2022-08-25: Let There Be Light
- Log: Let There Be Light
- Cast: Josephine Lovelace, Seraph Liath
- Where: Shrine of the Light Trial
- Date: September 02, 2022
- Summary: Josie attempts her last trial, but... she isn't alone.
DG: A party led by Josephine Lovelace is now entering Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
=====================<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial *>=====================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Forty Meter Drop *>=======================
| Type: Entry | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The original entrance to Hoel has long been covered by sand, and is deep
underneath the desert. The new entrance, cut open by Cid's men, is on the
roof of the place. This leads to a grand chamber at the center of the ruin:
a massive, forty meter high chamber that looks down upon a circular mosaic
of the Goddess Althena.
The circular mosaic is divided into thirty-six sections, each depicting
scenes from Althenan dogma circa a thousand years or more ago: the arrival
of Althena's Fortress; the blessing of water, earth, and sky upon the Silver
Star; the first Dragonmaster, leading Althena's Chosen to their waiting
promised land; and the last, standing against the Magic Emperor. All of them
are dim.
There are dun gemstones scattered across the ceiling. If lit, they should
shine down upon this mosaic and light it up. Doing so will unlock whatever
is necessary to open the sealed door at the central north wall of the
chamber. Numerous other doors lead off from it, like spokes from a wheel.
However, first, you must enter -- and you are at the top of that forty meter
ceiling, with no easy way down.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Secret:_Exploration_Up! and Slow:_Agility_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Eventually, all journeys come to an end.
For Josie, her pilgrimage will end here, within the shrine of the light trial, Hoel, otherwise known as a familiar path between worlds. Sure enough, it won't be her first time through here and it certainly won't be her last. But even for her, sometimes it's worth doing some things properly.
She stands on the lip of the dome that overlooks the center of the shrine below, her back to the setting sun. "Guess it should be rising, right," she muses, watching the smoke trail upwards into the air before her, caught by an errant breeze. "But ain't like 'setting's' all that wrong, either."
It's saying something that she doesn't toss the butt end of her cigarette into the hole before her but instead pitches it behind where it joins the rising sands.
After this, she'll have some great epiphany, she supposes, be able to reflect on what the trials taught her and see what path she ought take towards her future... such that it is.
"Heh. Guess we'll see if you had a point in the end and all, Yvvie."
Stooping, Josie picks up the length of rope she'd brought with her, securing one end before tossing the rest of it down into the depths.
"First step always is a doozy," she sighs before coiling the rope about herself and beginning that perilous descent. It's painful, given her particulars.
And if she's lucky, it'll be slow.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a risky Agility Action toward her party's challenge, Forty Meter Drop.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.
The Shrine of Light has seen much over its long history. Survived much. And even though it has been buried by the sands of time and a world that would largely prefer to forget the steps taken across those sands before, it still sees use; it still knows purpose. As a means of transport between two equally perilous worlds. As a proving grounds for those seeking its spiritual power.
Or even, simply, as a place of pilgrimage.
And so it is that Josephine Lovelace discards her cigarette, ensuring that it is kept -away- from those sacred grounds before she begins her descent. Her reasons are her own; what is a pilgrimage, after all, if not a deeply personal journey?
But...
... she is not alone.
Josephine is about halfway through her descent when something suddenly rushes past her. The sound of wind rustling fabric, the flash of green, gold and white; and just like that, it's falling past her. No -- not an object. A person?
A person in freefall towards the beautiful mosaic of Hoel's new entrance, turning fluidly in mid-air until they are ready and braced. Falling fast --
--until there is the sound of shattering glass and time briefly slows in a murky molasses.
It's aimed to be perfectly timed to slow that fall into an easy drop, to allow them to land cleanly on their knees. But even if not --
One way or another, rough or clean, the Seraph Liath is landing on Hoel's grounds, with all the immediate determination of someone who's scarcely known a moment of doubt most of their life.
First step is always a doozy. But it certainly doesn't stop her.
DG: Seraph Liath has used her Tool Silver Hourglass toward her party's challenge, Forty Meter Drop. Quicken! Party Agility boosted!
=====================<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial *>=====================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Forty Meter Drop *>=======================
| Type: Entry | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The original entrance to Hoel has long been covered by sand, and is deep
underneath the desert. The new entrance, cut open by Cid's men, is on the
roof of the place. This leads to a grand chamber at the center of the ruin:
a massive, forty meter high chamber that looks down upon a circular mosaic
of the Goddess Althena.
The circular mosaic is divided into thirty-six sections, each depicting
scenes from Althenan dogma circa a thousand years or more ago: the arrival
of Althena's Fortress; the blessing of water, earth, and sky upon the Silver
Star; the first Dragonmaster, leading Althena's Chosen to their waiting
promised land; and the last, standing against the Magic Emperor. All of them
are dim.
There are dun gemstones scattered across the ceiling. If lit, they should
shine down upon this mosaic and light it up. Doing so will unlock whatever
is necessary to open the sealed door at the central north wall of the
chamber. Numerous other doors lead off from it, like spokes from a wheel.
However, first, you must enter -- and you are at the top of that forty meter
ceiling, with no easy way down.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Quicken:_Agility_Up!, Secret:_Exploration_Up!, and Slow:_Agility_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
================<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial - Round 1 *>================ =========================< Results - Forty Meter Drop >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Rush 1 Agility Effects: Risky -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Liath 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Silver Hourglass 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Secret(2)|Slow(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace 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> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Within the shrine lies a bridge between worlds. If she had so chosen, she could have arrived at the very heart of the shrine. It would have been cheating, though, and even a person with a heart like Josephine's has a sense of when one ought to cheat and when ought to play it where it lies.
Even if it means such a dangerous descent, alone.
Or--
Perhaps not quite so alone, in the end. Something plummets past her, and but for the tension of the rope she's descending she would have thought it the part of the masonry to which the other end has tied. Something plummets past her, and but for the shape she would have thought it a Fiend, perhaps, some monster swooping down in search of an easy meal.
But this is a person, Josie realizes, before there is a sound like the shattering of glass and blurred freefall turns into slow, smoothed motion.
Time has slowed, turning even the smallest moment into a lengthing arc of potential.
