2022-05-27: Justice is Not the Only Truth in the World

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  • Log: Justice is Not the Only Truth in the World
  • Cast: Ethius Hesiod (NPCing Brunor), Lan Lilac, Riesenlied, Loren Voss, Leah Sadalbari
  • Where: Zulan Massif
  • Date: June 03, 2022
  • Summary: Solaris, too, has a certain interest in at least one of the shrines. But they are not alone in venturing forth to the ice shrine, leading to a potentially awkward if not painful meeting of particular individuals.

DG: A party led by Loren Voss 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> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    However they all come here, by whatever means, Kahedin awaits the same way it does for any other. To descend into the depths of Zulan, it is misery and trial enough... and there's a permeating cold that renders the structure itself hardly suitable as shelter by its nature. Nonetheless, the halls are filled of beautifully carved ice... and the first set of doors beyond a hallway opens up wide to an inviting sight.

     Plush rugs and cushioned seats, mismatched in color and texture but stitched lovingly by amateur hands. There is a comfortable lighting by glowing wisps that - if touched - will explode into harmless glittering flakes.

     "Welcome!" Greets a Seraph in a dragon mask, overflowing hair going from white to pale blue, draped in a quilt he wears as a shawl over fur hemmed robes. "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 one takes the invitation or not, it doesn't matter. There is an Ice Seraph who, against all odds by their nature, has mugs of hot chocolate. There's marshmallows too. They are not small ones! "How are you all fairing? Do any of you require care? I would love to hear the story behind this visit."

     It's cozy and relaxing... but maybe, just maybe, there might be more Business(tm) to be had here than pleasure.

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    It occurred to Lan earlier this morning that one type of digging she's never done is the Trial Shrines. They're supposed to have something to do with letting people meet the goddess Althena, right? (That IS why the Drifter community has been getting into them lately, Lan is pretty sure.)

    While she's not terribly interested in meeting Althena -- the more restrictive areas of Lunar were no fun for a girl like Lan -- maybe there's something to it. Althena's land is blessed and green across its whole surface.

    Maybe a goddess would be willing and able to tell them if there's a way to restore Filgaia.

    And failing that, it might just be good for her. Lan likes a trial now and then.

    ...Of course it'd help if she could find the door. Eventually she has to use her paku-paku, attention focused on the oracle paper as she navigates. She actually ends up walking into someone's back right as she looks up from it. "--Oh oops, I'm sorr...y."

DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Paku-Paku toward her party's challenge, Chill Out.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

    Riesenlied has appeared here in the depths of Zulan by virtue (or malice?) of the invisible hand of the world that sends her into a trance and brings her to faraway places she has no business being, and would likely not have the ability to reach on her own.

    By the time the trance wears off, she looks... pretty shocked to be here, to be honest -- in a place that's honestly too cold for her already cold-vulnerable, ill frame, in a place she doesn't recognise... where is she?

    ...

    Welcome!

    A Seraph in a dragon mask... she feels a connection to it, perhaps, as her own draconic horns jut up in recognition. She's shivering, even underneath her warm-looking capelet; she looks like she could use another few blankets -- rummaging underneath her wheelchair for another.

    "My apologies, but I... do not understand how I arrived here. The cold is terribly biting, but hot chocolate does sound very fitting at the moment."

    She looks more pale and withered than before; her hair's gotten paler as well, and the way she huddles into herself makes it look like she's not really in condition to do this at the moment -- not alone, that is.

    "Oh... Lan, is that you?"

DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Chill Out.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    If Loren had his pick of things he'd prefer to do, it would absolutely not be this.

    But when Leah Sadalbari asks, what else can he do? Not only does she outrank him (even outside the military structure), but she's...

    So it is that he's come to yet another bitingly cold place out in the middle of nowhere, for reasons he can only begin to comprehend. --Well, fine, okay. He knows it has to do with the wards and walls blocking off Shiva in her inner sanctum or whatever in the Macalania Temple. Perhaps, though the two are a long ways away, they might gain some insight into shattering the eternal ice without also risking the Fayth within the temple. But because this is Leah, he also knows it's probably not just that.

    Shoulders hunched against the cold, he had just walked into the shrine half a minute prior, well ahead of Major Sadalbari, and in that moment, has just enough time for his gaze to meet the apparent caretaker (dragon mask, huh) when someone walks right into his back. He knows in an instant that's not Leah.

    'Oh... Lan, is that you?'

    And he swivels his head towards the other current occupant of this room before then to look back over his shoulder.

    "...Are you kidding me," he says, flatly as ever.

    'So what's the story behind this visit?' asks the caretaker. And would he like some hot chocolate?

    Can anyone blame Loren for pulling out a tablet-sized device and tapping the screen a few times -- temperature, molecular analysis -- even if he takes that cup of cocoa?

    "Because I'm cursed," he tells the caretaker, deadpan.

    (He still drinks the cup of cocoa. If he's not stopped, he'll have another.)

DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool MediScan v7 toward his party's challenge, Chill Out.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

When Leah Sadalbari declares a mission, there really is little choice besides doing as she says. That's just how it is.

She appears entirely unconcerned with the cold, though she is dressed in thick layers against it. The simple truth is that they do little against the chill of her metallic limbs on what remains of her flesh. But she doesn't complain; she has taken some measures to deal with it... and cocoa is frankly not going to be one to do her much good.

However:

"Thank you," Leah says of the Seraph's welcome. "Loren, don't be rude."

"Hello Lan, Risenlied," the one-eyed woman says. She regards each with her single blue eye, a spear at her back, an Ether gun at her hip. "However you arrived here... It would seem to be fate, Riesenlied. By all means, please join us in our exploration."

"...and you are always welcome, Lan."

Then she turns towards the Seraph Brunor. "I do not believe there is care you can grant me beyond this delicious cocoa," she says, and takes a sip of it without even scanning it. "Mmm."

"...We're here on a fact finding investigation. We have a missing friend, and a new friend we're hoping to make who we may have a better chance of meeting if we come to understand ice."

She smiles. "But we shouldn't tarry long."

