2022-02-13: House of Horrors
- Log: House of Horrors
- Cast: Ethius Hesiod, Yulie Ahtreide, Seraph Yvain, Josephine Lovelace
- Where: Plains of the Goddess
- Date: February 13, 2022
- Summary: An empty manor, well-riddled with the promises of treasure and secrets seems an inviting one. But what lies within is far more horrible than any could have anticipated.
DG: A party led by Ethius Hesiod is now entering Ostagovo Manor. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
==============================<* Ostagovo Manor *>============================== ==================<* CHALLENGE - Warding Away the Intruders *>================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Ostagovo Manor, once, was a grand estate in the hilly countryside of Rolance. Years ago, a fire claimed it, and it is now a ruin. The approach is cold and miserable, with rainy weather common and the hills often turning chilly. The manor matches that: a tall, three-story building with gothic architecture. Portions of it are burnt out to the stone shell and frame of the building, while other parts seem untouched. It is a foreboding and dire place, no matter the time of day. To make matters worse, local reports have said some sort of dangerous elementals have been seen in the nearby countryside. Strange things, often in the shape of animals, which are known for their brutality. Fortunately, you haven't found any on your approach. You find a large pair of double doors. They are sturdy wooden doors, blackened by smoke, and with iron around them and making decorative panels. When you reach out, though, the iron framework sparks -- and channels a burst of electricity. More sorcerously-inclined individuals realize that the doors have a powerful enchantment built into them. The result is a powerful blast of lightning and force that knocks you backward. You will need to find a way to disable the wards -- or, maybe, to open the door without triggering them. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Exhaust=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The drums of war are starting to beat anew in Glenwood after the failed Crusade in Spira, so there's a lot of work to be done for aspiring freelancers, or rumor chasers, or very strange people who have been borderline militant about what sorts of military capabilities either side may yet muster.
There's also innocuous scenic sights! Rolance's hills are very pretty aside from all the clouds of purplish-black about the continent, but this is a colder part of it. Today is also cold for a 'colder part' of it, and that should dissuade anyone alone from visiting the burned-out grand estate of Ostagovo Manor. Should.
Drifters, by their job description, voluntarily forget the meaning of the word 'should' sometimes. A light drizzle brings out the chill in the air, making the going all the more threatening and ominous. There's been rumors and talk about strange elemental creatures lurking within the three-story tall manor. Strange things, often in the shape of animals, all relentlessly brutal. Some with Resonance may handwave it as 'okay, it's Hellions, must be a Hellion nest.'
Ethius, who is present with a handful of others, takes point before a large pair of double doors. Wooden, blackened by smoke, and iron frames around them. He takes his staff to poke at the door--
There's sudden sparking and he's rolling right the hell back down a shallow incline which is something of an overreaction, but it succeeds in making sure he doesn't get zapped by a sudden burst of electricity that projects outwards and blasts some of the surrounding dirt and grime away.
"...An active security measure." Ethius remarks. "I am uncertain if this is merely intact, or evidence of the location being utilized as a base of operations." His hand goes to his forehead. "If it's Symbology, the symbols are not forward-facing."
He gets out the Spectral Lens - that odd eyeglass thing - and gives it a good Symbological zap to try and get a better look at the way the door is connected as to not... have that happen again.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Spectral Lens toward his party's challenge, Warding Away the Intruders.
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
Yulie's been going under the radar for a while to get some semblance of peace, but there's one constant trouble in the Drifter lifestyle that everyone has to face eventually... that is, the need to actually do some jobs to make money. And so, that's what leads Yulie to join a group in investigating the strange, burnt-out manor in the Rolance countryside. It's the kind of place that seems like it might be incredibly haunted, which would be convenient for her skillset... but judging from the rumors she's heard, it may not be the earthbound dead that lurk its halls.
Still, here she is! Yulie watches as Ethius takes point in investigating the door, wincing a little as he is repulsed by a burst of electricity.
"A-are you alright?" She asks, hurrying over to provide some healing if needed. Security systems...
"It's definitely enchanted... but I'm not sure what kind." She considers. What can she do to help? After a moment of thought Yulie draws out a simple wooden staff with a curved head - a Wonder Staff, a common magic item found in old ruins used for manipulating elemental energies. Yulie creeps forward, holding it just enough to catch a spark from the security system. The curved head of the staff lights up, catching electricity in its crook - and its wooden construction provides enough insulation to prevent the zap from reaching Yulie herself.
"I think... I could try overloading it?" Yulie suggests. She waits just long enough for someone to try to stop her before swinging the staff, unleashing a burst of electricity back at the door to give it a taste of its own medicine!
DG: Yulie Ahtreide has used her Tool Wonder Staff toward her party's challenge, Warding Away the Intruders.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.
The Seraph Yvain is part of this motley crew, and he has never particularly cared about things like 'property' and 'but there's a lock on that door'. He's a Seraph; he goes where he feels like. And in the wake of war brewing up among Hyland and Rolance again...
Well, he's going to go into a 'Hellion nest' like this if only to make sure it's not some kind of secret weapon to be unleashed.
Besides, it's one way to 'celebrate' being back in Glenwood.
"It looks like the Blessing," Yvain indicates from behind, as he steps up closer, and looks over Ethius to make sure he's not too injured. He considers Yulie's approach--and nods, pulling out a jug of cider. "Good idea," he says. "I'll try to weaken its defenses while you do."
He takes a swig of the drink before offering it to Josie--it's definitely alcoholic--and then reaches out his hand to direct Fire magic at the door. ...mysteriously, he's quite familiar with lightning magic.
DG: Seraph Yvain has used his Tool Cider Jug toward his party's challenge, Warding Away the Intruders.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Odessa has its business on Meribus and Glenwood, of course.
And Josie has her own.
