2022-03-05: Wherein Loren Makes a Friend
- Log: Wherein Loren Makes a Friend
- Cast: Loren Voss, Ratatoskr, Kaguya, White Knight Leo
- Where: Ostagovo Manor
- Date: March 05, 2022
- Summary: An expedition of the ruins of Ostagovo Manor by various groups at large across the two worlds results in an unexpected team-up between certain parties who might have preferred otherwise. And yes, as it says in the title, Loren makes a new friend.
DG: A party led by Loren Voss 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 - An Unstable Invitation *>==================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |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. It's easy to see how the rampaging elemental beings escaped this crumbling building -- there's a large hole in one of the walls, surrounded in debris. It serves as a particularly easy point of entry, but as you head inside, you can feel a low rumble as the building begins to shudder around you. It's still unstable! Within moments, the whole ceiling is starting to come down in large pieces, crashing down all around you. You can spot an open doorway across the room, but can you make it before this room collapses on top of you? =Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Hesitate=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Get in, get out.
That's all that the job required, they'd said. Get to the site, plant some devices for data collection, then leave for the recon point. There was a lot of ground to cover with this particular project, enough that the rest of his team had divvied the work up--
He'd been left with literal short straw. But it's just a creepy abandoned mansion. It's fine. It's nothing to worry about.
It's definitely not haunted.
...Probably.
He pulls his jacket tighter about himself as he approaches the gap in the wall, gazing at it resolutely. This is going to be fine. This is going to be fine. This is--
"...Ugh," he remarks, scowling as he approaches the jagged hole and scrambles across it, some of the debris sliding underfoot. "Of all the cursed places, it has to be a," he utters, slipping through the gap and landing down that foot or so to the floor of the room beyong it. Something trembles minutely in sympathy.
"a," he repeats, looking about himself; there is a low rumbling sound somewhere far, far too close at hand. The walls begin to shudder. He glances up in time to see cracks race along the ceiling.
Loren pulls a face as the walls begin to buckle and entire chunks of ceiling come raining down. He doesn't say anything. He runs for the door.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, An Unstable Invitation.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
There's a Ratatoskr here. Whether this is an improvement or a further complication is highly subjective but his blood red armor is always a splash of bright color against any dreary backdrop. But he is also an Odessa operative, and his presence often means there is some sort of vested interest by Vinsfeld and his associates.
Or someone has, once again, forgotten to keep hold of Ratatoskr's leash lest he run off and rediscover history or something dreadful like that! Rather, he will be, because he suddenly appears in a puff of busted teleportation device that did not partially embed him in a wall, standing within a crumbling mansion inquisitively as Loren up and dashes past him while the ceiling is falling apart.
That device is engaged again in a flash of warped light, before he can explain anything or even speak to begin with. (This is considered a good thing.)
DG: Ratatoskr has used his Tool Teleporter Fragment toward his party's challenge, An Unstable Invitation.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Rolance. It just had to be in Rolance, where Kaguya is pretty sure there's multiple under the table bounties on her head. Thus far, she has only had it tested a few times, so it's less 'is pretty sure' and more 'is aware.' But traveling with the White Knight precludes some of that unpleasantness. And that's important, becaues if Kaguya is busy fighting off brigands and knights alike then she isn't going to be investigating a haunted manor.
Is it haunted? Who knows? But it might as well be. Everything else out here is haunted.
"So," Kaguya says, "This is where the reports are leading us... no monsters out here yet, though." Between the monsters and the certain familial connection--well. This is definitely their business. "I see a way in here..."
Kaguya steps inside, easily navigating the hole in the wll, and then looks around "We're not alone," she says once Leo is in after her. "There's--ah, fuck--"
The walls start coming down! Kaguya punches a chunk of ceiling that was about to fall on her head, and then starts dashing forward. "C'mon! We won't find a better ingress!"
...So Loren will find that a girl in ordinary Lunar clothes--no Hyland-marked finery this time, just a dress shirt under a mantle and slacks--with... an ARM.
"Oh hey Rata," she starts. Then he disappears. ...it's probably fine. She keeps going.
DG: Kaguya has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, An Unstable Invitation.
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Leo has made an enemy of one of Rolance's mightiest generals, and he hasn't forgotten this fact. He doesn't know how deep the rot has gone. He doesn't know what else Heldalf is planning, or if his plans are connected to the corruption in the Church. For all he knows, the conspirators might be moving against him, too.
But Leo isn't about to let reports of horrible monsters go unanswered. In a way, it's getting back to his roots. Kaguya is not Ronfar, but she's got a stake in this, too.
"'Yet,'" Leo says, as he steps into the building. It's dark inside, and the Crest around the White Knight's neck casts pale light everywhere. "The farmers down the hill told me Lubov left this place to rot years ago. Has something taken up residence--"
SNAP
A support beam gives way, sending a cascade of rubble tumbling down. "Dame Kaguya!" Leo cries, as he takes off at a dead sprint. A chunk of masonry falls right for him; for a moment, it looks like it's going to clock him upside the head--
SHING
In a heartbeat, Leo whips a length of hooked rope free, swings it through the air, and swats the rubble aside, without breaking stride.
DG: White Knight Leo has used his Tool Rope Ladder toward his party's challenge, An Unstable Invitation.
