2022-12-16: The Power of Light is Fading

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  • Log: The Power of Light is Fading
  • Cast: Loren Voss, Lan Lilac, Shige Kiwako, Marivel Armitage, Leah Sadalbari
  • Where: Weylish Ruins
  • Date: December 16, 2022
  • Summary: Loren, at Leah's behest, enters into a swamp, and from there has a rather typical series of unpleasant encounters -- but what is unusual about it this time is what they find in the depths of the ruins within the mire. Does it have some bearing on what is to come?

DG: A party led by Loren Voss is now entering Emrys Mire.
DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
================================<* Emrys Mire *>================================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Lost in the Mire *>=======================
| Type: Entry        | Dungeon Ability: Wits            | Challenge Rating: 2  |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
  Even at first glance, one thing is clear about Emrys Mire: this is not a      
  pleasant place. A murky haze lingers in the air above the muck and slime of   
  the swamp, punctuated by the looming form of countless giant fungi.           
  Allegedly, other people venture the mire in search of its secrets, but save   
  for the ramshackle road leading to it, there's little evidence of such.       
                                                                                
  The road leading into the mire terminates a few dozen feet out into the       
  bubbling ooze of the swamp. You won't be able to rely on the path that led    
  you in; other means of navigation are necessary if you want to make any       
  inroads.                                                                      
                                                                                
  But the mire is subtle and deceptive. Whatever gains you make won't be        
  easy... or without cost.                                                      
============================= Dungeon Conditions:  =============================
|                              Stupify:_Wits_Down!                             |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    As a general rule, Solaris does not truck much with Malevolence, a few month's stint on Lunar besides. But what with its presence occasionally infiltrating Filgaia, it also doesn't mean that they remain utterly blissfully ignorant of it -- as much as some of the higher-ups might dismiss its importance or impact upon their people or ominous long-range plans.

    Indeed, there are those among the leadership who have a keen interest in the effects of Malevolence and things like it, and their names might start with K and end with N.

    Which means in turn that -- especially with various snafus on Filgaia of late involving variously a terraforming device or a Malevolent Domain in a mine -- certain other individuals might also be interested in Malevolence, and in particular a certain hotspot which has seemed, according to local note, particularly volatile of late.

    It's not the first time Loren's been here.
    And he'd much rather not have come back. But orders are orders, especially when they take him very far from home.

    "Temperature readings are... off," Loren reports, scanning the way before them with the medical computer. "There's a cold spot right in front of us. It dips about two degrees from the ambient temperature," he reports to his superior.

    Who is also his sister-in-law. This is normal.

DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool MediScan v7 toward his party's challenge, Lost in the Mire. Rally! 
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

 
    Lan is, in fact, the kind of person who is occasionally just pulled in one direction or another. Perhaps it's never been as strong again as the eve of her pilgrimage, but she still listens. Even if she really kind of wants to stay with Hicalu, she doesn't really want to stay in Guild Galad longer than she needs to. It's not exactly cramped there but... it gets weirdly stuffy.

    Emrys Mire is stuffy too, but a completely different kind. The kind that might have some treasure, or maybe an important moral lesson, or...

    People she's been wanting to see.

    That part was unexpected, but even if Lan, Loren, and Leah are usually at odds she doesn't bear them any ill will. Much the opposite.

    "Hey!" she calls out, waving as she jogs right up to them. "What's up? --Well, maybe don't tell me the details, I guess," she amends, mostly for Loren's comfort (ha ha). "But now we can go through together! Isn't that great?"

    Because it'd be terrible if someone got swallowed by the swamp and nobody else was here to pull them out!

    For the moment, though, Lan's carefully manipulating that bit of oracle paper she carries. "Why's there a cold spot? Two degrees really isn't much, is it?"

    Maybe the local spirits (if there are any left not horribly affected by the Malevolence of the area) can help her understand.

DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Paku-Paku toward her party's challenge, Lost in the Mire. Enlighten! Party Wits boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.

Shige Kiwako isn't here for any secrets. Well.. kind of. Places like this draw all sorts of stories about hauntings and the undead and creepy things and-... she likes those stories. She's a funny cat that way. Makes it a nice convenient thing. She even swapped out her normal nice clothes for rougher traveling clothes, fully expecting them to be burned upon use if they were anything like she imagined. Also a bandana. Because this smells horrific.
 
 Bumping into a few others seems to be a recurring theme these days and she raises her right hand in a wave, the left holding a spooky lantern for light. Or other nefarious reasons! Spooky.
 
 Also said lantern's shadows are strange and the shadows seem to come alive whenever they're cast by the thing. Some even looking vaguely people-y shade-y shaped. With twitching ears like she's listening to someone, she starts to pick a different route. Testing each step just in case. Not every bit of advice she gets is helpful, even when compelled after all.
 
 Still, there are two others, "Yell if something happens, I'll try to help!" she offers, not sure on who either is, but.. eh.
 
 The cold spot note gets an aside from her, "Place is haunted I bet. Probably some long forgotten shade." Or she's messing with them. One or the other.

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

SPEAKING OF UNDEAD

Well, technically speaking Marivel was never alive by traditional understanding of biology and as such can never REALLY be undead. You can't just start undead, that's the whole point! If you just started out with an insatiable need to consume human flesh that makes you a cannibal.

Marivel on the other hand can be creepy and spooky and positively ooky. As Shige raises their spooky lantern into the air, Marivel, floating right behind Shige and leaning in near to her neck.

"Well it's been a while I met a shaman of this sect." She says. "Leviram Valeria at your service..."

She fans her hands from side to side in a faux-spooky manner.

Is she just going to cheat by floating over the problem? Well yes, though she seems to also be glancing down at her book Wisdom of the Crimson Nobles and making some kind of map.

"Lets see, missing an L here..."

She waves a hand to Lan and Loren casually.

DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool Wisdom of the Crimson Nobles toward her party's challenge, Lost in the Mire.
Fanfare!
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

Leah Sadalbari indeed has an interest in Malevolence, be it from her own interests or the fact that her boss has an interest. Either is possible. There are many other possibilities, at that. And just now, she happens to be exploring options here...

Here, with--

"Interesting. And no 'physical' reason therefore, yes?"

Leah happens to be having an entirely normal day, to look at her. She is a little glassy-eyed, just a little bit, but still as sharp as ever, looking around the end of the road here.

"It's nice to see you, Lan."

