2024-03-06: In the Darkness... There are Golems
- Log: In the Darkness... There are Golems
- Cast: Avril Vent Fleur, Kaguya, Rebecca Streisand, Dean Stark
- Where: Mirapulse
- Date: March 6, 2024
- Summary: Venturing into the Lightless Dark for little more reason than the way the story about the earthquake that had rattled the region and the discovery the destruction had permitted had nagged at her psyche, Avril and the rest of the Vanguard explore the depths of the ruin in the mines.
DG: Dean Stark has left your party. DG: A party led by Avril Vent Fleur is now entering The Lightless Dark. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
============================<* The Lightless Dark *>============================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Into the Dark *>=========================
| Type: Entry | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Beyond the town of Mirapulse and beyond the twists and turns of the
abandoned and lightless mineshafts is where you'll find it: a localized
quake had shifted the earth, opening a sizable tear into the earth. With the
help of lights (either lanterns of the external illumination of your Gear or
similar) you can get an idea of what lies beyond it: there's some sort of
complex beyond, glittering in the dark.
Or perhaps, it might be better to say it's below. Not terribly far down, as
these things go: you wouldn't die if you jumped, but you also wouldn't like
it. It's not precisely an unobstructed or straight drop (meaning you'll
likely hit rocks one way or another), for one, and for two...
Well, it's not precisely /stable/ rock either. Any footholds you find -- be
you on foot or otherwise -- are likely to tilt if not outright crumble or
fall away. Good luck.
BGM: Igorrr - Corpo-Mente - Dorma
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEbOFVvB_6Y
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Suffer:_Exhaustion_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
It had been hard to miss the story that had made its way into the rumor mill of Drifters of late: that there'd been an earthquake in Mirapulse, that the earthquake had exposed something, and that the 'something' appeared to be quite old.
And it would have also been easy for them to have ignored the rumor: they have enough to do as it stands, after all, particularly with their preparations for their travel east. But something about the story -- even as sparse as it was -- had grabbed Avril's attention like a hunting dog seizing its prey.
And it had refused to let go.
The mirror had come from the depths of the mines, it was said: it had been the Veruni who treated it with reverence, but it had been the humans who had unearthed in the first place. That was the story they'd been told while they searched for the mirror to save a young man's life, and though Avril had surrendered it at that time -- wishing to avoid future incident for the people of the old mining town -- it had 'returned' to her all the same.
And so she'd asked the others. And so they'd come here.
"There does not appear to be any easy way down," Avril remarks. The gap in which she stands is indeed large enough for a Gear, though she has not brought her Skadi to this place. The descent will be difficult, certainly.
But also hardly impossible. There are some outcrops of stone below, and it's for them that Avril aims as she leaps over the edge, invoking the power of the Guardian whose Medium she bears: "Lucadia!"
It just also happens that the stone surface upon which she lands begins to fall apart the moment she touches down upon it. With a cry of alarm, she immediately leaps again, seeking purchase on another outcrop of rock.
Which also begins to fall apart.
It's going to be a long way down...
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Sea Medium toward her party's challenge, Into the Dark. Quicken! Party Agility boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Kaguya is back from Ruid, from meeting the venerable Red Dragon on Lunar--a responsibility she had to attend to before she could re-commit to her journey east of Filgaia. But now she's back, and she's here.
The rumors go...
"It's not a coincidence," Kaguya thinks. "I don't have a lot to base that on yet... but that's my guess. Let's get some proof."
And, well...
"Nope. No easy wwy down at all." Kaguya watches Avril go--
Despite her past with Lucadia, Kaguya uses the same power, jumping along different rocks with Avril's help. Jump... Jump... Jump...
"These better hold out!" she calls, because falling down would be very annoying for her.
DG: Kaguya has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Into the Dark.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
It had exposed - something.
That alone brings a shiver down Rebecca's spine, even if she was concealing it.
Indeed, Rebecca remembers, the first time they were here - the mirror. The moment all doubt was banished from her that Avril wasn't normal.
So long ago it feels, had she become an adult since? She's not certain.
"We'll figure it out, just like we always do." That's not exactly a plan, Rebecca, but it's her trying to lend support to Avril perhaps.
Even as they leap over the edge, and shine with the medium's power, as they teleport.
"Oh calm down-!"
Rebecca says to Kaguya! Even as she aims the Portal Guns under Kaguya towards the point where she's worried, then towards another point lower down, to send her down to safety.
"See? It aint no thing."
She says with with a salute, on a cliff above, before all but diving down herself.
Acrobats just be like that sometimes.
DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Portal Guns toward her party's challenge, Into the Dark. Stalwart! Party shielded from some Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
While Dean has yet to follow through on his dream of becoming a Golem Hunter, being too busy with things like helping save the world from one threat or another, his love of Golems has never once faded. So when he heard the rumor that an earthquake in Mirapulse had unearthed... *something*... something *ancient*... he halfway vibrated into another dimension out of excitement.
Dean might be in his early twenties now, but he has yet to lose his boyish enthusiasm and energy. We'll see how it goes once he hits his thirties.
So while, yes, the group does have other things to do and journeys to make and preparations to prepare, Dean was instantly on Avril's side when she said that they needed to explore it. For something other than a Golem, technically, but that doesn't dampen Dean's enthusiasm in the slightest.
"Yeah, it's a pretty rocky drop, but I bet we can make it!" he says cheerfully, leaning in towards the gap to peer down. There's plenty of space, it being Gear-sized, but he's not in a Gear today. Instead, he's wearing a helmet with a dazzlingly bright light affixed to the top. Because of course.
He stands up straight when Avril gets out the Sea Medium. "That's what makes it fun!" he chirps to Kaguya and Rebecca. Rebecca's naturally acrobatic and has her portal guns besides, so Dean sticks with the power of Lucadia, same as Kaguya.
"Woohoo!!" he cheers as they jump from crumbling ledge to crumbling ledge. "I can't wait to see what's at the bottom!!"
DG: Dean Stark has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Into the Dark.
============================<* The Lightless Dark *>============================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Into the Dark *>=========================
| Type: Entry | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Beyond the town of Mirapulse and beyond the twists and turns of the
abandoned and lightless mineshafts is where you'll find it: a localized
quake had shifted the earth, opening a sizable tear into the earth. With the
help of lights (either lanterns of the external illumination of your Gear or
similar) you can get an idea of what lies beyond it: there's some sort of
complex beyond, glittering in the dark.
Or perhaps, it might be better to say it's below. Not terribly far down, as
these things go: you wouldn't die if you jumped, but you also wouldn't like
it. It's not precisely an unobstructed or straight drop (meaning you'll
likely hit rocks one way or another), for one, and for two...
Well, it's not precisely /stable/ rock either. Any footholds you find -- be
you on foot or otherwise -- are likely to tilt if not outright crumble or
fall away. Good luck.
BGM: Igorrr - Corpo-Mente - Dorma
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEbOFVvB_6Y
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Quicken:_Agility_Up! and Suffer:_Exhaustion_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
============================<* The Lightless Dark *>============================ ===================< Results - The Lightless Dark - Round 1 >=================== =========================< CHALLENGE - Into the Dark >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 0 --(10)--> 10 Best Sea Medium Min Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rebecca Streisand 0 --(10)--> 10 Good Portal Guns Min Agility Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 0 --(10)--> 10 Good Rush Bsc Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 0 --(20)--> 20 Bad Rush Bsc Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leader: Avril Vent Fleur 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Suffer(1) Effects: Quicken(1) = Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
DG: The party led by Avril Vent Fleur 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> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Something's down there. Something important, possibly with some connection to the mirror or the events in Mirapulse so many years ago. But finding out 'what' won't come easily.