==============================<* Ostagovo Manor *>============================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - An Unstable Invitation *>==================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |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. It's easy to see how the rampaging elemental beings escaped this crumbling building -- there's a large hole in one of the walls, surrounded in debris. It serves as a particularly easy point of entry, but as you head inside, you can feel a low rumble as the building begins to shudder around you. It's still unstable! Within moments, the whole ceiling is starting to come down in large pieces, crashing down all around you. You can spot an open doorway across the room, but can you make it before this room collapses on top of you? =Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Hesitate=========================================
=========================<* Ostagovo Manor - Round 1 *>========================= ======================< Results - An Unstable Invitation >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 0 --(17)--> 17 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Teleporter Fragment 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- White Knight Leo 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rope Ladder 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(2)|Injure(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss 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> Loren Voss has posed.
As it so often is in these sorts of situations -- at least for him -- things go very very wrong, very very fast.
Loren turns as he darts for the door, suddenly aware that someone -- someones -- are right behind him. When did the Guard--
shit, ceiling's still falling in
He almost makes it. The others bat aside falling rubble en route to the door and have their various near-misses, but they all accomplish one things that Loren doesn't, which is to actually make it through the door.
The entire room collapses. There is no sign of Loren.
The rubble shifts after a few moments before it explodes outwards in a rain of debris. With a groan, Loren crawls out of the wreckage and slides to safety. If he'd been even a second shorter, he wouldn't have had time to even put up that barrier or reshape the debris -- mortar and stone is sort of enough of close to raw dirt and rock -- into something a little less... potentially dire.
His hand goes to the hilt of the blade at his hip as he eyes the three of them warily. "I'm not going to jail again," he says, almost as a warning.
DG: Ratatoskr 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> Ratatoskr has posed.
"Jail? Jail!" Ratatoskr scoffs as he crosses his arms. "I am not a jailer! I am a historian! And you see," he taps a claw against his arm, "I've heard the region's about to erupt into war again... and that's a problem..."
aw he acknowledges war might be ba--
"I've barely been able to find much from the last time there was one here years ago... before I got here." Ratatoskr's grin fades to a smile. "So many things that should be about the fields of battle aren't... and the acting head of state of Rolance of the time was assassinated... it's like someone went out of their way to stop me from discovering all there is about it..."
MEANWHILE, THAT SOMEONE WHO IS GUILTY OF THIS
A very strange but determined man inspects a stolen shipment of the freshest, healthiest produce Zoara has seen in... ever. Based on the gesticulations he is doing, he is about to burn it all. Think of the veggies. :(
NOW
"...I've barely anything to work with Rolance of that time!!" Ratatoskr grouses aloud, tail bristling at the audacity of it all. Erased history! But no one asked him. That's generally how it goes with him, though, he answers unsolicited and then everyone else has questions as everyone can catch their breath (but not their ears) in what looks like a game room. It looks untouched, with all the layers of dust... as of recently, but something had to have gone down here. A whole lot is toppled, game pieces are all over the place.
"I'm not even sure the fighting reached this region... but there was something here..." There was a struggle. Half the manor is burnt away, the other half is a mess, and something catches Ratatoskr's eye. "A passage? A passage!" He throws himself up against it and pulls on a loose wall sconce before someone can tell him 'no, don't.' Because no one can tell Ratatoskr 'no, don't' with their words.
Lightning zorches the place, blasting things apart and also setting a new fire which is sort of an urgent situation on its own merits! Someone else is going to have to point out (and reach) another shiny, out-of-place wall scone that has signs of use and wear that may or may not resolve this situation and/or provide an exit, because now Ratatoskr is playing 'Lightning Plains: Home Edition' with his teleport device.
DG: Ratatoskr has used his Tool Teleporter Fragment toward his party's challenge, What Does This Lever Do?.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
How deep has the rot gone? Kaguya is... reasonably sure it doesn't extend to Leo himself. No, she's certain of that. But there's layers and layers, and even Leo has made enemies...
Not that Kaguya is letting on that she might be concerned. That would be telling, for a variety of reasons. And while she's not Ronfar, it doesn't feel so bad to be meddling for better reasons than not.
But they arent alone. "Yet," Kaguya agrees, and then--well, they're moving.
Leo calls out after her, and Kaguya books it surprisingly fast for her size.
Once at the other side, Kaguya dusts herself off, looking around. "I'm fine," Kaguya starts--and then--
"...Wh--" Kaguya turns around and throws up an arm to shield her face from the debris, before she looks to see there is. ah. A Loren.
"Huh. That's--"
"Yeah, right? What, like we've got time to lock you up? Actually you're our new guide here. Deal with it."
She thinks that'll do. She wishes she had something wittier to say to him than raw bluster though. Maybe she'll think of something later.
"Well Rata," Kaguya says as he grouses, "What you've got to understand is that Rolance is led by losers who lose things."
She starts to talk to him, except--he finds what might be a passage. "Rata dON'T PULL THAT--"
Bzzzzt. Kaguya gets struck by lightning. "Ugh! Ugh! This is wose than the thunder plains!"
She starts off, dodging the next lightning bolt, and the next, but time will tell if she manages to get away from any others.
DG: Kaguya has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, What Does This Lever Do?.
