2022-11-21: Mount Liverfeast (Side A)
- Log: 2022-11-21: Mount Liverfeast (Side A)
- Cast: Seraph Lanval, Lan Lilac, Ryoko Mizore, Marivel Armitage
- Where: The Crater Sea
- Date: November 21, 2022
- Summary: To the west of Mount Liverfeast, a terrible storm brews - rapidly expanding by the hour. It is a risk to pierce the veil of storms about the dormant volcano, but two individuals already have. Once more, Drifters are called to find answers for what's going on... and, if they're lucky, get some key ones another has withheld. The first of six runs of Mount Liverfeast. (NOTE: Every Mount Liverfeast scene ICly takes place on December 9th!)
==============================<* The Crater Sea *>============================== The Crater Sea rests at the center of Southern Aquvy. Rumors abound that ancient cities and other ruins are submerged underneath the sea, and in the shallower portions, Diggers have reported that great expanses of submerged glass have been found. The people of Southern Aquvy know that Crater Sea is not just a name. In the past, some great calamity shattered the ancient continent of Greater Aquvy, and in doing so, left the many smaller islands of the south. These waters are well-traveled, though not as much as they once were, after the fall of Celesti. BGM: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - The Great Sea DC: Ryoko Mizore switches forms to Revenant!
DG: A party led by Seraph Lanval is now entering Mount Liverfeast - The Sky Is Falling Apart. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
===============<* Mount Liverfeast - The Sky Is Falling Apart *>================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Storming the Weather *>=====================
| Type: Entry | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Whether you are going by boat or by air (if you are so fortunate), one thing
becomes clear on the approach: there is no safe way towards the churning
cauldron of uncontrollable weather at Mt. Liverfeast.
The tides are out of control, threatening to batter nearby islands with
crashing waves. The winds are something else, frequently changing direction.
Lightning and hail join the 'fun.' Heat waves sap further at visibility and
just make it hard to breathe. Living bodies simply are not made to withstand
these conditions at length.
The problem is, you don't have any other way... and there's no time to wait
it out, because it's just getting worse. Breach the storm, and pray there is
an eye within so that you may scale the mountain and claim the truth from a
certain someone who doesn't believe you deserve it.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure! and Suffer:_Exhaustion_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
DECEMBER 9th - 504 POST COLLAPSE
It feels like it's one thing after another, recent months. Yggdrasil Isle was host to a world-shattering revelation. Harmonde got turned inside out by intense weather phenomena courtesy of a Veruni-deployed Demetrioi. Some weeks after Harmonde... a prisoner transport ship saw that Mt. Liverfeast (west of Illsveil Prison) had some weird things going down. Then it got even weirder. Even larger. Much more dangerous. Much more tempestuous.
Seraph Lanval, Oracle of Schturdark, Water Seraph, booze mooch, and overall good friend, has his GAME FACE on as he leads the group across the water on a hollow, air-filled flat-bodied... horse... thing. (it's a pool toy.)
"'Tis far too strong...!" Lanval's voice booms out, shocked at the powers that are on display. It's so many different weather phenomena at once. Each and every one of them are by some sort of strange force that has decided to impose its will over the existential fabric of Filgaia itself, butting aside any Guardian influence in the name of... this? It was like at Alcidamas, when it was pleasant. It was like this at Harmonde, when it was an unprecedented meteorological disaster. Now here...
If Harmonde was a '12' on a scale of one to ten, this is at least a '17.' It's... that bad.
"Whatever means thou hath at thy disposal to breach this... do so at once!" Seraph Lanval calls, as he channels upon both native Seraphic Arte and a touch of Schturdark's own power - the latter a fairly big ask - as he tries to surge ahead and part the tumultuous waters enough to allow them safe(...ish) passage in there. It'll take everything he has.
(He has also brought a shattered bottle to try and shank the cause later, like he intended at Alcidamas before he found out someone else moved it. He is very well-prepared!)
DG: You risk with your Tool Bouyant Steed against your party's Challenge, Storming the Weather! DG: Seraph Lanval has risked with his Tool Bouyant Steed toward his party's challenge, Storming the Weather. Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round!
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
At least she didn't try to fly all the way out here.
She'd had to go back to Lake Macalania, to the snowfield. She'd seen the traces of rust red and oil brown, half-hidden by new snowfall. Her crystals (she really needs to think of a name!) had been left in the snow where they (and she) had fallen weeks ago.
It took her a long time to make it! Resonant magical constructs don't just grow on trees!
...But on the other hand...
"This is super grooooooss!" Lan wails, clinging to the floating mock-horse with ALL HER MIGHT. She's already nearly lost her bag twice when particularly nasty waves tried to capsize them, and she's pretty sure her sandals will never dry properly again, and worst of all Lanval is sober and it turns out his 'default' speech pattern is Ye Olde Ancient Script.
If worse comes to worst before they reach shore, can she manage to float them all to safety?!
For now, she's just going to have to hope that negating her own weight will help the poor 'raft' not sink.
"How much longer?!"
DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Butterfly Ribbon toward her party's challenge, Storming the Weather. Quicken! Party Agility boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Mizore has posed.
Ryoko Mizore is along for the ride in a green and blue painted gear of... older Solarian make. At least she replaced that white paintjob she had on it for a long time. She's about as serious as she usually is. So probably hard headed and flippant to mask any insecurities about the mess at hand.
Rough weather, bad weather, angry weather all rolled into one. She's glad she's got an.. interesting internal system so everything's just cold. Which is why she's bundled up in the cockpit at the moment. Also why she usually stashes drinks under the seat. There's not much the gear can do to make everyone's life easier, though she does channel ether to try and add some buoyancy to the situation. If it becomes clear that the water's shallow enough she'll even slide the mech off of the giant.. novelty toy and try to help keep things steady.
Her voice from the speakers on the mech is distorted and static-y. It was low on her priority for fixes so... sorry. "I'll try to catch you if you fall overboard. Please don't though." Partially because that's risky, partially because she's pretty sure it would be bad either way for anyone not in a big stompy robot. She's going to ignore the multiple warnings on her HUD at the moment.
DG: Ryoko Mizore has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Storming the Weather.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel has her reasons for coming along. She doesn't share them. She's not feeling very talkative or helpful and she's frankly sorely tempted to just let this play out on its own.
But old habits die hard.
Lanval says 'it's far too strong!' and maybe it is! Marivel reaches into her pouch, drawing out a vial of <s>tomato juice</s> blood and downs it.
Then she takes out another vial and downs that too before tossing the two vials over her shoulder.
Lightning. Ugggggh.
Her eyes settle on Lan Lilac.
She lowers her head, thinking back to that one chat they had in front of a storefront window.
Her hands curl into fists. She closes her eyes. and POUF.
She turns into a bat and flies over to Lan's shoulder, intending to land on it.
