2022-05-06: The Nature of Ice
- Log: The Nature of Ice
- Cast: Seraph Lanval (NPCing Seraph Brunor), Citan Uzuki, Lily Keil, Fei Fong Wong, Elhaym van Houten, Billy Lee Black
- Where: Zulan Massif
- Date: May 06, 2022
- Summary: There are a great many reasons for the Black Wolves to attempt the trials of the shrines, as close as they are linked to the Althenian ethos and other matters besides. Yet, are they prepared for this particular trial? That which Kahedin aims to test, after all, may test them in ways that they have not often been tried prior.
DG: A party led by Citan Uzuki is now entering Kahedin - Shrine of the Ice Trial. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
====================<* Kahedin - Shrine of the Ice Trial *>===================== ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Chill Out *>=========================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The cold stillness of Kahedin's halls is in stark contrast to the howling winds of blinding snow you endured to get here. But an even more inviting sight awaits further in: plush rugs and cushioned seats, mismatched in color and texture and stitched lovingly by amateur hands. The area is lit comfortably by the hum of glowing wisps lazily weaving through the area -- potent ice magic that, if touched, will burst harmlessly into glittering flakes. A Seraph conjures once such wisp, and turns toward your party with a flinch that suggests the surprise that should be written on his face were it not hidden by a dragon-styled mask. His hair turns from white to pale blue from root to end, reaching to the floor and draped around him as much as his own fur hemmed robes and quilt he wears as a shawl. "Oh! Hello. Welcome!" He motions to the comfortable area presented to everyone. "Please. Rest a while. It /is/ a Trial that awaits you. And it would so happen that I have been perfecting a hot chocolate recipe over these past few millennia for such an occasion." Whether you sit or not, the Seraph serves everyone mugs of hot chocolate with fat marshmallows. "How are you all fairing? Do any of you require healing? I would love to hear the story behind this visit." Eventually, you will need to be one your way, and the Seraph will let you go with an embarrassed apology... But if you don't take care to avoid getting lost in company and conversation, that could end up being longer than you intend. =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Whatever means or circumstances see the Black Wolves out to Kahedin, they'll find a reception that's... technically, chilly. But by the spirit of the matter, a warm reception. Across the ice-cold halls of Seraphic Arte make is all the appearance, and feeling, and smell (...YMMV) of an inviting living room. Plush rugs and cushioned seats, in odd mismatched colors and funny textures, stitched together with love and care as opposed to masterful skill. Glowing wisps provide lighting, bursting into harmless glittering flakes if poked. Or shot. Or magically annihilated.
A Seraph steps forth, bearing a dragon mask much like the one Yvain wore. They bear long hair that goes all the way to the floor, a gradient from mostly white to pale blue at the end. Robes of old Seraphic tradition are further accessorized by a quilt repurposed as a makeshift shawl which looks as homemade as the rest of his surroundings.
"Welcome! It is delightful to receive guests again on short notice! Please, rest a while. It is a Trial that awaits you... and it would so happen that I yet have more hot chocolate I have just freshly made. A recipe I've perfected over the last few millennia."
How does an Ice Seraph master the art of making hot chocolate? A question for another time.
"How do you all fare? Are any of you need in healing or other aid? All the same, I would love to hear the story behind this visit." Sure, one could try and turn him down, but... there's marshmallows in the hot chocolate! (Junk food is SERIOUS BUSINESS to Seraphim of all ages.)
The Seraph's demeanor is accommodating without even the faintest hint of ill intent behind it. Nothing stops them all from staying and talking for a while - and enjoying a hot sweet treat, for it is cold out there.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"Well! This is... rather homey, do you not think?"
There truly is no better descriptor for the hall in which they now find themselves: if all the living room areas in the world could be balled up into one ur-living room area, then this would be the one. It is in fact the very platonic ideal of a living room.
...If rather chilly. It is still within the entryway of the Ice Shrine, and is thus subjected to the forces of its element. That said, someone has certainly done their best to make it... less so.
That someone is standing before them now.
"I did not expect that we would be 'greeted', precisely," Citan says, readjusting his glasses a fraction, "but it is a welcome change, nonetheless. Who do we have the honor of meeting?" He gestures to himself. "I am Citan Uzuki. I suppose you could say we are, ah... a likeminded cohort?"
That's one way to say 'mercenary company (and hangers-on)'.
"...Oh, by all means, if you are offering, then I am more than happy to accept." Which is to say, Citan is perfectly willing to sit a spell and have some hot chocolate. It's a very comfortable chair, as it happens.
Holding the still-hot cup gingerly in his hands, he answers the shrine-keeper's questions. "I am well, thank you. I do not believe I am in need of any aid." Cocking his head to one side, Citan appears to consider the Seraph's final question -- what brings him here?
"Well... I suppose we all have our own reasons. My own is perhaps three-fold," he says at last. "I had wanted to support the rest of them," especially when he had learned that Fei, too, would be traveling to a place like this, "but I must also admit some curiosity about these shrines and their trials. As for the third, well, a little adversity is a requirement for growth, would you not agree?"
DG: Citan Uzuki has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Chill Out.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"...It is," Lily agrees with Citan, 'homey'. That's pretty weird for her. She looks around, and it definitely does seem to be the case; the last thing she expected at a sort of Trial was to be welcomed like this. She was expecting more of a sudden ambush, or perhaps a quietly desolate wasteland. Despite what she may have heard from Xantia, though, she did not expect what she got. And now...
"I... all right." Welcome. She lets Citan handle the pleasantries; she is... reasonably sure that the cocoa won'tbe poisoned, but someone might notice that Lily, as the one who can deal with poisons, doesn't drink first. But what she feels from this Seraph is... well.
She at least doesn't mind the cold, as a rule. "...Lily Keil." Pause. "I am also.. fine." She considers. Supporting them, yes, and Citan gives the reasons, but--
"I'm researching ice magic," Lily says as she takes a seat of her own, hand resting on her knife out of general need for something comfortable in all this... friendly environs. "This seemed the natural place to perfect my approach. I figured I might learn something."
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Lily's Knife toward her party's challenge, Chill Out.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
FEI IS HERE TOO OK. He is pretty leery of this Trial and he frowns faintly at the Seraph offering hot chocolate. "If we drink the hot chocolate, do we fail the trial?" He asks. "In the other trial, they totally said the trial was one thing and then it turned out to be another thing and I'm not saying they lied exactly but it was pretty misleading. Or..."
Fei frowns. "Is it against the rules to not drink the hot chocolate...? Because by not drinking hot chocolate, you are not...working together to avoid...freezing to death?"
He frowns even more deeply when the Seraph asks for a story.
"Oh no, you can't trick me."
He leans back and steadfastly does NOT share a story.
That'll show 'em.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Chill Out.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly has bundled up for this journey. She is, thus, primarily in her naval coat which is buttoned up, complete with a scarf round her neck and a soft felt cap on top of her head - there are flaps to protect the ears (common pain point) but they are currently fastened up top!
And now they are welcomed... with cocoa.
"My name is Elhaym van Houten," Elly tells the Seraph, if with a note that may not have been well known to Seraphs when she pronounces her name. "But please, call me Elly."
SIT! Elly holds a cup of cocoa in her hands. She sips it, tentatively, then with apparent delight.
"... Ultimately, I'm here because the B - this bunch, I mean," Elly says, perhaps not wanting to give away their TEAM NAME in case this guy hates wolves or recognizes them as a mercenary outfit, "are... well, we've fought together, we've lived together... in a lot of ways I'd say that they're my family, now. And whatever happens, I want to support them."
"I'd also like to understand more about ice magic."
Elly reaches over to take Fei's hand at this point. Possibly by force. This probably involves finger-wiggle fights and is *disgusting* and *adorable*. *This* is why-- never mind.
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.
As ever, adventuring into the lowest depths or the highest temples, Billy Lee Black dresses for a fight. It's his nature, his duty and creed. The dark places of the world teem with fiends, some of them capitalized, and one must be prepared at every second to be ambushed.
So anyway he walks with his comrades into some guy's sitting room and looks a bit poleaxed by the whole thing.
He scratches his pale cheek. "Homey is right, I think," he decides.
Ah. What is he here for, the jolly Seraph asks. ... Just...coming along?
Billy gravitates inescapably toward hot chocolate. He doesn't even entirely realize it when he's pulled out his little book full of the dark secrets of Solaris ('s dungeon management team).
There are very few pertaining to friendly spirits with hot chocolate and an interest in stories. This is how you know Solaris is evil.
DG: Billy Lee Black has used his Tool Decoded Gospel toward his party's challenge, Chill Out.
