2023-03-03: Haunting Determination
- Log: Haunting Determination
- Cast: Xander Lovell, Riley Arwell
- Where: Buckeye Station - The Depot
- Date: March 03, 2023
- Summary: The Fangs of Valmar encounter the ghost train. Xander gets into a knife fight with it. His reward is GUN.
=======================<* Buckeye Station - The Depot *>======================== Buckeye Station's rail depot has returned to functionality, thanks to the blood, sweat, and toil of underpaid local workers. The central station is a large, stately building, all local stone and ornamental brass. Inside, travelers can purchase tickets, food, drink, and newspapers from all across Aquvy. Murals on the walls depict the history of the Anaheim Rail and Freight Company--and, secondarily, Buckeye Station itself. There is ample seating, both inside the station and at the covered waiting areas next to the tracks. The depot is never truly quiet. There are always at least a handful of civilian travelers, and Anaheim's black-coated security officers keep a watchful eye on the place. It /is/ a strategic investment, after all. BGM: Wild Arms 4 - The Dark Grey Buckeye
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
================<* CHALLENGE - A Train You Ain't Gettin Offa *>=================
| Type: Entry | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 4 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
A mysterious train that departs from the Thirteenth Platform.
Perhaps you believe the rumours of people disappearing into the cloak of
midnight, or perhaps you're here to debunk the urban legend once and for
all. Perhaps you are here because destiny calls.
The only clue you have is a foreboding black ticket, marked for one Group,
departing from the station you're present at...
Hirasaka, Hirasaka... the one-way train bound for Hirasaka...
will be arriving shortly.
Please wait by the yellow line... until the doors...
Open.
An ominous, tinny voice echoes from public announcement speakers that
Filgaia stations are... not usually equipped with.
And then--
clack-clack
clack-clack
It appears.
A shooting star racing through the wilderness, drawing to an eerily silent
stop at the platform you're standing on. It is a train unlike any you've
seen - unlike the carriages and locomotives of Filgaia, the rumoured,
legendary Chibiki-Iwa Express has silver, rectangular cars, painted with a
black stripe.
The sliding doors open. The lights are on within, revealing surprisingly
mundane rows of seats flush against the walls. There is an almost
supernatural compulsion that draws you within. But just as soon as you start
inspecting--
The doors will... now close.
Please step away from the doors...
There is no opening the doors.
The doors hiss to a flush close. No! The train shifts... it might be too
late!
Is there truly... no gettin' offa this train you're on?
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cripple:_Agility_Down! and Secret:_Exploration_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Contacting a guardian, digging through libraries, all those notes, all those attempted translations, leading them to another old, ancient ruin from what must have been Valmar's time and there's nothing to show for it. Just like every time.
Xander hasn't given up. He can't give up. He doesn't know how to give up, even if he wanted to, which he most certainly does not. But his mood is foul, expression tense and tightened in a permanent glower one twitched lip away from snarling.
There's always rumors to chase, the way Drifters do. Legends and fairy tales and ghost stories. But there's no fooling himself or Riley that this particular lead means anything more than a spooky train that may or may not exist. A diversion. A distraction. Something to see to pretend they're living some kind of adventuring life style and not that they're damned and doomed.
Frankly, Xander doesn't expect to see a train show up at all as they walk along the platforms. Why not cap off their recent experiences with yet another disappointment? So lost in his own brooding, he does not here the first clack-clack of the train. Clack-clack, clack-clack... And then that tinny voice announcing the train's arrival.
Pulled from his thoughts, Xander looks up. The Thirteenth Platform -- the one that allegedly does not exist.
"Seriously, this exists, but not..." He catches his own tongue, trying to banish his dark mood. It doesn't work, and when the doors slam shut behind him and Riley, Xander's mood reaches its worst point.
He immediately stabs the upholstry.
DG: Xander Lovell has used his Tool Favorite Dagger toward his party's challenge, A Train You Ain't Gettin Offa. Rally!
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
Riley thinks he could probaly cope with the dissappointment of the failed lead if only the thorns hadn't come back. It was more subtle than their usual appearance. A prickling tingle deep in his chest. An urgent need to cough. He might have been able to convince himself it was an ordinary illness, but he doubts the blood that came up is from some mundane ailment coincidentally trying to kill him.
It hasn't repeated yet, and so for now he's kind of hiding it and trying not to look at Xander with tragic eyes. They have a weird little mystery to cheer themselves up with, at least -- a ghost train!
And although despite his intentions, Riley has been gloomier than usual, managing to cling and drape all over Xander despite his height -- a sparkle does come back to his eyes when the supposedly impossible train arrives, and the rumor their lives didn't depend on proves true. He hops aboard with Xander to have a look around, and... the doors promptly seal shut behind him.
He gives a nervous and almost apologetic smile. The fact that this scenario intrigues him when it upsets Xander so makes it feel like it's somehow his fault.
"I wonder where we're going..."
DG: Riley Arwell has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, A Train You Ain't Gettin Offa.
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
================<* CHALLENGE - A Train You Ain't Gettin Offa *>=================
| Type: Entry | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 4 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
A mysterious train that departs from the Thirteenth Platform.
