2022-05-20: Iron Forest

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DG: A party led by Avril Vent Fleur is now entering Jarnvidr.
DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
=================================<* Jarnvidr *>=================================
==================<* CHALLENGE - Into the Glittering Forest *>==================
|Type: Entry       |Dungeon Ability: Agility   |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Even a Gear could get lost in this place.

 Before you stands an impossibility: an iron forest on an elephantine scale
 in the ice, stretching even now for the heavens and the touch of the sun. Is
 it still growing?

 A problem faces you even before you set foot into the iron forest: there is
 no safe footing below where a Gear can walk. The trees are densely packed at
 the forest floor and only begin to grow and spread as they extend upwards.

 So to get anywhere without hitting a literal iron wall, youll have to go
 upwards too. But this involves a rather literal snag: too many interlocked
 iron branches. Too many places for a Gear or otherwise to get this or that
 caught on a twisting section of tree. A certain finesse may be necessary.

 BGM: https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/northernLightsDroneGenerator.php
=Dungeon Conditions: Maim, Exhaust============================================
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    She had come too late to do a thing with Alcidamas. Delayed by her damaged Gear and unaware of the danger until she'd gotten the message from her friends, she had arrived far too late to do much of anything but help with the survivors. Even the half-way coherent thought about how she might try to save the village was too little, too late.

    About five thousand years too late, if her instincts about what she would need to do were on the mark. The technology and the pieces she would require simply do not...

    Eventually, what she could still do came to an end, which had left her back where she had started, once again: with herself and her newly repaired Gear.

    The best way to test a Gear is to test it, she has found. And she had found herself knowing where it was that she had needed to go to do precisely that.

    She had gone north, far north enough that snowflakes dance in the air, though they do little to impede the Skadi's progress. North enough until she can find...

    There. Erupting from the ice is a stand of what seems to be trees from a distance, a forest on an unbelivable scale in an equally unbelievable place.
    They're metal, as she knows from venturing into this place before. It's alive, but not of this world.

    Her Gear leaps upwards as she nears it, its hop aided by the glacial pillar that erupts from the ground beneath her feet. It should be enough -- with her thrusters -- to reach the branches.

DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Spell Converter toward her party's challenge, Into the Glittering Forest.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

Leon is, similarly, testing a new Gear.

In the way of Leon Albus, he has already extensively tested it. Dozens of test flights; dozens of combat simulations with its onboard computer; hours upon hours spent looking over its weapon systems. Beowulf is a distinct thing, crimson with a visor, and two large wings, and a slate grey cannon on its back. It currently points upward, as it flies through the air.

It banks around -- and then comes in towards the north. There is a forest erupting from the trees. He sends a transmission as he flies.

"Elly, tell me if the damnable thing moves too fast," he says. "I've not gotten used to the speed."

He notes Avril's Gear ahead. Leon takes a breath, then nods, and looks ahead. "Hm..."

Beowulf lowers down, towards the forest. The wings fire, thrusters in them keeping it upright, as he descends.

DG: Leon Albus has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Into the Glittering Forest.
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

    The first time Rixia set out on an adventure by herself, she ended up dangling on a Wels-possessed train.

    The second time Rixia set out on an adventure by herself, she ended up in the middle of an active warzone whimpering behind a barrel and being bullied by a powerful Veruni commander. She also forgot what happened there because isn't it nice to be able to forget things you don't like?

    The third time Rixia set out on an adventure by herself...

    "W-weeeeeeeh," Rixia whines as she looks around. Where is she?? She's so unbelievably lost! What's this creepy, enormous iron forest? Where is she, really?! She was just supposed to potter around on a circuit with her...

     Bright orange...
      Wonderfully round, glass-domed...
       Friend-shaped...
        Thames' ROBO RIDE attraction!

    ...

    Designed for tourists and children (and teenagers with the curiosity of children), the Thames' Ride-a-Gear is a single seater with two manipulator arms and short stubby feet and an adorable face on the front. =3

    It is notably not... designed for Digs. "Hey! What's that over there-- wait, is that Miss Avril's Gear? Heey, heey!" She waves from inside her bubble. Oh no, there are other way less friend-shaped Gears too...

DG: Rixia has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Into the Glittering Forest.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Marivel showed up right on time--

--to give Ethius shit. But since then has arrived in her powerful

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

There is something disorienting, Elly thinks, about going from the kind of inn where they don't look twice at her grilling her own fish on bamboo skewers, to -- this; the interior of the Omnigear, El-Regulus, which is so sleek and minimalist that Elly suspects *even Solaris* could not duplicate it.

Elly, of course, does not fully understand it -- but perhaps no one ever has truly understood an Omnigear.

"Absolutely," she tells Leon. "I think you're doing fine so far - you probably want to slow up, though, in this thicket..."

The sight is beautiful in Elly's eyes; but strange, too. It's an alien landscape in a way much of Filgaia, even in its decay, isn't.

THEN! "Oh -- it's someone from the Thames," Elly says, before clicking something and

Elly's voice, friendly and *eerily high-fidelity*, transmits into the sound system of the Ride-a-Gear. "Hello! Are you here from the Thames?"

DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Thrust-Vector Suite toward her party's challenge, Into the Glittering Forest.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Marivel showed up right on time--

--to give Ethius shit. But since then has arrived in her powerful gear... Qubeley! It looks like a giant tube with an eyeball in the center of its 'head' and tiny legs. There's a drill on top that is, in fact, piercing the heavens.

It waddles around. You can hear Hob and Nob making chittering noises. Wait...

IS Marivel around or did Hob and Nob steal the Qubeley for a joyride? If MArivel's around she isn't answering...yet.

Qubeley hops up and down on its tiny legs to try and get up

DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool Tomato Juice For Grownups toward her party's challenge, Into the Glittering
Forest.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    Ethius has been put under new scrutiny with a once seemingly unthinkable lead. (Not so unthinkable in the context of 'we know Hyades was another world,' but more in the context of 'this guy appears human but he's not from either world?') The level of scrutiny is as such he's had to get the damaged Aiguille unit patched up through secondary sources.

     The more important thing lingering in imagination: the recent events with Alcidamas and possible consequences.

     "So, uh, far for it that I ask--" That's Homer's voice. The communication's on by accident.

     "Then don't." Comes Ethius' response, terse.

     "Do ya really pilot that thing crossin' yer arms across the controls? Like... not gonna swap 'em out? I pro'lly coul--"

     No."

     "The thing there that's doin' a lotta blinkin'--"

     "Yes, it does that."

     "Also, ain't the co--"

     "No backseating."

     "I'm sayi--"

     There is abrupt silence, but the faintest hum of transmission static.

     "...it's on." Homer murmurs.

     "For the--" It cuts out.

     This conversation is far more entertaining than the rote way in which the repaired Aiguille unit - uncommon Kattelox salvage that it is - engages its heatless short-spurt dashjets to move a bit more quickly between potential footholds and handholds, aided further by the design's ability to grip against terrain even at unconventional angles. It will run into issues only if something heavy needs to be moved, as usual Ethius decorum (or lack thereof) is lost in favor of his apparent inexperience in having a co-pilot and/or prisoner.

DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Phantom Jets toward his party's challenge, Into the Glittering Forest.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    Sometimes, there really is just nothing you can do.

    But since there's nothing more she can do for the people of Alcidamas, or Demetrioi, Lan may as well do something else useful. When she'd heard Avril speak about testing out her freshly-repaired Gear, Lan sort of... just invited herself along, despite not knowing the other woman particularly well. What better way to get to know someone than to undertake a deadly task together? Also, Lan has only found neat things when exploring metal places, and her own Gear -- such as it is -- could use some refining as well.

    And one day, shouldn't she really name it or something?

    The floating swarm of crystal shards surrounds her like a starfield as she floats along after Avril's Skadi. A larger, flatter plane of quartz just to her right serves as a two-way communicator. "Is it handling like it's supposed to?" she asks Avril through it.

    Further above, Lan sees a somewhat-familiar shape (and a few unfamiliar ones). "Oh hey, it's Elly!" She zips up, up, floating like gravity just doesn't apply to her anymore until she's pretty sure Elly and her friend can see her. "Hi Elly!"

DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Butterfly Ribbon toward her party's challenge, Into the Glittering Forest.
=================================<* Jarnvidr *>=================================
==================<* CHALLENGE - Into the Glittering Forest *>==================
|Type: Entry       |Dungeon Ability: Agility   |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Even a Gear could get lost in this place.

 Before you stands an impossibility: an iron forest on an elephantine scale
 in the ice, stretching even now for the heavens and the touch of the sun. Is
 it still growing?

 A problem faces you even before you set foot into the iron forest: there is
 no safe footing below where a Gear can walk. The trees are densely packed at
 the forest floor and only begin to grow and spread as they extend upwards.

 So to get anywhere without hitting a literal iron wall, youll have to go
 upwards too. But this involves a rather literal snag: too many interlocked
 iron branches. Too many places for a Gear or otherwise to get this or that
 caught on a twisting section of tree. A certain finesse may be necessary.

 BGM: https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/northernLightsDroneGenerator.php
=Dungeon Conditions: Maim, Exhaust============================================
============================<* Jarnvidr - Round 1 *>============================
====================< Results - Into the Glittering Forest >====================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Avril Vent Fleur                    0 --(0)--> 0                   Pass
Spell Converter                     2   Agility Effects: Quicken
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ethius Hesiod                       0 --(0)--> 0                   Pass
Phantom Jets                        2   Agility Effects: Stalwart
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leon Albus                          0 --(16)--> 16                 Fail
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           0 --(0)--> 0                   Pass
Butterfly Ribbon                    2   Agility Effects: Quicken
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Elhaym van Houten                   0 --(0)--> 0                   Pass
Thrust-Vector Suite                 2   Agility Effects: Stalwart
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rixia                               0 --(0)--> 0                   Pass
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marivel Armitage                    0 --(0)--> 0                   Pass
Tomato Juice For Grownups           1   Agility Effects: Cleanse
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Avril Vent Fleur            0 --(20)--> 20                 Pass
Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Maim
Effects: Cleanse|Quicken(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Avril Vent Fleur 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: Lan Lilac has drawn a new Challenge.
=================================<* Jarnvidr *>=================================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Whose Vine is it Anyway? *>===================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 1          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 As you continue to make slow passage through the metallic labyrinth of
 trees, the night-ever present silvery vines that lace the wood begin to
 slowly make themselves known.

 Aggressively so: they come in at a stabbing arc, seeking not to merely
 entangle or block your passage, but to do damage to your machine. A bit of a
 warning shot, so to speak, might be enough to see them leave you alone.

 For now.
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    "Yes," Avril answers Lan in turn. "So far, it appears that all systems are normal."

    Avril realizes a moment later that she hasn't actually checked the system report, and with a start, glances over at the diagnostics readout.
    ...Systems are, in fact, normal. "..."

    She may pause a moment, just long enough to get her own bearings and allow Lan to join her before she uses her magic as a catapult, launching the two of them ever higher. "--Is that not--"

    Elly's new Gear, she recognizes. But not the other one with her.

    And there's another Gear here, which she spots as she lands on a branch. "...Is that not Ethius'... machine?" Her tone of voice might be ever so slightly clipped, reserved.
    The voices carry readily over the communications channel.
    "...He is not alone." A simple statement of fact. Avril might seem even ever-so-slightly frosty about it.

    And then she glances into her camera feed and realizes that she didn't simply catapult the two of them up here. There are three of them.
    ...Four of them.

    "...Who are you?" she asks of the clearly Thames-derived Gear. She's about to find out!

    At least she recognizes the other as Marivel's. "That is Qubeley. But I know not whether Marivel is present. ...Marivel, are you here?"

    ...Is her communications line even on?

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    Lan has no clue that Avril just managed to sequencebreak the process of finetuning a Gear. "That's great!" It's not like they could do anything out here in the middle of nowhere if things weren't normal. She alights on Skadi's shoulder long enough to take advantage of the upcoming leap, balancing easily on her own two feet for the duration of the spell.

    As they fly, more crystal panes gather at the sides of her field of vision - seeking out friendly channels, friendly faces. The reciprocal image feed from whatever the hell sorcery Lan has cooked up is fuzzy, but she looks like she's having a good time, at least?

    At least, that is, until the silvery vines snaking around the trunk of the nearest tree come alive, snapping and stabbing. They part the cloud of crystals like it's not there, glancing off of the force shield that holds the whole thing together. Lan, predictably, yelps about it and starts firing her lasers.

    It's as if the forest has woken up and isn't pleased about being invaded, as everyone else finds themselves fending off the same danger!

DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Whose Vine is it Anyway?.
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

    "Y-yeah?? I guess? The Thames is the big rusty bucket out in the middle of the ocean I was on, right?" Rixia whimpers to Elly. Wow, why's her voice coming through so clear? "Ooogh, I was supposed to go on this ride and walk around on a track but... somehow... I ended up here!"

    ... Freykragg Isle is approximately hundreds of miles away and separated by one big body of ocean called The Great Sea, as well as who knows how many other physical land obstacles between shore and Jarvindr, which begs the question: how did she get here?

    Somewhere in Rixia's character sheet:

    FLAW
      No Sense of Direction (EX Legendary++)

    "Miss Avril, it's me, Rixia!" Rixia whines. "Where am I??"

    Rixia's little Robo has... no ability to fly or even jump, so it's a mystery how it's kept up -- let's just say it has extremely powerful off-screen powers, but then the forest...

    ...starts bullying her by poking at her Robo with its vines. Boink, boink, it goes from one side to another. "W-wait, what's going on? Hey! That's not fair! You're a forest!"

    Rixia grumbles and pulls out her astrolabe, and thinks: if the forest can bully me, maybe I can apply a status effect on the entire forest. Logic... ...checks out...? Maybe? (No.)

    "Take your time!" Rixia shouts, holding her hand out and casting Slow as she goes tik-tok on the vine.

DG: Rixia has used her Tool Rui's Old Astrolabe toward her party's challenge, Whose Vine is it Anyway?.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

"I'll be sure to," Leon answers Elly's warning. His eyes shift -- noting Qubeley, and then Aiguille. He studies it for a moment, and then towards Lan's Gear. The voice is familiar -- that Solarian agent, he thinks. Someone who tried to give him a chance to kill Shakhan. He tenses, for a moment.

"Do you recognize her?" he asks Elly, of Lan. Then, he looks at the Thames Gear. He frowns for a moment. "Do be careful in that bucket of bolts," he tells Rixia. "This place seems dangerous."

Beowulf sits down -- feet crunching into the forest ground -- and it turns its head. A single camera under the visor flashes, as silvery vines shoot out. He grits his teeth, then he snaps out a command: "Here!"

There is a flash, from the horizon. Then, another Gear joins them -- silvery, all chrome, with no visible faceplate and a cannon gripped in its hands. It lands, takes aim, and fires a burst of rounds. There is, however, something strange about this one; the solid chrome Gear moves rather deliberately.

It's an unmanned unit.

"Good," Leon says. "They're responding to orders. I wasn't sure."

DG: Leon Albus has used his Tool Summon Huscarl toward his party's challenge, Whose Vine is it Anyway?.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

"KReee!" Hob responds to Avril.

"*Kre Kre Kre!*" Nob answers Avril.

Well the communications line is online at least. What do these phases mean? IF only someone could translate but they're as friendly as ever apparently.

"KRaaaaa!" Hob adds helpfully.

"Kreee! *Kre Kre!*" Nob adds and that seems to settle the discussion.

The gear's eye starts glowing before firing death beams into the malevolent forest creatures.

"Krrrrrr." Hob answers Rixia on where they are.

Its drill promptly launches off and tries to drill through some for malevolent metal wood.

DG: Marivel Armitage has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Whose Vine is it Anyway?.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    Had she already checked and managed to forget about it? Had she assumed only to be proven correct? Avril is not certain which of the two is correct, and in the moment, opts to not even remark upon it. Both of the scenarios are equally bad in implication.

    But regardless of that, Skadi is working as expected -- at least, for now and she and Lan and Qubeley are up in an enormous metal tree.

    ...Well, she and Lan and Qubeley and, apparently, Rixia.

