2018-03-29: A Spire to Aspire
- Log: A Spire to Aspire
- Cast: Seraph Ragnell, Riesenlied, Seraph Nimue, K.K.
- Where: Biroclef Ridge, The Nameless Spire
- Date: 29th March 2018
- Summary: The Spire awaits a group of Seraphs, a Tainted, and the Trial Knight. What sordid history lies within?
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
It's been a long time since Ragnell was in this part of the Biroclef Ridge. It's probably been a long time for Nimue, too. Given that they were both helping a certain human friend deal with a powerful noble who was against House Dragonia some eight hundred-ish years ago, they both have reason to have not been by in a while. But there've been rumors about this particular spire, whose name has been lost to the ages; that it's haunted, that a voice calls obsessively for someone, that the tower itself is alive and ever-shifting.
Given the Malevolence clinging to it, Ragnell came to conclude that at the very least, she ought to take a look. She invited Nimue to join her for reasons that are obvious only to Nimue, and... well. It would be useful to have K.K. and Riesenlied along for various reasons, even if perhaps they're all technically on opposite sides now.
Ragnell's boots crunch on the stone earth as she pauses in front of the morbid spire. Now that she's returned to Lunar, she's gone back to wearing what she used to--or at least, something very similar to it. A green tunic with gold embroidery and a laced front over a black undershirt, paired belts from which hang gun holsters at each hip, laced trousers, knee-high boots, fingerless gloves--and, of course, that feathered hat of which she's so fond. She tips the brim of it up as she frowns at the... front door.
"Pretty sure that wasn't there before," she remarks to Nimue. "An' the fact that they're wide open feels like a big ol' trap." Then she shrugs and half-smiles at K.K.. "Still, nothin' ventured, nothin' gained, right?" And so she strides up to the doors...
Which melt away like a heat haze as she approaches, leaving behind black stone and no more way to get in. She makes a face as she comes to a stop, reaching for a carry-bag at her back... but no, maybe not, she decides. She'd recently upped the power and force on her lightning grenades, but they're a little *too* strong for demolition work now--now they're more appropriate for clearing out hordes of monsters.
Which means there's nothing for it but to attempt to chip their way through the wall. "Riese, I sure hope you got a cucco up your sleeve," she remarks, drawing one of her guns and opening fire with a few lightning bullets on the stone, then smacking at the cracked stone with the butt of the pistol. "'Cuz otherwise, this is gonna take a while."
DG: Seraph Ragnell has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Self-Sealing.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied arrived in Glenwood some two days ago with Noeline, but circumstances such has built up to her being here on her lonesome -- the chance of a potential lead on the Fereshte was too important to give up, and yet...
She gazes up towards the spire and closes her eyes. She's draped in her now-typical blue and white Baskar dress, the feathery ends of her sleeves billowing out as she clutches her hands to the Dragon's Tear.
"I can definitely... hear it..." she whispers. "A voice is coming from within, beckoning to me..."
She jitters for a moment, breathing difficultly as she presses her hand to her chest. "The Malevolence from this tower is... what happened here?"
She looks towards Ragnell and Nimue, before pulling out one of two instruments she's packed with her. She plays a soft tune...
Riese, I sure hope you got a cucco up your sleeve.
And indeed, that tune summons... something.
A singular something, not a horde of Filgaia's garden variety death chickens. It's rotund, it's large, it's full and larger than life...
It's also strangely a bit... yellow, for a cucco, as it lands from above next to the door, looking kind of engorged.
"Loccy, help us..." Riesenlied urges.
'Loccy' the Big Cuccobo looks towards the door and nods as it... rocks back and forth... back and forth... back and forth...
- umph*
It gives a solid shove against the door.
DG: You use your Tool Flute of the Cucco Queen against your party's Challenge, Self-Sealing!
DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool Flute of the Cucco Queen toward her party's challenge, Self-Sealing.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Nimue has posed.
This sort of thing has been a long time coming, hasn't it? ... Nimue doesn't tend to /enjoy/ looking back, in this way, admittedly. Once something is over, she tends to abandon it -- or, really, once it feels like something is /going/ to be over, she abandons it. But she's also feeling a little... lost, lately, without Ragnell -- and, to a lesser extent, the rest of Crucible -- to hang off of.
So, naturally, she's followed Ragnell here, accepting her invitation without much complaint but without a lot of enthusiasm, either. She's managed to convince herself toward enthusiasm on the way there, though, or at least something resembling it.
"Yeah, no, that's definitely new," Nimue says, a little flatly, before reaching into her pack and pulling out a big ol' bottle of... /something/. Whatever it is, she immediately upends it into her mouth, letting out a slightly high-pitched "Aaaah~" before stepping up toward the stone.
When Riese's Cuccobo arrives, Nimue decides to join it in shoving -- or perhaps, more accurately, she smacks the general area where there had once been a door with her stick over and over, in time with the bird.
She has great plans.
DG: Seraph Nimue has used her Tool Stolen Drinks toward her party's challenge, Self-Sealing.
<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.
There are few places on Glenwood that the Trial Knight has not been.
This may be one of those few.
Forgotten and isolated away from the heartland of Rolance, Nameless Spire seems almost tucked away within the mountainsides of Biroclef Ridge as if it were built to be obscured and unreachable. That in itself is a wonder, but the Malevolence here seems to make the entire place take on a life of its own. A life steeped in rumor and omens and inexplicable behavior that defies logic or convention.
Case in point: as Ragnell approaches the impromptu entrance of the spire, the entire thing seems to just melt away like it had never existed. Ragnell reaches for her guns, opening fire and unleashing a blunt hell upon black stone. Riesenlied summons forth Loccy the Cuccobo, fervently shoving itself against the door at the Tainted's urgings and joined, in time, by Nimue.
And throughout all of this, the Trial Knight has remained in the back of their assembled group, staring upwards at the spire with the faint, almost curious tilt of their head. They say nothing; they offer no encouragement nor assistance, at least at first, as if content to let the others make their efforts in peace. Their head tilts down, faceless gaze focusing on what once was a door.
Still, nothin' ventured, nothin' gained, right?
White, gauntlet-wrapped fingers spasm.
"... Make way."
It is the only warning the give, before their right hand lifts -- and Althena's Blessing crackles at their polished forearm, sigils of shadowy red and black forging across their extended limb as the ground beneath them begins to alight in that dark magic.
"O obsidian flash, be as a raging spear to run mine enemies through! Demon Lance!"
The air above them crackles with crimson electricity -- and seconds later, a lance of inky blacks and reds churns to life above them --
--and SCREAMS for that obsidian stone like a battering ram.
"Naught but shameless trickery. I shall not be deterred by such."
DG: K.K. has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward their party's challenge, Self-Sealing.
=======================<* The Nameless Spire - Round 1 *>======================= ===========================< Results - Self-Sealing >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- K.K. 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Nimue 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Stolen Drinks 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riesenlied 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Flute of the Cucco Queen 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Seraph Ragnell 0 --(10)--> 10 Fail Conditions: Bad Luck(2) Effects: Cleanse ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
Well, there's something to be said for splitting up to cover more ground. If Riesenlied had refused Ragnell's invitation, that would've been that. But... Well. It felt appropriate for her to be here. Too bad Noeline couldn't join, but the Fereshte *is* important, and who else to trust with following leads on it but Riese's second-in-command/lover?
