2023-04-01: Put Voice to Our Fears
- Log: 2023-04-01: Put Voice to Our Fears
- Cast: Ruth Pauling, Cyre H. Lorentz, Yulie Ahtreide, Pearl
- Where: Inside Sin
- Date: March 31, 2023
- Summary: The path to Braska's Final Aeon is laid with difficulties. Three different summoners, of three different faiths walk the dispiriting road. (Guest GM'd by Ruth!)
DG: A party led by Cyre H. Lorentz is now entering Sin - Dream's End. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
============================<* Sin - Dream's End *>=============================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Barricade of Lost Souls *>====================
| Type: Entry | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The city stretches out before you. It is dark here -- though closer to
twilight than the dead of night -- and the sky is overcast with dark clouds,
lit by the eerie prismatic glow of pyreflies. They break through, sometimes,
and sweep down across the cityscape.
Stone buildings, like ancient temples, are next to dilapidated modern
skyscrapers. There is a patchwork road that you follow -- patchwork because
it has portions that are old stones fused to modern concrete. Rebar pokes
through gravel, in places.
Your first challenge awaits on the road ahead.
Portions of the city date from the Zeboim Era -- or older -- and that
includes some ancient defenses. As you approach, a massive steel barrier --
with ugly spikes facing you -- rises from the road. The barricade has been
changed, though; faces remniscent of screaming fiends, tortured Aeons, and
dying Summoners adorn the wall. To proceed into the city, you will need to
demolish this thing meant to repulse invaders.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Collapse:_Brute_Down! and Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
It's time to get a move on. Every hour is precious as regards the infiltration and neutralization of what lies within Sin, and an intrepid trio soldiers on into a city darkened by twilight. Overcast in the skies, pyreflies flit and reflect their prismatic lighting and eerie wailing as they continue to bear the memories and feelings of the departed.
The architecture is a mish-mash of ancient religious structures of stone compared to dilapidated modern skyscrapers, and the road... can be traversed, barely, though it is damaged. Rebar pokes through gravel here and there, so mind the tetanus risks.
Whoever's furthest ahead has only a moment's notice before a massive steel barrier rises from the ground to ear-splitting mechanical grinding and static-filled ruined alarm klaxons... rising and revealing a ghastly sculpture set within this steel barrier. While spikes made of the same steel adorn it, there are stone sculptures of faces of horror, anger, and sorrow. Of Fiends, of Summoners, of Aeons... wounded, dead, furious. It's a grotesque relief.
Whether by force of superstition or steel, this mish-mash barricade challenges one to overcome both by force.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Who would have thought that a Clysmian could hold within itself an actual city? Though perhaps, on reflection, this makes sense. It is the Clysmian of Obsession, and becoming lost in one's own memories, comforting oneself with nostalgia for days long past, these are both forms of Obsession in their own way, aren't they?
...Or maybe Sin straight up ate an entire city at one point. That's not entirely impossible.
Nevertheless, Cyre Lorentz is among the trio of adventurers winding their way through the tormented guts of the ancient cetacean spirit. The High Priest of the Winds is, as ever, executing the will of the Guardians in this. Or rather, the Guardians are absolutely terrified by the continued existence of Obsession in the world, and it is Cyre's job to go forth where his gods fear to tred, even if he has to drag them along to face the problem that causes them to cower so.
"Hold it," He stops abruptly, ears flicking a moment before the great wall rises. "Tch. Looks like we'll have to break our way through. Or make our way around," he retrieves a glass bottle from a satchel at his hip, a swirling mass of blue-grey fog churning violently within. "This is going to be a bit loud," he instructs, before hucking the tornado bottle at the wall.
It proceeds to do its thing. That is to say: it unleash a hell of a tornado upon that barrier!
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has used his Tool Bottled Tornado toward his party's challenge, Barricade of Lost Souls. Strengthen! Party Brute boosted! Sacrifice! The party will take slightly more Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
Yulie Ahtreide's been staying out of the public eye as best she can - keeping a low profile as she and her friends move from place to place, taking what work they can get. ...But, she is, as ever, a Paladienne - the teachings of Saint Calucion ask her to lend her aid and defend against evil where she can, and with such a great threat looming before both worlds, it's time for her to lend her services once more.
When voices rose up to sing the Hymn of the Fayth, hers was among them - and when Drifters make their last journey into the immobile Sin with hope to defeat it once and for all, she volunteers herself to tag along with any who need the services of a Paladienne.
...And so, that leads to this moment. The interior of Sin may be the strangest thing she's seen up to this point - like things she seen, and yet not, at the same time... She very carefully picks her way through until, eventually, an alarm sounds and a barrier rises.
"That designs, um... a little intense..." She comments. It's certainly not supposed to look welcoming, but they may have done a little too well at that. She takes a deep breath and rummages through her pockets, pulling out... a yellow gem!
"Let me help." She offers. Yulie draws power from the gem and gives it form, sending chunks of earth flying into Cyre's tornado to give it some extra punch!
DG: Yulie Ahtreide has used her Tool Magic Gem toward her party's challenge, Barricade of Lost Souls. Strengthen! Party Brute boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
Pearl is not a woman of faith, despite being a woman of the Fayth, but even she knows when something is an abomination. This barricade is such a thing. Pearl stares at it in mild horror- which is probably more than mild horror, given her unemotive face.
"...It is a monument to those who failed. Those who did not complete the pilgrimage. Those Aeons that fell. It is meant to dispirit us."
Wordlessly, Pearl extends her hand, and as wind and earth batter the wall, a giant spear of ice juins them, aiming to use the wind to drive it forward faster. It's a lot of a magic to expel at once.
When the magic is done, she reaches into her pack for... a small bottle of juice? There is a glimmering powder inside the bottle, though. She downs it quickly, hoping to restore her reserves.