*squeak*
DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool Tomato Juice From Grownups toward her party's challenge, Storming the Weather. Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round! Sacrifice! The party will take slightly more Exhaustion this round!
===============<* Mount Liverfeast - The Sky Is Falling Apart *>================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Storming the Weather *>=====================
| Type: Entry | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Whether you are going by boat or by air (if you are so fortunate), one thing
becomes clear on the approach: there is no safe way towards the churning
cauldron of uncontrollable weather at Mt. Liverfeast.
The tides are out of control, threatening to batter nearby islands with
crashing waves. The winds are something else, frequently changing direction.
Lightning and hail join the 'fun.' Heat waves sap further at visibility and
just make it hard to breathe. Living bodies simply are not made to withstand
these conditions at length.
The problem is, you don't have any other way... and there's no time to wait
it out, because it's just getting worse. Breach the storm, and pray there is
an eye within so that you may scale the mountain and claim the truth from a
certain someone who doesn't believe you deserve it.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, |
| Quicken:_Agility_Up!, and Suffer:_Exhaustion_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
==========<* Mount Liverfeast - The Sky Is Falling Apart - Round 1 *>=========== =======================< Results - Storming the Weather >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Lanval 0 --(10)--> 10 Pass Bouyant Steed 2 Agility Effects: Cleanse and Risky -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 0 --(10)--> 10 Pass Butterfly Ribbon 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marivel Armitage 0 --(10)--> 10 Pass Tomato Juice From Grownups 2 Agility Effects: Cleanse and Sacrifice -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ryoko Mizore 0 --(10)--> 10 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Seraph Lanval 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Suffer(1) Effects: Cleanse|Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Seraph Lanval has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Seraph Lanval has drawn a new Challenge.
===============<* Mount Liverfeast - The Sky Is Falling Apart *>================
=========<* CHALLENGE - The Day of Indeterminate Elemental Alignment *>=========
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Combat | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Your team is here with a purpose and desire to see to it that Filgaia is
saved, and that a certain someone finally coughs up answers as to what the
hell is going on here. It seems as though others are here, far less
optimistic about what's to come... and yet open to theological discussion
concerning the difficult realities in front of them.
Valmar cultists have set up shop where lightning and hail strike the ground
(and each other), currently conflicted as to whether the Day they were
looking for wasn't a new Day of Darkness, but perhaps the Day of Ice, or Day
of Lightning, or whatever this is. This does not stop them from deciding
that sacrificing you to mark these, uh... dark days? Lit days? Icy days?
You'll need to tell them the following: not today. If you've brought a Gear,
they have a trembling horror to match (who remains just as confused by
present events as their unaltered comrades).
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Quicken:_Agility_Up!, Slow:_Agility_Down!, Stupify:_Wits_Down!, and |
| Weaken:_Brute_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
They all brace, in whatever form they can. Lanval's aura of the water of Filgaia itself intensifies as they breach the storms, doing his level best to protect Lan and Marivel from the brunt of these forces that are both foreign to the worlds they know and also completely oppressive. Ryoko's Revenant provides an even bigger 'body' to try and physically withstand it, and it feels like a near thing as they are blinded by force until... they come out the other side in silence, at the coast.
Seraph Lanval, tuckered out, disappears into that broken bottle he was going to do stabbing with. If everyone looks up... they can see 'it.' Strange fractal patterns, colors bleeding in and out of the visual spectrum...
D furTHeR aDjUstMentS are nEEdeD :D iT wIlL be FIne :D
"It'sh up at the peak, ain't it," comes Lanval's voice from the busted bottle, his voice settling back to that weird, tired slurring it typically does. "Tell 'em ta come down here sho I can shtab it..."
Dangerous weather phenomena fill the space ahead, though it is quiet. Marivel can tell that 'daylight' here makes no sense. The light rays coming from the sun are filtered into some other invisible color on a spectrum incompatible with known understandings of color, and so she doesn't have to fear combusting in th esun. This is, technically, a grace.
A certain man went on ahead of everyone... as did one other. How far ahead? Hopefully not too far ahead, because the metaphorical Chicken Little has told the truth, and they need to know why.
The sky is falling.
_ Crater Sea _
--------------
MOUNT LIVERFEAST
OST: Star Ocean Integrity and Faithlessness - Under Pressure
...
Rolling on up ahead, it looks like another group has breached this too. Valmar cultists, in the middle of their fell rituals, screaming amongst one another.
"O Valmar! Has the promised Day of Darkness been in error?!"
"O Valmar! Will you deliver unto us a Day of Wind? A Day of Ice?"
Lightning strikes them.
"A Day of Lightning?!"
Lanval's broken bottle rolls up, somehow pops up, and - despite being a literal broken bottle that cannot hold anything - sprays the contents of Holy Bottle all up in someone's face.
"Go shoak yer headsh!!" He shouts, but another one contorts and... changes, underneath their robes. It's unsightly, and frankly rude and unnecessary, but here we are. Day of Whatever Elemental Alignment This Is, and they take Valmar's blessing to become some sort of pulsating thing or another at about a scale appropriate for the Revanant to tackle.
"Mortals are gonna do what they're gonna," Lanval laments that much - he can't provide much more help than that.
DG: Seraph Lanval has used his Tool Holy Bottle toward his party's challenge, The Day of Indeterminate Elemental Alignment. Resilient! Party shielded from some exhaustion next round!
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
If all else fails, maybe they can just climb onto the Revenant and wade for it...! Marivel lands on Lan's shoulder with a squeak; she doesn't dare let go, even though her instinct is to cup a protective hand over the tiny body.
But they do make it to shore, finally, and Lan has never been happier to be on dry-ish ground. "Don't stab Demetrioi, okay, I know he feels bad to you but he's trying hard! ...Too hard, I know, but we've just got to convince him to stop!"
If they can't... what then? Will they really have to...
If the sick, unnatural colors in the sky are anything to go by, that might be an act of mercy. For Filgaia, and maybe for Demetrioi.
But ah, at least Lanval isn't sober and talking like a scroll anymore. It's weirdly comforting. Everything that cultists - especially this kind of cultists - generally aren't. "Stop worshipping a guy that's so horrible to people!" she snaps, perhaps uncharacteristically harsh. "You look like idiots! Take off those stupid robes and go home and apologize to your parents for being morons!"
...She's still upset about Riley and Xander, isn't she.
Perhaps inspired by Lanval, she uncorks her own bottle of holy water and upends it over their altar -- before taking a running jump into a dropkick that sends a cultist flying into one of his fellows with a thud.
DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Clear Water toward her party's challenge, The Day of Indeterminate Elemental Alignment. Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round!
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Mizore has posed.