It can be pretty interesting listening about for the lastest chatter, now and again. Sometimes it's just things to feed along to others. Sometimes it's interesting but ultimately useless. And sometimes...
Well, a haunted (?) ruined mansion's certainly interesting, right?
"Well, what do you know! Kiddo, fancy meetin' you here! And Yvvie!" Josie calls out, waving her one good hand at Yulie and Yvain. There is a pause, wherein her gaze tracks towards Ethius.
"...And Owl. Figures." She rolls her shoulders in a lazy shrug, as if he weren't a source of frustration for her. "So, what brings you lot out here? Didn't take you for bein' all friendly-like with ghosts, kiddo," she remarks to Yulie in particular, her lips parted in a toothy grin. "Or, did you take up treasure-hunting and all? Hear tell places like this can conceal a real doozy, sometimes..."
She's lit up a cigarette with a single arcing bolt, taking it in hand after to puff away thoughtfully. "Looks like someone's magicked up the gates, or I'm a monkey's auntie. Careful, now. ...You too, Owl."
She exhales smoke. To what end, perhaps, it may be discerned. She's more than happy to accept Yvain's drink, once it's offered over.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Pack of Cigarettes toward her party's challenge, Warding Away the Intruders.
==============================<* Ostagovo Manor *>============================== ==================<* CHALLENGE - Warding Away the Intruders *>================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Ostagovo Manor, once, was a grand estate in the hilly countryside of Rolance. Years ago, a fire claimed it, and it is now a ruin. The approach is cold and miserable, with rainy weather common and the hills often turning chilly. The manor matches that: a tall, three-story building with gothic architecture. Portions of it are burnt out to the stone shell and frame of the building, while other parts seem untouched. It is a foreboding and dire place, no matter the time of day. To make matters worse, local reports have said some sort of dangerous elementals have been seen in the nearby countryside. Strange things, often in the shape of animals, which are known for their brutality. Fortunately, you haven't found any on your approach. You find a large pair of double doors. They are sturdy wooden doors, blackened by smoke, and with iron around them and making decorative panels. When you reach out, though, the iron framework sparks -- and channels a burst of electricity. More sorcerously-inclined individuals realize that the doors have a powerful enchantment built into them. The result is a powerful blast of lightning and force that knocks you backward. You will need to find a way to disable the wards -- or, maybe, to open the door without triggering them. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Exhaust=========================================
=========================<* Ostagovo Manor - Round 1 *>========================= ====================< Results - Warding Away the Intruders >==================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Spectral Lens 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Pack of Cigarettes 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yulie Ahtreide 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Wonder Staff 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Yvain 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Cider Jug 2 Wits Effects: Stalwart -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Ethius Hesiod 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Stupify(2) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Ethius Hesiod 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.
"I am unharmed." So Ethius claims, and to appearances it's true enough as he peers at the door and learns - from Yvain's commentary - that it's not Symbological. It's not looking set up the way it ought to if it should. But it isn't, so the door - unlike the party - understands the meaning of the word 'should.' That's the only thing the door has over the motley crew.
Yulie gets the blessing to overload the Blessing, and despite the knowledge of the word 'should,' the door does not know curse words, bless its Blessing. Yulie channels energies into it with Yvain's help in weakening its defenses, and it gets all bright and shiny and loud and charged. It's intimidating! Also loud. If this was going to be a stealth mission, it isn't now.
"There are matters I would like to confirm." Ethius remarks to Josie, oddly straightforward but also not because 'Owl' is like that as he lowers the eyeglass away from the light show as to not be blinded.
Some of the blown cigarette smoke gets into the sparking mess, attracts the ashen particles, and somehow that's the needle that broke the camel's back. If the camel were a set of enchanted wooden double doors, because it outright explodes inward instead, taking out some chunks of the architecture around it.
The lot of them are free to wait however long they intend to in order to confirm whether someone (or something) is going to answer that before proceeding. The rain is starting to pick up, so they shouldn't be taking that long to determine their next move.
DG: Yulie Ahtreide has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* Ostagovo Manor *>============================= ======================<* CHALLENGE - Hall of Statues *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- You pass through a corridor that may have once been an art gallery of sorts, but the paintings are torn and charred, and broken pieces of statuary litter the ground at your feet. There's something haunting in the sight of the disembodied stone limbs strewn about, but looking too long at the ground may lead to a shock, thanks to what's waiting at the end of the corridor. A hulking figure of ice fills the entire doorway, its body so covered in sharp, jagged blades of ice as to obscure what its underlying anatomy might be. Its maw is open in a silent scream, and its eyes glitter with malice -- or so it seems, until you realize they're only reflecting the light. Whatever this creature is, it seems to be long dead or dormant, with only some residual magic keeping it in its frozen form. The trouble is, it is still blocking the only way forward, and it is utterly covered in painful-looking spikes of ice. Whether you break it apart or find some other means to dislodge it, it's going to take considerable force to move it out of the way. =Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous, Injure======================================
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
Yulie flinches just slightly at Josie's arrival. ...She's still a little nervous around her, considering her allegiances - but, they have been able to work together peacefully in the past, so she gives her a slight nod of greeting.
"I am a Paladienne..." ...In training, but Josie doesn't need to know that. "If there are spirits here, it's my duty to help them move on."
...There's an awkward pause for a moment.
"...I wouldn't mind finding treasure too, though." She admits. The door starts to overload and Yulie carefully ducks behind a nearby pile of debris, wincing as it explodes inward, then pokes her head over to judge the situation.
"...Is it gone?" Yulie asks. She starts forward, once again using her Wonder Staff to test the security - but no sparks jump to it this time. "...Okay. Um, let's move forward..."
They proceed onward into the manor, and it appears they've entered from what appears to be the side entrance to an art gallery.