Leah steps forward, regarding the cold spot. Step-step, step-step. Uneven, as ever.

Perhaps there is a moral lesson here.

"Your assistance will be appreciated," the one-eyed woman says to Shige. The missing 'L' appears! Leah was obscured some by shadows, but no longer. Instead she says, "Regardless, I think things will be fine. If it were truly dangerous, why, there'd be warnings posted."

EARLIER:

EMYRS MIRE - KEEP OUT

DG: Leah Sadalbari has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Lost in the Mire. 
DG: Shige Kiwako has used her Tool Ghostly Train Lantern toward her party's challenge, Lost in the Mire. 
================================<* Emrys Mire *>================================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Lost in the Mire *>=======================
| Type: Entry        | Dungeon Ability: Wits            | Challenge Rating: 2  |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
  Even at first glance, one thing is clear about Emrys Mire: this is not a      
  pleasant place. A murky haze lingers in the air above the muck and slime of   
  the swamp, punctuated by the looming form of countless giant fungi.           
  Allegedly, other people venture the mire in search of its secrets, but save   
  for the ramshackle road leading to it, there's little evidence of such.       
                                                                                
  The road leading into the mire terminates a few dozen feet out into the       
  bubbling ooze of the swamp. You won't be able to rely on the path that led    
  you in; other means of navigation are necessary if you want to make any       
  inroads.                                                                      
                                                                                
  But the mire is subtle and deceptive. Whatever gains you make won't be        
  easy... or without cost.                                                      
============================= Dungeon Conditions:  =============================
|                  Enlighten:_Wits_Up! and Stupify:_Wits_Down!                 |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
===========================<* Emrys Mire - Round 1 *>===========================
=========================< Results - Lost in the Mire >=========================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loren Voss                          0 --(5)--> 5                   Pass
MediScan v7                         3   Wits    Effects: Rally                
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marivel Armitage                    0 --(5)--> 5                   Pass
Wisdom of the Crimson Nobles        3   Wits    Effects: Fanfare              
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           0 --(5)--> 5                   Pass
Paku-Paku                           2   Wits    Effects: Enlighten            
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leah Sadalbari                      0 --(5)--> 5                   Pass
Investigate                         0   Wits    Effects: BASIC                
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shige Kiwako                        0 --(5)--> 5                   Pass
Ghostly Train Lantern               3   Wits    Effects: Efficient            
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Loren Voss                  0 --(20)--> 20                 Pass
Conditions: Stupify(2)
Effects: Enlighten(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party
management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    It's too much to hope that he'd just get to do his job and be done with it, isn't it? No, not only are there other surface-dwellers here but there's...

    Lan.

    He tries to quietly shoo her away, gesturing vaguely with his hands in a manner that he hopes isn't immediately noticable by Leah (spoilers, it isn't) but Lan cannot be so easily deterred. Whatever is going to happen by them crossing paths here and now, again, is sure going to happen, and there's not a damn thing he can do about it otherwise.

    "Uh," he says eloquently, as Lan forcefully joins his party as well and remarks on the apparent cold spot. "I don't know, but it's weird that there's such a dip. Like, what--"

    Maybe the place is haunted, Shige suggests. Loren responds by looking rather waxen for a good ten seconds or so. He looks at Leah, as if to silently request that she do-- something. Call this off, maybe.

    It's not going to happen. He knows it's not going to happen.

    "It's probably," he says after a moment more, "just a temperature anomaly. From the Malevolence," he adds, grimacing. "Maybe we don't walk there."

    And they don't! Things start off relatively normal, without anyone, even Loren, falling into the swamp.

DG: Lan Lilac has drawn a new Challenge.
================================<* Emrys Mire *>================================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - To Light A Fire *>========================
| Type: Exploration  | Dungeon Ability: Wits            | Challenge Rating: 2  |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
  The swamp is not an easy place to traverse, regardless of the precise nature  
  of the twists and turns it presents to those exploring its mysteries. But at  
  times, even a place as ancient and corrupt as this can present a small        
  mercy.                                                                        
                                                                                
  Here, atop a small section of dryer land -- a rarity in this place -- stands  
  the remains of a bonfire. With some effort, it's likely to be possible to     
  get it going again, and warm one's bones a moment... but though this may be   
  dry land, it's still dry land in the confines of the damp and humid mire.     
                                                                                
  Still, better to light a fire than curse the darkness, so to speak.           
============================= Dungeon Conditions:  =============================
|          Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, Save_Point:_Conditions_cleansed!, and          |
|                             Stupify:_Wits_Down!                              |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

 
    Whether or not Lan saw Loren's subtle 'shoo, shoo' gestures (spoiler: she did, and ignored them), she's his problem now. As usual!

    And soon they're joined by Marivel and an unfamiliar face. "Oh, hi! I like your lantern. It must be really useful!" And it's also apparently some kind of spirit beacon, if Lan were to make an educated guess, but that's not really her business and besides, saying it out loud would probably lower someone's morale.

    But at least nobody falls into the swamp (yet).

    They wander through, guided by highly technical data readouts, ancient wisdom, and sheer vibes until they find... "Someone's campsite...?" Lan wonders out loud, hopping up onto the small hillock. The wood itself seems dry enough... "Let's light it and warm up! That'll solve any cold spots." Lan they already got through with the cold spot like ten minutes ago, keep up. "Though," she dithers a bit, poking at the logs a bit, "Why would it just be kind of... here?"

    Rather than reach for the Flame medium, she consults the oracle paper again. Hey, it's okay to be safer now and then!

DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Paku-Paku toward her party's challenge, To Light A Fire. Enlighten! Party Wits boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.

Shige Kiwako is the oblivious one. She's having far too much fun exploring things with the creepy train lantern. Those shadows are getting more and more animated too! Either she's antagonizing the poor guy just.. subtly or the place is haunted. Maybe both? She seems perfectly fine with the surroundings, unique stink aside.
 
 Still, she nods to Lan, "It is indeed! Hard to put the fire out." She doesn't admit that it doesn't give off heat either, but eh. "Uh also hi! I'm Shige. Should've said that much since I was walking along anyway." She gestures with her free hand, "Bet you this place has some great stories around it. And you know, the occasional good campfire-" she nods to the one they're approaching, "Story to get people to jump out of their skin." All of that said with a grin. And a sense of cat-like mischievousness.
 
