2018-12-01: All Our Hopes and Dreams
- Log: All Our Hopes and Dreams
- Cast: Riesenlied, Noeline, Jacqueline Barber, Matilda Whitehead, Prissa, Maya Schrodinger, Lily Keil, Lydia Seren
- Where: Photosphere - The Gutter
- Date: December 1st, 2018
- Summary: The time has come for the Outreach to achieve their original mission - to deliver the Tainted away from the harsh environs of the Gutter and to safety. Several Drifters have gathered for this perilous task in the midst of the greatest battle of their lives yet, with the Ley Dragon still close in the skies...
========================<* Photosphere - The Gutter *>======================== Where a society exists, there inevitably must exist a divide in it. And those that are divided downwards, further and further, fall into the Gutter -- a colloquial term for the giant scrapheap ghetto that has gathered at the bottom of the Photosphere, along the ridge where the spherical spaceship rests against the canyon wall. The Gutter is largely composed of shanties lined up against each other, with haphazard streets largely carved out over the centuries from the various community efforts. The wall against the east serves as an exit to the Arctican wasteland, below the line of the Photosphere barrier, but it is largely a death sentence to go outside. The Gutter is a term that has many connotations, almost all of them negative; it is a term for where those that are unfit for purpose go, for those that refuse to obey orders, for those that simply can't lend their efforts to the ongoing conquest of Filgaia. But hope does not die so easily. Down here, over the many centuries, demons have come and gone -- demons that are called the Tainted. And though there are many who have been robbed of all sense of hope and life, there are still many who gather together to cobble a living out of meagre means. These demons are largely forgotten by their peers -- they do not receive support or aid, and they are left to fend for themselves against the breach of monsters, not to mention any Metal Beasts thrown down from the various experiments that happen upstairs. Amidst the Tainted, their greatest success story lie in the Ebony Wings, a scouting group that rose out of nothing to end a resource crisis back in 79 PC. Their exploits are still seen today, in the form of the Ebon Roost, an overhanging perch where a large number of Metal Dragons are birthed, raised and trained. Other locales include VAL-HALLA, a small bar in a back alley that the group use as a makeshift base of operations outside of the Roost. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygpjMbQeBas
DG: A party led by Noeline is now entering Photosphere - The Gutter. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
========================<* Photosphere - The Gutter *>========================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Ley on Hands *>========================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
Your team has descended to the depths of the Photosphere's infamous Gutter,
in the midst of the fierce battle ensuing overhead.
The conditions are beyond deplorable - the only buildings that could be
called homes are scrapheap shacks resting against the canyon wall that the
spaceship has nestled against. Haphazard streets are largely carved out over
the centuries from various community efforts. Tremors are the only portent
of--
--a spew of flame-like Ley energy erupting through the shaking ground!
"Help, please...!"
Between the Ley eruptions, you encounter a group of Tainted Hyadeans who
implore you for aid. The explosion of energy has scathed some of them
considerably. They're hobbling, and won't have the adroitness to escape the
bursts on their own!
=Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
The battle for the Photosphere has begun.
With the Photosphere's barrier crashing down in a spectacular show by the Earth Golem Asgard, various groups of Drifters have all come in for different reasons-- and amongst them, the Wayside Outreach.
This is the moment so many of them have been waiting for -- the moment in which they have a chance to save those of their brethren that are even more disadvantaged and victimised, so that they can spirit them out of the oppressive, squalid atmosphere of the Gutter and towards better places.
The descent isn't particularly difficult, with Noeline leading the way along with several groups of Outreach Tainted that are effectively returning to their homes. In the midst of explosions ringing around the archways overhead, in the midst of the rocking vibrations of battles ensuing all over the place, they reach their destination...
It's not difficult to say that the Gutter is a miserable place. Wet, cold, and lacking so many of the basic necessities a place of living ought to have. Composed of largely scrap metal shanties that have been built over all the centuries in something approximately resembling a town.
It's not dissimilar to such ghettos such as the ones in Kislev, Aveh, and Little Twister... and to that end, it is perhaps disheartening that such ghettos would appear regardless of species.
But their assistance is needed immediately.
Riesenlied's presence, as the Ley Dragon, can keenly be felt -- tremors have erupted over the ground, a portent of the disastrous rupture of the ground as shining fissures of Ley energy overflow from beneath the earth, not altogether dissimilar to the effects she's caused simply by being present.
Noeline's Dragon Tear reverberates with a powerful echo, pointing to her being nearby somewhere... but right now--
"Hurry! Get over here!" exclaims Accordion Tubing Man as he finally reunites with his Accordion Tubing family, tugging a smaller Hyadean with Accordion Tubing arms to his arms. A moment of them embracing as family, as several other Outreach responders pull up gurneys and help others who can't even walk onto them.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
For once, the quiet voice at the back of her head is silent. She doesn't mean Duras Drum's presence - that's a distinctly different feeling, an alien voice that she's nonetheless become perfectly comfortable with over the last few months. It's more her instincts as a spy, the sixth sense she's come to rely on over the centuries. By rights, it should be telling her to be more cautious than she's being, that she's not an officer or a leader, the arguments she's heard and made for herself time and time before--
--but now there's a fire in her chest, and the weight of the Dragon's Tear around her neck. Mother has revealed her hand in the most abortive of ways, the Fereshte has a route into the Gutter, and their objective - the thing Riesenlied has dreamed of - is right infront of her. Silent or not, she quietly tells that little doubting part of her to go shove it.
It's getting easier to follow the light of the Tear - Noeline lets it pull her forward, trusting in its light as she leads the rest of the Outreach through the Photosphere. These corridors are deeply familiar; she sweeps around corners without even looking, grasping onto loose cables here to help take them faster or else diving across badly-maintained walkways to avoid the potholes and more rickety sections. It's a relief, of sorts, to know that her mental map of this area is still intact.
Not counting the fissures, of course. Her senses blare with warning as the ground beneath her feet begins to glow with a bright energy - and she throws herself aside into a diving roll just in time to avoid the sudden explosion that threatens to consume her. "--we hear you!" she calls sharply out in return, gritting her teeth as she turns her dive into a roll into a stumbling rise back to her feet, skidding to a halt next to them as she flicks her eyes over the family.
"Get them clear," she orders the Tainted - then measures herself as she sucks in a breath, and reaches up to pat the Hyadean twice on the shoulder, her tense expression splitting into a quiet grin for his sake. "The Fereshte is waiting above. After that-- keep them safe. If you can help keep this path open, then do so, but don't risk yourself too much. I'll be mad as hell if you hurt yourself now you've found them," she adds with a huff she doesn't expect of herself.
DG: Noeline has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Ley on Hands.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline is here, as well - she was there when Noeline had declared her intent to undertake the rescue mission...and really, they all knew that this was going to happen first thing, they just had even more reason now to do so.
Jacqueline follows behind quickly and carefully as Noeline guides them through the corridors of the Photosphere. Occasionally Jacqueline finds herself checking through her bags to ensure she has everything she needs. Of course, it'll be far too late now if she doesn't...but the gesture helps make her feel a little bit more comfortable.
The Gutter is as awful as she expected - perhaps even more so. And yet...a part of her can't help but feel that it's a familiar sight. She hadn't seen the place personally, of course, but it's all too remniscent of what she had seen in other places...
But she can't dwell on that. They're here to rescue them from this place, and from the encroaching disasters. In this situation, there are outflows of Ley energy, erupting dangerously from the earth.
"Hold on, let me help!" Jacqueline says as Noeline takes charge of the situation, jumping in front of the group of Tainted and stretching her arms out over the ground. Her gauntlets emit a brief flash. They were made to allow the wearer to safely interface with and manipulate various energy systems. She can't hope to quell the overflow completely, but she can attempt to redirect it to places where the Tainted wouldn't be harmed - or at the very least predict where they would come up next.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Rapid Remedy toward her party's challenge, Ley on Hands.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
... The cynic in Matilda -- or more accurately, the cynic built around Matilda -- isn't surprised in the least to see the Gutter. It really is the sort of thing that people do to each other, regardless of species. On the one hand, more the reason to try to stop it -- but on the other... it's a little depressing to think about with any seriousness.
Matilda does her best to help, at least; she's never been comfortable working with the Hyadean biology, though, unless she has proof positive that the usual rounds of curatives work on that particular Metal Demon, though. As a result, she's really just another pair of arms on that front.
Noeline has a better sense of where the Fereshte is than Matilda, after the slightly disorienting battle above, and Matilda finds that... more than a little helpful, really. "Ah -- with your wounds... I'd recommend sticking to the north wall, as you make your way back to the Fereshte," she says, "rather than following the path I did... It'll be a little longer, but much safer."
DG: Matilda Whitehead has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Ley on Hands.
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.
PREVIOUSLY
In the final run-up to the assault on the Photosphere, Prissa began doing something odd. She would move her little forge space around, constantly hammering out thin strips of metal and then throwing them by the half-dozens into snow banks. Later she would often retrieve them and she would not explain what she was doing even when visited. Some kind of re-forging process? Systematically removing impurities? Constantly checking for that single perfect blade?
NOW
Prissa has replaced her comfy woolen sweater with a jerkin of black leather in order to ward off shrapnel and blows. A brief consultation with an armorer in the short-lived desert blossom that was New Arctica has also given her a full-face mask, with layered cloth on a frame for the lower face and the smoked glass lenses she used, for some reason, on Lunar mounted in steel tubing (which she had provided). The mask is on leather straps and is, at present, resting round her neck.
The sight of this ghetto fills her with contempt. Her teeth grit. Her lips pull back. She has cruel thoughts about Filgaia and this place is not making them better.
Reaching into one of the spaces on her back, she calls out, "I'll make, for you, a shortcut." From another place on the supply of boxes and spaces on her back - the areas where she has, habitually, carried her drum like a pedlar's burden - she draws out thin rope, looping it into a hole in some kind of piece of iron and steel sculpture. Until a couple more grabs affix a stout wooden pole and release the rest of the loop --
And Prissa surges forwards at a run to let out a shouted, wordless kiai and hurl the javelin back the way they came! And angled slightly upwards, too.
It flies as Prissa relaxes, looking down at the long coil of rope thoughtfully. She puts her foot on the loose end when about forty percent of it is gone, and there is only perhaps three or four short loops left when the hurled dart reaches the interior walls. There is a shudder in the rope. Prissa draws it up, testing it with light pulls. She tilts her head, considering.
She snaps it several times.
The wave propagates upwards as she looks towards the Tainted, saying as she does, "Remember, the penetrator blade that made this line of hope; it was the fruit of a blade dreamer."
The rope waves finish. Prissa tug, tugs, tug-tugs, YANKS - and the line holds. "Draw tight, tie to something," Prissa informs a Tainted who seems reasonably upright and intact. "Something durable. The rope may break, but my dart will not. Eh!"
Prissa raises a fist in momentary salute, before looking forwards. "This is something, huh. This will be a scavenger's paradise afterwards, if it does not fall into the bowels of the planet."
DG: Prissa has used her Tool Zipline Javelin toward her party's challenge, Ley on Hands.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Here's where Maya has the advantage, working with the Outreach as long as she has: the quirks of Hyadeans and specifically the tainted are, at this point, totes familiar to her. As such, the physical oddities of the Hyadeans cast into the Gutter don't even register to her as she rappels into the Gutter, smoke and sparks streaming from her gloves. Whether it was really necessary to risk second-degree burns to look cool is anyone's guess, but you know how she do.
"That's it, folks, listen to the girls!" Maya hollers through a megaphone she has secured from Gods-know-where, waving the injured onto a gurney fastened with pulleys and stooping to help a one-legged beggar make it onto a platform to safety. Though she is unequipped, specifically, for the situation, watching the rich girl immediately wade into the muck and the thick of it without a moment's hesitation can leave no question about her heart's place in the matter.
There's only a moment's glance of carefully-managed fury at the heartbreaking conditions that greet them, and Maya's stern kindness flickers. But it does not falter, or fail. "You're all headed to a proper home now, hear me?" she directs the worst of the wounded to Jay for treatment, and helps Matilda with -another- pair of arms to the effort.
Prissa's comment does, however, draw her attention--not her ire--as she jury-rigs a shortcut back to safety. Maya glances upwards to her. "I've this sinking feeling you oughta keep your eyes peeled for goodies on our way through, because that Mother creature is probably gonna take this whole place with her." a beat. "Call it a professional hunch."
DG: Maya Schrodinger has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Ley on Hands.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
It seems to Lily that nothing is destined to go as she'd hoped, here. The witch follows Noeline, rifle at the ready--she takes up the rear guard of the group, falling into military habits as easily as breathing. There could be loyalists working to stop them at any moment, regardless of the truths that have come out.
She follows Noeline's guidance; the nature of this place is... Well, Lily's a cynic, too. Nevertheless it strikes her that even here, even among beings that are supposedly completely different from humans, it's the same. No matter who runs the world.
But in terms of what others might see--Well, it doesn't come out much. She's preoccupied, but nevertheless as they move over the trembling ground, as they see some of the people she's looking for--
"Hold on," Lily says quietly. The woman in red battle gear steps up, taking a hand from her weapon and extending it towards the wounded Demon, nodding once to Noeline. A red glow radiates from her hand, beginning to force flesh into proper form, seal up wounds.
"...It will," Lily agrees with Prissa. It may be strange to think of her presence; she certainly looks like she should be on an assault, not on a rescue mission. She glances to Maya, though, nods thoughtfully--
And then as another gout of Ley energy sparks upward, Lily throws out her hand, conjuring a shell of solid ice to guide the corrosive stuff away from a group. "We should hurry. This place could come down at any moment."
DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Ley on Hands.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia did not fight Riesenlied directly yesterday. Instead, she was engaged in the sort of work that Riesenlied would typically find herself doing during battle--evacuating the wounded, tending to the dying, and feeling intense amounts of distress. Okay, that last one is probably just something Lydia is doing on her own, but clobbering Riesenlied isn't something Lydia really wants to do any more of anyway. She felt bad enough fighting her when she was mostly stable, now that she's gone and become a dragon, a FREAKING OUT dragon, Lydia's desperation has only grown.
