2019-05-07: Another Day After Sin

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  • Log: 2019-05-07: Another Day After Sin
  • Cast: Jacqueline Barber, Catenna, Seloria Guado, Seraph Lanval, Bera
  • Where: Crusader Forward Base
  • Date: May 07, 2019
  • Summary: When all seems lost - and it could well be - there is still yet much to do. Operation Mi'ihen was a dismal failure, but some hardy souls are already doing what they can to pick up the pieces, reunite with their friends yet unaware of their fate, or anything in between.

==============================================<* Crusader Forward Base *>===============================================

To the west of the Mi'ihen Highroad is found a long, jagged mountain chain that serves as a weather break and help keep both Luca and the Highroad itself safe from vicious storms. A large plateau in this chain, overlooking a wide, sloping beach, has been selected as the forward operating base for the Crusaders' Operation Mi'ihen.

The site is swarming with frenetic activity, as Crusaders move on critical errands, or train in mass combat in preparation for the assault. A few Yevonite robes can be seen among the masses, belonging to priests and priestesses who have refused to abandon those who are seeking to put an end to Sin.

On either side of the plateau can be seen a pair of large, glistening metal... things. These are ancient machina weapons, being tended to by the Al Bhed. Even in spite of the cooperation existing between the two groups, each tends to associate with their own.

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA2mQV8iXxs
DG: A party led by Jacqueline Barber is now entering Mushroom Rock Road.
DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
===========================<* Mushroom Rock Road *>===========================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Sudden Triage Unit *>=====================
|Type: Entry       |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 2          | 
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 The wounded are in no small supply along Mushroom Rock Road. Be it at the     
 entrances to the winding mountain pathway or the beach where Sin was          
 battled, injured Crusaders are not uncommon. To make matters worse, the       
 fiends have grown far more common since Operation Mi'ihen, as the Crusaders   
 lack the numbers to clear fiends out regularly.                               
                                                                               
 As you start your journey, you come across over a dozen people with various   
 types of wounds; some are severe, some are minor, and a couple are mere       
 scratches that still have the unfortunate in a lather. It will take some      
 work to decide who to treat first, and who has to wait until the truly dire   
 wounds are tended to.                                                         
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Tire============================================
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Following Operation Mi'ihen, the need for medical supplies was on the rise. There were many injured - either unaccounted from before, or injuries acquired later due to having to fight more fiends with fewer numbers available. As an apothecary, she felt it was her duty to volunteer her services.

Jacqueline had been making regular trips to and from Mushroom Rock Road, but this time she intends to go further in than she had before - but to do so would mean the possibility of running into bigger threats.

For that reason, she had put out a request for people who could join her on her mission. Perhaps you're here answering that call, or perhaps you were already here for your own reasons.

Either way, it is not long before the first sign of trouble occurs. There's a place where over a dozen people have gathered - either wounded from the Operation, or having had to fend off Fiends afterward.

Jacqueline takes point immediately.

"I am sorry it took so long to get to you...don't worry, just leave everything to us. My friends and I have curatives with us." She says confidently, putting a smile on her face.

"Can you all take a look and help me sort out who needs to be treated first?" She asks, beginning to rummage through her bags for some potions.

DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Sudden Triage Unit.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.

"Kaguya didn't take the warning," Catenna murmurs.

The battle with Kaguya took a lot out of Catenna, most of it in the form of blood - but she'd been adamant about not fighting Sin. Now, as she moves down the Mushroom Rock Road, the woman is still weary, and no less resigned. There's a palor to her expression that has nothing to do with the lingering traces of weakness left behind as her body finishes recovering.

Hearts beat. The minutes are the blurring of a thousand nanoseconds. Catenna's hands are covered in blood that isn't hers. Beneath her, a young Spiran man cries out in pain as she touches her fingertips to a garish wound and calls on a god that is not of this world. The soft magics of Lucadia are not her first level of magisteria, but they are what she has to treat the man with a horrifying wound to his left arm, bone splintered in more places than she can count, flesh mangled into something resembling dinner in the early stages of preparation.

She can't tell you, intellectually, why she chose him first. But his cries die down as she breathes, the spell letting go with tender glimmers of ocean blue. "Please try not to move it," she murmurs as bone begins to knit and muscles begin to wend back together.

The man is pale beneath her. All she can see are his huge eyes, wide and brown and full of pain and emotion.

Near Jay, the Owlet comes toddling over, carrying a potion in her beak. She rolls it towards another wounded man.

DG: Catenna has used her Tool Saarda-Shanta toward her party's challenge, Sudden Triage Unit.
<Pose Tracker> Seloria Guado has posed.

Flip, flip. The spindly figure of a woman can be seen in the back row in their makeshift 'party', disheveled head bowed over a rather dog-eared bundle of papers loosely stitched together to form a tome. Close to her feet lie several wounded people clumped together in an untidy sprawl, whom she glances at now and again with an abstracted frown. "Please be patient." Her voice is like glass, colorlessly reflecting the distress her 'patients' must feel in such circumstances.

"Aha, naturally - symbolism is based on fact, however exaggerated..." Reverentially folding the book shut - its crooked pages demand it be treated more like pamphlet than a traditional book - she turns and gestures vaguely to an outcrop upon which flowers several stunted and warped examples of the local flora. "If we run low, the crushed leaves from the bulbous one should help deaden pain and alleviate minor symptoms sufficiently to ensure merely minor discomfort until...well, until we can secure a proper healer."

She falls silent again, offering no explanation nor greetings other than her branded robes. The Yevonites go where they shall, without question.

DG: Seloria Guado has used her Tool Maechen's Compedium toward her party's challenge, Sudden Triage Unit.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    Lanval's strength is low, after that pitched battle in a failed attempt to deal with the Clysmian. He had to hide in a bottle near Skylr for a while, doing his level best to ensure she didn't get into (immediate) trouble for associating with him. It's the least he could do for her. In the sorrow that followed, there was enough misery and commotion alike that the bottle could just roll off - but this has presented some new and unique dangers that have further delayed a safe exit from the are.
     He hasn't been able to make contact with Talise and the rest yet - he bets they're worried sick, because anyone outside of that barrier... is almost definitely a goner. As his bottle rolls along Mushrom Rock Road by circumstance, Lanval's wary to project himself. There's so many pyreflies in the air. He can only imagine all the lingering sorrow, anger, and envy. Normally, where he's from, battlefields are a veritable breeding ground for Malevolence. There's none of that here, but with the threat of Fiends coalescing out of them at any time...
     They have, at least eight times by now. At this moment, he's at the tail end of rolling away from a persistent Fiend. It would seem that numerous injured have decided to set up camp. He doesn't approach from the same direction Jay is, and is presently unaware of there being any more able-bodied people.
     A masked young woman with blonde hair clutches her abdomen.
     "Ed ec kaddehk lumt... cu lumt..." She murmurs in lament, as the bottle stops rolling. Inside, the water elemental stirs. He's exhausted, he's frightened, and he feels surrounded by danger on all sides.
     ...
     A moment later, a portly barefoot bearded fellow appears from an emerging aquamarine light, bearing a drinking gourd.
     "Heyyyy..."
     "Ec ed y... ec ed yhudran? Ys E du tea eh dra aht...? Du yhudran...!" The frightened woman starts shifting where she lies, voice trembling. Delirious. She just saw someone appear out of nowhere.
     Even Lanval is taken aback, surrounded by so much fear, loathing, and resignation. He quietly begins to work on a Seraphic Arte of healing waters, but his would-be patient is uncooperative.
     He tries.
     He tries, because he doesn't want to see more pyreflies join the swarms he's been seeing all around.

DG: Seraph Lanval has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Sudden Triage Unit.
<Pose Tracker> Bera has posed.

    Bera had made numerous trips to and from the Djose Temple and the Crusader's camp. Mostly to deal with fiends, but also helping the Crusaders consolate what power was left to them and see their wounded tended to. Thankfully, even as the Warrior Monks moved into the nearby temple taking over operations they didn't turn away the Crusaders.

    Blue eyes scan the injuried along the road, the left glinting with a light for a moment as she scans over each of them. "None of them have life threatening injuries. And you've already spotted the most injuried the group." her voice flat. Blue eyes turn to scan up and down the road checking for fiends as she says "They need rest at the Djose Temple." as looks back to the group of injuried. "The path will be kept clear of fiends till you all arrive." she says to the group.