Perhaps you believe the rumours of people disappearing into the cloak of
midnight, or perhaps you're here to debunk the urban legend once and for
all. Perhaps you are here because destiny calls.
The only clue you have is a foreboding black ticket, marked for one Group,
departing from the station you're present at...
Hirasaka, Hirasaka... the one-way train bound for Hirasaka...
will be arriving shortly.
Please wait by the yellow line... until the doors...
Open.
An ominous, tinny voice echoes from public announcement speakers that
Filgaia stations are... not usually equipped with.
And then--
clack-clack
clack-clack
It appears.
A shooting star racing through the wilderness, drawing to an eerily silent
stop at the platform you're standing on. It is a train unlike any you've
seen - unlike the carriages and locomotives of Filgaia, the rumoured,
legendary Chibiki-Iwa Express has silver, rectangular cars, painted with a
black stripe.
The sliding doors open. The lights are on within, revealing surprisingly
mundane rows of seats flush against the walls. There is an almost
supernatural compulsion that draws you within. But just as soon as you start
inspecting--
The doors will... now close.
Please step away from the doors...
There is no opening the doors.
The doors hiss to a flush close. No! The train shifts... it might be too
late!
Is there truly... no gettin' offa this train you're on?
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cripple:_Agility_Down! and Secret:_Exploration_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
======================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express - Round 1 *>======================= ==================< Results - A Train You Ain't Gettin Offa >=================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Xander Lovell 0 --(12)--> 12 Pass Favorite Dagger 3 Agility Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riley Arwell 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Xander Lovell 0 --(15)--> 15 Fail Conditions: Cripple|Secret(2) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Xander Lovell has failed this challenge! The party gained 15 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
Xander's unfortunately not taken notice of Riley's condition yet, too wrapped in his own thoughts, and any hint of tragic eyes too easily assumed to be from Xander's newest failure. His own thorns have yet to show, and one may wonder if he'd notice in his current state unless they were particularly disruptive.
A knife does nothing to stop the train from carrying them away. Xander sighs.
But the truth is, Riley's draped on him, and it is an intriguing adventure, if Xander could only put everything aside.
So his shoulders lose some of their tention under Riley's weight, and his voice softens a touch.
"Guess we'll find out." He surveys the train car. "...Might as well look around."
DG: Riley Arwell has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Service Disruption *>======================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
At first it seems as if it may just be a rush of passengers boarding in from
the latest stop, but it doesn't take you long to realise they're all
attempting to bar your group's passage forward. The eerie chant you may have
heard in other moments now has a clear owner:
...U no ku ma...
...wi FU O e ya...
...KE KO te...
No matter what path you take, there are more ghosts barring the way. Worse
yet, they're all following you through the carriages as well.
Bloody persistent...!!
There's only one extreme measure left: you're going to have to decouple the
coupling on the train car you're on to leave them (and an untold number of
passengers) behind. Surely... surely this won't have a lot of ramifications
on the passage of the departed to the afterlife, right?
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cripple:_Agility_Down!, Fright:_Combat_Down!_Agility_Up!, |
| Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, and Secret:_Exploration_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
Ghost train...! At first, there isn't much to find. There is the seat that Xander murdered, and many others like it, though there isn't much about them that seems fascinating. Is there anyone else on this train to who-knows-where? This is a question that gets answered when the Fangs make their way to the back of the car, and find the next car over filled with strange, chanting passengers. They come forward in a swarm, driving Xander and Riley back.
Given the somewhat alarming circumstances, Riley has come undraped from Xander, but still grasps his hand.
"You don't think these are ghosts, do you...??" Whatever they are, they are approaching relentlessly, and nobody wants to find out what happens after a ghost 'gets' you!! They need to escape!
Riley manages to coax his cursed shovel out of the train floor somehow, maybe by convincing himself the floor of a moving train is ground, somehow, and rushes with Xander to the next car in the other direction, where he gives the coupling connecting the cars a thwack. As he flees, he addresses the ghosts(?) -- "Do you know the secrets of the afterlife??"
They chant emotionlessly back.
DG: Riley Arwell has used his Tool Shovel of Valmar toward his party's challenge, Service Disruption. Strengthen! Party Brute boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
Xander is 'freed' from (deprived of?) Riley, but grabs back on his hand with urgency.
"What else would they be?!"
They could be a number of other things: monsters, spirits, cursed individuals like themselves. But they've both the same idea: best not to find out via a soul sucking touch test, even if the ghosts wouldn't enjoy the meal.
He stumbles after Riley, balking at the shovel. "That doesn't make any sense!" he cries uselessly as he's pulled into the next car. For all Xander hates that shovel, he lets Riley take the lead with it, more intent on making sure to pull Riley back into the car so he doesn't go tumbling out -- or get pulled away by ghosts.
"Being a ghost looks a lot like being in a cult."
DG: Xander Lovell has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Service Disruption.
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Service Disruption *>======================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
At first it seems as if it may just be a rush of passengers boarding in from
the latest stop, but it doesn't take you long to realise they're all
attempting to bar your group's passage forward. The eerie chant you may have
heard in other moments now has a clear owner:
...U no ku ma...
