2022-07-16: Gobs Will Be Gobs
- Log: Gobs Will Be Gobs
- Cast: Avril Vent Fleur, Ethius Hesiod, Cecilia Adlehyde
- Where: Desecrated Shrine
- Date: July 16, 2022
- Summary: The Gobs near Honeysday have been at it again, this time with an additional complication; while her friends focus on other monsters in the field, Avril leads a small team in to try to reclaim the stolen food.
DG: A party led by Avril Vent Fleur is now entering Desecrated Shrine. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
============================<* Desecrated Shrine *>=============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Master Of Unlocking *>======================
| Type: Entry | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
According to local lore, the abandoned shrine has stood here for as long as
anyone can recall, and save for one brief interlude roughly a decade prior,
hasn't been in use in all that time either. That is, until a band of Gobs
arrived and made this their headquarters for harassing nearby fields and
stealing their food. This may even be why you have come here -- or perhaps
it's simple curiosity.
Regardless, immediate entry to the shrine is obstructed by a makeshift fence
piled across the doorway in. There are piles of scrap stacked behind it, and
only one gateway, which, naturally, is locked, barred, and blocked with yet
more piles of stuff. When you don't have a key and no other obvious
entrances present themselves, then the only answer that remains is the brute
force method.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plRLRUyvkJY
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Tire:_Exhaustion_Up! and Weaken:_Brute_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"I feel as if... there were something more within."
The shrine is a mess, simply put: time alone has done a number to it, but this place has not simply been subjected to the ravages of time.
It has been subjected to the ravages of Gobs.
Honeysday has had a rough deal. Between an ill-fated bandit attack, between the Gobs, between Veruni dominion, and between the regular struggle of life even in what might be among the best of Filgaia's land, they're walking a tightrope between their survival and their destruction. Monster attacks had befallen Honeysday most recently just days after another Gob raid in the fields, so she and her friends had split the load: Dean and Rebecca, along with some others, would take on the monsters, while Avril would collect some support and see about sneaking in to steal back Honeysday's crops.
But the way in is as obscured as ever: the Gobs have piled trash and scrap high, blocking the way in.
"But first, it would seem we must force our way inwards. ...So be it. Are you prepared?"
So she says before she produces Absolute Zero's hilt, her finger hooking the trigger and lashing the beam of light that emerges from the ARM at the barrier of scrap.
Again and again.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Absolute Zero - Beam Whip toward her party's challenge, Master Of Unlocking. Stalwart! Party shielded from some Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius and Homer are both at great risk being this close to known Veruni territory... but circumstances have seen the possibility of useful information in exchange for a favor, and as luck would have it, Ethius has been in these parts prior. (This makes his recruitment maybe a bit more useful for Avril's purposes, despite being Ethius.)
"I'm... kinda familiar with that look in those peoples' eyes, lemme tell ya," Homer commentates - he's a large-bodied pig-like Beastfolk, carrying a pitchfork for self defense as if more a thing of desperation rather than martial mastery.
Ethius is still Ethius, who is very close behind Homer as they come to the shrine's utter mess at the entrance.
"Back when I was, y'know, doin' what I used ta do, when ya came 'round people like that, they're... people who know ya don't belong there, 'n already know someone else who don't but are tellin' 'em what's what."
Ethius gives a meaningful(?) glance, as Homer whistles at looking at how the beam whip goes to work.
"It's like--"
"You'll assist." Ethius insists.
Homer is already aware of what it means when Ethius interrupts, and so, he gets to work. He's an older fellow and doing this kind of heavy lifting isn't great on him.
Ethius joins soon enough, working on a Symbological spellcast to start going about the specialty of melting things, when...
"Ain't just me though, right?" Homer speaks up again to Ethius. "You seen it before? You hafta have. I mean, y--"
"Not another word."
Ethius starts over the incantation and there's a pile of junk that just ignites, and Homer's got the look of 'yeah all right I get it.'
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a risky Brute Action toward his party's challenge, Master Of Unlocking.
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Where HAS Cecilia Adlehyde been?
Picture a hamburger. Now, picture 100,000 hamburgers.
Uhhh don't worry about it.
The Princess of Adlehyde emerged from her own wanderings today, to help reclaim mysteries from the hands of Gobs. The secrets of Filgaia often lie in unruly places, and also Gobs are harrassing the fields and making it harder to get hamburgers, so this is doubly personal. Unfortunately...door.
"I think so too," Cecilia murmurs. "But this entry won't be easy to clear."
The plan is to blast it open, though, and she's good for that. She raises her hand, pulling out a simple Blast crest and thrusting it into a swirling Crest Magic circle forged of light in front of her. Soon a blast wave rushes forth!