Unlooping just enough of the rope from around her body, Josie transforms her careful descent into a rapid slide -- though even this only by comparison. In those moments before time returns to its more rapid pace, she would seem to an observer to just about drip down the rope.
But only for a few moments. It's a maneuver that would have been painful to consider itself were it not for Josie's heavier clothing and gloves -- or for the fact that she only need slide down that last quarter or so of her rope. She lands at the bottom, kicking up a small cloud of dust.
"Well! Ain't this a surprise," she drawls, beginning to pace a spell as she rolls her shoulders and stretches her cramped upper arms. "Here for the pilgrimage, too, Lady Seraph?" Her lips tilt in a roguish grin. "Or... am I the one you're here for? That last tussle not enough for ya?" Never mind that it had been Ragnell that Josie had as her dance partner.
DG: Seraph Liath has drawn a new Challenge.
=====================<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial *>=====================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Light a Beacon *>========================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The hallway you enter has a gem at the end of it, like so many do. This gem
is a light green color. The only source of light in the room is a
shimmering, transparent barrier of soft white light. Despite the gentleness
of that light, it is more than sufficient for stop any attempt to break
through it.
The answer comes with a series of sconces built into the walls. Each sconce
has a torch inside it, which lights up with an unnatural bright yellow
light. When all are lit, the barrier of light vanishes. Touching the light
green gem will light one of the mosaic segments in the central chamber.
This is not as easy as it sounds. The sconces all burn out quickly -- in a
manner of seconds -- and all must be lit at once to possibly open them.
There are twelve of them, six for each side of the hall, spaced out quite
far. It will take coordination, speed, and timing to light them up
simultaneously and have someone touch the gem.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Quicken:_Agility_Up!, Secret:_Exploration_Up!, Slow:_Agility_Down!, and |
| Stupify:_Wits_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.
Despite the speed of her plummet, the slowing of time also slows the final moments of her descent: booted heels hit the ground beneath them with a gentle, crystalline chime of impact. Ultimately, Althena's Prime Lord lands in a kneel, head bowed and armored leg draped across her upraised knee.
Time resumes. And shards of glass, and accompanying grains of sand, land around Liath just as Josephine's dust cloud kicks upward in her wake.
Cheating would no doubt ruin the purpose of a pilgrimage. And taking the hard, dangerous path this time, seems to have netted Josephine a partner for what was once a solo excursion. Well...
... as much as Liath, with all her limitations, can be considered such a thing. If she even can be at all.
Given where they left off when last they met, that might be an open question; even if it wasn't Liath who Josephine fought, the Guardswoman had made her point and purpose perfectly clear.
Josie greets her all the same. And Liath rises smoothly up onto her feet in response; those gold eyes turn Josephine's way, brimming with that burning bright intensity that seems part and parcel to the Seraph's presence.
Her armored hand is rested on the pommel of her sword.
"Hm? Ah, of course not."
But ultimately, Liath's answer is a smile of disarming warmth.
"Fret not, Lady Josie; I've no quarrel with you this day."
And just like that, Liath seems content to leave it there, turning in the direction of one of those long, spoke pathways.
"This place is of personal importance to me. I have come simply to pay my respects to the souls that have passed within. You may accompany me, if you wish, or set about your own path. I will not hinder you, but nor can I help you."
And with that... Liath begins to walk.
---
There is a gem, at the end of this room. Sconces decorate its walls, unlit.
Liath strikes one of the sconces with a sudden flurry. It ignites -- and then, it gutters out within a precious handful of seconds.
Her brows furrow. Her gaze turns towards the gems at the end, and then the sconces in turn. Like she was trying to figure out how best she could possibly light each and every one simultaneously.
If Josephine joins her, though, that focus is only briefly broken. Liath looks her way, before her gaze returns to the torches.
"It is the intention of pilgrimage that has brought you to these shrines, then?" she wonders. After all -- she remembers the Earth Shrine. Neither her nor Yvain had seemed intent on the gem in particular. So, then...
DG: Seraph Liath has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Light a Beacon.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
They had crossed paths after a fashion before, of course, but it had only been during the trek to the earth shrine that Josie had begun to be able to take Liath's measure... and well, even if she had tangled with another at the water shrine, she had received that particular message regarding the Seraph's intent loud and clear.
"Well then! Suits me just fine and dandy, yeah?" Josie says in reply, her face crinkling in a smile that doesn't quite meet her eyes. "I ain't feeling all like dancing today, anyhow," she says, waving her left hand in front of her face dismissively. "Well, no more than necessary, like," she adds, glancing towards one of the many hallways.
There is a pause.
"That so? Can't say I know the history here much," she says, turning her gaze up towards the many murals. "Least, not beyond the obvious and all. ...Well, if you're inviting me, I won't say no! The more, the merrier!" Flashing her a smile that boarders on irreverant, she follows after as Liath walks on ahead.
There is a gem, within.
Josie is well aware of the... quirks of this particular shrine's trial. But that does not mean she intends to take its challenges lightly, either -- she knows better than to do so by now after all that they have faced down.
Or from her prior experiences in this space.
"Ain't this a pickle," Josie remarks, lighting another cigarette with a snap of her fingers and the redolent scent of ozone. Perhaps it might even be familiar, for Liath, after a fashion. "All these lights and they're seekin' to turn on out again... Guess we'll have to plot our movements out careful-like. Let me give this all a look-see and..."
She trails off, when Liath asks her a question.
"Got it in one. This guy I know -- I'd say you know him too -- suggested I give it a go. And I must have rocks for brains, 'cause I took him up on it!" She laughs, only to shake her head. "But fair enough, fair enough. Can't say it's all been bad," she finishes, her gaze on the smoke as it trails towards the ceiling.
"What of you, Lia? Seems like Seraphs go on pilgrimage too, or something like enough. Come to think of it... that business with Althena."
She's referring, if extremely obliquely, to what Marivel had said in the water trial shrine.
"Not a goddess, but a woman after all. ...What's your take on all that?"
She pauses a moment and delivers her cigarette butt into one of the sconces (better than tossing it onto the floor, perhaps) before lifting the torch to let it burn.
"After all, you're her Prime Lord, yeah?"
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Pack of Cigarettes toward her party's challenge, Light a Beacon. Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round!
