2022-03-30: A Dream of Pumpkins
- Log: A Dream of Pumpkins
- Cast: Josephine Lovelace, Ethius Hesiod, Lily Keil
- Where: ???
- Date: March 30, 2022
- Summary: A storied trio has a dream about many things -- happier/more mysterious times, pumpkins, mayhem. But mostly pumpkins.
DG: A party led by Josephine Lovelace is now entering Altair's Farmstead. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
============================<* Altair's Farmstead *>============================ =======================<* CHALLENGE - Tactics O' Gourd *>======================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- This goes slightly above and beyond 'haunted pumpkin patch.' The town is nothing short of a warzone. Its residents have holed up behind locked doors and shuttered windows, clutching gunsmoke arms. Piles of pulverized produce and deflated flannel and denim clothes litter the streets. Some of them are even on fire! The damage only gets worse the closer you get to the fields on the far side of town. Surely whatever is responsible for this carnage can be found there. Of course, getting there will mean getting past warring patrols of... walking, pumpkin-headed farmhands? If you move quickly and stealthily enough, you might be able to take advantage of their skirmishes to make your way unscathed toward the farm at the far end of the road. It may be worthwhile to stop at some of the abandoned houses to whip up appropriate camouflage to confuse the sentries, too...! A sign dangles ominously from a busted-up gate that reads: 'Welcome to Mistress Altair's Happy Family Farmstead~<3' ((OOC Note: Feel free to use this card as an opportunity to get equipped with COSTUME DISGUISES to assist with your infiltration. You don't /have/ to, but this is Halloween and costumes are a thing!)) =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Hesitate=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
It's a dream, though it hardly feels like one.
But then -- such things rarely do. It's as natural as anything that Josie comes upon this particular farmstead after walking through a town that has seen better days. Doors are barred and battered, remains of produce remain scattered in the streets. There are bulletshells and bulletholes in everything, but aside from the vegetable massacre spattered across the road there is little other sign of violence. This was a battlefield, yes, but one in which produce was the only victim.
"Huh," Josie remarks, making her way through the town. "Don't that beat all."
Before long there are signs of life in the battlezone this town has become -- life, yes, but not as we know it!
If life comes as a bunch of clothing-wearing mobile pumpkin patches, that is.
Moving carefully -- but wuickly -- through the town, Josie avails herself of the broken and battered homes and, slipping inside, filches a few articles of clothing.
Why not? It feels like the thing to do -- dressing up as a bit of camoflauge against the pumpkin people setting siege to the city. In particular, she comes across a white shirt, a cravat, a long cape, some fake fangs...
A little time with a mirror (she's a Red Noble for pretendsies, not for real) and a little futzing with her hair (behaving, today!) and... she's the very image of an elegant modern Red Noble. Grinning toothily at herself in the mirror once more, she vanishes from the house she's most recently snuck into and advances...
Towards the farmhouse. Why?
Well, there seem to be a lot of these pumpkin guys there.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Tactics O' Gourd.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"This is everything I feared." The voice itself is familiar enough to a dreaming psyche - it's Ethius' - but there's a bit... more, behind that voice than usual, who in the context of the dream just happens to have made it into the same space Josie is as she is prepping herself to come off as a Red Noble. He may or may not be hiding underneath layers of cloaks and blankets like a scared child, going by appearances.
"I need to get to their mayor." This seems like a non-sequitur, and... it's a dream, so even with whatever goes on that links separate psyches together in the same headspace, weird statements with no apparent context are a given as the shambles of heavy cloaks holds up a pumpkin-headed bag of...
Oh. That's his costume. The headless horseman. The Hot Air Sack, disguised, inflates with Symbologically conjured hot air to find some higher vantage point to float overhead once the disguising process is complete among the gathered.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Hot Air Sack toward his party's challenge, Tactics O' Gourd.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
It's a dream, and it feels a little strange. But Lily Keill doesn't think much of that at the moment, either. She is at a farm... it's not in Aveh. She's pretty sure it's not in Aveh. But she makes her way across the streets, noticing the bullets and their evidence all over. A battlefield... of vegetables.
It's a thing.
But Lily notices... the pumpkins. She lifts an eyebrow, and moves into one of the homes too. She looks around as if to find some protection around... And in the logic of dreams, she finds...