DG: Pearl has used her Tool Hearty Packed Lunch toward her party's challenge, Barricade of Lost Souls. Stalwart! Party shielded from some Exhaustion this round!
============================<* Sin - Dream's End *>=============================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Barricade of Lost Souls *>====================
| Type: Entry | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The city stretches out before you. It is dark here -- though closer to
twilight than the dead of night -- and the sky is overcast with dark clouds,
lit by the eerie prismatic glow of pyreflies. They break through, sometimes,
and sweep down across the cityscape.
Stone buildings, like ancient temples, are next to dilapidated modern
skyscrapers. There is a patchwork road that you follow -- patchwork because
it has portions that are old stones fused to modern concrete. Rebar pokes
through gravel, in places.
Your first challenge awaits on the road ahead.
Portions of the city date from the Zeboim Era -- or older -- and that
includes some ancient defenses. As you approach, a massive steel barrier --
with ugly spikes facing you -- rises from the road. The barricade has been
changed, though; faces remniscent of screaming fiends, tortured Aeons, and
dying Summoners adorn the wall. To proceed into the city, you will need to
demolish this thing meant to repulse invaders.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Collapse:_Brute_Down!, Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, and |
| Strengthen:_Brute_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
======================<* Sin - Dream's End - Round 1 *>======================= ====================< Results - Barricade of Lost Souls >===================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyre H. Lorentz 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Bottled Tornado 3 Brute Effects: Sacrifice and Strengt ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yulie Ahtreide 0 --(25)--> 25 Fail Magic Gem 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Pearl 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Hearty Packed Lunch 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Cyre H. Lorentz 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Collapse|Exhaust(1) Effects: Strengthen(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Cyre H. Lorentz 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: Cyre H. Lorentz has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Sin - Dream's End *>=============================
====================<* CHALLENGE - Ancient Temple Blocks *>=====================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Here, the road turns into a smooth and grand avenue that leads into an
ancient stone temple. If you look closer, you see the discordant details
that mark this place -- pillars with glass panels fused to them, hints of
steel I-beams behind stone facades -- but it almost looks like a Spiran
temple lost to time. Underneath a series of arched gateways, though, there
is something blocking the way.
A dozen intricately carved stone blocks, twice your height, and horrifically
heavy. The good news is, they can be slid into alcoves in the temples along
each side of the road. The bad news is, they are tremendously heavy and
awkward to move.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Collapse:_Brute_Down!, Overwhelm:_Exhaustion_Up!, Strengthen:_Brute_Up!, |
| and Wound:_Combat_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Together... wind, earth, and ice strike as one against the barrier erected from principles of physics and fear alike. The defenses of a dead, forgotten city cannot deter them... and the only way to honor those who fell and bring an end to their suffering is to continue. The barricade collapses in a heap of metaphysical rubble that erupts into pyreflies (some rush towards Yulie by coincidence, it's a bit of extra spook) but nothing injurious befalls them as they can continue their way in.
The road starts to smooth out - a good sign? - for a stretch, as the aesthetic of this mish-mashed memory of times and places lost starts to give way more towards that of an ancient stone temple with only the occasional details of fused glass and steel I-beams behind them. Nothing seems poised to collapse or crack apart when they come in together.
Beyond the arched gateways, there are a dozen carved stone blocks set in an obstructing way. They are carved with care and attention to detail to so many stone sculptures to Aeons and other figures of that ilk, though no additional power seems to rest within them. What does rest within them...
Is weight. They are heavy, but are set upon smooth road that has alcoves to either side that they could be pushed... in theory. But they are that heavy, and awkward to move.
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
"...It's sad." Yulie murmurs, as Pearl explains what the wall before them is. A monument to those who failed, to the Aeons that fell. ...She wonders if it would be cruel to offer a prayer - but perhaps, the best she can do is to help ensure that there will be no more like them.
...She yelps and scrambles out of the way, though, as some of the debris comes crashing toward her. Even if she understands the 'why' now, it's still spooky...!
Past the wall, lies a road leading into a temple. It looks like a Spiran temple, but there are unusual touches, too... and underneath a series of gateways, they find a series of stones that need to be moved. Yulie recognizes this... and, sighs a little.
...She can't say she expected to have to do this much heavy-lifting.
"...Here, I have an idea." She says. Once again, she rummages through for a magic gem, and this time she pulls out one that's light blue and cool to the touch. When she draws power from this one she targets not the blocks, but the floor itself - coating it in a layer of ice to help make pushing just a bit more easy by making it easier to let the blocks slide around.
...Unfortunately, they'll be around to slide around a little easier, too.
DG: Yulie Ahtreide has used her Tool Magic Gem toward her party's challenge, Ancient Temple Blocks. Strengthen! Party Brute boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
"It's a good thing that we've already come this far, then," Cyre says with a huff. "...With all that we've overcome to get to this point, a scary-looking wall isn't going to be able to turn us away, is it?" Running away now, after they'd given so much to finally put an end to Seymour-- after they'd brute-forced their way into Sin's innards and, in so doing-- accomplished something that nobody on Spira could have ever considered possible in hundreds of years--
Would, in Cyre's eyes, be simply unacceptable.
And so instead, there is a tornado. Though he winces visibly when some of those rocks come tumbling down atop their Paladienne. "You alright?" he asks, picking up his tornado-bottle and swapping it for a bright red potion bottle. "Here," he offers, "Carakin curative, on the house."
They need to keep their strength up. After all...
There's a block puzzle waiting for them.
"Ugh." Cyre's nose wrankles. He waits for Yulie to drop a field of slick ice before approaching the blocks. "Alright, let me see if I can't get us a head start," he says, baaarely cracking upon his tornado bottle to unleash a controlled stream of gale-force winds into the heavy stone blocks. "Why is there a block puzzle in the Clysmian of Obsession...!?"