DG: Cecilia Adlehyde has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Master Of Unlocking.
============================<* Desecrated Shrine *>=============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Master Of Unlocking *>======================
| Type: Entry | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
According to local lore, the abandoned shrine has stood here for as long as
anyone can recall, and save for one brief interlude roughly a decade prior,
hasn't been in use in all that time either. That is, until a band of Gobs
arrived and made this their headquarters for harassing nearby fields and
stealing their food. This may even be why you have come here -- or perhaps
it's simple curiosity.
Regardless, immediate entry to the shrine is obstructed by a makeshift fence
piled across the doorway in. There are piles of scrap stacked behind it, and
only one gateway, which, naturally, is locked, barred, and blocked with yet
more piles of stuff. When you don't have a key and no other obvious
entrances present themselves, then the only answer that remains is the brute
force method.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plRLRUyvkJY
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Tire:_Exhaustion_Up! and Weaken:_Brute_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
=======================<* Desecrated Shrine - Round 1 *>======================== =======================< Results - Master Of Unlocking >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Absolute Zero - Beam Whip 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cecilia Adlehyde 0 --(15)--> 15 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 0 --(3)--> 3 Pass Force 1 Brute Effects: Risky -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Avril Vent Fleur 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Tire(2)|Weaken(2) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Avril Vent Fleur has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Avril glances sidelong at Homer as he speaks. As he tries to explain further what he means.
"I do not understand what you mean," she says at last, shaking her head. "Explain yourself."
She does not say as a degree or anything of the like, but somehow, from her, it still sort of comes off that way...
This is when Avril steps forward and slashes as quick as a wink for the pile of junk that some might call a fence. This is when Ethius conjures flames to consume what still stands.
When the blast wave rolls out, it impacts with nothing at all. The remnants have already burnt to a cinder. But no harm, no foul, it would seem.
"So you feel it too..." Avril says to Cecilia. "There is something here, more than the stolen food. I wonder if we might chance to find it."
But she doesn't know where to even begin.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Desecrated Shrine *>=============================
======================<* CHALLENGE - On A Knife's Edge *>=======================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The Gobs have made a number of renovations to the shrine, most of which
serve to allow the smaller creatures easier passage about or to enhance
their defenses in a place harrowed by the ages. Such is the condition of the
shrine that the Gob catwalks are sometimes the only way to get from one
section of the shrine to the other anymore.
You've ascended to one of the catwalks, and without any railings or anything
even remotely resembling a line, it is a narrow, shaky, and very high indeed
above the distant rubble below.
And worse, there is the sense that the shrine does not wish you here
pressing down upon you, an additional metaphysical weight to burden your
path.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, Tire:_Exhaustion_Up!, and |
| Weaken:_Brute_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The way ahead is... a way. Further ahead, after having to deal with the latest round of shoddy renovations and scrap cobbled together from wood, stone, and metal alongside a tunnel that wouldn't last against an oncoming raid for a fortnight.
"Don't explain further," Ethius tries to say to Homer as he's bound to drop -important exposition- (or small talk), as they all find themselves ascending to a higher level. Why? The way ahead is filled with far too much garbage and only iffy ventilation, that's not worth going that way unless they had to. So, up here.
They're at one of the catwalks. If one were a Gob, they'd be... functional, if not compliant with any safety standards. There's no railings, it's shaky, and quite a drop under there. They're all larger than Gobs, so this isn't functional - it's merely theoretically a catwalk. A theory that's about to be tested, but a theoretical catwalk.
"I'm... gettin' a sense we don't wanna be here," Homer says, putting into words a palpable feeling of pressure on a level altogether not physical, but something else. "Y'think we could double back--"
"No."
Ethius, for his part, has the Hot Air Sack already tied around his wrist. He just needs to fill it with hot air Symbologically, and that'll... prevent a worst case scenario when it gives out under his feet.
It doesn't feel like an 'if,' the way the air feels here.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Hot Air Sack toward his party's challenge, On A Knife's Edge. Resilient! Party shielded from some exhaustion next round!
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
"Filgaia hides things everywhere," Cecilia affirms.
Cecilia also doesn't...quite understand, scratching her head at Homer's commentary. But, at least they get through, though she has to blow a few extra casts into her Blast crest.
"Agreed, though," she notes at Ethius rejecting going back. "I didn't see another way. I guess..."
...She pressea a hand to her chest, worry wearing at her shoulders. "This sensation...whatever's here, it's not happy. All the more reason to get to the bottom of it."
So saying, she produces her Change Staff, whisks it at the air, and fires a bead of white light, which zeroes in on a tiny leypoint off at the far end of the room.
Then, soon, that's over here, and Cecilia's over there.
