2022-03-18: What Remains After Fire
- Log: What Remains After Fire
- Cast: Josephine Lovelace, Ruth Pauling, Kaguya
- Where: Goddodin Village
- Date: March 18, 2022
- Summary: Three badly-behaving women partake of a trial meant to test their essential nature. And yet, this perhaps does not go as one might have expected.
DG: A party led by Josephine Lovelace is now entering Igraine - Shrine of the Fire Trial. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
====================<* Igraine - Shrine of the Fire Trial *>==================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Keep the Torches Lit! *>==================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- As the sealed gate opens, Igraine stretches out before the eye. Gray stone walkways give way to a central chamber writ large, a lake of magma surrounding a brown rock platform. There are gates going in multiple directions from here, stairways and pathways, and as you walk down them, you encounter another sealed door across a greatroom full of unlit torches. The door seems impervious to harm, but looking closely at the floor will see magical lines connecting each torch to the door. Good luck with that. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Well, you sure ain't doing it by halves, Yvvie," Josie remarks as she strides into space behind the formally sealed portal. It's like walking into a furnace: as bad as (worse?) than Aveh's desert sea during high summer. Already, there's the vague impulse to ditch her jacket here, but while there's a difference between the desert and the fire shrine (both are different types of hell) she may want to keep it, at least for now.
The molten stone bubbles as if to make a point.
"Looks like we've our choice of directions," she remarks, shading her eyes as if it would suffice against the haze. "Let's say... this way." The large door seems a promising one.
Funny, how a chance message from a friend (of a sort?) turns her right into an ordeal that might, if Yvain wasn't being cute about things (she wouldn't put it past him) just get her killed. By all rights, she ought to have walked right on out of this one again -- she has better things, more important things, to turn her focus towards. And yet.
...And yet.
"Like a moth to the flame, eh?" she remarks, striding into the space beyond that great door. "Now, let's see here... the way I figure..."
She nods, snapping her fingers to send a jolt of lightning for one of the unlit torches. It lights! Josie, for her part, watches as the door opens a fraction and waits. ...And waits.
Not even a quarter-minute, and the torch snuffs itself. The door closes all the way again.
"Thought as much," she remarks. "These lot ain't gonna stay lit long, and we'll have to light them all."
They're hardly close enough to the door, either. There's no way to get them all in one shot, unless someone was quite literally setting the entire room on fire.
"So! Who feels up for a run?" she remarks, before turning to again light that torch.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Keep the Torches Lit! .
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Ruth descends to Igraine along the others, unperturbed by the sweltering heat in blatant defiance with how much she's currently wearing. She tries not to let her mind wander, because anywhere her mind can wander tends to involve stepping on a popular brand of building block toy. Whatever it is they have to do to prove themselves in the eyes of Yvain, whatever it is he sees in her despite everything her particular kind encompasses.
It has a likeness to... no, that's a four-by-two bright blue brick she is not going to step on.
She holds a Crest Graph in her hand to keep said hands occupied, letting Josie take point even as she may be the least affected by heat haze of the gathered. There's the matter with the torches being key to opening the door, and experimentation showing that so little time is there for them to be able to make it to the other side.
'Who feels up for a run?' Josie asks.
With the invocation of the Crest Graph, marked with Muse and Wing, a stream of water moving at a rapid pace is formed at the longest stretch of ground she can muster under a spellcasting discipline that shouldn't be of much use to her any more.
She may be able to cover the 'move quickly enough' part off of that. May.
DG: Ruth Pauling has used her Tool Rivercrest toward her party's challenge, Keep the Torches Lit! .
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Why is Kaguya here? Don't worry about it. It might have to do with a few of her friends being here.
"You know, I just love running. Getting all sweaty is great! Super great. No complaints." Kaguya shakes her head, obviously grumbling. "Ok whatever. I guess that's what we do, unless we want to set up some kind of machine that would be..."
"Ehhhhhh, wasted effort," she sighs, and looks around to the others. "Moth to a flame, huh? I guess."
