2022-07-03: Deep Down Into the Nightmare
- Log: Deep Down Into the Nightmare
- Cast: Loren Voss, Seraph Lanval, Leah Sadalbari, Azoth, Lydia Seren
- Where: Deku Isles
- Date: July 03, 2022
- Summary: Solaris ventures into the phenomena known as 'The Spitsbergen Nightmare', intent on seeking its secrets. But the nightmare isn't so easily plundered, not without its ravages. Which mostly fall upon Loren, because, you know.
DG: A party led by Loren Voss is now entering The Spitsbergen Nightmare. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - How Inconvenient *>=======================
| Type: Entry | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Finding where the Nightmare is supposed to be is the tricky part. Rumor has
it that it wanders. Rumor has it that it is never in the precisely the same
place twice. Are either of these statements even true? That, unfortunately,
isn't something anyone who has heard of the Nightmare can tell you.
But you find it, however you manage it -- a hole in the earth, streaming
with strange mists in some odd and possibly unexpected corner of Southern
Aquvy. Or perhaps the more accurate statement would be this: finding it is
the tricky part. Removing the overly large boulder that is taking up most of
the entrance to the nightmare is the /hard part/.
But if you want to explore the Nightmare -- whatever it might be, beyond
that inconvenient barrier -- you'll have to remove it in some fashion.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1IAKyY4kl4
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Tire:_Exhaustion_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Secretly, Loren had thought -- and hoped! -- that they wouldn't find it.
It had been a surprise when the Major had approached regarding that strange location, the same that he had once encountered quite by accident. None of the rest of his team (he had been assisting with some survey-adjacent work at the time) had believed a word he'd said regarding, and it hadn't been a surprise to him when the report he'd submitted had appeared to vanish without a trace in the system. Either he really was hallucinating, or he'd happened across some sort of Solarian black ops project (best forgotten, of course), or...
But the Major wanted to investigate it further, and so he had no further input into the matter.
It also significantly decreased the chances that he had been hallucinating or that it had been some sort of secret matter. Which means, horror of horrors, that this spot is instead...
...something no one knows anything about.
Ugh.
But of course, with some advanced equipment that he's quite unfamiliar with (where did Leah get this? Does he want to know?) they had been able to pinpoint the anomaly, and then...
Here it is. A literal steaming hole in the ground. The rock's back in it, too. That's probably fine...?
"So," Loren says, feeling the need to say something, "It'll be the usual business. First we have to get this up. And then we should be able to get below."
Going back down there... is definitely going to be a pain. He's palmed a smooth, perfectly shaped stone, fidgeting with it as he thinks about the last time he'd traveled the nightmare. He considers also the matter of the stone plugging the whole works.
"I think... if I shift the matrix around it laterally," he says, glancing up at Leah as if she would understand what he's attempting to do Etherically. "...Maybe that'll do it."
It's worth a shot.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Worry Stone toward his party's challenge, How Inconvenient. Stalwart! Party shielded from some Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
"Heeeeeeey, yer back." That's a familiar voice to Loren, and maybe some others, which is the voice of Seraph Lanval. Which means that Loren is going to have another round of headaches. Good-natured(?) headaches. But headaches. This may or may not elicit a sudden shocking swerve to go search for the origin of the voice, to turn over every stone, to pulse poundingly pondering where they're hiding now!
...
"'m under here." Lanval murmurs. From under the rock.
"'n I don't wanna talk 'bout it."
DG: Seraph Lanval has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, How Inconvenient.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
Of course they'd find it. Leah Sadalbari does not often give up on such things. There is little to know about this so far, but Leah is able to pinpoint the location, and the rock. First...
"So the rock continues to replace itself. The entry point appears to be in the same place as before."
Loren does feel the nee to say something. He often does. Se considers, as he talks of shifting the matrix, and she nods, indeed understanding. "Between that and a bit of direct force, we should be in shortly," the Major says.
She pauses, when Lanval indicates that he's here. And under the rock. She 'hmms' a little. "Well," she says. "Isn't that curious?"
She proceeds not to ask him to talk about it, and shoves her crowbar under the rock.
"Do be careful. We wouldn't want to hurt him."
She hefts.
DG: Leah Sadalbari has used her Tool Crowbar toward her party's challenge, How Inconvenient. Stalwart! Party shielded from some Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Previous explorations and assignments with Solaris have determined that Azoth should, in fact, display some manner of personality while out and about. So until he annoys someone into ordering him to act out a different persona, he sticks to the one he has the most experience with.
So he skips cheerfully along, per usual, until they come along a giant, inconvenient rock. Azoth puts his hand over his head like a visor -- completely useless in this scenario, and for Azoth, most scenarios -- as he pretends to inspect it further.
"Hm. Yes. That... is a rock."
A talking rock with a familiar voice.
"Ah, Mr. Bottle?!" Azoth gives a glitched, digital stutter of surprise, then looks uneasily to the others. Uuuuh don't mind Azoth here traveling with known members of Solaris, that's probably not weird at all...?
(A number of people know already. This secret is spreading, and it's inevitable it escapes further.)
"Gently, then..."
Azoth spins the photon blade's hilt into his grasp, and instead of attempting to brutally detonate it into stone, he taps at the stone with one small, jolted explosion channeled through the weapon at time to 'tap' its movement off of the unfortunate Seraph.
DG: Azoth has used his Tool Falk's Photon Blade toward his party's challenge, How Inconvenient. Fanfare!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia also didn't really want to find it because Solarian operations are a lot more tolerable when they just don't do anything and talk the shit. But she didn't come alone because
RACHIEL MEDRY
has come along as well and apparently has grown afflicted with THE HICCUPS so when Loren says 'So, it'll be the usual business. First we have to get this up. And then we should be able to get below' it becomes 'So HIC it'll be the usual HIC business HIC. First we HIC have to get this HIC up. And then HIC we should be able to get HIC below.'
And she's braiding Lydia's hair while doing this which Lydia is kind of storming about but is also allowing happen. For NOW.