DG: Leah Sadalbari 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
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loren Voss                          0 --(5)--> 5                   Pass
MediScan v7                         3   Wits    Effects: Rally
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leah Sadalbari                      0 --(5)--> 5                   Pass
Investigate                         0   Wits    Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Riesenlied                          0 --(5)--> 5                   Pass
Investigate                         0   Wits    Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           0 --(5)--> 5                   Pass
Paku-Paku                           2   Wits    Effects: Enlighten
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Loren Voss                  0 --(20)--> 20                 Pass
Conditions: Reckless(2)
Effects: Enlighten(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party
management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
DG: Loren Voss has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* Kahedin - Shrine of the Ice Trial *>=====================
=================<* CHALLENGE - Victory Over A Mortal Enemy *>==================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 At last, your party has opened a door located within a ruin that has vexed
 you so - whether it's a specific door from the past or just a shared concept
 of such among your party - your team basks anew in the moment of relief and
 triumph that the door is now open to what riches, truths, and splendor lie
 beyond.

 What lies beyond is an indistinct, impassible void of bitter, blasting cold
 hard to notice or acknowledge... at first. Your feelings of satisfaction are
 your own worst enemy, as the temperature drops more and more. If left
 unchecked, the ice will freeze over the chamber and make traversal to
 wherever you're going next that much more treacherous.

 You'll need to let go and move past that feeling of success... by closing
 the door again.
=Dungeon Conditions: Exhaust, Tire, Injure====================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    Everyone gets hot cocoa. There is some concern to be had!

     "Ah! Forgive my lack of manners. I am Seraph Brunor, keeper of Kahedin." He looks to the sickly, partially transformed Hyadean with her admission she's not sure how she came here. But she is here, and she will receive hot chocolate.

     Loren will find out that it is hot chocolate! It's hot! It's chocolate! And it comes in a cup whose material he's not allergic to!

     "Cursed? That sounds dreadful." Brunor considers behind the mask, for a time.

     "You appear to at least be in the company of good friends," he refers to Lan over there, as Leah takes point and explains the purpose of their visit. She is to the point about her needs and wants. There's that smile, they shouldn't tarry long.

     "Ah... very well. I will not keep you further from the Trial that awaits," Brunor says as he strides off to the side and opens a passage. Cold air rushes in, but the chill will not touch them until they are finished with their drinks and approach. "Remember what it is that is most important to you."

     ...

     It feels familiar. There's a door here, a stubborn door, exactly like that... one place, somewhere, whether a specific one or a shared concept among the gathered. It gets opened, by some means. Some effort, some puzzle, some resources. It's something that's been conquered before, with great relief and triumph.

     ...Only what lies beyond is an indistinct, impassible void of bitter, blasting cold that takes its time to register. One's own sense of satisfaction is threatend to be turned against them, as the heat is drawn out from oneself more and more with every passing moment. If left opened, the ice will overtake this place and make traversal onward... more challenging.

     The door must be closed again, after so much effort and pain to open it, in order to stop this.

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

    Lan, and Thomas... no, that man's name is Loren. And... that one-eyed woman with the metallic limbs. The limbs that crushed at her father's chest and gripped his heart...

    ...

    Riesenlied finds herself distracted and thrown back into the most unpleasant recesses of her memory, looking gloomy as she cradles her hot cup of cocoa. Loren complains, but she barely registers it; somehow, his rudeness feels more pleasant than Leah's politeness. It feels like a weapon, threatening to be bludgeoned against her.

    "I do not know what the world wishes of me at the moment, but it appears I have very little choice," Riesenlied remarks. "Fate is cruel indeed."

    She hangs her head gently. "Noeline... I hope I am not worrying you overmuch."

    She quietly nods at Brunor, though she looks a little confused at the topic of a Trial. So, she's been here to... Riesenlied wonders what the Trial Knight is doing right now. It's been so long since she's run into them. Right now, this is a trial of her own...

    The door is opened, but -- the chill just makes her wither into herself. This is really beyond her means at the moment, and she doesn't really have anything other than blankets to defend herself with. She turns around to reach for the door...

    ... she can't reach the door in the chair.

    She pouts a little bit and searches underneath the wheelchair, and ends up procuring a leg lifter to try to hitch onto the doorknob and pull.

DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Victory Over A Mortal Enemy.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    "It wasn't--" Loren starts to say, in response to Brunor.

    'Loren, don't be rude.'

    Hunching his shoulders, he clams up immediately, his gaze instead passing towards Riesenlied and then back to Leah, as if to silently wonder how this will play out. After all, she was the kid, or something, of Siegfried. And after all, Siegfried had nearly killed him-- probably would have killed him, even, if it hadn't been a matter of his summoning of that Guardian and then Leah...

    Sliding the computer back away, he surreptitiously (it is not very surreptitious) reaches for his second (third?) cup of cocoa unless stopped.

    "Guess not," he says, finally breaking his own silence with a sigh.

    ...Remember what's most important to them, huh. He's not even sure what that is anymore, beyond the very basics of those near and dear to him. He'd said something to Lan once, something about changing Solaris -- saving his own nation from itself. But even now he finds himself in doubt. Can he do such a thing? Is it even possible?

    With such things in mind he walks through the door to head deeper into the shrine.

    There's no doubt about it. It's the entrance to the inner sanctum of Macalania Temple, the way clear at last. He can just barely see the light from within, glowing a dim blue. "This can't be real," he says, and yet, even such a statement seems to wither on the vine. What if it is? Or, what if this can tell them what they need to know about Macalania, which will allow them to breach the temple and then finally leave Macalania?

    He takes a few steps over the threshold and immediately freezes. No, not solid -- he stops in his path, glancing about himself as he hunches up. "T-t-too damn c-c-cold," he stammers, inching back out of the doorway as if his feet were made of lead. No good. Even backing up doesn't really solve the problem. The cold is escaping from this fascimile of Macalania, and...

    "Gotta... gotta close the door," he utters, palming a particular stone in one hand and gripping it tight.

    The pain is grounding. It might help him focus as he starts to work Ether. Maybe he'll be able to slam it shut in one go.

DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Worry Stone toward his party's challenge, Victory Over A Mortal Enemy.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    She didn't even recognize Riesenlied at first. "Are you okay?!" She's always looked... frail, Lan's mind supplies - which is weird to think about because Lan has seen her transform into a dragon and actually bug the hell out. Not something you expect of a sick person. There's... really not much Lan can do for her, besides resolve to offer a shoulder if it's needed, or a snack.

    "Thank you, Brunor. It smells soooo good...!" The cup of hot cocoa is very welcome. In fact, she barely inhales any of it when Loren appears. She'd just been talking about him with Xantia yesterday. Did saying his name three times summon him or something?! "You're not cursed," she reminds him, rolling her eyes a little. "I'm a shaman, I would know."

    Leah Sadalbari's steps are heavy and uneven. Lan hears her before she sees her, and while there is a moment of trepidation... there is no fear, where there had been before. It's strange. She had expected to feel a little bit.