On the plus side, they're in the Photosphere so the fact they can get in drastically has improved their odds of being able to defeat Mother and not die horribly! Or worse, become the metal demons mk 2. It makes Lydia wonder if metal demons were originally really metal demons from the start or just normal people who Mother MODIFIED. That's horrifying and she really doesn't want to think in that directions.
"Woof," Lydia says at the cold. "And I thought New Arctica was bad." Pause. "Well nah, it was real bad. Did the Metal Demons turn off the heaters to power their invincible barrier of death?"
She takes a moment to look at Accordian Tubing Man and his Accordian Tubing Family.
She blinks a few times.
"Man, this is where Riese is from?" Lydia asks. "How'd she get to Fereshte from here?"
She activates her RAD SKATES.
Lydia slides forward and hefts up what Tainted she can to help them abscond and/or get to safety, dancing around ley explosions with her usual nonsense.
"You okay, Prissa?" She asks when she has a moment.
DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Radical Skates toward her party's challenge, Ley on Hands.
========================<* Photosphere - The Gutter *>========================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Ley on Hands *>========================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
Your team has descended to the depths of the Photosphere's infamous Gutter,
in the midst of the fierce battle ensuing overhead.
The conditions are beyond deplorable - the only buildings that could be
called homes are scrapheap shacks resting against the canyon wall that the
spaceship has nestled against. Haphazard streets are largely carved out over
the centuries from various community efforts. Tremors are the only portent
of--
--a spew of flame-like Ley energy erupting through the shaking ground!
"Help, please...!"
Between the Ley eruptions, you encounter a group of Tainted Hyadeans who
implore you for aid. The explosion of energy has scathed some of them
considerably. They're hobbling, and won't have the adroitness to escape the
bursts on their own!
=Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
===================<* Photosphere - The Gutter - Round 1 *>=================== ==========================< Results - Ley on Hands >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Maya Schrodinger 0 --(0)--> 0 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jacqueline Barber 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rapid Remedy 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Matilda Whitehead 0 --(0)--> 0 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Noeline 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lydia Seren 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Radical Skates 3 Agility Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Prissa 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Zipline Javelin 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lily Keil 0 --(0)--> 0 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Noeline 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(2) Effects: Cleanse ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Noeline 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> Riesenlied has posed.
The Outreach know that Noeline has got this -- while they're happy to pick up the slack in the weeks when they know she needs to recuperate from the loss of Riesenlied... now, with that fire in her chest, they share the same verve that so clearly energises them as they struggle for the continued existence of their people.
"Noeline...!" calls one Tainted who's familiar with her and Riese, at the same time she dives over the explosion and gets clear; the Tainted nod towards her as they pull them up towards the gurneys. "We'll do what we can! You guys don't overdo it either!"
Jacqueline leaps to their defence immediately -- her newfound Crest gauntlets flash, and she finds it effective in controlling the raw power of the Ley and diverting it towards something akin to a prepared Crest Spell. Several of the responders nod towards Matilda to say, "We'll do that. Thank you for the compounds!" as they proceed to follow the path she prescribes.
Prissa marks paths from the way they came and assists by throwing roped javelins to assist with the effort; they stab against the walls, affixed against the sculptures. The Tainted stares at her for a moment, before nodding as she helps tie down several of the ropes towards rigid points. "Yes ma'am!"
Maya helps direct people around with a megaphone from heck knows where (maybe it's from a locker room someone else thought would be useless and thus missed out on their ultimate weapon forever), and the Accordion Tubing Boy nods towards Maya. "Thank you... thank you...!"
To their comment on scavenging, though, there's a jovial laugh as one Tainted gets rolled out on a stretcher. "If we all survive this, you're welcome to all our trash, honestly!"
Lily is assisting at the rear of the group -- and her rifle proves handy with the enormous waves of Beasts and loyalists still blocking their path. Her magic is also, just as Jacqueline's, similarly effective as they continue to stave off the errant Ley splashing all throughout the ground, not to mention assisting with healing. One of the Tainted gasps towards her and whispers her thanks.
Lydia's been doing great, lifesaving work in the distance -- and she's not alone. The Tainted are all there with her, all the ones who've gotten to know her in her weeks of being on the ship; and they're here too as she helps lift those that need assistance from collapsed shanties and hidden underneath rubble.
The one she's carrying -- a sweetie old granny -- comments, "The village...? I recall on that day, she wanted to do something for us... so she left in the middle of a blizzard."
Well, that... that's probably a very Riesenlied thing to do.
With the Drifters' collective efforts, they've secured their targets -- a group of gurneys, people being carried, and other people clambering on Muni-Muni in the background for Triage Priority Red. Now they've just got to get back to the rendezvous points -- using one of the prescribed methods, whether it's one of Matilda's planned routes and falling back as needed.
"Mom, everyone!"
A familiar voice rings from just slightly above as Janey swivels down on one of Prissa's ziplines, using what looks like a kinda silly two-bladed sword-staff to glide down with Mikaia clinging onto her.
"We're here to help too!!"
Janey and Mikaia
have joined the Br-- Dig!
DG: Noeline has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* Photosphere - The Gutter *>========================
====================<* CHALLENGE - Debris in de Breeze *>=====================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
*BOOM*
A massive chunk of the gantry overhead collapses in front of you, the
resounding explosion still ringing in your ears. Fortunately, no one was
harmed when this huge piece of metal fell into the Gutter, but nonetheless
it's in your way. You won't be able to move the entire piece of masonry, but
you may be able to twist enough of the frayed wiring and cables to create a
makeshift exit to the other side.
=Dungeon Conditions: Tire=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
*BOOM*
If anything is necessitating the constant revision of escape routes and rendezvous points, it's moment like this.
Riesenlied, in the form of the Ley Dragon, is visible in the distance as she struggles against a massive beam being launched her way-- she's still being forced to join the struggle against the Drifters. She collides against a pillar, which causes a domino effect that caves a massive chunk of the gantry against the main pathway out of the Gutter.
It's a gigantic mess of frayed wiring, cables and twisted sheets of metal -- and from a quick scan of their plans, they're not going to find a safe passage out with the Ley fissures blocking off other paths with their dangerous and unstable outbursts.
"Argh... mom!" Janey exclaims as she looks towards Mikaia, who's rummaging through her satchel. "Umm, I prepared lotion like Miss Matilda and Jay taught me to..." She hucks a bottle with an underthrow Jay-style, which splashes all over the debris...
... which isn't gonna be enough. But hey, it's the effort that counts, right?
DG: Janey and Mikaia has used their Tool Baby's First Bubble Lotion toward her party's challenge, Debris in de Breeze.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline actually lets a grimace show on her face at the interplay between Prissa and Maya; as much as she'd like to hope otherwise, the pragmatic half of her certainly can't deny that the blonde Drifter's suggestion seems as if it's the most likely outcome, when it comes down to it. Between Riesenlied's warnings, the eruption of the Ley, and the encompassing presence of Mother... exactly how much time the Photosphere has left is an excellent question.
"... time and effort. A great, great deal of time and effort," Noeline quietly chuckles to herself at Lydia's question. Between the job she has to do right now, the progress they're making towards Riesenlied, and the plan that's begun to crystallize in her mind, she feels much calmer than her daughter - and offers a hand on her shoulder and a brief squeeze as she looks up towards Janey and Mikaia's descent.
"We'll leave this to you!" she calls back in confirmation to the Tainted with a curt nod, catching the pair and smoothly swinging them safely down to the ground as she finds herself grinning. Not all of her is a pragmatist, after all - and there's something thrilling and wild about all of this that she hasn't felt in a long time, buoyed by the light of the Tear and the myriad thoughts and feelings it's picking up as everyone aligns around each other.
Instinct makes her glance to one side, catching sight of Riesenlied's wild flight around the interior of the Photosphere; she wince and ducks before the impact even comes, briefly gathering Janey and Mikaia to her just in case as pebbles and the odd snatch of torn cabling bounce off her back. The sight of her partner's erratic flight has brought back that fire - and as she lifts, she throws an arm forwards to send her twin arms winging towards the rubble and debris that's been left in the wake of the collapse.
"Outreach! Collapse in sector Z-54! Work around it and meet people above! Bring more ropes!" she calls urgently into her radio, ignoring the way the connection sparks and crackles out from time to time. As Trouble smashes itself bodily into the weakpoint that Mikaia's just established, Noeline sweeps forwards as well, planting her shoulder under a plate of fallen metal to grab and wrench it aside.
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Trouble toward her party's challenge, Debris in de Breeze.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Lily's aggressive-looking selection of gear is clearly just good sense: you need an assault element to soak up whatever resistance is gonna come you way from the bad guys. That's just good thinking. Maya doesn't need much convincing, there.
"First lot's headed home!" the blonde reports as she eagerly waves at the last of the departing Tainted from this sector, before turning and rejoining the group's efforts as they progress deeper into the Gutter. She pauses to, one, admire Lydia's totally ballin' method of locomotion, and also make sure the girl doesn't get hit by an explosion of ley energy. "Pretty miserable, huh? Mother's whole war on everything meant these folks couldn't even care for their own..." and then she turns directly to the camera and looks at the viewer.
The social commentary is cut short as the dragon form of Riesenlied causes an immense amount of collateral damage, and two very unexpected heroines join the fray. The collapsing pillar catches Maya by surprise, but not surprise enough to slow her roll. She sprints on up to the wreckage to inspect it, but comes to a pretty clear conclusion quickly: "No chance we're gonna be able to pull this outta the way. We're gonna have to blow it up."
Maya doesn't just pull a bomb out of her satchel, she tosses her entire satchel down at what looks like a pretty obvious fracture. "Anyone else want to be a hero? Help me set this up!"
DG: Maya Schrodinger has used her Tool Schrodinger Special toward her party's challenge, Debris in de Breeze.
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.
"Heh heh," Prissa answers Lily as she looks around at the evacuation, beginning now. But the hard part is over, now. So she thinks.
"Well," Prissa answers Lydia, "I do not know. This is madness and I barely understand what you are all doing here. But I think that I get the outlines. And such things are not good; and you fight against them. So," and here she starts to put on her mask, "I help you fight, and everyone wins. Just promise me, if I do die horribly, you will sell my swords at ruinous price."
"I'm smiling," she says from behind the mask.
Then she hears small voices calling.
Prissa is pretty recognizable by her hairstyle even as she looks at Janey and Mikaia. "Ah, the Lords of Destruction," she muses. "Surely we will triumph nGGAHH!"
That at the passage of the Great Riesenlied. Prissa is shocked silent for a moment, and is shaking out of it only by Maya's words. "Of course," she says, moving forwards. "Demolition? You want to put something heavy on top - here -" And then she starts shoving a piece of rubble, which, she hopes, will not just fly back into everyone's face and/or groin.
"Your planet has too many wars," Prissa tells Maya while pushing. "You should cut it down some, eh?"
DG: Prissa has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Debris in de Breeze.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
It isn't easy work, but Jacqueline and Lily manage to get the upsurging of Ley energy under control as the others move to assisting in their own ways - guiding others, providing treatment, and creating(or being) escape routes, among other things.
Jacqueline sends Lily a thankful smile before reach into her bags, drawing out some bottles of red liquid.
"Here, take these - they'll give you a little more energy and help keep your spirits up." Jacqueline says. These are mostly passed out to the Tainted sent her way by Maya - along with reassurances that it'll work - but she passes some out to the rest of the party, as well.
"I think Maya might be right..." Jacqueline murmurs. "I'm sure she has some trick like that up her...well, she doesn't have a sleeve, but...And then, there's a familiar voice from up above as Janey and Mikaia zipline down to help out.
"Janey, Mikaia, you made it!" Jacqueline says. She's relieved to see they're alright - she's not surprised to see them here, since they had said they would. And if there was anything she knew about those two, once they had their mind set on something there was little that could dissuade them.
Before she can say anything further there's an explosion that nearly knocks her right off her feet, but she manages to remain stable. Jacqueline looks off into the distance...where she can see Riesenlied, struggling in her own way.
"Riesenlied...hang in there..." Jacqueline murmurs, her hands tightening into fists. And then debris falls down, cutting off the main path. Jacqueline exhales and shakes her head.
"Looks like it's time for a new plan..." She murmurs, then watches as Mikaia hurls a bottle of something over toward the debris.
"Good work, Mikaia!" Jacqueline says, encouragingly, then flexes the fingers on her left hand. "Alright, I'm going to try to move some of this debris out of the way...stand clear!"
With that warning out in the open Jacqueline begins to gesture with her left hand, invoking the Earth Pillar crest repeatedly to try and shift some of the smaller debris out of the way while the others prepare to bomb the bigger portions.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Brewte Force toward her party's challenge, Debris in de Breeze.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
The presence of Janey and Mikaia... makes Matilda a little nervous, puts her on edge. (Then again,) a little voice says in her head, (They're not that far off from the age you were.) She makes her peace with it in short order --
-- and then a big smile splits her face when she sees that first effort from Janey. "... The formula's definitely correct, even if it's not, mm, drifter-grade, yet. I'm impressed." She can't help herself; it feels *good* to see a sign she's made a difference.
It gives her an idea, too -- just eating away one thing wouldn't make much progress, but...
Matilda spreads her own Bubble Lotion over wide areas, instead, seeking to weaken rather than destroy; it ought to make it easier to bend and break *many* things in this chunk of collapse.
DG: Matilda Whitehead has used her Tool Bubble Lotion toward her party's challenge, Debris in de Breeze.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"New Arctica was bad," Lily says. "...But the chances for these people are a lot better than they were there. We won't let them go." There's an urgency in Lily's voice, though--unusually for her, she's... anxious, maybe, or rushed. It's hard to tell, given how little she shows. But as the Tainted speak up--
The one who thanks Lily gets a solemn nod. "Keep yourself safe," she says quietly. "You have people to go back to--a home to find."
Lily turns her head briefly to Prissa, considers. "I'll tell you what," Lily says. "If you die here, I'll take out whatever killed you with one of those swords before we get to selling them. ...But if you stick with me, you should live longer."
Lily doesn't comment on the number of wars. She just takes a potion, and then--
Lily stares after the form of the Ley Dragon, frustrated, bothered... something. It's hard for her to even identify all the feeling of the moment. And she's cut off because of a certain arrival. Janey and Mikaia show, and Lily looks to them with surprise. "You're--"
It's completely unsafe for them to be here. The group starts to work on the new obstacle before, and Lily shakes her head. "You really shouldn't be here," the witch tells them, and sighs, "But we don't have time to force the issue. I know you wouldn't stay behind willingly."
