2024-05-17: Sin and Punishment -- and Scrap
- Log: Sin and Punishment -- and Scrap
- Cast: Ethius Hesiod (Cameo), Timu Guado, Dirk Swordsman, Nina Chiyome, Loren Voss, Sable Aomori
- Where: Gunsmoke Desert
- Date: May 17, 2024
- Summary: A dive into Scraphaven is quickly takes a turn when Loren makes his presence known among the Nedians (+ Timu). While a truce of sorts is had, can this really be called 'settling one's differences'? ...And what is it that lurks within the piles of scrap?
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
ON THE WAY TO SCRAPHAVEN
Ethius Hesiod, a man who is still at least a bit strange even *with* the proper context, has his eyes peeled for the signs of that underground city that beckons travelers. He suspects a place would be filled with traps along the way, and his expertise is duly noted.
"Hm," he says with a hand to his forehead, "there are signs of civilization around these parts - active presence. Of the four signs found so far, only one bears recent marks from migratory persons," he says as he walks past a prohibition sign.
The prohibition sign has a curiously on-point silhouette of a man's profile - it's a striking likeness, really, somehow despite just being a filled-in outline it captures a stare perfectly. He turns around to take note of it, staring at it for several seconds.
"Hm. I wonder who this is for...?"
"no"
Suddenly, several small shadows emerge along the dunes.
"no. no."
"not you."
Just as Ethius turns around, he finds himself hoisted up off his feet, carried a short distance, and hurled unceremoniously down the dunes.
"no friend hurting allowed. no. no. none of him." One of the short figures taps the sign, and they leave back in the direction towards their underground city.
(This Dig has banned Ethius Hesiod's participation.)
DG: A party led by Timu Guado is now entering Scraphaven. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
================================<* Scraphaven *>================================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Critters and Constructs *>====================
| Type: Entry | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Welcome to Scraphaven: an underground city cobbled together from ancient
technological wreckage. Every piece of architecture in this junkyard
civilization is a patchwork quilt of welded metal and active machinery. The
population is exclusively made of rabbit-like beastfolk with large ears and
tiny bodies, though some have other animal features in the mix. The tallest
of them might be half the size of the average human.
And they are a lively bunch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC5PzT2zDlU
Song and dance fill the streets, the diminutive locals of Scraphaven freely
playing bizarre amalgamations of musical instruments fitted with too many
buttons and levers. Mechanical automatons with mismatched bodies mill about
to their own uncanny rhythm and assist in the city's general maintenance,
while those not participating have no problem navigating the busy streets of
their home by running across wires of electric lights strung above.
If you wish to explore deeper into the junkyard ruins, your first task is
getting past this impromptu parade.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado has posed.
"hello. hi. friends come help?" They're a lot of quiet, chattering voices as if they need to keep their voices down in case seriously awful people* by their measure might be listening. They're a small bunch, coming up only about half-way the size of a typical human. Most of them are rabbit-like, but there are some exceptions. They're adorable, as a rule, and they rule here.
'Here' being something that looks more like a survival bunker of a hoarder cobbled together into a pretend fortress of a city made of scrap. (The scrap is ancient technological junk, some of which still works - or at least the LED lights do!)
Timu Guado has escorted some of her friends along for a journey into Filgaia's wastes to a place that the Drifters of Filgaia (*most of them) were cordially invited to come help with. Before anyone can explain in greater detail, or really any detail whatsoever...
There's a parade underway! It's a racket! It's a ruckus! It's... inconvenient, but charming, with musical instruments cobbled together with buttons and levers that may or may not serve any meaningful purpose whatsoever! But music is being made. There's a melody, there's a rhythm, and they're following it across the busy streets of Scraphaven.
Timu stands with her hands over her chest just admiring the sight of it, even if some of it reminds her of the musicians that live within Macalania Woods. She tries to enjoy it for what it is, even if she can't fully shake it... and then.
"...Fuecoco, where are-- oh!" Timu stands at alert as she watches her friend just join the parade outright, because why not? (If anyone else's Pokemon friends are of the sort to get carried away, they might have joined this crowded parade too, which may be a further hindrance in getting on with why they're here.)
DG: Timu Guado has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Critters and Constructs.
<Pose Tracker> Dirk Swordsman has posed.
DIRK SWORDSMAN WANTS TO GET STRONGER.
So do his guys.
Filgaia may be the key. People keep talking it down and it wasn't that great, but he was pretty willing to come along with Timu, even if he was, historically, slightly confused that she's not from Filgaia at all.
Now, though, just this exact moment, Dirk is walking with only two of his guys out and about. Cufant, who is a tireless pachyderm who will probably bury all of you, and Farfetch'd, who is perched on Cufant's head and keeping an eye out. (Oshawott helped out while getting here but seemed kind of shagged out, so she's taking a rest in the Ball.)
And now -
"Oh wow," Dirk says. "You guys ever catch Treetops Journey?"
"I guess it's not just like that," Dirk continues as the noise and parade continues onwards, "but I mean we got the robot guys and we got those lights on strings. Man, I remember I got a string for my room like that and I think it is probably still there? Though these lights look really, like, fat."
Dirk looks towards Cufant.
Who is not there. Only Farfetch'd.
Dirk frowns. Where is Cufant? An elephant is pretty hard to hide.
YOU GUESSED IT
The parade's caboose is now a happy coppered baby elephant~!
DG: Dirk Swordsman has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Critters and Constructs.
<Pose Tracker> Nina Chiyome has posed.
Nina stretches and works her limbs, trying to get herself psyched up in a way. Left, right, back, forward, then she hops in place a ffew times. "Help sounds about right." She states. The ninja hesitates though as she looks the group over. It's eclectic! This isn't a bad thing, but she does slowly start to tug her mask up over her nose. Something about her incriminating evidence thing with a few.. Nedians around.
She does stop at the parade too though. Watching it pass along for a moment. Curiosity getting the better of her for a moment.
Seeing the others trying to get past, she looks to the crossing wires and poles and.. other things.
A piece of rope is pulled out, she climbs a pole promptly and begins to crawl along the wires using the rope, scurrying along in a hurry.
She does pause midway long enough to call out to Dirk, "Wait you have the string lights in your room? Like multi colored or something else?"
DG: Nina Chiyome has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Critters and Constructs.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
There had been a report about an unusual discovery out in the sands. Naturally, with the intelligence division in Aveh currently occupied with Energy Nede (and the matter of a certain group that might go under the header of Calamity), the task of taking a closer look had fallen to...
...
...Yeah.
"Uh. Hi?" Loren says as he's accosted by a small rabbit-like person, pulling a face as he backs away only to find out that he's been GANGED UP ON. So much for a secretive approach: it seems like they were just about waiting for him to show up.
(He's dressed 'normally', which is to say, not like a spaceman military person or something. He doesn't even have a sword or the usual accoutremounts of a Filgaia Drifter!)
The people who apparently... live down here want some help. It would be a lot easier to try to blow past them and indeed, something in him seems to want to do just that. But there are lot of them, Loren notices, glancing hither and yon. Most of them are high up enough that they have the advantage. "..."
"...Sure," he says at last, before being just about led/pushed further down the (literal?) rabbithole of this site. He'd just heard about the situation with unusual machines in this pit, not a lot of--
And then there is the noise. Oh boy, is it a lot of noise. Loren stares into the middle distance, apparently stunned by the sheer joyful chaos of it all. But isn't that parade coming right this way?
His escort, he notices, has vanished.
So it is that Timu and Dirk and Nina might notice a somewhat (very much?) familiar figure catapulting himself towards one of the dangling wires and doing his best to ascend hand over hand to safety. Whether or not he gets there (and avoids getting trampled or something) remains to be seen.
DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Critters and Constructs.
<Pose Tracker> Sable Aomori has posed.
Sable doesn't know why Ethius wouldn't be allowed, but he isn't, so she won't have to think about it today.
Instead, she is here; she also wants to get stronger... and she's curious about Filgaia, too. She has had a number of different Pokemon out on the trip over, but right now, it is Dratini who follows her. Artan is a beautiful Pokemon who floats in the air behind her, a little baby dragon.
"I'll help," Sable says seriously.
And now, a parade...
"It does make me think of that," Sable agrees with Dirk. "Not exacctly the same, but still close..."
Then--Oh, dear.
"Hmm..."
Sable considers. "Artan," she says. "Use an Icy Wind... but make it gentle. Just enough to make a cold breeze."
Then, she climbs up a pole, too, just like Nina--
And jumps across the parade with Artan, hopfully snapping Fuecoco and Cufant out of their reverie!
But as she goes, catching another pole to arrest her descent, she sees--
"Mr. Loren," she says, in surprise. "Are you helping?"
DG: Sable Aomori has used her Tool Icy Wind toward her party's challenge, Critters and Constructs. Quicken! Party Agility boosted!
================================<* Scraphaven *>================================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Critters and Constructs *>====================
| Type: Entry | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
Welcome to Scraphaven: an underground city cobbled together from ancient
technological wreckage. Every piece of architecture in this junkyard
civilization is a patchwork quilt of welded metal and active machinery. The
population is exclusively made of rabbit-like beastfolk with large ears and
tiny bodies, though some have other animal features in the mix. The tallest
of them might be half the size of the average human.
And they are a lively bunch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC5PzT2zDlU
Song and dance fill the streets, the diminutive locals of Scraphaven freely
playing bizarre amalgamations of musical instruments fitted with too many
buttons and levers. Mechanical automatons with mismatched bodies mill about
to their own uncanny rhythm and assist in the city's general maintenance,
while those not participating have no problem navigating the busy streets of
their home by running across wires of electric lights strung above.
If you wish to explore deeper into the junkyard ruins, your first task is
getting past this impromptu parade.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up! and Quicken:_Agility_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
================================<* Scraphaven *>================================ =======================< Results - Scraphaven - Round 1 >======================= ====================< CHALLENGE - Critters and Constructs >===================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Timu Guado 0 --(5)--> 5 Best Rush Bsc Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loren Voss 0 --(5)--> 5 Good Rush Bsc Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sable Aomori 0 --(5)--> 5 Best Icy Wind Min Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nina Chiyome 0 --(5)--> 5 Good Rush Bsc Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dirk Swordsman 0 --(13)--> 13 Bad Rush Bsc Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leader: Timu Guado 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(2) Effects: Quicken(1) = Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
DG: The party led by Timu Guado 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: Dirk Swordsman has drawn a new Challenge.
================================<* Scraphaven *>================================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Metalspeaking *>=========================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
A quadruped construct with a crane for a head hovers over the edge of a pit
of scrap, perfectly designed for pulling up prizes.
"ERROR. COMMAND INVALID. PLEASE REPEAT. ERROR. COMMAND INVALID. PLEASE
REPEAT."
...Maybe. There's a scrawled note stuck to the side of the machine:
'Remember! Beseech the spirits of metal gently. They only do EXACTLY as
prayers request. No more. No less.'
It seems you'll have to be very specific in your commands, or else this
particular piece of machinery will take you too literally... if it ends up
understanding you at all.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, Quicken:_Agility_Up!, and |
| Tire:_Exhaustion_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado has posed.
It's a joyous time! But... Nina will be the first to notice that something is truly amiss, in that she gets to watch someone that might be familiar from the Silph Co. incident head further in. This is alarming! Almost as alarming as letting Cufant and Fuecoco join what could be a Forever Parade!
Luckily, Sable is there to help snap everyone to attention with a cold breeze, and Timu catches up to Fuecoco in time to pick him up, gently admonish him, and hug him close. Cufant won't be hard to spot among the party-goers, but the rest is all on Dirk there.
"Sable? Nina?" Timu spies her two friends already further up and past the parade. "What's wrong--"
Timu sees Loren, and there's an awkward, poignant pause. She holds Fuecoco a bit closer, while he wriggles and wonders what the problem is.
"friends here to help? friends are friends, so friends friends of friends? cubed friends. good." The mumbling rabbity fellow says, pre-empting most immediate confrontation and clarification. "this way. this way. friends come help."
They're all coming to help, then.
<Pose Tracker> Dirk Swordsman has posed.
"They're programmable, duh," Dirk tells Nina. "Like it ain't worth getting the monocolor ones unless you need like thirty for outside or something." And after this - "Ah dangit -"
Dirk breaks into a run and has an argument with Cufant.
This is probably good for Loren's health. In the end, Dirk ends up vaulting on top of Cufant and kind of floppy-wiggling her ears, which seems to make her happy, and Dirk steers her towards the rest of the group. Where did Farfetch'd go.
He dismounts at the rabbity-guy speaks to them. "Yeah, we're all pretty tight," Dirk answers him, despite the imminent irony, but they end up coming further, near a crane standing next to a sea of scrap. Wait -
"Huh. This thing seems almost like a Pokemon, doesn't it?"
Cufant trunks the side of the machine even as Dirk reads the note. "Hold on, I think I got my computer textbooks on my phone." Out it comes.
Dirk is staring at his phone for the next thirty seconds or so. He may be able to provide assistance with preparing a logical request.
DG: Dirk Swordsman has used his Tool Questionably Updated Phone App toward his party's challenge, Metalspeaking. Enlighten! Party Wits boosted! Shortsighted! The party will suffer a penalty next round... but not this round!
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"Wh--" Loren utters as Sable calls out to him amidst the din. His grip on the wire slips precipitously! But as this happens, it puts rather more weight on the wire in a different location which rips it loose of its moorings. Clinging to the wire for dear life as he's swept away over the madly churning and dancing crowd below (which is a different sort of check altogether), Loren finds himself coming in for an impromptu landing on an awning just to the other side of the wild parade.
Which means that to get to safety, all he has to do is let go.
Well, and after that, get off the awning, but that's a separate matter. What it means in the end is that he, somewhat rattled but no worse for the wear, strides out into the junk heap where things are much quieter.
...Relatively.
He's not the only one staring at the malfunctioning crane, he finds, after staring at the sign for a moment. Mouthing something that is an expletive in another language he darts behind the crane, his heart pounding in his chest. Damn, damn, damn -- he knows that kid's face. That was one of the--
Taking a breath, then another, Loren manages to steady himself after a fashion. He's really, really not equipped for any of this, for one thing--
But the machine's still asking for commands and the noise of it is starting to grate on his nerves a little. Drawing out a Pokeball, he deploys its current occupant out into the world. "Clefairy!" Lifting his finger to his lips, Loren gets down into a squat to have a quick chat with his partner.
"Uh, hey... can you do something about that?" he hisses at Clefairy, as quietly as he can. He jerks his head in the direction of the malfunctioning machine.
"Clefa!" says Clefairy, ripping off a salute. ...Before he toddles out from behind the machine to investigate close-up.
"Clefairy?" "Cle..." "...Cle..."
There is a pause.
"Efa!" Clefairy calls out, winding up for, apparently, a swing at the machine. Wait, is percussive maintenance really the answer here??
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Clefairy toward his party's challenge, Metalspeaking. Stalwart! Party shielded from some Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado has posed.
