2020-03-22: The Gifts of Fear
- Log: The Gifts of Fear
- Cast: Talia, Seraph Ragnell, Ivan, Seraph Clarine, Seraph Nimue, Josephine Lovelace
- Where: Linaweyul
- Date: March 22, 2020
- Summary: Tomamond heads into Linaweyul based on the advice of Seraph Liath. Within, they are met with a series of trials to overcome to better refine their spiritual strength -- but perhaps part of the lesson comes from understanding what is intended to be imparted, regardless of their ability to succeed at the tests themselves...
DG: A party led by Talia is now entering Linaweyul, the First Ordeal. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
=======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - Atychiphobia *>========================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Fights are not always meant to be won, and the possibility of facing someone who is simply better than you, stronger than you, smarter than you, more talented than you, is oftentimes an inevitability if you throw yourself into conflict often enough. So what, then, do we do against insurmountable odds? The place you arrive at once the first flash of light envelopes you is full of the faint, phantasmal sounds of an unseen audience, cheering and booing in equal measure. This is an coliseum floating in the middle of nowhere, its columns sculpted magnificently, its sandpit arena composed of glowing gold grains -- and there at the center of it all, seethes a truly immense enemy, gray and pulsing with that selfsame golden life, its many arms equipped with a multitude of weapons. Its hide is practically impenetrable, its attacks like a force of nature with each swing. Its skills with its weapons seems almost custom-designed to be just slightly better than yours with your own methods of combat. It quickly becomes apparent that this is not a fight that you can win, as if no matter what you did, no matter how experienced you were, this creature would always just be slightly better. So how, than, do you succeed? Sometimes, victory is not a matter of how we win, but how we lose. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Secret===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
Talia has been to Linaweyul once before. The way to Linaweyul is mysterious, in and of itself: shimmering doors that are scattered about Filgaia and Lunar alike, transporting people to its (teleporter-filled) depths. At this moment, Talia stands outside of a door, and in front of...
Tomamond. It feels a little strange to think that.
She tilts her head to the side, flashing a grin back at all of them. "Well!" she says. "Here we are, no? Liath said... this place will help develop our spiritual, um, strength? It is meant for this thing. This means it is dangerous! I have only been here once, and it was over a year ago..."
It was in the vain hopes of finding a way to Lunar proper, to search for Ivan. It didn't work out.
She opens the door, then. It swings open -- and light flashes over all of them.
Then, they appear on a platform. The strange stonework gives the impression of an open-air auditorium. Ahead of them is a barrier: a shimmering blue shield, preventing them from advancing. And, around them, is what, looks like a coliseum; sand, columns, and more.
And ahead of them is a huge sandstorm-made-creature. Its arms unfurl, a different weapon in each, and it turns its head -- its mouth opens, more of a gaping hole in the rough shape of a mouth -- and screams.
"Ah--be careful!" Talia shouts, as the creature slams a massive sledgehammer down. The entire sandfield ripples like a wave. Talia reaches to her pouch, pulling out a black orb with a leaf atop. She throws it -- and the bomb hurls, before exploding.
It blasts a chunk out of it, to the screams of approval from a spectral audience. And then, the sand reforms in an instant.
"What the...?"
DG: Talia has used her Tool Royal Bomb toward her party's challenge, Atychiphobia.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
It hasn't been that long ago that Ragnell decided to make it apparent to Tomamond that she won't let them do as they please. It's been even less time that Tomamond responded by siccing Liath on her, who then whalloped her and convinced her to support her erstwhile and future teammates. Ragnell had relented and returned to the fold. So while Liath might not be here today in their excursion into Linaweyul, the First Trial, Ragnell is... here in her place, perhaps it might best be said? To watch over the others and help them as needed.
"Right you are," she remarks to Talia when she calls the place dangerous, when she says it's a place to develop one's spiritual strength. She rubs the back of her neck as her eyes wander up the door. "I'm not so great at this kind o' thing. Guidin' others, I mean... Where d'you draw the line between helpin' an' coddlin'?" She sighs and folds her arms as the door opens. "Liath's better at this than me. Guess that means I need t' do some growin' still, too."
And so the light consumes them.
Ragnell is familiar with this place. Not, specifically, this place, with the platform, and the coliseum, and the barrier ahead and the monster blocking them, and all of it glimmering with golden energy. "Linaweyul," she announces, drawing her twin pistols. "In the Ancient Tongue, it means 'cowardice.' That's what this place is about: facing your fears." She taps the side of her head with one finger. "Keep that in mind."
Then she launches herself into battle, despite already knowing she can't win. Ragnell always did love to fight, but she's always had an awareness of her limits and what she can and can't beat. But sometimes it's fun to be reckless, and see if your limits aren't somewhere other than where you thought, right?
Besides. She has an example to set.
Ragnell pulls the pin from a grenade with her teeth and chucks it--not at the monster itself, but at its feet, aiming to gouge out a piece of the ground and create a pit in which to trap it.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Lightning Grenade toward her party's challenge, Atychiphobia.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Liath said... this place will help develop our spiritual, um, strength?
"Does that mean this place is going to ask us questions about ourselves and try to kill us if we lie or something?" Ivan queries. The twins' spiritual training efforts so far have mostly been honesty exercises as they try to learn to be 'true to themselves' ... horror of horrors. Just plain old fighting and danger would be a relief.
That said, Ivan hasn't been quite up to his usual dungeoneering capabilities -- going too long without full doses of his medicine is starting to take its toll. But this isn't a thing he plans to willingly aknowledge either to himself or anyone else if he can help it, so here he is!
As they enter, a flash of teleportation magic takes hold... and transports them to a grand arena, where a many-armed monster made of sand awaits, wielding many massive weapons. Talia's attempt to blow it to smithereens results only seems to result in some sand being blasted away and quickly reforming. Concerning, but... well, maybe they just need to hit it harder than that!
He rushes toward it and blasts himself into the air with a surge of fire from his palms, before summoning his sword, ablaze with flames, slicing in an arc at the creature.
"It doesn't seem to be asking us questions at least!" he says.
DG: Ivan has used his Tool Memory toward his party's challenge, Atychiphobia.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
This isn't Clarine's first adventure into Linaweyul, either. Her first adventure into it happened on Spira - at the time, she hadn't known what to expect. This time, she does - but how much that'll help is yet to be seen.
"Yes... it is important to be careful. This place, it will use your fears against you..." Clarine warns, before drawing a bottle of something from her sleeve. It's a Panacea Bottle, by the looks of it - a common curative on Lunar. "I have brought some bottles with me - they may prove beneficial."
And then, she stows the bottle away once more before following Talia and the others into the golden door. They appear on a platform - an arena, possibly, by the look of it.
And before them stands a massive enemy formed of sandstone, carrying a wide array of weapons. And then, Ragnell lays out the nature of this place in a manner better than she did - Clarine nods for confirmation.
As Talia tosses out an explosive, Clarine readies a spell before sending a volley of light projectiles out toward the sandstone-formed foe. But, suddenly, an array of mirrors much like her own unfurls out from behind it, intercepting her spell and reflecting the volley back at the party - to laughs and jeers from the crowd.
"A-ah!" Clarine yelps, barely dodging to the side. She looks uncertain, a little embarrassed perhaps, for a brief moment. But she takes a deep breath - a centering gesture - and readies herself again. "This is a truly powerful foe..."
DG: Seraph Clarine has used her Tool Panacea Bottle toward her party's challenge, Atychiphobia.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Nimue has posed.
Nimue had seemed pretty tepid on the idea of going to Linaweyul for some time... but recent events have made her more interested in the idea of developing spiritual strength, for some mysterious reason. "Yeah, guess it's like that," Nimue answers Talia, with a nonchalant shrug. Ragnell's reflection about growth gets a long look; eventually, Nimue murmurs, "I think we all do."