As for Nimue... it was probably a little mean of Ragnell to invite her along, even if this is mutually relevant. But she always had the option to refuse, too, lost or not. After all, to listen to Nimue talk, it's Ragnell who's the baby between the two of them.
"Goddess, I want some o' that," Ragnell complains of Nimue and her bottle of whatever as she upends it into her own mouth. What is it? Who knows, but she wants it. She quiets when Riese wonders what happens here, head tilting slightly to side-eye her. Then she breathes a faint laugh. "...You really wanna know?"
Meanwhile, Riesenlied plays her flute and summons what is definitely a cucco, oh yeah, no doubt. Ragnell squints at it, but she definitely doesn't have anything better. Between the "cucco" smash, Ragnell's shooting, Nimue's possibly-drunken timed smacks, and between the three of them... they accomplish absolutely nothing. Progress! ...until...
'Make way.'
Ragnell doesn't have to ask what's up when she hears K.K.'s voice at their backs, nor does she do more than glance quickly back at them as she backs away from the wall. In all the time she's known them, K.K. has never been anything but decisive, and that means when they say make way, you better make way. The shadow lances sear through the air to smash into the black stone of the tower...
BOOM. An enterable line is cleaved. An enterable line is *enthusiastically* cleaved. So enthusiastically, that stone goes flying in every direction, especially a particularly large chunk towards Riesenlied. Oh no! She's already taken enough beatings; what will happen to her now?!
"W-W-WAARRRKK!!!"
That's Loccy, leaping with all of its enormity between Riese and the exploding stone. It had failed to help earlier; it must not fail now...!!
BONK.
...
Ragnell peers down at the fat chocobo as it twitches on the ground, a large lump on its head, eyes spiraling. Then she tips her hat in salute. "...Better you than us, friend," she drawls. "Riese, once you do what you gotta do with your buddy here, let's get a move on." She nods to Nimue and K.K.. "Who knows how long this opening will stay open."
Then, once Loccy is tended to, inside they go!
DG: Riesenlied has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* The Nameless Spire *>=========================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - The Endless Hall *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- You see before you a simple, short hallway. Pretty, but short. Except when you try to walk across it, the door at the end never quite gets within reach. In fact, it seems to be getting further and further away. In fact, the entire hall seems to be stretching out swiftly, growing longer and longer until it feels like it might have no end if you don't outrun it. Can you outpace old, haunted architecture? Well, now you get the chance to find out! Hurray! =Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied looks towards Nimue as she drinks, before wincing as they seem to be making no progress, up until...
...Make way.
The only warning she gets, other than that, is the sensation of dark magic that throbs at her head as she hides her face in her sleeves to try to take cover. There's an enormous explosion, and the stone flies towards her--
Her eyes widening--
W-W-WARRRRKK!!
Loccy has little chocobos flying around its head as Riese sidles up to it to say, "O-oh no... Loccy, hang on... you were really brave!"
She rummages through her package and finds a salve that Jacqueline gave her, and then applies two band-aids.
In a cross pattern, of course.
Loccy not so much stands and more kind of bottom-orients himself back into shape, and gives a thumbs-up from its wing. Oww.... it looks towards the Trial Knight for a moment, sweating.
The hallway seems to continue without end as they proceed inward. More and more trickery, as K.K. has noted. Riesenlied furrows her brow as she holds her hand to the Tear. It emanates softly, and she expresses, "... we seem to be trapped in a twist of space ... but I don't see any obvious way to pierce it."
... it's probably /terrible/ wording, given a Demon's Lance just solved their last problem.
DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Endless Hall.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
More shameless trickery indeed. "This entire place will probably be like this," Ragnell notes with unusual dispassion at the hallway as it extends onwards endlessly the longer everyone tries to traverse it. As she reaches into her belt pack at her back and pulls out a few pieces of chocolate rusk that she summarily hands out to everyone, she turns another faint half-smile K.K.'s way. "I knew it'd be a good idea, bringin' you along. Y'already pierced through the first o' his bullshit."
- Crunch*, goes that chocolatey treat between Ragnell's teeth. Its properties as a Seraphic snack ought to help them deal with some of the odder properties of this twisted space--at the least, they won't get slowed down further than they have already. "Hallways, always..." she singsongs once she's swallowed. "Let's jus' see if we can't outpace this asshole ghost, shall we?"
And then she breaks into a sprint, veering to one side to let a *certain someone* use their *certain short swords*.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Chocolate Rusk toward her party's challenge, The Endless Hall.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Nimue has posed.
The Trial Knight striking out at the door puts Nimue... surprisingly at ease. She's totally willing to make way for them -- she stops hammering it and, appropriately enough, steps to one side, gesturing to the Spire. "Be my guest~" she teases, before --
-- getting smacked with some masonry. "NO NOT LIKE THAT!!" she shouts, even though she doesn't get it nearly as bad as the poor 'cucco.' She heads in without too much complaint, and --
Well, that's not great. She strides forward casually, but that /definitely/ doesn't seem to be working. "... Wow, /really/?!" she demands of empty air, before starting to jog forward. Admittedly, for a wind Seraph, 'jog' is still faster than most instances of 'run' for anyone else... but it's still probably less enthusiastic than it should be to get out of here..
DG: Seraph Nimue has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Endless Hall.
<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.
And so, brave Loccy takes the fall for K.K.'s overenthusiasm in demolishing their obstacle.
Reddish magic borne from Altena's Blessing still charges in aftershocks along their palms as they stride forward; chunks of rubble flies and *CLANG*s against polished white armor as they pelt it relentlessly, chunks of stone dissipating into black and violet mists before they even hit ground. The rain of rubble deters them -- especially as they make note of their fallen ally.
The Trial Knight stares at Loccy the Cuccobo for some time after that with that ominous, faceless visage as the bird sweats it out. Their left hand reaches out, clawed fingers extending --
-- so that they may pat Loccy on the head.
"You are a most courageous creature."
And with that, they walk onward, into the Spire proper.
When they emerge, the Trial Knight is standing upright, as always. Except now, they are standing upright on the leftmost wall of this seemingly simple hall with little to no explanation between the transition from outside to here. They look to the others. Their horned helm tilts towards the end of the hall, increasingly further off the more they walk towards it. A chocolate rusk slips within their grasp.
... I don't see any obvious way to pierce it.
Trickery. More and more. The Malevolence here flows thick, twisting space like a knot. And the knight's solution?
"There is but one way out."
And that is when a curved short sword *flashes* through the air besides the other three, a long, glowing red line spinning from its hilt as it punctures through the air and embeds at the end of the hall with an audible *thunk* of impact. Their gaze turns towards Ragnell for a brief moment, and while it cannot be seen, the question behind that stare can be discerned by the Lightning Seraph through intent alone. 'His bullshit,' she had said.
"... Forward. Relentlessly. Hold fast to me if you wish it."
But that question goes unvoiced, for now; for now, they simply move forward, making the room for any of the other three to hold on if they will it, supporting any they might need to with that unflagging strength before they yank, once -- and that glowing red line starts to retract.
Fast.
With the knight and anyone else holding on in tow.
That rusk, similarly, disappears in the process. Who can say where it went. One of life's great mysteries.
DG: K.K. has used their Tool Highly Exclusive Lifeline toward their party's challenge, The Endless Hall.