    "You did not steal that Gear, did you? I did not think they were suited for venturing this far afield," she remarks. "We are in a location called 'Jarnvidr', though I know not whether that is its real name. Please stay close. I do not believe this shall be--"

    'Safe', was what she had wanted to say. But the forest is alive with the sound of... ringing metal?
    Because metal vines are lashing about right for them. "Yes, I see," she replies to the chittering from Marivel's machines, as if she understands what they are about. "Please defend Miss Rixia," she tells them, reaching then for the blade anchored at her Gear's back.

    Her blade may just be a few ton's worth of solid metal and not have an 'edge' as such but at a certain scale, things like 'having an edge' don't really matter as much. It will cleave as it must regardless.

DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Gear Blade - Gambanteinn toward her party's challenge, Whose Vine is it Anyway?.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    If Ethius is perturbed by the cold shoulder, he's not feeling too frosty about it, as with the comms off for the moment he's got a nice(?) heated argument to warm up with! He should have had an argument-prone co-pilot sooner! (...To Homer's credit he's less 'argumentative' and more 'forced to go along for reasons.'

     The Aiguille's closer to the back likely for those reasons, and what with Ethius in deep... stuff over not being all that forthcoming as novel situations arise from new Gear pilot(s) going on a little tour to a dangerous ferroflora forest, perhaps he will be forthcoming about dangers that arise as vines just start stabbing and jabbing and slapping and being all defensive about the location.

     "--appears the flora movements are registering as hostile entities," Ethius' voice fails to completely hide the inflection of conession.

     "That's what I've--" Homer gets cut off again as the comms are cut off, and Ethius shares the locational data of these moving vines and shoots.

DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Panic Eye toward his party's challenge, Whose Vine is it Anyway?.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"Hello, Lan!" Elly replies to Lan, naturally enough.

Avril pings several people -- "Are you having issues with your comm?" Elly asks her. "I'm confident you can hear me, given Regulus's systems -- if you're having trouble I can try to figure out the fault from here."

It can DO that?

Elly glances back towards Lan as they move towards the treeline, concerned, perhaps. ("... Yes," Elly answers Leon, parenthetically. "She's... a friend of someone I know, I'd rather explain later." Because it involves talking about Loren, and that will kill any festival of exploration's mood, toot suite.)

Several moments pass, then, as the Quebeley hails them.

"... What?" Elly says, before a lash from one of the trees reaches out! As readouts display text in that slightly archaic terminology ("C.DEMON CHECK>... SCANNING... NO NCRNCM SIG. DET....") Elly gibbers for a moment, before swerving Regulus to the side and sweeping one of its arms around to--!!

-- Surround it with a faintly green haze-bubble, which flashes sharply when another stabbing vine flies towards them.

"I suppose that answers the question of, 'is it friendly or not,'" Elly says. "-- Oh, good! I had been worried... automatic systems do get finicky in complex environments. Flying is the easiest way, aren't they?"

And as for Rixia-- "Well, I'd hardly speak of it in such poor terms, but yes, that sounds like the Thames-- and I don't want to tell you what to do with your life, but I really wouldn't dawdle if the forest is aggressive...!!"

DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Electromagnetic Barrier Projector toward her party's challenge, Whose Vine is it
Anyway?.
=================================<* Jarnvidr *>=================================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Whose Vine is it Anyway? *>===================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 1          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 As you continue to make slow passage through the metallic labyrinth of
 trees, the night-ever present silvery vines that lace the wood begin to
 slowly make themselves known.

 Aggressively so: they come in at a stabbing arc, seeking not to merely
 entangle or block your passage, but to do damage to your machine. A bit of a
 warning shot, so to speak, might be enough to see them leave you alone.

 For now.
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
============================<* Jarnvidr - Round 2 *>============================
=====================< Results - Whose Vine is it Anyway? >=====================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Avril Vent Fleur                    0 --(5)--> 5                   Pass
Gear Blade - Gambanteinn            2   Combat  Effects: Resilient
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ethius Hesiod                       0 --(5)--> 5                   Pass
Panic Eye                           1   Combat  Effects: Cleanse
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leon Albus                          16 --(5)--> 21                 Pass
Summon Huscarl                      2   Combat  Effects: Embolden
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           0 --(5)--> 5                   Pass
Fight                               0   Combat  Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Elhaym van Houten                   0 --(5)--> 5                   Pass
Electromagnetic Barrier Projector   2   Combat  Effects: Resilient
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rixia                               0 --(5)--> 5                   Pass
Rui's Old Astrolabe                 3   Combat  Effects: Fanfare
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marivel Armitage                    0 --(5)--> 5                   Pass
Fight                               0   Combat  Effects: BASIC
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Avril Vent Fleur            20 --(20)--> 40                Pass
Conditions: Injure(2)
Effects: Cleanse|Embolden(1)|Resilient(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Avril Vent Fleur 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: Elhaym van Houten has drawn a new Challenge.
=================================<* Jarnvidr *>=================================
==================<* CHALLENGE - A Little Light Platforming *>==================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility   |Challenge Rating: 1          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The interior of the forest is as a maze, your ascent upwards slowed to a
 crawl at points as you seek a way forward that does not leave you dead-ended
 against the metallic 'wood'. For the most part, it's straightforward
 enough--

 Until it isn't.

 The path you've followed until now abruptly terminates, and it takes a
 moment's searching to spot an outcropping from a tree, a short distance off
 and above you. And another, a small distance above that.
 And so on.

 It looks like you'll need to put your machine's mobility to the test with
 this one.
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Hesitate===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    Perhaps the vines are all connected, or maybe Rixia cast a wide net - they're all moving a bit slower after her magic finds its mark. Which is a good thing for Lan, because sniping isn't really the best tactic against anything rope-shaped. Leon's backup unit and Avril's hella big sword cleave through much easier.

    Qubeley krees and kraas, but more importantly brings the hot beams of death.

    Ethius at least has data to share, and Elly's barrier turns the vines away rather than let them touch El-Regulus. "Wait, can you DO that?" Lan asks, leaping off of Skadi's shoulder (the better to not be sworded by accident). "I'm just kind of making it up as I go along..."

    The vines, beaten and bruised, retreat rather than suffer any longer.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

From here, the group can wend its way - the path is dense and knotty, and at times seems to be procedurally generated, without even the heart's ease of a random treasure chest or encounter, until finally and abruptly there is a gap - a yawning, enormous one; a gap you can potentially see from an orbital photograph, if you were to check.

But there are these pepperings of short outcrops - like stunted tree branches, perhaps broken off by some cause or other - leading upwards, towards another dense space. Perhaps something horrible happened her to make this breach, but perhaps it was simply the natural elements of Filgaia.

"Oh..." Elly says, gazing outwards, upwards.

And then --

"Leon," Elly says, with dawning excitement, "this is a perfect time to test Beowulf's performance envelope in a practical situation!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcCNrsTpnas

Regulus floats up -- and then -- out! Into the air! That's all well and good for you, Elhaym, but

"Everyone," Elly says as Regulus pirouettes in the air. "This is a unique opportunity. I want to make you all a promise, right now. As you can see from this, and the readouts on your Gears... if they're showing them," Elly adds politely because Rixia may be in a total hooptie and unable to see standard optics, "this machine has enough thrust to catch and support any of you. So I'd like to ask you -"

"I know some of you well... I know some of you only by acquaintance... and I don't know some of you at all. But please. Let's all expand our skills... and jump for it!!"

"Because I *will* catch you," Elly says, flitting Regulus over, "if you fall." (She comes to light briefly on one of the platforms, maybe just to check if it rotted.)

(it didn't your good)

DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Thrust-Vector Suite toward her party's challenge, A Little Light Platforming.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

"Quite," Leon answers Elly. "Mercifully, they seem inclined to follow my commands--and the interface is intuitive enough. I'll have to work on them, nonetheless."

The Huscarl lands next to the Beowulf. It looks ahead -- eyeless faceplate staring placidly forward. Leon spares it only a momentary glance, before he regards those rather troublesome vines.

"A practical situation," Leon repeats, as he sees the way the path winds up -- and then an enormous gap. He frowns, for a moment, as he listens to Elly's speech. Then, he nods. "Very well. I'll place my trust in you, Elly."

The Gear starts forward -- and then after a few steps, the wing-mounted thrusters fire; the war machine does a flying leap. Whether it will be enough... well, that's a different question!