"...Kind of, aside from talking like that," Timu largely concurs with Dirk as she shrinks from the crane head when it looks like it might be dangling too close. (It's not, it's a trick of perspective.)
She kneels down when she sees the scrawled note, talking about beseeching the spirits of metal gently.
"Um," Timu stands up, as her Fuecoco bounds up to the machine and considers with a wide open mouth and bright, smiling eyes as individuals present are giving consideration about what it is they're going to ask the spirits of metal what to do through prayer.
"Fuecoco!" So says Fuecoco, heedless of matters of common language.
Clefairy joins, and Fuecoco looks to Clefairy, nods, and looks back to the strange crane.
"Fuecoco!" Fuecoco calls, boldly, waving an arm around as he tries to get the crane's attention, while Timu retreats into quiet contemplation.
DG: Timu Guado has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Metalspeaking.
<Pose Tracker> Nina Chiyome has posed.
Looking to Dirk from the wire, hanging upside down. She pulls a face and replies, "I know they're programmable, but that doesn't always mean party colored. Especially since they're cheaper and you can just make filters." She's on a budget. Said budget is usually paint and.. don't worry about it.
She does wave to Sable though as she swings back, then lands back on the other side with a little flip. The rope goes back in the pack and she brushes herself off calmly. "Show off." She teases.
A look to Timu, she nods at the mention of their names. Then looks confused, "I got all curious to explore and ran into you wandering in through a Paprika Parade. Wanted to make sure you were awake you know?" She taps the side of her head.
She does give Loren a curious look towards Loren. Hesitating. she looks to Sable, then back to him.
"Uh." She states simply. Wondering if she plays this cool or-
Still, with the malfunctioning crane issue though and she steps up to the edge..ish to look over.
"Maybe it just needs to be rebooted? Or restarted. Could pop a hatch and give it a reboot." She looks at the state of things and adds wryly, "It's.. been running a while probably right?"
DG: Nina Chiyome has used her Tool Tagging Kit toward her party's challenge, Metalspeaking. Rally!
<Pose Tracker> Sable Aomori has posed.
Showoff, Nina teases, and Sable smiles at her. "Yes. I felt like it."
It is joyous, and that's nice, but they also have work to do. So thinks Sable, before they meet up with Loren too. Timu calls to her, and there is an awkward pause for her, too. But the little creatures seem to think they're all here to help...
Well, Loren didn't say he wasn't helping, anyway.
"Yes," Sable answers Dirk.
Then, "Hello, Clefairy." Dirk seems to be hanndling the matter of computer stuff, so Sable instead looks around to the others. Timu and Fuecoco seem to be having a good time, so...
Sable steps up next to Timu, instead. "It's okay," she says. "...Don't worry."
She nods to Nina, too. "...I think Dirk can figure it out..."
DG: Sable Aomori has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Metalspeaking.
================================<* Scraphaven *>================================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Metalspeaking *>=========================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
A quadruped construct with a crane for a head hovers over the edge of a pit
of scrap, perfectly designed for pulling up prizes.
"ERROR. COMMAND INVALID. PLEASE REPEAT. ERROR. COMMAND INVALID. PLEASE
REPEAT."
...Maybe. There's a scrawled note stuck to the side of the machine:
'Remember! Beseech the spirits of metal gently. They only do EXACTLY as
prayers request. No more. No less.'
It seems you'll have to be very specific in your commands, or else this
particular piece of machinery will take you too literally... if it ends up
understanding you at all.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, |
| Shortsighted:_All_Stats_Down!, and Tire:_Exhaustion_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
================================<* Scraphaven *>================================
=======================< Results - Scraphaven - Round 2 >=======================
=========================< CHALLENGE - Metalspeaking >==========================
Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Timu Guado 5 --(3)--> 8 Best
Investigate Bsc Wits Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loren Voss 5 --(0)--> 5 Best
Clefairy Min Wits Effects: Stalwart
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sable Aomori 5 --(3)--> 8 Good
Investigate Bsc Wits Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nina Chiyome 5 --(3)--> 8 Best
Tagging Kit Maj Wits Effects: Rally
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dirk Swordsman 13 --(3)--> 16 Good
Questionably Updated Phone App Maj Wits Effects: Enlighten and
Shortsighted
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leader: Timu Guado 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass
Conditions: Hesitate(1) and Tire(2)
Effects: Enlighten(1) and Shortsighted(1)
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
DG: The party led by Timu Guado 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> Dirk Swordsman has posed.
Dirk sees a Clefairy in the area. He knows the others roll with their own teams, so he is not shocked. Clefairy is definitely one of those 'you ain't shocked to see it' Pokemon, even if they're not super-common.
"Aight so I think this thing uses a coordinate system so try thinking like, where it is now is zero comma zero, and like imagine there's a grid. What you wanna do is ask it to move to like, 5 comma zero, and then to zero comma 5, and then we're gonna --" Dirk looks up then towards Nina.
Which is when he sees Loren.
Dirk stares. Then his brow tilts. Then there is an abrupt surge of malicious intention even before he reaches a sword. "You mud-sucking gutless wonder, I'm gonna carve you up for the Magikarp!" Dirk says, and if you think he might be joking, he just dropped his phone and grabbed his sword. "Say your prayers!"
The blade is *actually coming out of the sheath* when --
(Quick spot check on Dirk's team during this surge. Farfetch'd, who is descending towards Cufant, lands holding his leek in a similar stance. If Dirk misses, he's going to get a follow up strike in. Cufant trumpets in some confusion, but that's because she didn't really ever see Loren -- remember, she was guarding the stairway!)
Quilladin pops out of the ball on Dirk's hip-rack and tumbles forwards, leaping upwards and turning to face Dirk with a very loudly squeaked-out "QUILLADIIIIN!"
Dirk and Farfetch'd look at Quilladin. "What, comma, the heck," Dirk says. "Get out my way, man. This is blood!"
"Quill! Quilla qui qui quilla quill!" Quilladin shouts back. Loren probably can't really get the read of it, but Quilladin doesn't seem to be... sticking up for him.
"-- I mean, y eah, but --"
"Quill!!!"
"-- that doesn't mean he's --"
"Quilla DIN."
"Course he ain't dead! Again. Whatever, man, Ghosts, you know what I mean."
"Quill. Quilla, la."
"... he ain't got anything to be scared of if that dude's sushi."
"quill."
Dirk concludes that in a "..." And -- with visible reluctance - sheaths his sword.
Quiladin vaults up to the top of Cufant, who gamely steps forwards. Farfetch'd looks at Quilladin with disgust.
Cufant lumbers forwards. Quilladin, who is now looking DOWN at Loren, points his ironwood stick at him. "Quilla quilla quilladin," the porcu-Pokemon admonishes. "Quilladin-- di-din." (Farfetch'd helpfully mimes drawing the leek across his own neck, while glaring at Loren. But Farfetch'd, though disgusted, may recognize that he can't -- or won't -- defeat a grown human.)
"He says we've got the honor you left in the trash can, so we're not cutting you down just for being in a place. But you ain't off the hook," Dirk says, in a leaden voice. "But you better keep your nose clean. And if I see you shooting up EVEN A LITTLE drugs, I ain't taking any chances. Why the hell are you even here," Dirk says, and this is, to long time Dirk Fans, the first time he actually said something like a cuss.
So after all of that, the GOOD news is that a reboot (which gets a finger-watergun from one of the acting Pokemon) and the intervention of Clefairy (who remembered all that shit Dirk said, and also was probably doing all the actual work here) eventually manages to pluck a big coil of copper wire out of the junk heap. It's shiny!
Dirk also deliberately remains in Loren's rear arc afterwards.