Once they enter -- or perhaps 'appear' would be more appropriate -- they have virtually no time to react before being faced with a horrible sandstorm-made creature. It screams at them... and Nimue decides to play it flippant. "Oh? Oh, we're screaming! I can do that!" Nimue offers, with a loud, insistent, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"
She does what... *most* people here seem to be doing; she reaches into her pack, pulls out a grenade, twirls it on her fingers for a few moments, and then tosses it. It's... certainly a *straightforward* solution. "So, uh -- I have a bad feeling about this," she reflects aloud, mid-toss; she shifts into a defensive posture rather than continuing to aggress.
DG: Seraph Nimue has used her Tool Stolen Gadgets toward her party's challenge, Atychiphobia.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie, similarly, has done this rodeo before -- but not precisely to any great success. She had gotten to learn first-hand that Linaweyul is merciless and cruel, and that had been about that; sure, she had wondered about the place, but events -- both fairly recently and very recently -- had conspired to keep her attention towards more pertinent, less (comparatively) dangerous endeavors.
"So this is supposed to help us, huh," the archaeologist remarks, her hand on her hip as she gazes at the teleporter.
"Kind of makes me wonder how old this place's supposed to be. There's connections to it here and on Lunar, after all," she adds, glancing to her side at some of the others here.
Perhaps in particular at Ragnell. "Huh. Ain't you a bit of a bad penny," she remarks, glancing at the others as if to read their response. And then, because her grief is with another and she is not quite the woman she once was, she shrugs.
Then she just shakes her head. "Well, what've we got to loose?"
A beat.
"Other'n our lives, and all. Well, count me in, princess," she says, following soon after Talia.
"...Huh. Can't say I've seen this one before," she remarks, glancing about herself within the gilt coliseum.
"...hah."
She spots then the creature at the centure of the fighting arena.
Backpedaling as it swings a club, she leaps as it brings down the hammer, the sand rising in a wave about her pantlegs as force washes across the battlefield. When she lands, she lands in a crouch, watching as Talia hucks a bomb at it.. and as it simply reforms.
"Just sand, huh... ain't this a hell and a half," she murmurs, reaching for the flask at her hip. "Cowardice, indeed." Popping the cap, she swallows a mouthful before tucking it back away.
"Somethin' tells me this is gonna sting," she remarks, as if to explain why she needed that drink just now. "Well-- I ain't goin' down easy, I tell you!"
She doesn't turn to ARMs. What use is an ARM against the desert?
"O, thou lightning--"
Lightning rolls down her left arm, spinning out into a javelin-like shape in her grasp there. This, she hurls for the creature--
And gets ready to run for it.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Liquid Courage toward her party's challenge, Atychiphobia.
=======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - Atychiphobia *>========================= |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Fights are not always meant to be won, and the possibility of facing someone who is simply better than you, stronger than you, smarter than you, more talented than you, is oftentimes an inevitability if you throw yourself into conflict often enough. So what, then, do we do against insurmountable odds? The place you arrive at once the first flash of light envelopes you is full of the faint, phantasmal sounds of an unseen audience, cheering and booing in equal measure. This is an coliseum floating in the middle of nowhere, its columns sculpted magnificently, its sandpit arena composed of glowing gold grains -- and there at the center of it all, seethes a truly immense enemy, gray and pulsing with that selfsame golden life, its many arms equipped with a multitude of weapons. Its hide is practically impenetrable, its attacks like a force of nature with each swing. Its skills with its weapons seems almost custom-designed to be just slightly better than yours with your own methods of combat. It quickly becomes apparent that this is not a fight that you can win, as if no matter what you did, no matter how experienced you were, this creature would always just be slightly better. So how, than, do you succeed? Sometimes, victory is not a matter of how we win, but how we lose.
=Dungeon Conditions: Fright, Secret===========================================
==================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal - Round 1 *>=================== ===========================< Results - Atychiphobia >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Talia 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Royal Bomb 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Liquid Courage 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Clarine 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Panacea Bottle 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ivan 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Memory 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Lightning Grenade 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Nimue 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail Stolen Gadgets 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Talia 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Secret(2) Effects: Cleanse|Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Talia 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> Talia has posed.
"It does seem hard, no?" Talia says, with a glance back at Ragnell. "Do too much, and we don't learn a thing! Do too little, and... we also don't learn a thing. But--er--I am sure you will do great, no?"
And then they're brought into the place with a flash of light.
At Ragnell's explanation, Talia nods -- if loosely. "Cowardice?" she asks. Her nose wrinkles; she wonders, for a moment, what lesson she is to take from that. She doesn't quite find one. She watches as Ivan's fire and blade slash into the sand creature. It turns to glass, and then shatters...
But the sand lifts, and reforms. That hand turns into an oversized blade, like Ivan's own Memory but more ornate. It is, however, wisps of water and high-pressured mist that imitate his spell -- as it strikes at Ivan as he struck at it.
Talia yelps as she gets pummeled by a blast of light from Clarine's spell, reflected back by the mirror. Her feet skid over, as she draws Mirage, slams it into the sand, and arrests her slide.
"I don't know, maybe everything will be fi--"
The creature catches Nimue's bomb. It explodes in her hand and blows it apart, but the sand grains swirl up and reform a moment later. Then, two bombs appear: an oversized grenade over Talia and an oversized Bomb Flower over Nimue. They drop down, then explode in the air over both women with two simultaneous KWA-THOOOOOOM's.
It is over this that lightning rolls off Josephine Lovelace's arm, strikes the sand creature, and sends a spiderweb of glass up its body. It shatters as it twists -- and a spiderweb of glass shoots out, like lightning crackling, under their feet. It shatters at once, blowing up a cloud of sand into the air.
The temptation to run is real. And yet, as the creature reforms -- the glass on it shattering -- it swells, and swells, and swells. The crowd erupts into cheers, as Talia stares up, and lifts Mirage.
And then the crowd vanishes. The creature melts into the sand, dropping down as a great pile of it. Some wind blows some of the sand to the side, and they're treated to the sight of the barrier vanishing. The teleporter behind it awaits.
Talia flicks some sweat off her brow. "Right," she says, breathlessly. "Stronger, no?"
What is this place?
DG: Seraph Ragnell has drawn a new Challenge.
=======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================== ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Xenophobia *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Before you are two doors. Two doors, on a tiny island, surrounded by nothing. The doors are both equally indistinct save for colors, one red and one green. Opening either shows absolutely nothing behind them, only the selfsame emptiness that surrounds you. It is clear that you must choose one of these doors to go through, but there are no indicators or clues which should be chosen over which, and both are perched precariously at the very edge of the island. A complete unknown. But one must lead to the exit, and achieving this challenge. ... Right? =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Treasure=======================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell gives Nimue a long side-eye of her own. Then she turns her gaze forward. "...Yeah."
Josie calls her a bad penny. Ragnell chuckles and shrugs broadly at her. "I'm bad all right," she drawls. The reason for her presence, though, she'll leave to the others to explain.
Talia's response gets another chuckle, this one drier than the last. "Thanks for the support." It's not even sarcastic... not quite.
The battle ensues. Ragnell nods to Clarine for her own explanation of Linaweyul; so she's given the place a go before too. To Ivan, she calls, "Nah, it's not quite that verbal!"
After all, mirroring everyone's attacks back at them says so much more all on its own. Fire, and lightning, and bombs, and glass, and glass, and glass--until at last the glass shatters for a last time, and the sand and everything wisp away.
The barrier before them vanishes. Ragnell strides forward, though she does wait long enough for the others to follow before getting on it.
"Linaweyul is a straight path forward," she explains as the others approach. "The way to advance is to clear the challenges. For this place, it's pretty simple." She turns her head. "The later Ordeals won't be as straightforward for sure."
Light washes over them. The group next appears on a tiny golden island surrounded by a vast and empty ocean. That ocean crashes far below them on all sides--including past a pair of doors, one red, one green. Ragnell opens one, then the other; both show nothing on the other side. Simply that vast ocean, down, down, all the way down, crashing around the jagged rocks below.