She is not in her Veruni armor, which is still broken. She is in a Lunar style outfit with slacks and a dress shirt under a mantle, and the shirt is already sweaty.
"...Oh, huh. That would work," she says of Ruth's water trail. "Ok, so, here we go I guess." She's helping!
DG: Kaguya has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Keep the Torches Lit! .
====================<* Igraine - Shrine of the Fire Trial *>==================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Keep the Torches Lit! *>==================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- As the sealed gate opens, Igraine stretches out before the eye. Gray stone walkways give way to a central chamber writ large, a lake of magma surrounding a brown rock platform. There are gates going in multiple directions from here, stairways and pathways, and as you walk down them, you encounter another sealed door across a greatroom full of unlit torches. The door seems impervious to harm, but looking closely at the floor will see magical lines connecting each torch to the door. Good luck with that. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
===============<* Igraine - Shrine of the Fire Trial - Round 1 *>=============== ======================< Results - Keep the Torches Lit! >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ruth Pauling 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Rivercrest 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lunata Croze 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 0 --(15)--> 15 Fail Conditions: Hesitate(2) Effects: Cleanse ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has failed this challenge! The party gained 15 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Lunata Croze has left your party.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Now I'm curious about the machine," Josie quips, hand on her hips for the moment. She glances Ruth's way, greeting her fellow sniper with a slight tilt of the head and a nod -- Ruth is generally not one for wasted words and Josie's of a mind to indulge her.
She's got the feeling that Yvain invited the both of them here for similar reasons. Purgation -- trial by fire. Whatever you might call it.
Josie knows she's sinner enough for either. It's merely a matter of whether she cares anymore.
Mist speeds them on their way towards the door, sure enough. But...
Even with all the torches lit, the door fails to open more than a quarter way up. Josie frowns, squatting before the partially open door. And then it slams shut.
"Huh," Josie says, back to square one where this particular puzzle is concerned. "All of 'em were lit. Shouldn't that have..."
Struck suddenly by a sense of forboding, Josie glances upwards.
Above them, with magical lines connecting to the door, are unlit torches.
"Yvvie, you son of a bitch," she remarks, shaking her head.
She's smiling, though.
It will take them a little bit longer to get through the door, consequently.
DG: Ruth Pauling has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* Igraine - Shrine of the Fire Trial *>==================== ===================<* CHALLENGE - Floating Lantern Puzzle *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- This chamber is beautifully lit by the shades of color thrown from numerous lanterns hanging in the air, each its own brilliant shade. The shadows of the lanterns furthermore mix in compelling patterns. The chamber itself is gray stone and hexagonal, and there are doors at each wall. However, the doors are mostly sealed, and those that aren't are dead ends. Each of the lanterns hovers on its own, slowly floating through the room. There are hooks on which to hang them, however. It's just a matter of figuring out which goes where... And then figuring out how to hang them while they're up in the air already. And then admiring the view once they have. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Wonder=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
There's no saints among them today, and there are popular works of scripture describing their ultimate fates involving unceasing flame - but as the three of them work through a mechanical jest on Yvain's part to come into the hexagonal room, Ruth stands to be the least winded just on grounds of lessened temperature sensitivity.
There's lanterns floating about, each a different shade of brilliant lighting - a feat of Seraphic arte engineering. Calming, aside from the sweltering heat that permeates the entire Trial. Ruth moves to the center of the hexagonal chamber... and her eyes do catch something.
"A hook." The way the floating lanterns are set, some of them are hidden in shade. Others are at inconvenient elevation levels. "Are they meant to hang them?" There's a bunch of doors, some locked, some not. The ones not lead to dead ends, but she's not about to discover that yet, as she tries to stand on her tip toes to reach up and tap one with her (currently) gloved hands.
She can't quite make it, staggering once on boots that mismatch and do not fit very well, looking to the others as she catches herself in a crouch and feels the weight on her back press down on her with a quiet hiss as her right hand grasps at her left shoulder.