    Lan smiles, pleased with herself and the world.

    "Hi, Leah." She greets the Watcher as a friend. Because even if the meaning behind things changes, feelings remain. "It's good to be on the same team again." Even though it's temporary.

    And their first challenge is... a door.

    But getting it open is easy. It hadn't been so easy the last time-- last time? When did she last see this door?

    Her toes cramp against the leather of her sandals. It's cold. The door is...

    It's coming from the door.

    Lan hates the cold. Jamming her shoulder against the door, she uses all the strength in her legs to try just shoving the door closed.

DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Victory Over A Mortal Enemy.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

"Thank you," Leah answers Brunor. "Your hospitality is appreciated." She listens, when he says to remember what's important to them. It seems polite. It seems wise.

Riesenlied is not wrong about politeness. Leah does not cease to offer it. "So it is," Leah agrees about fate. But she makes no move, either, to harm Riesenlied. Instead, she stops, her uneven steps halted for the moment, and regards Lan. She actually smiles faintly. "Yes," Leah says. "It is nice."

nd their first challenge... Leah recognizes the door instantly. In a flash, she knows what it is--and Loren says it's not real. She doesn't. She looks to it, and peers within, and then--laughs.

"Ahahahaha...."

As she laughs, she pulls out her crowbar, and prepares to swing it to knock the door closed a few moments later, to help the others do the same.

Ignore the fact that ice has collected on her fingertips. She doesn't seem to notice it herself.

DG: Leah Sadalbari has used her Tool Crowbar toward her party's challenge, Victory Over A Mortal Enemy.
====================<* Kahedin - Shrine of the Ice Trial *>=====================
=================<* CHALLENGE - Victory Over A Mortal Enemy *>==================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 At last, your party has opened a door located within a ruin that has vexed
 you so - whether it's a specific door from the past or just a shared concept
 of such among your party - your team basks anew in the moment of relief and
 triumph that the door is now open to what riches, truths, and splendor lie
 beyond.

 What lies beyond is an indistinct, impassible void of bitter, blasting cold
 hard to notice or acknowledge... at first. Your feelings of satisfaction are
 your own worst enemy, as the temperature drops more and more. If left
 unchecked, the ice will freeze over the chamber and make traversal to
 wherever you're going next that much more treacherous.

 You'll need to let go and move past that feeling of success... by closing
 the door again.
=Dungeon Conditions: Exhaust, Tire, Injure====================================
===============<* Kahedin - Shrine of the Ice Trial - Round 2 *>================
===================< Results - Victory Over A Mortal Enemy >====================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loren Voss                          5 --(3)--> 8                   Pass
Worry Stone                         2   Brute   Effects: Stalwart
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leah Sadalbari                      5 --(3)--> 8                   Pass
Crowbar                             2   Brute   Effects: Strengthen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Riesenlied                          5 --(3)--> 8                   Pass
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           5 --(3)--> 8                   Pass
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Loren Voss                  20 --(20)--> 40                Pass
Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Injure(2)|Reckless(1)|Tire(2)
Effects: Strengthen(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party
management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
DG: Loren Voss 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> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    The door must be closed, after so much joy had been found in getting it open.

     Riese decides she has little choice, and makes the choice to muster what strength she can to close the door, pulling at the doorknob with her leg lifter. Loren focuses his Ether to start moving to slam the thing shut in one go. Lan just hates the cold. Lean laughs and swings at the door. Their collective feelings and efforts in resisting the moment of triumph to reverse course... is sufficient.

     Things get strange when they all look behind themselves after closing the door - for now they are about the halls of the Ice Trial anew. Light shines through peerless ice sculptures that decorate the path ahead, ribbons of refracted color from their features. It is an enchanting sight... but ephemeral, at best.

     Towards the end of this hall, perfect ice replicas of items of value once lost by those here are among the decor. Childhood toys, lost mementos, or an old tool they don't make like they used to... they're here, as ice sculptures.

     They can't leave with them, for without the frigid temperatures they would no longer be. They also stand in one's way, along with the other lovely statues. They are just ice... but they're a reminder of things one no longer has.

     Things that need to be let go, and moved away (...or destroyed) to continue.

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    It can't be helped. And after all the hype of getting it open...!

    Lan still can't remember where she saw that door in particular. But it must have been important, because otherwise why would it matter so much to her? She sighs. "Oh well. I guess it'd have to be too good to be true, right?" At least now her toes will survive a little longer.

    But behind them, the shrine is built anew.

    "Wow," she whispers, as if afraid that her voice might shatter the delicate beauty before them. She wanders through them instead, watching as the shining, shifting colors slide across her clothes and skin.

    She... probably should worry about the statues coming to life or something. That seems like the kind of thing you'd need to expect from a trial.

    But that's not what happens. They reach the end of the hall, the door beyond blocked by a set of statues. Okay, these are the ones that are going to come alive and--!! ...But there, on a pedestal between them. It takes her a moment to place it, because the color is different. You see, the glass window in her mother's house was made of multicolored glass shards, carefully cemented together into patchwork.

    Homesickness wells up in Lan like a living thing. Her breath shudders with it. Eyes glued to the familiar panes, she can't help but to reach out to it, to run her fingers over it.

    ...It's cold. She should have known, but somehow... she'd almost expected it to be warm, like glass with the Ignas sun pouring through it all day. "...mom..." She can't squeeze past, and Rienselied's wheelchair makes a different solution necessary. In the end, Lan carefully drags the pedestal and its display off to one side. "Is that wide enough, do you think?"

DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Treasures Frozen In Time.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

    Lan asks Riesenlied if she's okay. There's a wan smile as she admits, "I do not do too well with the cold, but I will try to manage. Thank you for your concern, however."

    How will it all play out? Riesenlied doesn't know. To be honest, her anger hasn't run hot on that topic for a long time. She kind of wishes it still did; somehow, there was more focus in that before, but now... with regards to father, with regards to Solaris, Loren, and Leah...

    She just feels like the cast-away on a wound that dully festers, never healing, never getting worse. It's a bad feeling, tormenting herself with the understanding that she's still more broken up about it than the other two probably are.

    If she thinks the cold is bad enough, she's about to experience something worse, since... what awaits them at the end of the hall is--

    Riesenlied shifts for a moment as she regards Lan, as the shaman whispers for her mother. She's pointedly looking away from one pedestal in particular, which has...

    It has something Leah might recognise -- a child-sized staff with a particular pattern of strings upon it, used by Fereshte children to play with a patterned cloth ball.