Well, a lot of layers and scraps of things; some of it's armored, some of it's not. Somehow her makeup changed, too, to become a lot paler, to make her look more than a little dead in the first place. Zombie...???
She steps out of the house, and then steps forward... and the Pendant hums. She brings it up to her hand--
It doesn't work like it usually does. Instead Lily just passes not like a zombie, but like a ghost through obstacles, looking for all the world like an angry spectre.
"...Then the mayor it is," Lily's voice comes like a cold wind.
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Impure Pendant toward her party's challenge, Tactics O' Gourd.
============================<* Altair's Farmstead *>============================ =======================<* CHALLENGE - Tactics O' Gourd *>======================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- This goes slightly above and beyond 'haunted pumpkin patch.' The town is nothing short of a warzone. Its residents have holed up behind locked doors and shuttered windows, clutching gunsmoke arms. Piles of pulverized produce and deflated flannel and denim clothes litter the streets. Some of them are even on fire! The damage only gets worse the closer you get to the fields on the far side of town. Surely whatever is responsible for this carnage can be found there. Of course, getting there will mean getting past warring patrols of... walking, pumpkin-headed farmhands? If you move quickly and stealthily enough, you might be able to take advantage of their skirmishes to make your way unscathed toward the farm at the far end of the road. It may be worthwhile to stop at some of the abandoned houses to whip up appropriate camouflage to confuse the sentries, too...! A sign dangles ominously from a busted-up gate that reads: 'Welcome to Mistress Altair's Happy Family Farmstead~<3' ((OOC Note: Feel free to use this card as an opportunity to get equipped with COSTUME DISGUISES to assist with your infiltration. You don't /have/ to, but this is Halloween and costumes are a thing!)) =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Hesitate=========================================
=======================<* Altair's Farmstead - Round 1 *>======================= =========================< Results - Tactics O' Gourd >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 0 --(13)--> 13 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 0 --(13)--> 13 Fail Hot Air Sack 2 Agility Effects: Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Impure Pendant 3 Agility Effects: Rally -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Hesitate(2) Effects: Resilient(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> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"...Owl? Fhancy meetingh youh hhhere-- damn." She pops the teeth out again and slips them into a pocket, scowling only briefly at herself in the mirror before giving herself another once-over. ...She's planted a hand on her hip, almost as if voguing for a moment before the cracked mirror. "The mayor, huh?" she says, glancing behind herself at Ethius. "You think he's hidin' out at the farm?" She rolls her shoulders in a lazy shrug. "Well, sure as sure can be. C'mon. Promise I won't even take you in the back or nothin'."
In waking life, Josie's reaction upon spotting Lily would have been far different.
Here, her lips split into a grin. "Tiger! Right on time. C'mon, we just gotta get past these jokers," she says.
Famous last words. She ends up tripping over a line strug with tin cans, prompting the pumpkin watch to come out running for the lot of them. Ethius at least might be able to make use of his bag (assuming the pumpkinfolk don't get in a few licks, first) but Josie is forced to kite them away from the gates, first.
Lily, on the other hand--
A violation of space-time occurs. She's here. Some pumpkins go after her. A fight ensues.
She's also not here, not anymore.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Altair's Farmstead *>============================ ========================<* CHALLENGE - Tricker Treant *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Fertilizer runoff is a very real problem! You never know what might be affected by the stuff you're putting on your fields. This is especially problematic when the fertilizer in question seems to create angry pumpkinheads. Your exploration leads you to what at first glance seems like a fairly nice little rest-stop underneath the boughs of a leafless tree. The moment you stop to stretch your legs, however, a branch snakes down and hoists one of your party up into the air! The tree is not just a tree, it's a treant! Fortunately it's a fairly immature treant and seems more interested in flailing your friend overhead. Unfortunately, you still need to get up there and free them before the tree slips and something painful happens! =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Injure===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
It's something of a scary situation getting out into the fields proper. The Altair of dreams and memory alike doesn't have it so bad, in so far as greenery on Filgaia goes. That alone may be the spookiest thing about this place before starting to even consider issues of 'what's in the fertilizer runoff' or 'why are pumpkin-headed things trying to kill us.'