Of course, few things worth doing are easily done, and so the four of them take a leap into the (relative) darkness. Dean came prepared (and Avril is always prepared for the dark, as that fleeting illumination about herself shows). "Yes, I think so too," Avril affirms, and if she shows but a moment's trepidation before she begins her descent, perhaps she'll be forgiven.
She, too, has come a ways from how she was years prior. The dark is no friend to her, but neither is it as terrifying as it once was.
If any of them here have this one in the bag, it's definitely Rebecca. Being an acrobat has many advantages. The portal guns also probably don't hurt, particularly as regards the newest member of their merry band and her understandible trepidation about their descent and the very unstable rocks that line the path ahead. Though the way down is occassionally unnerving, the four of them make their way to the bottom without much incident--
Well, other than pretty much all the rocks they've landed on either falling away underfoot or just about doing that.
Dean ends up a little winded for his exuberance, but only that: isn't energy like that something he has in spades, regardless?
"Well," Avril says, once they've all checked to make sure their everything is still in order, "we've arrived, it would seem."
DG: Kaguya has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* The Lightless Dark *>============================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - None Shall Pass *>========================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The age of this place is extensive, you might surmise, based on the
architecture. While the place looks worn, it is not in disrepair, and still
holds power. It would either have to be built to last, or be capable of self
repair, or...
Or have things able to maintain it. Take, for instance, the Golem slowly
lumbering towards you. A discovery -- clearly it's constructs like these
that are tending to the place!
Any excitement may be short lived as this Golem seems to be intent on
forcing you back and blocking the way ahead. It's not intelligent in any
meaningful way so there you don't seem to be able to communicate with it,
but -- and this is the important part -- it seems to have delayed reflexes
and is particularly slow. If you're fast, you can probably get past it.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Quicken:_Agility_Up!, Reckless:_Wits_Down!_Brute_Up!, and |
| Slow:_Agility_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
They'll figure it out. Sure that's probably true. Kaguya shrugs. But once they're jumping--
"Hmph! I won't be left behind!" Kaguya calls to Rebecca, and she's less fancy about her footwork, relying on raw physical force and agility rather than acrobatic skill.
But Dean was of course sure all along. "Careful or you will see what's at the bottom!" Kaguya calls.
"So we have," Kaguya says. "...There's a doorway up here. Let's go." The small Veruni leads the way, not because she expects trouble or anything. Obviously. ...Well, maybe.
But as they walk through, and go down a few hallways, Kaguya puts up a hand suddenly. Her superior Veruni hearing...
Detct trouble! "Over here," she says, and the place still has power--which may be powering the Golem lumbering towards them. "Thre might be a lot... of..."
Pause. Kaguya looks at Dean. She looks at the Golem. She looks at Dean. The Golem keeps lumbering towards them.
"...Let's go the other way," she suggests, pulling a Great Apple and taking a bite, amplifying her physicality so that she can--
"Alley-oop--"
Is she going to pick Dean up? That would appear to be her plan. Pick him up and jump around the golem's path. "Golems later, answers now."
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Great Apple toward her party's challenge, None Shall Pass. Fanfare!
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
Rebecca has no idea how Dean Stark double jumps on a shovel out of an explosion but falls like a rock whenever there's days like this, but - that's how Dean has always been.
"Dean! Jump more carefully! This thing needs time to recharge!"
And that's a wince as oof that's gotta smart some. "Well- we're alive. Dean be a little more careful about just jumping into the abyss alright?"
As they walk through the mines however, Kaguya calls out and-
"Oh no."
The worst of all things to face in a Dean based party. Fortunately Kaguya has it covered, "Keep a firm hold on him!"
(Otherwise he might run TOWARDS the Golem)
Rebecca says as she checks the gauge on her Portal Guns and- abruptly, right before the Golem would come uncomfortably close to stepping on her.
Suddenly drawing it like she's making a quick shot she just drops on the floor, spilling out a good distance away closer to Avril.
"You feeling up to using your Medium again so soon?"
She asks her, as they RUN!
DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Portal Guns toward her party's challenge, None Shall Pass. Stalwart! Party shielded from some Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
It *is* pretty tiring--Dean isn't using any special tools, just jumping in after the teleportation columns in Avril's wake--and by the time they reach their destination, he's breathing hard. It's a good kind of breathing hard, in his opinion, but it's the kind of thing that might stack in the long run if things go poorly.
But how could things ever go poorly in a deep mine!!
"How can I jump carefully when there's rocks crumbling under my feet as soon as I land?!" he counters Rebecca. "I *have* to jump right as soon as I land!" ...which is true, but also, he was definitely shouting 'woohoo!' as they were going down, so it's understandable that Rebecca would chide him.
At least his flashlight helmet is still working just fine. It cuts a bright line in the darkness as he looks around. "That's the point!" he says to Kaguya--and sure enough, once they go through a doorway and several halls, they find the greatest prize of all.
FRIENDSHIP (a Golem).
Dean's eyes LIGHT UP as he sees the giant mechanoid lumber towards them. He is absolutely approaching it with arms outstretched by the time Kaguya bites into that Great Apple, and so ends up flailing with a "?!" when she bodily picks him up. (DA NA NA NA~~)
"No! *Golems* now! Golems *now*, Kaguya!!" he whines, wriggling but failing to actually make it out of her grasp.
DG: Dean Stark has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, None Shall Pass.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"I don't think it went that terribly," Avril remarks, looking among the lot of them, as if puzzled by their respective remarks.
They don't get very far before Kaguya stops them all short. She's heard something--
"Something's here," Avril murmurs, apparently picking up on it as well. Or, rather, it's not that she hears it as much as she...
becomes aware that it's here.
The 'what' part of the equation soon makes itself apparent.
"A Golem," Avril utters, gazing up at it as it lumbers towards them. "It does not seem hostile. But--" There's a particular determination to its advance that gives her pause. Or rather, that gives her impetus to move lest she be moved. "It's trying to keep us out of here!" she calls as she glances Rebecca's way to nod in affirmation. Her Medium shines with light as the Guardian's blessings shower down upon them all. "Dean, we mustn't--"
But Kaguya has already guessed at its intentions and what Dean is going to try to do and has taken action accordingly. Avril meanwhile jukes right in an attempt to try to misdirect the Golem to give Kaguya (and thus also Dean) a clearer path before, the power of Lucadia flowing within her, she bolts after them.
Rebecca, clearly, has this handled.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Sea Medium toward her party's challenge, None Shall Pass. Quicken! Party Agility boosted!
============================<* The Lightless Dark *>============================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - None Shall Pass *>========================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The age of this place is extensive, you might surmise, based on the
architecture. While the place looks worn, it is not in disrepair, and still
holds power. It would either have to be built to last, or be capable of self
repair, or...
Or have things able to maintain it. Take, for instance, the Golem slowly
lumbering towards you. A discovery -- clearly it's constructs like these
that are tending to the place!