DG: Bera has used her Tool Scan Skill toward her party's challenge, Sudden Triage Unit.
===========================<* Mushroom Rock Road *>===========================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Sudden Triage Unit *>=====================
|Type: Entry       |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 2          | 
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 The wounded are in no small supply along Mushroom Rock Road. Be it at the     
 entrances to the winding mountain pathway or the beach where Sin was          
 battled, injured Crusaders are not uncommon. To make matters worse, the       
 fiends have grown far more common since Operation Mi'ihen, as the Crusaders   
 lack the numbers to clear fiends out regularly.                               
                                                                               
 As you start your journey, you come across over a dozen people with various   
 types of wounds; some are severe, some are minor, and a couple are mere       
 scratches that still have the unfortunate in a lather. It will take some      
 work to decide who to treat first, and who has to wait until the truly dire   
 wounds are tended to.                                                         
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Tire============================================
======================<* Mushroom Rock Road - Round 1 *>======================
=======================< Results - Sudden Triage Unit >=======================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jacqueline Barber                   0 --(20)--> 20                 Fail
Investigate                         0   Wits    Effects: BASIC                
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bera                                0 --(15)--> 15                 Pass
Scan Skill                          2   Wits    Effects: Enlighten            
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Catenna                             0 --(20)--> 20                 Fail
Saarda-Shanta                       1   Wits    Effects: Cleanse              
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seraph Lanval                       0 --(20)--> 20                 Fail
Investigate                         0   Wits    Effects: BASIC                
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seloria Guado                       0 --(15)--> 15                 Pass
Maechen's Compedium                 1   Wits    Effects: Enlighten and Rally  
----------------------------------< Party >-----------------------------------
Leader: Jacqueline Barber           0 --(10)--> 10                 Fail
Conditions: Stupify(2)|Tire(2)
Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1)
==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Jacqueline Barber has failed this challenge! The party gained 10 exploration! If anyone needs to
use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

It isn't easy work, treating the wounded. Tensions are high, with everything that has happened, and more than once Jacqueline has to urge people to sit down and be patient, and she'll get to them.

Some of them are eager to get moving, while some are overcome with grief. It complicates matters.

But, eventually, with some effort, they manage to get everyone tended to. There are now casualties, thankfully, though there may have been a few scares. Jacqueline's a little exhausted afterward...but she can't stop here.

"Thank you for your help, you two..." Jacqueline says, looking toward Bera and Seloria. Catenna's help, of course, is always welcome, as well - Jacqueline was worried about her condition, but she knew that she couldn't do this without her help.

"Alright, we mustn't linger...let's get moving, everyone." Jacqueline says, looking toward the party, as well as the recently-treated.

She doesn't spot Lanval yet - but as they move forward, it's only a matter of time.

DG: Seraph Lanval has drawn a new Challenge.
================================================<* Mushroom Rock Road *>================================================
==============================================<* CHALLENGE - Dual Horn *>===============================================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 2          | 
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
 Fiends are a constant danger on Mushroom Rock Road. One of the strongest is   
 the Dual Horn: a massive, canine-like beast that has a pair of enormous,      
 ridged horns that poke out of its back. With huge claws, snapping fangs, and  
 a powerful fire breath, these fiends pose a serious danger... and one of      
 them lunges at you now from the cliffside!                                    
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    Even in relief, there seems to be no true relief. The people of Spira have been told, in action, that Sin will not be defeated by mere might - not even by the ingenuity of heretical Otherworlders. As about everyone continues their journey through Mushroom Rock Road to whatever end they are going, there is a blood-curdling braying further ahead. The silhouette of a huge canine beast - no a Fiend! - a huge canine Fiend casts a fell shadow upon the road, the horns casting an even bigger shadow for their massive size.
     More like it emerge from the sides. Predatory, like a pack. What feelings or foibles gave rise to these creatures? That is not the question. The question is what can be done with them, as they start to circle one of the only 'safe' roads going through here.
     One from the cliffside leads the rest forward, and suddenly, there is a change in the air as though the air pressure were that of an oncoming monsoon - like the water itself were incensed.
     It is.
     Lanval can be found up ahead, manifested despite weariness, reaching a manifested finger inside a bright white bottle, stirring it, and flicking his hand out to a pressurized spray of shining, clear, pure water that sets a red line that the Fiends will not cross.
     For a while.
     He can't stand against this many Dual Horns on his own in his present state, but it's not stopping him from trying to prevent them from ambushing the triage camp.

DG: Seraph Lanval has used his Tool Holy Bottle toward his party's challenge, Dual Horn.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.

Catenna has nothing to say. Her hands are stained with blood. She has to stop and wash her hands somewhere.

It feels like it isn't coming off, no matter how much it does. I should've done more. I shouldn't have left it with Kaguya.

When Catenna does rejoin the group, she's quiet, her eyes unfocused. Saarda-Shanta perches on her shoulder, watching her with quiet worry.

Ahead, the shadow of a huge Fiend looms, but Catenna almost doesn't see it. Still more begin to make themselves known. Only the group's stopping alerts her that something is amiss. Stepping back, the Moon Shaman presses her lips firmly together.

The Rain Oracle makes his presence felt. Swallowing firmly, Catenna reaches to her side and comes up with a familiar shape of silver. Even the Guardians screamed in the face of Sin. Can even Yuna stand against Obsession...? A Clysmian....

She forces herself to act. Raising the Medium, Catenna draws herself up more dramatically then usual before leveling her hand without a word. Her eyes fixate intently on one of the wolflike Fiends.

With a ripple in the air, gravity seizes two of them, attempting to hurl them up and slam them down.

DG: Catenna has used her Tool Celesdue Medium toward her party's challenge, Dual Horn.
<Pose Tracker> Seloria Guado has posed.

Like a swarm biting and burrowing into the flesh, the pyreflies in Seloria's right pocket make their agitation clear against her curled palm. She flinches almost imperceptibly, barely managing to maintain the quiet placidity most Guado find easy to express. Gaze flickering back to the group and their foreign appearance, the girl ventures a murmured prayer to 'Yevon', brows pinching together when the tongue falls into the rhythm of another, older entreaty.
"Welcome. Tarrying is indeed ill-advised." Briefly she backtracks, to where her hitherto unmentioned staff reclines at a jaunty angle. Iron-shod, it is little more than a reinforced stick, nonetheless a welcome weight in her slightly sweaty grip.

When the beasts comes snapping, her right arm moves in one fluid arc to slide inside the depths of her heavy robe, emerging with a faintly luminous jar whose radiance increases to eye-searing levels with every thunderous step closer the fiend takes towards them. Twisting open the lid, she lets the pyreflies flutter free, coalescing into a viscous, raging form only dimly realised. "Lead them away." she mutters "Fall upon one another." Her head throbs as the beasts close in.

DG: Seloria Guado has used her Tool Pyreflies toward her party's challenge, Dual Horn.
<Pose Tracker> Bera has posed.

    Bera nods once at Jacqueline's thanks but says nothing. Medical treatment isn't something the samurai really does. On the other hand, what she does deal really well with shows up soon enough. "Ugh, every day, just more of them." she mutters in an annoyed tone.

    Through her hand falls to her katana she doesn't strike at first looking at Lanval and then his effect on the fiends thinking. Then she shrugs and drops into a draw stance before blasting out into the group of fiends with a slashing draw.

    Ice freezes the air and some of the spray on the first strike. Electricity crackles as lightning runs the length of the blade and fiends the second. Fire explodes all around tracing the path of the katana before it's resheath and Bera's jumping back out of the group prepared for the counterattack and to prepare to strike anew if needed.

    "Tarrying won't matter, they'll be more either way till the effects of the Operation fade." Bera says harshly.

DG: Bera has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Dual Horn.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Jacqueline moves forward, then stops abruptly in her tracks at the sound of terrible braying.

"...Fiends. It sounds like they're attacking something...let's hurry!" Jacqueline urges, rushing forward with greater urgency

Soon, she spots Lanval - attempting to hold off said Fiends. He looks exhausted, though... Jacqueline frowns slightly, then reaches into her bags for a book.

"These are...Dual Horns!" She says, flipping through the pages. "They are very powerful physically - whether it's with their horns, claws, or those giant horns that give them their names. But they possess the ability to breathe fire, as well...so try to stay moving, if you can't, and don't let yourself get surrounded!"

With the warning given Jacqueline closes the book and stows it away again before making a gesture with her right hand.

The temperatue around several of the Dual Horns begins to drop rapidly, ice beginning to form - and potentially freezing them solid.

As she casts, though, she glances to the side, toward Seloria - who brings out a shining jar. Jacqueline watches in surprise as pyreflies emerge from it.

...Interesting.

"Maybe so...but we should probably hurry regardless." Jacqueline says, as an aside toward Bera.

DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool The Lifeweaver's Codex toward her party's challenge, Dual Horn.
================================================<* Mushroom Rock Road *>================================================
==============================================<* CHALLENGE - Dual Horn *>===============================================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 2          | 
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
 Fiends are a constant danger on Mushroom Rock Road. One of the strongest is   
 the Dual Horn: a massive, canine-like beast that has a pair of enormous,      
 ridged horns that poke out of its back. With huge claws, snapping fangs, and  
 a powerful fire breath, these fiends pose a serious danger... and one of      
 them lunges at you now from the cliffside!                                    
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
===========================================<* Mushroom Rock Road - Round 2 *>===========================================
================================================< Results - Dual Horn >=================================================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jacqueline Barber                   20 --(10)--> 30                Fail
The Lifeweaver's Codex              2   Combat  Effects: Embolden             
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bera                                15 --(10)--> 25                Fail
Fight                               0   Combat  Effects: BASIC                
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Catenna                             20 --(0)--> 20                 Pass
Celesdue Medium                     2   Combat  Effects: Embolden             
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seraph Lanval                       20 --(0)--> 20                 Pass
Holy Bottle                         2   Combat  Effects: Resilient            
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seloria Guado                       15 --(0)--> 15                 Pass
Pyreflies                           2   Combat  Effects: Resilient            
-------------------------------------------------------< Party >--------------------------------------------------------
Leader: Jacqueline Barber           10 --(20)--> 30                Pass
Conditions: Injure(2)|Wound(2)
Effects: Embolden(1)|Resilient(1)
===================================================< Dream Chasers >====================================================
DG: The party led by Jacqueline Barber 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> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    One Dual Horn is bad enough. There's a whole pack of them here, and it takes everything the group has to stop them from tearing any of them apart.
     Bera has to play the role of the tank for the team, holding them in close combat - but she does so with grace and grit, elemental power bolstering her strikes as she keeps them from claiming new victims among the collected.
     Jay's help comes a bit late, her lecture interrupted by demonstrations of the Dual Horn's fire breath and other related problems - but her direct contributions to the battle are still a boon.
     It is Catenna who helps even the odds as she helps remove two of the pack from the battle by suspending their movement through gravity, and them slamming them about until they explode into clouds of pyreflies. There are many of them here, and the sense that any given victory may not ever last - but the thinning numbers are what they need to breathe another day. Another minute. Another hour.
     Lanval, recognizing the powers of another Guardian, turns from where he stands in the battle. He can see the tension, the stress. The doubt. The most he can offer - and he can never not offer - is a small smile, both as reassurance and thanks for her appearance.
     The Guado among them does something that he catches within his line of sight, and the partially open eyes go half-open as if in shock as he sees the pyreflies fly free of Seloria. They turn into the dim form of another Fiend, and Lanval works up another aggressive Seraphic Arte in which to wash away this intrustion--
     --only throwing the aim of it off to the side as it pins down another Dual Horn, allowing Bera and Jay to help clean up the rest, but Lanval's seeming tension does not abate. That was a Fiend that appeared to be on their side, but he feels no kindness nor comfort in its presence. The last of the Dual Horns turn to pyreflies themselves, and the Oracle of Schturdark falls to his seat as he sees to the others.
     "Mmmm." He grunts. He does seem a bit disturbed by what he just saw, but... "Jacqueline... Catenna... 'm glad yer both alive." He's exhausted, but he will never withhold aid from those of Filgaia. "...I'll shee to yer woundsh, too."
     Now this would be Bera's and Seloria's turns to raise eyebrows, as Lanval starts on a healing Seraphic Arte. They are before someone who commands both 'prayers' and Black Magic.
     That should be impossible.

DG: Bera has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Mushroom Rock Road *>===========================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Breaking Mushrooms *>=====================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 1          | 
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 The path through Mushroom Rock Road is subject to landslides and avalanches,  
 after Sin's blast tore through the land here. You come across where one of    
 those mushroom-shaped rocks has collapsed... creating a massive, mushroom     
 cap-shaped pile of rubble that must be cleared to advance.                    
=Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous, Tire========================================
<Pose Tracker> Bera has posed.

    Bera weaves herself among the fiends, unconcerned it looks for her own wellbeing as she spins and rolls with multiple hits while using her katana both sheathed and sheathed to deflect more dangerous attacks. With her distracting the Dual-horns, it's only a matter of time thankfully for the rest to take them out.

    Once the fight is over, the sheathed katana is returned to it's loop at her left hip. She brushes bangs out of her face and from where she is scans the path looking for addtional fiends. Lanvals display of healing magic gets a frown but considering she'd also seen him and the other otherworlders on the beach she appears less surprised but still guarded.

    "If the Monks weren't leashed to-" she starts to say, then shakes her head. "The Crusaders would normally handle keeping fiends clear, but now..." and she starts down the Mushroom Rock Road. Through not very far. Around the corner where the fiends came from is the remains of a landslide.

    "It pours trouble doesn't it." she grumbles at the sight of rubble. The mushroom-shaped rocks above and to the side of the path had collasped onto it, with one of the caps still mostly in one piece.

    "A moment, I'll make it more managable perhaps." as she draws her blade again and strikes at the pile of rubble the elemental wrapped blade carving through the largest of the rubble into pieces one or two people could lift and move. Through it's difficult to say if she'll be able to get all the bigger pieces.

DG: Bera has used her Tool Edge of Four Elements toward her party's challenge, Breaking Mushrooms.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.

Slowly, Catenna lower her hand. Her expression settles a little; the intensity in her eyes dims, and she slips back a cold, tired quiet. Until Lanval speaks.

Catenna closes her eyes and looks away, folding her arms around herself. "...Thank you," she says in a quiet voice. It's heavy with emotion she doesn't usually show. "Oracle... I admire your kindness."

Onward she moves. With a purse of her lips, she glances at Bera, then bows her head with a soft rush of breath.

"I am sorry things ended like this."

The rockslide ahead looms. Still quiet, Catenna moves towards one of the chunks of rubble that Bera hacks off so expertly. Planting her heel against it, she grips it with both hands, pulling to begin levering it out of the path and getting it on a rolling course away from the road in front of them. She does the same to the next piece, though it's obviously a challenge for her. Catenna's not much for upper body strength.

From an outcrop nearby, Saarda-Shanta looks on, tucking her head slightly. <This was not the first disaster wrought by Obsession and it will not be the last. What could you have done had you gone? Even if you had convinced Kaguya, what of Ghaleon, the lapdog of the traitor Althena? What of the Al-Bhed and ARMS? Would you have swayed all?>

Catenna doesn't answer. She just rolls a hunk of rock.

DG: Catenna has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Breaking Mushrooms.
<Pose Tracker> Seloria Guado has posed.

Staying a polite distance from the rest and wrapped up in her own pulse-racing conflict, the Guado has until now granted very minor concessions to the others - especially so the samurai whom she baulks from instinctively when the lady curtly responds to her remark.
However, when the odd male begins weave what her frazzled senses deduce magic intend to lend succor, she cannot help but inch unsteadily over the fast dissolving bodies, eyes rounded by astonishment.

Before she can utter a single grunt the distinct noise of rock being split apart catches her attention and round the girl swivels, speedily taking in the sight that is one determined Bera attempting to carve up the gigantic boulders.

"Hn." Snapping her left wrist outwards, there is a crack and lightning leaps from elongated fingers like a sizzling exclamation mark.
Several more follow the first, then she pauses to gingerly rub reddened palms together with her head tilted expectantly towards their assigned leader Jacqueline.

DG: Seloria Guado has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Breaking Mushrooms.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

"I'm okay, don't worry about me. But what about you, Lanval? You look like you'e been through a lot..." Jacqueline says, concerned.

She looks toward Bera, then, as she speaks. It sounded like she was about to say something else, but Jacqueline doesn't press her on it.

"...Yes..." She murmurs quietly. The Crusaders...would they ever recover from what happened? It was a devastating blow - not just to their numbers, but their morale.

Unfortunately, however, right now they're faced with a wall of rubble. Jacqueline frowns.

She didn't have her Landscaper Crest on hand...she had swapped it out in favor of something else, and had left in a bit of a hurry before recombining it. Still, she does have some of her traditional strength-boosting potion on hand.

"Here, this should help out..." She says, rummaging through her bags and drawing out a series of bottles full of the invigorating red liquid.

Her eyes stray to Bera and her excellent sword skills - as well as that fascinating weapon of hers - but her attention is soon drawn to Catenna.

"...It's...it's okay, Catenna." Jacqueline says quietly. ...She can understand how she must be feeling now, after her warning went unheeded.

Before she can approach her, though, she feels eyes on her and looks back at Seloria.

"Ah...is everything alright?" She asks, though she takes note, as well, of the lightning she emits. "Hold on, this should help..."

She offers one of the potions to her, and then next to anyone else who would accept one.

DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Brewte Force toward her party's challenge, Breaking Mushrooms.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    "...It'sh a lot," Lanval remarks to Jay's concerns, "but thaaaat'sh... what I gotta do, now." He says this not out of fear or regret, but of simple truth. He can no longer be one who just hides before threats like this. In the name of protecting his new home, he has to stand and support those who fight it at their side.
     Lanval will offer healing and support to the native Spirans if asked, but nonetheless, he sees to the care of Catenna and Jay first by his nature. Catenna is given a little nod and as good a smile as he can give, for the situation at hand. It doesn't take long for him to shed what image of grace and poise he may have presented prior, for his idea of walking seems almost downright comical to watch.
     When they come to the landslide, Lanval takes another moment to sit down somewhere and take his drinking gourd in both hands. His eyes closed, he drinks in deep of it as if trying to ask the piece of the water of Filgaia he carries with him for insight. It doesn't have any to give, for Schturdark has been silent since the Oracle's been sent here with the rest.
     When Seloria passes by, he opens his eyes half-lidded as if entirely suspicious, but doesn't move to inter her and her ways of dealing with the rock already being smashed to smaller pieces by Bera's might.
     "Saarda-Shanta..." Lanval speaks, "she doesh shpeak wishdom." Most tellingly for Jay, Lanval isn't already making playfully blatant gestures to reach out and steal himself more than his fair share of Brewte Force. Instead, separate from where Seloria works, he tilts the drinking gourd down to try and pour away some of the rocks as though they were carried by a stream. Water is shaped by what Earth contains it - a truth of the elemental relationships among Seraphim. He is not the greatest for moving stone in a hurry.
     It is a time of introspection and reflection about what can be done next, that this quiet test of strength and resilience allows one to partake.

DG: Seraph Lanval has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Breaking Mushrooms.
===========================<* Mushroom Rock Road *>===========================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Breaking Mushrooms *>=====================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 1          | 
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 The path through Mushroom Rock Road is subject to landslides and avalanches,  
 after Sin's blast tore through the land here. You come across where one of    
 those mushroom-shaped rocks has collapsed... creating a massive, mushroom     
 cap-shaped pile of rubble that must be cleared to advance.                    
=Dungeon Conditions: Overzealous, Tire========================================
======================<* Mushroom Rock Road - Round 3 *>======================
=======================< Results - Breaking Mushrooms >=======================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jacqueline Barber                   30 --(20)--> 50                Fail
Brewte Force                        1   Brute   Effects: Fanfare and Strengthe
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bera                                25 --(20)--> 45                Fail
Edge of Four Elements               1   Brute   Effects: Fanfare and Strengthe
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Catenna                             20 --(20)--> 40                Fail
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC                
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seraph Lanval                       20 --(20)--> 40                Fail
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC                
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seloria Guado                       15 --(10)--> 25                Pass
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC                
----------------------------------< Party >-----------------------------------
Leader: Jacqueline Barber           30 --(10)--> 40                Fail
Conditions: Injure(1)|Overzealous(2)|Tire(2)|Wound(1)
Effects: Strengthen(1)
==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Jacqueline Barber has failed this challenge! The party gained 10 exploration! If anyone needs to
use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Bera has posed.

    The small rubble cracks under slices of water and ice from the katana wielded by Bera, but most of the chains of her slashes keep running through fire and lightning along side either water or ice making it less than effective overall. The largest piece of rubble, the cap, remains when she steps back.

    Seloria's follow up of lightning through makes short work of that mushroom cap of rock, breaking into large pieces as Catenna, Jay, and Lanval move the smaller rubble out of the way. The largest pieces through seem unpassable, till fortunately a group coming the other way shows up just in time to lend assistance with moving them.

    "Hmm... Impressive." Bera comments softly nodding at Seloria for her show of magic.

DG: Catenna has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* Mushroom Rock Road *>=============================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Trapped Survivors *>========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 2          | 
----------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------
 When the final blow against the combined Crusader, Guard, and Al Bhed army    
 came, many of the back ranks simply broke and fled. Unfortunately, the        
 damage done to Mushroom Rock Road means that many of those people were        
 trapped up in the hillside. You come across one group -- who are caught       
 between two cave-ins, which have blocked their access to the road.            
                                                                               
 "Help!" one shouts. "We have some wounded back here!"                         
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Exhaust==========================================
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.

Catenna can only bow her head over the chunk of debris before her, closing her eyes. Her hair spills down to either side of her face like a veil. She doesn't answer at first.

"...I wanting so hard to stop Obsession, I have become obsessed with it," she chides herself in a quiet, cold voice.

The largest pieces prove tough to move - and the reason the other group is present becomes clear soon enough: There's another cave-in beyond this one, and a huge chunk of the road is simply surrounded by rubble.

"We've got some wounded back there," one of the members of the other group advises - and indeed, clambering up onto a rock, Catenna manages to peek over the rockfall by means of a crack. She widens her eyes.

"They're right. Some of them are hurt badly," she says, her voice pinched in her throat. It goes partway to shoving thoughts of Sin out of her mind - and she focuses on that urgency, shoving her arms into the crevice and beginning to push with all her might. She plants a heel and tries to get her knee in there, wedging a shoulder in thereafter, straining as hard as she can to push one of the chunks away from the other - anything to try and open it up enough that she can slip through.

<Catenna,> Saarda-Shanta says, her voice tinged with worry.

DG: Catenna has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Trapped Survivors.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.

Catenna can only bow her head over the chunk of debris before her, closing her eyes. Her hair spills down to either side of her face like a veil. She doesn't answer at first.

"...In wanting so hard to stop Obsession, I have become obsessed with it," she chides herself in a quiet, cold voice.

The largest pieces prove tough to move - and the reason the other group is present becomes clear soon enough: There's another cave-in beyond this one, and a huge chunk of the road is simply surrounded by rubble.

"We've got some wounded back there," one of the members of the other group advises - and indeed, clambering up onto a rock, Catenna manages to peek over the rockfall by means of a crack. She widens her eyes.

"They're right. Some of them are hurt badly," she says, her voice pinched in her throat. It goes partway to shoving thoughts of Sin out of her mind - and she focuses on that urgency, shoving her arms into the crevice and beginning to push with all her might. She plants a heel and tries to get her knee in there, wedging a shoulder in thereafter, straining as hard as she can to push one of the chunks away from the other - anything to try and open it up enough that she can slip through.

<Catenna,> Saarda-Shanta says, her voice tinged with worry.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    "...Can't name anyone who'd want ta do otherwishe," Lanval thinks aloud as he takes a bit of time getting up from where he sits. So many people of so many different walks of life came together that day. He's never going to forget Skylr's kindness in his time of need, in spite of every reason for her to try and strike him down in the middle of all of that.
     Word comes of more wounded. There's so many more heavy rocks in the way, and the other group speaks of wounded. Lanval turns his head as Catenna climbs and confirms the urgency and need to see to them, watching to her desperation in which to physically move 'em along.
     "Mmm."
     Lanval sways back and forth, as though getting up were a thing that takes effort. (It does, water likes to rest.) As Catenna continues to struggle, Lanval doesn't plop down on his seat - he takes on a more respectful kneeling to her.
     "Let me," he says with a gentle but also sort of stupid smile, eyes closed. "...If we can't get the rocksh off of 'em... well, I can help buy time before that." He says this as he puts a hand up against a rock - and then through the crack in the rocks. If he were truly flesh and blood, the crack would be much, much, much too thin for him to fit.
     He's not.
     Though his manifestation represents a very stocky man who does not watch their caloric intake at all, he is unusually flexible and capable of squeezing through spaces. (Even discounting for the common Seraph trick of 'dematerialize, rematerialize,' he doesn't even need to do that.)
     This is the best reassurance he can give Catenna in her time of need, as he squeezes through the rocks to get a better read on the way the rocks are piled up and how. He might even be able to cast a healing Arte to try and ease pain and buy time, but it is not within his power to otherwise directly rectify the situation of needing to get the rocks away.
     If some of them are already dead at first glance... no, he'd rather focus on the small joys to find and celebrate, as is his more Seraphic nature.

DG: Seraph Lanval has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Trapped Survivors.
<Pose Tracker> Seloria Guado has posed.

Seloria Guado declines Jacqueline's kind offer, rueful tenor to her otherwise flat rejection as she silently studies the devastation wrought by multiple people making a concerted effort to demolish stone she has witnessed endure the ungentle brush of fiends and man. Her attention thus diverted, Bera's reluctant compliment nearly goes unheeded, until the preoccupied brain catches up to the pointed ears. A faint flush suffuses the marble skin, prompting one curt nod. Like one stung Seloria sweeps forward - and is the second to sight the tell-tale shadows ahead, casting their pattern on the heaped rubble.
Scrabbling over the rack and ruin using her staff for support, the Guado curls her fingers inward. Something glistens at the center of her palm, expanding as water pools itself in the makeshift cup.
"Pardon, but might you desist a moment and move to the right?" she says softly to the straining Catenna "You may resume afterwards."
Should Catenna obey, the mage shall fling her collected water globule at the open crack, letting the staff drop with a clatter as she pushes both hands out, freezing the stream moments after it hits, leaving a frozen 'handle' jutting out.

DG: Seloria Guado has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Trapped Survivors.
<Pose Tracker> Bera has posed.

    As the group beyond the rubble makes it know why they're here Bera grunts softly. "Beyond a pouring rain." she says in annoyed tones. "To much time traveling this path, I need to move on soon. Uggh. Damnit Kinoc." as she moves up with Catenna to the next fall.

    This time Bera doesn't draw her blade, but uses the ivory like sheathed blade as a lever lodging into the crack above Catenna and throwing herself into it to help shift the wedged rock.