 "Maybe the swamp ate them." She suggests to the quesiton, clearly having too much fun. Spooky doesn't phase her in the slightest, clearly. Well, this kind of spooky. For now. And to help them get it lit? She guides those lurking shadows to gather deadwood from dry patches or dead branches so they have the fuel for the fire. She also produces what has to be homebrew moonshine from... well. Somewhere. She uses it as a campfire lighter most of the time really.

DG: Shige Kiwako has used her Tool Ghostly Train Lantern toward her party's challenge, To Light A Fire. 
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

"Ah good timing," Marivel asides to Leah. "How's the old man doing? Hasn't made a public appearance in a while." There's only one person in Solaris she'd call an old man. She has no real reason to expect that Leah has the answer here but she's the highest ranking officer she's seen in ages so she's still the best person she could ask. "I figured he'd burn down my castle by now.--Not a request, by the by."

Shige says hello. And mentions ghost stories.

"Do you have any ghost stories to share? I'd love to hear one if you've got one." Leviram waggles her fingers.

Since apparently she is going by Leviram again. The keenest of secret identities.

"Well a fire shouldn't be tough here. And we even have a lantern."

She smiles. "Perhaps a ghost fir---"

Shige just uses the lantern to gather materials for a normal fire.

"...Ghost fire." Marivel grumbles.

<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

Yeah, Leah doesn't help. She could. She absolutely could. She just doesn't. ..She also doesn't seem to be having as much fun as Shige, though. She looks to the others, thoughtfully. To the lantern. She has guesses, as well, as to what it is. She does not share them. Not for the moment.

Instead she says to Marivel, "Hmmmm, it would seem wasteful to burn it down," she comments. "I'll keep your not a request in mind."

Ghost fire!

For her part, Leah steps around to investigate the firesite, all without actually doing anything to help. Someone's out for your job, Marivel!

"It's a mystery," Leah decides to say to Lan.

DG: Leah Sadalbari has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, To Light A Fire. 
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    Someone's morale. She's right. It'd affect a very specific someone's morale!

    But as much as he might give Shige (and Leviram, who isn't weird or creepy or anything) the side-eye, if they don't know who Loren and Leah are (Loren doesn't know who they are) then he's not going to draw any more attention than necessary. For one thing, Leah would give him absolute hell probably both here and then later, and he'd really rather not.

    So this is fine, as he enters a probably haunted Malevolent swamp with Leah, joined by someone he knows well and isn't really in the right mood to deal with after what happened the last time they crossed paths, and a couple people he doesn't. But he doesn't fall into the swamp just yet as they negotiate the twists and turns along the existing path across the muck and mire until a small tuft of dry land presents itself.

    "Huh, a campsite," he remarks, kneeling near it and poking at the ashes. "Looks like it was used recently. I wonder if..."

    Only to grimace as Shige remarks that perhaps the swamp ate the people who had been here last. "Swamps don't eat people," he says, glancing up and pushing his glasses up his nose. "Monsters, probably. ...Hurry up and bring those sticks. They'd better be..." Loren trails off, watching as what might have been a shadow plucks a dried stem from a bit of scrub. "...dry," he says, hastily looking back down at the campfire remnants. You know what, he's just going to focus on starting the fire. It's good practice.

    And not at all a way for him to focus on something else and not... that.

    (The flames, when they do come, don't look like a normal fire so much as a multi-colored fractal flickering smear of heat before, when fed, they become something more normal.)
    (Unless ghost fire happens instead. There's always a chance!)

DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, To Light A Fire. 
DG: Marivel Armitage has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, To Light A Fire. 
================================<* Emrys Mire *>================================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - To Light A Fire *>========================
| Type: Exploration  | Dungeon Ability: Wits            | Challenge Rating: 2  |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
  The swamp is not an easy place to traverse, regardless of the precise nature  
  of the twists and turns it presents to those exploring its mysteries. But at  
  times, even a place as ancient and corrupt as this can present a small        
  mercy.                                                                        
                                                                                
  Here, atop a small section of dryer land -- a rarity in this place -- stands  
  the remains of a bonfire. With some effort, it's likely to be possible to     
  get it going again, and warm one's bones a moment... but though this may be   
  dry land, it's still dry land in the confines of the damp and humid mire.     
                                                                                
  Still, better to light a fire than curse the darkness, so to speak.           
============================= Dungeon Conditions:  =============================
|          Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, Save_Point:_Conditions_cleansed!, and          |
|                             Stupify:_Wits_Down!                              |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
===========================<* Emrys Mire - Round 2 *>===========================
=========================< Results - To Light A Fire >==========================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loren Voss                          5 --(17)--> 22                 Fail
Investigate                         0   Wits    Effects: BASIC                
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marivel Armitage                    5 --(5)--> 10                  Pass
Investigate                         0   Wits    Effects: BASIC                
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           5 --(5)--> 10                  Pass
Paku-Paku                           2   Wits    Effects: Enlighten            
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leah Sadalbari                      5 --(17)--> 22                 Fail
Investigate                         0   Wits    Effects: BASIC                
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shige Kiwako                        5 --(5)--> 10                  Pass
Ghostly Train Lantern               3   Wits    Effects: Efficient            
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Loren Voss                  20 --(20)--> 40                Pass
Conditions: Save Point(1)|Stupify(1)
Effects: Enlighten(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party
management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

 
    "Hi Shige! I'm Lan. Nice to meet you!" A spooky-looking Beastfolk with a cool lantern... the day is already looking pretty good. There doesn't seem to be anything counterindicative of trying to light the campfire, so Lan joins the others in the effort.

    Mostly by crouching down next to the firepit and watching Loren. His command of that strange-looking fire Ether is getting a little better! She smiles a bit as the gathered bits of wood catch fire (Lan is strangely okay with summoned shadow creatures; Hicalu keeps a few demons around to deal with kitchen scraps that can't be composted or fed to livestock).

    And then the fire catches properly, and it's an unearthly blue-purple. "Oooooh," Lan marvels, entranced. "Ghost fire! That's rare!"

DG: Shige Kiwako has drawn a new Challenge.
================================<* Emrys Mire *>================================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Clinging Morass *>========================
| Type: Exploration  | Dungeon Ability: Agility         | Challenge Rating: 1  |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
  The mire is unrelenting and cruel. That much is a given from the outset. But  
  the mire is capable of more than mere injury -- it can tack on what can only  
  be considered an insult as well.                                              
                                                                                
  In those places where the road fails and trekking through the swamp water     
  becomes the only way to proceed, its most sinister trick becomes clear: not   
  only is the mire undeniably toxic, but it makes for some intensely slow       
  going as one proceeds.                                                        
                                                                                
  And once it takes hold of someone, it doesn't let go willingly.               
============================= Dungeon Conditions:  =============================
|                Cripple:_Agility_Down! and Enlighten:_Wits_Up!                |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.