DG: Leon Albus has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, A Little Light Platforming.
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

    "I mean-- I'm not trying to be mean, I'm scared the thing will fall into the ocean any moment! Sure, the people are real nice and I like that there's tons of beastfolk around..." Rixia whines to Elly, as if she just felt like she got scolded gently by a schoolteacher.

    Avril asks if she stole the Gear. "What?? No! I was supposed to just follow a fun track and win prizes! I don't know how I got here!"

    ... inadvertently stole, perhaps, is the right word.

    "Well, geez, sorry I don't have cool wings and a-- second robot. Hey, can I borrow that one?" Rixia just openly asks of Leon.

    Hob's answer is... much less than useful, but Rixia doesn't seem to mind, because Hob looks cute. "Oh, aren't you a cutie? What is this thing, anyway?"

    Regulus starts flying, and Rixia's Robo's arms start flailing. "I wish I could fly too... ooh, while I'm at it, I wish I had a cherry-chocolate ice cream and a cream donut to go with it..."

    Elly surmises correctly, because the only readout on Rixia's gear is whether or not it's going forward or back. "E-err, jump... how do I make it jump? Is it this button--"

    #-1 FUNCTION (ANSI) EXPECTS 2 ARGUMENTS BUT GOT 1

    Rixia's Robo starts going backwards, complete with the truck 'i'm backing up' beep. It's so cute!

    "Oh... um... well, going backwards is sort of like jumping, right...?"

<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

    "I mean-- I'm not trying to be mean, I'm scared the thing will fall into the ocean any moment! Sure, the people are real nice and I like that there's tons of beastfolk around..." Rixia whines to Elly, as if she just felt like she got scolded gently by a schoolteacher.

    Avril asks if she stole the Gear. "What?? No! I was supposed to just follow a fun track and win prizes! I don't know how I got here!"

    ... inadvertently stole, perhaps, is the right word.

    "Well, geez, sorry I don't have cool wings and a-- second robot. Hey, can I borrow that one?" Rixia just openly asks of Leon.

    Hob's answer is... much less than useful, but Rixia doesn't seem to mind, because Hob looks cute. "Oh, aren't you a cutie? What is this thing, anyway?"

    Regulus starts flying, and Rixia's Robo's arms start flailing. "I wish I could fly too... ooh, while I'm at it, I wish I had a cherry-chocolate ice cream and a cream donut to go with it..."

    Elly surmises correctly, because the only readout on Rixia's gear is whether or not it's going forward or back. "E-err, jump... how do I make it jump? Is it this button--"

    BEEP BEEP BEEP

    Rixia's Robo starts going backwards, complete with the truck 'i'm backing up' beep. It's so cute!

    "Oh... um... well, going backwards is sort of like jumping, right...?"

DG: Rixia has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Little Light Platforming.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

"Skh skh skh." Hob supplies at this point.

"Khs khs khs..."

And then finally MArivel's voice, "Did you two take the Qubeley out for a joyride again?!" There's a sort of tinny nature to Marivel's voice that suggests its coming from a different source than Hob and Nob.

"What forest is that?" She asks. "Ooh you two are gonna be in so much trouble when you get home...! I definitely didn't call for one of the Annihilation Protocols! I'm too busy to look up the recall codes so you better behave!"

"Kreeee!" Hob complains.

The Qubeley tries to do a jumping puzzle wiht its tiny little legs.

It's strangely more capable at this than you'd think!

DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool Tomato Juice For Grownups toward her party's challenge, A Little Light
Platforming.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    "Oh? Then you are quite far from the Thames," Avril remarks, mildly. "But it shall be alright. We will see you to safety again." ...Perhaps easier said than done.

    "No, my communications systems appear to be functioning just fine," Avril reports back to Elly. "The diagnostics report it is within normal parameters. However, perhaps you might check in on Ethius."

    Ethius may be having some communications issues simply because he isn't quite alone in there, it would seem.

    "I have had little chance to see your Gear function up close, Elly," Avril remarks, in the wake of VINE DESTRUCTION. "It was most impressive. I do not think I have seen a Gear such as that before, outside Jacqueline's own. It seems almost alive." Avril would know, after all -- there is a delay, naturally, with the use of most Gears (magical constructs and the like such as Lan's spiralling swarm aside) between input and action: the pilot must decide on a course, then direct their Gear, which then finally will have its own mechanical delays where orders become output. She knows, too, that a skilled pilot will take this into consideration, both for themselves and for any opponent.

    But the movement of Elly's Gear seems as natural as moving one's arm.

    ...And once again, Avril cannot permit such a thought to pass without also thinking why she knows this sort of thing as intimately as she does. The Ice Queen was a master of artifice, that is true, but...

    "And what of your Gear, Leon? I have not seen such before. I had not even recognized you until you had spoken." It too is new, if of a different sort than Elly's own.

    Eventually, the path peters out.

    "Well... please, follow me!"

    And she leaps, thrusters burning as she hovers a short distance--

    ...An icy path slowly spanning the gap behind her?

    "...Though, I do not know how long my bridges might last. Please, hurry!"

DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Spell Converter toward her party's challenge, A Little Light Platforming.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    "Marivel, is that you? ...I see. It would seem that they have taken Qubeley to Jarnvidr. Worry not, I shall ensure they come to no harm," she speaks to the purloined apparatus.

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    Elly speaks her words, and somewhere in the cockpit of the Aiguille one of the two, um, polite guests to the two worlds are able to stop talking over one another in order to hear Elly's voice speak to show that if any of them fall, she will catch them.

     She *will* catch them.

     "Y'know, thinkin' 'bout it," Homer speaks up--

     "I didn't ask to hear your thoughts."

     "No, no, really, this part of... Filgaia? What with how li'l it looks like people have, sure... somethin' to see a whole lotta people just be willin' to give, share, 'n trust sometimes."

     "..."

     "Do ya ever think 'bout that?"

     Ethius is either thinking of an answer to that question or quietly sweating about what he's overhearing as regards unmanned machines and/or a young woman with a... rental machine of sorts that is not at all built for these kinds of adventures as the Aiguille engages in those heatless dash-jets again to make intermittent jumps, and seems to not be particularly inclined to utilize Avril's bridges even though his machine is one of the lighter ones among the 'regular' Gears of the Drifter community.

DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Phantom Jets toward his party's challenge, A Little Light Platforming.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    Not a single treasure chest? Not even junk?!

    Oh well. it's not like Lan's crystal cloud has a storage locker. And it's kind of a sidenote anyway, once they reach an End to Trees. ...Or a Beginning of Trench. "That's... really, really wide," Lan offers, because she doesn't know what else to say. Can the others get across it?! What about the toy train?!

    Oh. Elly's got them. Whew! El-Regulus is so much different than the other Gears she's seen. Not that most of them are very much alike, but there's just something... present about it. Maybe it's alive, Lan thinks. Or maybe it's just magic.

    She skims along a few feet above the surface of the icy path, snowflakes trailing in her wake. Even if she can fly as easily as thinking about it, it's really really much better to be 'a few feet off the ground' and not 'floating alone and unshielded above an abyss'.

DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Butterfly Ribbon toward her party's challenge, A Little Light Platforming.
=================================<* Jarnvidr *>=================================
==================<* CHALLENGE - A Little Light Platforming *>==================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility   |Challenge Rating: 1          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The interior of the forest is as a maze, your ascent upwards slowed to a
 crawl at points as you seek a way forward that does not leave you dead-ended
 against the metallic 'wood'. For the most part, it's straightforward
 enough--

 Until it isn't.

 The path you've followed until now abruptly terminates, and it takes a
 moment's searching to spot an outcropping from a tree, a short distance off
 and above you. And another, a small distance above that.
 And so on.