DG: Bera has used her Tool Edge of Four Elements toward her party's challenge, Trapped Survivors.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Jacqueline glances toward Catenna briefly. She feels like she should say something...but she's not sure what. She's afraid she might drive her away by saying the wrong thing...

In the end, they can't quite get through the stone blockage without help, but they make progress at least. And the other group informs them of trapped survivors.

"We should hurry to their aid..." Jacqueline agrees. ...But how to get through? She frowns to herself, consideringly. The effect of her potions, at least for those who accepted one, should be lasting. Earth sorcery might help in this situation, but it could just as well make things worse.

But even so...she has to try.

Once Lanval has made his way through, Jacqueline takes a deep breath and gestures with her left hand. A pillar of earth begins to rise, this one to give support to the stone so that it won't crumble apart and fall on the wounded as the party tries to separate the two chunks of rock.

DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Brewte Force toward her party's challenge, Trapped Survivors.
=============================<* Mushroom Rock Road *>=============================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Trapped Survivors *>========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 2          | 
----------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------
 When the final blow against the combined Crusader, Guard, and Al Bhed army    
 came, many of the back ranks simply broke and fled. Unfortunately, the        
 damage done to Mushroom Rock Road means that many of those people were        
 trapped up in the hillside. You come across one group -- who are caught       
 between two cave-ins, which have blocked their access to the road.            
                                                                               
 "Help!" one shouts. "We have some wounded back here!"                         
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Exhaust==========================================
========================<* Mushroom Rock Road - Round 4 *>========================
=========================< Results - Trapped Survivors >==========================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jacqueline Barber                   50 --(18)--> 68                Pass
Brewte Force                        1   Brute   Effects: Fanfare and Strengthe
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bera                                45 --(18)--> 63                Pass
Edge of Four Elements               1   Brute   Effects: Fanfare and Strengthe
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Catenna                             40 --(18)--> 58                Pass
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC                
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seraph Lanval                       40 --(33)--> 73                Fail
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC                
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seloria Guado                       25 --(33)--> 58                Fail
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC                
------------------------------------< Party >-------------------------------------
Leader: Jacqueline Barber           40 --(10)--> 50                Fail
Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Overzealous(1)|Tire(1)|Weaken(2)
Effects: Strengthen(1)
================================< Dream Chasers >=================================
DG: The party led by Jacqueline Barber has failed this challenge! The party gained 10 exploration! If anyone needs to
use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.

The rocks are hard to move. Catenna strains at them as hard as she can. It's the only thing she can do. She can accomplish this, at least.

But the rocks are too dense. They're too heavy. Too many other rock weigh on them. And she is a material being.

Not like the Oracle of Rain. Catenna opens her mouth as Lanval squeezes himself between the rocks. He's able to get close enough to cast a Healing Arte - and it helps, a little.

Catenna backs off and moves to the right when Seloria asks her. The handle helps, but the rocks budge only a little. Bera moves it a little further - but it's still taking a long time. Someone on the other side cries out in pain.

Jay's pillar surges up - but it's a delicate operation. And ultimately, someone else acts first.

A stick of dynamite goes off. A man in a cleric's robe tumbles through the smoking opening on the far side of the rockfall, scrambling to help the needy. Looking through the gap, Catenna opens her mouth a little, then lowers her head again and turns away, wrapping her arms loosely around herself.

More people she's failed today. Another situation she was helpless to stop.

Saarda-Shanta flutters over to Jay's shoulder and perches there, quietly watching the Moon Shaman as Catenna hangs her head and looks away. She keeps her distance from the group.

DG: Seraph Lanval has drawn a new Challenge.
================================================<* Mushroom Rock Road *>================================================
============================================<* CHALLENGE - Avalanche Risk *>============================================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 2          | 
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
 Giga-Graviton, Sin's ultimate attack, caused considerable damage to Mushroom  
 Rock Road. In places, the hillsides and cliffs have been shattered... but in  
 others, such as this stretch of the road, they have been weakened. If you     
 get a good look, you can see that the rocks and boulders overhead tremble     
 when you approach. You will need to be very careful -- and very quiet -- if   
 you don't want to trigger a landslide.                                        
=Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Exhaust, Injure================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    It was a delicate operation - then it takes a turn for the catastrophic. In the desperation another makes to try and save the wounded, there comes a sudden need to run, run, retreat, because there is an all-encompassing rockslide in which to see to the physical burial of the newly dead. A great, billowing cloud of dust and soot, muggy and heavy with the earlier rain, is choking to the lungs and irritating to the eyes.
     In the aftermath, the stretch of road ahead is barely intact. It feels as though it is ready to crumble underfoot anew, as if to once more take away hope and the possibility of anything better to come. Spira, a land of death. All that awaits, at every turn, is death.
     The Oracle of Schturdark, having been ejected from his part of the operation by force, is on his back as he looks to see the Moon Shaman's despair at the latest number of people they couldn't save.
     He has seen mortals meet terrible ends, with unfulfilled dreams and crushed hopes. So many of them. To see the light fade from Catenna's face in all of this... even he struggles to think of some small joy to cling to, some simple happiness to project, as he too feels silenced.
     Upon his face, a pair of novelty glasses that do not tonally belong, reflecting the path ahead with such contrasing colors against the amber that they might reveal looser, softer rock that might not otherwise be obvious... but he will not be the first to make the move ahead.
     Who among them still has the determination and the hope to step forward, and risk further disappointment? Risk death by unavoidable circumstance?

DG: Seraph Lanval has used his Tool Amber Tinted Glasses toward his party's challenge, Avalanche Risk.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.

Catenna brings up the rear of the group. The lingering weakness Kaguya's attack left her with isn't all that's impeding her. The rest is something else that she struggles to carry.

She's far enough behind that she doesn't notice the state of the rocks. She can see herself putting one foot in front of the other, but it feels rote to her somehow. Her mind slips back to what happened - and she looks at her hands again.

There's dust on them. It feels like it's blood and it doesn't want to come off. She brushes them together and the dust doesn't come off.

"...We should be careful," she says in a quieter tone. It may be hard to hear her from back there.

"The... gravity spell Obsession used. It probably disrupted the rocks," she finishes after a few seconds.

From Jacqueline's shoulder, Saarda-Shanta cocks her head, yellow eyes on the trailing Shaman. Then, slowly, she looks up, before spreading her wings and fluttering into the air. Like a feathered ghost, she sails up towards the rocks, circles once, then descends to land on Lanval's shoulder.

<Be quiet. And careful.> The Owlet's voice is heard more in the mind than the ears. It won't echo.

DG: Catenna has used her Tool Saarda-Shanta toward her party's challenge, Avalanche Risk.
<Pose Tracker> Bera has posed.

    Working to lever the rock out of the way, the sudden appearance of an explosion catches Bera off guard. The blonde samurai tumbles but ultimately comes back up on her feet. "Ugh, that was unnessecary." she grumbles shaking her head. But the task is done at least.

    The path ahead through. Bera's left eye glints again as she scans the path looking at everything as she uses her innate skill. "Indeed... Made worst with ill luck." she comments in a flat voice with undertones of sad acceptance. She constantly scans overhead, and the path ahead as she makes her way.

DG: Bera has used her Tool Scan Skill toward her party's challenge, Avalanche Risk.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Things aren't quite going the way Jacqueline hoped. She takes a deep breath and centers herself.

They had to keep moving forward. If she stopped here...

Quietly, Jacqueline sends Saarda-Shanta a glance. She wishes she could do more to help Catenna.

But, she moves forward - until eventually, they all spot that section of land, weakened by Sin's attack.

If that weren't bad enough, the rock and stone nearby also looks weakened - presenting the possibility of an avalance, if they're not careful.

"...It's alright. We'll make it through this." She says. There's confidence in her tone. "Follow my lead, alright?"

She moves forward carefully. She had always felt a connection to earth and stone - it was one of her primary elements.

She just had to trust in her instincts - as well as her ability to react quickly, should the worst happen.

DG: Jacqueline Barber has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Avalanche Risk.
<Pose Tracker> Seloria Guado has posed.

Seloria Guado near overbalances when the cleric comes tumbling through, expression twitching into a vague look of alarm that soon transforms into the usual mask.
Spira never lets a freed soul escape, however - the atmosphere shifts and trembles, coughing up great gouts of dusty effluence while the world itself heaves and groans and certain Guado sprint in a flurried blur of limbs towards the doomed people, ended prematurely by her shin hitting free-falling stone - it is purely due to the inhuman speed Guado possess that she manages to reel backwards and avoid being unceremoniously crushed.

Forcibly quelling the tremour that ails her own body, she cautiously lopes onwards in silence. It is after all, something she seems to exude - even her steps are strangely muted. Retrieving the compedium lying snug against her own chest, the girl will pause occasionally to wordlessly point after intently scanning the jumbled sketches that crowd the parted pages.