Any excitement may be short lived as this Golem seems to be intent on
forcing you back and blocking the way ahead. It's not intelligent in any
meaningful way so there you don't seem to be able to communicate with it,
but -- and this is the important part -- it seems to have delayed reflexes
and is particularly slow. If you're fast, you can probably get past it.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Quicken:_Agility_Up!, Reckless:_Wits_Down!_Brute_Up!, and |
| Slow:_Agility_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
============================<* The Lightless Dark *>============================ ===================< Results - The Lightless Dark - Round 2 >=================== ========================< CHALLENGE - None Shall Pass >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 10 --(0)--> 10 Best Sea Medium Min Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rebecca Streisand 10 --(0)--> 10 Good Portal Guns Min Agility Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 10 --(0)--> 10 Good Great Apple Maj Agility Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 20 --(12)--> 32 Bad Rush Bsc Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leader: Avril Vent Fleur 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Reckless(2) and Slow(2) Effects: Quicken(1) = Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
DG: The party led by Avril Vent Fleur 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> Kaguya has posed.
Kaguya does have it covered! She carries Dean like the precious item he is, and jumps around the corridor to avoid the Golem. This is made much easierby the fact that Avril and Rebecca misdirect it and make their own way across.
"Nope," Kaguya answers Dean, and her grip is iron!! "Besides, there are probably cooler Golems inside anyway," she says.
The use of the Medium so soon is effective, though.
"Careful, shmareful." Kaguya glances back, as the door closes firmly behind them, ensuring that they can't returnn that way.
"Looks like we've got to go on! Oh well."
...Did she step on a button? Couldn't be.
DG: Dean Stark has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* The Lightless Dark *>============================
====================<* CHALLENGE - Light in the Darkness *>=====================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
This wide room is dark when you advance into it, but the air still seems
safe to breathe. It might be reasonable to consider it a localized fault for
the lighting until you advance further into the room: there are panels on
the floor, and when you step on them, they light up.
Not only that, but when you step on the one panel, other panels near and far
also light up. The complicating factor comes when you step on another:
additional unlit panels light up, but some of the lit panels go dark. As
near as you can figure, you're meant to get all the panels to be lit up.
...But which panels should you step on to do that?
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, Quicken:_Agility_Up!, |
| Reckless:_Wits_Down!_Brute_Up!, Slow:_Agility_Down!, and |
| Tire:_Exhaustion_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
"You're the one who wanted to be the big shot drifter like Nightburn! You can't complain about crumbling ledges if that's your aim!" As if that were just STANDARD, "You think he would?"
Maybe he's a bad example, but-!
"GOLEMS later!"
Rebecca calls out to Dean as if telling a child he's not gonna spoil his dinner with desert. Fortunately, Kaguya is way stronger than she is, so that's not a difficult thing for her to keep ahold of Dean.
Eventually they come to a room and - as she steps on a tile, it lights up. "Hold on. Checking this out." Experimentally- she hops over that tile.
THAT tile lights up, while extinguishing the one behind, and other two adjacent ones light up.
"Okay, feels simple enough. Sec."
Rebecca undoes a pouch and puts it on a pocket, as she then walks around the room, in no particular pattern that shows she's trying to solve the puzzle at all.
And then abruptly, she hears it.
"Found it!"
What'd she find!?
"Rooms like this always have alternate solutions for hidden treasure." Rebecca tells them, as she puts a hand against the hip, "So I figure that we spend a little extra time here, we won't go away empty handed."
As for the puzzle solving itself? She leaves that to Kaguya and Avril-! And also probably Dean's detector.
DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Treasure Tone toward her party's challenge, Light in the Darkness. Enlighten! Party Wits boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"I'm not complaining! *You're* complaining!" Dean complains. Though it's true Nightburn probably would've just done it and posed for the camera and then casually excavated a Golem along the way. So cool...!
"Avriiiiil!" Dean whines as she insists they mustn't. Alas, his protests are in vain. They all juke towards the Golem, managing to get past its vast, sturdy legs even as it attempts to encourage them all Very Strongly away, with Kaguya running straightforward as Avril and Rebecca misdirect, and not one metal appendage was hugged. The *greatest* injustice.
When the four of them finally stop and the door shuts firmly behind them, Dean droops and sulks. "*Every* Golem is cool," he mutters.
But it's Dean, and you can't keep a good Dean down. With the situation stabilized, Dean gets down back to the ground and readjusts his flashlight helmet. Fortunately, it's not necessary; as Rebecca steps on the floor panels, they light up, and the display is sufficient to brush away Dean's gloom. "Woah...!"
But then as she proceeds, some tiles light up while others go dark. "What's with this floor, anyway?" he wonders, looking all around. "Huh? What'd you find?"
But Rebecca explains, and now Dean's got it. "Aha! Say no more!" Twin Fenrir flash into his hands as he grins, and he spins the cartridge until it reaches the Detector bullet. "We'll find that treasure in no time!"
BLAOW. A green light-up display overlays the room around them, and specifically it lights up--!
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Detector toward his party's challenge, Light in the Darkness. Enlighten! Party Wits boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"Please, Dean!" Avril insists, before she cruelly joins in on forcing Dean to abandon the Golem. Injustice.
"I know you wanted to see more of that Golem, Dean," Avril commiserates once they're well free of the Golem that would have definitely punted them back out of here if it had caught them. "But I don't think it wanted to be friends. That one seemed... strange," she remarks, furrowing her brow. "Perhaps, as if no one were home?"
Be that it may, the matter of that Golem remains behind them, and the problem ahead is... still very much ahead. Which is to say, this is certainly a pitch-dark room, other than the few points of light that await them. Oh, and Dean's helmet and Avril's magic. Rebecca asks them to wait where they are for just the moment; Avril nods in assent as Rebecca steps forward and--
There is light in slightly different locations than before.
And also the tell-tale sound of treasure.
"Oh, I see! So we need only solve the puzzle to proceed... or, perhaps," she says, turning towards Kaguya, "we might yet find something else as well. I wonder where it might be?"
It's on that question that she meditates upon as she pulls out the very mirror that had urged her (not literally, she's not an evil queen (now)) onto this particular quest. Light streams from its surface, and Avril, gazing into its depths, approaches the light puzzle with the intent to plunder it first for its apparently hidden treasure.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Mirror of De Soto toward her party's challenge, Light in the Darkness. Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round!
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
There's an interesting tile! Kaguya watches it thoughtfully. There's a tone, apparently--Rebecca finds...
"Oh cool," Kaguya says of the extra treasure. Dean... Well. Maybe every Golem is cool. But Kaguya is a little cooled on them for some reason. Though, when Avril speaks up, "True. Not every Golem wants to be friends. ...Let's find you a friendly Golem. One that isn't designed to hurt people." She sounds... wistful, almost.
The Detector bullet comes out, and Kaguya is thoughtful. As the light-up green display goes, Kaguya says, "We might want to step on more than one of them at once. I think that's the solution to a lot of things like this."
Kaguya pulls--a Pokeball! Out of her inventory. "And I've got something really heavy to put on the tiles. It'll definitely work."
Kaguya extends her arm and points the Pokeball at the ground; when it opens, there is a flash of light, and then a huge, plate-covered monster appears. It's a Rhyhorn, a Rock/Ground type Pokemon, and it's... indeed, very heavy.
Kaguya hops onto its back lightly. "C'mon, buddy. Point me at the treasure!"
Towards where the mirror points???
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Absurd Inventory toward her party's challenge, Light in the Darkness. Stalwart! Party shielded from some Exhaustion this round!