...wi FU O e ya...
...KE KO te...
No matter what path you take, there are more ghosts barring the way. Worse
yet, they're all following you through the carriages as well.
Bloody persistent...!!
There's only one extreme measure left: you're going to have to decouple the
coupling on the train car you're on to leave them (and an untold number of
passengers) behind. Surely... surely this won't have a lot of ramifications
on the passage of the departed to the afterlife, right?
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cripple:_Agility_Down!, Fright:_Combat_Down!_Agility_Up!, |
| Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, Secret:_Exploration_Up!, and |
| Strengthen:_Brute_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
======================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express - Round 2 *>======================= ========================< Results - Service Disruption >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Xander Lovell 12 --(5)--> 17 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riley Arwell 20 --(5)--> 25 Pass Shovel of Valmar 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Xander Lovell 15 --(30)--> 45 Pass Conditions: Cripple|Fright(2)|Hesitate(2)|Secret(1) Effects: Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Xander Lovell has passed this challenge! The party gained 30 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> Riley Arwell has posed.
BAM!!! The coupling comes undone, and the cars break apart with a shudder. Xander manages to hang on tightly enough to keep Riley on his feet, inside the right car, and out of the grasping hands of ghosts, and they leave the other car behind in the darkness. Goodbye, lost souls... good luck getting another train!
Riley laughs a little at Xander's despairing reaction to the shovel, and that brings about a twinge in his chest -- his hand tightens in Xander's as he struggles not to react to it -- to hold it in -- it's not like coughing against thorns is going to do anything but make it worse....!! Finally he manages to stifle it with a bit of throat clearing, but a bit of a prolonged silence as it ebbs away.
He turns back to Xander with a belated smile at his crack about cults. "I guess the loneliness of ghost life got to them and they needed some community..."
DG: Xander Lovell has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
=================<* CHALLENGE - A Train They Are Gettin Onna *>=================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Tsukuyomi-eki...
Tsukuyomi-eki...
This train will make a stop at...
Tsukuyomi-eki...
Suddenly, the train jostles to a stop as it pulls up at a frighteningly
barren station, surrounded by a non-landscape, composed of absolute
nothingness.
The doors will open... on... the right.
Please stand clear of incoming passengers and...
Do not forget your... belongings...
Just as sudden, ghostly passengers start filtering in rapid numbers through
each open door, threatening to bowl and push you over if you are not
careful! You'd best find a seat or a secure corner that these ghosts care
less about.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cripple:_Agility_Down!, Fright:_Combat_Down!_Agility_Up!, |
| Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, Overzealous:_Brute_Down!_Combat_Up!, and |
| Strengthen:_Brute_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
These would not be the first souls the two of them have condemned to an unpleasant fate. If Xander has any say, they won't be the last. He sighs out his tension as the car is left behind, slowly loosening, but not withdrawning, his grip on Riley.
Something seems off, just for a moment, in that silence that follows. But Xander's too keyed up to know how to pry.
"...Maybe," he says to Riley, with a little too much gravity for a joke.
Then the train screeches to a halt and almost knocks Xander off his feet, his grip on Riley threatening to take them both. As the doors open and ghosts come in, Xander instead shoves Riley up against one of the walls to avoid the sudden flood of them. He hisses under his breath, covering Riley's mouth with his hand to silence him while biting his own tongue. "Shh!"
Does he expect the ghosts work by sound...?! Well, why not!
Xander discreetly swipes some perfume from a vial over his own collar and breathes it in, trying to ignore the stench of death. But that smell might only be in his mind...
DG: Xander Lovell has used his Tool Autumn Mist toward his party's challenge, A Train They Are Gettin Onna. Fanfare!
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
More ghosts....!! Regular, non-cultist ghosts? Even as Xander presses him up to the wall and clamps a hand over his mouth to hide them both from their awareness, Riley watches the ghostly passengers with wide-eyed curiosity. Ghosts are real... that's more confirmation of some sort of life beyond than he's ever gotten before.
Could the two of them become ghosts...? Is it sad to be a ghost? Is it awful? Do you have to join a ghost cult? Or is it okay sometimes? Can you sing?
He scrutinizes these ones, hoping to find answers to these questions in their eyes. But these ghosts are commuters, and even living commuters carry a certain passive gloom about them.
"I want to talk to them..." he muffles against Xander's hand.
DG: Riley Arwell has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, A Train They Are Gettin Onna.
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
=================<* CHALLENGE - A Train They Are Gettin Onna *>=================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Tsukuyomi-eki...
Tsukuyomi-eki...
This train will make a stop at...
Tsukuyomi-eki...
Suddenly, the train jostles to a stop as it pulls up at a frighteningly
barren station, surrounded by a non-landscape, composed of absolute
nothingness.
The doors will open... on... the right.
Please stand clear of incoming passengers and...
Do not forget your... belongings...