Lily steps forward, to a spot away from where the bombs are being placed. It becomes clear here that her right hand's glove is marked by the strange set of chains she sometimes wears, rune-inscribed, made of mystically-forged metal from Vane. She steps up after Matilda weakens an area. "...Good work. Here..."
A sudden rush of darkness erupts from Lily's hand, but it isn't quite like her usual; there's a focus there, as Lily stares through the obstacle--
The field before her hand becomes a disintegrating force seeking to bore a hole outright through the debris, obliterating enough to get through.
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Rune Chain toward her party's challenge, Debris in de Breeze.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Huh..." Lydia says to the granny. "I wonder if she ever found it." Or what she was looking for in the first place. She smiles at the granny. "Thank you." She sets the lady down in a safe place before stretching out her arms. "There we go..."
She looks towards Prissa and says, "Well hey, I told you this wasn't exactly paradise." She smiles a little bit at that. "'Course, this is the first war I've been--"
She pauses for a moment. "Huh, well actually it's the second, but it's the first war I've been in on Filgaia."
She rubs at her neck faintly with a hand before adding with a small smile, "I promise I will cheat everyone out of their money for ya, Prissa, but the swords aren't the same without you behind them so lets not make it an issue."
She is managing to keep her spirits up, though that's likely thanks to the sudden arrival of her sisters. "Alright...! Glad you're here! Lets save as many peeps as we can!"
And charge them ruinous prices? Well maybe after they've had some time to rest and are in a spending mood.
"Maya," She adds as she starts working on the debris with her bat. "I'm really glad you're here too."
DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Good Luck Bat toward her party's challenge, Debris in de Breeze.
========================<* Photosphere - The Gutter *>========================
====================<* CHALLENGE - Debris in de Breeze *>=====================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
*BOOM*
A massive chunk of the gantry overhead collapses in front of you, the
resounding explosion still ringing in your ears. Fortunately, no one was
harmed when this huge piece of metal fell into the Gutter, but nonetheless
it's in your way. You won't be able to move the entire piece of masonry, but
you may be able to twist enough of the frayed wiring and cables to create a
makeshift exit to the other side.
=Dungeon Conditions: Tire=====================================================
===================<* Photosphere - The Gutter - Round 2 *>=================== ======================< Results - Debris in de Breeze >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Maya Schrodinger 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Schrodinger Special 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jacqueline Barber 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Brewte Force 1 Brute Effects: Fanfare and Strengthe ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Matilda Whitehead 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Bubble Lotion 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Noeline 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Trouble 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lydia Seren 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Good Luck Bat 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Prissa 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lily Keil 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rune Chain 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Noeline 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(1)|Tire(2) Effects: Cleanse|Strengthen(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Noeline 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> Riesenlied has posed.
The question of how much will be left of the Photosphere is, indeed, an excellent one -- but one the Tainted don't seem to have very many regrets for. If they lose their home, the one that's actively scorned them all this time and left them to pick at its scraps with no rights or protections... then they'll found another one. Like Old Petra. Like Wayside. Like New Petra.
They may be bowed, but they won't be beaten.
Noeline's sharp instincts protect Janey and Mikaia in the time that the rubble goes down, even far away; she calls out the situation, and there's a response. "Got it! We'll use Prissa's ziplines to work around this from the other side!" as some of them use Muni to bypass the obstacle, though there are still way too many that it'll be too slow to do an airlift for them.
Trouble bodily smashes onto the debris, at the same time Janey lets out a cry and shoves her Swallow (... why is she calling it that? It's a mystery for the ages) to poke at it, before wincing and retreating as a part of it starts tumbling. "Mom..." she whispers to Noeline, and to Lydia.
"Calamity!" Janey feels the petulant need to correct Prissa. "I'm sure Lord of Destruction's a title that's claimed somewhere--" ... and Lord of Calamity isn't? "--and proper branding's important, y'know?!" she grins, but pauses as she gets out of the way of Prissa shoving rubble out of the way.
Jacqueline passes out bottles of brewte force -- several of the Tainted nods and passes them out. She watches one of the more frail ones chug-- and then suddenly they bolt straight up with a, "Khaa--! Really hits the spot!" as they join the effort. She blasts through several of the smaller pieces of wreckage with earth pillars, leaving the way clear for the others with the bombing effort.
The granny nods in turn to say, "Bless you," as she hobbles out to join the pack. Lydia's bashing proves useful as well, what with Mikaia and Jacqueline's efforts making the more pliant parts of the metal able to get hammered away. And speaking of bashful--
There's a bashful smile from Mikaia with a nod, looking happy that Matilda's recognised her efforts. It's not Drifter-grade, but it'll help with Matilda's own more powerful solution as the debris starts to crumble further. That breached, vulnerable spot's looking pretty good for a...
Maya sets down a -bomb-, and then one Tainted salutes as he exclaims, "I was born to do this, Maya, ma'am!" The reason is kind of obvious because his arm is apparently just a ticket dispenser that he's filled with a roll of fuse that he attaches to the satchel and rolls out. When no one was looking, Fuse Man apparently joined the ranks of the Tainted. "Just need a spark!"
"Oh, I totally know we shouldn't be here," Janey chipperly grins at Lily. "But," a pause, "At the same time, I dun think I coulda forgiven myself I didn't give it my all and then a bit more all when so much of m'fam's in trouble!"
Meanwhile, the spark in question -- Lily's disintegrating force, which laces through the fuse and causes a giant explosion that takes care of the debris nice and square!
The Drifter way!
DG: Noeline has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* Photosphere - The Gutter *>========================
==================<* CHALLENGE - THIS is What It's Like! *>===================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
You can hear the sound of battle echoing overhead. A dread familiarity hangs
in the air...
Some Drifter chants the incantation for a grand Symbologic spell...
...Another one loads an oversized ARM and starts blasting with reckless
abandon...
...and yet another unveils immaculate bladework, shattering pillars.
The collateral of which start descending towards you and your group of
refugees.
... ah. Is this what it's like to be a bystander in one of your Gunslinger
battles, maybe? Regardless, RUN!
(NOTE: You may optionally pose one of your alts as one of the Drifters
indirectly causing trouble for you above!)
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
The large group makes way through the remnants of the debris that they collectively lotioned, troubled, batted for, disintegrated, shoved, earthed and then exploded, possibly not in that exact order. They move through what remains of something akin to a main street, which is just sheets of corrugated metal placed over decades upon decades of remnants of Metal Beasts and other iron junk that have accumulated over time--
And that great battle is still echoing direly overhead. A familiar white winged Gear soars into sight for a moment.
Janey starts sweating cold. "Isn't that--"
Mikaia slumps. "That is--"
~*~
Lunata growls as she exclaims, "Oh screw it! I'm taking the lot of you OUT!!" as the Rephaim's eyes flash ominously, all of its hardpoints and cannons locked into place with a defiant roar of thunderous energy erupting on the bridgeway overhead--
--which isn't much of a bridgeway anymore.
The Tainted are already making a break for it, and Janey nods for a moment as Mikaia pulls out a weirdly pink blob-shaped device and presses a button marked 'DEMERIT' on it.
Shalune is going to receive a notice soon enough...
DG: Janey and Mikaia has used their Tool Lunie Demerit Device toward their party's challenge, THIS is What It's Like!
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"... she'll be alright," Noeline mutters to herself more than to the Drifters around her; it isn't a statement so much as a little fervent reminder to herself of the hope she's carrying, the driving force that has brought her down to this point. "We'll reach her. We'll reach her."
She sucks in a breath as they assault the barrier, recognizing that explosives are being set up to one side; with a heave of effort she shoves a particularly large piece of gantry aside so that it won't block the blast, then turns to curl an arm around Janey to dodge back with her, putting enough distance between them and the rubble to take cover from the ensuing explosion.
* * *
Big Shal thunders down passageways, taking them at speed; though some loyalist Metal Demons do their best to stop the golem's advance they simply can't keep up with the machine when it's running at full tilt, and the same ploughs that were used to push snow out of the way turn out to work just as well against enemies, scattering them like so many bowling pins.
"We've gotta keep going! The map said to keep going up, right? We've just gotta--" Shalune calls to the golem as if it needs words to understand her, but stops dead and clamps her mouth shut again when a small device in her pocket starts to emit a warning beep. She rests a hand over where the noise is chiming, and slowly thins her lips. "--go right instead! Into the open area!"
* * *
Noeline feels the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end at the sight of the Rephaim's weapons charging up. Before she even knows what she's doing she's driving herself forwards, putting all of her strength into her legs and reaching for the everpresent sensation of Duras Drum's power. One arm each scoops up one of the younger Drifters into a tight hold, just in time for a corona of shifting, shadowy light to envelop her. Abruptly, she and her children vanish into so much mist.
* * *
Big Shal bursts through a wall with a wrenching, shattering noise that's as much the golem as it is the Photosphere architecture, the matter converter's whine riding high as all of the debris - original or not - is sucked immediately back into the golem's structure. On its back, Shalune gasps in shock at the sudden open space, her pink hair whirling around her, and then turns her expression down in a deep-set frown as Big Shal simply dives for the Rephaim. "Lunie, no! There's way too many Drifters around! Jay is down there!!" she calls wildly as the golem crashes down onto the Rephaim and unbalances it with a sudden flying hug around the shoulders.
* * *
Noeline reappears in another swirl of sorcery, several metres away and behind a large storage shed, her posture set in a sliding skid. She has to catch her breath for a moment - and then sets her two children down, and just gives Jay such a look.
DG: Noeline has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, THIS is What It's Like!.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Hopefully, Prissa is aware that what she says is ultimate wisdom. Maya spares her a look askance while connecting the red wire to the yellow wire. "A war or two less'd be nice." she agrees, while madly fusing things. "Maybe once we've knocked some sense into 'em, but that's a long road we've got ahead of us."
Also! Cutie Soldier Lydia says a very adorable thing: she's glad that Maya is here. Despite being busy smashing debris with a bat. The blonde, not wanting to disrupt her work at the time, makes a fond gesture as she finishes her work courtesy of a helpful Tainted. She moves to pat the shorter girl's head after the downstroke of her bat, palm smooth against her hair. Maya's... pretty sure that's a kosher family-affection-level between them, and Ginny, bless her kale-cooking soul. "Hey. I'm glad you're here with us, silly. And safe."
omg melt
Unfortunately, there is no time for this to turn into a full-blossom hug. And I can't pose Harken as cackling and suplexing a gear in the background while making the Undyne face and going NGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH because she is literally conspiring to commit matricide right now, so instead, Maya pulls an air horn from her breast pocket and fires it off in alarm as a certain gear that is most assuredly not the S*rike Fre*dom unleashes every weapon on the bridge they need to get across. Bereft of sorcerous flight and jetpacks, Maya is reduced to sprinting wildly at a panic as a certain golem dives into the fray to try and stop it.
DG: Maya Schrodinger has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, THIS is What It's Like!.
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.
"My mistake," Prissa says, pausing to drink Jay's liquor. As she pushes anew, she answers Lydia, "I mean you have so many left behind! And I have no intention of dying, but -- I wish to - cover my goal zone!"
And war is continuing.
UPSTAIRS:
There is a steady barraging rat-at-at-atatatatatat-TAT from a secure position, a steady fire that is unholy and unnatural, a rate of firing exceeding the horrifying ratio when applied to infantry arms of *over three rounds per two seconds* - a barrage that would be bad enough if someone was emptying out a repeater to force through a group, but which in this case seems to just go on and on forever.
Surrounded by vaguely greasy smoke, glasses ashine, Erzebet Mara Lefanu cackles in delight, tongue lolling slightly to the side of her mouth, her lips' rougeing faded but backed by the redness of her mouth.
"I'm going to melt away!!! Kyahahahahaha!! This beats finals week cold!!" Erzebet shouts. Nobody hears, but she doesn't care.
DOWNSTAIRS:
"Well, that is awful," Prissa says, already tying another line to a javelin. To Maya she says, "You are Maya? I am Prissa. Great to meet you, though the circumstance is awful."
She hurls the zipline javelin ahead with her usual herculean strength, yanks on it, and asks Lydia as she ties it to a piece of plumbing, "Do you think you can use your foot wheels to.. No; best not to try."
After this she loops a piece of leather over the top and calls out, "Children! Hustle it up!" before sliding forwards.
DG: Prissa has used her Tool Zipline Javelin toward her party's challenge, THIS is What It's Like!.
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.
Matilda looks up at the Rephaim, and purses her lips. She'll... have to -- discuss, this moment, with Lunata later. Maybe. ... really, though, t *is* kind of difficult to avoid causing some degree of collateral damage in relatively tight (proportionally) quarters like this... maybe she should try her best not to get mad about it.
Getting clear proves -- challenging. Matilda's *very* nervous about this kind of mission -- it feels good to help the Tainted evacuate, but it's also... there's something about it that puts her whole body a little bit on edge. She has a hard time feeling like she does a great job looking out for *herself*, depending on the circumstances.
And in this context... well, that's all she really *can* do. When Prissa provides that convenient zipline, though, Matilda works to help the Tainted take advantage of it as best she -- and they -- can.
DG: Matilda Whitehead has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, THIS is What It's Like!.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline creates one final earth pillar - this one to offer cover to hide behind as the explosive detonates, taking the debris with it.
"Ah...whew." Jacqueline says, stepping out from behind. Her eyes find Prissa, soon.
"...Don't worry. We'll all look out for each other - I refuse to allow any of my friends to die, okay?" Jacqueline says.
They begin to move on through what Jacqueline assumes was the main street, composed of what Jacqueline can only assume is whatever cast-off metal they were able to get their hands on.
And then, up there in the sky...
"Lunata! Lunata!!" Jacqueline calls up, desperately hoping Lunata will be able to here her. "Don't-!!"
...Lunata does it anyway. Jacqueline ducks down as the Rephaim's cannons fire, destroying the bridge overhead amd raining debris down.
Jacqueline sends an apologetic look toward Noeline.