It's not a fall one could easily survive. Even less material beings like the Seraphim in the group would probably not walk away unscathed.
Ragnell surveys the two doors for a moment. Then she nods decisively. "Right, then." And then--
She steps back, to let the others make their own decisions. In the meantime, she'll pull out a harmonica, silver and shiny, and begin to play a gentle, folksy melody on it. It might help soothe the others' nerves, clear some of their fear and frustration.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Polished Harmonica toward her party's challenge, Xenophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Josie calls Ragnell a 'bad penny'. Clarine... isn't quite sure what that expression means, but she gets the gist of it.
"It is alright. Ragnell... will be supporting us. In her own way." Clarine replies, with a polite bow of her head.
Despite their initial setback, they appear to do well enough to be allowed onward. This time, they appear on a tiny golden island, including nothing but a pair of doors and a vast ocean.
"Ah... is it a puzzle...? But... it appears we must determine the rules on our own..." She considers, folding her arms in front of her thoughtfully. "Perhaps there is no one correct answer... or, perhaps neither is correct, and the true answer lies elsewhere..."
She 'hm's to herself consideringly. Eventually, she reaches into her bags and draws out a sphere of pure, clear crystal.
"Perhaps this will shed some light on the situation..." Clarine says, completely oblivious to the pun in her words. She lets it go and it floats up briefly and, upon channeling power into it, it begins to shine with a light that dispels falsehoods and uncovers hidden truths.
DG: Seraph Clarine has used her Tool Brilliant Sphere toward her party's challenge, Xenophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Several members of the group caution that the place will use their fears against them. "Well, I'm not afraid of my fears, so no problem here!" Ivan announces.
Fast forward to SAND BATTLE, where Ivan's fiery strike is met with a mirrored attack wreathed in water and mist. Ivan brings forward his sword in a parry, but is thrown back by the force of the strike and doused and assailed by pressurized waves of water and cold mist, rolling to a stop halfway across the arena.
"It's true!! It really does know what we fe--dislike!"
The battle continues to deteriorate, with the creature shrugging off every attack, and answering it with something worse. Just when it seems it's about to go in for the kill, it melts away instead, leaving them to think about what lessons they are meant to take from what transpired.
Ivan finds himself unsure. "Just... some kind of test?" he asks, looking to the others who've been here before.
They find themselves transported again, this time to a platform above distant ocean waves, with two doors to choose between.
Chilled and winded by the battle, Ivan tries to shuffle to the back of the group to recover discreetly from his shivering and panting, only to find Ragnell stepping past him. Ragnell is probably the person he least wants to show any sign of weakness to, but he has no idea what to do about it in the moment so he kind of panics and pulls his umbrella from its sheath and pops it open to conceal himself behind it.
After several minutes of feeling silly hiding behind an umbrella, Ivan realizes something.
... ... ... somehow, for some unknown reason...the umbrella has an opinion about which way they should go. He hesitantly, somewhat disbelievingly holds it out toward the doors like a divining rod, letting it tug in the direction it sees fit.
DG: Ivan has used his Tool Judgemental Umbrella toward his party's challenge, Xenophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"I remember that," Talia says. "A straight path. But... there will be more Ordeals?" She glances sideways, at Ragnell. "This one is cowardice. So... other things?"
She asks it, just as they enter the light. When they're on that small, golden island -- with the cliffs that lead down to crashing waves -- she tenses, back going ramrod straight. She looks at the doors, for a moment, and then stares at the green, then the red.
"I think everything here is a test," Talia ventures to Ivan.
Then she glances at her shoulder. A squirrel crawls out from her jacket, and then perches on her shoulder. The Earth Squirrel is clearly supernatural, thanks to its glowing green eyes.
"Any ideas, Pryaniki?" she asks. He crawls down -- and then steps up to one door, then the other, as Clarine's light falls over it.
"I could guess at the differences, no?" Talia says. "Between red and green. But... it would be just a guess."
DG: Talia has used her Tool Pryaniki toward her party's challenge, Xenophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Clarine, in particular, looks a little confused about that turn of phrase.
Josie sighs after a moment, touching the fingers of her left hand to her forehead. "It means she keeps right on turnin' up," she explains.
Then it's onwards, inwards, and forwards.
In a sense.
Just as she'd expected, the blast of lightning partially glasses the monster.
Also just as she expected, it doesn't make a lick of difference. Bolting forward, Josie moves to evade what she expects to be another strike incoming and--
And then everything melts away, just like molten glass. Josie skids to a stop on sand that stops existing mere moments into that action and with a weighty sigh, takes a heavy breath.
"Maybe. Maybe not," she answers Talia, rolling her shoulders with a wince thereafter.
The barrier is all that exists. "Yeah. I remember this part," she remarks, at Ragnell's explanation. "Just touch it, then see where--"
Flash.
"...it takes us. Huh."
She glances at the doors.
"'Straightforward', huh," she drawls, before fishing in her pocket for a cigarette, lighting it with a small spark from her fingertips.
She takes a drag and stares off at the void that is the horizon.
Then one after the other approaches each of the gateways in turn.
Her gaze is on the smoke that trails off the cigarette in her hand--
--or quite possibly doesn't, depending on what flows from the doors, or even what wind is present in this unnatural place.
"Red," she decides, based on what she sees. "I'm voting for red."
She pauses, perhaps noticing Talia's little friend.
"Cute pet, princess," she comments, before approaching the red door.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Pack of Cigarettes toward her party's challenge, Xenophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Nimue has posed.
Hurrying out alongside eveyone else toward the teleporter, Nimue seems worn down just about instantly. Getting blown up a little tends to do that; sure, Nimue's used to downplaying her own pain while simultaneously overacting it... but now she just seems worn-down and beat up, like a normal person -- or at least a Drifter -- after an explosion.
"A straight path forward... into Hell!!" Nimue laments, on the topic of it being a straight path. She turns her gaze before long, to the doors before them... and the long drop down. Historically, she's approached this sort of thing with a certain flippant regard for her own body at best... but again -- today, maybe not.
Her nose reflexively crinkles in Josie's direction as she lights her cigarette; she knows that it's part of the plan -- a gesture to find the wind -- but still...
She decides to abdicate decision-making entirely here, for now, and just go with the flow, letting someone else decide on the right door. Instead of doing anything, she reaches into her pack, pulls out a foil-wrapped hunk of horsemeat, and starts eating. ... loudly.
DG: Seraph Nimue has used her Tool Stolen Food toward her party's challenge, Xenophobia.
=======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================== ==========================<* CHALLENGE - Xenophobia *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Before you are two doors. Two doors, on a tiny island, surrounded by nothing. The doors are both equally indistinct save for colors, one red and one green. Opening either shows absolutely nothing behind them, only the selfsame emptiness that surrounds you. It is clear that you must choose one of these doors to go through, but there are no indicators or clues which should be chosen over which, and both are perched precariously at the very edge of the island. A complete unknown. But one must lead to the exit, and achieving this challenge. ... Right? =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless, Treasure=======================================
==================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal - Round 2 *>=================== ============================< Results - Xenophobia >============================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Talia 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Pryaniki 2 Wits Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 0 --(0)--> 0 Fail Pack of Cigarettes 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Clarine 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Brilliant Sphere 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ivan 0 --(0)--> 0 Fail Judgemental Umbrella 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Polished Harmonica 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Nimue 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Stolen Food 3 Wits Effects: Rally -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Talia 20 --(35)--> 55 Pass Conditions: Fright(1)|Reckless(2)|Secret(1)|Treasure(1) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Talia has passed this challenge! The party gained 35 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"Liath insisted," Ragnell adds, simple and straightforward and dry as the desert they left, to Clarine's explanation for her support.
Ivan's claim that he's not afraid of his fears gets a loud and un-subtle snort. Fortunately for him, she doesn't make any actual comment, either on that or on his later cowering behind an umbrella. Instead, she nods to Talia.