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has used his Tool Bottled Tornado toward his party's challenge, Ancient Temple Blocks. Strengthen! Party Brute boosted! Sacrifice! The party will take slightly more Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
Though she is too slow to catch the collapse on Yulie, she runs to help. Pearl offers her a hand, and moves to pull her if accepted. Her hand is calloused, and the many scars can be felt.
"It is. But we carry their desires with us as we go forth. And when Sin is dead, they can rest at ease." Cyre posits that it wouldn't make them turn back, and Pearl shakes her head. "It would not. But that is not the goal. It is but one attack among many."
As Cyre offers a poition, Pearl looks ahead. "...Like a giant cloister," she mutters. "I am content to push." She walks carefully, but easily on the ice. She pauses, and reaches into her pack again, and offers something to Yulie- a small muffin, orange and poppyseed. "If you would like it. Morale is important in here."
DG: Pearl has used her Tool Hearty Packed Lunch toward her party's challenge, Ancient Temple Blocks. Stalwart! Party shielded from some Exhaustion this round!
============================<* Sin - Dream's End *>=============================
====================<* CHALLENGE - Ancient Temple Blocks *>=====================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Here, the road turns into a smooth and grand avenue that leads into an
ancient stone temple. If you look closer, you see the discordant details
that mark this place -- pillars with glass panels fused to them, hints of
steel I-beams behind stone facades -- but it almost looks like a Spiran
temple lost to time. Underneath a series of arched gateways, though, there
is something blocking the way.
A dozen intricately carved stone blocks, twice your height, and horrifically
heavy. The good news is, they can be slid into alcoves in the temples along
each side of the road. The bad news is, they are tremendously heavy and
awkward to move.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Collapse:_Brute_Down!, Overwhelm:_Exhaustion_Up!, Strengthen:_Brute_Up!, |
| and Wound:_Combat_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
======================<* Sin - Dream's End - Round 2 *>======================= =====================< Results - Ancient Temple Blocks >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyre H. Lorentz 5 --(10)--> 15 Pass Bottled Tornado 3 Brute Effects: Sacrifice and Strengt ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yulie Ahtreide 25 --(22)--> 47 Fail Magic Gem 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Pearl 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Hearty Packed Lunch 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Cyre H. Lorentz 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Collapse|Overwhelm|Wound(2) Effects: Strengthen(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Cyre H. Lorentz 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: Yulie Ahtreide has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Sin - Dream's End *>=============================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Speak Your Sorrows *>======================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The road before you ends in a glass-and-steel tower. It looks like it has
been cut down by a third -- a clean slash through the top that reveals it to
be empty inside -- and then the road continues at the top. The smooth glass
and steel is virtually impossible to scale.
It may take some time, but eventually someone mutters their frustration
aloud. Then, a glowing glyph appears, about a step off the ground. This
place demands that you speak you fears, your sorrows, your frustrations --
and for each, another glyph appears. It forms platforms that you can hop up,
leading to the next level.
But it demands the truth and will not accept the same answer twice.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Collapse:_Brute_Down!, Overwhelm:_Exhaustion_Up!, |
| Reckless:_Wits_Down!_Brute_Up!, Strengthen:_Brute_Up!, Stupify:_Wits_Down!, |
| and Wound:_Combat_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
A thin layer of ice coats the floor, and with it, Yulie lays the foundation for making it far easier to move the statues... though she finds her focus sorely tested in this place, as if fighting against the will of a different spiritual force as to how this land looks, and should be.
It could be that the one who embodies Obsession used to be very into slide puzzles. That would be a very easy thing to get addicted and obsessed with, but this bit of humor is a digression.
Pearl offers a snack to Yulie, and as it so happens... this is an all right place to rest. No Fiends manifest to come after them, and they can patiently take their time to... explosively blow the heavy statue blocks, on ice, into alcoves like they're curling stones. The way is, for the most part, clear - though they need to mind their steps on the ice going forward.
The road is free of further Fiend issues for the time being, beyond the omnipresent threat of large concentrations of pyreflies deciding they just need to coalesce into some mish-mash of difficult final feelings. They instead illuminate a glass-and-steel tower ahead that marks the end of the path.
It seems like it's been cut down by about a third of its length, a clean slash through the top showing how empty it is inside. A mere column-shaped monument? But there's a road extending beyond the very top. The material is impossible to get a grip on to climb, and highly resistant to anything that's not whatever cleaved off the top of it. (You are not whatever cleaved off the top of it.)
There doesn't appear to be a way forward, but the moment someone - anyone - speaks of a frustration or pain aloud, a glowing glyph appears. A mere step off the ground, but it's the promise of some sort of progress. That's as far as it goes, until someone else says another. Fears, sorrows, frustrations... and that's another glyph for each one.
Progressively, this can form platforms one is able to hop up, to reach that next path... but is there a catch? Does it demand sincerity at every spoken feeling? Will it accept a shared sorrow spoken sequentially? (If it did, arguably, it already would be completed, for much of Spira's pain is shared across a singular concept: Sin itself.)
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
What does it say about how far they've all come that the fiends that dwell within Sin's nightmarish innards are... not routine but simply a background element to its exploration. "We'll have to put them to rest properly," Cyre agrees, stray pyreflies fluttering away from his wind-wrapped limbs as another fiend fades away. "...Nobody deserves to leave this kind of work unfinished. It's the least we can do for them, to make sure that they can sleep soundly."
Ultimately, Cyre too, is a priest. He has some amount of sympathy for those unfortunate people-- even if they're of a somewhat different faith from his own.
Spiran shamans still resonate with him more than most Granasian priests (present company not included, of course).
But soon a... column? Rises to block their path. Climbing it doesn't work. Punching it doesn't work. Eventually someone complains, and of course it's Cyre because OF COURSE it's Cyre.
