2023-01-13: Lands Faraway and Elden
- Log: Lands Faraway and Elden
- Cast: Josephine Lovelace, Ryoko Mizore, Lan Lilac, Ratatoskr
- Where: Faraway Lands
- Date: January 13, 2023
- Summary: An attempt to make some quick cash through raiding some ancient ruins brings Josie together with faces both old and new -- and the situation with some old friends turns a touch awkward.
DG: A party led by Josephine Lovelace is now entering Faraway Lands. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
==============================<* Faraway Lands *>===============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Electrified Doorway *>======================
| Type: Entry | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
There are several entrances to Faraway Lands, rather than a single central
doorway. Famously, all of them are locked tight and difficult to enter. Many
a Digger has been turned back at this point, unable to enter.
You find one of the doors that is not locked tight. Instead, the door
irregularly opens -- moving up and down -- in an almost spasm-like way.
Lightning leaps and arcs away from it. It seems that whatever powers the
door has malfunctioned, and left the door in a state of constantly opening
and closing. To enter, one must get under -- and avoid the arcs of
electricity leaping periodically from it.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure! and Injure:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
The smarter thing, probably, would be to head to Lunar. Not only is she perhaps a little less likely to run into Odessa's sort, but more likely to meet the one she's sought after.
But perhaps that's the very reason behind it, in the end -- that there's business she can't just set aside in the same breath as there's business she'd shuck if she could. Nearly, just nearly, she's free--
But a glance over her shoulder and she can just about see one Reaper or another gaining on her. Well, so be it. She'll see which one of them ends her first.
In the meantime, though, a fugitive's still got to eat, and there's one way for a down-on-their-luck sort to make quick cash--
Assuming, of course, this works better than the last time.
"Well, well," Josie muses, squatting down before one of the doors that, if she's any judge, leads into the depths of the site known as 'Faraway Lands'. If rumors are any judge, this place isn't so much as half-plundered, yet, which means that there's the chance of there being something within that'll see her set for a few more weeks at least, even at reduced rates. It ain't like she's going to bargain for more, given recent business.
The door goes 'chunk' as it slams against the metal frame below before shuddering open. Sparks go flying in its wake. Josie rises to her feet, lips moving as she counts off with the fingers of her good hand. One, two, three, four, five--
Six and a half. 'Chunk' goes the door as it slams into the frame once more.
"Better hold on tight, Penny," she remarks to her constant companion atop her shoulder before ducking down and attempting to slip through. Six and a half seconds. Should be enough time to get in under the door.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a risky Agility Action toward her party's challenge, Electrified Doorway.
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Mizore has posed.
Ryoko Mizore cracks her fingers and stretches out, investigating rumors of strangeness afoot. She's not after food though, she's... after Gear food. Fuel costs and parts are expensive. A place to raid for things to fence? ..sell. Sell. Legally sell. It's not fencing if no one bats an eye at you selling it right? Either way.
She hears the door long before she sees it and makes her way there, just in time for someone else to beat her to trying to dart under the door. "Dammit!" is the obvious response there. Which leads to the tattooed elf hefting her bags and sprinting after the woman rather than doing the smart thing and you know, wedging the door open or something (That takes too long).
So it's about then, that she adjusts her speed, watching the door opening and close and makes a sliding dive to try and dart through the thing. Gear bags rattling, clanking and probably not in the slightest, helping this endeavor.
DG: Ryoko Mizore has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Electrified Doorway.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
The last time Lan can remember seeing a door act like this had been... well, a few years, but it feels like a lifetime ago. Maybe it was. She had been a different Lan then.
But there are no Drowned here, no black water. She can turn back, if she wants.
She wants to, certainly. But if the door is a sign of his presence, then she's damned again one way or another. It doesn't matter if she goes through the door.
She remembers being afraid of the Stranger, once, but that too was sliced out of her. Cut away and replaced with something smooth and porcelain. Now only the aftertaste is left in her mouth, a faint metal taste like nervousness.
But... Gwen had said... that she saw Ashansi once, when she had spoken to the Stranger. And even if he doesn't remember her anymore, Lan would like to see for herself, and find out if he's okay.
The door slams shut again, electricity arcing. As it rises, Lan puts on a burst of speed, flash-steps kicking up puffs of dust outside of this abandoned site.
DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Butterfly Ribbon toward her party's challenge, Electrified Doorway. Quicken! Party Agility boosted! Liability! Failure will result in extra Exhaustion!
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
And then, there's Ratatoskr. That's really the only way to describe it when there's Ratatoskr.
"Hyahaha---!" His youthful, obnoxious laughter fills the space as he's darkening this particular way into the depths of this... 'Faraway Lands.' This may be a worrisome thing! Ratatoskr is... himself.
There's a many reasons why he'd be showing up here. Is this part of Odessa's attempts to audit their own? A thing of interest to them? This endangers the life of at least one of them here, and yet...
"Josie~!" Ratatoskr calls, as he tightly grips a crystalline teleportation handheld device thing, which has its own worrisome displays of lights and effects on how the world looks around him as he disappears, reappears -
And if Josie herself is in any danger of being squished by the malfunctioning door, well.
She won't be, because he'll push her along to the other side of it.
DG: Ratatoskr has risked with his Tool Teleporter Fragment toward his party's challenge, Electrified Doorway. Stalwart! Party shielded from some Exhaustion this round!