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
The rubble begins to settle. Leo stops beneath an archway, and looks back at the scene behind him--a mess of powdered mortar, broken stone, and shattered wood. But what's this? An earthen dome, one he's sure he didn't make. As its creator breaks free, the White Knight's eyes widen--
"Who are you?" Leo says, brow furrowing in thought. Jail. Why would he be worried about--
Oh. Oh. Leo folds his arms, and shakes his head. "Why would we arrest you?" he says. "You don't plan on indulging in illicit intoxicants, or assaulting others while under their influence, do you?" Do you, Loren? There's a look in Leo's eyes that suggests he would be disappointed if the answer is 'yes'. (Why is he thinking 'yes' might be an answer here??)
Does Leo even know Loren is with Solaris?
Either way, Leo keeps his opinions on their traveling company to himself as they head deeper into the house. Everything is dilapidated, and there's a menace to the place that goes beyond appearances. "No monstrosities thus far," Leo says, to Kaguya. "But--"
'Clunk' goes the wall sconce.
'ZOTCH', goes the lightning. Leo jerks bolt upright, and--for the second time in the last ten or so minutes, breaks into a sprint. Bits of stone condense around his limbs and torso, forming a protective shell--and a glance across the room reveals a suspiciously shiny sconce. "Aha!" Leo cries, and he lashes out with the rope again, trying to hook the end around the sconce. If he manages that, one sharp tug should pull it into the right position. Hopefully.
DG: White Knight Leo has used his Tool Rope Ladder toward his party's challenge, What Does This Lever Do?.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
His gaze turns towards Ratatoskr. For the moment, Loren maintains a poleaxed expression. "Not you!" he finally blurts out, gesturing widely with his free hand. "Them--"
Leo does not, immediately, recognize him. "..."
Well, until he does, that is. It might have been better if he hadn't, considering what he says next. "L-look! That was, it was-- there were circumstances!" Loren protests, flushing in spite of (because of) himself in an effort to maintain whatever tatters remain of his ego and self-esteem. When he blushes, his ears also turn red, Kaguya might notice. "--Why would I? Why would there even be any here?! And since WHEN am I your guide??"
Maybe it's just as well they're moving along, before Loren becomes even more apoplectic.
He isn't precisely guiding them when they head into the next room -- more like he's bringing up the rear. He's just in time!
For that clunk, and the sizzle of electrical current that follows.
"Why?" he asks perhaps the universe at large, as he proceeds to try to dodge lightning bolts.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his 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 2 *>========================= =====================< Results - What Does This Lever Do? >===================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 17 --(17)--> 34 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 0 --(17)--> 17 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Teleporter Fragment 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- White Knight Leo 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rope Ladder 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 20 --(25)--> 45 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(2)|Injure(1)|Treasure(1) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 25 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
Lightning strikes, and does not receive better wages and benefits for the effort, so it keeps striking.
Loren asks 'why,' and the lightning answers with 'why not,' as per its wont as it strikes too close for comfort several times.
Kaguya will also learn that the lightning takes umbrage at being called a loser. It is Rolancian lightning and it has its pride, or... really it's just a natural phenomena conjured by sorcerous means, but it's fun to pretend on all counts because... this actually is about as bad as the Thunder Plains, and it's in an enclosed space.
Leo's protective shell is what keeps him from being shocked as he hooks an end around the sconce and gives it a tug, and the lightning... stops?
There's also a sudden release of strange, cold foam that fills the space, revealing that somehow those who once lived in the manor must have done one thing right by somehow (re)inventing a means to put out fires... or maybe this entire room was intended to be something of a trap for rampaging creatures. It smells nice, even, like... raspberries. Clean, fresh, sweet raspberries.
Anyone who actually tastes it will draw a completely different conclusion and it will be the correct one, that no, this is just as horrible and they do not get credit for the accidental beneficial side-effect of putting out the fires, as the wall near the correct sconce pulls open to reveal a passage.
Ratatoskr, who has somehow emerged unscathed in a defiance of the concept of karma, comes around the perimeter of the room to follow without another word, because he tasted some of the stuff and does not know what to think of existence as a concept at present.
DG: Kaguya has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Ostagovo Manor *>============================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Stone-Riven Hounds *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You enter a long, wide hallway that has smoke-damaged tapestries and a long deep red carpet, also stained by smoke and soot. There are small tables and decorations knocked over, with small statues and silver candle holders strewn across the floor. This room looks to have been built to impress -- but now it serves as a grim reminder that this manor has been abandoned. No one entertains here. And the guests are most unexpected. There are creatures prowling here, which look like hunting hounds. They were, once -- but huge rocky shapes have formed, covering most of their skin. Their eyes glow balefully with a pale brown light, now, and the crystal and rock formations pulse with eerie light. In some places, they look to come up from under the skin, but any blood has long since washed away. The hounds sniff when you enter. Then they snarl -- turn -- and rush for you, with fangs open. Worse, though, huge spikes of stone begin forming in the air and raining down on you as they come rushing in. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Kaguya really should be nicer about Rolance, but after all the hit squads they've sent after her at this point, she's really run out of patience. It might say something about her evolving moral character that she didn't think to just leave Rolance to rot with its nice haunted monster manor!