DG: Sable Aomori has drawn a new Challenge.
================================<* Scraphaven *>================================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Friend Request *>========================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
A pair of spinning grabbers suddenly juts out from a pile of junk nearby.
"ASSIST. FRIEND. ASSIST. PLEASE. THANK YOU. ASSIST!"
Judging by the synthetic voice, one of Scraphaven's robots appears to be
asking for help after getting buried under wreckage. Unfortunately, all you
can see is that pair of two-pronged, grasping hands, and there's no way to
predict how much machine lies beyond those limbs.
What sort of robot you pull up will be a surprise, and you may end up
needing significant force to free it from its predicament!
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, Overzealous:_Brute_Down!_Combat_Up!, |
| Shortsighted:_All_Stats_Down!, and Tire:_Exhaustion_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Sable Aomori has posed.
Sable watches Dirk and Loren... but she doesn't get in the way. Maybe she might've, if Quilladin hadn't leapt out and handle matters. Maybe.
"...We're not like you, Mr. Loren." Sable pauses. "We're not going to kill people. ...Or if we do, it won't be just because we wanted to, even if we're angry."
A Dirk cuss... Sable blinks, but--
"If you want to help... then help," she says then to him, and nods.
"I don't like what you did, either... And we're not on Energy Nede, so I'm not supposed to be welcoming. But I think if you want to help, you should help, and we go from there."
She then moves forward, and leads the group through some more junk. And then, as they do, some grabbers jut out--
"ASSIST. FRIEND. ASSIST. PLEASE. THANK YOU. ASSIST!"
Sable looks htoughtful. Ther's grasping hands, and there could be a lot of mcine...
"It's okay," Sable says. "We'll help you."
She steps back. "Artan, return." She recalls the Dratini--and then--
"Ishka, go."
An absolutely GIGANTIC creature appears in a flash of light, roaring her satisfaction to be brought onto the scene. "Niiiiiix!"
Ishka is an Onix, a giant rock snake, and she is much bigger than your average Onix, to boot.
"Ishka," Sable instructs. "Start to move the rubble."
She does! With her face.
DG: Sable Aomori has used her Tool Onix toward her party's challenge, Friend Request.
<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado has posed.
Timu remains passive while Sable gives reassurance to the Guado, nodding along as Dirk lays down something resembling laying down LAW. Or WORDS. Which is an anagram for SWORD, but none of this funny wordplay becomes relevant as Quilladin brings down the temperature to something closer to lukewarm, as Timu's hands lower. Fuecoco stares at the big coil of copper wire for a while.
"That was frightening." Timu doesn't specify which time period 'that' was, whether it was Dirk about to draw a blade or what happened at Silph. Taking her healer's staff in hand, Fuecoco just waves along onward towards...
Someone calling for help. Fuecoco waves to Ishka as she appears to help move rubble along.
It's her turn to help, then. On her person, a gauntlet of traditional Guado make, reinforced with machina to allow it to be thrown with a chain attachment. The exact same one her father used, once upon a time, until she stole it. (Gon retired first, but as it is now stolen, the 'until' applies.)
5tShe fits it over her hand and flexes the fingers as Ishka has the head start in face-pushing rubble.
"Can you hear me?" Timu calls out to the enormous grasping machina hands. "We're trying to help, so... I'm going to try to grab one of those hands." Rearing back her arm, she gives a flick, sending the gauntlet's grasp towards one of the grabbers. A Guado individually is not physically strong, but as she tugs to try to get the chain to retract, she hopes it'll be enough to help make the difference.
DG: Timu Guado has used her Tool Pull Claw toward her party's challenge, Friend Request. Strengthen! Party Brute boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Nina Chiyome has posed.
Nina listens to the description of what Dirk thinks needs to be done. She's about to reply when he catches sight of the same potential problem. She glances back herself. She's.. not quite as blunt about it, but it's not hard to notice she'd had her hand near the sickle's handle either.
She.. does make a wry comment under her breath about honor, but it's not truly audible. Probably not surprising since she's a ninja.
Still, she hasn't exactly taken action yet either. Observe, watch. Maybe try other tactics. This isn't the same Nina! (It really is, but she's trying!)
What this really means is that she's currently trying to figure out what he's up to before she tries anything stupid. Which, to be fair is at least a little new.
It's also why she's just not talking about it. She's had bad luck lately with that.
She doesn't comment on Sable's insistance that he was safe. That's a matter of things to be seen as she figures it!
She slowly drifts Sable's way to murmur, "Don't.. put your guard down." She had wanted to say more, but something catches her midway and she adjusts the mask she's wearing.
She looks to Timu though, concerned about how she's handling.. a lot of it really. She keeps quiet though.
"We'll play nice as long as you do." She finally states to Loren. Though uh, her hand's still hovering near her shiny new toys.
For good measure she releases a sneasel to boot! The sneasel streeeeeetches. Big stretch. Starts to wander off, pauses, looks back. Gets a hand gesture from Nina and turns to keep an eye on Loren instead for her!
This makes it easier to approach the stuck machine with her kit, alongisde Timu. "Probably shouldn't recommend blasting it free. Maybe a prybar and leverage? Or just digging or.." She taps her foot. "Grappling hook up and over, prybar to hold onto. All of us pull?
DG: Nina Chiyome has used her Tool Power Up toward her party's challenge, Friend Request.
<Pose Tracker> Nina Chiyome has posed.
Nina admittedly might have muttered a quick spell under her breath either way in anticipation. Complete with a clap of her hands to finish it off.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Clefairy had been winding up to take a swing at the machine (a little thump on the side of a malfunctioning device can work wonders! or so he's learned) when Dirk rattles off some of the guidance from his phone, causing him to come to a halt. "Clef!" he says, as if to suggest, 'oh, of course!'. But before he can get very far in conducting actual (and not violence-based) maintenance, Dirk spots Loren. Clefairy comes to an abrupt halt in what he's doing.
"Cle!" he protests.
Loren, for his part, stares at Dirk the entire time the teenager goes for his sword and begins to draw it, his gaze turning towards Farfetch'd who promises to continue the favor and then some. Strange, once upon a time he'd feel something at a moment like this -- at least his anxiety if nothing else. But he feels compelled to not so much as twitch in their presence.
But Quilladin (on Cufant) steps in before this can escalate any further, carrying on a heated exchange with Dirk. Somehow, he has the impression that this isn't exactly an argument in his favor. Loren, for his part, glances away and says nothing.
Then Quilladin lets him have it. Verbally. Loren takes a step back a last, perhaps provoked to do so by the force of the Pokemon's rebuke, and blinks, staring up at Quilladin. "Okay?" he says to start, before Dirk provides a translation.
"...I don't even have them on me," Loren protests, his shoulders sagging. Which might be the sort of thing an honorless person would lie about, anyway! "And that's none of your business."
Clefairy, in the background meanwhile, once things look like they're starting to cool down, gets to work on routing the system correctly and is soon the proud owner of a shiny coil of copper while. "Clefairy~" he chirps, holding his prize aloft as they carry on.
"You've got that right," Loren tells Sable, his eyes focused straight ahead. "You people aren't like me at all." What were the things those Visitors had said about Solaris, again? He's not here to kill people either, he almost says, but...
He's silent for a long moment, his attention fixed straight ahead.
"...Fine. It's not like I have anything to lose," he tells her and Nina alike. Glancing just the once at Timu and Nina (his gaze lingers on the latter), he withdraws a Pokeball and sends out--
"Dunsparce, it's all yours!"