DG: Cecilia Adlehyde has used her Tool Change Staff toward her party's challenge, On A Knife's Edge. Fanfare!
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
They proceed inwards as a group, for now (apparently) unnoticed by the Gobs. "...If we are quiet," Avril starts to say, as they ascend that catwalk to proceed high above the rest of the shrine below. "...There is that feeling again," she finishes instead, closing her eyes. It is as if a great weight were slung across her shoulders, bearing her down to the center of the earth. "As if my very 'self' were being rejected... But we must not--"
he wood walkway seems to sway for a moment and Avril, stumbling, sways with it. "--Oh...!"
There is no handhold. There is nothing to keep her from a nasty fall.
Nothing, except the Medium that, against the odds, is already in her hands. It shines with its own light, without even being invoked.
DG: You risk with your Tool Sea Medium against your party's Challenge, On A Knife's Edge! DG: Avril Vent Fleur has risked with her Tool Sea Medium toward her party's challenge, On A Knife's Edge. Quicken! Party Agility boosted!
============================<* Desecrated Shrine *>=============================
======================<* CHALLENGE - On A Knife's Edge *>=======================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The Gobs have made a number of renovations to the shrine, most of which
serve to allow the smaller creatures easier passage about or to enhance
their defenses in a place harrowed by the ages. Such is the condition of the
shrine that the Gob catwalks are sometimes the only way to get from one
section of the shrine to the other anymore.
You've ascended to one of the catwalks, and without any railings or anything
even remotely resembling a line, it is a narrow, shaky, and very high indeed
above the distant rubble below.
And worse, there is the sense that the shrine does not wish you here
pressing down upon you, an additional metaphysical weight to burden your
path.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, Quicken:_Agility_Up!, |
| Resilient:_Exhaustion_Down!, Tire:_Exhaustion_Up!, and Weaken:_Brute_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
=======================<* Desecrated Shrine - Round 2 *>======================== ========================< Results - On A Knife's Edge >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 0 --(8)--> 8 Pass Sea Medium 3 Agility Effects: Quicken and Risky -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cecilia Adlehyde 15 --(8)--> 23 Pass Change Staff 3 Agility Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 3 --(8)--> 11 Pass Hot Air Sack 2 Agility Effects: Resilient -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Avril Vent Fleur 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(2)|Tire(1)|Weaken(1) Effects: Quicken(1)|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Avril Vent Fleur has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Cecilia is over there. There's a rope over there just in case something terrible happens to the others as they cross, and speaking of that...
Neither Ethius or Avril lose their balance going across the way, though both of them have something helping compensate for the loss in balance or the catwalk suddenly giving out. It shudders in places, with foreboding creaking noises... but the shine of the Medium conveys... that it's shining. Maybe it is communication. Maybe it is rebuke. Its power doesn't need to be invoked, for Avril is able to get there just fine. (Unless she wants to Jump. Then she can do that.)
Homer, by far the largest and heaviest of the group, just guns it across the length of the catwalk once the others are there. There is no reason to assume he is of the grace or balance to get to the other side of all of that, as his heavier footsteps resound against the shoddy catwalk.
He joins the rest on the other side, hands over knees, panting for breath as the catwalk... remains.
Something disapproves, but this nebulous 'something' is incapable of having a means to convince them otherwise... for now.
DG: Cecilia Adlehyde has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Desecrated Shrine *>=============================
===<* CHALLENGE - When You Stare Into The Gob The Gob Also Stares Into You *>===
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
While traversing a corridor through the shrine well-reinforced with
haphazard wooden planks, you meet a most unfortunate fate:
The floor opens up beneath you and dumps you into a pit. But that's not the
least of it -- it swings back shut overtop you and apparently locks into
place if that click is anything to go by. And then you hear it: the hooting
of Gob laughter from outside the trap you've fallen into. This is a Gob
trap!
And it's one with no obvious way out again except the means by which you
came. You'll need to bust out of here.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, Quicken:_Agility_Up!, |
| Resilient:_Exhaustion_Down!, Suffer:_Exhaustion_Up!, Tire:_Exhaustion_Up!, |
| and Weaken:_Brute_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Cecilia gives Homer a nod of greeting. "See? Not so bad," she, the person who teleported from one end of the other and had no problems at all, says with a smile.
That's Royalty, kids!
She then turns on her heels and guides further in. It's a few hallways down, batting aside the occasional wayward Gob, before the group finds the next problem, which becomes an immediate problem, because the floor opens up.
Cecilia lands on her butt. "Owww," she whines. "Jeeze...didn't even see the trap door...Is there a way out?"
She checks around. The answer appears to be no.