    "Of course, I remember it well..." Nasrin whispers in her head.

    "This truly is a trial, is it not..." Riesenlied says glumly. Her usual warmth and optimism: gone.

DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Treasures Frozen In Time.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    "I wasn't being literal!" he snaps at Lan, already off to a fine start. Hopefully Xantia didn't tell Lan what he'd said to her, because he absolutely is not doing himself any favors at the moment.

    He and Leah are just about opposites insofar as they are family (if family by marriage to one now departed).

    But the door slams shut, and the temperature is...
    Well. It's still cold.

    "Shit," Loren hisses, still shivering. There are times when he wishes he had better control over fire than he now possesses. It could be worse!
    But it could be better. It could be better and he could manage Seraphita's sort of trick, but as it stands he'd just set himself on fire in the attempt.

    When he turns around, though...

    There are things that can take even his breath away, if his agape expression is any suggestion. "...Huh," Loren eventually breathes, looking here and there. "I didn't know... ice could do that." That it could be like glass. That it could be so delicate, look so fragile and fine.

    Muse is water, but also ice. It's a nagging, errant thought, and certainly not one that he wishes, here and now. "..."

    There's sculptures, wrought in ice. He's not unaware when Lan then Riesenlied in turn find something known to both of them. A part of him doesn't want to look, thinks that he mustn't look. But he does nonetheless, and his gaze settles on one thing in particular.

    It's just a little toy. If it were in color and not made from clear blue ice, he might have even been fooled. "...Engil took this from me," he says, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, as if something were agitating him. "When I was little. I don't think... It wasn't like he..." He struggles for a moment, then turns his head away from the small plasticine person as if afflicted. Probably, his brother had just decided to mess with him a little. Probably, he'd meant to give it back.

    Probably, he'd forgotten it, or lost it. Or maybe both.

    "...Come on," he says, gripping the stone still in his hand tightly. "It's just ice."

    If he shoves it aside with a particular amount of force behind the Ether he channels, it's just coincidence.

DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Worry Stone toward his party's challenge, Treasures Frozen In Time.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

"Do you hate me?" Leah wonders of Riesenlied, as they walk along. She asks it clinically, distantly. "For what I've taken from you."

The statues include one that is far too large and delicate to simply move: its form is almost as tall as a person, appropriate enough given its design. It is a dress; a sleeveless, lace-inlaid dress, done in perfect sheets of thin, thin ice that seem as if even breathing on them may break them. The train is long and intricate, the skirts flowing like water and yet somehow locked in a single instant. It is beautiful. It is impossible.

It is familiar to two people here.

she regards it, and then the 'glass' that Lan watches, and then the pedestal--that child-sized staff. She looks thoughtfully at Riesenlied."...Yes," she says. "I recognize that... The children played with it."

Then she looks to the dress, and shakes her head. And then... Loren. The toy... Hm. She doesn't recognize it. It was before she knew them, really. Just ice...

Leah decides something. "This was my wedding dress," she says, gesturing towards the sculpture.

"...But it's only a copy," she says. "And it is too large to move."

She regards it for a moment longer. "...We are where we must be," she says, and swings her crowbar.

DG: Leah Sadalbari has used her Tool Crowbar toward her 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 3 *>================
=====================< Results - Treasures Frozen In Time >=====================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loren Voss                          8 --(3)--> 11                  Pass
Worry Stone                         2   Brute   Effects: Stalwart
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leah Sadalbari                      8 --(3)--> 11                  Pass
Crowbar                             2   Brute   Effects: Strengthen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Riesenlied                          8 --(16)--> 24                 Fail
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           8 --(3)--> 11                  Pass
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Loren Voss                  40 --(25)--> 65                Pass
Conditions: Injure(1)|Overzealous(2)|Tire(1)|Treasure(1)
Effects: Strengthen(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 25 exploration! If anyone needs to use party
management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
DG: Loren Voss 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> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    To be faced with something beloved and irreplaceable... will they let it stand in their way? Riesenlied, in addition to her difficult environs with people she may never be able to fully forgive, can only be resigned about how this is a trial.

     Lan is able to move the pedestal that contains the recreation of that wondrous sight, for her natural strength. Is it wide enough?

     The other two are less contemplative, less careful. Loren shoves aside the stolen, unreturned toy with such force it shatters against the ground. The wedding dress... the crowbar strikes the sculpture with such force that its fragmented shards explode against the rest, causing something of a chain reaction as a cold mist rises from the ruin.

     They can move forward from here. It's just ice.

     ...

     Moving past that... others await them ahead.

     There is the memory of an embrace of someone who loved them, each and every one of them. While in pain, a time of celebration, or what have you... there was comfort, and the moment is as wonderful as one may recall. Someone missed, or unable to return to as of now. The pains and stresses start to melt away... but that instant drags on.

     They won't let go. The longer one is in their embrace, the harder it'll be to feel against the freezing cold settling in. One has to get themselves out. They may have to force themselves out, and to the perceptive... there's the whiff of Malevolence in who these entities are.

     Hellions, suffused in the Malevolence of selfishness, unable to let go themselves but are at least acting in full earnest to replicate these feelings of longing.

<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

They move forward, for better or for worse. And the other await. The memory comes; Leah is warm, as she has not been warm in years. She feels it in her hands, in--

In her hands. She feels it in her legs. She feels it in her body. And she feels, beside her, embracing her, is....

"You dare?" Leah's voice is a whisper, nearly silent.

"You DARE!?" The very avatar of rage is manifest.

The Watcher pulls at the hand on her shoulder, grips it with bone-crunching force as she wrenches it away, her other mechanical hand coming up to grab the Hellion taking Engil's form by the neck. Bone splinters at the arm as she lifts him(it?) bodily, her single eye's pupil a pinprick. The icy walls begin to shake, as the oppressive force of Water Ether begins to shimmer around her, barely-controlled. "There is no forgiveness for those who would steal that face. There is no MERCY for those who would abuse that trust--" Leah swings down the Hellion by the throat, even as he makes noises that sound like her husband's. She swings, and slams him into the ground, and then up again, and then down once more, shattering icy floors with every stroke.

"Foul creature! Pathetic shade!"

Slam. Slam. SLAM. The ice that had gathered on her limbs shatters with the sheer force of her movements, and the walls themselves threaten to crash down around them.

Until...

The Ether stops. The walls go still. The trickle of blood from the Hellion in her hands silently continues, before she hurls it away, to recover itself or not. Force alone does not always kill a Hellion, after all.