"Spar," she answers, glancing first at Loren and then at his companions. As if curious, she tilts her head, studying each of them in turn. "Spa," Dunsparce sighs, and she waggles her head as if shaking it disappointedly. With a bounce and flutter of tiny little wings, she off for the trashpile.
>DUNSPARCE used DIG!
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Dunsparce toward his party's challenge, Friend Request. Resilient! Party shielded from some exhaustion next round!
<Pose Tracker> Dirk Swordsman has posed.
Clefairy's pleading probably helped.
Maybe Dirk wouldn't have done it, ultimately, unless Loren pulled out a gun or something. Maybe he just doesn't have it in him.
But cutting a man down in front of his Pokemon... that's like... extra murder.
"Yeah, well, that goes both ways, Drug Man," Dirk continues. "March." Cufant stays with Dirk, accumulating several other Pokemon on her back as they walk. It's definitely not good on the mood.
("Thanks," Dirk says to Sable, though he sounds oddly defeated as he says it.)
Soon enough, though, they come to a buried individual, pleading for help.
Dunsparce emerges. Dunsparce and Clefairy seem fine. Dirk meditates on the morality of Pokemon. Didn't Quilladin just...?
"Yo Cuf," he says. Cufant looks over.
"I think we about due for a tea break, if you know what I mean, but I feel like we ought to do it... with this guy free. Not cool, drinking your tea and havin' snacks in front of a buried guy."
Cufant trunks Dirk's face a little bit because she doesn't get it.
"Far farf, farfetch'd," explains Farfetch'd, still sounding vaguely disgusted. (PokeSubs: 'He means he's going to bust out the snacks if you can get this guy clear.')
Cufant trundles upwards eagerly, enthusiastic to provide the raw power of her mighty shovel-like snout to the problem. While not quite as massive as Onix (YET) she definitely has oomph, pizzazz, moxie, and ground-moving strength.
DG: Dirk Swordsman has used his Tool Canned Tea and Homemade Sweets toward his party's challenge, Friend Request. Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round! Sacrifice! The party will take slightly more Exhaustion this round!
================================<* Scraphaven *>================================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Friend Request *>========================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
A pair of spinning grabbers suddenly juts out from a pile of junk nearby.
"ASSIST. FRIEND. ASSIST. PLEASE. THANK YOU. ASSIST!"
Judging by the synthetic voice, one of Scraphaven's robots appears to be
asking for help after getting buried under wreckage. Unfortunately, all you
can see is that pair of two-pronged, grasping hands, and there's no way to
predict how much machine lies beyond those limbs.
What sort of robot you pull up will be a surprise, and you may end up
needing significant force to free it from its predicament!
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, Overzealous:_Brute_Down!_Combat_Up!, |
| Resilient:_Exhaustion_Down!, Strengthen:_Brute_Up!, and Tire:_Exhaustion_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
================================<* Scraphaven *>================================
=======================< Results - Scraphaven - Round 3 >=======================
=========================< CHALLENGE - Friend Request >=========================
Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Timu Guado 8 --(10)--> 18 Good
Pull Claw Min Brute Effects: Strengthen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loren Voss 5 --(10)--> 15 Best
Dunsparce Min Brute Effects: Resilient
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sable Aomori 8 --(10)--> 18 Best
Onix Maj Brute Effects: Improved
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nina Chiyome 8 --(10)--> 18 Best
Power Up Maj Brute Effects: Efficient
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dirk Swordsman 16 --(10)--> 26 Good
Canned Tea and Homemade Sweets Min Brute Effects: Cleanse and
Sacrifice
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leader: Timu Guado 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass
Conditions: Overzealous(2) and Tire(1)
Effects: Cleanse, Resilient(1), and Strengthen(1)
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
DG: The party led by Timu Guado 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> Sable Aomori has posed.
Frightening. Sable nods to Timu. She thought so, too. Back at Silph especially, but...
Here, too, wasn't reassuring.
Nina is learning! It's important. But she warns Sable, and Sable nods. "I know," she murmurs back. "I haven't."
As for Loren, well...
'You people' aren't like him at all. "...You sound proud of that," Sable says to Loren. "But you shouldn't be. Being like Timu is something anyone would be proud of."
She turns away. She looks at Dirk. He seems defeated, but...
Well. There's the guy. As it happens, the group is very good at this kind of challenge. Dunsparce digs up from below to soften the ground; Onix pushes a bunch of rubble off, and Cufant does, too! Nina's kit helps to free the robot, and Timu with her grappling claw actually pulls him the rest of the way out.
"Good work," Sable says to everyone.
"...I like tea..."
DG: Loren Voss has drawn a new Challenge.
================================<* Scraphaven *>================================
=============<* CHALLENGE - 0 Days Since Last Divine Retribution *>=============
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Combat | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The people of Scraphaven have little understanding of currency. They don't
use zenny or have any idea what gella is, and would probably try to eat it.
Only one form of wealth holds any sway over them:
Snacks.
Like all wealth, it can drive even the purest soul to the darkest greed. A
profane experiment awakens. Beastfolk scamper from an explosion of junk,
screaming their dismay as a hovering vending machine sparks and sputters
with spinning lasers and projectile candy bars. "Hubris!" one cries. "We
have played in the domain of the gods and now we suffer!" cries another.
You will also suffer if you don't defend yourself from this ambition gone
awry! Panels open up on the vending machine's sides as it fires out a myriad
of rockets. They explode into pretzels. Salty pretzels, for all your wounds.
Amidst the chaos, a nonplussed beastfolk resets a counter back down to zero.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Bad_Luck:_All_Stats_Down!, Overzealous:_Brute_Down!_Combat_Up!, |
| Resilient:_Exhaustion_Down!, and Strengthen:_Brute_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
He seems proud of that.
"...Do I?" he asks Sable, looking her way. "Well, fine." Maybe some habits don't die quite so easily. All too aware of where Dirk and Nina are standing, he keeps his attention on the pit below where the guy is stuck. Just rushing down there would make things worse -- or get the rescuer stuck. But their Pokemon (and other tricks) on the other hand...
"Spa," Dunsparce says, making her re-emergence and belly-flopping onto their tier of the trash heap again once the day is saved. "Duns? Dunsparce, spar. Sparce," she says, prompting Loren to sigh and translate for the others, "...She'd like a snack."
"Cleffa!"
Loren sighs. "And so would he."
Sadly, they will have but moments to enjoy their snacks!
"HUBRIS!" screams one of the dwellers of the trashpit, tugging at his clothing as if bereft. "Oh, lamentations and despair! We face our judgement this day! For lo, we have played as gods and look ye! Look at what we have reaped!!" Falling to his knees, he flings his arms wide even as it makes its appearance from over a heap of debris.
It hovers, as a better writer once put it, in exactly the way a brick doesn't. Bricks certainly don't wobble from side to side and spit sparks... or float at all, even poorly, for that matter.
Behold, the vending machine! It flies! And it's very much on the fritz, firing a barrage of missiles at the lot of them. The missiles as it turns out are full of packages of tiny salty pretzels, which are ejected as they close in on their targets. This does not mean that getting pelted with pretzel packs is any less painful, however!
"Augh-- what?!" Loren utters once the initial shock and awe is over with. Stooping, he picks up a pretzel package. He squints at it, then stares at the menacing hovering vending machine as if he weren't sure if this was the stupidest hallucination he's ever had or not.
"This is really happening?" he asks, as if to get a reality check.
It's then and only then that he deploys a third Pokeball. "Golbat! ...Just deal with it. Thanks."
"GOLLLL," tremolos Golbat as he soars through the air straight at the vending machine, horrible mouth agape.
DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Golbat toward his party's challenge, 0 Days Since Last Divine Retribution. Embolden! Party Combat boosted! Liability! Failure will result in extra Exhaustion!
<Pose Tracker> Dirk Swordsman has posed.
Dirk got out canned tea (small ones) and some sweets wrapped in some kind of high-quality luxury paper, and distributed them. He didn't give one to Loren.
But he did give one to Dunsparce and another to Clefairy. If they shared... not his problem.
BUT SOON ENOUGH:
"It's your planet, Drugs Man, you tell me," Dirk snarks back to Loren as he is reaching for his blade. But the true face of the vending machine becomes clear, and his eyes narrow behind his shades.
VEND STRIFE!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNiyviXFyYI
Dirk attempts to leap into the air to intercept the machine and is immediately bowled over, sent ricocheting back onto a stone wall and landing with a tottering roll! (He's fine. He's already getting up.)
Quilladin charges afterwards and is sent flying with enough force that he automatically curls up and is going to be pinballing around in the background for a while.
Cufant blows her trumpet while glancing to the left for no particular reason.
CAN'T VEND STRIFE!
Farfetch'd leaps forwards and ends up getting his leek stuck in the coin return space to his great dismay. Golbat's screams give enough vibratory force that he's able to flutter loose leaving only a couple of stray feathers. He's sounding pretty angry about this, but doesn't seem to have a better plan.
"Aight," says Dirk, breathing a little heavily. "Aight, we've got steps to take. I'm counting on you, Honedge," Dirk concludes, as he raises up that final [Ball] and the accursed blade manifests --
And immediately aims to VEND*SLASH.
DG: Dirk Swordsman has risked with his Tool Hidden Trump Card ~HONEDGE~ toward his party's challenge, 0 Days Since Last Divine Retribution. Embolden! Party Combat boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado has posed.
'Being like Timu is something anyone would be proud of.' Timu's eyes lid (in a time where she isn't physically straining her utmost even with machina intervention).
Fuecoco, meanwhile, hears 'snacks,' and he can always go for snacks. He can also stop for snacks. He can VERB for SNACKS.
Timu falls onto her seat when the entrapped construct is free, but it's hardly a scuffing on her part as she looks back to Loren en-route to his gaze falling upon Nina instead.
"The way you're talking down to us," she finally has it in her to speak to that man with a distributed canned tea in hand, who seemed terrifyingly beyond the power of almost any living* person (* = important qualifier), "I used to know a lot of people who felt themselves above everyone around them. I've seen where that le-- what?!" Exposition denied, screams of hubris and then absolute bedlam happens. She'd be more nonplussed about the vending machine were she not already starting to become acclimated to the concept in Energy Nede.
Saline shrapnel fills the air where missiles strike. Timu bolts across the cramped quarters with an alacrity that reminds that the Guado have been adapted for climbing and covering a lot of ground in a flash, throwing up her forearm as she's nearly pelted with one such near miss of an explosive.
"Fuecoco!" She calls out, using her free hand to get out a Pokeball--
Fuecoco is happily chasing missiles. Fuecoco is fine. The missiles seem to be intent on not striking the Fire Croc Pokemon for reasons of self-preservation. So, that part of the equation is currently fine and can be left alone.
She fumbles around her possessions to once again hold her healer's staff and prepare the warmth of the healing aspects of Fire - in a weird way completely foreign to Nedian sorcery - to reinforce and help those who bravely fight against...
A vending machine.
(Fuecoco is now nomming on the aftermath of a missile's payload unflinchingly. He's contented.)
DG: Timu Guado has used her Tool Hearth Staff toward her party's challenge, 0 Days Since Last Divine Retribution. Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round!
<Pose Tracker> Nina Chiyome has posed.
Nina is at least less overtly hostile! She rolls her shoulders as the device shudders to life and all that good noise. "Never a good way to look at things really." She states to the idea of having nothing to lose.
Anyone truly with nothing to lose is a concept she can't even wrap her head around, which is why it gets shoved out as an impossibility. There's a good chance she's being too literal there, but..
She tries not to keep looking back. She has her habits and it's hard not to listen to them. She's fidgeting for it.
She does return Timu's look, offering her a thumbs up as reassurance even if she's not good at the whole cheer up thing as she sees it. Or maybe she is? Right now she's not.
"Tea is nice. Never could do the other stuff.." She admits, shaking her head. "And I guess the canned stuff, but it's probably not great for me. And it's not a problem yet at least."
The uh, assault by vending machine catches her off guard though and she starts by whipping out the weight of her kusarigama, setting it spinning to try and keep herself from getting a pretzel shaped bruise.
Her free hand goes to her pokeballs and this time, it's both her typhlosion, Poppy and Eddie. She's trying to avoid stepping in front of Eddie entirely and instead orders, "Eddie, zap it and POppy just.." she frowns. "Bake the pretzel machine?" She wanted to make a joke, but she's a bit scrambled. Poppy gives her a wry look though. Then bounds forward and begins to gather that purple flame, ready to flamethrower the thing after Eddie stands, bounds forward and hits it with a nice little shock. Trying to short circuit it! Literally even.
At the same time, she's covering the smaller of the two (Poppy understands) and chanting a spell, making the gestures with one hand to cover the whole group in mist, trying to obscucre the machine's ability to aim.
DG: Nina Chiyome has used her Tool Deep Mist toward her party's challenge, 0 Days Since Last Divine Retribution. Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round! Liability! Failure will result in extra Exhaustion!
<Pose Tracker> Sable Aomori has posed.
"Yes," Sable answers Loren simply. But does he not think so? She wonders.
But Dunsparce and Clefairy are good and deserve snacks... Until hubris strikes!
"Um?" Sable asks of the lamentations. Things happen. Timu doesn't even get to exposit! Sable dodges a pretzel bag. "..."
"Dirk, are you OK...?"
But everyone is doing their best. So she must, too. Sable points at the vending machine monster. She feels Timu's warmth, and is certain of what she must do.
"Ishka," Sable intones. "Use your Substitution technique!"
"On!" Ishka calls, and curls, head bowing almost to the ground before--
Now there are THREE giant rock snakes, and they move as one. As Nina goes on the offense, the Ishkas move to pin the vending machine down--and if one gets hits, it turns into an adorable plushie the size of a person!
"...I like pretzels..."
DG: Sable Aomori has used her Tool Substitute toward her party's challenge, 0 Days Since Last Divine Retribution. Stalwart! Party shielded from some Exhaustion this round!
================================<* Scraphaven *>================================
=============<* CHALLENGE - 0 Days Since Last Divine Retribution *>=============
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Combat | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The people of Scraphaven have little understanding of currency. They don't
use zenny or have any idea what gella is, and would probably try to eat it.
Only one form of wealth holds any sway over them:
Snacks.
Like all wealth, it can drive even the purest soul to the darkest greed. A
profane experiment awakens. Beastfolk scamper from an explosion of junk,
screaming their dismay as a hovering vending machine sparks and sputters
with spinning lasers and projectile candy bars. "Hubris!" one cries. "We
have played in the domain of the gods and now we suffer!" cries another.
You will also suffer if you don't defend yourself from this ambition gone
awry! Panels open up on the vending machine's sides as it fires out a myriad
of rockets. They explode into pretzels. Salty pretzels, for all your wounds.