========================< Results - The Endless Hall >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Ragnell 20 --(20)--> 40 Fail Chocolate Rusk 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ K.K. 20 --(20)--> 40 Fail Highly Exclusive Lifeline 2 Agility Effects: Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Nimue 20 --(20)--> 40 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Riesenlied 20 --(20)--> 40 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Seraph Ragnell 10 --(10)--> 20 Fail Conditions: Slow(2) Effects: Cleanse|Quicken(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Seraph Ragnell has failed this challenge! The party gained 10 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> Riesenlied has posed.
"Who is it that you speak of, Miss Ragnell...? It seems you all have history with this place," Riesenlied speaks as Ragnell takes a munch and eats some Chocolate Rusk to empower herself. She starts sprinting, and clears the way...
She pats Nimue on the back as she hands her a bandage as well if she'd have it. She doesn't know if Seraphs really benefit from bandages, but at least it's the thought that counts. Nimue goes /fast/--
And it's the curved sword that flashes through the air that gives them a start.
Forward. Relentlessly. Hold fast to me if you wish it.
Riesenlied bites her lip and swallows, holding onto K.K.'s waist as one... maybe three... hold onto the figure of white armour and successfully break through to the other side.
The problem:
K.K. is moving so fast and inertia is a troll, so they're going to more or less get cannonballed into their next destination, which is...??
DG: K.K. has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* The Nameless Spire *>============================ ========================<* CHALLENGE - Danse Macabre *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- This place was likely at some point a tribute to the decadence and hedonism of Lunar's nobility, and one need not look any further than this massive ballroom to see that. Gilded and ostentatious, with perfect accoustics and sublime architecture right down to its marbled flooring and painted ceilings, this place was once dedicated to the most lavish of parties... and still is, it seems. Malevolent spectres line this hall, some of them seemingly painted into being, some of them phantasmal, turning the floors, the walls, the ceilings -- even the empty air into their dance floor. They all seem to be laughing, giggling, cheering -- all of them seemingly celebrating something in their wild revelry. Soft chants of "she's dead! She's dead!" can be heard amidst the laughter as you enter this place: and while they don't seem to notice or care about your presence, simply running into these creatures seems to jolt those they contact with a cold, maddening sensation that works through the nerves straight into the brain to induce strange feelings of vertigo. Navigating this space will mean learning how to dance one's way past the revelry of phantoms long past. Hope you don't have two left feet. =Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Exhaust========================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"...I wouldn't say *all* of us," Ragnell drawls to Riesenlied, glancing first at Nimue and her unenthusastic run-jog, then back at K.K.. "You've never been here before, K'. Am I wrong?"
Then, as they prep the line by flashing a blade forward, then snap forward, Ragnell grabs hold onto them as they pass by, swept literally off her feet by the Knight.
And off they fly.
K.K. does not even remotely try to slow or mitigate their forward momentum. And so, whoever chooses to hold on for that ride soon finds out just what it feels like to be the Kool-Aid Man as the wall at the end of the hall swift approaches--
- BOOM*
--and the Trial Knight careens through it shoulder first without even so much as flinching. Rubble blows out violently around them as they interpose themself between their companions and the rubble, to take the brunt of that kinetic impact and save the Tainted and the Seraphim from as much of the physical trauma as possible. In the end, they land in a roll, sword snapped back into their grasp in preparation, gleaming with violent intent as they look up --
-- and find themselves on the ceiling of a massive, ostentatious dance hall, full of celebrating spirits. The Trial Knight had been expecting violence, if their body language is any indication; but these phantasms don't seem to even notice any of them. They just... dance. Dance, and laugh, and cheer.
"She's dead! She's dead!"
Goes their mantra.
And K.K.'s horned helm tilts curiously towards the right.
"I have not," they answer Ragnell, finally, as they look around them. So inky, murky phantasms, seemingly caught within a loop of their own making.
"... Lost within their own failings," they observe, voice tinny. "Do you know this place?" Their faceless gaze tilts towards Ragnell for but a moment.
And then, they simply start forward --
Fully intent to just march straight through the dance hall and the phantoms that dwell within it.
Not much of a dancer, it seems.
DG: K.K. has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward their party's challenge, Danse Macabre.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
There's a dazed look on Riesenlied's face as they crash out onto the other side, as she realises that the Trial Knight really is a more extreme being than she ever was in her prime, let alone now. She shakes the wooliness out of her head as she gasps to say, "Thank you... ah..." she looks to Ragnell. "I see... but-- who...?"
She glances around the dance hall, full of spirits in jubilant gaint. They dance... laugh... cheer. They chear for the death of a someone...
"... who..."
She's dead! She's dead!
Riesenlied's horns tilt curiously towards the right at the same time as K.K.'s helm. ...a-aww...!
She places her hands close to her chest as the Tear shines with a timorous light.
"... why do you celebrate their death such...?"
She holds her head, then rises to her feet. Closes her eyes. Think about what Noeline has taught her about dancing...
She steps, to and fro, turning and twisting, using her wings to aid her as best as she can. She's still a novice, but...
"Just keep moving... be confident..."
DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Danse Macabre.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Nimue has posed.
"... Not the place as it is now, I guess, but the people, sure," Nimue shoots back to K.K. as they ask their question. There's an undercurrent of anger in her voice as she says it, though not directed at them -- there are some things that it's hard to joke around about, and whatever happened here... definitely qualifies.
The revelers' laughter, their cheers... /that/ seems to get Nimue actively upset. Upset enough, in fact, that she can't even really bring herself to try to twist around them -- she just wants to be out of this room, now, /now/, no matter how much it hurts.
She bowls straight through. Pain in her head? Vertigo? The sense that the world isn't aligned quite correctly...?
... those sensations are so familiar to Nimue that, frankly, she's fine with enduring them if it means all she has to do is sprint forward and ignore -- /this/.
DG: Seraph Nimue has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Danse Macabre.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Stone cracks and splinters in every which direction as K.K. fully fails to mitigate their forward momentum and so blasts through the wall into a dancing hall. Ragnell, knowing their companion well, only holds fast to their waist and her hat, then tumbles into a forward roll of her own when they all land. Like K.K., she rises expecting violence, as the twin pistols in her hands say, but the Malevolent ghosts pay the group no attention. They only dance and laugh and cheer.
She's dead! She's dead! they cry.
Her red eyes narrow... but after a moment, she merely holsters her weapons. 'Who?' Riesenlied asks, while K.K. finally wonders if she knows this place. Nimue gives the short version, and Ragnell considers the questions for a moment before she nods once, curtly.
"Nim an' I came here with a few companions a long time ago," she replies, "to deal with a real bastard of a nobleman. His name was struck from the records of what'd eventually become Rolance, so I won't share it to spite him, but head's up, he's proooobably gonna have a grudge against us for bein' involved. Maybe. He couldn't see us back then, but if he turned into a Hellion since..."
She lets herself trail off. The flavor of chocolate bread is still on her tongue after last time--it should still be on all their tongues--and while that might not be *that* much help in their dance moves, it at least might be some comfort against the maddening strains and the wilding steps. When K.K. moves to stride forward in that hopelessly direct way of theirs, Ragnell reaches forward to attempt to grab them by the wrist--but then Nimue *sprints* past both of them, and past Riesenlied, attempting to mimic the dance even without a partner.
Well. It's not as though Ragnell doesn't understand how she feels. The Lightning Seraph soon chases after.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Chocolate Rusk toward her party's challenge, Danse Macabre.