==============================<* Faraway Lands *>===============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Electrified Doorway *>======================
| Type: Entry | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
There are several entrances to Faraway Lands, rather than a single central
doorway. Famously, all of them are locked tight and difficult to enter. Many
a Digger has been turned back at this point, unable to enter.
You find one of the doors that is not locked tight. Instead, the door
irregularly opens -- moving up and down -- in an almost spasm-like way.
Lightning leaps and arcs away from it. It seems that whatever powers the
door has malfunctioned, and left the door in a state of constantly opening
and closing. To enter, one must get under -- and avoid the arcs of
electricity leaping periodically from it.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, Injure:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, and |
| Quicken:_Agility_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
=========================<* Faraway Lands - Round 1 *>========================== =======================< Results - Electrified Doorway >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rush 1 Agility Effects: Risky -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Butterfly Ribbon 2 Agility Effects: Quicken, Efficient, a -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Teleporter Fragment 3 Agility Effects: Stalwart and Risky -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ryoko Mizore 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Injure(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Ratatoskr has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Faraway Lands *>===============================
================<* CHALLENGE - Strangely Connected Platforms *>=================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
You enter a tall, rectangular-shaped room that leads upward. The door on the
other side is at the top, and you stand about a hundred feet below on the
floor. Along the sides of the room are platforms, each with a switch, that
can rise like elevators to a certain height -- but no further. These
platforms can only rise so high or so low, and some are along the middle
portion.
To make matters more confusing, pulling a switch will raise or lower two
platforms, rather than one. When you raise the one at the floor level, the
one near the door at the top lowers to a third of the way down. To cross,
you will need to figure out which switches raise and lower which platforms,
and move carefully without trapping yourself in the middle of the room.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Injure:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, Overwhelm:_Exhaustion_Up!, |
| Quicken:_Agility_Up!, and Stupify:_Wits_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Someone calls her name just as she ducks under the door. Josie does not stop, pitching forward into a roll (Penelope scatters, vanishing for the shadows ahead) and comes up in a crouch with her Aveh sidearm trained on Ratatoskr the moment he reappears.
This might be a particularly awkward situation for everyone concerned, particularly Ratatoskr, but also not excluding Lan, who has just managed to slip through the door a heartbeat later, or Ryoko, who has soon joined her, narrowly negotiating door and sparks alike.
Josie's dark eyes shift minutely from her target and settle on Lan.
"Well, if it ain't been a dog's year," she says, smiling in a way that does not at all meet her eyes.
It's been a long time since she and Lan have crossed paths friendly-like.
The door, behind the lot of them, goes 'chunk' as it slams again into the metal casing surrounding.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
Ratatoskr comes out of his rushing tackle in a crouch, whirling about-face as claws scratch into the ground for traction and grip tightly - a reminder that for all of his eccentricities he is a biologically engineered weapon of war in the shape of a person (...or a sentai genre monster, of which he should probably look into interning with as a part-time monster of the week somewhere, he'd be great at it). His eyes, a bright glow. His face, a permanent grinning sneer...
"You're still alive...!" This sounds threatening. "That's great... I've been having a hard time keeping track of everyone and everything after Cocytus all fell..."
He doesn't flinch before the trained sidearm, as he rises up and crosses his arms, the segmented metal plate squirrel tail flattening. He is far taller than any of them when he stands straight up. The gestures are bereft of the immediate threat of danger or hostility in comparison to Josie's well-trained aim. "So... what've you been up to?" It's real awkward, but it's conversationally in the range of co-worker chat.
The awkwardness may never pass! But the journey, it moves on ahead. The halls are dark, and sometimes one may see creatures flit or slither about, none approach (yet?). The first door that leads outside of these darkened, eerie paths comes to a tall rectangular-shaped room whose main exit out is higher up. Far, far higher up - several stories worth. At least a hundred feet up! That's quite high. That's probably higher anyone can throw anyone else, so perish that thought.
There's a bunch of platforms here and there, each with switches that help raise them up - as Ratatoskr inherently plays with, by messing with the back-most platform.
It only goes up about a third of the way before it abruptly stops, around the same time a part of the wall reveals itself to be a raised platform that lowers some, and yet another lowers further into the ground.
Messing around with other switches will also adjust various pillar-platforms similarly.
"Why don't they go all the way up? Why don't they go all the way up!" Ratatoskr grouses, as he pulls out a datapad of Hyadean make to set note-marks, as he looks over to Lan and Ryoko alike. "Would you know...?"
DG: Ratatoskr has used his Tool Corrupted Records toward his party's challenge, Strangely Connected Platforms. Stalwart! Party shielded from some Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Mizore has posed.
Ryoko Mizore pats herself down, checks herself for any injuries, checks behind her for any dropped tools and then checks one more time to be thorough. Nothing like losing a 10mm wrench or something in an otherworldly metal box. It's only then that she sits up properly and looks at the others gathered about. "Damn." she states again. As she gets up to her feet and brushes herself off. "Wasn't thinking I'd have to split anything." She suggests as an answer to a potentially unanswered question.
With everything situated, she looks to the others gathered around and says, "Hey." And wiggles her fingers in greeting before her hand drops and she gets a good look around.
