2022-02-06: To the End of the Line
- Log: To the End of the Line
- Cast: Josephine Lovelace, Azoth, Gwen Whitlock, Ethius Hesiod
- Where: The Cape of Breath
- Date: February 06, 2022
- Summary: Once more, those gathered here pile onto a train headed for the afterlife... but what is Josie hoping to find at the other end?
DG: A party led by Josephine Lovelace is now entering Chibiki-Iwa Express. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
================<* CHALLENGE - A Train You Ain't Gettin Offa *>=================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 4 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
A mysterious train that departs from the Thirteenth Platform.
Perhaps you believe the rumours of people disappearing into the cloak of
midnight, or perhaps you're here to debunk the urban legend once and for
all. Perhaps you are here because destiny calls.
The only clue you have is a foreboding black ticket, marked for one Group,
departing from the station you're present at...
Hirasaka, Hirasaka... the one-way train bound for Hirasaka...
will be arriving shortly.
Please wait by the yellow line... until the doors...
Open.
An ominous, tinny voice echoes from public announcement speakers that
Filgaia stations are... not usually equipped with.
And then--
clack-clack
clack-clack
It appears.
A shooting star racing through the wilderness, drawing to an eerily silent
stop at the platform you're standing on. It is a train unlike any you've
seen - unlike the carriages and locomotives of Filgaia, the rumoured,
legendary Chibiki-Iwa Express has silver, rectangular cars, painted with a
black stripe.
The sliding doors open. The lights are on within, revealing surprisingly
mundane rows of seats flush against the walls. There is an almost
supernatural compulsion that draws you within. But just as soon as you start
inspecting--
The doors will... now close.
Please step away from the doors...
There is no opening the doors.
The doors hiss to a flush close. No! The train shifts... it might be too
late!
Is there truly... no gettin' offa this train you're on?
=Dungeon Conditions: Cripple, Secret==========================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Clack-clack.
Clack-a-clack.
"Heh... wouldja look at that."
In the fingers of her one good hand, Josie fiddles with a black ticket. Just barely, the onrush of wind from the approaching train rustles the paper, but it's still too firmly held to escape her grip.
After all, it's the only ticket she's got for this particular trip, a ride that takes place only after midnight.
In the sky, the Old Moon is dark. Only the stars glitter at this stop, long since abandoned to the growing wastes.
A train is pulling in.
"Don't you worry or none. I ain't bumming a ride this time," she starts to say, as if expecting to see a conductor. But there is no one there.
"...Heh. Figures," Josie says, stepping inside. The seats are empty.
She has but a moment to take a seat, to get comfortable. The doors soon after close with a clatter.
She doesn't even try to get offa this train she's on.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Train You Ain't Gettin Offa
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
The last time Azoth boarded the ghost train, it arrived at a destination of peculiar interest. If it's possible it has another stop of similar nature... It's worth testing, in any case, especially this time without the company of those it may cause problems for.
(Isn't he in for a surprise!)
He watches the train come into the station, waiting for it to come to a halt before darting from his hiding place in the shadows to get himself onboard. With all the glow of his eyes, it isn't too difficult to see him stealing away given the low lighting.
Where he sees, already, he is not alone. Josephine, a woman who Azoth first met with the understanding she had done a mighty betrayal. His mouth makes a tiny little 'o' of surprise before he shuts it, taking his own seat with a sheepish smile and putting on the facade of someone trying to look innocent.
DG: Azoth has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, A Train You Ain't Gettin Offa.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
It would be foolish to get on the Death Train.
It would be even worse to do it *twice*.
In Gwen's defense, at least there was a length of time inbetween, and if you got off once, that should show that you'd be able to escape again, right? Besides, 'escaping death' has been a theme for the courier for a while now.
Josie's pleasant ride may be interrupted by the pale redhead barging in. "Sorry, Mister or Ms. Train, need to borrow a ride again, I don't mean to downplay your job and will perform my duty to fight like hell to get back off!"
Why is she here?
"Hey, hey, hey, this train's dangerous, and--" The doors close. "... Yeah. You'll need some help survivin'. Thaannnkfully I'm here."
Is Gwen saying this to everyone here?
".... It's not been my first ride, after all."
Gwen would have no reason to suspect that she would not be alone in this.
It may not have mattered for Gwen either way.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Train You Ain't Gettin Offa.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Nonchalantly, practically out of nowhere, Ethius shows up holding another black ticket clenched gingerly between two fingers and a larger sack of goods than he can typically be persuaded to carry. (In that typically he cannot be.) The bag he's carrying has the Caravan Kinship branding on it and everything, as he steps forth unto the once-empty car to look upon Josie having herself a comfortable seat on the train. He stares, as he does, which he always does.
The doors slam shut.
Wordlessly, he just brings a hand to his forehead in the rare slapping motion, something he believed he'd have reserved for the next time he ever suffered the company of Professor Raydon of Hyland.
"If I may ask, did any particular misfortune befall you prior?" He asks of those gathered and taking a seat. "On behalf of the Caravan Kinship," read: someone drew a short straw and rolled a natural 20 on a persuasion check at disadvantage, "I have been asked to collect expended travel and warding charms from those departing."
