but please, be careful."
To Marivel, she smiles, a little. "I hope - oh, right." Marivel becomes a bat, exempting herself from the situation and from most challenges not involving novel viruses or lifting weights. Elly breathes out. "Alright..."
DUTY BEGINS!
Elly and Ashley, and presumably also Marivel, move off on one route. The guards wait until they've gotten fully committed to this route before breaking off, the relief crew then saying, "We should test the range on these," and then pointing their weapons exactly at the small space that Elly and Ashley are about to emerge in.
And so Elly would have been shot in the head for the fifth time. First time, rather; EXCEPT
F L A S H
"Ah!"
"FIEND?"
They shoot instead towards Citan's position! However, between the flash's blindness and Citan's advanced tactical training, he isn't there -- and the group is able to link back up at the doorway, pushing it open with absolutely nobody being shot.
"May I ask you a silly question?" Elly says to Ashley as they move through:
"What's 'Booty', exactly?"
DG: Citan Uzuki has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* The Hidden Gate *>============================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Strange Crystals *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You come to a room filled with pyreflies. Something is at work here -- some strange interaction between the Earthpulse under this place and the pyreflies inside it, perhaps -- because the room is filled with huge crystals. They reflect the prismatic light of the pyreflies. They also pose barriers to crossing the room. The crystals will need to be broken and pushed aside, which is dangerous; the edges are sharp and, when shattered, they are dangerous in the extreme. Crossing will require brute force and caution in equal parts. =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Injure===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
"Oh, well!" Ashley replies, "Booty can be a lot of things to a lot of people. For me, the best 'booty' are some nice, warm buns!"
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
When they go to investigate on foot, there's nothing there. Had their been a Fiend that they had then silenced? Perhaps that is the story they will tell themslves.
The Guado guards never notice the three on foot (and one bat) slipping in behind.
Once they're over the threshold, Elly asks Ashley what 'Booty' is. He answers.
Citan maintains a very, very carefully neutral expression throughout.
(He's married. He's trying not to laugh.)
The Pyreflies grow thick the further they advance in the tunnels beyond the gate.
"I wonder," Citan says, as they press on, "what it is that they are concealing down here. I had heard that the 'Far Plane' -- their afterlife, it would seem -- is accessible by the living in this land, though I never had the opportunity to, ah, visit myself. I wonder whether this might not be connected."
The path is widening here; the clouds of Pyreflies have grown especially thick, swarming about shining points of...
Crystals. This room is full of sharp-edged crystals, which are serving as mirrors to reflect the glow of the Pyreflies. It makes it hard to make out much except for the crystals and Pyreflies, for one thing. For another, the crystals are obstructing further passage into the tunnels beyond -- trying to slip past them is asking for a nasty set of cuts. But breaking them will exchange one threat for another: one sharp blade turned into a million sharp knives of crystal shards.
"We shall need to break some of these crystals in order to pass," Citan says, withdrawing a manual from his belongings and paging through its contents. "But, we must take care how we do this: doubtless, they will be just as sharp as fragments as they are presently! Now, let me see..."
This jutting piece of crystal is about the length of a man's arm. Studying it carefully, Citan then touches a single finger to a particular point near to where it joins the rest of the mass. Here, perhaps, might be enough to destabilize it... or shatter it outright.
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Acupressure Guide toward his party's challenge, Strange Crystals.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly seems to accept Ashley's statement wholeheartedly. "Oh. Hm. I'll ask Fei later," she decides.
Hup hup hup.
"It's strange to think that the 'afterlife' is an actual, physical place that you could go. I suppose it does explain how there could be Unsent so readily, at least... but wouldn't they be able to tell if someone was leaving Guadosalam who, ah, hadn't arrived? Then again," Elly muses, "surveillance isn't as easy as you might think..."
Pyreflies are rising, and around them, too, is the light of the crystal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYYTutAqVlk
Elly marvels, for a fleeting moment, at the beauty before them. This, too, is 'booty,' is it not? She then considers again, and reaches into her inevitable ditty bag, rustling around inside of the contents and bringing out several small canisters of what, when she pops one open, seems to be some kind of opaque brown paint that also smells like cooked fish entrails.
Elly crouches downwards, and glances at the canister. She consolidates most of them, and then gives the remaining one a very intense stare indeed. Ether contorts: a heavy ice cube lands in it; a moment later, a small bloom of flame melts the ice cube. And then she brings out...
A little paintbrush!? It looks one of Fei's, only... shitty. But it's good enough to let her flick thick globs of this horrible goop forwards. And here's the point of the entire thing:
"It's not going to last forever, but at least this will tell you where these actually are. Look at the one Doctor Uzuki is working with - it looks like it's bending forwards, doesn't it? But if you look at it," splat splat, "now, it's actually just tapering irregularly. It'd be easy to cut yourself open on that."