"Someone's idea of a joke." is her answer to Rata. However, while he's fiddling with things, she's pulled out some chalk and is quietly writing the results down on the wall above (And to the side) of the switches. Indicating what each one does and even scribbling out details on which ones affect what when and where the others are pulled. There's also the option of just jamming the mechanism, but that might cause other problems. It IS a fun option though.
Still, for now she sticks to a fairly straightforward and simple solution of just using her brain and knowledge of machines. Even if there are likely distractions. She's straight forward about it though, it's a puzzle and something she wants to solve.
DG: Ryoko Mizore has used her Tool Field Kit toward her party's challenge, Strangely Connected Platforms. Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round!
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Beyond the door is...
"Aw, nuts," Lan blurts out, looking past the gun and the not-eye-reaching smile. "It's platforms." They're not a problem for Lan, but Loren and Gwen always-- she blinks and shakes her head very deliberately. Wake up.
Getting caught up in memories is dangerous at the best of times!!
"--huh, Josie. Ratatoskr... uh, Ryoko." See, she remembered it!! It only took meeting the elven woman like three whole times. Good job, Lan!
"It has been a while, huh?" she answers mildly. She'd enjoyed the expeditions she'd had with Josie before... well, before Josie apparently went and betrayed everybody, but according to the rumor mill it was some kind of... double-agent thing? Lan ignores the very obvious and dangerous Gun to ask a very important question...
"Hey, I heard you were a bad guy for a while, what's that about?" she asks, very sincerely.
Lan, you can't just ask people why they were villains! Pay attention to the narrative!
Either way, Josie can't be a bad guy, because... well, it's Josie. More importantly, there are platforms. Platforms, Lan is more certain about. "I don't know why people made platform puzzles," she tries explaining patiently to Ratatoskr. He really is like a little kid sometimes. One that could probably give her the fight of her life, but that's not too different from most Drifters she knows. "But we can try asking for a shortcut, maybe..."
Lan dips her fingers into her pocket to draw out a piece of folded paper, which she begins to fold and unfold between her fingertips in complicated patterns while chanting quietly. C'moooooon, spirits! Show her a cheat code!
DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Paku-Paku toward her party's challenge, Strangely Connected Platforms. Enlighten! Party Wits boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"...Right, ain't I seen you before, too?" Josie says to Ryoko, as if she weren't just about to attempt to riddle Ratatoskr with lead.
"Long story," is her response to Lan, coupled with a quick flash of white teeth. "Maybe I'll tell you it, one of these days." Just not right now, her response suggests, not when she's right about to get into a shoot out with the fourth of their merry band (well, soon-to-be-band).
Ratatoskr grins at her then, at the ready to--
Ask her how she's been, and not declare that her death is Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus' decree for the killing of his beloved. "Huh," Josie says, slowly lowering the ARM towards the facility floor. "Ain't here to finish the job, are ya?"
It could be a trick, sure.
But she knows Ratatoskr well enough to guess that's not his plan (his words further support her assumption here). And if she is wrong, well--
"You quit, too? Heh. Small world," she says, slowly rising to her feet. She waits a heartbeat or two, as if to be certain (one way or another) before holstering her ARM. "Well, after you lot," she says, gesturing towards the platform puzzles that await them beyond. And boy!
Are they platform puzzles!
"Now, let's see... how about this fella, then?" Josie remarks, fiddling with one of the switches. Meanwhile, on the other side of the room...
Penelope alights on a different, distant switch.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Penelope toward her party's challenge, Strangely Connected Platforms.
==============================<* Faraway Lands *>===============================
================<* CHALLENGE - Strangely Connected Platforms *>=================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
You enter a tall, rectangular-shaped room that leads upward. The door on the
other side is at the top, and you stand about a hundred feet below on the
floor. Along the sides of the room are platforms, each with a switch, that
can rise like elevators to a certain height -- but no further. These
platforms can only rise so high or so low, and some are along the middle
portion.
To make matters more confusing, pulling a switch will raise or lower two
platforms, rather than one. When you raise the one at the floor level, the
one near the door at the top lowers to a third of the way down. To cross,
you will need to figure out which switches raise and lower which platforms,
and move carefully without trapping yourself in the middle of the room.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, |
| Injure:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, Overwhelm:_Exhaustion_Up!, and |
| Stupify:_Wits_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
=========================<* Faraway Lands - Round 2 *>========================== ==================< Results - Strangely Connected Platforms >=================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 0 --(12)--> 12 Fail Penelope 3 Wits Effects: Efficient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Paku-Paku 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Corrupted Records 2 Wits Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ryoko Mizore 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Field Kit 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Injure(1)|Overwhelm|Stupify(2) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Lan Lilac has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Faraway Lands *>=============================== ===========================<* CHALLENGE - Vacuumon *>=========================== | Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Combat | Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information >---------------------------- Vacuumons are strange monsters: sinewy flesh that joins chitinous plates, all colored various shades of white and off-white. With arms that end in terrible blades, they can pose a danger by slashing into you -- especially if they come from behind and surprise you. However, their ability to cast gravity-influencing spells is far more dangerous. Sometimes, you will find yourself slammed into a wall or ceiling; other times, you float in the air. Their most dangerous, though, is the ability to warp space... and teleport your group to earlier in the dungeon. Several of these infernal things charge straight for you! ============================= Dungeon Conditions: ============================= | Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, Tire:_Exhaustion_Up!, Weaken:_Brute_Down!, and | | Wound:_Combat_Down! | = Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
"Quit? Quit!" Ratatoskr says. "...This is one of the greatest wars and I am living in this time! It's important I keep as much of everyone and what happened in it...!" Beyond this outburst, there is no outward threat. He is not quite that wily, even if Odessa rarely ever managed to successfully tug his leash from his various interests. This has (accidentally?) made him one of their greatest intelligence operatives, to... a point. Whether this is a feat or a damning indictment of Odessa's mismanagement, uh. Moving on.