If she had thought about it, that might have been the better option.
Kaguya smirks at Loren when Leo recognizes him. She smirks more when she realizes he's blushing. His ears are red!! That's incredible. "Heh heh heh," she tells him. That is all she tells him at firt. And then she has no particular answer to his 'Why?' because she is busy. She is busy, and then she is hit by... raspberry foam.
"A sensible fire retardant system, here?? That's ironic." Then she spits out raspberry foam. "Also stupid. Bluuuuuugh." It was not indeed tasty.
"Rata, maybe don't... pull things," she starts, "And you--start guiding!" Kaguya says to Loren, as she starts to not let him do that at all, instead taking up the front of the group and looking around carefuly for taps and difficulties. This is when they enter the nice, wide hallway with smoke-damaged tapestries and a deep red carpet. Things are generally in disarray. It might've been impressive, once. And then, suddenly... there are things like hounds.
"..What the--"
he hounds sniff, snarl, and rush, spikes forming out of nowhere.
"Get down!" Kaguya calls, and hurls a canister from her belt. It cracks open on impact, and suddenly, three gigantic tomatoes grow into being from the contents, fanged maws already hungrily biting for the rocky hounds.
Kaguya uses them as cover as she pulls an ARM.
"We have TWO earth mages here, ONE of you can do something about this!!"
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Killer Tomatoes toward her party's challenge, Stone-Riven Hounds.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
"Fnnn...'ll pssh hmm." Ratatoskr murmurs, mouth full of something he can definitively say he does not want to experience ever again. Hyadean regeneration is a horror and marvel of biology. What it does not do is erase bad tastes from mouths. There are limits that have been learned today, that will inevitably be forgotten within like a week.
He finds something to sate his inquisitive nature when they get out into that hallway with smoke-damaged tapestries and that long red carpet. All the signs of opulence and importance, but none of it so far really matches up with anything he suspected as being relevant to the previous period of escalated hostilities - but he is in the company of Kaguya and the White Knight and in its own way it's a lot of fun, plus that other guy.
It's such a grand hall for battle maybe he ought to pick a fight with Leo here, but then there's strange creatures that are - or were - hounds, but now are just as much rock as they are hound, or maybe more so, and the unfamiliarity tickles in such a way the novelty isn't there. Segmented metal plates within his tail flare out in a threat posture (and also flicks more of that awful-tasting foam), dropping into a Muay Thai-esque combat stance as energy crackles about his horn.
The storm of violence is inevitable, vents opening within his joints and palms to allow debris from spokes of stone that explode nearby to pass through and out his body harmlessly while going in with a whirling variety of kicks, elbow strikes, and all of that.
DG: Ratatoskr has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Stone-Riven Hounds.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Loren nearly gets hit by lightning (bad) and then gets hit by a pleasantly-scented foam. He blinks, wiping it out of his eyes, then regards the stuff coating his hand.
He gives it a careful sniff. Some kind of fruit? Berries? It smells nice.
Which is why, against his better judgement, Loren licks some of it.
This results in immediate, profuse regret. "Gah! Pff-- who, who makes something smell like that and taste-- awful!?" Loren says. Lubov may have quite a number of people gunning for him at this point.
"If you want to let me lead, then let me lead!" Loren retorts to Kaguya, watching her as she plows on ahead. He, for one, has retrieved a canteen from his pack and is in the process of taking a hearty gulp of water as he ambles (again, towards the rear) after.
This means he doesn't get jumped by the hounds, so that works out for him. Hastily stuffing the canteen back into his pack, Loren shoots Kaguya a look. "Don't you tell me what to do!" he snaps, narrowing his eyes as the hounds advance.
He hooks Ether -- metaphysically of course -- over, up, through the band around his wrist, threading it through the many wire loops. Coils on coils -- like a generator, his instructor had said. Though of course, a Tuner is not the same thing as an Amp.
He pulls that force forward with a sudden jolt of his will, the rippling passage of the destabilizing wave possibly even felt as it surges through the air. It won't affect anything pliable, of course -- flesh and bone are safe.
Rock and stone, even animated, are another story. Rigidity has its downsides.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Ether Tuner toward his party's challenge, Stone-Riven Hounds.
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Leo grins, broadly. Then the wave of sudsy foam surges through the room, catching him right as he's about to answer Kaguya. The White Knight--one of the Four Heroes, Chosen of the Goddess, Bearer of the power of the White Dragon--spits foam into the foam on the floor, gagging at the aftertaste. "Goddess," Leo chokes, "don't get it in your mouth--!" Too late. Leo takes out four Apple Gels, keeping one for himself and distributing the rest. Normally, he'd reserve them for injuries, but they might help with the taste.
Or poison, if the compound was toxic. You never know, with alchemy.
When Kaguya stops, Leo stops behind her, staring wide-eyed at the things in front of them. "These must be the monsters the villagers spoke of!" Were those... dogs? He recognizes the breed--he remembers a knight who kept one as a companion and hunting dog. His face pulls into a deep, tight frown, but he barely has time to process before Kaguya's letting loose some vegetal hounds of her own.