Just as sudden, ghostly passengers start filtering in rapid numbers through
each open door, threatening to bowl and push you over if you are not
careful! You'd best find a seat or a secure corner that these ghosts care
less about.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cripple:_Agility_Down!, Fright:_Combat_Down!_Agility_Up!, |
| Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, and Overzealous:_Brute_Down!_Combat_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
======================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express - Round 3 *>======================= ===================< Results - A Train They Are Gettin Onna >=================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Xander Lovell 17 --(5)--> 22 Pass Autumn Mist 3 Agility Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riley Arwell 25 --(13)--> 38 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Xander Lovell 45 --(20)--> 65 Pass Conditions: Cripple|Fright(2)|Hesitate(1)|Overzealous(2) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Xander Lovell 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> Xander Lovell has posed.
Xander hesitates with Riley's words. It feels... dangerous, for more reasons than the obvious one. But slowly, reluctantly, Xander withdraws his hand. The noose is tightening. If these are ghosts, real ghosts, shouldn't they know...? But...
"...They're on their way," Xander whispers grimly. "They don't know any more than we do yet."
Even if Riley tries, he won't be getting very many answers from the gloomy commuters in their ghostly rush to board.
DG: Riley Arwell has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Train Hopping *>=========================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
As if on clockwork, numerous ghosts bar your passage forward through the
passenger cars. They do not speak when spoken to, save to eerily chant a
song that cloys at the senses:
...Wa yo re ...
...KA ne TA ra SO...
...TSU NA mu...
Truly, how persistent! If they insist on barring your passage inside...
Then the ladder leading outside is your only path. You'll have to make
multiple leaps across the gaps on the roofs of the train cars and not tumble
over and fall into the mysterious abyss that this train to the afterlife
runs on.
Easy, right?
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cripple:_Agility_Down!, Fright:_Combat_Down!_Agility_Up!, |
| Overzealous:_Brute_Down!_Combat_Up!, and Slow:_Agility_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
Riley's eyes widen further. "You think they're going... there?" He asks in a whisper. "You think we're going there? On this train...?!" How does that even work? What does that even mean? If alive people go to the afterlife by mistake, can they ever come back?
Riley's wish, though, is a little more humble than learning what the afterlife is like, at least at the moment. He just wants to know what it's like to be a ghost! And so he cautiously unpeels from the wall to try to get the attention of the one that's taken the nearest seat.
"H-hey there! I'm Riley. What's your name? Do you know what this train is all about?"
He doesn't get an answer. He doesn't quite get eye contact. He does get a song, but it's not an encouraging one that speaks to a delightful inner life of ghosts. A melodic chant, not unlike the one from the ghosts that first swarmed them. The others nearby seem to pick it up and join in, and soon they're crowding all around, not even leaving them an exit path to the next car this time. There is a ladder leading out, and the fear of GHOST TOUCHES is enough to propel Riley to face another, scurrying up the ladder to stand atop the train car, where vertigo immediately seizes him. "...oh, oh boy..."
The good news, if you can call it that, is that there's no ground beneath them to break his bones against if he should fall... just endless abyss...
DG: Riley Arwell has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Train Hopping.
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
Those questions send a cold shot through Xander's spine. A spooky ghost train... possibly taking souls to the afterlife. The place Riley has been rather intent on going lately. It keeps him from remembering, for the moment, sometimes Riley is just on the hunt for new friends and new experiences.
Even if they're ghosts.
Xander digs his fingers into Riley hesitantly as he tries to converse with a ghost and gets nothing but creepy songs and ghost hands back. He scurries up the ladder outside and sucks in a sharp breath.
"It's fine," he tries to reassure, but since when has Xander spitting out those words ever been reassuring? He steadies Riley physically, giving him some of the perfume on his collar. "Breathe in. Okay? Follow me."
Xander tries to lead the way in making the dangerous leaps from one car to the next, stopping after each one to hold his hand out for Riley in case it's needed.
DG: Xander Lovell has used his Tool Autumn Mist toward his party's challenge, Train Hopping. Fanfare!
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Train Hopping *>=========================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
As if on clockwork, numerous ghosts bar your passage forward through the
passenger cars. They do not speak when spoken to, save to eerily chant a
song that cloys at the senses:
...Wa yo re ...
...KA ne TA ra SO...
...TSU NA mu...
Truly, how persistent! If they insist on barring your passage inside...
Then the ladder leading outside is your only path. You'll have to make
multiple leaps across the gaps on the roofs of the train cars and not tumble
over and fall into the mysterious abyss that this train to the afterlife
runs on.
Easy, right?
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cripple:_Agility_Down!, Fright:_Combat_Down!_Agility_Up!, |
| Overzealous:_Brute_Down!_Combat_Up!, and Slow:_Agility_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
======================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express - Round 4 *>======================= ==========================< Results - Train Hopping >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Xander Lovell 22 --(5)--> 27 Pass Autumn Mist 3 Agility Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riley Arwell 38 --(13)--> 51 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Xander Lovell 65 --(20)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Cripple|Fright(2)|Overzealous(1)|Slow(2) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Xander Lovell 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> Riley Arwell has posed.