Beat.
"Whether this is an existing arrangement or a marketing opportunity of some value I have not been appraised of, I cannot say, nonetheless--"
Gwen more or less says it succinctly. This train's dangerous. (But not so dangerous as to not be convinced to go collect trash and recycles from the individual cars, apparently.)
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, A Train You Ain't Gettin Offa.
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
================<* CHALLENGE - A Train You Ain't Gettin Offa *>=================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 4 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
A mysterious train that departs from the Thirteenth Platform.
Perhaps you believe the rumours of people disappearing into the cloak of
midnight, or perhaps you're here to debunk the urban legend once and for
all. Perhaps you are here because destiny calls.
The only clue you have is a foreboding black ticket, marked for one Group,
departing from the station you're present at...
Hirasaka, Hirasaka... the one-way train bound for Hirasaka...
will be arriving shortly.
Please wait by the yellow line... until the doors...
Open.
An ominous, tinny voice echoes from public announcement speakers that
Filgaia stations are... not usually equipped with.
And then--
clack-clack
clack-clack
It appears.
A shooting star racing through the wilderness, drawing to an eerily silent
stop at the platform you're standing on. It is a train unlike any you've
seen - unlike the carriages and locomotives of Filgaia, the rumoured,
legendary Chibiki-Iwa Express has silver, rectangular cars, painted with a
black stripe.
The sliding doors open. The lights are on within, revealing surprisingly
mundane rows of seats flush against the walls. There is an almost
supernatural compulsion that draws you within. But just as soon as you start
inspecting--
The doors will... now close.
Please step away from the doors...
There is no opening the doors.
The doors hiss to a flush close. No! The train shifts... it might be too
late!
Is there truly... no gettin' offa this train you're on?
=Dungeon Conditions: Cripple, Secret==========================================
======================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express - Round 1 *>======================= ==================< Results - A Train You Ain't Gettin Offa >=================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azoth 0 --(12)--> 12 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 0 --(15)--> 15 Fail Conditions: Cripple|Secret(2) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has failed this challenge! The party gained 15 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Gwen Whitlock has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
======================<* CHALLENGE - The Chill of Death *>======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
A chant continues to echo and chill at your very spine as you explore the
train cars:
...A ki me shi ...
...sa HI yu SE mi ...
...WE mo SU...
As if drawn by the verses, several ghosts dressed in little more than white
rags rise from the very floor of the passenger car. Though they do not
possess faces, their intent is quite easy to understand as their ghastly
hands reach out.
A single touch freezes to the bone, and threatens to leech away what life
still exists in your body -- your absolute lifeline in this deathly express
line.
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Exhaust==========================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie's dark-eyed gaze, formerly locked in an almost-meditative reflection upon the middle distance, flick over to take in Azoth as he seats himself. She raises one pale eyebrow, then turns her head to grin at him.
This is all that she does.
That is, until Gwen steps into the traincar to announce that this train is dangerous and that they ought to get off.
"Nothin' doing, kiddo," Josie says. "I went through a ton of trouble for that ticket, right? I intend to see this little trip here to its end."
She pauses, only to split her lips in another rictus of a grin.
"Or close enough, mind."
And then Ethius makes a particular announcement.
"Oh yeah? Jay's got herself another side hustle, huh... Sorry, Owl. Ain't got nothin' for you, this time--"
The doors snap shut at this moment.
"--And looks like you're up for a wee bit of a ride too, eh?"
Clack-clack.
Clack-clack-clack-clack.
There's no getting off this traing they're on.
Not just yet, anyway.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"You're.... collecting..." Gwen gives Ethius a bleary look, then sighs. "... what a job..."
Josie's nonchalance is met with a sigh of resignation, which is cut off when the train begins to move, catching Gwen off guard for a moment. Steadying herself on a chair, Gwen lets off a small laugh. "Well, I 'spose I'm in good company, then." She sits down in a seat, and settles in.
clack, clack
Wait.
Clack, Clack
".... Oh yeah, a ticket.... I forgot that was a thing..." CLACK, CLACK
Cue the chilling chanting that fills the train car, and the ghosts dressed in tattered white rags crawl up from every vent and shadow.
"Oh, don't you all act like you're all here because I didn't have a ticket on me!" Gwen yells, rolling from her dusty seat. "I know y--"
Gwen's teeth chatter as one ghost seizes on one ankle. "L...ook away...." She's raising her right arm up as she stammers out her warning, and fires a bright flash of light, making many recoil. But what about the one attached to her?
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Full Metal Courier toward her party's challenge, The Chill of Death.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"Yes." Ethius responds flatly, matter-of-factly, expertly hiding within his voice whatever amount of exasperation a normal man would, and must, and even needs, have when they are back on a train bound for the afterlife before their time. (But the Kinship keeps getting tickets. They may be Lunata's...?!)