Do something about this, Kaguya demands. Leo sets his feet, and clasps his hands together. The earth beneath the manor answers his call. A tidal wave of ripping and cracking noises spread down the hall as jagged spines of stone erupt from the ground--the manor's own stone foundations forming a makeshift pike field between them and the enemy. The crest around Leo's neck glows as the wave of power reaches its apex; a pearly-white field washes out to encompass everyone, shielding them.
Moments later--
"DEMON FANG!"
--And a wave of force rushes towards the ensorcelled hounds.
DG: White Knight Leo has used his Tool White Dragon Crest toward his party's challenge, Stone-Riven Hounds.
==============================<* Ostagovo Manor *>============================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Stone-Riven Hounds *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You enter a long, wide hallway that has smoke-damaged tapestries and a long deep red carpet, also stained by smoke and soot. There are small tables and decorations knocked over, with small statues and silver candle holders strewn across the floor. This room looks to have been built to impress -- but now it serves as a grim reminder that this manor has been abandoned. No one entertains here. And the guests are most unexpected. There are creatures prowling here, which look like hunting hounds. They were, once -- but huge rocky shapes have formed, covering most of their skin. Their eyes glow balefully with a pale brown light, now, and the crystal and rock formations pulse with eerie light. In some places, they look to come up from under the skin, but any blood has long since washed away. The hounds sniff when you enter. Then they snarl -- turn -- and rush for you, with fangs open. Worse, though, huge spikes of stone begin forming in the air and raining down on you as they come rushing in. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
=========================<* Ostagovo Manor - Round 3 *>========================= ========================< Results - Stone-Riven Hounds >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 34 --(5)--> 39 Pass Ether Tuner 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 17 --(5)--> 22 Pass Killer Tomatoes 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- White Knight Leo 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass White Dragon Crest 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 45 --(20)--> 65 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(1)|Injure(2)|Wound(2) Effects: Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"Ugh ugh ugh!" Kaguya agrees about the taste--and accepts an Apple Gel. "Oh these are the good ones," she comments brightly, and eats it immediately. She talks with her mouth full because she has to chew a lot before she gets out the taste, and so to Loren she says, "Fwhatfhever," with a vague wave of her hand.
She agrees though. At least her science is generally tasty.
At least there's violence!
Ratatoskr has an easier time than most of them with the raining stone, for the simple fact that it's a form of attack he's strong against. He is a whirl of violence, going into melee where Kaguya stays at range with her ARM. "Yeah!" Kaguya calls to Leo. "This is definitely an example!"
Between Loren destabilizing the rock that comes down and Leo making a barricade against the hounds, the group is able to engage more orless at will. Loren may have snapped at Kaguya, but she has to admit...
"Not bad," she says to him. "You're pretty good with that thing."
Because in the end, between melee, Demon Fang, and ARMSfire, the hounds shatter underneath ther power.
"Well, that was a thing. Guess we're in the right place, at least..."
Kaguya won't be leading the way to the next challenge; she kneels down to start taking samples of flesh and stone, to study later.
DG: Ratatoskr has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Ostagovo Manor *>============================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Hide and Seek *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- A long-disused hidden passage awaits, made of stone and lit only by whatever light sources you may have brought with you. Your explorations down the passageway don't get very far before there's a telltale sparking sound, which offers a moment's warning before bolts of lightning crash out from wall to wall-- barring the way for a time before fading, only to fire again if anyone comes in range a second time. The trap doesn't seem to be activated from a push plate or other pressure on the floor -- something hidden in the walls must be detecting you as you move into the forbidden area. You'll need to figure out a way to find it and disable it or avoid its gaze! =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Exhaust========================================
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
Ratatoskr follows someone else's directions for once and doesn't pull anything. Instead, he pushes something, and there's a secret passage disovered - lined with smooth stone and without any obvious sources of lighting. Whatever everyone has on them, that's it. In Ratatoskr's case, his eerie solid yellow eyes and whether or not he feels like shooting the laser horn, but that's a problem assuming there's a fight about to happen.
"...The previous conflicts didn't have these." That's about the strongest verbal concession Ratatoskr can give in the direction of 'not liking this,' as he spits out the remainder of an Apple Gel that has absorbed the essence of Yuck and Maybe Poison, as Ratatoskr hears a sparking sound and then-
* * * Z A P * * *
A lightly charred Ratatoskr is hurled back by wall-to-wall lightning that forms an impossible grid no one can pass through. Ratatoskr's eyes light up from this idea.
"I'm going to outrun it...!" No, no he's not, he just sets it off again, and largely provides a good point reference to the exact range in which this thing goes off, and also that there's no obvious trigger for the trap. No push plate or other pressure-based devices, no sprinkled glowing trails of red rock that inexplicably carry electrical power (...wait, wrong game).
Is there a way to disable it other than Ratatoskr and the power source seeing which one dies first?
DG: Ratatoskr has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Hide and Seek.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Loren doesn't protest -- when Leo offers him a Gel (a fair better means than gulping water or daring what else he keeps in his bag) he takes it without so much as a thanks and stuffs it into his mouth. Mm, apple.
He knows what kind of fruit apples are, at least.
It's one less thing to worry about as they face down the stone hounds. Having a bad taste in your mouth is an unwelcome distraction when you're trying to tell the laws of physics to shut up for a moment or two, and using the Tuner is always uncomfortable even under the best of circumstances. Loren exhales a breath as the rest of them bring their various artes to bear to finish the hounds off and kneels by one of the creatures to get a closer look.