Riley squeezes his eyes shut and tries to breathe in the scent Xander designed to steady him in such circumstances, but the stress and fear still do something to his breathing that brings out that twinge in his lungs again. He coughs hard, and that cough brings on another, and it seems like that might just keep going, but eventually he manages to calm it and push it back down, except that there's a telltale trickle of red from his lips that will be visible the next time they're in the light.
...Jumping. They need to get to the next car, and he needs to trust Xander. They leap once... twice... almost there.... .... ... the third time, Riley misses the back half of of his footing on the moving train roof, tipping backwards toward the abyss. "AAAAA---"
Until Xander catches his hand and pulls him into his arms.
"Mph," Riley says tragically, keeping his face buried against Xander for a bit while the terror wears off.
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
When Riley coughs, Xander tenses. "Riley?"
There's little time to question it as they jump from one car to the next, Xander's attention more on Riley than any part of the abyss around them. He yanks Riley up against him at the third jump, holding as tightly as Riley buries in in kind. But Xander's grip is shaken with a new fear.
"...Riley. Look at me."
He tries to coax Riley's chin up, and then his whole body goes still, eye wide in horror at the sight of blood from Riley's lip. All that coughing...
"No," Xander says so quietly it's devoured up by the clacking of the train below them. He shakes his head, thumb wiping over the blood, staring at the smear of it. "No, I -- I already..."
But that was... so long ago. And in all the excitement with Solitaire, Xander never actually killed anyone.
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
"Sorry, I just-..." Riley thinks this is about Xander wanting to move on and get him unfrozen about the heights situation. It's embarrassing -- Riley can handle heights sometimes, but the train is MOVING and there is an ENDLESS ABYSS under it, and he nearly fell off, and...
He feels his chin tipped up and sees Xander's face fall, and realizes this isn't about that. He feels the air a bit too cold on his lips and his hand finds the now-smudged blood spot. The rest of it is probably on Xander's shirt, though thankfully there's not much.
He shakes his head. "It's all right." It isn't all right, but if Xander's shaken about it, then Riley needs to be okay, except really he's been having thoughts like we can't risk killing anyone else, so this time it's for keeps, this time it's really never getting better, it's going to happen more and more, worse and worse, until life isn't bearable anymore, and then it's going to get worse than that...
"You bought us a lot of time, it was really nice." His gaze softens with worry as he glances Xander up and down. "Um, did you get yours, yet?"
DG: Xander Lovell has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Train on your Parade *>=====================
| Type: Climax | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
*SKREEEEEEE*
The train comes to an extremely sudden halt.
So... you are the ones who have been causing trouble...
I will not allow you...
...to disrupt my schedule...!!
A powerful shadowy force flings your group off their feet and YEETS your
team out the nearest window!!
... onto cold, metallic train tracks.
You see your shadow, cast by powerful ghostly headlights behind you. A
haunting steam whistle blows.
Uh oh.
(NB: This is an interim card meant to set the scene; resolve this card
without posing, and go straight to the Final card!)
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cripple:_Agility_Down!, Fright:_Combat_Down!_Agility_Up!, |
| Save_Point:_Conditions_cleansed!, and Slow:_Agility_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
DG: Xander Lovell has used his Tool Mysterious Vial toward his party's challenge, Train on your Parade. DG: Riley Arwell has used his Tool Musical Interlude toward his party's challenge, Train on your Parade. Stalwart! Party shielded from some Exhaustion this round!
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Train on your Parade *>=====================
| Type: Climax | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
*SKREEEEEEE*
The train comes to an extremely sudden halt.
So... you are the ones who have been causing trouble...
I will not allow you...
...to disrupt my schedule...!!
A powerful shadowy force flings your group off their feet and YEETS your
team out the nearest window!!
... onto cold, metallic train tracks.
You see your shadow, cast by powerful ghostly headlights behind you. A
haunting steam whistle blows.
Uh oh.
(NB: This is an interim card meant to set the scene; resolve this card
without posing, and go straight to the Final card!)
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cripple:_Agility_Down!, Fright:_Combat_Down!_Agility_Up!, |
| Save_Point:_Conditions_cleansed!, and Slow:_Agility_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
======================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express - Round 5 *>======================= =======================< Results - Train on your Parade >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Xander Lovell 27 --(0)--> 27 Pass Mysterious Vial 3 Wits Effects: Efficient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riley Arwell 51 --(0)--> 51 Pass Musical Interlude 2 Wits Effects: Stalwart -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Xander Lovell 80 --(0)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Cripple|Fright(2)|Save Point(1)|Slow(1) Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Xander Lovell has passed this challenge! The party gained 0 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Xander Lovell has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
================<* CHALLENGE - The Suplex of Everyone's Souls *>================
| Type: Final | Dungeon Ability: Combat | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
So, um.
A rampaging ghost train is after you.
The doom train has a frightening face, and a headlight whose beam scorches
whoever is unfortunate to step into the light. It also has the horrible
habit of casting curses and other dark magic to whoever is out of reach of
its light.
It's extremely obvious what'll happen if you get run over by a train, too.
But hope isn't yet lost.
It's said that trains -- in particular, ghost trains -- have a long and
storied history with martial artists. There have been many tales, perhaps
all exaggerated, of a muscle-bound "bodybuilder" straying from his gym and
taking hold of a locomotive by its cowchaser and performing...