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Inventory Clutter toward her party's challenge, Strange Crystals.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
MOMENTS LATER
Marivel drops down again in humanoid form and says, "Glad I could help," to Elly, probably entirely to annoy her some.
"Booty is a synonym for treasure, but also butts." Marivel explains. "And Ashley is adept at uncovering both."
Oh she probably came down just to say that.
"But Ashley's correct. A nice warm pair of hot buns is probably the best booty you can hope for. It's definitely the best I've found."
She frowns at the various crystals and then--the path, or lack thereof, there is.
"A cautious amount of force--"
Marivel reaches into her pouch, drawing out what looks like a bazooka. She takes aim and--
She fires towards the crystals. Marivel, however, goes flying in the opposite direction.
DG: Marivel Armitage has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Strange Crystals.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
"Ah, yeah! For you, I guess Fei might be the closest thing to 'booty,' right?" Because he's Elly's treasured person! Yeah! That's absoltuely the only meaning that phrase could possibly have.
Yes. Definitely.
Also: There's a Marivel! Or rather, Momrivel. Ashley's cheek is thoroughly scrubbed. "Yeah, we should! I mean. There was the whole... Holiday thing, right? So we should all probably catch up. Hahaha~" Even on Filgaia, no matter who you might work for, one must always respect the power of <<Holiday Paid Leave>>.
AND THEN MARIVEL SAYS THE B(UTT) WORD and Ashley is suddenly a sputtering mess. He would probably be making more conversation about how sad it is that they have to break such beautiful crystals just to make progress but now all he has on his mind is: "Are you telling me that the booty call actually searches for butts!?!?"
He kicks a crystal, doing his best Brad impression in the process. This might not help matters much, but he's trying his bestest!!
DG: Ashley Winchester has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Strange Crystals.
=============================<* The Hidden Gate *>============================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Strange Crystals *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You come to a room filled with pyreflies. Something is at work here -- some strange interaction between the Earthpulse under this place and the pyreflies inside it, perhaps -- because the room is filled with huge crystals. They reflect the prismatic light of the pyreflies. They also pose barriers to crossing the room. The crystals will need to be broken and pushed aside, which is dangerous; the edges are sharp and, when shattered, they are dangerous in the extreme. Crossing will require brute force and caution in equal parts. =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Injure===========================================
========================<* The Hidden Gate - Round 2 *>========================= =========================< Results - Strange Crystals >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elhaym van Houten 20 --(5)--> 25 Pass Inventory Clutter 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Citan Uzuki 8 --(5)--> 13 Pass Acupressure Guide 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ashley Winchester 20 --(5)--> 25 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marivel Armitage 8 --(17)--> 25 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Elhaym van Houten 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Reckless(1)|Tire(1)|Weaken(2) Effects: Cleanse|Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Elhaym van Houten 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> Citan Uzuki has posed.
Marivel swoops down from the ceiling to inform the room -- well, mostly Ashley and Elly -- what 'booty' also means. It provokes quite a cry of woe from Ashley, and a question like unto the heavens.
"Perhaps so," Citan remarks in response, still remarkably blase -- to the outside observer -- about this whole booty business, "from a particular semantic point of view?"
...He has never had to put his skills to such tests before.
But fortunately for Ashley, there's still the matter of the crystals before them. And so!
One of the problems that this obstacle poses for them is knowing where it might even be. This is handily resolved by the application of that particularly pungent 'paint' that Elly applies.
The second problem is how to shatter them without receiving undo injury to their persons. Approaching the other marked crystals, Citan lays hands on -- or rather fingers -- various crystals, taking care to avoid any sharp edges. Thus, when they are kicked -- or shot at, from a distance -- they simply shatter into so much crystalline sand. They would still be dangerous if handled, but if one were to just walk over them... well, no problem at all?
Marivel's recoil, unfortunately, does send her crashing back out of the chamber and into the hallway tunnel. The upside for her is, there are no crystals out there.
"Hmm. From what I had heard about the phenomena of the 'Unsent' it appears they never make their approach to the Far Plane to begin with. But, there may be other metaphysical constraints at play. If only I had been able to learn more of it back during our time in Spira!" But Citan shakes his head. "Still... I imagine we will be able to work to correct the course at hand regardless."
And so, they are able to proceed ahead.