DG: Seloria Guado has used her Tool Maechen's Compedium toward her party's challenge, Avalanche Risk.
================================================<* Mushroom Rock Road *>================================================
============================================<* CHALLENGE - Avalanche Risk *>============================================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 2          | 
-----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >-----------------------------------------------
 Giga-Graviton, Sin's ultimate attack, caused considerable damage to Mushroom  
 Rock Road. In places, the hillsides and cliffs have been shattered... but in  
 others, such as this stretch of the road, they have been weakened. If you     
 get a good look, you can see that the rocks and boulders overhead tremble     
 when you approach. You will need to be very careful -- and very quiet -- if   
 you don't want to trigger a landslide.                                        
=Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Exhaust, Injure================================
===========================================<* Mushroom Rock Road - Round 5 *>===========================================
==============================================< Results - Avalanche Risk >==============================================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jacqueline Barber                   68 --(15)--> 83                Fail
Investigate                         0   Wits    Effects: BASIC                
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bera                                63 --(15)--> 78                Fail
Scan Skill                          2   Wits    Effects: Enlighten            
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Catenna                             58 --(0)--> 58                 Pass
Saarda-Shanta                       1   Wits    Effects: Cleanse              
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seraph Lanval                       73 --(0)--> 73                 Pass
Amber Tinted Glasses                3   Wits    Effects: Fanfare              
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seloria Guado                       58 --(15)--> 73                Fail
Maechen's Compedium                 1   Wits    Effects: Enlighten and Rally  
-------------------------------------------------------< Party >--------------------------------------------------------
Leader: Jacqueline Barber           50 --(20)--> 70                Pass
Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Injure(2)|Reckless(2)|Weaken(1)
Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1)
===================================================< Dream Chasers >====================================================
DG: The party led by Jacqueline Barber 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> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    Who has the will to forge ahead?
     The natives of Spira are used to this feeling of death and inevitability. Such will continue until their people atone. It says much about them that even Seloria seems especially blase about the surrounding dangers that she stops to read a book mid-stride, or that Bera is so familiar with such misfortunes that she can keenly keep an eye out for anything of this nature.
     Jacqueline Barber has lived through life-changing tragedy and circumstances that would forever alter her relationships with those she once trusted... and even in the face of something insurmountable, she holds true to her values, and moves forward. She is more than just one of the greatest merchants of her time - she is a strong-willed bearer of her values that she will not let this latest setback stop her, as she takes the lead.
     Lanval allows Saarda-Shanta to alight, for the water will always gladly reflect the moon - so long as the moon gives anything to reflect. Watching Jay especially move forward, he turns to give the owl a smile as he takes his turn.
     Catenna takes up the rear, and it sure seems like - at the worst time - they will be met with the inevitability. Through no fault of anyone's, the rocks begin to shift. To collapse.
     ...No, they're not powerless. Lanval's strength is not great for moving rocks, but he summons a Serphic Arte to help sweep everyone off the collapsing walkway onto safety. For any of the rocks that tumble towards them...
     ...Catenna will not be powerless to save her kinship, and assorted friends and acquaintances. Not by a long shot.
     No matter what, however, that will not be a way they can take back. They can only move forward, and endure, as is the way of Spira. As is the way of life against such harsh conditions.

DG: Bera has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Mushroom Rock Road *>===========================
================<* CHALLENGE - Climbing to Greater Heights *>=================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility   |Challenge Rating: 1          | 
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 Sometimes, the platforms on Mushroom Rock Road have some ancient magic to     
 assist one in getting higher. Little glowing circles, engraved with runes,    
 which may -- in fact -- be Symbological, provide a burst of air that one can  
 use to leap up twenty or thirty feet.                                         
                                                                               
 Except that controlling them is hard. Sometimes, when you step on them, they  
 can propel you up into the rock... or not quite at the right angle. But,      
 it's fun to get to jump like a dragoon, right?                                
                                                                               
 ...what's a dragoon, anyways?                                                 
=Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Injure=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Bera has posed.

    The path to Djose finally gets better. If a rocky, mountainous path can every be better. The path ahead through looks to be a total dead end with no way around. A glowing circle through is carved near the intersection of cliffs and looking up reveals the path continues on. Nearly twenty feet over head.

    Bera doesn't stop as she comes up on the circle, but a climber's pick does appear in her hands from somewhere on her person as she does. "Be mindful. The devices here may be sanctified but they're old and fickle." she says flatly even as she steps into the circle and focuses a moment before launching into the air.

    The climbing pick is ready to help her if she goes off course, but otherwise Bera aims to land on the upper path and move out of the way as she goes. If anything, it looks like she's taken the path many more times than just during the last handful of days as she makes her way.

DG: Bera has used her Tool Climber's Tools toward her party's challenge, Climbing to Greater Heights.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.

Catenna continues to bring up the rear. Saarda-Shanta does eventually return to her shoulder.

Unemotive for the most part, she looks quietly up at the treacherous platforms, then at the little circles. She presses her lips together.

And bypasses the circle completely.

Catenna unspools a length of rope from her waist and casts it up towards the nearest platform; the grappling hook catches neatly enough. With a grunt, she begins to pull herself up, one hand over the other. It takes longer this way. It requires her to exert herself much more.

She does it anyway. Thinking about the way her body hurts takes her mind off of things. It helps her thoughts to whirl a little less. It focuses her on the task at hand. She can do something instead of being swept along in forces she can't effect.

From her shoulder, the Owlet watches her, then bows her head with a soft mental sigh. <Dear heart....>

DG: Catenna has used her Tool Grappling Hook toward her party's challenge, Climbing to Greater Heights.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    Once things calm down again - in so much as anything can be calm when there's still so many pyreflies flying about and things stand to become dangerous at any time - Lanval sits down on a smaller mushroom-shaped rock. It doesn't take long for him to slink off and lean against it instead.
     "Mmmm? What do ya m--" Lanval asks, just as Bera launches forward into the air, and his eyes flicker all the way open as though thinking something just took her... oh, no, she's just flying towards the-- whoa.
     He's impressed. He's not sure he wants to tell Layna about that because wow he knows she's hardcore about what sorts of stunts she'll pull but that might even be too crazy for her!
     ...
     He settles down and takes out the kiseru-style smoking pipe he carries on his person. It looks awful ornate for someone of his station... well, no, as of recent events, it's just right. He brings it up to his lips. He's a water elemental. By nature, he should ruin the ability to get any smoke out of there.
     It doesn't produce smoke. It produces bubbles, as he meditatively exhales. The bubbles flit over the crests...
     ...Then they go flying! Everywhere! In all sorts of directions! Sometimes they just flit for a bit, then they go over them and it's all whoosh.
     "Mmm." He looks at the sight. "Mmm... hm. Hm. Hmmm..."
     "...Ha... ha ha! Ha ha ha!"
     He laughs. A touch of mirth returns after so many sullen events. Something as silly as just bubbles suddenly going flying. The tiniest little amusement, it is enough for him to grapple onto to gain a second wind.
     Thaaaaat said, this time, it's not a good idea to ride the bubbles. This does give some good ideas as to prospective trajectories that may or may not launch one full bore into jagged rocks, if people want to risk the crests. Eventually, Lanval lets himself inside a bubble just to let himself launch without really thinking about it.
     It's fun! ...To him.

DG: Seraph Lanval has used his Tool Bubble Pipe toward his party's challenge, Climbing to Greater Heights.
<Pose Tracker> Seloria Guado has posed.

On the surface, there is an insouciance about the Summoner's actions - to all eyes may rightfully be seen as dismissal. Keen observers may note in-between snatching glances down at her book, her lips move ceaselessly, whitened knuckles grasping her precious collection. Furthermore, she has abandoned the weapon she originally hurried to pick up and appears entirely forgetful of its absence.

Thankfully, enough of her focus lies on the path ahead that she stops, gently folds the compedium away and listens to Bera.
Fishing in one among many pockets sewn discreetly into her garments, she brandishes a stone.
"Taken from hereabouts." she remarks to no one in particular, anticipating no answer.
Cranking one leg back, she takes a running leap into the air, winding hair flapping furiously in the current. Springing upwards like a bird in flight, she aims to bound past the rest with the stone cradled in both hands.

DG: Seloria Guado has used her Tool Levitating Rock toward her party's challenge, Climbing to Greater Heights.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Jacqueline can feel the avalanche a moment before it happens. With a grimace she turns, hand outstretched...but her spell will be a second too late.

Thankfully, however, further tragedy is averted thanks to quick thinking. She is swept away out of danger. They're stuck on this path for now, but it's better than the alternative.

"Thank you..." She says, breathing a sigh of relief as she brushes dust off her clothes.

They get to move forward, where they find a dead end, with a series of circles that, apparently, provide lift.

"Sanctified?" Jacqueline asks, curiously. She approaches one of the circles and looks upon it. That was...Symbology, wasn't it?

She doesn't say this aloud.

She draws out her notebook, taking a moment to record the symbols for later reference. She couldn't help but be curious.