He finds a few empty bottles and herbs and small coins here and there, as the chanting starts and the white rag-wearing ghosts rise up to accost them as Gwen makes noise about not having a ticket - and he, too, feels that chill as one of those ghosts take offense to something discarded on the traincar ground being moved at all.
He quietly substitutes a satchel on the ground and goes about enchanting it to activate the contents. Whether it goes off or not from another ghostly apparition interacting with it, well...
5r He's already almost too late to look away from the bright flash from Gwen.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Powder Grenade toward his party's challenge, The Chill of Death.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Gwen, with a shock, realizes she has no ticket.
Josie glances sidelong her way. "Kiddo, just tell 'em someone already checked yours. Works, eh..." She moves her lips silently a moment, as if to count it out. "Well, most of the time. --Well, willya look at that!"
From the floor, there rises a multitude of spectres.
"Guess that's why there weren't a conductor out there. Look, here's my ticket," she says, waving the scrap of paper about.
"And the little lady there's already..."
Josie pauses here.
"Hmm."
She leans forward and pulls something from her boot. What it was can probably be guessed from the crack that rings out shortly thereafter, particularly in conjunction with the flash of light and the scent of gunsmoke.
"Don't right think they are conductors, kids! Look sharp!"
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Chill of Death.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
And now there are two new passengers! Ethius, a man Azoth insists on acting friendly toward despite that this mysterious mystery would be a terrifying apex predator if released upon a hypothetical mechanical ecosystem, and Gwen, who insists on acting friendly toward Azoth despite knowing a number of uncomfortable truths and seeing him without a mask.
A haunted death train is not the ideal place to be meeting them. Or anyone, for that matter.
Azoth checks his pockets. "I don't think I'm carrying anything like that..." But with brighter eyes and a cheerful beep, he produces and offers a worn playing card with tattered edges. (It might have once been a nine of clubs, though it's faded enough to not have all nine clubs.) "I have this, though!"
With a more nervous smile at Gwen, he says, "We'll just all have to be careful and look out for each other, then." A statement which becomes immediately true when the ghosts arrive, though the first thing Azoth notices is Gwen's chattering before looking in alarm to their attackers.
He tosses his little amber stone to himself, then squints at it. "...Technically, you are dead..." The ancient arachnid contained within, having died ages ago. And thus, Azoth projects light through the stone, magnifying the image like a giant hologram over all of them as a perfectly viable ghost train passenger while he generates an energy blade to flip through the air and send sailing at the ghosts to detonate in a burst of light and try to chase them off.
DG: Azoth has used his Tool Bug in Amber toward his party's challenge, The Chill of Death.
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
======================<* CHALLENGE - The Chill of Death *>======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
A chant continues to echo and chill at your very spine as you explore the
train cars:
...A ki me shi ...
...sa HI yu SE mi ...
...WE mo SU...
As if drawn by the verses, several ghosts dressed in little more than white
rags rise from the very floor of the passenger car. Though they do not
possess faces, their intent is quite easy to understand as their ghastly
hands reach out.
A single touch freezes to the bone, and threatens to leech away what life
still exists in your body -- your absolute lifeline in this deathly express
line.
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Exhaust==========================================
======================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express - Round 2 *>======================= ========================< Results - The Chill of Death >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 20 --(5)--> 25 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 20 --(5)--> 25 Pass Full Metal Courier 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 20 --(5)--> 25 Pass Powder Grenade 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azoth 12 --(5)--> 17 Pass Bug in Amber 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 15 --(30)--> 45 Pass Conditions: Cripple|Exhaust(1)|Fright(2)|Secret(1) Effects: Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has passed this challenge! The party gained 30 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Azoth has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
=================<* CHALLENGE - Then Someone Nice Came Along *>=================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
There is a very strange obstacle barring progress to the next passenger car:
A large bedsheet ghost that's just... lying on the floor. You'd think that
you could just step past or through a bedsheet ghost, what with them being a
ghost and all, but it's not possible!!
Oh... don't mind me.
I was just lying down on the floor here...
Then... you nice folk came along.
Despite the compliment, they don't seem inclined to move. You'll have to
gently climb around the ghost to get to the other side. Why is a ghost just
lying on the floor here anyway? Well, sometimes that's just a real mood in
Filgaia, living or dead.
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Tire=============================================
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Gwen may know a truth about Azoth, but Azoth may not be fully able to understand a vital truth about Gwen: it's hard to make Gwen stop calling someone a friend. Especially if you've trusted her with a secret. And even if you've tried to tell her, regardless of whether it was intentional or not.
Something Josie may appreciate, as she and Gwen have fought before, and yet here she is, being helpful. It's a helpfulness that escalates appropriately, with guns instead of tickets.
Even Ethius falls into this group, yet he is helpfully enchanting a proper grenade to go off as one of the ghosts get near it.
And Azoth himself, projecting the image of the spider, which confuses many of the ghosts, making them easy prey for the light beam that follows.
Everyone on this train has tried to kill Gwen at least one.
And, to be fair, she's done it back at least once.
Anyway, the ghosts are now all properly dealt with, and Gwen is getting up and shaking her left ankle like it's fallen asleep. ".... Thanks, guys..."