====================<* Kahedin - Shrine of the Ice Trial *>===================== ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Chill Out *>=========================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The cold stillness of Kahedin's halls is in stark contrast to the howling winds of blinding snow you endured to get here. But an even more inviting sight awaits further in: plush rugs and cushioned seats, mismatched in color and texture and stitched lovingly by amateur hands. The area is lit comfortably by the hum of glowing wisps lazily weaving through the area -- potent ice magic that, if touched, will burst harmlessly into glittering flakes. A Seraph conjures once such wisp, and turns toward your party with a flinch that suggests the surprise that should be written on his face were it not hidden by a dragon-styled mask. His hair turns from white to pale blue from root to end, reaching to the floor and draped around him as much as his own fur hemmed robes and quilt he wears as a shawl. "Oh! Hello. Welcome!" He motions to the comfortable area presented to everyone. "Please. Rest a while. It /is/ a Trial that awaits you. And it would so happen that I have been perfecting a hot chocolate recipe over these past few millennia for such an occasion." Whether you sit or not, the Seraph serves everyone mugs of hot chocolate with fat marshmallows. "How are you all fairing? Do any of you require healing? I would love to hear the story behind this visit." Eventually, you will need to be one your way, and the Seraph will let you go with an embarrassed apology... But if you don't take care to avoid getting lost in company and conversation, that could end up being longer than you intend. =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless=================================================
DG: Elhaym van Houten has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Chill Out.
====================<* Kahedin - Shrine of the Ice Trial *>===================== ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Chill Out *>=========================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The cold stillness of Kahedin's halls is in stark contrast to the howling winds of blinding snow you endured to get here. But an even more inviting sight awaits further in: plush rugs and cushioned seats, mismatched in color and texture and stitched lovingly by amateur hands. The area is lit comfortably by the hum of glowing wisps lazily weaving through the area -- potent ice magic that, if touched, will burst harmlessly into glittering flakes. A Seraph conjures once such wisp, and turns toward your party with a flinch that suggests the surprise that should be written on his face were it not hidden by a dragon-styled mask. His hair turns from white to pale blue from root to end, reaching to the floor and draped around him as much as his own fur hemmed robes and quilt he wears as a shawl. "Oh! Hello. Welcome!" He motions to the comfortable area presented to everyone. "Please. Rest a while. It /is/ a Trial that awaits you. And it would so happen that I have been perfecting a hot chocolate recipe over these past few millennia for such an occasion." Whether you sit or not, the Seraph serves everyone mugs of hot chocolate with fat marshmallows. "How are you all fairing? Do any of you require healing? I would love to hear the story behind this visit." Eventually, you will need to be one your way, and the Seraph will let you go with an embarrassed apology... But if you don't take care to avoid getting lost in company and conversation, that could end up being longer than you intend. =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless=================================================
===============<* Kahedin - Shrine of the Ice Trial - Round 1 *>================ ============================< Results - Chill Out >============================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Citan Uzuki 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Lily's Knife 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elhaym van Houten 0 --(13)--> 13 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fei Fong Wong 0 --(13)--> 13 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Billy Lee Black 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Decoded Gospel 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Citan Uzuki 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Reckless(2) Effects: Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Citan Uzuki 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: Citan Uzuki has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* Kahedin - Shrine of the Ice Trial *>===================== ===================<* CHALLENGE - Treasures Frozen In Time *>=================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Beautiful ice sculptures decorate the halls of the Ice Trial, and light occasionally shines through the structures, casting ribbons of refracted color. The sight is as enchanting as it is ephemeral. In one of these halls, perfect ice replicas of items once lost by members of your party are among the decor. Old childhood toys, lost mementos, or even that old tool they don't make like they used to are on display. Unfortunately, you would never be able to return with such a souvenir. They would melt without the frigid temperatures of the Ice Trial. They also stand in your way, along with other lovely statues. They are only ice, after all. But sometimes it's nice to have had a brief reminder... =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure, Overzealous====================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
"Citan Uzuki... a pleasure to meet you! I am Brunor, the overseer of Kahedin... the Ice Trial, as it may be referred to." Seraph Brunor introduces himself. "Forgive the delay in introducing myself." Citan explains their reasons, and the Seraph's head tilts. "Is adversity alone the path to growth...?"
Lily will find there's no poison in the hot chocolate. At least, nothing poisonous to the mortals that it's intended for. (Dog shouldn't ever have any.) "A pleasure to meet you, Lily. So you would ponder the mysteries of ice!" Brunor smiles from behind the mask to Lily. "What of it entices--"
Fei speaks up mid-discussion, and Brunor turns to look the worked-up young man with all the patience, kindness, and understanding in the world (which would explain why it's in such short supply, he needs to share some, man). He makes sure Fei's offered cup has extra marshmallows, and leaves it in his care as Elly admonishes Fei for it. (Elly's also has extra marshmallows. The punishment for failing is extra comfort. aaaaaaaaaaaa----)
As Elly, too, inquires about the nature of ice, Brunor commences what he was about to say. "What of it entices, I wonder? A means to stop something in its tracks... a means to keep something as it is?"
Brunor tries to peek over to see what Billy's reading. This counts as a story! Nonetheless, time passes peacefully for the most part, however long it does. "I understand some of you may not be inclined to partake. Do not worry. Whatever brings you comfort in this space I have provided is all that is important... as is my duty, as overseer and caretaker of Kahedin."
Brunor steps over to some other corner of the room, gesturing as something opens with a prolonged creek - doors. Cold air starts to rush in, felt only if one approaches. "For those who wish to partake... you will find what brings you happiness within, in whatever form it shall take. You are free to stay as long as you wish."
"Remember what it is you hold most dear."
...
Light refracts from outside, through enchanting sculptures of ice that line the halls into what lies ahead. What lies ahead is not danger.
What lies ahead are... things that are truly cherished, made into perfect replicas carved from ice. How such could have come to Brunor's knowledge is unknown, but they are here. Old childhood toys, lost mementos, old tools they don't make like they used to... wonderful things one never wanted to have parted with, back then, until the passage of time took them into the mists of one's memories.
They are also in the way of the passage ahead, arranged as such there is no way to safely or gently retrieve them. They must be let go, and thus lies a question: just how long will the collected admire them before they are compelled to act on what's important to them?
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"That is quite alright. We did arrive 'unannounced', as it were! It is good to meet you, Brunor. So you shall be the one who will watch our progress..." He cannot quite keep the slight smile off his face.
Citan appears to consider this question of Brunor's -- put to his reasons for being here, now -- for the moment.
"...Not alone, no," is his final answer."
Glancing towards the others, he appears to regard the reasons they give in turn. "I recall you mentioning something along those lines, Fei. I wonder..."
Still, he appears to be unconcerned regarding potentially poisoned cocoa, and finishes his own cup before standing. "Yes, I am prepared, Brunor. If the rest of you are ready...? Though, I would hardly fault you for staying out here! It appears this trial will live up to its element, indeed."
Beyond that door is cold most bitter.
Brunor leaves them with one parting word of advice -- or so it would seem.
"'What we hold most dear'," Citan echoes, passing beyond the portal. "Hmm. I wonder..."
Some of the objects here are hardly familiar to him. But others--
"Good heavens! Is that my old medicinal manual? --It is! It has that tear near the spine that I had been meaning to fix one of these days. But had I not left that back in..."
Back in his home in Lahan. "..."
He... hesitates. He really does. But it's in the way.
And after a moment more, nonchalantly pulls out that acupressure guide to page through some of its contents for a moment. This is followed by a seemingly errant poke of a finger towards that particular icy statue. Pressure applied at just the right point can have destabilizing effects.
"...But even so, this is merely ice."
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Acupressure Guide toward his party's challenge, Treasures Frozen In Time.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily lifts an eyebrow at Fei. "...Why would drinking hot chocolate fail a trial of ice?" Pause. "Unless the idea is to withstand ice without tools, I suppose. But that wouldn't be much of a trial.
Lily appreciates the cocoa once she's sure it's not poisoned. She does not share it with Dog. She smiles at Elly. She looks over Billy, noticing him looking towards the book. Is there anything in there...?
But 'what of it entices'? Lily lifts an eyebrow at the pun. "...Good to meet you," she says. And then, "That's an interesting property of ice, isn't it?" she asks. "Stasis. ...I'd like to chat with you about it, but we can't linger too long. Most of my friends aren't as good with the cold as I am."
Dog woofs.
But... happiness, is it? Lily wonders about that. 'To partake'. What is important...
"Happiness," Lily repeats. "...I don't know."
Remember...
"This..." Lily looks at a doll, in Kislevi-style aristocatic clothes of some time ago. It is made of ice, of course, but the details are still visible, and the sorceress is... surprised, to say the least, to see it. It looks slightly worn, rather than new. And Lily stres for a few moments... In the way of the passage, ahead...
"...I remember," she says. "I had this for a while. But one day, when I was upset... I wasn't careful enough."
"I destroyed it. And this is just a copy." She shakes her head, and pulls a small crystal from her bag. "...Whenever you're ready, let's just do away with all of it."
She seems a little less vibrant than she was before, though.
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Power Crystal toward her party's challenge, Treasures Frozen In Time.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei's hand is taken. There's a finger-wiggle fight. And then just kind of general finger-wiggling. Then loving finger wiggling. It's basically Xenogears in finger wiggles.
"They can be really tricky, Lily!" He protests but ultimately ends up drinking the hot chocolate. Probably because of the extra marshmallows. When he lifts his head again he has a hot chocolate mustache and he just stares at Brunor, watching, waiting... For any sort of tricksiness...!!!