The Revenant needed a deep cleaning anyway. A bit of water doesn't hurt anything. Ignore the warning about a short, that system isn't important. We're also going to ignore the bizarre colors because this isn't the first time she's had that sensation and the headache is racing to beat the memories for first place in bad times in her head. Ryoko is focused on other things currently anyway. Bringing the mech up and out of the water, leaving frozen footprints behind.
Which is when the roll up on some cultists. And a bigger... thing. The mech pulls a heavy duty axe, probably a repurposed tool like most of her on-foot kit, the blade starting to show an obvious sheen of ice quickly after, ether systems in full swing already. With a shuddering groan as the systems spin up, the mech jerks forward and lashes out with a foot, trying to knock the bizarre beast over so that she can bury the axe in the thing. Overhead, double handed downward swing and all! For the simplicity in it, there's at least the fact that she's a slightly better pilot than she is a brawler. Mostly. There's actual training noticeable at least.
Whether she's successful at chopping the thing down? She'll keep it tied up figuratively speaking. Trying to flash freeze the creature in the wake of axe swings. Salvage claw acting as an extra limb. Various spikes designed for movement used for dirty hits. The usual.
"Normally I'm all for second chances-" Her voice now has a few warning sounds and beeps to add to the static and breaks, "So I hope you've got a plan." She'll play nice for now, but she's focusing on a cultist instead for now. Because giant squishy thing wants to squish her smaller squishy things on foot.
DG: Ryoko Mizore has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Day of Indeterminate Elemental Alignment.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"*squeak*" Marivel the Bat says to Lan. She can like talk normal but right now she's not especially feeling it. Don't stab Demetrioi? Marivel doesn't want to stab Demetrioi and certainly she doesn't believe the needs of the many neccessarily outweigh the needs of the few when the few are doing all the work in saving filgaia in the first place but if Demetrioi is going to murder the world in a month then that's a problem even without what she heard from Eleanor.
It's because of Azoth's cuteness, isn't it? Yeah, she thinks, probably safe to blame Azoth for all these AI apologists lately. They just want to be cute and helpful! And they will be cute and helpful by creating an ecological disaster!
She sighs. Well, she's pretty partial to Azoth too. She's a sucker for cute robots!! Maybe she's the wrong person to be here.
So maybe she should just keep saying, "*squeak*" instead of grumbling to herself about this.
But regardless she draws out a remote out of her now tiny pouch and pushes a button.
There is a flash of light before (an) Asgard falls from the sky, aiming to land on one of the monstrosities and beat the shit out of it with repeated barrier punches.
"*squeak*" Marivel pats Lan's head with a wing.
DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool My Mike toward her party's challenge, The Day of Indeterminate Elemental Alignment. Embolden! Party Combat boosted! Liability! Failure will result in extra Exhaustion!
===============<* Mount Liverfeast - The Sky Is Falling Apart *>================
=========<* CHALLENGE - The Day of Indeterminate Elemental Alignment *>=========
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Combat | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Your team is here with a purpose and desire to see to it that Filgaia is
saved, and that a certain someone finally coughs up answers as to what the
hell is going on here. It seems as though others are here, far less
optimistic about what's to come... and yet open to theological discussion
concerning the difficult realities in front of them.
Valmar cultists have set up shop where lightning and hail strike the ground
(and each other), currently conflicted as to whether the Day they were
looking for wasn't a new Day of Darkness, but perhaps the Day of Ice, or Day
of Lightning, or whatever this is. This does not stop them from deciding
that sacrificing you to mark these, uh... dark days? Lit days? Icy days?
You'll need to tell them the following: not today. If you've brought a Gear,
they have a trembling horror to match (who remains just as confused by
present events as their unaltered comrades).
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, Embolden:_Combat_Up!, |
| Resilient:_Exhaustion_Down!, Slow:_Agility_Down!, Stupify:_Wits_Down!, and |
| Weaken:_Brute_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
==========<* Mount Liverfeast - The Sky Is Falling Apart - Round 2 *>=========== ===========< Results - The Day of Indeterminate Elemental Alignment >=========== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Lanval 10 --(5)--> 15 Pass Holy Bottle 2 Combat Effects: Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 10 --(5)--> 15 Pass Clear Water 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marivel Armitage 10 --(5)--> 15 Pass My Mike 3 Combat Effects: Liability and Embolde -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ryoko Mizore 10 --(27)--> 37 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Seraph Lanval 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Slow(2)|Stupify(2)|Weaken(2) Effects: Cleanse|Embolden(1)|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Seraph Lanval has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Seraph Lanval has drawn a new Challenge.
===============<* Mount Liverfeast - The Sky Is Falling Apart *>================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Local Warming *>=========================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
As it so happens, there are sudden heat waves that are also part of the
meteorological mix - heat waves just as bad or worse than those of the
Badlands of Ignas. The flipping between frigid cold and scorching heat does
nobody good, and stands to turn key Gear mechanisms brittle.
The worst of it comes in the form of hazy mirages ahead, exacerbated by the
strange colors of the clouds above and the way light reflects off what ice
that has somehow been allowed to reform in its vicinity. Features and
would-be landmarks seem impossible to determine as real, either for shelter
or navigation... or simply avoiding a dangerous situation like, say,
liquefied rock.
There must be some way to keep one's wits in figuring out what's real or
what's not, when the heat itself may be causing otherwise reliable Gear
instruments to malfunction.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Embolden:_Combat_Up!, Resilient:_Exhaustion_Down!, Suffer:_Exhaustion_Up!, |
| and Weaken:_Brute_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Combat breaks out in earnest. Some of the Valmar cultists do bear sacrificial daggers, but none of them pose a threat to Lan - the only human-sized target here - in the least. She mops up on the ground easily almost by her lonesome, as her holy water washes all over the altar.
"Day of Water...?" One of them thinks before being dropkicked.
The big concern is... the big mutated one, who will not be described further as anything other than 'big' and 'mutated.' It locks with the Revanant in a deadly struggle for strength. Whatever physiology empowers it, it is wrong, and scary, and it takes way more focus for Ryoko to help flash-freeze it. Lily's lessons turn it from 'impossible to do' to 'a long shot.'
But she has help. Help, from (an) Asgard that descends down and beats the ever living crap out of it so that Ryoko can do the deed and freeze what's left of it. It's impossible to tell if that can really be killed, so flash-freezing it will have to do for now. (The Asgard can continue beating on it if they please.) The rest scatter, to continue their theological discussions somewhere else. ("Day of Neon? Day of Potassium? Day of Surprise?")
"My plan'sh ta shtab it with a broken bottle!" Seraph Lanval is, generally speaking, a somewhat dim but jolly soul whose native Domain empowers and enhances small joys. This is not a place of small joys. This is a place that is wrong. The broken bottle rolls along a snowbank, tilting its open neck up to Lan in consideration for her hopes and feelings.