"S-sorry, um...maaaybe I need to have a talk with her about weapons safety..." Jacqueline murmurs, chuckling nervously with a hint of embarrassment. That can happen later, though.
Right now, from somewhere up above, there's a raucous laugh. Suddenly, a massive shockwave of wind composed of wind and flame tears through something up above, raining down even more debris!
Pirates, I tell you. Such rude customers.
Jacqueline casts her left hand out quickly. The debris hangs in the air for a moment as it finds its momentum completely erased, giving anyone underneath just enough time to get out of the way as natural laws assert themselves once more and it resumes falling, though slower than before.
"I think now's the time to put a bit more of a spring in our step...!" Jacqueline urges, dispensing pale green potions to help speed people along through the battlefield.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Rapid Remedy toward her party's challenge, THIS is What It's Like!.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"I understand," Lily answers Janey. "I'd be the same way. ...But when I tell you to take cover, you need to take cover, all right?"
She looks to Noeline. "We're going to reach her," she agrees. "No matter what. We will." It's a vow, somehow. ...But shortly...
The bridge starts exploding. Lily's jaw sets as an impact jars her to the side, knocks her away. But she looks up towards the ones above though--
...A small smile actually spreads on Lily's face. "You're doing good," she says, though there's no way Lunata is likely to hear her. Then she just drags herself back up. The soldier behind is definitely one of the slower members of the group, taking on hits from debris but also blasting her way through any more rubble that's in her path. "I don't think so," she calls up to Jay though. "I think you should encourage her. She's taken out a lot of targets up ahead."
She takes the potion though, drinks it. Then, strangely, she turns to look back, checking the horizon for something. She doesn't find it, apparently.
She doesn't make the joke she might've thought about.
DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, THIS is What It's Like!.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
And Lord of Calamity isn't?
Lydia isn't that much shorter than Maya! Though she is shorter. Lydia's cheeks silver faintly. She does look like she might melt at any moment thanks to that headpat. "Mayaaaaa...." She says, with a big fangy smile. It seems time apart doesn't really dampen her love for the Schrodinger/Maxwell household. After all, Cutie Soldiers must never lose heart!
We'll reach her, Noeline says, and Lydia believes it as hard as her body can take.
Suddenly there's all sorts of trouble. Lydia sighs as the bridge is, uh, now no longer a bridge.
Lydia skates along, attempting to avoid various debris, problems, and alt interaction all in one go! This could be tough friends, especially that third one!
DG: Lydia Seren has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, THIS is What It's Like!.
========================<* Photosphere - The Gutter *>========================
==================<* CHALLENGE - THIS is What It's Like! *>===================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
You can hear the sound of battle echoing overhead. A dread familiarity hangs
in the air...
Some Drifter chants the incantation for a grand Symbologic spell...
...Another one loads an oversized ARM and starts blasting with reckless
abandon...
...and yet another unveils immaculate bladework, shattering pillars.
The collateral of which start descending towards you and your group of
refugees.
... ah. Is this what it's like to be a bystander in one of your Gunslinger
battles, maybe? Regardless, RUN!
(NOTE: You may optionally pose one of your alts as one of the Drifters
indirectly causing trouble for you above!)
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
===================<* Photosphere - The Gutter - Round 3 *>=================== ====================< Results - THIS is What It's Like! >===================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Maya Schrodinger 0 --(0)--> 0 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jacqueline Barber 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rapid Remedy 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Matilda Whitehead 0 --(0)--> 0 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Noeline 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lydia Seren 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Prissa 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Zipline Javelin 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lily Keil 0 --(0)--> 0 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Noeline 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Injure(2) Effects: Cleanse ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Noeline 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: Matilda Whitehead has left your party.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Noeline reasserts to herself, to the Drifters around her -- but also to Janey -- that they'll reach her. She quietly nods, shuffling a satchel that she's carefully carrying around her shoulder as she steps back behind Noeline and takes cover behind her sword to take cover--
At the very least, before a Lunie causes them trouble, and Mikaia tucks herself into Noeline's arms as the Hyadean Noble sweeps Janey up and disappears into nothing more than mist, protected by Duras Drum's sorcery.
Several large chunks of rock crush their last known position to no avail; they reappear on the other side, with a groan as she says, "I think we should vote to take the title of Lunie away from her."
"Agreed."
Maya and Lydia have a cute family moment. The family lines just wrap all around here!! Unfortunately, Harken isn't here to cause problems which actually makes her more of a hero than some people in legally distinct Gears. She sprints forward, with some of the Tainted exclaiming, "Over here, Maya ma'am!"
A single woman is firing bullets at a ratio that would put a certain half-clown-masked Gear to shame, speaking of legally distinct things. It's the kind of force that you might imagine could become a stock footage, the way it goes on forever; still, that's not Prissa's problem, as she uses more of those ziplines and calls for them to hustle. "Right on, Miss Prissa!" shouts another of the Tainted, as Accordion Tubing Boy bobbles over the line.
Matilda keeps in mind to have words with Lunata later, assisting with the Tainted to make use of the zipline to get across for those who're less able. This kind of mission may leave her on edge -- but that's a feeling that's shared by a lot here; they're tethering on the brink of annihilation... but they'll get through it. They have to.
Jacqueline desperately calls out to Lunata, who unfortunately can't hear her right now with being fifty feet up in the air in the midst of explosions -- even as Shalune shouts out for her to stop since Jay is, you know, down there. This is definitely one of those lunie-oopsie moments.
And then, you know, Layna joins in with the general trend of L-named characters being wantonly destructive in general! What's up with that! But all's not lost-- because Jacqueline's spell lifts the debris and stops them dead in their tracks and leaves the Tainted time to escape.
"Gotcha, Miss Lily!" exclaims Janey as Lily instructs her to take cover when she calls it out; she makes a vow with Noeline, and--
Lily is proud of Lunata. See what I mean about L-named characters....?
Lily may be behind, but she doesn't need to be fast -- she can power through with her magic, though it's a little bit expensive; she'll want to conserve some of that power.
Meanwhile, Lydia doesn't need violence, proving that she's the exception that proves the rule amongst L-characters. Jump she does, with skates most rad, avoid problems that are so sad.
... in the end, they make it through, and the guilty are punished for their sins.
PROBATION: Lunata Croze has been downgraded to Unata Croze for 72 hours.
"noooooo...." whines Unata.
DG: Noeline has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* Photosphere - The Gutter *>========================
=============<* CHALLENGE - Products Well Past Their Lifespan *>==============
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
-=<WARNING>=-
-=<WARNING>=-
-=<Atmospheric Breach detected: Sealing Airlocks>=-
Your group jukes onto what appears to be one of the Photosphere's original
hallways, back in the days when it still served as a starship. However, the
instruments therein appear to have had better days, for it detects some kind
of dangerous leakage... that results in the caution-marked metal doors
sealing shut.
There are no terminals to access around, so you'll have to blow through them
to proceed.
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
With Matilda providing the rest of the instructions to the rendezvous points, and taking her leave as she leads a separate group of Tainted, they've actually made it through to a portion of the original halls of the Photosphere.
It looks a lot more like a spaceship -- or in the likely point of reference they have, perhaps like one of the hallways of the Yggdrasil or some of the Kislevi ships like the Kraken. Gunmetal gray, blasted over the years...
-=<WARNING>=-
-=<WARNING>=-
-=<Atmospheric Breach detected: Sealing Airlocks>=-
... and, also, apparently, malfunctioning. An Atmospheric Breach is detected, but no one has any trouble breathing or anything. The door seals shut--
"Argh! Darnit, it's just past here, I know it!" Janey complains as she starts punching the door. It doesn't budge.
"It might work if you had something to rig up for a keycard... but..." one of the Tainted suggests.
"Hmm... but what if... Miss Maya, your friend's friend who never gave up left us something a long while back..." Mikaia pulls out... something that looks like a little bone, tapping it to the defunct keypad.
Is this Skeleton Key... strong enough??
DG: Janey and Mikaia have used their Tool Never Give Up Key to their party's challenge, Products Well Past Their
Lifespan!
... no it's not. But it never gives up, so that counts for something.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Above the mother and her children, there's a confused mess of sensations and noises as a golem slams into the Rephaim, sending the both of them pinwheeling out of control as a pink-haired blob yells her protests and then does her best to temporarily revoke Lunie Priviledges. Noeline huffs out a breath that's half-between a protest and a helpless laugh, shaking her head once she's sure that Mikaia and Janey are safe. (Lydia too, but-- the threshold for 'danger' there is one hell of a lot higher.)
Noeline isn't surprised by the shift from scattered dwellings to actual gunmetal corridors - she's well aware even of this area, and the way in which the Photosphere was half-formed from existing materials and scavenged pieces of the crafts that clearly would never have flown again. In many ways, the Fereshte has inherited the Tainted's will - and this is perhaps one of the clearer examples of theit ability to use whatever they have at hand to make do and continue on.
Which doesn't exactly help them right now, Noeline thinks with a quiet chuckle. "... I used to juryrig these doors for fun, open or closed," she admits with an embarrassed frown - but then the alarm blares, and the Hyadean jolts her head up towards the ceiling, "--there are breaches everywhere!" she protests uselessly. "And for that matter, the only thing outside is atmosphere! More of it is hardly a problem!"
She swears under her breath as the Photosphere pays absolutely no attention to her; she plants a shoulder immediately against the door, then glances to where Janey and Mikaia are doing their best and never giving up, looking past them at the pad in question. "... I'm not certain that will work," she notes with a rather rueful smile, tilting her head. "The entire panel is burnt out, from the look of it. I'd be surprised if it had anything to do with it."
Unfortunately, she's well aware that means they're going to have to put in some serious effort; she sucks out an uncertain breath, then shakes her head as she drops to the floor. "There's a latch you can open here to get to a manual release. Assuming that still works - well, but it still needs a demon's strength to pull the damn thing," she adds with a sigh as she levers up a panel and reaches down to grab a yellow-and-black striped handle, grimacing as she forces it upwards.
"Get the door--" she grits her teeth, "--now!"
Above her, Trouble merrily bonks its way into the door, in that single-minded way it's managed to hang onto all this time. It would be hard to describe it as 'useful', but at least it's spirited.
DG: Noeline has used her Tool Trouble toward her party's challenge, Products Well Past Their Lifespan.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Thankfully, they manage to escape without any real incident. Jacqueline was worried that might get bad there.
"...I...suppose no one got seriously hurt..." Jacqueline admits, in response to Lily. But still, it's important to be aware of everything around you, especially when you're piloting a giant flying robot!
She lets out a sigh as she watches a certain golem collide with the Rephaim and the two begin to tangle, shaking her head in a way that can only be called fond.
Even here, Lu - or, rather, Unata - and Shalune were still themselves, and it's clear that this sight has brought some cheer back to Jacqueline as she proceeds through the corridors along with the others.
Eventually, though, with a loud clang of metal the way forward seals itself shut.
"Atmospheric Breach...?" Jacqueline comments dryly, looking up. Up above, there's a big tear through the Photosphere where bits of light are able to shine through. "I don't see it."
Unfortunately, this means they'll have to find some way through. Jacqueline ponders. Unfortunately, her Haywire Draught would likely only seal the door further, and though she'd packed some more destructive Crests with her none of them were safe to use in such close quarters.
With that out of the question she instead decides to tend to anyone who's still with them with her assortment of potions.
As she does, she can't help but smile as Janey and Mikaia demonstrate that Never Give Up spirit, and Trouble bonks against the door. It might not be a direct contribution, but one should never underestimate just how effective a morale booster can be in a situation like this.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Brewte Force toward her party's challenge, Products Well Past Their Lifespan.
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.
Reaching her destination, Prissa dismounts and tests the penetration level of her javelin. She seems pleased. After this, she loosk towards the warnings as the door seals shut. Janey and Mikaia approaches. A friend?
A bone?
Prissa turns her masked face towards Maya and may look judgmental. She then loosens her mask, letting it fall down as she considers the door. She folds her arms, pauses to adjust her top without the shame the Guardians gave a goat, and considers where Noeline is indicating. "A demon's strength?" she says, cracking her knuckles.
Then Noeline manages it. "Well," Prissa half stutters, before she belatedly drinks down the potion Jay had given her and looks towards her directly. Jay gets a crooked smile and she says to her, "I do not know if I am a demon but I suppose the hard part is done."
Prissa then steps forwards and draws out a long slim blade from her back. It has a peculiar design - it seems to be more of a pole that was halved and sharpened into a bladelike shape, with several long flanges honed razor sharp. Prissa wedges the core of the galatine blade into the doorway and prays something in her language before
SHOVING
And telling Noeline as she does, "This is a risk! I get first pick if we have to bust your machina on the way out, okay?" A beat passes, and she says, "Is machina likely this deep? I don't know what you did here!" To herself Prissa mutters, "Will that be a swear?" More loud, "If that is a rude term, sorry!"
DG: Prissa has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Products Well Past Their Lifespan.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Prissa's formal introduction is carried out while Maya runs at full tilt for safety, arms pumping. "Yes. The circumstance is the worst!" she wails, extending a hand to shake it anyway before the mysterious girl vanishes off on her zipline. Wait--it takes a moment to sink in--maybe she can use this, in turn, to avoid dying! Genius. Utter genius. It carries her away from Matilda, unfortunately, but she should be... safe enough, following the Tainted out, right. . .?
One to consider, as arriving suddenly at the zipline's end sends Maya tumbling into the control room, no worse for wear. Looking up from the pile she's crumpled in for a moment, Maya squints at Mikaia as she drops a very cultured reference. "Oh. . ." she pauses. "No, that's not... the kind of lock that you'd unlock with that." and she reaches up to pat her on the back reassuringly. "But it's a good start."
Maya's voice soon joins Noeline's above the din of the alarm. "Relax, it's just busted and having a tough time telling what's actually going on." and the blonde Gunslinger rummages around in her pockets for a little something she was sure she brang--
Ah, there it is. Maya produces a backpack in the shape of a cute panda, and affixes it to what looks for all the world like a fuse box (to her). "Here we go--we'll just buzz this guy a little and the door will open right up!" she sounds awfully sure about that. Regardless of whether or not this is what it was intended for, the Panda-backpack contains a very experimental compounding explosive which, in Layman's terms, causes the entire thing to suddenly go off in a cartoony lightning bolt of an explosion.