Lan suggests asking for a shortcut. She asks a folded piece of paper for a shortcut! It... provides?! It does! Lan can follow the instructions given by the spirits and figure out what's the next set of levers to pull in order to get things to start lining up. He looks from his datapad to the little folded paper, eyes glowing ever brighter. "How does it do that...?" He asks of Lan.
To Ryoko. "You don't split history!" He chides, as Ryoko uses her mechanically-inclined mind to intuit a lot of how it might work. She can tell by ear what one set of attached mechanisms do before anyone pulls them, which is in line with what Lan shares and figures out, as the four of them just pass the time in... reasonable peace.
Penelope, as is her wont, just does whatever she feels like, and accidentally(?) makes the sequence of events at least two cycles longer than it needs to be. (This is a pigeon's world, we are just living in it.) Ratatoskr does not call her on it. Ratatoskr may be aware of where he lies on the food chain before the pigeons, but soon enough, they're all on the correct platform a hundred feet up to move forward into some other dank, dark hallway in search of a far more interesting room that's not crawling in monsters.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
"Fair enough," Lan tells Josie, because she'd rather hear the story over a few bottles of beer or maybe one of those fancy drinks with an umbrella in it. Not while they're trying to solve puzzles. "It's a little bit magic," she explains to Ratatoskr. "See? It has glyphs drawn on it, and when I ask the local spirits a question, they can influence which glyph comes up next. It's kind of like how those 'tarot cards' work."
Between their combined efforts (if Lan could do the kind of math Ryoko can do, she would be Dangerous) they make their way along...
To a far more interesting room that is, sadly, crawling with monsters.
"EW!" is the first word out of Lan's mouth because face it, whatever these things are is really, really unsettling. Sickly pale corded flesh and chitinous exoskeletons, blades on their arms--
Oh, and the fact that one just absolutely gravity-blasts Lan, slamming her into the ceiling. "OOF!" The ribbon in her hair gleams dully as she fights antigravity with antigravity, but Lan only drops from the ceiling when that Vacuumon gets bored of her. She lands on her feet with a 'whup!' and springs into action with a ribbon-assisted flying kick for the one that embarrassed her at her own schtick.
Look out, they're coming right for you!!!
DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Vacuumon.
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Mizore has posed.
Ryoko Mizore only realizes just how much tension is in the room when she's figured out the puzzle and turns around. There's an awkward pause, then she slowly sidesteps away from Rata. Just getting out of the proverbial splash zone.
She does however, nod to Josephine, a thumbs up, "Yep. I uh, think I fell on my butt the last time so I'd rather not linger on it though." Joking. Humor, that helps in this situation rigth?
Same goes for Lan too admittedly! "Yeah it has been a while." She doesn't know about the betrayel and really, she's not the best of people herself even if she's trying to fix it all, so she's not about to talk there. "That's a forward way to ask if we should hogtie someone." Incidentally she holds up some zipties, "I've got these if we're talking securing or uh. That" she nods to the ARM from prior.
They do make it through the puzzle htough. Bird support or math. Or both.
"History's gone. I worry about the here and now and the future instead." She points forward, to the path forward at that. "Which means this exploration might be the difference between getting the tubing I need, or settling for raiding a scrapyard again and hoping it holds together. So uh, yeah. You totally split history sometimes." No nonsense there.
There are uh, monsters though and she finds this out as she is slammed to the ground by said critter with a thud. There was something along the lines of "The f-" uttered before the thud. She's been practicing! And freezes the ground beneath her, kicking off the wall to slide away and hopefully out of the gravity... weight, thing field. Slinging shards of ice in a broad spray towards the critters when she sees what they are.
DG: Ryoko Mizore has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Vacuumon.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Fair enough," she says to Ryoko in turn with that same smile, while -- and this is important -- still training her ARM on Ratatoskr.
At least, until he effectively disarms this entire situation.
In a manner of speaking.
Josie raises an eyebrow. "Well, ain't that a pretty li'l mess -- but it ain't my mess, right," she tells him, shaking her head and shrugging. "As long as you ain't coming for my head, I figure we can make like a house on fire, yeah?" So that's two for two, of late, with Odessa encounters turning out not... too terribly, all told. Likely, that's less to do with 'Odessa proper doesn't care if she's alive or dead' and rather more to do with the fact that with Cocytus good and shattered, parts of the organization are crumbling away with it.
Or, for that matter, that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. It's probably one of the reasons she's slipped the noose so far -- that, along with Vinsfeld dealing with rather more pressing threats.
Still, she's got to keep on being lucky, as the saying goes. It only ever takes one.