"It ish true. The people of Hyades had worked hard ta mend their waysh after Mother." Lanval concedes. "I ain't gonna put it pasht the realm of posshibility fer... that, but... 'till whatever'sh goin' on wantsh ta play nice otherwishe 'm gonna shtab it. With a broken bottle."
He might not get the chance, but Lan at least can have the reassurance that someone among them might be open to an alternative.
...
The ascent continues, somewhat uneventfully for a bit. Nothing's attacking them, or falling on them. The sky looks eerie, almost like it could be... stained.
"It'sh gotten real warm," Lanval says, and he's underselling it. Awful heatwaves roll across the length of the upward path against the frigid cold, and the way light reflects off of things... it's hard on the eyes. It makes blurry colors and shapes that the brain might try to auto-correct into familiar concepts and ideas. Are they there? Are they not?
The rolling broken bottle is now wearing novelty beer bottle glasses. Do not question this. "Mmm. Gonna warn ya, I think that'sh lava up there."
Mount Liverfeast is - was! - a dormant volcano. Having it erupt again would be a historic event unto itself, against the backdrop of whatever is going on!
) eVeRYthING wiLL holD JUst RiiiiiiGhhT :) i havE a proJECteeeeD MoDel :D
That doesn't sound ominous at all. No, that sounds entirely sweet and convincing! Maybe it'll be all right and they can turn around.
"That shoundsh real ominoush," Lanval disagrees with the narration.
DG: Seraph Lanval has used his Tool Amber Tinted Glasses toward his party's challenge, Local Warming. Fanfare!
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
It is probably all because of Azoth's cuteness. Cuteness heals many ills, and causes as many more. It truly is a two-edged sword...!
But at least beating the snot out of some gullible Valmar-worshippers lets her work off some frustration. Hey, someone's got to keep the small fry occupied and Lan is just the girl for the job. She's wiping her hands off on the seat of her shorts when Big and Mutatey gets frozen, a few stray ice crystals melting on her skin. She wants to yell something pithy and cool at the retreating cultists, but Lan is neither of those things. :(
And honestly, she's starting to get Extra Worried. "...I know that things might not get better," she admits, crouching on her heels next to Lanval's bottle for a few moments. "But he's like a child. He just wants to help. You have to teach children... even if he's really not one." You're not supposed to stab them. Even if you might have to.
And now there's lava. Great. "...At least I'm used to hot weather," Lan sighs, standing back up. Looking at the sky hurts her eyes and kind of makes her feel like she's going to throw up, so she doesn't. Instead, she dips into her pockets for the oracle paper she relies on so often. From her experience, the spirits anywhere around Demetrioi say the same things as Seraphs. But maybe she can at least ask about a shortcut to the top.
DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Paku-Paku toward her party's challenge, Local Warming. Enlighten! Party Wits boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Mizore has posed.
Ryoko Mizore is sporting some bare patches of paint, a few new dents and some bits of cultist in places the mech shouldn't have them. She'll have fun with a power washer later. The struggle against the big beast is a bit on the embarrassing side for her, but that's neither here nor there. She can't blame anything, but herself either way.
With the fight over, she pushes the mech back to its feet, flipping a few switches to mute the everpresent warning lights and sounds that accompany them. "Yes yes I now everything's broken and unhappy. That's life." She mutters to no one. Probably forgot hse was hotmic'd. There's also a banging sound as she kicks somethign back into place. Don't worry about it.
Between the heat waves, the risk of lava and the risk of rain, probably, she's not liking their odds. The chest opens up, exposing the pilot as she calls down, "Hey with this kind of heat, you need to be careful. If it's too much I have... I can probably make room in the cockpit. Could probably try to scatter some..-" she pauses. Trying to think. "Maybe robes like you see in the desert if it comes down to it. A quick bit of work with a knife and the canvas in my kit and we could probably at least partially insulate things." She glances back over her shoulder at the storage.. pack. "It's insulted cloth since it's supposed to help with heating and cooling problems." And it's pricy, but that can be compensated for. Eh.
As for the concept of stabbing a machine, she says, "Sometimes you have to break something to fix it." Leave it to an engineer to have that mindset. "I uh- won't jump straight to that. I haven't exactly had a chance to do much with sentient machines other than hit one in the head and offer to repair another. Also tried to help both a-.. nevermind."
As for the lava itself, if they need to cross it, she goes for the easy route. Lots of ether magic. Probably not great for exhaustion, but good enough, right?
DG: Ryoko Mizore has used her Tool Combat Engineer Kit toward her party's challenge, Local Warming. Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel thinks Lan's pretty much right on the money here but that's the problem with AI. They might be children but they can be notoriously difficult to teach away from their programming. Frankly, the device feels less sapient than Azoth and Azoth is pretty close to the line in some ways.
She puts the remote away but luckily, as a bat, once theyh ead into an area where you can't rely on sight--she can, at the very least, rely on...
ECHOLOCATION. BAT POWERS!!!
Marivel closes her eyes as cartoon sound waves emanate from her and bounce around the place. They're there so you know she's wroking on it!
She should tell LAn just about how many children will die if things continue as is but she doesn't. She just..
...isn't feeling it.
"Give it your best shot," She suggests to Lan. You never know.
Even when a seer knew.
DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool Wisdom of the Crimson Nobles toward her party's challenge, Local Warming. Fanfare!
===============<* Mount Liverfeast - The Sky Is Falling Apart *>================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Local Warming *>=========================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
As it so happens, there are sudden heat waves that are also part of the
meteorological mix - heat waves just as bad or worse than those of the
Badlands of Ignas. The flipping between frigid cold and scorching heat does
nobody good, and stands to turn key Gear mechanisms brittle.
The worst of it comes in the form of hazy mirages ahead, exacerbated by the
strange colors of the clouds above and the way light reflects off what ice
that has somehow been allowed to reform in its vicinity. Features and
would-be landmarks seem impossible to determine as real, either for shelter
or navigation... or simply avoiding a dangerous situation like, say,
liquefied rock.
There must be some way to keep one's wits in figuring out what's real or
what's not, when the heat itself may be causing otherwise reliable Gear
instruments to malfunction.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, Suffer:_Exhaustion_Up!, |
| and Weaken:_Brute_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
==========<* Mount Liverfeast - The Sky Is Falling Apart - Round 3 *>=========== ==========================< Results - Local Warming >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Lanval 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Amber Tinted Glasses 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Paku-Paku 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marivel Armitage 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Wisdom of the Crimson Nobles 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ryoko Mizore 37 --(0)--> 37 Pass Combat Engineer Kit 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Seraph Lanval 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Suffer(1)|Weaken(1) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Seraph Lanval has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Seraph Lanval has drawn a new Challenge.