"Gghhh." Marivel grumps as she raises Tiebreaker and smashes the overly large boulder with it three times.
"HIiiIIIiiIcc!" Rachiel reverberates. "HiiIIIIiIiic!"
Lanval is under the rock. Lydia looks down at Lanval. She takes a breath--
--and she clobbers it extra hard! "I'll get you out, Lanval!!"
BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG.
DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Tiebreaker V 2.0 toward her party's challenge, How Inconvenient. Rally!
========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - How Inconvenient *>=======================
| Type: Entry | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Finding where the Nightmare is supposed to be is the tricky part. Rumor has
it that it wanders. Rumor has it that it is never in the precisely the same
place twice. Are either of these statements even true? That, unfortunately,
isn't something anyone who has heard of the Nightmare can tell you.
But you find it, however you manage it -- a hole in the earth, streaming
with strange mists in some odd and possibly unexpected corner of Southern
Aquvy. Or perhaps the more accurate statement would be this: finding it is
the tricky part. Removing the overly large boulder that is taking up most of
the entrance to the nightmare is the /hard part/.
But if you want to explore the Nightmare -- whatever it might be, beyond
that inconvenient barrier -- you'll have to remove it in some fashion.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1IAKyY4kl4
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Tire:_Exhaustion_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
===================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare - Round 1 *>==================== =========================< Results - How Inconvenient >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Worry Stone 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Lanval 0 --(15)--> 15 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leah Sadalbari 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Crowbar 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azoth 0 --(3)--> 3 Pass Falk's Photon Blade 3 Brute Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lydia Seren 0 --(3)--> 3 Pass Tiebreaker V 2.0 4 Brute Effects: Efficient and Rally -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Tire(2) Effects: ===============================< 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: Seraph Lanval has left your party.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"Medry," Loren sighs. "Try holding your breath." He assumes she won't do it until she passes out. Nobody would... right?
"Huh. Really? Strange," he remarks to Leah, fidgeting with his glasses a moment as he tries to assess the status of the rock a little more closely.
The rock (??) talks back, though.
"What-- oh, it's you," Loren tells the rock (or more accurately, who's below the rock). He glances up at Azoth (he is crouched) and sighs, his shoulders rising and falling as if resigning himself to this terrible fate.
"Fine. But we're just moving it," he tells the rock and its current occupant beneath.
And so, a little bit of the earth shifts, popping the rock up just that much. This makes it an excellent target for such things like a photon blade, a well-delivered shovel and a crowbar, which when combined, allow the three of them to lift the stone up and to the side. It doesn't move.
"There's more of that mist," Loren observes, his inward misgivings intensifying.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
From the mist, when the rock moves... is Lanval, who just kind of pops up out of there.
"Thank ya shooo much," Lanval has his back turned to everyone in the moment, with a mirthful laugh. Surprise plausible deniability?! "'m gonna repay ya ash a good friend oughtta! Wiiiiiiith... advice."
"Sho, when ya find yershelf shtaggerin' 'bout here... the water ain't got much power or place here, sho I'm gonna, 'n ya find a big ol' immovable rock. One ya remember bein' a big ol' immovable rock!" He pumps a fist. "And ya thiiiiink," immediate red flag, "well I ain't gonna lay atop the top of it! Or lean on it! Nope! I'm gonna go be under the big ol' immovable rock!"
"'n then I didn't move it before I got under it, sho, thaaaaat'sh yer lesshon! Don't do that." He waves a finger. "There'sh a buncha shtuff I'd tell ya pro'lly ain't a good idea, but that! That!! That'll do ya in." He staggers off. "Cheeeeersh!"
...
So he did he get under a "big l' immovable" rock, in which a long drop follows into a pit? The rock wasn't moved and there was no floor and...
He's gone, not going to answer, leaving it to the proper science officers to have to deal with that.
So yes. Another good-natured neadache for the pile.
DG: Azoth has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Inch By Inch Row By Row *>====================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The Nightmare contains multitudes. This includes, apparently, what looks to
be a perfectly normal garden -- the sort of thing that would make most
Filgaian farmers green with envy. Plants are everywhere within the garden.
But... wait a moment here. These plants don't look quite right. Some seem
stunted. Some seem like they're refusing to bloom. Others aren't even plants
but colored crystal. Something's gone wrong here -- this isn't how a garden
is supposed to grow.
You have the oddest sense that the Nightmare itself is expecting you to fix
this for it, somehow. But can you work out what's wrong here and set it
right?
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure! and Tire:_Exhaustion_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth beams at Loren. "It's me!" He leans over Loren, hands on his own knees. "I'm helping." And he does, at least, help a little! He has to help. The overrides demand it. But he's smiling a little too much.
Lanval is saved, and Azoth slumps in a feigned sigh of relief. He listens with rapt attention, nodding along and hanging on each word of wisdom the Seraph provides them. "Don't do that," he repeats, then gives a final, firm nod. "We won't do that." He looks directly at Loren. "Remember! Do not...! Thank -- oh, he's gone."
Onward, then, deeper into the Nightmare, and approaching a garden strikingly verdant and flourishing with its greenery. ...Almost. There are stunted stalks and flowers that do not bloom. Others are crystal in the shape of plants.
While everyone's distracted by this sight, Azoth tries to creep up behind Rachiel, popping up with an abrupt and little-too-loud, "Boo!"
He's heard that works to cure such spasms, and that's the only reason he's trying it, honest! (Azoth's never honest.)
Whether or not he meets any success, he observes the flowers with a curious brightening of his eyes. "Well, this isn't right. Some of these plants are minerals. And these ones... Maybe it's the temperature...? The current temperature is... ... creepy."
DG: Azoth has used his Tool Oculus ex Machina toward his party's challenge, Inch By Inch Row By Row.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"We could try scaring her," Leah suggests for Rachiel's hiccups. "But it would have to be terribly unexpected..."
It's 'you'. yes, it's Lanval. 'Mr. Bottle', in fact. Hmmmmmm.