=======================<* The Nameless Spire - Round 3 *>======================= ==========================< Results - Danse Macabre >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 40 --(15)--> 55 Pass Chocolate Rusk 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- K.K. 40 --(30)--> 70 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Nimue 40 --(30)--> 70 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riesenlied 40 --(30)--> 70 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Seraph Ragnell 20 --(10)--> 30 Fail Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Hesitate(2) Effects: Cleanse ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Seraph Ragnell has failed this challenge! The party gained 10 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> K.K. has posed.
Those who do not partake in the celebration, suffer for the celebration.
The inky, paint-splotched spirits move, and as they do, they seem to congregate more and more around the newcomers. Each brush of their phantasmal forms against the others sends fresh, cold jolts of obsessive fixation through the soul, sending senses spinning. Even the spiritual world becomes more and more of a ceaseless, incomprehensible blur. The figures distort, become more hideous, more frightening, more bizarre to increasingly tainted senses.
They started on the ceiling. At some point, they find themselves on the floor, and then the walls, and then dancing upon the grand chandelier of the hall as ghosts grip upon them, demand laughter from them. They lean in, and whisper a secret into the ears of the Seraphim:
"She's dead. The witch is dead! Forgotten and alone, ha ha ha ha~"
And their laughter drowns out everything and everyone, until, in the end, wherever they stumble out, they are patently unprepared and disoriented for whatever might come next.
DG: Seraph Nimue has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* The Nameless Spire *>============================
=========================<* CHALLENGE - Work of Art *>==========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
The room you come to has no exits. Literally. The door you went through?
What door? There's definitely no door there anymore. All there is here is
one giant painting of what looks like a battlefield in what looks vaguely
like the wide, green plains of the Meadow of Triumph in Rolance. However, it
seems some key players are missing -- empty splotches of white dominate
certain portions of this paintings where people should be. Soldiers, lords,
fighting combatants.
The missing portions are always random, but what is consistent is where they
can be found: floating all over the room, like paint brought to life,
two-dimensional slips of painted people flit about from here to there, like
a fitful tempest of art. When applied to the painting, they'll merge where
they belong -- but not all of these living paintings belong to -this-
painting, and you'll also have to actually catch them first before you can
force them back to where they belong. Once complete, the painting will play
out the scene of its battle and disappear, leading to a way forward. You
just have to wrangle a bit of art first. Not too tough, right?
=Dungeon Conditions: Tire=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Nimue has posed.
And what a room they stumble into.
Nimue takes a moment to steady herself, or more accurately, to make horrifying retching noises while leaning up against the door.
Leaning up against the nothing. Oh, that's not great. That's not great at all. She startles forward a bit at the sudden disappearance of the door behind her, then staggers around a bit. "... Uugghh," is all she manages, at first, still reeling from her decidedly ill-advised play.
Turning her attention to the painting of Rolance's wide, green plains, Nimue... taps her chin. "Is that supposed to be, like, half-empty, or is the room still kinda... spinning the wrong way for me?" she asks, with genuine uncertainty. She starts to look around, seeing the floating people of paint...
... and rather than help chase them down, takes a minute to pull a whole fish out of her bag. "I'm gonna... I think this one is a little beyond me," she admits, with a nervous laugh, as she starts shoving the fish -- scales and all -- into her stupid face.
DG: Seraph Nimue has used her Tool Stolen Food toward her party's challenge, Work of Art.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
There is a deeply ill look from Riesenlied, even as she 'partakes' in the celebration. The cacophonous, sickly conglomeration of joy and mirth laced with the venomous edge of those who celebrate for the death of someone...
She looks towards Ragnell as she explains. "I see... and to have had this place distort so... over a long period of time."
She listens.
"T-the... 'witch'...?"
Her mind scans to Agatha, or perhaps Lily... there are many who have been branded witches, however. Just what has transpired in the past?
She looks towards Nimue as she stumbles on the other side, holding her hand. "Hold on, Miss Nimue..." she helps her through the retching until they're both ready to continue onward.
Then they're-- leaning against nothing, and-- the doors disappear. The painting... emerges, but the actors are missing...
Nimue eats fish.
She closes her eyes and steps forward, as the Dragon's Tear unleashes its power. Bands of colour surround the Tainted as she channels her power onto the fragments of sentiment attached to the painting's many scraps...
"This is a work of art painted with passion. I can sense it, in each of these strips of canvas... gather...!"
She weaves the bands of emotion around to attempt to coalesce them into their rightful place, or at least bring them closer for the others to finish.
DG: You use your Tool Dragon's Tear against your party's Challenge, Work of Art!
DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool Dragon's Tear toward her party's challenge, Work of Art.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
As Ragnell chases after her companions in a straight line rather than the dancing spiral she'd started to try to convince K.K. on, the spirits crowd around her, dizzying her, touching her soul with icy fingers, spinning and blurring like a macabre crowd. And they whisper in her ear...
She's dead. The witch is dead! Forgotten and alone, ha ha ha ha~
Ragnell's teeth grind together--until her lips peel back into a ferocious grimace. The stubborn, tenacious thought their taunts inspire in her gives her a little perspective, a little something to anchor her senses onto... but all the same, she stumbles dizzily with the others until they're spun right into a room with no exits.
She leans on the wall, head hanging, eyes shut, to catch her breath for a time. "...ugh..."
Then Nimue speaks up, and Ragnell looks up--and over, at a painting that's not quite complete. Over still, and she sees pieces of the painting--of several paintings--floating about at various speeds. "...Probably supposed t' be half-empty," she remarks. She rubs her head, then turns around.
Okay. First they all need to clear their heads and focus... So she pulls her harmonica from her bag, then begins to play a low, soulful tune to let everyone's minds clear of the taint they'd just been forced to experience. From there, it'll be much easier to wrangle the art pieces--even if perhaps some of them don't actively help. Nimue can probably be forgiven that, though, given what just happened.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Tarnished Harmonica toward her party's challenge, Work of Art.
<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.
And even the Trial Knight enters the doorless room in an uncertain stumble.
Cold clings to their armor like bits of Malevolent frost, thoughts clinging to their mind in happy, chatteringly sadistic glee. One hand pressed up against the wall where once was a door, their clawed fingers dig inwards until deep furrows adorn its surface with the sound of metal screeching across stone.
"..."
The fingers of their left hand spasm, twitching erratically for a precious handful of moments before it steadies as if it never was.
K.K.'s unseen gaze sweeps, in that moment, towards Nimue and Ragnell -- and the weight of their silent consideration falls entirely on the both of them for a few short moments before their attention turns towards that painting.
"... 'Tis a work yet unfinished," they utter, the rasp of their voice melding with the metallic warp of their helmet to strange effect as they straighten. Riesenlied calls upon her powers; Nimue stuffs her face. And Ragnell...
That melody plays, filling the space with soulful and familiar music as K.K.'s hand slowly lifts towards their right.
"I will not abide such base trickery. Whatever yet lingers here shall know the judgment they have been so long denied."
And light gathers into the space before them, twisting and coalescing...
... until a tome floats into life before them, suspended in mid-air and decorated in whites, blues and golds -- a simple, metal quill bobbing in the air beside it. A sigil can be seen on the cover --
--but whatever it is, it cannot be gleaned before the book opens wide, flipping through pages until it comes to an end near the middle. K.K. stares upon it for a moment.
And then they -snap- hands out to grip two floating paintings by the back of their heads.
"These shall suffice."
And set about -making- them take their place where they belong.