Regardless of Penelope's attempts at 'helping' (??), they manage to work their way onwards through the platforms in due time, emerging into a room with--
"Well, that ain't," Josie says, reaching not for an ARM but the flask she produces from her pocket, "a pretty sight!" Uncorking it, she splashes the nearest few of the creatures with its icy contents. Then, her lips moving to only just speak the words of the spell, she follows it up with an electrical spray.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Liquid Courage toward her party's challenge, Vacuumon. Rally!
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
Ratatoskr looks upon the runes with keen interest. The actual aspects of sorcery in play are beyond him to ever utilize directly, but this has made the subject ever more tantalizing for him to learn, read, and catalogue. "It's not Symbology," he thinks to himself. Whether it's comfortable for someone like Ratatoskr to be that close, well.
...anyway
"Gone? Gone!" Ratatoskr snaps to Ryoko. "Never! I won't let anything be forgotten...!" He gets so incensed by this that he doesn't even really pay much attention to the strange chitinous exoskeletons that approach and start to twist and contort space just to make things miserable for them. One ends up back-handed. He turns his gaze and then he's just an immediate flurry of acrobatic combat that nonetheless has its groundings in something very similar to Muay Thai kickboxing (Except the joints sometimes shoot compressed air with shotgun-like force).
He works well alongside Josie's movements and shots, because they were once on the same side, and were regular operatives paired together. (Maybe not 'paired' so much as 'someone found Ratatoskr and went... hey, you, come here with us' and he'd go 'okay this rules' and... yes.)
DG: Ratatoskr has contributed a risky Combat Action toward his party's challenge, Vacuumon.
==============================<* Faraway Lands *>=============================== ===========================<* CHALLENGE - Vacuumon *>=========================== | Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Combat | Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information >---------------------------- Vacuumons are strange monsters: sinewy flesh that joins chitinous plates, all colored various shades of white and off-white. With arms that end in terrible blades, they can pose a danger by slashing into you -- especially if they come from behind and surprise you. However, their ability to cast gravity-influencing spells is far more dangerous. Sometimes, you will find yourself slammed into a wall or ceiling; other times, you float in the air. Their most dangerous, though, is the ability to warp space... and teleport your group to earlier in the dungeon. Several of these infernal things charge straight for you! ============================= Dungeon Conditions: ============================= | Tire:_Exhaustion_Up!, Weaken:_Brute_Down!, and Wound:_Combat_Down! | = Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
=========================<* Faraway Lands - Round 3 *>========================== =============================< Results - Vacuumon >============================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 12 --(8)--> 20 Pass Liquid Courage 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 0 --(8)--> 8 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 0 --(28)--> 28 Fail Fight 1 Combat Effects: Risky -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ryoko Mizore 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Tire(2)|Weaken(2)|Wound(2) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Chitin crunches beneath her heel as Lan's kick connects with a creature's chest. She kicks off of it and reorients herself before darting back in! Ratatoskr and Josie make a strangely coordinated team - or maybe it's just what happens naturally when you spend enough time with another person, fighting alongside them... absolutely not allowed to kill them, even by accident. Right?
But they really don't seem to like electricity, especially when it's applied to their un-tender flesh. Ice blades and Anything Goes Martial Arts Squirrelry send the last of the creatures packing, leaving a few of their less-lucky comrades twitching and broken on the floor.
"Yuck," Lan declares, stepping wide around the leftover ones as they continue...
DG: Ryoko Mizore has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Faraway Lands *>=============================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - Closing Path *>========================= | Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information >---------------------------- As you have seen, many of the doors in Faraway Lands are powered. These steel doors lift up into the wall when some presses a button -- or when someone approaches. The one at this end of the wall, however, is raised... and begins to lower when you approach. If you want to get through, you will need to run through -- and not get separated or, worse, crushed. ============================= Dungeon Conditions: ============================= | Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, Suffer:_Exhaustion_Up!, | | Tire:_Exhaustion_Up!, Weaken:_Brute_Down!, and Wound:_Combat_Down! | = Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Mizore has posed.
Ryoko's covered in bug goo, has a few new bruises and a rather pissed off look on her features after the creatures are chased off. She works her fingers a few times, scowls and when no one's looking, suddenly presses her knuckles against the wall and shoves. There definitely was a faint pop at that, as well as a shudder.
"Hey are you guys okay?" She asks, trying to sound like she's not in a decent amount of pain at this point. Doesn't matter how used to it you are, that kind of thing hurts like a-... well.
As for Rata's comment on things being forgotten, she gives him a wry look and says, "What's the name of this place? Who built it?" It's too late in her mind. Besides, stripping stuff from the place and getting paid also means it gets put on display, preserving it, right?
She picks up the pace, catching up to Josephine, "Uh.. since you were pointing a gun at him-" She starts, her voice an undertone, "SHould I shut up about why I'm actually here?" AKA is he a threat? Maybe?
As for Lan's magic? She isn't.. sure if it actually works. A scientific mind! Also you know, it works well enough. Same as anything else so she doesn't lose too much sleep on it. "Where're the runes from?" she calls out, belatedly.
While this is happening, she spots that the door ahead is starting to lower itself down. "H-hey hurry up!" she calls out, sprinting ahead. Fishing in her kit tot ry and find a wedge. A bit of scrap. Something? She wants to jam it in the door, figuring she's got a touch more time than usual at least.