=====================<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial *>=====================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Light a Beacon *>========================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The hallway you enter has a gem at the end of it, like so many do. This gem
is a light green color. The only source of light in the room is a
shimmering, transparent barrier of soft white light. Despite the gentleness
of that light, it is more than sufficient for stop any attempt to break
through it.
The answer comes with a series of sconces built into the walls. Each sconce
has a torch inside it, which lights up with an unnatural bright yellow
light. When all are lit, the barrier of light vanishes. Touching the light
green gem will light one of the mosaic segments in the central chamber.
This is not as easy as it sounds. The sconces all burn out quickly -- in a
manner of seconds -- and all must be lit at once to possibly open them.
There are twelve of them, six for each side of the hall, spaced out quite
far. It will take coordination, speed, and timing to light them up
simultaneously and have someone touch the gem.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, Secret:_Exploration_Up!, |
| Slow:_Agility_Down!, and Stupify:_Wits_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
================<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial - Round 2 *>================ ==========================< Results - Light a Beacon >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 5 --(20)--> 25 Fail Pack of Cigarettes 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Liath 5 --(20)--> 25 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 20 --(15)--> 35 Fail Conditions: Secret(1)|Slow(2)|Stupify(2) Effects: Cleanse ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace 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> Seraph Liath has posed.
A smile that never reaches those windows to the soul.
In those passing moments before she departs for the first challenge of the shrine, Liath carefully regards those eyes that reflect no ounce of the joy that touches Josephine's lips.
"... Let us away, then."
Within the chamber, Liath takes in the scent of an electrical spark. Familiar, after a fashion.
Remote though the fashion may be, it sparks a fond smile on her lips that lingers in her gold gaze as she regards the sconces in her side of the chamber.
"A two-pronged approach may be best. You handle yours in the method of your choosing, and so shall I with mine. With luck, our timing may seal our victory."
But then, the question.
'This guy I know -- I'd say you know him too...'
Memories of Josephine's partner in the depths of Morgause float to the surface of Liath's thoughts.
"... Yes, I would say so too," Liath remarks, distantly. "Though perchance not as well as I could ever like to."
The meaning of this, however, Liath does not expound upon. Instead, she unsheathes her sword, considering the throng of torches with a sharp, critical eye. She has more to say, more to ask -- but Josephine preempts her, evoking Marivel's tale of the woman who would go on to become a goddess. How does she feel about that?
Isn't she that very person's Prime Lord?
"I was chosen by she who sits upon the throne, yes," is Liath's first answer. Her swordtip tapes the wall.
"Mayhap the way it matters to me is different than it would to most denizens of this star," she finally continues; that golden gaze shuts. "All things that can be considered living go through change. We discover new things about ourselves. We grow. We regress. We take actions we look back upon with fondness... we do things we shall never not regret for all the remainder of our passing days. This is no less true of we Seraphim; I doubt it is less so for the gods, either. That Althena was once a mortal woman means she knows those selfsame things."
Armored fingers curl briefly tight around the hilt of that sword. Liath braces.
"She betrayed those most precious to her for the sake of a future. I've no doubt she spent the rest of her accession both lamenting that fact, and attempting to make it worth it."
Legs brace.
"To me, I shall never not know gratitude for all she has given us. If it is a poisoned fruit, it is a poison I shall sup of deeply."
Her gaze tilts Josephine's way.
"I am making my move. Now!"
And suddenly, that sword -sweeps-. The force of it knocks all those torches upwards, lighting them one after the other in record time -- before they all gutter out.
"..."
Liath frowns.
"I refuse to yield to this smarmy contraption. We will begin again."
She tries a different approach.
"Again."
She suggests switching sides.
"Again."
She tries to cheat with a magic spell to just ignite all the braziers instantly in a flash of light, figuring if she just creates the light HERSELF, it will do the trick.
"--Again!!"
And again.
And again.
And again.
And ag--
"This is foolhardy!"
This Liath's declaration that she very much tries and fails to make not sound like an exclamation of frustration before she does one thing she can so rarely abide:
"We will not make progress in this room, right now. Let us try our hand at another."
... Gives up.
For now.
She'll return for her payback, puzzle, just you wait...!
And so Liath gracefully strides (stomps) off towards the center chamber once more with its many pathways, only pausing to turn and regard Josephine with a curious eye.
"And what of you?" she asks. Of Althena?
"Were you in her place, Lady Josie, facing a choice of two different, great regrets -- which would you choose?"
DG: Josephine Lovelace has drawn a new Challenge.
=====================<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial *>=====================
=================<* CHALLENGE - Bridges of Light and Shadow *>==================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The next hallway that you venture into is terribly dark. You can scarcely
see five feet in front of you, but just a glint of light reveals a ledge...
and beyond it is is a plunge into a deep, dark pit with no bottom visible.
But then there is a bright flash of light, enough to disorient, and also
reveal something.
At the other end, you see a large gold-colored gemstone. Press that, and you
will light one of the mosaic segments in the central chamber. However,
crossing will require hopping across a series of small glass platforms
spaced unevenly -- and floating magically -- over the abyss.
Those platforms are visible only when flashes of light emerge, which come
about every thirty seconds.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Slow:_Agility_Down! and Stupify:_Wits_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
There are times when, just a little, Josie does wish she had learned more of her father's lessons. As she gazes down at the sconces, this is one of those moments. But-- ah well. So be it! She'll handle the matter however she may, even if it should prove a little bit tricky when all is said and done.
"Oh, really?" Josie remarks, when Liath says she doesn't know Yvain half as well as she'd like. "I would've... hmm, actually, no. I take that back." When she stops and thinks about it, it actually does track quite well. "Our Yvvie's lived an exciting life, it'd seem!"
Liath more the type to settle down somewhere and make a go of it, by Josie's mark. Yvain, on the other hand -- perhaps that's why she and him get along.
She'd tried the settling down thing once. It hadn't took.
Liath's answer to Josie's question is direct enough. Settling down the sconce she'd lifted (since guttered once again), Josie considers Liath.
"Fair enough. I figure it ain't my place to tell the lady what she ought to have done, anyway. Even gods have skeletons in their closet, eh? ...Though if you asked me, I'm far more surprised to find she ain't, technically speaking, a goddess. Least, not as me and mine consider it." She smiles wryly. "Was kind of a new experience, coming up here and finding a god that was still talkin' to her people. Back home, if you ain't a priest or a shaman, you ain't hearing nothing." Her dark eyes glitter and she only barely reins in her smile. "Well, unless you're mad."