"I can see other hooks," she says, looking to Josie and Kaguya as she once again grasps that Crest Graph she used prior. "If you're tired from running, I'll summon another stream."
She recalls Josie's taking the first trick with good humor, and Kaguya's unrestrained smile from a recent chat they had after Azoth evaded them. She wonders if they'll keep high spirits in the face of all of this, but... she's aware she'd know the moment they didn't.
DG: Ruth Pauling has used her Tool Rivercrest toward her party's challenge, Floating Lantern Puzzle.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"Automaic torch-lighting machine!" Kaguya reports for Josie. "But the effort to set it up would be a lot more than just running around with a stick like an idiot."
--Shortlly thereafter--
"Uuuuuuuuugh why didn't we look up."
Perhaps Yvain intended that trial for Ruth and Josie both. Perhaps he still intends to see them cleansed by fire. But he's not ehre to ask, at the moment. Instead, Kaguya is here... and eventually they get through the door.
"...Huh," kaguya says, walking into the next room. "These are... actually really cool." She can't say 'pretty', that's not cool and disaffected enough. But she doses see what Ruth is trying...
"Eh, I'm not tired. I can just jump up and attach some of these, so don't worry about me. Maybe for the old lady, though." She grins at Josie. "...Man. 'Puberty'. That one was rough, ahahah..."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"A torch-lighting machine, eh," Josie says to Kaguya, rubbing at her chin, thoughtfully. But it probably is best to do this with their own two hands, more or less.
...Maybe it would have been pretty useful after all, though.
"Well, I'll be damned."
Phrasing, Josie.
But the thing to which she refers is none other but the plethora of floating lanterns, held aloft by naught other than the heat the flames within. "Ain't seen these in a dog's year," she remarks. "Always wondered if she would've..." But even such a sight can hold Josie's attention only so long. "Well then," she says, turning to Ruth. "Hooks, you say?"
This one might prove more difficult than most for Josie, given her particular impediment and the fact that the hooks really do call for two hands. "Won't mind if you do, Ruth."
She glances, sidelong at Kaguya.
"Thousand gella," she says, nodding as if in affirmation of this remark. "Bet I can hook more'n you, kiddo." After all, now she's got something to prove.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Floating Lantern Puzzle. DG: Kaguya has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Floating Lantern Puzzle.
====================<* Igraine - Shrine of the Fire Trial *>==================== ===================<* CHALLENGE - Floating Lantern Puzzle *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- This chamber is beautifully lit by the shades of color thrown from numerous lanterns hanging in the air, each its own brilliant shade. The shadows of the lanterns furthermore mix in compelling patterns. The chamber itself is gray stone and hexagonal, and there are doors at each wall. However, the doors are mostly sealed, and those that aren't are dead ends. Each of the lanterns hovers on its own, slowly floating through the room. There are hooks on which to hang them, however. It's just a matter of figuring out which goes where... And then figuring out how to hang them while they're up in the air already. And then admiring the view once they have. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Wonder=========================================
===============<* Igraine - Shrine of the Fire Trial - Round 2 *>=============== =====================< Results - Floating Lantern Puzzle >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 20 --(5)--> 25 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 20 --(0)--> 20 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ruth Pauling 20 --(0)--> 20 Pass Rivercrest 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 15 --(20)--> 35 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(2)|Wonder Effects: Cleanse ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Kaguya makes good on her boast - the lanterns that are a bit higher up than the others are the big problem, and between the three of them, Kaguya's the one with the most hops and two fully working arms. Between Josie's hand and Ruth's shoulder, situations that call for the use of both hands (such as, say, hooking lanterns) are something of a trial unto themselves. It may not be the kind of trial that Yvain envisioned, but it is one.
There may have been an intended order or set locations for which lantern goes where, but that power thrums through with another burst of warmth and a door opens when Kaguya hooks the last one is serendipity and it may be best not to look that particular gift horse in the mouth.