DG: Elhaym van Houten has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* The Hidden Gate *>============================= =========================<* CHALLENGE - Zone Eater *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Not all monsters in Spira are pyrefly-formed fiends. Fiends have a way of dominating the more dangerous places, but there are natural predators that can also pose a danger. The ground rumbling under your feet marks the arrival of one. Stone splits apart, dirt falling in around a hole torn into the earth -- and the head of a huge blue and brown worm appears, its many-toothed maw open. It assails you with waves of gravitational force -- natural magic, it would seem -- and then tries to suck everyone into its huge mouth. This Zone Eater, tragically, does not lead to an optional party member.* *Unless you're feeling really cheeky and have an open character slot. I don't control your life. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly had totally bought this. She hadn't heard this slang before, and she had no reason to expect that Ashley would try to deceive her - and indeed he hasn't! He has, at worst, not told a young woman about butts.
But you know who has no problem talking about butts?
That's right.
Elly turns a shade of red that begins to match her hair as the statement is revealed. She opens and closes her mouth, as if on the verge of saying something with lethal embarrassment. There is, at least, an out: in a choked voice, she asks Ashley, "Is... is that why I could see indicators on it? F-for... for where the guards were?"
Because...
Everyone has a butt, don't they?
Fortunately, despite crashing and blasting, nobody is particularly maimed and the group is able to move forwards. Downwards, slightly. Downwards, into a natural space of cavern. "I wonder if we, ah, if we've gotten off the usual path," Elly says BEFORE
rumble
and
ARISE
An enormous worm with a manifold maw - bad enough - except that the gravitational wave it emits is sufficiently forceful and surprising to pull Elly up nearly two yards towards the worm's maw.
Naturally, this makes Elly scream. She was too far back, and ends up stumbling -- although she does also proceed to try and jam her battle rod into the outer rings of the horrible thing's exterior!
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool One Woman's Stout Iron Rod toward her party's challenge, Zone Eater.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
OH NO IT'S AWFUL. Everything is terrible. EVERYTHING IS BAD. "No! That can't possibly be..." But... butt it's not wrong. The idea takes up residence in Ashley's brain, never to be dislodged. Lord Blazer sighs as it acquires yet another room-mate, as if the talking sword wasn't bad enough. "Everybody... has a butt... So..."
Ashley's face is probably actually less red than Elly's in absolute terms, but his hair is blue so it stands out WAY MORE.
Normally Ashley would also be asking about what would happen if he were to BLAZE UP in the middle of a place full of atomized soul-stuff, he imagines that it'd be the same thing that'd happen if you lit a match in a dust cloud of gunpowder. But right now all he has on his mind are BUTTS.
And worms.
But at least the worms are topical, and is entirely because THERE'S ONE NOW and holy crackerjacks is it a big one.
The segue of butt to worm is jarring enough, but becomes moreso when Ashley feels himself sliding inexorably into the maw of the great beast. Gravity seems to have turned against them in a bad way. "What... Worm!?" Ashley has barely enough time to react and draw his bayonet, so instead...
Instead he just... takes advantage of the situation.
Rather than shooting the worm, Ashley hurls a half-dozen forearm-sized canisters into the worm's waiting maw. They burst when they enter the gulf of its mouth, unleashing gouts of burning napalm and sticky netting that quickly catches fire, and then catches LIGHTNING because there are also electrical pulse grenades in the mix.
Maybe... if they give the worm bad enough indigestion, it'll decide not to eat them!?
DG: Ashley Winchester has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Zone Eater.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
Somehow, against the odds, Citan Uzuki manages to continue to maintain a straight face throughout the conversation that continues to unfold and develop between Elly and Ashley, reaching heretofore unheard of depths. But how long can he continue to hold out?
Perhaps it is yet to be seen.
Regardless, they continue on their path, to a point where it almost appears to diverge from the seemingly-constructed tunnels they had been walking in moments before. "Have we? Perhaps there was a turn back," Citan starts to say, before the loud rumbling both serves to drown out and rather cancel the prospect of further dialogue along these particular lines.
For there! Is an enormous worm with far too many teeth! Worse, it has some control over gravitic force and has dragged Elly upwards from the bounds of the earth. "Elly!" Citan shouts, unable to reach her in time. "Ashley! Marivel!" he yells next, because this is no time for politeness, "Aim for its mouth! Its hide is far too thick to damage!"
DG: Citan Uzuki has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Zone Eater.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
reaching heretofore unheard of depths...
of butts
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Well every person has a butt. Maybe some creatures don't have butts...!!!
"I'm sorry Ash, but t's time... to admit that everybody has butts. The future won't wait."
But honestly pewwwwwwwwwww Marivel just goes flying. You can hear her land some time after with an 'oof!' and then an 'ow!'.
Marivel returns, slightly scuffed and her head screwed on at a weird angle, shortly after. There is a sickening crack as Marivel twists it back into place with her hands.