"...It's a little creepy. And sad." Yulie observes with a frown. There's something tragic about seeing so much art and history, destroyed. And then, there's a gasp of surprise from Yulie as the figure at the end of the corridor comes into view. She backpedals quickly, hands clasped over her mouth and looking for something to hide behind... but, pauses, as she realises that the great figure of ice, no matter the malice in its eyes or the horrible scream of its face, isn't moving - or, may never move again.
"Is it... another statue?" She considers. ...Or dead. But that's a terrible thought. "...We aren't going any further this way, though. Not while it's in the way..."
Hesitantly, Yulie reaches into a pouch and draws out a red gem, brimming with fiery energy. She draws it out, unleashing it toward the obstruction in a burst of flame! The spent gem cracks and crumbles to dust in her hand.
DG: Yulie Ahtreide has used her Tool Magic Gem toward her party's challenge, Hall of Statues.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Suit yourself," Josie tells Ethius, shrugging in his general direction. They're generally at odds with one another, but it's -- oddly, all considering -- not so much a personal thing as a thing that keeps... happening. Even her well-nursed grudges can be overlooked, when convenience is on the line.
And there's something here she'd love to get a better look at.
Josie would be the first one to agree she's pretty suspicious, herself. It would be a strange -- and worrying -- thing if Yulie had forgiven her, just like that. She might even have to do something about it, if that had been the case. Instead, she just grins in the young girl's direction. "Really? Ain't you a little saint-in-training, kiddo."
She laughs, at Yulie's reply.
"A little somethin' in your pocket ain't sinning, now," she remarks, moving ahead. Though given the level of sin in the one professing thus...
"Well! Figure these are worth anything..."
Josie, upon further inspection of the statues ('statues'?) frowns, trailing off on her chipper remark. "Know what? Forget it," she says, tossing down her cigarette to grind it underfoot. She pulls from her pack her familiar tool. "I don't much like these, for one. And for another--"
She swings for the fences. "They're in the bloody way!"
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Well-Used Mattock toward her party's challenge, Hall of Statues.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius has his eyes towards the ceiling when they come inside. It's a three-story building - not accounting for any basement levels - and he's of the thought that danger might come from above before long. He takes in the sights of ruin and neglect in the meantime, which are votes in favor of 'security system was merely intact,' quietly trusting those further ahead to speak out if something happens--
There's a gasp from a frightened young woman ahead (Yulie) who comes shy of running into him, which has him holding out his palm in the sorcerous equivalent of pointing an ARM.
A horrid figure that's... been run through with ice? It rests there completely motionless beyond the threatening way light reflects off of it. Another statue, Yulie asks, without voicing the thought out loud that Ethius does.
"They appear deceased." Appear? Is! A part of him has ever been good at calling when something can be readily considered deceased as though that were an important thing to be able to determine beyond a shadow of a doubt.
He joins Yulie's same method of removing them - an attempt to Symbologically conjure a heat spell of appropriate yield to at least melt away the ice spikes which are a handling hazard regardless.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Hall of Statues.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.
Yvain seems remarkably comfortable with Josie to the observer. He just doesn't mind her, despite her obvious shade factor. But he doesn't have much issue with the others, either; he is very chill, for a being of elemental Fire. "Helping people is important," he says to Yulie. "Dead or alive, it matters." He lets that hang on the air for a moment, to sink in its seriousness. Then he grins. "But the treasure's the fun part."
But there, suddenly, there is something in the way. Yulie's surprise prompts Yvain to step forward immediately, but he is not the first, even if he does interpose himself between the young Paledienne and the...
OH, it's a statue.
"...Hm." He shrugs. "it's in the way," he agrees, and shines a red lantern on it, highlighting weak points for the others to focus on.
"It is sad. But we won't find out what we need to find out if we're afraid to break a few things."
DG: Seraph Yvain has used his Tool Lantern of Revelation toward his party's challenge, Hall of Statues.
=============================<* Ostagovo Manor *>============================= ======================<* CHALLENGE - Hall of Statues *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- You pass through a corridor that may have once been an art gallery of sorts, but the paintings are torn and charred, and broken pieces of statuary litter the ground at your feet. There's something haunting in the sight of the disembodied stone limbs strewn about, but looking too long at the ground may lead to a shock, thanks to what's waiting at the end of the corridor. A hulking figure of ice fills the entire doorway, its body so covered in sharp, jagged blades of ice as to obscure what its underlying anatomy might be. Its maw is open in a silent scream, and its eyes glitter with malice -- or so it seems, until you realize they're only reflecting the light. Whatever this creature is, it seems to be long dead or dormant, with only some residual magic keeping it in its frozen form. The trouble is, it is still blocking the only way forward, and it is utterly covered in painful-looking spikes of ice. Whether you break it apart or find some other means to dislodge it, it's going to take considerable force to move it out of the way. =Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous, Injure======================================
========================<* Ostagovo Manor - Round 2 *>======================== ========================< Results - Hall of Statues >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ethius Hesiod 0 --(34)--> 34 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Josephine Lovelace 0 --(17)--> 17 Pass Well-Used Mattock 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yulie Ahtreide 0 --(34)--> 34 Fail Magic Gem 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Yvain 0 --(34)--> 34 Fail Lantern of Revelation 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Ethius Hesiod 20 --(15)--> 35 Fail Conditions: Injure(2)|Overzealous(2) Effects: Strengthen(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Ethius Hesiod 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> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
From anyone else Yulie might take Josie's response as a compliment, if a bit of a facetious one. Josie, though, gets a Disapproving Frown. Yvain, though, gets a slight nod.
"Yes..." She agrees with a small nod.
And now, they face the giant of ice. Yvain interposes himself between Yulie and the statue, and Ethius raises a hand with a spell ready to cast. At Ethius's statement, Yulie frowns a little.