This is just kind of normal for the Schrodinger family, who don't get much of a chance to be goofy anymore, what with the world ending.
DG: Maya Schrodinger has used her Tool Schrodinger Special toward her party's challenge, Products Well Past Their Lifespan.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
Their force is applied to the door.
Prissa may notice something wrong, first. A little cube of blue data floats by -- translucent, and she can see through to the other side. Others swirl, joining together. They form, behind them, a single massive faceplate: the almost porcelain, holographic mask of Mother. The eyes burn gold, watching them with that false impassivity.
Then, she chuckles. "How you struggle... ...for trash."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily looks forward in silence at Janey's reply--she just nods, distantly, glances sidelong to meet her eyes in a moment after. It's true, though, that she needs to conserve power as best she's able. Using it all up now won't do her any good later. ...But, about that...
As Unata is punished, Lily, quietly in the back, looks around the strange halls with a disconcerted expression. She doesn't know this place, but there's something about it she just doesn't like. Even before the alarms start blaring--
"Damn," Lily murmurs, as she looks back--and the way back out is blocked, too. At least Matilda and the Tainted she led out will be safe, but here--
"There are a lot of machines down here," Lily answers Prissa. She starts walking forward, as Noeline uses her demon's strength strength to grab the lever. "I'll help with the door," the soldier volunteers, stowing her rifle on its start behind her back. Instead she pulls something small from her bag--the light glints off of a needle as she raises the syringe and rolls up her sleeve.
She drives it in, depresses the plunger, inhales sharply. And that's... when she hears the voice. The faceplate.
Lily drops the syringe and turns, venom obvious in her gaze. "I'll tear this place apart for that trash you look down on," Lily answers, and her sleeve shifts back into place as she lifts one hand. Abrubtly it ignites, sickly golden flame erupting around her fist. "Watch. If you want to consume this world so badly," she hisses, and switches to an ancient tongue, "<I'll make sure you choke on it.>"
Taint. Taint, Gryndille had indicated. Lily stares for an instant, begins to understand something.
"..."
She turns, and moves for the door. Hand still aflame, but not burning, she punches straight for the door--and keeps pressing against it, the runes inscribed in her chained hand suddenly whining with power, Ether oppressive as she moves to take hold of the door and--with a distorted groan of sound--force it upward in pieces with the others.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Never Give Up Key!
Lydia says, "That's...that's not really his finger, is it?" Beads of sweat appear along her face as she starts to feel ... concern.
She seems to know what an atmospheric breach is at least in concept, but she says, "Sweet it really is a spaceship." at that. "Man, do you think we could take apart the Photosphere when this is all said and done and then make a giant spaceship out of it? And instead of murdering worlds we can start, I don't know, hugging them I guess? I didn't really think this far through."
Lydia readies her bat, swinging it around her hand and nearly misses Mother's appearance entirely.
"Gahh!! What the hell!" She says, hopping back on one foot comedically before pointing the bat towards her. "Guhhhh, you're the worst! Why are you so awful??"
She looks back forward. "But I guess I should be grateful. The 'trash' you threw away is what's most important to me. Since you don't want them..."
She skates forward and slams the bat forward.
"We'll take them for ourselves!!"
DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Good Luck Bat toward her party's challenge, Products Well Past Their Lifespan. DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Rune Chain toward her party's challenge, Products Well Past Their Lifespan.
========================<* Photosphere - The Gutter *>========================
=============<* CHALLENGE - Products Well Past Their Lifespan *>==============
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
-=<WARNING>=-
-=<WARNING>=-
-=<Atmospheric Breach detected: Sealing Airlocks>=-
Your group jukes onto what appears to be one of the Photosphere's original
hallways, back in the days when it still served as a starship. However, the
instruments therein appear to have had better days, for it detects some kind
of dangerous leakage... that results in the caution-marked metal doors
sealing shut.
There are no terminals to access around, so you'll have to blow through them
to proceed.
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken===================================================
===================<* Photosphere - The Gutter - Round 4 *>=================== ===============< Results - Products Well Past Their Lifespan >================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Maya Schrodinger 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Schrodinger Special 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lily Keil 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rune Chain 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jacqueline Barber 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail Brewte Force 1 Brute Effects: Fanfare and Strengthe ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Noeline 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Trouble 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lydia Seren 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Good Luck Bat 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Prissa 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Noeline 60 --(20)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Weaken(2) Effects: Cleanse|Strengthen(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Noeline 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> Riesenlied has posed.
Noeline admits that she used to juryrig the doors for fun. "..... wow, you were a regular troublemaker, huh?" Janey grins as she natters to help defuse some of the tension and keep them going. "Did you pull any pranks on Riesemama back before you two knew each other?"
But the alarm starts blaring, and Noeline opts to work around it in an incredibly direct manner; she ratchets up the panel and forces it up and orders people to get the door. Several of the more able bodied Tainted help, but... y'know. They're Tainted.
Noeline's the only one with 'demon's strength' here, of the Hyadeans actually present. At least Trouble is helping, bonk, bonk!
"..... poor Trouble ....." muses Mikaia.
Jacqueline muses, as she watches an Unie and a Lunie tangle, that one ought to have more awareness of their surroundings when in a giant robot. .... the way Lunata's radar only shows targets is then perhaps super concerning .... then again, she might've tuned it that way.
The alchemist continues to tend to the Tainted, and several of the more beleaguered ones will need potioning. It's rather clear to see -- a lot of them have been suffering injuries for what may well be decades, without any ability to heal. In every sense of the word -- discarded. The potions and care seem like the first time in a long while they've been treated well.
"I was thinkin'," Janey comments to Prissa. "What's your opinion on Swallows?" She seems incredibly insistent on that term as she holds up her double-sword. A stick with swords on each end. "It's like two swords in one! That's-- fifty percent more powerful!" She seems really eager to know about the swordsmith's Expert (tm) opinion.
She steps back as Prissa draws that slim blade and wedges into the doorway and cbaygc eh ran myhkiyka and-- shoves! Janey blinks as she goes, "Why'd machines be a swear term? Wait, what's a machina?"
Mikaia pouts at Maya as she reassures that it's not the kind of lock that can do it... but, well, the never give up key never gives up. Maya tells the group what's up with the door-- and...
Has a cute panda backpack. Where's Alfred anyhow? Still staring at matches in a corner...? Well, let's not dwell on that. Here's another explosive bomb, which goes off once more to spring the door wide open!
Lily offers to help with the door, and with the combined forces of Prissa's galatine sword, Lily's syringe as she amps herself up for the feat of enormous strength to come as flames burn around her hand and she punches straight through--
And the door pries open. That part's done with.
D-don't worry, Lydia, it's probably a... skeletal appendix, something Skeleton didn't need. Those exist, right? She comments on how nice that it is a spaceship, perhaps the only one to recognise it as such--
But then--
Cubes of data emerge, and join together into a faceplate. Her eye burning gold, watching them. A mask of fake impassivity.
The Tainted stare towards her... some of them huddle by instinct, some of them shivering. A good number of them are in need of encouragement and defiance--
"... no offense, ma'am," Janey speaks up. Her lips thin for a moment as she contains that fear inside of her for a moment, then says,
"Y'should consider gettin' a new name. You suck at bein' a Mother."
This is a 13 year old who's made it something of a weird trademark to tell overwhelmingly powerful people what's up, it seems...??
"Get 'er, Lydie!!"
Unfortunately, it's a hologram......
DG: Noeline has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* Photosphere - The Gutter *>========================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - A Quiet Moment *>=======================
|Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
You come across an altar. The air is mysteriously quiet here... as if the
din of battle and the roar of violence cannot reach.
Criss-crossed upon the floor are lines the colour of the Ley, leading to a
central point upon the dais itself. Those with a Medium on their person can
feel it reacting gently, as if the powers that sustain the world themselves
are lamenting -- a clear oddity, given how muted the Guardians have been
lately.
There is something here to do with the Guardians, but what? You could spare
a moment to investigate further, but you don't have long -- you have a duty
to proceed onward with the refugees after you all catch your breath.
(NOTE: @mail Riesenlied if your group succeeds on this challenge, along with
what Medium(s) were present throughout your Group. This will grant you a
little information pertinent to the Finale on December 8th!)
=Dungeon Conditions: Save Point, Hesitate, Overzealous========================
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
Mother's expression is impassive, which makes it impossible to tell if she understood Lily's words in Zeboim. "Good. Destroy. Rend. Become the tool that I require."
Lydia's bat passes right through the holographic mask. Mother may be here with them, but she is not actually here. She laughs, as it passes. "Your Mother is who made you. Nothing more. And you're less for it."
Those words echo -- but the hologram melts away after that.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Ha! I win!" Lydia shouts. "She ran away!!"
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Rare is the occasion for a humble Drifter to lay eyes on the Godlike ruler of an Alien race, rarer still is the chance to be addressed so directly by such.
Wonder? Awe? Nay. That the celestial terror is so wretched, so pointlessly cruel, fills the Schrodinger girl with a queer sense of distressing anger that she has seldom known. She watches the mask of an ostensibly perfect creature form from flittering motes of light, laughing at their efforts and at the most vulnerable of those who revered her.
A whorl of motes around the Drifter's hand spark to life. Lily curses in a language Maya has never known, and the Gunslinger's eyes fill with purpose as she hefts a pistol-grip ARM whose sleek and boxy frame ends in a lens and not in a barrel. But before she can pull the trigger, the visage of Mother has left them, and the weapon boils away into a million grains of glowing sand. Its purpose and yield remain a mystery.
Maya flittingly looks between the team of Drifters. Her heart hammers in her chest, but she finds the surge of anger helps keep things directed, oddly. "You know," she begins, really loudly.
"It must suck ass to get bested by trash."
(posin out of order, forever, breakin' the law...)
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Through the door onto the other side, the group finally arrive to what Noeline recalls was once a mysteriously quiet space that has been left particularly clear for reasons unclear to both the rank-and-file and the Tainted both...
... save now. Now, the true meaning of this place is finally known.
A massive circular dais raises up to an altar, too enormous for any particular humanoid save that of a Ley Dragon. The dais criss-crosses with lines the colour of the Ley, leading to a central point where enormous energy can be felt.
The Mediums the group are all carrying -- in Noeline's case within her -- all reverberate with a muted lament; as before, as if feeling a great and powerful sorrow at how it's come to this.
There's not much time to investigate, however, because unlike what the card says--
Riesenlied descends.
The white and blue Ley Dragon shrieks woefully, bearing smoke escaping from a breach on her chest where Lily's anti-pattern axes of dark magic once carved into her; where Ethius' conflagration and Jacqueline's weakening solvent still carry some weight, let alone pocked and dotted with various bullets and slash marks from the brief skirmishes she's been forced to join.
She pauses, taking in regard the group assembled before her... letting out another low, pained whine. Her eyes seem to take in not only the Drifters... but every single member of the Tainted that stand there before her. The looks each of them are giving, collectively knocked down but unbowed...
"Miss Riesenlied..."
"Not like this... it can't end like this..."
The murmurs are low amongst the group. Morale is low... but...
Janey gulps for a moment as she clutches at her swallow, before looking to Mikaia. They nod, then look towards Lydia and Noeline. "Time to break out what Fei and Josie and the others found... and what Miss Elly's been helping collect with us..."
They step forward, boldly, towards the Dragon. If Mother tells them that they're lesser for who made them... well--
They'll just have to prove them wrong.
"Riesemama! Look!" Mikaia cries out.
Janey holds that satchel she's been protecting with all her life and takes out a large stack of papers and parchments. She scatters them in as neat a format as she can given the short amount of time they have.
They're... crayon drawings.
Some of them from Riesenlied's time in the village of the Fereshte, with Nasrin and Odoryuk amongst them. The one of a weirdly drawn unicorn with extra arms holding onto the horned girl and the girl in the robes stand out.
Others are freshly drawn of the time the children have spent in Wayside, in New Petra and even New Arctica. Someone's drawn a pretty snow mountain with all the children standing ontop of it.
...and one special one, in the centre-- with crisped and burnt ends from the raid Berserk made upon their schoolhouse in Wayside.
It's a picture of the Wayside family. Riesenlied, Noeline, Lydia, Maya, Lily, Leon, Fei, Elly... countles people. Everyone's there, and...
A figure in blue armor with a cape, too, in the midst of them.
It still says, even after all this time, after escaping Id's wrath:
'granpa'
DG: Janey and Mikaia and all the Children of Wayside have used their Tool All Our Hopes and Dreams toward the future's challenge.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"Photosphere had it's fair share of bullies," Noeline comments back to Janey with a huff of air, rather imagining she doesn't have to explain any further. When you're a target, you find the little paths that work - the ways you can slip past people, the routes only you know. At least she does pause, and look faintly embarrassed. "... she-- provided healing, sometimes. When I'd been caught."
Straining against the release to keep it up, Noeline doesn't quite have the werewithal to realize the shape that is slowly coalescing in front of them until it's too late. The first strains of Mother's discordant voice nearly cause her to drop the lever again in her surprise, but she catches herself in time to redouble her strength.
"... you know, when I first left the Photosphere... I thought I was done with the place. I thought that I would never be back," she says almost to herself, so quietly you might miss it. "I thought I'd be throwing away any connection to it. I thought that was it." She raises her head, the glare from behind her hair positively livid. "But for what you've done to Riese - for what you've done to Siegfried, and all the rest - I would happily tear you apart."
"And yet, I won't even have to," she adds softly. "You could have simply waited - you could have simply held off your gloating for the tiniest little bit longer. But you let hubris in, and gave away your plans, and now your own army is in disarray while your enemies run through your fortress." The door gives way with a final jolt; Noeline hisses at the sudden freedom of movement, nearly losing her balance and nearly trapping her fingers as the mechanism gives way but barely able to free her hand in time.
She hangs back for just a moment, fury still glittering in her eyes. "If there is one truth history will remember from your reign, it is that hubris. That stupidity. And I will do my best, with every breath, to free the Hyadeans from it." Mother's hologram is already gone - but for Noeline, just saying the words seems to be important, her fists clenching and releasing for a moment before she turns to press onwards.