 It looks like you'll need to put your machine's mobility to the test with
 this one.
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Hesitate===========================================
============================<* Jarnvidr - Round 3 *>============================
====================< Results - A Little Light Platforming >====================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Avril Vent Fleur                    5 --(0)--> 5                   Pass
Spell Converter                     2   Agility Effects: Quicken
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ethius Hesiod                       5 --(0)--> 5                   Pass
Phantom Jets                        2   Agility Effects: Stalwart
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leon Albus                          21 --(0)--> 21                 Fail
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           5 --(0)--> 5                   Pass
Butterfly Ribbon                    2   Agility Effects: Quicken
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Elhaym van Houten                   5 --(0)--> 5                   Pass
Thrust-Vector Suite                 2   Agility Effects: Stalwart
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rixia                               5 --(0)--> 5                   Pass
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marivel Armitage                    5 --(0)--> 5                   Fail
Tomato Juice For Grownups           1   Agility Effects: Cleanse
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Avril Vent Fleur            40 --(20)--> 60                Pass
Conditions: Hesitate(2)|Slow(2)
Effects: Cleanse|Quicken(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Avril Vent Fleur has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use
party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly's Social Link with Leon reaches rank "A" at this exact moment. Keep advancing it to unlock even more powerful combined-arms attacks, Albus!

Regulus flits out of the immediate line of people's jumps, and Elly gives a little bit of passing guidance ("just a moment - alright - look out") as people move along. This gives her opportunities to talk to people.

"It is! Like a shrimp!" Elly encourages Rixia, unlocking the terrible determination that exists within each and every crustacean. (She also may be doing a little bit of portage for the big jump.)

Elly stares with mute horror at the sudden implication that Marivel has let hobgobs take control of her Gear. Can hobs... USE a Gear? Is this how this era of Filgaian civilization will fall? (Yes.)

"Ahh," Elly says to Avril, "I suppose it does... to me it feels a little more as though it's just... incredibly responsive. I don't know how to describe it. I suppose I should just thank my fortune and use it for what I can, right?" (This moment also reduces a significant portion of Elly's regrets and horror at using a Gear.)

"Oh... hello, Ethius... and... I can hear someone else! Hello, Ethius's friend," Elly says to the Ethius Gear, even as the ice path is forged and the others move along AND that big leap was the big leap of faith. Elly hangs in the back, probably expecting to have to catch and tote the Huscarl unit so it doesn't fall to its demise and turn into a bonanza for some Drifter and a major loss of a military asset.

Is that a disc loading?

("Is everything going well, Lan? It's been a little while, hasn't it...")

DG: Leon Albus has drawn a new Challenge.
=================================<* Jarnvidr *>=================================
=========================<* CHALLENGE - Continuation *>=========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 A rustling is your first and only sign of warning that something is terribly
 amiss in this section of Jarnvidr. Pressing through the metallic foliage and
 scrambling haphazardly along the branches--

 They shouldn't be alive. Only half-formed, more than half their mass
 resembling that of the foliage about them, they arguably shouldn't even be.

 And yet, here they are. Hyadeans -- failed, to look at them, not even fully
 formed and riddled with material from the metal forest itself -- slip along
 the branches towards your machines. They're insensate: they do not respond
 when spoken to. They only respond to your presence by assuming a grotesque
 shadow of a Hyadean's transformation.

 And then they attack.
=Dungeon Conditions: Exhaust, Hesitate========================================
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

"It's known as Beowulf," Leon answers Avril. "Something made in the Zeboim era. We... found it in ruins." As an answer goes, it is half-truth and entirelly a dodge. He leaves much out, but Leon has always kept things close to his chest.

He gets to the other side -- as does the Huscarl unit. He takes a deep breath -- more than a little rattled that he did not quite do so without help -- but he looks ahead.

Rustling.

"Ah, a problem," he says. "The foliage is demented and vicious."

So it is -- failed Hyadean constructs, of living metal, rush out. They begin to compound, building a form; then, the Huscarl opens fire, rifle peppering them with shells. Leon's own Gear draws its rifle and takes aim.

A beam of light fires -- and the mass of strange living metal comes rushing forward. "I dislike the look of these. Hyadean," he says. "But... twissted, somehow."

DG: Leon Albus has used his Tool Summon Huscarl toward his party's challenge, Continuation.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Hob and Nob aren't Hobgobs. They're way more deadly.

But Marivel hears Avril speaking to her. She is quiet for a moment as she hears someone she was certain at one point in her life would be like the final boss of her adventure...offering to look after Hob and Nob. "Avril...? Where are you people? Switching to external viewscreen."

Qubeley's eye flashes red and Marivel's visage takes over. She seems to be in a lab with her goggles over her eyes and a welding torch in her hand. She's in overalls and a work suit. "The heck they doing that far out there??" She asks.

"Kreee...!"

"No not the missiles!" Marivel shouts as Qubeley launches a slew of minimissiles towards the Metal ... demons?

"Hold up a Zeboim era Gear? OH right you're a super criminal. Fiiine whatever it's just a WMD it's fine. Just be sure it doesn't leak radiation into the environment."

She turns her attention back to welding.

DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool My Mike toward her party's challenge, Continuation.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Panic Eye toward his party's challenge, Continuation.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    'Hello, Ethius's friend.'

     "...Hello." That's Ethius, whose voice cannot completely hide that tiny leak of acidity, and there is a conspicuous lack of response on Homer's end. (There is no sound of an ARM discharging or anything, so Homer lives. For now.)

     "I will elaborate--" Sudden cut-off, as if to imply another stretch of silence as the Aiguille unit nearly slips upon catching itself on a ledge. The footing proves true enough. "The Veruni previously sent one of their scientists here."

     "Uhhh. All this stuff's... new, never seen it," Homer pipes up, "didn't see none of this over in... Zoara? None of that got in Demetrioi. Look, I know we gotta deal goin' on, but-- hey the thing's blinkin' a bunch again."

     "Hostiles." Ethius may be on point in identifying it's 'hostiles,' but that he is able to declare this and not focus over-much on the utter horror of the sight. They are electronically painted, and the laser shot-staff is raised and made to open fire upon them without so much as a hailing.

     There's someone sucking their teeth in shock at the sight of what these 'hostiles' are (it's Homer), as Ethius keeps transmitting the over-sensitive threat detection system's readings to the gathered.

[OOC] Ethius Hesiod says, "bluray, stick action text under this one, +ooc tag ate the previous pose"
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

    "L-like a shrimp? This Robo can't even curl up like one!" Rixia whines. But Regulus helps, because the Ride-a-Robo is a little bit helpless on its own, and they proceed! Hooray! She's so nice...

    "How'd I get lost again so badly? I mean, I just took the right turn when I should've gone left, sure, but..." Rixia mumbles to Avril. "Haah, thanks for bailing me out again, Miss Avril..."

    At least she has a few ice bridges to walk on, thanks to her. That's something!

    A pause, and there's... creatures! Rixia doesn't know what a Hyadean is, much less a half-transformed one that's mixed in with Jarvindr's material itself. "E-eeeek! This is definitely not the fun ride I was promised anymore. This is more like a horror ride at this point...!"

    The Ride-a-Robo can't fight, so it's reliance on Time Magic again. "I wonder if... can I make the whole robot go faster?"

    So the starglobe appears once more, and she focuses on Skadi andddd... Haste! An enormous ephemeral clock spins around the Gear and...?!

DG: Rixia has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Continuation.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    "'Beowulf'? I see. It seems powerful," she observes. "I hope that it might serve you well." She does not pry further: she has no reason to do so.

    "Where are we? It is to the north, near Sielje, I should think-- oh! Hello, Marivel."

    To Rixia, she says then: "That's quite alright, Rixia. I'm glad to help." A little less formal, there, but perhaps she's doing her level best to be comforting.

    "Yes, I think that you should," Avril replies to Elly, before they attempt a dangerous passage among the metal tree branches. "It has been said that there is nothing fair in war. Therefore, ought we not use every advantage that we might? Ah, though, now that I think of it, had that phrase not been properly 'love and war'...?"

    Even now, Avril is Avril.

    But they have not gone far into the opposite end they've reached before they encounter trouble. There's rustling; Avril draws her sword.

    "Are those not... Hyadeans?" Here, with that wrecking ball of a weapon in her hands, Avril hesitates, loathe to raise her blade against a friend's people. "Hello there!" she announces to the advancing Hyadeans, not unaware of the strangeness of their forms. "We are not your enemies! Please, stand down--"

    They do not.
    They do not even seem to have heard her.

    "Are they..."

    "..."

    The Gear's hands tighten about the hilt.

    "I am sorry," Avril tells the broken Hyadeans. "I shall be quick."

    She hesitates no longer.

DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Gear Blade - Gambanteinn toward her party's challenge, Continuation.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    ("I'm doing pretty good, are you? It's always good to run into you even if it's in a spooky metal death forest.") Lan rather likes Elly, because she's always been nothing but kind. The world could use more kindness.

    Lan pokes gently at one of her viewing panes. "Hey, Ethius? Can you turn your camera thingy on? I can't see you--oh! Mister Mecone!" This is... a little worrying, but apparently they're not fighting in there. Lan isn't sure if she could figure out how to open up the unknown machine and put Ethius in a headlock or something, not before he managed to break Homer's wrist again. "Are you two getting alon okayyyyYYYYEEEEEEE--"

    She spotted the Not-Hyadeans.

    "Hey! We're not fighting anymore, okay?" she calls to the Not-Hyadeans, but they scarcely even look her way. She frowns. They can't... hear her, can they. Or understand.

    There's something really wrong with them.

    "..." Avril understands, too. "Yeah. We're sorry," she tells them, although her voice is too low to possibly carry that far.

    "O you of infinite wishes," she whispers, raising her arms within her cocoon. Silvery light, radiant and so unlike the silver of the ferroflora or the Metal creatures, rains down on them from above.

DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Continuation.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly lands - even Regulus can't (YET) fly forever without shifting into high altitude mode - and falls back into their impromptu formation. And then there's an update: Demented foliage.

Elly blinks once, because the idiom is a little foreign to her, but the idea becomes obvious. "Oh!" Elly says, as Regulus swings round the stout blunt mace it has been carrying around like some kind of sceptre, clouting one of the-- whatever they are long enough to leap back, nearer to the others!

"It is fine!" Elly agrees with Marivel. "There's no leakage! We even replaced the --"

"A Veruni scientist?" Elly wonders.

But she encourages Rixia: "Even if you can't quite do it with your body, you can do it with your heart." At which point another of the Things lunges for Regulus, actually biting onto its arm as Elly thrashes for a moment, before it gets smashed in the face (which most people do not plan for) followed by a sudden Etheric construction that turns into a crack of thunderous lightning, splitting the air and producing an enormous BOOM!

Take that, jerk.

DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Electromagnetic Barrier Projector toward her party's challenge, Continuation.
=================================<* Jarnvidr *>=================================
=========================<* CHALLENGE - Continuation *>=========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 A rustling is your first and only sign of warning that something is terribly
 amiss in this section of Jarnvidr. Pressing through the metallic foliage and
 scrambling haphazardly along the branches--

 They shouldn't be alive. Only half-formed, more than half their mass
 resembling that of the foliage about them, they arguably shouldn't even be.

 And yet, here they are. Hyadeans -- failed, to look at them, not even fully
 formed and riddled with material from the metal forest itself -- slip along
 the branches towards your machines. They're insensate: they do not respond
 when spoken to. They only respond to your presence by assuming a grotesque
 shadow of a Hyadean's transformation.

 And then they attack.
=Dungeon Conditions: Exhaust, Hesitate========================================
============================<* Jarnvidr - Round 4 *>============================
===========================< Results - Continuation >===========================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Avril Vent Fleur                    5 --(5)--> 10                  Pass
Gear Blade - Gambanteinn            2   Combat  Effects: Resilient
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ethius Hesiod                       5 --(5)--> 10                  Pass
Panic Eye                           1   Combat  Effects: Cleanse
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leon Albus                          21 --(5)--> 26                 Pass
Summon Huscarl                      2   Combat  Effects: Embolden
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           5 --(5)--> 10                  Pass
Fight                               0   Combat  Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Elhaym van Houten                   5 --(5)--> 10                  Pass
Electromagnetic Barrier Projector   2   Combat  Effects: Resilient
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rixia                               5 --(21)--> 26                 Fail
Fight                               0   Combat  Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marivel Armitage                    5 --(5)--> 10                  Pass
My Mike                             4   Combat  Effects: Efficient and Fanfare
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Avril Vent Fleur            60 --(20)--> 80                Pass
Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Hesitate(2)
Effects: Cleanse|Embolden(1)|Resilient(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Avril Vent Fleur has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use
party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

The masses of Hyadean flesh surge forward, but they're struck down in short order. Avril's Gear is enhanced by Haste; blasts of energy, a Gear-sized blade, silvery radiance, and thunderous lightning smashes through them. With Ethius's targeting assistance, they are quickly laid low.

At the end of it, Leon's Gear lowers its rifle. He looks ahead, his brow furrowed. "...Troubling," he says. "That someone did this with living metal. We'll need to learn more. And... no, it will be fine, Marivel."

He keeps his voice level.

"Let's keep on," he says. He glances once at Ethius's Gear -- wary, for a moment.

DG: Rixia has drawn a new Challenge.
=================================<* Jarnvidr *>=================================
=========================<* CHALLENGE - Suffocation *>==========================
|Type: Climax      |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 3          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Where are you?

 Everything has gone dark.

 You can't see anymore -- no light filters and shines through the gaps in the
 metal trees. Even any sensors you have go wild, reporting impossible
 coordinates or looping your last known degrees of position.

 Any lights you have fail to return anything except the dulled shine of the
 trees around you, engulfing you. There is nothing else here.

 Except the sound you can hear, droning and incessant. Unrelenting. Empty.

 As your surroundings bear down upon you.

 You need to get out of here.

 Even if it means you're going to have to tear your way out of here.

 You need to get out of here!

 BGM: https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/oblivionSoundscapeGenerator.php

 (OOC: The GM for this round may want to wait for the next card draw before
 resolving!)
=Dungeon Conditions: Overwhelm================================================
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

    Avril's words are an encouragement to Rixia, as she casts her Time Magic on the Ice Queen's gear; Elly also gives her more encouragement, which is something like catnip to her. Yess, dote on her, spoil her...

    Rixia pauses as something in her whispers: 'But they'll leave you anyway.'

    Ride-a-Robo's face goes =< for a moment, as if it can detect sadness.

    But then-- things... go dark?

    "Eh? Wait, what's going on? Did my lamp go out? Waittt-- I don't like it in the dark!"

    There's an awful, incessant droning. Bzzz bzzz bzzz. oh no, everything's descending down upon them.

    "We need to..." Rixia whispers. "We need to get out of here, I'm not sure how, but..."

    >> risk detected: non-zero chance of self-elimination

    Rixia's hand starts to rattle on her own, and she yelps as the gunblade appears all on its own into sight. Then it SHOOTS out of her hand, shattering the glass dome in the process ("WEEEEEEEEH!") and STABS at the darkness, a highly visible array of datacubes spreading out of it as it tries to do the wildly illegal thing of just editing its environment on a nano-scale as it goes.

    "W-what's it doing? Heey, come back here, sword!"

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    She has gone no further than to resecure her weapon against Skadi's back when it happens.

    When the world goes dark. Immediately, Avril flares her external lights... but to no avail; it does little more than gently illuminate the parts of the trees that have suddenly twisted about them and provides little information about their position or whether there is an exit. In all likelihood, Avril knows, there is none.

    "...I believe we are trapped," she announces, quite audibly. All she can pick up from their surroundings is a continuous droning hum. "Please, remain calm."

    She says this as much for her own sake as anything else. Here she is, in the dark, trapped...
    Her breath hitches in a shallow gasp, one that transmits unwittingly across her end of the shared comm link.

    This is not there. This is not 'then'.
    Whenever it was. Whatever it was.

    "Oh, you Guardian of the ice and snow," she invokes, reaching out a hand to touch the stone Medium slotted into her Gear's Spell Converter.

    Lights catch and reflect off of a swirling halo of frost, itself glittering as Aru Solatu carves itself into the world at large.

    They may yet see traces of its passage as the Guardian roars forth at the trees that seek to bind and keep them.
    They will certainly hear it.

DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Stone Ice Medium toward her party's challenge, Suffocation.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    Ethius likely has deeply not-warm-and-fuzzy feelings about this place on multiple levels, and now at least one more with the terraforming device officially on the loose in the tight grasp of the Veruni.

     (...wait)

     Things go dark, the light disappears. Sensors go off again, as they tend to.

     "I'm not likin' this--"

     "You're not here for purposes of entertainment."

     "I already told ya this had nothin' to do with how long I've been here!"