===============<* Mount Liverfeast - The Sky Is Falling Apart *>================
===============<* CHALLENGE - Emergency Broadcast Signal Test *>================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Having a Gear with you is protection against the ceaseless storms, but it is
not absolute. Ahead of you is a ruined Gear left abandoned by another party
that attempted to brave Mt. Liverfeast. Though it's impossible to tell where
they've gone or whether they're still alive, a cursory examination provides
a surprising grace.
Its communication systems are damaged, but they are compatible with your
group's own (and/or are familiar enough to at least one of you, however
strange it may be). It's not fully protected from the elements, so there's a
risk factor involved in putting oneself out there to make the repairs and
adjustments needed.
If you are able to make them work again, you'll be able to better coordinate
with the other parties and collectively make the journey to the summit of
Mt. Liverfeast less of a suspension of disbelief.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, Injure:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, |
| Stupify:_Wits_Down!, and Treasure:_Exploration_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Marivel ends up taking the lead with the POWER of ECHOLOCATION, which provides much more exacting information as to where something is, or everything else is. For example, next to her - next to everyone! - is a good, kind friend who is willing to spare insulated cloth to help everyone who needs it. (They just might. It's bad out here!)
Lan calls for help in asking for a shortcut. What she gets... the Ley energies here are all aflutter in a 'bad' way, strongly aspected towards Fray. She gets enough to pick up where is absolutely not safe to walk - and further away from that, as to not breathe in toxic gas.
"'m thinkin'... who're they really tryin' ta help?" Lanval says, as the bottle rolls along. With novelty glasses on. A lens falls off and bounces down the path (it's fine). "Now, uh, I wash... really makin' nice with shome eels," he's made a lot of friends with eels lately! He's not Lucadia's servant, but he's found common ground with eels over water and it's kind of fun, "through mosht of that bit with, Alcidamas? 'n Harmonde, too. Lotsha eel friendsh. But anyway... I wanna trusht ya," Lanval says, "yer a good friend. One of the kinder mortal people I've gotten ta know. 'm hopin' they lishten."
It might not be a bad idea for a temporary carry within the Revenant for as long as it takes to get to clearer, cleaner air than what's ahead.
) it wiLl be finE for millIoNS of yeeeEeeeEearS :D the haPPineSs cAn lasT for BILlioNs of YEArs :D
It's frozen again. Windy. Rainy. Mostly frozen. They may want to hide behind Ryoko's Gear for a bit as they draw closer, and in fact she'll be the first to detect there's another Gear here by her navigation instruments. It's possible there's some extensive thermal damage from the exposure, but if she draws closer... there's a ruined Gear, all right. Abandoned, though some things are still active and putting out heat singals.
No one else is present there (beyond the party). Quick! Temporary shelter! Take it, take it, take it! It's not that well-protected from the elements but it's better than being caught out here, and the internals are able to be accessed without too much trouble.
"Mmm." Broken bottle-Lanval pops up into a compartment shelf. "Do ya think ya can put a word out? Let everyone elshe know we're here," Lanval suggests, as the remaining lens on the glasses reflects some strange light from outside onto some other unseen parts of the Gear's internal areas.
"...'m shtill gonna shtab it with a broken bottle, but it'd be the besht if anyone... that might've sheen 'em ash a friend can meet with ya up there too, Lan."
But there's at least one or two parties unaccounted for that went here - and there's no sign that this was their handiwork.
DG: Seraph Lanval has used his Tool Amber Tinted Glasses toward his party's challenge, Emergency Broadcast Signal Test. Fanfare!
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
She looks up at the sound of the Revenant's cockpit hatch opening. "It's definitely gonna be hotter than the Badlands," she admits, fingers pausing in their motions within the paku-paku. She doesn't want to climb into a Gear unless she absolutely has to!!
...Then again, it's a better idea than being roasted alive by lava.
"...If I can borrow some?" she capitulates, a bit sheepishly... and very gratefully.
Lan, who is a desert-dweller by birth, doesn't have much trouble rigging them up some insulating cloaks from the material that Ryoko provides. She's much less knowledgeable about how to properly insulate a Gear, but she'll follow Ryoko's instructions. At least it's no problem at all for her to reach the highest parts! Later, she calls out the directions as she receives them - between the spirits' helpful advice and Marivel's echolocation (not to mention Ryoko being able to literally wade across lava in her Gear), they make it further. (Lanval gets picked up for that part.)
"It's not... I don't understand why it's so hard for people to be kind," Lan frowns. "We all live easier if we live together. Y'know...?"
When a village gets too large, when you can no longer name all of your neighbors, when it becomes 'us' versus 'them'... the 'haves' and 'have nots'... that's when it happens, Lan thinks. It's easy to share with a friend. It's harder to share with a stranger.
The new, unknown Gear stands like a solitary scarecrow, if scarecrows were forty feet tall and creaked at just the worst times for Lan's nerves. She hops out of Revenant's hand, soaring across the gap between it and the abandoned Gear's own cockpit. "Helloooooo! Anybody home?!"
Marivel or Ryoko will have to work the radio for her!
DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Paku-Paku toward her party's challenge, Emergency Broadcast Signal Test. Enlighten! Party Wits boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Mizore has posed.
Ryoko Mizore finds herself acting as a glorified taxi! Which you know, is fine with her. If a bit more awkward than it should have been. Still, there's some help in getting the cloth cut and handled properly, one desert nomad to another.
Ethius is given a curious look, "Hey you uh... this isn't horrifically bad for you in this kind of mess is it?" She's prety sure it'd be bad if he evaporated at least. Intoxicating rain for miles around. Lan is given a careful pat on the shoulder as she makes... some kind of space. She even tries to crack a joke, "Finally get to show a cute girl Revenant and it's a mess." She's trying to distract the clearly nervous woman. Also Marivel's given a little targeting icon on her HUD so they can follow. Red. Not enemy red, just red. Also a little bat icon, because why not.
Still, they make their way forward. Through magma and lava or... lava and magma. She can't remember which is which. She does know she can keep the air cold enough to minimize damage to Revenant though. Stomping through the mess until they go from fire to ice. And find a downed gear. Also the gear is much, much colder. Ryoko's breath is showing. That's the first time she's realized she should probably insulate the inside of the mech better too. Well, against cold. Hadn't occured to her before really.
Crouching down by the mech, if any of them were still riding along, well they have the choice of staying in or getting out. There's a much more polished mechanical sound as a newer part, one of her modifications activates. Detaching from the hiding place. She's getting to work on tearing the Gear down enough to get into the radio system. New overlay on the screen, new options and tools to work with. She's actually in her element! Even if these tools were technically supposed to be fixing gears, works well enough for tearing one down too.
"What message are we relaying?" she asks, trying to get a connection. Working through the electrical system slowly, carefully. Between the extreme heat, cold and wet, this might be a sunk cause from the get go.