"There's no sign of him here." Ethius remarks as he starts to float down into the fields with only a few bullet holes that do not appear to be bloodstained. It's a dream, though - and a leafless tree here seems to be as good a landmark as any to stop and collect oneself.
"There's no sign of the D--"
And then there's a branch that just comes down and picks up Ethius by the headless(?) neck, and the tree produces a little face:
:D
THe mouth is too small to do anything like 'swallow a victim whole,' its bark teeth too blunt and soft to do damage. Instead, it decides swinging Ethius around is a great pastime, and let's be honest to one another. It is! More things would be improved in life by having Ethius picked up by the scruff and swung around like a flag.
His lack of screaming is indicative of sheer annoyance more than anything, as he struggles to get the spell going to try and prepare a Hot Air Sack float in case he's flung high into the air or something, but... he could use some help.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Hot Air Sack toward his party's challenge, Tricker Treant.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
In waking life, Lily's reaction to being spotted would be different. She actually almost smiles at Josie. Almost. "Right," she answers. And then things happen. Many things happen.
But Lily is fine, so it's fine.
"So the target is the mayor," Lily confirms with Ethius. "Do we need him alive?"
She's in business mode already. She is also solid again, by the time a branch picks Ethius up and :Ds at them. Lily frowns, noticing...
Hm. That does look kind of fun, doesn't it?
"Right! I'll help!" Lily conjures a blade of darkness and starts hacking at the tree's trunk with it, because any challenge is a brute challenge if you try had and believe in yourself!!
"Josie! Can you get him down? This is going to give away our position!"
DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Tricker Treant.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Yeah? You meet him before?" Josie remarks, sizing up Ethius. "...He stiff you?"
That is what this is all about, isn't it?
Ethius may not have a chance to answer before he's unceremoniously swept up into the treetop, held aloft by a rather young extremely cheerful treant.
"Huh, don't that beat all," Josie remarks, and not for the first time tonight. She shoots a glance Lily's way.
They better get him down before he gives them away. Well, that's definitely true -- at least he's not screaming.
"Right, right. Used to climb trees like this all the time, as a kid," she remarks, beginning her ascent.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Tricker Treant.
============================<* Altair's Farmstead *>============================ ========================<* CHALLENGE - Tricker Treant *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Fertilizer runoff is a very real problem! You never know what might be affected by the stuff you're putting on your fields. This is especially problematic when the fertilizer in question seems to create angry pumpkinheads. Your exploration leads you to what at first glance seems like a fairly nice little rest-stop underneath the boughs of a leafless tree. The moment you stop to stretch your legs, however, a branch snakes down and hoists one of your party up into the air! The tree is not just a tree, it's a treant! Fortunately it's a fairly immature treant and seems more interested in flailing your friend overhead. Unfortunately, you still need to get up there and free them before the tree slips and something painful happens! =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Injure===========================================
=======================<* Altair's Farmstead - Round 2 *>======================= ==========================< Results - Tricker Treant >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 13 --(25)--> 38 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 13 --(25)--> 38 Fail Hot Air Sack 2 Agility Effects: Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 5 --(25)--> 30 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 20 --(15)--> 35 Fail Conditions: Fright(2)|Hesitate(1)|Injure(2) Effects: Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has failed this challenge! The party gained 15 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The tree continues to play with Ethius, who is not in the mood to play, but also is not in enough of a mood to muster up his own escape from the sheer exasperation of it.
Josie shares a childhood experience about climbing trees, and as it turns out, this current period of time is also the tree's childhood... so they share a moment (in which the treant also helps her up higher and then doesn't let go). The tree has a happy little smile!
Somehow, underneath the costume - how does Ethius see out of that, anyway? - he stares an exasperated look to Josie as he seems to go limp. "It is complicated. The simple matter is..." There isn't a simple latter, is there. "I will accept that interpretation."
Lily, meanwhile, believes in making this into a brute challenge. Then a tiny branch-finger stabs into the blade of pure entropy, and starts drawing funny happy shapes around its trunk and itself and it's... spooky. It defies the laws of reality. It is a moment in which even the element of entropy cannot erase what's here.
It is, at least in the eyes of the tiny treant tyrant, all in good fun and they will be hurled away (literally) when bored.