"It is the First Ordeal, after all," she points out, poker-faced. "Stands to reason there's gonna be others."
Nimue's claim that it's a straight path forward into Hell gets a laugh--but perhaps ominously, no comment. Or maybe not that ominously, given their recent history. Either way, Clarine would definitely be a better person (so to speak) to tend to her explosion wounds.
Ragnell then proceeds to play her harmonica, letting the melody fill the air and give a bit of background music to the proceedings. The corner of her mouth curves up when Josie decisively picks red as she has herself a smoke; the smoke does not indicate anything in particular, unfortunately, but it is still a decision. Ivan's opinionated umbrella agrees with it, as does Pryaniki, its green-glowing eyes finally settling on red. Clarine's spell illuminates both doors, implying that her guess that 'neither choice is correct' may instead be 'neither choice is wrong.' What's important is to make a choice and be decisive about it. To not be paralyzed by fear of the unknown.
Or something like that. Each of them will likely have their own takeaway as they file through the red door, Ragnell picking up the rear and walking through last. Each of them vanish to those behind as they pass--so there is no knowing for certain that this is the right choice for those who follow--until they actually do walk through.
At that point, they're bathed in golden light and experience a perhaps-terrifying moment of weightlessness, until they touch down gently in the next chamber to see...
DG: Seraph Clarine has drawn a new Challenge.
======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================= ========================<* CHALLENGE - Phobophobia *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 4 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- This hallway is wide and open; at the other end is a simple door, with no look, nor need to bash it in to leave this area and progress further into Linaweyul. No -- it's what's between you and the door that's the problem. Floating gold crystal structures blot out this hall, choking it with their presence and making traversing difficult on their own... to say nothing of the sense of fear that emanates from them, filling anyone nearby them with a sense of panicked phobia over nothing but the sensation of fear itself. The crystals hum in perfect harmony, the effect of their phobic song more potent the more there are, inflicting their physiological stress on anyone nearby. To get through, you'll have to demolish these crystals... and try not to succumb to the fear before then. No problem, right? =Dungeon Conditions: Collapse, Overzealous====================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
"Ahh, I see..." Clarine says with a nod of understanding as Josie explains her phrase. She... still doesn't quite get it all the way, but she understands it enough to know what she means.
Clarine will, indeed, help tend to wounds where necessary, using this chamber as an opportunity to get people patched up before moving on into the next one.
There's no immediate sign of danger, as they walk in. There is merely a wide, open hallway with a door at the other end - and filling this hallway is a series of floating, golden crystals. A sense of fear emanates from them, emitting an ominous hum that resonates with each of its fellow crystals nearby, magnifying its effects.
The sense of fear and stress washes over Clarine immediately. Her eyes go wide and she recoils back, shutting her eyes tight. She takes a deep breath.
"Th-this fear... i-it isn't yours. Do not... let it hold you back." She murmurs. ...But, it sounds almost like she's trying to reassure herself, rather than any of the others. She tries to force herself forward, her body shaking. She raises her hands, sending off a concentrated beam toward the nearest crystal. The beam is a little shaky... but, she's trying her best.
DG: Seraph Clarine has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Phobophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"He isn't a pet," Talia says, with a glance at Josie. "He's very smart!" Pryaniki does, in fact, look right at Josie -- to the extent one can tell, with solid glowing green eyes.
She glances at Ragnell, then she nods. There would be, of course, more ordeals. If this is the first, then others must follow. She wrinkles her nose for a moment, and then looks up.
The red door it is. She flinches at the flash of light.
The hallway isn't quite what she expected. At first, she glances around, unsure of what the problem might be -- and then she feels the sudden wash of panic. It makes her tense and want to run. She actually takes a couple of steps backward, walking right back into her brother.
'Th0this fear... i-it isn't yours.'
"What is--" Talia gasps, her heart pounding. She holds a hand up. "I'm not going to, these things just need to--"
A magical circle swirls into angry existence before her hand. Then, a spear of ice forms, and fires into one of the crystal. "--go away!"
Fear, in this case, is making her lash out a little blindly.
DG: Talia has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Phobophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
They make their way through the door, and are transported to another room, this one filled with mysterious crystals.
"Are the crystals... supposed to feel like they're judging you?" Ivan says, finding himself suddenly, powerfully unnerved. He tries to look away from them, folding his arms and hunching over and turning away to avoid being 'seen' by them, but every way he turns there seems to be another one.
Th-this fear... i-it isn't yours. Do not... let it hold you back.
"Isn't ours?" What... what could that mean? But attacking them... he can do that!
... ... or can he? What if he fails, and everyone sees it... he was having trouble even lifting his over-sized warhammer before...
Talia walks into him, in her own moment of panic, and he looks at her with worry, before she starts assailing the crystals with ice.
Y-yes! That's it!
Ivan gathers a handful of shining, crackling sparks and sends them out toward a cluster of crystals, where they start detonating in miniature explosions.
DG: Ivan has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Phobophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
There's a little more to the phrase than that, but Josie has just enough tact to not get into that part right in front of the person in question. Even if, as she suspects, it might not matter to Ragnell as such...
On the island, there is no wind. Given the surroundings, perhaps she should have expected as much -- but still, one has to give it a try.
And barring anything else at all, go with your gut. Nothing about her surroundings suggested 'red', but she went with it all the same.
But before she passes that threshold, she regards the squirrel.
The squirrel who looks right at her, basically, staring into her eyes. Maybe.
"Hmm," she muses, tilting her head slightly to the right. "Seems that way."
...Does she have some familiarity with squirrels as well as pigeons, then?
She then crosses the threshold--
And again stands in the void before the barrier. And then once it is touched, crosses over to another place.
"What's the plan here--"
The sound seems to swallow up nearly all rational thought. Josie drops to a knee and remains like that as if she's been frozen.
Hide. Freeze. Don't move! scream the mammalian underpinnings of her brain. She touches her hand to her face. "What... what is this..."
'Th-this fear... i-it isn't yours.'
Josie breathes hard. She breathes hard and lunges up onto her feet with a scream -- terror, defiance? -- for the nearest crystal, pulling from where it had hung at her hip her mattock.
This she swings for the crystal.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Well-Used Mattock toward her party's challenge, Phobophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Their objective: a simple unlocked door. Their obstacle: yellow crystals and their infernal humming, like a color out of space to bring terror to the night. Ragnell is no more immune to the mental assault than anyone else, and her body tenses as she gazes upon them. Clarine gives very good advice, and Ragnell doesn't add to it; she simply takes (wholly unnecessary) deep breaths, then lets them out slowly.
"Relax," she drawls. "Have a cheesecake." She walks forward slowly, the pride in her countering the unnatural fear to keep from showing the shake of her legs. She withdraws a bag of homemade treats from her poncho, pops a cheesecake bite, and hands out--perhaps even shoves--more bites to the others.
Once treats have been delivered, and maybe helped the others focus through their fear, Ragnell strides up to the crystals, raises one booted foot, and--
WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM.
There's nothing like violence to go with a heaping dose of irrational fear, as the others have already determined.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Cheesecake Bites toward her party's challenge, Phobophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Nimue has posed.
Nimue grins a little at 'Liath insisted,' in spite of herself. "She's kinda a busybody, isn't she? ... She seems nice, though." Nimue doesn't like to think about Liath too hard because that gets existentially complicated for her -- but she *does* like the seraph rather a lot, and definitely seems to think highly of her.
She instead takes a moment to let Clarine tend to her wounds and exhaustion before proceeding... only to feel that pervading sense of fear overwhelm her. Oh, to be sure,that's been a constant companion -- but to have it hit all at once?
Nimue lets out a high-pitched screech, pulling out her sling-staff with one hand. She doesn't even think of her *usual* solution to this; instead, she just starts hitting crystals over and over. Unlike the earlier screaming, which was at least *kind* of 'for fun,' this is just pure, wordless panic.
DG: Seraph Nimue has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Phobophobia.