"What's this, anyway...?"
It takes him a good moment more to realize that Kaguya had complimented him back there. "You... sure you got your head on right?" he asks her, looking her over as he rises from his own inspection. Wait, hadn't he just come here to put down sensors? It had just been one thing after another.
He shakes his head at that thought, though. There's no way he can get away from them to do that now, and letting them see him do it would be a bad shot at things. Besides... this probably works to his advantage.
Assuming it doesn't get him killed, though. "Hey, hold it--"
Ratatoskr has just messed around something over there and a pathway has opened up. "Are we sure we want to..." He trails out, watching Ratatoskr speed ahead into the wall of lightning. Twice.
Loren absently taps at the wall, pushing out a pulse of an echo through the stone. ...It bounced, he realizes a moment later, senses still rooted into the wall. "Something's in there?" he wonders aloud, walking the length of the corridor slowly until he thinks he finds it.
Speaking of daring what else he keeps in his bag, he pulls out a wrapped item and peels part of the wrapper off, then tears free a chunk to work between his fingers like clay. "I don't see a lens, but..."
Maybe he can still mess with it's ability to detect them by wadding a bit of sticky energy bar chunk right in the path of the sensor.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Soylent Nutribar toward his party's challenge, Hide and Seek.
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
"Then we'd best deal with them!" Leo cries. Even if he has to force himself to look at the aftermath of the Demon Fang. Even if he's looking away from the corpses as Kaguya takes her samples. "What could have twisted them?" he asks, as she goes about her grim work. Part of him wonders if she even has an answer.
They move on. The glow of Leo's Crest brightens as they step into the darkness, as if the power within were taking notice of their surroundings. "Stay away from the walls," Leo says, "and watch your--"
*clink*
"Step."
Leo winces. He rushes over, already peeling another Apple Gel out of its paper--but Ratatoskr is up and running before he can go for the assist. "What are you doing?!" he shouts, at Ratatoskr's back. He glances at Kaguya, eyes wide with disbelief. To his credit, though, Leo realizes he's not going to be of much help, and hangs back. He pops the Apple Gel into his mouth, so it doesn't go to waste.
DG: White Knight Leo has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Hide and Seek.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Hooray, a secret passage! Kaguya, of course, is fine because of her superior Veruni night vision. That is to say, Kaguya possesses a flashlight, and turns it on.
"C'mon, this is the good stuff," Kaguya assures Ratatoskr of the Apple Gels. "Not like certain inferior gels a certain witch might've possessed..."
Magilou can't hear her. That doesn't mean Kaguya can't sass her.
But suddenly--there is a zap. Kaguya pauses, and lifts an eyebrow. Then Ratatoskr keeps going. he zooms forward again. He... does provide pretty good references. Kaguya, for her part, briefly considers just letting him go at it until it runs out of power. ...Then she thinks about all the good times she's had with Ratatoskr.
Ratatoskr, setting off a trap earlier.
Ratatoskr, running with a missile on the Thunder Plains.
Ratatoskr...
"Ugh," she says, "We can't just leave him, can we?"
Then she says to Loren, "I mean, not bad, for a super loser who can't even tie his shoes right," she grumps. "Whatever, you had to make it weird, didn't you? Of course you did. And what's with that weird gunk?"
Kaguya steps forward and pulls one of her rock sample jars. "anyway obviously we just need to disrupt the resonant harmonic of the Lightning aspect with a little Earth to ground it, like so," she says, and takes advantage of Loren's efforts, pulling a small device and implanting the rock sample to look forward and then--
Boom!
"It's fine" she says to Leo. "He's fine."
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Loot Abuse toward her party's challenge, Hide and Seek.
==============================<* Ostagovo Manor *>============================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Hide and Seek *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- A long-disused hidden passage awaits, made of stone and lit only by whatever light sources you may have brought with you. Your explorations down the passageway don't get very far before there's a telltale sparking sound, which offers a moment's warning before bolts of lightning crash out from wall to wall-- barring the way for a time before fading, only to fire again if anyone comes in range a second time. The trap doesn't seem to be activated from a push plate or other pressure on the floor -- something hidden in the walls must be detecting you as you move into the forbidden area. You'll need to figure out a way to find it and disable it or avoid its gaze! =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Exhaust========================================
=========================<* Ostagovo Manor - Round 4 *>========================= ==========================< Results - Hide and Seek >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 39 --(37)--> 76 Fail Soylent Nutribar 2 Wits Effects: Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 22 --(12)--> 34 Pass Loot Abuse 2 Wits Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 5 --(37)--> 42 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- White Knight Leo 5 --(37)--> 42 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 65 --(15)--> 80 Fail Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Injure(1)|Reckless(2)|Wound(1) Effects: Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss 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> Ratatoskr has posed.
There is nothing stopping Ratatoskr from trying to go through it a handful of times, because he can utterly swear he's able to run through it and fail spectacularly at every attempt. The clear visual references remain!
Loren sticks a piece of 'snack' against the wall. It proceeds to discharge and bounce about the room like a bouncy clay bullet and make things worse the next time Ratatoskr fails to clear it.