============================<* The Lightless Dark *>============================
====================<* CHALLENGE - Light in the Darkness *>=====================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
This wide room is dark when you advance into it, but the air still seems
safe to breathe. It might be reasonable to consider it a localized fault for
the lighting until you advance further into the room: there are panels on
the floor, and when you step on them, they light up.
Not only that, but when you step on the one panel, other panels near and far
also light up. The complicating factor comes when you step on another:
additional unlit panels light up, but some of the lit panels go dark. As
near as you can figure, you're meant to get all the panels to be lit up.
...But which panels should you step on to do that?
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, |
| Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, Reckless:_Wits_Down!_Brute_Up!, |
| Slow:_Agility_Down!, and Tire:_Exhaustion_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
============================<* The Lightless Dark *>============================
===================< Results - The Lightless Dark - Round 3 >===================
=====================< CHALLENGE - Light in the Darkness >======================
Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Avril Vent Fleur 10 --(0)--> 10 Best
Mirror of De Soto Min Wits Effects: Cleanse and
Inefficient
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rebecca Streisand 10 --(0)--> 10 Good
Treasure Tone Min Wits Effects: Enlighten
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kaguya 10 --(0)--> 10 Best
Absurd Inventory Min Wits Effects: Stalwart
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dean Stark 32 --(0)--> 32 Good
Detector Min Wits Effects: Enlighten
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leader: Avril Vent Fleur 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass
Conditions: Hesitate(2), Reckless(1), Slow(1), and Tire(2)
Effects: Cleanse and Enlighten(1)
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
DG: The party led by Avril Vent Fleur 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> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
"It literally was going to squish you."
Is Rebecca's more blunt addendum to Avril's statement on it not wanting to be friends.
"Flat."
Rebecca flashes a smile Avril's way as she suggests there might be even more treasure, "That sure would be a real boon after we came all this way."
The feeling of dread is perhaps there, of what might be lower within but, for now, she's simply enjoying the ride until the other shoe drops.
Dean fires his detector bullet, and Avril pulls out the Mirror that they once came upon in this place, as light streams out and-
-Kaguya pulls out a Pokeball, "Uh huh... whatcha got there... Kaguya?" She asks, warily, even as the Rhyhorn comes out and-
"Kaguya you think it's really such a great idea to let one of those things go-" The Rhyhorn takes off, and- BAM.
The Zelda hidden treasure noise comes up, amidst the rubble, and Kaguya's Rhyhorn comes back out-!
With a treasure chest skewered on it's single horn. It gladly brings the buckled object back to Kaguya.
"Well that's one way to do it." As she considers the damage, "... Objects may have shifted and all that."
In the end the room gives them not one, not two, but three alternate treasure chests from conventional! And - UNCONVENTIONAL SOLUTIONS.
The ancients did not account for Pokemon, apparently.
"Alright, think we're good to move on."
DG: Dean Stark has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* The Lightless Dark *>============================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Elemental Nature *>=======================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Though the lights largely no longer function within it, this large room
appears to have been important in the past -- your own lights reveal some
faded carvings on the walls as well as the remnants of some shattered
statues.
What remains of those statues might be an important clue, for as stated, the
lights /largely/ do not function. At a few key intervals around this room
and near the shattered statues there are glowing hexagonal tiles.
Stepping into one will subject them to the raw elemental force of one of
four elements, seemingly similar to the manifestations of the power known to
Crest Sorcerers as Muse, Wing, Geo, or Fray. This, understandably, hurts!
Worse, it seems that all of these need to be stepped into in some order if
you're to proceed.
If this is a trial, it's an intense one. Perhaps the remnants of the statues
will give you a hint about how to proceed without causing extensive harm to
yourself.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, and |
| Overwhelm:_Exhaustion_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"You don't know that!" Dean protests at Rebecca. Perhaps infuriatingly, it's when Avril talks about how the Golem had been strange that he finally relents. "You think so? Poor guy... If it was just a shell, then I guess you're right." He's disappointed, certainly saddened, but... willing to move on, it seems like. Kaguya's suggestion, while well-meant, gets a shake of his head. "It doesn't matter what they're designed for! They're still awesome and can be their own Golems! Maybe even that one we met... maybe one day he'll be himself...!"
Emotionally reinvigorated, they move on to treasure. Kaguya summons a Rhyhorn! "Woah, hey! Hey there, big guy!" Dean says cheerfully, reachng out to pat it on the nose. It's Kaguya's Rhyhorn! Dean is confident it won't hurt him. He looks over at Avril as she holds out her mirror to reflect on the light puzzle. "Let's find out!"
And they do find out! The treasure is located, and then... skewered. Dean stares as the Pokemon returns with it. "Woah... He's so strong!!"
Dean knows where his priorities are. They'll have to delight in whatever those treasures are later, once they've pulled them off the Rhyhorn's horn. For right now, the puzzle has been solved, and they can move on. His helmet lights up the path before them, and at last they reach a large chamber with carvings on the walls and several broken statues. It seems like there *were* lights in here too... or rather, there still are, but they don't work. Mostly. Dean walks over to one, looks it over curiously, looks at a nearby glowing tile, and comments, "Hey, another puzzle!"
Then he steps on it.
Force ravages upwards, maybe magic, maybe something else, but with all the fury of all four elements. Dean yells, as much in pain as surprise, and forward-rolls off the panel. He scrambles back up to his feet, helmet askew, and whirls around to face it, wide-eyed. "Geez!! That startled me! I wasn't expecting that at all!" ... ... ...... "Lemme try that again."
He's at least more cautious about it this time, pressing with a single foot rather than his whole body, but it's still intense and painful. If this *is* a puzzle, it's a head-scratcher. Dean pulls out Twin Fenrir again and fires another Detector bullet, but unless it lights up the order in which they're supposed to step on these panels, this one might be a toughie.
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Detector toward his party's challenge, Elemental Nature. Enlighten! Party Wits boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
At Dean's remark, Avril can only nod sadly, as if to thus confirm her assumption about what was going on with that Golem (spoilers, probably not all that much if she's correct...). Perhaps it was made that way. Or perhaps, it deteriorated to become that way. Either is an equally sad fate, but as Dean affirms--
"Yes... perhaps so," Avril agrees, and she cannot help but think of Asgard in this regard: it might develop an awareness if it was created to lack one. And, if it was once more, it might become so again. In time, perhaps anything might be possible.
Even that thought feels to her oddly familar, as if someone had said that to her once, long ago.
It's easier to ruminate on such things with the mirror in hand. Though that does not mean that she's unaware of the world outside her own meditation of polished glass: Avril glances up sharply as Kaguya produces a friend. "Oh!"
Of the things Avril might have remotely expected Kaguya to produce from her belongings, it's certainly not a Pokemon Rhyhorn's size. Nevertheless, couldn't it be said that...
...Rhyhorn is super effective against this particular puzzle?
After all, they do shake out three separate treasures, and that's not even including the fact that they find the combination that opens the door on the other end. Of course, one puzzle--
Leads directly into another puzzle.
"Wait--"
Too late. Dean's already walked right into it, and been hurt by it to boot. "Dean-- here, allow me," she says, kneeling by his side to lend succor.
The second attempt doesn't seem to work much better than the first.
"It's... the power of the Crest elements," Avril remarks, glancing at the symbols on the tiles. "But by stepping on one of the tiles, you become subject to their power." And there's a door that's very much closed on the other side, at that. "..." She frowns, pensive.