"...Deceased? I'm sorry..." She apologizes to the statue. It is true, though - they do need to do something about it to get through. Unfortunately, it proves remarkably sturdy, even in death. Yulie and Ethius's flames melt it slightly, but it's a prospect that feels like it'll take much more time than they can afford to spare. Josie's mattock, finding the weak points highlighted by Yvain's lantern and carving away some of the icy protrusions.
It's exhausting work but enough to give them some room to squeeze through, at least - though they'll have to be careful when doing so, as several of those icy spikes remain. Cold and painful - an unpleasant combination.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Ostagovo Manor *>============================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Levin-Infused Falcons *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You enter a courtyard built in the center of the manor. Once, this held a garden. While there are still fixtures and pots for plants, these have all withered and died. A pair of trees, built on a grassy area, are now scraggly and dying. The grass also looks to have seen better days, growing only in patches. High in the leafless branches, you spy movement. At first, you think they may be a trio of falcons that live in this area. They were, once. Now, there are glowing yellow crystals that have pushed from their bodies in places. Portions of those bodies are gone -- ending in crystalline segments -- and linked by ever-generated lightning that assumes an avian form. Their wings, when they beat, are made of thin lattices of crystal with lightning between them. They shriek, then dive down. Spheres of electricity form as they dive, then shoot ahead of tem, as they start to bombard you. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Slow==============================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Yulie frowns at her. This, though, causes Josie's smile to widen. She glances the once to Yvain. "You see? He gets it."
A little treasure isn't such a bad thing!
Though presently they have rather more serious matters to attend -- plural, if only because there are many statues.
"...So they were alive once. Figures," Josie says when Ethius reports back, and the expression on her face would only be able to be called a smile if one didn't look her in the eye. She lays into the statues with a vengeance, only ceasing once the doorway -- once it had been an elegant pair of doors leading out of this hallway into a courtyard -- is clear.
She leans for the moment against a broken pillar, breathing hard.
"...Can't stand shit like that," she remarks, wiping the sweat from her brow after a little while has passed. Palming something from a jacket pocket, she's already popped the cork and pressed away from the pillar when a trio of somethings scream down from the branches of a dying tree.
The usually unflappable archaeologist makes a noise, caught well offguard by the sudden descent of the shining birds. Look closely: have they been fused with something else?
But she also sloshes at least one of them with half a flask of Damzen's finest (read: worst) so there's that. She fumbles for a gun in the meantime.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Liquid Courage toward her party's challenge, Levin-Infused Falcons.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
It's a grisly thing to state. 'Hey, this is a formerly living thing,' in his vernacular. Whether this is a fact that outwardly disturbs him or not, he has half his face hidden and his gaze doesn't waver from what's needed to get it out of the way - or at least wear it down enough to get it in a position where it can be passed. He makes sure to give Yulie plenty of space to see it given the traditional funerary rites, if she's of the mind.
Out into the courtyard they go, he takes a moment to consider the likelihood of other previous delvers and the routes they may have gone, if any. It says enough when he gets blindsided by shining birds of shapes not completely unlike that of the frozen corpse-statue but there's no moment to make that call-out or consider it, his eyes widening as he feels his neck hairs stand on end from residual static electricity from an otherwise cleanly side-stepped divebombing yellow crystaline-shaped bird thing.
"Artil--" He's about to theorize it's artillery up until the second that dive-bombed bird rises up again and plows into him with a painful series of zaps... and one of the satchels at his belt dropped in the instant in which he's to un-clip it. From the ground, he keeps low as he goes through the incantation and gesticulation series to try and activate the contents of that dropped satchel over there - and then reach out with his quarterstaff to try and shift it upwards towards another dive-bombing crystal-bird in a giant cloud of powder.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Powder Grenade toward his party's challenge, Levin-Infused Falcons.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.
Yvain is used to corpses, for better or worse. Particularly of monsters. But Josie seems to have a particularly violent reaction to this set, and Yvain wonders a little about that. But he doesn't press in the moment, just watches her--until suddenly the... birds, come down. They are partly crystal, and--more electricity. Yvain doesn't approve of that here.
Yvain dives forward--they can see him, thanks to their crystals, and they attack him too. But as they bombard, he throws out his hands, and the circles of Seraphic artes begin to rotate beneath him, as he tries to trap them in a cage of fire to let the others deal with them better. "Now!"
DG: Seraph Yvain has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Levin-Infused Falcons.
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
Yulie does what she can for it... but frankly, there's not much. This isn't something she's prepared for. She hopes it's a one-time thing. Nothing this awful could happen twice, right?
...Unfortunately, it did - more than twice, in fact, as they find themselves beset by a trio of birds. Yulie jumps backwards as they dive down, swarming with electricity - and that's when she catches sight of their form.
"Th-that's... That's horrible. What happened to them...?" Yulie replies, shaking her head in disbelief. They don't quite feel like the earthbound dead - her powers as a Paladienne have no sway over them.
So, instead, she does what she does best - one hand grips her Granasian holy symbol tightly, while the other fumbles for a Crest Graph.
"Calucion, grant us your blessing..." Yulie murmurs. Protective magic emanates from her position, hopefully warding off their electrical attacks.
DG: Yulie Ahtreide has used her Tool Holy Symbol toward her party's challenge, Levin-Infused Falcons.