When they come across the chamber, Noeline visibly hesitates, finding her feet unwilling to go on; given what she knows of Riesenlied's abilities, this can surely only be the place she's ultimately headed - as the only Tainted who can channel the Guardians, as the only Hyadean with such a connection to the world. "Let the others know," she whispers under her breath to the Medium within her.
And then she says nothing more, because sure enough... Riesenlied descends.
She watches in silence, sorrow written across her face at the state of the dragon before them; she gathers herself as she lets her children advance forwards, lets them present their drawings and their memories and their hopes and dreams. Despite the gigantic creature that Riesenlied has become, she doesn't move to protect them - she doesn't need to, trusting completely that even now, Riese will not do anything to hurt them.
"Riese," she speaks afterwards, her voice thick enough and trembling slightly in a way that reveals she's holding back tears. "We're here. All of us, together. All we're waiting for is for you to come back to us - back to your family. No matter what 'Mother' says - no matter what she does to you - we will continue to reach for you. You mean that much to us, and that much to me. Whatever she says you 'are to be' - you can be more than that. You can be something different to that. What's most important is choosing that for yourself."
She steps forward, raising her hand, the ring glittering upon it.
DG: Noeline has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Quiet Moment.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline returns Prissa's smile with a chuckle, and watches as she takes out a blade and shoves it. And then Maya pulls out...panda-themed backpack?
...Oh, it's an explosive. It looks like Alfred's still working hard...she's reminded that she ought to hang out with the Schrodingers a bit more often. The sight of it gets a chuckle out of her, but that chuckle fades quickly, as something begins to take shape beyond that door.
A familiar face plate.
"...'Trash'?" Jacqueline repeats with disgust, her fists tightening. "They're people. Just you because you threw them away doesn't mean we will."
She might not be speaking about just the Tainted here, though they were currently the highest on her priority list. She also sends Lydia and Janey smile, for echoing much of her own sentiments.
And as for Mother's response to Janey...
"You don't get it, do you? Do you feel anything - anything at all?" Jacqueline replies, coldly.
But Mother is gone. No...perhaps it's best to say that she is still here. That was just a hologram, after all - just because it wasn't here does not mean that she wasn't still watching. And Jacqueline was okay with that.
She was more sure of it now than ever - they would meet face to face before long.
Jacqueline puts Mother out of her mind for now, though - she doesn't deserve space there, not while she had people to look after. They continue forward, to where they find an altar. As they approach it, Jacqueline can feel a great sorrow emanating from her Medium. A hand goes up to where she keeps it close to her heart, resting her hand over it.
"...Grudiev...you feel it too, don't you...?" Jacqueline murmurs...and then stumbles back as Riesenlied descends. She looks up at her, sorrow on her face.
"...Riesenlied, we're here. I told you we'd be here for you..." Jacqueline murmurs, her hand still over her Medium even as she entreats the Ley Dragon before her. "Despite what Ethius says...the rest of us care for you. You're certainly not a burden...and you're certainly not a threat. We want you here with us - please don't forget that."
And then, Mikaia and Janey produce a series of crayon drawings - drawings from many time periods and of many subjects. But from each and one of them, a sincere feeling of love and appreciation can be felt.
This should be all the proof anyone needs that Mother was wrong.
How can anything like this make one 'lesser'?
DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Quiet Moment.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
'Destroy. Rend. Become the tool that I require.'
In another context, it would be nice to hear more about Noeline, to watch Janey's boldness. As it is, Lily says nothing to Mother's words before the hologram disappears. She says nothing at all for the next few moments. ...She says nothing because if she started she wouldn't stop.
The moment passes, and Lily doesn't recognize Maya's ARM, either. She just draws in a breath, pauses... and moves forward, walks towards the altar that she sees now, and as she feels the energy around her, a part of her begins to understand. She has a strange expression, unlike herself, for an instant. But that, too, passes.
Lily takes a step back, raises her hand, curled and ready to cast, as the Ley Dragon shrieks, shows herself. The wounds that were placed remain, to Lily's surprise, and yet... they haven't been enough, yet. Still, Lily can feel the pain in the dragon now, can feel everything among the Tainted. "I--"
...The display; the drawings, the words of children and others, it's too much for a moment. Lily pauses, where she is, and turns away, drawing a difficult breath, closing her eyes, and quietly lifting a hand to one. She rubs the side of her finger there, composes herself, and looks forward.
She quietly pulls the stone Medium of Lucadia from her bag, and looks at it for long moments. "...I'm sorry," she says to it quietly, and steps forward. "Riesenlied..."
Lily holds up a small mirror, handmade by a girl here now. She looks into it, lets its magic help her to see the flows of magic here. ...And then she holds it out, for a moment, shows it to the dragon.
"I don't know if you can hear me," Lily tells her. "...But I haven't given up on you, either. You didn't even die when I struck you down. I need you... to have that same stupid survival as before. To keep stubbornly holding on, in the face of all evidence to the contrary. To be the thing that I could never be."
"...I remember once, you called me... sister. All I ask is that you come back to us. Whatever form you need to take, whatever changes..."
"If you can only take one step, we'll pull you the rest of the way."
Lily stops, then, and turns, looking far behind, pulling out a small radio from her waist. She looks down at it, weighs it in her hand, and turns back to the Ley Dragon.
"...I'm sorry, for what I have to do. But no matter what... I won't let her keep you. I won't let a Mother who failed you keep her hold. I swear it."
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Mikaia's Mirror toward her party's challenge, A Quiet Moment.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Rigdobrite?" Lydia asks, looking around for a moment as she spins around in place. She then lowers her head. "II see...is there something that must be repaired here? Or..." Lydia has two mediums, and one of them carries a stronger bond with Lydia than is normally the case amongst them, so suffice it to say the lamentation is hitting her hard. She's even crying as she feels it.
She takes in a deep breath and summons Schrodinger, or at least so it first seems. She sets him down on the floor. "Schrodinger... You came on your own." She startles briefly when Riesenlied appears, and then places a hand on her chest to calm her breathing.
Meanwhile, The cat meows, rubbing up against Maya briefly before trotting towards the crayon drawings. They seem to have knocked over some paint prior to showing up because they are leaving colorful pawprints all the way forward, taking a meandering path towards its destination.
Schrodinger comes to a stop near that picture of the Wayside family. They wiggle their neck as if trying to scratch something at the base of their neck before stepping forward, leaving a pawprint in the corner of the picture.
Schrodinger's power ripples outward, just a bit, as the burnt and crispy picture glows briefly...and then, as if its own time had been turned back, the burns and discoloration from the fire fades away, leaving the art in the pristine(ish) condition it once was in.
And then Schrodinger patters around and looks up at Riesenlied.
"Meow." Schrodinger says, looking up expectantly at Riesenlied. What they are hoping for is unclear.
Until it rolls onto its back and exposes their belly, still staring up at Riesenlied expectantly.
Lydia looks back up towards Riesenlied. "Mom...don't you see? You're our treasure. They may call this place the 'Gutter', but it isn't a bad place. It's the place you came from." Lydia sniffs faintly and rubs at her eyes. "This isn't fair. I never wanted you or anyone else to go through something like this. It sucks."
She can't rub out her tears fast enough.
"You're not a liability, you're not some tool, you're someone we care about. You aren't holding us back, we love you. It's thanks to you we can step forward at all. If it wasn't for you, I would've given up ages ago...but because I didn't, because of you..."
She sniffs once more. "I am happy now. I want to keep being happy. And comfortable. And I want our adventures to be full of laughs and joking around and being kind of lazy about it sometimes. I thought we were gonna spend the rest of our lives like that..."
Pause.
"Doesn't that sound fun to you too?"
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.
"Where would you go in such a ship? Ah, Lunar, of course," Prissa says, who may not have quite gotten the details of all this alien stuff.
To Janey she says, "It could work out... but you have a harder time bringing both to bear. I would say it is something you only use if you are going to be fighting groups, you know? And that is not the genius of a sword. But as for the blades, you would want - hngh!"
Prissa's the first one to see the floating entity. She takes a moment in her pulling to put her mask back on, but it doesn't help. Maybe she doesn't want to be outmasked. Maybe it's a psychological comfort thing. (It is absolutely the psychological comfort thing.)
She seems to have nothing to say.
Lily hits it. Janey snaps words. Lydia speaks to - no, she's hitting it too. Then it vanishes.
Prissa exhales.
"You are all clever to say things like this," Prissa says. "I wish I had your facility. For me I look at all this," Prissa says as she straightens up and breathes out, "and I think that maybe, whoever this Mother really is, and without jokes... I think that... that perhaps..."
Prissa makes a slightly distorted laugh behind her mask.
"Perhaps she is made of some big, brass ones, to talk like this. I wonder..."
"I wonder if she understands what it means, to 'fight so hard, for trash.'..."
Ominous. But then they move forwards and the sudden descent of Riesenlied in her great form throws her backwards in a clatter of metal. "Kyaahh!" Prissa says unhelpfully, staring up at this great monster that is, purportedly, the soft and blobby woman with the floppy horns.
"Don't get - too - oh," Prissa calls to the children, before she looks up at the towering dragon. She turns her head to look towards the tainted who have been following them along in the background as if to ask them: Did you know this was going to happen?
Can someone come back from a change like this, Prissa thinks, looking upwards.
And yet, she thinks further.
None of them are the same. Even back home some were different. All of them with unusual traits, all of them cooperating. These beings are from an entirely different star, Prissa concludes as she gets back on her feet. Why rule anything out?
"Listen. You!" Prissa calls upwards. "Riesenlied!"
"I barely know what you people eat for your lunch," she says, "but I can see you have standing here the strongest tribe in this planet! Do you understand me? I have seen your tribes on this planet, they are for shit! (Sorry, Lydia, but it is true.) They lack spirit! But here, for all they are called tainted, trash, whatever!" Prissa raises her hand, curling it hard enough to make the leather squeak a little. "They are strong. I can feel their energy! I wish I could catch it in a blade!"
She unfastens the mask strap again (can she stop screwing with her visor option? (no)) to let it slide down, revealing her face. Green eyes slightly misty despite herself, she says, "And you showed me that thing of yours. Crystal! You cannot stand there, hiding in your massive Gear here, and tell me that you want to abandon something as beautiful as that sword!"
"And also Noeline," Prissa concludes by way of anticlimax, "of course, and the children, I mean, agh, done now."
DG: Prissa has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Quiet Moment.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
So they have come; to the lair of the twisted form that still holds Riesenlied captive. The gentlest creature any of them have likely ever known. Maya's eyes remain aglow with purpose: that Mother taunts, even perceives them is a sign of either arrogance, or some fear that they grow near one of her valued toys. That they might take it back from her. The child rebuking the Mother... fitting, indeed.
The Ley Dragon's voice nearly strips the girl's hearing from her form, a hand before her face as she shields herself from its descent, but in truth...
She's been waiting for this moment.
Riesemama! Look!
The children unfurl their greatest treasure - and in that moment, Maya can perceive it. A warmth of memories whose shine outstrips any jewel on Filgaia. The blonde takes a loping step forward, not afraid of the Dragon at all. She bites one of her gloves and pulls her hand free from it.
Riesenlied, we're here. I told you we'd be here for you...
"And I told you I'd stick by your side, hell or high-water, Riesenlady." Maya's voice joins the others, a measured step picking up speed. A jog. She tosses the glove aside, the other soon joining it. She needs as few barriers as possible here--be they physical, spiritual, mental--for this nonsense gambit to work.
All we're waiting for is for you to come back to us,
"And while it's too bad that everyone's had to fight it out this far with bullets, 'n swords, 'n spells..."
Mom... don't you see? You're our treasure.
Maya closes her eyes as her feet leave the ground. For her, time slows to a standstill. She remembers, vaguely, doing this once before--and it worked then, bringing the light of an innocent little love to Virginia Maxwell's heart--maybe it'll work again.
"We've got one last thing up our sleeves for you!"
The equation spins loosely in the girl's head. She doesn't quite grasp the mechanics of it, but near enough is good enough. Let X = Love and work from there. From the nape of the Schrodinger girl's neck flows a glittering stream of light, a million individual motes of glowing sand that so often coalesce into the forms of guns, or bombs, or swords. But that is not the case here.
The enigma of the Outreach doesn't leap, so much as hover, passing over the children's drawings. Individual glittering motes, too, lift from them. From the tears Lydia sheds, from those that Noeline chokes back, the feelings stored in these...
... can be read.
"I'm making this up as I go," admits Maya, hands aglow with the light she weaves from so many sources at once. "But you know what? Reckon I learned one thing from you, it's that a good heart always clutches it out in the end." her head feels like it might explode trying to rationalize things that have no actual physical form or symbological equation.
But it's not far to travel...
And the small blonde girl's bare hand lays upon the nose of the Ley Dragon, and so boldly,
Every last feeling transmits from those memories, to the odd girl, to the Dragon in turn.
"C'mon home, mom, everyone misses you."
DG: Maya Schrodinger has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Quiet Moment. DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Schrodinger the Cat toward her party's challenge, A Quiet Moment.
========================<* Photosphere - The Gutter *>========================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - A Quiet Moment *>=======================
|Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
You come across an altar. The air is mysteriously quiet here... as if the
din of battle and the roar of violence cannot reach.
Criss-crossed upon the floor are lines the colour of the Ley, leading to a
central point upon the dais itself. Those with a Medium on their person can
feel it reacting gently, as if the powers that sustain the world themselves
are lamenting -- a clear oddity, given how muted the Guardians have been
lately.
There is something here to do with the Guardians, but what? You could spare
a moment to investigate further, but you don't have long -- you have a duty
to proceed onward with the refugees after you all catch your breath.
(NOTE: @mail Riesenlied if your group succeeds on this challenge, along with
what Medium(s) were present throughout your Group. This will grant you a
little information pertinent to the Finale on December 8th!)