But then, there's the matter of...actually ascending.

Jacqueline rummages through her bags, drawing out a pale green potion.

"Everyone must be exhausted by now...here, this should help take some of the edge off." She offers.

She watches Bera ascend first, then Catenna as she elects to take the slow, difficult way up. Jacqueline frowns, concern on her face.

But, eventually, she takes a deep breath and steps onto one of the circles...and gets launched into the air. It's...a little unnerving. She tries to maneuver herself from circle to circle - or, failing that, toward Lanval's bubbles.

In a pinch, though, she does have access to an Artificial Copy Medium of Lucadia, allowing her to relocate herself if she's in danger of falling.

Her eyes are drawn to Seloria as she leaps, though, taking note of that stone, as well as her remark.

DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool Rapid Remedy toward her party's challenge, Climbing to Greater Heights.
===========================<* Mushroom Rock Road *>===========================
================<* CHALLENGE - Climbing to Greater Heights *>=================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility   |Challenge Rating: 1          | 
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 Sometimes, the platforms on Mushroom Rock Road have some ancient magic to     
 assist one in getting higher. Little glowing circles, engraved with runes,    
 which may -- in fact -- be Symbological, provide a burst of air that one can  
 use to leap up twenty or thirty feet.                                         
                                                                               
 Except that controlling them is hard. Sometimes, when you step on them, they  
 can propel you up into the rock... or not quite at the right angle. But,      
 it's fun to get to jump like a dragoon, right?                                
                                                                               
 ...what's a dragoon, anyways?                                                 
=Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate, Injure=========================================
======================<* Mushroom Rock Road - Round 6 *>======================
==================< Results - Climbing to Greater Heights >===================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jacqueline Barber                   83 --(0)--> 83                 Pass
Rapid Remedy                        1   Agility Effects: Cleanse              
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bera                                78 --(0)--> 78                 Pass
Climber's Tools                     1   Agility Effects: Quicken and Rally    
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Catenna                             58 --(0)--> 58                 Pass
Grappling Hook                      2   Agility Effects: Quicken              
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seraph Lanval                       73 --(0)--> 73                 Pass
Bubble Pipe                         3   Agility Effects: Rally                
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seloria Guado                       73 --(0)--> 73                 Pass
Levitating Rock                     4   Agility Effects: None                 
----------------------------------< Party >-----------------------------------
Leader: Jacqueline Barber           70 --(20)--> 90                Pass
Conditions: Hesitate(2)|Injure(2)|Reckless(1)
Effects: Cleanse|Quicken(1)
==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Jacqueline Barber 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> Bera has posed.

    Bera's ascent is without issue as she lands lightly on the upper path and takes several steps forward clearing the landing area. Jacqueline manages to find her way up too through the devices, along with Lanval both of them moving with a small herd of bubbles flying every which way at each one.

    Seloria and Catenna take the slow but steady way up with little difficultly. The floating stone lets Seloria Guado make her way up with clever bounds while Catenna steadily climbs her way up the cliff face that is slightly inclined inwards making it easier to go. Thankfully, nothing dangerous happens to anyone during the ascent.

DG: Jacqueline Barber has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Mushroom Rock Road *>===========================
==============<* CHALLENGE - Lizardmen Hellions and Funguars *>===============
|Type: Final       |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 2          | 
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 Finally, you start to see clearing skies -- and no more towering cliffsides   
 -- as you reenter the main part of Mi'ihen Highroad. Before you do, however,  
 you come across the sounds of battle. There are shouts from soldiers ahead,   
 and a clash of steel.                                                         
                                                                               
 A trio of Althena's Guard are on the ground, all badly wounded. There are     
 two human-sized fungus fiends there, with mouths on the ends of their         
 stalks. They snap and bite down at a pair of soldiers wearing Rolance red,    
 but altered into lizardmen Hellions. They bleed the thick, cloying violet     
 light of Malevolence... which is batted back, and in turn keeps at bay, the   
 pyreflies swirling about the fiends.                                          
                                                                               
 While you might be tempted to leave them alone, the wounded Guard will be     
 the victims of whichever side wins this bout.                                 
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

They all ascend up the cliff face, and as they do so, they can see clear skies once more - finally, they're reaching the end of the road.

...As they go higher and higher, however, they can hear sounds of a battle breaking out. And once they're at top, a concerning sight unfolds before them.
    hey've around at the tail end of it. Three people, each of them wearing the armor of Althena's Guard, lay on the ground, suffering heavy wounds.

Before them, fiends in the form of human-sized fungi battle against a pair of lizardmen. It's the latter that gets Jacqueline's attached, eliciting a choked gasp from her.

"Those are...Hellions? B-but...how? I thought Malevolence couldn't take root here..." She says, shocked.

A strange, violet light bleeds from their forms, but...it's strange - not only are the creatures battling each other, so too does the violet light and the pyreflies rage against each other.

"...We have to help them." She decides. That the Guard had put a bounty on herself and her friends does not at all appear to matter to her - she decides this without hesitation.

Fortunately, the two forces seemed focused on each other, rather than the injured soldiers.

"Those fiends...are Funguar! Their fangs are dangerous, and the pollen they emit can induce drowsiness and exhaustion! The other creatures are Lizardmen...they're agile, and their intelligence can make them even more vicious!" She warns, consulting the Codex. For the Spirans of the group, however, she amends one thing.

"The Lizardmen...they're people. We can save them, so...please avoid killing them, if you can."

She goes into battle then, gesturing with her right hand. A lance of flame appears in the air before her, then flies at high speeds toward one of the Funguar.

DG: Jacqueline Barber has used her Tool The Lifeweaver's Codex toward her party's challenge, Lizardmen Hellions and
Funguars.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.

Coiling her rope again, Catenna tucks it back into her inventory.

Only for some new horror to intrude itself upon their presence. Malevolence. Here of all places. And yet....

Catenna clicks her teeth together as she watches the Pyreflies and the Malevolence dance together. She reaches for the bow over her shoulder, but stops halfway there, just staring in fascination at the interplay between the drifting spirits and the scudding light of hatred.

The Lizardmen themselves are not dangerous. Truthfully, neither are the Funguar. Drawing her bow again, Catenna notches an arrow, firing - and aiming for the Funguar. She does most of her fighting this way, hanging back and putting arrows on Funguar in the hopes of taking them down while the others tangle with the Lizardmen.

Only once the Lizardmen are weakened will she step in and reach for her Medium. Her other hand will splay above it as she begins to chant...

And a silver light manifests around her. She's beginning a spell of purification, ready to sweep the Malevolence from the beings before them.

DG: Catenna has used her Tool Celesdue Medium toward her party's challenge, Lizardmen Hellions and Funguars.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    Lanval starts to see somewhat more familiar environs.... but then.
     His eyes flash open, a bright aquamarine. He knows it when it's nearby. The corruption native to the parts of Lunar he hails. Malevolence...
     The Oracle rises on his feet, steady, as the water elemental's power builds and flares out. The fresh rain, the crashing of waves, the roaring of waterfalls... they're not presently close to a body of water, but it sure feels like they are in the presence of one. (They are! They... technically always have been? Moreso than usual, now.)
     "Hellions..." The Oracle speaks as he holds his drinking gourd in both hands as Jay confirms exactly as he's observing, heavy with the weight of the water of a distant world. Even his movements seem a lot more coherent, purposeful, well... 'normal.' In any other circumstance Lanval's idea of walking seems to be a perpetual dance of teetering and pratfalls. Not so, now.
     "Thou art in the presence of Malevolence" the Oracle states as he comes across the sight of Lizardmen Hellions fighting Fiends. Rolance soldiers, they once were. Lanval's pause comes not from making sure they're listening, but because he is intrigued by what he sees - this weird dance where pyreflies and the venom in which he's most familiar seem to repel each other. Neither force appears able to combine, as though their very natures were averse.
     "Indeed... Jacqueline doth speak true," Lanval remarks, "This impurity doth infest in the contradictions of one's existence... doubts, fears, hypocrises... and should thou catch it, it shalt continue to infest and grow until it overtakes thee. To take thy form and twist it unto one befitting what of thy nature feeds it... unlike thy Fiends, it can take root in living, dead, or even mere objects..."
     This shoud sound terrifying, speaking of it like a plague that can spread. That might induce panic and concern in the Spirans. They may be Resonant, but are their spirits hardened enough to survive contact?
     Lanval smiles. "I bid thee, do not worry. Thou art among those who can help purify it from this place...!" Normally speaking, were the concentration any greater, he would need to entrust a Seer to cleanse a greater quantity of this stuff. With Catenna - capable of purification herself and almost certainly going to be the one to spearhead the successful Purification effort - Lanval takes his gourd by the rope tied around it and starts swinging it about, getting water everywhere. The nature of the pyreflies helping keep Malevolence from taking much root is, in this case, a boon.
     Clean, sparkling, sanctified water, sprays about as he gives a reassuring laugh. Nobody minds if he just clonks a dang Fiend upside the head in the process, as he sweeps about the battlefield like a rolling wave of water and leaving such in his wake as he moves.
     "Hold true to thy reasons thou stand and fight, and thou shalt avoid its grasp!" That's an overt simplification. How many mortals have had to deal with gnawing doubts that just crawl into the tiniest weakness, and keep them at bay? It is sound advice for the best way to avoid letting it in, but if he has it his way alongside Catenna's help, it simply will not be there to hurt anyone before long.
     "Ha ha ha...! Ha ha ha!" Bubbles start to rise around him, growing in number until it threatens to obscure the Hellions and Fiends alike...