======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================= ========================<* CHALLENGE - Phobophobia *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 4 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- This hallway is wide and open; at the other end is a simple door, with no look, nor need to bash it in to leave this area and progress further into Linaweyul. No -- it's what's between you and the door that's the problem. Floating gold crystal structures blot out this hall, choking it with their presence and making traversing difficult on their own... to say nothing of the sense of fear that emanates from them, filling anyone nearby them with a sense of panicked phobia over nothing but the sensation of fear itself. The crystals hum in perfect harmony, the effect of their phobic song more potent the more there are, inflicting their physiological stress on anyone nearby. To get through, you'll have to demolish these crystals... and try not to succumb to the fear before then. No problem, right? =Dungeon Conditions: Collapse, Overzealous====================================
=================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal - Round 3 *>================== ==========================< Results - Phobophobia >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Talia 0 --(15)--> 15 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Josephine Lovelace 0 --(15)--> 15 Fail Well-Used Mattock 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Clarine 0 --(15)--> 15 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ivan 0 --(15)--> 15 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Ragnell 0 --(15)--> 15 Fail Cheesecake Bites 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Nimue 5 --(10)--> 15 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Talia 55 --(10)--> 65 Fail Conditions: Collapse|Overzealous(2)|Reckless(1) Effects: Strengthen(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Talia has failed this challenge! The party gained 10 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Ivan has drawn a new Challenge.
=======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - Somniphobia *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Shining and ephemeral, full of white and gold emotes, the sheer, comforting warmth of this place feels like a dream. It is so peaceful in this wide, white room that one could realistically start to feel drowsy just entering it... and that is exactly the problem. Because the moment you enter, a massive, were-tiger-like Hellion drops down from above, snarling violence and immediately charging you to attack. To get further, to overcome this challenge and open the way further into Linaweyul, you must defeat this Hellion -- but the longer you linger in this place, the more its unnatural serenity and warmth saps more and more of your strength and makes you increasingly tired. The urge to go to sleep even when facing a horrible monster is increasingly high -- better hope you finish before you succumb to a nice, debatably pleasant nap. =Dungeon Conditions: Maim, Fright, Vault======================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
They throw everything they have against the crystals. Explosions, ice spears, mattocks, a rain of kicks... they bring everything down on the crystals that they have. But in the end Nimue, smashing crystals with her staff in a wordless panic, is the only one of them that makes any sort of headway against them, taking a few of them down.
It isn't enough in the end - the hum intensifies, growing stronger, and stronger, until it nearly drowns out all thought.
There is only mercy in that they soon find themselves elsewhere - not further ahead in the ordeal, but at the very least free of the crystals' influence.
Clarine is quiet, her arms wrapped around herself is shaking. She'll probably be quiet for a little while longer.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
They do not conquer the crystals, but find themselves transported to a new location all the same. There's a palpable feeling of non-progression as they land in the next room.
"DID THAT ROOM JUST GIVE UP ON US?!" Ivan asks, covering his face in shame, as the particular type of fear the room stirred up in him was one of... unworthiness.
Fortunately, or so it may seem for a moment, where the previous room was permeated with fear, this room seems to provide comfort and reassurance, and a sense of ease and safety that lulls them towards stopping here, taking a rest or even settling in for a nap.
And somewhere behind that deceptive sense of safety is a faint growling, before a tiger Hellion drops down from above, and charges toward them.
Ivan, who had sat down in this new room for a break, somehow without even worrying about who might see him doing such a thing for once, blinks at the charging beast and calls his sword into his hands, though he struggles to stand, fighting the strange urge to just kind of... lie down and ignore it...
"I think I understand the 'fear that isn't ours' now... is this one.... sleepiness that isn't ours...??"
DG: Ivan has used his Tool Memory toward his party's challenge, Somniphobia.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
It isn't a pleasant feeling, being overwhelmed with fear. At the end of it, Talia's eyes are wide and her breath ragged. A cold sweat has some of her hair plastered against her forehead, and her hand shakes. Little flakes of frost drift away from it.
'DID THAT ROOM JUST GIVE UP ON US?!'
"I--I think so," Talia says. She takes a deep breath; and then she feels a little safer. The way that the room seems designed to put her at ease. She starts to relax, until the floor shakes from the sudden, terrific impact of the were-tiger Hellion.
It rattles her feeat, and then she turns towards the Hellion. She blinks her eyes, fighting a yawn. The yawn feels so strange in the moment. "I think--I think it is warning us about complacency, no?"
She shakes her head, then reaches into her beg. It's sluggish; her fingers move languidly. Then, she tugs out a bomb, and hurls it. The bomb flies in -- and then explodes, a fiery blast tinged with rainbow sparkles on the tiger.
"Doing nothing is tempting, but--it could get you killed!" she says. "I think that is the point, no?"
DG: Talia has used her Tool Royal Bomb toward her party's challenge, Somniphobia.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Non-progression. That's a good way of putting it. They might be in a new spot, but they haven't gone forward. That's the way of Linaweyul: give in to your fear, and you will repeat the same horrors over and over and over. That being said--
Ragnell pats Ivan's shoulder. He may or may not notice the tremor that still spasms through it. "Failure is a part o' growth," she murmurs. "If you advanced through an ordeal without ever failing, you'd never know how to deal with it when it really counts." She moves over to Clarine from there, kneeling down and wrapping an arm around her shoulders. To her, she says nothing; merely offers her her presence, perhaps a bit of reassurance.
Her expression gentles into something genuinely fond when Nimue comments on Liath. "She is," she agrees with a nod and a warm smile. To Liath being a busybody, or being nice? Both, naturally--but Ragnell will leave it ambiguous to the rest.
This feels much nicer than before--so nice that Ragnell could just plop down and take a rest...
Which puts her on her guard, a split-second before the tiger Hellion appears. Even with that guardedness, though, she finds her reactions dulled--she doesn't draw her guns until after the Hellion has raked its claws at her. She may have at least gotten a chance to shove Clarine out of the way, though, if the Light Seraph hadn't already taken care of that herself.
"Nice insight," she calls to Talia, pulling a grenade as she staggers upright, pouring all her will into focusing through the sleepiness. When the Hellion next roars, she pulls the pin and chucks the lightning grenade for the back of its damn throat.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Lightning Grenade toward her party's challenge, Somniphobia.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Whereas the previous challenge radiated fear, this one emanates calmness, serenity, warmth. It's like lying down in a warm sunbeam, and Clarine finds herself being lulled to sleep. She shakes her head, as if trying to shake the sleepiness off. Not fast enough - in the end, Ragnell needs to shove her out of the way of the Hellion's claws. Clarine picks herself up, offering her a nod of thanks.
"This is... quite devious." Clarine murmurs. She reaches into her sleeve, then, drawing out several bottles of the kind she showed off before. She takes one for herself, and passes the rest out to the others. "Here - these should help chase off some of the drowsiness."
Only a little, though, and even without the drowsiness, they still have a powerful Hellion to deal with. One that'd be dangerous even without the drowsiness slowing their reflexes. But, it's so tempting to take a nap here, after what they've been through...
DG: Seraph Clarine has used her Tool Panacea Bottle toward her party's challenge, Somniphobia.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie slams the mattock into the crystal again and again.
But it isn't enough.
She screams, then, as the fear takes over and slams any attempt at rational thought into the ground.
Until, quite suddenly, it's all over. Shaking, her mouth dry, Josie slowly reaches for her hip flask as Ivan asks to the room at large if the previous ordeal had just given up on them.
"Maybe," she croaks, and doesn't quite get the flask in hand before there's a Hellion upon them and much, much, much more pressing things to worry about. "Of all the-- huh..." Josie staggers, swaying as if suddenly caught in some fierce gale.
She shakes her head hard enough that it seems she's rattled her brains. "Nn... Damn, there's something in the air-- try 'n... stay sharp, kids," she slurs, her hand reaching for the ARM at her hip almost languidly.