=Dungeon Conditions: Save Point, Hesitate, Overzealous========================
===================<* Photosphere - The Gutter - Round 5 *>=================== =========================< Results - A Quiet Moment >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Maya Schrodinger 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lily Keil 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Mikaia's Mirror 1 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jacqueline Barber 5 --(20)--> 25 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Noeline 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lydia Seren 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Schrodinger the Cat 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Prissa 5 --(15)--> 20 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Noeline 80 --(0)--> 80 Fail Conditions: Hesitate(2)|Overzealous(2)|Save Point(1) Effects: Enlighten(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Noeline has failed this challenge! The party gained 0 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
The quietude that falls upon Riesenlied, despite the innumerable number of wounds borne upon her, is significant. The Medium of Life continues to painfully knit away at her, as she perches upon what is essentially a nest-egg of Ley energy. Even now, every one of them can see -- she is hurting to give all of herself upon it, continuing to channel energy towards Mother's sake.
But...
Janey and Mikaia present their drawings -- the drawings from all the children of Wayside. For a long moment, there is nothing more. Then...
Jacqueline feels that sorrow from Grudiev emitted through her Medium, and she entreats her as well as she steps alongside the children. She speaks of how the rest of them care, and that she isn't a burden... and that she isn't a threat.
The Dragon pauses for a moment... and there's a visible, pained struggle--
...I... understand... ...he... understands... too.
Unlike before, within the battle at the entrance to the Photosphere, the emitted thoughts are becoming harder and harder to manage. The cloud of oppressive programming must be becoming harder and harder of a duress upon her...
But... he understands? Ethius, the way he's announced in no indeliberate terms that there would be nothing left of her? Was there something that Riesenlied herself became privy to, or... was it just more forgiveness?
Lily takes a step back and holds her breath, holding her Medium to look at it and apologise to her. She holds up a mirror, Mikaia's first; she lets the magic gaze towards Lily.
And it tells her a truth, which may have been implicitly evident already:
That there is a Ley Point here.
....sister.... I am...
Lily makes her vow solemnly known, and the Ley Dragon squints her eyes for a moment tighter. There's a furled noise, not a shriek, a low lament from the bottom of her throat.
Rigdobrite, too, is echoing upon Lydia. The lamentation hits her as Solais Emsu joins as well. There is something to be fixed here -- something upon which the way one of their own, as well as one of their chosen, has been so toyed with and tampered, ordered to be feasted upon by a festering tick that so devours the world.
Schrodinger appears. Slowly, fully... the passage of time rewinds for that one crisped-picture, leaving it pristine-ish to the way it was before the day the sky turned red once more.
Riesenlied takes notice. And Schrodinger says, 'Meow,' and the Dragon lets out a soft noise-- and-- unexpectedly--
Draws a massive claw forward and... somehow, with acute tenderness, manages to scritch Schrodinger on their belly. Quantum creatures.
But Lydia's impassioned speech is what's more important, as she draws back. Her glowing eyes, so bereft of pupils, are beginning to... wet, in the way a Dragon's only knows how. Perhaps one day a Dragon will shed Tears once more.
It's getting harder, and harder, and harder. And yet she still ekes out...
....it....does...sound fun....lydie....
Lydia feels that painfully brief channel being relayed to her snap shut, the oppressive energies surrounding her drawing her back. It sucks, as she says.
Prissa is nearly knocked back on her feet, but draws back up as she thinks of home, of the Tainted... and some of the similarities that they bear with those back home. All of them with unusual traits, but others cooperating. If they can just build a Home together...
She calls out to her. She calls out the other tribes!! Wow! But she entreats to the Tainted, the trash so called by Mother... and their spirit. How she wishes she could catch it in a blade--
...i want...to shape that blade...
--as Prissa speaks of the crystal sword. The weapon she's blotted from her memory all the time. The weapon who's taken Nasrin's life away, but the weapon she needs to bear proudly to become... a Heritor of the Fereshte.
Maya takes her time to absorb everything everyone is saying. As Janey and Mikaia display their treasure, the shine that outstrips any meagre jewel at all... and she joins them too.
She insists with that vigor as she follwos forward, taking her gloves off... and then does something magical. No, to say it is magical is to perhaps deride what is going on underneath. That little unknowable universal truths that let her place a mask on...
She wears the mask that mimics Riesenlied's, creating an effect not dissimilar to the Dragon's Tear as she spreads that light that carries with it the effulgent shine of all their emotions.
...i can feel...it... all of it...
She's begging, straining with that voice. She receives all of it, the way it transmits to her... and she can give so little back.
She gazes upon Noeline in particular. Her beloved, her soulmate, her betrothed even across the extremely great space that they've been bereft and separated across. But they don't need many words.
As Noeline's lips part to speak her name, she reacts. Her head lifts. The Dragon's Tear begins to reverb again.
noeline... noeline... please...
Somewhere, within the colossal construct of that Dragon, someone is crying out in return as she struggles to want to reach her own hand out, with her own ring upon it.......
... towards the light that they've manifested...
... and the Dragon's paw moves forward, as she lifts a talon that Janey and Mikaia limpet towards. "Mom... mom! Come on-- it'll be okay!"
Then... too cruelly, she retracts that talon. As if she recognises she might be ordered to do something.
She delivers a final message of clarity.
go...please. save them... save them all...
A pause.
...i'll be waiting here...
...i know you'll come for me...
...i want... to be free...
DG: Noeline has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* Photosphere - The Gutter *>========================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Out of the Breach *>======================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
A gigantic Breach tore the Photosphere's underside open centuries ago when
it first crashed into Filgaia. Fortunately for the Hyadeans, this breach was
not obvious from the outside, buried against the thick Arctican snowfield
and shielded by the barrier that surrounds it.
Since then, the Breach has served as an impromptu entrance and exit for the
Tainted and others unfit or not honoured to use the passages above. It leads
to a shallow cavern system in the mountain ranges of Arctica, and with
enough persistence, you should be able to hightail the refugees out of here
and to safety.
The going, however, won't be easy -- the caverns are dark and unmarked, and
a wrong turn could spell disaster for a group of impoverished refugees.
Decide on your route with confidence, with everything that you've learnt
about the surrounding region!
=Dungeon Conditions: Overwhelm================================================
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Partings... are such sweet sorrow.
But they each have a duty to perform, and they know it. The Tainted know it too, as some of them weep just as openly as Lydia, as they turn towards the massive Breach that Noeline and the others have marked out as a proper rendezvous point. It's not risk free, but it's the lowest risk that they can manage--
Navigating through the cavernous systems within the mountain ranges of Arctica, where they should be deposited well on the other side at the end near the Fereshte. The passage is slicked and frosted over, and the low temperatures are going to be difficult for a number of people.
But they're not alone in the dark.
A soft guiding light manages to eke out and shimmer as the Tainted march towards her. It's something... that feels like a little fragment of Riesenlied.
Even when the light is running low, and the shadows start to grow... even when everything in her programming is telling her that all the places she knows are fantasy-- she will let them know:
That she's with them, in the dark...
"Mom....." Janey whispers, nodding towards Mikaia. No more funny tools or anything else... just ardent feelings that won't be swayed.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Behind Noeline's eyes, some sort of determination snaps. She swallows shakily, her hands going to her children's shoulders as she stops them from rushing forwards - it hurts to do it, but she knows she has to, can understand Riesenlied's fears and concerns and the chance that Mother, still alive and watching their every move, might interject in the worst possible way. That, more than anything, would be what would harm Riesenlied the most. If that should happen, she might be lost forever.
But she isn't idle. It's always been her way to try to do several things at once, always have a backup plan, and already there's an inkling of what she's going to do, the plan she's slowly been building in her mind - the corona of Duras Drum flecks around her as, bit by bit, she gathers all of her power. Beyond it, she can spare enough concentration to focus on the Dragon's Tear, tilting her head as she grits her teeth hard enough to grimace from the pressure.
"I'll be back for you - we'll be back for you," she promises softly, her voice the tiniest of whispers; her hands shake a little where they lay on Janey and Mikaia, so tempted to draw them into fists and dig her fingers into her palms, stopping herself by means of their presence. "We'll save them, and then we'll save you. Hold on. Please," she begs quietly.
She snaps her head up, blinking tears back as she feels Riesenlied's tiny remaining presence call to her and beckon her forwards. "Outreach--" she starts to say, and has to catch herself as her voice quivers; it takes an effort to strengthen it, but she manages. "Outreach. We're taking the back exit. Clear as much of the debris as you can - get lanterns and ladders in place, and fire as many flares as you can into the breach to light our way," she orders softly. "Those of you with us-- follow me."
Turning away from the dragon where it waits patiently may be the hardest thing she's ever done - but she manages it, and bit by bit her steps begin to hurry.
DG: Noeline has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Out of the Breach.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Riesenlied and Ethius...understand something? What is it that they understand that she doesn't? Jacqueline...falters a bit. She didn't know. Maybe it was something she couldn't know - she was too close to this, she wouldn't allow herself to see...something.
Was she...lying to herself...?
She can tell that Riesenlied is struggling to maintain some amount of control. It makes her ache deep in her heart. Jacqueline shuts her eyes, tears beginning to form as Riesenlied entreats them with a final message of clarity.
"...I...I-I will, Riesenlied. You have my promise. I'll save them - I'll...I'll save everyone." She says, nodding resolutely. Her fingers tighten around Grudiev's Medium as she tries to get her breathing under control. They weren't out quite yet.
She turns, leaving with shaky steps. She has to do this. She has to do this...
And there is a light, a soft, guiding light, warm and familiar... Jacqueline looks toward it. She was with them, even now, in her own way...
"Everyone, take this - it'll help keep you warm even in temperatures like this." She says. It isn't easy to keep her voice steady and even, but she had to - they needed to remain strong for the people they were leading to safety. She knew she wasn't the only person feeling this way.
Jacqueline begins to dispense a bright red potion from her bags. True to her words, it helps to keep the body's temperature at a warm, comfortable place, even in the cold. Not only that, it has a pleasant cinnamon flavor that will surely help the spirit as much as the body.
DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Out of the Breach.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia lowers her head. She is quiet for a long time. "Just a little longer, then. One way or 'nother. Done it for a while before, can do it for a while now."
Her hand snakes out and takes a potion and quaffs it gradually.
"I'll follow your lead, cat." Lydia says. "Hasn't steered me wrong yet."
It's superstitious, perhaps, and yet she does. Follow the cat. That's how it goes.
She starts humming along as she walks, some old Baskar tune, nothing fancy, or exciting. In fact, it sounds melancholic but perhaps the tune has long lost its words, because Lydia doesn't seem to know them.
Or maybe she's found the weakness of words.
DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Schrodinger the Cat toward her party's challenge, Out of the Breach.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
There's scarce little else to be said - not because the blonde girl can't find the words, but because she has so little left in the tank to offer.
"Ha~a. . ." Maya's weariness isn't something in the bones or the flesh, but a great toll taken on the soul. "Pretty sure--that got through to her... just a little..." she mumbles, even as the group turn and tear themselves away from Riesenlied's resting form.
It takes all of Maya's concentration to pop the cork on one of Jay's concoctions and muster the motor control to actually drink it. The biting frost chills a little less, and the world swims a little less too. "Reckon she's gonna be real happy to see all their faces again, you know--when it's over..."
But beneath that exterior of too-tired, there's a moist trail worn down each of the blonde's cheeks which suggests more is at play. If only for a moment, she got to see the blinding beauty of kindness from the same perspective Riesenlied has seen it, no doubt many, many times.
It's possible she'll never be the same again.
So, throat cleared, back straight, Maya sticks closer to Lydia on the way out. Side by side. Not for any tactical or strategic reason, but because this whole ordeal has been a good reminder: you keep your wonderful family nearby whenever you got the chance, lest you regret it later.
That's not a very helpful dig action, Maya!
DG: Maya Schrodinger has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Out of the Breach.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily feels it, she thinks; the awful cloud in the way, the terrible miasma that represents--embodies?--the curse that leads them to this place. It's so close. ...But she sees, then, the reason the wounds didn't heal--the truth of what's happening here. Amidst the voice, the emotions... Lily sees the Ley Point in the mirror. She understands. The Ley Dragon's lament now seems somehow obvious to her, somehow clear in its meaning.
So the red-clad soldier stares up at the dragon for long moments. She wonders if she can communicate, in this way; she certainly feels Riesenlied's wish. But...
...They can only be what they are. Her, too.
Noeline directs orders. Jay gives out the potions. Finally, Lily Keil turns, looks towards both of them.. and shakes her head.
"No," she says simply. "Save the potion for one of the people who need it. I don't..."
She lets that hang, looks around at all of the others, "Because I'm not going. I'm going to remain behind, here."
Here, where Riesenlied could be given her orders at any moment; where it could turn into a battle, where the Ley energy could spew its poison, where it is dangerous. ...Lily's boots crunch faintly against disturbed stone as she walks to the edge of the dais, stares up at the dragon again, and turns to look at the group. She stops, then, and walks up to Mikaia, takes a knee in front of her, and holds out the mirror. "...I need you to hold onto this for me, until we meet again, all right?" Lily asks. "I'll need it, later." Her voice is soft and sure; her eyes are gentle, for once. After that, she rises again, and inclines her head.
"Be careful, everyone. ...And..."
"Thank you."
She turns, and says nothing else.
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Mikaia's Mirror toward her party's challenge, Out of the Breach.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
It's a helpful Lydia action though because Lydia moves closer to Maya and leans against her, raising an arm and wrapping it around her in a hug.
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.
Save them all, Prissa thinks, tilting her head forwards.
Prissa takes a deep breath. She can read between lines, or so she thinks. She does not expect them to return.
The others start moving. They accept this too, don't they? Ugh, Prissa thinks, because the weird and half-removed tensions in her heart counterbalance themselves and let her aesthetic sense - which is very well developed to begin with - shine forth. She does not move ahead, perhaps silently reading the tau of the room and expecting to become the rear guard.
Then Lily Keil surprises her.
Prissa takes a deep breath through her nose and says -
"Hey."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vUtM9iySqg
"Lily Keil," Prissa says, as if it were one word. Prissa reaches for the hilt on her shoulder where she had slid that long weapon she used to help pry open a door just so shortly ago.
"..."
The blade comes out. In the failing light the metal shines, reflecting the ley lines. Prissa does not swing it round or grasp it in anger, simply drawing it and laying the long blade on her hand.
"You remember, don't you? That great dog. The faithful one. A world away."