Ruth is able to help give running starts here and there with the help of the streams, but other than that the show really does belong to Kaguya there, who is fully owed a thousand gella. Somewhere in all of the japes about age, Ruth's eyes get a bit downcast. "It... it really was," she concurs with Kaguya's assertions there.
Another blast of hot air fills the chamber, seeing the lanterns float in the fiery hot breeze. Beyond the door in which the haze of heat seems to shimmer and wave about the strongest...
DG: Kaguya has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* Igraine - Shrine of the Fire Trial *>==================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - Hell's Gate *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- This chamber terminates in a wide wall in which is set a great gate, ornately carved with runes of fire and sigils of waning. There is no puzzle, no easy mechanism to open this gigantic gate inlaid with a story of binding and sealing. There is, however, a very old and worn winch, and the direct approach. On the other hand, getting close to the gate suggests that whatever's on the other side is very hot -- it will be a test of endurance as well as strength. =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Phrasing!!
Kaguya has what the kids call 'mad ups'. So when Josie makes the bet, Kaguya grins at her. "Deal."
Kaguya takes her place in the challenge with the appropriate humility, which is to say, "I'll take the money sometime later, when my wallet isn't just like, SWEAT STUCK in my pocket. Seriously. It's way too hot in here."
...Ruth talks about... does she mean the joke or does she mean puberty itself????
Was that another burn??
Either way, they got here. Here, in this roo, with a wide wall and a great gate, ornately carved. Runes of fire, sigils of warning, and...
"Huh," Kaguya says. "...So," she turns to the others, "We could use the winch and open the gate slowly, which would be a pain in the ass. Or I could blow a hole in the wall next to the sealed gate and get around it. Whaddya say?"
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Magnetic Resonance Bomb toward her party's challenge, Hell's Gate.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Warning signs, sigils of flame everywhere. Even without the accompaniment of physical duress from being in its presence, the atmosphere has a similarity to... any number of incidents, back in the final years of Celesti. Narrow spaces, building flame. Ruth has to blink her eyes a few times to hold that down. This isn't those times.
But it will be, a part of her whispers, lamenting and chomping at the bit at the same time. What happened at Azado could encompass the entirety of this strange world as she knows it... and Kaguya is able to provide her with enough stimulus to interact with the world outside of her head in the moment, talking about blowing open a wall.
"No." Ruth sets a gloved hand on the winch. There is a stinging sensation - as though the Trial itself was to assure that one way or another, one's resolve will be tested. She lets go, recoiling not in pain but surprise... wiggles her fingers, and remembers. This is the hand of a monster. No amount of pain stopped her from being one, as... her shoulder attests.
She gets out a Crest Graph, one with Muse and Fray, and invokes it as a cooler mist fills the space to change the pressure of the room and try to make it easier to grap and turn the winch.
Her right hand goes to her shoulder again, as she reaches out and grasps it with her left. The uncomfortable sensation returns. For her ability to carry the weight she does, this sort of repetitive strain is hell on the shoulder. She could give in. Say to Kaguya, yes, blow this all to Valmar's... something.
To her credit, she never lets go of the winch - but whether she has it in her to successfully turn it when all's said and done, that's the part she's about to find out.
DG: Ruth Pauling has used her Tool Mistcrest toward her party's challenge, Hell's Gate.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Fair enough," Josie remarks, lips curving in a smile. She really does give it all she has.
It's just also the case that 'all she has' is still not enough to match Kaguya, who outdoes her. "So, kiddo... what's your stance on a lay-away?" Josie says, once all is said and done, without so much as missing a beat. Wait, did she just bet money she didn't actually have...?!
Maybe no one should get into bets with Josie, if this is how it's always going to go.
"...I am gonna kick his ass," Josie remarks, once the investigation of the scene at large is done. Even getting the gate open is going to be a hot, sweaty, pain in the ass. "You know what, kiddo-- he didn't say nothin' about there being rules. Just that we had to get to 'im. So..." She glances sidelong at Ruth, who is doing her most diligent to play it straight.