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
"Are you all right?" Azoth asks Gwen, scooting a little closer for a moment. He glances over her ankle, then heats himself up further to radiate heat. He can't be sure this works to dispel ghost related chills, but he tries all the same. "I guess we'd better get moving to the front car..."
Once it's clear everyone's unharmed, it's time to move on.
Azoth enters the next car a little too quickly, accidentally stumbling straight onto a spooky something and flinching back with an apologetic beep. It's... a ghost. Naturally. A ghost of the bedsheet variety, stretched out over the ground.
"Oh... don't mind me.
I was just lying down on the floor here...
Then... you nice folk came along.."
The ghost does not move. That's how you lie down -- not moving. Thus there the the ghost remains. Lying there. On the ground. If anyone lied with them, they might find it calming. Like entering into the cosmos. There could be nice music.
But there's not time for that.
Azoth forces a smile. "Sorry, sorry. We're just passing through, so if you could..."
Nope. Not moving.
Azoth puffs his cheeks, then shrugs at everyone else before he tries to carefully navigate his way over the other seats, around the ghost instead.
DG: Azoth has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Then Someone Nice Came Along.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Azoth asks if Gwen is already, and she grins, sitting up. "Yeah, just got caught off-guard." While the existential chill isn't affected by the presence of heat, when Gwen realizes the heat radiating off him, if allowed, she presses a hand to his forehead. "You okay? Or..."
She thinks back, to how her teeth were chattering, as well as how pleasant it was now that he scooted closer in. "Oh, was that, for me? Thank you, Azoth." She chuckles softly. "Y'know... I might need a sec actually, but I should be good t'go after that. Everyone else good?"
Gwen is true to her word, as pleasant as the heat might be against the backdrop of the cold car.
Coming in through the door as Azoth beeps in alarm, Gwen peers over his shoulder. "Huh... That's new."
When Azoth tries to get over the seats, the courier walks over and squats down by the flat ghost.
"Yeah, we're just passin' by. Just got into a tussle with some other ghosts in the other car, so we're tryin' to avoid that. Seein' a ghost that's friendly, though, that's a nice change. What's your name?"
gwen you are not helping
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Then Someone Nice Came Along.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"Yes. I would suggest we go to the front of the car with all haste." Ethius isn't speaking any faster, though, as he considers the incredibly bizarre and flimsy justification - even by his standards - to more or less be riding a death train for what is out and out garbage.
...At least one of these things seems to be in his normal wheelhouse, though...
They go to the next car, and there is a bedsheet ghost lying there. They are doing a very good job of lying there. In the way. While they are all in a terrible hurry not to end up arriving at their final destination (again, in the case of at least two here).
"I am not keen to disrupt whatever form of mourning or celebration of death is transpiring," Ethius remarks, but some of the nearby detritus may well be collected. "If they believe the way to go about death is to not get up and move in any capacity whatsoever, I am compelled to respect that."
He says this as he makes sure he's now doing the gesticulating with the correct hand about the correct harness-held sack in order to prepare to float over them, and all that.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Hot Air Sack toward his party's challenge, Then Someone Nice Came Along.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Fortunately, it seems that these ghosts are the kind that can be shot. ARM still in hand, Josie rises from her seat after a moment more to pointedly look about the car.
"Any other ghosts feel like popping on up now?"
Silence.
"No? Then I don't suppose you'll mind or none if we take a little look-see. It'll be a while to our next stop, I reckon..."
In the next car, there is a ghost as well.
It's lying on the floor.
"You okay down there, kid? Kiddo?" Josie hazards, gazing at the very flat ghost.
"Us? Just comin' on through. Don't suppose you'd feel like moving a tetch?"
Josie pauses, regardless of the reply.
"Right, then. Guess it's over or around, eh?"
With only one hand available to her, and it taken up by the ARM (which she isn't holstering) she opts instead to back up a few steps and take a leap on over.
"Gwen, kiddo... just leave the poor sap alone. C'mon."
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Then Someone Nice Came Along.
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
=================<* CHALLENGE - Then Someone Nice Came Along *>=================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
There is a very strange obstacle barring progress to the next passenger car:
A large bedsheet ghost that's just... lying on the floor. You'd think that
you could just step past or through a bedsheet ghost, what with them being a
ghost and all, but it's not possible!!
Oh... don't mind me.
I was just lying down on the floor here...
Then... you nice folk came along.
Despite the compliment, they don't seem inclined to move. You'll have to
gently climb around the ghost to get to the other side. Why is a ghost just
lying on the floor here anyway? Well, sometimes that's just a real mood in
Filgaia, living or dead.
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Tire=============================================
======================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express - Round 3 *>======================= ===================< Results - Then Someone Nice Came Along >=================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 25 --(15)--> 40 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 25 --(23)--> 48 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 25 --(23)--> 48 Fail Hot Air Sack 2 Agility Effects: Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azoth 17 --(23)--> 40 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 45 --(15)--> 60 Fail Conditions: Cripple|Fright(2)|Tire(2) Effects: Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has failed this challenge! The party gained 15 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> Azoth has posed.