"It's its own system," Marivel says. "I tried to muck with it some but it didn't work. Maybe here we'll find the source of the strange life cycles of this land. Although..." She frowns. "If Seymour is here, he's likely to either turn it against the people of this land or destroy it entirely, if it is protecting the land from some other sort of threat."
She closes her eyes thoughtfully for a moment. "Mm..."
She then sees WORM. And smells WORM. Amnd she extends her hand and--
"SKILL DRAIN!" Marivel shouts, as blue rays of light attempt to impact the ZOne Eater-- --and draw its power into her own in the former of a skill?! What will she get, Elly?! What will she get???
DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool My Mike toward her party's challenge, Zone Eater.
============================<* The Hidden Gate *>============================= =========================<* CHALLENGE - Zone Eater *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Not all monsters in Spira are pyrefly-formed fiends. Fiends have a way of dominating the more dangerous places, but there are natural predators that can also pose a danger. The ground rumbling under your feet marks the arrival of one. Stone splits apart, dirt falling in around a hole torn into the earth -- and the head of a huge blue and brown worm appears, its many-toothed maw open. It assails you with waves of gravitational force -- natural magic, it would seem -- and then tries to suck everyone into its huge mouth. This Zone Eater, tragically, does not lead to an optional party member.* *Unless you're feeling really cheeky and have an open character slot. I don't control your life. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
=======================<* The Hidden Gate - Round 3 *>======================== ===========================< Results - Zone Eater >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elhaym van Houten 25 --(0)--> 25 Pass One Woman's Stout Iron Rod 2 Combat Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Citan Uzuki 13 --(17)--> 30 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ashley Winchester 25 --(0)--> 25 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Marivel Armitage 25 --(0)--> 25 Pass My Mike 4 Combat Effects: Efficient and Fanfare ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Elhaym van Houten 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Wound(2) Effects: ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Elhaym van Houten has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly looks over at Citan and seems even more embarrassed now. Though...
She is doing something useful, possibly completely by accident. She's prying part of the worm's armored rings open -- and it's not diving back below the soil! She's not... accomplishing anything further, but she's doing that much. It will probably eventually body slam her into a thin marinara sauce, but for this moment...
Grenades fly into the creature's horrid mouth! The gravitational waves draw them inwards - devoured greedily - the fuses, for the most part, still burn. The worm turns to regard Ashley for a moment when Marivel addresses a creature who, in fact, has no butt.
Marivel's skill drain comes into operation. The worm pivots towards her as time seems to slow -- her magicks coming into contact with the creature's energies. It lives! It is no fiend. There is some pearl of great awareness within the Zone Eater.
Something is out there.
A projection...
A moment of vision. For a fleeting instant Marivel can see it all; like walking through a valley on a misty morning, and going up a hill, and suddenly the clouds all melt away and for a moment you can see where every path you took went and where all of them leads. Knowledge beyond easy estimation. Sift it! Think swiftly - remember these glimpses --
-- because the perfection fades --
A ramshackle vessel desperately coming to a far-off planet of mesa and plain, to beg for aid. Merciful. Happy -- for the refugees --
Crouching in deep burrows as distant grinding skitterings grow ever closer, not knowing, by necessity, that this one is the last --
A world of still and silent beauty and nothing that lives --
-- and perhaps... On a golden-- no! A crimson path--
* Gained "ZEater Prescience"!
* 13 TP
* Increase Evade chance by anticipating the next few seconds. (3 turns.)
And then, the worm's upper body explodes and the lower and middle body flop over with an enormous fleshy THWAP.
Elly brings her rod back.
Worm chunks gently rain downwards.
"I think we killed it," Elly reports to Citan.
"Oh! It isn't a Fiend, either...?"
DG: Ashley Winchester has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* The Hidden Gate *>============================= =======================<* CHALLENGE - Slippery Light *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The cavern you move into is a narrow, twisting hallway. Mercifully, it is not dark, for the sheer amount of pyreflies make it well lit -- though the light plays tricks on the eyes in places. More than that, though, you find the rock below grows slippery and slick -- almost like it has water on it. It begins to dawn on you why this is so: the pyreflies are in semi-solid form under your feet, and making it easy to slip and fall. One tumble, and you could go falling down the twisting depths. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Injure=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
Truly, the Zone Eater was one of the best of us. A true ancient... lays dead and still now, obliterated by raw firepower...
...Or perhaps the very nature of the Zone Eater means that this was but one of its many expressions, that there are yet other Zone Eaters, which are themselves mere extensions of a much greater entity...?