She frowns. Then she reaches for her crests to search for something useful. "We have to be careful with any blasts. If the door doesn't give, we'll be in real trouble."
DG: Cecilia Adlehyde has contributed a risky Brute Action toward her party's challenge, When You Stare Into The Gob The Gob Also Stares Into You.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Avril does not fall. Rather, that weightiness, that sense of judgement... it simply dissipates, permitting her to right herself and thus then traverse the remainder of the catwalk without incident.
"It has gone again," she remarks, now on the other side of this particular valley. "This is not the only place I have felt such. Again and again, whether it is the shrines in Elru or in Ignas as well... I wonder what it might foretell?"
But all they can do now is wonder, particularly with their task still ahead of them. The path takes them forward, across a wooden walkway, until--
"Oh... that was quite a fall," Avril remarks, getting to her feet within the pit. "It would seem we have been trapped within. ...I suppose they must now know we are here."
She pauses long enough to take a breath, sighing it out as she closes her eyes. "Very well."
Her next action is to leap upwards, her ascent buoyed by the Medium in one arm. In her other hand, she wields Absolute Zero.
One. Two. She measures once with her eyes, and in a rejection of the saying, cuts twice.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Absolute Zero - Beam Whip toward her party's challenge, When You Stare Into The Gob The Gob Also Stares Into You. Stalwart! Party shielded from some Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Slapstick happens! Ethius falls down first, and on top of him, Homer.
Homer's the first one to stand up, dusting himself off. "Uhh, both of ya all right, 'cause... where's Ethius?"
He's looking every which way, except straight down, where Ethius is face-down on the ground. He's... fine, probably.
"Well hey," Homer says to Cecilia, "if he ain't here, he's gotta be out there. Hey!!"
Homer starts pounding, vigorously, on the trap door. "Hey!! Can ya hear us? Let us out!"
He has to sway out of the way of Avril making two cuts before returning to vigorously beating on the trap door in panic, while Ethius is just... lying there, dazed.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a risky Brute Action toward his party's challenge, When You Stare Into The Gob The Gob Also Stares Into You.
============================<* Desecrated Shrine *>=============================
===<* CHALLENGE - When You Stare Into The Gob The Gob Also Stares Into You *>===
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
While traversing a corridor through the shrine well-reinforced with
haphazard wooden planks, you meet a most unfortunate fate:
The floor opens up beneath you and dumps you into a pit. But that's not the
least of it -- it swings back shut overtop you and apparently locks into
place if that click is anything to go by. And then you hear it: the hooting
of Gob laughter from outside the trap you've fallen into. This is a Gob
trap!
And it's one with no obvious way out again except the means by which you
came. You'll need to bust out of here.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up! and Suffer:_Exhaustion_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
=======================<* Desecrated Shrine - Round 3 *>======================== =====< Results - When You Stare Into The Gob The Gob Also Stares Into You >===== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 8 --(17)--> 25 Fail Absolute Zero - Beam Whip 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cecilia Adlehyde 23 --(30)--> 53 Fail Force 1 Brute Effects: Risky -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 11 --(10)--> 21 Pass Force 1 Brute Effects: Risky -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Avril Vent Fleur 40 --(15)--> 55 Fail Conditions: Hesitate(1)|Suffer(1) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Avril Vent Fleur has failed this challenge! The party gained 15 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Unfortunately, the door is, quite obviously really, intended to not be easily openable from within. The Gobs giggle as the door survives the first two slashes from Absolute Zero, then from bashing from Homer.
Cecilia grimaces. SHE spots Ethius, but for the moment the main takeaway is that he's Not Going To Be Helping On This One. "Welp," she says. "Stand back!"
Three seconds pass.
There is the sound of a gigantic explosion inside the door, which does not move.
Several seconds later a pillar of earth instead rises up to shatter the door in the middle.
Cecilia coughs a cloud of smoke. "Physics," she protests.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Desecrated Shrine *>=============================
===================<* CHALLENGE - An Obstacle In Our Path *>====================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Walking along one of the crumbling corridors of the shrine, your passage is
suddenly interrupted by the sound of a click underfoot -- followed by right
in front of you the roar of a barrier as it begins to drop, sealing off your
advance--
Except, it gets stuck about two feet up from the ground. The shrine's
mechanisms have seen better days. It should just be a matter of forcing the
jammed barrier up just enough to pass under it -- otherwise, you can forget
about whatever passage might lie on the otherside.
Though this may be complicated further by the sense that the shrine itself
doesn't want you here, a vague sense of rejection that permeates through the
building and weighs upon you now.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Collapse:_Brute_Down!, Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, |
| Secret:_Exploration_Up!, and Suffer:_Exhaustion_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
The trapdoor... is made of stern stuff, indeed.