Well, they got a ghost fire after all. She holds the lantern up just a little higher, trying to look for any errant ghosts. Giving Marivel a brief look as she does so. Not that she acts on anything.
 
 "Nice t'meet you too Lan." she notes the fire starter with curiousity. Something for later. She hasn't exactly answered questions herself. "And I didn't think I had the right kind around to start a fire." She shrugs, mostly to Marivel's brief excitement.
 
 "I do have a few ghost stories, not for this area though. It's why I'm here. You get them first hand, they're better. Could tell you about a drunk poltergeist that was throwing bottles though." She says that dead serious.
 
 As they move on from the beacon, which it clicks that that was probably what it was for. As they walk though, it gets muddier, nastier, worse. Boots getting stuck, things clinging. Stink worse and a distinct feeling of unease and nausea might even be creeping in. "If this place isn't haunted, it's a living level of... what's the word I'm looking for." She lifts one boot out of the muck, trying to shake the stinking sticky mud away before trudging on, deeply glad she didn't wear her normal nice clothes for this. The pouch of bottles is pulled around into reach and she fishes out... after some some consideration, some whiskey. The smokey kind. She takes a pull from it, shaking off that level of unease. She even offers it around to the others. Trudge trudge trudge.

DG: Shige Kiwako has used her Tool Bartender's Spirits toward her party's challenge, Clinging Morass. Quicken! Party
Agility boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Marivel gets about the expected answer about 'the old man', that is: She doesn't get one. Instead she gets Leah being enigmatic AT HER and Marivel can do nothing but grimace because Solarian enigmatics are just the grandmasters of the field. Sure, Marivel has her secrets, but you won't believe how many proper nouns Solarian secret agents have.

She crosses her arms stubbornly.

Marivel pulls down on her Sun Disguise scarf a bit to say, "Have you ever heard of the ghost chicken?" to Shige.

"We called it...the Poultrygeist."

Thunder crashes dramatically at just that moment. A brief organ ditty plays in the background. Fog willows up from below Marivel--and then moves to surround others, adding some extra spooky flair!

This is actually Ruth's ability that she stole by smooching her but it should help our ... ... hero....vill...people move through the area without getting caught!

Or maybe more likely to get caught she did get this from a hellion after all.

"You might be the most lively death shaman I've met. It's nice to see honestly."

Even through the fog, her crimson eyes glow even if the rest of her body is obscured from the non-Shige folk (she's closest to Shige).

DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool Tomato Juice From Grownups toward her party's challenge, Clinging Morass.
Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round! Sacrifice! The party will take slightly more
Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

 
    The campfire was nice, temporary bolstering everyone's spirits. Lan kinda wishes they could have stayed a little longer... especially when the path dissolves into the rest of the swamp and they have to trek through the swampiest bits. "Ooh, please no Malevolent leeches," Lan frowns. Rather than sink into the muck, she jumps and floats, jumps and floats...

    "Don't forget about leeches!" she calls to the others. Leah is probably immune, but Loren and Shige probably aren't. Marivel is even better at floating than Lan and also is probably Queen of the Leeches. Lan doesn't know this.

DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Butterfly Ribbon toward her party's challenge, Clinging Morass. Quicken! Party Agility
boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

"...Leah," the blue-haired woman says belatedly. "That will do."

She doesn't go for the whiskey, though. You would think Leah would be immune to leeches, and that is true to a point. But not entirely. It's fine, however.

It's also fine because Leah can't really not be enigmatic at Marivel about her boss. It's a contractual obligation, actually.

The fog billows up...!

Leah walks over the bog. Or, more appropriately, she falls over the bog. She just reorients 'down' to 'that way' and never actually sinks in! "Try to relax," she suggests to the others, as the fog makes her look incredibly cool.

"Or the swamp may eat you."

DG: Leah Sadalbari has used her Tool Gravity Module toward her party's challenge, Clinging Morass. Stalwart! Party
shielded from some Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    "Loren," he says by way of introduction, eventually. Someone probably had to give him a look first.

    The campfire changes its hue alright.

    "...Does this happen often?" he asks Lan, weakly.

    He's more than a little happy to get a move on, in the end. He's been on an actual ghost train before, sure, but this doesn't make him even a little bit excited to repeat the 'meet a ghost' experience.

    Rather the opposite, as it happens.

    But then it happens, the thing that he'd been dreading!

    The part when... they run out of road. He hesitates, hoping that somehere, somehow, there's some continuation of the path, but this is not to be. With reluctance, he steps into the swamp only for Lan to warn him about the leeches. Loren goes pale, stopping partway through the muck. And then, as if realizing that this would be the worst possible thing to do he starts book it! ...As fast as he can, anyway, through the muck and mire.

DG: Loren Voss has contributed a risky Agility Action toward his party's challenge, Clinging Morass. 
================================<* Emrys Mire *>================================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Clinging Morass *>========================
| Type: Exploration  | Dungeon Ability: Agility         | Challenge Rating: 1  |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
  The mire is unrelenting and cruel. That much is a given from the outset. But  
  the mire is capable of more than mere injury -- it can tack on what can only  
  be considered an insult as well.                                              
                                                                                
  In those places where the road fails and trekking through the swamp water     
  becomes the only way to proceed, its most sinister trick becomes clear: not   
  only is the mire undeniably toxic, but it makes for some intensely slow       
  going as one proceeds.                                                        
                                                                                
  And once it takes hold of someone, it doesn't let go willingly.               
============================= Dungeon Conditions:  =============================
|          Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, Cripple:_Agility_Down!, and          |
|                             Quicken:_Agility_Up!                             |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
======================================================================<* Emrys Mire - Round 3 *>======================================================================
====================================================================< Results - Clinging Morass
>=====================================================================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------
Loren Voss                          22 --(25)--> 47                Fail
Rush                                1   Agility Effects: Risky                
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------
Marivel Armitage                    10 --(5)--> 15                 Pass
Tomato Juice From Grownups          2   Agility Effects: Cleanse and Sacrifice
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           10 --(5)--> 15                 Pass
Butterfly Ribbon                    2   Agility Effects: Quicken              
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------
Leah Sadalbari                      22 --(0)--> 22                 Pass
Gravity Module                      2   Agility Effects: Stalwart             
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party
management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.