Ashley doesn't know, all he knows is that they're all safe from being eaten. "Everyone okay? Butts are... still where they're supposed to be?" His mind is also quite thorougly occupied with butts now, and there's no going back for him. Why have you done this thing, Marivel Armitage...?
Beyond the fallen worm is a winding pathway indeed. It looks like crystal, but slick like ice and yet, not cold like ice. The spiritually sensitive would be able to identify it as some kind of congealed, nearly crystallized concentration of pyreflies. "We must be getting really deep. Look, there are so many of them down there...!" And there are. A sea of pyreflies churning below. One false step on this slippery path means a trip into the very depths of this hollow of the soul.
"Everyone tie yourselves up," Ashley instructs, offering a length of rope. He tethers the other end to some kind of boomerang, and then sends it hurtling off to a distant crystalline growth, where it spins round and round and round before locking snugly into place. "Worst case, this way we won't go falling to possibly multiple deaths. Watch your step, now...!"
Also, Ashley doesn't want to know what happens if you drop the Blazer into a sea of souls. He assumes 'only bad things.'
DG: Ashley Winchester has used his Tool Magic Boomerang toward his party's challenge, Slippery Light.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
I GIVE MY LIFE
NOT FOR HONOR, BUT FOR WORMS
IN MY LIFE
THERE'S BEEN NO ONE ELSE
DIGS - IT'S THE WAY, I FLY TO YOU
I'M STILL
IN A DREAM
ZONE EATER...
Elly, perhaps shellshocked from wormsign and the recurring topic of Butts, moves forwards. When Ashley speaks up, she breaks out of a reverie she had been in, holding her staff closely and perhaps contemplating the plausible demise of all things in the mouth of a giant gravity worm.
After forcusing on him, she says, "Oh, hold on!" and then goes into her hip bag again. Out come a pair of what look like metal slippers. Elly unfolds them-- they aren't! They're things to stick your shoes in and which give you, essentially, cleats. "Here... I have some pitons, too, but I'm not sure that that's going to be quite necessary. Actually, maybe we should both wear one, for stability. Doctor, do you think you'll want them?"
She trusts Marivel will become a bat.
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Climbing Pack toward her party's challenge, Slippery Light.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel has absolutely no idea what Dune is. SHe was sort of hoping for the ability to just sort of engulf people and consume them. But hey, not getting hit is almost as good as consuming living beings whole.
"Haha, wow," Marivel says in response to dead earthworm that tried to eat her. Marivel probably is happy to be back at the top of the food chain.
"Tie...myself up?" Marivel asks. "But Ashley, you're still way too young for me and I'm sure you have your eye on someone else...!"
Then Ashley ties the other end to a boomerang. "...Okay, yeah, I want to see how this goes." Marivel says, tying herself up. "Oh but wait!"
Marivel turns into batform, but now like covered by rope.
"This is a brilliant plan that cannot fail," Marivel squeaks.
DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool Tomato Juice For Grownups toward her party's challenge, Slippery Light.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
Marivel comments that she tried to 'muck with' the Far Plane once. "Oh?" Citan remarks, as if to suggest that she should go on. "...Regardless, I must agree with your assessment. Whatever it is that he is attempting down here, I do not think it would be anything for the good of the Guado, or indeed, all of Spira. It is imperative that he is stopped."
This, of course, before A WORM interrupts their investigation.
And after a little well-placed bit of explosives at a critical moment, well... explodes.
Citan prods a piece of worm with his show, gingerly. "I... can see that it is not," he remarks, perhaps as baffled as all of them are...?
Ashley asks if they are all okay, in a manner of speaking. "I can assure you, Mister Winchester, that all of my parts are in their proper orientation!" He still maintains a straight face. Well, unless Ashley meets Citan's eyes, that is. He's... he's enjoying this....
Still -- it may be that their descent to this part of the path was not a poor choice in fact, as the degree and weight of the Pyreflies within this place increases once again. It's even grown to a degree far more than before, as the very substance of the earth beneath their feet seems to be swarming with them. This comes to a head as their passage grows ever more fraught, their way forward transforming into a slick bridge of crystal atop a swirling expanse of Pyreflies. One wrong step, and...!
"Could this be...?" Citan starts to muse, staring down for the moment into the abyss below them. But he shakes his head -- now is not the time to speculate. "Yes, thank you," he says, taking the rope from Ashley when it's offered. For his own part he will...
Touch a pale blue sphere to the mass at their feet, real (well, 'real'; it's magical ice) ice spreading atop the Pyrefly infused crystal.
"Yes, actually," Citan says to Elly, once he stands up straight again. It will help keep traction on the ice.
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Macalania Sphere toward his party's challenge, Slippery Light.