Josie throws up her hands.
"Fine, fine. We'll do it proper-like first. But if your way fails, Ruth... I'll take the wall down myself," Josie says, setting her mattock out so it's right at hand. You know. If they do need to take down a wall.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Well-Used Mattock toward her party's challenge, Hell's Gate.
====================<* Igraine - Shrine of the Fire Trial *>==================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - Hell's Gate *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- This chamber terminates in a wide wall in which is set a great gate, ornately carved with runes of fire and sigils of waning. There is no puzzle, no easy mechanism to open this gigantic gate inlaid with a story of binding and sealing. There is, however, a very old and worn winch, and the direct approach. On the other hand, getting close to the gate suggests that whatever's on the other side is very hot -- it will be a test of endurance as well as strength. =Dungeon Conditions: Weaken===================================================
===============<* Igraine - Shrine of the Fire Trial - Round 3 *>=============== ===========================< Results - Hell's Gate >============================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 25 --(5)--> 30 Fail Well-Used Mattock 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 20 --(0)--> 20 Pass Magnetic Resonance Bomb 3 Brute Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ruth Pauling 20 --(5)--> 25 Fail Mistcrest 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 35 --(20)--> 55 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(1)|Weaken(2)|Wonder Effects: Cleanse|Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"Hmmm. Well, nothing I need to buy right now anyway," Kaguya says with a shrug. "You can owe me." She doesn't actually care that much about the money--she has a lot of money. She cares about the victory!!
But Ruth... Ruth really wants to try it to test one's resolve, and that Crest does help. It makes it cooler, easier to grip the winch... Unfortunately, though--eventually, though Ruth does her best, the winch breaks, too old or too hard-pressed or too something to finish getting the door down the 'proper' way. But the important part, perhaps, is that Ruth made the effort to try it. That she went through the hard way, whether it worked or not.
"Are you?" Kaguya wonders to Josie. "Maybe you should."
"...Hmm." Kaguya notices the winch break, and considers for a moment. "...Hey, I got an idea."
"Lemme see your mattock," she says. "Just... carve right here, into the mechanism--"
Kaguya, instead of blowing a hole in the wall, pulls out her bomb and starts fiddling with it, until it makes a rudimentary electrical motor. THen she hooks that up to the ruins of the winch and...
Creaaaaaaaaaak.
"...Oh," she says, "If you ever want kids or something, don't get near the winch. The bomb leaked a little."
Kaguya beams, and heads for the now-open gateway. It is... stunningly hot.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* Igraine - Shrine of the Fire Trial *>==================== =============<* CHALLENGE - The Pit Is Shallow, But Also On Fire *>============= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Ahead of the group along their path through gray stone, lit by torches and by the glow of hot magma close by, there is a wide pit. The door is on the other side of it, but there has to be a way through. However, there are complications: the ceiling is very low, there is no path across, and the pit is on fire. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Injure=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie similarly shrugs. "Fair enough!" It's not like 'owing someone' (money, her life, otherwise) is by any means a new phenomenon, or something about which she appears to feel any shame or dread regarding.
They try it the hard way.
It doesn't really work!
"I think I'm gonna," she reaffirms to Kaguya, regarding the whole business. But is she talking about Yvain's ass and the kicking thereof, or the trial being done properly? "So, time for plan B?"
Make that plan C, which involves an unorthdox application of explosives...
"Y'know, while it's probably fair if I never, I think I'll pass," Josie remarks, before heading through the opened gate.
They don't get too far: there's a moat of sorts before them, a trench of flame across which there remains no easy path. No wonder it was so hot.
"Any ideas?" she asks the others as she considers for herself the gap across which they must cross. "Me... I think I'm gonna chance it, right? A little long jump?"