==============================<* Ostagovo Manor *>============================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Levin-Infused Falcons *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You enter a courtyard built in the center of the manor. Once, this held a garden. While there are still fixtures and pots for plants, these have all withered and died. A pair of trees, built on a grassy area, are now scraggly and dying. The grass also looks to have seen better days, growing only in patches. High in the leafless branches, you spy movement. At first, you think they may be a trio of falcons that live in this area. They were, once. Now, there are glowing yellow crystals that have pushed from their bodies in places. Portions of those bodies are gone -- ending in crystalline segments -- and linked by ever-generated lightning that assumes an avian form. Their wings, when they beat, are made of thin lattices of crystal with lightning between them. They shriek, then dive down. Spheres of electricity form as they dive, then shoot ahead of tem, as they start to bombard you. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Slow==============================================
=========================<* Ostagovo Manor - Round 3 *>========================= ======================< Results - Levin-Infused Falcons >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 34 --(5)--> 39 Pass Powder Grenade 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 17 --(5)--> 22 Pass Liquid Courage 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yulie Ahtreide 34 --(5)--> 39 Pass Holy Symbol 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Yvain 34 --(17)--> 51 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Ethius Hesiod 35 --(20)--> 55 Pass Conditions: Injure(1)|Overzealous(1)|Slow(2)|Wound(2) Effects: Cleanse ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Ethius Hesiod has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Ethius Hesiod has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Ostagovo Manor *>============================== ===================<* CHALLENGE - What Does This Lever Do? *>=================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Your explorations take you to what appears to be a game room, outfitted with several tables and plush chairs, as well as a chessboard, all bearing several years worth of dust. It seems to be mostly untouched by the flames, but instead looks like something rampaged through here; half the furniture is toppled, and game pieces litter the ground. Behind the spot where one of the fallen chairs once stood, you can see the faint outline of what looks like a secret passageway. But as you poke around nearby to find the triggering mechanism and pull on a loose wall sconce, you activate a trap, instead -- lightning begins to shoot down from the ceiling throughout the room, pausing briefly every few seconds before new bursts crash down. There's another wall sconce across the room that looks suspiciously shiny, like it's been gripped quite a few times. That may be the real mechanism to unlock the door. But getting to it without getting fried to a crisp will take some fancy footwork. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Treasure=======================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Even just a handful of years ago, Josie might not have reacted quite like this.
But things have... happened, since.
She doesn't remark upon it, more than happy to plow on through so they can' leave this particular tableau well in the dust behind them. Or in any case, in pieces.
It all happens fast. One of the birds -- when particular spells and artes of flammable nature hit the alcohol-soaked avian -- simply explodes immediately. Electricity is the falcons' reply to that particular salvo, but this bounces off of the magical warding that erupts to meet it.
The rest comes down to a particular combo of their respective disciplines to trap and incinerate the remaining birds before they can get another shot in.
It goes well. There's nothing left, after all.
"They were alive," Josie says, gazing at the scorchmarks across the courtyard's paving stones. "Someone did that to them," she continues, that banked heat from before rising again. Her gaze lifts to the three of them, and she settles perhaps on the two of them she feels are most likely to have an answer:
"Yvvie... Owl. The hell kinda bastard lived here?"
Lunar has its own brand of horrors, but this, even Malevolence doesn't do this.
She jerks her head to one side, indicating they shouldn't stand around. "C'mon. Let's go."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
There's nothing left to poke or prod over of them, but Josie is able to give a succinct summary here: they were alive. Where it was difficult to tell with the frozen one as to whether it was a regular beast who was impaled several times over with sharp objects made of ice, these former falcons paint a much less ambiguous picture. They were alive, and they were as much crystal and lightning as they were bird.
"...I have no recollection of creatures of this make anywhere." A unique problem, by Ethius' measure, and often indicative of something he would like to say... but they ought to keep moving in case there's more. They need a roof over their heads.
They get one, in the form of a game room that hasn't been overtaken by the flames but instead visited in a hurry by something that just out-and-out rampaged through here. Ethius kneels down and makes sure not to touch much directly even with his gloved hands. "Layers of dust... these have been here a while."
His eyes are drawn to a faint outline of what might be an alternate entry or exit. One that also does not appear to have been touched for some time. As he tries to move a toppled, sort of ornate chair nearby, something happens that in any circle could be treated as an amateur mistake -
It pulls out a loose wall sconce, and then there's a surge of electricity that runs into the wall, up through the ceiling, and...
* KRA KOOM *
This is no longer a preserved crime scene. It is now the site of an indoor lightning storm, with intermittent pauses before it starts crashing through things again.
Ethius, low to the ground as the lightning seeks out taller objects, points out to another wall detail. "That one has been touched prior."
It looks less dusty, like it has been handled a fair bit. This means a previous party may have gone that way without setting this off, and honestly the deafening and blinding cracks of lightning are not conducive to further discussion.
They'll have to run for it, and Ethius needs be creative here - he ties the harness of the Hot Air Sack around a marble bust and casts the spell to fill it with hot air that won't last long on its own, but it needs to last only long enough to get to the other side.
(He'll retrieve it on the way back. Should they live.)
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Hot Air Sack toward his party's challenge, What Does This Lever Do?.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.
"I don't know," Yvain admits to Yulie what happened to them. "Something terrible, I agree. This is not... natural, by any account." He's seen a lot of Shit in his time and in his life, but what Josie says gets a nod--something did it to them, and that might be what they're here to find out. Josie asks the question, and...
"A mad one," he ventures. "..And a powerful one."
Yvain is less concerend with Not Touching Things as a rule, but this--this is problematic. The lightning crackles around them, and Yvain frowns, before pulling a red boomerang from his things--and hurling it towards the source of the lightning, sending it in a circle to gather up power and return to him, giving them an opening of a few moments if it works. "Move!"
DG: Seraph Yvain has used his Tool Magic Boomerang toward his party's challenge, What Does This Lever Do?.
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
"Someone... did this." Yulie repeats as Josie says it flat out. She clasps her hands in front of her nervously. This is all starting to feel... way too familiar for her. It was science, not magic, in her case... but in another lifetime, she very well could have ended up just like any one of these creatures. "I don't... I don't think I like it here."
She's inclined to leave the possibility of treasure and run... but they're too far in for that now. Better to keep going and see if they can put a name to that 'someone'. Find out what happened, see if they can't stop it from happening again.