The legendary Train Suplex.
Is this the start of a new legend -- YOUR legend?
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cripple:_Agility_Down!, Fright:_Combat_Down!_Agility_Up!, and |
| Wonder:_Exhaustion_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
Xander's never been irritated by Riley's fear of heights, though it may not be inaccurate to suggest Xander did develop and irritation for heights existing because of it. He tries not to hold it against Riley... especially not after the guilt of climbing up high in a tree after a fight when they were thirteen.
They probably should move on, what with the ghosts, a moving train over the abyss, and an unknown destination. But Xander's the one frozen now, unable to look away from Riley's face marred by that small but so damning smear of blood. This time, Riley's the one trying to reassure him. But he can't. Because Riley's plan about everything being all right is so different from Xander's. Xander's fingers sink into Riley's shoulders, his own mind running over a dozen new fears.
"...But it wasn't enough."
And even that aside, it's Riley's... what, lungs, stomach? His throat again? Somewhere deep and terrible, already painful. Already too much. He pulls Riley back into a futilely protective embrace, as if he could will the thorns away. How does Xander stop this?
Why isn't anything he ever does enough to stop this?!
Before Xander can think to answer Riley's question one way or the other, the train stops with a horrific screeching upon the abyss, but the world does not. Momentum is cruel like that. Their bodies are flung from the train, and all Xander can do at this point is pivot his body so he hits the ground first to absorb some of the blow for Riley. The impact is enough to make him let go, sending them both scattered and tumbling, mercifully still within reach of one another.
Headlights blindingly illuminate the dark tracks, and the train continues on its tracks -- on its path to run them both right over. And for a moment, it does not seem Xander's conscious enough to get back on his feet and start running. Not until he pushes up weakly, arms trembling with the effort.
But the train's still coming...
DG: You risk with your Tool Candied Medicine against your party's Challenge, The Suplex of Everyone's Souls! DG: Xander Lovell has risked with his Tool Candied Medicine toward his party's challenge, The Suplex of Everyone's Souls. Stalwart! Party shielded from some Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
Riley doesn't know whether Xander's hug is a yes or a no, but he lets himself sink into it anyway. If time could just stop, and everything else could just go away...
But the world doesn't wait for them at all. The train screeches to a halt, flinging them into the air. Xander, for all his effort to soften the landing for Riley, is still treated to a frantic goodbye sounding shout of love as they fall.
FLOMP. Riley onto Xander, then bouncing a bit to land again a little further down. It was softer to land on Xander, although it may be painful for his heart to realize later. There's a long and weary sigh of relief and something that sounds a little like a sob as Riley slowly registers that they landed on what must be the narrow strip of land supporting the train tracks and not into the endless nothing.
But then a spotlight hits them, and the train starts to chug with renewed motion.
They were thrown clear, but not that far clear. There is only the tracks, the train, and the abyss. Riley looks at the train, and at Xander, wide-eyed with horror.
What are they supposed to do, run? ...Forever?
It's so much like the rest of their... everything, that Riley gives a pained little laugh. He pushes up, coming to Xander's side, where Xander has made it up to his feet even though he's trembling, and takes his hand, pulling him into a run together on instinct, even though it's useless. But what else can they do?? There's a train coming after them! They've got to run. And maybe something ahead will change things, the path might widen so they can get off the tracks... except he can see the path ahead and there's nothing like that, and no reason to expect they'll make it farther than he can see before the train overtakes them. Stifled coughs start to rattle him as they press on.
"Xander..." the hand that was helping pull Xander forward is suddenly a weight on him, pulling him back and slowing his pace. It will stop him altogether if he lets it, and if Xander should turn back to face Riley, he'll be greeted with shimmering, tear-misted eyes.
"Maybe we should just... stop. We can't run forever, can we...? Maybe we'll become ghosts and they'll let us onboard again... we could find out where they're going."
The train is VERY close, now, unforgiving of any drop in their speed. Its light washes over them, burning.
DG: Riley Arwell has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, The Suplex of Everyone's Souls.
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
================<* CHALLENGE - The Suplex of Everyone's Souls *>================
| Type: Final | Dungeon Ability: Combat | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
So, um.
A rampaging ghost train is after you.
The doom train has a frightening face, and a headlight whose beam scorches
whoever is unfortunate to step into the light. It also has the horrible
habit of casting curses and other dark magic to whoever is out of reach of
its light.
It's extremely obvious what'll happen if you get run over by a train, too.
But hope isn't yet lost.
It's said that trains -- in particular, ghost trains -- have a long and
storied history with martial artists. There have been many tales, perhaps
all exaggerated, of a muscle-bound "bodybuilder" straying from his gym and
taking hold of a locomotive by its cowchaser and performing...
The legendary Train Suplex.
Is this the start of a new legend -- YOUR legend?