DG: K.K. has used their Tool Floating Tome of Ominous Portents toward their party's challenge, Work of Art.
=======================<* The Nameless Spire - Round 4 *>======================= ===========================< Results - Work of Art >============================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 55 --(5)--> 60 Pass Tarnished Harmonica 2 Wits Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- K.K. 70 --(5)--> 75 Pass Floating Tome of Ominous Portents 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Nimue 70 --(5)--> 75 Pass Stolen Food 3 Wits Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riesenlied 70 --(5)--> 75 Pass Dragon's Tear 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Seraph Ragnell 30 --(20)--> 50 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(1)|Tire(2) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Seraph Ragnell 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: Seraph Ragnell has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* The Nameless Spire *>============================ =====================<* CHALLENGE - Figments of History *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Paintings seem part and parcel to this place, as if someone were trying to keep a firm, fearful grip upon the old glories -- and fears -- of the past. Such obsession, in a place like this, does not always see fit to stick to the canvas, and as you traverse the Spire, a number of the figures in some of these paintings come to life, literally -springing- out of their beautifully-wrought murals into fully formed, spectral life in order to attack you. From princes to paupers, from generals to footsoldiers, they all assault you, their painted features vague and hard to discern, like old memories. Sometimes, a brown-haired woman in armor can be seen amongst their ranks, which seems to drive them into a crazed fervor. It's not great. Well, regardless -- better get to destroying you some precious art! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Nimue has posed.
While Nimue takes a second, everyone else seems to have a... /surprisingly/ easy time of chasing down the right segments of the painting. The Trial Knight practically slams some of them back into place, and Ragnell plays that low melody... and Riesenlied moves the world, with the power of sentiment.
This actually lets Nimue start to help -- as Riesenlied draws the pieces in, Nimue reaches up and starts to plaster the newfound pieces into the painting, joining K.K. in doing so. As the painting starts to take shape, though, she looks increasingly distressed...
"This... feels like it mighta been a mistake," she murmurs under her breath, her whole body tensing up. She scoots subtly closer to Riesenlied, letting the Trial Knight finish putting that painting back together and, hopefully, giving them a path forward.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
The moment that the weight of K.K.'s eyeless visage falls on her and Nimue, Ragnell glances back at them. However, she says nothing, opting instead to play her melody. It does help soothe and focus everyone, and Riesenlied's empathy allows her to pull forward the correct pieces of the painting, while K.K. and their tome all but *slam* the pieces back in, and even Nimue starts to help... Ragnell does too, once the melody is over. She glances over at Nimue as they near the completion of their work.
"If you wanna leave, I won't stop you," she says neutrally.
And then the last piece of the painting--a brown-haired woman in armor--is set.
As if specifically to refute Ragnell, the painting comes to life, depicting a fierce battlefield, an entire army against the brunette who, despite seemingly being alone, seems to be taking them on single-handedly with ease. The soldiers flood out of the painting to attack not just their foe, but everyone present as well.
Nimue's already taken refuge behind Riesenlied. "K.K.!" Ragnell calls, hand ducking at her back. "I spiced up my grenades! Pull 'em into a crowd an' I'll soften 'em up for you to mop up!" Trusting the Trial Knight to cooperate, she then pulls out one of her grenades, then waits for the right moment to pull the pin--then *hurl* it into the heart of the ravening oil army.
The brunette meanwhile seems ever out of reach, for all of them...
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Plasma Grenade toward her party's challenge, Figments of History.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"... I'll protect you," Riesenlied speaks to Nimue as she scoots closer to her. She may not be able to raise a sword all that well anymore, but it wasn't with violence that she saw her goals advance anyway...!
Instead, she draws that rectangular instrument from the Sluice Forest is drawn. Instead of rising to meet the threat, she lowers herself to her knees and places it over her lap.
She plays.
The instrument emanates a soft magical aura from its gnarled wood, and despite its simple appearance, it produces a soft melody as Riesenlied plays a tune upon it. She plucks at the strings and conjures a powerful ablating aura to ward away the creatures, carried by familiar emanations of light that now carry the sound of a song.
DG: You use your Tool Bella Aeterna against your party's Challenge, Figments of History!
DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool Bella Aeterna toward her party's challenge, Figments of History.
<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.
This... feels like it mighta been a mistake.
The tome beside K.K. begins to glow anew with radiant white light as they reach out towards it.
"No honest challenge is a mistake, if you have but the will to face it unflinching."
The ink ripples as the field of battle comes to life. It splatters with the squelching sound of paint literally pulling itself free anew from the bindings of its canvas it was so freshly imprisoned in. Soldiers pour free, brandishing the weapons they had once seen fit to pit against a lone brunette. That horned helm tilts to look at that figure ever in the distance...
... and then K.K. grips tightly upon the searing radiance at their right.
Pull 'em into a crowd an' I'll soften 'em up for you to mop up!
"So be it."
Light re-forges itself, gripped between two clawed gauntlets as it crafts into the Trial Knight's massive war scythe, that vertical, curved blade bedecked with a lion's howling maw at its spine. The gleaming blue blade -snaps- towards the knight's right, vicious enough to kick air up from all around it.
"You yet seek your wars?"
And they -move-.
With one motion, they are already -wading- fearlessly into the mass of armored soldiers, spinning that scythe around with a mighty motion strong enough that winds kick up all around them like a vortex, drawing those painted portraits dripping with Malevolence ever-closer to them.
"Then COME, and I shall give war to you aplenty, and we shall see how ravenously you cling to it! COME!"
And the very second that grenade goes off --
--the edge of the war scythe comes down, like the executioner's axe, amidst the music that carries through the room.
DG: K.K. has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward their party's challenge, Figments of History.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Nimue has posed.
Nimue does indeed take Riesenlied up on her offer of protection, moving to the rear of the group's ranks as Riesenlied begins to play her instrument. She raises her sling-staff as that battlefield seems to spring toward them, backpedaling slightly; it's been a long time since she felt that great about fighting, but...!
She takes a moment to center herself, then says, "A -- all right, I think I got this... I think I got this." She reaches into her satchel, giving it a twirl and tossing it up into the air. A mix of grenades falls from it at asymmetric rates -- some Filgaian, some her own, the way Ragnell taught her.
"... if you want to do this again," Nimue calls, voice strained, "then fine!" Her sling-staff catches a grenade, tossing it into the army. "I'll show you..." Twirling her staff around, she snags another, and another, hurling each in turn into the group. "... how it's felt carrying this around for eight hundred years!"
With all her grenades tossed, she swings her staff straight down; the one in the center -- formed as Ragnell had taught her -- explodes into shards thanks to a tiny burst of wind... and each of the others explodes in turn, as Nimue cries out, "Millennium Desperado!"
When it's over, she looks... incredibly spent. Her whole body seems to sag -- even as she deals with the increasing certainty that what she's just done isn't enough.
DG: Seraph Nimue has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Figments of History.
=======================<* The Nameless Spire - Round 5 *>======================= =======================< Results - Figments of History >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 60 --(5)--> 65 Pass Plasma Grenade 3 Combat Effects: Embolden and Liabilit -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- K.K. 75 --(5)--> 80 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Nimue 75 --(10)--> 85 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riesenlied 75 --(10)--> 85 Fail Bella Aeterna 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Seraph Ragnell 50 --(15)--> 65 Pass Conditions: Wound(2) Effects: Cleanse|Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Seraph Ragnell has passed this challenge! The party gained 15 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
A tiny war ensues. Riesenlied plays to the defensive, literally, using her music to create barriers that protect the three combatants; Nimue takes advantage in particular of her protection to rally and hurtle a collection of grenades forward in a growing concussive wave turning outwards. Ragnell's plasma grenade catches along with it, sending deadly pulses of lightning snaking forward in every direction but K.K.'s, as the Trial Knight surges into the throng, carving through painted soldiers with deadly swings of that war scythe.