Maybe that's it -- a warning against complacency. Sure, she'll bite.
Come to think of it, that gives her an idea--
Josie's response to her own failure to stay alert is to bite the inside of her cheek until it burns, trying to use that pain as a means of centering herself while every other nerve in her body wants to hie off and take a nap.
"C'mon-- let's get this over with!"
She draws, the ARM first slipping from her grasp, but, aha--
She snakes out a hand again and catches it on the way down, bringing it to bear up on the follow through and though she wobbles a moment, cracks off that shot nonetheless.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Somniphobia.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Nimue has posed.
"... Phew, o, okay. Phew." Nimue breathes a long sigh of relief as they at last get to move forward -- even if she's not really sure how it happened, given the circumstances. "That sucked in a way that was way too familiar!" She takes a few moments to catch her breath -- though it's really just a grounding mechanism rather than something she actually needs to do.
Indeed, the new place is... pleasant. Despite the Hellion. Nimue *desperately* wants relief from the fear -- but the weretiger before her suggests that she actually needs to accept the fear and let it keep her awake, this time!
Nimue takes one of the offered bottles with one hand, and takes a long drink; the other chucks a grenade in the general direction of the weretiger-like Hellion. Her throw is pretty sloppy this time, though.
DG: Seraph Nimue has used her Tool Stolen Gadgets toward her party's challenge, Somniphobia.
=======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - Somniphobia *>========================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Shining and ephemeral, full of white and gold emotes, the sheer, comforting warmth of this place feels like a dream. It is so peaceful in this wide, white room that one could realistically start to feel drowsy just entering it... and that is exactly the problem. Because the moment you enter, a massive, were-tiger-like Hellion drops down from above, snarling violence and immediately charging you to attack. To get further, to overcome this challenge and open the way further into Linaweyul, you must defeat this Hellion -- but the longer you linger in this place, the more its unnatural serenity and warmth saps more and more of your strength and makes you increasingly tired. The urge to go to sleep even when facing a horrible monster is increasingly high -- better hope you finish before you succumb to a nice, debatably pleasant nap. =Dungeon Conditions: Maim, Fright, Vault======================================
==================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal - Round 4 *>=================== ===========================< Results - Somniphobia >============================ Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Talia 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Royal Bomb 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 15 --(5)--> 20 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Clarine 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Panacea Bottle 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ivan 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Memory 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 15 --(5)--> 20 Fail Lightning Grenade 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Nimue 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Stolen Gadgets 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Talia 65 --(30)--> 95 Pass Conditions: Collapse|Fright(2)|Maim|Overzealous(1)|Vault(1) Effects: Cleanse|Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Talia has passed this challenge! The party gained 30 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> Ivan has posed.
As they enjoy the brief calm before the tiger storm, Ragnell tries to impart the lesson in failure.
If you advanced through an ordeal without ever failing, you'd never know how to deal with it when it really counts.
Ivan makes a doubtful sound in response. "You mean... that you don't stop and give up?" Funny, that's exactly what he has a powerful urge to do right now. Or maybe not give up, but at least... a little break...
BUT THEN... THEY ARE ATTACKED BY A TIGER!
Talia hurls a bomb toward the creature, albeit in slow motion.
Doing nothing is tempting, but--it could get you killed!" she says. "I think that is the point, no?
"That makes a lot of sense... where did you learn to speak the language of judgy spirit trials, Talia??" Ivan is finally able to get himself moving properly, and sinks his blade into the creature before backing off to give the others a clear shot at it.
Ragnell also springs into action -- on a slight delay -- pushing Clarine clear of a slash of the Hellion's claws and sending a lightning grenade sailing into its mouth as it lets out a roar.
Clarine meanwhile distributes potions to help give everyone the pep they need to overcome the enemy.
Josie nearly drops her weapon, but using a bit of pain to center herself, recovers it and fires off a shot at the Hellion.
Nimue, meanwhile, uses one of Clarine's potions to help recover her alertness, and adds another grenade to the fray.
By the time the hail of explosions has died down, the Hellion distorts and fades away like a dream, leaving them with a precious few moments of actual safety in the calming and pleasant room before another flash of light spirits them off to who knows where.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has drawn a new Challenge.
=======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Arachnophobia *>========================= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The final boundary is touched. And in a flash of light... darkness is the first thing to greet you. Darkness, and a sticky sensation that clings to you, making movement difficult at best. And as light streams in, you will see the reason why: you're stuck. In a web. A very, very large spider's web. And when there is a very, very large spider's web, it stands to reason that, well... ... there is a very, very large spider. You can hear it, mandibles chattering unseen in the darkness. And the more you linger here, the more it becomes visible, from long, spindly, fuzzy legs to its multitude of eyes... to dripping, venom-filled fangs. It approaches slowly, as if it has all the time in the world -- and it is clear, that if you want to overcome this challenge and reach the end of this place, you must break out of this web and escape before that spider reaches you. The second the spider reaches you, that challenge is failed. So. Best get to destroying some webs. If not just for the sake of your sanity. =Dungeon Conditions: Collapse, Weaken=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Kid," Josie remarks to Ivan, even while still recovering from the Fear Room, "you ain't gonna get nowhere if you give up. Sometimes you gotta cut your losses, but if it's something you want..."
Of course, then, before she can do normal things like 'get a damn drink' or 'finish her sentence' they are of course attacked by a tiger.
Complacency, complacency, all is complacency.
Until she gets about centering herself the hard way, that is--
And gets a shot off despite fumbling about like she were still a novice again.
The room fades. There is again the barrier. "Ready?" Josie remarks to the rest of them.
Ready is... an arguable statement.
Considering that in an eyeblink, they're all strung up with something clinging and sticky, and dangling in various parts of a...
"Web," Josie utters, perhaps voicing what everyone else has realized. "Shit, it's a damn web. Where's the--"
Her gaze tilts upwards as something chitters.
"...there's the spider," she finishes, her gaze on the spider still. Some of the strands break easily as she struggles -- as the others will also find -- permitting at least some movement and opportunity to break free.
Because here comes the spider, slowly, as if it had all the time in the world.
"Never thought I'd," Josie grunts, trying to reach the mattock at her hip, "have some sympathy for a fly..."
Her hand closes around the tool's shaft, and nothing has ever felt so welcome in her grip as this.
"C'mon-- I'm not--"
She swings it, as best she can under the circumstances. If she falls, she falls, but better falling than sticking around, so to speak.
"--not gettin' eaten by a spider--"
Tik, tik, tik. The spider procedes, as if this insistance meant nothing at all to it.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Well-Used Mattock toward her party's challenge, Arachnophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"It's more nuanced than that," Ragnell tells Ivan, once the battle is over and there is a moment of respite to be had. "Yeah, if you boil it down to the essence, that's what it means. But failure can fuck you up, yeah? Especially if you've failed at somethin' that's really important to you."
Her eyes lid. "Like savin' someone you love, for example."
She doesn't look at Nimue or Clarine. She doesn't need to.
Instead, she sweeps an arm out and around to encompass the entirety of their environs. "Learnin' how to deal with failin' here, in a trial, helps give you the emotional wherewithal to deal with failure out in the real world. So that you don't go to pieces at the worst possible moment." Then she shrugs broadly. "Or whatever! Wha'do I know, really? Have a cheesecake." And then she starts handing out another round of delicious snacks.
Good timing, too. The instant after she's popped her own cheesecake bite, the light overtakes them, and they all find themselves in a giant spiderweb, glistening in the light, which glistens equally off eight round eyes and two vast, curved fangs. The bonus of Ragnell's snacks is that they've got magical qualities, and these ones help keep one's strength from getting sapped. In other words, allowing everyone to struggle against their bonds without getting worn out before the mega-arachnid reaches them.
Which is extremely helpful because they're gonna need to struggle a *lot* to get out of this... sticky situation.