DG: Ryoko Mizore has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Closing Path.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Lan stretches as they walk, the dull ache in her Achilles' tendons familiar. "Runes? They're more like... mm, well they're not official or anything. I mean... I wanted to make it easy for any spirit to understand! And I also had to try and cover a lot of ground with only a few different pictures. So they're just little doodles, kind of."
She has a few theories as to why, occasionally, a glyph pops up that she knows damn well that she never drew.
"More importantly, is your hand okay? Did you dislocate a finger?" She saw that thing with the wall!!
Their next obstacle is very, very familiar. As if they'd just had to figure out a similar one...!
"Come on!" Lan shouts, and takes off running. She'll grab for Josie's hand as she runs, because Ratatoskr is weirdly fast for something so rattly and metallic, and Ryoko ran on ahead. Her silve ribbon gives her a boost of speed.
DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Butterfly Ribbon toward her party's challenge, Closing Path. Quicken! Party Agility boosted! Liability! Failure will result in extra Exhaustion!
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
Ratatoskr actually does get yeeted to some other part of the ruins. It's not a distant part, but it's enough that there's some loud bodily collisions, and small trails of quicksilver when he does appear that sew themselves up without any real ceremony behind it. He's Hyadean, Living Metal does its thing.
He meets Ryoko's wry look before long. "The locals refer to this as 'Faraway Lands'! Based on the make of the doors and the way energy seems to carry through here... this seems to be from the Zeboim times..." He leers, as if feeling challenged. "Rumor has it that valuable resources that can't be manufactured today came from here... such as something referred to as 'Kizim Fire.' The rest... that's why I'm here!!"
He says this as his head turns to a regular series of functioning steel doors that seem to instead have issues with recognizing the presence of someone for passage... until they close for the first time.
"Wait!!" Ratatoskr says. "These doors... it's said there's some that are easy to open, but also recognize if you shouldn't be going through... there were some doors on the Photosphere like that!" He is one of the few living sources of what life was like on the Photosphere, and this is a fact he has over time done a better job of remembering and being sporting about even if he's way, way, way, way more interested in the life and times of Filgaia's (and Lunar's) native warriors and related cultures.
Clarifying that... he has an idea.
"...You go on ahead," he grins as he goes back to the button and hits it, allowing the rest to go through. Is he going to leave himself behind? Perish the thought, he has that teleportation device that really looks like it's just going to put him inside a wall one day
DG: Ratatoskr has used his Tool Teleporter Fragment toward his party's challenge, Closing Path. Stalwart! Party shielded from some Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
It is, indeed, almost as if Josie and Ratatoskr have been paired together before on more than one occasion. Indeed, they have even crawled ruins not unlike this one in the years prior.
"Could be worse, right. Weren't expectin' that or none," Josie remarks, pocketing her flask before rolling her shoulders. Didn't get a scratch, there, but it'd been a near thing. Next time she might not be so lucky. "Hope there ain't more of that lot. I got my limits," she says, before starting to head onwards.
And pausing just near to the doorway at Ryoko's question -- the first of the set. Her answers are much the same as Ratatoskr's. "Faraway Lands, or so they say. Dunno what them that built it called it, of course. But it's Zeboim make." She raps her left hand against the wall. "No mistakin' it." She might not be an archaeologist, truly, but she's long since learned the look of it. "Anyhow, if that fire's still here... guess we'll see, right?"
And there's the second question. "Beats me," she tells Ryoko quite honestly in lowered tones, coupling the remark with a shrug. "Why, got a skeleton in your closet, kiddo? He ain't harmless, but..." Josie glances meaningfully in Ratatoskr's direction.
He's far from harmless, but there's them that would hurt others far more, if given the right reason, than he would.
She gets not more than a step through the door before realizing the issue. "...Shit," Josie utters, gaping for a moment at the distant doors. She begins to break for it, Penelope sailing in out of nowhere to land on her shoulder, when Lan takes her by the hand. "What's this? I ain't--"
It's too late to argue the point too much, though, not when they're suddenly feeling almost as if they're both flying.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Closing Path.
==============================<* Faraway Lands *>=============================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - Closing Path *>========================= | Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information >---------------------------- As you have seen, many of the doors in Faraway Lands are powered. These steel doors lift up into the wall when some presses a button -- or when someone approaches. The one at this end of the wall, however, is raised... and begins to lower when you approach. If you want to get through, you will need to run through -- and not get separated or, worse, crushed. ============================= Dungeon Conditions: ============================= | Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, Quicken:_Agility_Up!, | | Suffer:_Exhaustion_Up!, Tire:_Exhaustion_Up!, Weaken:_Brute_Down!, and | | Wound:_Combat_Down! | = Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
====================================================================<* Faraway Lands - Round 4 *>===================================================================== ======================================================================< Results - Closing Path >====================================================================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 20 --(11)--> 31 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 8 --(11)--> 19 Pass Butterfly Ribbon 2 Agility Effects: Quicken, Efficient, a ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 28 --(10)--> 38 Pass Teleporter Fragment 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------- Ryoko Mizore 20 --(33)--> 53 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------< Party >---------
DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Mizore has posed.
She's not quite fast enough and while she doesn't hurt herself significantly, she does slam into the door and kind of... folds under it and then thuds to the ground. Muttermutter. Her tools didn't scatter too far and she grabs them, stuffing them back in her bag.