Shige Kiwako gives Marivel one of those looks the bartender gives the loud drunk at that pun. The spooky flair is given some consideration though. Mostly thinking it was something that wasn't localized. That lantern going high again as she tries to light up the surrounding area. "Not often. I told you I figured the place was haunted." She sounds excited, actually.
 
 As for the proper noun mess, as long as it doesn't 'reach' 'into' 'the' 'worst' 'of' 'it' she's not too worried right now. There's a lot she doesn't know. Or she'd probably try doing something to hinder two of the people here! Maybe.
 
 "Leeches aren't so bad. I don't think they're intentionally aggressive though." A nice misunderstanding of the proper noun, speaking of jokes there. As they trudge through, none of them thankfully get eaten by the swamp and there don't appear to be anything other than mundane leeches and nastiness abound. "Nice to meet all of you by the way, before I get entirely-" she makes a whoop sound as she about trips, but catches herself. Graceful! Kind of. (Not really.) "Distracted."
 
 Still, aside from slow going and struggling for at least one member of the party, it went smoothly enough. Lead by what is probably a trapped will-o-the-wisp.

DG: Marivel Armitage has drawn a new Challenge.
================================<* Emrys Mire *>================================
======================================================================<* Emrys Mire - Round 3 *>======================================================================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - To Great Heights *>=======================
| Type: Exploration  | Dungeon Ability: Agility         | Challenge Rating: 3  |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
  Sections of the swamp betray pieces of its forgotten history. For instance,   
  ahead lies the remains of some ramparts, half-covered in and half-melded      
  with more of the vaulting fungus that favors this place. It was built to      
  last a thousand years or more and indeed it has in a fashion.                 
                                                                                
  It still looks reasonably stable, and stands quite high; if climbed, one      
  might be able to take stock of the entire area from here and consider anew    
  the ideal approach. Of course, the fungus and the crumbling state of the      
  wall, combined with the height, mean this won't be a particularly easy        
  advantage to claim.                                                           
============================= Dungeon Conditions:  =============================
|          Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, Quicken:_Agility_Up!, and         |
|                           Secret:_Exploration_Up!                            |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Marivel poofs into the form of a bat and flies off to sit down on ... Leah's shoulder. Maybe this is her revenge for Leah stealing her job. She preens a wing after she touches down.

There's still lingering fog from her so the bat touching down on Leah's shoulder might come out of nowhere--or it might if she wasn't a killer cyborg. Who knows what her mysterious cyber eyes might be telling her.

"There used to be occult clubs." Marivel sighs wistfully. "I should have joined one while I had the chance. Our friend Shige here reminded me of those people who took dousing rods in search of adventure."

MEANWHILE

A FUNGI FORTRESS.

It should be possible to climb but it probably won't be too easy.

"Want me to just teleport us to the end?" Marivel asks Leah and then proceeds to try and do just that.

The power of APORT!

She only aims to teleport herself and Leah though. Rest of oyu gotta take the long way!

What a jerk!

DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool Tomato Juice From Grownups toward her party's challenge, To Great Heights.
Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round! Sacrifice! The party will take slightly more
Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

There's nothing like a good haunting. Or a good distraction! "Likewise," Leah says to Shige of meeting her. But Marivel, on Leah's shoulder, is silent. Quiet. ...Adorable. And Leah says when she answers, "There still are, in Etrenank. Some of them aren't even fronts."

She seems OK with the bat on the shoulder thing. But suddenly, Marivel offers a teleport and the Solarian woman replies, "Sure."

"Hmmm. Want to place any bets on who makes it up first? I'd put... fifty gella on Lan."

DG: Leah Sadalbari has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, To Great Heights. 
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

 
    "Not nearly as often as it could," is Lan's mysterious answer. She likes ghost fire, because ghosts aren't scary if you're a shaman and/or the special kind of ditz. It's so much nicer to be back on solid-er ground, once they get there. The fact that it leads right into a... "What is that, part of a castle?"

    It's really tall. They could probably see pretty far if they were to get to the top of it.

    "Come on, it'll do us good to get away from all the swampy mucky part." Even if it's just for a little while! And doubtless Loren will be happy to get away from leeches.

    Lan jumps from the ground, to something that would have been a windowsill if there had been a window to go with it, to thin freaking air, to...!

DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Butterfly Ribbon toward her party's challenge, To Great Heights. Quicken! Party Agility
boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.

Shige Kiwako tilts her head and says, "I don't think dousing rods actually work. Figure that's an urban legend. Those are fun too though." She bobs her head and then gives Marivel a more serious look at the bat form thing. She may or may not lean closer, trying to get a better look with that lantern.
 
 "Good hauntings are nice. They should still move on and I like helping there, but most of the time you can talk to them. Do good things. Only occasionally see a horrific angry ghost do things to people. You know, Tuesday." She's playing it up a bit, clearly having fun.
 
 As for the climbing part. She just takes another drink and mutters. Each drink makes doing this easier though!
 
 "I... don't want to gamble. Maybe if I knew you guys better? Or if I have to keep drinking through this." That last part's a joke. Mostly. She does like card games, but that's neither here nor there.

DG: Shige Kiwako has used her Tool Bartender's Spirits toward her party's challenge, To Great Heights. Quicken! Party
Agility boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

"I'll put fifty on the new kid," Marivel says.

Sorry Loren.

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    There are, as it happens, such thing as Malevolent leeches. These are not the hazards that Loren meets this day (...so far). Rather instead it's an end more tragic for its mundanity:

    He encounters a half-sunk rotten log and, you guessed it, trips over it.

    Now Loren has fallen into the swamp and thus has the prophecy been fulfilled.

    He's in a foul mood as he approaches the wall, mitigated only by the fact that he hasn't met those Malevolent leeches just yet. "Figures," he grumbles, staggering over towards the rest of them, dripping with swamp ick.

    And then Marivel does something that triggers that glimmer of recognition in his neurons. "Wait a minute! I know who you are!" Loren declares, jabbing a finger accusatorially at 'Leviram'. ...Right before she vanishes into thin air with Leah. Loren is left to point for a moment at nothing whatosoever.