Azoth accepts his forehead check with only a fraction of confusion and a questioning beep tone to go with before he smiles. "Oh, yes, it was. If it helps to make contact, that's fine, too."
Should he be keeping an eye on Josephine? Neither Gwen nor Ethius seem upset by her presence, so perhaps there's no tension to juggle for now. And as for Ethius. "If I find anything, I'll be sure to hand it over...!" Azoth is quite adept at picking up little pieces of trash he determines to be treasure, after all. Look forward to it.
But ghosts. Sad ghosts. A specific sad ghost in particular.
Through some manner of miscalculation, Azoth climbs over the seats only for them to break under them. He crashes down into the ground, face first, barely twitching. This is, technically, now lying down. Gwen gets into a conversation with the friendly spook, though the ghost apologizes and admits he isn't really feeling up to it right now. Ethius' air sack does not cooperate fully within the compartment. Maybe the space isn't quite what it needs to be. Maybe there's ghost interference. Maybe the balloon wants to lie down, too.
Josephine deftly hops over the ghost, but she's left by her lonesome on the other side while everyone else contemplates what it is to feel like garbage until the ghost has enough and... fades away.
At least they can continue now.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Service Disruption *>======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
At first it seems as if it may just be a rush of passengers boarding in from
the latest stop, but it doesn't take you long to realise they're all
attempting to bar your group's passage forward. The eerie chant you may have
heard in other moments now has a clear owner:
...U no ku ma...
...wi FU O e ya...
...KE KO te...
No matter what path you take, there are more ghosts barring the way. Worse
yet, they're all following you through the carriages as well.
Bloody persistent...!!
There's only one extreme measure left: you're going to have to decouple the
coupling on the train car you're on to leave them (and an untold number of
passengers) behind. Surely... surely this won't have a lot of ramifications
on the passage of the departed to the afterlife, right?
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Hesitate=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
They can all be one with the universe for a little while.
Only a little while, because now there's a bunch more passengers flooding in from... a recent stop? No, it didn't stop, but there's that eerie chanting again. Then there's more of those white-rag clad ghosts, again. None of them reach out with their chilling, life-stealing touch, but the chanting intensifies as they're starting to fill their current passenger car.
Maybe that's why the obstructing bedsheet ghost left.
"Move," Ethius remarks as he trips once en route to standing up, trying to hurry along to another car with the others. They can all get there without concern as to the act of 'getting there,' but the original, greater concern remains.
The chanting continues. They are following, and are ready to leap on ahead after them. There's only one method available to the lot of them now.
"Decouple it." Ethius remarks, reaching out to tap that with his quarterstaff to illustrate. He might lean in and try to manage that by his own hands a few moments later, but maybe there's other, faster ways to make it happen...
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Service Disruption.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
She lands, safely enough, on the other side.
"Hey, y'all..."
Josie lapses into silence, watching as the others are unable to get past the flat spirit. More than a few times she glances at the ghost, then towards the floor close to her, as if making silent calculations, but eventually shrugs, seats herself, and takes out a cigarette after slipping her ARM back into her boot. The cigarette she lights with a single snap of the finger. There is the scent of smoke as well as ozone in the air.
"Right, let's get a move on," she says, dropping the cigarette to grind it under a heel once the ghost vanishes, letting the others past. "Way I figure, what we're looking for's up ahead, right?" She cracks a grin. "Though I ain't too bothered if you lot want to take a load off and wait for us to reach the last stop!"
That grin is entirely too toothy.
Her gaze moves from them after a moment more, though. How long have there been ghosts filtering into this car? That grin of hers fades in short order. "C'mon. I don't quite fancy sticking about here," she remarks, though the ghosts are...
...certainly getting in the way as she attempts to make her way through one car and then another.
'Decouple it', Ethius suggests.
"Right on," Josie says, pulling her mattock out of her bag. "Now, let's see you get past this!" she shouts out, slamming it into the coupling.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Well-Used Mattock toward her party's challenge, Service Disruption.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth finally pries himself off of the floor. He briefly beeps out a strange, jazzy tune that might be appropriate for a Ghost Fight, but don't worry about it. Recovering, he dusts himself of. "Oh, no, I think the spirits here will be quite cross with me if they learn I don't have a soul." Does he not? Well, how should he know?
Tunes appropriate for spooky battles aside, now is not a good time to fight. Azoth scrambles with the rest into the next car, but that doesn't stop their otherworldly pursuers.
Ethius gives his conclusive decision, and Azoth runs the calculations and computations with his own self argument that happens in a fraction of moment. What it looks like, however, is that he questions nothing, spinning a photon blade hilt into his grip onto the activate it right into the coupling and detonate the blade in hopes of helping loosen it free.
DG: Azoth has used his Tool Falk's Photon Blade toward his party's challenge, Service Disruption.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
It was kind of nice to hang out with the ghost for a while and think about the universe.
But, Josie is right, they need to move on, especially now as the ghost has, and the ghosts coming in have not.