"Yup, there it sure as hell is," Ragnell chimes in after Josie, red eyes wide. Her entire body crackles with the electricity that composes it; the heat of it bubbles at the webbing, and she begins to pull away with effort. As she does, she grunts, "I think--the worst part--is the way that damn spider isn't worried one bit--it might lose its dinner--"
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Cheesecake Bites toward her party's challenge, Arachnophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"Thanks," Talia answers Ragnell, trying and failing to fight a yawn. Then, she glances at Ivan. "I-I don't know, it just... it made sense to me, no?"
She lets Ragnell and Josie chastise Ivan about giving up. But she does cut him a look at that.
The flash of light overtakes them -- and then Talia finds her foot, and her side, caught in something sticky. "Gh," she grunts. She yanks, and her foot is stuck, and she looks at Josie. "A web? Then--"
Then there must be a spider, and there it is, moving slowly.
She grabs Mirage, yanking it with a hand not caught in the web. She tears the short sword free of its scabbard, and then begins hacking at some of the thick strands of webbing.
"Come on, come on, just cut through--"
Mirage might be a former Divine Arm, a weapon with sorceries built in, but it isn't really made to be a machete.
DG: Talia has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Arachnophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
It turns out that bullets and explosives are a pretty effective way of dealing with enemies! Clarine is relieved when the feeling of sleepiness fades. The topic, then, turns to the matter of failure.
Clarine's quiet, her gaze falling a little, especially at Ragnell's words - it's not so much that she doesn't have something to say on the topic, but... she's not sure she has anything to add that wouldn't just drag things down. So, instead, in lieu of words she instead accepts snacks from Ragnell, stuffing them in her mouth.
It isn't long after that they find themselves enveloped in light, and when they reappear, they find themselves trapped in a giant spider web. And where there's a giant spider web, there is, of course, a giant spider!
"...I am not unfond of spiders, but... I really would rather not be lunch." She says. It's a good thing she's a being of light and magic instead of a physical flesh and blood human being - she'd probably have webs caught in her hair for days after this.
She takes a moment to center herself before focusing some magic. At the end of one hand a short blade of light, concentrated into a cutting edge, appears, which she very carefully uses to try and cut away the webs binding her.
She's not entirely certain that the webs wouldn't be able to contain her even if she tried to disperse or concentrate her light, and a widescale attack seems like a good way to accidentally shoot her friends, too.
DG: Seraph Clarine has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Arachnophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"I didn't say I WOULD give up," Ivan grumps to Josie. "I'm just trying to figure out if that was the lesson. I'll do all the trials over all again today if I have t-"
Ragnell then elaborates on exactly what she really meant, and hands Ivan a cheesecake. He blinks at it and chews on her words a bit. He's had quite enough practice at failure in regular life, in his opinion. What he needs is to start winning, not to get better at failing! But it's irritating to feel as though he's missed the point when everyone else is getting it. Does that mean he isn't spiritually growing and everyone else is?
Oh, and also THEY GET ATTACKED BY A TIGER but that's old news at this point because now they are trapped in a spiderweb...!
Who knows what this test is supposed to be about?
Ivan's fire spells generally require the use of his hands to make gestures in the air, but sometimes it also responds to his emotions, coming off of his body in uncontrolled plumes. He tries to make use of that now, tapping into his frustration at failing and missing the points of the spiritual growth trials to set himself alight and burn away at the webbing holding him in place.
DG: Ivan has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Arachnophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Nimue has posed.
Nimue... surprisingly, does not instantly hate spiders as they progress through the barrier. At the very least, she doesn't instantly protest; after all, that would take energy, which is in shockingly short supply at the moment. "Mmh... I still want to nap," Nimue mumbles -- though once the spider starts *moving* she decides she would very much be fine with not having a nap.
She isn't sure how to deal with the webs; she has no incendiary grenades, and her magic isn't exactly much. So... she decides to keep things very, bleedingly simple.
She reaches into her pack; she takes a long drink from an unidentified bottle; she unshoulders her sling-staff again; she starts going to town. "I would also like to not be lunch!" she calls to Clarine as she swings. It's exactly the same way she approached the earlier crystals; she has absolutely no plan. She's just swinging.
DG: Seraph Nimue has used her Tool Stolen Drinks toward her party's challenge, Arachnophobia.
=======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>======================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Arachnophobia *>========================= |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The final boundary is touched. And in a flash of light... darkness is the first thing to greet you. Darkness, and a sticky sensation that clings to you, making movement difficult at best. And as light streams in, you will see the reason why: you're stuck. In a web. A very, very large spider's web. And when there is a very, very large spider's web, it stands to reason that, well... ... there is a very, very large spider. You can hear it, mandibles chattering unseen in the darkness. And the more you linger here, the more it becomes visible, from long, spindly, fuzzy legs to its multitude of eyes... to dripping, venom-filled fangs. It approaches slowly, as if it has all the time in the world -- and it is clear, that if you want to overcome this challenge and reach the end of this place, you must break out of this web and escape before that spider reaches you. The second the spider reaches you, that challenge is failed. So. Best get to destroying some webs. If not just for the sake of your sanity. =Dungeon Conditions: Collapse, Weaken=========================================
==================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal - Round 5 *>=================== ==========================< Results - Arachnophobia >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Talia 15 --(100)--> 115 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 20 --(100)--> 120 Fail Well-Used Mattock 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Clarine 15 --(100)--> 115 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ivan 15 --(100)--> 115 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 20 --(100)--> 120 Fail Cheesecake Bites 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Nimue 15 --(100)--> 115 Fail Stolen Drinks 1 Brute Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Talia 95 --(10)--> 105 Fail Conditions: Collapse|Fright(1)|Weaken(2) Effects: Cleanse|Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: Talia is too exhausted to continue! DG: Josephine Lovelace is too exhausted to continue! DG: Seraph Clarine is too exhausted to continue! DG: Ivan is too exhausted to continue! DG: Seraph Ragnell is too exhausted to continue! DG: Seraph Nimue is too exhausted to continue! DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Talia has successfully explored Linaweyul, the First Ordeal!
=======================<* Linaweyul, the First Ordeal *>========================
===========<* CHALLENGE - The Devil's Arms ~ Fragment of Cowardice *>===========
|Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
What you come upon is a vault. Surrounded by soft streaming veins of pulsing
blue light like within Uzda Il-jam, only somehow more pure, more
concentrated, this place feels like it has been etched into the earth
itself. Rock and stone flow naturally as if nature made this architecture,
natural pillars of minerals and glowing blue crystals surrounding a strange
armory at the very center of this strange place. And it is here that you
find them: an assortment of weapons of dull black, with crystalline violet
substance woven through their workings like a natural part of the weapon
itself -- with eight, strange insets placed on each of the weapons. From
swords, to bows and arrows, to even ARMs -- one can find practically
anything here. All of them seem almost inert, lifeless -- but exuding a soft
sensation of something strangely amiss with them, like they were infused
with something... off.
Behind these weapons is a furnace, burning with a cold, violet light. The
second any of these weapons are taken, the flames bubble forth, and rush
out, surging across the weapon in one's grip to seemingly temper it within
flames that do not burn flesh. When the flame fades, one of those eight
insets has been filled with a softly glowing, violet gem -- one that makes
the off feeling of that weapon abate, just slightly. There is something
unusual about these weapons -- but perhaps it would be best if they were
looked after, at least, until their mystery is solved -- lest they fall into
the wrong hands...
(OOC: Congratulations, you have a Devil's Arm! If you get the reference to
Tales games, good for you, if not -- this will be a sub-plot running through
Uzda Il-jam's challenges, with the chance to get a ~strong lore weapon~ at
the end of it. To those with refined senses, they'd be able to tell there is
a slight presence of Malevolence clinging to the weapon, but it is sealed
and cannot spread. You can feel free to use the weapons right now, too --
they all function as they should. Pick whatever weapon you'd like and
describe them however you want -- the only thing consistent amongst them are
the eight empty insets. Any questions, feel free to ping Dispellado!)