She's very subdued as she continues, idly noticing the trashed game room. A secret passage opens up... and with it comes the security system. A bolt of lightning crashes nearby, snapping Yulie out of her trance. With a yelp Yulie scurries after the others, trying to go as quickly as she can. Speed isn't her strong suit, unfortunately - she might get just a little frazzled.
DG: Yulie Ahtreide has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, What Does This Lever Do?.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Always is," she replies to Yvain.
Her gaze flits Yulie's way. Josie has a moment to consider the younger girl, to faintly grimace, then to look away before she heads along.
"Yeah. Don't think any of us like it here," she remarks, though of all the people in this room her gaze does linger on Ethius.
He's never been an easy one to read.
They move ahead, into what had been a game room by the look of it.
Josie squats down by one of the chairs. "Hell of a lot of dust. Been, hmm... decade? Two? Three-- Owl, what--"
This isn't some pleasant parlour anymore. Now it's an indoor lightning storm!
"You said mad, I say-- double-mad!" Josie shouts at Yvain, to be heard over the storm. "Now, look lively!"
Something's sparkling over yonder and they'll have to race the lightning strikes to get to it.
Josie counts to three and runs for it.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, What Does This Lever Do?.
==============================<* Ostagovo Manor *>============================== ===================<* CHALLENGE - What Does This Lever Do? *>=================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Your explorations take you to what appears to be a game room, outfitted with several tables and plush chairs, as well as a chessboard, all bearing several years worth of dust. It seems to be mostly untouched by the flames, but instead looks like something rampaged through here; half the furniture is toppled, and game pieces litter the ground. Behind the spot where one of the fallen chairs once stood, you can see the faint outline of what looks like a secret passageway. But as you poke around nearby to find the triggering mechanism and pull on a loose wall sconce, you activate a trap, instead -- lightning begins to shoot down from the ceiling throughout the room, pausing briefly every few seconds before new bursts crash down. There's another wall sconce across the room that looks suspiciously shiny, like it's been gripped quite a few times. That may be the real mechanism to unlock the door. But getting to it without getting fried to a crisp will take some fancy footwork. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Treasure=======================================
=========================<* Ostagovo Manor - Round 4 *>========================= =====================< Results - What Does This Lever Do? >===================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 39 --(5)--> 44 Pass Hot Air Sack 2 Agility Effects: Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 22 --(17)--> 39 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yulie Ahtreide 39 --(17)--> 56 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Yvain 51 --(5)--> 56 Pass Magic Boomerang 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Ethius Hesiod 55 --(25)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(2)|Treasure(1) Effects: Quicken(1)|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Ethius Hesiod has passed this challenge! The party gained 25 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
It's an upsetting series of events, followed by a mortally dangerous event that will settle in its place as part of a continued series of upsetting events - and it is the quick thinking of Yvain and Ethius alike that ensure there's just enough cover to get to the other side of that.
Yvain hits where the lightning shoots from, and there's a shaking, shuddering thing that simmers in silence as it stops up, stunned. It helps everyone cover more ground as Ethius launches his own gambit when the lightning starts up again.
It strikes the bust and the Hot Air Sack with it, scorching a hole in the bag. (It's fine, the fabric scraps are constantly replaced with locally sourced material all the time.) Yvain is the fastest to getting to the shiny bit of distant wall, and he'll find that it's not at all complicated for even the incorporeal to play with. Just a little Althenian magic will get the door to open up and let everyone inside while lightning continues to strike. There's no point in waiting around to see when - or if - it'll stop, as Ethius scoops up the bust and attached harness with him along the way.
Whoever the mad mind behind this is, surely, there will be answers... or a reckoning.
DG: Yulie Ahtreide has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* Ostagovo Manor *>============================= =======================<* CHALLENGE - Ursus Igneous *>======================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 4 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Beneath the manor, and beyond more than a few hidden doors, you find it--an expansive laboratory that must be the key to the secrets of Ostagavo Manor. From the workbenches covered in shattered glassware, strange equipment and various heating implements to the wheeled tables of all sizes equipped with restraints and mechanisms, it seems to be a place where questionable experiments were performed on living beings--possibly the same ones that have harried you here. But before you can enter and begin your investigation, something immense stirs, causing the room to rumble. A massive construct charges through the doorway, driving you back into the hall. Its stone body resembles a bear, but its proportions are distorted, with strange, rocky growths giving it a ridge along its back and pushing its limbs into odd shapes. It roars, and as it lashes out with tooth and claw, some of those rocky outgrowths are propelled from its body, the projectiles flying with enough force to potentially crack bone. Once expelled, new growths replace them, pushing the creature into a new shape. It gives another pained roar, but prepares for a fresh barrage. =Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Wound============================================
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
The level of security here makes sense as they proceed - the secret pathway they've found seems to lead straight into the heart of Ostagovo Manor's secret laboratory. Glassware, strange equipment, and tables with restraints and mechanisms... yeah, it's not exactly the same, but it's all too familiar. Yulie blanches at the sight of it, taking a couple of steps back.
"I... I think I'll..." She starts tentatively... when something starts to stir. A massive construct charges at them, forcing everyone out of the room and back into the hallways. Up close, it resembles a bear - albeit twisted and distorted by stone.
Yulie gasps in horror, her hands clasped over her mouth as she retreats back shaking her head. The beast before them lashes out, and unleashes a roar - of pain just as much of anger - as stone projectiles are fired down upon them.
It seems unbidden, the way the Marduk Gaze unfurls itself and flashes with light. Something begins to build itself behind Yulie, silver particles stream in and taking the form - that of a great, shelled beast, with two large glowing blue protrusions jutting out of the shell. Patches of it are missing, gaps in its form - and its movements don't quite match up with its physical presence.
It is no less powerful for that, however, as torrents of water are unleashed to wash away the construct before them. In her current state, Yulie is not fully in control of it - it might be a good idea to watch out for friendly fire.