That, and some of the stonework on the sides looks like it's jutting out just enough. Perhaps if she can land, get her feet in the right place and keep on going, it might be enough to propel herself across the gap.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Pit Is Shallow, But Also On Fire.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Ruth holds onto the broken-off winch. There's still that stinging sensation, but she doesn't let go of it. There's a smile on her face that simply does not fit the situation, as she only pays partial attention to the fix until the door opens and reveals further blasts of fiery air.
"After all the person I was lived through... I'm not so sure." She clenches the winch, her ring finger opening and lifting in brief before she just throws her hand down and just doesn't look at it. But she's still holding onto the winch as they traverse into the trench of flames.
Being able to survive greater extremes of temperature is one thing - how fire consumes breathable air is another, but sometimes, it's not oxygen that's giving her blood and breath. Whether that in itself is a boon is... this sort of space is not the kind to go 'this is fine' to and knock back a cup of self-reflection or lack thereof.
A Crest Graph is held again in the other hand. Unlike Josie, she doubts she's going to get as much build-up on these boots. She's carrying far too much to confidently make the jump, so... she looks at the shallow pit, bows her head, and invokes a school of sorcery she yet clings to in order to invoke the Crests of Muse and Wing.
Another stream of water... focused on the other end, to pool back and try to quench the flames enough she might chance walking across, against her own tide. Still clutching the broken-off winch, remembering what Yvain said about the risks - but also how he saw a potential in her.
Somewhere in this moment, it all feels haunting.
DG: Ruth Pauling has used her Tool Rivercrest toward her party's challenge, The Pit Is Shallow, But Also On Fire.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"On the bright side," Kaguya says to Ruth, "Radiation poisoning probably doesn't affect you? So that's pretty cool." She grins at Josie, meanwhile, and tries not to be concerned that Ruth took the winch with her. She only did it the 'right' way because she thought of a cool way to do it, not because she was worried about Ruth or anything. Obviously. Clearly.
The moat...
"Honestly," Kaguya says, "Same idea as you." She glances to Ruth, who uses the stream of water to make it easier. That might work for her, but...
Haunting or not, Kaguya gets a running start and LEAPS!
"Woohoo!"
DG: Kaguya has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Pit Is Shallow, But Also On Fire.
====================<* Igraine - Shrine of the Fire Trial *>==================== =============<* CHALLENGE - The Pit Is Shallow, But Also On Fire *>============= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Ahead of the group along their path through gray stone, lit by torches and by the glow of hot magma close by, there is a wide pit. The door is on the other side of it, but there has to be a way through. However, there are complications: the ceiling is very low, there is no path across, and the pit is on fire. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Injure=========================================
===============<* Igraine - Shrine of the Fire Trial - Round 4 *>=============== ===============< Results - The Pit Is Shallow, But Also On Fire >=============== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 30 --(0)--> 30 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 20 --(5)--> 25 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ruth Pauling 25 --(0)--> 25 Pass Rivercrest 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 55 --(20)--> 75 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(2)|Injure(2)|Wonder Effects: Cleanse ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Ruth Pauling has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* Igraine - Shrine of the Fire Trial *>==================== ==================<* CHALLENGE - Bridge Over Troubled Lava *>=================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Finally, a central chamber opens up. Magma rings the circular platform ahead on all sides, the ceiling stretching up high enough for a dragon -- or a Gear Smooth grey stone makes up the walls, and in the middle... A broken bridge. Once, it spanned the gap over the lava between your group and the final gate, but now it is so much wrecked and ruined stone. There must be another way across -- but you'll need luck and skill to find and use it. And the final gate awaits... =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Bad Luck, Suffer===============================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Same idea, huh?"
Indeed. While Ruth opts to brave the pit -- using her speed and the Muse and Wing enchantments she can conjure forth -- Kaguya and Josie alike take to the wall, rebounding off of what jutting stones make themselves available to them. Though there is a moment where Josie might have reason to think that she was about to tumble right into the flames--
She does not. Instead, she is able to keep going, landing neatly on the other side.
Kaguya faces more trouble, slipping at a critical moment just as Josie turns her head back towards the pyre.
"Ruth!"