"There were some statues here, but it is difficult to tell what they... do you think that one holds a ewer?" she asks Dean, glancing his way. "Perhaps that reflects Muse. But why might it stand by Wing?"
The other statues are similarly unhelpful and seemingly odd in their placement near to the tiles. With nothing else for it, Avril turns her gaze towards the glass of her mirror and searches for what visions might come. "Muse and Fray... Wing and Geo... typically, they are in opposition. But, Wing with Muse and Muse with Wing..." she speaks as the lunar mirror bleeds light.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Mirror of De Soto toward her party's challenge, Elemental Nature. Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round!
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Squishing... That would've been a problem. Dean's talk of what a Golem was designed for, though, just makes Kaguya ook that much more distant. "...Can they?" she wonders.
But she doesn't wait for an answer. Instead, she has a Rhyhorn, and Kaguya is proud of him. He likes pets! So he growls cheerfully at Dean.
"It's fine," Kaguya says. "Super fine."
When the Rhyhorn returns, Kaguya strokes its snout. "Good work, dude. We'll get you a better place to exercise later." She returns it to the Pokeball.
"Better than a bomb, right?"
Kaguya beams at Avril. "Right?" she says. But Avril didn't say anything...
Still, as they move to the next puzzle--
"Dean," Kaguya says. "That's not smart."
She shakes her head, then reaches into her bag and pulls out--
A small, mystical cloth with a crescent moon badge on it. "I've got some of these," she says. "If you use this, the magic won't hurt you as much."
She pats him on the shoulder. "And I've got a lot of Apple Gels, too!"
It's... a solution.
Thenshe pauses. And sighs. "OK, OK, I'll use one too. Let's do this!"
Kaguya is a scientist. Honest.
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Absurd Inventory toward her party's challenge, Elemental Nature. Stalwart! Party shielded from some Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
"You're right."
Rebecca allows as Dean says she doesn't know that, "There are other shapes it could squish you into, with all your bones getting in the way."
Rebecca is probably still counting their coins when Dean steps on the tile and- "DEAN!" Rebecca says in alarm, then sighs in relief.
"Careful."
She says, rather than nag the party member with the lowest reflex save again.
Fortunately Avril is there to heal him, and Rebecca contemplates her words, "Crest elements, huh..."
She pauses, thinking it through as Kaguya brings out some Apple Gels and works on Dean too. Part of her thinks of Eleanor's lectures.
"Well Muse and Wing. Normally I'd think it's a game of stepping on the tiles where - the adjacent tile is always the one balancing it out. But that doesn't seem to be the case..."
Rebecca says grimly, "... guess we experiment, trial and error." As she steps up to the tiles, at least she can move fast enough in case she picks wrong.
Probably.
The Treasure Tone she's wearing just might help her pick the correct direction. (Or an alternate treasure path) at a critical moment.
DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Treasure Tone toward her party's challenge, Elemental Nature. Enlighten! Party Wits boosted!
============================<* The Lightless Dark *>============================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Elemental Nature *>=======================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Though the lights largely no longer function within it, this large room
appears to have been important in the past -- your own lights reveal some
faded carvings on the walls as well as the remnants of some shattered
statues.
What remains of those statues might be an important clue, for as stated, the
lights /largely/ do not function. At a few key intervals around this room
and near the shattered statues there are glowing hexagonal tiles.
Stepping into one will subject them to the raw elemental force of one of
four elements, seemingly similar to the manifestations of the power known to
Crest Sorcerers as Muse, Wing, Geo, or Fray. This, understandably, hurts!
Worse, it seems that all of these need to be stepped into in some order if
you're to proceed.
If this is a trial, it's an intense one. Perhaps the remnants of the statues
will give you a hint about how to proceed without causing extensive harm to
yourself.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, |
| Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, and Overwhelm:_Exhaustion_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
============================<* The Lightless Dark *>============================
===================< Results - The Lightless Dark - Round 4 >===================
========================< CHALLENGE - Elemental Nature >========================
Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Avril Vent Fleur 10 --(0)--> 10 Best
Mirror of De Soto Min Wits Effects: Cleanse and
Inefficient
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rebecca Streisand 10 --(0)--> 10 Good
Treasure Tone Min Wits Effects: Enlighten
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kaguya 10 --(0)--> 10 Best
Absurd Inventory Min Wits Effects: Stalwart
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dean Stark 32 --(0)--> 32 Good
Detector Min Wits Effects: Enlighten
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leader: Avril Vent Fleur 60 --(20)--> 80 Pass
Conditions: Hesitate(1) and Overwhelm
Effects: Cleanse and Enlighten(1)
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
DG: The party led by Avril Vent Fleur 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> Dean Stark has posed.
Anything *is* possible, as long as you don't give up!
...And as long as you're facing someone whose will can bend. That's a lesson Dean's learned well over the years: sometimes, people don't *want* to be better. And since Golems are obviously also people, that applies to them too...
But that's a depressing thought, so we won't linger there. Dean will have hope for that poor Golem.
It's that same hope that prompts him to tell Kaguya with full, unfounded confidence, regardless of the fact that she is no longer listening, "Of course they can! That's just one of the things that make them so great! Though if they decide they wanna live for fighting, that's okay too. There's lots of people out there who love to fight! Like Zed!"
...Dean and Kaguya are probably thinking of two different things/people right now.
But there is a Rhyhorn, which Dean beams at, and magic zappy floor panels, which Dean gets shocked by. "Thanks, Avril," he tells his friend with gratitude, accepting her help with ease. He frowns with her at the panel. "It seems weird that it's all four elements all at once? Like, why would you do that?" He looks at the shattered statues, then at Avril. "What's a ewer?"
...Maybe it's best to let Avril reflect on her own for a moment, as it were. For now, Dean sticks his tongue out at Rebecca, very maturely. But he does appreciate her concern when he got zapped by the floor panel. "After the other panels, I really didn't think they were gonna do that," he admits.
He then looks over at Kaguya with a frown. "Well, if it's not smart, what's *your* bright idea?"
She shows him. He beams. "Oh hey, yeah! That's a *great* idea! Thanks, Kaguya, you're the best!" And so he accepts the badge and pins it on his jacket proudly. "All right, lemme back at 'em!"
As it turns out, they barely need to brute-force it. Between Rebecca's Treasure Tone, Avril's mirror, and Dean's Detector bullet, they figure out the pattern right away. Dean'll still take that Apple Gel, though.
Onwards!
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* The Lightless Dark *>============================
==========================<* CHALLENGE - In Memory *>===========================
| Type: Climax | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Before you there extends a large but shallow pool. Within that pool rests
what might be a familiar shape: the octagonal form of an artificial Medium.
The pool is softly illuminated from below though the rest of the room is
dark.
All at once, as if sensing your approach, it shimmers brilliantly with
light. Power thrums within it as its glow grows impossibly brighter, and
then with one great outward pulse its power is unleashed upon you.
You are not here anymore, at least not in spirit. Your body remains within
the Lightless Dark, but /you/ are somewhere else altogether. You are nowhere
else but within the maze of your own memories.
The place you now stand is a place you will know well, and here you turn to
meet someone you know -- or once knew -- well. Except, this 'someone' is
different. Perhaps this twist around sees them in better circumstances than
you now know them -- or perhaps things are worse off. If they were dead,
perhaps they are alive in your memory, enjoying a better possible present.
Perhaps they are simply different: not better, not worse.
But this isn't reality. This is your memory, your might-have-beens, your
dreams and nightmares. How do you escape? ...Do you want to?