DG: Lily Keil has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Altair's Farmstead *>============================ ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Snarecrows *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Every farm has scarecrows to frighten away hungry birds. Not all farms have quite so many scarecrows as this one. Pretty much only this farm has scarecrows that are all waving around signs with slogans like 'VEGETABLES ARE PEOPLE TOO' and 'EAT MEAT - NOT ME' and 'HEY NO WE WON'T GROW.' As they notice you approach, they all abruptly drop what they're doing and begin forming a blockade with their bodies. Their straw-stuffed limbs are unusually mighty, their scraggly hands are bizarrely dexterous, and they're doing their damnedest to make sure you don't advance even a single inch further! =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Weaken===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Complicated. So, maybe don't destroy him on sight. Lily can work with that. But she has more trouble working with this tree, looking to Josie with a shake of her head and a big shrug when it's all done with. "That was... something," she admits, looking at the space in the air where her blade was. Where there were silly shapes...
"I didn't so much. We didn't have so many trees in Nortune."
With the cheerful treant behind them, though, Lily moves on.. until she sees the scarecrows with the signs. She lifts an eyebrow as she looks frm one, to the next, to the next...
"..."
Tey start to block the way. Lily stares for a few moments, and tilts her head.
She lifts her hand, and she's suddenly holding a crystal that starts to glow. She's... just gonna set them on fire. It's fine.
But there may be a better way...
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Power Crystal toward her party's challenge, Snarecrows.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Somewhere to Lily's left, the mass of robes shakes up and down as the crystal starts to glow.
A beat passes.
"That was a nod." Ethius says. "I should clarify."
It may be the only thing in their collective history in which he's clarified anything, as he starts to join Team Let's Set This On Fire.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Snarecrows.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Yep," Josie says, not that anyone had actually pressed her further on the matter of her childhood. "Got a little bit of what's left of a forest, near Marze. 'Course, them that was never had faces or none!"
Getting Ethius out of this mess is not particularly easy. In fact, all it does it get her entangled in this mess, too.
"Owl? For the record, yooooooou----"
Whatever she had been about to say is cut off as the tree sends her flying into the unknown-- or, well, a short distance away into a pile of hay. It's fortunately not got the pitchfork in.
"Woof," Josie remarks, pulling herself from the hay and dusting herself off. "Now, what've we--"
She watches the scarecrows get into formation. Then slowly, her head turns towards Ethius and Lily.
"I'll do cleanup, right?" she remarks, not moving a muscle (well, other than to bring that mattock into view. Just the thing for tidying up burnt scarecrows!).
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Well-Used Mattock toward her party's challenge, Snarecrows.
============================<* Altair's Farmstead *>============================ ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Snarecrows *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Every farm has scarecrows to frighten away hungry birds. Not all farms have quite so many scarecrows as this one. Pretty much only this farm has scarecrows that are all waving around signs with slogans like 'VEGETABLES ARE PEOPLE TOO' and 'EAT MEAT - NOT ME' and 'HEY NO WE WON'T GROW.' As they notice you approach, they all abruptly drop what they're doing and begin forming a blockade with their bodies. Their straw-stuffed limbs are unusually mighty, their scraggly hands are bizarrely dexterous, and they're doing their damnedest to make sure you don't advance even a single inch further! =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Weaken===========================================
=======================<* Altair's Farmstead - Round 3 *>======================= ============================< Results - Snarecrows >============================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 38 --(0)--> 38 Pass Well-Used Mattock 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 38 --(0)--> 38 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 30 --(0)--> 30 Pass Power Crystal 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 35 --(20)--> 55 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Injure(1)|Weaken(2) Effects: Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"That's good," Lily says of a little forest. On Ignas that's pretty notable. "True. Most trees don't have faces."
But Lily is charging power. And--The mass of robes... Ah. Ethius--
"Did you just--" Lily slowly blinks at Ethius. For a moment, the power stops gathering outright. This is absolutely she's pretty sure the first time she's heard of that. "..."
"Okay. Then that's what we'll do."
Josie is fine. It didn't have a pitchfork in. And Josie can hande cleanup!
Ethius and Lily just burn the fuck out of the entire barrier. It's almost a problem, the level of burning that happens here before they start fleeing. Stop, drop, and roll!!