She hasn't, let, given her assessment of Althena's decison, save to say that it's not her place to do so. Is that because she's from Filgaia -- though it was her ancestors who were abandoned -- or instead because...
But Liath is making her move, and Josie hardly can stand by and just watch her do it. Grabbing the sconce nearest to her, she moves, quickly, flicking her sconce across the others. One by one they light up--
And then gutter.
"Don't that beat all," Josie remarks, raising a pale eyebrow. "Try again?"
So they do.
And again.
And again, and again, and--
"Y'know, Lia, sometimes..." She's put her guttered sconce back with a click. "Knowing when to quit's its own strength. Yeah?"
The irony in this statement coming from Josephine may be as rich as butter.
But quite they do and with a shrug of her shoulders and once last glance at the recalcitrant puzzle, Josie hits the bricks and leaves.
"So, I wonder... if we don't do all the puzzles or none, where's that leave the pilgrimage?" Does intent alone count...? But Liath has her own question for Josie.
"What of me? --Huh."
She doesn't answer at first, walking on ahead into one of the other hallways. As she proceeds, the light gutters and fades, leaving her with nothing but darkness.
There is but a glint of light, enough to sketch out the shades of what else lies within the chamber. They stand on a ledge, yes, and below is darkness. Ahead is the glittering edges of what must be one of the gemstones.
A brilliant, nearly blinding flash follows, revealing the darkness below for what it is: a pit, and with the only way forward being a few scant glassy platforms. "Ain't this a--"
There is but a flash of light, after all. Too quickly the room returns to near-total darkness, the distant glimmer the only suggestion of where the gem rests -- or where the edges of the pit begin. The flash of light will return, yes, but it's never quite long enough.
"I reckon it'd be cheating of the highest order to cast a spell, yeah?" she says to Liath, still not answering her question.
She finds one platform and, remembering its position, hops aboard it, its surface slick under her boots.
"A rough position, that. Your lady Althena, I mean," Josie says at last, as the room flicks back into darkness again. "Two bad decisions. Choose your friends, damn the world. Choose the world, damn your friends. And whatever you pick, it'll haunt you until the day your bones rest in the ground. Ha, and mine was hardly as grand stakes as all that."
Her what?
Josie doesn't elaborate, instead saying, "There's some that'd say I was playing myself false, pickin' the world. But I'd say I'd be false if I didn't. Picking friends over what I owe... heh. Guess I'd get to be a goddess up on the throne just like your lady, eh, Lia?"
She watches for the light and moves in darkness.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Bridges of Light and Shadow.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.
'Knowing when to quit's its own strength. Yeah?'
"There is a certain amount of irony, in similarity.
There's a certain kind of irony in the obvious and obscured similarities between these two, making their way through Light's Trial Shrine.
Liath looks the type to root. And yet, it would seem the Guard's Prime Lord has taken to journeying the world; maybe it is for her duty. Maybe it is for necessity.
Or maybe...
Despite the question Liath has posed, she seems in no hurry to chase an immediate answer. Instead, she passes a curious look Josephine's way as she wonders about the goal of the pilgrimage, before her gaze focuses forward once more. Instead, she turns her thoughts towards something Josephine said earlier as they make their way towards their new challenge:
"It is a rare thing indeed that the divine meets mortals' expectations of their existence. By definition, they must exist at a remove, above the flaws of humanity. All too often, they are just as mired in them, for all they sometimes deceive their own selves to their providence. Seraphim are oft held upon the selfsame pedestal of divinity in Lunar. In your dealings with us these years, would you consider us such a thing?"
She considers a moment, brows furrowed.
"If naught else, it is true enough that most of us deign not to engage with your kind."
And it is here that Liath stands upon the precipice of that abyss. She stares down upon it unflinching, with only the briefest narrowing of her eyes against the brief flash of light that illuminates the crystalline truth at the pit's bottom.
'I reckon it'd be cheating of the highest order to cast a spell, yeah?'
"... It is not my place to say," is Liath sole answer. The tone in her voice reads less she will not -- and more she cannot.
Liath hops upon the first platform. And as Josephine finally answers her question, Liath turns to regard her once more in the dark.
'Ha, and mine was hardly as grand stakes as all that.'
A flash in the dark. Liath watches Josephine with an air of understanding, as even if she doesn't clarify -- Liath can, perhaps, guess.
"Mm," she finally exhales. "We are yet alike, then. It is no throne I would occupy with glee; doubtless it was the same for her. Yet... There are few worlds in which I would willingly sacrifice humanity."
But what if it were Ragnell in jeopardy?
...
A second passes. Liath tenses. Light crackles.
"You mentioned the qualifiers of your pilgrimage and its success. What is it, exactly, what you are seeking in all this, Lady Josie?"
And just as she asks that question, the light flashes -- and Liath -leaps-. Another hourglass appears in her hand. It shatters.
And time around her slows, forcing that light to linger that much longer, helping her control her jumps that much more. It is localized to her, as if specifically to keep from assisting Josephine directly, but...
Maybe, if she is opportunistic enough, Josie can capitalize on it, too.
DG: Seraph Liath has used her Tool Silver Hourglass toward her party's challenge, Bridges of Light and Shadow. Quicken! Party Agility boosted!
=====================<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial *>=====================
=================<* CHALLENGE - Bridges of Light and Shadow *>==================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The next hallway that you venture into is terribly dark. You can scarcely
see five feet in front of you, but just a glint of light reveals a ledge...
and beyond it is is a plunge into a deep, dark pit with no bottom visible.
But then there is a bright flash of light, enough to disorient, and also
reveal something.
At the other end, you see a large gold-colored gemstone. Press that, and you
will light one of the mosaic segments in the central chamber. However,
crossing will require hopping across a series of small glass platforms
spaced unevenly -- and floating magically -- over the abyss.
Those platforms are visible only when flashes of light emerge, which come
about every thirty seconds.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Quicken:_Agility_Up!, Slow:_Agility_Down!, and Stupify:_Wits_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
================<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial - Round 3 *>================ ===================< Results - Bridges of Light and Shadow >==================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 25 --(5)--> 30 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Liath 25 --(5)--> 30 Pass Silver Hourglass 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 35 --(20)--> 55 Pass Conditions: Slow(2)|Stupify(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace 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> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Even shamans don't speak to the Guardians all that often, I hear," Josie says, tilting her head to one side. "Those lot've probably other things to do. Probably just as well, to hear you tell it. If remove's what's necessary and all for gods to be gods..."