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Bad_Luck:_All_Stats_Down!, Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, and Madness:_Wits_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Rebecca, well...
Doesn't have any better ideas as Avril mulls it over via her mirror's glass. "Perhaps there is some pattern in that shift," she says. "Not simply opposites, but a pattern like a four-pointed star?" Is there some diagram they could sketch between the elemental weaknesses and the alignment the statues suggest? ...Of course, working that out could take them some time, and in the meanwhile...
"Is this wise?" she asks of Kaguya as she begins to dole out a large quantity of consumable items. "What if..."
But if Dean is willing, and these items will lend him the protection, then perhaps... perhaps it might be possible for them to find the pattern in the noise? Or at least, throw Dean at the problem until the door opens.
"Perhaps it's meant to test endurance via the manifestation of these elements," Avril muses. "Yet, is this not Crest sorcery's theory? How strange."
What's a ewer? "It's like a pitcher," Avril explains after a moment's pause, partially mimicking the pouring of one with her hands.
Fortunately, it's with a minimum of suffering that they manage to carve a path forward, and the door soon opens. "Thank goodness," Avril sighs. "I was worried that might take longer. Are you feeling alright, Dean?"
What greets them beyond the trial of the elements is what appears at a glance to be a sort of simple shrine. It reminds Avril of some of the Baskar shrines she has seen, save for the fact that the elements of the composition seem far more artificial than anything the Baskar would have chosen to use. But more than that, there's a familiar shape sunk in the pool. It shines.
And Avril finds that she isn't here, not anymore.
Sand swirls about her ankles. It's pouring in from a rend in the temple wall, higher than the place where the two of them stand. Her sword is at the other woman's throat.
Kaguya, she realizes, a splinter of her consciousness shredding through the haze that grips her psyche, though the difference between the Kaguya she knows (knew?) and this version is like night and day. This Kaguya is stronger, haler, perhaps even somewhat taller. And there is a careful warriness that even during the worst of times, that Kaguya she knew (knows?) did not wear.
"Must we fight?" she finds herself asking. "I have no quarrel with the Infiltrators, nor with you. I seek simply to understand... who I am, and who I was."
"Heh." That grin of Kaguya's is the same, regardless of her apparent alliances. "They thought you'd say that. They're wary about you, 'Lolithia'. If you go for the throne again, you're gonna ruffle some feathers. That's got them worried, especially if..."
"If?" Avril finds herself asking, even as she tries to twist, to shift, to find her leverage point against a dream that's set on tracks of its own. "If I become 'myself' again, you mean."
That grin on Kaguya's face says everything, and Avril lowers her sword slowly.
Not sword. Not a sword. This did not happen. It was never like this. Even when we fought, it was not--
She can feel the weight of the metal in her hands even so. If this is a dream, if this is false, if this is not reality, if this is another way it might have gone between them that she is now imagining, then should she not be in control? Should she not be able to reforge a sword into--
Not a sword. Not like this. Not again. Not a sword-- a mirror.
In her hands, before the eyes of the incredulous, healthy, VR-free Kaguya, who allied herself with the neutral Infiltrators and remained for a time Avril's enemy and subject, Avril holds a mirror.
From the mirror's depths, there is light.
"I am sorry," she tells this Kaguya who at least has her health.
DG: That Tool has no remaining uses. You'll have to use something else! DG: Avril Vent Fleur has contributed a risky Wits Action toward her party's challenge, In Memory.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Kaguya is thinking of vry different Golems from Dean's hopes. Surely they won't rear their heads again.
In the end, Kaguya doesn't know the trick. But through experimentation, they reach a goal!
But Kaguya is helping! Kaguya likes it when Dean gets so enthusiastic. But she does stay true to her word, and also help out with trying a couple, which makes it go faster. "I made these," she says of the Apple Gels. "They're much better than a certain witch's Apple Gels."
There might have been a better way, but this works too. "I dunno much Crest Sorcery," Kaguya admits. "Should've brought a sorceress I guess."
But, they do make it through, and soon--the shrine. The artificial shape--and Kaguya, too, is elsewhere. Her feet are wet, when she looks around. The ground is soggy. And red.
The marsh is stained with blood as far as the eye can see, a red haze over everything. And there is a difference, there--as Kaguya comes face to face with herself.
"Hmmmm," the other Kaguya says. "So there's technology that would let you see 'me'."
"...What?" Kaguya blinks, and looks around--only to see that in the marsh, tehre are things floating.
Bodies floating.
"Doesn't matter," the other Kaguya says, and this time the small Veruni notices her deep red eyes. "This is how it's meant to be, you know. You know who it is you really can't stand. The ones you hate the most..."
Kaguya steps back, and her foot squelches. She looks down--
It's a familiar face she sees. A Veruni face. A face much like her own--
"RRRAAAH!" Kaguya charges the other Kaguya, who starts to laugh, disappearing into bloody mist and reappearing behind her.
"You can't get out, can you? Maybe this is my chance--"
Kaguya pulls Zeikfried, and points it. "...No. No it's not."
She FIRES at the other Kaguya, and feels the bullet sink into her own chest--
The laughter echoing all around her does not abate.
DG: Kaguya has risked with her Tool Absurd Inventory toward her party's challenge, In Memory. Stalwart! Party shielded from some Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
There's relief, once they get past it all, Rebecca smiles, "There, bare minimum of suffering." And what greets them beyond, the shrine.
Rebecca doesn't have time to say anything - one moment she's there, and the next-
-the air is freezing cold. Cold enough that you feel warm. She hears a sound, and her revolver is up in a moment.
A familiar silhouette breaks out of the cold, and with an effortless elegance-
-runs her through
Blood freezes, before it even hits the ground, as the blade is extracted, and her body feels heavy.
It was in the gut, the cold itself has bought her a few minutes at most, she realizes that. "Couldn't... do it. Even though you asked me to."
She coughs blood weakly, it's just a small amount, incomparable to what's crystallized as she starts to shiver.
"... Come on... not gonna say anything?"
The look in her eyes is like she's looking through her. The Ice Queen Lolithia says nothing, and then begins to step, step, step by her as if she doesn't even exist.
"Guess I was fooling myself to think... we can overcome. All that history..."
There's no response, other than the rhythmic cadence of those footsteps.
"... nah... it's... like he always says..."
Her words don't interrupt those footsteps, as she walks away, nearly already barely visible-
Yet Dean's words get through to her in that moment.
You can do anything as long as you don't give up.
"... Times we were just... talking, spending a day... where I could just be me... were the happiest days of my life."
She speaks, knowing she's on a clock, a timer.
"Felt... you know... normal. Even laying here now... don't regret it -leaving... just 'cause I got to have days like that."
The cadence of the footsteps is broken up by a footfall that ends at that moment...
... but perhaps it is simply the delusion of a dying mind.
Perhaps.
Maybe she's too far away to hear her walking. Or maybe she can't hear anything anymore.
But the hope exists, in this moment, between one footfall and the next.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Avril explains what a ewer is. "Ohhh," Dean utters, watching her mime the motion. "I know what a pitcher is! It's for pouring drinks!"
...It figures that Dean's understanding is centered around mealtime.
"Yeah, I'm fine! With that badge, I barely felt it, and we got the pattern down right away anyway," he reassures her as they head through the door. "I wonder what's gonna happen next--"
He looks forward. There's a little shrine there, and some kind of medium in a pool. He walks forward, leaning over to get a better look with wide, curious eyes.