"Don't be so hard on yourself," Gwen says to Azoth as she aims where Ethius is pointing. "You have a fine soul if the Ghost Train was tryin' to invite you."
Tugging her glove off, she charges, letting the others around her have a crack at the coupling. "Okay, my turn!" With each bright blast it lights up the edges of everything around Gwen, making it hard to tell if the coupling is broken or not for a moment or two.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool ARM-ored Fist toward her party's challenge, Service Disruption.
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Service Disruption *>======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
At first it seems as if it may just be a rush of passengers boarding in from
the latest stop, but it doesn't take you long to realise they're all
attempting to bar your group's passage forward. The eerie chant you may have
heard in other moments now has a clear owner:
...U no ku ma...
...wi FU O e ya...
...KE KO te...
No matter what path you take, there are more ghosts barring the way. Worse
yet, they're all following you through the carriages as well.
Bloody persistent...!!
There's only one extreme measure left: you're going to have to decouple the
coupling on the train car you're on to leave them (and an untold number of
passengers) behind. Surely... surely this won't have a lot of ramifications
on the passage of the departed to the afterlife, right?
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Hesitate=========================================
======================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express - Round 4 *>======================= ========================< Results - Service Disruption >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 40 --(0)--> 40 Pass Well-Used Mattock 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 48 --(0)--> 48 Pass ARM-ored Fist 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 48 --(0)--> 48 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azoth 40 --(0)--> 40 Pass Falk's Photon Blade 3 Brute Effects: Fanfare -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 60 --(20)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Cripple|Fright(2)|Hesitate(2)|Tire(1) Effects: Strengthen(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> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
It's vandalism of the highest order, and may be an enormous affront to the way the afterlife works in this part of creation, but it has to be done because let's be honest with each other: that chanting was horrible and annoying.
...anyway
Ethius doesn't have to contribute that much more, as the other three apply far greater force instead of precision to something simply that urgent. Josie slams the mattock into the coupling, starting to get it loose... but there's some fine layers of rust caked there.
Azoth has to get a photon blade in there in order to try and pry it a little more loose, and he seems to be getting there as the first of the ghosts start to approach with hands outstretched to a soul-less shell...
But he won't get to have an answer to that, as Gwen just blasts the rest. The coupling collapses, leaving echoing clangs across the landscape of dead trees and nothingness as the cars behind them grow ever more distant.
Josie will not get to see them getting 'past this.'
"We should not be far from the front," Ethius remarks as he heads inside the car, towards...
DG: Azoth has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Train on your Parade *>=====================
|Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
*SKREEEEEEE*
The train comes to an extremely sudden halt.
So... you are the ones who have been causing trouble...
I will not allow you...
...to disrupt my schedule...!!
A powerful shadowy force flings your group off their feet and YEETS your
team out the nearest window!!
... onto cold, metallic train tracks.
You see your shadow, cast by powerful ghostly headlights behind you. A
haunting steam whistle blows.
Uh oh.
(NB: This is an interim card meant to set the scene; resolve this card
without posing, and go straight to the Final card!)
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Save Point=======================================
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Lucky Screwdriver toward her party's challenge, Train on your Parade. DG: Azoth has used his Tool Oculus ex Machina toward his party's challenge, Train on your Parade. DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Spectral Lens toward his party's challenge, Train on your Parade. DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Courier Kit toward her party's challenge, Train on your Parade.
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Train on your Parade *>=====================
|Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
*SKREEEEEEE*
The train comes to an extremely sudden halt.
So... you are the ones who have been causing trouble...
I will not allow you...
...to disrupt my schedule...!!
A powerful shadowy force flings your group off their feet and YEETS your
team out the nearest window!!
... onto cold, metallic train tracks.
You see your shadow, cast by powerful ghostly headlights behind you. A
haunting steam whistle blows.
Uh oh.
(NB: This is an interim card meant to set the scene; resolve this card
without posing, and go straight to the Final card!)
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Save Point=======================================
======================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express - Round 5 *>======================= =======================< Results - Train on your Parade >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 40 --(5)--> 45 Pass Lucky Screwdriver 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 48 --(5)--> 53 Pass Courier Kit 1 Wits Effects: Resilient and Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 48 --(5)--> 53 Pass Spectral Lens 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azoth 40 --(5)--> 45 Pass Oculus ex Machina 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 80 --(0)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Cripple|Fright(2)|Hesitate(1)|Save Point(1) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1)|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has passed this challenge! The party gained 0 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Azoth has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================ ================<* CHALLENGE - The Suplex of Everyone's Souls *>================ |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- So, um. A rampaging ghost train is after you. The doom train has a frightening face, and a headlight whose beam scorches whoever is unfortunate to step into the light. It also has the horrible habit of casting curses and other dark magic to whoever is out of reach of its light. It's extremely obvious what'll happen if you get run over by a train, too. But hope isn't yet lost. It's said that trains -- in particular, ghost trains -- have a long and storied history with martial artists. There have been many tales, perhaps all exaggerated, of a muscle-bound "bodybuilder" straying from his gym and taking hold of a locomotive by its cowchaser and performing... The legendary Train Suplex. Is this the start of a new legend -- YOUR legend? =Dungeon Conditions: Wonder===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Apparently the train did not enjoy its passengers' blasphemous act of decoupling a car. As if refusing to leave the car full of ghosts behind, the whole thing screeches agonizingly to a horrible, sudden stop while a shadowy force seizes hold and hurls everyone out the windows and right onto the train tracks.