She smiles, roguishly. "To be honest, Lia, you lot strike me as people. People who are a little strange, people with strange powers, sure. But you're people at the end of the day."
Perhaps that's another reason for Seraphim to avoid contact with humans -- even outside the fact that most aren't even aware of their presence.
Would it be cheating, she asks of Liath.
Liath's answer just provokes Josephine to laughter. "Right you are! Then I'll be good just in case and behave, yeah?"
It would be cheating to conjure her own light. It might not even work in a place as ensorcelled as this -- perhaps she would watch her spell fail utterly, or perhaps she would simply get to see everything about her except for the glass plates. She wasn't raised by a wizard to no avail -- she's well aware that some objects can be enchanted to only be visible by the light of particular spells.
When it comes to taking advantage of another's power, though...
Liath has some ability, some item in her possession that permits her to briefly slow time. She had seen it's effect before, when she had descended into the depths of the shrine.
There are only so many ways across. Liath's path takes her soon to a tile near enough to Josephine. And thus, when Liath invokes that power at last, Josie is just close enough--
just enough
--to permit Josie to catch the trailing effect. The light lingers. Seizing on a path, Josie advances quickly until the effect reaches her no more -- perhaps until it ends, if she is so lucky. It is a trail of light and darkness that she must follow to cross, after, but in the end, she reaches her goal. As does Liath.
Reaching out, Josie touches the golden gemstone. And here there is light, glowing and gold itself, within the chamber as well. "There," she says, satisfied.
Then she turns to Liath.
"Heh. If only I knew it, myself," she says with a lopsided smile, shrugging expansively. "It's a feeling I can barely put into words. Something I'm reaching for. Maybe even hoping for. Suppose, if I had to put a name to it and all, I might call it something like..."
"...another way."
DG: Seraph Liath has drawn a new Challenge.
=====================<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial *>=====================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Ancient Machina Guardian *>===================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Combat | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The next hallway seems straight forward enough at first. It is a straight
walk down to the end of the hallway, with only a little adornment on the
walls -- murals depicting the founding of Meribia and Vane on one side and
the founding of Pendrago and Ladylake on the other.
At the other end of the hallway is a cyan gemstone, mounted in the wall.
Should you touch, you will light one of the mosaic segments in the central
chamber. However, once you get close, lines shine brilliantly along the
wall.
Then, pieces of the wall step out. Stone merges together, forming a large
machina-golem, standing over twice the height of most humans. The gemstone
is at its core. It punches huge fists of stone together, then looks down at
you. To touch the stone, you must first destroy the guardian that engulfs
it.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Quicken:_Agility_Up!, Slow:_Agility_Down!, Stupify:_Wits_Down!, |
| Treasure:_Exploration_Up!, and Wound:_Combat_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.
'To be honest, Lia, you lot strike me as people.'
Liath's answer is a warm smile.
"I am gladdened to hear that. Truly."
The glass glimmers within the light, refracting its fragments of color.
"We are born of the Earthpulse, as your Guardians are of the Ley. Perhaps your Guardians are not so different. Compelled by desires, hopes, loves... even by spite and hurt. Perchance, some are just as petty of souls as some that I have known of my own kin.
"Perchance what defines a god is not a distance, but a willingness to protect the world they have been made the ward of."
Josephine catches upon the remnants of that light. And just as Liath had said, she does not hinder the archaeologist -- but neither does she help her. With several sprightly, graceful leaps, she makes her way downward. She lands besides Josephine, watching as she touches the gem. It alights --
5r-- and the floor of the pit begins to rise, glass panels settling upon its grounds as it makes its way towards the surface.
"It would seem a victory in our favor, then," she observes, with the faintest smile. "Well done, Lady Josie."
It's a statement that would feel almost perfunctory. But from Liath -- there's a certain, earnest approval in her tone. A warmth that isn't wholly easy to place.
She quiets as she makes her way towards the next challenge, across the central chamber and the next spoke offering its opened door in invitation. She listens... and her expression settles into something of thoughtful neutrality.
I might call it something like...
... another way.
They reach that hall. Around them, murals of Meribia and Vane and Pendrago and Ladylake portray a history of their origins. Liath pauses, for a moment, at the mural of Pendrago. Her brows knot up as if in a subtle wince, something unreadable entering her expression as she gazes upon it. And then, she continues.
"You are..."
She begins. But her sentence trails. She stares upon that single, cyan gemstone. So obvious. So ready to be touched.
So simple.
"--Ah--"
A warning begins, but it is ended almost immediately as it does.
A second later, the chamber walls shine brightly --
And from the walls comes chunks of beautiful masonry, ripped out and merged into a grand, intimidating visage of a golem. Liath's eyes narrow. Joyeuse is -yanked- free of its sheathe, blade gleaming in the dwindling shine of the hall.
What she meant to say before will have to wait. After all --
"Have at me, machina! We will see what wells of strength your makers have given you!"
--There is battle to be had.
Something Liath seems to flow into as naturally as breathing.
... ... for humans
DG: Seraph Liath has used her Tool Holy Pow! Hammer toward her party's challenge, Ancient Machina Guardian. Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie smiles crookedly. "Maybe so. I ain't ever had the chance to meet one," she says, of the Guardians. "But the way you describe it... doesn't sound so different now, does it? Except here you are, walking around and talking to people, and there the Guardians ain't." Probably, because they can't. With Filgaia in a state and the Ley the more so, it's no wonder the Guardians aren't managing what Seraphim are capable of. Lunar is whole and healthy.
Filgaia is dying. Perhaps Josie might yet live to see its final years, as a matter of fact.
"But if that's your definition of a god, then that fits the Guardians and your lot to to a T, right?"
Not distance, but the love, hope, and courage to protect the world.
"And here I thought I told you the last time we wandered around a shrine not to call me that! Ah, well enough," she says, shaking her head as once again -- she has been letting the matter slide up until this point -- she is called 'lady'. "Suppose it's your nature or some such, eh? But you really can just call me 'Josie'. I'm about as royal as dirt."