"What're you looking at?"
Dean, a fresh-faced ten-year-old, turns around to see the gentle smile of a Veruni teenager. He recognizes him right away, of course. This is his close friend, Volsung, who wandered into Capo Bronco not long ago. How long ago? Dean doesn't remember, and that kind of thing doesn't matter when it comes to friendship, anyway. Dean had run into him first while picking fruit from the orchards, and when Volsung had looked longingly at those berries, he'd dragged him to his otherwise empty home and welcomed him there. Rebecca's family had too, and he's been staying there ever since.
"There's something glittering in the water! I wanna grab it!" he explains, turning back to the river he's kneeling next to and the 'something glittering' therein.
"Hey, be careful--you don't want to fall in," Volsung says with a touch of alarm, hurrying over and grabbing one of Dean's thin shoulders protectively. He follows his gaze down into the water. "Hmm... I can't tell what it is, but there's definitely something there. How about this, Dean? Why don't we make a net and scoop it up? It'll be safer that way."
Dean beams up at his friend, practically his brother at this point. "Hey! That's a great idea, Volsung! Let's do that right now!" He grabs his hand and, as Volsung laughs, all but drags him off, as he so often does. He grins over his shoulder, and Volsung looks happy to follow him, looks happy and at peace...
...
"...wait." Dean slows and stops; Volsung stops behind him. "Something's weird."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. You're not like this. Not anytime I've met you, anyway." Dean's eyebrows furrow as he faces his friend. "Actually... I don't think we ever met when either of us were this young. And actually, I haven't seen you in years. Volsung..." His ten-year-old face twists with disappointment. "This isn't real, is it?"
"We're friends, Dean," the teenage Volsung reminds him, still smiling. "Don't you want me to be happy?"
"Yeah, I do," he replies. "Do *you* want to be happy?"
Volsung continues to smile and says nothing.
"...This isn't you. Maybe it could've been you, but it isn't. Not yet," Dean replies as his ten-year-old form blurs, becomes older--sixteen--twenty-two. "When we become friends, it's going to be with the real you--and the real me."
"'When' is optimistic," Volsung replies, likewise blurring, becoming older in phases as the grassy riverside fades away.
Present-day Dean grins and rubs a finger under his nose. "That's more like the Volsung I know!" He gives him a firm, confident nod. "We'll meet again one day. And when I stop you from ending the world and convince you to be better, we can become friends for real."
Present-day Volsung--or at least, as of the day Dean last saw him, years ago--smirks, a certain darkness tightening his features. It fades away in a growing light, and then--
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Detector toward his party's challenge, In Memory. Enlighten! Party Wits boosted!
============================<* The Lightless Dark *>============================
==========================<* CHALLENGE - In Memory *>===========================
| Type: Climax | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Before you there extends a large but shallow pool. Within that pool rests
what might be a familiar shape: the octagonal form of an artificial Medium.
The pool is softly illuminated from below though the rest of the room is
dark.
All at once, as if sensing your approach, it shimmers brilliantly with
light. Power thrums within it as its glow grows impossibly brighter, and
then with one great outward pulse its power is unleashed upon you.
You are not here anymore, at least not in spirit. Your body remains within
the Lightless Dark, but /you/ are somewhere else altogether. You are nowhere
else but within the maze of your own memories.
The place you now stand is a place you will know well, and here you turn to
meet someone you know -- or once knew -- well. Except, this 'someone' is
different. Perhaps this twist around sees them in better circumstances than
you now know them -- or perhaps things are worse off. If they were dead,
perhaps they are alive in your memory, enjoying a better possible present.
Perhaps they are simply different: not better, not worse.
But this isn't reality. This is your memory, your might-have-beens, your
dreams and nightmares. How do you escape? ...Do you want to?
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Bad_Luck:_All_Stats_Down!, Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, and Madness:_Wits_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
============================<* The Lightless Dark *>============================
===================< Results - The Lightless Dark - Round 5 >===================
===========================< CHALLENGE - In Memory >============================
Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Avril Vent Fleur 10 --(20)--> 30 Bad
Investigate Bsc Wits Effects: Risky
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rebecca Streisand 10 --(0)--> 10 Best
Treasure Tone Maj Wits Effects: Enlighten and
Risky
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kaguya 10 --(0)--> 10 Best
Absurd Inventory Maj Wits Effects: Stalwart and
Risky
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dean Stark 32 --(0)--> 32 Good
Detector Min Wits Effects: Enlighten
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leader: Avril Vent Fleur 80 --(0)--> 80 Pass
Conditions: Bad Luck(2) and Madness
Effects: Enlighten(1)
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
DG: The party led by Avril Vent Fleur 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.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
There's a mirror in Avril's hands.
No. This false memory and 'could have been' is not so easily cast aside. There is no mirror. There's only her blade, glittering in the flames of the Guardian Temple. Kaguya -- hale and healthy, who might yet be an ally and not an enemy -- blinks at her in confusion.
"I know that this is not... that this cannot be--" Avril insists to her face. "I am sorry, Kaguya!"
And she can feel something in her mind just about give as reality blurs and smears about her. She stumbles heavily on nothing and save the grace of another's hand, she might still fall.
But this is reality again here where they all find themselves. Only the quiet rippling of the water awaits them:
Kaguya, divorced again from such blinding hatred.
Rebecca, dealt no mortal wound from a friend's blade.
Dean, separated from one who in another reality he might have called 'friend'.
And Avril, who again knows that the one who was enemy and now friend might have remained an enemy in another iteration of reality.
"Was that...?"
Was that all brought from them?
No, even if the Medium brought it about, it couldn't have come from anywhere else, could it?
DG: Kaguya has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* The Lightless Dark *>============================
=========================<* CHALLENGE - Memory's Due *>=========================
| Type: Final | Dungeon Ability: Combat | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
However you escape the reverie, willing or otherwise, you find yourself back
in the antechamber. Water sloshes quietly in the pool in which the Medium
rests. For the moment, all is peaceful and still, and it might be possible
to think that the whole ordeal was over.
Except, before you can so much as take a step, an amber light floods the
room from some more-distant point. Paired figures materialize as if stepping
out of the light itself, weapons in hand.
They must be some sort of construct. That may be as much as you can
reasonably surmise before they begin their defense of this place, standing
firm even against Gears: if you want to see what lies beyond, you will need
to get past them, first.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Bad_Luck:_All_Stats_Down!, Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, |
| Injure:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, Madness:_Wits_Down!, and |
| Wound:_Combat_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Quiet, rippling water awaits. Kaguya breathes heavily, for though she no longer feels that hatred, she still remembers it. From them...
"...Seems like it affected us somehow," Kaguya says. "What might be, maybe? ...Nothing I want to see."
But the image of that one face lingers in her memory, as well as her own hot eyes...
Still, they're back; water sloshes quietly, and there is enough silence to imagine it is over--
Until abrubtly there is a amber light, flooding forwardd, and paired figures materialize. Their weapons are deadly; ARMs of power.
They may be constructs, but they start firing immediately.
"Down!" Kaguya says, and dives to the side, pulling one of her sleep grenades and hurling it with uncommon force towards them, where it bursts into a cloud of soporific smoke that may give them a moment.
"I'll keep their attention!"
Don't say it, Dean.
DG: Kaguya has used her Tool Sleep Grenade toward her party's challenge, Memory's Due. Embolden! Party Combat boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
For just that moment, all is peaceful and still.