Azoth lets out many distressed beeps as he hits the ground, miscalculating this, too, and going tumbling for a bit before he rights himself. There isn't a lot of time to decide what to do next -- what must be done next is running. Because the train is chasing them.
"Sorry, sorry sorry sorry!" Azoth calls uselessly to it. "I know we interrupted your objective, but if we just talk this out...!"
There won't be any talking this out at this moment.
But there's only one way to deal with a rampaging train. "I think we're going to have to topple it... I'll try and make and opening!"
Azoth skids to a halt, amber in hand and shield projected through the surface. How's the image of a bug going to help? This is the wrath of the ghost train, intimidated by nothing. But Azoth's shield will manage to hold -- if only briefly -- against a train colliding directly into it. Which might be a window of opportunity for anyone who wants to try their hand at getting it to go end over end.
...If only someone had brought a phoenix down...
DG: Azoth has used his Tool Bug in Amber toward his party's challenge, The Suplex of Everyone's Souls.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
This is where the train engine -- and thus the cars still trailing it -- come to a screeching halt. It's sudden enough that Josie and the others go flying, ultimately landing on the tracks a distance off.
Josie hisses out a breath, grabbing the first thing she can from the depths of her jacket. "This ain't the end of the line--"
What she holds in her left hand is a screwdriver. Something by her eye twitches. Unless she feels like running for the engine, far behind them now on the track, that's just not going to do them much good.
"So you wanna dance, eh? Is that it?" she says to the train, slipping the tool away.
"Then let's do it. I got a bone to pick with you, anyways. If I can't ride on to the end of the line, then--"
She's taken a swig of a flask she's pulled from the depths of her jacket next, wiping her mouth off on her sleeve. The flask vanishes into a pocket.
And she unholsters from where it's slung against her back her shotgun.
"Always wondered how this'd do against a machine!" she shouts, before she unloads upon the speeding locomotive.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Liquid Courage toward her party's challenge, The Suplex of Everyone's Souls.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
This isn't the first time Ethius has been a part of this kind of mess, and at this rate it could be the last. There really isn't any sort of properly bracing for the impact as he rolls against the bone-chilling railroad tracks, keeping hold of the bag of... things... that are somehow very interesting as a side hustle or some such.
It should be an automatic process. Pull the last satchel from his belt, clench it in his teeth because he doesn't have a free hand, manage to mouth out the syllables despite this handicap as he gesticulates the activation spell, and then throw what he has in his hand behind him--
the sack of discarded effects.
Muscle memory. It is not always one's friend.
Whether the contents of the discarded effects - some of which did have some sort of ritual meaning in easing the pain and journey of the undead - will be of any use equivalent to the proper, intended Powder Grenade is yet to be seen.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Powder Grenade toward his party's challenge, The Suplex of Everyone's Souls.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"That was close." That is what Gwen had said, just a moment before the train came to a sudden halt and sent them all tumbling through the windows with an explosion of glittering glass.
Gwen's body goes skipping across the tracks, letting out a grunt with each painful landing until coming to a rest a several yards away. Precious seconds go by as she lies there, but then hears Azoth trying to reason with the thing, as well as his footsteps as he runs away. Groaning as she gets up, her first disorientated steps don't do much to get far, but it's not as if she would have much of a chance, even if she was uninjured.
Which leaves her, as well as everyone else, one option.
Is Gwen going to punch the death train?
> Yes
No
Gwen is going to punch the death train.
.... Didn't she do that the last time? She blames Zed for being such a bad influence.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Full Metal Courier toward her party's challenge, The Suplex of Everyone's Souls.
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================ ================<* CHALLENGE - The Suplex of Everyone's Souls *>================ |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- So, um. A rampaging ghost train is after you. The doom train has a frightening face, and a headlight whose beam scorches whoever is unfortunate to step into the light. It also has the horrible habit of casting curses and other dark magic to whoever is out of reach of its light. It's extremely obvious what'll happen if you get run over by a train, too. But hope isn't yet lost. It's said that trains -- in particular, ghost trains -- have a long and storied history with martial artists. There have been many tales, perhaps all exaggerated, of a muscle-bound "bodybuilder" straying from his gym and taking hold of a locomotive by its cowchaser and performing... The legendary Train Suplex. Is this the start of a new legend -- YOUR legend? =Dungeon Conditions: Wonder===================================================
======================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express - Round 6 *>======================= ==================< Results - The Suplex of Everyone's Souls >================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 45 --(0)--> 45 Pass Liquid Courage 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 53 --(0)--> 53 Pass Full Metal Courier 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 53 --(0)--> 53 Pass Powder Grenade 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azoth 45 --(0)--> 45 Pass Bug in Amber 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Fright(1)|Wonder Effects: Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has successfully explored Chibiki-Iwa Express!