"I will keep in mind this lesson," Leah says seriously to Lanval, before he goes. And then he goes. "Yes," she says to Azoth, "Just like that."
"Hmmm... Colored crystal..."
"I suggest we carve these things into the likenesses of plants. Loren, you can likely channel some energy into the unblossomed blooms."
"Lydia, help me over here if you would. And..."
"Rachiel, do me a favor and look behind you."
DG: Leah Sadalbari has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Inch By Inch Row By Row.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Okay Loren!" Rachiel holds her breath.
Apparently Lydia isn't making the same assumption. "Don't do it until you pass out, Rache."
Rachiel exhales out in a sudden breath. "Ah, whew. Much better! I think that workHICed."
Rachiel frowns but is distracted by a request from Leah. She spins around on a heel and beams, "Yes Le--?"
Lydia meanwhile jogs over to Leah. "Alright alright--uh... I'm not super...artistic but I'll do my best."
She summons her giant honking sword into her hands and starts a chopping. Its a bit crude but it can technically look like plants if you have imagination in your heart.
"Ahhh!!!" Rachiel jumps as Azoth Boo!s her. "Azoth!! Thank you very much!! For spooking me!!! And making me cry a little!!!"
She's shaking and is maybe insisting these truths a bit too firmly.
DG: Lydia Seren has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Inch By Inch Row By Row.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Loren makes the sort of expression that would normally be directed at a camera. He takes a breath and, in a stunning display of tact, says nothing more to Rachiel at the moment.
"I'll pass," Loren says, when Lanval tells them he'll give them some advice. It doesn't matter, though-- they're getting the advice anyway.
It takes a moment for the severity of the problem that Lanval has proposed (he was under the rock? Under how? There was nothing beneath that at all--) to fully sink in. "Wait, how..." Loren starts, trying to puzzle it all out. But Lanval is already gone. And to make matters worse, Azoth is... ...
He looks over at him blankly. "But that's not even useful advice!" he blurts out, in purest exasperation/desperation. Why is this even happening?
They descend. It may be the least mind-melting of their options, at present.
"Huh," Loren says, because a garden down here is both expected and unexpected, all considering. "Some of those aren't plants?" he says, because he's not entirely certain about this, here. "I don't know much about plants," he says, touching the soil piled here and frowning.
And then jumping because Azoth has just succeeded in pulling off Leah's advice and giving him, also, a damned heart attack!! "What are--"
He stops, having realized that her hiccups are... cured?
And then, disgruntled, he frowns, turning his attention back to the plants. "Fine. These look like crystals, and crystals require water grow. Let me think... well, temperature, I can probably get a read on that. And there's no such thing as a creepy temperature," he says, pulling out his medical computer. It should do fine for gathering temperature data (more or less) but humidity is a little bit outside its wheelhouse. "Maybe electrical currents? I wonder," he says, trying to see if he can get a signal off the crystal-plant. In so doing, he looks up for a moment and gets a much better look at its neighbor.
"...Um. This one's floating," he notes, pointing at the one next to the crystal-plant. Indeed! The stem, leaves, and bloom are all detached and floating. A deconstructed flower, if you will. "How would that get water? From the air?" Maybe things need to get damp?
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool MediScan v7 toward his party's challenge, Inch By Inch Row By Row. Rally!
========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Inch By Inch Row By Row *>====================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The Nightmare contains multitudes. This includes, apparently, what looks to
be a perfectly normal garden -- the sort of thing that would make most
Filgaian farmers green with envy. Plants are everywhere within the garden.
But... wait a moment here. These plants don't look quite right. Some seem
stunted. Some seem like they're refusing to bloom. Others aren't even plants
but colored crystal. Something's gone wrong here -- this isn't how a garden
is supposed to grow.
You have the oddest sense that the Nightmare itself is expecting you to fix
this for it, somehow. But can you work out what's wrong here and set it
right?
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure! and Tire:_Exhaustion_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
===================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare - Round 2 *>==================== =====================< Results - Inch By Inch Row By Row >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leah Sadalbari 0 --(8)--> 8 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 0 --(8)--> 8 Pass MediScan v7 3 Wits Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lydia Seren 3 --(28)--> 31 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azoth 3 --(8)--> 11 Pass Oculus ex Machina 3 Wits Effects: Efficient -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Tire(1) Effects: ===============================< 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.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
"Listen, Loren, if you were under a rock, the only thing that's going to matter to you is not being under a rock anymore, right? It's exceptionally useful!"
They could even be applying it now if this were a rock garden! But there will be plenty of rocks not to get stuck under later.
Azoth smiles too-innocently at Loren, a casuality of spooking, but his expression softens a little at Rachiel. "You're welcome. Any... time?" He winces, seeing how rattled she seems. Maybe that was a bit too much... "...They're gone now, right?"
Leah provides instructions, which Lydia helpfully follows with massive sword craftsmanship. These are the most beautiful plants in everyone's hearts, though maybe, perhaps, only their hearts. Loren proves more willing to share useful data than Azoth (who insists "it's mathematically creepy!"), which gets Azoth cooperating. Some of the floating flowers can be given water right now by moving them around, and further investigations can improve the irrigation system of the garden. Anyone who wants to channel energy can give it a shot and, soon, flowers bloom.
Delightful, for a nightmare.
DG: Lydia Seren has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Death By A Thousand Cuts *>===================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Combat | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
It could be any dungeon passageway in any ruin you so choose. Except, this
is the Nightmare, so it's hardly 'any dungeon'.
Neither is the threat that's soon upon you: small (read: roughly rat-sized)
shape-changing set upon you en masse, shifting their appearance wildly as
they go on the attack.
Handling this many opponents may be difficult, but you've no other choice!
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure! and Tire:_Exhaustion_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Did that help?" Lydia asks Leah semi-seriously. So far she's not really sure she understands this dungeon either but maybe Solaris will do something useful and blow it off the face of the planet. Lydia doesn't really care for dungeons with weird boulders and strange asks and don't have a lot of loot. The adventure should match the reward in her book.