    "...Do you think we could just stay down here, then?" he asides to Lan, clearly not relishing the attempt at ascending the fungal fortress walls.

    But Lan is already using her ribbon to ascend.

    "Ugh," Loren remarks to the world at large. Pocketing his glasses, he begins to climb.

DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, To Great Heights. 
================================<* Emrys Mire *>================================
======================================================================<* Emrys Mire - Round 3 *>======================================================================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - To Great Heights *>=======================
| Type: Exploration  | Dungeon Ability: Agility         | Challenge Rating: 3  |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
  Sections of the swamp betray pieces of its forgotten history. For instance,   
  ahead lies the remains of some ramparts, half-covered in and half-melded      
  with more of the vaulting fungus that favors this place. It was built to      
  last a thousand years or more and indeed it has in a fashion.                 
                                                                                
  It still looks reasonably stable, and stands quite high; if climbed, one      
  might be able to take stock of the entire area from here and consider anew    
  the ideal approach. Of course, the fungus and the crumbling state of the      
  wall, combined with the height, mean this won't be a particularly easy        
  advantage to claim.                                                           
============================= Dungeon Conditions:  =============================
|       Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!,       |
|              Quicken:_Agility_Up!, and Secret:_Exploration_Up!               |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
===========================<* Emrys Mire - Round 4 *>===========================
======================================================================<* Emrys Mire - Round 3 *>======================================================================
=========================< Results - To Great Heights >=========================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loren Voss                          47 --(22)--> 69                Fail
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC                
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marivel Armitage                    15 --(10)--> 25                Pass
Tomato Juice From Grownups          2   Agility Effects: Cleanse and Sacrifice
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           15 --(10)--> 25                Pass
Butterfly Ribbon                    2   Agility Effects: Quicken              
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leah Sadalbari                      22 --(22)--> 44                Fail
Rush                                0   Agility Effects: BASIC                
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shige Kiwako                        15 --(10)--> 25                Pass
Bartender's Spirits                 2   Agility Effects: Quicken              
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Loren Voss                  60 --(20)--> 80                Pass
Conditions: Hesitate(2)|Secret(2)
Effects: Cleanse|Quicken(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party
management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Marivel Armitage is always adorbs but Batrivel is probably the most adorb version of Marivel. Sometimes Marivel wishes she could be more intimidating like Leah can be but unfortunately her body is basically designed to be cute no matter what she does with it. Even when she's horribly maimed, the rest of her? still pretty adorable. It makes up for, perhaps, the horrifying true form packed inside that small vessel like one of those snakes in a can.

Leah and Marivel have both made their bets. Loren, as they both expected, is the slowest and having the leash fun climbing up that wall. He does make it, but he's certainly not going to get up there first. Whether that's due to ability or just his foul mood mucking it up is unclear.

It's a much closer race. Batrivel prepares a camera as Shige and Lan climb, the former relying on DRINKING to help (it does) and the latter relying on ... an invisible window?...to help cheese the whole thing. To the naked eye, it seems like they're still neck and neck...!

Batrivel aims her camera and as they rise above to the top of the ramparts.

*FLASH!*

Marivel takes a picture. A photograph pops out and Marivel looks at it.

She shows it to Leah. They crossed the finish line at the same time.

"Well, here you go." Marivel says, offering Leah 50 gella and holding out a hand for fifty gella.

DG: Lan Lilac has drawn a new Challenge.
================================<* Emrys Mire *>================================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Phantasmagoria *>========================
| Type: Final        | Dungeon Ability: Wits            | Challenge Rating: 3  |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
  Here ahead of you and tilted in a perilous direction in the muck stand the    
  remains of a large complex, still largely intact. To judge by what            
  structures yet remain -- pillars, spires -- this must have been the focal     
  point of the settlement, possibly serving some religious or sacred purpose    
  of some sort. Though it would be hard to tell much about it now, with the     
  facade so eroded. Time and the elements have done great damage to the past    
  here.                                                                         
                                                                                
  A haze fills the air -- riding heavily on the faint breeze, a cloud of        
  spores has arrived.                                                           
                                                                                
  Breathing them in is likely a poor decision, but alas, may be unavoidable;    
  the air is quickly saturated with the things. Very quickly, the psychoactive  
  compounds in the spores will show their true colors; perceived reality        
  becomes a little more... subjective for those present.                        
                                                                                
  Yet, whatever hallucinations may present themselves to you now -- you came    
  here for a reason. It's time to persevere.                                    
============================= Dungeon Conditions:  =============================
|            Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, Quicken:_Agility_Up!,           |
|         Reckless:_Wits_Down!_Brute_Up!, Secret:_Exploration_Up!, and         |
|                            Suffer:_Exhaustion_Up!                            |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

 
    Lan has the sickest trick since Leah Sadalbari's gravity module: a triple-jump. She's been infusing Rigdobrite's power into her silver ribbon for a long time now...

    The view they were hoping for is before them, and it is spectacular. Lan was wrong - it isn't a castle at all. It's a wall surrounding a central courtyard and the half-eroded remains of a ring of monuments. Something near the middle resembles a table, or perhaps an altar...?

    Or maybe just a pile of stone. It's hard to tell anymore.

    And wrapping the the pillars, strung between them like streamers, more of the fungus that climbed the ramparts. "Do you think that's...?" Lan trails off, taking a long look... and then a running jump off of the rampart, magic carrying her slowly towards the stone below.

    More careful observers, though, may notice something Lan missed - there are flowers atop the spires, closer to the sun... and they're in bloom.

    As she falls, Lan smells it first - something a little sweet, a little musty. The haze... "Oh, shit," is about all she manages to get out before covering her mouth and nose with her hands...!

    When they catch up to her, there in the center of the complex, she's fumbling with her oracle paper. Her pupils are the size of pinpricks. "Mm... hmm..."

    Now is not the time to... to...

    ...what was she doing...?

DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Paku-Paku toward her party's challenge, Phantasmagoria. Enlighten! Party Wits boosted! 
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

Leah both gives and takes 50 gella. That's fair enough. They both were right about who would lose, anyway. "Maybe next time," she says to Marivel. It is not as sick a trick as Lan's triple-jump, but it is sick enough. But as they start moving towards the next area, though... the flowers on the spires are in bloom, and Leah frowns, thoughtfully.

Her eyes are already fairly glassy. That's before she pulls her Ether Gun.

"...It's probably fine, Lan."

What does the Watcher see, when she looks?