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cripple:_Agility_Down!, Fright:_Combat_Down!_Agility_Up!, and |
| Wonder:_Exhaustion_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
======================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express - Round 6 *>======================= ==================< Results - The Suplex of Everyone's Souls >================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Xander Lovell 27 --(0)--> 27 Pass Candied Medicine 3 Combat Effects: Stalwart and Risky -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riley Arwell 51 --(0)--> 51 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Xander Lovell 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Cripple|Fright(1)|Wonder Effects: ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Xander Lovell has successfully explored Chibiki-Iwa Express!
===========================<* Chibiki-Iwa Express *>============================
==================<* CHALLENGE - 9 millimeters of Impurity *>==================
| Type: Discovery | Dungeon Ability: Conclusion | Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Thoroughly defeated (and possibly suplexed), the deathly train takes a
moment, before re-railing itself.
I see...
So the will to live is that strong...
I will let you go... but however...
First I must perform my duty...
The train invites you back into its carriage, and proceeds swiftly towards
its intended destination:
An enormous, ruined Zeboim-era city lying deep underneath Filgaia. Shattered
skyscrapers peak its skyline, ringed with raised highways and offramps. A
nearby rusted road sign labels the city in Zeboim or the Ancient Tongue, if
you can decipher it:
[ HIRASAKA CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT 3km ]
The passengers depart for the fallen city, shrouded by glowing butterflies
that hover about the station, shedding a faint aura of death...
Then, the doors shut, and the train honours its promise as you are whisked
away to the very station you started this bizarre journey. As the carriage
pulls away, there is very little evidence that this mysterious incident ever
happened, save...
... a glowing little butterfly, and underneath it... a gun!! Specifically, a
modern-styled handgun that might run into copyright infringements if viewed
improperly, with an all-silver body with an eerie sculpture:
FOREVER DEDICATED TO THE IMPURE QUEEN
It's a remarkable piece, polished to a mirror sheen - and each of the
bullets fired from it carry with it the inevitable tinge of death.
What exactly was the train's intent to give this to you?
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cripple:_Agility_Down!, Fright:_Combat_Down!_Agility_Up!, |
| Treasure:_Exploration_Up!, and Wonder:_Exhaustion_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
Xander's hand in Riley's tugs him forward. Xander doesn't say anything, or look up. He stumbles, and then he runs, as if it were only instinct and Riley to pull him along. Until it's Riley that stops, and Xander's momentum carries him forward only far enough until Riley's a weight. He won't let go. He stops.
Part of him aches to look. Another begs him not to. The first wins, and Xander lifts his weary head to look toward Riley. His own face contorts, threatening a glossiness to his eye.
Riley's so, so tired of running. Xander's fingers squeeze against his.
Wordlessly, he pulls Riley against him, though the protective effort would only be performative: Xander's body would do nothing to stop a train. But Riley's right about one thing. They can't outrun this opponent. They can't run forever. They can't run fast enough.
So Xander waits.
And waits.
And waits...
As the train barrels down over them, headlights hot on their skin as the world gets brighter and brighter, whiter and whiter, louder and louder. One terrible moment, and it could all be over -- dark, silent, and done, with an unknown ghostly fate possibly to follow.
"...Riley."
Then there's a crunch between Xander's teeth.
"...I am never going to stop."
Xander tightens his hold on Riley with one arm, holding him tight, close, and then jerking himself toward the train. It's no suplex, but it's just as gutsy, just as reckless, to try and use a dagger and a dagger alone to make a critical strike against the wheel at just the right time, and just the right angle, that somehow sends the train (how much does a ghost weight?) flipping through the air and toppling exactly in the way a suplexed train would have done.
He ducks down, holding Riley close as the rest of the train -- or what's left of it, given the shovel incident -- sails over head and crashes on the other side of them. Xander only lets up his hold once the screeching of metal ends, looking up to a train.
Given that it congratulates him for the will to leave, maybe the lively storm in Xander's eye is what really toppled the train. He's hesitant to get back on despite the train's claims, but it's that or the abyss, and so Xander takes the chance again, offering his hand to Riley to help him get up, his expression dark and unreadable.
He's quiet through the trip to the fallen city, but does fetch his notebook to write down the Zeboim words. Could this have any connection to Valmar...?
They're left, in the end, with a gun, and Xander accepts this offering with the same silence.
--
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
Xander accepts Riley's offer to just stop -- or so he thinks. The moments after that are brief, and also an eternity. There's no relief in it for Riley, only dread at the inevitable fate bearing down on them and guilt at finally forcing Xander to accept the end. There's only enough time left for tears to fall, to hold Xander close. To wish life had gone another way.
Please let there be something more, something else... Not mindless lingering and joining an anonymous crowd in their droning chant, but some way to hang onto their own identities, to one another, some other life beyond the reach of all the pain and hopelessness that keeps chasing them.
But Xander has not given up.
Riley's eyes fly open at his unexpected words, and he watches in stunned silence as Xander finds the impossible angle to strike the wheel and make the train jump the track, sailing harmlessly over their heads to land on the other side.
Riley feels dizzy. All was lost. He had accepted their ending. And then Xander---....! Xander....defeated the train with a knife and his burning willpower...?? With his love!?!?
When he finally processes it, Riley is overwhelmed by feeling. He is only mortal and cannot be expected to withstand such things! "I don't think I've ever been more in love with you in my life," he utters, dazed and clinging.