"..."

Black ichor stains Leah's face, sprayed across like blood. Her gaze is stone. Her gaze is ice.

"...That," she says after a moment, "Was unbecoming."

She takes in a deep breath, and straightens her shoulder.

"You will not use that vision again."

DG: Leah Sadalbari has used her Tool Yamato Belt toward her party's challenge, Never Let Go.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    She walks through the door at the end of the hall, and into a chest she hasn't seen in years. Lan freezes in place, because she's not dreaming. She's not supposed to be, right? It's the Ice Shrine, not the Dream Shrine. And Lan knows the Dreaming too well to let it take her unaware, without sleeping first.

    And Ashansi has been gone for years.

    But it's his arms around her, his chin resting on top of her head, and his ridiculous, crime-against-fashion hat shadowing her. Lan doesn't think - why should she? - and throws her arms around him, nestling into the comfort of a friend's embrace.

    "Asha, I'm so sorry," she mumbles against his lapel. He smells like the prairie at night. "I couldn't-- I couldn't let you--"

    Lan tries to pull away a little, just enough to look up at his face... and can't move. Because she's cold. Because she's cold, and he's warm, and she doesn't want to. Her mistake doesn't matter. Her stupidity is in the past. Ashansi is here, and he's real.

    She can have another chance to get it right. She can make up for not being strong enough to--

    --to--

    A veritable roar of fury startles her out of her stupor. Lan tries to turn away, to look. "Asha, let me--"

    His arms tighten around her shoulders. "...Asha, stop, I need to... to..." To what? To save the others like she 'saved' Ashansi?

    Girl, it would be kinder to let them die.

    Her brow wrinkles. No. No, they're alive. Ashansi sleeps inside of her, and she'll never see him again, but she is alive and they are alive and, and...!

    Lan's numb fingers fumble with the cap of her water bottle, lifting it from her hip. She's so cold. She's going to drop it. If she does, she can sleep--

    "Show me what you are," she mumbles against the spectre's chest, and upends the bottle of holy water over its head.

DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Clear Water toward her party's challenge, Never Let Go.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

    Riesenlied's blood freezes when Leah forces her to face what she's been trapped in ever since she awoke in the foyer with Seraph Brunor. No more pretending. It's all in the open now. She does wonder... about the wedding dress, about Leah's own past. But just as much as she likes to have some things close to her chest, so does the other woman.

    "I do not have a word for what I feel," she admits. "Maybe it was very palpably hatred at some point. It has since cooled," she does admit finding a lot of very appropriate reflection in where she is at the moment, "into something I do not have words for. Something that is moulded by facts and judgements against feelings and emotions on either side... did my father deserve death for all he has done, not just to Filgaia, but also to me? Was a last moment of redemption and light in his eyes enough? Was the fact that he rescued me at my time of greatest need enough? ... it is a something that will never come out to be 'okay'."

    She sags to one side, coughing from the cold for a moment. "... but perhaps, to answer your question, I am too tired for hatred now. Too tired and ill for revenge." Her gaze lingers aside.

    "Justice is not the only right in the world, for if it were, sinners like my father and I would not exist. I have seen this, on this day."

    What comes next... wears down further on her already sick body, her tired spirit, her beleaguered mind. Because a memory touches her--

    She hears Leah's words, which snaps her out of it. Her reaction is... a visceral parade of violence, as she grabs the Hellion that's taken an unknown person's form by the neck -- and she glances away as Leah summons retribution on that shade.

    "... you are no stranger to that kind of loss as well," she quietly remarks to Leah. It doesn't take much for her to connect the dots -- a lost loved one, a wedding dress...

    ....

    She has her own shades to deal with, who pull away at her. Someone who's very much still alive, still with her -- her closest partner and confidant, whose bright crimson eyes and soft smile beckons at her... the one whose indefatigable courage to wander into the world entranced her so, so long ago.

    The Hyadean allows the shade's arms to wrap around her, but her face does not grow into a smile even in the embrace. "... you do not understand."

    Riesenlied holds up her hand gently, where the ring upon her ring finger shimmers so gently. "The bond I have with Noeline exists on more than just the level of memory and image. It exists on a level you cannot perceive. So please, end this charade, for I am also... too tired for deceptions of the heart."

    In stark opposition to Leah, she reaches up with her hand and snaps her fingers once.

    And that's all it'll take.

DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool Rings of Promise toward her party's challenge, Never Let Go.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    Justice is not the only right...

    Loren turns his head, in silence gazing over at Riesenlied. Can something like Justice even exist in a world like this? In a just world, surely--

    There wouldn't be so many lost and broken things. Here they are again, almost as a remembrance. Or even, a part of him almost can believe, as a sort of mockery.

    Just like that, it's gone again. It could have been easily replaced, if he'd wanted to. If he had ever breathed a word to his parents about it -- or to Mirza -- he would have had another. But it would have been a violation of the silent terms between elder and younger sibling, of the promise that it would be returned, if after he had felt its loss.

    But that time, it hadn't found its way back to him. No, not because of anything dire or tragic. It just hadn't come back to him, and even Loren forgot in time.

    He glances once behind him before he presses on into the depths of the shrine. It's just ice.

    He is wrapped in an embrace.

    Her hands are like ice, cold and hard and felt perfectly even through his layers of clothing.

    "Leah--?"

    Never mind that, in this moment, Leah Sadalbari is elsewhere in this chamber. For Loren, this is real.

    He can't move, he realizes with a rising panic. Her hands are wrapped around his shoulders, but it's as if he's rooted to the spot.

    "What are you... what are you doing?" he utters.

    "It has been difficult for you," she tells him, her fingers digging into his shoulder. "And it will become more difficult still."

    "Let... let go," he whispers, trying to drag away. If she had never come and found him again, where would he be now? Still wandering the world with Lan? Left somewhere to live out a different sort of life? Would he have eventually remembered?

    If she had never intervened back then, shortly after he returned form Lunar, would they have sent him back home? He had failed his psychological evaluation.

    Every time he turns, he's being pulled back, back to her side. Does she feel responsible for him? Is that what it is, because he's family?

    "You are exactly where you need to be," 'Leah' tells him. "I still have need of you."

    The real Leah's howl echoes through the room and Loren... wakes up, blue eyes wide behind his glasses as he realizes what it is that has embraced him. "You're not--"

    Ice has just about covered his lower half. But he can still move his left arm, just enough to fish into his kit and bring up the first thing that comes to hand.

    Even a Hellion probably doesn't care for an injection of morphine.

DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Solarian Medical Kit 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
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loren Voss                          11 --(13)--> 24                Fail
Solarian Medical Kit                1   Combat  Effects: Cleanse
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leah Sadalbari                      11 --(5)--> 16                 Pass
Yamato Belt                         1   Combat  Effects: Embolden and Rally
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Riesenlied                          24 --(5)--> 29                 Pass
Rings of Promise                    4   Combat  Effects: Efficient and Fanfare
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           11 --(5)--> 16                 Pass
Clear Water                         1   Combat  Effects: Cleanse
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Loren Voss                  65 --(20)--> 80                Pass
Conditions: Overzealous(1)|Save Point(1)
Effects: Cleanse|Embolden(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party
management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
DG: Loren Voss 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> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    It is about as intimate a strike to the heart as Kahedin can muster. Lost loves, lost friends... and those who are still here. Each one combats against the chill in whatever way their dropping temperatures allow them to.

     Leah's protest is the most dramatic, the most certain. The form of 'Engil' disappears into that of some fiendish winged creature whose finer features can no longer be discerned in less than the time it would take to read this far.

     The entire room shudders violently, and things collapse and break under where the Hellion in question is... no longer able to be recognized as anything. Force alone does not always kill a Hellion, but that is... very much sufficient.

     It helps create something of a domino effect.

     Lan, having come to peace well before it's too late with the loss of Ashansi, splashes pure water upon them. It's a phenomena she may have seen with the likes of Lunarian Holy Bottles - pure water makes monsters flinch and relent if one's will is strong enough, and that strength of determination on her part is enough to see the false form fade - and the creature stare back at her. They do not attack.

     Riesenlied, too tired and weary over the passage of time and the way her heart had been played with by what was taken from her, can only deal with the otherwise perfect recreation of her beloved with a simple snap of her fingers and the declaration that it exceeds beyond memory and image, and what she truly is... is not strong enough to tussle with someone whose physical strength and health have been robbed.

     Only Loren struggles, captured by the nagging need to be needed by someone - when that someone is in fact already there. He is able to administer the morphine injection with what of his fading strength he has to give them a reaction, a twitchiness that frees him. The protests that play back in verbal form are the ones Loren might envision from his personal views of Leah, but together... together, they can go on.

     There seems to be an unspoken consensus this will not happen again for the remainder of the Trial.

     ...

     The world grows colder ahead, the chamber filling with mist that invites one to let one's guard down and... sleep, or rest. Memories, flashes of them, assault the senses. Happier times and precious moments, more vivid and tangible, as real as the day they were lived.

     In the frost, a silhouette of a small child chased by another with too-long hair and too-big robes - no one's memories, here, but another's - vanish like ghosts in the snow.

     "Pray forgive the interruption. This is your trial, not mine." That's Brunor. "Consider me... impressed, and duly informed by your statements. I myself would have failed that test a dozen times. I would have days where I would fail it still. Nonetheless..."

     Light shines from below the ice, scattering through the chamber like a prism and protecting memories against them.

     "The Trial must continue." Brunor fades away, as shared memories fill the air. One must keep moving. One must keep themselves warm... and press onward, even if the ice on the ground threatens to make one slip.

     "There is no shame in the indlugence of what was lost. Rest if you require. Your journeys must have been harsh," comes the keeper's voice again.

     They have been. Is what's important to them, all of them... the reclamation of things that made them happy, in the past? Or is it what's ahead, if they are strong enough to reach it?

<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

Something without words... Leah, whether Riesenlied expects it or not, gives the other woman the space to make her answer without obvious judgement. She doesn't reply until she's finished; she listens. When she does...

"It was not 'justice' that killed your father," the Watcher says, and then nods. "I understand. Should you change your mind, and gain a taste for revenge... I will be waiting."

"If 'justice' were the only right in this world, then I would not be here, either."

But that time shortlly after, where Riesenlied speaks to a recovered Leah--the Solarian woman ismply looks at her, and nods. "...That is true."

She does not know what Lan and Loren face in their trials; she cannot pay attention to all at once, and this is a blind spot in her knowledge now. But she recognizes the peace with which Riesenlied leaves her own.

...Yes, 'justice' is not the only truth in this world.

The world grows colder; and old memories hit Leah. Flashes of vivid, tangible times. ...More times when she can feel with her hands again; more times where she sees the world with both eyes. Times when he was there, and times he was somewhere else. Times...

"..." Leah watches Brunor as he appears for a moment, and shakes her head. "...We do what we must," she says, instead of pressing the matter against him as she might have in the passion of the moment.

But light shines below the ice, and the trial.. Leah continues to press on, and on. But her limbs start to slow; her legs frost over, her boots rimed with it shortly. What is important to them....

"I must disagree, spirit."

Leah crunches another step forward, and another, ahving to break the ice now with each painful movement. "Such indulgence comes at a cost. To remain trapped in the past is to refuse the call of destiny."

"I will not allow it."

She looks around, to anyone who might look as if they might be wavering... but especially Loren, and prepares to gather others forward as she extends her hand. It cracks again in the snow, as she has to force her fingers to snap.

She launches forward as soon as she does, falling horizontally as if gravity itself has been bent to her will.

DG: Leah Sadalbari has used her Tool Gravity Module toward her party's challenge, Perpetual Prism.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    Hazy memories of sprawling out beneath the sparse shade of the orchard that surrounds Little Firelight, taking refuge from the blazing Badlands sun. Uncle Gil's welcome home party after his journey was finished. Winning a stuffed Carro at the Meria Boule fair.

    A hunting party bringing home not meat, but a sick and bedraggled Beastchild. Loren wretchedly admitting to a crush on someone. The moment she'd finally realized that she could create something as useful, as powerful, as a Gear with her own magic and a bag full of quartz chips.

    All these and more. They fade in and out, and Lan could swear that she can feel the heat of that long-ago summer afternoon on her shoulders, the tickle of sparse grass blades on her back. She aches with the want to lie down, to linger in sentimentality. To rest in a place that doesn't hurt, where everything is peaceful.

    But she knows now - knows what this place is, and Lan remembers why she is here--

    --and who she is here with.

    "Come on," she encourages them, even though she's shaking with cold. "Come on, we're almost there." She doesn't know this for sure. But even so, is there any choice but to keep going?! Using her silver ribbon is enough to make her trudging steps lighter as she forces herself onward.

DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Butterfly Ribbon toward her party's challenge, Perpetual Prism.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

    Riesenlied, as a rule, doesn't try to probe too deeply in what she believes others don't want to see, but... it is very much telling that an image of Leah appears before Loren, even as the real person visits violence upon the shade. There are invisible connections here, point after point...

    If she were cruel and malicious, it would be information. But Riesenlied, no matter how much she complains about being tired now, is... not cruel and malicious.

    So instead she reflects on how they're all the wounded, the ones left behind by those who've departed. But Leah has words for her, in turn -- words that surprise her. Because she, too, believes it wasn't justice that killed Siegfried...

    She will be waiting, if she gains a taste for revenge.

    "I know it is inevitable we come to clash, but it will not be because of revenge. That much, I have made a promise, to not be reckless to my beloved, to my closest."

    Brunor's reappearance is surprising to her, though, as is the vision-- and she has a quiet frown as she speaks gently to the Seraph:

    "I can only hope you are an administrator of this trial, not a prisoner, Seraph. I know full well how cold the prison of the heart is."

    Leah's words resonate. To remain trapped in the past... is to refuse the call of destiny.

    She raises her hand again, in focus -- and this time, the mist and ice form around her and... as gravity alters around her chair and lifts it up--

    A sixtet of Snow Cuccos converge from out of thin air and lifts her chair, and herself, up along with her. "Coming, Lan," she calls out.

DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool My Dear Friends toward her party's challenge, Perpetual Prism.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    'Should you change your mind, and gain a taste for revenge... I will be waiting.'

    He doesn't say a word. But he doesn't need to: his expression will speak volumes on its own.
    As it also will, moments from now, when her shade appears to attempt to hold him in an eternal embrace.

    She protests, of course, about the needle. Tells him that she's disappointed as the drug floods her flesh. But she never lays a hand against him, does little more than try to hold him close, still, even as she succumbs and slips away.

    Leah is still standing there before him. It was only a ghost.

    Loren stares at her for a moment as if he were afraid she might also vanish.

    A pair of children run past, neither of which he recognizes. There, here, is Brunor's voice, all apologetics. At any point they could turn back, or embrace a happier moment.

    "...And then what? Try it again, anyway?" Loren shakes his head. "I'm done with this. Let's get it over with."

    This is a particularly cruel test for someone as weak as Loren. All-too-recently, it was that self-same longing for -- and outright rejection of -- the past that had caused him to succumb to the nature of the Primarch of Muse. And especially now, with much of his former defenses in a sorry state or broken off altogether, he...

    He knows he can't stay here, as much as he would prefer otherwise. He knows that, but his gaze still lingers on the after-images of his brother: younger, older, older still, hand in hand with a younger Leah. Of his parents, at home for dinner. Of his childhood friends, before everything had gone wrong. Even his first crush, back in Jugend.

    A picnic in the wastes with Lan.

    Anaitis.
    They smile at him.

    He wavers before the last, hesitating in his path.

    "This isn't... real," he reminds himself aloud, barely a whisper. It's as real as that dream. Squeezing his eyes shut, he bolts for it, racing ahead. He has to bet on it -- that the future won't be so...

DG: Loren Voss 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
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loren Voss                          24 --(8)--> 32                 Pass
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leah Sadalbari                      16 --(8)--> 24                 Pass
Gravity Module                      3   Agility Effects: Fanfare
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Riesenlied                          29 --(8)--> 37                 Pass
My Dear Friends                     3   Agility Effects: Fanfare
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           16 --(8)--> 24                 Pass
Butterfly Ribbon                    2   Agility Effects: Quicken
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Loren Voss                  80 --(0)--> 80                 Pass
Conditions: Slow(2)|Tire(2)
Effects: Quicken(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss 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: Loren Voss 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> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    Leah will not allow it. Lan is more preoccupied with what's over there. Riese expresses sympathy towards the idea that the Seraph is an administrator and not a prisoner. Loren is just done with this and wants to get it over with.

     These thoughts translate into action well enough, and even with a little extra help (no one is going to tell Cuccos 'no' if they want to live with it), even as the ice threatens to slip their feet... they move forward.

     Behind them, the light under the ice erupts in an explosive cacophony that destroys some of the surrounding ice sculptures. The group's success in not falling over or falling behind ensures they're all together and upright.

     This may be a small grace at best, as cold mist clears to reveal a vaguely humanoid structure with a bestial, hunched posture. Ice fills in cracks and missing pieces, including a blade at the end of its segmented tail and elongated claws. Mist is as steam as the powerful ice magic mitigates the heat that this construct is putting out.

     This bears strong similarities to... a certain Solaris asset. (The serial numbers have been filed off. Brunor has an excellent legal team on tap.)

     With warped, digital song, more cold fog fills the chamber with the same haze of strongly held memories. If they give up here, the guardian will do nothing and be contented to lull you to a peaceful rest. If one resists... the Trial's guardian drops to all fours in a feral assault. An attempt to trigger the life flashing before one's eyes, to make them second-guess whether they will move forward when faced with possible sudden demise. Will they retreat to what gave them peace and happiness?

     Only its exposed crystalline core may be the light to the future, if one is strong enough to stand against it.

<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

Riesenlied says it will not be revenge, because she has made a promise. "...I see," Leah answers. That is the only answer she gives, for the moment, turning her head to look forward, and walking on with the trial. Riesenlied, who still has that beloved,who has walked the path of peace...

She doesn't look at Loren as she says it. She doesn't really need to.

Prisoner or administrator, Brunor is what he is. And Leah... Well. She doesn't comment about Loren's 'ghost'. She just looks at him as he stares, staring right back into his eyes with her single one. That is all.

Lan says they're almost there... "We are," Leah agrees.

And then the world breaks. There were Cuccos, but now the world has broken. The icy light erupts and Leah starts falling downward instead of sideways. She recognizes quickly the asset. She recongnizes, quickly, the memories, the haze. It seeks to allow her rest...

"No," Leah says. "I am not to rest, yet."

"Not for a long while."

She reaches to her belt and pulls an Ether gun and her spear, and then leaps upward, her work showing the signs of the Fereshte's style as she dives down into the thing's back to begin a direct assault.

The future...

"Come! Show me you can pass this trial!"

DG: Leah Sadalbari has used her Tool Yamato Belt toward her party's challenge, Engraved in Memory.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    They were doing so well, too.

    The ice behind them upright in light and menace, sending Lan skittering lightly forward on her toes before she can correct her gravity and restabilize. "What is--"

    "A...zoth?"