Nevertheless, Rachiel smiles at Loren like she just thinks the gosh darned world of him and says, "Thanks for trying Loren! I guess I'm more the 'spook' the hiccups away rather than the hold breath technique?"
Lydia jogs ahead to see what's up.
A moment passes.
Lydia comes jogging back, now positively covered in tiny shapechanging rat-sized... uh. Rat-sized somethings. They look like tiny little copies of people who came here before, possibly including YOU. "I don't know what this is," Lydia says. "And I don't like it. I have enough with the Rachiel doll all over me all the time and--"
"I got it!" Rachiel shouts. "You only want your favorite doll instead of all these inferior versions!"
Rachiel draws her sword, pointing it at Lydia.
"Uhhhh???" Lydia says.
Rachiel beams happily as she skewers one off of Lydia's shoulder and flicks it away casually with a twist of the wrist. Luckily it dissolves into mist rather than sprays into blood.
"Eheheh--" Rachiel says, skewering another like a shiskebob. "I'm pretty impressive as a fighter right? HIC."
Rachiel frowns. "...hn... all the excitement must have started it up again."
Lydia is frozen stiff like a statue.
DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Rachiel Medry Is Doing Her Best toward her party's challenge, Death By A Thousand Cuts. Fanfare!
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
Leah does not help Loren out of the advice hole. It's fine. There's rocks to not be under.
"That helped," Leah confirms for Lydia. "It's a matter of indulging the dream logic to a point, I think. Too far and you'll be lost in it, but just enough... and you can progress."
Leah has been here before. There are tiny Leahs among the dolls. And they are very stabby.
"Hmmm. Loren, take one of these as a sample."
Which one??? doesn't matter. But at least Rachiel is--
"Yes, very impressive," Leah says, and pulls her Ether gun. She proceeds to start picking off dolls a few at a time.
DG: Leah Sadalbari has used her Tool Ether Gun toward her party's challenge, Death By A Thousand Cuts.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Get one for me too! My very own MiniLeah..." Rachiel's eyes sparkle. You probably don't actually need to do this.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"...But why would I be under a rock?" Loren protests, nonetheless. When will he learn that he can't attempt logic with this sort of situation?
The answer turns out to be -- by combining what data ("Mathematically what now?" is Loren's approximate response as he just looks grouchy and bewildered. or maybe that's normal loren) he's able to gather with what Azoth is able to glean, among others -- that there's a hydration issue in the garden. Thus, a solution is brought about: move the plants that can be moved over to where they can get more water, and move water to the plants that can't be moved. Luckily, between him and Leah, there are at least two water adepts (or close enough to it?) in the room. It's easy!
And then there are flowers. They're actually a little bit pretty. If he weren't sure that taking one from here would turn into something weird or cause some problem, probably, down the road, Loren would have even taken one for Lan--
Wait, for Lan? There's a thought that really gives him pause. Just because he'd given her flowers once doesn't mean...!
Lydia takes point, then, only to come back covered in...
"Uh," Loren starts, before he turns to realize that he's being menaced by a swarm of tiny Leahs. And tiny Lorens. And tiny...
"Why?" Loren asks, of an uncaring universe.
Of course there are also tiny Tabithas. Of course!
"Fine," he says, trying to shake off the tiny creatures. He's gone for his satchel, fishing about for something to use to store a sample (of what? of who?) but instead is interrupted as something half-slides, half floats out of his medical bag.
It's the cloud-bear (still unnamed, for now!) and it's sizing up one of the tiny Lorens that has made a climb onto his arm to menace him with an even tinier sword.
It swallows the tiny Loren in one gulp. Loren thinks back on the fact that he's never seen the bear eat anything before, and turns ashen.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Solarian Medical Kit toward his party's challenge, Death By A Thousand Cuts. Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round! Liability! Failure will result in extra Exhaustion!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
"You won't be, because now you know you shouldn't be! Be sure to thank him next time you see him, okay?"
Did the carving help? Azoth picks up one of Lydia's carved flowers. "... I don't know, but I like it." Will the nightmare let him pocket and keep this?
Azoth slumps his head limply to one side -- too limply, like a broken puppet. "Uuugh, dream logic..." He scuffs his foot against the ground. "I haven't figured out the patterns to that yet."
Dream logic also dictates Lydia come back covered in a horde of little shape-changed somethings that look like appropriately sized people for once in his life. Which makes him wince when he picks one off of her. "Uh. Are you guys sure you want me destroying these? Could be habit forming, you know?" It attacks his fingers and he drops it, but he moves quick to crush it under heel. Azoth pauses, then perks up. "...Nostalgic!"
But then Rachiel stabs toward a statue still Lydia and he jolts upright with an alarmed beep. Calculations rapidly form, and he projects laser lights to help guide precise strikes so no Lydias get caught in the crossfire. Or anyone else.
DG: Azoth has used his Tool Convergence Signal toward his party's challenge, Death By A Thousand Cuts. Embolden! Party Combat boosted!
========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Death By A Thousand Cuts *>===================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Combat | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
It could be any dungeon passageway in any ruin you so choose. Except, this
is the Nightmare, so it's hardly 'any dungeon'.
Neither is the threat that's soon upon you: small (read: roughly rat-sized)
shape-changing set upon you en masse, shifting their appearance wildly as
they go on the attack.
Handling this many opponents may be difficult, but you've no other choice!
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, Embolden:_Combat_Up!, |
| Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, and Tire:_Exhaustion_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
==================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare - Round 3 *>=================== ====================< Results - Death By A Thousand Cuts >==================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Leah Sadalbari 8 --(5)--> 13 Pass Ether Gun 3 Combat Effects: Efficient ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Loren Voss 8 --(5)--> 13 Pass Solarian Medical Kit 2 Combat Effects: Cleanse and Liability ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lydia Seren 31 --(5)--> 36 Pass Rachiel Medry Is Doing Her Best 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Azoth 11 --(5)--> 16 Pass Convergence Signal 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Loren Voss 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Tire(2) 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.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Rachiel isn't able to get a miniLeah but she is able to get a miniLoren who squirms as she quietly disarms the miniLoren and holds him up proudfully. This is her first time here otherwise she'd have picked out another miniRachiel. A mini version of her sounds adorable to someone like Rachiel. Lydia is relieved there's no miniLydias mostly because her player doesn't rememberr if Lydia did this one before or not.