Nothing that makes her use that gun, anyway.

DG: Leah Sadalbari has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Phantasmagoria. 
<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.

Shige Kiwako is a cat. A cat that has started drinking removing that risk part of the risk/reward factor part of her brain. This makes climbing a lot easier suddenly! She might even strike a pose at the top and laugh. Before twisting on her heel and walking on. She didn't bet on any money, but hey, what are you going to do. It's bad form to bet on yourself anyway? Right? She huffs.
 
 Still, at the top, she's a bit tipsy and the flowers are in bloom and she's seeing the shades and ghosts and everything else. So she does what she always does. She raises the lantern and bats at one of them. Wait, she's supposed to talk to them. It's not catnip levels of weirdness at least. She pauses and looks around at the others. "Hey guys, it might not be haunted. The lantern's acting weird." She waves it a few times. The shadows are still creepy and moving around, but the images she's seeing don't. At first. "Maybe they're escaping." She pauses. Frowns. "No they don't stay in that..."
 
 She starts to walk looking for the answer. Either way she's not getting help from ghosts this time. The lantern's acting funny after all. (And it's out of charges.)

DG: Shige Kiwako has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Phantasmagoria. 
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    Eventually, Loren makes it up there.

    Eventually.

    "Ugh," he declares again to the world at large, more or less facedown on the top of the crumbling stone. He's just going to... stay like this for a moment, dignity of the officer corps be damned. He's had to deal with ghosts and swamp muck today and he's already out of can.

    But needs must (and also he realizes he probably doesn't want to lie on a fungal stone wall for very long) and so Loren picks himself back up and takes a good look ahead, just in time to see Lan dive off the wall for something she sees below.

    This is not a problem as such. He's used to her doing this sort of thing -- she has the skill for it, even.

    Rather it's the brilliant flowers he spots a moment later, blooming from atop the wall. They're a little too brightly colored. A little too waxy. A little too...

    He can see the spores where the light catches them, drifting in a heavy haze down towards the swamp below. "...Oh, shit," he murmurs, pulling out that medical computer again to run a quick scan.

    He'll rifle through his kit after in a hurry, but it's already too late for the mask he dons to have much hope of protecting him, even before he begins his descent to the ground below. He can feel it taking hold.

    "It's, it's the spores," he manages, and perhaps he's had a lighter dose. Perhaps he's yet to have inhaled enough. "Focus! Shake it off! None of this is... is..."

    He feels good, and that's already a bad sign, by his metric.

DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool MediScan v7 toward his party's challenge, Phantasmagoria. Rally! 
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Marivel rolls off Leah and drops down in her humanoid form. "Well, always having to be 'on' can be a bit tiring, can't it?"

She gets to walking. She is less resilient to malevolence tainted mushroom spores than you might think. Her vessel still needs to function like a physical body. She sees something, there.

She sees her, there, the representation of her in stained glass, holding the blade Airgetlahm aloft.

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3dtChrIgok&list=PL9DE272BDA68489E9

Marivel doesn't say anything. She knows that this is just a vision in her head--she's smart enough for that. And if she speaks, she might say something that she doesn't want anyone here to hear. Not even herself. Shige won't sense a true spirit here as the stained glass woman's glass eye rearranges itself to look at Marivel.

You can't save me. You've never been able to no matter how many times you try. You can't save who you killed.

Marivel stares at her, taking a step forward, one at a time.

The stained glass face peels away into a skull. Marivel's hallucinations, of course, still have to gothic.

The skull, red glass tumbling from its eye sockets stares down at Marivel.

Do you think even one person will believe in you when you show them your devil's bargains? The Saint tells Marivel. Have you forgotten Sakura? Trust is a fragile thing.

Marivel keeps walking. She can feel bones and ash crunching under her feet.

You still think I sent you here to save the world? I was just bored of you.

Marivel clenches her fists. Just a vision, just a bad trip.

If I had sent you to save people....

"Shutup..." Marivel screws her eyes tight. But she can still see the Saint in her mind's eye.

Don't you think you would have been able to save someone by now? All you're doing is biting your own tail.

"Even so..." Marivel says, one step at a time. "I must move forward."

DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool Wisdom of the Crimson Nobles toward her party's challenge, Phantasmagoria.
Fanfare!
================================<* Emrys Mire *>================================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Phantasmagoria *>========================
| Type: Final        | Dungeon Ability: Wits            | Challenge Rating: 3  |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
  Here ahead of you and tilted in a perilous direction in the muck stand the    
  remains of a large complex, still largely intact. To judge by what            
  structures yet remain -- pillars, spires -- this must have been the focal     
  point of the settlement, possibly serving some religious or sacred purpose    
  of some sort. Though it would be hard to tell much about it now, with the     
  facade so eroded. Time and the elements have done great damage to the past    
  here.                                                                         
                                                                                
  A haze fills the air -- riding heavily on the faint breeze, a cloud of        
  spores has arrived.                                                           
                                                                                
  Breathing them in is likely a poor decision, but alas, may be unavoidable;    
  the air is quickly saturated with the things. Very quickly, the psychoactive  
  compounds in the spores will show their true colors; perceived reality        
  becomes a little more... subjective for those present.                        
                                                                                
  Yet, whatever hallucinations may present themselves to you now -- you came    
  here for a reason. It's time to persevere.                                    
============================= Dungeon Conditions:  =============================
|            Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!,            |
|         Reckless:_Wits_Down!_Brute_Up!, Secret:_Exploration_Up!, and         |
|                            Suffer:_Exhaustion_Up!                            |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
===========================<* Emrys Mire - Round 5 *>===========================
==========================< Results - Phantasmagoria >==========================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loren Voss                          69 --(13)--> 82                Pass
MediScan v7                         3   Wits    Effects: Rally                
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marivel Armitage                    25 --(13)--> 38                Pass
Wisdom of the Crimson Nobles        3   Wits    Effects: Fanfare              
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           25 --(13)--> 38                Pass
Paku-Paku                           2   Wits    Effects: Enlighten            
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leah Sadalbari                      44 --(25)--> 69                Fail
Investigate                         0   Wits    Effects: BASIC                
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shige Kiwako                        25 --(13)--> 38                Pass
Investigate                         0   Wits    Effects: BASIC                
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Loren Voss                  80 --(35)--> 115               Pass
Conditions: Hesitate(1)|Reckless(2)|Secret(1)|Suffer(1)
Effects: Enlighten(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success!
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has successfully explored Emrys Mire!
================================<* Emrys Mire *>================================
==================<* CHALLENGE - My Last and Greatest Work *>===================
| Type: Discovery    | Dungeon Ability: Conclusion      | Challenge Rating: 1  |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
  In the very bottommost chamber of the still-standing remnants of the          
  complex, the air is cool amidst the stonework, a contrast to the stifling     
  breath of the mire. Here and there moisture beads the walls, glittering       
  faintly in any light brought to it. The stone floor is heavily engraved, the  
  whole of this chamber at the bottom of the complex encircling a heavy         
  capstone. Clear water leaks from beneath it, in a slow trickle.               
                                                                                