"Well it's ice to meet you, Brunor." He says because he is allowed to make dad jokes.
But then it's time to move on and there's weird ice replicas of...items? That were once lost.
Fei reaches out and--collects a UNIQUE ITEM: Mermaid Tear. "Oh jeeze I was wondering where this was. Wonder how it ended up here."
Sorry Emeralda...
"It's funny someone in Lahan gave this to me by telling them tod rink less but then I ended up drinking way more, haha. Anyway I ended up chucking it."
SORRY EMERALDA.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Treasures Frozen In Time.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
The finger wiggling is gooshy and ends in hand holding. Elly is wearing knit wool-yarn gloves.
"I suppose what I find fascinating about it is how transient it is," Elly tells Seraph Brunor. "I know that's strange to say... but there's a disparity between heat, fire, and cold and ice... Ice is more limited in some ways, too. But I don't intend to disparage the element when I say that..."
When they move on, Elly gasps at the sight of --
-- ? It's just a block of ice.
It has some structure in it, formed of shapes in the ice, airbubbles made into something permanent for an age, until the ice melts anew. It's not much, though; it's sort of a round cylinder, like the telephone booths at the trading floors in Guild Galad's mercantile district. Except round, of course, not squared off.
For some reason, though, Elly bites her lip.
"... Heh," Elly says, looking at the ground. "... I suppose it's... something I do miss, isn't it. Mmmm. I don't really know how to feel about it, to find out that something like this appeared. Not my father or mother, or..." Elly trails off after some thought. She seems to come to a subtle realization and breathes out with force.
"Though!" Elly says.
"Before we destroy it, if we need to," Elly tells Lily. She reaches inside of her coat and pulls out a brown box with a piece of rough paper stuck on something. She pulls the paper off, revealing a piece of ground glass. Elly steps back, then, raising the object up. It would be recognizable after a little consideration: it's a photo-camera! Only good for one exposure, but that's why it's only 500 gella instead of all the money you can drop on the REAL shit, if you want.
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Inventory Clutter toward her party's challenge, Treasures Frozen In Time.
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.
It is the most precious thing Billy owns, and his greatest curse; the decryption of the Gospel of Granasi he used to carry, its Solarian survival secrets revealed and the mockery of its piety exposed. Provided to him by the Shevati codebreakers, all too eager to see the latest intelligence on their larger enemy. It destroyed him. But, it also reminds him continually of what he now must fight.
Brunor takes a peek, and Billy looks up, a sad smile on his face. "A relic of my worst memories," he says. "But...not ones I'm willing to forget." He does not seem overly concerned with readers, though it's an almost disappointingly dull read.
He claps it shut as farewells begin, tucking it away and following out. The trial begins in earnest with a more traditional kind of psychological attack, and Billy finds himself stepping up next to...a little stuffed animal. A simple bear. He remembers it was made of rags.
"Prim's," he says, to nobody. "Destroyed, when...'they' attacked."
Of course, for a man like Billy, his own belongings wouldn't cut as deep, would they? He considers it for a long few seconds.
Then he puts a blasting pack right on its pedestal, and steps back a few paces to load his ether gun with a fire charge. "Father," he murmurs, and he doesn't mean his own, "Let this miracle as all miracles become a beam eternal within your radiance."
He levels it, breathes, "Amen," and pulls the trigger.
DG: Billy Lee Black has used his Tool Blasting Charge toward his party's challenge, Treasures Frozen In Time.
====================<* Kahedin - Shrine of the Ice Trial *>===================== ===================<* CHALLENGE - Treasures Frozen In Time *>=================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Beautiful ice sculptures decorate the halls of the Ice Trial, and light occasionally shines through the structures, casting ribbons of refracted color. The sight is as enchanting as it is ephemeral. In one of these halls, perfect ice replicas of items once lost by members of your party are among the decor. Old childhood toys, lost mementos, or even that old tool they don't make like they used to are on display. Unfortunately, you would never be able to return with such a souvenir. They would melt without the frigid temperatures of the Ice Trial. They also stand in your way, along with other lovely statues. They are only ice, after all. But sometimes it's nice to have had a brief reminder... =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure, Overzealous====================================
===============<* Kahedin - Shrine of the Ice Trial - Round 2 *>================ =====================< Results - Treasures Frozen In Time >===================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Citan Uzuki 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Acupressure Guide 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Power Crystal 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elhaym van Houten 13 --(0)--> 13 Pass Inventory Clutter 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fei Fong Wong 13 --(0)--> 13 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Billy Lee Black 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Blasting Charge 2 Brute Effects: Resilient -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Citan Uzuki 20 --(25)--> 45 Pass Conditions: Overzealous(2)|Reckless(1)|Treasure(1) Effects: Cleanse|Resilient(1)|Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Citan Uzuki 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. DG: Citan Uzuki has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* Kahedin - Shrine of the Ice Trial *>===================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Dinner's Ready! *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Everyone is invited to sit down and join each other for a meal, in an odd amalgamation of good memories of sitting down and eating a hearty, fresh meal with friends and family alike. Foods that each of you strongly associate with a fond memory are all freshly prepared for you. There is no abject danger involving the food itself - it is exactly as filling and tasty as it was before. It is, however, devoid of warmth beyond the initial expectations of how it all tastes and feels. It is freezing cold, and it gets worse the longer you stay - as if the trial itself were trying to create a frozen snapshot of you enjoying your meal. In some fashion or another, you'll need to pry yourself away from pleasant memories of food, drink, and company alike lest you intend to stay for the evening... and the next... and the next... forevermore. =Dungeon Conditions: Wonder, Stupify==========================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Together, none of them have any problems doing what needs to be done - though Elly allows a grace for everyone should anyone strongly desire it. She can get a single snapshot of everyone's cherished effects (...in replica ice form) in the frame, and keep that. None of the Trial's magic will protest this answer, though Fei will find he accidentally breaks the replica Mermaid's Tear just trying to pry it out of where it's carved. It's no big loss, it's not the real deal...
Together, they are all able to let go of these replications, in a cacophony of shattering and chilling moisture filling the air. The way ahead is unimpeded, and just as the doors are pushed open to see what Kahedin has next in store...
Dinner's ready!
...It is, in fact, ready! Everyone's called to sit down and join one another for a meal, in a mish-mash of collective memories that never could have happened together in the same place and at the same time... but they are, and they're all good ones. The food smells delicious, and each one tailor-made to one's fondest memories.
There's no danger to eating the food itself directly, in that it's as filling and tasty as before... but those perceptive will notice it's not warm at all even should it be portraying itself as a hot meal. Everything around oneself will gradually become colder, even freezing... as if an attempt to turn the gathered into their own frozen snapshot of someone enjoying food with beloved company.
One will have to take themselves out of this recreated moment of feasting and fun, lest they stay for seconds... for all the rest of seconds in time.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"...All right," Lily allows to Elly, since she wants to do something nice. She wonders, of course--about Elly. What she remembered. But that's nice. She wonders of Billy, who... well. Lily thinks once she would've just destroyed the memento without pity, and made a point of doing so brutally.
She is pretty sure that wasn't a very healthy Lily. "Billy," she says. "..." But she doesn't know what to say; she isn't the one who pulled herself out of that way of being.
And the door's are open, and... dinner is--ready?
Lily remembers it; it's not a childhood favorite meal, or anything like that. It's the fare of Adlehyde, back before the trouble with the Malevolence, before she withdrew all over again thanks to that, to the strange blue-eyed man, to all the violence and danger in the new Metal Demon War, all the things that made her new adventure that much less adventurous. Before she knew everyone, but also before...
"..."
After a while Lily pulls her knfe, and looks at it. She remembers... The cavern. The way she cut her hand with the knife.
Lily rises from her seat after a while. It's not so much that she's noticed the cold in the food as that she'snoticed the cold in herself.
"...I'm going on ahead."
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Lily's Knife toward her party's challenge, Dinner's Ready!.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei gives Elly's hand a hard squoz.
He looks towards the round cylinder, looking thoughtful as he tries to decipher what it is. Some kind of round... big thing. This is going to be hard for him to try and duplicate in any capacity. Probably something from solaris which WELL beyond him.
He worries for a moment, what could he really do for Elly once the adventure is over? He doesn't think he's that interesting of a guy when it all comes down to it. aggh he hates when he starts thinking like this.
He looks to the bear. "Oh that's cu---"
Destroyed when they attacked.
Fei's mouth hangs open as Billy shoots the teddy bear.
Billy... is kind of intense, isn't he?
"You uh, you okay man?"
ANOTHER MEAL??
"Wait I...what?"
Fei is briefly confused but then shrugs and--
FEI IS HERE TOO OK. He is pretty leery of this Trial and he frowns faintly at the Seraph offering hot chocolate. "If we drink the hot chocolate, do we fail the trial?" He asks. "In the other trial, they totally said the trial was one thing and then it turned out to be another thing and I'm not saying they lied exactly but it was pretty misleading. Or..."