The sword is honestly rather implausibly long. It is at least bastard length, perhaps a guaranteed two hander. The pattern of the metal does not look like anything too much like the traditional blades of Kislev, or, quite, anywhere.
https://i.imgur.com/HaFGmYO.png
"Well," Prissa says. "I did. I made this blade, suitable for a Guardian, from those memories."
A second passes.
She looks up at Lily. "Metal Demons may come, or some new and unwanted fiend. Or, I might cucco out, myself. I have already about crapped my pants twice. But as an artist I cannot permit this, you know?! This is already a legend in the making!! You are stepping into it!! And I will not leave you alone -"
Prissa moves with sudden savage swiftness, stabbing the tip of the blade into the floor of the room - well away from any live flow of Ley, thankfully, although there is a superficial sparkling of blue. Some of the metal begins to gleam a faint, decorative orange.
"Without something worth it!! I expect this back, Lily Keil!! It is Galatine - remember that! Good day!"
And with this she turns and stomps off after the others.
DG: Prissa has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Out of the Breach.
========================<* Photosphere - The Gutter *>========================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Out of the Breach *>======================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
A gigantic Breach tore the Photosphere's underside open centuries ago when
it first crashed into Filgaia. Fortunately for the Hyadeans, this breach was
not obvious from the outside, buried against the thick Arctican snowfield
and shielded by the barrier that surrounds it.
Since then, the Breach has served as an impromptu entrance and exit for the
Tainted and others unfit or not honoured to use the passages above. It leads
to a shallow cavern system in the mountain ranges of Arctica, and with
enough persistence, you should be able to hightail the refugees out of here
and to safety.
The going, however, won't be easy -- the caverns are dark and unmarked, and
a wrong turn could spell disaster for a group of impoverished refugees.
Decide on your route with confidence, with everything that you've learnt
about the surrounding region!
=Dungeon Conditions: Overwhelm================================================
===================<* Photosphere - The Gutter - Round 6 *>=================== =======================< Results - Out of the Breach >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Maya Schrodinger 20 --(5)--> 25 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lily Keil 20 --(5)--> 25 Pass Mikaia's Mirror 1 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jacqueline Barber 25 --(10)--> 35 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Noeline 20 --(5)--> 25 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lydia Seren 20 --(5)--> 25 Pass Schrodinger the Cat 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Prissa 20 --(10)--> 30 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Noeline 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(1)|Overwhelm|Overzealous(1) Effects: Enlighten(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Noeline has successfully explored Photosphere - The Gutter!
========================<* Photosphere - The Gutter *>========================
====================<* CHALLENGE - Towards a New World *>=====================
|Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
"Just... a little more..."
The noise of propellers and the low whirr of Kislevi slave generators echo
at the mouth of the frosted cavern as you exit through to the other side --
The Fereshte is here! Overjoyed hollers and shouts echo through the
snowfield as the Tainted reunite with their long lost friends; the Wayside
Outreach's medics and first responders take the refugees from here, loading
them up to the cargo bay which is currently acting as an emergency clinic.
The Outreach thanks you for your hard work and efforts, and provides healing
and restorative services so that you can head back.
You've succeeded in rescuing a group of Tainted!
But the battle is not yet over. Mother awaits, as do more refugees within
the Gutter...
(NOTE: Your efforts have contributed to the total Exploration of this Dig!
After a certain point, the rescue efforts will be deemed a success!)
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Again, and again, Noeline and Riesenlied are forced apart. By circumstance, by the orders that cloud Riesenlied's mind at present... they've been torn apart time and time again, and this time-- one more time.
She'll be back... she'll be back for her. She has to remain strong, and she does it in the way that she does -- through the plans being brought forth in her mind, in her concentration to the Tear... to Janey and Mikaia.
She issues the orders to get them through. Their most perilous journey yet...
Jacqueline is stymied by something she doesn't understand. Riesenlied feels, in just one moment, that she could relay more towards her... it hurts her to do so. But she proceeds... and offers them potions to keep them warm to beat back the cold temperatures. The Tainted nod gratefully, the worst-off of them needing it most...
Even if this is their back yard... the lengths in which they've been injured make it most dangerous. They need to be brought to more temperate places, to places less hostile for them.
Lydia proceeds with Schrodinger leading them -- the light seems to react to the cat's presence. She hums a tune... and Janey hums along, seemingly knowing it in turn. The weakness of words...
"... she heard you... she's fighting back with them... it's okay, Lydia... we'll be the cucco to light her soul..." Janey's kind of nattering as she goes along. "'cause you're right... she's our treasure."
Maya's following through with them, the toll in their souls as she reassures that they got through to her. Because whatever little they're able to push through -- is a treasure and a boon. Towards someone so alone in the dark...
"You're right... miss Maya..." speaks Mikaia softly as she helps guide some of the others along, instinctively staying close to Noeline. And Maya clings close to that wonderful reminder. Keep your wonderful family close...
But she's forced to pause as sh elooks towards Lily as she declares that she's staying. She bites her lip-- but... where the Mikaia of a year ago might've begged and whined and screamed at Lily to come with, she quietly clings to that mirror and... nods.
"... I trust you, Miss Lily..." A pause. "... don't... make me feel the pain of losing you..."
Prissa pauses to address Lily as well, as she holds the blade in her hands. Implausibly long, with hues of red and with a curious pattern, suitable for a Guardian, she says.
And she stabs that to the floor of the room, nearer to where the Ley Dragon still persists. She leaves it with Lily... and marches off with the others.
...
"Look... I see--"
"Light. I see light!"
It feels as if they've spent an eternity in the dark. But as Noeline boldly presses on towards the last nook that she knows for certain is right-- the scouts cry out and confirm what she already knows. What they already know.
The sound of the Fereshte's propellers and the thrum of the mixture of Emma Motor and Kislevi slave generator can be heard; overjoyed hollers and excited shouts echo in the distance, as some of the Tainted start running and marching for their kin. Embraces are had; several friends are hollering excitedly as they reunite for the first time in over a year.
"... I'm... utterly beat..." Janey lets out a faint grin, looking towards Noeline and Lydia. Then gets dog-piled by some of the children yelling and hugging and berating them for their foolish bravery.
Mikaia nods as she slumps to the snow for a moment. She pauses...
"... that's... our contribution. Mom... Lydia... Maya... Miss Jay... Miss Prissa..."
She nods towards each of them, eyes shining with a resolve she could've only inherited from each of them. Her tears are long-dried.
"... do it... do it for all of us. We'll be with you in spirit... every step of the way."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
The Hyadean glances at Lily - and simply nods once. "... I'm trusting you as well," she says quietly under her breath - and then the urgency of the situation propels her forwards, into and through the lower catacombs of the Gutter in their mad dash to lead the Tainted out. There really isn't much more to say than that.
After what feels like a lifetime, Noeline lands roughly on the deck of the Fereshte, rappelling down the last of one of the ropes, and then immediately turns to begin helping one of the less-able Tainted down to the ship, taking the Metal Demon bodily over her shoulder in a fireman's lift. "Get some more stretchers!" she calls behind her to where the crew of the ship await for further news. "We have more coming!"
The words, the orders hardly need saying aloud - Noeline is already well aware that the Outreach are more than capable of keeping up with her commands, and by the time she turns next with the Tainted over her shoulder there's already a cot waiting for her to lower the metal demon she's carrying into.
"... there you go," she mutters. "Take it easy. We'll find the others and be back with them, alright?" The levity can't quite reach her eyes - there is too much anger and sorrow there for it to feel truly genuine, but at the same time the words are obviously meant in good faith.
She looks up, this time to help Janey and Mikaia down off the last of the ropes. The pair are obviously tired, obviously spent emotionally and physically - and Noeline feels a clutch at her heart as she briefly lowers to her knees to scoop them both up in an embrace. "... you did well," she huffs to them both, swallowing back her emotion for a little longer. "You rest up, as well. ... and after that, I need you to help out on board the Fereshte. Look after this place, so I can bring her back here," she whispers fiercely.
She looks up to those around her, her face drawn as she looks back up towards the breach. There's fatigue around her, but also a steely determination, and it shows in the way she immediately takes one of the ropes in hand, preparing to ascend back into the Photosphere. "... thank you," she says in an almost far-away tone of proclamation, glancing at Maya at the same time as she offers a solemn nod of respect before seeming to blink back to herself with a rueful chuckle. "If you need a moment to rest, take it. The Fereshte's set on a patrol path - if you want to get higher, I suggest gathering your breath and enjoying the scenic ride."
For her part, she leaps for the rope, beginning to take it hand over hand. The shifting aura around her has not abated, not in the least - instead, it's only growing, pulsing slowly larger as Noeline draws bit by bit by bit on every last sliver of the Medium inside of her. Whatever plan she has - it seems to be in full sway.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline looks toward Lily as she declines the potion...and, quietly, nods.
"...I understand. We'll see you again." She says, a bit reluctantly...and then pushes forward.
It's difficult. Jacqueline still feels...heavy with emotion, but even so she pushes through the tears and the sorrow. She has to - people are counting on her, and she couldn't let them down. It isn't easy - the cold here is biting, and it dampens the spirit just as effectively as it dampens the body. But they force their way through, and soon...
On the horizon, they see light - light that the interior of the Photosphere had concealed. The Fereshte must be close now. A smile crosses Jacqueline's face and she sighs in relief, picking up the pace.
She watches the reunion and then sends Mikaia and Janey a nod.
"...You two did well. Take care of everyone in my stead, alright?" Jacqueline says, and nods, offering the two of them a smile. "...Of course."
And then she turns back, looking toward the Photosphere. ...She couldn't stay here long, not while...
"...I have to go back in. The rest of the Kinship are probably working hard right now...I should be there with them." Jacqueline says, looking back with a smile.
And then, she starts off. There were many hopes and dreams riding on her shoulders now...but it wasn't a weight burdening her. It was encouragment to spur her onward.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
There's a lot to take in for the emotionally exhausted Drifter. Both of the kids race ahead of Maya, but that's fine. She's going mostly at Lydia's pace anyway, as the exit looms clearer.
But there's a lack of footsteps, a missing beat from the cadence of the group, and it gives the blonde pause. She looks over her shoulder, to where Lily has stopped. To pass something heartfelt to Mikaia, to pledge to get back into the fight. There's a few moments of silence and concentration before Maya remembers--what felt like a lifetime ago--in the belly of a beast on another world.
She picks her way back over to Lily slowly, with heavy footfalls. Her boots feel like they weigh a ton each. "Hey, before you go--" Maya offers gently, while Lily is still taking a knee. "--should've given this back to you a while ago." and she pulls a familiar old knife from the pouch at her side. Pulls, that is. She doesn't project, create, or otherwise dream it into existence. It's Lily's, and it belongs back with her. "Call me a whimsical fool, but I reckon it brought me luck, and I'd be pretty damn sad if we didn't get to catch up again later."
There's little else she does to interfere. Lily has a mission, and she'd best see to it. It's what soldiers to.
-=-
Noeline respectfully offers to let Maya rest, and the weary Drifter looks up at her with her soul practically sloughing from her shoulders as she leans against Lydia for support. But she knows that it's there, and in that moment, there's no sweeter treasure in all the world.
"Hell no, tie a rope around my waist and drag me with you if you're headed in back in there, chief." she half-exhales, half-laughs the words. "If that punk mask thinks she's gonna eat my world, hell if I'm gonna take it lying down."
And then she falls face-forward into the snow, arms and legs out. Making a snow angel.
"Nap first."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"Thank you," Lily says to Mikaia, and she knows the strength it takes for Mikaia to accept this. "...Don't worry. I have no plans to die down here, Mikaia. There's too much that I have to do yet."
She rises, and looks to Noeline. "I know," Lily says, and watches as Maya approaches. The familiar knife... Lily looks down at it, and up to Maya again. "...I wouldn't doubt that you did. This knife has saved me more than once. I've had it since my first time to the warfront."
And yet, she gave it to Maya to carry for a while. Lily readies herself to get to business...
But Prissa says Lily's name, and Lily turns towards her, businesslike as ever. Her expression suggests awaiting what there is to say, and does not expect what comes. The soldier looks down to the weapon, looks up to Prissa again, and thinks back to that place, that place she still sees in dreams sometimes.
"I do," Lily answers.
The blade is not traditional to anything Lily recognizes, but she has seen Prissa's work. The explanation comes, and what she says--
Lily watches Prissa stomp off. A Guardian, she said; Lily knows from the way she says it that that means something. So she looks down to the sword, and says, "Galatine. I will remember."
She walks towards it, and carefully takes hold of its hilt, feeling the weight before she so much as shifts it. There she stands, until she doesn't hear the footsteps of the group walking away anymore, and until they've faded into the darkness. Even after that, she's silent for long moments, until...
"It's just us again," Lily says to the Ley Dragon, looking up at her without this time considering points of attack, places of weakness, angles of danger. "...It feels like it's been so long, now, since we met. I wonder... was it fate? Or happenstance? Would it still have come to this, if things hadn't gone as they have?"
Lily waits long moments for something, and then lowers her eyes, looks to the altar before her. "...I wish I'd been strong enough. What use is power, if it can't save the ones you care for? What does it matter to be strong if there's nothing to be strong for?"
"I should have told him, I know. I should have told him what I was planning. But I didn't. ...Trying to do everything myself again, it probably sounds like, doesn't it? But... I'm not. I want you to know that."
Lily looks up again, and turns towards the exit, where the others left, are out of sight now. She lets out a breath, sighing softly.
Pressing her lips together, it's a moment before she says, "If this really is the end, Riese... I can think of worse places to be." Gold eyes trace the sinuous line of a dragon's neck, from body to head. "We'll both do what we have to do."
Tightening her grip around Galatine's hilt, Lily pulls the sword free, hefting it, letting herself rest it against her shoulder with one hand. ...She'll need both to wield it, but first...
First,Lily lifts her radio to her lips, checks the frequency, and depresses the talk button with a static crackle.
"-Transmitting coordinates, authorization Kilo Niner November. ...Deployment is a go. Repeat, go.-"
It's time.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
That, at least, gets Noeline to hesitate for a moment. "... you see, this is exactly what I'm talking about," she huffs - and yet, with her aura sparking around her, she actually does wait a short distance up the rope for the Drifter to get back up.
... and then adds: "... someone at least lift her out of the snow before she catches a cold."