From anyone else, she'd think they were having a laugh or something like that, calling her 'lady'. But it just seems to be the Seraph's way.
Just like people, Seraphim have their quirks. Josie will endlessly insist on being called 'Josie'. And Liath will be there to call her 'Lady Josie' in turn.
Josie is content to let the matter lie there -- let it only be that statement regarding her feelings and what she hopes to find at the end of this long journey.
She is one who guards her heart fiercely, and yet, for all her attempts...
"Amazin' to think these've stood the test of centuries," she remarks, gazing up at the murals. "Ah, yeah. That's Vane, ain't it? Spent a time thereabouts. Shame," she adds, glancing Liath's way.
Only to frown. Pendrago, huh...?
"I'm what?"
Liath doesn't answer. Instead, Josie's gaze finds what she's staring at, and there her gaze fixes as well.
"No way it's that--"
The walls shine bright, and then tear away.
"...easy. Well," Josie says, patting herself down as if in search of something. "--There! Don't mind if I do, it's thirsty work down here," she says to her flask as she produces it, seemingly willing to let Liath take the lead in this particular encounter. Josie instead downs a portion of its contents before seeing the flask securely away, then watches the construct as it trades blows with the Seraph.
"Lia, look sharp! Incoming!"
Because Josie has produced the black shotgun -- the Devil's Arm Agares the Bitter -- and is about to open fire on the construct.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Liquid Courage toward her party's challenge, Ancient Machina Guardian. Rally!
=====================<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial *>=====================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Ancient Machina Guardian *>===================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Combat | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The next hallway seems straight forward enough at first. It is a straight
walk down to the end of the hallway, with only a little adornment on the
walls -- murals depicting the founding of Meribia and Vane on one side and
the founding of Pendrago and Ladylake on the other.
At the other end of the hallway is a cyan gemstone, mounted in the wall.
Should you touch, you will light one of the mosaic segments in the central
chamber. However, once you get close, lines shine brilliantly along the
wall.
Then, pieces of the wall step out. Stone merges together, forming a large
machina-golem, standing over twice the height of most humans. The gemstone
is at its core. It punches huge fists of stone together, then looks down at
you. To touch the stone, you must first destroy the guardian that engulfs
it.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, Slow:_Agility_Down!, Stupify:_Wits_Down!, |
| Treasure:_Exploration_Up!, and Wound:_Combat_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
================<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial - Round 4 *>================ =====================< Results - Ancient Machina Guardian >===================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 30 --(5)--> 35 Pass Liquid Courage 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Liath 30 --(5)--> 35 Pass Holy Pow! Hammer 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 55 --(25)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Slow(1)|Stupify(1)|Treasure(1)|Wound(2) Effects: Cleanse ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has passed this challenge! The party gained 25 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.
"Very few of us deign to interact with humans, Lady Josie. It is a great risk. Mayhap it is not so dissimilar for them. For me... my circumstances are exceptional. Nor something I would wish upon another."
Josephine Lovelace, again, insists against the use of the title of 'lady.'
And Liath, again, has but a simple response:
"Royalty nor nobility are no thing that can be inherited by blood or tradition. Not truly. They are a matter of what lies in the heart, Lady Josie."
It is, ultimately, just their ways.
In the thick of things, Liath throws herself wholly into the matter of violence like a dance. Those gold eyes are ablaze as she -hurtles- forward towards the makeshift golem. Within one moment, she is next to Josephine.
In the next, her boot heels are -slamming- into the stone ground before the gem's guardian, right squealing outward in a bracing motion. The creature's fists clench high, swing down --
And they meet the bulwark of Pridwen's ceremonial surface in a shimmering ring of crystal sound and a pastel prism of color.
She continues like this - parrying, trading blows, dancing around the golem - very slowly putting it into a proper position, a proper opening. And when she has --
Liath's sword alights with light. She carves a radiant seal into the air. It gleams, gloriously. And out of it is formed...!
A toy hammer!!
... A toy hammer?
...
A toy hammer.
A toy hammer, its face a brilliant almost plastic red, flips an overarching path through the air. It shines like the sun!
And then it just kind of whacks the golem across the top of its body.
P O W !
... And so it is that the great Golem is rendered stunned and helpless, just in time for Josephine to blast it apart into pieces with Agares the Bitter.
As the thing crumbles, it reveals Liath calmly sheathing her weapons, her gloved hand touching upon the gem's cyan surface as her eyes focus upon the Devil's Arm.
"Ah? So you have been to Linaweyul," she remarks, head cant. A second passes. And rather than proceeding forward immediately, Liath's gaze turns up towards Josephine.
"... You are," she begins again,
"someone who made a choice, just as Althena. In so doing, you have hurt people. And now, you seek a way to reconcile that fact. A new way forward." Her head tilts.
"Is it that which you seek, Lady Josephine? Is it a path, or is it punishment?"
She does not press. They've a trial to complete, after all.
But all the same, she asks the question.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has drawn a new Challenge.
=====================<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial *>=====================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - The Sunlit Trial *>=======================
| Type: Final | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
You return to the central room, and find that the mosaic has been lit up.
Along with it, a set of spectral stairs leads up to the second level of the
room. There are two doors, one of which is opened. When you enter, you
emerge into a stone hallway. It is enormous and long, and you can see at the
end that there is an altar, in the shape of the glorious sun.
The way is dangerous. Spike traps, sections that twist and turn, and walls
with plates that shimmer with heat like a mirage make it have many
obstacles. But you get only a look, before the room /fills/ with light.
Brilliance shines down, so much that your eyes sting and water; you have
little choice but to shut them. You need to cross without your sight.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Stupify:_Wits_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Maybe so, maybe so," Josie allows, rolling her shoulders in a shrug. She's met perhaps a good handful of Seraphim on her lonesome, yes, but she's well aware that those who choose to interact with mortals are atypical at the least. She even knows the reason. Spending too much time in the places where humans dwell, well...
It's hazardous to any Seraph. Humans are simply toxic, generate that particular toxicity known to the rest of the world as 'Malevolence'. Maybe it is the same with Guardians, dying world aside. Maybe there's something about people that is antithetical to their existance.
Humans sure have done a fine job with Filgaia as it stands, Josie, student of history, can't help but observe.