============================<* The Hidden Gate *>============================= =======================<* CHALLENGE - Slippery Light *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The cavern you move into is a narrow, twisting hallway. Mercifully, it is not dark, for the sheer amount of pyreflies make it well lit -- though the light plays tricks on the eyes in places. More than that, though, you find the rock below grows slippery and slick -- almost like it has water on it. It begins to dawn on you why this is so: the pyreflies are in semi-solid form under your feet, and making it easy to slip and fall. One tumble, and you could go falling down the twisting depths. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Injure=========================================
=======================<* The Hidden Gate - Round 4 *>======================== =========================< Results - Slippery Light >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elhaym van Houten 25 --(0)--> 25 Pass Climbing Pack 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Citan Uzuki 30 --(0)--> 30 Pass Macalania Sphere 3 Agility Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ashley Winchester 25 --(0)--> 25 Pass Magic Boomerang 2 Agility Effects: Resilient ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Marivel Armitage 25 --(12)--> 37 Fail Tomato Juice For Grownups 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Elhaym van Houten 60 --(20)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(2)|Injure(2)|Wound(1) Effects: Cleanse|Resilient(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Elhaym van Houten 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> Ashley Winchester has posed.
CITAN UZUKI: BUTT TALK ENJOYER.
Bet you they didn't teach a course on that in graduate school.
"Oh, that's a great idea!" Ashley chirps, trying his best to put all this butt talk behind him. Which is kind of hard, because putting butt talk behind anything is a recipe for failure!! Still, he receives the offer of spiked shoes happily and fits one half of the pair to his boot.
This will prove very useful when Citan freezes the entire walkway, eliminating the risk of taking a misstep into what you think is a transparent crystal surface but is in fact just a yawning void that will send you tumbling into multiple death.
And then... then there's Marivel.
Who Ashley just stares at, utterly mystified. While the truth of <<BUTT>> has been revealed unto him, he is still too innocent to be affected by Marivel's joke. This is, perhaps, the true indignity--
No wait the true indignity is when it turns out that batform can't properly fly covered in rope, and just has to sort of slide around on the ice instead.
But in short order, everyone makes it across more or less intact. Marivel might be somewhat frosty, but the rope is at least a decent insulator. Ashley lifts a hand and the boomerang twitches in its own bondage before coming loose and flying right back into the musketeer's grasp.
"It's magic," he explains, happily.
DG: Citan Uzuki has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* The Hidden Gate *>============================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - The Unsent - Wen Kinoc *>==================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The path through the cavern leads you to another plaza -- this one built in a natural cavern, with a high ceiling -- and another set of stone doors, like the ones you entered from. These doors are closed, though a faint glow can be seen from behind them. There are no guards in the room -- it seems like it should be a simple walk. As you enter, though, the air shimmers. Pyreflies swirl together -- and take the form of a battered, bedraggled, middle aged man. He lies underneath an enormous pile of rocks; like a collapsed mountainside. There are burn wounds across him. You may recognize him as Wen Kinoc, a Maester who died in Bevelle. "Betrayed..." he rasps. "Betrayed by Seymour. Betrayed..." His form fades. The huge rocks -- spectral and terrible -- do not. They will need to be removed before you can go through the doors. =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
Is it so much the butt talk or Ashley's increased inability to deal with it?
(maybe it's both)
The plan is a success: no one loses their footing and plummets over the edge or anything similar, and they cross without losing much time (only Marivel's dignity) in the process. "Goodness," Citan remarks, once they've made the crossing. "I should not like to repeat that!" He has about as much of an idea of what might happen if any of them fell in, as any of them, which is to say:
Nothing good.
Where there are crystalline floors of course, there are increasingly crystalline walls, the Pyrefly intrusion increasingly inflicting Change on what they had known to be real physical space. It might even be possible to put one's hand through some of the translucent bits. Possible, but not advised.
But, ahead--
This is no natural cavern. It is not even a tunnel room as such -- no dug out mineshaft but instead a stone plaza, carefully carved into the rock almost as if it were the entrance to a palatial estate.
Or something like the entrance to a temple. Perhaps even, and the thought might occur to some of them here, a crypt.
There is a faint glow from behind the doors at the other end of the plaza. It should be an easy walk.
Pyreflies are already thick in the air as they all approach, before they congeal into the form of a man. Of his middle years, he lies on the plaza before them, crushed under what looks to be several tons of rock and stone. Battered, burned, in agony, he gasps out the circumstances of what led to his end:
"Betrayed... Betrayed by Seymour..."
"Are you not Maester Wen Kinoc--"
Before Citan can so much as finish his sentence, the Unsent vanishes, erupting into Pyreflies which disperse, away from this space. But the rocks that had appeared atop him -- those remain where they were, blocking any path forward.