That's her cue, as she moves swiftly across the flames: she should be able to reach Kaguya before she lands in the fire. There should be enough time.
Josie does her best to meet them both there -- or as near enough to them as they can, reaching out a hand to pull Kaguya to safety just ahead of Ruth's own emergence from the lake of flame.
"Well, that nearly left a mark," she quips, shaking her head. "C'mon, you two. I'm near sick of fire."
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Ruth is broken out of a reverie by the first sensation she's felt of another living being's stress and urgency. She looks up from that stream she's walking against, and chases it. Kaguya will find that she may yet come shy of landing in boiling hot water that Ruth is just letting herself trudge through (unless Kaguya rather would, the water is freaking hot but she's a Veruni, that may be comfortable water temperature). Ruth's own momentum halts if she indeed catches Kaguya with her right arm and shoulder. Healthier, at least. It'd be a near-miss of the bayonet blade of her rifle to her back, and lots of smoke rises from where the winch in her left hand makes contact with the water.
There's another discordant smile, but it is at least that of an elf and not of a Hellion. Whether Kaguya disengages to resume climbing or just let Ruth help escort her along, a greater calm falls upon Ruth even as flames tickle the tips of her dress and overcoat.
The central chamber opens up, to a circular platform ahead surrounded by a ring of magma. The ceiling's high enough to accommodate something like a dragon... or a Gear, but in the middle...
There was a bridge. It has decayed, and underneath it, molten rock. It's quite the gap, and it's not one someone can casually wade through. It's freaking magma. That's magnitudes hotter than boiling hot water.
Ruth comes down to a kneel, clutching that same Crest and the winch together. The air here is barely breathable. She looks to the rosary wrapped around her forearm. What will they all be proving amongst one another by doing this? What strength do they gain? She has already seen how even Althena's Guard can be cowed by Hellions outside of their sanctuaries...
"Josie... Kaguya." Ruth has a smile on her face. "Do you want to see what's ahead?" She thinks she knows. There's too many parallels. She invokes the Crests one more time in a praying position, putting as much of her grasp of Crest Sorcery as she can to try and run the entire length of the gap. To make the attempt to cool the molten magma so that crossing it is... less of a suspension of disbelief.
DG: Ruth Pauling has used her Tool Rivercrest toward her party's challenge, Bridge Over Troubled Lava.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"Shiiiiii--"
Kaguya is about to fall into the fire, and doesn't! Maybe, as a Veruni, she'd have been fine. Maybe her ice magic could've sustained her. Maybe Veruni just aren't scared of fire. But she doesn't look happy to be falling, and when Josie calls Ruth, Kaguya looks up to find Ruththere catching her with arm and shoulder. Sure, she almost hits the bayonet, but only also. She finds herself coughing from the smoke, but doesn't let go, instead sticking with Ruth for a bit and then pulling a small breathing mask out of her things and sucking in cleaner air through it for a few moments.
"Yeah," she says after that. "Fire kinda sucks. 'Best invention' my ass."
But there's calm... and there's magma. Kaguya frowns. "...i'm not sure my teleporters would work with all this smoke interference," she admits grimly, regarding the magma. "But this..."
Ruth kneels, and starts to work her magic. And she...
"Yeah," Kaguya says. "I do."
Pause. "...But you do, too. You came here for a reason. So..."
Kaguya kneels down, too, and puts her hand towards the magma. She focuses, and something she doesn't usually do much of happens--magic. Ice magic, in particular, to support Ruth's. Perhaps, together, they can make a bridge...
DG: Kaguya has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Bridge Over Troubled Lava.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Heh. You and me both on that one, kiddo," Josie remarks, smiling in a way that doesn't seem quite correct when paired with the look in her eyes.
There's just one more door -- just one more, as Josie can see the arena that opens up before them. She might not have been surprised to have seen a dragon here -- or even Yvain himself. But instead, there is a broken bridge.