Fei frowns. "Is it against the rules to not drink the hot chocolate...? Because by not drinking hot chocolate, you are not...working together to avoid...freezing to death?"
He frowns even more deeply when the Seraph asks for a story.
"Oh no, you can't trick me."
He leans back and steadfastly does NOT share a story.
That'll show 'em.
Then he blinks again and he shakes his head. "Wait what!" He looks around. "What??"
He takes out his tricorder to try to figure htis out.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool Medical Tricorder Fei Somehow Knows How To Use toward his party's challenge, Dinner's Ready!.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
After catching that glimpse, Elly stows the one-use camera away for later development, probably on the Karlsefni because that's how they get you, the crooks. She glances towards Billy for a moment as he prays.
For... a bear?
Elly thinks for a moment that it's a cute bear but then she remembers Primera and it makes the edges of her face pinch up and her lips purse and she steps forwards to try and be something nearer to him - Lily is coming in closely too - and she says to him, quietly, "Everything I said, when we were speaking with the Seraph..."
"... It's you too, alright?" Elly tells Billy.
THEN:
FOOD!
Elly is being served... food. It looks sort of like a piece of beef steak but it is weirdly geometric in shape, but the exterior even has charred grilled marks. There's some shredded greens on the side and a little dish of some kind of red gel. Elly gazes down at it for a moment, and then says, to Fei, "You just can't get this outside of the capital. They don't put it in the ration cans or anything."
Up come the fork and knife! Elly slices off a piece of the browned meat, revealing a pinkish interior and then popping it into her mouth!
"MmmmMmmmm! You know, now that I've had to cook for myself," Elly says, "I think that I could even try to imitate the - spices -" A pause for a moment as she eats another generous slice of this... steak? Yeah, you can call it a steak. "... I'm getting a headache -- What?"
DG: Elhaym van Houten has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Dinner's Ready!.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
He's far from the only one faced with a particular dilemma. They are all, in time, faced with something they had either lost forever or left behind them. Including--
Citan remembers what Billy had said about his mother. About his home, and a particular night. He also remembers what Jessie had told him about it -- about everything.
And he recalls, too, who was responsible for all of that.
"..." What was it that Billy had said to him, not long ago? 'For now... I can only hold the resolution to fight,' hadn't it been...?
Billy makes his decision. And a rough one it is -- a sister's beloved toy. A night that should never be forgotten.
"...Billy..." It may be a subtle reminder, from him: of that heart to heart they had. Of the resolution that Billy could muster. There is still light.
The door opens.
Dinner is ready.
It may well have been a lifetime ago. In the memory, he is younger: young enough to still not entirely be free of the reckless drive that so afflicts those of that age. Even now he can recall what it had been like to be young and deeply, terribly in love when he looks over at Elly and Fei...
Who, along with Lily and Billy, are sharing this table with him in Shevat.
He is a young man, and Yui -- not yet his wife, not just yet -- has decided for the first time to prepare a meal for the two of...
...for the six of them?
Citan cocks his head to the left by degrees, the unreality of this meal inexorably intruding on an otherwise fond memory. Nevertheless, he still takes a bite of the dinner.
...It's already cold.
Slowly, Citan sets down the fork and then rises to his feet.
"Perhaps... we should celebrate this occasion with a photograph?" he says, producing a camera that his past self would not possess for many years yet and getting into position to snap a picture.
Taking a photo ought to force this implausible, illusory moment to reveal itself for what it is. A camera's eye can't be fooled.
Unlike a person's.
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Strauss Camera toward his party's challenge, Dinner's Ready!.
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.
Billy looks at Fei and for a shocker does NOT in fact look like he's current mentally acting out a series of bloody executions. Instead, he says, passively, "It was lost long ago. Besides...I still have Prim."
Still, he favors Elly with a thin smile. "I know, Miss Elly," he says. "I do."
Onwards.
Into the past...?
Billy has many fond moments to call back to. Memories shared with his orphans, with other Etones - yes, even with Stone, rat that he turned out to be. And of course...
A brown-haired presence, impossible by every metric, is what forces Billy's attention out of it. He remembers reading his gospel, earlier; it was this sort of trap he was checking up on.
The mental tricks it prescribed allow him to shake his head out and pull away.
DG: Billy Lee Black has used his Tool Decoded Gospel toward his party's challenge, Dinner's Ready!.
====================<* Kahedin - Shrine of the Ice Trial *>===================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Dinner's Ready! *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Everyone is invited to sit down and join each other for a meal, in an odd amalgamation of good memories of sitting down and eating a hearty, fresh meal with friends and family alike. Foods that each of you strongly associate with a fond memory are all freshly prepared for you. There is no abject danger involving the food itself - it is exactly as filling and tasty as it was before. It is, however, devoid of warmth beyond the initial expectations of how it all tastes and feels. It is freezing cold, and it gets worse the longer you stay - as if the trial itself were trying to create a frozen snapshot of you enjoying your meal. In some fashion or another, you'll need to pry yourself away from pleasant memories of food, drink, and company alike lest you intend to stay for the evening... and the next... and the next... forevermore. =Dungeon Conditions: Wonder, Stupify==========================================
===============<* Kahedin - Shrine of the Ice Trial - Round 3 *>================ =========================< Results - Dinner's Ready! >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Citan Uzuki 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Strauss Camera 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Lily's Knife 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elhaym van Houten 13 --(0)--> 13 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fei Fong Wong 13 --(0)--> 13 Pass Medical Tricorder Fei Somehow Knows 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Billy Lee Black 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Decoded Gospel 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Citan Uzuki 45 --(20)--> 65 Pass Conditions: Overzealous(1)|Stupify(2)|Wonder Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Citan Uzuki 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: Citan Uzuki has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* Kahedin - Shrine of the Ice Trial *>===================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - Never Let Go *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Your party remembers the embrace of someone who loved them. Whether you were in pain, or in a time of celebration, they brought comfort - and you relive this moment. It is as comforting as you recall, down to the very detail. They may be someone you dearly miss, or someone you can't wait to get back to. Your present pains and stresses melt away in that instant... but that instant drags on. They aren't letting go. A part of you doesn't want to either, but you have to. The longer you're in their embrace, the harder it will be to feel and fight the freezing cold setting in. You may need to be drastic in getting the message across, but even so, these 'someones' do not break character. (These 'someones' are really Hellions who also can't let go of wanting to relive similar moments, but at least are acting in earnest - even if they are being selfish about it.) =Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Citan takes a novel approach towards defusing this strange amalgamation of everyone's treasured mealtimes as he gets out a camera, snaps a photo, and... well. Though he may hear Yui's voice prompting questions, he'll see she's not there. The food is... but it's an expert crafting of ice magic that's all cold, but manipulated and shaped in ways to match expected food textures to a degree that seems implausible for something that's just solidified water... and also a growing sense of cold. Credit where credit's due, it's a masterwork.
Fei's Tricorder would confirm the lack of other bodies beyond each other, so he can cast further alerts with the rest of the group just as easily... even though Billy is already peace-ing out, and Lily is already pushing the door open to leave behind a remembered glimpse of Adlehyde before the stakes of... everything were raised.
Elly eats the most, and will find herself with an ice cream headache and a somewhat greater chill, as Billy and Lily both find themselves the first into a new chamber.
The feeling of an embrace, of someone who loved them. Be it a time of sorrow, or happiness, there was comfort - and that moment comes back, to the very finest detail to one's immediate recollection.
It takes a lot of the edge off any wounds or difficulties that may have been accumulated from the journey to Kahedin, except for one thing...
Whoever this loved one is, they aren't letting go. If they're rejected from the onset, well, they're not going to take that for an answer. All the while, as was the case prior, the freezing cold will settle in the longer someone is in one's embrace... and this persuasion may need force.
The entities have a presence, and those perceptive enough to rise above it will know it is indeed Malevolence tinged with the flavor of selfishness, attempting to substitute the presence of the Black Wolves into their own memories of loved ones lost.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
For the most part, comforts of the past do not tempt Lily much. She moves forward, ever forward, because the past is something she knows to be dead and gone. Adlehyde was burned; her time in Kislev is over. ...Her family, that she grew up with, is over. There is one thing that remains, and that is the present, and the future that may yet be. So Lily moves on ahead. She would like to comfort Billy, but she thinks, especially after her conversation with Xenia...
That isn't really what she's for in this group.
But there is a welcomereprieve. Lily, for a moment, finds herself in a new chamber--and she finds herself in familiar arms. She relaxes immediately, without thinking of it, closing her eyes. She was young, then, and they were all there was in the world. Her eyes open, slowly... It's cold. But it would be cold, wouldn't it?
"Leon..."
Lily closes her eyes again. "We have to..."
No one can hear the reply. "...I guess..."
But when her eyes open, they are distant. She is not warmed by the embrace of the one she loves the most; she senses the difference, could never mistake this Hellion for him for longer than an instant. She feels that Malevolence sharply, as an aftertaste, feels the sensation of being... someone else. For an instant, she feels the being of the one the Hellion wants her to be. ...It's not that she doesn't realize what's happening. It's only...