"Ugh, what the hell kind of skyscraper-looking thing is this!? It's not even a real building! It's just, like, some kind of crappy thrice-cleaved ruin!" Which happens to describe much of this place. But then, a glowing glyph appears, forming a platform. Cyre quirks a brow at the sight, then adds: "And it's been a week since I've had any curry!" Another glyph appears. "And this dumb puzzle is making us shout our frustrations aloud! Is it trying to drive a wedge between us!?"
Cyre is... nothing if not an expert complainer. But there are many steps to forge, and... eventually, he's going to have to run out of the more... peripheral frustrations. Will he have to bear more of his heart than he intends today...?
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Speak Your Sorrows.
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
Fortunately, Yulie isn't alone here - when Pearl offers a hand Yulie accepts, taking the help in getting out of the way.
"Th-thanks..." Yulie replies, a bit breathlessly, before looking up at Cyre.
"I'm okay - just a few scratches here and there, I think... But, thank you." Yulie replies with a small smile, accepting the potion and downing it.
At the block puzzle, Pearl offers her a muffin. Yulie pauses for a moment and quails just a little. She didn't come here to be spoiled, but... in the end, it's hard to resist the siren song of a muffin so she accepts it and tries it. Her eyes light up a little.
"...Oh, this is really good. Thank you." She replies, offering Pearl a smile. As for Cyre's question... Yulie frowns.
"...I guess it's the nature of Obsession to fixate on things that just get in the way." She decides.
And so, they move on. Looming above them is a tall tower blocking the way forward. It doesn't look like there's any way up... until, an uttered word results in a glowing glyph.
"...This is..." Yulie murmurs uncertainly. It feels a little too perfect for her, someone who has seventeen years worth of fears, sorrows, and frustrations that she's been bottling up since she was capable of thought. She could build a very tower to the heavens with them, if she needed to. Very carefully, Yulie draws out a long, wooden staff with a curved head - a common magical tool known as a Wonder Staff. She uses it to very carefully test the glyph ahead of her to ensure that it's solid before stepping on.
"So I guess we just have to... speak our mind?" Yulie wonders. She hesitates a little. ...She's always been hesitant to speak her fears and concerns to others, out of fear for getting them caught up in her problems... But here and now, it looks like that's the only thing left for her to do.
"...I don't know if I'll... ever be free." Yulie admits. She takes a step up the glyph that appears - and again, as more appear ahead of her, each time testing the glyph ahead with her staff. "These people, Brionac, they're chasing me. They want the power I have. They're with Odessa, so maybe if I'm lucky ARMS will get them on the Heimdall Gazzo too, but... at this point, I still can't imagine a future where I'm not on the run."
It feels like a bit of a betrayal of her principles to admit that she wants them gone, even if the only face of them she knows is that Crimson Noble man. She has to take a second to catch her breath.
"...I thought... after the orphanage was shut down, that would be the end of it. All that pain and suffering, those horrible experiments, and we still weren't good enough for them - they shut the project down because their stupid war was over and they didn't need the weapons they were making anymore." Yulie explains, and shakes her head. Her voice gets a little more strained as she continues. "...B-But it wasn't. It wasn't! After all that time, after I finally got settled and happy, someone decided they wanted me after all. I hate it! I just want to be able to look for my brother in peace! I want to help Jude find his family! I want to help Raquel find beautiful places to paint! I want... I want to help and accept help from others without worrying that someone's going to hurt them just to get to me!"
She doesn't realise she's shouting, at this point.
"...But I can't! I can't do anything without worrying that the slightest bit of attention will bring Brionac down on me and hurt everyone I care about! I hate it and I want it to STOP!" The Wonder Staff comes down one final time - not the butt this time, but the head, swung downward violently at the closest glyph. With the sound of splintering, broken wood the Wonder Staff makes contact, the head breaking off from the force of it and flying off somewhere in the distance. Panting from the exertion, it takes a second for Yulie to register that she's done this. She goes quiet, straightening back up with the handle of the Wonder Staff still firmly in hand. "...Sorry."
...Maybe she's shared a bit too much.
DG: Yulie Ahtreide has used her Tool Wonder Staff toward her party's challenge, Speak Your Sorrows. Fanfare!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
Pearl is not one to speak her frustrations out loud, to vent her worries out loud. So it is for a long time that no path forward is found. It is too smooth to use her grapnel, even if she could support all three of them.
"It is." Pearl says, simply. "The barricade to dispirit us, the pillars to exhaust us. They seek to sap our will to face Sin. To take the bargain offered by the Final Aeon. Especially given that, should we fail, no others will have a chance." She looks forward. There is little here she cannot endure.
As Yulie lets her own fears fly, Pearl cannot help but have sympathy for the young Paladienne. The glyphs fly. "...Miss Ahtreide..." Another girl who spoke of being turned into a weapon. She looks down at her scars. "...These are words you needed to say. But please leave the rest to me. It is on us all to contribute equal weight of our hearts."
She steps forward onto the first glyph, then the next, and when she reaches as far as she can go, she finally speaks. "I fear that I will die here, my oath unfulfilled."
She steps again, speaking things she never could before. "I fear that should we succeed, this world will lack a place for me." A step. "I fear that my friends who go to speak to the Goddess go to their deaths. I fear what truth they will find." Her pace quickens.
"I fear what mysteries my life before holds. I fear that I may not get the chance to find out. I fear that we may kill Sin, and a new evil may take it's place. I fear that the void in my soul left by Leviathan's passing will never be filled. I fear I will return to the monster I was with the cult." Before, she only had one fear. A man who was now long dead. One she never had to voice, because it was the same fear everyone had. Now, she had so many, small and large, strong and weak, and she had room to give voice them all. And give voice she does.