Thus Avril discovers to her massive displeasure, falling back as Cecilia instead turns the magical equivalent of a battering ram against the obstacle. As it happens, this does work.
After a moment, that is.
"Yes, that does follow," is Avril's remark once the dust settles.
Once they've gotten back out, there's no immediate sign of the Gobs. They must be lurking about somewhere, though -- somewhere not too far away. "We must move quickly," Avril tells her partners on this mission. "They may return soon."
'Quickly' takes them down a nearby corridor. There is a click as someone treads upon a switch. The gateway ahead begins to grind to a close!
"No--"
But it doesn't finish its descent. These are ruins, and mechanisms like this are not in the best repair.
"I suppose we might be able to push it upwards," Avril remarks. "Though I should like to attempt a different path." She still has Absolute Zero in her hand. Might she thus... cut a way through the rusted grate?
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius is the last one to crawl out of the trap door space with... is it 'murder' in his eyes if his eyes always look like that? Maybe he murdered murdering. With his eyes.
Homer looks back, exasperated. "Where the hey were ya?"
...moving on
Avril has the right of it. Few Gobs are trained enough as combatants to pose much threat, but their sheer numbers (assuming they don't argue over whose turn it is to try and gut someone) aren't worth chancing. A mishap with a pressure plate happens, and a gate doesn't finish closing all the way. Homer and Ethius step up to the gate together in which to form their expert opinion.
"I'm thinkin' the same as her," Homer says as he starts to lay a hand under the gate.
"I'm in favor of melting it." Ethius remarks.
"H-Hey, whoa, hold on now, I'm smellin' stuff that might... explode, I can just push 'er up, no problem--"
"It would be easier to simply remove it."
"I dunno if we'd wanna risk takin' the whole ceiling down with us--"
"We do not have the luxury of time."
This argument goes on and on and on, but the two of them are now laying a hand on the gate and pushing against it as both of them passionately (...one of them passionately, the other dispassionately) argue over the semantics of how a door should be dealt with.
If the gate is in that amount of disrepair, simply pressing on it like they are may... render the whole thing moot.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a risky Brute Action toward his party's challenge, An Obstacle In Our Path. DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Absolute Zero - Beam Whip toward her party's challenge, An Obstacle In Our Path. Stalwart! Party shielded from some Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Avril urges them on, and as much as Cecilia would like a round or two to flatten Gobs into the dirt, they're not really the problem here, she estimates. She follows Avril on. She does not save Homer from Ethius.
"Oh no!" Cecilia yelps, and fumbles for her Change Staff as the door starts to close. But! ....but it just stops. "Ah," Cecilia says, with a light laugh. "You never know, with these things," she says. "Sometimes it works perfectly. But...uhhh..."
SHe reaches for her Geo crests again, saying, "Physics again, I guess."
A spear of rock rushes up to try and shatter the lower portions of the gate, since pushing it up does not seem to be the intent.
DG: Cecilia Adlehyde has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, An Obstacle In Our Path.
============================<* Desecrated Shrine *>=============================
===================<* CHALLENGE - An Obstacle In Our Path *>====================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Walking along one of the crumbling corridors of the shrine, your passage is
suddenly interrupted by the sound of a click underfoot -- followed by right
in front of you the roar of a barrier as it begins to drop, sealing off your
advance--
Except, it gets stuck about two feet up from the ground. The shrine's
mechanisms have seen better days. It should just be a matter of forcing the
jammed barrier up just enough to pass under it -- otherwise, you can forget
about whatever passage might lie on the otherside.
Though this may be complicated further by the sense that the shrine itself
doesn't want you here, a vague sense of rejection that permeates through the
building and weighs upon you now.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Collapse:_Brute_Down! and Secret:_Exploration_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
=======================<* Desecrated Shrine - Round 4 *>======================== =====================< Results - An Obstacle In Our Path >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 25 --(0)--> 25 Pass Absolute Zero - Beam Whip 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cecilia Adlehyde 53 --(12)--> 65 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 21 --(0)--> 21 Pass Force 1 Brute Effects: Risky -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Avril Vent Fleur 55 --(20)--> 75 Pass Conditions: Collapse|Secret(2) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Avril Vent Fleur has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Avril lashes out at the half-shut gate, cutting a good section of it free, and, as it happens, scoring a hit that weakens a good section of the rest. "There! Now, if the rest of you might push at it, I believe it should give way."
Thus it happens that as Ethius and Homer are pushing at the gate in the throes of their argument (with a stone pillar in the mix in the middle there for good measure) it simply... fractures the rest of the way, allowing the lot of them enough clearance through the gateway.