If it looks like him, and feels like him, then...
"...I have to..."
It lingers, for a while. Her skin starts to turn blue; the cold is settling in, and still she hasn't moved. Her lips start to change color, her eyebrows beginning to frost over. And, then, finally...
With a forlorn, heartbroken cry, Lily bursts into flame. The smell of burning flesh permeates the room suddenly, and it is not all her own--but neither is it not her own.
The Hellion she sees as Leon burns, crackling into blazing flames as Malevolence begins to stir into the room, the bubbling heat horrific in its presence.
And Lily hits the ground, on her knees, still screaming even when the Hellion has burned away and the fire goes out.
DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Never Let Go.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly, having had a lingering headache for reasons she can't tell - worrying perhaps that it's a relapse of whatever weird and mostly-resolved neurological issue afflicted her back when they had splashdown on Spira, not so terribly long ago - staggers forwards -
And:
Someone embraces her.
The resemblance is clear from outside. Blond hair, yes, but the shape of the face is similar if you allow for differences in skin texture and about twenty-five years in age. Erich van Houten embraces his daughter.
"Ah!" Elly says. And then, she laughs; "Father...!"
"I suppose it's not really you," Elly says, staying in the embrace. "Is it? But this is... I mean it's really quite a surprise. I thought this was going to be an awful challenge. Fei told me only the quarter of everything that had happened in the Fire Shrine, and it sounded awful. Miserable..."
Erich, obligingly, sinks down to one knee. Elly does too, leaning forwards; sprawling slightly to one side, legs loose.
"This is... a little painful, I suppose." Elly murmurs, "but... it's nice, too. I didn't think that we'd ever see each other again... maybe we won't. I wonder if you're even still alive... but it's funny..."
Her eyes lid. "... I don't even really feel cold in here, any more. Hah... mm..."
"..."
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
There is a brief hot flash of memory. A woman passing a ball to--
--No, it's not his memory, Fei thinks. He sees it through a projector. The embrace of someone who loves him? Another hot flash of memory. Sophia?
Elhaym?
Elly?
A woman reaches out as he cries in the sand.
The Trial, for lack of a better word, malfunctions. A hellion, half in the shape of one Elly, half like the one you know, one twisted and covered in symbology tatoos, extend their hand to Fei.
Fei grips a cross in his pocket tightly before clobbering the hellion with a punch, knocking it over.
Then he leaps on top of it and keeps punching and screaming and punching and crying until there is nothing left but dark goop.
Fei blinks a couple times, jarring out of his strange fugue. "Ugh, hate when people try to...trip me up with memories."
He turns to look around before ultimately spotting...
"Elly!" He shouts.
He spots her! There she is with.....................!!
Some guy. He has no idea who this guy is. Is it some...old flame, perhaps? Old ...
He shakes his head. It's not important! Well it is important. But it isn't important because that's not Erich! Fei runs forward--
--trips on his feet in his haste and kinda rolls over towards Elly before coming to a stop in a crouch. He reaches towards Elly. "Elly!" He shouts.
"Can you hear me? It's not him! Elly!" A panicked sort of state. He's about an inch away from punching the Erich as well--but first he has to try and get her out of this weird trance! "It's a monster!"
DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool RPS Badge toward his party's challenge, Never Let Go.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"-My father isn't a monster, he's a-" Elly begins to say before -
Her eyes flutter open.
Awareness blooms, even as 'Erich' hugs a little more tightly.
Horror dawns on her face. This is not a fun trial any more.
But she can't bring herself to do more than, with a sudden exertion of effort - Fei, who can probably feel it, might not like how it takes Elly nearly three seconds to get the Ether together - BLAST the false Erich off of her! He lands on his back, sliding near Fei, looking upwards at him with incredulous eyes that momentarily flick purple.
DG: Elhaym van Houten has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Never Let Go.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei raises his foot and stomps the monster Erich real hard in the dick.
With a foot that explodes into fire upon contact.
And then he gives Elly a hug.
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.
They step forward anew. Billy was, admittedly, expecting a less...*directly* harrowing challenge. He hasn't even got to shoot a monster today.
Then he feels tiny arms wrap around his leg.
He stops, the breath in his lungs biting with cold as he keeps it there. He doesn't want to look because, he already knows, he thinks, what he will find.
He does, in the end, and Primera's big copper eyes stare back at him. She'd not REALLY smiled, not for a long time, but he had grown to accept the nervous quirk of her lip she occasionally got. It would've...it would've been a while ago, wouldn't it. A while....a while ago...
He reaches into his coat. He finds the book. The traitor gospel that binds him to his pain.
The oath and creed it stood for. The role he plays.
"Do you think...you are the first demon to play with a man's heart?" he asks the sky, and snaps his ether gun into hand from its spring-holster and fires directly downward.
DG: Billy Lee Black has used his Tool Ether Rifle toward his party's challenge, Never Let Go.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
She isn't here. Of course not. This happened years ago, and as his photograph soon reveals...
...under decidedly less-crowded circumstances. "An illusion, after all. It had been ice... but to look at it, even to touch it, you would not have suspected a thing! How devious," Citan muses aloud, frowning at the photograph. "Well, I have no desire to eat my fill of snow. Shall we proceed?"
He gets no more than a set of steps into the chamber beyond when he's pulled into a tight bearhug of the likes he hasn't known in nearly twenty-three years.
"Shigure? ...But you..."
It's a strange thing, memory. Even now it can be a struggle to fully bring his face into full focus. He himself had only been twelve when it happened. When it had all come to an end. But just like that-- so much comes back to him.
It had been like this countless times when they had been growing up. When they would get frustrated. When they would cry. When they would seize some little triumph, or even -- because he could -- just to harrass them, their oldest brother had been there.
Even in the bowels of Etrenank, family was family. It didn't even matter if you were kin by blood or not.
His brother had always been ready to give what warmth he could.
There is no warmth in this embrace.
"...I see..."
It's become cold, as frigid as winter's heart. Citan struggles against the arms that hold him, but there is no freedom to be found -- not easily.
"Shigure. No, 'whatever you are'. In truth... I already knew," Citan tells the phantom, finally pulling himself loose for at least a few moments before he slams an open-palmed hand for its chest. "This is not 'you'. This is another trick. Another trial. ...But, I will still tell you what I had never been able to say."
"...Farewell."
DG: Citan Uzuki has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Never Let Go.
====================<* Kahedin - Shrine of the Ice Trial *>===================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - Never Let Go *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Your party remembers the embrace of someone who loved them. Whether you were in pain, or in a time of celebration, they brought comfort - and you relive this moment. It is as comforting as you recall, down to the very detail. They may be someone you dearly miss, or someone you can't wait to get back to. Your present pains and stresses melt away in that instant... but that instant drags on. They aren't letting go. A part of you doesn't want to either, but you have to. The longer you're in their embrace, the harder it will be to feel and fight the freezing cold setting in. You may need to be drastic in getting the message across, but even so, these 'someones' do not break character. (These 'someones' are really Hellions who also can't let go of wanting to relive similar moments, but at least are acting in earnest - even if they are being selfish about it.) =Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
===============<* Kahedin - Shrine of the Ice Trial - Round 4 *>================ ===========================< Results - Never Let Go >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Citan Uzuki 5 --(5)--> 10 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elhaym van Houten 13 --(0)--> 13 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fei Fong Wong 13 --(0)--> 13 Pass RPS Badge 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Billy Lee Black 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Ether Rifle 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Citan Uzuki 65 --(20)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Save Point(1)|Wonder Effects: Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Citan Uzuki 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: Citan Uzuki has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* Kahedin - Shrine of the Ice Trial *>===================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Perpetual Prism *>======================== |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The world grows colder as mist seeps into the chamber. The chill sinks into your being, threatening you with sleep or an equivalent peaceful stupor. A lullaby of memories assaults your senses: happier times and precious moments, slowly becoming more vivid and tangible, as real as the day you lived them. In the whirling flakes of frost, you see the silhouette of a small child briefly, chased by another will too-long hair and too-big robes before they vanish like ghosts made of snow. "Pray forgive the interruption. This is your Trial, not mine," a familiar voice says -- the masked Seraph from the entrance of the shrine, obscured somewhere in the mists. "I myself would have failed this test a dozen times. I have days where I would fail it still." Light shines from below the ice, scattering through the chamber like a prism and projecting memories against the mist. What you remember may become manifest in open illusions for your party to witness. You must keep moving. You must keep yourselves warm. You must press onward, complicated by the way the slippery, ice ground below you rumbles. It will be harder to stay awake if you collapse against the ground. If you can't resist this, you will be consumed by your own memories. "There is no shame in the indulgence of what was lost. Rest if you require. Your journeys must have been harsh." ...Unless you'd prefer to let it happen, and remain here forever with what once was? =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Tire===============================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
One by one, all of them are engaged by lovingly(...yes and no) crafted and recreated stand-ins for loved ones. One by one, each recreation falls apart by their collective understanding that they can't be here now. One falls apart from the jump because Fei's mind is... a thing, and that ends up helping spark a chain reaction.