"...Even in 'undeath', he still aids Seymour," Citan remarks after a moment's consideration of the obstacle in their path. "Well... we must find a way through this, I am afraid," he continues, readjusting his spectacles. He then pulls out that manual and refers again to it, rifling through the pages. "Hm... meridian point... Yes, if one were to apply these... Aha."
Then, pushing his glasses a fraction up his nose, he approaches the rock pile and proceeds to prod it in a few key places.
"Wen Kinoc was a... loyalist, one might say, to Seymour," he explains as he works. "We had fought him after the operation to assist in the rescue of those captured in Bellevue. It appears that he had either captured Lombardia himself or had been... 'managing' her for Seymour. That is, also, where he was killed..."
After the unleashing of an Anima Relic, no less.
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Acupressure Guide toward his party's challenge, The Unsent - Wen Kinoc.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Yes I did some tests and experiments with the pyreflies." Marivel explains to Citan. "But despite everything, my ability to influence their path was limited. Even attempting to fuck with Seymour with necromancy didn't work. Whatever kind of power is behind the Unsent and the pyreflies--it is powerful indeed."
Marivel of course enjoys all sorts of awful discussions but that's not really a surprise. Marivel slides comically along the ice in batform. It's super cute, at least, but it's definitely something that has its limits.
Marivel sees Wen Kinoc.
Betrayed...' Wen Kinoc raspes.
Marivel, of course, is someone who is sensitive to the pains of the dead and the cries of those that cannot rest easy so naturally she's going to say something kind to encourage Wen Kinoc moving on in peace and--
"Sucks don't it?" Marivel says. "Apologize to the fallen of Mi'ihen you threw away with nary a thought ere you bemoan the blade in your back."
Maybe for Marivel that is a type of kindness.
"Well Lombardia's alive so he can't ask for her forgiveness, but I imagine she has no need for it." Marivel adds.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
BATROPE? (During their walk, for some reason, it seems like Elly's hair is falling in a way that suggests gravity is working at a 90-degree angle to the scene's apparent direction.)
As they move deeper, Elly doesn't speak much, but she seems less likely to die of an acute over-embarrassment reaction because nobody's mentioned butts in a few minutes, and when they emerge from the slippery walk into something thicker, more central, the pyreflies are dancing.
And then they coalesce into...
"Oh!" Elly says, as the forming Unsent dissipates almost as soon as he came about.
"... I suppose that's fortunate," Elly says. "I had thought he might have... commanded the rocks, or something." Her lips purse.
She takes in a sharp breath at what Citan says. She glances towards Marivel. She looks back to the stone.
Elly doesn't move for several long seconds, even as Citan gets to the working of tap-tapping the rocks in their weak spots.
"... I never knew you, Wen Kinoc. When you were alive, you hurt my friends... it sounds terrifying. You had a part in these evil deeds that I suppose we're helping to put to right, or at least to an end. And I suppose it would be appropriate if you were to suffer the same pain that you inflicted on others."
"But you're dead now," Elly says, looking at the floor, "and it seems you can't even have that second life as the Unsent. Perhaps it's too close to how you died, or something went wrong. Maybe you're trying, but you just can't, the same way I can't reach the very topmost shelf in the Karlsefni's closet without standing on a box."
"Does it help those you hurt, if you suffer here? Would you have suffered just the same, if we never saw?"
Elly doesn't answer her own question. After another couple of seconds, she says, "I hope you can find peace, Wen Kinoc. For the sake of the innocent you once were, if for nothing else."
With that said, Elly gets out plain old work gloves and steps forwards with her iron rod. Oh, right, and -- "Do you think we could crack that stone, Doctor?" -- probably Earth-type Ether what with all the sky-army brain magic and so forth.
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Inventory Clutter toward her party's challenge, The Unsent - Wen Kinoc.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
Teasing Ashley Winchester is a favored passtime among approximately 50% of ARMS. The other half of the organization finds it in poor taste or does everything in their power to insulate the cinnamon roll, or, worse, are just as clueless as Ashley himself.
There is, up ahead, a chamber that Ashley can only imagine belongs to some kind of ancient shrine. He's seen the like on Lunar before, but this... is different, isn't it? This is a shrine to the dead. A proper sepulchre. And there, there right in front of the door, there is... a pile of rubble. And some guy, who Ashley does not know, is crushed beneath it. Of course, he's already dead, and before Ashley can properly mourn the man, he disappears entirely. But...