DG: Ryoko Mizore has used her Tool Combat Engineer Kit toward her party's challenge, Emergency Broadcast Signal Test. Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Pretty sure in billions of years the sun'll go supernova." Marivel mutters. "They've bloody gone rampant."
Marivel really doesn't want to get into a humanoid form. Asgard is providing a kind of barrier for her (and incidentally, anyone who happens to be near her such as Lan). Lanval offers a question and Marivel asays, "An alien construct like that could be tring to make this a viable planet for an entirely different kind of lifeform. Like Mother, but less malevolently and more..."
Well they're listening and mabe she shouldn't finish that sentence. But she does say, "while I can only speak of this in theory, alien lifeforms that thrive in environments we would find completely inhospitable is not just possible but likely considering the vastness of the cosmos."
Marivel is eventualyl forced to transform into her humanoid form in order to get out and help work on the Gear. Fortunately for MArivel, toxic fumes ain't gonna kill her but she will probably want to discard the body later since this sort of stuff tends to sink into the vessel and it's a real drag.
Her head isn't really in the game right now.
"Lan." Marivel says softly, finally.
"I couldn't save her."
DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool Wisdom of the Crimson Nobles toward her party's challenge, Emergency Broadcast Signal Test. Fanfare!
===============<* Mount Liverfeast - The Sky Is Falling Apart *>================
===============<* CHALLENGE - Emergency Broadcast Signal Test *>================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Having a Gear with you is protection against the ceaseless storms, but it is
not absolute. Ahead of you is a ruined Gear left abandoned by another party
that attempted to brave Mt. Liverfeast. Though it's impossible to tell where
they've gone or whether they're still alive, a cursory examination provides
a surprising grace.
Its communication systems are damaged, but they are compatible with your
group's own (and/or are familiar enough to at least one of you, however
strange it may be). It's not fully protected from the elements, so there's a
risk factor involved in putting oneself out there to make the repairs and
adjustments needed.
If you are able to make them work again, you'll be able to better coordinate
with the other parties and collectively make the journey to the summit of
Mt. Liverfeast less of a suspension of disbelief.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, |
| Injure:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, Stupify:_Wits_Down!, and |
| Treasure:_Exploration_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
==========<* Mount Liverfeast - The Sky Is Falling Apart - Round 4 *>=========== =================< Results - Emergency Broadcast Signal Test >================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Lanval 15 --(5)--> 20 Pass Amber Tinted Glasses 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 15 --(5)--> 20 Pass Paku-Paku 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marivel Armitage 15 --(5)--> 20 Pass Wisdom of the Crimson Nobles 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ryoko Mizore 37 --(5)--> 42 Pass Combat Engineer Kit 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Seraph Lanval 60 --(25)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Stupify(2)|Treasure(1) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Seraph Lanval has passed this challenge! The party gained 25 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Seraph Lanval has drawn a new Challenge.
===============<* Mount Liverfeast - The Sky Is Falling Apart *>================
==============<* CHALLENGE - The Last Line of Willful Ignorance *>==============
| Type: Final | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
You are fast approaching the summit of Mt. Liverfeast. Your team finds safe
passage through a cavern that has weathered the weather intact... and it
becomes evident that you're not the only one who found it.
In your way is a sheet of metal shorn from a vehicle of Gebler make that had
the misfortune of trying to brave the storms directly. It has been welded
directly in front of the way out, and is smoldering as if its application
were recent. You know whose handiwork this is. They've taken an effort,
however token, to keep you at bay.
This isn't going to stop you. No door - or door-equivalent obstruction -
will keep you. Not from the summit. Not from answers... if you're ready for
them. (A certain someone doesn't think so.)
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, Overzealous:_Brute_Down!_Combat_Up!, and |
| Weaken:_Brute_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Nobody is home, Lan finds. The agitated spirits do not speak to Lan - so this Gear is temporary shelter, definitively abandoned and ready to be searched and worked on - but there is a poignant discussion to be had about how it's difficult for people to be kind, to work together.
"'m fine... enough," Lanval murmurs from within the bottle at Ryoko's concern. The bottle might attempt to smile. It will be an invisible, easily unnoticed attempt, because the neck is not flexible and there's nothing to really make a smile with. But an attempt is made - and Ryoko is given the space to get to work on the radio.
"Mmm... jusht let 'em know we're 'bout at the top," Lanval suggests, but as Marivel comes in to chime in about millions and billions, Lanval goes... "I can't count that high. Like... ya get ta ten-thoushand? That'sh already 'bout uncountable. The hey we doin' with numbersh bigger 'n that."
He stops grousing and listening about how they could be trying to make this a viable planet for someone else, an entirely different people.
"Mmm... can't be fer the Veruni if what I heard off-hand ish right," and that's weird because... they had it? He doesn't think too hard about it. He's irrelevant to the issue at hand, as between Ryoko and Marivel they are able to get the emergency broadcast online. Ryoko will know how to get it to braodcast an emergency signal and get in what needs to be said. Marivel can rig it so that it'll keep going for hours, barring a catastrophic weather event. (...as in, another catastrophic weather event, they're already going through one.)
Marivel's Asgard will be able to punch another obstruction out of the way, leading to a cavern inside... that's starting to look a bit too small for Gears. There's just enough space for them, for now.
The tunnels provide much-needed cover from the weather, and they don't hear Demetrioi going through whatever motions they're going through.
Lanval's bottle bumps up against an obstruction. Sheet of metal shorn from some Gebler vehicle or another. It's still smoldering hot at the edges, as if it were recently welded (something Ryoko and Marivel might pick up on compared to the less scientifically- and industrially-minded among them).
"...'m not gonna be able ta get through that," Lanval remarks, as he regards the others. "I know more'sh gonna be comin'... gonna hafta hold my shtrength, besht I got here." It's extremely oppressive for Seraphim, here.
He looks to Lan, specifically. "'m gonna trusht ya ta do the right thing, once yer all through it, all right...? I'll let everyone elshe know we're goin' through here." He spins the bottle. "Pasht that... it'sh there."
He regards Marivel, too, momentarily for her melancholy. She's always had that weight of something beyond the smiles and pomp and circumstance she put forth. He'll be there for her the very moment she finds a small thing to be happy about.
And last, to Ryoko. "Thanksh fer helpin' 'em through. If ya can fix whatever'sh goin' on over there, well. All the better."
...
He does hurl himself up against the barrier the once, though. The bottle breaks off a bit more.
"Don't mind me!" Seraph Lanval calls within the breaking bottle. "Jusht gotta get it broken a li'l more fer the perfect edge~"
...Anyway. Destiny awaits. That destiny... involves answers.
DG: Seraph Lanval has contributed a risky Brute Action toward his party's challenge, The Last Line of Willful Ignorance.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
She can't help it. Even Gwen's Halcyone is uncomfortable. Gears are just... "Heh... thanks," she chuckles weakly, wiping a bit of sweat off of her forehead. "Even if it's a mess, it's still helping us." She talks about it likes it's alive. Maybe all Gears are just quieter Azoths, to Lan.