DG: Seraph Lanval has used his Tool Holy Bottle toward his party's challenge, Lizardmen Hellions and Funguars.
<Pose Tracker> Seloria Guado has posed.

"We veer close to where the Fayth, Ixion, slumbers." Seloria says during their nigh effortless climb, adding after a short pause "Do you smell the burnt air, feel the prickle in the air?" A wistful note enters her voice, melting some of the rime. Just as she about to flop weary bones down on the closest pile of rocks, the clang and shouts drag the Summoner back to her feet.

"What..." she breathes out, pinning all three foreigners with a glimet stare "Is that -?" Blunted nails scrape across the lid of another jar, pyreflies within practically battering the container from a desire to escape. To feed? Seloria hesitates at the thought, her own headache pulsating to their fevered tempo.

When Jacqueline speaks and Lanval rumbles, she listens intently until she has finished, granting the lady a respectful nod. Shooting a wary look to the raging battle ahead, she instead brandishes a stout bottle and uncorks it, creeping stealthily into the very thick of battle. "Potions are composed from nine-tenths water, it ought to work..." she mumbles, right arm unfurling.

Out whips a pale hand from the billowing sleeves, upending the contents - liquid splashing far and wide as directed by the arcane gestures deftly executed by the summoner a split second after her calculated spill. Right on and over the wounded men.

Coinciding rather neatly with Lanval's own dosage, the rolling tide upon which she rises on feet heavy from fatigue to render brittle and sharp. Little needles for the penitent sinner.

DG: Seloria Guado has used her Tool Remedy toward her party's challenge, Lizardmen Hellions and Funguars.
<Pose Tracker> Bera has posed.

    At the sounds of fighting, Bera finally rolls her eyes. "Just outside Djose Temple and the Monks do nothing. Digusting. This is why I left." she grumbles in irritation. She spares a glance for the three fallen, noting their uniforms. The two standing soldiers in different uniform look human but not. And the fungi are common enough fiends in the area. They're all so politely fighting in close too.

    As the others speak, Bera only partially listens. She's tugging the sleeves of her haori and shrugging out of it. The black silk fabric hangs from waist where the sash she wears holds it tucked, just her chest wrap on above the sash now. The sheathed katana comes out of its loop and she says "It really doesn't matter to me to what they are. They're in the way. They're a danger. And I'm so very angry right now." as her hand tightens around the sheath and she walks right at the group of hellions and fiends.

    She comes to a stop before them, dropping into a draw stance as she growls out "Tenka Goken!" and draws her blade in a flash of white-pink light. Fierce slashing light lifts up from the ground in time with her swing, seeming to lift like a cone out in front of her from the ground towards the sky before resheathing the blade.

DG: Bera has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Lizardmen Hellions and Funguars.
===========================<* Mushroom Rock Road *>===========================
==============<* CHALLENGE - Lizardmen Hellions and Funguars *>===============
|Type: Final       |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 2          | 
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 Finally, you start to see clearing skies -- and no more towering cliffsides   
 -- as you reenter the main part of Mi'ihen Highroad. Before you do, however,  
 you come across the sounds of battle. There are shouts from soldiers ahead,   
 and a clash of steel.                                                         
                                                                               
 A trio of Althena's Guard are on the ground, all badly wounded. There are     
 two human-sized fungus fiends there, with mouths on the ends of their         
 stalks. They snap and bite down at a pair of soldiers wearing Rolance red,    
 but altered into lizardmen Hellions. They bleed the thick, cloying violet     
 light of Malevolence... which is batted back, and in turn keeps at bay, the   
 pyreflies swirling about the fiends.                                          
                                                                               
 While you might be tempted to leave them alone, the wounded Guard will be     
 the victims of whichever side wins this bout.                                 
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
======================<* Mushroom Rock Road - Round 7 *>======================
================< Results - Lizardmen Hellions and Funguars >=================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jacqueline Barber                   83 --(0)--> 83                 Pass
The Lifeweaver's Codex              2   Combat  Effects: Embolden             
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bera                                78 --(0)--> 78                 Pass
Fight                               0   Combat  Effects: BASIC                
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Catenna                             58 --(0)--> 58                 Pass
Celesdue Medium                     2   Combat  Effects: Embolden             
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seraph Lanval                       73 --(0)--> 73                 Pass
Holy Bottle                         2   Combat  Effects: Resilient            
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seloria Guado                       73 --(5)--> 78                 Fail
Remedy                              1   Combat  Effects: Cleanse              
----------------------------------< Party >-----------------------------------
Leader: Jacqueline Barber           90 --(30)--> 120               Pass
Conditions: Hesitate(1)|Wound(2)
Effects: Cleanse|Embolden(1)|Resilient(1)
==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success!
DG: The party led by Jacqueline Barber has successfully explored Mushroom Rock Road!
===========================<* Mushroom Rock Road *>===========================
==========================<* CHALLENGE - X-Potion *>==========================
|Type: Discovery   |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1          | 
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 On your way out, you come across a group of pilgrims. Some are civilians,     
 finally braving the road to head towards Djose; some are Crusaders,           
 traveling to seek redemption.                                                 
                                                                               
 An old man walks up as you make your way out, smiling at you with tired       
 eyes. "Thank you for everything," he says. "Please, take this."               
                                                                               
 He pushes an X-Potion into your hands.                                        
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    When the bubbles just fill everything, they reflect the appearance of Lanval laughing, carrying on, doing whatever - like a whole bunch of funhouse mirrors, in bubble form, as the Oracle of Schturdark slakes his thirst with a deep swig of the drinking gourd's contents.
     "Be on your way in good health...!" Jay and Catenna may know this as Lanval-speak for 'eff off,' as he is able to part a hand from holding the heavy gourd to wipe his mouth as he faces away from the mass of bubbles.
     "Revelry Labyrinth!"
 
     The bubbles explode in sanctifying water, soaking the Hellions and the Fiends alike. If that's not enough to take care of however deep the taint may run in the Hellions, that is where the unspoken tag to Catenna comes in as she channels her own powers. Between the two of them, they can stop this patch of purple from festering further.
     ...If it even can.

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

"Ixion..." Jacqueline repeats, as Seloria mentions it. That explained a lot. They must have a lightning affinity.

Jacqueline looks toward Bera, then.

"Oh, are you from Djose, then?" She asks.

Answers will have to wait until after the battle, however - the fight continues. Lances of flame fly true, striking the Funguar solidly. They recoil, allowing an arrow from Catenna to land solidly.

Next Bera comes in. The lizardmen turn toward her and raise their blades, but before they can fall she draws her blade in a fierce slash, emitting light that sweeps out in a cone and sends the four creatures into the air.

This is all the time Lanval needs to conclude his spell, sanctifying bubbles splashing over Hellion and Fiend alike. The latter two erupts into clouds of pyreflies, while the former land on the ground, weakened.

The taint of Malevolence is but a dull glow at this point...and soon, a silver light passes over them, washing it away.

Where once were a pair of Hellions lay a pair of Rolance soldiers, injured and unconscious...but alive, an no longer bearing the taint of Malevolence.

While the others fight, however, Seloria tends to the wounded members of Althena's Guard. It's not enough to fully see to their wounds, but it is at least enough to wake them to consciousness.

"Th-thank you..." They mutter, raising into a sitting position...at which point they spot Lanval, Catenna, and Jacqueline - each one not having the best reputation with the Guard.

Jacqueline looks back at them...and their eyes meet.

There's a moment of tense silence...but then they stand, and offer an appreciate nod. Soon, however, a group of pilgrims comes across them, an old man at their head.

"We heard the confrontation...I am sorry we couldn't help." He says, and then holds out a bag. "It isn't much, but...please, take these curatives, all of you."

Jacqueline hesitates for a moment...and then accepts the bag. She didn't need them herself...but it might seem rude if she didn't, and she could at least study the make-up of high-quality Spiran curatives.

<Pose Tracker> Seloria Guado has posed.

Unobtrusively the Summoner sidles away from the soldiers, catching the tension - if her pinched brows were any indication - however foreign conflict remains firmly foreign. Dwarfed easily by the everpresent pall that curdles the most boisterous merriment, not that the Guado are especially prone to such fits.

While the rest partake of the spoils available, she shall attempt to slip away. Find a shaded spot to breathe with none to judge nor overhear her confessions.