"...I see. How far would these people go for that man...? It reminds me too much of Odessa, you know. Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus has so many incredible people following him, but they do such awful things. They give him their lives, and..." They end up being buried in his wake. The price of power, one might say. Ashley's grip tightens around his rifle, but he does nothing with it. Instead he approaches the pile of spirit-rocks and begins planting what look like detonation charges.
"Well... I guess this one sounds like he was one of the... less incredible people." More of a Judecca than a Ptolomea, to put it in Odessan terms.
DG: Ashley Winchester has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, The Unsent - Wen Kinoc. DG: Marivel Armitage has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Unsent - Wen Kinoc.
=============================<* The Hidden Gate *>============================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - The Unsent - Wen Kinoc *>==================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The path through the cavern leads you to another plaza -- this one built in a natural cavern, with a high ceiling -- and another set of stone doors, like the ones you entered from. These doors are closed, though a faint glow can be seen from behind them. There are no guards in the room -- it seems like it should be a simple walk. As you enter, though, the air shimmers. Pyreflies swirl together -- and take the form of a battered, bedraggled, middle aged man. He lies underneath an enormous pile of rocks; like a collapsed mountainside. There are burn wounds across him. You may recognize him as Wen Kinoc, a Maester who died in Bevelle. "Betrayed..." he rasps. "Betrayed by Seymour. Betrayed..." His form fades. The huge rocks -- spectral and terrible -- do not. They will need to be removed before you can go through the doors. =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken===================================================
========================<* The Hidden Gate - Round 5 *>========================= ======================< Results - The Unsent - Wen Kinoc >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elhaym van Houten 25 --(0)--> 25 Pass Inventory Clutter 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Citan Uzuki 30 --(0)--> 30 Pass Acupressure Guide 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ashley Winchester 25 --(9)--> 34 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marivel Armitage 37 --(9)--> 46 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Elhaym van Houten 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(1)|Weaken(2) Effects: Cleanse|Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Elhaym van Houten has successfully explored The Hidden Gate!
=============================<* The Hidden Gate *>============================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - The Farplane *>========================= |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You make your way through the stone doors at the end of the tunnels. The doors open up onto a small ledge in an area that, impossibly, appears outdoors. There is a sky that seems to be perpetually in sunset -- and you find yourself overlooking a lake or an ocean. In the distance, there are shores with greenery... and the roar of waterfalls nearby. But there are also other, more alien things. For one, there is a gaping, impossible hole in the middle of the ocean; a solid blue sphere, wreathed in darkness, floats above it. There are also pillars of water that rise up into the clouded sky. It dawns on you, perhaps: this is the Farplane. And Seymour's agents, for some reason, have began digging their way into it... and it is flooding the caverns below. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
Marivel explains what she had tried to do, and the fruits of her labors, leading Citan to nod thoughtfully (even in spite of a few coarse turn of phrase or two -- but then again, Jessie is a friend of his). "I see... it follows that the rules of one world may not precisely hold in another. Still... when it comes to even metaphysics... I will have to think about this."
They're close now. But for the appearance of the Unsent Maester, they might already be through the door. But even in undeath, Wen Kinoc causes them all problems.
"So I have heard. I suppose it was no matter to him then. One might even call it ironic," he remarks, on Marivel's commentary.
"How far...? It is a good question. Loyalty is an admirable quality, would you not say?" Citan remarks, as Ashley says his piece. "But, loyalty can blind us to someone's faults. It can make us all too willing to throw ourselves away for another, or for their vision. I suppose... it comes down to the manner of person who possesses our 'loyalty'." He sighs, then, quite heavily and shakes his head before setting to work.
Citan stands back after a moment more, a scant few seconds after Elly has finished her own due to the (not quite so) dead. At her question, he nods. "Yes. I think so."
And then he stands back as she and Ashley do their work.
It turns out to be a wise decision, as when the rock shatters, it shatters. Some pieces are rent into so much sand and gravel, while others remain lying amidst the dust as some faint reminder as to what had been before.
"I think that settles that. Let us see what awaits us within..."
Perhaps they would not be remiss to think that they really had gotten turned right around in the tunnels. That they've somehow stepped out into the surface world again, even that if they were to turn around, they would see there Guadosalam. But, the surroundings of the city never looked like this.
Nor is it possible that in the world they came from -- reality, the world of the living, however one wants to put it -- there were such impossibilities as a hole in the ocean. Rising pillars of water.
A blue sphere, wreathed in darkness, floating above that oceanic hole.
"What in the..." Citan utters at last, after taking in their surroundings with widened eyes. "This... could not possibly be..."
He is silent a moment yet, turning over the realization that he's come to yet is all to hesitant to speak. But inevitably, it becomes too much to reject outright.
"...This, must be the Far Plane."