     Ethius recognizes the last time this happened, even though it was quite some time back. He is only prepared for the idea of it, and it doesn't blunt the urgency of it. He's better aware of the capabilities of the onboard weaponry - not great for moving heavy things, but he's confident enough that he may be able to melt a hole through and go from there, even with the light itself snuffed out.

     Homer does not have the benefit of this experience. He may be quickly approaching his elder years and that tends to come with the quiet acknowledgement that oblivion is making its steady approach - but when the idea of it is so sudden.

     "Do somethin'!!"

     "I am--"

     There's the noise of something scraping and the communications cutting off abruptly.

DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Suffocation.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

"Veruni scientist means Kaguya." Marivel explains for Elly. "And thank you for reassuring me that you will ensure the Gear will be maintained for the next...lets see, approximately... 19,000 years? I really don't want to have to do rad cleanup again in my Unlife."

"Hey Avril." She says, "Sielje Sielje..."

Hob and Nob are clearly immune to panicking when everything goes dark and the surroundings bear down on them right?

The Qubeley's drill spins rapidly as the Qubeley cowers like a cartoon character giant robot.

"Kreeee!!"

"krp."

Marivel, meanwhile, "Uggghh everything went dark hold on."

DG: Marivel Armitage has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Suffocation.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    The branches are getting really close together, Lan can't help but think. --No, it's probably just her imagination. She grew up on an open plain, it's natural that any forest thicker than the orchard back home would make her uneasy.

    "It's okay, I'll light it up," she offers, turning her magic outward. Each crystal picks up the frequency at its own pace, light jumping from on shard of stone to the next, all glowing like stars, all flitting around her like tame fireflies.

    It doesn't help. The flora around them reflects it all right back at her, disorienting -- Lan covers her eyes and lowers the output until the whole array barely matches a single lantern's flame. "Ugh--"

    How are they supposed to find their way out of here? A drop of something like fear trrickles down her spine. "Which way..."

    They're too close to her. Any of them could be another Hyadean, turned wrong and suffering and-- and reaching--

    The drone of this place echoes weirdly off of the silvery trees. It rings strange through the frequency of her crystal cocoon.

    She feels alone, naked in the dark. Alone, but there is something out there--

    With her eyes shut tight, Lan swats at something just beyond her sight and the cloud streams forth, a sideways hailstorm of sharp-glass edges and crystal points scraping at their prison.

DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Suffocation.
DG: Rixia has used her Tool UP3 Violating Executable toward her party's challenge, Suffocation.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

As they move forwards - ever onwards - they reach a place where... darkness falls.

Well, that's not THAT weird, at first. Clouds do happen, even if Filgaia produces fewer every year as part of the meteorological entropy and so on and so forth. Even thick clouds. Heavy, black, and pendulous. But these-- Elly blinks as unusual results return to her through Regulus. Unusual...

And unrecognizable.

"I've been trapped in places like this before," Elly says, guardedly. (Once. By Tabitha.)

"Everyone, be calm... I'm going to try and get an idea of the overall dimension of the - Sir!" (This is said directly into Ethius+Homer's cockpit, and the voice is, somehow, both pellucid clear and sent directly at him. If the rig is powered down even Regulus can't do anything, but--) "Be strong! Just breathe deep and slow, and try to relax!"

"I suppose this is why this place isn't better known, isn't it, Leon?" Elly says, tensely. Regulus...

... does something with radio-frequency emissions. It mostly sounds like vague squalling static on the edge of people's transmitters. Elly is building a radar model of the area.

She's also scanning for open ports.

DG: Elhaym van Houten has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Suffocation.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

'We need to get out of here.'

"Agreed, Avril," Leon says. "Remain calm."

He takes a deep breath. It's dark here. Frightfully dark. He looks ahead -- and at the shapes of the trees. The Beowulf lifts off the ground; wing thrusters lift it, the Gear rising upward, and then the cannon swivels down. It locks into place over its shoulder. Leon takes a deep breath.

"Ragnarok Cannon. Twenty percent power," he says. Then: "Firing."

The barrel glows -- bright white, bleeding gold at the edges -- and then a beam of energy explodes down from it, expanding outward, and slams for the mass of trees. The recoil knocks the flying Gear backward.

Leon doesn't blink. "Keep clear," he advises. "In case something's on the other side."

DG: Leon Albus has used his Tool Ragnarok Cannon toward his party's challenge, Suffocation.
=================================<* Jarnvidr *>=================================
=========================<* CHALLENGE - Suffocation *>==========================
|Type: Climax      |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 3          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Where are you?

 Everything has gone dark.

 You can't see anymore -- no light filters and shines through the gaps in the
 metal trees. Even any sensors you have go wild, reporting impossible
 coordinates or looping your last known degrees of position.

 Any lights you have fail to return anything except the dulled shine of the
 trees around you, engulfing you. There is nothing else here.

 Except the sound you can hear, droning and incessant. Unrelenting. Empty.

 As your surroundings bear down upon you.

 You need to get out of here.

 Even if it means you're going to have to tear your way out of here.

 You need to get out of here!

 BGM: https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/oblivionSoundscapeGenerator.php

 (OOC: The GM for this round may want to wait for the next card draw before
 resolving!)
=Dungeon Conditions: Overwhelm================================================
============================<* Jarnvidr - Round 5 *>============================
===========================< Results - Suffocation >============================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Avril Vent Fleur                    10 --(4)--> 14                 Pass
Stone Ice Medium                    3   Brute   Effects: Fanfare
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ethius Hesiod                       10 --(12)--> 22                Fail
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leon Albus                          26 --(4)--> 30                 Pass
Ragnarok Cannon                     3   Brute   Effects: Fanfare
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           10 --(12)--> 22                Fail
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Elhaym van Houten                   10 --(12)--> 22                Fail
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rixia                               26 --(4)--> 30                 Pass
UP3 Violating Executable            2   Brute   Effects: Stalwart
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marivel Armitage                    10 --(12)--> 22                Fail
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Avril Vent Fleur            80 --(0)--> 80                 Fail
Conditions: Hesitate(1)|Overwhelm
Effects:
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Avril Vent Fleur has failed this challenge! The party gained 0 exploration! If anyone needs to use
party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
DG: Rixia has drawn a new Challenge.
=================================<* Jarnvidr *>=================================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Seeking the Light *>=======================
|Type: Final       |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 You can see a light, as if seen through an assortment of branches.
 Glimmering in the distance in the darkness above you, it seems nearly an
 illusion.

 But it is there.

 The forest coils around you, threatening to lose you in a labyrinth of
 metal.

 Do not let it!
 Find the path forward!

 The light awaits.

 BGM: https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/osmosisDroneGenerator.php
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

    The gunblade starts to edit the space around where the darkness is encroaching; it can only work on a less-than-Gear scale, though, but Aru Sulato emerges to tear through in a halo of frost, shattering at the branches. The Aiguille's sensors suddenly turn off... but the Qubeley's drill charges forth to further deliver a crack, in time for Lan's cloud to shred through alongside the Ice Guardian's power.

    Elly provides support for her team, working on radio-frequency tiers to map the area out... and finds the weak spot -- as the Ragnarok Cannon fires and pierces a light through the darkness.

    "Ah... I see a light..." Rixia whispers. A pause. "Is that because we did it, or is this the last few moments of my life before I walk into the light? Don't I get a flashback of everything I experienced before--"

    A pause.

    "Wait wait wait... I don't want to be sober for that..."

    She slams her attache-case into view and quickly mixes a cocktail as a swift action, then down goes tequila with lime juice into her hatch. "... I kinda wish I could share this right now. Oh well, it's been a good run, right...?"

    ...

    BEEP BEEP BEEP

    Ride-a-Robo has different ideas, though! Ride-a-Robo is moving forward into the light!

    Ride-a-Robo is here to bring smiles to children.

DG: Rixia has used her Tool Mixed Drinks to Change Lives toward her party's challenge, Seeking the Light.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

    "How long," Avril speaks, and it may take those listening a moment to realize that she is in fact quoting something -- if they ever realize this. "How long, until we again feel the warmth of the sun on our faces? ...I have dwelt far too long in the darkness."

    Her Gear starts forward in an abbreviated dash. Even now, Avril, seated within the cockpit is searching for the path upwards, outwards.

    "Let me again see the light!"