Amidst the chaos, a nonplussed beastfolk resets a counter back down to zero.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Bad_Luck:_All_Stats_Down!, Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, |
| Embolden:_Combat_Up!, and Overzealous:_Brute_Down!_Combat_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
================================<* Scraphaven *>================================
=======================< Results - Scraphaven - Round 4 >=======================
==============< CHALLENGE - 0 Days Since Last Divine Retribution >==============
Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Timu Guado 18 --(0)--> 18 Best
Hearth Staff Min Combat Effects: Cleanse and
Inefficient
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loren Voss 15 --(0)--> 15 Best
Golbat Min Combat Effects: Liability,
Embolden, and Efficient
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sable Aomori 18 --(0)--> 18 Best
Substitute Min Combat Effects: Stalwart
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nina Chiyome 18 --(0)--> 18 Good
Deep Mist Min Combat Effects: Cleanse and
Liability
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dirk Swordsman 26 --(0)--> 26 Best
Hidden Trump Card ~HONEDGE~ OLD Combat Effects: Inefficient,
Embolden, and Risky
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leader: Timu Guado 60 --(20)--> 80 Pass
Conditions: Bad Luck(2) and Overzealous(1)
Effects: Cleanse and Embolden(1)
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
DG: The party led by Timu Guado has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Of his own group that's gotten roped into helping here, Loren is the one left snackless.
...He'd tried to kill them. And they were only kids.
Almost, barely, he's aware of something deeper in his heart pulsing in counterpoint to those sentiments. But he shoves it away: he's overthinking it. He didn't really...
"Clef?" says Clefairy, offering up part of his snack to Loren. Stirred from his reverie, Loren shakes his head. He doesn't... really feel hungry right now.
"Save it," he tells Timu, as she starts to tell him how she really feels, "I'm not interested." But she doesn't get too far into it, for--
ALL TOO SOON!
"What's that supposed to-- stop calling me 'Drugs Man'!" he snipes back at Dirk. "I have a name."
But then, there is violence! While Dirk might get laid out at the start and the rest of his crew (minus Cufant who can't, well, jump or fly in a way that matters here) soon follow in various respects, there is Honedge.
Loren, wordless, turns his head to look at Honedge with little of the alarm he'd demonstrated before. That's funny. Shouldn't that--
Warmth licks over the lot of them here. Somehow, everyone feels invigorated!
Pretzel-bearing missiles fire once more, accompanied by a rat-a-tat-tat of trailmix artillery and gummy flares. It's a catastrophe in the making! But the first and foremost obstacle the vending machine 'senses' is the approach of several large rock snakes which try its crunchy and/or sugary barrage to its limits.
Particularly when several of them are actually just cute and extremely large plushies when the artillery strikes true. This cannot continue, surely.
The whole thing ends when Eddie and Poppy strike at the machine one after the other, burning it and zapping it and otherwise putting it on the defensive--
Before in comes Honedge to cleave the entire thing in two. Snacks geyser upwards and outwards, falling like a rain upon the trashheap. The remains of the rampaging vending machine twitch and spark on the trashheap, and then go still. At last, peace! And snacks! The residents of Scraphaven are pretty jazzed about both!
Somewhere in the background, one of the residents of Scraphaven reaches up to a sign with a sigh and ticks over a particular value back to zero. So much for that streak.
DG: Sable Aomori has drawn a new Challenge.
================================<* Scraphaven *>================================
==========================<* CHALLENGE - Gigasdiva *>===========================
| Type: Final | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The sea of scrap under your feet shifts, then junk bursts up like a geyser
as a monstrous skull breaches the garbage with a bone rattling roar.
A reptilian head crowned in regal, spiraling horns greets you, followed by a
massive upper torso with one claw and then the next dragged free to join.
Segments of its body weave through the wreckage as if it were swimming in a
placid lake, its hide is covered in shiny, glowing treasures that have fused
to its scales in decorative layers. It preens, admiring itself in a
reflective sheet of metal nearby before deigning to take a dismissive swipe
at you.
If Scraphaven lives off of salvage, then it seems this monster has always
gotten the choice selection for itself. And who could ever stop such a
colossal being? You would need a Gear to even think about contending with
this hoarder. Though you might be unable to slay it, you could chip off
valuable materials if you wailed into it hard enough.
Plus, this might help chase it back into the abyss where it belongs before
it makes off with more valuable salvage to feed its vanity.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Bad_Luck:_All_Stats_Down!, Embolden:_Combat_Up!, and Wound:_Combat_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Sable Aomori has posed.
Violence!!
Sable, when th violence is over, looks around and gathers up some of th pretzels for herself. She then says, "...Good work, everyone. We did it."
She considers for a moment though. Something about Loren's reacttion to Honedge...
Well, she doesn't know him that well. But no sooner is the violence over--
A massive head and torso rises up. A huge, reptilian creature swipes at the group, sending Sable sprawling. She is able to tuck up into a ball to avoid being hurt, but she still hits the ground. This monnster...
"...It's got a lot of treasure..."
She considers.
"Ishka," she instructs. "Use Dragon Breath."
The Onix roars, and then opens her giant maw. Giant to giant, she breathes blue fire on the creature, seeking to entangle it with azure power.
"...I'll keep it distracted," Sable suggests. "Maybe if we hit it enough it'll go away."
It's an approach!
DG: Sable Aomori has used her Tool Onix toward her party's challenge, Gigasdiva.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"I guess we did," Loren says, shrugging broadly as if to thereby underscore the devastation. His Pokemon cheer and start collecting snacks. He watches them for a moment.
Then he frowns. Just then, it feels almost as if...
Still, he shakes his head. He's just imagining it due to the stress of the moment (because he is stressed out) (right?). Shoving aside errant thoughts, he turns away from the pile of snacks as his Pokemon have themselves a little feast, and gazes out across the pile of scrap where--
Loren pauses. Did he see something shift just n----
"Shit," he utters as it rises from the depths of the trash. Slowly he cranes his head to take it all in, and there's a lot of it to take in. This is a problem...!
And desperate times call for desperate measures.
"Graveler! It's your turn!"
Graveler stares up at Gigasdiva, taking in their relative size differences.
And she grins, nastily. Skipping off towards the giant reptilian monster, she may well be ignored under Ishka's initial assault, which might work out for Graveler because her intent...
...is to be a bomb.
DG: You risk with your Tool Graveler against your party's Challenge, Gigasdiva! DG: Loren Voss has risked with his Tool Graveler toward his party's challenge, Gigasdiva. Strengthen! Party Brute boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado has posed.
Timu doesn't have a choice on having to 'save it' given the vending machine situation, but had they several more seconds to come down from the scrap heap rescue, it might have quieted her.
They only look like they'd have a little bit of extra time to celebrate, when there's a massive beast that shows up and swipes at them. Fuecoco occupies the set of space between two large claws, and he promptly stops eating the leftover pretzel payload to look up and see the enormous shiny serpent. He chews a little slower.
"Fuecoco, return!" Timu calls, not taking chances as Fuecoco disappears in a ray of light into his pocket-sized spherical home. "Sable, I-- you are." It's not an incredulous statement, it's a knowing nod. "All right..."
Timu sucks in a breath and gets moving. She's not a classically trained ninja like at least two present, but she's doing her best to watch how Nina might move and weave, making sure they aren't all in reach of one swipe again, and making sure her path diverges from Nina's as she watches how the fight between Onix and the enormous shiny creature--
And a Graveler, the off-putting man's Graveler whose worrisome smile is somehow more reassuring when put together--
"Hooligre!" Timu grabs the ball of her rough-mannered Pokemon friend, the green-hued ogre of a creature popping out as he looks up to the thing clashing with Ishka, as if waiting for how he's going to pummel something several times his size.
Timu lashes out with the Pull Claw again, trying to grasp onto something, anything...!
"Hooligre! Hold me in place!" She yells, because even an errant twitch of the Gigasdiva could send her hurtling into a whole lot of dangerous places in this enclosed space.