Josie can clear them a path after that,, and they can move on.
"...Much better,"Lily says, though she feels a little... it's a sting not quite nostalgia, as she watches Josie move ahead, and she can't put a finger on what it is.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Altair's Farmstead *>============================ ========================<* CHALLENGE - Pumpkin Pride *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- A bullet whizzes by your ear. You seem to have stepped right into a blockade manned by pumpkin-headed guards armed with a handful of scavenged blunderbusses and farm tools. One of them is even driving what seems to be a weaponized combine harvester! It seems as though this band of pumpkin protesters has taken offense to your presence on their land, and more are leaping out of the surrounding cornfields by the minute! Fight them off or you might just end up mulch! =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Injure===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Cleanup, because it just won't due to leave these fires burning. Also they're not likely to completely turn to ash -- well, perhaps not all of them. There's usually a few bits and bobs that don't quite catch, in Josie's experience.
Such that it is.
"Right," she says, and there's that little twinge for her, too, as she glances at Lily sidelong. Strange. It was almost as if...
But the dream dictates little outside its boundaries. Here, they are here for perfectly valid and reasonable reasons. Don't look too hard beneath the surface.
And then someone almost shoots Josie in the head.
"--What?" Josie utters, whipping around. Damn! She can just see them over there -- they've been sighted!
By the... pumpkins. She squints. There's something a distance off that's moving strangely, just behind...
Wait. What's that sound.
"Hell's bells," she remarks, deadpanned. "They've commandeered a combine! C'mon!"
She may just take a swig from a flask, first, before attempting a wild forward assault. "It's now or never! We ain't gonna outrun that thing!"
And if her rifle sort of dances in her dream between rifle and shotgun, what of it?
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Liquid Courage toward her party's challenge, Pumpkin Pride.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"Local weapons." Ethius remarks cryptically as he takes cover for the moment as the combined forces of pumpkin-headed guards start to descend upon them. "The mayor must not have accrued resources from elsewhere," he's holding a hand to his... well, it is his forehead, but under the costume it's more like to his stump.
"...I don't recall this being... how it works." As if he could be grasping at the idea of something... off, in the moment, but his reflexes are too well-honed to second guess on that front. One of the satchels at his belt is loosed, and hurled out in the direction of one such approaching detachment of guards with the usual, expected results of 'here is a dust cloud.'
That gives them less of a problem in maneuvering about an approaching combine harvester, at least.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Powder Grenade toward his party's challenge, Pumpkin Pride.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
The dream is what the dream is. "...Did you expect them to?" Lily asks Ethius. It is pretty cryptic. But she wonders about it. Something about how something works, though....
Hm. She throws up a barrier as they think about it, absorbing a few more bullets meant for her or for Josie. But Josie probably has the right of it. Now or never...
When was the last time Lily didn't go for a forward assault?
"Right!" she says, and as Ethius hurls a distraction, she reaches out her hand to give it a boost, igniting the dust with fire to clear the way.
DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Pumpkin Pride.
============================<* Altair's Farmstead *>============================ ========================<* CHALLENGE - Pumpkin Pride *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- A bullet whizzes by your ear. You seem to have stepped right into a blockade manned by pumpkin-headed guards armed with a handful of scavenged blunderbusses and farm tools. One of them is even driving what seems to be a weaponized combine harvester! It seems as though this band of pumpkin protesters has taken offense to your presence on their land, and more are leaping out of the surrounding cornfields by the minute! Fight them off or you might just end up mulch! =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Injure===========================================
=======================<* Altair's Farmstead - Round 4 *>======================= ==========================< Results - Pumpkin Pride >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 38 --(5)--> 43 Pass Liquid Courage 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 38 --(5)--> 43 Pass Powder Grenade 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 30 --(5)--> 35 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 55 --(20)--> 75 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Injure(2)|Weaken(1) Effects: ===============================< 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> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Elsewhere, huh? ...Pretty well-connected guy," Josie remarks. "Even if it seems like it ain't doin' him much good now!"
They come in from various angles -- ahead, the fields from either side. But what better time to make their stand than in the chaos of the mixed charge?
And what better time than when they're under the aegis of Lily's magic?