---
In addition, you receive:
Proof of Spiritual Power: Cowardice!
Spiritual power, earned from braving the trial of crippling cowardice!
You can now resist powerful domains!
(OOC: This is a bonus achievement and represents a spiritual empowerment
rather than a concrete reward! If you've already cleared Linaweyul, this
does not apply to you!)
=Dungeon Conditions: Vault====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Then you're on the right track," she says to Ivan, smiling crookedly. "Next comes the hard part!"
What that is, she doesn't explain. It might have something to do with the giant tiger monster.
After which, fortunately, there are snacks handed out right before things diverge sharply into a nightmare scenario.
"Dammit, dammit--"
The stuff's hard to cut, break, or burn. It doesn't want to give.
Not at first.
The spider descends slowly, as if dragging this out before the main event, which is, apparently, the lot of them.
But they all struggle. They don't give up, even in the face of terror itself.
Whether with a blade not meant for use as a machete...
...A hastily swung archaeological mattock...
...A burst of electical force...
...A blade formed from light itself...
...A sling-staff put to use against the webbing...
...Fire magic applied directly to the web...
The result is the same. The web was not made for such sustained abuse and it receives a series of holes forthwith as the spider's prey fall from where they were caught.
They keep on falling.
There may be a short stop at the end.
In here, in contrast to the yellow light throughout Linaweyul, the chamber into which they land is the soft blues of Uzda Il-jam. No, more than that...
Josie, unsteadily, rises to her feet, staggering a moment as she reels still from the impact of the drop. "Spider didn't come with, yeah?"
The spider is most assuredly not in here. Shaking her head, she then dips into her pocket and retrieves her flask, downing the rest of the contents before taking in the room into which they've fallen proper.
Black weapons. Her gaze slides from longswords to longbows, from knives and axes and weapons she doesn't even recognize.
"..."
Until it comes to fall on one in particular.
"...Is that a shotgun?"
Josie makes a beeline right for it, picking it up from its stand to take a closer look.
"Not bad grip, balance..." she assesses, keeping it pointed towards the floor. "Would have to give it a go to know for sure."
But, doesn't it feel a little off? Just a little?
This of course is when the purple flames roll forth, 'tempering' the black weapon -- and any others picked up -- with a glimmering purple gem.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
They manage to cut through the web! Downside - upon doing so, they fall for what seems like quite a long time. The floor on the other end comes fast - Clarine doesn't even have any time to halt her momentum before she crashes into it.
She seems well enough, at least, hauling herself to her feet and dusting off her dress before taking a brief look around.
"...We are... here." Clarine observes. "This room... I made it here the last time, as well."
Clarine reaches into her sleeves and draws out a peculiar mirror. She only shows it briefly before holding it close, with the back facing the others. It has the same look as the weapons present here, and like the others it has eight insets on its back, one already filled with a violet gem.
"And...I received this. It gives me a sense of... foreboding, but I did not feel comfortable leaving it behind..." She murmurs.
If they manage to catch a glimpse in their reflection before she hides the reflective side, they'll see something ominous - it doesn't reflect you as you are now, but instead the you that could have been, if you had made a misstep along your journey. If something had failed, or gone wrong, at a crucial moment.
One can possibly understand why Clarine doesn't keep it visible for long.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"Gyah!" Talia yelps, as she lands. Her feet slam down, the ground supporting her fall. She rises, slowly, and stretches her legs and arms out. It feels a little painful; she has a sore spot in her back after that. She looks about, and her eyes scanning about.
The weapons draw a slow, not quite comprehending stare. She looks the black weapons over, before she starts towards one of them: a smooth, jet black dagger, with eight little slots in them. She reaches a hand out, then stops, fingers recoiling back from the surge violet light. She gasps -- and then, as it ends, reaches out hesitantly.
She takes the dagger, one slot in it now alight with a purple gem. "This is..." She blinks her eyes. "...this is different, no? Something feels strange. But..."
But better than leaving it here.
Talia glances around the room. "It makes me wonder what this place was for, no?" she says. "Both... Linaweyul and the place outside it."
She looks down at the mirror. She sees her own reflection.
It's smiling back at her, with a woman standing just behind her -- smiling too. Talia's eyes widen sharply, then she tucks the dagger hurriedly in her belt.
"...it is strange, no?"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
The web breaks. The spider, for all its size, rapidly vanishes from view as the lot of them fall. Ragnell twists in midair and lands on her feet with one hand to stabilize herself in a three-point landing. Puffing out a short breath, she stands and looks around at where they've found themselves:
The end of Linaweyul, bathed in an even purer blue light than Uzda Il-jam.
There is a lick of Malevolence throughout the room. But suppressed. Sealed. She looks around at the minerals and crystals to the armory, where a variety of weapons rest. She doesn't pick up any; when the hearth flames roar, she gets no purple jewels. But she doesn't look particularly surprised by it all.
"..." Ragnell looks over her shoulder at Clarine. "You did, huh?" She tucks the Devil's Arms away, into her poncho. "A mirror, huh... That's so perfectly you. A little too perfect, maybe." She glances at the mirror's surface, and catches sight of a vast and furious Fell Dragon--just a glimpse, before Clarine puts it away. "......" Then she looks around at the others, particularly the humans of the crew. "Yeah, plenty strange." A beat. "Y'all doin' all right?" A faint quirk of a smile at Ivan in particular. "Or maybe I shouldn't bother askin'. You beat the trial, after all! Somethin' to celebrate, eh?"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
They break free. But they fall... and fall...
Another test, right? It has to be. After all that, it wouldn't kill them for making one last wrong choice, would it?
The answer comes in the form of a sudden stop, not bone-breaking, but jarring all the same.
"Is everybody all right?" He picks himself up and finds that he's uninjured, just a bit shaken. And they've discovered some sort of stockpile of mysterious weapons.
Ivan is drawn to examine a lightweight blade with a bit of a curve to it. It's a unique and fascinating weapon, but a sort of.. bad feeling comes off of it.
"This isn't another test, is it? Some kind of temptation thing?" He turns to Ragnell with her comment. "Oh... are we finished? Did we really win? I feel like I probably need to go round again..."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Nimue has posed.
Nimue takes a few moments, once they're through the web and seemingly safe, to... flop onto the floor and lie there totally motionless. "That sucked," she says. "I mean. Not dead. Probably better off. That still sucked."
It's not long before she decides she's recovered, though, and kips back up; she starts to look around the vault, taking a few moments to breathe. "Hrrrm.. mmrm..."She's not sure she likes this -- the violet is familiar, in its way... and unsettling. But on the other hand -- maybe she can handle things just that littlest bit better now. Maybe she's a little more complete as a person, now.
She reaches for a familiar weapon -- a sling-staff. Gripping it, she says, "... looks like there's something for everyone here, huh?" Breathing heavy, she says, "... okay, I thought this was kind of a dumb exercise at first, but... I actually do kinda feel stronger inside..."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell reaches over to tousle Ivan's hair, but thinks better of it at the last moment and slips her hand into her jeans pocket instead. "You do, huh? Well, it *is* only the first ordeal, after all. You're not gonna be all the way tempered right at the start. It's a process. 'Course, if you think you need to go around again to make sense o' what you just experienced, I won't stop you." She nods over to Nimue, smiling slightly, as she remarks on feeling a little stronger, then looks back at Ivan. "It's a personal experience, in the end. Different people fear different things. What do *you* think this all meant to you?"
And honestly, even if Ivan doesn't have an answer to that just yet--he'll still have a better, clearer sense of both the Seraphim in the group... and the Malevolence that clings, ever so slightly, ever so wrongly, to the weapons he and the others have just picked up for themselves.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
What do *you* think this all meant to you?
Ivan whirls immediately to look at something other than Ragnell.
"I... I don't know yet. Let me think about it."
Maybe with some time to let it sink in, he'll have his own lessons to draw from it besides just finding the lessons the others pointed out to be a poor fit.