"I'm really gonna kick his ass," Josie remarks, but not without good cheer and a smile on her lips. "So we just have to get on over, eh?"
She looks between the two of them, two fellow travelers with whom it could be said Josie herself shares a certain feeling of comraderie. Take a bit of each of them, mix up two, and you'd get the third... or something like that.
Do they want to see what's ahead?
"Sure do," Josie replies. "Come all this way, right? Let's see it through to the end."
She's always been good at that, come hell or high water.
"And there's still enough to go by." Just enough broken pieces of the bridge. Just enough of a cobbled-together route.
Just enough light in the dark.
She'll move quickly, over whatever bridge they create.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Bridge Over Troubled Lava.
====================<* Igraine - Shrine of the Fire Trial *>==================== ==================<* CHALLENGE - Bridge Over Troubled Lava *>=================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Finally, a central chamber opens up. Magma rings the circular platform ahead on all sides, the ceiling stretching up high enough for a dragon -- or a Gear Smooth grey stone makes up the walls, and in the middle... A broken bridge. Once, it spanned the gap over the lava between your group and the final gate, but now it is so much wrecked and ruined stone. There must be another way across -- but you'll need luck and skill to find and use it. And the final gate awaits... =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Bad Luck, Suffer===============================
===============<* Igraine - Shrine of the Fire Trial - Round 5 *>=============== ====================< Results - Bridge Over Troubled Lava >===================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 30 --(101)--> 131 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 25 --(101)--> 126 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ruth Pauling 25 --(101)--> 126 Fail Rivercrest 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 75 --(15)--> 90 Fail Conditions: Bad Luck(2)|Hesitate(2)|Suffer(1)|Wonder Effects: Cleanse ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: Josephine Lovelace is too exhausted to continue! DG: Kaguya is too exhausted to continue! DG: Ruth Pauling is too exhausted to continue! DG: The party has failed this challenge! All party members are now Exhausted. This attempt is over. DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has been fully Exhausted by Igraine - Shrine of the Fire Trial! DG: The party will now draw a conclusion.
====================<* Igraine - Shrine of the Fire Trial *>==================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - A Frozen Flame *>======================== |Type: Landmark |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The Great Gate opens, and the central chamber of Igraine awaits, the site of the Fire Trial to come. It is a large chamber, stretching forth from the entry hall, and within awaits a humanoid silhouette. While the trials may have been too much for your group, hope is not lost: there is a final trial to come, administered by the keeper of the Fire Shrine. But on a pedestal on the way into the final ordeal, there is something strange: a crystalline fire, held in place seemingly by nothing at all. This is a potentially powerful object that can create a roaring flame... Once. It may not be terribly useful in an ordeal of fire, but you never know. =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
The magma underneath the broken bridge churns and bubbles, spewing up things that should not be introduced in one's lungs. Veruni and Crest sorceries come together in an attempt to assert themselves against the roaring flames - but this is the Shrine of the Fire Trial. Under Yvain's watch, that is the element that rules the day. This final trial will not be subverted as such.
Josie, daredevil archaeologist that has thrown away almost everything in pursuit of her goals will find that there may be broken pieces of a bridge that could serve as footholds, but one of them suddenly sinks underneath the magma well before anyone sets foot there. It becomes a fragment of a bridge too far. They're not going across.
They're not going to kick Yvain's ass. (right now)
Somehow, the heat of the room starts to part, revealing a path that was previously obscured by the mirages cast by the unyielding flames. Quietly, Ruth rises and stares at the bridge and the magma. The winch is still in her hand - but there is the sight of a pedestal down the path revealed.
A beautiful, crystalline fire atop a pedestal suspended in mid-air by... nothing. Crystalized flame, for the taking. (It doesn't burn to the touch. Yet? Whatever could spark it, let's not find out by accident, there is an immense power within that object. It may not even be meant to be touched, but when has that stopped anyone from putting weird things in their inventory?)
A humanoid silhouette is ahead, though features are unclear... but they wait, and do not obscure their way to them beyond sight.