"How... strange," Avril says, reaching out to touch a nearby wall as if to steady herself. "It felt as if I were... as if this very place was rejecting my presence." She stays there a moment before, after shaking her head, pushing herself away.
"I am alright. It is gone, again. We should hurry."
DG: Ethius Hesiod has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Desecrated Shrine *>=============================
========<* CHALLENGE - Five Minutes With The Goblins Is Way Too Long *>=========
| Type: Climax | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
"Hold it right there, gob!"
While making your way through the crumbling shrine, you are approached by a
trio of apparent representatives of the most recent occupants of the
shrine... the Gobs. These three are just as well-armed as any others you may
have encountered during your explorations. But these three seem to want to
talk.
"What you doing in here, gob? Making all this noise?!"
"This private property, gob!"
"Was napping, gob!"
...On the other hand, they do seem willing to talk. Is there a chance you
could argue the point on the purloined food to them -- or negotiate passage
inwards? ...Do you even want to try?
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtnO8w_-wA0
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Collapse:_Brute_Down!, Reckless:_Wits_Down!_Brute_Up!, |
| Secret:_Exploration_Up!, Stupify:_Wits_Down!, and Suffer:_Exhaustion_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
They should hurry, which they will, once Ethius and Homer get up from accidentally tag-teaming a weakened gate and shoving it over. There's the sound of movement surrounding them on all sides, but none appear to approach behind them. There might be other issues they have to deal with.
"Hold it right there, gob!"
There's three of them, and they're only marginally better-armed than any they may have fought along the way. One has a shortsword that's not falling apart, another seems to understand the concept of 'trigger discipline' and also 'regular cleaning and maintenance of a gunsmoke ARM.' The other has a winning smile!
'What you doing in here, gob? making all this noise?!'
'This private property, gob!'
'Was napping, gob!'
Homer throws his hands up. "My name ain't... Gob, so, uh, yer lookin' fer someone else then, yeah? Yeah?"
Ethius, over yonder, has the Spectral Lens out and has covertly zapped it to function as he gives the chamber a scan for - presumably - traps or mechanisms as Homer takes the front role.
For the more spiritually sensitive (or in Ethius' specific case, spiritually tactful or perhaps lack thereof), the Gobs' spoken confusion and agitation - while certainly not welcoming! - is not the same force of rejection that permeates this desecrated shrine.
Maybe this local 'force' is all right with the Gobs being here, as they seem to find this place, uh, home-y enough?
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Spectral Lens toward his party's challenge, Five Minutes With The Goblins Is Way Too Long. Enlighten! Party Wits boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
There are sounds all about them, a promise of a confrontation soon to come in the air. And indeed, just as expected--
Here they are, the Gobs. Three of them, though sounds from above promise the presence of more waiting in the wings. If they don't play this correctly, it's entirely possible they could bring the entire house down upon them within moments, forcing them to save their rescue of the villagers' footstuffs for another day.
It is a weightly, perilous moment.
And it is a moment into which Avril arrives in most... royal form.
"Enough," she informs the three of them. In her hands she holds a mirror, its surface roiling and steaming with strange light. "I have seen the truth of what you have done. You have taken what does not belong to you, and I will see it restored to its rightful owners."
She pauses but a moment, fixing them with a gaze that could cut glass.
"Now."
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Mirror of De Soto toward her party's challenge, Five Minutes With The Goblins Is Way Too Long. Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round!
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
The door crumbles before them! Huzzah. Cecilia had to cast several times again. She's out of practice, apparently.
Problems for later. For now, she progresses on with the group, not even all that far, to where the Gobs are making a big ol' racket. Hm. ...hm.
Cecilia wanders off to the side, producing another of her magic wands, and steps up to a rat that you can tell is friendly because its model is higher-definition than the skittery ones.
She pokes it and whispers to it for a few monents.
As Avril leans in with the full force of her Authority and Ethius plans how to presumably drop a rock on them, Cecilia calls back, "This little guy knows the way around, so you probably should just let us in, really!"
DG: Cecilia Adlehyde has used her Tool Magic Wand toward her party's challenge, Five Minutes With The Goblins Is Way Too Long. Rally!
============================<* Desecrated Shrine *>=============================
========<* CHALLENGE - Five Minutes With The Goblins Is Way Too Long *>=========
| Type: Climax | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
"Hold it right there, gob!"
While making your way through the crumbling shrine, you are approached by a
trio of apparent representatives of the most recent occupants of the
shrine... the Gobs. These three are just as well-armed as any others you may
have encountered during your explorations. But these three seem to want to
talk.
"What you doing in here, gob? Making all this noise?!"
"This private property, gob!"
"Was napping, gob!"
...On the other hand, they do seem willing to talk. Is there a chance you
could argue the point on the purloined food to them -- or negotiate passage
inwards? ...Do you even want to try?