"Oh yeah?" She's begun to grin, looking Liath up and down. "Well, ain't you a flatterer. You sure your girl's fine with you saying that to other ladies?" But Josie laughs and shakes her head, as if it were all a little joke on her part. "Somehow, I don't quite think I'm your type, anyhow."
Even if there is a common thread amongst the both of them, as they by turns engage with the construct that the shrine has thrown into their path as its trial.
Both of them, after all, take a particular sort of joy in battle. They exult in it, as a matter of fact -- Josie may fall back and ready herself by her own means while Liath may leap into the fray, blade glinting with divine promise -- but the emotion that they both express in the moments that follow are...
"Ha! Got you! And here's another! And one more!"
...exactly the same.
(Was that a toy hammer? Summoned by an ancient, holy arte? Yes.)
"So you're familiar with it?" Josie glances down at the weapon she bears. "Sure and sure enough. Has some curse or another, as I hear it, but it doesn't bother me or none. Way I figure, it won't..." Her lip curls, as if she were about to tell some riotously funny joke.
But the wind goes out of her sails in the next moment, as she takes in anew the person she is speaking to. "...Hah. Never mind it," she says, sighing. "I keep on forgetting, is all."
Liath isn't her.
It's into that exquisitely vulnerable moment then that Liath intrudes, speaking the tail end of her statement from before. Josie is... someone who made a choice. And the only thing that really can be said about that choice is that it hurt people. That she's still trying to reconcile that. Still trying to find her path-- or her punishment.
She has no answers to give at first, gazing at Liath as if she'd taken her through the heart with that blade instead. But she didn't get to live this long, living the sort of life she's trod, by being fragile.
At least, not that fragile.
She smiles. It's cold, bitter, but still a smile. "Right to the point, eh? You lot don't mess around..." She shakes her head, turning back towards the center hallway.
"...Anyway, I suppose I'll find it out for myself, yeah? Whatever it is that's waitin' for the likes of me."
The mosaic has been lit by the time they return, the spectral staircase leading the way upwards to the secondary level of the shrine. Ahead lies the altar, if but distantly visible at the end of a long, massive hallway. It might be more effective to name it a 'maze' for with its tricks, traps, and twists, there is no clear or easy route forward. "Well, ain't this a--"
There is light. It's the antithesis of the darkness they faced in the one hallway, though the effect is the same: they must close their eyes against such blinding brilliance.
Eyes closed, Josie seems to almost hesitate for a moment. Then, from a pocket, she produces a simple, weathered screwdriver. There had been traps. There had been such twists and turns ahead, seeking to certainly lead them astray. "Try to stick together, yeah?" she says, jabbing at the air before herself with the screwdriver before she begins to start forward. "Maybe we should keep talking to each other, like."
It may be a bit of a tall order for Josie, as she doesn't even know what to say to Liath after that last question from the Seraph. Somehow something like, 'so let's talk about your favorite foods' seems al little bit lacking. And yet...
Josie gets perhaps about a few yards ahead before she caves, after a fashion. "Tell you what, let's us sing a song. I'll teach you the chorus first, yeah?"
And out she belts, as she slowly makes her way forward, jabbing experimentally with the screwdriver now and again,
"Go down you blood red roses, go down! Oh, you pinks and posies, go down you blood red roses, go down!"
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Lucky Screwdriver toward her party's challenge, The Sunlit Trial. Enlighten! Party Wits boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.
'You sure your girl's fine with you saying that to other ladies?'
Liath's gold gaze blinks owlishly wide in utter befuddlement.
"Ragnell oft takes issue with the truth," she states, firmly, "but I believe even she would have troubles attempting to claim you and I were of a 'type.'"
Maybe she's just confused as to how anyone would think the two of them could be compatible or--
"Seraphim and humans are far from falling under the same category. Our base composition is radically different, to begin with--"
oh nope there it is she just fundamentally misunderstood
In moments like these, it is so often a mystery if that obliqueness is actually intentional or just a wonderful gift of her earnest, strange personality.
They are similar, however. Maybe of a type in a different way beyond Josephine's meaning and Liath's horrible mangling of said meaning. The way they relish the thrill and risk of the fight, for one thing. For another...
Josephine dismisses her thoughts on Linaweyul and the Devil's Arm. Liath considers her in that moment, in the way she sighs it out.
'I keep forgetting, is all.'
Those gold eyes narrow fractionally.
But it is not that avenue that Liath pursues. She has something else to say. And if nothing else, there is very little that can or will sway the Prime Lord of Althena when she decides upon a course of action. Her armored hand settled on the pommel of her sword like a place to comfortably rest it, Liath turns to look upon Josephine with a stare that is piercing, and yet contains no trace of judgment in its depths. Her expression is a stoic neutrality, from the set of her jaw, to the mild press of her lips. It does not change in the slightest, at Josie's initial, pained expression.
It only softens with something imperceptible when the woman smiles that cold smile.
Right to the point, eh?
"There is oft little point to dawdling, in circumstances such as these. They but belabor upon a fraying knot. It is clear in your eyes, Lady Josie. You carry a wound that will not heal."
The archaeologist offers her answer. And for the moment, Liath simply shuts her eyes in a few precious seconds of silence, before she nods. Armored fingers clench briefly around that pommel.
"... So be it. I can but say... if you seek a true answer, these shrines may provide it."
And so they go. The mosaic, alight, offers a path that had not once been there. Liath ascends, her hand still upon her sword in a more ready way. But what they find, is...
An altar, its path beset by traps and tricks. And...
... a light.
Liath is used to the light. It -is- her, after all. The Ley energies that conceived her were suffused with the element; but trials such as these often care little for the nature of a thing. It might be Liath's type.
It robs her sight all the same.
Josie suggests they stick together. And Liath...
"... Very well," she concedes. "Though there is little I may provide you in these circumstances save my presence."
Her presence, and her words. And yet, in the blinding light, Liath is silent -- as if to broach the possibility would be a bridge too far. As if the words had to come from Josephine, first. Instead...
... instead, she shuts her eyes completely, and invites the darkness instead of the light. She feels -- she feels, trying to reach out to the entirety of the room, to the base components that make it up. She attempts to commit her focus to that act.
And she moves.