But it doesn't last -- little does, as Avril has found.
But then, that fleeting, transitory nature of life is what makes it so beautiful and precious--
Even if such thoughts are far from her mind now. Constructs have materialized before them in bursts of light and they do not hesitate to open fire with those terrible weapons of theirs.
Avril's immediate reaction is to conjure before them a towering wall of ice. It should buy them a little time, but it won't hold back their assailants forever: even now the wall is being picked apart by those terrible weapons the constructs wield.
There's something deeply familiar about their form, but in the moment (because of the moment) Avril can't stitch together anything more than that.
"Hurry! We don't have much time!" she calls, joining Kaguya in this attempt to buy the other two the precious time to do something about the deadly situation they've found themselves in.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Memory's Due.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean blinks, and the antechamber is back. He could be sad about that vision he just had of Volsung, but he instead smiles. He's got hope, after all.
But then Avril stumbles. "Avril!" he calls--but Rebecca's quicker, and grabs her before she can fall over. (We assume.) Dean gives them both a relieved smile before looking over at Kaguya. 'It' affected them... "The Medium?" he realizes. "Weird... What did you guys see?"
He looks down at the water again, and thinks of that glittering river. It was just an illusion, though.
What isn't an illusion is that flash of amber light, and the constructs that appear in their wake. They aren't Golems--probably--and they immediately open fire.
"Woah!" Dean utters, ducking down behind cover instinctively even before Kaguya warns them all. While that sleep grenade goes off, he grabs the Artificial Mountain Medium from his pocket and channels its magic; shining hexagons shimmer up around him and his friends, creating a protective barrier to defend them momentarily from the constructs' deadly fire. It merges with Avril's ice wall to bolster its protective power.
"All right! Let's do this!" he calls, Twin Fenrir flashing into his hands for a proper shootout.
DG: Dean Stark has used his Tool Mountain Medium toward his party's challenge, Memory's Due.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
It was perhaps her greatest fear, born from the first time she heard Volsung showed up- and she wasn't there.
Of what might have been.
The idea that it might not be enough - that their time together had so little meaning to the Ice Queen.
That she might not even be worth sparing a word, a second glance. If it had happened that day, would it be true?
She can deny it all she wants, but the fear exists.
One moment dying in the reverie - as hope persists, the next...
She takes a sudden breath, as it quickens, and Avril is right there, saying that it cannot be, that she's sorry and-
Rebecca suddenly moves forward, to place a steadying hand to her back, that then moves to her arm, as she turns her subtly, just enough to make eye contact, "It's okay. You're alright." The hope perhaps, persists, in this moment, that she's able to push aside even those feelings, that fear - all of it so swiftly.
"... Wasn't real."
She doesn't know what it was, but she can say that. It takes her a moment, but she just tells Dean, "We'll talk about it later."
And then paired figures materialize, Avril taking command while Kaguya offers distraction in her sleep grenade and-
"Right!"
It takes Rebecca a moment, after she takes out her medium. It's hard to trust after what just happened. But before long - fire burns in the chamber.
A blazing sphere of fire materializing over each construct.
DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Sky Medium toward her party's challenge, Memory's Due. Embolden! Party Combat boosted!
============================<* The Lightless Dark *>============================
=========================<* CHALLENGE - Memory's Due *>=========================
| Type: Final | Dungeon Ability: Combat | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
However you escape the reverie, willing or otherwise, you find yourself back
in the antechamber. Water sloshes quietly in the pool in which the Medium
rests. For the moment, all is peaceful and still, and it might be possible
to think that the whole ordeal was over.
Except, before you can so much as take a step, an amber light floods the
room from some more-distant point. Paired figures materialize as if stepping
out of the light itself, weapons in hand.
They must be some sort of construct. That may be as much as you can
reasonably surmise before they begin their defense of this place, standing
firm even against Gears: if you want to see what lies beyond, you will need
to get past them, first.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Bad_Luck:_All_Stats_Down!, Embolden:_Combat_Up!, |
| Injure:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, Madness:_Wits_Down!, and |
| Wound:_Combat_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
============================<* The Lightless Dark *>============================ ===================< Results - The Lightless Dark - Round 6 >=================== ==========================< CHALLENGE - Memory's Due >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 30 --(22)--> 52 Bad Fight Bsc Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rebecca Streisand 10 --(5)--> 15 Good Sky Medium Min Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kaguya 10 --(5)--> 15 Good Sleep Grenade Min Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dean Stark 32 --(5)--> 37 Good Mountain Medium Maj Combat Effects: Efficient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leader: Avril Vent Fleur 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(1), Injure(2), Madness, and Wound(2) Effects: Embolden(1) = Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Avril Vent Fleur has successfully explored The Lightless Dark!
============================<* The Lightless Dark *>============================
================<* CHALLENGE - The Culmination of Our Mastery *>================
| Type: Discovery | Dungeon Ability: Conclusion | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
As you advance, finally, into the sanctum the Medium had apparently
attempted to ward from you, you find a place far more pristine than any part
of the complex in which you had tread before. Here, it is easier to make out
the similarity of the architecture to a scant few other buildings across
Filgaia you might have explored already.
In particular, you might be reminded of the Desecrated Shrine, the Memorial
Sanctuary, or the Temple of Rejection. Does this place have its own deeper
connection to those sites, then?
There are consoles within this space, connected to an array of screens. A
small handful of them still function: most throw up an error message or are
dark and dead. Even here, errors in the code or wiring structure have crept
in over the ages.
After some mucking about with one of the consoles, you are rewarded with a
pleasing chime and a compartment raising itself out of the floor. The door
to the recessed illuminated circular compartment slides away as easily as if
it had been built the other day.
Within are an array of smaller-scale (relatively speaking) Golem parts,
meant to slot into and enhance one's Golem and even (for the advanced
battle-ready models) teach them new abilities and skills. With some
modifications from those adept with Gears, Golems, or ideally both, these
could be used in Gears as well.
The designs are very similar to those used in Veruni Golems. In fact, if
you're familiar with Golems, you'll realize that these are the /same/ as
excavated Golems used by the Veruni!
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Bad_Luck:_All_Stats_Down!, Embolden:_Combat_Up!, |
| Injure:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, Madness:_Wits_Down!, |
| Treasure:_Exploration_Up!, and Wound:_Combat_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Thefigures are familiar, somehow--but they go down under the force arrayed against them, eventually. With Kaguya running distraction, Dean and Avril defending, and Rebecca going on offense, soon enough the battle is over.
Kaguya glances to Dean. "...I saw something that could happen, if things go wrong," she tells him. "But it just tells me I need to make sure it doesn't."
She doesn't say more than that about her own. "Whatever we saw, it seems not to hav any long-term effects. And now..."
They make their way through the rest of the chamber, into the sanctum. Kaguya looks around. '...This is Veruni technology," she says. "Old, old Veruni technology." She wwalks up to a console, and soon--
Chime!
And it's...
"I guess I did say it'd be Golem time later," Kaguya says with a sigh, and steps out of Dean's path.
...These parts might be really useful, though.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean frowns thoughtfully a little at Rebecca and Kaguya's noncommittal answers, but he nods. He trusts them both.
On the other side of the chamber, into the sanctum, though--
"OH MAN! AWESOME! SO COOL!!!"
...so Dean enthuses for quite some time afterwards. Thanks, Kaguya!