It might even try to shove the Apple Gel out of Leo's hand and take its place as a snack, if his reflexes are not up to the task.
Kaguya saves the day by implanting an explosive device, which solves the issue by causing the entire passage to collapse on them and set them on a lower level to somewhere... else.
Ratatoskr twitches a few times as he looks up. "Am I on the other side now? Am I on the other side nowwwww....!"
Beat.
"Oh."
DG: White Knight Leo 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> White Knight Leo has posed.
Leo's jaw tightens. He stops with the gel halfway to his mouth--he's not torn on whether or not to intervene, but on whether or not intervening would stop Ratatoskr. As the mayhem amps up, a bolt of lightning comes alarmingly close to Leo's foot--and the snack bar, now flying like a squishy ping-pong ball, comes racing at him. Leo steps back, and the mystery substance goes splat right into his uniform jacket. The gel falls from his hands, and tumbles to the dirty floor. Leo doesn't get any of either in his mouth, but that's cold comfort as the detonator finishes ticking down, and the ensuing explosion takes out the tunnel.
When everything's settled, Leo lies on his side, half-buried in rubble. He thrusts his hands outward, and the earthen detritus parts, shifting neatly to either side of the room... which is much larger than the hall above. Leo's crest illuminates rows of glass flasks, bookshelves full of mouldering tomes--and most ominously, gurneys equipped with restraints.
"A laboratory?" Leo says, neatly distracted from Ratatoskr's single-minded stupidity by what is definitely someone's horrible torture lab. The White Dragon Crest ignites again, its glow intensifying as the ground begins to shake.
"Goddess," says Leo, as the massive bear-thing storms into the room, knocking a shelf of flasks free with a thunderous crash. "Lubov. Lubov, what have you done?!" There's no time for questions. The aura around Leo and the others--the same aura that probably helped keep Ratatoskr in one piece, despite himself--grows brighter, warmer, more sheltering. The bear brings one massive arm down in a swat, and Leo lunges forwards, blade at the ready. Steel meets stone with a horrible grinding CRUNCH. "NOW!" Leo cries.
DG: White Knight Leo has used his Tool White Dragon Crest toward his party's challenge, Ursus Igneous.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"What?!" The indignation is instant. Loren wheels about towards her. "I tie my shoes fine! And what were you doing to that thing, trying to do some weird Veruni science to it?" He pauses, then eyes the bar still in his hand and the pieces pasted to the wall.
"...A nutritional bar," he answers finally. "Look, it's adaptable! It's called lateral thinking! Don't you get off on--"
He watches as the piece flies right off the wall as Ratatoskr makes another attempt to clear the barrier.
Hunching his shoulders, Loren goes carefully, carefully silent. His face is a mask of discontent.
Especially when Kaguya 'solves' the problem with some explosives, sending chips of stone raining down upon them all. "That was messy," he grouses, brushing the fragments out of his hair.
They're in a library, is Loren's first thought. You know, before his gaze settles on the glass flasks and of course, the gurneys. "A laboratory?" he echoes. But it's so... primitive. He approaches a table, picking at a moldering tome. "It's coming apart," he remarks as he tries to open it and ends up taking a page away in the process.
This, before the monstrosity comes lumbering into this chamber. Loren drops the half-rotted page and stands stock-still for a good second and a half. "What is that? It's like someone fused a bear with a, a--"
He'll get his answer when the first volley comes winging at them all; he dodges narrowly enough to feel it fly on past. He hisses out a breath and, rising to his feet again forces his Ether through, around, under the cords of the Tuner at his wrist. He needs more. He needs to spread it out, cover a wide enough area--- there!
It glitters like mica, shimmering from the correct angles. There, like a glassy bubble, hangs a field of protective force.
"Just kill it! And hurry!" Loren says through gritted teeth, holding the barrier there by force of will and Tuner alike. "Can't hold it forever!"
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Ether Tuner toward his party's challenge, Ursus Igneous.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
Some days you just have to be that nineteen-to-twenty-five-year-old kid brother, as smoke rises from him. He sits up with a start when the ground shakes, considering the weight of the footsteps. There's a part of him excited if it might be those odd anthropomorphic metal 'dolls' that took to the field even though nothing about this place shows any sort of evidence they were made here, and then...
He is disappointed, because there is another horrible earthen-creature that threatens to bear down upon them like an immense harbinger of death and pain that can never cease, as the aura of the White Dragon Crest encircles the lot of them. Leo takes point in meeting one claw swipe, and somehow in all of this, Ratatoskr makes an attempt to flank and... there's quicksilver blood painted across the ground as the Hyadean historian slides back, clutching at the wound as if in shock for how solid a slash that is.
A mica barrier keeps him from being bore into, as energy gathers at his horn, and there's a wordless snarl as the lightweight rapid striker of a world-eating parasite's ambitions hurls themselves at it again with reckless abandon entirely appropriate for the Metal Demons of old.
Two horrific products of blasphemous bio-engineering go head to head, and with that rush of adrenaline that almost silly, childish Ratatoskr might have hit that mix of fear, adrenaline, and insult that gets his kind in The Zone To Kill - there's a horn laser somewhere in that flurry of violence that follows.