DG: Yulie Ahtreide has used her Tool Marduk Gaze toward her party's challenge, Ursus Igneous.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.
Always is. Fair enough. But none of them do like it here. Yvain notices the dust, too. But mostly he looks lively for the moment, and eyes Ethius for a moment once they're all past. Not before he channels a bit of magic into the wall to get the thing open though. Only after that does he look around to see the laboratory...
"Yulie, be careful!"
At her horror-gasp, Yvain steps forward again, but before he has a chance to intervene, the great shelled beast before them charges in, and he has to slip to the side to avoid the torrents of water that it washes up. "--Everyone, we'll have to be careful here!"
He pulls his rifle finally, instead of just relying on his Artes, which will largely be washed out by Yulie's power. And then he starts to take aim, shooting at the space where the rocky outgrowths grow in order to pre-empt its attacks.
DG: Seraph Yvain has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Ursus Igneous.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
For a moment or two, it almost looks like it's about to go very, very badly. Josie may play with lightning, and frequently, but there's a difference between being on the giving or the receiving end of such. And she's far more of a giver. But even when she's in the middle of recoiling, readying herself for the pain that's sure to come...
It doesn't.
"--Huh," Josie more or less vocalizes, when she's saved by none other than Ethius. "How 'bout that."
And that's all she says about it.
"...Alchemy?" she wonders, once she's treaded into the next room. The glassware's familiar.
Her gaze come to rest on the restraints. Those are very much not. "This is where it all happened, huh," she starts to say, looking over Yulie's way, before something in the room starts moving.
It's a bear. It's not a bear.
"Yvvie, Owl! Let's do a two-for!" she shouts, grabbing first for her flask and sloshing for the charging construct (the flask goes flying, a silvery blur in this space). "Go!"
She'll follow it up with her own version of 'fire', which is to say in this case, a shotgun.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Liquid Courage toward her party's challenge, Ursus Igneous.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The odd man in with the rest gathers his composure on the other side of that near-death encounter with the lightning, and catches Yvain's glance back at him. (He gives one back. He's always giving them, though.) As they descend, there's the telltale signs of something... terrible. Multiple terrible things. The strange equipment, the tables with restraints, and... other signs.
Indeterminate Number of Years Ago
This is what it looked like. Intermittent image and scent training - something one must never talk about - served as one's greatest armor to the series of events before him. Done right, internalized correctly, your first was more like your sixth that you lost count of.
But there is something it must not take away, as he reminds himself when pulling open a curtain to reveal what lie beyond. To have it be taken away would be to have defeated the point of the exercise, as he looked upon this first-sixth experience. The movement and the sounds were considered peripheral. Though foreign in their utterances, he did not need to heed what he was told as to what they meant.
The movement and the sounds were elements not only able to be directly addressed, but necessary - no matter one's own, underneath the smothering of that first-sixth. All the while, he did not lose track of it:
How important it was he felt.
Now
Yulie's horror-gasp is enough to pull one into the thick of her palpable terror at what's happening, and what's ahead more than deserves it - a bear-shaped series of rocks and stone, lashing out with rocky spines that threaten to collapse their path of retreat if deemed necessary. Yvain gets out his ARM to fire, as Josie calls for a two-fer. It's a moment for emotion and panic.
Ethius, towards the rear, stares upon this barreling horror with the same outwardly dispassionate gaze that whoever did this must have worn as they performed the unspeakable. It's something increasingly familiar to consciousness - movement and sounds are something that in the moment can never be dulled, only addressed. Even if this individual, this circumstance, is novel, his methodology is not.
"Smoke," Ethius warns as he grabs the second satchel, enchants, and throws it down to explode and expand into a flammable powder cloud, throwing high to try and avoid the torrential rush of Yulie's summoned waves of water in her emotionally charged relapse of something that hits too close to home for herself.
He intends to address this with the same level emotional tenor he attempts with almost everything - detached and surgical.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Powder Grenade toward his party's challenge, Ursus Igneous.
=============================<* Ostagovo Manor *>============================= =======================<* CHALLENGE - Ursus Igneous *>======================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 4 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Beneath the manor, and beyond more than a few hidden doors, you find it--an expansive laboratory that must be the key to the secrets of Ostagavo Manor. From the workbenches covered in shattered glassware, strange equipment and various heating implements to the wheeled tables of all sizes equipped with restraints and mechanisms, it seems to be a place where questionable experiments were performed on living beings--possibly the same ones that have harried you here. But before you can enter and begin your investigation, something immense stirs, causing the room to rumble. A massive construct charges through the doorway, driving you back into the hall. Its stone body resembles a bear, but its proportions are distorted, with strange, rocky growths giving it a ridge along its back and pushing its limbs into odd shapes. It roars, and as it lashes out with tooth and claw, some of those rocky outgrowths are propelled from its body, the projectiles flying with enough force to potentially crack bone. Once expelled, new growths replace them, pushing the creature into a new shape. It gives another pained roar, but prepares for a fresh barrage. =Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Wound============================================
========================<* Ostagovo Manor - Round 5 *>======================== =========================< Results - Ursus Igneous >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ethius Hesiod 44 --(0)--> 44 Pass Powder Grenade 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Josephine Lovelace 39 --(0)--> 39 Pass Liquid Courage 3 Combat Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yulie Ahtreide 56 --(0)--> 56 Pass Marduk Gaze 4 Combat Effects: None ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Yvain 56 --(0)--> 56 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Ethius Hesiod 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(1)|Injure(2)|Wound(2) Effects: ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Ethius Hesiod has successfully explored Ostagovo Manor!