Dust rises from the fields in short order; this at least simplifies the matter somewhat. And as for the combine--
One, two.
Three shots, and not only are the pumpkins piloting it so much pie, but the whole thing grinds to a smoking halt.
"Ain't that a sight," Josie says, holstering her ARM. "Gonna be a bit sick of pumpkin when I'm through here! Your mayor a wizard, Owl?"
DG: Ethius Hesiod has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Altair's Farmstead *>============================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Teleporter Maize *>=======================
|Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
You've been wandering the fields and farmland for long enough now that you
almost feel like you've got a hang of how to navigate through it all. You
take a step, turn a corner and--
*blip*
Suddenly you're... somewhere else entirely. Vanished in a flash of orange
light. There's a symbological sign underfoot that seems to be responsible,
and several more up ahead. Reality dawns on you in all its horrible glory.
Yes, indeed, this is no mere corn maze...
It's... a teleporter maize.
And whatever you're after is /probably/ at the end of it all. Now all you
have to do is figure out how to navigate it...
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Madness==========================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"I am aware he is practiced in Symbology," says Ethius who finds some more cover somewhere to get his bearings once the patrol is evaded, neutralized, or otherwise summarily ignored by dream logic and how object permanence is subjective within these subconscious realities. "Which... does not fit."
There is a moment of clarity underneath the costume. "Is he here at all...?" And then... vwoop.
No, it's a blip, it sounds orange. Ethius is disappeared. If anyone else takes a step, they are subject to that colorful, very specific teleportation noise too. Symbological signs underfoot are the culprit here, and then as it turns out... it's a maze, of maize, with teleporters. The perfect way to get lost. The perfect way to find oneself running around in circles.
Some of them do lead to fancy crop circles! (Of local origin, thank you.)
If Ethius is found at any point, he's trying to cheat his way through with the help of that cyan light-giving eyeglass to look and see what's connected to what. Through layers of cloth. Over his face.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Spectral Lens toward his party's challenge, Teleporter Maize.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"Connections are handy, but who you know isn't as important as who's actually with you."
Lily looks over the site of their triumph for a moment, and considers. "...Now I want... pie," she admits. "I'm kinda hungry."
"A Symbologist? That's something to keep in mind. We can't underestimate him." But is he here? It's usually a matter to discuss and consider, but... Vwoomp! Blip!
Lily steps forward, and also blips. "....Hm," she says. "Found the Symbology, I guess..."
It's weird, but she's too chill at the moment to stress about the whole teeporter maize thing. It's hard to say whether she can keep track of the others, but she pulls a knife and starts marking stalks to keep track of where they go.
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Lily's Knife toward her party's challenge, Teleporter Maize.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Symbology, huh?"
Josie doesn't press on the 'doesn't fit', perhaps more pensive at the moment than she might have otherwise been when the topic circulates -- however briefly -- around that particular magical practice. "Whadya mean? Ain't he the reason that--"
*blip*
"...Don't this beat all," Josie says, for the third time for those counting! "Don't tell me we walked right into a trap? Huh... ain't seen one of these in a dog's year. Hey, Tiger!"
There is a pause as Josie unceremoniously lights up her cigarette. "Ever run a corn maze before?"
If she scatters ash here and there, it's certainly by chance and not to mark their path forward. Certainly chance.
"Sure is." Symbology, that is.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Pack of Cigarettes toward her party's challenge, Teleporter Maize.
============================<* Altair's Farmstead *>============================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Teleporter Maize *>=======================
|Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
You've been wandering the fields and farmland for long enough now that you
almost feel like you've got a hang of how to navigate through it all. You
take a step, turn a corner and--
*blip*
Suddenly you're... somewhere else entirely. Vanished in a flash of orange
light. There's a symbological sign underfoot that seems to be responsible,
and several more up ahead. Reality dawns on you in all its horrible glory.
Yes, indeed, this is no mere corn maze...
It's... a teleporter maize.
And whatever you're after is /probably/ at the end of it all. Now all you
have to do is figure out how to navigate it...