Elly is helped out of the embrace of someone who isn't her father with Fei's help, and somewhere in this Lily outright bursts into flame and raises the average temperature of this chamber to one greater than the caretaker intends. (Quietly, he is readjusting this on the fly, but there's a limit to how cold something can get versus how hot something can get, and it ain't a close fight, or a fair one.)
Billy coldly disengages with a shot from his ether gun, and Citan only gets a greater tinge of emotional shock because he gets to watch not-Shigure get caught into some of the collateral... but he gets to say what he never was able to say.
Ahead, the cold beckons through a seeping mist attached with snippets of more vivid and tangible small joys. They see the sight of a small child chased by another who looks exactly like the caretaker of the shrine if they were a child. They disappear into the snow.
"Pray forgive the interruption. This is your Trial, not mine," a familiar voice says, the vague silhouette of that masked Seraph. "I myself would have failed this test a dozen times. I have days where I would fail it still." Wistful, nostalgic.
Light shines below the ice, and the colors refracted and projected into those nostalgic shapes.
"There is no shame in the indulgence of what was lost... to recognize what things held value to you then." For a moment, a gaze settles upon Elly. "Rest, if you require. Your journeys must have been harsh."
To stop moving is to let the cold claim you. To stop moving is to forsake the warmth that one believes must be ahead - or at least a discomfort worth enduring. Underneath, ice threatens to slip and trip those who wish to move ahead... all while the mist invites one to rest, relax, and forsake what must be beyond what once brought so much joy, peace, and warmth.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily does not really notice what is going on with everyone else, in the moment. She recognizes the heat and chill of the room chaning. It is... strange.
But once through...
"...It's fine," Lily says to the Seraph in his masked state, and what may be stranger is that she doesn't sound angry with him. "A trial is a trial. I have... learned, some, about the nature of ice. And memory."
She shakes her head. "...Shame or not," Lily says, "I will not stop."
Lily takes up the strange pendant she gained those years ago in Rujm el-Hiri, the anchor to a past she never really knew and has kept with her all this time. A connection as it turns out perhaps she never needed to Zeboim. Its strange, gimbaled surface remains inscribed with that ancient text; it is a relic of death. ...And as she channels Ether through it she meets the light of the ice with a certain darkness.
The pleasant, nostalgic sights for Lily begin to fade from view. Ordinarily, this magic would cause Lily herself to split; instead, it does away with that which is Not in the moment for her outside herself, causing her to shimmer in a strange field of blue. ...A pleasant memory fades; the calm seas of Spira on a pleasant day shimmer out of view. The familiar sight of her workspace on the Thames disappears. A memory of Fei and Elly at a table, with drinks, freezes and fades.
There is nothing natural about the way Lily walks ahead through the snow and ice. She walks over it, through it, like it doesn't exist. And she is not warm. But neither does she cease.
"...We don't have a plan. Is that how it is...?"
Lily looks into the void that was a memory, as she takes step after step. "...The past," she says, "is an illusion."
"It is gone. It will never come back."
A memory of her father leaning over her, correcting her stance with the rifle. She was twelve, maybe; the pride in his voice as he spoke was moderated with the need to be clear. ...This memory, too, fizzles and fades.
"It's dead. And we're alive."
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Impure Pendant toward her party's challenge, Perpetual Prism.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly returns Fei's embrace. She clings to him. It might be a little uncomfortable if only because she feels dreadfully cold. She is able to gather herself, though; after finally, reluctantly letting go, she spreads her arms out; a ripple of something, perhaps subcritical Fire Ether, runs through the coat, making it ripple and making Elly shudder.
"I'm alright," she tells Fei, softly. She looks at the others. Are they?
She limps a little while walking, but not much. Dr. Uzuki is struggling and that is somehow profoundly troubling to Elly. Billy has been suffering and dealing with things. Lily is often cold and dispassionately remote, so that's nothing new. But if it's working through Dr. Uzuki -
This isn't for play, Elly thinks. Maybe the Seraph would revive us if we failed.
Maybe.
The Seraph - maybe - speaks to them.
Elly feels herself shiver. She raises her hands up, making a fist of the left one and putting it in the palm of the right one. Her head tilts down a little.
"Perhaps there isn't any shame," Elly says. "But..."
"I think I do understand ice better, now. It preserves, doesn't it? Cold... in Solaris, they express it as how quickly the miniscule elements of matter move. And every person we've met... they have to keep moving, somehow. If you stay still - not focused, or rooted, but utterly still... you can't live. Can you?"
"I would thank you for this," Elly says, raising her head, "but... well... it's your duty."
She turns away then, reaching into her coat and getting out two metal spools of something or other. She takes one partially apart and feeds out part of the line, approaching Billy. "Billy... I don't know how to ask you this, exactly. But..."
She unspools the other metal case and holds a strand of line to the first one. They meld together, and Elly holds them up, giving them a tug. "I need to ask you to shoot something into the air. Something odd shaped." The spools are dropped, the line - which is revealed to not be fishing line but a triple-weaved *rope* of it, the material that the Thames either found in huge quantities or is printing out of some ARM somewhere glistening like spider silk in the icy light as Elly loops round a piton and then melts THAT together into double thickness, followed by melding the polymer to have a sort of round bump at the bottom...
"I don't think we have a lot left in us, and I don't have any idea if this succeeds or doesn't," she tells Billy, "but I think hot air rises, and we're in this place full of ice, right?" Having finished creating this improvised object, she waves it in the air for the plastic to cool.
"I'll hold the line," Elly continues as she offers the projectile to Billy to load - and hopefully - fire!! As she spools it out, she looks up - she sees the memory of that father fizzle and disintegrate at the touch of that deathly pendant.
Elly smiles at Lily. It's hard, but it's also easy, somehow.
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Climbing Pack toward her party's challenge, Perpetual Prism.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei was so focused on Elly he did, admittedly, only recognize belatedly the suffering this particular set of phantoms afflicted on his friends. He takes a breath and smiles at her as she says she's alright and then turns to check on the others.
He seems relieved that Billy has a similar sort of reaction that he did (megaviolence) and Citan, well, it's strange to see Citan...
...Oh wait no Citan had it under control the whole time and just palm thrusted the monster. That's also a relief. It's strange to even imagine Citan as vulnerable and he does not want.
Then Fei feels guilty for feeling this way because Citan, surely, is a dude too who sometimes could use an arm to lean on right?
And he is, so often, far from his family. Because of him. Perhaps htere are other reasons. Nevertheless.
Fei approaches Citan. "Doc,"
He doesn't really have to know the details. "You holding up okay?"
He rests a hand on Citan's shoulder.
And then, as if in not so subtle mockery---the light shines from underneath.
Like a projector.
A pleasant memory...
ELRU
A demon in a pilot suit with red hair, a pale face, and yellow eyes is demolishing gear after gear with his bear hands. This is...
"The destruction of Elru...?"
Indeed, fire as far as the eye can see like Moor Galt shat all over everything. The Demon turns from gear to gear, gleefully tearing them apart. The overconfidence of the gear pilots is brief before he can feel their terror, their panic, their desperation. As their emotions give way to hopelessness, Fei can feel it even through the ice--the joy.
The joy of finally being understood.
"No..." Fei says, squeezing his eyes shut. "That's not...a happy memory."
And yet, can he really deny it so? Solarian soldiers march in on the red haired man, the first time Fei has really SEEN Id for himself. And yet, even so, it is as if he again is seeing it as if from a projector screen.
Ramses shouts in a panic to stop him because he's...out of control?
"Out of...control..."
His eyes widen as the screen pans up to show...
"Grahf...!?" Fei shouts in shock. "Even then...??"
A familiar (though not to Fei) crimson gear comes down to join the Demon of Elru.
He jumps in. And then the true carnage begins.
A pleasant memory. The joy of it wells up in a dark part of Fei's heart.
Despite his desire, once again...
DG: Fei Fong Wong has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Perpetual Prism.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
He stands there in the aftermath, still and silent. Perhaps it's rather more of a shock than it should have been -- but as he well knows, the older the current, the deeper it has cut. Perhaps, even after so long, it should... not be so much of a surprise...
And yet, it very much is what it will be.
There's a hand on his shoulder, and for a split-moment, he almost expects to see another revenant. When he turns his head, though--
It's Fei.
"Ah... yes," he says, fleetingly as if bringing himself around to the here and now properly, touching his fingertips to his glasses. "Yes, I am. And yourself? "Is... everyone well?" Citan asks, glancing towards the others, as if to survey the aftermath of their own personal trials.
"It is difficult," he says then, as the caretaker of this trial himself admits how very difficult it is. "That may be the nature of ice, in some respect. To hold in stasis. To keep safe and pure, but to prevent all forward motion. Nevertheless... ice must in time thaw."
To remain standing still is to become stagnant. One cannot forget, but neither can one remain in what was. Time is a river, ever urging one forward in its currents.
One cannot step into the same river twice. All must flow.
Citan's gaze turns but once or twice towards fleeting figures.