"I fear that I may not return to the place I wish to return to. I fear that I will never learn another dance. I fear for promises made that I may break. I fear so many things, and I cannot name them all."
She pulls something out of her sleeve- a book. Not a big one. A book for teens or older children, truth be told. A storybook. She heolds it close to the chest. "I fear that no one else will ever be able to read this story again, and I shall never see anything as wondrous as that tiny library again."
This final fear, she hopes, is enough, as she makes one last step.
DG: Pearl has used her Tool On Loan From The Vane Library toward her party's challenge, Speak Your Sorrows. Enlighten! Party Wits boosted!
============================<* Sin - Dream's End *>=============================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Speak Your Sorrows *>======================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The road before you ends in a glass-and-steel tower. It looks like it has
been cut down by a third -- a clean slash through the top that reveals it to
be empty inside -- and then the road continues at the top. The smooth glass
and steel is virtually impossible to scale.
It may take some time, but eventually someone mutters their frustration
aloud. Then, a glowing glyph appears, about a step off the ground. This
place demands that you speak you fears, your sorrows, your frustrations --
and for each, another glyph appears. It forms platforms that you can hop up,
leading to the next level.
But it demands the truth and will not accept the same answer twice.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Collapse:_Brute_Down!, Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, Overwhelm:_Exhaustion_Up!, |
| Reckless:_Wits_Down!_Brute_Up!, Stupify:_Wits_Down!, and Wound:_Combat_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
=======================<* Sin - Dream's End - Round 3 *>======================== ========================< Results - Speak Your Sorrows >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cyre H. Lorentz 15 --(10)--> 25 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yulie Ahtreide 47 --(10)--> 57 Pass Wonder Staff 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pearl 5 --(10)--> 15 Pass On Loan From The Vane Library 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Cyre H. Lorentz 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Collapse|Overwhelm|Reckless(2)|Stupify(2)|Wound(1) Effects: Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Cyre H. Lorentz 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: Pearl has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Sin - Dream's End *>=============================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Free-Floating Platforms *>====================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The street that you walk down gradually becomes a stone pathway, which ends
in a bridge over a terrific chasm. That chasm is dark, seemingly endless,
save for a few broken pillars jutting out. Those held part of the bridge --
for it has collapsed, ahead.
Except, strangely, some pieces of the bridge are floating in the void.
Flagstones that once made up the bridge didn't get the memo, it seems. They
didn't collapse while the rest of the bridge did.
You will need to leap from stone to stone to get across the chasm. The
stones are easy to land on and don't give way when you do. However, there
are quite a few of them before you'll make your way across to the other
side.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Collapse:_Brute_Down!, Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, |
| Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, Overwhelm:_Exhaustion_Up!, |
| Reckless:_Wits_Down!_Brute_Up!, Slow:_Agility_Down!, and Stupify:_Wits_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Cyre takes the lead on noticing however this structure decides to activate its continued conveyance, but... empowered by her recent difficulties and those lifelong of someone who might never have really known security and freedom from the cruel interests of adults that have failed her, Yulie lets everything out. Step by step, much of the way forward is provided by her...
But Pearl won't let her do this alone, as she confronts her own anxieties and fears that she was once trained to suppress in favor of being a perfect killer. Spoken clear, spoken with conviction, Pearl once again confronts pains that may never be fully conquered... but she can continue to fight that good fight.
When they reach the top, they can continue down the street... and in the distance - truly, a distance - they can see a fast-moving turtle-like Fiend crash through buildings far ahead. They shake the ground under their every movement as monuments to a long dead city collapse around them.
Ahead of the group, the bridge that would normally take them in that direction shatters, most of it falling into a chasm that appears to have no bottom within the confines of this strange, dream-like world while the Adamantoise disappears from sight.
...Most of it. Some of it still survives, but unsupported. They float in the void, flagstones that once made up the bridge having forgotten that gravity is a thing.
There's enough of them together that one could conceivably leap between stone to stone to cross the chasm, but there's no alternative if they are to continue on this path inward.
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
Yulie looks to Pearl, who bids her to leave the rest to her. She has her own weight to contribute... and Yulie listens as Pearl, too, bears her heart - her heart, and her fears.
"Miss Pearl..." Yulie murmurs sympathetically. She's not the only one with so many fears weighing down her heart, it seems... She listens to them all, taking them all in. "...Thank you. For sharing these with us."
Their collective fears and worries are enough to complete the staircase up - and so, they can move on.
Ahead, there is a bridge... But the thrashings of an Adamatoise in the distance send it crashing down. Some of the bridge, however... refuses to move, staying sternly in place. Footholds, at least...
Yulie stares out in the distance... and a slow frown crosses her face before, finally, she looks Cyre's way.
"I, um... I might need a hand..." Yulie admits. ...He's gone Digging with her before. He'd know that this is far from her specialty.
DG: Yulie Ahtreide has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Free-Floating Platforms.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Fears, anxieties, frustrations. Hearts are jam packed with all these sorts of things. Obsession causes the soul to dwell upon such dark feelings, to bottle them up and squeeze them so tight with your mind and soul that they turn into glass shards and cut your heart to ribbons.
So, maybe it's a little ironic that there's something within Sin that demands they give voice to these emotions. Maybe it's not ironic at all. Is it giving them the tools to fight it, or trying to break them down with their own anxieties?
By some miracle, Cyre manages to avoid exposing the wounds close to his heart. He doesn't need to say anything about the fate of the Baskar and their gods. The sight of Filgaia slowly withering away, in spite of his best efforts. How he worries sometimes that the tireless grind of existential danger is drifting his found family apart. Or that he occasionally wonders whether the line between himself and his divine patron has begun to blur.
Cyre is someone who holds his pain close to his chest. In part because he has learned how to forge those fears into a blade of heart's blood to thrust into the breast of his many foes-- and largely because he genuinely trusts only a small handful of people to know his true face, and airing things like that aloud is difficult among acquaintances and less-fire-forged friends.