"Oh good we got a tiny Loren. That should be enough right?"
A cloud-bear eats a Loren and Lydia quickly turns her head so Loren doesn't see her expression.
"I dunno you already go around stepping on people occassional-like. Might be too late," She tells Azoth.
Azoth squishes one pretty easily underfoot. It might already be a habit guys!!
Leah finishes off the rest with the power of GUN. Lydia glances around and says, "Well, guess that's it."
Pause.
"Can we uh. Is this enough can we get the heck outta here now?"
DG: Leah Sadalbari has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Stairs? Stares! *>========================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Things don't seem to obey normal laws of physics within the bowels of the
Nightmare. The glittering mists are the only constant, billowing past and
about you as if in a gentle embrace.
Before you, spinning itself upwards along what you /think/ might be the
stone walls of some fortification, there grows quite suddenly a grand
crystal staircase, curving upwards towards a point you cannot see. This
would be all well and good, but along the rise there then opens a single
eye, one for every step. They all fix on you, unblinking.
This can't be good. Stairs shouldn't have eyes, for one thing. Perhaps you
should do something about that. Forcefully.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, Embolden:_Combat_Up!, |
| Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, Fright:_Combat_Down!_Agility_Up!, and |
| Tire:_Exhaustion_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
Leah does not argue the point of gathering a mini-Leah. Perhaps she's fine with that. Perhaps it's just useful to have two samples. It's hard to say.
In fact Leah is encouraging people to try to take things. What's the worst that could happen? (Horrible, horrible things.) It's fine, though.
Leah regards the cloud-bear for a few moments. Hmmm. Hmmmmmmmm.
"I'm sure you'll manage," Leah says to Azoth in the meantime. And the question of forming a habit gets a wry look out of Leah. Or maybe it was the nostalgic way he crushed something under his heel.
"Tiny Loren will be sufficient." Pause. "Don't let it get eaten. That would be... inconvenient."
Then she shakes her head at Lydia. "No. We need to reach the center. That's where I was repelled before."
An she leads forward. The world spins!! the glittering mists gather around them, and suddenly, a grand, crystalline staircase, filled with beautiful steps that each have a terrible eye staring down in judgement upon the party.
Leah regards the terrible eye staring down in judgment at her from the first step, and approaches, pulling her crowbar.
Schwoop. The eye goes gloop. She moves to the next one.
"Hm hm..."
That... appears to be her plan, before going up any of these steps.
DG: Leah Sadalbari has used her Tool Crowbar toward her party's challenge, Stairs? Stares!. Stalwart! Party shielded from some Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"I would never let Tiny Loren be eaten." Rachiel declares. "Loren is my friend!"
"You let that other Tiny Loren get eaten by that cloud-bear." Lydia points out.
"Well... I mean, that's Loren's cloud-bear so..." Rachiel says awkwardly. "I can only control the reactions of my own bears."
Rachiel reaches into her bag, draws out a jar she was able to collect from one of the villages in Sylvaland and slides her Mini Loren inside. She pokes a few airholes inside it.
The Tiny Loren bangs the glass in frustration but can't break the powerful fairy-resilliant glass.
Lydia is told that their mission isn't finished yet. "Alright." She says. "Then lets get there."
She approaches a....
A staircase with...
Eyes?
"....N..nani the fuck?" Lydia stammers. "Why does it have eyes? WHY DOES IT HAVE SO MANY EYES?"
Lydia tries smashing the stairs with her bat! But carefully because she doesn't want to get eyes on her bat.
DG: Lydia Seren has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Stairs? Stares!.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
He decides, in the end, that he's not going to think about what the cloud-bear just did. That didn't happen, in fact. It seems the safest course.
'Nostalgic!" says Azoth, as he crushes tiny humans under his heel.
Loren's expression is the textbook example of Alarm. Slowly, he turns his head in an attempt to get Leah's attention/intervention. This likely fails.
As he attempts to coax the cloud-bear to go back into his bag (did Leah see that? did anyone else see that? probably), he realizes that Medry's got a sample. It's a tiny...
"...Why does it have to be a tiny me?" he asks, deeply disconcerted as the mini-him is put into a jar.
He knows the answer. It's because it was the one caught. And because the universe hates him deeply.
"To the center, huh... the last time, we ran into trouble there." He's managed to push the bear (when did it get into his bag, anyway) back into his bag and has clipped it closed. "But I think we had met versions of," Loren starts to add, only to stop dead when the staircase forms before them, rising high into the swirling mists.
There are eyes on the risers. They move and that's when Loren stops dead in his tracks. Then Leah puts one of them out without even pausing, continuing on her way up the stairs.
"Okay," he says, taking a moment to center himself. This involves squeezing that stone Azoth once gave him in his left hand until his palm aches. "...Okay," he says again, and if a splintering dart of stone is sent for another of those eyes, then so much the better. It does help, as he discovers. It really does help.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Worry Stone toward his party's challenge, Stairs? Stares!. Stalwart! Party shielded from some Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Leah asks for samples, so Azoth is in the clear for the rock flower he stole. Probably. Well. Maybe not, no.
On the subject of Leah, he still has a difficult time reading her intentions. Despite her status, she does not act to punish or stop his behaviors despite that he is at least a little bit antagonizing both Loren and Rachiel, all wrapped up in pretending to be the goofy sort who is Just Like That. And also making references to wanting to stomp on people the moment he is Big.
"I won't eat tiny Loren because I can't," he promises, as if that's the only reason. He gave Loren a rock for moments like these. He's helping! Again.
It's time for the world's worst staircase. Azoth tilts his head at the eyes, smiles, waves at one, and then stabs it with a photon blade. He keeps it extended as he casually continues upward, slashing eyes along the way.