Towards the form of an older man: their eyes meet, and it is almost as if his grandfather asks him to come and sit and listen for just one more time.
Towards three young men, who seem to almost ask with a glance to come and enjoy their youth once more in defiance of the courses that fate and responsibilities would otherwise see them take.
"I, too, have gained a deeper understanding of ice today," Citan remarks, forcing his way forward, working to leave what had been behind.
"And perhaps, if I should understand your plan rightly, Elly... perhaps some manipulation of the ice may be in order?"
He has produced a blue sphere that pulses with its own inner light. It would create ice in another context. Here, now...
Ice does not flow like water, not precisely. But with the proper application of force, it can be made to flow. Be made to smooth out.
...Particularly when there is so much heat present to make it flow.
"Is this... no, this memory is-- Fei! You must keep moving!"
This cannot be Fei's fond memory, Citan has already realized.
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Macalania Sphere toward his party's challenge, Perpetual Prism.
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.
These are all raw wounds. Billy is a man - a boy, really - whose innocence, whose naivete, was used against him, and then torn away when it would leave the most jagged possible scar. Most of these memories is a searing reminder of a peace he's lost.
Perhaps that should make him more vulnerable. It is that very same training that helps him there. He is, after all, a hunter of monsters - and Wels are just as able to assault the mind as Demons and Hellions. It is that resistance that lets him force himself to pull the trigger into what he sees as the face of his sister.
He doesn't watch it shatter. He shakes the ice off his habit and continues on, deeper into dreams.
Wading through shadows dancing in the mist. He wouldn't call himself warm, but that Etone atire has some warding against the elements. He's holding up, though each step is harder as he forces himself.
He hears Elly speak. "...yes," he says, to himself if nobody else, reflecting quietly on that truth. He does turn when she calls his name, though his eyes say he's not immediately sure if she's real. He blinks a few times and she remains. Only then does he take what she's giving him. "Ah," he says. "I..."
... "I don't see," he says, and manages something like a smile. "But I trust your judgment, Miss Elly."
He reaches into his habit and unslings his longarm Ether gun, then loads the ARM with a propulsion Cartridge. He snaps that closed, then feeds the object Elly has given him into the muzzle.
Then, as hoped, he swings it upward and fires!!
DG: Billy Lee Black has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Perpetual Prism.
===================<* Kahedin - Shrine of the Ice Trial *>==================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Perpetual Prism *>======================= |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The world grows colder as mist seeps into the chamber. The chill sinks into your being, threatening you with sleep or an equivalent peaceful stupor. A lullaby of memories assaults your senses: happier times and precious moments, slowly becoming more vivid and tangible, as real as the day you lived them. In the whirling flakes of frost, you see the silhouette of a small child briefly, chased by another will too-long hair and too-big robes before they vanish like ghosts made of snow. "Pray forgive the interruption. This is your Trial, not mine," a familiar voice says -- the masked Seraph from the entrance of the shrine, obscured somewhere in the mists. "I myself would have failed this test a dozen times. I have days where I would fail it still." Light shines from below the ice, scattering through the chamber like a prism and projecting memories against the mist. What you remember may become manifest in open illusions for your party to witness. You must keep moving. You must keep yourselves warm. You must press onward, complicated by the way the slippery, ice ground below you rumbles. It will be harder to stay awake if you collapse against the ground. If you can't resist this, you will be consumed by your own memories. "There is no shame in the indulgence of what was lost. Rest if you require. Your journeys must have been harsh." ...Unless you'd prefer to let it happen, and remain here forever with what once was? =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Tire===============================================
==============<* Kahedin - Shrine of the Ice Trial - Round 5 *>=============== ========================< Results - Perpetual Prism >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Citan Uzuki 10 --(0)--> 10 Pass Macalania Sphere 3 Agility Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lily Keil 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Impure Pendant 3 Agility Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elhaym van Houten 13 --(0)--> 13 Pass Climbing Pack 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fei Fong Wong 13 --(0)--> 13 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Billy Lee Black 5 --(3)--> 8 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Citan Uzuki 80 --(0)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Slow(2)|Tire(2)|Wonder Effects: ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Citan Uzuki has passed this challenge! The party gained 0 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Elhaym van Houten has drawn a new Challenge.
===================<* Kahedin - Shrine of the Ice Trial *>==================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - Engraved in Memory *>===================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The light moving under the ice breaks through the surface with such shattering force that the delicate ice sculptures of the chamber crumble into jagged rubble. Cold mist clears to reveal an almost humanoid structure if not for its bestial, hunched posture. Ice fills in cracks and missing pieces, including a blade at the end of its segmented tail and elongated claws. Mist becomes steam as powerful ice magic mitigates the dangerous levels of heat this construct is outputting. Those who have done battle against a particular Solaris asset may find the construct's silhouette worryingly familiar, but this is not something capable of understanding or responding to any effort to communicate. With a warped, digital song, it secretes more cold fog into the chamber. This is the source of the voices and visions of the past that are tempting your thoughts. If you succumb, the guardian will do nothing. If you resist... the Trial's guardian drops to all fours to launch forward in a feral assault of brutal claws and sweeping tail strikes to anyone who dares push back against the siren call of the past. All the while, the crystalline core hums at its chest. If you can steel your will against the memories that call to you, focus on the present, and smash the magic fueled core, you might end its assault and overcome the Trial once and for all. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
They keep moving forward against the biting cold. Their feet nearly fail them, but a plan is stitched together - something to take the stress off their legs, to smooth out the ice underneath them, to simply extract themselves from the situation entirely. Some may stumble, some may find themselves rooted in the spot and overwhelmed, but together... they get through to somewhere, going by the line.
Somewhere where a light moving under the ice shatters through underneath, that delicate ice sculptures and other such decor collapse into so much as jagged rubble, and the cold mist clears to reveal a... structure? Something between humanoid and bestial, where ice crystalizes in cracks and missing pieces. Its segmented tail and elongated claws gleam in the light, as the latent ice magics of the shrine mitigate the dangerous heat levels.
More cold fog escapes it from a strange, warped digital noise - the source of those things of pleasant memory turned into deadly traps of complacency and surrender. Should one stop there, this guardian... will do little else.
If one resists despite the creeping feeling of being frozen solid, the Trial's guardian brings one to the harsh reality of the present and the rapidly shortening future, a feral beast in movement and tactics as the ambience keeps compelling for one to retreat into what once made someone happy, secure, hopeful... compared to the bitter cold of inevitability, as it rears up and exposes the magic-fueled crystalline core in a brief moment before continuing its assault.
In the distance, one young man receives a quilt as another takes up a sword and leaves into the snow, as that young man - a Seraph - clutches that quilt tightly. The ephemeral duo fade then and there, to the distant sound of animalistic fury. (There is a much closer digital mess of furious sound to be more concerned about, among other more imminently mortal sensations related to them.)
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Upwards, forwards, however it goes. Elly smiles at Billy, and tries not to worry about that memory of Fei's, and then
A cold wind blows...
...
And they are faced with this creature.
Elly is able to keep herself together, here. The temptation is at least temporarily lost on her. It is peculiar, when you look at them like that, how they share that in common; and the same with temperature.
Her face hurts, nevertheless; and she regrets not having taken a moment to flip down the ear protective flaps on her hat.
The beast glitters. It is beautiful, despite its oddly familiar form.
Elly takes a deep breath...
Her eyes close...
AND FIRE ERUPTS OUTWARDS from beneath the creature as Elly shifts her grip round on the piece of metal that she has habitually carried, even if it has, thankfully, been on the other side of fabric from her. She does not have something to address the creature with; her thoughts, perhaps, have been spent for now, but she has at least the yen to move faster.
By beating the crap out of the thing's midsection, interrupted occasionally only by other fireballs. She seems to have developed some frustration here! It's a mystery how that could have happened, though, really; quite inexplicable.
DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool One Woman's Stout Iron Rod toward her party's challenge, Engraved in Memory.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
As it turns out, Lily remains cold and distant and remote; while she may not be OK to look at her, neither is she willing to stop and unbind her wounds so to speak, long enough to tend them here. In fact she looks kind of terrible--but when Elly smiles at her, Lily finds that there is at least a touch of something warmer in her still, and though she doesn't smile back, it registers in her eyes that she saw it. Citan asks; Lily answers, belatedly, "...Been better. But I'll live."
She doesn't help with the solution, being busy beig semi-real, but...
She hears all of the rest and their ideas. Including--
"Fei," she says, "You have to--"
The light. The light, and the shattering mist, and the--
Lily falls, but only belatedly; gravity takes a moment to remember that it applies to her. But as she starts to fall, she sees--in the distance... fury. A parting.
Lily knows partings in the snow.
But she also... notices this 'thing'. The creeping feeling of freezing, Lily inhabits it for a moment. She considers it. And then, the strange, warped digital noise reminds her. It does more than remind her. It activates something within, and as Lily finds herself freezing out, freezing out of herself, that impulse remains.
Her eyes fade to black again, but blink in prismatic hues a moment later. "...You know," she says. "I was going to just take this on the chin. Say that it's difficult, but it's a trial set before us, and we chose to undertake it. That trials are our means of advancing forward..."