    She's moving by feel now, taking each turn through the twisting trail with which the forest has threatened them by the impulses that guide her.

    Left.

    Left again, and straight on.

    "Do I... know this place?" she wonders aloud, even in the depths of her reverie.

    It may be a potent question, if one better answered once they are free of the entrapping trees.

DG: Avril Vent Fleur has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Seeking the Light.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

"I don't think it's the end of our lives," Leon says to Rixia. "Yet."

He blinks in surprise -- Avril's words seem to surprise him -- and then he frowns, as he sees the forest curling around them. Closing in; threatening to engulf them. He taps a few buttons at his console.

A scanning beam of red light shoots from the Gear, sweeping across the woods. "I'll get a read on it--find the best way out. Just... keep calm."

DG: Leon Albus has used his Tool Wide Sensor toward his party's challenge, Seeking the Light.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

"I wish the sun took more breaks," Marivel mumbles.

"Anyway hold on I'm gonna take remote control..."

Qubeley cowers for a bit longer then suddenly seizes up and it wobbles forward, its big glowing 'eye' that is presently Marivel trods forward confidently!

HOpefully it's the right kind of confidence though.

DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool Wisdom of the Crimson Nobles by M. Armitage toward her party's challenge, Seeking
the Light.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly doesn't parse the quote, but --

Something--

There's a diaphanous connection to "D" and nothing else. Elly glances at it - the network maps that have been shown inside of Regulus's interface have always been remarkably scanty except when there are dozens of Gears in the area (very rare) or the very occasional situation. She turned it on once in Guild Galad - Guild Galad! - and picked up *twenty-one* points -- all of them with gibberish names, most of them with nothing accessible.

So Elly doesn't think so much about open-palm slamming the command launcher, and types in a quick statement for it:

> OPEN THE WAY

"Get your engines ready," Elly says. "I don't trust this kind of space - if you need to go dry to get out of here, that's fine, we'll all work together out there..."

DG: Elhaym van Houten has used her Tool Send Spike/Spike Sent toward her party's challenge, Seeking the Light.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    They tear, and burn, and freeze, and rewrite. They're rewarded with light - light from outside, from beyond the trees?!

    It calls out to them, promises safety, promises an end to the suffocating dark. "Is that... real?" Lan asks nobody in particular. Her first and only instinct is to rush forward - to escape this horrible, crushing place.

    No. No, don't panic again.

    Even though her hand shakes when she reaches out for it, Lan flicks a needle-shaped piece of quartz with a single finger. It spins for what feels like forever but can only be a second or two... and points the way forward.

    Choking back a noise somewhere between a gasp and a whimper, Lan dashes forward as fast as magic can carry her. "Come on! We're almost free!"

DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Paku-Paku toward her party's challenge, Seeking the Light.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    Communications go back on at, as is Ethius' true specialty, with a timing that can make one assume the worst or most eerie outcome. "There are no further troubles." Beyond the mortally dangerous attempt by the forest to squeeze out all light and sense, and indeed, Ethius is sort of hastily trying to flip things back online (cross-armed, again, he has refused time and time again to have the controls changed to account for his handedness).

     "I have--" there's muffling. "I have visual on a light source," Ethius remarks. The related electronics are acting up something fierce, so he only has his word to give on that front. (This is not a good thing.)

     A faint blue glow from an eyeglass held momentarily is at least able to give himself a brief, valid look on how some of these strange branches are tangled together - showing something of a collective straight line that might give legitimacy to the light above. The Aiguille is going to be trailing behild a bit because of the difficulties of piloting a Gear, holding a sorcerously-activated device, and pacifying a co-pilot is a task that exceeds the available number of hands he physically has.

     It is devoid of the dramatic bombast this sort of situation calls for, which one may soon regret not properly allocating.

DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Spectral Lens toward his party's challenge, Seeking the Light.
=================================<* Jarnvidr *>=================================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Seeking the Light *>=======================
|Type: Final       |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 You can see a light, as if seen through an assortment of branches.
 Glimmering in the distance in the darkness above you, it seems nearly an
 illusion.

 But it is there.

 The forest coils around you, threatening to lose you in a labyrinth of
 metal.

 Do not let it!
 Find the path forward!

 The light awaits.

 BGM: https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/osmosisDroneGenerator.php
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
============================<* Jarnvidr - Round 6 *>============================
========================< Results - Seeking the Light >=========================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Avril Vent Fleur                    14 --(5)--> 19                 Pass
Investigate                         0   Wits    Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ethius Hesiod                       22 --(5)--> 27                 Pass
Spectral Lens                       2   Wits    Effects: Enlighten
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leon Albus                          30 --(5)--> 35                 Pass
Wide Sensor                         1   Wits    Effects: Cleanse
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           22 --(13)--> 35                Fail
Paku-Paku                           2   Wits    Effects: Enlighten
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Elhaym van Houten                   22 --(5)--> 27                 Pass
Send Spike/Spike Sent               4   Wits    Effects: none
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rixia                               30 --(5)--> 35                 Pass
Mixed Drinks to Change Lives        3   Wits    Effects: Rally
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marivel Armitage                    22 --(5)--> 27                 Pass
Wisdom of the Crimson Nobles by M.  3   Wits    Effects: Fanfare
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Avril Vent Fleur            80 --(35)--> 115               Pass
Conditions: Overwhelm|Stupify(2)
Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success!
DG: The party led by Avril Vent Fleur has successfully explored Jarnvidr!
=================================<* Jarnvidr *>=================================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - The Mark of the Ley *>======================
|Type: Discovery   |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 You reach where there is light.

 Perhaps this is the heart of the forest in a sense -- this shimmering sphere
 of silvery metal. Whether or not it is literally the heart is another thing
 altogether. As your sensors -- and eyes -- adjust, you can make out signs
 that...

 ...someone built this place, once. Even taking into account the somewhat
 malleable nature of the woods and the rather organic appearance of the
 structure you have found your way into, here there are walls, there below
 are sections of flooring. Strange broken tubing and cracked panels are found
 here and there or line the walls.

 Most of the ruins of the room is little else but debris: glass, broken
 non-malleable metal, and assorted unidentifiable material, shot through with
 the seeking tendrils of the metallic forest.

 But amidst the trash you find one thing of note: an unusually large crest
 cap (when compared to the traditional ones), that of Wing. Perhaps this was
 meant to apply to something large. The enchantment remains -- it could be
 applied to a piece of your equipment?

 BGM: https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/enliaVocalSoundscape.php

 (OOC: The Wing crest cap that you've found will allow you to upgrade one of
 your existing Gear tools with a minor wind-oriented effect of your choice
 (even if you aren't a sorceror!). For instance, it might grant speed to an
 Agility tool, or force to a Brute tool, or keenness to a Combat tool, or
 provide additional clarity with a Wits tool. Contact staff with any
 questions.)
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

    There's a light at the end of the tunnel!

    Avril feels like she's been here before. Left, and straight on... does she know? Leon scans using the wide-array of sensors and gets a bead on it; Qubeley trods on with the power of the Crimson Nobles, and Elly on some level just orders a command to have Regulus open the way. Lan's needle spins for what feels like forever...

    But it too points the way -- the way Regulus and the scans show.

    Ethius catches on the visual from the Spectral Lens, and they proceed onward...

    And they've come to the heart of the forest. A sphere of silvery metal. Someone built this place, once upon a time... there's very little left here but trash -- and a particularly enormous crest cap charged with the energies of Wing.

    ... where'd Rixia go, though?

    RIGHT NOW
    THE THAMES

    "Iunno! The fox girl just disappeared with the ride!" whimpers a hapless heron beastgirl wearing orange overalls that read 'RIDE-A-ROBO'.

    "Ach! Stop yer bellyachin'! That thing's cost us 2,500 gella and it's still under rent! Our ol' heads'll roll if it goes missin'!" yells a doberman beastfolk wearing a similar uniform, with a cap on his head.

    Just then--

    The happy theme song of Ride-a-Robo!

    "Wait, is that--"

    The Ride-a-Robo marches out of the tunnel, Rixia perplexed and more than a little buzzed from tequila. "Huh... ...I'm back here. Did I just dream that whole thing?"

    She doesn't notice the gunblade has deposited itself in the shattered cockpit, powering down.