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Madness==========================================
=======================<* Altair's Farmstead - Round 5 *>======================= =========================< Results - Teleporter Maize >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 43 --(20)--> 63 Fail Pack of Cigarettes 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 43 --(20)--> 63 Fail Spectral Lens 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 35 --(12)--> 47 Pass Lily's Knife 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 75 --(0)--> 75 Fail Conditions: Fright(2)|Injure(1)|Madness Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has failed this challenge! The party gained 0 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Lily leaves her mark as she traverses the maze, doing her level best to keep track of where she's going and where. Everywhere she goes... pumpkin-heads look to her and flee, and she may find a measure of peace that her ability to scare and destroy is once again asserted even if she does not by herself make much progress.
Compare and contrast the others, who... comparatively also do not really go anywhere quick, or slow. They just keep popping all over the cornfields, and dream logic ensures the Symbols are never ever consistent in their intricacy which is maddening for trained Symbologists like themselves.
"now hold on one dang minnit," says a scarecrow who reaches over and plucks the cigarette, "we dont want no fire let the vulgar adulterer not burn okay"
...okay?
Ethius gets the brilliant idea to remove his hood and actually see with his eyes, somewhere in all of this, as memories within the dream start to entangle themselves into... something else.
DG: Lily Keil has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Altair's Farmstead *>============================ =======================<* CHALLENGE - Of Gourd Battles *>======================= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- With a final *blip*, you emerge at the very heart of this unnaturally large cornfield/pumpkin patch/crime against all good sense and find yourself... In the middle of a battle to the death between the two forces vying for control over the fields. On the one hand, a considerably more well-put-together (and more recently assembled) host of heavily armed vegetable golems. They even have a few pumpkin tanks! On the other... More vegetable golems, except there are very obviously far more of them and they're also very clearly nowhere near as well equipped-- though they easily make up for the difference with raw numbers. Mysteriously, the first group appears vaguely red to your eyes, the second seems to ping as yellow, and you are distinctly blue. Weird, that. To bring peace to this little corner of Filgaia- and to escape from this agrarian fever dream- you'll need to defeat one or both of these belligerents. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Suffer===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"We seem to have," Lily comments to Josie about the trap. But then she lifts an eyebrow. A corn maze...
"Sure, why not?" she says, since she hasn't, actually. Not that she remembers anyway. But while the maze doesn't go very well, she does at least appreciate the scarecrows being apparently terrified of her. She nods at hem, as they move away... and then, the three of them are together again, as they step on the last teleporters--
Into a battle!!
Pumpkin tanks, golems, two forces vying for dominance. Red... and yellow... and blue.
Hmm.
"So," Lily says, "I say we just cut a path down the middle."
DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Of Gourd Battles.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"--Hey!"
Without further ado, Josie loses complete ownership of her cigarette. Even an attempt to swipe it back falls through; she catches nothing but air as the scarecrow slips away. "Well, that's rude," she fumes, folding her arms over her chest.
Though he might have had a point??
At least in the end, they get out of the magical maize, before anyone does anything reckless with said fire.
"Kind of a weird thing to do with Symbology," Josie remarks, and hell, maybe she would know all considering. "So, what was all that about your mayor fella? --Looks like we've got company."
Her gaze has landed on the battlefield arrayed before them: tanks, pumpkins, golems -- a vegetable warzone!
It's all oddly familiar, somehow.
Downing the last of her flask, Josie ducks her head in a nod. "Right there with you, kiddo."
'Kiddo'? She hasn't called Lily that in ages.
...Right?
Undeterred, Josie slides her rifle -- shotgun? -- free.
"Let's make a mess," she quips.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Liquid Courage toward her party's challenge, Of Gourd Battles.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"...He's not here." Ethius responds to Josie's remarks, as the two battlefield forces square up and stake their claims across the acres of a budding Wood War. The generation may yet refer to this conflict as the Grape War, but there's not a whole lot of wine here, so quit bellyachin'. (what)
At least there isn't a guy wearing a cooking pot talking about zombies trying to get on lawns, but that's a minor blessing. Pop the cap on your drink if that's a relief, but... yes.
"He's not here." Ethius repeats what seems to be fact enough in a place where 'fact' is tenuous as a concept, drawing the other satchel and prepping it with another Symbological spellcast before he can speak up again, tanks, pumpkins, and golems starting to descend on their position. This isn't the first time he's found himself drawn in a strange place only tangentially related to his present aims.