The train welcomes them aboard again, but this time promises them safe return to the realm of the living, seemingly in deference to Xander's show of passion for life. Riley does not blame the train for this one bit.
"The train is probably in love with you, too," he whispers. They travel along to a mysterious, ruined city, where the ghostly passengers exit. Riley bites down the question in his mind -- is this the afterlife, or an entryway into it? Xander has earned himself a reprieve from such questions. And a reprieve from Riley trying to follow them out the door. In the magical afterglow of the impossible victory against an actual entire train, Riley cannot help himself from entertaining romantic notions of Xander somehow doing the exact same thing to Valmar. 'Time to devour you!!' FLIP...!!! Probably not. And yet...
As they are deposited back where they started, and the train pulls away, they are left only with improbable memories... and a gun. Riley blinks at it, blinks at Xander. "Are you going to keep it?"
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
Xander, prepared for hostility and defiance, suddenly sputters with Riley's declaration of love. "Wh -- what?!" He does not resist being clung to, but he does find it difficult to look Riley in the eye.
At least until Riley decides the train is also in love with him. "Shut up," he hisses in a whisper, smothering Riley's face uselessly with his hands. There is a terrified sound in Xander's throat, like he might almost have believed that.
But they're off and free of another brush with death -- no thanks to Riley, who has also made it impossible to stay angry with him, even one little iote, which is infuriating in its own new way! -- and now with a gun.
The gun seems more real than anything else. What kind of train can be suplexed... or flipped with a dagger and a soul that refuses to die? (A ghostly one. Xander, pay attention.) Xander looks it over, frowning.
"... I guess. I can't tell if I feel a kinship with it or if I hate it."
That tinge of death...
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
Despite hisses and noises of terror from Xander, Riley does not relent in his praise. "It was so cool, you don't understand how cool you were, you need to visit my head and experience it... I don't think I can explain it with words...!!" Would Xander survive directly experiencing Riley's admiration for that moment?
"Ahh..." Riley gazes out the window at nothing, his chin in his hand and a dreamy smile upon his face, probably reliving it in his mind with enamored delight and the horrible parts carefully scrubbed away. He has forgotten again that they're circling the drain, somehow. It was just too wonderful.
Back to the present moment, and the gun...
"I think it does suit you to be able to just shoot people in the face sometimes. Except, the garden..." Ah, damn it, he reminded himself again.
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
The whole trip back, Xander is a mix between staring at Riley in shock and looking fiercely away from Riley. Which one it is depends entirely on whether or not Riley is looking in his direction. This, at least, he survives. But a visit to Riley's thoughts? That is left unknown.
What is known is the flat look Xander gives Riley about shooting people in the face suiting him. It doesn't sound wrong and that's annoying. But... the garden.
Xander presses his hand gently to Riley's chest, as if that would reveal the location of his new thorns. "...Where do you feel them?"
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
Having accidentally grounded himself in reality with the reminder that their cycle of using murder as an 'easy' escape from the curse may be at an end, Riley is grounded further with Xander's hand to his chest, and the question that accompanies it.
"In my lungs, I guess...?" He gestures at a spot not so different from where Xander placed his hand by chance. "I feel it when I breathe wrong." It doesn't seem to be starting off as bad as the thorns that plagued Xander on the moon, but the memories of how painful that seemed are... not promising to dwell on.
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
Xander's gaze drops. Riley's lungs, where Xander once had them himself, until they grew this his chest. It nearly killed him. It might have been the first time the curse had taken such a heavy turn and weighed them down. His fingertips pull in, dragging against Riley before his hand drops.
"Mine haven't come in yet," he says quietly, answering a question from before. "Not that I've noticed."
He takes Riley by the hand to lead away from the station. "...I'll set up camp and make you something for your throat."
It won't cure anything, but it might make suffering the cough more tolerable while it's still in these early stages.
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
...I'll set up camp and make you something for your throat.
Riley takes Xander's face in his hands, channeling that sparkling admiration again, partly because he's now realizing what an effective balm it was for his dread. "Xander... you're so wonderful. I could spend several lifetimes on my best behavior and still not deserve you." He leaves unspoken that he'd need several lifetimes on his best behavior just to make up for all the betrayals at this point.
Soon the thorns will sink them both in misery, probably, but for now there is 'I am never going to stop' and the dazzling miracle that followed.
So cool... so wonderful... he should write a song while he can still sing...
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
Xander stops short with Riley's touch, a troubled expression all too easily smacked right back into panicked and red. The admiration is palpable. The sparkles are real and infecting Xander's heart the more Riley thinks of it.
He can face down a train with a knife, but unfiltered affection...
That's a fight he's never won.
"J-Just be on it for tonight, at least!" he demands, which isn't the most sense he's ever made.
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
"I promise," says Riley. He has never escaped the emotional consequences of an attempt on their lives so cheaply before, but it remains to be seen whether he'll realize or remember that overwhelming Xander with affection afterward was the secret trick to disarming his anguish.
For now, he is too busy considering lyrics, and trying not to wonder how many days are left before he isn't able to sing again.