It might not be enough for Nimue personally. But it's enough for them as a group. Soon, nothing remains of the would-be warriors but scraps of canvas and burnt flecks of paint. The brunette watches over them from afar. Ragnell turns her gaze over to the armored maiden... but then she is gone. Perhaps because of--?
DG: Riesenlied has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* The Nameless Spire *>=========================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - Make Room *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- There is an exit in this room. A very, very tiny exit that looks like it was built for a child. It is the only exit in this room, considering the one before you conveniently ceased to exist. Approaching this exit however, trying to wedge your way into it or hit it or do anything to it in any way, reveals something strange: the material that makes up that doorway is almost strangely elastic, and any force or motion applied to it seems to make it expand, ever-so-slightly; blows to the walls seem to make it grow wider, as does simply holding it apart. To get through this hall, you're literally going to have to stretch it out to accomodate you -- hopefully, before it does all properly elastic things do, and rubberband back into proper, normal shape. Good luck!! =Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous==============================================
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied looks on in awe at the collective powers of the group she's assembled with; the way Nimue twirls her staff and shreds the shards of Ragnell's grenade into a burst of wind, the way the Trial Knight creates their great war-scythe that reminds her scant of Noeline's form...
She concentrates, and the zither-like instrument winks out of existence, burst into motes once more as she holds onto Nimue's hand. "Take it easy, while you can..." she hands her some water, as she looks towards the rest of the group. "I'm beginning to really feel the exhaustion myself... the Malevolence is--" she bites her lip.
There is only one exit to the room, which is incredibly tiny and does not look to fit any of them. And, given the material and very nature of the place, it's not likely that the Seraphs can cheat their way through either....
"Loccy, can you enlarge that hole...?"
woob woob woob
The large, rotund creature, still with the bandages ontop of its head, floats behind them. It peers towards the hole and... rolls sideways into it--
plop
"???"
Loccy's eyes go o_o as it finds that it's stuck in a now fat cuccobo-sized hole. Flail, flail, flail--
"Aah, push harder, Loccy..."
DG: You use your Tool Flute of the Cucco Queen against your party's Challenge, Make Room!
DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool Flute of the Cucco Queen toward her party's challenge, Make Room.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"...You're right. The Malevolence here *is* gettin' thick," Ragnell replies to Riesenlied, wiping a hand across her brow. "No, it's been thick from the first place. I figured it probably would be, but..." But it's starting to get to her, too. And there is of course Nimue's prolonged, ongoing distress. If they can make it to the end, find out more here, will that have made it worth it? Or will Nimue have regretted coming this far no matter what?
Regardless, there is a door. The painting-woman slips through it, but Ragnell eyes its tiny size; she doesn't think any of the rest of them, even Riese, would be able to fit through such a small hole. Which might merit a joke, but then Riese tries to shove a thick bird through only for it to get stuck... ... ...yeah, that's not really better.
Regardless, once Ragnell realizes that the child-sized entrance can stretch, she marks which direction the others are going in, then yanks her section back as hard as she can--which is honestly pretty hard.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Make Room.
<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.
Their blade decorated in a dozen hues like a painter's palette, globs of spectral paint splatter across the ground beneath the Trial Knight as they snap their massive blade downward, decapitating the last of those artistic soldiers. It SHUNKS into the stone floor beneath them, sharp blade wedged into the fundament before it breaks apart into those countless shards of light once more.
"'Twould seem your battle lust is too easily slaked."
Their condemnation for their fallen foes comes just as the brunette disappears, along with the painting beside it, leaving the way forward open to K.K. and their companions. Their gaze linger where that painting once was for a time...
"... A Malevolence allowed to fester in its own mire grows naught but more repugnant over time. And this place has festered for an age."
... and then they continue on, their footfalls ringing metallic and unhesitating through the emptied halls of the Spire.
There is only one way forward, there, when they come to their stop. A simple, tiny exit that cannot possibly accommodate any of them. They knight literally crouches for a moment, metal of their armor groaning only mildly with the movement and the white of their cloth skirts pooling across the ground beneath them as they consider that exit.
Silently, they rise. Althena's Blessing begins to surge once more around them in a no doubt ominous fashion --
-- but before they can even begin to chant, Loccy floats in -- and rolls its way straight into jamming itself into the exit. An exit now expanding to accommodate the bird.
"... Mm," they murmur, helm canting to the left. "Well done. You are a sharp creature, young cuccobo."
And despite the ever-present tinny neutrality of their tone, they seem to honestly be praising the cuccobo.
For getting its fat cuccobutt stuck in a door.
It'd seem the others are gleaning the reason why, at least, and soon enough, the knight is making their way forward, their intent to demolish the doorway now replaced with a much more reasonable effort to reach out, grasp the edges of that exit much like Ragnell, and -drag- it upwards to free Loccy so it may continue its tunneling efforts for them.
DG: K.K. has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward their party's challenge, Make Room.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Nimue has posed.
"... yeah, it's, pretty bad," Nimue agrees with Riesenlied, leaning on the Hyadean just a little bit as they proceed. It's not time to rest just yet, though; they certainly can't rest here without risking something dire, at that. So Nimue shifts to using her slinger's staff like a cane, and starts forward again.
They come upon that tiny exit, and Riese's magnificent friend... rolls into it. "... You know what I /ought/ to do," Nimue says, rooting around in her retrieved satchel, "Is just blow this thing open. Like. With a bomb?"
She looks at their fine feathered friend again, and shakes her head. "... buuuut now we gotta get this idiot outta here," she says, sounding a little more like herself as she bangs on the wall a bit. She pauses, reaching into her bag again, and pulls out another bottle of... something, downing it all in one mighty go before banging on the wall with a bit more enthusiasm.
Sorry, Ragnell -- still none for you! All for Nimue.
DG: Seraph Nimue has used her Tool Stolen Drinks toward her party's challenge, Make Room.
======================<* The Nameless Spire - Round 6 *>====================== ===========================< Results - Make Room >============================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Ragnell 65 --(20)--> 85 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ K.K. 80 --(20)--> 100 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Nimue 85 --(15)--> 100 Pass Stolen Drinks 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Riesenlied 85 --(15)--> 100 Pass Flute of the Cucco Queen 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Seraph Ragnell 65 --(10)--> 75 Fail Conditions: Overzealous(2) Effects: Cleanse ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Seraph Ragnell has failed this challenge! The party gained 10 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: K.K. has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* The Nameless Spire *>============================ ======================<* CHALLENGE - God Kill the Queen *>====================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The large chamber you come to is... strange. The lower level's floor is designed like a chess board, on a grand scale, lined with black and white pieces on either side of the board. All of these pieces, sculpted from stone, seem about as large as a person, and each seems sculpted to look almost like Rolance soldiers -- yet the style and weapons are slightly too different to be an exact match. There is a single mural on the upper balcony of this place, painted to perfection to represent the gridwork of the chessboard below. Touching a part of the grid where a White piece is will activate that piece; touching a different spot will move it to that piece, presuming it's compliant with the rules that piece must adhere to. It would seem the object of this game, however, by all the whispered demands of "kill her, kill her, KILL HER" is not to eliminate the Black King -- but the Black Queen. A Queen sculpted like a woman with long hair wielding a simple longsword. A piece that seems to be able to move however she wants, whenever she wants, and take out more than one of your pieces at a time, in flagrant violation of any semblence of rules, like a true villain might. So -- how do you beat something at a game when they're clearly cheating...? =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
The malevolent presence is overwhelming as much as it is painful; yet, they have to continue still, as Ragnell tugs towards one side and helps pry the rubber-like entrance to one side. Riesenlied coughs very gently as she rises to her feet, helping on the other side.