DG: Azoth has used his Tool Falk's Photon Blade toward his party's challenge, Stairs? Stares!. Fanfare!
========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Stairs? Stares! *>========================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Things don't seem to obey normal laws of physics within the bowels of the
Nightmare. The glittering mists are the only constant, billowing past and
about you as if in a gentle embrace.
Before you, spinning itself upwards along what you /think/ might be the
stone walls of some fortification, there grows quite suddenly a grand
crystal staircase, curving upwards towards a point you cannot see. This
would be all well and good, but along the rise there then opens a single
eye, one for every step. They all fix on you, unblinking.
This can't be good. Stairs shouldn't have eyes, for one thing. Perhaps you
should do something about that. Forcefully.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure! and Fright:_Combat_Down!_Agility_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
===================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare - Round 4 *>==================== =========================< Results - Stairs? Stares! >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leah Sadalbari 13 --(0)--> 13 Pass Crowbar 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 13 --(0)--> 13 Pass Worry Stone 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lydia Seren 36 --(0)--> 36 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azoth 16 --(0)--> 16 Pass Falk's Photon Blade 3 Brute Effects: Fanfare -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 60 --(20)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Fright(2) Effects: ===============================< 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.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"Do you have many bears?" Leah asks Rachiel, as if she doesn't know the answer to this question. She looks at tiny Loren banging on the glass. She smiles briefly at him. "...Cute," she decides after a moment, and then nods to Lydia. They will get there.
Notably she definitely doesn't interfere with Loren's look at her based o Azoth's... Azoth-ing. Many have trouble reading her intentions, even--especially--among those she works with directly. "We'll likely run into trouble again," she says instead. "Don't worry too hard about your smaller version, Loren. It's not safe for the bigger you."
A pause. "Thank you, Azoth. I appreciate your forebearance."
...it might be a joke.
But in the end, they all in their own ways take out the eyes. Crowbar, bat, stone, photon-blade--all are effective at blinding the stairs' horrific vision that should not be.
But where do they end up...?
DG: Loren Voss has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
=========================<* CHALLENGE - Me's A Crowd *>=========================
| Type: Climax | Dungeon Ability: Combat | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
As you make your way to the apparent heart of the Nightmare, you find
yourself in a space glittering with apparent treasures. What wonders there
are here in its heart, even if you only 'know' this and cannot discern a
single detail about what you've found!
But the moment you pick one of the indistinct yet surely wondrous objects up
you realize you're not alone here.
Because you're already here. Why, here you are and here you are and here you
are!
These other yous don't look quite right, though.
On top of that, they're actually pretty hostile!
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJvuJvT4OhA
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cripple:_Agility_Down!, Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, |
| Fright:_Combat_Down!_Agility_Up!, Madness:_Wits_Down!, Maim:_Combat_Down!, |
| and Treasure:_Exploration_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"Great," Loren says, weakly, of Azoth promising not to eat the tiny him (because he can't eat!). "That's fine." It isn't, really, but he can pretend otherwise.
Scratch that, Leah's definitely seen the bear, and he's going to get a lot of questions later.
'Don't worry about your smaller version', Leah tells him. He saw his tinier self banging on the glass, and decides, in the end, to listen to the voice of reason such that it is.
As with the cloud-bear eating a tiny version of him, he decides Not Thinking About This is well in order. Instead, steeling himself, he continues up the stairs, interjecting with Ether where necessary.
It's honestly a relief once they crest the top, not only because they've successfully blinded the steps, but because there's not anything horrible awaiting them. There's instead a wide, cavern before them with many glittering crystals hanging from the ceiling. About a central shimmering spire, many fine and shining objects are scattered. It's only when Loren kneels before a particular part of the pile and picks one of those items up that he realizes he can't discern one single thing about any of these objects. Not a single thing! It's as if his brain absolutely rejects telling him anything about what he's got in his hands, and, oh, hello there.
He's lifted his gaze in time to meet the triplicate versions of himself that have just stepped out of the crystal spire. One after another, they're minisculely different: this one is him but in shades of green, the other is missing his glasses and has brown hair, and the third just appears to have forgotten the freckles. ...The others sure have a lot of freckles, does he have so many these days?
They're also all armed which is why Loren rises to his feet and, reaching into his kit, he pulls out the bear.
"Er," he utters, reaching into his kit with his other hand and retrieving a Rosesol instead. Downing it, his doppelgangers are treated to a barrage of stony missiles!
And it won't do anyone else helping him in this matter for their own odd doubles are emerging from the crystal as well.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Solarian Medical Kit toward his party's challenge, Me's A Crowd. Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round! Liability! Failure will result in extra Exhaustion!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Hee, he is cute isn't he?" Rachiel agrees before pausing to glance to Leah. "Um. Well. I don't have any bears if I'm being completely honest. That's why it's easy for me to control them. Because they don't exist." She considers, placing a hand on her cheek. "Honestly, it's hard enough getting humans to listen, bears would be a lot tougher right?"
Rachiel frowns faintly because now there's more duplicates. "Oh no I can't fit those in a bottle...!"
Lydia instead darts forward, swiping around with her own blade to try and take out any dopplegangers she can reach. She tries to time it with Loren's missiles--
"Azoth we should come up with a double tech," Lydia says. "Like maybe you can throw me at something and then I go crazy with the bat or something. That's how you know the friendship is real, when you sort of get a special move together."
"Wow... I didn't know that...!" Rachiel exclaims.
"Hic--!"
Lydia made no promise about eating Tiny Loren but she won't. You can trust her on that.
DG: Lydia Seren has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Me's A Crowd.
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Azoth beams at Leah, literally sparkling with holographic light at her praise. But Loren seems less enthusiastic and he frowns at Loren. "Hey, don't be sad, you're probably delicious."
That sounds like something organics could be sensitive about! (Azoth you know it's not.) Thus, he ends up pointing enthusiastically at the cloud-bear who proves his point and clearly dispels all of Loren's insecurities.