...Up ahead is a bridge.
Or. Was a bridge.
"I got you," Cyre says, moving to pick Yulie up into his arms. His parachute unfurls. over his shoulders, a mighty wind carrying them up and through the floating stones. "The world's a pretty rough place, huh?" Cyre asks, rhetorically. "You going to need a replacement for that staff?"
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has used his Tool Reverse Parachute toward his party's challenge, Free-Floating Platforms. Quicken! Party Agility boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
To Yulie, Pearl simply nods. "Thank you for listening, Miss Ahtreide. Should we make it through this, I would like to speak with you again."
As Cyre readies for Yulie, Pearl observes the path. "I will go first, then." Pearl's voice remains flat, as she reaches for something else in her sleeve. And then she starts running, then leaping-
And then a Grapnel swings out and she uses a platform to swing, launch and keep moving. It is easier without having to carry someone- but that means she must be on the other side to catch, should it be necessary.
DG: Pearl has used her Tool Wrist-Mounted Grapnel toward her party's challenge, Free-Floating Platforms.
============================<* Sin - Dream's End *>=============================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Free-Floating Platforms *>====================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The street that you walk down gradually becomes a stone pathway, which ends
in a bridge over a terrific chasm. That chasm is dark, seemingly endless,
save for a few broken pillars jutting out. Those held part of the bridge --
for it has collapsed, ahead.
Except, strangely, some pieces of the bridge are floating in the void.
Flagstones that once made up the bridge didn't get the memo, it seems. They
didn't collapse while the rest of the bridge did.
You will need to leap from stone to stone to get across the chasm. The
stones are easy to land on and don't give way when you do. However, there
are quite a few of them before you'll make your way across to the other
side.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Collapse:_Brute_Down!, Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, |
| Overwhelm:_Exhaustion_Up!, Quicken:_Agility_Up!, |
| Reckless:_Wits_Down!_Brute_Up!, Slow:_Agility_Down!, and Stupify:_Wits_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
=======================<* Sin - Dream's End - Round 4 *>======================== =====================< Results - Free-Floating Platforms >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cyre H. Lorentz 25 --(10)--> 35 Pass Reverse Parachute 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yulie Ahtreide 57 --(22)--> 79 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pearl 15 --(10)--> 25 Pass Wrist-Mounted Grapnel 3 Agility Effects: Efficient -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Cyre H. Lorentz 60 --(20)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Collapse|Hesitate(2)|Overwhelm|Reckless(1)|Slow(2)|Stupify(1) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Cyre H. Lorentz 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: Cyre H. Lorentz has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Sin - Dream's End *>=============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Crystals and Spikes *>======================
| Type: Climax | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The road comes to an end, finally, with a stairway that leads to a platform.
Each step of the stairs is different: worked stone, corrugated steel, worn
natural limestone, chipped brick, and so on. At the top is a circular
platform, covered in mist. There is no way forward that is immediately
obvious.
But then, through the thick mist, there are glimmers. Crystal shines through
it -- some are wicked spikes, and others are glowing eggs. When a spike is
touched, a powerful fiend appears in a burst of pyreflies. When an egg is
touched, it overs about you.
Once your group collects ten eggs, you will vanish in a burst of light. But
they appear suddenly -- and disappear just as suddenly. And, in the mist, it
is hard to discern whether you are touching a spike or an egg.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Collapse:_Brute_Down!, Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, |
| Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, Overwhelm:_Exhaustion_Up!, |
| Quicken:_Agility_Up!, Slow:_Agility_Down!, and Stupify:_Wits_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
A collapsed bridge with a few floating rocks does not prove much delay to the trio. Pearl is the first to make it to the other side, where she will see the road has come to an end, to a stairway that leads to a platform. Behind her, Cyre is able to keep Yulie safe as they go across that chasm. The Adamantoise they saw making the ruckus earlier does not double back to trouble them. The world's a pretty rough place, though.
That much hasn't changed in at least a thousand years, here.
When the rest catch up with Pearl, they can ascend the stairs ahead. Each step, a different material. Worked stone, corrugated steel, worn natural limestone, chipped brick, a mish-mash of different times and construction techniques. It terminates to a circular platform covered completely in mist.
The mist doesn't obscure one truth: it doesn't appear clear there's a way forward. The journey to Sin's heart seems to end... here?
But, through that mist, there's glimmering. Shining crystal makes itself known through that mist, but some are in the shape of spikes. Others, glowing eggs. The first one investigated is the latter, where it rises and hovers above the lot of them ominously...
Good? Bad? Whatever pyreflies stir here, they don't coalesce into fiends when those 'egg' shapes are touched. Could this be the key? Nonetheless, the glimmers fade in and out.
To what memory does this sequence speak of?
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Yulie is not a particularly heavy burden, but perhaps not being used to flying under such harrowing circumstances as a rampaging Adamantoise is more stressful than it ordinarily would be.
... Up ahead, there is something in the mist. Something... something...
...
Hey! It's 'egg.'
"What the heck?" Cyre asks of the world and the whale as one of those odd eggs begins hovering ovurehead. He squints and stares at the egg-shaped shadow. This fog, though... It's too damn thick. The shaman's fingers clutch at his silvery talisman as he tries to stir enough wind to disperse even a little bit of the clinging, cloying mist.
They can hardly see through all of this...
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Crystals and Spikes.
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
"You're welcome. ...I'd like that too, I think." Yulie replies, offering Pearl a small smile. She looks toward Cyre, then as he makes his rhetorical statement. She nods, just slightly... and then, looks at the remains of the staff in her hand. She seems to have only just registered that she broke it. "It's okay. I can always make another one... They break pretty easily."