=============================<* Ostagovo Manor *>============================= ==================<* CHALLENGE - To Forge Living Weapons *>=================== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- In the basement of Ostagovo Manor, you find the hidden laboratory. There are signs of violence here. Doors are blown off their hinges, including a heavy one made entirely of steel. It lay on the floor in the hallway, and you see a part that is half-melted. Something struck it, too, leaving a deep scratch mark. There are scorch marks on the walls -- and what might be terrifying claw marks into the stone itself. Tables are overturned. Shattered glass lay across the ground, and in the distance, there are broken columns and the ceiling sags. There are still things to look through here. Shelves hold a number of books -- some are water-damaged from the elements or burnt -- and there are also small boxes and storage compartments, some hidden into nooks built into the walls. In one hidden compartment, you find a set of notes recording a series of experiments that took place here. While most of the creatures you encountered during your explorations appear to have once been animals, these notes, disturbingly enough, seem to deal with /human/ experimentation. They describe efforts to fuse humans with elementals to create something the researcher calls "an artificial Seraph." "...the use of human subjects with the Gift of Althena may prove superior to animals due to their natural affinity for specific elements and their increased capacity to understand and respond to experimenters' instructions." The notes go on to describe various experiments. It's clear that many if not all of these experiments ended in the deaths of their subjects, due to various catastrophic effects of the transformations on their minds, bodies, and magic. One particularly shocking entry describes an experiment conducted upon a child: "Two potential subjects were evaluated for the experiment -- male and female twins, aged 8 years old. As a fire elemental was most readily available, the fire-aspected male was chosen for the experiment, while the ice-aspected female may be used for further research if the initial experiment proves successful." It continues on, describing another failed merge that ended in the subject transforming into an unstable, monstrous being that seemed destined to rapidly burn itself out. However, in this case, a new "pacification" technique--apparently described in greater detail in some other entry--was used to reverse the transformation successfully. Successfully for the subject, at any rate. The researcher noted with disappointment that this reversal "drastically decreased the subject's power output." The subject was then placed on a continuing medicinal regimen to maintain a relatively stable, human form. Monitoring continued sporadically, but the researcher seemed to quickly lose interest in this surviving specimen, as their attention turned to more promising projects. It seems that some truly chilling things took place here. =Dungeon Conditions: Secret===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
The constant torrents of water keep the construct off-balance. Ethius hurls a powder grenade above the construct, and together Josie and Yvain open fire with their ARMs. The flammable cloud ignites, and between that and the ARMfire, it soon proves enough to put a stop to the construct. There's silence. It takes a moment for Yulie to get her breathing under control, and when she does, the summoned creature - with an essence resembling all too much the Guardian Schturdark yet with something missing, something off - dissipates.
With the construct down - and a silent prayer whispered its way by Yulie - they're able to proceed further. It's clear that the hidden laboratory has seen better days - most of it is torn apart and destroyed, but they'll eventually be able to locate a hidden compartment containing research notes.
Yulie lasts only as long as it takes to realise they're discussing human experimentation. For a brief moment, it looks like she's going to be ill. It's an all-too-familiar story.
"...This is just like them." Yulie murmurs, wrapping her arms around herself and averting her eyes from the others. "Filgaia, Lunar... it doesn't matter. There's always going to be people like this... they're all the same."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
As things calm down (...in terms of 'threats to their lives'), Ethius takes a more clinical look to the surroundings. Signs of struggles, though the parchments being damaged by water or flame is of interest in his attempt to mentally catalogue a timeline of when the stone-bear might have arrived here (or escaped). He runs his gloved fingers across a piece of parchment whose text is not inherently important (or intact) beyond taking note of the material and the penmanship that seems reasonably consistent with the way Rolance does things.
'This is just like them.' The murmur takes Ethius out of his auxiliary investigations, as she speaks her feelings. Filgaia, Lunar, how there's always going to be 'people like this.'
He takes hold of the documents that have disturbed Yulie so. These notes are intact - and the page Yulie might have been getting to is the one on top of the pile. He's not able to sort it into anything resembling a correct order he can identify until he catches wind about 'two potential subjects.'
"...Fire-aspected male... ice-aspected female. Twins?" Ethius murmurs the information out of order. Come to think of it, he can place the speaking accent on at least one of them for being a match about this region of Rolance. One of them?
"...Talia and Ivan?" It's an inquisitive slip of the tongue on his part, because they're in Jay's employ, and he also remembers seeing Ivan be in less than stellar health in comparison, which...
...
He sets the papers down and does not think of combing through the others, which is about as close of a tell as any about how he feels about it.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Smoke, runs the warning from Ethius.
Josie's response is to drop behind a table and drop her shotgun for the whole time it takes her to tug her mask -- looped around her neck -- upwards and over her mouth and nose. She rises in the next, ripping off one final shot for the construct.
...It really is an interesting skill that Yulie has, there.
It's not the first she's seen it in action, either.
She delivers a booted heelkick to the downed construct in the end, as if trying to check whether it's down for good. Holstering her ARM only after that, she gives a thumbs up to the others.
And then she wanders the remnants of the lab, picking through the papers until Yulie, happening across something far grimmer than she does, speaks up.
Her eyes -- only they are visible over the mask -- turn towards Yulie.
"Yeah. There's always gonna be people like that," she says, shaking her head. "So next time... you get 'em right between the eyes, Yules."
She glances Ethius' way, he who has looked at other papers still. Ivan and Talia, though. To think 'Princess' has a story like this in her background.
Not that, like as not, they'd be on talking terms anyway.
"C'mon. Let's go find a real treasure," Josie says, walking towards the door.
She doesn't look through any more of the papers. That, in turn, may tell how she feels about this.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.
Talia and Ivan, Ethius says.
Yvain looks around at the room. He is very calm, and even--too calm, completely without his usual genial approach to people. He is a fire, and he burns.
"..."
"...We will find who has done this."
His eyes blaze. A column of flame overtakes his position, and he is gone.