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
======================<* CHALLENGE - It's Too In-Tents *>=======================
|Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
Thoroughly defeated (and possibly suplexed), the deathly train takes a
moment, before re-railing itself.
I see...
So the will to live is that strong...
I will let you go... but however...
First I must perform my duty...
The train invites you back into its carriage, and proceeds swiftly towards
its intended destination:
An enormous, ruined Zeboim-era city lying deep underneath Filgaia. Shattered
skyscrapers peak its skyline, ringed with raised highways and offramps. A
nearby rusted road sign labels the city in Zeboim or the Ancient Tongue, if
you can decipher it:
[ HIRASAKA CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT 3km ]
The passengers depart for the fallen city, shrouded by glowing butterflies
that hover about the station, shedding a faint aura of death...
Then, the doors shut, and the train honours its promise as you are whisked
away to the very station you started this bizarre journey. As the carriage
pulls away, there is very little evidence that this mysterious incident ever
happened, save...
... a glowing little butterfly, and underneath it... a folded-up, high
quality Tent. It's certainly very fancy, and will serve you well on the road
if you have to camp it in the rough, but...
What exactly was the train's in-tent to give this to you?
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth's shield visibly cracks, despite its nature, under the the force of an entire train. He pushes back into it, trying to hold it back, but light shatters into brilliant motes. Perhaps as an android, being run over wouldn't be the end of him. It would not, however, be any degree of enjoyable.
Thankfully, there's a shotgun to hold it back, and when the ammo gives out, there's Gwen. Gwen, and her fists. Punching a train. Gwen punching the hell right out of that train.
But then Ethius reaches into his bag and throws what isn't a Powder Grenade.
Here's the thing:
If one were to go entirely through the discarded effects upon the train, they would locate many objects. A little scope of a sniper. A wristband. Some earrings.
And not one, but two suspiciously vibrant feathers.
There is not much momentum behind such an object, but a train lightly battered has no where to go, and the feather gently drifts down, down, down... and softly touches the surface.
The train goes still and immediately tips over onto one side. Clunk.
Azoth carefully approaches it, giving it a few pokes with a stick he found just now.
"I see..." says the train, ghostly and ethereal as ever. "So the will to live is that strong... I will let you go... but however... First I must perform my duty..."
The train rights (with Azoth's help, and anyone else who cares to join) and lets them safely back on board as it carries on toward its intended destination. As they approach, Azoth projects light onto the windows, wordless translating the sign with his own subtitles: HIRASAKA CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT 3km.
The passengers depart the city, shrouded by glowing butterflies, all with the faint aura of death. And that is the last they will be seen before the doors shut and the train carries the four of them back to the land of the living, at the station they first began the journey on. Azoth's quiet on the way back, face expressionless as he gazes out the window.
Still nothing.
But once they depart the train, they are not left empty handed. Another glowing butterfly helpfully leads them to a quality Tent. Azoth glances to it, then smiles at the others and walks past it. He won't be taking it for himself.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
A feather drifts through the air when flung, its gently glowing form touching the train.
The train promptly tips over.
"Don't that beat all," Josie remarks after a few minutes more, shoulders dipping in a weighty shrug. "Well, them's the ditch you dug, right?"
She does not help out the eerie engine, instead opting to holster her ARM and smoke another cigarette.
She's silent, once they climb back aboard.
Her expression remains distant as she watches the passengers depart.
"Shoulda figured," she remarks, lighting up her third cigarette, once the train takes them back to their final destination.
"But fair enough. It's been seven years."
With that she departs, leaving behind glowing butterfly and its parcel.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius, for his part, putting aside the immense amount of stress running for one's life puts on the lungs and the legs, still has it to do the thing he does in life that he practices very well for the time he will be eventually rendered dead: stare dumbstruck, let the Powder Grenade drop out from between his teeth, and have it go off on the ground in front of him.
(record scratch)
'It's been seven years.' Josie reminisces over her third cigarette as she leaves the rest behind, to where Azoth gives that mechanically too-perfect Quiet Young Man smile to the lot of them, and Ethius - empty-handed - stares at the tracks and the abandoned tent.
It's been nearly six years. He muses to himself. I cannot allow myself to be distracted further. It has to be... here.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Yes, Gwen *does* help that train back onto the tracks, now that it's given up on hunting them down.
".... I'm... just gonna lie here n' close my eyes, if... okay, maybe closing my eyes would *not* be a great idea on this train." Still, she sits, content to just be and not do anything that might equate to something painful, like... talking.
She's happy to see the train station again, and even, with a wince as she realizes this was the thing that happened last time, happy to have a gift of a tent. ".... It's a good tent," she says, inspecting it. "Not that I'd ever question a free tent after having slept under a tree."
Nodding at Josie, Gwen says, "Hope you find it, eventually."
Watching everyone leave, she tucks the tent under one arm and sets off, grumbling as her knee nearly gives out.