DG: Ratatoskr has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Ursus Igneous.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"I am literally always doing weird Veruni science to things," Kaguya deadpans back at Loren. Then, "it doesn't look very nutritional..."
This is not the first time where Kaguya has been a situation in which explosions have not just solved a problem but presented new, different problems. For her part, the small Veruni does not have a ton of trouble with the debris; she gets under a piece of lumber as it's all coming down, and only has to shove that off of her instead of picking through rocks.
"Anyway you know very, very little about what anybody gets off on I'm pretty sure," Kaguya counters Loren. "And, it's... uh..." Restraints. Tomes. A lab. yes, this is definitely a horrible torture lab. Kaguya's mouth becomes a thin line. "Yeah. A lab, all right. And it's primitive, all right." In more ways than one. But as the creature appears--
Leo of course puts himself right in the middle of danger, while Loren against all odds(?) protects her along with himself. So this gives Kaguya time to come up with a solution.
She takes the other canister of the strange tomatoes and tinkers with something on the side, hitting a couple of buttons. "Sorry guys," Kaguya says to her tomatoes. "But I need the storage fluid... There!"
She leaps through the barriers, moving past Loren, alongside Leo and Ratatoskr, before she jumps up to the thing's mouth and shoves the canister in. "Eat this!" she suggests, and something snaps as she crushes it, a horrifically cold fluid suddenly rushing out and through the creature... if it works.
"Kill it in a hurry I can do!"
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Killer Tomatoes toward her 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Loren Voss 76 --(0)--> 76 Pass Ether Tuner 3 Combat Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kaguya 34 --(0)--> 34 Pass Killer Tomatoes 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ratatoskr 42 --(14)--> 56 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ White Knight Leo 42 --(0)--> 42 Pass White Dragon Crest 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Loren Voss 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Reckless(1)|Wound(2) Effects: Embolden(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Loren Voss has successfully explored Ostagovo Manor!
=============================<* Ostagovo Manor *>============================= ===================<* CHALLENGE - A Horrible New Friend *>==================== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- 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. You hear movement behind a toppled table. Something is hiding there. A creature. It is not unlike the monsters you faced on your way into the laboratory. An animal-like being, imbued with elemental power, its eyes wild and its form distorted and twisted from the terrible experiments visited upon it. Unlike those monsters from before, however, it is also...very small. Is it filled with rage or sorrow? Either way, its tiny teeth don't seem able to pierce your hand when it tries to bite your finger off. And its accursed hissing is... somehow cute? Maybe it would like you to end its mockery of an existence. Or would it like pets and scritches? It's hard to tell. Perhaps you can take it home with you, if you like. =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Leo fights the bear with every ounce of his strength, but he's losing. It forces him back, his boot heels slipping in the dust as he struggles for traction. It draws back its other paw--
Loren's barrier winks into existence. The colossal paw slams into the Etheric construct with a horrible scraping noise, followed by another, and another--the beast vents its rage on the only thing it can strike. Ratatoskr slips free, and in that instant, the beast's form contorts, and stone shards erupt like tephra. Most of them slam against Loren's barrier, but Ratatoskr catches a few. For a scant few seconds, he is spurred to violent action, bearing the weight of the monster's fury on his own shoulders. It's a testament to his durability--if not his skill--that he's still standing afterwards. Then, Kaguya strikes. The bear's horribly-mangled jaw closes around the cannister.
"DEMON FANG!" Leo bellows, as he rushes forward and strikes in tandem.
There is another horrible explosion. When the dust settles--and when ears stop ringing--the bear is gone. Most of the laboratory is in shambles. But... there's something...
Something skittering out of the shadows, eyeing Loren.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"Well it is," Loren replies, shaking his head. "It was tested in a lab, you know."
'Nutritional' does not necessarily mean 'tasty', of course.
He steps over the rubble in much the same moment Kaguya does, so of course he hears her when she says that. "Sorry? What was that??" Loren snaps at her. "I'll have you know I-- now look, I've been on... I've had a..." He shakes his head furiously, his expression contorted. "--Just shut up, will you?!"
There had been someone, once, but it had gotten... complicated.
Complicated was a good way to summarize.
So it is that he takes up his station at a nearby table, flipping through the book until the sudden arrival of the bear makes things very complicated. Very complicated.
Almost potentially deadly.
Particularly when Kaguya, again, resorts to the use of explosives to solve their newest problem.
Once his ears stop ringing, once the dust clears -- here is when Loren sighs heavily and takes a seat on the floor. He feels a little dizzy after that, holding back the bear's attacks and the force of the explosion.
Something comes skittering out of the shadows, however. Loren turns sharply, his hand reaching for his blade.
But the thing runs right for him and comes to a stop by his legs, gazing up to look at him mournfully. It's... another bear. It's just very small. A baby? Tentatively, he reaches out for it. It doesn't flinch.
And it's here that he realizes that the bear isn't entirely all there. Wisps of clouds billow away from its white body as he moves his hand away, its body at various points more of a suggestion of form than anything solid.
"Huh," Loren says, because what do you say to that?
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
The bear bites Loren's hand. Or tries to. Its teeth can't seem to break his skin, on account of not being all there.
And the noises its making! Are those adorable, or tormented? Tormentorable?
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Kaguya says, "Sure. Why wouldn't that happen?" And that's all.