"Hooooo!!" Hooligre snarls, wrapping arms around Timu and doing his best to prevent the worst case scenario from happening!
DG: Timu Guado has risked with her Tool Pull Claw toward her party's challenge, Gigasdiva. Strengthen! Party Brute boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Nina Chiyome has posed.
There's a moment when Loren declares that he has a name. She actually stops and tries to remember it. Then frowns and looks to Sable like she's looking for a clue. Even mouthing the words, 'What's the alien's name?'. That.. she doesn't use the same lingo as most Nedians probably doesn't paint the best picture of her ability to remember names.
Nina doesn't mind Mavs stealing.. a few snacks. Nor Poppy having a toasted pretzel (It did sound good, bad jokes aside) and.. well she just scoops Eddie up to feed him as she walks with the end of the fight.
There's something funny about it as just before, she had been trying to help destrict the machine's shots so they could do it and.. well. It worked out. Maybe there's something to working more closely. (This won't be enough.)
Nina reacts more on instinct than anything, as do her pokemon (Poppy's big enough, but Nina snagged her with a pokeball) when they're swiped at. It's only when her brain catches up that she shouts something rather rude and gets back to her feet quickly.
She... re-sends out Poppy right after and calls out, "Infernal Parade" Since, well. That's her big show stopper right now. Poppy begins to conjure fire and, well. Nina also does. She's procured a lighter and a few of her homebrew 'fireworks'. And she's got a few of them minus the paint cans. Which she begins to light and, with a hurried, chanted spell, she lobs straight at the lizard. "GO AWAY!"
She's keeping a good rhythm with TImu all things considered, keeping out of her way, but also keeping on the move and able to maybe help. Old habits die hard.
DG: Nina Chiyome has used her Tool Power Up toward her party's challenge, Gigasdiva.
<Pose Tracker> Dirk Swordsman has posed.
It's huge, almost beyond conception.
"Cufant," Dirk tells the elephant: "Same deal. You have my prayers, and you get the whole bag when back."
Cufant looks at him.
"I mean it."
And thus, comes the eager charge! Even if Cufant, in all her beefiness (compared to Dirk's team), is still an ant compared to the mass of this thing. She's doing pretty well at staying in Onix's shadow, though.
DG: Dirk Swordsman has used his Tool Canned Tea and Homemade Sweets toward his party's challenge, Gigasdiva. Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round! Sacrifice! The party will take slightly more Exhaustion this round!
================================<* Scraphaven *>================================
==========================<* CHALLENGE - Gigasdiva *>===========================
| Type: Final | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The sea of scrap under your feet shifts, then junk bursts up like a geyser
as a monstrous skull breaches the garbage with a bone rattling roar.
A reptilian head crowned in regal, spiraling horns greets you, followed by a
massive upper torso with one claw and then the next dragged free to join.
Segments of its body weave through the wreckage as if it were swimming in a
placid lake, its hide is covered in shiny, glowing treasures that have fused
to its scales in decorative layers. It preens, admiring itself in a
reflective sheet of metal nearby before deigning to take a dismissive swipe
at you.
If Scraphaven lives off of salvage, then it seems this monster has always
gotten the choice selection for itself. And who could ever stop such a
colossal being? You would need a Gear to even think about contending with
this hoarder. Though you might be unable to slay it, you could chip off
valuable materials if you wailed into it hard enough.
Plus, this might help chase it back into the abyss where it belongs before
it makes off with more valuable salvage to feed its vanity.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Bad_Luck:_All_Stats_Down!, Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, |
| Strengthen:_Brute_Up!, and Wound:_Combat_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
================================<* Scraphaven *>================================
=======================< Results - Scraphaven - Round 5 >=======================
===========================< CHALLENGE - Gigasdiva >============================
Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Timu Guado 18 --(10)--> 28 Good
Pull Claw Maj Brute Effects: Strengthen and
Risky
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loren Voss 15 --(10)--> 25 Best
Graveler OLD Brute Effects: Inefficient,
Strengthen, and Risky
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sable Aomori 18 --(10)--> 28 Best
Onix Maj Brute Effects: Improved
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nina Chiyome 18 --(10)--> 28 Best
Power Up Maj Brute Effects: Efficient
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dirk Swordsman 26 --(10)--> 36 Best
Canned Tea and Homemade Sweets Min Brute Effects: Cleanse and
Sacrifice
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leader: Timu Guado 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass
Conditions: Bad Luck(1) and Wound(2)
Effects: Cleanse and Strengthen(1)
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Timu Guado has successfully explored Scraphaven!
================================<* Scraphaven *>================================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Destroyer's Lullaby *>======================
| Type: Discovery | Dungeon Ability: Conclusion | Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
It isn't until you return to Scraphaven's main city that you discover a
hidden path to a wide, open chamber. Sunlight creeps in from the damaged
cavern above, dimly illuminating what can only be a Gear hanger -- a vacant
one, save for abandoned terminals on the upper platforms. Their code
impossible to read for anyone who does not understand both advanced
computing /and/ Zeboim, except for one particular entry:
/Everyone is counting on me to stir the Glimmerforge from slumber... But
I've spoken with the metal and seen into its dreams. The power we borrow
does not come from a savior, but a destroyer. To the next Metalspeaker:
please continue my work. The Glimmerforge cannot be awakened, and if it is,
we must have a means of returning it to sleep./
What follows a mix of code and song. A lullaby. The terminal allows you to
download this 'Metalspeaker's' melody into one of the digital devices nearby
and create, essentially, a music box. Widgetmancers might better understand
what practical purpose this could serve.
But the machine spoken of in the notes isn't being held here anymore,
clearly. Does that mean it's been activated, as the Metalspeaker feared? And
the nature of this code... Somewhere out there is an intact Zeboim era Gear.
Who has it now?
(OOC: The music box stores a strange form of code that can be installed into
an existing ARM, imbuing an Attack with a mysterious data disruption
property to justify an Artillery flag against Gears. Failing that, it's
still a nice music box!)
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Bad_Luck:_All_Stats_Down!, Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, |
| Strengthen:_Brute_Up!, Treasure:_Exploration_Up!, and Wound:_Combat_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Sable Aomori has posed.
"I'm okay," Sable confirms for Timu, with her knowing nod. Timu has reason to know why now, too.
She and Nina both operate quickly. Sable says, "Mr. Loren!" and then says, "That's not nice language..."
But Gravelr is nice. Hooligre is able to hold Timu in place. She grabs a lot of stuff. Nina, meanwhile, sets off fireworks. And Cufant charges. With Onix distracting, the others are able to annoy the monster enough to get its attention, and then...
Well, Graveler explodes. "Yack!" the monster complains, and jumps back down into the hole. It doesn't pop up again for now.
"...We did it," Sable says.
When they eventually go back to the city, there's a hidden path to a wide, open chamber. The terminals are operable by any of the Nedians, but no one here is likely to know both the language and the computer knowledge to understand thei code. EExcept...
"Seen into the metal's dreams," Sable wonders.
She accepts a music box, as many any of the others. She isn' sure what she'll do with it yet, but... She doesn't even stop Loren from getting one.
"...I think I understand Filgaia a little better, now. A little..."
"Goodbye, Mr. Loren. I hope if we meet again it's like this... instead of how it was at Silph."
"We won't let you do as you like with our world."
"...We might not let you do it with you world, either."
She will return to her friends, after that.
But she leaves one (1) bag of pretzels with him.
Then, to her friends, "I said I'd bring you, Nina. Isn't it cool, all this stuff...?"
She really likes Dirk's tea, too.