Once they're poking about the strange Gear's dashboard (Lan is not, she's sort of just taking shelter and trying to stay out of their way), her only suggestion as for the message to send is, "I dunno... tell them we're coming. We're here to help." Or try. Or die trying! ...Hopefully not that last one.
"Are you saying that... Demetrioi is doing this for aliens? Like Homer Mecone?" (He is Lan's only frame of reference, okay.)
"Save her...?" she echoes, watching Marivel. "Who?" A name comes to her from vague memory, from their last encounter in the Dreaming. "Uh... Anna?" Oh Lan, you were so close.
As they come up on a final barrier - why is it hot around the edges?? - Lanval says he trusts her to do the right thing. "..." What if the right thing is killing Demetrioi? "...He was my hope, you know?" she tells them, looking straight ahead. "That something could heal Filgaia. Even if it wasn't the Guardians, even if everything about it felt wrong and creepy, it was still possible to fix everything."
And because she doesn't want to think about that, Lan waits until Lanval has rolled away from the metal panel again before she raises her arms in a casting position, a short series of meteor-like cannon bursts hammering against the obstruction.
DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Last Line of Willful Ignorance.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Asgard is going to be helping out with this latest obstruction by trying to pummel at it while Marivel turns back into a bat and flutters back to Lan. She says, "Possibly," to Lan Lilac. "This is why I don't encourage using Space Tech. People can't even handle Filgaia tech and they want to play around with Space Tech. Teasing Ethius aside he usually knows what he's doing about this sort of thing."
It might be a bit extreme... but it works!! Until people stop listening to you because they're tired of your attitude but Marivel is pretty used to being the one with the attitude so she doesn't really dwell on that.
Who?
"...Kamui," Marivel tells Lan. "The DElta Virus has her now."
She doesn't sound like she thinks she expects a miraculous recovery or anything.
MEANWHILE
Asgard: *POUND! POUND! POUND! PUNCH! POUND!*
DG: Marivel Armitage has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Last Line of Willful Ignorance.
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Mizore has posed.
Ryoko Mizore cracks her fingers after getting the systems up and running, getting a blast of static for her efforts and annoyed look. It's working though. She relays the message, staying surprisingly straightforward and professional on the radio. Relaying relevant information, height and even warnings about some of the problems present should anyone try to follow up. Beyond that though, she response to Lanval, not quite getting the smiling bottle thing. The bottle is given an odd look though since it looks funny. "Just don't... freeze either." she mutters something about the weather being awful even for a doomsday weapon's designs.
She doesn't know any of these names, truth be told, but she does know that most of the present company is some manner of friendly so she rolls with it instead.
"Welded in place." She suggests, "Recently." And that claw comes out again. Supported by the gear's hands and the bracing spikes in the mech's feet to hold it in place! Then she tries to tear the thing away. Ripping at it with devices again, designed around battlefield salvage and teardown. Hope it helps! "Delta virus?" She asks, confused. She has no idea what that is.
DG: Ryoko Mizore has used her Tool Recovery Claw toward her party's challenge, The Last Line of Willful Ignorance. Resilient! Party shielded from some exhaustion next round!
===============<* Mount Liverfeast - The Sky Is Falling Apart *>================
==============<* CHALLENGE - The Last Line of Willful Ignorance *>==============
| Type: Final | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
You are fast approaching the summit of Mt. Liverfeast. Your team finds safe
passage through a cavern that has weathered the weather intact... and it
becomes evident that you're not the only one who found it.
In your way is a sheet of metal shorn from a vehicle of Gebler make that had
the misfortune of trying to brave the storms directly. It has been welded
directly in front of the way out, and is smoldering as if its application
were recent. You know whose handiwork this is. They've taken an effort,
however token, to keep you at bay.
This isn't going to stop you. No door - or door-equivalent obstruction -
will keep you. Not from the summit. Not from answers... if you're ready for
them. (A certain someone doesn't think so.)
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Overzealous:_Brute_Down!_Combat_Up!, Resilient:_Exhaustion_Down!, and |
| Weaken:_Brute_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
==========<* Mount Liverfeast - The Sky Is Falling Apart - Round 5 *>=========== ================< Results - The Last Line of Willful Ignorance >================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Lanval 20 --(101)--> 121 Fail Force 1 Brute Effects: Risky -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 20 --(101)--> 121 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marivel Armitage 20 --(101)--> 121 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ryoko Mizore 42 --(101)--> 143 Fail Recovery Claw 2 Brute Effects: Resilient -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Seraph Lanval 80 --(15)--> 95 Fail Conditions: Overzealous(2)|Weaken(2) Effects: Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: Seraph Lanval is too exhausted to continue! DG: Lan Lilac is too exhausted to continue! DG: Marivel Armitage is too exhausted to continue! DG: Ryoko Mizore 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 Seraph Lanval has been fully Exhausted by Mount Liverfeast - The Sky Is Falling Apart! DG: The party will now draw a conclusion.
===============<* Mount Liverfeast - The Sky Is Falling Apart *>================
=========<* CHALLENGE - Influence of Truth Appearance (v. Landmark) *>==========
| Type: Landmark | Dungeon Ability: Conclusion | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
It takes some effort, and some of it via help by other parties that show up
at about the same time, but together you're able to get the barricade
removed. The way ahead is too small for Gears, but nonetheless, your party
is ready to deal with what's ahead.
It's the furthest thing ahead that first draws the eyes, in ways deeply
uncomfortable. Those who visited Alcidamas Village will know that the
shrubby, tree-like... entity... that has become an even larger,
gnarled-looking tree is Demetrioi. Non-euclidian geometry dances on its
leaves and fruit, all wreathed in a color bleeding just outside of the
visual spectrum. Their friendly smile has given way to frustration behind a
completely different (forced) smile. They stand at the epicenter of all of
this...
...But before one can say anything, ahead there's two figures much closer to
you. Though the weather continues to rage, they can be seen... and heard.
One can be identified as Kaguya, who struggles to draw breath and is in a
losing battle to stay upright. The other is in a heavy white coat with a
quarterstaff in hand, planted upright. They look over their shoulder just as
you arrive, reaveling they're wearing a partially dented mask that sort of
resembles a bird's face.
"Turn back." That voice can only belong to one man - Ethius - as he speaks
against the maelstrom about him. It's as though the hail and the striking
lightning avoids him. "I'll not tolerate further interference."
Homer Mecone, the pig-like former mayor of Alcidamas Village, has arrived
here at about the same time (likely by another party). "H-Hey, hold up...
that mask," and with that statement, mortal terror spreads across Homer's
features as he clutches his pitchfork. "That day! The day we were handin'
off Demetrioi... somebody in that damn mask killed everyone there... managed
to take it off that guy's face as I ran, th-that was..."