Lan makes it past Ryoko, as well as everyone else with the help of that magic. Ryoko has no idea about the Photosphere. To be fair. She does give Rata a strange look, noting the same thing about the rattling machine being oddly fast. That's worrying.
For him maybe. She almost looks like she wants to take him apart briefly. The look of an engineer with curiousity.
No major injury other than her pride aside from that.
At Lan's question, she holds her hands up and wriggles each finger one at a time, "Just fine. It's not as bad as the time I crushed a finger working on a piston." She grins, that's probably a true story. Also probably not something to laugh about.
For Rata's explanation she counters with, "Not what it's called by us. What it's actually called. There's no way they called these doors the Faraway Lands. Or the back rooms. or the backyard or whatever else you can imagine." She snorts. "Unless you've got the writing, it's already forgotten. Best make some cash on it and preserve what's left on some rich snob's pedastal."
As for Josephine's question, she shrugs, "Plenty." answered considerably late. "Waving things around gets me nervous though and I at least recognize you though." That is, she hasn't been backstabbed or anything yet so she gets benefit of the doubt by dint of familiarity!
DG: Josephine Lovelace has drawn a new Challenge. ==============================<* Faraway Lands *>===============================
====================================================================<* Faraway Lands - Round 4 *>=====================================================================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Lightning Eater *>========================
| Type: Final | Dungeon Ability: Combat | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
In the very center of Faraway Lands, you find the Generator Complex. Rather
than a single room, it is a series of locked rooms. You make your way inside
of one; the locked door is not so difficult to tend to, be it by brute force
or intellect.
In this room, you find the ruins of an ancient generator. The column that
once ran floor to ceiling has been broken and damaged. Chunks are torn free;
in other places, it is dented inward. Sparks explode and erupt, but
sporadically. However, when you enter, the damaged generator sputters to
life--
No. Instead, the thing that did this emerges from it: a Lightning Eater.
This being of pure electricity takes on a vaguely lizard-like shape,
stomping out, and screeches -- before rushing at you, trying to bowl you
over!
And, unfortunately, it is between you and the door on the opposite side,
which leads to the heart of the dungeon and its treasures.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, |
| Quicken:_Agility_Up!, and Wound:_Combat_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Watch your fingers around pistons, right," Josie remarks, intruding in that conversation between Lan and Ryoko. "Some of 'em'll take your fingers right off! Or nearly enough," she says, brandishing her stiff-fingered bad right hand. "Take it from the master, eh?"
...It wasn't a piston that crippled Josie's right hand, but if it'll teach the younger set some caution -- not that Josie does, ever -- then she'll take the opportunity.
"That's some enchantment there," she says, of Lan's ribbon. "Don't suppose you'd consider...?" She grins, though the expression seems forced. "...Nah," she says, brushing her fingers through her short-cut locks. "A ribbon like that suits longer hair." She waves a hand dismissively. "Keep it."
There's plenty that might say that Josie's worthy of anything but trust -- and yet, as the saying says, beggers can't be choosers, and perhaps of the set of people here, Josie is the most familiar of the lot to Ryoko.
"Fair enough," Josie says with a lopsided grin once they're free. "But way I figure, if you're asking if you should mind your P's and Q's in the first place, the answer's sure to be yes. You get it?" So she says before she steps into the room just beyond the slammed-shut barrier they'd passed and comes to a stop as she beholds what lies within. "Well, I'll be a--"
Looks like the generator's still working.
Technically.
"Right, let's skedaddle on past--"
Scratch that.
"--Time for plan B!"
Which is, apparently, for Josie to drop behind one of the half-broken pillars and retrieve the flask from her pocket --- but not to repeat her trick from before. She gulps down the rest of the contents, wiping her mouth on her sleeve, before drawing the rifle that she's got holstered across her back. "Distract it!" she shouts, using the damaged pillar as cover while she takes aim, her finger just hooking over the trigger.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Liquid Courage toward her party's challenge, Lightning Eater. Rally!
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
'Distract it!'
"A-A-A-Already onnn iiiiiiiit...?" He stammers the exclamation in a way completely unintelligible as the lizard-shaped mass of lightning is making everything about him stand on end. His tail is more like a pinapple! A sharp, serrated pineapple. (do not eat)
This is not the first - nor last - time he has tried to physically manhandle electricity. He's fine.
DG: Ratatoskr has contributed a risky Combat Action toward his party's challenge, Lightning Eater.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
"Bring me something you will wear and I'll make you something like it," Lan offers, because why wouldn't she?
But inside the next chamber...
How the heck is a barefisted martial artist supposed to battle a creature made of electricity?! A martial artist that isn't Ratatoskr, that is.
"O you of silver stars," Lan intones, arms spread out in front of herself. ...Hey, this room really isn't tall enough to be summoning meteors in here--!! (Don't worry about it.) "O you of endless wishes!"
Silver light rings her, and the ceiling shatters above her, phantom debris showering down as a comet (why does it have a faaaaaace) rains itself down on her enemy.
DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Lightning Eater.
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Mizore has posed.