Loccy whines softly at Nimue as she calls it an idiot! B-bawww... but she has a drink.
At the end, they're on their last legs, but the Fat Cuccobo continues to roll with a twinkle on its eye at the Trial Knight for their compliment...
Leaving them to the final chamber at the end.... ...
"Who... was that woman?" Riesenlied quietly asks. "That woman, with the flowing brown hair..." She quietly frowns, but proceeds onward.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell looks away from Riese, eyebrows furrowed. "...."
<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.
Who... was that woman?
What greets Riesenlied is silence from the Lightning Seraph as they manage -- with great effort -- to drag themselves towards the end of that hall. The Malevolence seems to grow all the more fervent the deeper they get, the whispers and shouts growing more adamant, more obsessed about finding 'her.' Her.
But who is she?
Ragnell's brows furrow in her only answer to that question, and the Trial Knight spares her little but a glance before they continue onward.
"An obsession, 'twould seem," is all they say as they reach that room...
... and see the grand chess board laid out on the level beneath them. The white pieces, glorious, heroic. The black, repugnant, villainous. And leading them... not the King, but their Black Queen.
A woman with sculpted hair woven into a long braid, her short sword brandished and at the ready.
kill her
The knight ignores that first whisper as they walk forward, their attention turned toward the mural along the wall of their balcony.
Kill her
Their head cants, their right hand lifting out to press a single, clawed digit toward one of the squares representing a white pawn. It shifts forward to paces.
Kill her!
And immediately, the Black Queen moves forward, past the ranks that rightly ought to be blocking her progress, down a path she should not be able to go, to strike down the pawn in an instant.
Kill her!
"'Twould seem a game with lopsided rules."
And as they speak, that tome flashes into its floating existence once more, opening up and flipping pages towards passages on strategy as it floats aside the mural -- to be used as a reference, for any who dares to try. And the Trial Knight?
KILL HER!
They stand aside, faceless helm tilted towards their companions.
"But fairness is oft little but perception."
DG: K.K. has used their Tool Floating Tome of Ominous Portents toward their party's challenge, God Kill the Queen.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied gets silence, but that silence is on its own merit an answer. An answer that she has time to digest as they march to the Black Queen. They will need to cling together in order to overcome this last challenge, and the show must truly go on.
The chanting is everpresent and stronger...
"... the witch... the queen..." she murmurs, closing her eyes. Once more, it's her strongest tool that grants her the power to proceed -- the Dragon's Tear.
Bands of light emanate from out of her form as she connects with the various pieces, seeking to sense any semblance of the rules afforded to them.
"When one elevates their privilege to do what they wish..."
Her eyes shine as she looks towards that queen.
"... it ironically makes their moves more obvious."
DG: You use your Tool Dragon's Tear against your party's Challenge, God Kill the Queen!
DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool Dragon's Tear toward her party's challenge, God Kill the Queen.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Nimue has posed.
Nimue likewise greets Riesenlied with silence on the question. In her own eyes, though, there's a little more than just silence... there's some guilt there, a feeling of unease in her gut that she can't silence as they move on to that chess board, that cries out for murder, for the death of the Black Queen.
Nimue... hangs back. "I -- I'm not going to do this," is her first response, as she reaches into her pack again. This time, she pulls out a smaller bag of apples, which... how didn't these fall out during her attack on the army?
Secret mystery.
She starts to eat loudly, looking at the board. "You guys... you can figure this one out on your own. I think my winning move here is not playing!" While her tone is charmingly 'haha eat it losers,' the guilt in her expression intensifies.
DG: Seraph Nimue has used her Tool Stolen Food toward her party's challenge, God Kill the Queen.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
How do you beat something at a game when they're clearly cheating?
Ragnell makes a face. Then she leaves Nimue behind to eat her apples. It'd be a valid option to do as she does, to refuse to play a game set up by a sore loser with no grasp of his *own* privilege, but Ragnell never was the type to sit back and do nothing. Not when it concerned something close to her heart. As Riese pulls out her Dragon's Tear to seek sense of the rules, and K.K. summons their tome to aid in strategy, Ragnell leaps down onto the chessboard, harmonica on her lips.
And she plays a whirling dervish of a battle theme. As she plays, she grabs the head of one of those white pawns, then *shoves* it out into the open for the Black Queen to prey upon. The next is a bishop, then another pawn, then a rook... it seems Ragnell's intent is to sacrifice every white piece she can to cross the chessboard as she plays her triumphant melody.
And at the crescendo, she pulls the instrument from her lips long enough to declare, with a gleam in her red eyes both cruel and vengeful: "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
...In other words, advance until she makes it to the Black Queen's own side. Clearly not what's intended by the game, but...
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Tarnished Harmonica toward her party's challenge, God Kill the Queen.
=======================<* The Nameless Spire - Round 7 *>======================= ========================< Results - God Kill the Queen >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 85 --(5)--> 90 Pass Tarnished Harmonica 2 Wits Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- K.K. 100 --(5)--> 105 Pass Floating Tome of Ominous Portents 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Nimue 100 --(5)--> 105 Pass Stolen Food 3 Wits Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riesenlied 100 --(5)--> 105 Fail Dragon's Tear 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Seraph Ragnell 75 --(35)--> 110 Pass Conditions: Overzealous(1)|Stupify(2) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: K.K. is too exhausted to continue!
DG: Seraph Nimue is too exhausted to continue!
DG: Riesenlied is too exhausted to continue!
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success!
DG: The party led by Seraph Ragnell has successfully explored The Nameless Spire!
============================<* The Nameless Spire *>============================ ====================<* CHALLENGE - The Face of Obsession *>===================== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- This room seems to be full of paintings, much like many of the other places here. Yet there's no enchantments here, no strangeness -- this is a vault, and these, real paintings untouched by Malevolence. Strewn about haphazardly, there are busts, statues, paintings, pottery -- all of them representing a single person. A woman, with brown hair. But that's all that can truly be made out, because each of those paintings, statues, busts, pottery, have all been vandalized. Paintings have had the faces carved off. Statues and busts, chiseled away. Pottery, mostly shattered. Names have been forcibly worn down until nothing but a disturbing tribute to someone's single-minded obsession is left -- as if someone had single-handedly had as much art of this woman they could find brought to this place simply to deface them, literally. They still might be of some value, to someone who collects these sorts of curiosities -- but who was she? And why would someone do something like this...? =Dungeon Conditions: Secret===================================================
<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.