"You've caused years of grief." Ethius all but soft confirms as he lingers
upon Homer for several moments as advances towards Demetrioi. "But I will
not put off what needs to be done."
"Get the hell away from Demetrioi!!" Homer snarls and takes off running.
"We're here, Demetrioi, we ain't gonna let--"
It ends in a flash, with Ethius flipping Homer right into the ground. Above,
another Gebler ship tries to brave the endless storms, smoking and on fire
as it approaches everyone's position.
TO BE CONTINUED...
(As a Landmark bonus, should the character you send have gotten that result,
you start the following Gunslinger scene with an extra 25 FP!)
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Overzealous:_Brute_Down!_Combat_Up!, Resilient:_Exhaustion_Down!, |
| Treasure:_Exploration_Up!, and Weaken:_Brute_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Combat breaks out in earnest. Some of the Valmar cultists do bear sacrificial daggers, but none of them pose a threat to Lan - the only human-sized target here - in the least. She mops up on the ground easily almost by her lonesome, as her holy water washes all over the altar.
"Day of Water...?" One of them thinks before being dropkicked.
The big concern is... the big mutated one, who will not be described further as anything other than 'big' and 'mutated.' It locks with the Revanant in a deadly struggle for strength. Whatever physiology empowers it, it is wrong, and scary, and it takes way more focus for Ryoko to help flash-freeze it. Lily's lessons turn it from 'impossible to do' to 'a long shot.'
But she has help. Help, from (an) Asgard that descends down and beats the ever living crap out of it so that Ryoko can do the deed and freeze what's left of it. It's impossible to tell if that can really be killed, so flash-freezing it will have to do for now. (The Asgard can continue beating on it if they please.) The rest scatter, to continue their theological discussions somewhere else. ("Day of Neon? Day of Potassium? Day of Surprise?")
"My plan'sh ta shtab it with a broken bottle!" Seraph Lanval is, generally speaking, a somewhat dim but jolly soul whose native Domain empowers and enhances small joys. This is not a place of small joys. This is a place that is wrong. The broken bottle rolls along a snowbank, tilting its open neck up to Lan in consideration for her hopes and feelings.
"It ish true. The people of Hyades had worked hard ta mend their waysh after Mother." Lanval concedes. "I ain't gonna put it pasht the realm of posshibility fer... that, but... 'till whatever'sh goin' on wantsh ta play nice otherwishe 'm gonna shtab it. With a broken bottle."
He might not get the chance, but Lan at least can have the reassurance that someone among them might be open to an alternative.
...
The ascent continues, somewhat uneventfully for a bit. Nothing's attacking them, or falling on them. The sky looks eerie, almost like it could be... stained.
"It'sh gotten real warm," Lanval says, and he's underselling it. Awful heatwaves roll across the length of the upward path against the frigid cold, and the way light reflects off of things... it's hard on the eyes. It makes blurry colors and shapes that the brain might try to auto-correct into familiar concepts and ideas. Are they there? Are they not?
The rolling broken bottle is now wearing novelty beer bottle glasses. Do not question this. "Mmm. Gonna warn ya, I think that'sh lava up there."
Mount Liverfeast is - was! - a dormant volcano. Having it erupt again would be a historic event unto itself, against the backdrop of whatever is going on!
) eVeRYthING wiLL holD JUst RiiiiiiGhhT :) i havE a proJECteeeeD MoDel :D
That doesn't sound ominous at all. No, that sounds entirely sweet and convincing! Maybe it'll be all right and they can turn around.
"That shoundsh real ominoush," Lanval disagrees with the narration.
[OOC] Seraph Lanval says, "*bluray - not that one"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
This is around the time all the parties come together, and do their part to get the barricade down. Ryoko will find that whoever welded this... is thorough. A professional. In putting up aggravating improvised welded barricades. Lanval gets his bottle's sharp points to his satisfaction(?). Asgard keeps pounding on it as Marivel works out her feelings. Lan throws meteor-like cannon bursts. They can't do it by themselves.
But they can do it with the help of others.
Beyond is... a sight. There is Demetrioi, who has grown into something gnarled and horrifying, with a forced smile. Two figures - one is Kaguya, struggling to stand. The other... more on that in a moment.
) it is vEerRRRy harRRRRd tTo trYyyy aAnd maaakeEee iIit beEEetter wheeEEn iiiIt doeeEes nOoooot :D but iIt musSSt bEEe bestTTeerRR thHHhaaAAn beEettTteRRrr becaaAuse it cannoOOot be acceEEepted as lessSSssss :)
That's to(?) Marivel.
o i CaAan nevVerRr undeEerstAaand hoOOoWww itTt staAarteEed bUuut iI CanNn unNndeEerstAaand why iIiit iIs wrOoOong :) andDd whAaat cCann maaAke iIit riiIIght forevEEer and evVerRrr :D
...That's to Ryoko?
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
) theEEre arRRe sSso mAAaAny friEEenNnds yEeet tTo bEeee maAade :D i mUuusSt bEEe frRrieNnds wIith them tOoo :)
...That's to Lan? Going by the twitch in their eye.
o yoOouUU shoOOuUulLd nOooot bEeee afraAaaiIId of tThe neWw friEEeenDds thAAat wiLl cCoMmme :) thEeey wilLll nNnot undeEerRrstTanNd whHatT cAaamMMe bEeefoOorRe eiTtHheRRr :D
"'m shtill gonna shtab it," Lanval says. Other things of this nature are said to those gathered, but...
"Turn back." That's Ethius' voice, from a man dressed in white. Hail and lightning avoid him, but that may be theatrics. "I'll not tolerate further interference."
Homer - who came here by another party - gasps for air. "H-Hey, hold up... that mask," he comes to life with fear as he holds his pitchfork. "That day! That day we were handin' off Demetrioi... somebody in that damn mask killed everyone there... managed to take it off that guy's face as I ran, th-that was..."
"You've caused years of grief." Ethius interrupts. Ethius, who claimed he was sent in pursuit about the loss of product... that was a convenient lie, then. He was part of the equation from the very beginning! He who ambushed the Mecones and who they were looking to sell Demetrioi to...! He turns towards the Demetrioi. "But I will not put off what needs to be done."
Homer, defiant at last after months upon months of bieng dragged around, snarls. "GEt the hell away from Demetrioi!!! We're here, Demetrioi, we ain't gonna let--"
Homer doesn't stand a chance. Ethius flattens Homer into the ground with a martial flourish. Above, another Gebler ship tries to brave the endless storm, already gravely damaged from the attempt as it approaches everyone's position.
Whatever truth is ahead that has influenced these events... it is on the verge of appearing.