    No. It's not, and for that Lan is wholly grateful - not only is he her friend, but she hasn't forgotten how badly he was able to injure her in his altered state. Even the Black Ribbon wasn't enough to keep her safe.

    Still, if this one is even a little bit based on him, she might have to--

    No. She doesn't need it.

    In her heart of hearts, it's because she remembers what the ribbon means to Loren. But Lan tells herself it's because she's strong enough without it.

    She uncaps her bottle again, slinging water in a glittering arc to rain down against the construct's tortured form. And once that's done, Lan dashes forward, grabbing at Not-Azoth's limb as she passes to forcefully spin him in place.

DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Clear Water toward her party's challenge, Engraved in Memory.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

    There is one final trial that awaits them. Riesenlied draws a faint breath as she lands on the chamber, and the Cuccos dissipate away. This final chamber, with the cold mist still battering her against her exhausted, frail body...

    ... makes away to a dangerous humanoid with a bestial, hunched posture. She can sense danger, even if the peaceful lull tempts her, but...

    She has come this far. This is not the time for rest.

    "On that topic... we are of one accord," Riesenlied speaks to Loren. Because he, too, is just as gripped with images of the past as any of them are...

    Leah takes the initiative, and Riesenlied is aware of the style -- she shakes her head as she whispers, "If you are to take cues from the lance-wielding dragoons, then... one would need a dragon in turn."

    She looks apologetically to Lan as she requests: "I may need some help back to my chair after this, if you would not mind...?"

    She turns towards the guardian, and drapes her arms around her -- and a crackle of black electricity starts to sweep around her form. Power wells through her very being, coursing in pulsing waves top to bottom. Swiftly, the echoes of the Ley ring true until it threatens to shatter the ice underneath... and at the apex of it all, she whispers that wicked, disgusting word--

    "Accession."

    Violet lightning strikes her, as it always does, making way to a jet-black dome that obscures her form as she shifts; her jaw unsets, her arms push all the way into forelegs, and her digitigrade legs grow the rest of the way into her hind ones. Bright, white and blue wings spread out of that dome--

    --and the Ley Dragon descends down to pounce upon that construct.

DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool Rings of Promise toward her party's challenge, Engraved in Memory.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    Of this, they are in accord?

    He chuckles, a dry and almost bitter sound. "Guess so," he says, shrugging his shoulders.

    Loren doesn't falter this time. He runs for it and he keeps on running and he doesn't look back even once. It's a far cry from how he was.

    Leah doesn't say anything and that suits him well. He doesn't say a word about the few passing glances he'd seen of her own illusions. Instead, they press on, breaching the gauntlet. Except, no, that's not quite right. Something else yet remains here.

    It's Azoth, he realizes. Or at least a decent fascimile thereof. "So he was--"

    He doesn't finish the statement. Azoth might have been here. But now he is not.

    There's still more, yet to be done.

    He's tired, at this point. It's not the exhaustion born from a long fight through the shrine, or even akin to the way he feels after traveling on foot over quite a long distance. He's just tired from being pushed this way and that through all his memories, as if he were the ball tossed about in a pinball machine.

    And that is one of the reasons why it is a Rosesol that he siezes upon from the depths of his kit, downing the vial of pinkish liquid without so much as a blink.

    "Right! Major, I'll back you up!"

    That one vision had it halfway right. Loren wants to be needed.
    He also needs to be wanted.

    Light flares into crystalline-edged panes before him and Leah and Lan and even Riesenlied's draconic form.

DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Solarian Medical Kit 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
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loren Voss                          32 --(5)--> 37                 Pass
Solarian Medical Kit                1   Combat  Effects: Cleanse
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leah Sadalbari                      24 --(5)--> 29                 Pass
Yamato Belt                         1   Combat  Effects: Embolden and Rally
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Riesenlied                          37 --(5)--> 42                 Pass
Rings of Promise                    4   Combat  Effects: Efficient and Fanfare
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           24 --(5)--> 29                 Pass
Clear Water                         1   Combat  Effects: Cleanse
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Loren Voss                  80 --(35)--> 115               Pass
Conditions: Slow(1)|Tire(1)|Wound(2)
Effects: Cleanse|Embolden(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success!
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has successfully explored 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> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    Things escalate - and for all the struggling they do, none quite express the severity of it as much as Riesenlied does when she channels the pulsing of that black heartbeat, and the Ley Dragon bears down upon that horrifying construct empowered by a promise. There is a beast clashing with another beast, and this forms the baseline of the physical response that gives reality to will.

     Leah isn't that far after, leaping into the air to come down into the back of the beast that assaults them, who has decided she is not to rest yet. She asks for the others to follow suit.

     Lan follows from the ground, slinging that water bottle and its glittering contents to once again clear the air and give pause to whatever motivations or instincts drive this construction that scarce seems as though it should even be, some of that warmer water eroding at the ice holding the whole thing together as she takes hold of a limb (she gets a limb and the tail when it tries to go for her, it's very impressive).

     Loren finds the motivation from the Major's call - show he can pass the trial. It is Loren who charges forth thus and strikes forward, managing to reach towards the crystalline core as the other three hold and pin the construct vulnerable in their own ways... and shatter it.

     The concentrated magic disperses, and the hostile construct goes inert... and slack, icy pieces rapidly melting away and causing the rest to crumble and its lights to dim. Lan may want to let go of what she's held onto before the heat being dispersed threatens to scald her, but it helps tamp down everyone from possible frostbite with gradual warmth... and the vapor that has transmitted these wonderful things and loved ones once beloved fades.

     The masked Seraph appears with a palm raised to catch water dripping from the melting ceiling. "Would that I could have frozen those moments in time for all of us... but if we never moved from one moment to the next, we would not discover new joys. That is the greater tragedy."

     He approaches, offering a gem as cold as the chamber used to be. "May you always find the strength to make memories you cherish." It will impart the strength of ice, and proof of completing the trial - among other associated feelings.

     "Even this shrine is meant to be ephemeral. Fading away each time it is completed to be rebuilt anew," he sighs, as he looks to the Ley Dragon. He knows that's not a Fell Dragon, and that the heart of the gentle soul is there because... reasons. "But do not worry for me. Many years before all of you, I swore an oath to be the keeper of this shrine. To test the nature of ice - both its nature to keep... but to also fade."

     He bows again to the gathered. "You have not lost sight of what you truly found important. If you wish, I will prepare more hot cocoa for all of you."

     Leah's will have more marshmallows than the others. This is an unspoken apology and perhaps a bribe of sorts, should her heart still have joy for cocoa and marshmallows.