She is in step with Josephine, when she suddenly makes her suggestion. Light brows lift. "A song?" she asks. The very idea should be silly -- potentially hazardous, to ask a Guardsman, let alone Althena's Prime Lord. And yet, Josephine knows well enough --
"Mm. So it is like...
"Go down you blood red roses, go down!"
Liath is not afraid to sing, whatever it might make her in the eyes of the one on Althena's throne.
"Oh, you pinks and posies, go down you blood red roses, go down!"
And so she sings, as she makes her way through. Well. ... Belts. Josephine was belting, after all.
And if nothing else, Liath is committed to getting things -exactly right-.
DG: Seraph Liath has contributed a risky Wits Action toward her party's challenge, The Sunlit Trial.
=====================<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial *>=====================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - The Sunlit Trial *>=======================
| Type: Final | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
You return to the central room, and find that the mosaic has been lit up.
Along with it, a set of spectral stairs leads up to the second level of the
room. There are two doors, one of which is opened. When you enter, you
emerge into a stone hallway. It is enormous and long, and you can see at the
end that there is an altar, in the shape of the glorious sun.
The way is dangerous. Spike traps, sections that twist and turn, and walls
with plates that shimmer with heat like a mirage make it have many
obstacles. But you get only a look, before the room /fills/ with light.
Brilliance shines down, so much that your eyes sting and water; you have
little choice but to shut them. You need to cross without your sight.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Enlighten:_Wits_Up! and Stupify:_Wits_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
================<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial - Round 5 *>================ =========================< Results - The Sunlit Trial >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 35 --(101)--> 136 Fail Lucky Screwdriver 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Liath 35 --(101)--> 136 Fail Investigate 1 Wits Effects: Risky -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 80 --(15)--> 95 Fail Conditions: Stupify(2) Effects: Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: Josephine Lovelace is too exhausted to continue! DG: Seraph Liath is too exhausted to continue! DG: The party has failed this challenge! All party members are now Exhausted. This attempt is over. DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has been fully Exhausted by Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial! DG: The party will now draw a conclusion.
=====================<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial *>===================== =================<* CHALLENGE - A Mosaic of Lunar's History *>================== | Type: Landmark | Dungeon Ability: Conclusion | Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information >---------------------------- Your trial has come to an end, and you have not passed it. You make your way into the central chamber of Hoel. The shrine is peaceful, at least; you have time to consider what must be done differently, next time. The mosaic is still lit, for a moment. It provides a glorious view of Lunar's history, and may be worth some study before you depart. ============================= Dungeon Conditions: ============================= | Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, Save_Point:_Conditions_cleansed!, and | | Stupify:_Wits_Down! | = Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"You don't think?" Josie has started to say. But Liath goes on. And on... and on right down the exactly wrong avenue to the one that Josie had been implying.
It's all that she can do to maintain a straight face. But somehow -- against all odds and precedent -- she manages, even if her lips do twist in what appears to have been a very, very trying moment for her.
But it passes, as all things do.
And in the end, Liath says her piece with regards to the choice that still rests before Josephine: is what she seeks path or punishment? And it is this question that leaves the tricksome Josie gaping if for a moment, as if Liath had in fact managed to lay bare the conflict that plagues her even now within her heart.
But she recovers, as it were. She smiles, if it can be called a smile, closing and concealing again that point to which Liath had struck with words alone.
And of course. An unhealed wound remains vulnerable to future further injury. And it can kill.
That smile drains from Josie's face. A statue is she, gazing over at Liath as if seeking a verdict somewhere in that equally neutral facade.
Flesh and blood versus spirit. Which of the two will give--
Josie averts her gaze, no mirth -- real or otherwise -- flooding back in to fill the void. Not just yet.
The flesh is, after all, weak, as the saying goes.
"Guess we'll see what all waits me in the end," she says at last. And it may well be the last thing she says to Liath before they rise to meet the final leg of their shared trial.
"Oh, my old mother, she wrote to me..."
Once, she had surmised, song had not been forbidden to Althena's children. Alcohol, either, though that's besides the point. A little asking had wormed out the deeper tale: there were stories about the goddess.
Stories in which Althena had sang.
Knowing that part of the history had been one part of it. Knowing what sort of person Liath was had been the other. Josie sings that old shanty, a strange but sad call and chorus as she blindly walks into the light through all those twists and turns and traps.
"...My darling daughter, come home from sea," she sings out, opening her eyes at last into the brilliance before her. The original lyrics spoke of a son, not a daughter, and yet...
Those are not tears that spill down her cheek. Not tears at all.
Hands trembling, the world a strange, bright blur, Josie takes those last steps towards the smear that she can only just make out against the light and falls to her knees before it. Her hands find the altar and she leans against it, face-down.
Those are not tears at all.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Liath has posed.
Guess they'll have to see what all waits Josephine in the end.
"Then I shall wait to see," promises Liath, in a way that feels as unbreakable as mithril.
Josephine sings. And the Seraph follows along, bound to Althena's service though she might be. Liath sings that sad shanty, even as it compromises her focus, even as her sense of direction fails her.
She sings, even as Josephine trembles, and the last, choking words fall from her lips.
The archaeologist takes several steps further into the bright glare of the light. Her eyes are open. They are not tears spilling down her cheeks. And slowly...
"... my darling daughter, come home from sea."
... Liath stops, a few paces behind her companion, as her eyes crack open. And from that vantage point, she watches. As Josie takes the final steps of her pilgrimage. As she falls just short of reaching the altar before her, her hands gripping upon it as she collapses to her knees.
As she does not cry.
"..."
Almost half a minute passes, before the sound of heavy footfalls rings out behind Josephine. Liath does not press any further; not in word, nor in song, nor in trial. She does not offer a hand. She does not offer support. She does not offer advice.
There is very little that Liath can provide Josephine in these circumstances, save her presence.
But if it is all she can supply, then she gives of it freely, wordlessly kneeling beside Josephine, hands settled in her lap as she regards the mortal woman beside her, seeing the kaleidoscope of her emotions through the blinding fervor of the light.
Something tender touches the intensity of Liath's gilded gaze. And she leans forward, head craning gently to regard Josephine's bowed head.
They are tears.
And Liath does not do them nor this moment the disservice of looking away from them.
After all...
"And so you have your answer, Lady Josie."
This is a pilgrimage completed.