She watches Elly rush forward and starts beatng the shit out of a creature with fire. "...Yeah, Elly," Lily admits. "That's pretty much how I feel, too."
She steps out of the ice, and murmurs in an Ancient tongue, "-Target acquired.-"
She wreathes herself in ice, and rushes forward. While Elly goes for the midsection, Lily will become a bladed whirlwind of frigid power, going for the face.
DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Engraved in Memory.
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.
Billy trusts Elly, and all is well. Mostly, anyway.
He stumbles, a little, moving forward. He's not the most agile, even less so when his equipment is starting to sting his skin just being on him. This deep into mystical cold, not even Etone warmth charms can help him. So, he's the last to arrive, as the final beast releases a shrieking wave of further cold and biting mist.
More calling. More whispers from voices long gone. His mother; from Prim, a voice he hasn't heard in just as long, even if the girl herself remains. His fingers tremble as he slaps open the breech of his longbarrel, sliding in a new Cartridge, buzzing and sputtering in his hands.
He looks up at it, a weary look in his eyes. He opens his mouth as if to speak.
He ultimately decides to just raise the weapon and fire. Fine, a trial, then. He thinks he's made his thesis clear.
DG: Billy Lee Black has used his Tool Ether Rifle toward his party's challenge, Engraved in Memory.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei does have a moment where he's relieved for Citan but it fades pretty quickly in the unrelenting horror of horrible memories being expressed as positive ones. It's becoming clear to Fei that even an Id that is sort of going along with the group's flow is still just... unpleasant for him. Unhealthy. And he thinks about Xantia. If he ever truly heals, finds a way to be whole--would it hurt her?
Fei tries not to dwell on it and thanks to a timely command from Doc, Fei jolts out of his downward spiral. "R-right...! Thanks Doc!"
He rushes along, glancing to Lily but Lily falls.
And then Fei falls with her and is confronted by a giant robot monster of some kind.
"Oh thank god," Fei says. "It's just something that wants to kill us all."
He grips his RPS Badge tightly as he starts throwing in a whole bunch of kick-based combos towards it, striking to distract the entity from Lily's heavy hitting assaults. He's certain that she can handle the destruction if he can just keep this thing off of her.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool RPS Badge toward his party's challenge, Engraved in Memory.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"Indeed... I could say much the same," Citan remarks to Lily, and the smile he gives her is pained if fleeting.
To Fei, he but shakes his head. "Do not mention it! We must not.. stop now!" Even he may have to grit his teeth against the one-two of frost and memory alike.
It's no easy task to press on past the clarion call of happier (?) times. But inch by inch is how it happens. One step at a time is how it happens. However colder the winds that nip about them get, however much it becomes clear that it would be a far easier thing to let go and let themselves slide back into what had been.
Somewhere past all of this is something -- there must be something -- worth striving for.
Which is where they find it at long last, at the core of everything.
Here in the snow, in the cold. Ice is aligned with water, in the Jugend model of such things. Water, which passes from the invisible to the physical, and back again. Ice is rigid and retains. Water is fluid and flows. And vapor--
"I wonder," he remarks then. "What portion of the trial might this represent?"
If it is even a trial at this point. Perhaps Elly and Lily's instinct is correct.
"Do not relent!" Citan calls out as the rest converge upon it. "It will not hesitate, but the rigidity of ice is also its weakness! A strong enough blow should end this!"
DG: Citan Uzuki has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Engraved in Memory.
====================<* Kahedin - Shrine of the Ice Trial *>===================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Engraved in Memory *>====================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The light moving under the ice breaks through the surface with such shattering force that the delicate ice sculptures of the chamber crumble into jagged rubble. Cold mist clears to reveal an almost humanoid structure if not for its bestial, hunched posture. Ice fills in cracks and missing pieces, including a blade at the end of its segmented tail and elongated claws. Mist becomes steam as powerful ice magic mitigates the dangerous levels of heat this construct is outputting. Those who have done battle against a particular Solaris asset may find the construct's silhouette worryingly familiar, but this is not something capable of understanding or responding to any effort to communicate. With a warped, digital song, it secretes more cold fog into the chamber. This is the source of the voices and visions of the past that are tempting your thoughts. If you succumb, the guardian will do nothing. If you resist... the Trial's guardian drops to all fours to launch forward in a feral assault of brutal claws and sweeping tail strikes to anyone who dares push back against the siren call of the past. All the while, the crystalline core hums at its chest. If you can steel your will against the memories that call to you, focus on the present, and smash the magic fueled core, you might end its assault and overcome the Trial once and for all. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
===============<* Kahedin - Shrine of the Ice Trial - Round 6 *>================ ========================< Results - Engraved in Memory >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Citan Uzuki 10 --(3)--> 13 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elhaym van Houten 13 --(0)--> 13 Pass One Woman's Stout Iron Rod 2 Combat Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fei Fong Wong 13 --(0)--> 13 Pass RPS Badge 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Billy Lee Black 8 --(0)--> 8 Pass Ether Rifle 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Citan Uzuki 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Slow(1)|Tire(1)|Wonder|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 Citan Uzuki has successfully explored Kahedin - Shrine of the Ice Trial!
====================<* Kahedin - Shrine of the Ice Trial *>===================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - Onward to the Future *>===================== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Without concentrated magic to power it, the construct goes inert and slumps slack to the ground, its icy pieces rapidly melting away and causing the rest of it to crumble. The lights along its form flicker and dim, and the construct powers down, leaving a lingering heat to chase away frostbite, but also causes the beautiful sculptures of the Trial to begin to melt. The hazy mist clears, and the voices and visions tempt no longer. Powerful ice resonance settles, and those applicable will feel their spirits heightened with their triumph. The masked Seraph becomes visible as the vapor fades, lifting a palm to catch a droplet of water dripping from the melting ceiling. "Would that I could have frozen those moments in time for all of us." He turns to the party. "But if we never moved from one moment to the next, we would not discover new joys. That is the greater tragedy." He approaches your party, offering forward a gem as cold as the chamber used to be. "May you always find the strength to make memories you cherish." As your party processes your time here, the Seraph looks down at the fallen construct and the ice melting around it, mumbling to himself. "Even this shrine is meant to be ephemeral. Fading away each time it is completed to be rebuilt anew..." He sighs, and for a moment, you would not be blamed for suspecting he may feel pangs of regret for this level of dedication. "...Best I get started." =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
The proverbial life flashing before one's eyes... that final window in one's life to reflect upon the enormity of it before there is nothingness. The construct-beast may encroach the Platonic ideal of such. Pitiless, cold, and unwavering in its deathly assault... but the will to seek further warmth presses them onwards.
This may be using more flowery language than is completely truthful to what transpires.
FIRE ERUPTS OTWARDS as Elly goes straight for the figurative jugular and factual midsection when a singular weakness shows itself. Frigid ice carries Lily forth as she envelops herself within the namesake power of this place, protecting herself from errant blasts of heat and the construct's own heat generation as she strikes true. Billy raises that open and fires once into that opening that Elly points out.
It's not enough to fell it in one volley, but Fei is on it, joining with Lily to snatch oneself from the cold, unfeeling jaws of death as he keeps striking at it, keeping moving, and a strong enough blow should be enough to end this... as Citan says. Ice is rigid, after all... and brittle.
IT is Elly who makes that final, decisive strike, shattering the core. The ice that holds the construct together melts away into steam, and the construct crumbles as its internal lights flicker and dim. The warmth slowly returns, released in the construct's overheating death throes... and the mist clears.
Everyone feels one last sensation run through them... a strength. A strength to acknowledge that things are worth keeping and preserving, a strength to understand the ephemeral nature of those things and oneself. The essence of ice...
"Would that I could have frozen those moments in time for all of us," Brunor comments as he catches droplets of water from the melting ceiling. "but if we never moved from one moment to the next, we would not discover new joys. That is the greater tragedy." He moves forth and presents a gem as cold as the chamber used to be (do not lick). "May you always find the strength to make memories you cherish."
Brunor withdraws, looking to the fallen construct. "Even this shrine, too, is meant to be ephemeral. To fade away each time it is completed to be rebuilt anew..." He draws the quilt around him closer to himself with a sad little smile behind the mask.
"There is more hot chocolate waiting for you if you would like." Beat. "It appears one of you felt so strongly as to relive it minutes later... hm."
He looks to Fei, specifically... and to Elly, too. "May the both of you create many wonderful memories together." Fei's hot chocolate will have even more marshmallows, should he decide to have some more.
An aside to Lily. "I hope the trial had helped sate your curiosity." No comment on the reality breaking, as he strides over to Citan.
"May you continue forward with clear sight for what lies ahead." Last, but not least, to Billy.
"Some once sweet may turn bitter with time's passage," Brunor says, "but... the reverse, too, can be true."
Brunor turns to take his leave for realsies at last, his own memories and his own oath to the maintenance of the cyclic existence of Kahedin. And to further perfect the hot chocolate recipe, of course.