Pearl goes first and makes it across, and having her waiting on the other end is a bit of a relief. Fortunately, she and Cyre manage to make it across just fine and meet up with her one the other end... where they find a stairway, leading to a strange, misty platform.
"I think we need to collect them...?" Yulie considers with a frown, tapping her chin with a finger. They need to collect the eggs, but also watch out for the spikes... That's something Yulie can do, at least, watching carefully to discern the differences between the two then rushing for the eggs.
...At one point, it looks like one of the eggs is about to blink out - so, in a bit of a desperation move, Yulie hauls her arm back and hurls the remains of the Wonder Staff at the egg. It passes right through and disappears into the mists...
...But, did that count...?
DG: Yulie Ahtreide has used her Tool Wonder Staff toward her party's challenge, Crystals and Spikes. Fanfare!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
The mist is a bizarre thing to stop them, the eggs and spikes moreso. Cyre's cry of 'What the heck?' gets a quiet shrug from Pearl.
"I suspect we simply have to... guess at this, and work our way through being careful." She nods slowly at Yulie's comment. "The eggs, hm?" She starts walking, as Yulie has identified which is which..
Speed is needed. As well. "Miss Ahtreide, could you spot for me? I will do my best to reach them all." The quickest route through, careful movement-
And reaching out with the precious book in hand to snag one or two. Any method is acceptable.
DG: Pearl has used her Tool On Loan From The Vane Library toward her party's challenge, Crystals and Spikes. Enlighten! Party Wits boosted!
============================<* Sin - Dream's End *>=============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Crystals and Spikes *>======================
| Type: Climax | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The road comes to an end, finally, with a stairway that leads to a platform.
Each step of the stairs is different: worked stone, corrugated steel, worn
natural limestone, chipped brick, and so on. At the top is a circular
platform, covered in mist. There is no way forward that is immediately
obvious.
But then, through the thick mist, there are glimmers. Crystal shines through
it -- some are wicked spikes, and others are glowing eggs. When a spike is
touched, a powerful fiend appears in a burst of pyreflies. When an egg is
touched, it overs about you.
Once your group collects ten eggs, you will vanish in a burst of light. But
they appear suddenly -- and disappear just as suddenly. And, in the mist, it
is hard to discern whether you are touching a spike or an egg.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Collapse:_Brute_Down!, Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, |
| Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, |
| Overwhelm:_Exhaustion_Up!, Slow:_Agility_Down!, and Stupify:_Wits_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
=======================<* Sin - Dream's End - Round 5 *>======================== =======================< Results - Crystals and Spikes >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cyre H. Lorentz 35 --(10)--> 45 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yulie Ahtreide 79 --(10)--> 89 Pass Wonder Staff 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pearl 25 --(10)--> 35 Pass On Loan From The Vane Library 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Cyre H. Lorentz 80 --(0)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Collapse|Exhaust(1)|Hesitate(1)|Overwhelm|Slow(1)|Stupify(2) Effects: Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Cyre H. Lorentz 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: Cyre H. Lorentz has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Sin - Dream's End *>=============================
======================<* CHALLENGE - The Broken Vessel *>=======================
| Type: Final | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
After touching the tenth egg, you vanish in a burst of light, and appear on
a large sloped piece of blue-grey metal. It forms a steep ramp upward, but
the footing is slippery... and treacherous, for sections of it curve outward
in strange places. And, more than that, there are places where something has
torn through the metal flooring.
You soon see what. Huge cables tear out of the hull -- and one, then
another, plunge down for you. They try to smash into you, forcing you to
run!
You can see where to go ahead, though: a shattered glass window, which looks
upon a room that, once, was some sort of auditorium. The window leads down
onto a stage; you will need to get there, before those cables crash into
you.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Collapse:_Brute_Down!, Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, |
| Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, Overwhelm:_Exhaustion_Up!, |
| Stupify:_Wits_Down!, and Suffer:_Exhaustion_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Between the three of them, Pearl has the fastest ground speed to reach out and chase the eggs that phase in and out. Cyre is able to stir up the wind to try and push aside as much of the mist as he can, but that mist hardly has anywhere it can 'go' with the spiritually thick cloud of pyreflies projecting it here.
Yulie throws the remains of the Wonder Staff she's holding right at the egg - the tenth - and a burst of light takes them away. They never find out what would have happened had they touched something spiky-looking instead.
They only know they're on a large sloped piece of blue-grey metal, forming a steel ramp upward... and it feels treacherous, for the angle. That, and it feels as something tore through the metal flooring. Fiends?
There are none here.
Horrible, ear-splitting tearing noises are heard as huge cables tear out of the hull from the stress of decay over the ages, and one by one, cables smash down. There isn't much time to get one's bearings on where to go, or where's safe, beyond what looks like a shattered glass window that leads out towards... somewhere, some place.
As they come closer, it will look more and more like an auditorium, but in order to know, they need to get there before the cables crash into them and/or block off their path.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
That... was weird? What was that all about? Cyre scratches his cheek as eggs and spikes alike vanish into the fog. "Well, as long as it's replaceable. I'd have felt awful if it were an heirloom or a priceless possession or something."
Deeper and deeper still, the belly of the beast goes. Until finally they find their way to... Something. Something Cyre absolutely does not recognize. "What is this thing...? Reminds me of some kind of... ship? Like the Thames but maybe even bigger...?"
The metal cylinder that is the ground quakes and trembles. Cyre bites back a curse as nothing less than giant living cables erupt out of the artificial landscape. "What the fuckdamn!?" Cyre utterly fails his attempt at modesty, and instead takes to a wing to try and air-dash between those churning cable-worms. "Is this part of Sin too!?"
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
"Yes, of course." Yulie replies replies with a nod as Pearl asks her to spot for her. She'll do her best - that's something she's capable of, at least.