  Perhaps this chamber was once used for a sorcerous working -- even now the    
  traces of a great enchantment can be felt in the air, permeating the floor    
  and in particular the capstone.                                               
                                                                                
  But without question the thing that stands out the most is the absolute       
  array of blades thrust into the breaks between the stonework around the       
  capstone, a forest of masterwork forging and all as perfect as the day they   
  were quenched. While a few will prove more difficult to extract than others,  
  others slide free quite easily. They're light, keen-edged, imbued with holy   
  purpose.                                                                      
                                                                                
  The arrangement itself is interesting, as if the blades formed a magic        
  circle of sorts.                                                              
                                                                                
  You notice also that the walls of the complex are teeming with Malevolence.   
  It won't harm you any as long as you don't stay here overlong, but the        
  mire's corruption seems to be burning afresh in this place...                 
============================= Dungeon Conditions:  =============================
|            Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!,            |
|           Reckless:_Wits_Down!_Brute_Up!, Secret:_Exploration_Up!,           |
|            Suffer:_Exhaustion_Up!, and Treasure:_Exploration_Up!             |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

 
    Her fingers curl around the paper, and Lan is oh so careful not to hold it too tight. What is...?

    Ah. Leah brought her gun. That's good. Leah is strong. Leah is unwavering. The thought brings Lan a little comfort, although that feels... incorrect, somehow. Like she's forgetting something.

    "...Haunted?" she asks. Her tongue feels heavy in her mouth. Lan unfolds the paku-paku, a petal at a time. None of the symbols speak to her. Skull, flower, sword. Circle. Sword, sword, swordswordswordsword--

    Help comes from two sources - the most obvious and the least. Loren knows what's happening; he has the equipment to mitigate some of the effects, and he's got the authority vested in him by Jugend to move dozy patients to better environments whether they want to go or not! But it's Marivel who must move forward, who says the magic spell out loud.

    "Yeah," Lan says looking up with some effort. "Forward-- we have to keep going--" She reaches out for Loren's and Leah's hands, pulling them along.

    Towards a cold spot, and a breeze, and an ancient circle that still thrums with power.

<Pose Tracker> Shige Kiwako has posed.

Shige Kiwako looks over the swords, walking through shades that were only in her head. The kind that she's long familiar with. It's day time. She's in a crowd of people and as the hallucinagens take effect, they start to look more solid than before. And she walks straight through them. She's not smiling anymore. "You're all gone." Is all she can say to what it is she's seeing. "I saw to it myself."
 
 That's the proof that it was something... not actually there. She does stop as the enter the room and call back, "If you think dredging that up now is going to help, I will personally drag you kicking and screaming for a first class ticket myself." She's shouting at the air. She.. is actually sure the place is haunted though, to be fair. And she sounds angry. She looks it too, fur and hair on end, ears back, fangs bared briefly. She then smooths herself down and turns on her heel to look at the array of swords. And promptly just gets to studying them. She takes nothign with her though. Unless it's loose already. She's not a sword person, she's not one to mess up what she thinks might be some strange shrine and she's really not liking the vibe here.

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    It would be comforting to sink into the haze, to go back to better days. Better times. Things have been hard for a long, long time and they haven't been getting any better.

    But Loren has enough of himself left to know that this isn't real, that it's just the haze and the chemicals in it and random reactions in their brains. He needs to move forward.

    He takes Lan's hand and he moves along to a place where the the air is cleaner, the water, purer -- this small singular place that holds away the rot of this swamp. It seems to radiate out from the center of the ring of swords. How strange that he can feel it.

    He's released his grip on Lan's hand, and as if taken by the spores himself at last, walks towards one of the blades and seizes it. It shifts against the stone, even as he stirs from his stupor to regard everyone else here muzzily.

    "What just...?"

    Happened?

    Shaking his head furiously he looks at Leah out of everyone else here and releases his grip on the hilt. "I think... we shouldn't hang around here."

    It feels like he's stepped into a place he shouldn't have.

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Marivel is startled out of her hallucination by Lan echoing 'Forward'.

Marivel has looked at Lan before, and even talked to her, and even had friendly chats with her but for the first time...

Marivel sees Lan. Marivel's gaze settles on her for some time, overlong, as she remembers that the true power of shamans isn't truly the power of their mediums.

"Tis the power of their spirit..." Marivel murmurs to herself, letting herself have a small self effacing laugh. "...Well, Lan. Hard enough to move yourself forward, but it seems you are taking two along with you."

She smiles wryly but it doesn't seem to be her usual joking and teasing manner.

Instead she approaches a magic circle with holy blades. She touches one and her hand burns away into ash.

"Ah," She says. "Hob? Nob?"

She promptly cheats by having her little robot babies pull one out instead.

"This seal isn't gonna last much longer." Marivel says. "So yes, lets not linger."

<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

What did Leah see? She does not say. But when Lan takes her hand, she puts away the gun. And beneath the glove, beneath the fabric and the leather... Lan may be able to feel the cold, hard metal of Leah Sadalbari's fingers.

There is no flesh there to soften the blow.

They move forward, as says Marivel, and Leah does not comment on the hallucinogens. But her eyes are more focused, less hazy, now that she is done. Marivel says the magical spell. And here, at this circle...

"...That's true," Leah says to Loren, but she approaches the circle, watching as one burns Marivel's hand to ash. "...I am not at liberty to answer your earlier question," she says.

"But I recommend that we each take one. The power of light is fading in this fallen world. We must bolster it as best we can."

She steps forward, and pulls blades. She hands one of a set to Loren, and one to Lan, and keeps the last for herself; she pulls another pair, and keeps those for herself.

"...We leave as soon as we take readings," the Watcher says.

"The next scene in this play... Is not for me to act. But soon."