Ryoko Mizore gives Josie a flat look and says, "The better question is, do I need to watch my back. If I have to hit things, I don't exactly have a problem with it even now." SUre she's trying to be better, but sometimes a quick thump works wonders right?
as for the piston she holds a finger up, "Yep. Don't let them drop when you're working with a hand under it either. Caught it last second, but had to work with a splint. You ever done fine machining with a splint?" Muttermutter.
The offer to make something to wear gets an eyebrow raised though. "Do you do that kind of work? She's never asked, she sounds genuinely curious though. She... does need a backup coat.
As for the creature made out of lightning, she scrambles back and jerks away from it. Defnitely been shocked enough, it's not her favorite sort of things. And she's been hurt plenty lately. She scowls, can she do anything to it? She tries to disrupt it with a giant block of ice. Is ice conductive? Don't worry too much about it, it should be fine.
DG: Ryoko Mizore has contributed a risky Combat Action toward her party's challenge, Lightning Eater. ==============================<* Faraway Lands *>===============================
====================================================================<* Faraway Lands - Round 4 *>=====================================================================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Lightning Eater *>========================
| Type: Final | Dungeon Ability: Combat | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
In the very center of Faraway Lands, you find the Generator Complex. Rather
than a single room, it is a series of locked rooms. You make your way inside
of one; the locked door is not so difficult to tend to, be it by brute force
or intellect.
In this room, you find the ruins of an ancient generator. The column that
once ran floor to ceiling has been broken and damaged. Chunks are torn free;
in other places, it is dented inward. Sparks explode and erupt, but
sporadically. However, when you enter, the damaged generator sputters to
life--
No. Instead, the thing that did this emerges from it: a Lightning Eater.
This being of pure electricity takes on a vaguely lizard-like shape,
stomping out, and screeches -- before rushing at you, trying to bowl you
over!
And, unfortunately, it is between you and the door on the opposite side,
which leads to the heart of the dungeon and its treasures.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, and |
| Wound:_Combat_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
=========================<* Faraway Lands - Round 5 *>==========================
====================================================================<* Faraway Lands - Round 4 *>===================================================================== =========================< Results - Lightning Eater >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 31 --(5)--> 36 Pass Liquid Courage 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lan Lilac 19 --(25)--> 44 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ratatoskr 38 --(33)--> 71 Fail Fight 1 Combat Effects: Risky -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ryoko Mizore 53 --(33)--> 86 Fail Fight 1 Combat Effects: Risky -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Josephine Lovelace 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Hesitate(1)|Wound(2) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Josephine Lovelace has successfully explored Faraway Lands!
==============================<* Faraway Lands *>===============================
==========================<* CHALLENGE - Kizim Fire *>==========================
| Type: Discovery | Dungeon Ability: Conclusion | Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Inside of the central vault of Faraway Lands, you find a room with a large
cylindrical depression in the floor. Floating over it is a strange green
crystal. Bright and shining, it looks something like a flame -- but frozen
in form. This is the fabled Kizim Fire, a byproduct of Zeboim power
generation methods, which produces a crystal that contains enormous amounts
of energy. The crystal is warm to the touch, and tingles with stored power.
The Kizim Fire can be used to power-up an upgrade to a Gear, an ARM, or
sorcery. It is suitable as a macguffin for a personal plot.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, |
| Secret:_Exploration_Up!, and Wound:_Combat_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Something I would wear, huh...?" Josie pauses for a moment, as if to consider this. "Lemme think on it some, and I'll ring you up, maybe."
Her other self in the Darkness Shrine had worn a pretty dress. That sort of look doesn't right suit her -- not the way the other 'her' had done -- but that doesn't mean she's taken nothing away from that experience, either.
(Indeed, traces of it can be seen in the garb she has chosen for herself now.)
Josie's response is to simply smile all the more brightly and shrug again. "'Ask me again and I'll tell you the same'. If'n you're thinking it already, like, maybe you should listen to your better angels." And she winks.
"Been in a fight with a broken leg, as a matter of fact!"
Hopefully here and now, she won't repeat the experience.
'Distract it', she had said, and this may be considered fullfilled as Ratatoskr grapples with it. As phantasmal meteors rain down upon it. As ice slams into it. Even so, the beast continues to rampage, swiping out with electrical claws as it tears across the room. At one crucial moment, Ratatoskr leaps onto it, pulling its head back with no small amount of effort (or sacrifice).
A bullet tears through its head. Strange power or not, it is subject to the same weaknesses as anything else might be.
"Everyone still more or less standing?" Josie calls out, standing herself and holstering her trusty Gawain rifle. "Right! Let's head on in there and have a look-see!"
They do.
"My god," Josie says, upon seeing the Kizim Fire within. "I'll eat for a month."
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
'Everyone still more or less standing?' Ratatoskr is, post-electrical-experience, still all sharp and bristled out and definitively not standing, in the technical sense of what 'standing' is. His eyes are still bright, and his grin, well. He can't ever go below a 'smile.'
"...That was cool..."
Josie points out about how that this is the Kizim Fire, which matches what descriptions do exist of the once-thought mythical substance. Crystalized flame, a byproduct of Zeboim power generation. Did that strange lightning creature accidentally empower the processes that would allow this to be formed?
SUDDENLY RATATOSKR
"...That's Kizim Fire...!" He wheezes, and his excitement of this fact expends the rest of his energy as he flops over face down, tail up.
(he'll be okay, he might think this was a fanciful dream)