The tenth and final egg is touched... and they all vanish, reappearing on a metal surface.
"...What is this?" Yulie asks. She taps her floor against the surface. "...This is... metal. Where are we?"
The metal structure strains and screeches - and then, cables tear out of it, heading straight for them!
In a bit of a panic, Yulie begins to run - she may need a bit of a hand, though!
DG: Yulie Ahtreide has contributed a risky Agility Action toward her party's challenge, The Broken Vessel. DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has risked with his Tool Reverse Parachute toward his party's challenge, The Broken Vessel. Quicken! Party Agility boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
Pearl's response to the... object is rather muted- until she feels the trembling. "Run." She says, firmly. And then she starts to do so, dropping into a dash.
Right until she see Yulie struggling. She slows, and extends her left arm. "Grab on!" As she does so, she flips her right arm forward.
When Yulie grans, Pearl uses her strength to pull Yulie close. "Hold on tight to me!" And then, the two jerk forward. Pearl hopes it will be enough.
DG: Pearl has used her Tool Wrist-Mounted Grapnel toward her party's challenge, The Broken Vessel.
============================<* Sin - Dream's End *>=============================
======================<* CHALLENGE - The Broken Vessel *>=======================
| Type: Final | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
After touching the tenth egg, you vanish in a burst of light, and appear on
a large sloped piece of blue-grey metal. It forms a steep ramp upward, but
the footing is slippery... and treacherous, for sections of it curve outward
in strange places. And, more than that, there are places where something has
torn through the metal flooring.
You soon see what. Huge cables tear out of the hull -- and one, then
another, plunge down for you. They try to smash into you, forcing you to
run!
You can see where to go ahead, though: a shattered glass window, which looks
upon a room that, once, was some sort of auditorium. The window leads down
onto a stage; you will need to get there, before those cables crash into
you.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Collapse:_Brute_Down!, Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, |
| Overwhelm:_Exhaustion_Up!, Quicken:_Agility_Up!, Stupify:_Wits_Down!, and |
| Suffer:_Exhaustion_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
=======================<* Sin - Dream's End - Round 6 *>======================== ========================< Results - The Broken Vessel >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cyre H. Lorentz 45 --(18)--> 63 Pass Reverse Parachute 3 Agility Effects: Quicken and Risky -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yulie Ahtreide 89 --(38)--> 127 Fail Rush 1 Agility Effects: Risky -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pearl 35 --(18)--> 53 Pass Wrist-Mounted Grapnel 3 Agility Effects: Efficient -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Cyre H. Lorentz 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Collapse|Hesitate(2)|Overwhelm|Stupify(1)|Suffer(1) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: Yulie Ahtreide is too exhausted to continue! DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Cyre H. Lorentz has successfully explored Sin - Dream's End!
============================<* Sin - Dream's End *>=============================
====================<* CHALLENGE - Computational Dreaming *>====================
| Type: Discovery | Dungeon Ability: Conclusion | Challenge Rating: 4 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Once you climb through the window, you enter the remains of a high-tech
facility. It is not, you realize, a theater. The more technically capable
might recognize this as a computer room; countless consoles and towering
machines, flickering and glowing, are all around. Pyreflies drift through
and around them. The technology level is the same as the Zeboim Era -- if
not more advanced.
Somehow, they are still powered.
Monitors all across the room come online, flickering to life. Once, they had
countless readouts and images, to be sure. Now, they display -- flickering
across every language known to humanity and a few not -- the same message.
you shall be as gods you shall be as gods you shall be as gods you shall be
as
gods you shall be as gods you shall be as gods you shall be as gods you
shall
be as gods you shall be as gods you shall be as gods you shall be as gods
you
shall be as gods you shall be as gods you shall be as gods you shall be as
gods
But it is quiet, beyond that endless message.
And there is a way ahead. An open doorway, which leads to a steel staircase
-- and shows the darkened silhouette of a city like Zanarkand beyond.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Collapse:_Brute_Down!, Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, |
| Overwhelm:_Exhaustion_Up!, Quicken:_Agility_Up!, Stupify:_Wits_Down!, and |
| Suffer:_Exhaustion_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
It's a near thing, something that happens in the span of seconds. Cyre completely loses his crap and takes to the sky to avoid being clobbered by cables, blindsided by it. Yulie struggles to keep up after him, and it feels like she might be at her limit... were it not for Pearl using her strength and finding the courage to slow down just long enough to take Yulie close and help carry her to... they're not going to safety.
All of them, are going to see the very end of whatever dream that allows Sin to continue being Sin, the force of Obsession that cannot ever be anything else.
Cyre doesn't leave them in the lurch - Pearl can leap up to him just as the save seems it'll be by a hair...!
And they're through that window, into the remains of a high-tech facility... it's not a theater. Yulie, among all of them, may have a somewhat better idea of what they're looking at even with extensive Drifter experience between the three of them. It's computers.
Countless, flickering, and glowing, as pyreflies flit along through their way with that same distinctive wailing. This all seems like it's Zeboim-era stuff, if... not somehow more advanced?
They still have power, and monitors all come online at once, flickering in so many different texts. Everyone here knows at least one. Some, maybe even more than one, but the haunting thing is what is repeated in all of these scripts and texts:
you shall be as gods you shall be as gods you shall be as gods you shall be as gods you shall be as gods you shall be as gods you shall be as gods you shall be as gods you shall be as gods you shall be as gods you shall be as gods you shall be as gods you shall be as gods you shall be as gods you shall be as gods you shall be as gods you shall be as gods you shall be as gods
It does not cease. There is nothing more, beyond this endless message.... and there is yet a way ahead, through an open doorway. The steel staircase beyond leads out to a darkened silhouette of a city like Zanarkand beyond it, once they are ready to leave behind the strange repeating obsession of what the monitors 'speak.' There is nothing more to them than that.