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtnO8w_-wA0
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, Collapse:_Brute_Down!, Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, |
| Hw:_???, Reckless:_Wits_Down!_Brute_Up!, Secret:_Exploration_Up!, |
| Stupify:_Wits_Down!, and Suffer:_Exhaustion_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
=======================<* Desecrated Shrine - Round 5 *>======================== ==========< Results - Five Minutes With The Goblins Is Way Too Long >=========== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 25 --(5)--> 30 Pass Mirror of De Soto 2 Wits Effects: Cleanse and Inefficie -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cecilia Adlehyde 65 --(5)--> 70 Pass Magic Wand 3 Wits Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 21 --(5)--> 26 Pass Spectral Lens 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Avril Vent Fleur 75 --(0)--> 75 Pass Conditions: Collapse|Reckless(2)|Secret(1)|Stupify(2)|Suffer(1) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1)|Inefficient ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Avril Vent Fleur 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: Ethius Hesiod has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Desecrated Shrine *>=============================
=========================<* CHALLENGE - Go With Gob *>==========================
| Type: Final | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
However your negotiations with the Gobs have gone they are interrupted by a
call from the crisscrossing catwalks above:
"We'll save you, gob!"
There is an ominous creak from overhead. ...Are there nets up there?
The Gobs to which you were just speaking react to this call from above with
alarm. "Still down here, gob!!"
But it is too late. A rope somewhere is audibly cut and the nets, laden with
heavy debris and stones, are dropped down upon you and the Gob ambassadors.
Hurry! If you make a run for it, you should be able to make for the far door
and escape being crushed!
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, Collapse:_Brute_Down!, |
| Cripple:_Agility_Down!, Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, |
| Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, Hw:_???, |
| Injure:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, Reckless:_Wits_Down!_Brute_Up!, |
| Secret:_Exploration_Up!, Stupify:_Wits_Down!, and Suffer:_Exhaustion_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
'Enough,' Avril prefaces her cause for being here as she holds that mirror and says what she is here for, and the three of them are all taken aback by the directness of this. (Homer, over there, is especially looking intimidated - he knows he heard her laughing about the idea he and Ethius might have become accustomed to one another's company not all that long ago.)
The rat that Cecilia refers to nods a few times, and suggests that everything is going to be safer if they go just that-away, so the group has themselves an action plan of where to go next then and there even if things go south. (They don't. They're going nowhere, because those Gobs are intimidated.)
"There's a trap ab--" Ethius is cut off by the sounds of Gobs calling from above about 'we'll save you, gob!'
Homer reverses course. "Uhh, yeah! I'm Gob! Gob, uh... Gobbone! Thanks fer savin'..." Homer thinks he's being clever.
An ominous creak spells disaster. A rope is cut, and heavy debris and stones start to fall down en masse. Cecilia's new animal friend is already taking off the way they need to run well before the Gobs underneath have the courage to act.
"Still down here, gob!!" The one with the winning smile panics as they eventually beat feet too.
It's going to be one heck of a run as the ceiling collapses behind them. Somewhere in this sequence, Ethius takes out a staff and slams the butt of it on the ground, the old ancient gnarled thing's bells giving a haunting ringing echo as everything involving the falling rocks just... stops. Even the dust cloud holds its present form. It's not time stopping so much as the various elements of the world being called to attention to hear what the wielder has to say--
Ethius doesn't say anything, though, and that's a temporary stopgap at best. Follow Cecilia's animal friend! For those slower witted, follow the Gobs!
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Staff of Audience toward his party's challenge, Go With Gob.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Intimidation has its uses, when applied with the proper scene-setting and tone.
Her gaze glides sidelong the once. "Have you? Then let us travel the path of the rat," Avril declares, before fixing the three Gobs before her with another piercing look. "Unless you should instead choose to aid us of your own accord. You shall lose your ill-gotten goods this day," she continues.
'There's a trap ab-', Ethius starts to say, as voices from on high cry out!
Avril gazes towards the heavens, her eyes widening.
The sound of the bells shake her out of that fleeting reverie.
"Hurry! After that rat!"
And trading mirror for Medium, she calls upon the power of the sea.
"Lucadia! Guide us!" The Medium shines bright... but will it be enough?
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Sea Medium toward her party's challenge, Go With Gob. Quicken! Party Agility boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Being able to talk to small friendly animals is like surprisingly helpful, actually. Cecilia looks pleased.
Then, the Gobs decide to 'save' their friends by means of 'crushing them to a fine Gob Powder, presumably for resale'. "Wuh oh!!" Cecilia yelps. Then, she sees her New Friend escaping. "C'mon!!" she calls to the others, and beats feet after him. She grabs her change rod, and fires a shot behind her, converting a mass of floating Ley into a magical cube that will hopefully stop up the trap for a bit.