"What he's done is worse," Ethius leaves on that cryptic remark as he throws down the smoke cover for what is ostensibly his own escape. HE doesn't have a clear idea or plan of what, or where, or why, but 'not here.'
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Powder Grenade toward his party's challenge, Of Gourd Battles.
============================<* Altair's Farmstead *>============================ =======================<* CHALLENGE - Of Gourd Battles *>======================= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- With a final *blip*, you emerge at the very heart of this unnaturally large cornfield/pumpkin patch/crime against all good sense and find yourself... In the middle of a battle to the death between the two forces vying for control over the fields. On the one hand, a considerably more well-put-together (and more recently assembled) host of heavily armed vegetable golems. They even have a few pumpkin tanks! On the other... More vegetable golems, except there are very obviously far more of them and they're also very clearly nowhere near as well equipped-- though they easily make up for the difference with raw numbers. Mysteriously, the first group appears vaguely red to your eyes, the second seems to ping as yellow, and you are distinctly blue. Weird, that. To bring peace to this little corner of Filgaia- and to escape from this agrarian fever dream- you'll need to defeat one or both of these belligerents. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Suffer===========================================
=======================<* Altair's Farmstead - Round 6 *>======================= =========================< Results - Of Gourd Battles >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 63 --(13)--> 76 Pass Liquid Courage 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 63 --(13)--> 76 Pass Powder Grenade 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 47 --(13)--> 60 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 75 --(35)--> 110 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Suffer(1) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has successfully explored Altair's Farmstead!
============================<* Altair's Farmstead *>============================ ================<* CHALLENGE - A Witch's (Culinary) Spellbook *>================ |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- With one or both corners of the battlefield thoroughly rooted, the remaining survinevors flee into the reeds to fight another day, leafing you to lay claim to the spoils of victory. At first it seems like your prize is going to be a whole bunch of fresh, nutritious vegetables, but this is simply not the right holiday for that at all. A short walk from the battlefield is a two-story plantation home decorated in the cheerfully mischievous style of the season. The lights are all on, but the gauzy curtains have all been drawn shut over the windows, making it impossible to see much of what's inside. The door is locked, but all come undone when you go to knock. It swings open and a rather dapper-looking pumpkinhead butler with a curly black mustache and a monocle fitted onto his grinning, orange face. He dips into a sweeping bow before shoving a thick tome into your hands and shutting the door before you can protest. There's a brief buzz of magic as the locks clicker-clack shut and what can only be a barrier manifests over the manse, preventing unwanted guests from barging in... But then, you already have a reward, don't you? The tome in your hands is a weathered, leatherbound thing with a variety of bookmarks sticking out of its dogeared pages. It's... Some kind of spellbook...!? Well. Almost. The only spells this book contains are culinary ones. You've been gifted with a copy of some kind of arcane cookbook specializing in autumn-themed dishes! Is this... a bribe...!? =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Kiddo... No. Josie hasn't called Lily that in a long time, has she?
And 'he' isn't here.
They make a huge mess; the flask is downed, and there are no grapes. There is a fact at hand; what 'he' has done is worse. Josie hasn't called Lily that in a long time. The pumpkin war is messy. Lily scythes through pumpkins with blades of darkness, making pie filling all over; Josie pops gourds with a rifleshotgun. Ethius makes his escape. ...But he is not the only one.
The dream cahnges location, to a strange house. Lily finds the pumpkin butler handing her a tome...
She looks at Josie, and wonders for a moment.
When she wakes up later, it will be with the knowledge of altogether stranger magics than she is used to.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Whadya mean, 'he's not here'?" Josie echoes, going so far as to tilt her head in mixed confusion. "Then why are you..."
Why is she--
A shell detonates close at hand, and perhaps that is one way of putting an end to this line of discussion.
Or, as a glance steals between her and Lily, close to putting and end. There's something--
Impossibly, they lurch ahead. It should not happen like this, as if the battle were an afterthought. Or had never been.
"..."
Josie has a moment to regard the book handed over to Lily.
"Don't that beat all."
...
When she does wake, she rises from her tangle of sheets, and immediately slumps back into the mess with a groan. Shouldn't have had that last glass, most likely, though now she's really feeling the call for a little hair of the dog...