NO! NO NO NO NO NO
Empathy shows what that voice screams throughout the spire: the rules of this game are seemingly to defeat the Queen, and yet, the pieces -- the voice -- the very tower itself seem to be deathly afraid of that single, cheating piece, despite being -made- by the spire and whoever occupies it. And every time that Ragnell moves one of those pieces straight into the Black Queen's line of fire, as each one is shattered into powdered motes of stone and Malevolence, that voice becomes more and more laced with fear.
This isn't the game! Don't! She's mine! Don't let her hurt me! I HATE YOU
An ever-increasing jumble of thoughts roll out through the spire, fateful, reverent, afraid in turn, as if it cannot make up its mind. Riesenlied can feel it -- that sensation starting to shrink back as its shrieks start to dim, growing ever-more distant. The rules say to kill the Queen who breaks the rules.
NO NO NO NO NO NO no no no (no no)
Until it seems to retreat into the very depths of the tower, and the chess board beneath Ragnell begins to groan and shift away, retreating backwards until it shifts into a stairwell leading downward --
-- down, into the halls of the Nameless Spire's obsession.
From their position, the Trial Knight banishes that tome once more in a flash of light. They say nothing -- but they reach out, to rest a lone hand on Nimue's shoulder, once, briefly, before they depart, to lunge down to the lower level, booted heels CRACKING the stonework beneath them before they stride towards those stairs. They pause, briefly, beside the Lightning Seraph.
"... Well played, Ragnell."
Before they descend into the hall of defaced art. The face of obsession.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
'I HATE YOU,' the voice screams. Ragnell blows a kiss just as hateful to the air. She'd anticipated a battle, but not quite *this* kind of battle, and it's honestly intensely satisfying to listen to the Hellion's protesting howls--almost as much as it is to listen to them fade away, along with the chessboard beneath her feet. If she won't play the game according to how it's meant to be played, then it won't be played at all, it seems to say.
The Trial Knight LEAPS down to join her, and when they pause by her side to praise her tactics, Ragnell beams back, clearly quite pleased with herself. This good humor lasts up until the group descend into the hall of the defaced art. Then her smile softly and slowly slides away.
Her shoulders are quite rigid as her heels click to a halt. She stares upon the haphazardly arranged paintings, busts, statues, and pottery, each of them damaged to remove that brunette's face, literally *defaced*. For pieces where a name might be mentioned, the name has been carved away.
One can practically feel the ice drifting from Ragnell as she slowly strides forward through the gallery. Her expression is indescribable as she passes through, pausing at each piece in turn. Finally, she reaches a life-sized bust whose face and name have both been defiled. The Lightning Seraph picks it up with tender care, her hat shading her eyes from view.
Then she utters a low *tch*, a snarl baring grit fangs.
"How long did it take ya t' find all these pieces...?" she growls, low and frigidly furious. "You need t' find another hobby, you gross piece o' shit. It's your own fault you were an asshole to begin with..."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied sags and lowers her head, placing her hand to her chest. "... it is not unlike Lord Siegfried and Mother. A single-minded obsession to the point where it utterly consumes oneself..."
She looks on with her mind's eye towards that voice. Decries its voice for... seeingly, Ragnell, and screams out its negatives. Her head is lowered as she looks towards the two.
She glances towards the art, lowering her head with a quiet, soft sigh. "Was this a queen... a royal of Rolance, back upon the time?"
Her concern is turned towards Nimue as she paces back and says, "... are you doing all right, still...? Don't push yourself..." There's a deeply tired smile on her face as she extends her hand.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Nimue has posed.
'She's mine?' 'Don't let her hurt me?' Those words seem to build bile in Nimue's throat -- until it comes out all at once, "I hate you too! You deserved everything you got and then some!" She stomps her feet down once, and then --
-- the Trial Knight is there again, with their reassuring hand. "... Sorry. I got a little carried away. I didn't... see the solution Ragnell did, I guess..." She laughs awkwardly, before she finally moves on with Ragnell, still sticking close to Riesenlied. "I'm okay," she says, straightening herself out a bit. "I'm... I'm okay." Riesenlied asks her innocent question, and Nimue shakes her head.
"This was... someone else. Not a royal, for sure" She looks out toward the pieces, then to Riesenlied. "I don't really... need money for much, or whatever, but humans love to buy old stuff, right?"
With a glance back to Riesenlied, she suggests, "You should take these and sell 'em off to as many people as you can find. Museums or whatever. Make sure they get all over the place, okay? Like... /all/ all over the place."
<Pose Tracker> K.K. has posed.
Art. All of a single person. By the hair alone the Trial Knight can identify her with the woman they had seen here and there throughout the Spire -- but that is as far as it goes. Every name, every face -- ruined, by deliberate effort of someone with a vendetta that has spanned ages.
But their interest is not necessarily in the art itself, as fascinating and troubling as it might be -- it is in the reactions of Ragnell and Nimue both, their unseen attention on the Seraphim. Hands clasped at their back, their right index finger spasms mildly at the back of their left gauntlet as they turn their attentive stare from one, to the other. From the way Ragnell handles that bust with the most precious and delicate of care -- to the way Nimue responds to Riesenlied's trailing question.
For someone who does not shirk from asking hard questions, nor halt themselves for much of any consideration, K.K. remains silent as the others speak. They say nothing -- not until they step forward to take a single, ruined portrait, hefting it up into their grasp.
"I will take naught else but this. The rest are yours to decide the fate of, Riesenlied."
As if in simple support of Nimue's want for those pieces. To let them be spread far and wide.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
There's a tired expression on Riesenlied's face, but it's with a nod that she returns it to Nimue. "... all right. I can tell that it's important to you, so I'll do my best to spread all of this art around." She can tell that it's not really their sales that would be important, but that the identity of this woman... so sequestered away from time, due to the obsession of this one person...
"I can't... lift all this by myself, though. But..."
Finally, beleagueredly, the rotund, feathered form of the Fat Cuccobo comes into sight, looking prouder than ever.
Finally, finally, it's Loccy's time to shine.
[ What would you like to store today? ]
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
At first, Ragnell ignores Riesenlied's question. Then Nimue responds, not with a name but a suggestion to take all these pieces and spread them far and wide. Her expression gentles as a faint smile creeps up the edge of her lips. "Heh... That's a fine idea, Nimue. But before we do that..." Gently, carefully, with great affection, she sets the bust back where it was. Then she turns and strides over to the Trial Knight, who has claimed one of those portraits for themself, and extends a hand. "K.K.--please lend me your spear."
It's phrased like a request, but there's something in Ragnell's bearing that makes it clear she won't take 'no' for an answer. There's also the fact that a clean sharpness has entered her tone, one that K.K. and Nimue have known her to occasionally affect but are usually never present in favor of her usual drawl and colorful turns of phrase.
Once she has that spear in hand, she turns and strides towards the far left wall, spinning the divine artifact from one hand to the other as if sharing a secret handshake with an old friend. As Ragnell begins to flagrantly vandalize the walls with long, jagged lines, she explains with voice raised, "When you sell these pieces off, Riese, make sure you tell the buyers that she was no queen..." Scratch, scratch, scratch. "...or other royal..." Scratch, scratch, scraaaatch, scratchscratch. "...or even a noble." Scratch scratch scratchscratch. "She was a Shepherd." Scratchscratch... scratch... scraaatch... scratch. *Thunk*. Ragnell lowers the divine spear as she finishes marking the walls, then turns and faces the others. Voice clarion clear, to carry through the art hall and beyond, she finishes, "Shepherd Bradamante."
And written behind her, too, is thus:
B R A D A M A N T E