DG: Cecilia Adlehyde has used her Tool Change Staff toward her party's challenge, Go With Gob. Fanfare!
============================<* Desecrated Shrine *>=============================
=========================<* CHALLENGE - Go With Gob *>==========================
| Type: Final | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
However your negotiations with the Gobs have gone they are interrupted by a
call from the crisscrossing catwalks above:
"We'll save you, gob!"
There is an ominous creak from overhead. ...Are there nets up there?
The Gobs to which you were just speaking react to this call from above with
alarm. "Still down here, gob!!"
But it is too late. A rope somewhere is audibly cut and the nets, laden with
heavy debris and stones, are dropped down upon you and the Gob ambassadors.
Hurry! If you make a run for it, you should be able to make for the far door
and escape being crushed!
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cripple:_Agility_Down!, Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, Hw:_???, |
| Injure:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, Quicken:_Agility_Up!, and |
| Reckless:_Wits_Down!_Brute_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
=======================<* Desecrated Shrine - Round 6 *>======================== ===========================< Results - Go With Gob >============================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 30 --(5)--> 35 Pass Sea Medium 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cecilia Adlehyde 70 --(5)--> 75 Pass Change Staff 3 Agility Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 26 --(5)--> 31 Pass Staff of Audience 4 Agility Effects: nothing -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Avril Vent Fleur 75 --(35)--> 110 Pass Conditions: Cripple|Hesitate(2)|Injure(2)|Reckless(1) Effects: Inefficient|Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Avril Vent Fleur has successfully explored Desecrated Shrine!
============================<* Desecrated Shrine *>=============================
=========<* CHALLENGE - Maybe This Is What They Call A Happy Medium *>==========
| Type: Discovery | Dungeon Ability: Conclusion | Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Ducking into the far room, you find yourself in one of the Gobs' main
storerooms for their ill-gotten goods from Honeysday's fields, the shrine,
and perhaps elsewhere as well. Most of the contents are food and crops
stolen from Honeysday, which the villagers will certainly reward you well
with but in an inspection of the items you also find--
Incredible. You've found a small stack of Copy Artificial Mediums. The Gobs
must have collected these from within the shrine, but without knowing what
they were, just left them here in a corner. True, you'll need to be
'accepted' by Filgaia to use one of these, but they're still worth a good
deal to the right collectors.
You hear distantly the shouting and thumping of many small feet. It may be a
good idea to collect what you can of the purloined supplies and make a
retreat before the entire Gob populace is mobilized.
(OOC: These Copy Mediums are not blank but may contain a copy of any
Artificial Medium for Guardians of the Elemental, Terrestrial and Celestial
tiers -- players' choice for which ones they like. These can only be used by
individuals accepted by Filgaia -- Veruni and Metal Demons explicitly cannot
use them. Contact staff if there are any questions.)
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cripple:_Agility_Down!, Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, Hw:_???, |
| Injure:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, Quicken:_Agility_Up!, |
| Reckless:_Wits_Down!_Brute_Up!, Treasure:_Exploration_Up!, and |
| Vault:_Exploration_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius' ability to get moving things to stop for a bit lives up to 'a bit,' as Homer finds out that maybe 'Gob' is someone who isn't really all that welcome here? He misses the context on the funny speech patterns and there isn't time to correct him anyway!
Cecilia puts forth a further safety net with a mass of floating Ley that provides a support cube to hold that mass at bay and have the collapse shape and spread itself out a bit differently, while Avril asks for Lucadia to guide them.
Guide they do, at high speeds, at an altitude that comes this close to grazing the restarting collapse, as they are thrown through a higher chamber unguarded by such silly things as 'walls' or 'windows.'
(Cecilia's New Friend will catch up soon to check on them and be relieved they're all okay.)
It's as expected from those who asked for help - stolen Honeysday crops, a handful of objects related to this shrine, and some other knickknacks and doodads. Ethius is already digging through for some other specific thing related to the task that will earn them some sort of plot-important favor, when...
"What're these things?" Homer asks after he catches his breath, grabbing and picking up a stack of--
"Don't touch anything," Ethius says too late.
"Well, uh, I'm touchin' somethin'," and nothing ill happens - they're a stack of Copy Artificial Mediums. Homer has no idea what he's holding onto or why they're important, but as Ethius signals Homer over with only the contractually obligated minimum of Strongly Implied Threat, the stack is gently left down for Avril and Cecilia to go over.
They won't have long, because there's more shouting, more 'gob' words which are also shouting, and footfalls that are also probably gob-related.