Once they come across the treasure room, Azoth's eyes haze over with static. He makes a glitched sound, his playful tone replaced with something deep and flat. "VISUAL FEEDBACK ERROR." He wobbles, as if drunk, stabilizing his sensors in time to see duplicates within the nightmare. He puffs his cheeks, resting one in the palm of his hand. "...No, no, this is too easy. It's just mean now."
But he still has to fight them. Lydia mentions the possibility of a double tech and he lights up with a cheerful chirp. "Really?! I mean -- as long as you're okay with it...!" He's a little hesitant to chuck Lydia, but... double tech.
And if she is, indeed, willing, he will take position and fastball special her right at some doppelgangers, using helpful holographic indicators so she knows where she's calculated to end up.
DG: Azoth has used his Tool Convergence Signal toward his party's challenge, Me's A Crowd. Embolden! Party Combat boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"It's much easier to control things that exist than to control things that don't exist," Leah delivers seriously. "Concepts and ideas... these can spread freely, whether 'true' or not. You should keep that in mind."
Pause. No, these aren't going into a bottle. That's true. But as the others appear...
One Leah moves smoothly, without the distinctive stutter-step gait that the others would know of her. She wields a sword. Another Leah is blonde. A third is missing the wrong eye. The differences are all relatively subtle--because the expression on each is the same. Stone-faced necessity marks the various Leahs, and Leah draws her Ether Gun rather than her spear for these. Oh, the others have these, too--but that's fine. Because her approach is not to shoot first.
Leah's approach, as ever, is to shoot last.
Leah does not offer to do a double tech with anyone present.
"Hmmm... Deliciousness...." Bang!!
DG: Leah Sadalbari has used her Tool Ether Gun toward her party's challenge, Me's A Crowd.
========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
=========================<* CHALLENGE - Me's A Crowd *>=========================
| Type: Climax | Dungeon Ability: Combat | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
As you make your way to the apparent heart of the Nightmare, you find
yourself in a space glittering with apparent treasures. What wonders there
are here in its heart, even if you only 'know' this and cannot discern a
single detail about what you've found!
But the moment you pick one of the indistinct yet surely wondrous objects up
you realize you're not alone here.
Because you're already here. Why, here you are and here you are and here you
are!
These other yous don't look quite right, though.
On top of that, they're actually pretty hostile!
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJvuJvT4OhA
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, Cripple:_Agility_Down!, |
| Embolden:_Combat_Up!, Fright:_Combat_Down!_Agility_Up!, Madness:_Wits_Down!, |
| Maim:_Combat_Down!, and Treasure:_Exploration_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
===================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare - Round 5 *>==================== ===========================< Results - Me's A Crowd >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leah Sadalbari 13 --(5)--> 18 Pass Ether Gun 3 Combat Effects: Efficient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 13 --(27)--> 40 Fail Solarian Medical Kit 2 Combat Effects: Cleanse and Liability -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lydia Seren 36 --(27)--> 63 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azoth 16 --(27)--> 43 Fail Convergence Signal 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 80 --(0)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Cripple|Fright(1)|Madness|Maim|Treasure(1) Effects: Cleanse|Embolden(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.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
'Don't be sad, you're probably delicious.'
Loren sputters. "I-- what?" he eventually manages. "I don't want to be eaten!" Most people don't, as it happens -- funny how that works.
Whether or not Leah intervenes here, though, there's the matter of the chamber full of treasures that has opened up before them, one of which, despite being completely and utterly 'a mysterious precious object of some kind' no matter how much one looks at it, is currently stashed in Loren's bag. You know, because he had to put it there to grab the Rosesol (The bear is still in his other hand. It squirms a little bit.)
Things more or less progress from there. Lydia's quick to join Loren's side as he faces down his own doubles (triples?) and then Azoth's own in turn. Azoth successfully throws Lydia at an assortment of doppelgangers, whereupon she downs the lot of them. Leah has a shootout with her own copies and indeed, shoots last.
And then one from each of the first three triple sets rises to their feet.
Leah may have been waiting for this. One shot finishes the deal. One shot, three times.
But the Nightmare trembles.
DG: Azoth has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
====================<* CHALLENGE - Tracing the Path Home *>=====================
| Type: Final | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
However you deal with your strange doubled (tripled, quadrupled) selves may
be the easy part in the end.
But the Nightmare, as difficult as finding your way inwards had been, has
seemingly opted to make it no easier for you to follow your way back out. Is
it possible that what you claimed in its heart agitated it in some way? But
no matter -- gains are not made by giving up in the home stretch.
Escaping the Nightmare won't be easy: whatever logic it had presented
before, whatever oddities you may have seen, you don't see them again now as
you backtrack. Indeed, it's almost a simple proposition it seems to set
before you:
Your path has become a maze of stone walls and identical-seeming corridors.
It will take all your wits to find the way out again and emerge in the light
of the outside world.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, Cripple:_Agility_Down!, |
| Embolden:_Combat_Up!, Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, |
| Fright:_Combat_Down!_Agility_Up!, Madness:_Wits_Down!, Maim:_Combat_Down!, |
| Stupify:_Wits_Down!, and Treasure:_Exploration_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
"You don't?" Azoth says in shock, sounding as if he genuinely did not know. "Sorry, I'm still getting the hang of humans and all. I'll make sure to record that to memory...!"
But fighting! And double techs! When it works out, Azoth leaps in the air, cheering and chirping a victory chime ordinary reserved for the majesty of solving a block puzzle.
The Nightmare is not a place for such joys. The treasure here is indistinct and unreal, just as much as the way out may be. Perhaps they should have taken less samples? Either way, Azoth peers around the area as they wander, letting out a low beep-whirr of concern.
"Dream logic again?" He looks to the others, who presumably dream without the help of Elw magic. After they turn another identical corner, he puffs his cheeks. "It's not a good puzzle if it isn't consistent! Fine, fine, dream logic. Logic... for dreams..." Azoth taps at his head, signifying thinking as his eyes glow and he makes observations of their surroundings.
"There has got to be a pattern here somewhere..."
DG: Azoth has used his Tool Oculus ex Machina toward his party's challenge, Tracing the Path Home.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Rachiel is dissapointed she doesn't get to do a duel tech with either Lydia or Leah or even Loren.
BUT LYDIA GETS TO BE THROWN BY AZOTH. It might not have been the most effective method to fight but it's fun and isn't that the real benefit of it. She even shouted, "BEEP BOOP ASSHOLES," as she did it. Whatever she said in robot was definitely very rude.
Regardless, the path has become a maze. Lydia says, "I heard if you just keep going right in any labyrinth you eventually escape so."
She frowns. "Or was that for mazes." She cups her chin thoughtfully. "Well, no harm in trying I guess."
She shrugs both shoulderes and gets to walking. "Don't worry Loren, nobody's going to eat you."
She looks to Rachiel who is playing around with her new miniLoren.
"I...yes, probably not." Lydia agrees.
DG: Lydia Seren has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Tracing the Path Home.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"Hmm," Leah remarks, as she shoots the doubles. "I see your point about making a habit of this, Azoth."
"It's not a very good puzzle, I'm afraid. But we won't succeed if we don't take some risks. I've been to this section before..."
Leah decides to do something a little different, this time. Azoth seems to be thinking, looking for a pattern, but Leah doesn't check for patterns this time. Instead, she simply takes a quick breath--and then slams her fist into the wall, one then the other, seeking to make a door where there is no way forward instead of obeying the dream's logic of being lost.
"Let's just go forward."
DG: Leah Sadalbari has contributed a risky Wits Action toward her party's challenge, Tracing the Path Home.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
The retreat, as the Nightmare appears hell-bent on collapsing itself about them all, is not at all like their advance. In some twisted way, the space they've come to explore itself appears to be entirely intent on slowing them down, on confusing their escape so that they never slip out into reality once again.
To wit: they're in a maze. Each wall looks the same as the one before it, and there almost seems to be no way to distinguish their advance through their retreat.
"I don't think it's supposed to be," Loren says, to Azoth. "It's trying to keep us here. I know it."
Is he paranoid, or is he just being pragmatic at this point?
His computer in hand (and the bear back in his satchel) he's busily scanning each new turn within the maze, quickly compiling some sort of table of temperature and electrical data.
"Does it matter? It could break the rules," he says to Lydia, only to grimace when she remarks that nobody's trying to eat him. That's what she thinks!
Leah, though, proposes they make their own path through. "But is that a good idea? I think we should analyze... huh."
Good idea or not, the Major is certainly doing it, anyway.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool MediScan v7 toward his party's challenge, Tracing the Path Home. Rally!
========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
====================<* CHALLENGE - Tracing the Path Home *>=====================
| Type: Final | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
However you deal with your strange doubled (tripled, quadrupled) selves may
be the easy part in the end.
But the Nightmare, as difficult as finding your way inwards had been, has
seemingly opted to make it no easier for you to follow your way back out. Is
it possible that what you claimed in its heart agitated it in some way? But
no matter -- gains are not made by giving up in the home stretch.
Escaping the Nightmare won't be easy: whatever logic it had presented
before, whatever oddities you may have seen, you don't see them again now as
you backtrack. Indeed, it's almost a simple proposition it seems to set
before you:
Your path has become a maze of stone walls and identical-seeming corridors.
It will take all your wits to find the way out again and emerge in the light
of the outside world.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure! and Stupify:_Wits_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
===================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare - Round 6 *>==================== ======================< Results - Tracing the Path Home >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leah Sadalbari 18 --(33)--> 51 Fail Investigate 1 Wits Effects: Risky -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 40 --(5)--> 45 Pass MediScan v7 3 Wits Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lydia Seren 63 --(5)--> 68 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azoth 43 --(5)--> 48 Pass Oculus ex Machina 3 Wits Effects: Efficient -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Loren Voss 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Stupify(2) Effects: ===============================< 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 The Spitsbergen Nightmare!
========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
===================<* CHALLENGE - The Very Best Discovery *>====================
| Type: Discovery | Dungeon Ability: Conclusion | Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
You emerge, at last, into daylight: you have escaped the Spitsbergen
Nightmare whole and with your prize in hand. That was... almost certainly a
very strange experience for you.
Now safe, you take a look at what you have prised from the depths of that
place, and find that you have retrieved a... door?
To be fair, it's a door that seems to be made out of crystal, but it's still
definitely a door. Perhaps you could use it as a shield or even a battering
ram: it seems to be extremely durable while remaining lightweight.
Still, what was a door doing in there?
(OOC: This would make a good (yes really) Combat or Brute tool, referencing
its use as a superb shield or large blunt object.)
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, Stupify:_Wits_Down!, and |
| Treasure:_Exploration_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Azoth has posed.
Trying to go right and punching straight through. Maybe going right after punching straight through! Azoth watches, then looks to Loren in an entirely undeserved attempt to commiserate over the situation: this puzzle does not care for rules. But where Loren has more exasperated complaints, Azoth's eyes get bigger and bigger, quivering with a mimicry of tears.
But despite his despair for the mean unfair puzzle that provides very little positive feedback for solving it because every solution is a poorly understood gain in progress, they do make progress. Collectively, all of them, trying to be logical and trying not to be logical, until at they reach the end, and with it, a glorious and wonderful treasure.
A door.
Not to walk through, what, are you mad? A door in their possession. In Loren's possession, obviously, because that's how the universe works.
Azoth throws both hands up in excitement. "Oh! It's a metaphor! I get it now!"
Is it.
Is it really.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
To wit, this is what happens as they step out into reality, having outfoxed the Nightmare which had sought to keep them:
Loren takes about a handful of steps then stops, realizing that he'd taken something from the heart of the Nightmare. He withdraws it from his bag.
For a split-second he would have sworn it was small enough for him to hold in his hands.
And then, simply put, it isn't. He's holding a door in his hands. An entire door. Made of crystal, yes, but it's one. Entire. Door.
Loren's mouth moves but no sound comes out. Spare him a thought or two, he's not going to recover from this quickly.